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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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1890-05-19
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18900519
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Vol. I.--No. 1.]
MAY 15, 1890.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Published for the Societe by
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1890.
## p. (#12) #################################################
The Society of Authors (Jncorporated).
PRESIDENT.
THE RIGHT Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLN, K.C.S.I.
ROBERT BATEMAX.
WALTER BESANT. -
Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S.
T. COMyxS CARK.
EDWARD CLODD).
ThĚ EARL OF DESART.
A. W. DUBOURG.
PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R:S.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
EDMUND GOSSE.
II. RIDER HAGGARD.
THOMAS HARDY.
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.
COUNCIL.
Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
J. C. PARKINSON,
The EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY,
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D.
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.
W. BAPTISTE Scoones,
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAS. SULLY.
WILLIAM MOY THOMAS.
H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L..
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. :
Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Robert BATEMAN.
EDMUND Gosse..
Chairman-WALTER BESANT.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
J. M. Lely.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
Solicitors.
Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
## p. (#13) #################################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. A/onth/v.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. i.]
MAY 15, 1890.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
The Author
Something like a Publisher
The First Principles of Literary Property
Notes on Copyright
A Hard C
The Helpable Author
On Committee
Literary Queries, No. 1
1 Dinner—To
p Editions
: Advice
PAGE
... 13
... 14
... 15
... 15
... 18
.. 18
A copy of this paper will be sent free to any member of the
Society for one twelvemonth. It is hoped, however, that most
members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is
65. 6d. including postage, to be sent to the Society, 4, Portugal
Street, W.C.
representative gathering, ana uie uu^u
have a tendency to drop into the hands of a few,
and so be robbed of half their value. It is also to
be considered th?t no discussions can have any real
value which are not founded on knowledge of
the facts. Now, the ordinary member knows little
of the facts. It was, therefore, then thought that
occasional leaflets might be issued conveying the
facts. To this plan, however, there appeared many
obstacles. First, leaflets are tossed aside and lost;
then, even if they are read and preserved, there
is no place for discussion, for questions, or for
suggestions. The private member of the Society
would feel that he was taking no real part in its
will intorni
thought the
he right, too
•e would be
by writing a
d before the
many points
to have our
De the organ
ds—the one
.nd ventilate
ofession of
rill be the
our Society
heir doings,
and it will become a public record 01 transactions
conducted in the interests of literature, which have
hitherto been secret, lost, and hidden for the want
of such an organ.
The chief aim of the Society—this has been
advanced again and again—is to promote the
recognition of the fact, hitherto most imperfectly
understood, that literary property is as real a thing
as property in every other kind of business: that it
should be safeguarded in the same manner, and
regarded with the same jealousy.
Hitherto the mere existence of literary property
## p. (#14) #################################################
The Society of Authors (Jncorporated).
PRESIDENT.
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
WALTER BESANT.
Rev. PROF. Bonnev, F.R.S.
T. COMyxS CARK.
EDWARD CLODD.
THE EARL OF DESART
COUNCIL.
Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
T. C. PARKINSON,
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D.
G. ROSS.
Solicitors,
Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.
## p. 1 (#15) ###############################################
The Author.
(The Orgon of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
VOL. I.—No. 1.]
MAY 15; 1890.
[Price SIXPENCE.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PAGE
... 13
...
14
...
The Author ...
Something like a Publisher ...
The First Principles of Literary Property
Notes on Copyright ...
A Hard Case, No. I....
Questions and Answers
Leaflet No. I.-On Syndicating
The Press and the Society ...
...
6
The Helpable Author
On Committee...
Literary Queries, No. 1
...
At Work ... ...
Notes.-The Annual Dinner-To those who seek Advice
New Books and New Editions ...
Advertisements
...
8
...
10
THE AUTHOR.
management and government. If he thought the
Committee was moving too slowly in the right, too
THE Report of the Society of Authors for the quickly in the wrong, direction—there would be
year 1890 spoke of the great importance no opportunity for saying so, except by writing a
of keeping members more fully and more letter to the Secretary, to be by him laid before the
regularly supplied with information, not only on the Committee.
work of the Executive Committee, but also on the Considering the question from its many points
various matters which concern the author in the of view, it has seemed most desirable to have our
safeguarding of his interests and the preservation own organ for our own purposes.
of his property. The simplest method of effecting The Author is therefore founded to be the organ
this, it was thought, would be to hold frequent meel- of literary men and women of all kinds—the one
ings for the purpose of conference and discussion. paper which will fully review, discuss, and ventilate
As, however, a large number of our members live in all questions connected with the profession of
the country, we could seldom hope to obtain a really literature in all its branches. It will be the
representative gathering, and the discussions would medium by which the Committee of our Society
have a tendency to drop into the hands of a few, will inform its members generally of their doings,
and so be robbed of half their value. It is also to and it will become a public record of transactions
be considered that no discussions can have any real conducted in the interests of literature, which have
value which are not founded on knowledge of hitherto been secret, lost, and hidden for the want
the facts. Now, the ordinary member knows little of such an organ.
of the facts. It was, therefore, then thought that The chief aim of the Society—this has been
occasional leaflets might be issued conveying the advanced again and again-is to promote the
facts. To this plan, however, there appeared many recognition of the fact, hitherto most imperfectly
obstacles. First, leaflets are tossed aside and lost; understood, that literary property is as real a thing
then, even if they are read and preserved, there as property in every other kind of business : that it
is no place for discussion, for questions, or for should be safeguarded in the same manner, and
suggestions. The private member of the Society regarded with the same jealousy.
would feel that he was taking no real part in its Hitherto the mere existence of literary property
## p. 2 (#16) ###############################################
2
THE AUTHOR.
even in the face of such patent facts as the enrich-
ment of publishers, has been carefully concealed
and even denied. Risks of publishing, costs of
publishing, have been dangled before the eyes of
authors, so that they should regard the subject as
one of extreme peril and pure speculation. One
can never even now read a leading article about
publishing without being solemnly assured that the
trade is one in which frightful risks are constantly
run, and that the success of any book is pure
speculation.
Now, as a matter of fact, there is very little
speculation indeed in publishing, and there are
very, very few publishers—only the leading houses
—who ever run any risks at all, either by buying
books or by bringing out books at a risk. Risks
are run when a House starts a magazine, or when
it embarks on illustrated editions of an expensive
kind, or when educational books are published.
The ordinary risk run in the production of books
is, as a rule, next to nothing. For, first, the
author is seldom paid except by results; next, the
author, when a house consents to "take the risk,"
is, for the most part, one who commands a certain
sale. With the smaller houses books about which
there is the slightest risk are always paid for by the
authors in advance, either wholly or in part. And
very, very seldom indeed, do the ill-advised authors
who advance their money ever see it back again.
Again, as to the actual cost of production. By
carefully keeping this a profound secret, interested
persons have succeeded in establishing a kind of
taboo, as of some holy, sacred thing which must
not be so much as touched. We have, however,
thoroughly investigated the whole question, and are
now in a position to throw complete light upon the
cost of producing any kind of book that can be
named, in any type and in any form.
This is a very important step. Its importance
cannot be over-estimated. It enables the author,
for the very first time in the history of literature, to
know what it is he is asked to concede to the publisher,
and what it is he reserves for himself.
We have also done more: we have collected
together a vast amount of information as to pub-
lishers' agreements: especially as to what, in reality,
is the meaning of the clauses contained in them:
we have ascertained what it is they ask the author
to surrender and for what consideration. And we
have acquired a knowledge of various frauds, made
possible by the terms of these agreements, in the
different methods of publishing.
This knowledge is so beneficial to the author
that its existence ought to be widely spread and
made known to every person who is engaged in
the production of literature of any kind.
Again, the Society is constantly engaged in
answering questions connected with every branch
of literature and its practice. Many of these ques-
tions are answered by letter over and over again,
taking up a great deal of the Secretary's time.
They would be answered much more effectively in
a journal.
It follows from these clauses that we may have a
good deal to say about the seamy side of the pub-
lishing trade.
It must, however, be borne in mind very carefully
that the Society has not and never has had, any
quarrel with honourable publishers. It has always
asked for one thing only—''ustand honest treatment,
fair and of en agreements, and honourable observance
of those agreements.
It has therefore been determined to establish
this journal as an organ for the especial use of the
Society. At first we shall bring out The Author
on the fifteenth of every month. The journal will
contain papers, notes, letters, questions, and in-
formation on all subjects connected with literature
and its profession.
The members of the Society will be kept informed
of all that part of our work which is not confidential.
Among other features of novelty and interest will
be an account in each number of some one case that
has been brought before the Society—of course
without the names. The consideration of these
cases will, we are certain, show the world the
absolute necessity for some such organisation as
our own, though the widespread ignorance which
we have unfolded was hardly guessed by our
founders at our first institution. Each number will
also contain an article or leaflet on some topic be-
longing to our own interests. There will be notes
on the various branches of our work. Our columns
will be open to suggestions, letters, and questions.
## p. 3 (#17) ###############################################
THE AUTHOR.
6
We shall send out this journal to all our members
as their own organ. We shall continue it for one
year at least.
We shall be very glad to hear from members
who may be willing to assist us by original contri-
butions, which should be short, and on some
subject belonging to our special field, which is the
safeguarding of literary property for the producer of
literature.
Members are invited to send in notices of the
books which they are about to produce, and copies
of their books when they appear. It is intended
to give a short notice of the purpose and contents
of these works when this is possible. In the case
of fiction a very brief account, but not a review,
will be attempted.
*
SOMETHING LIKE A PUBLISHER.
—•—
I.
HE was a young man, and he was from the
country. He stood in the bar of a
Camden Town public-house, and he
turned abouta glass ofstout in his hand with anxious
countenance. Many young men of anxious coun-
tenance may be seen in London bars all day long.
He had the customary cigarette of vile paper and
bad tobacco between his lips.
Beside him, also with a glass of stout in his hand,
stoodanolder man,upon whom fifty springs, at least,
had smiled in sunshine and in shower. His face
showed the soft influences of the former, but in
patches, as one on the right cheek, one on the end
of the nose, and one on the forehead. Thus will
flowers grow in my lady's garden, here a few and
there more, for Nature loves not regularity. His
coat also showed by its appearance that many springs
had distilled upon it many showers. The habits of
the man could be easily inferred from his appear-
ance : he was one of those who look upon wine when
they can get it, but not for long, because they
make haste to swallow it; when there is no wine,
such a man looks upon, and swallows, any other
kind of drink that is ardent and intoxicating; such
anonealso loves tobacco, the society of men, and the
flare of gas lamps. As for his profession, that was
more difficult to discuss. Not exactly a sporting
man, though probably ready to get a "bit upon a
cert."—hiseyes lacked the shrewdness of thesporting
man, and he was too shabby: not a journalist—he
was too slow in his movements, and his speech;
journalists, even if they loaf about the bar, always
possess a certain smartness: not a clerk, that is, not
a clerk in a berth: not a tradesman, or a working
man, or an artist of any kind. A certain cunning,
of the kind harshly called low, lurked in his eyes
and on his lips. He might certainly be set down
as one who lived by his wits, and that in spite of
his character and reputation. Now when you have
lost your character it is a good thing to have some
wits to fall back upon.
"Seems to me," said the young man, "that there
is not a single berth left in the whole of London."
"Not without a hundred fighting for it," said the
elder.
"I've stumped round every place of business in
London and I can find nothing."
"What might be your line, young man?"
"Why, when I came up to town I thought that
something in the publishing line"
"Publishing?" echoed the other. "Ah! that is
a line and no mistake—if you're fly to the dodges.
Publishing? Ah !" he heaved a deep sigh. "If I
only had the capital—ever so little capital—I say
—ever so little capital," he repeated meaningly,
"there is a fortune in it—for self and partner—a
fortune, I say. Easy living after the first fortnit,
and a fortune afterwards."
"Why? Are you a publisher, then?"
"Do I look like it in this get up? No. But I
wish I was. Young man, there isn't a trick on the
cards but I know it. There isn't a dodge in the
trade that I ain't up to."
"Where did you learn it?"
"Never mind that. Perhaps I had a berth in a
publisher's house. Perhaps I hadn't. That's my
business. Young man, have you got any capital?"
"Mighty little."
"Let's go partners. I'll find the business and
you shall find the money. How much have you
got?"
The young man emptied his waistcoat pocket,
There was a small heap of silver. "Thai's all I've
got," he said. He counted it. "Comes to thirty-
four shillings and thruppence." He put back the
money in his pocket. "Capital? I wish I had
any."
The eyes of the other man twinkled with greed.
"Thirty-four shillings?" he cried. "Why there's
enough and more than enough. Keep the four
and thruppence for yourself. Miss, two fours of
Scotch—I'll stand. Good Lord! man, your for-
tune's made. Hands upon it, partner."
"Why"
"Hands upon it, I say. I'll land the first
Juggins in a week. Then the way they'll come in
will astonish you. It will indeed. Here's success
to the firm."
## p. 4 (#18) ###############################################
4
THE AUTHOR.
In this way, and on a capital of thirty shillings,
was founded the Imperial and Colonial Publishing
Company, Limited. You may, however, look in
vain for the registration of the Company, because
it never was registered.
II.
The advertised offices of the Company were in
a small street leading out of a main thoroughfare.
Those who called upon the manager, if they worked
their way up the stairs, found that the offices con-
sisted of one room at the back of the second floor;
there was no brass plate; publicity was not courted
in any way; and the manager was out.
Two girls rang the bell. A woman came up
from the depths below.
"He's out, Miss," she said to their enquiry.
"We have called every day at different times
and he is always out."
"He is generally out, Miss. Business takes him
out. But he comes for his letters. There's lots of
letters and parcels "At that moment a red
cart stopped at the door and delivered three bulky
parcels. "They're always coming. You write to
him and you'll get an answer. Better write than call."
The girls turned away. They were gentlewomen,
but not rich. One glance at their gloves showed
so much. Another at their jackets confirmed the
first impressions. They were, however, gentle-
women, and they were sisters.
"Nell," said one, "the man is a rogue, I am sure
of it. No one but a rogue would hide himself away.
He is a rogue."
The other one sighed heavily. "Oh!" she
said, "who is to keep ignorant girls like us from
the hands of rogues? What shall I do? What
shall I do?"
"Have you sent him all he wanted, dear?"
"All. He asked first for ^45. He said if I
would give him ^45 that would be the whole of
my risk, and he would take the rest. He said that I
should have three-fourths of all the money that the
book produced. He said that his reader reported
so favourably that its success was certain. You
know how I got the money, dear."
"You sold everything, your watch and chain,
your two rings, your bracelet, and the silver spoons
that had been grandmother's. Oh! I know."
"Then he wrote again and said that he had
made a mistake, and must have ten pounds more,
and I found that and sent it him, and since then I
can get nothing—no answer to my letters—no
proofs—nothing!"
"Nell, he is a rogue. And oh! to think of the
months and months of work you have given to the
story. Nell, it was a beautiful story. Oh 1 we
will, we must, do something to the man."
"Yes, dear. But who is to pay the lawyer?"
"Can you write it all over again?"
"What's the use when the man has got the right
of publishing it?"
"Nell, sit down and write another."
"No," she answered, " I have no heart to write
another. Let us go home, dear. I will take that
place of cashier in the draper's shop—fifteen
hours a day and eight shillings a week; that will be
better—anythingwill be better than meeting another
McAndrew. Oh! I have no heart," her voice
choked, " I have no heart to try again."
III.
"My name is Trencher, and if you'll give me
only five minutes, I should take it kindly."
"I will give you those five minutes," said the
Secretary, with affability. "Now, Mr. Trencher,
what is your business?"
Mr. Trencher was a young man of fashionable
get up, yet, as nasty particular persons would say,
not quite. In fact, certainly nowhere near. His
manner, however, at this moment betrayed anxiety.
He was jumpy: in certain circles, it would be
whispered that it looked like "having 'em again."
He produced, with trembling fingers, a card on
which was written this legend "Imperial and
Colonial Publishing Company, Limited. Manager,
Mr. A. McAndrew."
"A., Christian name. Stands for Ananias?"
asked the Secretary.
"I don't know. It's about him" he said
mysteriously. "It's about A. McAndrew. If you
can run him in I don't care what happens."
"I know a good deal about this gentleman
already," said the Secretary.
"I'll tell you all about him. He got my money
first—thirty shillings he had off o' me. That's how
we began. We were to go partners and he was to
manage. First he put an advertisement in the
papers."
"It is here," said the Secretary, laying his hand
on a book.
"Country papers at first—saying that all MSS.
would be carefully considered, and that the Com-
pany were prepared to offer most liberal terms.
We had a dozen replies to that first batch of
advertisements. Lucky we had, because there was
no more money for a second batch. Out of the
dozen we got ten MSS. sent up. Out of the ten
three stood in with our terms. In a week we divided
a hundred and five pounds between us."
"Your terms," said the Secretary, "were con-
tained in this letter. He opened the book and
read. 'Our reader has reported so favourably on
your MSS. that we are prepared to offer you the
following liberal terms. You will send us the sum
## p. 5 (#19) ###############################################
THE AUTHOR.
5
of £$0 or '—or whatever it was—' and we will
publish your book at no risk or expense to your-
self, and we agree to meet all demands up to 10,000
copies. All proceeds to be divided into two por-
tions: one of two-thirds for yourself, the other of
one-third for the Company. You will kindly reply
at your earliest convenience, because in the present
enormous press of work the Company cannot keep
such an offer open.
'Your obedient servant,
'A. (meaning Ananias) McAndrew,
'Manager.
'P.S.—The present is the best time of year for
publishing.'"
"That's the letter," said Mr. Trencher ; "always
the same letter. No occasion ever to alter that
letter, except the figures, sometimes."
"And with that single letter you bagged your
prey?"
"Yes. Oh! He knew what he was about. No
Juggins like a liter'y Juggins, he used to say, and
I'm sure he was right. Believe all you tell 'em,
they will—anything you tell 'em. You can't pile
it up too high. Well, sir, three year ago that
game begun."
"I see. And how many works did you actually
have sent you?"
"First and last there was more than a hundred."
"And how many did you publish?"
The fellow grinned.
"Well, what with putting off and telling lies,
and not answering letters, he didn't actually print
more than three. Sometimes a first sheet would be
struck off just to keep 'em amused, but not if he
could help it, because it runs into money. The
printers wouldn't set it up without being paid
beforehand."
"Shameful want of confidence."
"Mostly they gave up writing, when they found
they got no reply."
"And those you did print?"
"Well; we printed a hundred copies and gave
the author a dozen, and there was an end of that."
"Where are the MSS.?"
"He's got'em. They're no use, though. He won't
make anything out of them. There's a hundred
and more lying there. All paid fcr."
"I judge, therefore, from your coming here to
make a clean breast of it, that you and your partner
have quarrelled?"
"It's like this, mister. He says to me, three
months ago, he says, 'Pardner,' he says, 'the
game's getting much too hot for us. Time for us to
separate. Time for us to go divers ways, as wide
apart as we can. Now we'll value the business and
I'll buy. you out.' That's what he says. Well, I,
thinking that sooner or later there must be a shindy,
and that he'd get run in—not me—because, you
know, this kind of business after all, is"
"It certainly is," said the Secretary.
"And some time or other somebody who'd been
kidded on to stump up would go before a magis-
trate"
"Which would be awkward," said the Secretary.
"Jes' so. I says, then, 'Give me my share,' I
says, 'and lemme go.' So we valued the business
and agreed. I was to have four hundred quid for
my share—that was agreed—and I took it in a
three months bill, and went away and started on
my own account. The Royal Britannic Federated
Publishing Company, mine was. J. Trencher,
Manager."
"J. standing for Judas, probably," said the Secre-
tary. "Excuse me. You have done pretty well?"
"No, I haven't done at all well yet. And I don't
know what you mean about Judas, neither."
"Never mind. Pray go on," said the Secretary.
"We are coming apparently to the most interesting
part."
"I hadn't been started a week before the letters
began to come in."
"What letters? More MSS.?"
"No. Letters from the people he'd done out of
their money. What does he do? Oh! the villain!
Directly after I was out of the office, he tells every-
body who threatened or complained that his case
belonged to me, and he must write to me and that
I was no longer his partner. There are fifty of 'em
at this moment wanting their money and their MSS.
back. Well, I could have stood that, because you
can't give people what you haven't got. But yester-
day—yesterday—" Here his emotion got almost
too much for him—" the bill fell due. You'd hardly
believe it, but it's true. His bill fell due—the bill for
that four hundred, my share of the business, it fell
due, and I presented it and—and—no one would
believe that such a villain could be living"
"It was not met, I suppose ?" said the Secretary.
"No—it wasn't met. He's done me out of my
share and he's got the business still, and he's turning
over all the people that are going to bring actions on
to me. And now I'm ruined, and I come to you to
make a clean breast of it, if you can run him in.'
Mr. Ananias McAndrewis, however, still at large,
and when last we heard he was beginning the
game again under another name and with a new
company.
Note by the Editor.—This story is literally
and exactly true. The man, we have just learned,
is really beginning the game over again. Moral.—
Never answer an advertisement of a so-called pub-
lisher without first writing to the Society for advice.
## p. 6 (#20) ###############################################
6
7 HE AUTHOR.
THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF
LITERARY PROPERTY.
THE following considerations and maxims may
appear to some readers elementary. The
cases which constantly arise before the
Society prove, however, that like the Ten Com-
mandments, it is wise to have them exposed to
view, and to be frequently reminded of them.
1. Literary property is a very real thing. It is as
real as property in land, houses, mines, or any
other kind of property. Hundreds of people live
upon its proceeds in great luxury, plenty, and
comfort. Thousands of people live upon it by
thrift and carefulness.
2. When a man has made a book lie has increased
the wealth of the country, provided it be a book
serviceable to the community and saleable.
3. He has created this wealth; it is his own; he
must be as careful not to part with it, except for a
just consideration, as if it were a mine or a quarry,
or an estate.
4. Literary property is subject to the laws which
protect all other property; the simplest and the
mostcomprehensive of these laws is the Eighth Com-
mandment, "Thou shalt not steal."
Applied to literature and to the persons whose
business it is to buy and sell various forms of
literature, the Commandment is thus to be inter-
preted, "Thou shalt not cheat the author in buying
his work from him; thou shalt not write or speak
lies concerning the cost of preparing his work for the
press; thou shalt not agree with him on terms such
as will give to thyself the profits on his labour. The
work is his, not thine at all; his the design of it,
the invention,the fancy, the imagination,the learning,
the brain and the hand of it—all is his. If it be-
comes thine, it must be by an equitable agreement,
which shall give thee a fair reward for labour done,
and leave to him all the rest." In no other way
can the Eighth Commandment be interpreted by
those who deal with authors.
5. What is the commercial value of a book?
Clearly it depends upon the number of copies
which the public will take. So the value of a
field depends upon its fertility; of a ship upon her
carrying power and seaworthy qualities; of a horse
upon his strength and youth. Some fields are
sterile—they are sold for a small sum—some are
worthless. So with books. An author's income
from a book must depend upon the copies bought
by the public.
6. Most books published have no commercial
value at all—a very large number have no literary
value at all. How, then, do they get published?
They are published at the expense of tlie author.
7. The book which does succeed may have a
nominal success, or it may have an enormous sue
cess. If a MS. has any literary value, a thing
which may be easily ascertained by having it
examined at the Society of Authors, its success is
always possible. And so often of late years has a
book unexpectedly taken the world by storm that
the author must always consider his MS. as a pos-
sible great success.
8. It must be remembered that publishers live
by publishing. They therefore look to make
money by every book which they issue. It is a
great mistake to suppose, as some authors do, that
the publisher does not first consider the commer-
cial prospects of a book. In many cases it is the
only thing he does consider.
9. Therefore the publisher must be paid. He
must be paid for the time and trouble he, through
his servants, gives to the preparation of the work
for the press; for the publicity which he gives to
it; and, in a very few cases, for the prestige of his
name.
10. It is self-evident that every book must stand
or fall by its own merits. That is to say, that it is
idle to talk of the failure of one book being a
reason for giving the author of another book less
than his due.
With these considerations, which are indisput-
able and elementary, before him, let every author
read carefully over any agreement offered to him,
and before signing it, ascertain what it gives the
author, and what it gives or reserves for the pub-
lisher, (1) for the first edition, (2) for the second and
following editions.
Next let the same author take any of his
agreements in the past, and with the light of the
accounts which were afterwards rendered to him,
and the information which we now give him, let
him draw his own conclusions.
*
NOTES ON COPYRIGHT.
I. Copyright in Lectures.
DOES anybody ever take the trouble to secure
his copyright in a public lecture? It is a
curious and amusing process which the
law in its wisdom requires him to go through.
There is, perhaps, nothing objectionable in his
having to give two days' notice of his intentions to
two justices of the peace, both of whom must live
within five miles of the locus in quo. But, beyond
the presumption that the aforesaid justices might,
if the notice were civilly worded, take tickets for, if
## p. 7 (#21) ###############################################
THE AUTHOR.
7
not attend, the lecture, it is not easy to understand
the object of the interesting proviso. There is cer-
tainly no necessity to make it public that on this
occasion only "all rights are reserved." It is no
business either of the author's or of the magistrates to
warn reporters off the premises. Nevertheless, the
former would, on giving the statutory notice, be
entitled to confiscate any printed and published
reports (or, for that matter, the whole edition of
every newspaper in the Kingdom which published
the lecture without leave), and, moreover, to re-
cover a penny for every sheet in their custody.
What a fortune Mark Twain would realise if he
went on tour in the silly season! But, to further
illustrate the beautiful simplicity of the law, a
lecturer is powerless to protect himself against
unauthorised re-delivery. It is only publication
that is prohibited by statute. Anybody who likes
is entitled to take down a lecture verbatim and can
re-deliver it with perfect impunity, or, in other
words, while there is copyright there is no such
thing as performing right in a species of literary
production in which this may be really valuable.
Sermons, on the other hand, seem to be clearly
public property, that is, if delivered "by any
person in virtue of or according to any gift, endow-
ment, or foundation." In other words, Noncon-
formist ministers, unless they, too, come within the
category, enjoy an advantage denied to the Clergy
of the Established Church. For it would, we
imagine, be open to them to give the statutory
notice of the intended delivery and so secure the
copyright, if not the performing right (if we may use
the expression), in the production in question. The
Clergy of the Church of England cannot, however,
under any circumstances reserve their rights. The
only remedy open to them if their pulpit eloquence
is reproduced is, like the Bishop of Peterborough,
to take a leaf out of the book of the "old Parlia-
mentary hand," and deny that they have been
"correctly reported." In the same way, too, no
lecture delivered in any university, public school,
or college, or on any public foundation can under
any conditions be protected. But there is seldom
any very great demand for sermons, university or
college lectures, so that their authors enjoy rather
more protection, independent of statute, than most
of them desire.
II. Copyright in Recitations.
Should the recitation ot popular pieces be pro-
hibited by law? The relative advantage or disadvan-
tage accruing to an author is, of course, wholly
beside the question. It is quite possible that in
many cases an author might regard himself as quite
sufficiently recompensed by probable sales. It is
notorious that more than one well-known firm of
musical publishers not only do not reserve their
rights in their songs, but announce to all whom it
may concern that they can be sung anywhere. But
now that recitations are once more becoming popular,
there is no doubt whatever that the right of delivery
of favourite verse will become valuable, and the
question of its protection acquires an added import-
ance. There is no more reason why an author
should have no control over and derive no profit
from the recitation of his work than that a novelist
should have to submit to be dramatized whether
he likes it or not. The results of protection would,
of course, be that royalties would have to be paid if
the author chose to reserve and enforce his rights.
It would perhaps be necessary that some analogous
conditions to those required by the Copyright
(Musical Compositions) Act, 1882, should be
devised to prevent people being " Walled."
III. Anglo-American Copyright.
It is always risky to prophesy, and Anglo-
American Copyright is a subject on which even
a sporting prophet would hesitate to hazard a
forecast. It is, however, not impossible that the
Bill before Congress should, in the words of its
sixth section, "go into effect" on the 1st July,
1890. Committees of both Houses have reported
in favour of the measure: not that that counts for
much! We are not likely to forget that in 1889
it was thrown out at the last moment by a single
member who had no views on the subject, and
was really opposing another measure. But, still,
it is satisfactory to know that .the tariff men,
the petty pirates, and the moneyed ignoramuses—
the three classes of which the opposition con-
sists—have so far made a very poor show.
During the sittings of the House Committee on
Judiciary Mr. Roger Sherman, formerly a Phila-
delphia publisher, declared that "the outcry for
the passage of the Bill was simply the clamour of
200 authors against the interests of 50,000,000
people." There is a truly delicious naivete about
this confession of a preference for stealing litera-
ture instead of buying it. As for the Bill itself
it will undoubtedly confer valuable rights upon
those English writers who can conform to its
conditions. These require the books to be
printed from type set up in the States, and two
copies to be delivered to the Librarian of Con-
gress "on or before the day of publication." If the
Bill becomes law in this form considerable diffi-
culty, it may be remarked, will arise in securing
copyright in serial stories, for, as it now stands,
each number would have to be delivered as an
independent publication, a matter obviously of
## p. 8 (#22) ###############################################
8
THE AUTHOR.
great practical difficulty. But in view of the
multifarious exigencies which have compelled
modifications innumerable, and hampered the
efforts of the American (Authors) Copyright
League, it is idle to criticise the measure as a
final settlement of the difficulty. It is enough,
for the present, if it makes Anglo-American Copy-
right ultimately possible.
IV. The securing of American Rights.
Since the above was written, the International
Copyright Bill has been brought before the House
of Representatives and has been defeated by 126
votes to 98. The conscience of the great Re-
public therefore remains unawakened, that is to
say, five-ninths of the American conscience is un-
moved. The other four-ninths may be trusted to
keep moving. Perhaps our grandchildren may
reap the fruits of their agitation. What is now to
be done?
There seems to be but one way for an English
author to hold at bay the piratical publishers of the
United States: it is to enter into collaboration
with an American writer. By this arrangement a
perfect copyright is obtainable; one which will defy
the devil—the printer's devil—and all his works.
One American member of the Incorporated
Society of Authors has already written to offer an
honourable partnership of this kind with British
authors who desire to protect their literary
property. Enquiries relating to the subject should
be addressed to the Secretary of the Society of
Authors, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields,
W.C.
*
A HARD CASE.
No. 1.
IT is now some five years ago since a young lady
wrote a volume of poems and sent them to a
certain advertising society for publication.
The so-called managing director told her in reply
that, although her work was of indubitable merit,
it required to be revised by some one who
understood the "rules of Poetical Composition."
Such an article he had on hand, and he begged
to recommend that she should apply to a per-
son in Fleet Street, posing as the editor of a
non-existent journal, for advice. This gentleman
expressed himself willing to teach her poetry for
the comparatively moderate fee of jQt, 14J. 6d. As
his grammar was not, however, without blemish he
would seem to have been only duly modest. For
three months the young lady received instruction in
poetry from him, and then again applied to the
advertising society to have her verses published.
Apparently her tutor had proved of service, for the
managing director now agreed to issue her book for
her, on her advancing the sum of ,£50. For this
sum he was prepared to produce the MS. in volume
form and " to meet all demands for sales up to
3,000 copies." The volume was to be published
at 6*., Cr. 8vo., good toned paper, and to be bound
in cloth boards, and gilt lettered. The payment
was to be made in the following manner: £20 at
once; £20 on seeing the last proofs; and the
balance within three months.
The only agreement made between author and
publisher was the interchange of letters ratifying
the above proposition. The lady's friends lent her
the money, evidently having no idea of the true
commercial value of poetry, and the book went to
press.
The phrase, "to meet all demands," will receive
full consideration in our next number.
Now it would seem that the publisher's first
opinion as to the value of the author's work was
nearly a correct one, when he recommended that
she should learn verse, but that he rather over-rated
the improvement that had been effected by his
friend, the instructor in poesy. For there was no
sale. But, on the other hand, there were, in
addition to the ^50, several small items to pay
for.
There was advertisement in the publisher's own
lists, £2 2S. There was the "time of the traveller"
in offering the work to the trade, £1 1js. There
was £2 for warehousing, £2 2s. for the privilege
of membership of the Literary Association, of which
the publisher was managing director. These sums,
with others for postage, &c, brought the author's
account on the whole transaction into the following
position.
(1) She had paid for three months' poetical
instruction. (Exactly what she paid is not quite
clear—over ,£10, however.)
(2) She had paid £50 for the production of her
work.
(3) She still owed j£g odd to the publisher.
(4) There were no sales at all: so that she had
received nothing.
Then the publisher began to write in a threatening
way for this £9.
He expressed himself as not surprised at the ill-
success of her book (though on previous occasions
he had spoken well of her work), and attributed
this to the lack of advertisements. He badgered
her to advertise through himself to the extent of j£$
or jQio, assuring her that she would then get good
## p. 9 (#23) ###############################################
THE A UTHOR.
9
reviews. But her means would nol allow her to
take his advice. Then he suggested that she
should contribute at the rate of is. a line to a
column of advertisement that he proposed to insert
in the Standard of a good many other books he was
bringing out. Here, again, she was obdurate.
Then he sent her a lawyer's letter.
She applied to the Society of Authors, and
escaped further payment; but it would have been
useless to attempt to extract from the publisher the
money he had already received on grossly false re-
presentation, for about this period he became a
bankrupt.
Of the numerous letters two are appended.
1. The first received by the author from the
"Secretary."
2. The second received by the author from the
"Editor."
I.
Date.—March 6th, 1884.
Name.—Miss C. D.
Address.—16, High St. .
Title and No.—Poems.
Length.—
Opinion.—" Requires revision by an expert, who
understands the rules of poetical composition.
"Author should write Mr. L., Street,
London, forhis instructions topoetical students.
Writer has ability, and if she only studied the
rules of poetical composition she would do
well.
"One poem could be set to music. Charge,
including composition of music, would be
Ss. for 250 copies."
A. B. C, Secretary.
II.
Re MSS.from the Metropolitan Publishing and
Literary Society.
"We have received your MSS. and beg to say
we cannot accept same, as they are unprepared for
press. You write them as though poetry, but they
are prose. If you write out the Penalty as though
prose, no capital letters, &c, you will find it reads
better. If you do this and send again we can
finish revising for half a guinea, and print.
"Yours faithfully,
"The Editor."
It seems almost incredible that even an inex-
perienced girl should not have guessed that these
people were common sharpers. But she did not.
"The Managing Director " advertised largely and
the number of his victims is proportionally large.
Yet he has never got into prison. His victims
were generally helpless, and generally sensitive to
ridicule, while it always seems an unsatisfactory
thing to spend ^50 in bringing a criminal action
against a person who has robbed you of .£50.
It should be observed that this case has nothing
to do with the story on pp. 3-5.
*
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
1. Is it right for editors to keep a book sent
to them for review when they give no notice of the
book ?—It is right because it is impossible for
every book that is published to receive a review,
and every book is sent for review on the chance of
getting it.
2. How long should an editor be free to keep
a MS. without reply?—If the article is one of
immediate interest he should return it at once if
he cannot find time to consider it. A contributor
in such a case should state the urgency of the sub-
ject. Under ordinary circumstances no one who
knows the labours of an editor or the piles of
MSS. into which he must look should grumble at
waiting for three or four months.
3. How long should a contributor be expected
to wait before payment?—All the honourably
conducted magazines pay on publication, or a few
days afterwards. It has, however, been proved to
the Society that there are certain journals—
happily only a few—who make a point of never
paying unless they are compelled by threats of law.
It seems incredible that a magazine proprietor or
editor should thus make as many enemies as he has
contributors. It is unhappily, quite true.
4. What payment should be made for a magazine
article?—This question is often asked. There is
no answer possible, because the practice necessarily
differs. A magazine of limited circulation obviously
cannot afford to pay its contributors much. Then
if payment is made by the page, that too varies;
some magazines, such as Blackwood's or Mac-
millan's, have a page double that of Longmans'.
The best advice to be given is this. In the high-
class magazines contributors are paid by a regular
scale, unless special terms are made. Therefore,
the contributor may rely on the usual treatment
according to the scale of that journal. In maga-
zines of inferior kind the contributor would do
well to ask beforehand what payment will be made
if the paper be accepted. Suppose the Editor
refuses to name his scale and sends back the MS.,
that will be better than to have it taken and pub-
lished, and then not paid for.
## p. 10 (#24) ##############################################
IO
THE AUTHOR.
LEAFLET No. I.
On Syndicating.
IT was in the Report issued at the beginning
of last year that we first made an announce-
ment concerning our attempt at forming for
ourselves a syndicate of our own members. We
guarded ourselves at that time by a warning which
we hoped would be sufficient to prevent the raising
of hopes doomed to disappointment. We were
wrong. There has been a good deal of dis-
appointment among some of our members who
thought that in this way their own work might be
disposed of.
It was found at the outset, first, that the news-
papers among which we at first proposed to place
the works of our members were engaged to the
various syndicates in existence for a year, a year
and a half, or even longer. It was next found, what
had been expected, that no writers have any chance
at all of getting their work taken in country and
colonial newspapers except those who have already
achieved a certain reputation. So that both the
time of commencing operations was postponed, and
the writers for whom the syndicate was to work were
limited in number.
After a great deal of consideration and experi-
menting, it has been found that the best and
fairest way of working is, as regards short tales, to
arrange for one batch at a time covering a whole
quarter. Each writer of this batch takes, first of
all, his market value; that is to say, the price he
can command in magazines, or that which other
syndicates—trade syndicates—are willing to pay
him: he sells to our syndicate, not, as in all other
syndicates, the story outright, but the right to its
appearance once, and only once, in a certain
quarter. This done, the work becomes again his
own property. Next, when all the writers have
been paid, the balance, if any, is equally divided
among the writers in proportion to the length
of their work. That is to say, for a tale running
over three weeks, a writer would receive three
times that accorded to one of a single week. About
twenty-five per cent, of the whole is required
for agency printing and postage. This may seem a
large amount, but the trouble involved is very great,
and there is no way of avoiding such charges
except by keeping a special clerk for the purpose
in the offices of the Society. The services of such
a clerk, properly qualified and experienced, would
amount to quite as much as the commission
of an agent. After a little there must be a further
charge for the work of editing, which hitherto
has been done for nothing.
Then comes, next, the question—Where to place
these stories? At first it was thought that the
provincial press would be the best medium. It
has, however, been found that, though the pro-
vincial press may sometimes be useful, it cannot
always be depended upon, and that it may in some
cases be best to sell the work to some one pro-
prietor or editor. This has, in fact, been done in
the case of the first quarter's collection. One pro-
prietor has bought the right for Great Britain and
Ireland. They have also been sold in America—
also to one man; in Australia and New Zealand
to another; and in India to another. The amount
to be divided among the writers of this batch will
rule far higher than anything they could obtain
from ordinary syndicates.
The next quarter's batch is now in course of
preparation.
If members think they already possess the kind
of name that popular journals desire to place in
their columns, they may communicate with the
Editor at the Society's office. The Editor's busi-
ness is very simple: it is merely to provide such
a collection of stories as will be vouched for by
the names of their writers. He is not, in fact, the
judge: he has only to record the judgment of
purchasers, and to cater for them. It is not so
much the quality of his wares that he has to con-
sider, as their fashion and popularity. Therefore,
the Editor must not be blamed if he has to tell
a member that he cannot offer to syndicate his
work.
There is, however, another branch of syndicating
work—that of longer stories. Here, again, though
names come first, there may be special reasons
why a work by a less known hand might be syndi-
cated with a certain measure of success.
## p. 11 (#25) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
If any member, therefore, would like to try this
method, he should send, first of all, his name, his
list of previous work, and a complete scenario of
the work, showing its length, number of chapters,
the story, the place and time, and anything that may
recommend it. This scenario should be type-written,
which would not cost more than two or three
shillings. He can then learn whether he may
hope for any success in this way. But, again, let
him not blame the Editor should failure follmv.
He would like to oblige all the members of the
Society if he could.
This syndicating is intended, of course, as a first
step in the action of authors for themselves and by
themselves. When we consider all the difficulties
in the way: first, the profound distrust of anything
to do with publishing that is spread over a des-
pondent world; next, the suspicion and jealousy
with which authors too often regard each other;
thirdly, their colossal ignorance of all matters con-
nected with their own business; and, fourthly, the
danger of awakening extravagant hopes of a millen-
nium to come the day after to-morrow—we might be
excused if we desisted from the attempt. But when
we consider how much the Society has done already,
and is now doing, when we remember that we
are the pioneers, and when we remember that
in such a cause progress must be slow, we are
resolved to persevere. All the steps that we have
taken, all that we are going to take, are based upon
one proposition: that literature belongs to the
Poet—the Maker—not to the Trader—not to him
who only sells.
Editor.
*
THE PRESS AND THE SOCIETY.
ONE reason, and that not the least, for the
existence of such a journal as this is the
necessity for keeping the Society and its
objects from misrepresentation—wilful or through
ignorance—in the newspaper press and in the
magazines. We have read from time to time articles,
both generous and appreciative, presenting our
aims truthfully. We have also been misrepresented
by numerous paragraphs, written either by persons
totally unacquainted with this Society, or wholly
ignorant of the subject, or maliciously inspired
by our enemies. For instance, it has been the
constant habit of these gentlemen to represent the
Society as inspired by a blind hatred of all pub-
lishers, thus attempting to identify themselves and
their own frauds with the honourable houses. Or
they find occasion to gird at the Society as talking
against "the wicked publisher," implying that we
are not defending ourselves against dishonest
people, but attacking the whole trade.
It has, however, been reserved for the Con-
temporary Review, of all magazines in the world, to
produce an article on the Society, and its work
which is indeed amazing.
One would not take notice of this production but
for the fact that it suggests certain questions which
should not only be administered to the author, but
to all those persons who are contemplating such
articles on this subject. If before sitting down to
write, they will kindly read and consider these
questions, they may possibly save themselves the
subsequent affliction of discovering that they have
been writing on a subject of which they know
nothing.
It is not necessary that we should reply in detail
to the article; and, indeed, very much of it is
exactly what we have always ourselves advocated.
As for the rest—but the questions will themselves
indicate the nature of the reply which might be
made.
They are these :—
"Have you ever studied the different methods
of publishing? If so, when and where? Under
whose guidance, and with what advantages?
"What steps have you taken to ascertain the
cost of producing books, the money spent on
advertising, the trade price of selling, the demand
for different kinds of books, the risk in producing
books, what and of what kind? In fact, what
special knowledge do you possess of the publishing
trade?
"Whit have you learned, before writing this
precious article, concerning the various kinds of
agreement presented to authors by publishers?
"Do you know, by personal examination and ex-
perience, what these agreements represent, namely,
can you tell, by reading an agreement, what the
publisher offers to the author, and what he reserves
for himself?
"Do you know, by experience of your own, the
treatment of authors by their publishers? In the
case you quote, where you received twelve guineas,
have you ascertained what amount was made by
the publisher?
"Are you aware that the body of men, whom
you take upon yourself to assail, have been engaged
## p. 12 (#26) ##############################################
12
THE AUTHOR.
for five years in a most careful and painstaking
examination of the whole of the publishing business
in every branch?
"Are you aware that this body of men, the
Committee of the Society of Authors, in all their
publications have made, and are making, but one
demand, namely, for just and honourable deal-
ing?
"Are you also aware that they have demanded,
and are still demanding, not only equitable agree-
ments, but the keeping of those agreements to the
letter?
"Have you read their reports and their circu-
lars?"
If you cannot answer these questions, we would
submit another. "What right have you to be
heard on the questions at all?" We would also ask
you to select those adjectives in the English lan-
guage which apply to one who ventures to talk in
public on a subject concerning which he is pro-
foundly ignorant.
If you can answer these questions; if you have
really made a study of a very difficult and obscure
subject, kept purposely in obscurity by interested
persons; if you have really read the reports and
papers of the Society, and have duly considered
and meditated on them, you have, perhaps, a right
to speak.
Supposing this to be the case, let us ask the
writer what he means by the following :—
"The bargain between author and publisher is
one perfectly well understood."
Is it? Then, we will ask him another question.
It is this.
"Will you, who so perfectly well understand the
bargain between author and publisher, kindly ex-
plain the following agreement?" A. B. publishes
covenants with C. D. the author, as follows :—
He is to have the sole copyright of a MS. on the
following conditions. He is to publish it at his
sole risk and expense: he is to sell it at 6s.
each copy: after 500 copies are sold he is to give
the author a royalty of 15 per cent, on the trade
price, not the published price. He is to decide
if any cheaper editions are to be issued: he is to
have the power of selling off remainder of stock:
he is, in fact, to have the complete control of the
book.
The book is printed in small pica, crown 8vo,
and contains 21^ sheets. The question for you
who understand so clearly the bargain between
author and publisher is this. When 3,000 copies
of the book have been sold, allowing ^30 for
advertising, what profit the author has made and
what the publisher? We will answer this question
for you in our next number.
Again, the author of this paper says, "The
royalty system is so obviously fair that there is no
need to say much about it."
Quite so. Then we will put to him the follow-
ing questions. "Will you kindly explain what
you mean by the royalty system? What, if you
please, is the royalty system? What percentage
should be given on an equitable royalty? And
why? What does that leave the publisher?
You had, probably, something in your mind when
you wrote the passage. What, we repeat, is the
royalty system? Is it ten, twenty, thirty, forty
per cent.? And, in any case, why do you fix upon
that proportion, and what does it leave for the
publisher?"
Again, seeing that if our Society is strong on any
point at all, it is upon the point of equitable agree-
ments, seeing that from the outset it has never
ceased to argue in favour of such agreements, and
seeing that it has always insisted on such agree-
ments being carried out honestly and to the letter,
what does the writer of the paper mean by the
following solemn peroration?
"Are our contracts to be binding upon us only
so long as we find it profitable to ourselves to keep
them?
"Are our moral instincts getting feebler? Are
we losing our sense of honour?
"Is our respect for the sacredness of plighted
troth on the wane?
"If they who ought to be the trainers of the
national constitution are helping to improve it, and
helping others to believe that literary workers are
only workers for hire and determined on getting it,
even at the price of broken faith and broken pledges,
then there can be but a gloomy outlook for us all—
the days of shame are at hand!"
Really! This is indeed terrible. But this critic
now has our questions before him and will perhaps
answer them.
Let us remind him, lastly, of certain lines, written
a hundred and fifty years ago, and still, unhappily,
applicable.
Look thro' the world, in every other trade,
The same employment's cause of kindness made;
At least, appearance of goodwill creates,
And every fool puffs off the fool he hates.
Cobblers with cobblers smoke away the night,
And in the common cause ev'n players unite.
Authors alone, with more than savage rage,
Unnatural war with brother authors wage.
*
## p. 13 (#27) ##############################################
the author.
THE HELPABLE AUTHOR.
From an Address by Edmund Gosse.*
GRUB STREET is with us to-day. It is
mitigated to some degree, no doubt—
greatly mitigated—by the blessed institu-
tion of journalism, which has opened the sluice
and, to a great extent, let out the waters. With
journalism in particular we have nothing to do
here. But when we put aside the relief now
afforded by journalism we find things much in the
same condition as they were in the last century, or
even in many cases worse, since, if journalism now
exists, the patron does not exist. You have
perhaps some idea, but I think it very possible
that you have but little idea, of how much suffer-
ing and miserj' is going on among what are called
"people of letters" in the present day; how many
men there are'that are struggling, loafing about
the British Museum, and walking idly up and
down Fleet Street—men who might perhaps be
the Otways and Chattertons of the age if they had
a little more encouragement given to them. But
these people-—for again we must face the matter
not with sentimentality but with common-sense—
these men are divided into two great classes, the
helpable and the unhelpable. Permit me for a
moment to deal with the unhelpable.
In the last century the unhelpable was typically
exemplified by a certain Samuel Boyse, the author
of a poem on the Deity. Samuel Boyse seems to
have started in life with as many advantages as
ever befel a man of letters. The number of Earls
and Countesses that filed through bis career is
enough to make the modern unpatroned author
envious; but it was impossible for them to help
Boyse. His whole life was a long continuation of
his being picked up out of the gutter by some
noble patron, put on his legs, and seen to fall
again the moment he was left. He is the person
who spent six weeks in his bed with his arm thrust
through a blanket, because he had pawned every-
thing which he possessed in the world, and who,
when a subscription was made for him, spent the
first money that came in, still in bed, with his
hand still through the blanket, in a feast of truffles.
The same Samuel Boyse opened a subscription for
his poems, and, marvellous as it may seem, that
was responded to. As the contributions came in
they were, with slow regularity, expended upon a
delightful potation called "Twopenny" — hot
"Twopenny." Samuel Boyse had a commission
given to him by a publisher, to translate Fenelon
"On the Existence of the Deity," and he celebrated
that event by immediately marrying. There was
no help whatever for Samuel Boyse, and at last,
* "Grievances of Authors." Field and Tuer. 2s. (xl.
when he had gone through every possible phase of
beggary and misery, he died.
Do you suppose that there are no Samuel
Boyses nowadays? Pardon me for insisting that
there are. I will mention one instance which it is
impossible can wound anyone now, an instance of
a man who has been for some years past dead'
and who I believe was known, or known of, by
some of my friends on this platform. He was a
man who came up from one of the Universities
with some amount of knowledge, for he said he had
taken a First, although it must be confessed that
his name never could be found in the lists. This
man had the highest ambition to excel in literature,
yet all that he managed to make was 35*. a week
from the editor of a weekly paper, to keep himself
in board and lodging. Well, if this man had had
the slightest power of helping himself, there is no
doubt that he might have risen to better things;
but he was in a much worse position than Boyse,
for there was no interest taken in him by the
aristocracy, and no curiosity felt about his poems.
He was left to his unaided efforts. His unaided
efforts plunged him lower and lower in the
tide of things, till at last, at the office where he got
his only salary, a meerschaum pipe was missed
by the editor. There was some mystery about it
for a little while, when there came a letter from the
contributor, saying that the Rubicon was now
crossed, and that he wished to resign his position
on the paper; he enclosed a ticket from a pawn-
broker. After this unfortunate incident, he sank
lower and lower, till he hung all day about the
British Musuem. At last he became a super at a
theatre, and then he faded out altogether. Now,
those two persons, whom I take as types, belong to
the unhelpable class, with which we can do nothing.
What, then, of the helpable author? The
helpable author is not the fashionable novelist,
the fashionable essayist, the successful man who
has many other strings to his bow, who has a
salary here, who has private means there. No!
The person whom we wish, if possible, to do some-
thing to help is the half-successful writer, the
person who has a right to exist, and who yet
cannot force himself, or herself, strongly upon the
public. And there are two classes of the helpable
to whom I would specially draw attention. One
of those consists of women.
Here again I speak of the smaller, yet legitimately
successful, lady-writers. My own impression is
that most ladies of this class claim rather less than
more of what they have a right to; they have their
small circle of readers, a circle for whom they
prepare innocent and delightful recreation. They
have a right to be protected for the sake of these
readers, as well as for their own sake. They have
## p. 14 (#28) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
a right to demand that there should be some body,
some society, ready to see that they do not fall into
traps, that they.do not become the prey of sharpers,
and, in short, to protect their legitimate interests.
And there is, again, another class of the helpable;
that is the beginner, the new man of genius. I
know nothing that strikes one more in observing
literary life than the fact that the new man, the
man who comes forward with a book for the first
time, unless he is exceedingly lucky, makes a
mistake. He forms a disadvantageous bargain, he
does something or other which cripples him at the
outset, and this he has to wipe out and forget
before he can make a proper start. The beginner,
therefore, forms another class whom we desire, by
this Society, to have the privilege of protecting and
helping.
*
ON COMMITTEE.
DURING the present year, up to May the first,
forty-eight new members have joined the
Society. This is a very gratifying increase.
At the same time it cannot be denied that there are
a large number of persons engaged in the profession
of literature who look coldly on without joining the
Society, while we are working in their interests.
That our efforts have not been fruitless is shown by
many facts. For instance, before we began, every
publisher would have felt himself insulted at the
mere proposal to audit his accounts. No publisher
would now refuse. Again, while four or five years
ago authors were meekly accepting a ten per cent,
royalty, they are getting almost everywhere two-
pence in the shilling, which is a sixteen per cent,
royalty, and in some cases twenty and twenty-five
per cent, royalty. The influence of the Society is
also shown by the eagerness of certain houses to offer
guarantees of good faith. The policy of the
Committee has always been the same: to ascertain
carefully and to set forth the truth as to cost of pro-
duction, trade returns and profits, methods of pub
lication and what they mean—agreements and what
they mean—in short, to supply their members with
the means of ascertaining what it is that a prof-
fered agreement gives the author and what it
reserves to the publisher. To learn these things
has taken the Committee five years of unremitting
labour. Nor are they quite certain, yet, that they
have learned the whole truth. Those who looked
for a sudden revolution in the business relations of
literature, as well as those who looked for no prac-
tical results at all, are equally disappointed. The
Society, however, has pursued and is pursuing the
even tenor of its way.
The "Cost of Production" is out of print—
another edition, after correcting a few errors of no
great importance, will be issued as soon as it can
be got ready.
The Committeehave carefully considered theques-
tion of the proposed "leaflets," the result of these
deliberations being the appearance of "The Author."
The Chairman was fortunate enough to secure at
a second-hand book shop, Wilkie Collins's large
collection of tracts and papers connected with
International Copyright. He has presented them
to the Society.
A memorial has been drawn up addressed to the
First Lord of the Treasury on the subject of the
Civil Pensions List. Next month, perhaps, we
may have more to say on the subject.
At the beginning of last year the Chairman
addressed to the Guardian a series of letters on the
management of the Literary Department of the
Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge,
with no other apparent effect than to call forth a
good deal of private correspondence from authors
who have been in the hands of this Department.
Early this year he again addressed the Publication
Committee on a special case, with the expected
result. He has now written a pamphlet on the
whole question, which, together with the previous
correspondence, will be published immediately.
The points at issue are confidently left to the
decision of the public.
A case of extensive fraud—so extensive that the
man chiefly concerned is found to have a hundred
unpublished MSS. in his possession—was taken up
by the Committee, but broke down owing to the
refusal of the victims to give evidence! This is
an interesting illustration of the black ignorance
which prevails as to literary property. Not one of
these men or women, had he or she been robbed of
a watch, a purse, a mantle, or an umbrella, but
would have gone straight to the nearest magistrate
and gave evidence fearlessly. But it was only a
manuscript—only a thing which might have been
worth many thousand pounds! In such a case as
this, we can only hope to instruct the world and
gradually to create as great a jealousy over literary
property as prevails for every other kind.
In another case, however, when the victim was
willing and ready to come forward, we recovered
for him the money of which he had been plundered
and the unsold copies of his work.
A case was recently brought before us in which
a country newspaper had republished, without
permission, a paper from a magazine. We obtained
compensation for the author.
Mr. Sprigge's book on the "Methods of Publica-
tion," with the frauds, tricks, and dangers to which
the author is exposed in every one, is very nearly
ready. It will be issued as soon as possible.
## p. 15 (#29) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
15
A circular letter has been issued by the Copy-
right Committee addressed to colonial libraries and
booksellers asking for information on the sale of
pirated editions in the various colonies, and how
far such editions damage the sale of the authorised
English editions.
The draft of the Copyright Bill has been placed
in the hands of Mr. James Rolt, New Square,
Lincoln's Inn, for revision up to the date of the
latest legislation.
The question of copyright in pieces for recitation
has been brought before the Committee. It was
suggested that perhaps authors might not feel
themselves injured by a recitation which could not
fail to increase their popularity. It was decided to
ask the opinion of two gentlemen, well known pro-'
ducers of such pieces.
It was recently stated in a morning paper that
any person, author or not, may become a member
of this Society. The statement was publicly denied
by the Chairman. As, however, there existed no
bye-law on the subject, but only the practice of
the Committee, and the implied understanding
that members should be authors, three have been
passed, viz.:—
1. No one shall be eligible for membership or
fellowship of the Society who is not actually an
author of some published literary or artistic work.
2. Should anyone desire to consult the Society as
to literary work, without having as yet qualified for
membership, the Secretary may then and there—
reporting the case at the next Committee Meeting —
admit him as an Associate only, on payment of one
guinea, his privileges to consist only of the right to
ask advice from the office, this right to terminate
at the end of the current year. Such an Associate
can have no part in the administration.
3. Any donor of ten guineas shall be admitted
by the Secretary then and there, reporting the
case at the next Committee, to be an Honorary
Associate of the Society. Such Associate can take
no part in the administration.
*
LITERARY QUERIES.
I. Who Wrote This Ballad?
BOLD TURPIN upon Hounslow Heath
His black mare Bess bestrode,
When he saw a Bishop's coach and four
Sweeping along the road:
He bade the coachman stop, but he,
Suspecting of the job,
His horses lashed—but soon rolled off
With a brace of slugs in his nob.
Galloping to the carriage door,
He thrust his face within,
When the Chaplain cried—" Sure as eggs is eggs
That is the bold Turpin."
Quoth Turpin, "You shall eat your words
With sauce of leaden bullet:"
So clapped his pistol to his mouth,
And fired it down his gullet.
The Bishop fell upon his knees,
When Turpin bade him stand:
And gave him his watch, a bag of gold,
And six bright rings from his hand.
Rolling with laughter Turpin plucked
The Bishop's wig from his head,
And popp'd it on the Chaplain's poll
As he sat in the corner dead.
Upon the box he tied him then,
With the reins behind his back,
Put a pipe in his mouth, the whip in his hand,
And set off the horses smack!
Then whispered in the black mare's ear,
Who luckily wasn't fagg'd,
"You must gallop fast and far, my dear,
Or I shall be surely scragg'd."
He never drew bit, nor stopped to bait,
Nor walked up hill or down,
Until he came to Gloucester Gate,
Which is the Assizes town.
Full eighty miles in one dark night
He made his black mare fly,
And walk'd into court at nine o'clock,
To swear an alibi.
A hue and cry the Bishop raised,
And so did Sheriff Forster,
But stared to hear that Turpin was
By nine o'clock at Gloucester.
So all agreed it couldn't be him
Neither by hook nor crook:
And said that the Bishop and Chaplain was
Most certainly mistook.
*
AT WORK.
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the
Society, wlio are invited to keep tlie Editor
acquainted with their work and engagements.
PROFESSOR MAX MULLER is engaged in
preparing for the press his second volume
of Gifford Lectures, delivered last year at
Glasgow. The title will be Physical Religion. The
next courses, which will be delivered at Glasgow
in 1891 and 1892, will treat of Anthropological and
Psychological Religion.
Professor Max Muller's new edition of the "Rig-
Veda," with Sayana's Commentary, is progressing.
## p. 16 (#30) ##############################################
i6
THE A UTHOR.
Two volumes of 800 pages 4to. are finished. The
third volume is passing through the press, and it is
hoped that the whole work, in four volumes, will be
ready for the ninth meeting of the International Con-
gress of Orientalists, to be held at Oxford in 1892.
Mr. Edmund Gosse will publish this month a
reprint of his early poems, under the title of " On
Viol and Flute" (Messrs. Kcgan Paul, Trench,
Triibner and Co.), with illustrations by Mr. Alma
Tadema and Mr. Hamo Thornycroft. The June
volume of the "Camelot Classics" will be the
Scandinavian portion of Mr. Gosse's "Northern
Studies," originally issued in 1879. Mr. Gosse is
also engaged on a collected edition of the poetical
works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, founded on the
papers placed in his hands by the late Mr. Robert
Browning.
Mr. Alfred Austin is engaged upon a poem, in
form more or less like "Prince Lucifer," which will
exhibit the influence and operation of Pessimism
on a richly endowed nature. Messrs. Macmillan
will publish early in the autumn a collected edition
of his poetical works in six volumes.
The collected verses of Mr. Walter Herries
Pollock will shortly appear in one of the volumes
called the "Rosslyn Series" (Remington and Co.).
A story, entitled "A Blind Musician," adapted
from the Russian of Korolenko by Stepniak and
William Westall, has just been published by Ward
and Downey.
In the course of a few days the same publishers
will issue by the same author a collection of strange
crimes put into narrative form and told in tales.
Mr. James Payn's "The Burnt Million," 3 vols.,
has just been published by Messrs. Chatto and
Windus.
"London City." Those who appreciated Mr.
Loftie's " Kensington," will be glad to hear that he
has completed a similar work for the same publishers
—Messrs. Field and Tuer. It will be illustrated by
Mr. W. Luker, junior. The published price will
be 42J.; but subscribers who pay in advance can
have it for 2 if.
Mr. Stanley Little is engaged upon a novel
dealing with Sussex life and scenes. His new play
will probably see the light in the autumn.
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "Plain Tales from the
Hills " will form one of the next volumes of Baron
Tauchnitz's Continental Series of English Authors.
Mr. Henry Hermann's "Scarlet Fortune" is to
be issued in shilling form by Messrs. Trischler and
Co. His "Eagle Joe" will shortly appear as a
special number of the Illustrated London News.
Mr. David Christie Murray has completed his
lecture engagements in Australia, and is now
lecturing in New Zealand.
Mr. G. G. Chisholm's "Handbook of Com-
mercial Geography" has recently been published
by Messrs. Longmans and Co. (515 pp., 29 maps,
and index, price \(ss.) This work is an attempt to
give interest to the leading facts of commerce by
setting forth the natural conditions that account for
the magnitude and direction of international com-
merce all over the globe. The work is divided
into two main sections, one dealing with com-
modities, the other with countries. There is also
a statistical appendix which shows by five years'
averages the absolute and relative amount of
foreign trade in the more important articles of the
chief commercial countries of the world.
Mrs. Alec Tweedie, author of "A Girl's Ride in
Iceland" (Griffith, Farran, and Co., 5*.), has pub-
lished (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 2s. 6d.) a
little book on the "Oberammergau Passion Play."
It contains historical notes, an account of the
origin of Passion Plays, a full account of the Play
itself, and of the country (how to reach it, &c),
with a chapter on Church Plays specially written for
this work by the Rev. Canon Shuttleworth.
Mr. John W. Lovell, of New York, has effected
a publishing combination which may prove of
great importance to English authors. Under the
system of unlicensed competition in the sale of
English books, which has been developing in the
United States for the past five years or more, the
works of popular English writers, and especially of
English novelists, have been reproduced in half a
dozen ditferent editions within a week of the
appearance of the authorised American edition.
This has resulted in a war of prices which has
left little or no profit out of which the recognised
editor can pay the English writer. At the same
time the quality of the books produced under this
suicidal system has grown steadily worse. Mr.
Lovell has purchased the plates and stock of no
less than twenty of the principal American firms
engaged in the business of issuing reprints of
English books. This reduction of twenty competing
houses to one will certainly tend to bring order
out of the chaos which has been so destructive
alike to the interests of the English author and the
American publisher. Mr. Lovell has a large
opportunity and should he, as there is reason to
hope, use it responsibly, the amalgamation of trade
interests which he has accomplished will be likely
to bring about beneficent results for English writers.
Mr. James Baker, F.R.G.S., has recently brought
out "By the Southern Sea, a Summer Idyll"
(Longmans, 6s.). The work has been well received,
not only here, but in America. The same author's
## p. 17 (#31) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
*7
"Papers on Forgotten Great Englishmen," which
appeared in the Leisure Hour, have had the effect
of reviving the memory of one Englishman at least,
who was for nearly fifty years a leader of the
Wyclyfites in Bohemia. The papers have been
translated into Czech, and will appear as a feuilleton
in the Silve Slivo, a Bohemian paper.
Mr. T. Bailey Saunders has in the Press "Coun-
sels and Maxims," being the second part of Arthur
Schopenhauser's "Aphorismen zur Leibesweis-
heit." It is to be uniform with his "Wisdom of
Life," the first part of the same work (Sonnenschein
and Co., 2s. 6d.). His translation of Schopen-
hauser's "Religious Dialogues, and other Essays,"
is going into a second edition.
The Rev. E. Gough has brought out (Kegan Paul,
and Co., price i6x. each volume) the third volume
of his work, entitled, "The Bible True from the
Beginning." He proposes to complete it in seven
volumes. The author writes, "The two chief
principles of the work are the following. First,
that there is in Scripture a system of grades and
grade words which proves the Bible to be verbally
inspired. Second, that far beyond what is usually
supposed, the histories contained in the Bible are
moral and not literal."
Mr. Rider Haggard's "Beatrice," now running, is
published by a syndicate of papers. The "World's
Desire," in which he has collaborated with Mr.
Andrew Lang, is running in the New Review.
The first quarter's collection of stories syndicated
for the Society has been sold for serial right—one
appearance only, after which each becomes again
the property of the owner—in Great Britain,
America, India, Australia, and New Zealand. The
Editor is now preparing the second quarter's col-
lection. Will members who desire to belong
kindly read the leaflet on "Syndicating " in this
number?
Mrs. Oliphant will next year contribute a novel
to the Sun. At present she is in the Holy Land,
and writes that the change of air and scenery has
greatly invigorated her.
Dr. George Macdonald has written the Christmas
Number for the Sunday Magazine.
Mr. W. F. Smith, Fellow and Lecturer of St.
John's College, Cambridge, has finished a new
translation of Rabelais. The text will be illustrated
by copious notes, giving among other things the
sources whence this great Master drew. A
limited edition only will be published, signed and
numbered. No cheaper edition will be produced.
The trade will not sell it at a lower than the
subscription price. The agent for the work is Mr.
A. P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square.
The editor of Lippincott's Magazine has secured
Mr. Clarke Russell and Mr. Rudyard Kipling for
an early date.
The many admirers of "Owen Meredith " will
make a note that his "Ring of Amasis" has just
been published (Macmillan, 3*. 6d.).
Mr. Grant Allen has completed a new three-
volume novel.
Sir George Douglas is compiling the volume of
"Scottish Minor Poets" for the Canterbury Series.
Starting with Ramsay's publication of the "Tea
Table Miscellany" in the year 1724 (in which a few
original contributions were included), the collection
will comprise selections from Tannahill, Mother-
well, Lady Nairne, and a whole host of minor
writers, and will terminate probably with a specimen
of the song-writer's art by the late Dr. Charles
Mackay. The volume will be prefaced by a
critical and historical introduction, and will be
inscribed to the Lady John Scott, the foremost
living writer of Scottish Song.
The new weekly called Short Cuts begins with
a novel by Mr. George Sims. The conductors seem
to have secured as fine a collection of contributors
as can be found in the lists of any magazine in the
world. Presumably, taste in popular reading has
been developed as well as the number of readers.
Almost every writer of note seems included in the
list.
The Rev. Charles D. Bell, D.D., of Cheltenham,
has just published "A Winter on the Nile"
(Hodder and Stoughton, price 6d.), containing the
record of a tour up the Nile as far as the Second
Cataract, with a sojourn at Luxor and a description
of recent discoveries and antiquities at Bubastis
and the Fayoum. The same author has recently
issued " Reminiscences of a Boyhood in the Early
Part of the Century" (Sampson, Low, and Co.,
price bd.).
"Church and Creed" (William Blackwood and
Sons, price 4s. 6d.), by Professor Momerie, which
appeared in December last, has gone into a second
edition. His "Origin of Evil" is in its sixth edition,
and his "Agnosticism " in the third.
Mr. Edward Walford, his long connection with
Messrs. Hurst and Blackett being severed after
a period of twenty-seven years, has commenced a
new Peerage, called the "Royal Windsor Peerage,"
at a cost of one-third the price of Lodge. He has
added lists of an order of knighthood, that of St.
John of Jerusalem, of which the Queen has become
Patron and Head, and the Prince of Wales Grand
Prior.
## p. 18 (#32) ##############################################
i8
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Walford is also bringing out at, he requests
us to say, his own cost, a "Life of William Pitt," in
which he advances new and striking views of that
statesman.
The title of Mr. C. F. Keary's newly-published
novel is "A Mariage dc Convenance" (Fisher
Unwin, 2 vols., price 21s.).
Mr. McGrigor Allan, author of "Women's
Suffrage Wrong in Principle and Practice," has in
hand two treatises, one called "The Tobacco
Scourge," the other, "Advantages of a Channel
Tunnel to our Enemies.
A second edition is just ready of Mr. F. Howard
Collins's " Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy"
(Williams and Norgate, 1 vol., 8vo, 15s.). The
work has been favourably received in America, and
has been translated at the present time into French,
German, and Russian.
Professor A. H. Church, F.R.S., has just issued
his "Chemistry of Paints and Painting" (Seeley
and Co., 8vo, pp. 312).
Mr. Geo. Williamson, editor of Boyne's "Seven-
teenth Century Tokens," has in hand a book on
"Coins of the Bible."
Mr. Egmont Hake's work, "Free Trade in
Capital," which has greatly interested the Emperor
of Germany, is being translated into German.
*
NOTES.
HE date of the Annual Dinner has not yet
been fixed, but it will be held rather earlier
in the year than formerly.
Circulars will be sent out as soon as the date
has been definitely decided upon.
The Secretary earnestly begs that in all cases
where a member can do so, he will give notice at
the office early of his intention to be present.
Last year the dinner suffered from the fact that the
tables were over-crowded. As, however, one quarter
of those present signified their intention within the
last day or two, the discomfort, if any, was unavoid-
able.
The tickets for the dinner will be, as last year,
10s. 6d. This sum will include claret. Payment
should be made to "Society of Authors (Dinner
Account)," and all Cheques and Postal Orders
should be crossed, "Imperial Bank, Westminster
Branch." Much letter writing would be saved—a
serious consideration to an office whose clerical
staff is very small—if members would enclose the
money when ordering the tickets.
The Committee hope that as many members as
possibly can, will be present.
In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a
manuscript, the author should send with it a table
of contents and a type-written scenario. This latter
can always be done at the expense of two or three
shillings. It must be clearly understood that a prac-
tised reader does not require to read the whole of an
author's work before being perfectly able to give a
just opinion on its merits. If by the help of a
scenario the reader can grasp at once the story, he
is so much the more able readily to point out any
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examination of style and other technical points.
If he know the author's design, it is possible to say
if he has succeeded or failed. With the honestest
intent in the world to thoroughly peruse a manu-
script, it is difficult not to get weary when the work
is badly written, and wrongly paged, and when much
time has to be idly spent in finding out what the
author's story is before a decision can be arrived
at concerning its merits. The more the reader
is helped, the better he can discharge his duties.
It has been brought to our notice that certain
people are advertising that they publish "on terms
approved by the Society of Authors," or words to
that effect.
It is pleasing to receive this acknowledgment
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NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
This list includes books by members published
since the beginning of the year. In future issues
the list will be monthly. If omissions are dis-
covered the Editor will be glad to receive them.
Religious.
Gough, Edward. The Bible true from the
Beginning. Vols. II and III. Kegan Paul,
Trench and Co. 165. each.
Harper, Henry A. The Bible and Modern
Discoveries. 8vo, pp. 536. A. P. Watt. ids.
Lightfoot (Late Bishop of Durham). The
Apostolic Fathers. Part II. 3 vols. Mac-
millan. 48.C
Art, Fiction, and Belles Lettres.
Allen, Grant. The Tents of Shem. A Novel.
Chatto and Windus. 6d. The Tents of Shem. 3 vols. Chatto and
Windus. 3if. 6d.
## p. 19 (#33) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
19
Besant, Walter. The Holy Rose. Chatto and
Windus. 6s.
Black, William. The New Prince Fortunatus.
3 vols. Sampson Low. 31J. 6d.
Blackmore, R. D. Kit and Kitty: A Story of
West Middlesex. 3 vols. Sampson Low.
3is. 6d.
Bramston, M. Apples of Sodom. A Novel.
2 vols. Smith and Innes. 12s.
Caird, Mona. The Wing of Azrael. 3 vols.
Triibner and Co. 3 if. 6d.
The Wing of Azrael. Kegan Paul and Triib-
ner and Co. 6s.
Cameron, Mrs. H. Lovett. The Cost of a Lie.
A Novel. 2nd Edition. F. V. White, is.
Crawford, F. Marion. Sant I'lario. New
Edition. Macmillan. 6,r.
Marzio's Crucifix. New Edition. Macmillan.
3*. 6d.
Zoroaster. Macmillan. 3^. 6d.
Coleman, John. The White Ladye of Rosemount:
A Story of the Modern Stage. Hutchinson.
2S.
Collins, Wilkie (The late). A Rogue's Life
from his Birth to his Marriage. Chatto and
Windus. 2s.; y. 6d.
Blind Love. A Novel. 3 vols. Chatto and
Windus. 315. 6d.
Croker, Mrs. Some One Else. Low. 2s.; 2s. 6d.
Crommelin, May. Cross Roads. 3 vols. Hurst
and Blackett.
Crommelin, May, and Brown, John Moray.
Violet Vyvian, M.F.H. A Novel. F. V.
White. 2s. 6d.
Desart, Earl of. The Little Chatelaine. 3 vols.
Swan Sonnenschein. 315. 6d.
Goodchili>, J. A. A Fairy Godfather. Reming-
ton. 6s.
Hoey, Mrs. Cashel. The Question of Cain.
New and Revised Edition. Ward and Downey.
6*.
Kennard, Mrs. Edward. Landing a Prize. A
Novel. F. V. White. 2S. 6d.
Kipling, Rudyard. Departmental Ditties, and
other Verses. Thaclter and Co. Soldiers Three: Stories of Barrack Room
Life. Sampson Low.
Lang, Andrew. Old Friends. Longmans. 6s. 6d.
Lyall, Edna. The Hardy Norseman. New
Edition. Hurst and Blackett. 6s.
Lytton, Lord. The Ring of Amasis. Macmillan
and Co.
Mackay, Charles (The late). A Thousand and
One Gems of English Prose. New Edition.
Routledge. 3*. 6d.
Middlemore, S. C. C. The Great Age of Italian
Painting. Simpkin. 5*.
Mitford, Bertram. The Fire Trumpet. A
Romance of the Frontier. 3 vols. Spencer
Blackett. 315. 6d.
Monkhouse, Cosmo. The Earlier English Water
Colour Painters. Seeley. 21*.
Murray, D. Christie. John Vale's Guardian.
3 vols. Macmillan. 31J. 6d.
A Dangerous Catspaw. Longmans. 2s. 6d.
Aunt Rachel: A Rustic Sentimental Journey.
Macmillan. .3*. 6d.
Nomad. A Railway Foundling. 3 vols. Trischler
and Co.
Oliphant, Mrs. Lady Car: The Sequel of a
Life. New Edition. Longmans. 2s. 6d.
Payn, James. A Prince of the Blood. 4th
Edition. Ward and Downey. 2s.
■ The Burnt Million. 3 vols. Chatto and
Windus.
Praed, Mrs. Campbell. The Romance of a
Station. 2 vols. Trischler. 2ij-.
Price, Eleanor C. A Loyal Mind. A Novel.
Remington. 6s.
Ross, Ronald. The Child of Ocean. A
Romance. Remington. 6s.
Robinson, S. W. A Very Strange Family.
Heeneman.
Sala, G. A. Not a Friend in the World, and
other Stories. Dicks, is.
Speight, S. W. The Sandycroft Mystery. Chatto
and Windus. is.
Tytler, Sarah. Duchess Frances. 3 vols. Low.
21s.
Vredenburg, Edric. Her Secret: A Short
Account of Some Extraordinary Episodes in
the Life of a London Beauty. Eglington
and Co. is.
Wills, C. J. The Great Doremi. Wells Gard-
ner, is.
Winter, John Strange. Beautiful Jim of the
Blankshire Regiment. 5th Edition. F. V.
White. 2s.
Yonge, Charlotte M. Womankind. Smith
and Innes. 3*. 6d.
Politics and Questions of the Day.
Hake, A. Egmont and Wesslau, O. E. Free
Trade in Capital. Remington. 15^.
Linton, E. Lynn. About Ireland. Methuen.
is.
Children's Books.
Holland, Clive. Raymi; or, The Children of
the Sun. Illustrated by Percy E. Ebbutt.
Henry and Co. 5*.
## p. 20 (#34) ##############################################
20
THE AUTHOR.
Lyall, Edna. Their Happiest Christmas.
Chambers, is.
Wilde, Oscar. The Happy Prince, and other
Tales. Nutt. 3s. 6d.
Local History.
Kitchen, G. W. Winchester (Historic Towns).
Longmans. 31. 6d.
Classics.
Lang, A. Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. Ren-
dered into English Prose, with Introductory
Essay. Macmillan. gs.
MacKail, J. W. Virgil: the Eclogues and
Georgics. Translated from the Latin.
Rivingtons. 5s.
Stedman, A. M. M. Greek Vocabularies for
Repetition. Arranged according to Subjects.
Methuen. is. 6d.
Biography and History.
Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth.
2 vols. Macmillan. 25J.
Garnett, Richard. Life of John Milton.
(Great Writers.) Walter Scott. is.; l.p.
2s. 6d.
Govett, L. A. The King's Book of Sports.
Elliot Stock. 4s. 6d.
Haggard, H. Rider. Cetywayo and his White
Neighbours; or, Remarks on Recent Events
in Zululand, Natal, and the Transvaal.
Triibner. 6s.
Meiklejohn, J. (M.D.) A New History of Eng-
land and Great Britain. With Maps and
Tables. Holden (St. Andrew's) Simpkin.
2s. 6d.
Nicoll, W. Robertson. James Macdonnell,
Journalist. With Etched Portrait by H.
Manesse. Hodder and Stoughton. 1 is.
Poetry and the Drama.
Blind, Mathilde. The Ascent of Man. Poems.
Chatto and Windus. 5*.
Jerome, Jerome K. Stage Land. 5th Edition.
Chatto and Windus. 3.1. 6d.
Tennyson, Lord. Demeter, and other Poems.
Macmilian. 6s. Poems, Songs from. J. M. Dent and Co.
Gilt, is. 6d.; Six Illustrations, 2s. 6d.
Music.
Stanford, C. V., Prof. Suite for Violin Solo,
with Orchestral Accompaniments (Op. 32).
Full Score. Novello. 21*.
European Languages.
Stedman, A. M. M. French Vocabularies for
Repetition. Arranged according to Subjects.
Methuen. is.
Medical and Surgical.
Squire, Balmanno. On the Treatment of
Diabetes. Churchill. 2s. 6d.
Law and Parliamentary.
Lely, J. M., and Peck, W. A. Precedents of
I.eases for Years and other Contracts of
Tenancy. Sweet and Maxwell. 10s. 6d.
Pollock (Sir Frederick). Principles of Contract.
5th Edition. With a New Chapter. Stevens
and Sons. 285.
Philosophy.
Nevill, F. Retrogression or Development.
Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. 3s. 6d.
Directories and Guide Books.
Walford (Edward). The County Families of
the United Kingdom. New Edition. Chatto
and Windus. 505.
Literature and the Pension List. By W.
Morris Colles. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand,
VV.C.) 8vo. 4*. 6d.
Opinions of the Press.
"An instructive inquiry."—Daily News.
"Contains abundance of interesting material."—
Saturday Review.
"A review of the Pension List is not calculated
to make us more content with the way in which
the Grant is administered."—Spectator.
"The volume contains a complete list of all
those who have received Civil List Pensions during
the present reign, and an investigation into the
principles upon which the Grant has been based,
and those upon which it should have been based."
—Athena; urn.
"Full of curious literary interest."—Pali Mall
Gazette.
"Since it deals only with officially authenticated
facts, there can be no doubt about the evidence
on which its conclusions are based."— World.
"An interesting work."—Truth.
"The lesson it conveys is, that some alteration in
the law is essential."—Liverpool Daily Courier.
"One can only hope that the book, interesting
and trustworthy as it is, will effect its purpose."—
Yorkshire Daily Post.
## p. 21 (#35) ##############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
21
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HENRY BLACKBURN'S ART HANDBOOKS.
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With Sketches, is.
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The Paris Salon, 1890. With Sketches, 3s.
London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 214, Piccadilly, W.
## p. 22 (#36) ##############################################
22
A D VER TISEMENTS.
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A Dictionary 0/Parisisms and French Slang. Large Post Zro, ioj. 6dt
ARGOT AND SLANG. A New French and English
Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms,
and Flash Phrases used in the High and Low Life of Old and New
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R. M. Academy, Woolwich.
The work treats of the cant of thieves; the jargon rf Parisian
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Containing the following Standard Works, which they
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Bibliotheca Classica. 26 vols. (Onlyfewsetsleft).
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Cooper's Biographical Dictionary. 2 volumes.
Denton's England in the Fifteenth Century.
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Lupton's Life of Dean Colet.
Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the
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Smith's Synonyms and Antonyms.
Sowerby's English Botany. 12 volumes.
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Stevenson's Dictionary of Roman Coins.
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Strickland's Lives of the Queensof England.
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Webster's English Dictionary. In Cloih,
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Webster's English Dictionary with Appen-
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Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction.
Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Pro-
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Archer's British Army.
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Burn's Rome and the Campagna.
Burn's Old Rome.
Castle's Schools and Masters of Fence.
Davies's Supplementary English Glossary.
Dyer's Ancient Athens.
Palmer's Desert of the Exodus. 2 Volumes.
(Only 12 Copies left).
Palmer's Folk Etymology. (Only 8ocopies left.)
Scrivener's Codex Bezae.
Smith's Synonyms Discriminated.
London: GEORGE BELL & SONS, York St., Covent Garden.
## p. 23 (#37) ##############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
NEW BOOKS
A New Translation. By W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow
and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge,
Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750
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RABELAIS } to t'le mst0"ca' aspect of the book, and
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A BOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR.
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addition to our knowledge of what has long remained a terra incognita."—
Saturday Review.
THE SURVEY OF WESTERN
PALESTINE.
Only 17 sets of this magnificent work now remain. It will
never be reprintedi with the exception of the two volumes
"Flora anil Fauna " and "Jerusalem." The price of I he
set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven
uniform and handsomely bound volumes. 4/0.
THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field
by Major Cornier, D.C.L., R.E., and Colonel Kitchener C.M.G.,
A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after (heir return. With
thousands of illustrations of tombs, ruins, etc., drawn expressly for
these volumes, aud not to be found anywhere else. 3 vols.
THE NAME LISTS. Transliterated from the Arabic
with translation by Major Conder, R.E.,and edited by Professor E.
H. Palmer, x vol*
THE VOLUME OF SPECIAL PAPERS. Con-
sisting mostly of reprints of important papers from the "Quarto ly
Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., K.C.M.O , F.R.S.,
D.C.L., I.L.D., R.E. ; Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.,
F.R.S., R.E.: Major Condor, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont-
Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, &c. i vol.
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE.
With many Illustrations (hand-painted). By Canon Tristram ,
LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol.
THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio
of 50 Plates. Iiy Co!. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major
Conder, D.C.L., R.E. 1 vol.
THE MAPS.
An Illustrated Circular, giving all information about the above, will be
lent, post free, on application.
Published for the Palestine Exploration Fund by
London: ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C.
## p. 24 (#38) ##############################################
24
AD VERTISEMENTS.
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.
i
1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property.
2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright.
3. The promotion of International Copyright.
The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society
acts as follows :—
a. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of
publishing.
f). It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which
are injurious to their interests.
7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the
hands of unscrupulous traders.
8. It publishes from time to time, books, papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its
province.
e. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to
the pecuniary interest of their works.
WARNINGS,
Authors are most earnestly warned—
(1) Not to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral
part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them.
(2) Not to enter into any correspondence with publishers, who are not recommended by
experienced friends, or by this Society.
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down to any one firm of publishers.
(4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society.
(5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the
Society.
(6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice.
(7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a MS. has been refused by the well-known
houses, to pay small houses for the production of the work.
## p. 24 (#39) ##############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
iii.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application
to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal, devoted especially to the protection
and maintenance of Literary Property.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer). 2^. The Report of
three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence,
held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-
at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) \s. 6d.
5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire
Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the
most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing
what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is
printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d.
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigce. In
this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various
kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and
their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of
fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their
agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as
possible.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
## p. 24 (#40) ##############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Furthers
hairless paper,
(60) Pada
Pad holders
(One Shilling: -
The LeadenhaltPress.E.C.
“With Bad Paper, one's Best is impossible.”
THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS
PAPER-PAD
(Issued by the Proprietors of The Leadenhall Press). Contains, in block form, fifty sheets of strong
hairless paper, over which-being of unusual but not painful smoothness—the pen slips with perfect
freedom. Easily detachable, the size of the sheets is about 71 by 8 inches, and the price is only that
charged for common scribbling paper. THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS Paper-Pad may be comfortably used,
whether at the desk, held in the hand, or resting on the knee. As being most convenient for both
author and compositor, the paper is ruled the narrow way, and, of course, on one side only.
Sixpence each ; 5/- per dozen, ruled or plain. * .
THE LEADENHALL Press, E.C.
THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD
HOLDER,
Suggested by Punch, is equally useful to the busy few who write when travelling, and to stay-at-homes
who dislike the restraint of desk or table. It is intended that the wooden rim at the side of the
Author's HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD HOLDER should be grasped by the left hand, the right being free to
travel over the whole surface of the paper from top to bottoin. The height of Pad and Holder
will be kept uniform if each written sheet is placed as torn off underneath the Pad, the base of which
is now thick blotting paper instead of the old and useless cardboard. - The ordinary sloped position
when in use keeps Pad and Holder together.
One Shilling. *
* If to be forwarded by post, send 2a. extra for postage of single Pad, and 10ld. for postage of one dosen Pads. The postage
on one Pad-Holder is 3d., and one Pad-Holder and one Pad together, 44d.
THE LEADENHALL Press, 50, LEADENHALL STREET, E.C.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westminster.
Text
A transcription of the document
<button class="toggle">The Author, pp. 1–3</button>
<div class="content">
<p>The Report of the Society of Authors for the year 1890 spoke of the great importance of keeping members more fully and more regularly supplied with information, not only on the work of the Executive Committee, but also on the various matters which concern the author in the safeguarding of his interests and the preservation of his property. The simplest method of effecting this, it was thought, would be to hold frequent meetings for the purpose of conference and discussion. As, however, a large number of our members live in the country, we could seldom hope to obtain a really representative gathering, and the discussions would have a tendency to drop into the hands of a few, and so be robbed of half their value. It is also to be considered that no discussions can have any real value which are not founded on knowledge of the facts. Now, the ordinary member knows little of the facts. It was, therefore, then thought that occasional leaflets might be issued conveying the facts. To this plan, however, there appeared many obstacles. First, leaflets are tossed aside and lost; then, even if they are read and preserved, there is no place for discussion, for questions, or for suggestions. The private member of the Society would feel that he was taking no real part in its management and government. If he thought the committee was moving too slowly in the right, too quickly in the wrong, direction – there would be no opportunity for saying so, except by writing a letter to the Secretary, to be by him laid before the Committee.</p>
<p>Considering the question from its many points of view, it has seemed most desirable to have our own organ for our own purposes.</p>
<p><i>The Author</i> is therefore founded to be the organ of literary men and women of all kinds – the one paper which will fully review, discuss, and ventilate all questions connected with the profession of literature in all its branches. It will be the medium by which the Committee of our Society will inform its members generally of their doings, and it will become a public record of transactions conducted in the interests of literature, which have hitherto been secret, lost, and hidden for the want of such an organ.</p>
<p>The chief aim of the Society – this has been advanced again and again – is to promote the recognition of the fact, hitherto most imperfectly understood, that literary property is as real a thing as property in every other kind of business: that it should be safeguarded in the same manner, and regarded with the same jealousy.</p>
<p>Hitherto the mere existence of literary property even in the face of such patent facts as the enrichment of publishers, has been carefully concealed and even denied. Risks of publishing, costs of publishing, have been dangled before the eyes of authors, so that they should regard the subject as one of extreme peril and pure speculation. One can never even now read a leading article about publishing without being solemnly assured that the trade is one in which frightful risks are constantly run, and that the success of any book is pure speculation.</p>
<p>Now, as a matter of act, there is very little speculation indeed in publishing, and there are very, very few publishers – only the leading houses – who ever run any risks at all, either by buying books or by bringing out books at a risk. Risks are run when a House starts a magazine, or when it embarks on illustrated editions of an expensive kind, or when educational books are published. The ordinary risk run in the production of books is, as a rule, next to nothing. For, first, the author is seldom paid except by results; next, the author, when a house consents to "take the risk," is, for the most part, one who commands a certain sale. With the smaller houses books about which there is the slightest risk are always paid for by the authors in advance, either wholly or in part. And very, very seldomn indeed, do the ill-advised authors who advance their money ever see it back again.</p>
<p>Again, as to the actual cost of production. By carefully keeping this a profound secret, interested persons have succeeded in establishing a kind of <i>taboo</i>, as of some holy, sacred thing which must not be so much as touched. We have, however, thoroughly investigated the whole question, and are now in a position to throw complete light upon the cost of producing any kind of book that can be named, in any type and in any form.</p>
<p>This is a very important step. Its importance cannot be over-estimated. <i>It enables the author, for the very first time in the history of literature, to know what it is he is asked to concede to the publisher, and what it is he reserves for himself.</i></p>
<p>We have also done more: we have collected together a vast amount of information as to publishers' agreements: especially as to what, in reality, is the meaning of the clauses contained in them: we have ascertained what it is they ask the author to surrender and for what consideration. And we have acquired a knowledge of various frauds, made possible by the terms of these agreements, in the different methods of publishing.</p>
<p>This knowledge is so beneficial to the author that its existence ought to be widely spread and made known to every person who is engaged in the production of literature of any kind.</p>
<p>Again, the Society is constantly engaged in answering questions connected with every branch of literature and its practice. Many of these questions are answered by letter over and over again, taking up a great deal of the Secretary's time. They would be answered more effectively in a journal.</p>
<p>It follows from these clauses that we may have a good deal to say about the seamy side of the publishing trade.</p>
<p>It must, however, be borne in mind very carefully that the Society has not and never has had, any quarrel with honourable publishers. It has always asked for one thing only – <i>just and honest treatment, fair and open agreements, and honourable observance of those agreements.</i></p>
<p>It has therefore been determined to establish this journal as an organ for the especial use of the Society. At first we shall bring out <i>The Author</i> on the fifteenth of every month. The journal will contain papers, notes, letters, questions, and information on all subjects connected with literature and its profession.</p>
<p>The members of the Society will be kept informed of all that part of our work which is not confidential. Among other features of novelty and interest will be an account in each number of some one case that has been brought before the Society – of course without the names. The consideration of these cases will, we are certain, show the world the absolute necessity for some such organisation as our own, though the widespread ignorance which we have unfolded was hardly guessed by our founders at our first institution. Each number will also contain an article or leaflet on some topic belonging to our own interests. There will be notes on the various branches of our work. Our columns will be open to suggestions, letters, and questions.</p>
<p>We shall send out this journal to all our members as their own organ. We shall continue it for one year at least.</p>
<p>We shall be very glad to hear from members who may be willing to assist us by original contributions, which should be short, and on some subject belonging to our special field, which is the <i>safeguarding of literary property for the producer of literature.</i></p>
<p>Members are invited to send in notices of the books which they are about to produce, and copies of their books when they appear. It is intended to give a short notice of the purpose and contents of these works when this is possible. In the case of fiction a very brief account, <i>but not a review</i>, will be attempted.</p>
</div>
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 01 (May 1890)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 01 (May 1890)
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Vol. 1.—No. 2.)
JUNE 16, 1890
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Published for the Society be
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE
LONDON, E.C.
1890.
## p. 24 (#42) ##############################################
The Society of Authors (Incorporated).
PRESIDENT.
The RIGHT HON. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
Walter BESANT.
Rev. PROF. BONNEY, F.R.S.
J. COMYNS CARR.
EDWARD CLODD.
THE EARL OF DESART.
A. W. DUBOURG.
PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
EDMUND GOSSE,
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
THOMAS HARDY.
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.
COUNCIL.
Rev. W. J. LOFTIË, F.S.A.
George MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
J. C. PARKINSON."
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D.
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
George AUGUSTUS SALA.
W. BAPTISTE' Scoones.
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAS. SULLY.
William MoY THOMAS.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
Auditor—Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman-Walter BESANT.
1. H. Rider HAGGARD.
I J. M. Lely.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
EDMUND Gosse.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
Solicitors.
Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.
## p. 24 (#43) ##############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 2.]
JUNE 16, 1890.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
News and Notes
"Thou shah not Steal," by Wilkie Collins
The Troubles of a Beginner
"Cursed Coincidences"
The Exchange of Books
Leaflet No". II.—On Royalties
Royal Literary Fund
A Hard Case, No. II
PACE
... 35
... 31
- 35
... 37
- 37
... 38
- 39
... 41
The Chestnut Bell
"The Art of Authorship" ...
Notes
Literary Puzzles
Questions, Cases, and Answers
At Work
New Books and New Editions
Advertisements
**AOE
. . 42
... 44
... 47
... 49
... 50
... 52
... 54
... 56
NEWS AND NOTES.
AMONG other suggestions received from
readers some have been sent anony-
mously. I thought it was unnecessary to
warn correspondents that no notice can be taken
of unsigned communications. As, however, the
warning has to be made, I hope that this note will
be sufficient.
It was stated in our last number that we proposed
inviting the First Lord of the Treasury to receive
a deputation on the Administration of the Civil
List Pension. A memorial was prepared and
sent with the letter. The following is the reply of
the Right Hon. W. H. Smith. The memorial will
be published in our next number with a lew obser-
vations on the whole subject in general and on Mr.
Smith's letter in especial:—
Downing Street,
June 6th, 1890.
Dear Sir,
Mr. W. H. Smith desires me to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., forward-
ing a memorial in regard to the Administration of
the Civil List Pension Fund, and requesting him
to receive a deputation on the subject.
Mr. Smith has carefully read the statements
and suggestions placed before him, and he need
not say that he would be glad to receive such a
vol. 1.
deputation if any useful purpose could be served
thereby; but he fears that there is some misappre-
hension as to the power of the First Lord of the
Treasury in regard to the Fund.
The administration is governed strictly by Act
of Parliament, and the intervention of the First
Lord is limited to that discretion which must in
such cases finally rest with some one responsible
minister; his decisions, although not subject to the
review of Parliament, are by Act yearly brought
under the cognisance of both Houses and of the
public, by the annual return of all pensions granted
within the year.
To make such changes as the memorial suggests
would necessitate a new Act of Parliament, and
Mr. Smith does not think that there has been any
such expression of dissatisfaction either in the
House or outside of it as would justify the
proposal, while on the other hand, he fears that
Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an
increase of the sum annually set apart for the
Pension List.
Mr. Smith must also point out that the figures
in the memorial, accepting them as fairly correct,
show that the practical administration of the
Fund is almost identical with the distribution
proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to
the services rendered to the Sovereign and under
the Crown, and two-thirds to the representatives
of Science, Literature, and Art.
With this explanation, and looking also to the
extreme pressure of engagements on his time,
c
## p. 24 (#44) ##############################################
Zhe Society of Hutbors (Jncorporateb),
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
COUNCIL.
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.
George Meredith.
Herman C. Merivale.
T. C. Parkinson.
The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.
Walter Herries Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
George Augustus Sala.
W. Baptiste' Scoones.
J. J. Stevenson.
Jas. Sully.
William Moy Thomas.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
Bon. Con/isei—'E. M. Underdown, Q.C.
Auditor—Ret. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman—Walter Besani
Robert Batbman. H. Rider Haggard.
Edmund Gosse. J. M. Lely.
Solicitors.
Messrs. Field, Roscoe. & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.
OFFICES.
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I.
Robert Bateman.
Walter Besant.
Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S.
J. Comyns Carr.
Edward Clodd.
The Earl of Desart.
A. W. Dubourg.
Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.
Herbert Gardner, M. P.
Richard Garnett, LL.D.
Edmund Gosse.
H. Rider Haggard.
Thomas Hardy.
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.
Sir Frederick Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
## p. 25 (#45) ##############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 2.]
JUNE 16, 1890.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
News and Notes
"Thou shall not Steal," by Wilkie Collins
The Troubles of a Beginner
"Cursed Coincidences"
The Exchange of Books
Leaflet No~ II.—On Royalties
Royal Literary Fund
AHardCase.No.il
I ACE
... 25
... 31
••■ 35
... 37
■•• 37
... 38
... 39
... 41
The Chestnut Bell
"The Art of Authorship" ...
Notes
Literary Puzzles
Questions, Cases, and Answers
At Work
New Books and New Editions
Advertisements
PAGE
• • 42
... 44
... 47
... 49
... 50
... 52
••■ 54
... 56
A copy of this paper will be sent free to any member of the
Society for one twelvemonth. It is hoped, however, that most
members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is
6s. 6d. including postage, to be sent to the Society, 4, Portugal
Street, W.C.
111C XVIglJl HUH. »». 11. OllllLU. inv. uuuuuu. .....
be published in our next number with a few obser-
vations on the whole subject in general and on Mr.
Smith's letter in especial:—
Downing Street,
June 6th, 1890.
Dear Sir,
Mr. W. H. Smith desires me to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., forward-
ing a memorial in regard to the Administration of
the Civil List Pension Fund, and requesting him
to receive a deputation on the subject.
Mr. Smith has carefully read the statements
and suggestions placed before him, and he need
not say that he would be glad to receive such a
vol. 1.
nOUSC Or UUIS1UC VI 11 tu mmu jUu...;
proposal, while on the other hand, he fears that
Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an
increase of the sum annually set apart for the
Pension List.
Mr. Smith must also point out that the figures
in the memorial, accepting them as fairly correct,
show that the practical administration of the
Fund is almost identical with the distribution
proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to
the services rendered to the Sovereign and under
the Crown, and two-thirds to the representatives
of Science, Literature, and Art.
With this explanation, and looking also to the
extreme pressure of engagements on his time,
## p. 26 (#46) ##############################################
26
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Smith hopes that the gentlemen represented
in the memorial will not feel it necessary to seek
for a personal interview.
I remain, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
S. S. Sprigge, Esq. C. Maude.
It is pleasant to find that one's efforts are
appreciated by all the persons concerned. I am
therefore glad to report that The Author has
received a cordial welcome from the Publisher's
Circular. It has also received the kind of criticism
which somewhat cools the cordiality. Let us re-
peat, therefore, one point on which we have always
insisted and which those who profess to write in
the trade interest always try to evade or else boldly
deny, viz., that there is very little speculation or
risk in modern publishing. However, since the
Publisher's Circular declares that the Society has
their "most hearty sympathy" in asking for "just
and honest treatment, fair and open agreements,
and honourable observance of those agreements,"
we will not find fault with these criticisms, and
we shall look for the practical co-operation of the
Publisher's Circular, especially in our determination
to show authors what, in their agreements, they
concede to publishers and what they keep to them-
selves.
I am happy to report that The Author has met
with a very satisfactory reception from all quarters.
The "literary ladies " met at dinner on the 30th
of May at the Criterion. The chair was occupied
by Mrs. L. T. Meade, who was supported by Miss
Mabel Collins, Mrs. Pennell, Miss Corkran, and
Mrs. Grahame R. Tomson. Letters of apology
for non-attendance were read from Lady Colin
Campbell, Miss Jessie Fothergill, Mrs. Crawford,
Miss Sarah Tytler, and Mrs. Leith Adams. Let us
hope that a pleasant evening was the result. We
shall be very glad to see the literary ladies side by
side with the literary men at our own dinner next
month. And I, for one, have no doubt as to which
will prove the pleasanter function. Literature, like
the world itself, is of both sexes, and therefore
happiest when fully represented.
The fusion of the two old publishing firms of
Longman and Rivington, or rather the absorption
of the latter by the former, destroys one of the few
remaining old publishing firms. The history of
Literature in all ages is that of the publication
of new works, if only for the simple reason
that authors must work to live, and that if men
are not forced to work they will for the most part
produce nothing. The history of Literature in the
eighteenth century is very closely bound up with the
two houses of Longman and Rivington. If it were
written, which never has been done, we should learn
howtheliterary public—the people who read and look
for new books, and buy them—gradually increased
during this century, until by its close publishing
was no longer a speculative and uncertain business
conducted in ignorance by persons who had small
means of judging the state of the market, who
bought MSS. for so many guineas apiece, losing
largely by one work, and doing pretty well by
another. By the end of the eighteenth century the
reign of the Book Clubs had already well set in;
these were literary centres in provincial towns, such
as Norwich and Birmingham; the clergy were
scholars and students; a publisher knew where he
could "place" a certain number of every good
book; and a great change had come over the
whole art and mystery of publishing books. Prac-
tically, "Risk," that good old Bogey whose demise
is still so persistently denied, had already vanished.
♦
There appeared lately in the New York Tribune
a communication signed by the well-known letters,
G. W. S., which, beginning with the relations of
bookseller to publisher, passed on to the questions
in which we ourselves are mainly interested. It is
this portion of the letter which we reproduce, sup-
pressing the name referred to, as it has nothing to
do with the argument.
"It is A. B. who, among others, makes himself
responsible for the statement that it is rapidly
becoming impossible for a bookseller, pure and
simple, dealing in current literature, to make a living
profit from his business. No doubt A. B. is right,
if the publisher's view of what constitutes a 'living
profit' is to prevail. A. B. is a partner in a very
eminent publishing house, and anything he says
on the publishing or selling of books deserves
attention. He has written a long letter about
bookselling to a trade organ, and expresses some
sympathy with the booksellers in their present
difficulties. Before we proceed with that, might
I suggest to A. B. that some of his sympathies
might be bestowed on another person concerned
in the book business, the author? If the figures
I have given above are correct, the seller of books,
even in his present wretched estate, makes a profit
of 30 per cent. Will A. B. be so kind as to tell
us in what proportion the profits on a successful
book are distributed between author and publisher?
Does the author make a ' living profit' on what
is commonly the only capital he possesses, his
## p. 27 (#47) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
27
brains? Let us take an imaginary case. We will
suppose that an eminent firm publishes a book,
say, of reminiscences in two handsome volumes at
$7.50, and that, notwithstanding the high price,
the public buys four editions of it. That, surely,
is a successful book, and one that ought to pay
everybody concerned a living profit, and perhaps
something more. Does A. B. think he could find
out what share of the proceeds the author received
and how much the publisher kept for himself, and,
if he could, will he let us know?
"A private transaction? Oh, no, A. B., that is
one of several mistakes into which you publishers
occasionally fall. It is a matter of very considerable
public interest. It concerns the community deeply
that literature should be encouraged, and should
be profitable to the producer of it. The patron on
whom the author once in some measure depended
has disappeared. The publisher has taken his
place. He is, or ought to be, the Maecenas of the
nineteenth century. But if Johnson were living
now, do you think he would soften the terrible
lines which he wrote under the sting of Lord
Chesterfield's neglect?
'There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,—
Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail.'
"To substitute publisher for patron would spoil
the metre. Would it much affect the sense?
The publisher is a man of business, the author is
not, or seldom is. Do you think publishers have
always borne that in mind? They have drawn
their own contracts. Have the interests of the
author or of the publisher been most carefully
considered in those printed forms, filled up ac-
cording to circumstances which are presented to
the author, all unacquainted as he is with affairs,
for him to sign?
"Do not imagine, my dear A. B., that I address
these questions to you because I mean to imply
that you personally do not conduct your business
on the most honourable principles. I am per-
suaded that you do. But I apprehend you would
admit, or perhaps even assert, that among your
many rivals in the business of publishing books
are to be found some whose treatment of authors is
less considerate than your own. I will not say, and
perhaps you would not, that any of them are dis-
honest. I prefer to use a word which was a
favourite with Matthew Arnold, and to suggest
that in their dealings with the authors on whose
productions their own prosperity depends, some
of them are sometimes indelicate. You would not,
I think, refuse to go as far as that. You would
say, no doubt, there are publishers and publishers,
and that not every firm is so scrupulous in its trans-
actions or so high-minded as your own.
"If they were, how would you explain, for ex-
ample, the existence of the Incorporated Society of
Authors, and what construction would you put
upon some of its recent proceedings? Some of
the most respected and popular authors of the
day are members of that Society. They have
an executive committee, and that committee
go so far as to declare that there are firms
of so-called publishers which exist solely by
robbery and cheating. Surely you, and all other
publishers of high character and repute, must
desire to dissociate yourselves as widely as possible
from the scoundrels who profess to carry on the
same business that you do. You would agree with
the committee, would you not, in their urgent re-
commendation that authors should send their
agreements with publishers for examination by the
Society before signing? If there were clauses in
those agreements injurious to the author, he would
be warned not to sign. If there were none, no
harm would be done. You would heartily dis-
approve, I am sure, every attempt to induce an
unwary writer to bind himself not to publish in
future with any other house than that which was
then to issue a particular book—an attempt which
Mr. Besant calls monstrous and indecent. You
would, if the Society called upon you for advice,
strike out that agreed statement of the cost of
production which the less delicate publisher some-
times inserts; and is sometimes careless enough
to exaggerate. You would not justify for a
moment the refusal of a publisher to submit his
books to examination, in order that his statement
of the expenses of publication, of the number of
copies printed and sold, and other such interesting
and vital particulars, might undergo an indepen-
dent audit. You will rejoice in the appearance of
that little treatise on 'The Cost of Production,'
and that other now preparing on 'The Different
Methods of Publishing'; including, I think, the
Half-Profit System, and probably pointing out the
method by which the indelicate publisher charges
the author full price for advertisements which cost
the publishers nothing, and omits to deduct the
discount he obtains on the nominal prices of paper,
printing and other important items. Mr. Besant,
less scrupulous in his choice of words than our
lamented friend Arnold, talks of frauds. You
would join him in exposing and repressing and
preventing them. In short, you and the Incor-
porated Society of Authors have so many aims
and interests in common that you will perhaps
permit me to wonder that you are not already a
member of it. For the one person to whom it is
of the utmost consequence that the business of
publishing should be freed from all stains and all
suspicion is the publisher."
vol.. 1.
c 2
## p. 28 (#48) ##############################################
28
THE A UTHOR.
The death of Mr. Fletcher Harper, the senior of the
second generation of the brothers, removes another
of the American firm which first began to recognize
the right of English authors. Perhaps the child
is already born in the United States who will,
before he finally droops his snow-white head, see
a tardy justice sullenly granted. But we must not
hold out illusive hopes. The great American
public from whom are taken the members of
Congress are not exactly composed of gentlemen,
nor are they in their public, any more than their
private acts, guided by the delicate sense of honour
for which we ourselves still try to retain a traditional
reverence. In fact we are too apt to suppose that
the cultivated, well-bred American cousin we meet
here is a specimen—perhaps a little favourable—
of the ordinary citizen of that big Republic which
will perhaps some day be great as well as big.
The attitude taken by the American editors and
authors alike on the Copyright Question is every-
thing that can be desired, or, indeed, expected of a
body of gentlemen. It must not be thought, there-
fore, that in publishing Wilkie Collins's views we
are in the least reflecting upon our American con-
jrlres. One of them writes, "The Copyright Bill
was defeated by ignorance misled by greed, but we
hope to retrieve our reputation soon. Everybody
is hard at work to this end." Wilkie Collins says
nothing so severe.
Here is a practical suggestion. Some time ago
we poor English had to pay, justly or unjustly,
^3,000,000 for the Alabama claims. The claims
did not amount to half that money. Suppose the
Government of the U.S.A. were to hand over the
difference to British authors. The moral effect in
the States of such an act of reparation would be
enormous, while its material effect in this country
would be, to say the least, extremely beneficial to a
hard-working and deserving set of men and women.
This is what Mr. Lowell says :—" I have had too
long experience of the providential thickness of
the human skull, as well as of the eventual success
of all reasonable reforms, to be discouraged by the
temporary defeat of any measure which I believe
to be sound. I am too old to be persuaded by any
appearances, however specious, that truth has lost or
can lose that divine quality which gives her immortal
advantage over error. Foreign right to property in
books stands precisely on the same footing as Ameri-
can home right, and the moral wrong of stealing
either is equally great. But literary property is at
a disadvantage, because, as the appropriation is not
open, gross, and palpable, it is not regarded as
wrongful. It touches the public conscience more
faintly. In ordinary cases it is the thief, but in
this case the thing stolen, that is invisible. To
steal is no doubt more immediately profitable than
acquisition by the more tedious methods of honesty,
but it is nevertheless apt to prove costlier in the
long run. How costly our own experiments in
larceny have been, only those know who have
studied the rise and progress of our literature,
which has been forced to grow as virtue is said to
do, in spite of weight laid upon it. But, even if
this particular form of dishonesty against which we
are contending, were always and everywhere com-
mercially profitable, I think the American people
are so honest that they may be made to see that
profit which is allowed to be legitimate by us alone
among all civilised nations, profit, too, which goes
wholly into the pockets of a few unscrupulous men,
must have something queer about it, something
which even a country so rich as ours cannot afford.
I have lived to see more than one successful appeal
from the unreason of the people's representatives to
the reason of the people themselves. I am there-
fore not to be tired with waiting. It is wearisome
to ourselves and to others to go on repeating
arguments which we have been using these forty
years, and which to us seem so self-evident, but
I think it is true that no reformer has ever gained
his end who has not first made himself an intoler-
able bore to the vast majority of his kind."
Out of the fine chorus of indignation which has
ascended from the better class of American papers
unto the heavens like incense, and, like that fragrant
smoke, probably of small practical use, I extract
the following from "America," a Chicago paper of
great promise.
"The International Copyright Bill has been
slaughtered in the House by protectionists after
almost all the authors' interests in it had been
sacrificed to the manufacturers and mechanics in
order to get protectionist votes for the bill. There
was very little protection for authors in the bill,
and a great deal of protection for publishers and
paper-makers and type-setters, and then the bill
was knifed by the statesmen who have great respect
for manual labourers, who are numerous on election
day, and none for authors, whose vote is not a
political factor. We Americans look well, do we
not, rejecting an International Copyright Law for
fear that it would make books dear; that is, after
paying for the paper and the type-setting, we flatly
refuse to pay anything additional for the author.
Our statesmen oppose the bill because they want
cheap books for the people. By all means then,
let us steal the books as well as the learning, or the
imagination contained therein. Let us repeal the
law against horse stealing, and we may all ride.
## p. 29 (#49) ##############################################
THE A UTHOR.
29
This objection to the International Copyright Bill,
that under it book purchasers would have to pay the
foreign author of the book something, is the most
shameful proposition I have happened to hear in
Congress. The interest of the American author
is perfectly plain; if the American publisher can
get English copy for nothing, he will be propor-
tionately unwilling to buy a copy of an American
author. The Congress that proposes to pass the
McKinley bill for the additional protection of
American manual labour, refuses to pass the In-
ternational Copyright Bill for the protection of
American intellectual labour. It is easy to see
what kind of labour we value most highly."
How it strikes the American author, again, is set
forth by Mr. J. D. Gilden, in "The Critic."
Says Pirate A. to Victim B. :—
"You've got no reason to complain;
Just see how popular you be;
Your books is read from Tex. to Maine.
"Were not the foreign stuff ' free grat.'
I'd buy some native fellow's wares;
Just paste that 'memo.' in your hat,
And don't go puttin' on such airs."
"Aye, true enough my books are read,—
No doubt your imprint makes them sell;
But if on air I must be fed,
Why won't that fare serve you as well?
"Henceforth we both will write for fame,—
I write, you publish, free of charge;
Whatever type proclaims my name,
Yours shall be printed just as large.
"Should profits by some chance accrue,
Deed them forthwith to charity:
I'm rich, of course; and as for you,
What's wealth to popularity?"
How the present question struck Wilkie Collins
is pretty well known. The paper printed in this
number by him was recovered by accident, and is
here published by permission of his literary executor.
Mr. Edwin Waugh, the poet, is dead. With him
dies a pension on the Civil List. It has been pro-
posed to the First Lord of the Treasury that he
should transfer this pension to Mr. Ben. Brierly,
the well-known Lancashire writer. Mr. W. H.
Smith cannot transfer a pension which dies with its
recipient. He will, however, consider Mr. Brierly's
claims.
The centenary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund
took place on May 14th, the Prince of Wales being
in the chair. This venerable Society was founded,
and still exists, for the purpose of granting doles
to distressed authors. It administers a good deal
of money in this way every year. It is sad that
there should be distressed literary men and it is
very good indeed that there should be a fund for
their relief. The Prince of Wales, in an excellent
speech, dwelt largely on the precarious nature of
the literary calling. The occupation of the literary
man, he said, is uncertain; his remuneration is
not high. There is no flow of promotion for literary-
men. All this is true indeed; it is said every year
at the dinner; never once has it been asked by the
Council of this Society why this remuneration of
the literary man is so small—why his calling is so
uncertain. Well: it is small and uncertain because
there is no rule arrived at as to the share which he
should justly take in the proceeds of his own labours.
When that rule is airived at and put into practice
the labours of the Royal Literary Fund will be con-
fined to the relief of the distressed incompetent.
It may be asked why our Society does not at once
lay down this Golden Rule; well, there are two
reasons, of which the first should be enough, viz.,
(1) that the Society has not yet arrived at the Golden
Rule, though it is getting nearer, and (2) that there
is no use in laying it down until public opinion is
riper. It is a rule well known in legislation that
to make laws before the people are ready for them,
unless you can carry them out in spite of popular
resistance and apathy, is not good government.
Let us go on a little longer teaching people the
reality of literary property and its sacredness. Let
us go on a little longer hammering into the heads of
authors their folly and madness in signing agree-
ments by which they ignorantly give themselves
away and go into slavery. We shall then have a
better chance with our Golden Rule.
♦
Mr. John Morley, who always speaks" well on
literature, made a very curious slip the other day.
He stated that there are not fifty or even twenty
men and women who live by authorship. Why, by
the writing of novels alone there are at least fifty
who make over a thousand a year, let alone a vast
number, especially ladies, who live on incomes of
a hundred or two made by authorship. As for this
great mass we may find at an early opportunity some-
thing profitable as well as interesting to say about
them and their incomes and their methods of work.
I have written a small pamphlet for the Publi-
cation Committee of the Society for the Promotion
## p. 30 (#50) ##############################################
3°
THE AUTHOR.
of Christian Knowledge. My intention has been
to point out to this body, first, certain elementary
laws which govern literary property and its ad-
ministration, &c, and next, to set forth certain
cases which illustrate their own administration of
the literary property in their hand. Lastly, I have
invited them to draw their own conclusions for
themselves as to their own methods. There is no
desire to make any money by this pamphlet—■
which is published by Mr. Henry Glaisher in the
Strand—and if any member of this Society would
like a copy I will send him one on the simple con-
dition that he undertakes to read it and to pass it
on to some person interested in the Society for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge.
The following explains itself. The ingenious
Rand, M'Nally and Company, of Chicago and
New York, have added a new terror to literary men.
Not only do they steal their works but they alter
and mutilate and ruin them. The idea will doubt-
less be copied and widely adopted in Pirate-land.
In a few years, probably, there will be two Rider
Haggards in the field, one of Great Britain and the
other of that other country, totally unlike each
other and of literary reputation entirely different.
Let us have patience.
"Gentlemen, June $rd, 1890.
"A pirated edition of my novel ' Beatrice' has
been forwarded to me, bearing your names as its
publishers. I find, on lookng through it, that the
book has been hacked and hewed till it bears
about as much resemblance to the work which left
my hand as an oaked felled and barked does to the
same tree in leaf.
"Thus, to take one or two examples among
many which offer:—Chapter 18 has been reduced
to little more than three pages, and from chapters
25 and 26 some 16 pages have been omitted bodily.
Nor is this all; another chapter has been mis-
named, and in one place, at least, your editor, or,
judging from the style, perhaps I should hazard, your
compositor, has tried his hand at improving my text
—has printed under my name words which I never
wrote. In short, the story is turned into a string
of disjointed situations, its life, spirit, and meaning
are gone, all of which is done without warning to
the reader, and, I need hardly add, without reference
to the author.
"At first I believed that these evils must have
been wrought maliciously, perhaps to save expense
in the printer's bill, but reflection shows me that it
cannot be. Of course, when the Legislature of your
country, alone among those of civilized nations,
has hoisted the black flag, not merely by tolerating
an established custom but publicly and after full
debate—thereby declaring the labour of foreign
writers to be the spoil of any who wish to profit by
it—it would be Quixotic of you to refuse to sail
beneath that flag. But I feel convinced that your
native courtesy and kindness would prevent you
knowingly from treating an author as I have been
treated in this instance. You would remember
that in America almost the only good left to an
English writer is his chance of a literary reputation,
and this, at least, you would strive to protect in
every way as some small return for the amusement
he affords your readers and the money which he
earns for you. Certainly, therefore, you would not
send his work willingly from your press in such a
questionable shape, and thus expose him to the
contempt of critics and the wonder of your reading
public.
"This being so, I have to ask, I am sure not in
vain, that for the sake of your own fair name, as
much as for the sake of mine, you will withdraw
from circulation the pages of printed matter which
are being passed off, no doubt unwittingly, by you
among the American public as a reprint of my
novel 'Beatrice,' and that you will give this letter
of repudiation every publicity in your power.
Awaiting the favour of a reply,
"I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
"H. Rider Haggard.
"To Messrs. Rand, M'Nally, &■> Co., Publishers,
"Chicago and New York."
Coincidences (see p. 37) are interesting. Here
is one sent me by a correspondent from the North.
The editor of a certain paper lately received the
scenario of a story submitted tor his approbation.
He liked it, and commissioned the author to write
it for him. The day after he received the same
story, that is, the same plot and the same set of
characters distributed in the same way, from another
correspondent writing from a different part of
England. Therefore one of two things. Either
two minds were at the same moment pursuing the
same imaginary series of events, or two minds were
at the same time cribbing from the same source.
One would like to read the scenario. Perhaps it
was only a commonplace plot such as one may read
in any penny novelette. There is another ex-
planation possible. One lady at least there is
among us who adds to her income by the sale of
plots for stories. There may be more than one
plot inventor among us, and he—or she—may have
sold the same plot twice over, a thing which has
happened once or twice in the buying and selling
of sermons.
The Editor.
## p. 31 (#51) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
3i
"THOU SHALT NOT STEAL:"
Considerations on the Copyright Question.
Addressed to an American friend by
WILKIE COLLINS.
YOU were taking leave of me the other day,
Colonel, when I received from the United
States a copy of a pirated edition of one
of my books. I threw it into the waste-paper
basket with an expression of opinion which a little
startled you. As we shook hands at parting, you
said, "When you are cool, my friend, I should like
to be made acquainted with your sentiments on
the copyright question." I am cool now, and here
are my sentiments.
I shall ask permission to begin by looking back
to the early history of your own family. The fact
is, that I wish to interest you personally in the
otherwise unattractive subject on which I am about
to write.
I.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century,
one of your ancestors, voyaging with the illustrious
Hendrick Hudson, got leave of absence from the
ship and took a walk on Manhattan Island, in the
days before the Dutch settlement. He was pos-
sessed, as I have heard you say, of great ability in
the mechanical arts. Among the articles of per-
sonal property which he had about him was a
handsome watch, made by himself, and containing
special improvements of his own invention.
The good man sat down to rest and look about
him at a pleasant and pastoral spot—now occu-
pied, it may be interesting to you to know, by a
publishing house in the city of New York. Having
thoroughly enjoyed the cool breeze and the bright
view, he took out his watch to see how the time
was passing. At the same moment, an Iroquois
chief—whose name has, I regret to say, escaped
my memory— passed that way, accompanied by a
suitable train of followers. He observed the hand-
some watch; snatched it out of the stranger's
hand; and, then and there, put it into the Indian
substitute for a pocket—the name of which, after
repeated efforts, I find myself unable to spell.
Your ancestor, a man of exemplary presence
of mind, counted the number of the chiefs fol-
lowers; perceived that resistance on his single
part would be a wilful casting away of his own
valuable life; and wisely decided on trying the
effect of calm remonstrance.
"Why do you take my watch away from me,
sir?" he asked.
The Indian answered with dignity, "Because I
want it."
"May I ask why you want it?"
The Indian checked off his reasons on his fin-
gers. "First, because I am not able to make such
a watch as yours. Secondly, because your watch is
an article likely to be sufficiently popular among
the Indians to be worth . . Thirdly, because the
popularity of the watch will enable me to sell it
with considerable advantage to myself. Is my
white brother satisfied?"
Your ancestor said that he was not satisfied.
"The thing you have taken from me," he said, "is
the product of my own invention and my own
handiwork. It is my watch."
The Indian touched his substitute for a pocket.
"Pardon me," he replied, "it is mine."
Your ancestor began to lose his temper; he
reiterated his assertion. "I say my watch is my
lawful property."
The noble savage reasoned with him. "Possibly
your watch is protected in your country," he said.
"It is not protected in mine."
"And therefore you steal it?"
"And therefore I steal it."
"On what moral grounds, sir, can you defend
an act of theft?"
The chief smiled. "I defend it on practical
grounds. There is no watch-right treaty, sir, be-
tween my country and yours."
"And on that account you are not ashamed to
steal my watch?"
"On that account I am not ashamed to steal
your watch. Good morning!"
The prototypes of modern persons have existed
in past ages. The Indian chief was the first
American publisher. Your ancestor was the parent
of the whole European family of modern authors.
II.
You and I, Colonel, are resolved to look this
copyright question fairly in the face. Suppose we
look at it from the historical point of view to begin
with. The Dutch emigrants settled on Manhattan
Island about two hundred and fifty years ago.
They might have pirated the Island on the ground
that it was not protected by treaty. But they were
loth to commit an act of theft; they asked the
Indians to mention their price. The Indians men-
tioned twenty-four dollars. The noble Dutchmen
paid, and a very good price, too, for a bit of un-
cultivated ground, with permission to move your
"Wigwam" to the neighbouring Continent.
In due course of time arose the Dutch City of
New Amsterdam. Civilization made its appear-
ance on Manhattan Island; and with civilization
## p. 32 (#52) ##############################################
32
THE AUTHOR.
came Law. Acting as the agent of Justice, Law-
protected property. In those days of moral im-
provement, if an Indian stole a Dutchman's watch,
he committed an offence, and he was punished ac-
cordingly—for, observe, a watch was now property.
Later dates brought their changes with them.
The English forced themselves into the Dutch-
men's places. New Amsterdam became New
York. As time went on, a foolish English King,
and a tyrannical Government were deservedly
beaten on a trial of strength with the descendants
of the first English settlers. The Republic of the
United States started on its great career. With
peace came the arts of peace. The American
author rose benignly on the national horizon.
And what did the American Government do?
The American Government, having all other
property duly protected, bethought itself of the
claims of Literature; and, looking towards old
Europe, saw that the work of a man's brains, pro-
duced in the form of a book, had been at last
recognised as that man's property. by the Law.
Congress followed this civilised example, and re-
cognised and protected the published work of an
American citizen as that citizen's property.
Having thus provided for the literary interests
of its own people within its own geographical
limits, Congress definitely turned its back on all
further copyright proceedings in the Old World.
After a certain lapse of time, the three greatest
nations on the Continent of Europe, France, Ger-
many, and Italy, agreed with England that an act
of justice to Literature still remained to be done.
Treaties of international copyright were accord-
ingly exchanged between these States. An author's
right of property in his work was thus recognised
in other countries than his own. It was legally
forbidden to a foreign bookseller to republish his
work for foreign circulation without his permission;
for the plain and unanswerable reason that his
work belonged, in the first place, to him and to no
other person.
With this honourable example set before it by
other Governments, what has the United States
done? Nothing! To this day it refuses to the
literary property of other people the protection
which it gives to the literary property of its own
people. To this day the President and Congress
of America remain content to contemplate the
habitual perpetration, by American citizens, of the
act of theft.
III.
Having now done with our historical survey—in
plainer words, having now got our facts—we may
conveniently confront the grave question :—Why
does the Government of the United States refuse
to foreign writers the copyright in their works
which it concedes to the works of its own
citizens?
Colonel, when honest men perceive an act of
justice to be done, and determine really to do it,
there are never any insuperable difficulties in the
way. On the plain merits of the case—work that
if you please, you will see why—there are no more
difficulties in the way of international copyright
between England and America than between
England and France, England and Germany,
England and Italy. The cases run on parallel
lines; the necessity of foreign translation, in the
European case, being an accidental circumstance
which adds to the expense of publishing the book,
and nothing more. My work is republished in
America in English, and republished in French.
Whatever difference there may be in the language
of the republication, the fact of the republication
remains the same fact in both instances.
1 am very careful to put this plainly; there must
be some clear ground to stand on before I can
attempt to clear away the extraordinary accumu-
lation of delusions under which the unfortunate
question of copyright has been suffering in recent
years. If you see any difficulty in accepting my
statement of the case thus far, let us revert to first
principles, and ask ourselves—What is the object
to be obtained by the thing called International
Copyright?
In answering this question I will put it person-
ally for the greater facility of illustration. The
object of International Copyright is to give me, by
law (on considerations with which it is possible for
me to comply), the same right of control over my
book in a foreign country, which the law gives me
in my own country.
In Europe, this is exactly what we have done.
When I publish my book in London, I enter it
at Stationers' Hall, and register it as my property—
and my book is mine in Great Britain. When I
publish my book in Paris, I register it by the per-
formance of similar formalities—and again my book
is mine in France. In both cases my publisher
(English or French) is chosen at my own free will.
His position towards me is the position of a person
who takes the business of publishing and registering
off my hands, in consideration of a bargain pre-
viously made between us—the essence of which
bargain is, that the book is my property, and that
my written permission is necessary before he can
obtain his right to publish the book, and his ex-
clusive claim (for a greater or lesser period of time)
to the privilege of selling it. Why can I not do
the same thing in the free Republic of the United
States?
## p. 33 (#53) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
do
IV.
Here the Colonel lays down my letter for a
while, and looks bewildered.
"The copyright difficulty, as stated by Mr.
Wilkie Collins," he says, "appears to be no diffi-
culty at all. What am I to think of the multitu-
dinous objections from the American point of view,
raised in leading articles, pamphlets, speeches, and
so forth?" My good friend, a word in your ear.
The American objections (I say it with all due
respect for the objections) are, one and all, Ameri-
can delusions. The main object of this letter is,
if possible, to blow these delusions away. I
promise not to be long about it, and to keep my
temper—though I have lost some thousands of
pounds by American pirates.
Let us begin with the delusion—the most extra-
ordinary in the whole list—that the American
people have something to do with the question of
International Copyright.
An American citizen sees a reprinted English
book in a shop window, or has it pitched into his
lap by a boy in a railway train, or hears from a
friend that it is well worth reading. He buys the
book, and reads it—and, as I can gratefully testify
from my own personal experience, he feels, in the
great majority of cases, a sincere respect for litera-
ture and a hearty gratitude to the writer who has
instructed or interested him, which is one among
the many honourable distinctions of the national
character. When he has done all this, what in
Heaven's name has author, publisher, orator, or
leading-article writer any further right to expect
from him? When I have paid for my place at
the theatre, and added my little tribute of applause
in honour of the play and the actors, have I not
done my duty as one of the audience? Am I
expected to insist on knowing whether the author's
rights have been honestly recognised by the mana-
ger, and the players' salaries regularly paid without
reductions once a week? It is simply ridiculous
to mention the American people in connection
with the settlement of the copyright question.
The entire responsibility of honourably settling the
question in my country rests with the Legislature.
In the United States the President and Congress
are the guardians and representatives of American
honour. It is they, and not the people, who are
to blame for the state which book-stealing has set
on the American name.
Ixt us get on to another delusion which has
amused us in England.
We are gravely informed that the United States
is the paradise of cheap literature, and that In-
ternational Copyright would raise the price of
American books to the inordinately high level of
the English market. Our circulating Library system
is cited as a proof of the truth of this assertion.
There can be no two opinions on the absurdity of
that system—but, such as it is, let us, at least,
have it fairly understood. When a novel, for
example, is published at the preposterous price of
a guinea and a half, nobody pays that price. A de-
duction of one-third at least is made. An individual
speculator buys the book, and lends it to the public.
Even this man, as an annual subscription, demands
the nominal price originally asked for the book (a
guinea and a half), and he will send you at least
three novels a week, for a whole year. If this is
not cheap reading, what is? But you will say
the public may want to buy some of the best of
these novels. Very well. Within a year from the
date of its first issue, the book is republished at
five or six shillings (a dollar and a half); and is
again republished at two shillings (fifty cents).
Setting the case of stolen literary property out of
the question, are these not correct American prices?
But why should the purchaser be made to wait
till the book can be sold at a reasonable price?
I admit the absurdity of making him wait. But
is that absurdity likely, under any conceivable
circumstances, to be copied in America? In
England the circulating library is one of our old
institutions which dies very slowly. In America
it is no institution at all. Is it within the limits of
probability that one of your citizens should prefer
lending a novel to a few hundred subscribers,
when he can sell it to purchasers by the thousand?
It is a waste of words to ask the question. The
one thing needful, so far as works of fiction are
concerned, is to shew you that our popular price
for a novel is the American popular price. Look
at the catalogue of " Harper's Library of American
Fiction," and you will find that the prices range
from two to three shillings—fifty to seventy per
cent.
Turning to literature in general let us consult
Messrs. Harper again. I am away from home
while I write, and I have no means of quoting from
a more recent catalogue than the summer list of
1878. However, the prices of less than two years
ago in New York cannot be obsolete prices yet.
Here are some specimens :—
"The Atlantic Islands." Illustrated. 8vo.
Cloth. $3 (twelve shillings).
"Annual Record of Science and Industry for
1877." Large i2mo. Cloth. 82 (eight
shillings).
"The Student's French Grammar." i2mo.
Cloth. $1.40 (say five shillings and six-
pence).
## p. 34 (#54) ##############################################
34
THE AUTHOR.
"Art Education applied to Industry." Illus-
trated. 8vo. Cloth gilt. (Sixteen shillings.)
"Harper's Travellers' Handbooks for Europe
and the East. $3 per volume (twelve
shillings).
I am quite ready to believe that every one of
these books is well worth the price asked for it.
But don't tell me that American books are always
cheap books, and let it at least be admitted that
English publishers are not the only publishers who
charge a remunerative price for a valuable work,
which has proved a costly work to produce and
which is not always likely to command a large circu-
lation. To sum it up, literature which addresses all
classes of the population is as cheap in England as it
is in America. Literature which addresses special
classes only will on that very account always be
published at special prices (with or without inter-
national copyright) on both sides of the Atlantic.
V.
I must not try your patience too severely,
Colonel. Let me leave unnoticed some of the
minor misunderstandings which obscure the
American view of the copyright case, and let me
occupy the closing lines of this letter with a really
mischievous delusion. Just consider what this extra-
ordinary delusion really amounts to. "We don't
deny (the American publishers say) that you
English authors have a moral right of property in
your books, which we are quite ready to make
a legal right, on conditions that we are to dictate
the use which you make in America of your own
property. If we confer on you international copy-
right, we see with horror a future day when
English publishers and English printers may start
in business under our very noses, and we will only
give you your due, with the one little drawback that
we prohibit you to employ your countrymen to pub-
lish your books in our country. Our respect for
justice is only matched by our respect for our
purses. Hurrah for honourable dealings with the
British author—so long as there is no fear of a
decrease in the balance at our bankers! Down
with the British author, and away with the national
honour if there is the slightest danger of the
almighty dollar finding its way into other pockets
than ours!"
Am I exaggerating? Let two of the American
publishers speak for themselves.
Hear Messrs. Harper Brothers first. After
reciting the general conditions on which they pro-
pose to grant us copyright in the United States,
they proceed as follows :—" And provided further,
that within six months after registration of title the
work shall have been manufactured and published
in the country, and by a subject or citizen of the
country in which such registration has been made."
Mr. \V. H. Appleton, writing to the Ixmdon Times
(in a curiously aggressive tone), expresses himself
more plainly. "Our people," he says, evidently
meaning our printers and publishers, "would
rejoice to open this vast opportunity of your
intellectual labours . . . But they hold them-
selves perfectly competent to manufacture the
books that shall embody your authors' thoughts, in
accordance with their own needs, habits, and tastes,
and in this they will not be interfered with."
(Extracted from Messrs. Harper Brothers pamphlet,
"New York, March 17th, 1879.")
To argue the question with men who are of this
way of thinking would be merely to waste your
time and mine. It we are ever to have international
copyright between the two countries we must have
the same unreserved recognition of a moral right,
the same ungrudging submission to the law of
honour, which has produced the treaties exchanged
between the European Powers. In this respect
England has set the example to the United States.
And, let me add, England has no fear of compe-
tition. I have put the question myself to eminent
London publishers ; they have no idea of intruding
their trade interests into a gTeat question of national
justice. They are ready to welcome wholesale
competition in an open market. If they set up
branch establishments in New York, the American
publishers shall be free to follow their example in
London. What does Mr. Marston (of the London
firm of Sampson Low, Marston and Co.) say on this
subject, in his letter to The Times, published May
12th, 1879 ?—
"As a publisher, I trust I shall l>e absolved from the
charge of advocating trade interests, when I express my
strong conviction that the only Convention between the
two countries which can possibly bear the test of time, must be
one based upon the original and inherent rights of property!
Let registration in Washington and London, within a month
or two months of first publication in either country, convey
respectively to English and American authors the same right
in each other's country as in their own, and one's sense of
justice will be satisfied. . . . Such restrictions as those
proposed by American publishers exist in no other Conven-
tions; they arise out of a most unfounded and unnecessary
fear of competition by English publishers!"
There is the opinion of one member of the
representative of the trade. I could produce
similar opinions from other members, but I must
not needlessly lengthen my letter. Hear, instead,
an American citizen who agrees with Mr. Marston,
and with me. Let Mr. George Haven Putnam
speak—delivering an address on International
Copyright in New York, on the 29th of January,
1879:-
"I believe that in the course of time the general
## p. 35 (#55) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
35
laws of trade would and ought to so regulate the
arrangements for supplying the American public
with books that, if there were no restriction as to
volumes, the author would select the publishing
agent, English or American, who could serve him
to best advantage, and that agent would be found
to be the man who would prepare for the largest
possible circle of American readers the editions
best suited to their wants ... If English pub-
lishers settling here could excel our American
houses in this understanding and in these facilities
they ought to be at liberty to do so, and it would
be for the interest of the public that no hindrance
should be placed in their way."
I have now, I hope, satisfied you that I do not
stand quite alone in my way of thinking. If you
make inquiries you will find that other American
citizens, besides Mr. Putnam, can see the case
plainly as it stands on its merits.
Thus far I have been careful to base our claim
to international copyright on no larger ground than
the ground of justice. Would you like, before I
conclude, to form some idea of the money we lose
by the freedom of robbery which is one of the
freedoms of the American Republic?
Take-the illustrious instance of Charles Dickens.
The price agreed on with his English publishers for
the work interrupted by his death, " Edwin Drood,"
was seven thousand five hundred pounds, with a
promise of an addition to this sum if the work
exceeded a certain circulation. Even Dickens'
enormous popularity in England is beaten by his
popularity in the United States. He was more
read in your country than in mine, and, as a
necessary consequence (with international copy-
right) his work would be worth more in America
than in England. What did he get in America
for the "advance sheets?" With the pirates to
be considered in making the bargain? Less than
a seventh part of what his English publisher has
agreed to give him before a line of his novel was
written—one thousand pounds!
But the case of Charles Dickens is a case of a
writer who stands apart, and without a rival in
popularity. Take my case, if you like, as repre-
sentative, the position of writers of a lesser degree
of popularity. I fail to remember the exact price
which Messrs. Harper paid me for the advance
sheets of "The Woman in White." It was certainly
not a thousand pounds; perhaps half a thousand, or
perhaps not so much. At any rate (with the
pirates in the background waiting to steal) the
great firm in New York dealt with me liberally.
It has been calculated by persons who under-
stand the matter better than I do that for every
one reader in England I have ten readers in the
United States. How many nnauthorized editions
of this one novel of mine—published without my
deriving any profit from them—made their appear-
ance in America? I can only tell you, as a basis
for calculation, one American publisher informed a
friend of mine that he had sold one hundred and
twenty thousand copies of "The Woman in White."
He never sent me sixpence!
Good-bye for the present, Colonel. I must go
back to my regular work, and make money for my
American robbers, under the sanction of Congress.
*
THE TROUBLES OF A BEGINNER.
THE perusal of a " Hard Case" in the first
issue of The Author tempts me to put on
paper my own experiences as a beginner.
Owing to what might be called a mild inoculation
of the fraudulent publisher at the commencement
of my career, the consequences of my gullibility
have not proved so pecuniarily serious as they
were in a "Hard Case"; but that has not been
for lack of trying on the part of the various so-called
societies, or dishonest tradesmen, who thrive on
the inexperience and vanity of the literary fledgling.
I launched my first effort in the shape of a short
story, under the auspices of the "London Literary
Society." Their prospectus was all that could be
desired. For the modest sum of one guinea per
annum my literary success was assured. They
undertook to place MSS. in the hands of magazine
editors, who (apparently) had no other means of
obtaining copy for their publications. Thus young
and unknown authors were placed upon the first
rung of the ladder of fame, and it would be their
own fault if they did not eventually reach the top.
By thus establishing a regular method of communi-
cation between author and publisher, interest and
prejudice, so fatal to beginners, would be over-
ridden, and a long-felt want supplied. So it would,
—but the "long-felt want" was that experienced
by the organizers of the Society.
I sent in my guinea and my MS., and waited
hopefully for the result. The receipt for the money
was a work of art; it was no common receipt, it was
a Diploma informing me that I had been enrolled a
member of the London Literary Society, and re-
questing that in future I would add L.L.S. after
my name when communicating with the Secretary.
In due course I received an official looking docu-
ment which proved to be a criticism of my story.
Then for the first time I knew, what I had hitherto
only suspected, that I was undoubtedly a writer of
merit! According to the criticism nothing stood
between me and success but the narrow-minded-
ness and prejudice of undiscriminating editors.
## p. 36 (#56) ##############################################
3«
THE AUTHOR.
The document concluded by recommending me to
send my story to a publication entitled Lloyd's
Magazine.
Of course I was delighted. Certainly I could
not remember having ever heard of Lloyd's Maga-
zine, but then it was hardly to be expected that I
had heard of all the magazines published, and at
any rate I hoped they would pay well. It was
probably connected with Lloyd's paper. The
editor was very civil, and assured me he would be
pleased to print my story, adding casually that
some alterations would have to be made, and little
technicalities attended to, before the MS. would be
ready for the printer's hands, but that half a guinea
would cover these necessary expenses. Hard as it
may be to believe, I sent my half guinea! How I
marvel at my credulity. But then I knew nothing
of such things, and it seemed quite possible that a
tyro like myself might have made technical mistakes
that would entail a certain amount of trouble.
I also received a prospectus setting forth the
advantages enjoyed by subscribers to Lloyd's
Magazine. "Every talented author would ensure
immediate appearance in print;" this, it was as-
serted, would prove most beneficial in treating with
editors who objected to unknown writers. "Ster-
ling merit would be amply remunerated;" this was
satisfactory, as the verdict of the Literary Society-
had inferred that my particular qualifications came
under that head. In fact, the advantages were so
great, and so plausibly set forth, that I felt I really
must get into Lloyd's Magazine at any price.
Finally, the editor wrote to say that the MS. was
now corrected and ready for the press, and that if
I invested in twenty-four copies of the magazine, at
6d. apiece, my story should appear in the next
issue! Having already paid so much, I took the
twenty-four copies, thinking, as so many beginners
do, that to get a story printed in anything was
better than not getting it printed at all, and trust-
ing to the promises of the prospectus as to the
future. However, one glance at Lloyd's Magazine
was sufficient to dispel any such hopes. To judge
by the calibre of its contents all the contributors
must have paid as heavily as myself, to induce
anyone to print their productions; and heartily
disgusted I sent in my resignation to the London
Literary Society.
I was informed in return that not having given
three months' notice I was liable for my subscrip-
tion. I sent it, and at the same time an intimation
that I wished to withdraw. The following year I
received a claim for my subscription, upon which
I drew the attention of the Secretary to my previous
communication. The only answer to this was
another claim, of which I took no notice. Again,
the year after I was sent a request for two years'
subscription, which was quickly followed by a letter
threatening me with the law. Whether further
proceedings would have been taken against me I
never knew, as the Secretary solved the question
by going bankrupt. The Court of Bankruptcy
informed me that I was down on the books of the
Society for two guineas, but on explaining matters
the affair was dropped, and my dealings with the
London Literary Society became a thing of the
past I think that I bought my experience
cheaply.
One of the most ingenious attempts at fraud of
the kind was perpetrated by a Society calling itself
the "Southampton Association." Upon seeing
the advertisement of a new magazine entitled Pen
and Ink, I sent in a sample MS. In response, I
got a letter informing me that, after looking through
my MS., the Society was prepared to accept me as
a "staff member" of the Association. This, at
first sight, seemed all I could wish for—there is a
peculiarly fascinating ring about the word "staff"
to a beginner's ear. The letter, however, went on
to explain what the privileges of a staff member
were, i.e., "one whose contributions can be accepted
and paid for," not will be "immediately proofs are
passed by the editor."
The wording of this sounded suspicious, and
when the epistle concluded by a casual request
that I would fill up the form enclosed and return
it, the said form being a pledge on my part to pay
a guinea to the Society, I decided to have nothing
further to do with it. My course of the Literary
Society had rendered me proof against any more
attacks of the same sort.
I was very nearly falling a prey, however, to the
wiles of the fraudulent publisher. I had perpetrated
a one volume novel, and sent it up to Messrs.
A. and B. Of course it was "favourably reported
on" by the reader, and was going to make a
great impression. The firm offered to publish it
and pay half expenses, if I would pay the other
half, the profits to be also equally shared. This
offer sounded reasonable to inexperienced ears,
and I asked for an estimate. The answer was, that
my half share would amount to ^55 io*. (Refer-
ence to a little book since published by the Society
of Authors will show that the entire cost of publish-
ing such a volume is £25 18*. yd.!) Fortunately
I was alarmed at the sum asked, and declined the
offer. They wrote again, offering to publish the
book if I would pay ^40 towards it, and receive
one-third of the profits; this I also declined.
They then suggested bringing it out in is. form
for the book stalls, my share to be ^28 10s.
At this point, however, I became a member of
the Society of Authors, and on sending the whole
correspondence to the Secretary, received a letter
## p. 37 (#57) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
37
in reply, which saved me from the clutches of
the respectable A. and B., and quite decided me
that it was better posterity should suffer from the
loss of my book, than that I should suffer from the
loss of my money.
I may add that the above are a few of the ex-
periences to which any beginner is liable when
acting without advice. In my successful under-
takings I have been fortunate enough to fall into
the hands of one of the most honourable members
of the profession.
*
"CURSED COINCIDENCES."
London, June io, 1890.
There is a source of great annoyance and
pecuniary loss to authors for which it is possible
that some remedy may be found by your aid. I
can best set it forth by stating the simple fact that
every one of the last six works which I have
written, or on which I have collaborated, has been
met or anticipated by a similar publication on the
same subject; in every instance to my own detri-
ment and annoyance, or that of others. In some of
thesecases the coincidence was doubtless accidental;
and I am satisfied that the authors of the books
were as ignorant that I was engaged on a like work,
as I was of their intentions. Could we have known
it I am sure that we should have been spared in
one way or the other great trouble, loss, and
vexation.
It is true that such an extraordinary run of bad
luck savours of the marvellous; but if anyone who
reads this suspects me of mistake or exaggeration,
I shall be glad to supply him with all the details,
and refer him to my publishers, who will fully
confirm my assertions. But the history of literature
is full of instances of men who, after devoting
months or years to a work, have had the sorrow to
learn that another had been engaged in a similar
task.
The very obvious remedy for this among honour-
able men would be for authors to announce their
intentions, and make it known in your columns
what they are actually engaged on and really
intend to publish. On the other hand, there are
innumerable hacks and quacks in literature who
would avail themselves of these very announce-
ments to "hurry up " works on the same subjects,
to say nothing of the half-honest scribes who would
pre-empt a subject by declaring that they are
engaged on it—the engagement being like that of
the American young woman who admitted, in a
breach of promise case, that she had nothing
written to prove a betrothal, nor had the defendant
ever spoken to her, but that "looks had passed
between them." Many men seem to think that
if they have only looked at a subject it is their
property for ever.
If there were a real guild of literary men holding
and exercising power—such as the Society of
Authors may become—this great evil of "the
unlucky chance," or cursed coincidence, could
really be obviated. For it could declare thieves
and plagiarists "niddering" or infamous, and by
establishing and exacting a high code of honour it
could eliminate much of the disreputable Bohe-
mianism or carelessness as to morals from the
profession of letters. And if it be not really a
profession it would soon become one by the
simple process 01 outlawing all who disgrace
it. For in fact the dishonest writer is as great an
injury to his betters in the craft as the dishonest
publisher, and deserves even greater punishment.
A few cases of flagrant meanness vigorously exposed
would soon end the career of many literary
sharpers.
Charles G. Leland.
THE EXCHANGE OF BOOKS.
WOULD it be possible 10 open a Book
Exchange in the pages of The Author?
I am myself continually compelled to
buy books which serve their purpose and are hence-
forth of no more use to me. I buy them not for
their rarity but for their practical use. Others there
are who are always looking out for the completion
of sets or the improvement of collections, for first
editions, for books specially bound, for books
privately printed (of which a certain second-hand
bookseller is now bringing out a catalogue).
Everybody who wants books depend upon those
excellent people, the second-hand booksellers and
their lists. They depend upon the people who,
like myself, are always wanting to get rid of books.
Why cannot The Author give us space, if only
a page, to advertise our wants and our wares?
Members of the Society should, perhaps, be
allowed to take up a certain space for the mere
cost of the printing and paper. Other people
might be made to pay for the privilege at such a
rate as would assist the finances of the paper.
Can my suggestion find a corner?
F. R. S.
## p. 38 (#58) ##############################################
3«
THE AUTHOR.
LEAFLET No. II.
On Royalties.
WHAT is loosely and ignorantly called
"The Royalty System"—a system where
all is chaos—may be defined as pay-
ment by results. It came into existence chiefly
as a sop to authors who were discontented with
the so-called half-profit system, after it had been
worked into a system which gave all the profits
to the publisher. "At least," they thought, "there
will be something for us if we are to have so much
for every copy sold." They therefore signed any
agreement in this sense that was placed in their
hands without asking what it meant—what the
proposed arrangement kept for the publisher and
what it would give them. They signed what they
were told to sign, and they took what was offered
them. They began to sign these royalty agreements
about twenty years ago, when the "system" first
came into use. They have continued to sign
them; they are signing them every day, and it is
not too much to say that not one single author up
to this day of writing, outside the office of the
Society, knows when he signs, what he has kept
for himself, or what proportion of the results of his
labour he has given to the man who sells his book.
In accordance with the principles of this Society,
which endeavours to throw light upon everything
connected with the production and sale of books,
or in other words, enables authors to understand
exactly what they give away and what they reserve
—what, in fact, an agreement means—the Leaflet
of this month is devoted to a very brief statement of
the "Royalty System " in its various forms applied to
author and publisher.
The discovery that the author was as easily
gulled by a Royalty as by a show of half profits,
caused certain gentry to introduce improvements
into the original plan. Thus the Royalty at first
offered and eagerly taken by the ignorant author
was 10 per cent, on the published price from the
beginning. Then one man sharper than his
brothers discovered that his authors would take 5
per cent, from the beginning; another that his men
would take 10 per cent, on the trade price; a
third, and this was the most happy discovery of
all, that his men would take 10 per cent, to begin
when a great number of copies had been first sold.
In the forthcoming work on "Methods of
Publication," the author prints a table which
shows the working of the system and the results to
author and publisher.
He takes as an example an ordinary novel in
one volume, sold at 6s., a very common form of
book at this day. These six shilling novels vary
considerably in length, running from 70,000 words
to 180,000 words—or even more. The average
length, however, may be taken as from 70,000 to
100,000 words.
The cost of producing such a work is, with a
liberal allowance for advertising, as follows :—
(1) For the first 1,000 copies nearly £100.
(2) For the second edition of 3,000 copies,
£120, or with a liberal increase of adver-
tising, .£150.
(3) If the success be so great as to justify a large
edition of 10,000, the cost of production of
this edition would be about ^360, or with
increased advertising say ^400.
(4) The trade price of the book varies from
3s. 4</. to 3-r. Sd. We may fairly take it at
3*. 6d.
The trade price is generally arrived at by -
taking two-thirds of the published price and
allowing thirteen copies as twelve. In the
case of the great distributing houses an
additional 10 per cent, is allowed. There
are also cases in which lower terms are
given for special reasons. Many copies,
however, are sold at a higher price.
(5) The publisher therefore obtains—
a. For the first edition of 1,000 copies,
^175-
/3. For a second edition of 3,000 copies,
7. For an edition of 10,000 copies, ^1,750.
Out of this he has to pay the author, printer, paper-
maker, binder, and the advertisements.
We might proceed at once to our table, but for
one objection which will be raised. It is this.
## p. 39 (#59) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
39
Suppose the publisher prints io,ooo copies and
sells only 1,000 copies, he then has 9,000 copies on
his hands. That is true. To overprint is a mistake
that inexperienced publishers often make: experi-
enced, rarely. The wise publisher feels his way
even though to print 3,000 only will cost him a
halfpenny more on each copy than boldly to order
10,000. When the demand for a popular book
ceases, which is not suddenly but gradually, the
prudent publisher is not generally left with many
copies on hand. It must be remembered that we
are here speaking of a popular and successful book,
of which there are a great many issued every year.
Now, then, for our table. We deduct from the
publisher's profits (1) what he pays to the author,
(2) what he pays for production. The reader will
see set forth in order the respective shares of profit
presented by a 5 per cent, up to a 35 per cent,
royalty to author and to publisher. The per-
centage is taken on the published price, the full
price of 6s.
I. On the sale of the first 1,000.
Per cent.
■
10
■5
20
25
30
£
£
£
£
£
£
Publisher
60
45
3°
—
—
Author ...
'5
3°
45
60
75
90
II. On the sale of the next 3,000.
Per cent.
5
10
"5
20
3°
35
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
Publisher
33°
285
•40
195
■ 50
105
Author ...
45
90
13s
180
225
270
315
III. On the sale of an edition of 10,000.
Pe
r cent.
5
IO
IS
20
3"
35
£
£
£
£
£
C
£
Publisher
1,300
1,050
900
750
600
45°
300
Author ...
150
450
600
75°
900
1,050
Since it is more common to meet with a success
corresponding with the second than with the first
table, let us consider what the figures mean. They
speak for themselves, but to those who cannot
understand figures let us explain.
"Your publisher, dear Sir or Madam, when he
benevolently offers you a 5 per cent, royalty, will
on a second edition of 3,000 copies make ^330 to
your ^45, i.e., eight times your share. If he gives
you 10 per cent.—which is common—he will
make ,£285 to your £90, that is, three times your
share. If 15 per cent, he will make ^240 to your
^135, i.e., twice your share. If 20 per cent., .£195
to your ;£i8o. If 25 per cent., ^170 to your
.£225. If 30 per cent., £10$ to your ^270.
Consider this, and refuse the 10 per cent, with
indignation."
As for the "fancy" royalties, those on trade
price, those to begin when a certain number of
copies have gone and so forth, the reader may
calculate for himself the meaning of these pro-
posals. We will, however, on a future occasion
assist his calculations. With the help of these
tables, too, the reader will be able to make an
intelligent attempt towards finding an answer to
the question, "What proportion of profit should
in equity be the share of the publisher in the case
of a book which has no risk?"
*
THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND.
"Yours be the task to foster and protect
Genius in rags and learning in neglect."
W. T. I- ITZGERALD.
THE object of the Royal Literary Fund, as
summed up in Mr. Fitzgerald's Anniversary
Ode, is one of which all of us, members of
this Society, must cordially approve.
Here are its aims set forth a little more at
length:—■
"To administer assistance to Authors of published
works of approved literary merit and of important
contributions to periodical literature, who may be
reduced to distress by unavoidable calamities, or
deprived by enfeebled faculties, or declining life, of
the power of literary exertion. This assistance may
## p. 40 (#60) ##############################################
40
THE AUTHOR.
be extended at the death of an Author to his widow
and children."
Every one may not know the pathetic incident to
which the Fund actually owed its origin. It was
this. A member of a club in London, much
frequented by literary men, being arrested for a
small debt, died in consequence. It then leaked
out that the unfortunate scholar had lived for years
in the extremest poverty, but had borne his suffer-
ings in silence. Some fifteen years before this
occurrence, in the very club of which he was a
member, an attempt had been set on foot to found
some sort of pension scheme, but it had fallen
through, after a few desultory meetings. This,
however, galvanized it into life again.
Mr. David Williams was from the first the life
and soul of the movement. He had been the
person with whom the idea first originated, and he
was the first to assist in its resuscitation. He
organized the scheme, and was indefatigable in its
promotion. He levied taxes on all his friends and
acquaintances, and persuaded actors, poets, and
princes to sound the praises of the new institution.
We fear he must have been, good worthy man, a
terrible bore.
We learn that he himself made house-to-house
visits in behalf of his project, and collected large
sums of money in that way. In addition to which
he gave personal attention to all the routine business,
with the result that, when the Society had literally
thousands invested, and a most magnificent roll of
supporters, the executive expenses were returned
as only £$o.
In 1818 the Society was incorporated.
After Williams's death, however, the Society had
rather a stormy time. This was not only due to
the loss of their indefatigable leader. The extreme
secrecy with which the doles were made, while show-
ing the kindly delicacy of the administrators, might,
it is obvious, if sufficient care were not taken, be the
source of abuse. Sufficient care was not taken, and
abuses followed.
The affairs of the Society were at that time
administered by an Executive Committee and a
Council. The Executive Committee did the work,
and the Council lent their name. When some of
the work could not be approved of, a quarrel took
place between the Council and the Committee.
Many of the Council joined in the general demand
for an investigation into the manner in which the
Society's affairs had been conducted.
Then came an agitation for reform. The leader
of this was Dickens, who attributed the malpractices,
which had undoubtedly occurred, to the demoral-
izing effect inflicted upon men by much sitting on
boards of direction. The demand was to a certain
extent acceded to, and Dickens, Mr. Wentworth
Dilke, and Sir E. L. Bulwer were placed upon the
first Committee of reform, and no one has since
that day breathed a word against the way in which
the Fund is administered.
The benefits are disposed entirely without regard to
religious sect, the only disqualification being offences
against public morality. Neither are they con-
fined to Englishmen. At the dinner of 1822, when
Chateaubriand's health was proposed by the Duke
of York, as the ambassador of France, he mentioned,
in his acknowledgment of the toast, that he was
himself aware of the benevolent character of the
Fund, for, during the period of the French
Revolution, a French literary gentleman was in
difficulties, and these difficulties having been repre-
sented to the Committee by one of his friends, a
sum was voted sufficient to relieve him from all
anxiety, and that at a time when the institution
was itself struggling into notice. ' This gentleman,
Chateaubriand continued, was thus enabled to
maintain his ground. At the Restoration he
returned to France to acquire fresh honours as a
literary man, and to rise in the favour of his
Sovereign. He had now returned to England, but
in a different capacity—as the ambassador of his
Sovereign; and he was that man.
When Macaulay inveighed against all institutions
having for their object the pecuniary relief of authors,
he was taking a position he might be expected to
take, one which it was dignified for him to take,
and one which we sincerely wish could rationally
be taken. Macaulay's contention was that good
work would always find sufficient pay, and that
therefore the very people who would require such
assistance were the people who did not do good
work. That, in fact, all such Societies must lead to
the encouragement of the incompetent. This of
course is very far from being the case. A great
deal of admirable work, useful to mankind, and
most creditable to the author, never can command
sufficient circulation to make it remunerative.
The Fund most wisely allows for the fact that,
whereas while the author is able to work at full
pressure, he may keep his head above water, there
may come a time when such "H state cannot be
continued. His methods may get out of date.
The very lucidity of his teaching may have enabled
some younger man, more in touch with modern
thought, to carry similar work to a point of higher
perfection. Old age and sickness may arrive. At
once poverty stares the author of unremunerative
work in the face. He need be in no way impro-
vident and yet be unable to lay aside money to
meet such an emergency.
It is in such cases as these that the bounty of
the Royal Literary Fund is freely and delicately
bestowed.
## p. 41 (#61) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
4-
It is in such cases as these that such assistance
is too often urgently necessary.
There exists another institution for the relief of
authors. There is a provision on the Civil List for
pensions to the amount of ^1,200 per annum,
which should be devoted to the reward of (1)
Persons having just claims on the Royal benevo-
lence; (2) Persons who have rendered personal
service to the Crown; (3) Persons who have
benefited the public by discoveries in science;
(4) Persons who have benefited the public by
their attainments in literature and the arts.
Mr. Colles' book* has shown very clearly that
these pensions are awarded in a most reprehensible
manner, and are very generally devoted to the
relief of people often having no claim to charity at
all, certainly having no claim upon this establish-
ment, and occasionally having a distinct claim to
bounty from other sources. The author may well
look somewhat askance at an institution whose
benefits are administered with so much caprice,
and so regularly reaped by the wrong people.
While there is no doubt that the writers of much
good work do not derive much good pay from it,
so that in certain cases the assistance of charity be*
comes absolutely needful, it is perfectly certain that
there would be fewer such cases if the literary man
were more alive to his own interests, mors careful
of his own property. We learn from the Prince of
Wales's speech that the Royal Literary Fund has
lately made grants to the families of the late J. G.
Wood and the late R. A. Proctor. These men's
names were household words; their teaching and
their books were known in every family. They
were not devoted to abstract and abstruse science;
they did not produce works of great research,
appealing necessarily to so small a public as to
make it impossible that their work should be
pecuniarily successful. On the contrary, they were
the most popular expositors whom the world has
ever seen of the physical and natural wonders of
the world. Their books had an enormous popular
circulation, and the fact that it has been necessary
for their families to apply for assistance to the
Royal Literary Fund speaks volumes for the
statement made so often in the paper of this
Society. "The nature of literary property is mis-
understood and its very reality is hardly recog-
nized." Had these writers understood the value
of their own property they would never, perhaps,
have become the recipients either in life, or through
their widows, after death, of the Literary Fund
Bounty.
* "Literature and the Pension List," by W. Morris Colles.
Cr. 8vo., y. td. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.
VOL. I.
A HARD CASE.
No. II
THIS publisher, Mr. Henry Skimpington-
Brown, prided himself on his double-
barrelled name. It certainly lent weight
to his assurances that he was in a position to pro-
duce guarantees from most influential people that
he was honest—nay more, that he was generous.
He came under the notice of the Society of
Authors in the following way. He was an adver-
tising person, whose letter paper bore the elastic title
of "publisher" upon it, and whose address was in
Fleet Street. An author, bitten by one of his
specious circulars, sent a manuscript to him for his
consideration. Here is the author's account of
what followed :—
"I unfortunately entrusted my book to Mr. Skim-
pington-Brown. He engaged to publish for me any
number of copies required " up to 1,000," beginning
at 200. The book came out. I at once began to
receive letters from friends, acquaintances, and
book-sellers, complaining that they could not obtain
copies through the ordinary channels. Mr. Mudie
also informed me privately that my publisher was
quite unable to meet his orders. I wrote re-
peatedly to Mr. Skimpington-Brown demanding an
explanation. Sometimes I got an evasive answer;
generally no notice was taken of my letters. By
this time I was quite certain that something was
wrong, and a friend of mine, who interviewed him
for me, elicited from him :—that he had only
printed 100 copies; that the type had been broken
up; and that he had not enough money to pay for
composition again."
The author had given the man £%o to produce
the book. Now, although a part of the money
paid was for advertisement of the book, no adver-
tisements were ever seen except in a trade circular
once or twice. Hardly any copies were sent out
for review. What reviews were obtained were very
good ones.
Therefore when the author applied to the Society
of Authors, the position of affairs was thus:—He had
been induced to pay the publisher a sum of money
equivalent to double as much as was actually spent
in bringing the little book out; also an extra ^5
on some pretext or other; third, a large sum for
author's corrections. Only 100 copies were printed.
The circulating libraries could not put the book on
their lists, because they could get no copies. The
author had received nothing back but a small sum
obtained by privately disposing of a few copies to
his friends.
A few letters were written which seemed to have
11
## p. 42 (#62) ##############################################
42
THE AUTHOR
the effect of temporarily frightening Mr. Skimping-
ton-Brown, for it was at this time that he sent to
the Society a letter in which he said that most in-
fluential people were willing to come forward and
speak to his honesty and generosity.
It happened that another author had some idea
of publishing a work with Mr. Skimpington-Brown.
To this gentleman, whom he seemed to think might
possibly prove a new victim, the worthy publisher
mentioned the first author's book, and stated that he
was bringing out a second edition of it, for which
there was already a demand for neatly 3,000 copies!
But the two authors were acquainted with each
other, and this communication reached the first
author. As he said, "the state of things is worse
now than ever. As long as the book was prac-
tically unpublished, there was a chance of getting
a new publisher for it; but if this man, hiving
evidently no position, no capital, and, indeed, no
right to the name of publisher, really keeps his hold
on the book, it is a ruined work. He cannot,
in fact, publish it himself, and yet he deprives the
author of his chance of finding another publisher."
So it was determined that, at all events, the
book must be got out of his hands, and that after-
wards the possibility of making him disgorge some
of the plunder must be considered.
The agreement was unstamped, that is, for prac-
tical purposes. It must be admitted that it had
affixed to it a penny postage stamp. In it the
publisher covenanted to "print,publish, and push(\)
the book, and meet all demands up to 1,000
copies." This latter phrase alone would have put
anyone of experience upon his guard. It is almost
invariably the prelude to the following dodge for
extortion. A large number of copies is named,
say 10,000; then a correspondingly large figure is
named as the publisher's risk, say £50. The
author may feel that £50 is not much for 10,000
copies; more, he may ask someone who knows,
and will be informed that the demand is not very
exorbitant. So he pays it. Then only 100 copies
are printed. The author objects. The other per-
son says: "I never said I should produce 10,000
copies. No good publisher ever produces such
large editions of new men's work. I said I would
'meet demands' up to that number. I have as
yet not been asked for more than I have printed."
But the author may say: "It did not cost you
,£50 to produce 100 copies." To which the other
person may reply: "I never said it did."
Only in one way had Mr. Skimpington-Brown
contracted to do something definite. He said he
would advertise up to £20. He was asked to pro-
duce vouchers for this sum. He then said that he
had only advertised to the extent of j£g, and that,
of course, the surplus would be refunded.
The Society of Authors made an appointment
with this honest tradesman to meet their accountant.
But the accountant found the office locked up,
and received a note stating that his books were
at his suburban office!
At last, upon threats of legal procedure, Mr.
Skimpington-Brown appeared, and, with tears in his
eyes, refunded j£io. He said that was all he pos-
sessed.
This was all the satisfaction that could be
possibly obtained for the author. Nothing would
have been gained by legal procedure, and the
author was advised to take Mr. Skimpington-
Brown's little all.
*
THE CHESTNUT BELL.
THE sound of the Chestnut Bell is now be-
coming rare in America; heard indeed as
seldom as those of the Sunken City, comme-
morated by Riickert, which "peal once more their
old melodious chime" but once or twice in a century,
and then only to the Sunday child who is born to
hear what is inaudible to the Philistine. But before
the last Ming of this extraordinary instrument dies
away, it may be worth while to record its history,
and give for the first time what is probably a true
clue to its origin.
About four years ago Senator Jerome, of New
York who, because of his immaculate life, admir-
able gravity, and personal resemblance to a famous
picture byMurillo, has always been known as Saint
Jerome—was one day pouring forth in a speech a
grand series of moral axioms, which, however
admirable, "had not," as Heine says, "novelty for
merit," when all at once Senator Riddleberger,
of Virginia, the licensed clown, jester, and mischief
maker of the Senate, called to a point of order.
And on being asked what it was he replied: "Mr.
Speaker, I want the Senator from New York to stop
ringing that d -d old Chestnut bell of his."
The mot was new and it spread "like wildfire"
over the Union. Wherever the Frenchman of
1840 would have cried connu, the American roared
Chestnut. If an orator uttered a truism—if any
body dared to say " be virtuous and you will be
happy"—"Chestnut!"was sure to be heard. Woe
to the narrators of old Joes, for the nuts were cast
at them, and they were abashed. Ere long the
Chestnut Bell itself appeared. It was a small
highly resonant apparatus of a tintinnabulistic or
campanological nature, worn as an appendage to the
button hole—it went with a spring, and its sound
became a terror in the land. I am now in posses-
## p. 43 (#63) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
43
sion of six different kinds of Chestnut Bells—none
of them are loud, but all are of piercing, insulting,
aggravating, tone. It has happened that even
clergymen when using platitudes or dropping into
cant, have been called to silence by the dreadful
bell.
It is usual in the United States whenever a new
slang term appears for all the minor literati of the
press to at once invent Jts origin. Consequently
there were innumerable anecdotes, every one more
anthentic than the others, telling how and when the
term Chestnut came into existence. Of these I
have made a collection, with the result of distrust-
ing them all. In such cases it is almost invariably
"the oldest which is truest." The oldest in this
case is Italian. In Northern Italy, especially in
Florence, when a man would discredit or snub
another, and intimate that what he says is untrue,
or contemptible, or worn out, he puts his thumb
between his fore and middle finger, and presents
it. This is called making the Chestnut. In
Naples they call it la fica, or the fig, but the
castagna or Chestnut is the most ancient term.
All of the American origins confine themselves
to the Chestnut, but say nothing of the bell.
For the bell is the real object, "Chestnut" being
only the adjective which qualifies it. This part of
the problem is specially interesting.
There has long been known in Bavaria, possibly
in other parts of Germany, but I have only known
it in the Bayerisches Land, what is called the
Lugnermesser or Liar's Knife. This is a knife of
wood exactly resembling those which are used by
grocers in England to scoop butter or lard.
There is a hole iri it in which hangs a hawk's
bell, and on the blade is an inscription of which
the following is, though not a translation, a toler-
able imitation:—
Who liftes thys Knyfe
Nor ringes y* Bell,
Ne'er in his Lyfe
A Lye did tell.
The most remarkable of these knives which I
have ever seen is in the possession of Miss Mary
B. Reath, of Philadelphia. Another was in the
great Art Exhibition at Munich in 1888. A third
is in the Artists' Club of Munich. Whenever a
member tells a doubtful or a worn-out or commonly
known story, and tries to pass it off for new, some
one rings the bell. All three bore inscriptions in
old Bavarian which were, however, so peculiar and
requiring so much explanation, that it is hardly
worth while to give them here.
The ringing of the Liar's Bell is a kind of shut-
ting off or condemnation, and as such is manifestly
derived from the " bell, book, and candle," the form
vol. 1.
of excommunication of the Church of Rome, ending
by closing the book against the offender, extin-
guishing the candle, and ringing the bell.
(" Reliq. Antiq., i, 1, Gawaine and Gavin, 3023—
Halliwell.") Also to bear the bell, to carry off the
prize, to be unsurpassed as a liar. For a bell, a
whetstone, a knife, and, in America, a hat have
here or there been substituted.
It is very strange that Friedrich in his "Symbolik
der Natur," says of the chestnut that it is a type of
the unchangeable, of the old which ever persists in
remaining—which is the very spirit of all that is
hackneyed, "the reason for this being that its
leaves femain so long unchanged." "And as
most races name their national fools from some
popular dish, as Jack Pudding, in England;
Hanswurst, in Germany; Pickle Herring, in
Holland; Jean Potage, in France; so the Italians
call a silly, stupid, would-be witty fellow a Marone,
which is a large kind of chestnut." But the
real ancient meaning of the nut is Beharrlich-
keit, obstinate endurance, like that of an old
story which holds its own for ever. Therefore
the Greeks called it the Euboic acorn, and con-
secrated it to Jupiter, he being of all the gods
the most unyielding.
It is also to be noted that the Greeks and
Romans carried little silver bells, the tinkling of
which drove away witchcraft and evil spells—which
latter certainly include old Joe Millers, so well
known to possess a kind of dire and intolerable
fascination. I have a fac simile of one of these
ancient chestnut bells, with its strange incantation,
which I carry in my dressing case as a warning.
I trust that the reader will not conclude, from what
I have written, that I need it!
C. G. Leland.
*
The Death of a Scholar.—" Come and see
the difference there is between the powerful Rabbis
of the Land of Israel and the pious Rabbis of
Babylon. Resh Lakish made a funeral oration
in honour of a certain disciple of the wise, and
exclaimed, 'Alas! the I and of Isiael has lost a
great man!' Whereas Rabbi Nachman at Babylon
declined delivering a funeral oration on a similar
occasion; for, said he, 'What can I say more than
Alas! a basketful of books is lost'?"—Talmud
Megillah.
*
i) 2
## p. 44 (#64) ##############################################
44
THE AUTHOR.
"THE ART OF AUTHORSHIP."
In August, 1888, a well-known English novelist
received the following letter :—
"Coventry,
"Dear Madam, "August 21, '88.
"I am wanting to address our young people, in
response to their request, by way of a lecture upon
the art of composition and the means essential to
secure a forcible and interesting style of expression.
I have thought that the only way by which I could
add any considerable interest and usefulness to an
evening's pleasant intercourse upon such a topic
would be to secure, if at all possible, a personal
testimony of the experience of one or two of our
most skilful and honoured authors.
"To that end I have taken the very great liberty
to write to you and solicit your generous help.
May I be permitted to ask whether in early life you
pave yourself to any special training with a view to
the formation of style, and also whether you can
give us any information of your own methods that
would aid us to realize, in some degree at least, the
secrets of your own great powers in the use of a
clear and forcible English.
"I write to you because your finely conceived
novels are cherished friends of my own, delightful
companions which give me more pleasure than I
can well say; and also because I feel in asking such
a favour, that you must be so accustomed to people
getting truly attached to you by reason of your
beautiful stories, that you will very readily forgive
the request even though you cannot grant it. But
if you are able to spare a few minutes to do me this
kind service, I can assure you of the gratitude of
many beside myself.
"Pray excuse this long letter, and if I am giving
you any trouble, or ignorantly making an undue
demand on your time, do more than forgive me,
take no notice of me, and you will be appreciated
and understood by
"Yours most faithfully and respectfully,
"GEORGE BAINTON."
"Mrs. Parr.
Now this was really a very polite and appreciative
letter, and to it she returned a courteous answer.
It was nice to be considered among "one or two
of the most skilful authors," and kindness of heart
prompted her to assist a clergyman in his task of
lecturing to his young people upon a subject that,
like Ah Sin, "he did not understand."
But in May, 1890, she received the following letter
from her correspondent:—
"Dear Madam, "May 2, '90.
"Some time since I wrote to you concerning a
lecture I was about to give to a number of young
men upon the art of composition, and asked your
aid. You most generously responded to my appeal,
and gave me the privilege of using your kind words
of counsel and experience in the event of my being
desirous to put the lecture into printed form. I
thought you would like to see the extract from your
letter thus incorporated into the lecture—a lecture
I have expanded into book form and published
through Messrs. Clarke & Co., Fleet St., under the
title'The Art of Authorship.' The little volume
now issued is simply the lecture amplified—matter
growing under my hands until it far exceeded the
limits of the pamphlet I at first intended.
"For your valued aid I again thank you most
heartily, and am
"Very faithfully yours,
"Mrs. Louisa Parr. "George Bainton."
The author gave the Correspondence to this
Society. She denies having given Mr. Bainton
leave to print her letter, and considers that its
appearance in a collection of letters headed "The
Art of Authorship," and published as a book by
Mr. Bainton, is a breach of faith.
On receiving these letters it was decided to in-
vestigate the case a little and to appeal to a few of
our members, whose names were mentioned both in
the book and in public advertisement as "personal
contributors," and ascertain if they thought like-
wise.
It will not be possible to print all the replies in
full, but here are a few extracts :—
Mr. Alfred Austin says:—
"I answered Mr. Bainton's enquiries concerning
how I formed my style, from motives of courtesy
and good nature, and I hear of the use he has
made of what I wrote with surprise and regret."
Mr. Hall Caine :—
"The man wrote to me to say that he was about
to lecture on style to his young men, who were
enthusiastic readers of mine, etc., etc., and would
take it as an honour, etc., if I would write them a
letter on my personal aims and endeavours, early
efforts, etc., with much of the same sort. Of
course I was drawn by the silly subterfuge, and
when, some time later, a second letter asked for
permission to print my answer in a pamphlet that
was to contain 'the text of the lecture,' I was
once more made victim. It was not until the
book appeared that I realized that the man had
## p. 45 (#65) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
45
written to everybody, that his 'young men ' were
all fudge, that the book was the thing, and that,
thanks to the folly of folks like myself, he had got
it cheap."
Here it becomes evident that, at any rate to
novelists, Mr. Bainton employed an almost in-
variable form—the letter, in fact, which we began
by quoting. For Mr. Grant Allen, Mr. R. D.
Blackroore, Mrs. Lovett Cameron, Mr. W. S.
Gilbert, Mr. Rider Haggard, Mrs. Kennard, Mr.
George Meredith, Miss F. M. Peard, Mr. F. W.
Robinson, John Strange Winter, Mr. Edmund
Yates, and Miss Charlotte Yonge all were ignorant
that Mr. Bainton intended to print their remarks;
all believed that their assistance was being asked
by a clergyman and a stranger for his young people,
and none had an idea that they were being vic-
timised by a circular letter.
This simplicity is the more excusable that in the
specimens before us as we write, Mr. Bainton
distinctly says he is applying to "one or two"
authors. Unless one knows him personally before-
hand, how is the ordinary gentleman, how is the
ordinary lady, to have an idea that by this state-
ment Mr. Bainton may mean one or two hundred
authors?
Space will not allow that we should print more
than brief extracts from these authors' letters.
Mr. Rider Haggard says :—
"Some years ago Mr. Bainton, or some person,
wrote to me saying he was going to give a lecture,
and asked my opinion on certain literary matters.
I replied, and, if my memory serves me, stipulated
that if he printed anything, I should have a proof.
The other day I received a printed slip, which I
took for and corrected as a proof. On further
examination of covering letter, however, I found
it was an exiract from a printed book forwarded
for my perusal.
"I think it quite unjustifiable that matter
obtained for one purpose should be used for another
without reference to its author."
Mr. Bainton does appear in Mr. Rider Haggard's
case to have gone through the form of obtaining
permission to print his remarks, although he disre-
garded the stipulation that his request evoked. But
in some cases he appears to have gone more
directly to work.
Mr. George Meredith says:—
"I received a letter some weeks back from Mr.
Bainton, enclosing two printed pages of his book,
with his thanks to me for 'my kind permission'
that he might make public use of my private remarks
to his young men, through him, at his request, upon
styles in writing. I am not aware of having even
granted the permission. It would not have been in
accord with a system I hold to—which is, to spare
the public any talk upon my methods and doings.
If I wrote the words of the grant, I must have done
so heedlessly, and I shall require to see them in my
handwriting, before I can attach any belief to the
statement made by Mr. Bainton. The one object
of my writing, was to be of service to an audience
that he, ' a stranger to me, wrote of as being hungry
for literary instruction.'"
Mr. George Meredith is not singular in his belief
that, albeit Mr. Bainton says so, he never received
any permission.
Miss Charlotte Yonge believes the same. So
does Professor Huxley. Miss F. M. Peard
writes :—
"I am more surprised and annoyed than I can
say at hearing of the use Mr. Baintdn has made of
my answer. I imagined him to be a clergyman
rather at his wits' ends for subjects for parish
entertainments or lectures, and that he was merely
getting up the subject in the abstract. It did not
even occur to me that he would use my name in
talking about it, much less that he would drag it
into print. You will see that he speaks of 'an
e\ening's pleasant intercourse.'"
Miss Peard encloses Mr. Bainton's first—and
only—letter to her, which is almost the exact
counterpart of his letter to Mrs. Parr. Miss Peard,
like Mrs. Parr, is one out of "one or two," and
she also is appealed to because her books are
Mr. Bainton's cherished friends. Mr. Bainton is
evidently a man of lively sympathies.
Mr. Grant Allen says:—
"I was not aware Mr. Bainton meant to publish
in book form. Mr. Bainton only mentioned that he
wished for the information for an apparently private
lecture to young people. I was much annoyed at
the use Mr. Bainton made of my letter (which he
printed incorrectly). The details I gave were far
more personal than I should have dreamt of making
them had I expected them to be published. What
is perfectly allowable in answer to a private question
about one's own methods mayseem like impertinence
and bad taste if obtruded on the general public,
which never asked to know how one writes one's
books or articles."
Mr. R. D. Blackmore writes:—
"When I complied with Mr. Bainton's request
I was not aware that he intended to publish or even
print my words. His letter suggested that he wanted
aid in a lecture to young people and would use my
## p. 46 (#66) ##############################################
46
THE AUTHOR.
reply for that purpose, and (as I naturally concluded)
for that purpose only. Now that I know the nature
of Mr. Bainton's book I do object to the use he
has made of a reply procured through the goodwill
due to a clergyman and for clerical purposes."
Mr. W. S. Gilbert writes :—
"When I complied with Mr. Bainton's request I
was not aware that it was that gentleman's intention
to publish my letter in book form. His first letter
to me suggested that he wanted aid in compiling a
lecture. I consider that he was not justified in
publishing my letter without my express permission.
His action appears to me to amount to a breach of
faith."
Mrs. Lovett-Cameron says:—
"I certainly had not the smallest idea that he
intended to publish the letter which I wrote to him.
He informed me that he was about to give a lecture
to young people, and I understood most clearly that
it was for this purpose alone that my letter would
be made use of. I do most strongly object to the
use he has made of my letter, and consider that in
publishing letters written to him for private use
only Mr. Bainton is guilty of a most unwarrantable
breach of faith."
On the other hand, the Bishop of Carlisle, Mr.
Thomas Hardy, and Sir John Lubbock have no
objection to the use Mr. Bainton has made of their
letters, while Mr. T. Marion Crawford writes as
follows : —
"Two or three years ago Mr. Bainton wrote
requesting me to give him an expression of my
opinions in regard to the course to be followed by
beginners, who would acquire some practical skill
in the use of the English language. I believe that
was the substance of his letter. Mr. Bainton
stated clearly that he wished to make use of my
answer in lecturing to young people.
"I complied with his request and wrote at some
length. I said that I would prefer my letter not
to be printed. Mr. Bainton wrote again to thank
me, but added, that if I would not consent to his
printing the matter, it could be of little service to
him. I then replied that since he so much desired
it, he might make any use he pleased of my com-
munication. The correspondence ended, and I
considered Mr. Bainton at liberty to print the
whole, parts, or a part of what I had written. I
now learn for the first time that he has published
a book, and I infer that something of mine has
appeared in it. I do not consider myself in any
way aggrieved, as Mr. Bainton's conduct towards
me was perfectly frank and consistent throughout."
But Mr. Marion Crawford has been better
used than many of Mr. Bainton's contributors.
It may seem that we have gone into this matter
at more length than the circumstances warranted.
As long as ladies and gentlemen are so far polite that
when they receive a letter, made to bear all thestamp
of a private letter in contradistinction to a circular,
they answer it, and so far charitable that, when they
are told a thing by a person they know nothing of,
they accept his statement, so long will ladies and
gentlemen be victims.
To the Editor of The Author.
Sir,
When I sent Mr. Bainton the letter published in
his book, I was not aware that it would ever be
printed. He wrote to me in September last, saying
that he wished to address "our young people"
upon the art of composition, and he had thought
that it would add "considerable interest and use-
fulness to an evening's pleasant intercourse" on
such a topic, if a few authors would give him their
personal experiences in acquiring their respective
styles.
It will be obvious to anyone, from the compo-
sition of my letter, that I had no thought of my
words being used verbatim. Some time afterwards
he wrote asking if he might make use of some parts
of my letter in a pamphlet in which he proposed to
preserve his lecture, and I gave him permission to
do so.
I cannot say that / particularly object to the use
he has made of it, though I do not think it was
quite fair to issue the opinions of authors in book-
form, after winning their confidences for a benevo-
lent purpose; but I do most utterly and strongly
condemn the great discourtesy of issuing such a
book without sending proofs of the matter to each
author (and I know one author of high standing
whose permission to print Mr. Bainton did not
trouble to ask for at all). I think far more of that
than I do of his having picked our foolish brains
to make profit for himself.
In my own case, probably a glance at proof
sheets would have caused me to amplify one of my
statements—that when I was a very young writer
"I found myself slipping into the Rhoda Broughton
school"—in such a way as to give a would-be witty
reviewer less chance of misrepresenting my meaning
and making merry over my comprehensive phrase.
For myself I would be the last to discuss criticism,
however flippant or unjust; but as Miss Broughton
may have seen the much-quoted article, and per-
haps have felt some annoyance through reading my
meaning with the writer's eyes, may I say here that
I meant no disrespect for the strong, vigorous, and
fascinating author, whose books have always
## p. 47 (#67) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
47
charmed me, and whose portrait hangs near me
each day as I work—but very much the reverse,
Miss Broughton would probably join her con-
tempt to mine for the host of imitators of her
style, whose work is a weak reflection of her
manner without any of her genius or her strength—
the "school" to designate which her name is com-
monly employed—and entirely agree with me that
if, as an inexperienced writer, I felt myself drifting
toward this justly despised group, it was well for
me—and perhaps for others—that I should re-
solutely set myself to work out a style of my own
rather than become even a successful imitator of
another.
It seems to me that cheap sneers at this kind of
effort are a little unworthy of a great literary
Review.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
John Strange Winter.
*
NOTES.
I. Copyright.
UNDER this head, and that of "The First
Principles of Literary Property," in the
first number of The Author, I find one
or two statements which, if not in terms erroneous,
are capable of misleading or unduly alarming
readers who do not know any law.
"Literary property," it is said, "is subject to the
laws which protect all other property." That it is
recognized and protected by law as something of
value is quite true; and probably this is all that
the writer meant. But "the laws which protect
property" differ greatly according to the kind of
property. Land is not protected in exactly the
same way as goods, and a trade mark and a copy-
right are again protected by means different from
those in use for tangible property, and differing in
details from one another. Let not the unwary
reader therefore imagine that he or she can have a
literary pirate dealt with as a thief. Copyright is
not, in the legal sense, a thing capable of being
stolen.
It is asked, "Does anybody take the trouble to
secure his copyright in a public lecture?" (meaning,
by the process of giving notice to two Justices of
the Peace as provided by the Act 5 and 6 Wm. IV,
c. 65). The answer is, probably not. But there
is an excellent reason for not doing it which the
author of "Notes on Copyright" seems to have
overlooked. The common law gives a sufficient
remedy without the help of the Act, as was decided
by the House of Lords in 1887, in Professor Caird's
case in Scotland {Caird v. Sime, 12 App. Ca. 326).
It is a question of fact whether the delivery of a
lecture implies authority to the hearers to republish
it. Whatever may have been the opinion of the
framers of the Act of William IV (which expressly
preserves the general law, only giving the benefit of
special new sanctions to lecturers who fulfil the
formalities of notice to two justices), no such
authority is presumed, as a matter of law, from the
mere fact of a lecture being delivered to a more or
less numerous audience. If there be any presump-
tion it seems to be the other way. In truth the
right to restrain the publication of an orally
delivered lecture is not copyright at all. It is
distinct from and antecedent to copyright, like the
right to restrain publication of one's private letters.
As that right is unaffected by the original letter
having become the property (for all purposes short
of publication) of the person to whom it was sent,
so the lecturer's right is unaffected by his lecture
having been orally delivered to a particular audience
or any number of audiences. The commentator
goes on to say that "a lecturer is powerless to protect
himself against unauthorized re-delivery." I am not
aware of any authority for this statement as regards
an unpublished lecture, and am not at all disposed
to agree with it. As for the exception of university
and certain other public lectures and discourses in
the Act of William IV, it has, by its express terms,
only the effect of leaving them in the same con-
dition as if the Act had not passed. Caird v. Sime
shows that at least some university lectures are
efficiently protected by the general law. Therefore
a person acting on the commentator's opinion that
sermons "seem to be clearly public property"
would be more likely to make practical acquaintance
with the nature and operation of an injunction than
to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of pulpit
eloquence. When the writer adds that "there is
seldom any very great demandfor sermons, university
or college lectures," he is so far right that in these,
as in other kinds of literary production, the suc-
cessful and popular authors are a minority. Still,
both sermons and lectures are known to become
fairly successful books. It is the fact that the greater
part of Sir Henry Maine's works (for example) was
first delivered in the form of lectures. An uncon-
trolled right to print the matter which afterwards
became "Village Communities" from notes taken
in Maine's lecture room at Oxford would have been
a right of no small value. And the fact that no
attempt was ever made to exercise such a supposed
right is some evidence that no one at the time
imagined it to exist.
I have made these remarks only for the purpose
## p. 48 (#68) ##############################################
48
THE A UTHOR.
of preventing misapprehension as to the existing
law. But I wish to add that I am wholly adverse
to the proposal of creating a new kind of performing
right in the recitation of verses or prose already
printed and published, and therefore already
enjoying the protection of ordinary literary copy-
right. Where is this kind of thing to stop? Why
should not Sydney Smith have had an exclusive
"performing right" in his jokes and anecdotes?
The author of "recitations" who wants to keep them
to himself has only not to publish the text, a pre-
caution quite consistent with privately printing any
number of copies that may be convenient. He can
then make his own terms with anyone who desires
to use it.
Frederick Pollock.
II. Charges for Corrections.
I suppose all authors have their grievances against
publishers. I have had mine. Yet, taking all in
all, I must say that I have been well treated oy my
English publisher. My advice to young authors
is—find a respectable publisher and stick to him.
But I have had a long-standing grievance against
printers, and I wonder whether The Author can
help me. Is there no means of checking the
charges for corrections?
I know that in good printing offices there is a
man specially appointed to check off charges for
corrections. But, in spite of that, there must be
something wrong in the system. The estimate
one receives from a printer seems at first sight
very reasonable. But when the bill comes, there
are always high charges for corrections, for extra-
small type, for foreign matter, for reading and
putting to press, &c, so that one has often to pay
twice as much as the original estimate.
Much seems to me to depend on the judgment
and the good-will of the compositor in making
corrections. If a few words are put in by the
author, surely, with a little management, they
could be squeezed in; some other words might
be left out, or two paragraphs might be run into
one. But if, instead of that, ten or twenty pages
are disturbed, of course the bill is very much
swelled. One line too much on any one page is
looked upon as high treason in every printing office.
But surely it would matter less than twenty shillings
for re making twenty pages.
I know quite well what compositors will say.
Copy your MS., or have it copied and carefully
revised, and then the charges for corrections will
be next to nothing. My answer is, I am willing
to pay what is reasonable for my own careless
writing, and for my changing my mind at the last
moment. But I do not like to see corrections
treated as mere " fat."
F. Max Muller.
III. American Rights.
Before the collaboration of an American citizen
can procure copyright, the following conditions
must be borne in mind.
1. The American collaborator must not receive
a lump sum for his share of the work, but must
receive a portion of the royalty, i.e., he must have
a continuous interest in the sale of the work.
2. He must be a bond fide collaborator. Some
people suppose that it is sufficient for an American
citizen to write a paragraph, or even a sentence
only, put his name on the title page with that of
the author, and that the copyright is secured. It
is not so. In case of such a book being " pirated,"
he might be called to swear what he wrote before
a judge, who would order the " pirate " to take out
of the book the paragraph or sentence, or whatever
the American wrote, and then advise the " pirate"
to help himself to the rest. The collaborator must
be able to swear that he is the author of the book
quite as much as the European one, that there is
not in the book a single sentence he did not
approve of and sign, whether he actually wrote it
or not.
3. The European author must have a contract
with his American collaborator, in which the above
conditions are set down; and a copy of it must be
in the hands of the American publisher.
I think that all the good American publishers
would tell you that I am right.
At any rate, these are the conditions on which I
have published my " Jonathan and his Continent"
in America; and the "pirates." knowing it, have
not touched it—to the comfort of
Paul Blouet.
IV. The Raising of the Dead.
I have received the first number of The
Author, and, on lroking through it, it has
occurred to me that our members might possibly
be interested in the following personal experiences
bearing on the question as to whether a book that
has practically fallen dead can by any possibility
be revived.
The work to which I refer was, on its first
appearance, absolutely ignored by the London
literary organs of opinion, and the sales in con-
sequence fell, after the advertisements had ceased to
appear, to about ten copies a year. This continued
## p. 49 (#69) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
49
for three years, during which time I left no stone un-
turned in my efforts to bring the book into notice.
I sent copies to the number of thirty or more to such
of our most eminent thinkers and writers as 1 deemed
most likely to give it a favourable reception ; at the
same time sending second copies to the editors of
the most important literary journals, soliciting a
second inspection, and explaining in justification
that the work had not been run off at the point of
the pen, but had occupied ten years in preparation,
and four in actual construction and writing. But
the eminent writers, as Was only to be expected in
the case of a work sent to them in forma pauperis,
replied by courteous acknowledgments merely;
while my efforts to get a second hearing fiom the
editors completely failed—with the exception of the
editor of T/ie Spectator, who, with his usual fair-
mindedness, and a generosity which I shall not
soon forget, at once gave me a long and complU
mentary review, expressing at the same time his
surprise that the work had been allowed to fall
through. But it was too long after publication to
be of any service; the sales fell lower and lower;
and it seemed as if the book would now slip
quietly into oblivion.
Meantime one or two of the well-known writers,
to whom I had sent private copies, had evidently
glanced into the work, and had become sufficiently
interested in it to express the opinion that some-
thing further ought to be done to try and revive it.
After some consideration, and with the consent of
the publishers, I determined on my plan of campaign,
which was this: to bring out the unsold copies as
a new edition; to reduce the price from 14*. 10 51.;
to write a fresh preface; and, most important of all,
to concentrate and mass together in large advertise-
ments the best extracts I could select from the
various scattered notices which in the interim I
had succeeded in extorting from more or less un-
willing editors!
The effect of this new move was immediate and
decisive. The whole unsold edition of some 700
or 800 copies went off at the rate of forty or fifty a
month until it was exhausted; the demand increas-
ing rather than diminishing at the time when the
last copies were sold out.
The above recital, in view of the common
tradition that a book, once practically fallen dead,
cannot again be revived, seems to me to have some
interest for young authors struggling against adverse
fate; and it may perhaps be worth while to ask
here to which of the above circumstances the
resuscitation of the work was principally due. My
own feeling is that it was due not to the reduction
of price, for purchasers of that class of work are
not much affected by its price, in the first instance
at least; nor yet to the press notices taken singly,
although these no doubt were exceptionally strong;
but rather to their being massed together so as to
catch the eye in large and glaring advertisements.
At any rate it was on this theory that I acted at the
time, and the event, it must be admitted, fully
justified my anticipation. Now. that a work of a
serious character, on a wide and all-important
subject of human interest, and professing at least
to add another story to the hitherto existing super-
structures of thought on the same subject ; that a
book of this kind, I say, should have to save itself
from extinction by methods suitable rather to the
sale and success of some '" Pears' Soap" or " Hol-
loway's Pill," must give rise to considerations on
the curious conditions of literary success at the
present time well worthy the attention of all thinking
minds.
J. B. C.
*
LITERARY PUZZLES.
THE Ballad of Bold Turpin is to be found in
a volume called "Gaieties and Gravities,"
written by one of the authors of " Rejected
Addresses." The "one," I believe, was Horace
Smith. It was published in 1825, when Dickens
was a boy of fourteen, by Henry Colburn, of
New Burlington Street. It occurs in a sketch
called " Harry Halter the Highwayman," in which
two other efforts in verse also occur—the volumes,
indeed, are crammed with verses, sprightly and
jolly, and full of mad rhymes. The song, for
instance, called "Bachelor's Fare " follows that of
"Bold Turpin."
Funny and free are a Bachelor's revelries,
Cheerily, merrily passes his life;
Nothing knows he of connubial devilries,
Troublesome children and clamourous wife,
Free from satiety, care, and anxiety,
Charms in variety fall to his share,
Bacchus's blisses and Venus's kisses,
This, boys, this is the Bachelor's Fare.
A wife like a canister, chattering, clattering,
Tied to a dog for his torment and dread,
All bespattering, bumping and battering,
Hurries and worries him till he is dead.
Old ones are two devils haunted with blue devils,
Young ones are new devils raising despair;
Doctors and nurses combining their curses,
Adieu to full purses and Bachelor's Fare.
Through such folly days, once sweet holidays,
Soon are embittered by wrangling and strife
Wives turn jolly days to melancholy days,
All perplexing and vexing one's life.
## p. 50 (#70) ##############################################
50 THE AUTHOR.
Children are riotous, maid-servants fly at us,
Mammy to quiet us growls like a bear;
Polly is squalling and Molly is bawling,
While dad is recalling his Bachelor's Fare.
When they are older grown, then they are bolder
grown,
Turning your temper and spurning your rule,
Girls through foolishness, passion or mulishness,
Parry your wishes and marry a fool.
Boys will anticipate, lavish and dissipate,
All that your busy pate hoarded with care;
Then tell me what jollity, fun or frivolity,
Equals in quality Bachelor's Fare?
*
QUESTIONS, CASES, AND
ANSWERS.
Now that authors have a medium to voice their
woes and, let us hope, their victories, we may look
forward to many questions of interest being thrashed
out. And, in order to set the ball rolling ever so
little a distance, may I crave space to point out
how—as it seems to me—authors can combine
and gather strength even in their hours of ease?
In short, what is wanted is an "Authors'
Club." There are many clubs in existence which
are partly intended for literary men and largely
patronised by them; but in every instance where
the club is accessible to the mass, other interests
have been introduced to the prejudice of literature
and the literary profession. In one case, it may
be the egotistic actor; in another, the aesthetic or
impressionistic painter; in a third, that blight on
society—the man who wishes you to remember
that he is a tenor. These introduce an element
which many authors feel to be jarring, if not
actually antagonistic. The general desire is for a
Lotos Eater's Land where neither jar nor an-
tagonism is possible; what is really sighed for is
"The Authors'Club."
Is not the profession strong enough to support
such a club? Cannot the Society of Authors pro-
vide the men who will help to make it a success?
Who will adopt the idea and give it their personal
support and service? The financial details could
easily be arranged, if a strong committee were ap-
pointed; and if the matter be mooted now, by the
time that the evenings draw in and the days grow
chill, "The Authors' Club" should be a fait
accompli. A. M.
Allow me to bring the following facts before the
readersof The Author. About two years ago I
had printed a mathematical work which I brought
to a well-known firm for publication in England in
conjunction with my Irish publishers. I paid the
former ;£io for advertising, but all that I ever saw
were two or three in the Saturday Revieiv. As a
result I find they have practically sold no copies
in England, and all that they have sold are about
30 copies in America, from which I infer that ad-
vertisement money has been spent there. Conse-
quently nearly all sales of my book were in Ireland,
and these have all been effected without any ad-
vertisement expenses. At the time of the publi-
cation of my book, the author of a book on the
same subject as my own was under an apprehen-
sion that the sale of the latter might interfere with
that of his, and I have reason to believe exerted
pressure on his publishers the same as those of my
book, not to push or in any way promote the sale
of the latter. All that they have done is to sell it
in America, which is but a poor return, as, besides
the difficulty of getting it off there, I am only
allowed barely 50 per cent, of the published price.
A. B.
The following case is submitted with the con-
viction that it is not by any means an isolated one.
A gentleman proposes to the Editor of a Magazine
to write a short article on a new book, and the
proposal is immediately accepted in writing. The
article is sent in, and at the request of the con-
tributor (who is leaving England for some months)
the Editor shortly afterwards forwards him a proof
of the article and a cheque at the current rate of
remuneration. A letter of inquiry from the writer
some months afterwards as to why the article has
not appeared elicits no information, and it turns
out that the article is not published. Has the
contributor any claim in this case for the loss of
that part of the remuneration which, it need hardly
be said, may be indirectly of quite as much
pecuniary consequence to him as the money-
payment? In the case of a daily paper a review-
is, as we all know, liable to be crowded out by
press of matter. But is the case of a magazine,
that does not in a general way review books, on
precisely the same footing?
As an aggravated instance of the business
methods described under "QuestionsandAnswers,"
No. 3, at page 9, of the May number of The Author,
I offer the following personal experience. I sent
a short story to the Editor of a fairly reputable and
outwardly prosperous London periodical, no doubt
regarded by its numerous readers as a marvel 01
enterprise and cheapness, enclosing, as I always
## p. 51 (#71) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
5*
do, a stamped directed envelope for the return of
the MS. if not required. I received neither manu-
script nor answer of any kind. I wrote repeatedly
after waiting some months, when to my surprise I
heard quite accidentally through a friend who
recognised my nam de plume that my story was then
actually being published in the magazine I had sent
it to, and which I do not always see. I waited a
month or two and wrote for payment. I wrote
two or three times more, but from first to last
I never had a reply to a single communication. I
then got the Secretary of the Society to write, and
he very kindly did write a pretty strong letter con-
taining a plain threat of the legal proceedings;
that produced an interview with the editor, an
apology, and a cheque. The whole affair took
about a year. Now does anyone believe that if I
had not by the merest fluke found that the story
had been printed, I should ever have had the
money to this day? I do not. I may add that
others have had similar experiences in the same
quarter, and the periodical in question continues
to be a marvel of enterprise and cheapness.
M. O. H.
What is the true position of affairs in such a
case as this? An author (young, struggling, and
inexperienced) fires off a composition—say a short
story—at the editor of a magazine. He either
writes with it to say he "encloses a MS. and hopes
it will prove suitable," or writes his name and
address on the back of it, and sends postage
stamps for its return.
The editor "begs to accept it, and encloses a
cheque from the proprietors for £5."
A few years later, less young, and perhaps less
struggling, the author wishes to republish some of
his former efforts in a volume, or has a chance of
re-selling them, but is confronted with the difficulty
that he really does not know whether he has the
right to with regard to a story originally disposed
of as indicated above. He asks himself and other
persons, "Who has the copyright?" Has the
writer been employed by the proprietor of the
magazine?
Have they a joint ownership?
Has the author sold the copyright right out?
Or has he only sold "serial rights?"
Ought not all books to be dated on the title-
page with the year and month of publication?
Ought not reviewers to state the price of books
in reviewing them, and if not, why not?
Is a contributor on the staff of more magazines
than one justified in proposing an article on the
same subject to them all contemporaneously, and
if more than one accept, selecting the acceptance
which pleases him best?
Ought a reviewer to write more than one review
of the same book?
Ought a publisher's advertisements in his own
magazine to be charged to the author? And can
a publisher charge such advertisements to the
author without first obtaining his consent to an
expenditure which goes into the publisher's own
pocket?
%—
In answer to your query I am detailing briefly
my own experience, and I understand that many
other authors have suffered similar treatment.
In 1882 I sent an article to""
(a well-known monthly): it was accepted. It ap-
peared 17 months afterwards. I was paid, however,
directly it appeared.
In 1885 I sent an article to""
(another well-known monthly), and I heard no
more of it. It may have appeared, or it may have
been lost. I have never seen it in proof, and I
have never been paid for it.
In this year I sent a short story to a journal with
a fair reputation and position. They cut it down,
and in so doing cut out a small episode—of itelf
unimportant—to which reference happened to be
made twice later on in the story. That is, they
made nonsense of my work. They did not pay
until three months after printing the story.
In 1889 I sent a story to a daily paper. They
did not accept it or refuse it, or acknowledge it.
One day I saw it in print, and three monihs after-
wards I received most inadequate payment for it.
It appears, however, that I have no remedy.
A Scribbler.
I sent a story to a weekly journal. They printed
it without acknowledgment almost directly after-
wards. I wrote a second—not knowing the fortu-
nate fate of the first—and sent it to them. Then
I heard that the first one had been printed. I
wrote to ask for payment. They did not answer.
I wrote again. They did not answer, but printed
my second story. Months afterwards, with no
apology, I received a cheque for both of them.
If these people had accepted my first story in the
usual manner, I should have looked for it, and
if I had been paid for it at the rate I eventually
received for the two, I should have never sent them
the second story. I can get more from a daily
provincial paper and get my money promptly, as
well as have proofs sent to me for correction. The
paper was" ."
A. E.
## p. 52 (#72) ##############################################
52
THE AUTHOR.
AT WORK.
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the
Society, who are invited to keep the Editor
acquainted with their work and engagements.
R. WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI
is at present engaged upon an annotated
edition of Shelley's "Adonais" for the
Clarendon Press. It will contain a considerable
amount of prefatory matter, and a long series of
notes. Mr. Rossetti is also engaged u|.on a scries
of articles, bearing the title "Portraits of Robert
Browning," which are appearing, with copious
illustrations, in J he Magazine of Art.
Mrs. Brightwen, who is one of the Vice-Presi-
dents of the Selborne Society, is issuing a small
book, entitled "Wild Nature Won by Kindness."
It will be illustrated partly by the author, and
partly by Mr. Carruthers Gould, and will be pub-
lished by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin.
Mr. T. Bailey Saunders has in the press
"Counsels and Maxims," being the second part
of Arthur Schopenhauer's "Aphorismen zur Le-
bensweisheit." It is to be uniform with the
"Wisdom of Life," the first part of the same work
(Swan, Sonnenschein, & Co., 1 vol., 2s. 6d.). His
translation of Schopenhauer's "Religion: a Dia-
logue," and other Essays, is going into a second
edition.
Mr. H. G. Keene, CLE., is engaged in editing
an Oriental Biographical Dictionary. The work—■
founded on materials collected by the late Mr.
Thomas Beale, an assistant of Sir H. Elliot's—
was originally brought out in Calcutta undrr the
auspices of the Government of the North-West
Provinces. As the editor was at a distance from
the press, and his time was much forestalled by
his official occupation, a good many clerical and
typographical errors escaped attention; but the
book was found useful by scholars, and is now
scarce. Mr. Keene's edition, besides containing
corrections of these errors, will also include con-
siderable additional matter. It will be published
by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., and the price, to
subscribers, will be 15J.
In the new edition of " Chitty on Contracts," now
being issued under the auspices of Mr. J. M. Lely
and Mr. Nevill Geary, there will be found (p. 665) a
recently settled agreement for publication on com-
mission, the author retaining his copyright. The
agreement was settled by the Society of Authors.
Miss Charlotte M. Yonge has in preparation a
story entitled "The Slaves of Sabinus." The scene
is laid in the time of Vespasian, and the book will
be published in the autumn season. The seventh
series of the "Cameos of English History," by the
same author, is now appearing.
Mr. W. A. Copinger, F.S.A., the author of
"The Law of Copyright in Works of Literature
and Art," has now in hand a Bibliography of the
various editions of the Latin Bible in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, with full collations, and
fac similes of pages of the principal editions.
The life of "Carmen'Sylva," Queen of Rou-
mania—a translation from the German (Messrs.
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co.)—contains
numerous extracts from the illustrious lady's poetry,
which have been gracefully rendered into English
by Sir Edwin Arnold.
"Thomas Dain, the Memoirs of an Irish Patriot,
1840-1846," is also announced by the same pub-
lisher. The author is Sir Charles Gavan Duffy
K.C.M.G.
M. Jusserand, author of "English Wayfaring
Life," and an honorary foreign member of our
Society, has revised and enlarged his work, "Le
Roman au temps de Shakespeare," and a translation
of it has just been issued (Mr. T. Fisher Unwin).
Miss Jane E. Harrison, author of " Myths of the
Odyssey, &c," has written an introductory essay, with
archaeological comments, to Miss Verrall's work
upon Ancient Athens (Messrs. Macmillan & Co.).
The Rev. Charles D. Bell, D.D., of Cheltenham,
has just published "A Winter on the Nile"
(Hodder and Stoughton, price 6s.), containing the
record of a tour up the Nile as far as the Second
Cataract, with a sojourn at Luxor and a description
of recent discoveries and antiquities at Bubastis
and the Fayoum.
Marion Crawford's new book, "A Cigarette
Maker's Romance," will be published this month
(Macmillan).
Mr. Edward Clodd's "Story of Creation" will
be issued in a cheaper edition next month by
Messrs. Longmans. An Italian translation will
also be published in Rome shortly.
Mr. Edmund Gosse announces the first three
volumes of an International Library, under his
editorship (William Heineman). Cine is from
the French, one from the German, and one from
## p. 53 (#73) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
53
the Norwegian. A search is to be made on all
hands and in all languages for such books as com-
bine the greatest literary value with the most
curious and amusing qualities of manner and
matter. If such a search is only rewarded by
a modicum of success a large body of readers
should be placed under a great debt to editor and
publisher.
A new edition of Lamb's "Adventures of Ulysses'
will be issued shortly, edited by Mr. Andrew
I-arig.
The Open Court—a Chicago journal—is at
present publishing a series of papers by Mr. T.
Bailey Saunders, constituting a short critical re-
view of recent theories on the Origin of Reason.
Miss Mary Rowsell is engaged upon a biography
of Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby
(the I^idy of Lathom), (Vizetelly & Co.). The book
is to form one of a series of Romantic Biographies.
Miss Rowsell is also dramatizing her novel "The
Red House."
Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G., Her Majesty's
Consul at Oporto, author of " Portugal: Old and
New," "Beyond the Seas," "Sylvia Arden," is
working upon the final revise of "Round the
Calendar in Portugal," a book dealing chiefly with
rural life and rural themes in that country. The
work is copiously illustrated by Miss Dorothy
Tennant, Mrs. Arthur Walter, Miss Alice Wood-
ward, Miss Winifred Thomson, Mr. Tristram Elles,
Mr. Ambrose Lee, and the author.
Mr. William Sharp has written a memoir of the
great critic to be prefixed to Sainte Beuve's Essays,
which are announced by Mr. David Stott, as a
volume in a new series, entitled " Masterpieces of
Foreign Authors."
The latest volume of the Camelat Series,
"Northern Studies," is by Mr. Edmund Gosse;
the latest volume of the Canterbury Series, "Great
Oder," has been selected and edited by Mr.
William Sharp (Walter Scott).
A new edition of "The Story of a Marriage," by
L. Baldwin, will appear immediately (Ward and
Downey).
"The Roll of the Highland Clans." This is a
sheet somewhat similar to "The Roll of Battle
Abbey," about 34 inches by 24 inches, on which is
an inner scroll bearing the names of the principal
cadets, the badge, and coloured specimen of the
Tartan of each Clan. It has been prepared by
Mrs. Philip Champion de Crespigny, and is sub-
scribed in a limited edition by Mr. Bernard
Quaritch, at a guinea.
Dr. Beattie Crozier, whose book, "Civilization
and Progress," met with such success last year, has
in hand a book dealing with the Labour Question.
The book will be a sequel to "Civilization and
Progress," and will be published by Messrs. Long-
mans & Co.
Mrs. Kennard has begun a new novel in London
Society, entitled "A Homburg Beauty." Her
story, "That Pretty Little Horse-breaker," will run
upon the Syndicate System with Mr. Tillotson, at
the end of this year.
"John Strange Winter " will also employ the Syn-
dicate System over her new novel. This will run
as a serial in various newspapers from September
to December.
Mr. H. J. B. Montgomery, author of "The
British Navy in the present Year of Grace," is
publishing some reminiscences of the Naval
Service in the Naval and Military Argus. These
will shortly appear in book form.
The names of subscribers to Mr. W. F. Smith's
"Rabelais " are rapidly coming in. It is expected
that the book will go to press almost immediately.
The agent for The Author is Mr. A. P. Watt.
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "A Conference of the
Powers," which appeared in The United Services
Magazine in this country, was also published
simultaneously in America, Australia, and India.
Mr. Bret Harte is engaged writing a short story
for a syndicate of newspapers.
Henry Herman is about to issue shortly
"Between the Whiffs" (Arrowsmith). The book is
a collection of theatrical anecdotes which have
appeared in various journals.
William Werlah is writing a fifty thousand word
romance for Lippincotfs Magazine, which will
probably appear in the August number. The
title of it is "Roy the Royalist." It is mainly a
romance of adventure, but in part historical. The
interest centres round the siege of St. Jean d'Acre
(1799), and among the characters introduced are
Bonaparte, Sir Sidney Smith, and Ahmed Dgezzar,
the famous Pacha of Syria.
## p. 54 (#74) ##############################################
54
THE AUTHOR.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Allincham, Herbert W., F.R.C.S. Treatment
of Internal Diseases of the Knee-joint. J. A.
Churchill and Co. i vol. 5s.
Archer, William. William Charles Macready.
Eminent Actor Series. Kegan Paul, Trench,
Triibner and Co. 1 vol. 2s. 6d.
Besant, Walter. Herr Paulus. Chatto and
Windus. 1 vol. 2s.
"Bickerdyke, John." The Book of the All-round
Angler. L. Upcott Gill. 1 vol. 5s. 6d.
Large Paper Edition. 25*.
Black, William. The Penance of John Logan.
Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 1 vol.
6s.
Blackmore, R. D. Mary Annesley. Cheap
Edition. Sampson Low. 1 vol. 2^.
Springhaven: a Tale of the Great War.
Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 1 vol. 6*.
Blind, Mathilde. The Journal of Marie Bash-
kirtseff. Cassell and Co. 1 vol.
Bramston, M., and Coleridge, C. R. Truth
with Honour. Smith and Innes. 1 vol. 5^.
Browning, Oscar. The Life of George Eliot.
1 vol. Walter Scott.
Calmour, A. C. Confessions of a Doormat. F. V.
White and Co. 1 vol. if.
Clifton, Alice. An Unwilling Wife. Reming-
ton and Co. 6.?.
Collins, Mabel. Ida; An Adventure in Morocco.
Smith, Elder and Co. 1 vol. is.
Cooke, C. W. Radcliffe, M.P. Four Years in
Parliament, with Hard Labour. A reprint,
with additions, of articles which have appeared
in The Times and National Rwiew. 1 vol.
W. H. Allen and Co.
Four Years in Parliament with Hard Labour.
W. H. Allen. 1 vol. 2s. 6d.
Copincer, W. A., F.S.A. A Treatise on Pre-
destination, Election, and Grace. Jas. Nisbet.
1 vol. 10s. 6d.
Crawford, T. Marion. Sarinesca. New Edition.
Messrs. Blackwood and Sons. 1 vol. 6s.
With the Immortals. New Edition. 1 vol.
Macmillan and Co.
Cunningham, Dr. W. Growth of English Indus-
try and Commerce, Early and Middle Ages.
Cambridge University Press.
Davies, Helen. For so Little. Swan Sonnen-
schein and Co. 1 vol. 6/.
Edwardes, Charles. Sardinia and the Sardes.
Richard Bentley and Son. 1 vol.
Erichsen, J. Eric, F.R.S. The Art of Surgery.
9th Edition. In 2 vols. Longmans and Co.
$2S.
Esler, E. Rentoul. The Way of Transgressors.
Sampson Low 3 vols. 3 if. 6d.
Ffoulkes, L. Florence. Sunlight and Shade:
Poems. Field and Tuer. 1 vol. 6s.
Frazer, J. G. The Golden Bough : a Study in
Comparative Religion. Messrs. Macmillan
and Co. 2 vols. 28^.
Garnett, Dr. Richard. Iphigenia in Delphi;
with some translations from the Greek, being
Vol. IV of the Cameo Series. T. Fisher
Unwin. 1 vol. 3s. 6d.
Gilchrist, R. Murray. Passion the Plaything.
William Heineman. 1 vol. 35. 6d.
Gosse, Edmund. On Viol and Flute: Lyrical
Poems. With frontispiece by L. Alma
Tadema, R.A., and tailpiece by Hamo
Thornycroft, R.A. Kegan Paul, Trench,
Triibner and Co. 1 vol. 6s.
Hake, Dr. J. Gordon. New Day Sonnets.
Remington and Co. 1 vol. $s.
Harland, Henry. Two Women or One. Cassell
and Co.
Hollingshead, J. Niagara Spray. Chatto and
Windus. 1 vol.
"H.R.H." Prince Maurice of Statland. Reming-
ton and Co. 1 vol. 6s.
Lothair's Children. Remington and Co. 1
vol. 6s.
Huxley, Prof. T. H., F.R.S., &c. Autobiography.
Swan Sonnenschein and Co.
Jennings, Hargrave (the late), author of The
Rosicrucians; their Rites and Mysteries. The
Indian Religion; or, Results of the Mysterious
Buddhism: concerning that also which is to
be understood in the Divinity of Fire. Kegan
Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co. 1 vol.
1 os. 6d.
Jusserand, J. J. (Hon. Member). The English
novel in the time of Shakespeare. Translated
by Elizabeth Lee. T. Fisher Unwin. 1 vol.
21S.
Keary, C. F. A Mariage de Covenance. T.
Fisher Unwin. 2 vols. 21s.
## p. 55 (#75) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
55
Kipling, Rudyard. The Story of the Gadsleys.
Sampson Low, Marston and Co. i vol
is.
Lankester, Prof. E. Ray, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.
The Advancement of Science. Macmillan
and Co. i vol. io*. 6d.
Lawless, Emily. With Essex in Ireland. Smith,
Elder and Co. i vol. 7.?. 6d.
Lely, J. M., and Geary, Nevill. Chitty on
Contracts. 12th Edition. Newly arranged
in 27 chapters, with much added matter, and
increased facilities for reference. Sweet Max-
well, Limited. 1 vol.
Lytton, Earl, G.C.B. The Ring of Amasis.
Macmillan and Co. 1 vol. 3*. 6d.
. McCarthy, Justin H., M.P. The French Revo-
lution. Chatto and Windus. Vol. I and II.
12s. each.
McCarthy, Justin, M.P., and Praed, Mrs.
Campbell. The Ladies' Gallery. 1 vol.
2s. 6d.
Mackail, J. W. The Eclogues and Georgics of
Virgil. Rivingtons. 1 vol. 5-r.
Martineau, Dr. James. The Seat of Authority in
Religion. Longmans and Co.
Middlemore, S. G. C. Civilization of the
Renaissance in Italy. A Translation of Buck-
hardt's work. 1 vol. Swan Sonnenschein and
Co.
Montgomery, H. J. B. The British Navy in the
present year of Grace. Hamilton, Adams
and Co. 3 vols. Price 6.r. each vol.
Morrison, W. D. The Jews under Roman Rule.
1 vol. 5s.
Murray, D. Christie, and Herman, Henry.
The Bishops' Bible. Chatto and Windus. 3
vols. 31s. 6d.
Nicoll, Dr. W. Robertson, and Macnicoll, A.
N. Prof. W. G. Elmslie, D.D., Memoirs and
Sermons. Hodder and Stoughton.
Oliphant, Mrs. The Duke's Daughter, and the
Fugitives. W. Blackwood and Sons. 3 vols.
31 s. 6d.
Payn, James. Notes from the "News." Chatto
and Windus. 1 vol. is.
Pollock, Sir Frederick, Bart. The Law of
Torts. Stephens. 1 vol.
"Rita." A Society Scandal. Trischler and Co.
Robinson, F. Mabel. Irish History for English
Readers. 4th Edition. Methuen and Co.
1 vol. If.
Robinson, F. Mabel. A Woman of the World.
Smith, Elder and Co. 3 vols. 31J. 6d.
The Plan of Campaign. Methuen and Co.
1 vol. 6s.
"Robert Browning." Personal Notes. Fisher
Unwin. 1 vol. 4.?. 6d.
Rossetii, William Michael. Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, as Designer and Writer. This book
is divided into four parts: (1), An account of
Rossetti's Works of Art under their dates; (2),
A similar account of his Writings; (3), A Prose
Paraphrase of The House of Life; (4), A
tabular list of his Art-work and Writings.
Cassell and Co.
Saunders,E. S. G. Jacob: a Poem. Y.M.C.A.
6d.
Seeley, Prof. J. R. Livy. Book I. Clarendon
Press. 6s.
Seton-Karr, H. W. Ten Years' Travel and
Sport in Foreign Lands. A New Edition
1 vol. Chapman and Hall. $s.
Stedman, A. M. M. Oxford: its Life and Schools.
Methuen and Co. 1 vol. 5J.
Toynbee, William. Lays of Common Life.
Remington and Co. 1 vol. 35. 6d.
Traill, H. D. Saturday Songs. W. H. Allen
and Co. 1 vol. $s. 6d.
Tytler, Sarah. French Janet. Smith, Elder
and Co. 1 vol. 2s.
Vallings, Harkold. The Quality of Mercy.
Gardner and Co. 2 vols. 21s.
Vaughan, Very Rev. C. J., Master of the Temple,
The Epistle to the Hebrews. Macmillan and
Co. 1 vol.
Walford, Edward, M.A. Tales of our Great
Families. Chatto and Windus. 1 vol.
y. 6d.
Westall, William. Strange Crimes. 5*.
"Winter, John Strange." Ferrers Court. F.
V. White and Co. 1 vol. is.
Dinna Forget. Trischler and Co. 1 vol.
is. 6d.
Mrs. Bob. New Edition. F. V. White and
Co. 1 vol. 2s. 6d.
Yonge, Miss Charlotte. The Reputed Change-
ling: a Story of the period of James II, and
William III. Macmillan and Co. 2 vols.
12s.
## p. 56 (#76) ##############################################
56
A D VER TISEMENTS.
"THE LITERARY HAJYDJWAID OF THE
CHURCH."
HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING.
NOW READY.
This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation' issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for
the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will
gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid
of the Church of England throughout the world."
The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide
honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as
illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of
the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps.
THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION,
BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A.
NEARLY READY.
This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to
show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to
say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The
different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced
which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.
## p. 57 (#77) ##############################################
A D VER TISEMEN IS.
57
MESSRS. WHITTAKER'S BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
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SOBRIQUETS AND NICKNAMES. By Albert
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ARGOT AND SLANG. A New French and English
Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms,
and Flash Phrases used in the High and Low Life of Old and New
Paris. By A. Bakkere, Officierde PInstruction Publique, Professor
R. M. Academy, Woolwich.
The work treats of the cant of thieves; the jargon rf Parisian
roughs; the military-, naval, parliamentary, academical, legal, and
freemasons' slang, of that of the workshop, the studio, the stage, the
boulevards, the demimonde.
A Companion to the Works op Allan Ramsay, R. Burns, Sir
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Just published* large post Bvo, cloth, 71. 6d., or half bound 8*. 6t£.
a dictionary of lowland scotch,
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and Humour of the Scottish language, and an appendix of Scottish
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sisting mostly of reprints of important papers from the "Quartelly
Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., K.C.M.O., F.R.S.,
D.C.L., LL.D., R.E. ; Col. Sir Charles Warren.G.C.M.G.,K.C.B.,
F.R.S., R.E.: Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont-
Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, &c. 1 vol.
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE.
With many Illustrations (hand-paintedl By Canon Tristram,
LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol.
THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio
of 50 Plates. By Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major
Conder, D.C.L., R.E. 1 vol.
THE MAPS.
An ninitmted Circular, giving all information about the above, will be
lent, post free, on application.
Published far the Palestine Exploration Fund by
Alexander P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C.
Sent, post free, upon application.
A Complete Catalogue of Works published by
MESSRS. BELL,
Containing the following Standard Works, which they
think will be found peculiarly suitable to Authors as
Works of Reference.
Bibliotheca Classica. 26 vols. (Onlyfewsetsleft).
Bohn's Dictionary of Poetical Quotations.
Fourth Edition.
Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and
Engravers. 2 volumes. New Edition, Revised. By
Walter Armstrong and others.
Cooper's Biographical Dictionary. 2volumes.
Denton's England in the Fifteenth Century.
Dodd's Epigrammatists. The most complete
work on Epigrams yet issued.
Gasc's Concise Dictionary of the French
and English Languages. Fourth Edition, Revised.
Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. 4 Volumes.
Guest's History of English Rhythms.
Lewin's Life and Epistles of St. Paul.
Illustrated. 2 volumes.
Long's Decline of the Roman Republic.
5 volumes.
Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of
English Literature. In 11 parts or 4 volumes.
Lupton's Life of Dean Colet.
Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the
English School.
Smith's Synonyms and Antonyms.
Sowerby's English Botany. 12 volumes.
Cloth, Half Morocco, and Whole Morocco.
Stevenson's Dictionary of Roman Coins.
(Republican and Imperial).
Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England.
8 volumes.
Webster's English Dictionary. In Cloth,
Half Calf, Calf or Half Russia, and Russia.
Webster's English Dictionary with Appen-
dices. Cloth, Half Calf, Calf or Half Russia, or Russia.
Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction.
Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Pro-
vincial English. 2 volumes.
The following Works are offered at Reduced Prices.
Archer's British Army.
Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Architecture. 3 vols.
Burn's Rome and the Campagna.
Burn's Old Rome.
Castle's Schools and Masters of Fence.
Davies's Supplementary English Glossary.
Dyer's Ancient Athens.
Palmer's Desert of the Exodus. 2 Volumes.
(Only 12 Copies left).
Palmer's Folk Etymology. (Only8ocopies left.)
Scrivener's Codex Bezae.
Smith's Synonyms Discriminated.
London: GEORGE BELL & SONS, York St., Covent Garden.
## p. 58 (#78) ##############################################
5S AD VER TISEMENTS.
TYPE-WRITING!
TO AUTHORS!
AUTHORS' MSS., LECTURES, SPEECHES,
ESSAYS, and REPORTS Copied at 1/3 per
1,000 Words.
MS. Type-written at ij- per 1,000. Duplicate
Copies 6d. per 1,000 (for over 10,000 words).
Plays from 5/- per act. Shorthand Writers and
Type-writers sent out to Hotels.
For further particulars write or call at—
TYPE-WRITING HEADQUARTERS,
Type-Writers Sold and Let on Hire.
38, KING WILLIAM STREET, E-C.
Booh and Jobbing Printers, and Lithographers.
THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOL OF SHORTHAND, Ltd.,
27, Chancery Lane, W.C.
Estimates given for all kinds ok Printing.
TELEPHONE NO. 2801. TELEGRAMS "SHORTHAND." LONDON.
MRS. OXXiIi,
Misses GILL & CARPENTER,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, EX.
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from
i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy
(carbon) supplied free of charge.
6, ADAM STREET,
References kindly permitted to many
well-known Authors and Publishers.
Further particulars on application.
STRAND, W.C.
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property.
2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright.
3. The promotion of International Copyright.
The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society acts as
follows:—
a. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of publishing.
ft. It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which are
injurious to their interests.
7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the hands
of unscrupulous traders.
f.. It publishes from time to time, books, papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its province.
6. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to the
pecuniary interest of their works.
WARNINGS.
Authors are most earnestly warned—
(1) Not to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part,
unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them.
(2) Not to enter into any correspondence with publishers, who are not recommended by experienced
friends, or by this Society.
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down to any one firm of publishers.
(4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society.
(5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the Society.
(6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice.
(7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a MS. has been refused by the well-known houses,
to pay small houses for the production of the work.
## p. 58 (#79) ##############################################
A D VER riSEMEN TS.
iii.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace
with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental
effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate
your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on.
The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as
such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the
cost of a Bar-Lock.
Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System.
CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED.
W. J. RICHARDSON k Co, 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St, E.C.
40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building,
Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance oi
Literary Property.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer^. 2.?. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4s. 6d.
S The History of the Socidte" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society. is.
6. The Cost Of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d.
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession willfollow.
## p. 58 (#80) ##############################################
IV.
AD VER TISEMENTS.
CHEAP PRINTING, A NECESSITY OF THE AGE!!!
Attention U called to the following important features of this Company:—
There is no Promotion Money to be paid. There is no Payment for Goodwill or Old and Worn-out Machinery and Plant.
There are no Founders' Shares, all the Profits belonging to tin Shareholders without preference or distinction
The ECONOMIC PRINTING & PUBLISHING COMPANY, Limited.
Incorporated under the Companies Acts, 1862 io 18S6.
O^.X*XT^.Z. - - - £100,000.
100,000 SHARES OK £1 EACH UPON WHICH IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT NOT MORE THAN ioj. PER SHARE WILL BE
CALLED UP AT PRESENT.
ISSUE OF 100,000 SHARES, payable as follows:-2s. Bd. per SHARE on APPLICATION, 2s. 6d. per SHARE on ALLOTMENT
Two Months' notice will be given oj subsequent Cells, -which are not Co excxfJ 3s. M. each.
DIRECTORS.
JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Esq., M.P., 20, Cheyne Gardens, S.W., Chairman.
JOSEPH HOULTON, Esq. (Messrs. Joseph Houlton & Co., Limited), Printers and Publishers, Worship Street, E.C.
A. MONTAGUE HAINES, Esq. (Messrs. Haines & Co.), 155, Fenchurch Street, E.C, and Lloyd's.
CAMPBELL PRAED, Esq., 30, Norfolk Square.
HENRY P. WELCH, Esq. (Messrs. Welch, Perrin, & Co.), 7, Mark Lane, E.C.
And one or two Directors to be chosen by the Board from the first Shareholders.
Bankers.—Messrs. WILLIAMS, DEACON & Co., 20, Birchin Lane, E C.; Messrs. PRAED & Co., 189, Fleet Street, E.C.
Solicitors.—Messrs. SAUNDERS, HAWK.SFORD, BENNETT, & Co., 68, Coleman Street, London, E.C.
Broker.—TAMES GILLISPIE, Esq., 11, Copthall Court, E.C, and Stock Exchange.
Auditors.—Messrs. PiXLEY it Co., Chartered Accountants, 24, Moorgate Street, E.C.
Architect.—WILLIAM DAWES, Esq., Manchester and London.
Secretary {pro />/».).—A. G. SYMONDS, Esq., M.A. Oxon. Registered Offices (pro tern.).—68, Coleman Street, London, E.C.
1'
I;,
PROSPECTUS.
The Company is formed for the purpose of engaging in the business of
cheap printing and publishing on a large scale. The demand for cheaper
books, magazines, and newspapers, is rapidly on the increase owing to
the spread of education and the growth of population. Hundreds of the
best serial publications and standard works are beyond the reach of the
masses by reason of their virtually prohibitive prices ; whilst the works of
specialists in the various scientific and learned professions find but a
limited field amongst those for whom they are intended, because the
purchasing of books, varying in price from six shillings to thirty shi lings
a volume, constitutes a severe tax on the fixed incomes of many pro-
fessional men.
Recent developments in printing machinery prove that cheap and
good books, magazines, and general literature is certainly attainable,
especially if modern plant and appliances be combined under one
administration and under one roof.
A Printing Establishment combining all the aforesaid requisites in one
set of hands, with abundance of the newest plant, and placed in the
position of a ready cash purchaser of paper, will be enabled to produce
printed literature—the greatest necessity of the age—cheaply and on a
large scale, and in a quarter of the time it would otherwise take to turn
out work.
Good printing or publishing houses, even in the worst times, are
hardly ever idle ; and the continuous high dividends declared by them
attest the solid and profitable nature of the printing and publishing
industry generally.
The following are the only firms whose Shares are quoted in the Stock
Exchange Official List, &c. :—
Ord. Share
Capital.
£363,890
j£toO|Coo ... 10 ... 10 ... 21
The Shares in these and other similar Companies are held in high
repute, and are difficult to obtain, the concerns being in some cases little
more than private family partnerships, from participation in the profits
of which both author*, customers, and the general public are shut out.
Accordingly, the Company will erect entirely new workshops on an
eligible site near London which the Directors have in view. Some of
the best modern printing works are now situated at Guildford, Aylesbury,
Redhill, Kingston, and other places outside I,ondon.
The Company's workshops will have good railway and cartage facilities.
They will be erected from the designs of Mr. William Dawes, Architect,
of Manchester and London. Their estimated cost is moderate, and the
buildings are designed on such a scale as will admit of gradual expansion
in sections as business grows. The first sec.ion can be open for business,
already promised, within a few monthi of the allotment of shares.
They will be fitted throughout with the electric li.-;ht, a great boon in
itself to compositors. As they will be new, great expenses for repairs
will be avoided; and, being practically fireproof, their insurance will be
at low rates.
No payments have been or will be mad-i for ' ooodvill' or promotion
money, or, in fact, initiatory charges of any kind other than the pre-
liminary expenses incident to the fonnatioq and successful establishment
of the Company.
The Directors believe that the value of the shares will at least equal
CasseU & Co., Limited ,
Waterlow Bros. & Lay ton
Limited ,
Num. value
uf Shares.
I*3iu* up.
9 ••
Market
Price.
those of the Companies mentioned above, and that there is every
probability of substantial dividends.
In the selection of the printing plant the Directors have taken into
consideration the fact that, whereas in all but one of the branches
connected with the printing of books and newspapers enormous
economies have in the past fifty years been effected, mainly through the
increased productive power of various machines, in -the one central and
essential branch, viz., the composing room, not only have the expenses
increased, but the modus operandi is almost as primitive as in the days
of Guthenberg and Caxton.
The Directors believe that the machine known as the Linotype Com-
posing Machine is capable of effecting the largest nett economies over
the present cost of type-setting by hand, and that by adopting it they
save a large capital outlay for type.
They have accordingly contracted for a supply of Linotype Machines
under special conditions, of which the following are among the most
important:
The rate of wages paid to ordinary compositors in London varies
m piece work from 8d. to tod. per 1,000ens of typeset up, corrected,
and distributed ; but the Linotype Company (Limited), agrees to
hire to the Economic Printing and Publishing Company Linotype
Composing Machines, and to charge a Royalty equal to only 2d. per
1,000 ens of matter set up, corrected, and automatically distributed.
When machines are unemployed, a small sum only is charged for
each working hour.
The Linotype Company also gives to this Company a monopoly
as regards the use of their machines for London and ten miles round,
subject only to certain exceptions.
To make the Company's operations partake as largely as possible of a
co-operative character, a percentage rebate off the ordinary printing
tariff" will be allowed to all authors who are shareholders in the Company,
and all employes will, as far as possible, be chosen first from amongst
the shareholders.
It is intended to apply to the Stock Exchange for a quotation.
The following contract has been entered into:
Contract dated the 3rd day of June, 1890, made between the Linotype
Company (Limited) of the one part, and A. G. Symonds, as trustee for
the Company, of the other part, being the contract referred to above.
The above is the only contract to which the Company is a party, but
arrangements have been made with other persons relating to the pre-
liminary expenses of formation of the Company, and procuring .capital
which may constitute contracts within the meaning of section 38 of the
Companies Acts, 1867; but applicants for shares shall be deemed to
waive their rights to specification of any particulars of such arrange-
ments or contracts, and to accept the above statements as sufficient
compliance with Section 38 of the Companies Acts, 1867.
The Memorandum and Articles of Association and the Contract men-
tioned above can be inspected by applicants for Shares at the Offices of
the Company's Solicitors.
Applications for Shares may he made by letter or on the prescribed
form, and forwarded, with a remittance for the amount of the deposit
payable on application, to the Bankers of the Company, or to the
Secretary, at the Office of the Company. If the whole amount applied
for by any applicant is not allotted, the surplus paid on deposits will be
credited to the sum due on allotment, and where no allotment U made
the deposit will be returned in full.
PROSPECTUSES AND FORMS OF APPLICATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT THE OFFICES OF THE COMPANY, OR OF EITHER OF THE
BANKERS, BROKER, OR SOLICITORS OF THE COMPANY.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westminster.
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 02 (June 1890)
Subject
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 02 (June 1890)
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1890-06-16-The-Author-1-2
publications
The Author
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https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/241/1890-07-15-The-Author-1-3.pdf
4619135617444e4073491561b013fcc6
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Volume
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3
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Vol. 1.–No. 3]
JULY 15, 1890.
.
[Price, Sixpence,
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Published for the Society Be
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
-
1890.
## p. 58 (#82) ##############################################
Berton, Sept 1yh1878 anse Mersands of letters.
Men. Marie, Todd & Co.
Jene t it as of our one
..... und and I hohe ou une
I have seus me of your
do the beat you can for it
frius, to have a point meuded . Though I have in the mean
rough Meu Hoshu, leurs : Trier bought another of qui
It. of Mencity.
Ton may like to know that shake - Corrugated mached C.
Thave and this yeu constantly
I do not know whether :
formure than twenty years,
que caus hin this testimonial
hine the days of a book of min
hot'I jul as if the fun when
called "The Automath of the
Breakfast talle "1857-8 mutie
. has cancied out to much of
muy thought and brought back
last Friday without repair and
always with herfect satisfaction To much in banin farms in
ehun was enlitted to this
I have written with in halfa
- Certificat of hinnata tecnica
dozen or more volumes, a
lange number of Ennys de
Mira Wordleli Hermes
ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
## p. 59 (#83) ##############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 3.]
JULY 15, 1890.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
News and Notes ...
"The Literary Handmaid of the Church"
The German Society of Au-hors
A Hard Case, No. Ill
La Federation du Livre
Unauthorized Publication of Sermons—
I. Note by W. Morris Colles
II. Note by F. P
III. IV. Letters reprinted from the Times by the Bishop
Peterborough {by permission)
The Inauthorated Corpses
Leaflet No. III.—On Paying for Publication
of
Questions, Cases, and Answers
A Personal Experience
Chestnut Bells Encore. By Charles G. Leland
The Queen's English. By Oswald Crawfurd ...
The Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury
The Pensions of the Year
A New Guide to Books
Mr. Bainton on Himself
At Work
New Books and New Editions
Advertisements
PAGE
... 7«
... 78
... 79
... 79
... 80
... 82
... 8a
83
... 84
... 85
... 86
NEWS AND NOTES.
TH F. Council of the Society has been strength-
ened by the accession of the following
names: — Lord Brabourne, Sir Henry
Bergne, K.C.M.G., Messrs. Alfred Austin, R. D.
Blackmore, James Bryce, W. Martin Conway, P. W.
Clayden, Oswald Crawfurd, Marion Crawford, Eric
Erichsen, G. R. Sims, and Edmund Yates. Of
these gentlemen Mr. W. Martin Conway joins the
Committee of Management.
The Third Annual Dinner of the Society was
held on Tuesday, July 8th. The Chair was taken
by Prof. Jebb. There were 200 present on the
occasion. A full report will be presented with the
next number.
A lady who wishes to be anonymous has offered
to present to the Committee the sum of ^30
annually for three years, to be expended in such a
manner as may appear to be for the best interests
of Literature. This offer of pecuniary assistance
is a new thing of this year. It shows that the
work of the Society is being understood and ap-
preciated. Another sign of advancing opinion is
that on the foundation of The Author a good many
members came forward to give it a start. It isastound-
ing how much may be effected even in such a Society
as ours by means of the little cheque. We have never
yet gone begging, but . Meantime, there would
be no pecuniary anxieties if we had two thousand
members instead of six hundred, and if everybody
would remember the modest annual obligation.
Amid the general mingled chorus of denunci-
ation, exasperation, disappointment, satire, and dis-
gust, caused by the loss of the International Copy-
right Bill, there has hitherto been lacking—what it
specially behoves The Author to supply—some
recognition of the noble efforts made by the leading
men, the men of culture, in the Eastern States.
These men have never rested, and are still active,
in advocating by every means in their power the
passage of the Bill. They include all the authors
of America, all the honourable publishers, and a
great number of editors. The opponents of the Bill
are the ignorant Western farmers, who know nothing
about literature, literary property, authors' rights,
or anything else except their own local interests.
The education of these men is a slow process; they
take a great deal of time to grasp new ideas; the
existence of authors is not suspected by them ; the
existence of authors' rights is absolutely unknown
to them. But they are gradually being educated.
Let us consider our own case before we throw
stones at the Americans. It is now five years since
vol. 1.
E
## p. 60 (#84) ##############################################
6o
THE AUTHOR.
this Society began its endeavours to educate the
British world into the perception of the fact that
there is such a thing as literary property and that
it is a very real thing. We are not Western farmers.
Yet we have not learned to grasp this one central
fact any more than these honest members of Con-
gress. Still the old ideas cling; still those who talk
of literary property as if it was a real thing, like
turnips, are regarded as madmen. Still the leading
articles talk of the dangers and uncertainties of
publishing. Still the old belief remains, that authors
must take whatever their employers choose to bring
them; still that old Bogey, "Risk," is trotted out to
frighten us; still men continue to talk about the
"generosity " of their publishers—as if writers were
beggars, humbly holding out their hands for doles,
instead of honest men demanding their just share
in the proceeds of the work of their hand and brain.
These ideas will slowly pass away. But meantime
since they linger in this country, and are every day
traded upon for their own purposes by interested
persons, we cannot be surprised at an equal ignorance
among the narrow-minded and half educated people
who form the greater part of Congress.
Consider, again, a special case, recent and
treated further on in these columns. There is a
certain great Society called the Society for Promot-
ing Christian Knowledge. Its President is the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury: its Vice-Presidents are
other Archbishops and Bishops: its Publication
Committee are all clergymen.
Now, not one of these illustrious men seems as
yet to have grasped the simple truth that an author
may be sweated as well as a needlewoman; and
that in the purchase of literary property there are
elementary laws of morality based on the Eighth
Commandment. Not one, so far as I know, up to
the present moment of writing, when their Society
has been called upon to compare its methods of
publishing with these simple principles of truth and
equity, and has, so far, by its silence, refused to do
so, has boldly declared that he will no longer pre-
side—or vicariously preside—over a great Corpora-
tion, which, unless certain ugly allegations can be
explained, seems to be little better than a Society
of Sweaters for the greater glory of Christ.
With this illustration before them can the authors
of Great Britain expect from an ignorant Western
farmer a keener thirst for righteousness than they
have found at home among the Societies of the
Anglican Church?
As for what is said on International Copyright
by newspapers in the Eastern States, read the
enclosed from the New York Evening Post. It
refers to the pirated edition of the "Encyclopaedia
Britannica."
"A certain man went from Edinburgh to America
and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his
sheets, and electrotyped him, and departed, leaving
him half dead. And a certain Doctor of Divinity
passed by on the other side; and when he saw him
he went over, and came where he was, and said
unto him: 'How is it with thee, my friend?'
And he answered him: 'I am in sore distress,
for that I have been robbed of nearly all that I
possess.' And the Doctor of Divinity spake and
said: 'My heart is heavy for thee, my friend; but
hast thou yet anything left?' And he answered
him again, saying: 'Yea, the half of what I had is
left me; but I am in fear least my enemy return
and carry off the rest!' 'Nay,' said the man of
God, 'but if others are to have a cast at thee, I
may as well come in for my share; but, for that I
have great compassion on thee, I will leave thee
a portion of what these wicked men have spared.'
And, so saying, he took what pleased him of the
man's goods, and having preyed upon him, gave
him his blessing and went and prayed in the
temple. Likewise a certain Pharisee, who was
also a haberdasher and a man of letters, passed
that way, voyaging from Washington by way of
Philadelphia; and he came and looked on the man
and saw that he was helpless, and heard his groans.
And he also inquired of him what ailed him; and
when he had heard his story he beat his breast and
cried aloud: 'This is flat burglary, to take all that
thou hast, and to leave next to nothing for me!
Verily, I must protect myself against such wicked-
ness, and must circumvent the doers thereof; since
it is expected of me that when circumventing is to
be done, I shall be there!' And with that he
seized on the balance of the man's stock, and
blessed him in the name of his peculiar god, and
went his way. But a certain Government having
on his breast a breastplate whereon was writ in
letters of gold, 'In God We Trust,' came where
the man was, and when he saw him, he had com-
passion on him, and went to him, and opened his
wounds, and rubbed into them salt and vinegar,
and set him on a wild ass of the desert, and put a
bunch of nettles under the tail of the beast, and
cried unto the man: 'Away with thee, thou
foreigner! What rights hast thou that I need
respect? I care not twopence for thee or thy
wrongs; and if ever thou darest come again, I will
repay thee!"'
In another place will be found a letter from Mr.
Bainton on the subject of what he is pleased to call
a " stab in the dark." Everybody else thinks that
it has been a stab in the open. But never mind,
## p. 61 (#85) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
61
The point and moral of the correspondence to the
readers of The Author should be that in future they
should not allow themselves so easily to be drawn.
Why should authors alone, of all professions, be
asked to explain their methods? Why should they,
when they are asked, be so ready to reply? For
my own part, I fell into the trap, like my neighbours,
but fortunately wriggled out again and did not
explain my methods. In future, let us behave with
greater reticence. Now what would be thought
if some enterprising gentleman were to write to
all the barristers in practice in the following
terms ?—
Dear Sir,
I must speak at last. There comes a time when
silence is culpable. I have long" considered you
the most eloquent orator as well as the most accom-
plished and learned lawyer that at present adorns
the Outer or the Inner Bar. I read nothing at
all but your speeches; my wife reads nothing at all
but your speeches. She takes them after early
dinner, with a nap; moreover, I have for a long
time given my mother-in-law, who lives with us,
and is now in declining spirits, nothing at all to
read but your speeches; my children learn your
speeches by heart. My youngest—Teeny Wheeny,
three—is now learning her alphabet out of your
speeches. They are, in fact, deeply alphabetic. I
am going to give a little lecture—just a little lecture
—to one or two young people. I wish to call my
lecture the "Art of Demosthenes, or the Ciceronian
Bag of Tricks." I desire above all things to
strengthen it by a description of your own Bag of
Tricks, oratorical and legal. Will you therefore
kindly tell me where you picked up your method of
oratory, and how you manage to seem to know so
much law?
I remain, Sir,
Your obedient admirer and respectful
worshipper,
Theophilus Swipe.
Now who would expect a barrister to answer
this letter, or to take the least notice of the writer?
Vet the authors, when they receive a similar letter,
reply all together en masse, without, apparently, any
exception.
There was, I learn, an exception. It was an
American man of letters, and one of great distinction.
He positively did not reply. It is not generally
known that a certain fable of ^isop referring to a
fox and a crow and a piece of cheese, was written
for authors, who have so far failed to observe the
moral. The following is a close translation of the
fable in its first form.
Amid the leaves—the leaves of bay—■
The leaves they use for crowns—
The author sat, the livelong day,
Above the common clowns;
Well skilled was he the crafty rhyme
And artful plot to mix;
And in his hand he held, meantime,
His precious Bag of Tricks.
"Oh! Master, Master, greatest, first—"
He heard, and blushed to hear—
"All other bards with envy burst—
I've seen 'em—that I swear.
Day in, day out, the week about,
Thy great works through and through,
I read and read—I do, indeed;
So do my children too.
"Tell me, sweet author, whom I love—
Ah !head so fitly crowned!
Thy place so rightly set above,
The bay leaves circling round!—
Tell me, sweet author, if thou wilt,
Oh! condescend to tell-
How are thy tales romantic built?
How canst thou rhyme so well?
"Thy art, thy secret, and thy craft,
Confide—confide to me."
The author smiled—the author laughed;
Yet never a word said he.
"Oh! by the crown of glory grand
That on thy pale brow sticks"
That crown to feel, he raised his hand
And dropped his Bag of Tricks!
There is no moral to this fable in the original.
But La Fontaine's will do—
"Mon bon Monsieur,
Apprens que tout flaneur
Vit aux depens de celui qui lecoute.'
The Daily News, which has always been on the
alert to watch any step in the movement for
International Copyright, reportsadecision which may
lead to very valuable results. It was delivered on
June 25th, by Judge Shipman, of the United
States Circuit Court. Three suits were begun some
time ago by Messrs. A. and C. Black, cf Edinburgh,
and the Scribners, their American agents, against an
American firm which had published a pirated
edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" from
photographic plates, charging infringement of the
American copyright laws because the republication
contained articles written by Americans and copy-
righted in this country by them. The defendants
entered demurrers based on the general ground
VOL. I.
E 2
## p. 62 (#86) ##############################################
62
THE A UTHOR.
that the publishers of the "Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica," in employing American authors to treat of
American topics and then publishing their articles
under copyright, thereby laid a trap for the American
public and American publishers, and therefore a
court of equity could not interfere to protect such
a fraud. Judge Shipman overruled the demurrers,
and declared that the assignments in no way
permitted other parties to infringe authors'
copyrights. This decision has been hailed with
delight by the advocates of International Copyright,
who regard it as the most serious check the piratical
publishers have yet had. There are three photo-
graphic editions of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica"
now selling at about a seventh of the price of the
authorized edition. The decision is likely to alarm
the publishers, since, if sustained in further
judgments, Messrs. A. and C. Black will bring suits
against them for heavy damages.
"I have never yet had any disagreement with
my publisher," said a well-known man of letters
the other day. "Therefore, I have not joined the
Society." The remark and the inference alike
illustrate a common disposition to look on the
Society as one which exists for the purpose of patch-
ing up or even of creating quarrels and grievances
with publishers. That is not the case, of course,
only one is well-nigh tired of repeating the fact.
It suits certain persons who regard us with natural
hostility to keep this delusion alive. The Society
has no quarrel with publishers as such, and never
has had any. It maintains continually that the
services which publishers render to Literature are
solid, and must be substantially paid for. The
Society exists, however, mainly for the purpose of
maintaining the rights, the sacredness, and the
reality of Literary Property. Therefore it fights
the battle of all authors, and should be supported
by all who approve of its principles.
Briefly, they are these :—
(1) Literary property is created by the author,
and belongs at the outset to him.
(2) Literary property must be held as sacred as
any other kind of property.
(3) Literary property is ruled by the demand for
a book just as colliery property means the
sale of the output. And as the value of a
colliery depends first on the output in tons
and their price, so the value of a book can
only be estimated with reference to the
number of copies sold.
(4) The author must not part with his property
without due consideration, nor without
understanding exactly what possibilities, as
well as what certainties, he gives and what
he receives.
(5) What the author is entitled to, is, after pay-
ment of the cost of production and the
publisher's agency and labour, all the remain-
ing proceeds. This proportion of the returns
is the property which he has to sell for a
lump sum down, or to receive year by year.
(6) The publisher has to be remunerated for his
agency and labour out of the returns of the
book in a certain proportion, which should
be a fixed proportion recognised by both
contracting parties and understood by both.
These principles have long been recognized by
the French after a good fight, carried on by the
Socie'te des Gens de Lettres, an association of
which ours is a successor and an imitator. But how,
it may be asked, if publishers will not agree to the
adoption, once for all, of an equitable arrange-
ment? It is the task of the Society to create
such a consensus of opinion on the subject as
will cause all houses which desire to maintain a
good name to fall in with the Society's views. It
will also cause all authors of ability and reputa-
tion to insist upon equitable agreements. How, it
may be asked again, about the unfortunate begin-
ners and those who have no name? The scheme
to be put forward by the Society will cover their
case as well. But they must, first of all, be protected.
And for this reason our pages are full of stories of
the scoundrels who deceive and rob the literary
beginner. Consider. Is there to be no protection
for the weak? Is a pickpocket to get off with
impunity because he has only stolen a girl's purse?
The Council of this Society does not hold that
opinion.
There are many who still maintain that sharks
and thieves should be free to do as they please—
devour and destroy—rob and lie with impunity,
because ignorant and young literary aspirants
ought to take care of themselves, and because
most of their work is rubbish. In no branch of
the industrial community should thieves be per-
mitted to exist. And even if good quality of work
were to be the condition of protection, we should
have to protect a whole hundred because one of
them—an unknown one—may have in him the gift
of authorship. As a curious illustration of the
growing change in opinion on this subject, it may
be mentioned that in one of the most popular penny-
papers of the day, a paper which circulates by
the hundred thousand, there lately appeared an
article on " Bogus Publishers," written by one who
knows the gentry and has served under them.
The article might have been written in this office,
## p. 63 (#87) ##############################################
THE A UTHOR.
63
so true it is, and so complete in its details. Was it
conscience or was it revenge which forced this ex-
perienced person to reveal the secrets?
"We have taken your new MS. on the old terms,"
said a certain small publisher recently. "Of course,
however, you will not join the Society of Authors.
In fact, we put a black mark against the name of
every member of that Society." The writer of that
work is a member. If this remark has been made to
anybody else, let me hasten to point out that if this
publisher were to put all the black marks he has got
against all the names of all the authors, no harm
whatever would be done because in such a case
we should immediately find other publishers who
would do the work of production and distribution
quite as well, and in this case perhaps much better.
Fortunately the public cares nothing who publishes
a book; it is concerned solely with the contents.
Plenty of men—hundreds and thousands of men—
are willing and anxious to step into any trade by
which they can make money. But to the marker in
black—the black marker—we would point out very
seriously that the Society itself can do a great deal
more harm to a publisher than he can do to any
individual member. We are now, he should under-
stand, by no means a small, harmless, or a feeble
body.
One does not like even the appearance of boast-
fulness, but the following little fact illustrates some-
thing approaching to power. There is a certain firm
in this city of which it is sufficient to say that all the
worst things ever alleged against the publishing
trade maybe brought together, and, with the greatest
truth, alleged against this particular firm. We have
for a long time kept work out of their hands, and
we intend to go on doing so until they mend their
ways. It was reckoned the other day, by one who
has had the chief conduct of this business, that in
the space of eighteen months or two years over
,£2,000 worth of work has been kept from these
people, and that without reckoning on the chance
of a big success among the authors kept from them.
Now as writers learn more and more to distrust their
own ignorance and to seek advice of those who
know as to whom they should trust, this branch of
our business will naturally increase and multiply.
My statement in last month's Author that there
are fifty men and women who make a thousand a
year by writing novels has been questioned. I
have, therefore, taken the trouble to draw up a
list, which, however, must not, for obvious reasons,
be published. I find that I can enumerate almost
off-hand more than fifty—Americans and English
—who are called novelists by the world, and make
over a thousand a year by writing, though the whole
income may be sometimes derived from other kinds
of literary work. I know the facts partly from ex-
perience acquired in the offices of the Society,
partly from information. A note in the St. James's
Gazette asks whether these works are worth the
money. This question denotes some confusion of
ideas. For what is the actual worth of a book?
You cannot measure it at all by money. A suc-
cessful novelist is one who holds the attention,
commands interest, awakens emotions, amuses or
terrifies, calls up tears or laughter, and brings
brightness into millions of dull lives. This great
power is not to be valued by money at all. If the
St. James's critic asks whether the books really
produce by their sale all this money, that is a very
different question. They really do—and a very
great deal more.
Here is an interesting little proposal. A
"Graduate of Oxford," modestly hiding his philan-
thropic name, has conceived a theory that there are
many poets, as yet unrecognized, who would like
their "best" verses—only their best, mind—to be
published. He invites them, therefore, to send
him two or three short poems not exceeding in all
120 lines. With their best verses is to be forwarded
a guinea. In return the contributor will receive two
copies of a handsome volume in which—oh! Joy
and Glory!—his own best verses will appear. It
will be like bringing out the best china, or wearing
the best clothes, or sleeping in the best bed room, all
these things being among the innocent pleasures of
our ancestors. "These," will say the glorified bard,
"are my best verses; others I have, second best,
for home consumption, and even third best, for
washing day, but these are my best."
If the poet is to be made happy, what shall be
said of the benevolent Graduate? His handsome
volume contains, we will suppose, 20 sheets, or
320 pages, with, at the rate of three pages apiece,
107 contributors. He must print 214 copies at
least. The cost of the volume will be about ,£35.
Grateful to their Graduate, the poets will contribute
^107. Net profit to the Graduate (besides
gratitude, warmth of heart, and glow of virtue)
^72. Who will say that he is overpaid?
The Society does not, as a rule, work for people
whojare not members, but there are occasions on
which it is necessary to break this rule. One such
occurred the other day when a young writer
sent up a grievous case. He had been writing
steadily for a certain firm, until their obligations
amounted to a considerable sum. He therefore
## p. 64 (#88) ##############################################
64
THE AUTHOR.
wrote for a cheque. He received no answer. He
wrote again—and again. There was still no answer.
He wrote therefore to the Society. The firm were
informed that if they preferred legal proceedings to
paying their just debts, they could have them.
They preferred, however, paying the author in full,
with the statement that they had not received more
than one letter of application. Now the firm will
probably never take any more work from the young
man. But this is the very best thing that could
possibly happen to him. He will now try to get
employed by some firm which does pay.
I give, after these notes, a brief resume of a
pamphlet addressed to the Publication Committee
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
I have received other instances of their treatment
of authors, even more flagrant than those quoted
in the pamphlet. No answer has been vouch-
safed to this pamphlet either by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the President of the Society, or by the
Publication Committee. As this worthy body
will not meet till October, further action in the
matter is deferred until then, when I hope to
parade a few more facts to delight the world with
the "Christian" methods of dealing with other
people's property.
—*
Among the " warnings " which we publish every
month in Tlie Author, and every year in the
"Annual Report," is one which cautions writers
against signing any agreement, in which the alleged
cost of production forms an integral part, without
consulting the Society. A little circumstance
which happened a year or two ago, and was related
to me the other day by a very well known man of
letters, illustrates the necessity for this warning.
It is what mathematicians call an extreme case—
that is to say, we have never at the Society come
across one quite so "extreme." Here it is :—A
person had produced a MS. on a certain subject
which she—it was a lady—wished to publish. She
accordingly took it to a man whom she believed
honest, and asked him if he would produce it. He
agreed to do so if she would pay the whole cost of
production. He sent an estimate of this. It
amounted, according to his showing, to £120 for
so many copies. She showed the estimate to a
friend, who submitted the MS. to a printer. He
offered to print and bind as many copies for the
sum of ^16—of course it was a very short manuscript.
This was done and the work published. We have
often seen the "cost of production" set down at
double. But to multiply the actual cost by seven
and a half shows an amount of enterprise which we
could not previously expect.
Waltlr Besant.
"THE LITERARY HANDMAID OF
THE CHURCH."
THIS pamphlet appeared in the third week
of June. A copy has been sent to the
President and all the Vice-Presidents of the
Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.
The following is an abridgment of its contents :—
"The Publication Committee of the Society for the Promo-
tion of Christian Knowledge, in their Report for last year,
announce that they will 'gladly receive any suggestion'
which may enable them to make * the venerable Society
the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of Eng-
land throughout the world.'
"A Publication Committee has to do with Literary Property.
It is therefore desirable first of all to lay down certain pre-
liminary observations on the nature of Literary Property.
"(I.) First of all, it is very real property; it has its fluctua-
tions, like corn, wine, and any other property; but it is a
species of property which enables a few hundreds to live in
great comfort, plenty, and luxury, and a great many thousands
to live simply and carefully.
"(2.) Literary property is subject to the laws w hich protect
all property. The simplest and the most comprehensive of
all these laws is the Eighth Commandment, ' Thou shalt not
steal.'
"Applied to literature and addressed to Publishers, Publish-
ing Societies, and Publication Committees, this Command-
ment is thus to be interpreted: 'Thou shalt not cheat the
author while buying his work from him; thou shalt not pay
the workmen a price which will reserve for thyself the principal
profit ; thou shalt remember that the work is his—his the
design of it, his the invention, the fancy, the imagination,
the learning, the brain, and the hand of it. It is not thine
at all. If it becomes thine it must be by an equitable agree-
ment, which shall give thee only a fair reward for labour
done, and leave to him all the rest.' In no other way can
this Commandment be read and interpreted by a conscien-
tious Publication Committee.
"(3-) What is the value of a book? Clearly it is the price
which it will fetch in the market. That is say, it depends
upon the number of copies which the public will buy. An
author, therefore, can claim his reward solely with reference
to that number, and a publisher, can, equitably, make his
offer of remuneration only with reference to that number.
"(4.) The publisher is an agent ; he must be paid for his
agency in managing, distributing, and collecting, out of the
proceeds of the lxx>k. For his trouble he is entitled to a
reasonable percentage on the proceeds.
"For example, if a publisher gives an author £yi for a book
out of which he makes a nett profit of £100, knowing, or
reasonably expecting, that he is going to make that, or some
similar amount, he may be a successful trader, but he must
lie classed as a sweater and a robber in the eyes of honour-
able men, and especially of a Society which exists for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge. For if Christian Know-
ledge be not promoted on Christian principles, then were it
better not to be promoted at all. The author may never
know that he has been robbed. But the fact remains. The
Eighth Commandment still hangs upon the wall."
The pamphlet then goes on to speak of the four
kinds of publishers.
"First, the upright, or perfect publisher. He, sensitive and
lender of conscience, will not take from an author one penny
more than is his own just due. lie has settled with his
conscience what he should lie paid for what he has done, and
## p. 65 (#89) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
65
he will lake no more. If he pays an author a sum of money
down, it is considered by this person only as an advance on
what may become due to him afterwards if his work succeeds.
He will not publish bad work, or work that will not succeed.
To have that publisher's name at the foot of a title-page is a
hallmark of excellence. To be in his hands is to rest easy in
the assurance that he will do the best for the book and be
honest, that is, just, with the author.
"Where is that publisher to be found? Surely, we should
look for him first in the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. It is a Society whose President is the
Primate of all England ; whose Vice-Presidents are all the
Archbishops and Bishops; whose General Literature Com-
mittee contains nine clergymen out of twelve members; and
whose three Secretaries are also Clergymen.
"There, if anywhere, should we expect to find the upright
publisher.
"The second kind of publisher is he who belongs to a house
well established and desirous to be considered as honourable.
The distinction, let us remember, between the 'honourable'
houses and those which are not honourable is well known and
perfectly understood by all who have studied the business of
publishing. Now when we divide publishing houses into
those which are honourable and those which are dishonour-
able, there cannot, surely, be a doubt or a question on which
side we ought to place the Literature Department of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge—the 'Literary
Handmaid of the Church.' The gentlemen who form the
Publication Committee shall themselves, if they please,
when they have inquired into the conduct of their own
business, answer that question, each in turn, after the manner
of the House of Lords, every man his hand on his heart—
'Upon my Honour.'
"The third class is that of the knavish publisher. These
gentry, of whom there are many, are those who rob and
cheat the ignorant author in every account that they produce,
who chea-t and lie in their statements of the cost of produc-
tion, of t he sums spent in advertising, in the moneys they
have received, and, in fact, in every way that can suggest
itself to the ingenuity of man.
"The fourth class is that of the sweating publisher.
"The Select Committee of the House of Lords, on the
sweating system, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury,
President of the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, was a member, reports that the first evil of the
sweating system is 'A rate of wages inadequate to the
necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the work
done.' Let us accept this definition, and apply it to this
class of publishers.
"The sweating publisher, then, is one who grinds down the
faces of his unfortunate authors, who offers a miserable sum
for work which is going to bring him in a hundredfold
profit—who scruples not to toss an author a ten-pound
note for his labour, and without a pang of shame or
remorse makes ^50 or .£100 or £$oo profit for himself;
who knows no law but the cruel law of supply and demand,
and recognises no other right in an unfortunate author
but his right to receive meekly the highest sum that he can
obtain.
"There are many of these people abroad. They deal
largely with the productions of women. The sweater, it is
well known, works more comfortably by means of women.
They are helpless, they are ignorant of business, they are
yielding; if they cannot be frightened they can be cajoled.
And literary women, again, are timid about their own work,
not knowing what amount of stability they have achieved
or what is the extent of their popularity. Therefore the
sweater can do what he pleases with them. If they venture
gently to remonstrate, he bullies them; if they weep and
entreat, he threatens. He enjoys making them feel that he
is their master; he is never so happy as when he has them
at his feet, humiliated and submissive. The sweater is always
a bully as well as a sweater.
"He has got all kinds of excuses for his sweating. His first
excuse—in fact, the words are seldom out of his mouth—is
that there is perfect freedom of contract between himself
and his authors. 'It is take it or leave it. Here is a sum
of money, there is the MS.' That is all. There is no other
consideration.
"Freedom of contract! It is freedom of contract w hen the
wretched seamstress toils all day long—a day of sixteen
hours—for 11 hi.—or less. She is free to take it or to leave it.
It is freedom of contract when the poor woman who writes
for her bread submits a manuscript which has cost her weeks
and months of labour; yes, and that of a kind which requires,
before it can be produced, a pure heart, a lofty soul, a brain
rich with knowledge and a-glow with ideas, fancies, and a
imaginings, and a trained hand. Such a woman is a most
precious gift and blessing to the generation in which she
lives and works. She may lie a most potent force in the
advancement of humanity. But she is also a most sensitive,
and delicate instrument. And she has to deal with a sweater!
She goes to him trembling, because she knows what to expect.
He will toss her j£\0, £20, ^30, £$o, whatever it may be.
And out of her book he will make to himself a profit of ten,
twenty, fiftyfold.
"Freedom of contract! No greater mockery, no greater
cruelty than to speak of such a woman driven to such
necessities, as free to choose—free to accept or to reject.
She is not free, she is the slave of the sweater."
After these preliminary considerations, the
pamphlet quotes three several cases and describes
the treatment received by the author in each, and
the sums received.
In the first of these cases the Society bought,
outright, the copyright of a small biographical
work for the stupendous sum of £12! There was
also a promise, as affirmed by the author, of future
payment should the book prove "a success."
\Vhat constitutes a success? The book is now in
its seventh thousand—perhaps by this time in its
eighth or ninth. The Secretary, while denying the
promise, owns in his letters to a profit of about six
times that of the author! This he states without
a word of shame. Just as if it was a right and
proper thing, a thing in accordance with the highest
Christian ethics, that the Society should make this
enormous proportion of profit!
In a second case, the author, a lady, wrote ten
books for the Society. She received, on an average,
£50 a-piece for them. They were historical books
and works of fiction. Taking one of the books as
an example, it is shown that if 6,000 copies have
been sold this just and generous Society has made
a profit of about ^330 to the author's £50, i.e.,
£Z2> 5s- > so that taking the whole ten books the
profits of this Christian Society seem to stand at
the figures of ,£2,739 10 ^4rS—tne actual sum—
given to the author.
Who are the authors who write for this Society?
"I turn next to the list of authors. Setting aside the
clergymen who have written religious books and still keeping
to the department of belles lettres and fiction, I find among
the writers hardly one single name of those who at present
## p. 66 (#90) ##############################################
66
THE AUTHOR.
stand in the first rank, of those in the second rank'half a
dozen. The rest are wholly unknown and obscure. Why is
this? Why does not this venerable Society, with its enormous
prestige, its immense clientele, its unparalleled power of selling
books, command the services of the best writers? Have all
the authors of Great Britain and Ireland abandoned the
Kaith of their Fathers? No bruit or rumour of so deplorable
an apostacy has reached my ears. How, then, can we
account for their absence?
"Is not the reason proclaimed—shouted aloud—by the facts
quoted above? Does the needlewoman continue in her
bondage when she has found a door of escape? Does she
return to her old employer unless she is compelled by famine?
"Let us, however, consider another imaginary scene. I see
before me a Society which has a department devoted to the
publication of books of all kinds; it defends, in the first in-
stance, the tenets and doctrines of the Christian religion, and
in the second place those of the Church of England. Besides
these books it publishes, on terms and methods prepared
with the most scrupulous attention to justice and righteous
dealing, a vast mass of general literature. It is an honour to
write for the Society ; it is a voucher of the value of the work,
only to have the name of the Society on the title-page; no
books have so wide a circulation. Hither come the historians,
the scholars, the poets, the essayists, the novelists, the writers
on science, art, music, everything. All the best men
come to this Society. Its corpus of literature contains all
that is best and noblest of the work of each generation.
Those who are authors by profession long to get into the lists
of the Society. If a clergyman of the Church writes such a
lxx>k as Farrar's ' Life of Christ,' it is to the Society that
he goes with it quite naturally, and as if it was the only thing
to do. If another writes such a book as Green's ' History
of the People,' it is to the Society that he offers it. If a
novelist has a finished work, it is to the Society that he takes
it. This Society leads all other publishers, and is an example
for them; fair and honourable dealing is rendered necessary
to all by the bright and shining example of the 'Literary
Handmaid of the Church.' Nor is the money received the
only thing. This Society, while it continues to defend the
Church, regards literature from a broad and comprehensive
point of view. The Church is better served by those who
write for men, than by those who write for girls."
This "Reply" to the invitation of the Publica-
tion Committee of the S.P.C.K. has created
a certain amount of interest, as was to be ex-
pected from the nature of the subject and the
position of the venerable Society concerned. The
principles laid down in the pamphlet as to the
Ethics of Publishing are simple, and will probably
command general acceptance by all but persons
interested in keeping up the old fictions.
Among other letters received upon the subject is
one from a Bishop which so remarkably and so
fully (though in small space) illustrates a common
attitude of mind that I venture to quote from it.
His Lordship writes as follows :—
(i) "I do not find any reason to suppose that
the publishing department of the S.P.C.K..
act otherwise than other publishers."
One is sorry, indeed, that the Bishop thinks
so badly of other publishers. The pamphlet
shows some of the prices given by the S.P.C.K.
and some of the profits made out of the unfortu-
nate authors. Now, the good Bishop would boil
with indignation were he to read or hear of
sweaters in other trades. Yet he can find no tear,
no sympathy, for the sufferings of the man or woman
who writes and is sweated.
(2) "Nor am I convinced that there is any
injustice in a publisher who has purchased
an author's copyright making a larger
profit on the particular work than he seems
to have paid for. All publishers risk losses
by books that do not pay, and take their
chance of profit or loss. The author will
not share the loss. He has made his own
bargain and receives the money. I do not
see that he is entitled to claim a share in
the gain unless indeed that is part of the
bargain."
The Bishop has here confused two or more
points of importance which should have been kept
separate. Let us divide the word.
a. No risk need ever be incurred by the S.P.C.K.
Let us repeat this over and over again, be-
cause of all the Bogies, Spectres, and Ghosts
ever raised by interested persons this is the
hardest to lay. No Risk. No Risk at
ALL NEED BE INCURRED BY THE S.P.C.K.
In the old days, in fact down to very recent
times, the business of publishing was specu-
lative and risky. It is so no longer. That
is to say, the area of the reading public is so
vast; the book trade is so enormous; the
demand is so varied; the knowledge of
markets and the demand is so much in-
creased, that no publisher who knows his
business need ever undertake a risk. In
other words, having regard (i) to the
literary worth of a MS. (ii) to the subject;
(iii) to the name of the author; (iv) to his
own machinery—the publisher who knows
his business knows very well before he
consents to publish a book that he can
"plant" such a minimum number of copies
as will repay the cost of production, in-
cluding a certain profit for himself.
p. In the case of the S.P.C.K. their machinery
for the disposal of books is unrivalled.
They have shops and agents all over the
country; they have an immense number of
subscribers; and they have the invaluable
reputation of publishing only books that
are doctrinally "sound." Another reason
why the S.P.C.K. need never actually pub-
lish a book which results in a loss.
7. "The author will not share the loss."
First, there is, as I have said above, no
loss except such as is caused by an error of
judgment.
## p. 67 (#91) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
67
Next, apply this principle to other
branches of production. A man makes a
beautiful desk. He takes it to a shopkeeper
who sells desks. The shopkeeper says, "My
friend, this is an admirable desk. It should
be worth three pounds to you. But as I
was a fool yesterday, and bought a desk
which is too bad for me to sell again, I
can only give you thirty shillings. You
must share in the loss."
The Lord Bishop's ears shall not be
shocked by hearing the reply of that
cabinet-maker.
i. The principles laid down by this Society are
few and simple. For our part we contend
that they are based upon a commandment
which is read in the Churches every Sunday
once and sometimes in the week.
It is contended by the defenders of the Society
that they give away their books largely. Perhaps
they do—but perhaps their gifts are not so very
large. In one of the cases quoted the Secretary
did not claim to have given any away: he only
owned that the profits made by the Society
amounted to something like six times the sum paid
to the author. Now to repeat the Archbishop's
own definition, "The first evil of the sweating
system is a rate of wages inadequate to the neces-
sities of the workers or disproportionate to the
work done." Six times the author's profit! Six
times! My Lord Archbishop, late of the Com-
mittee on the Sweating System, will you produce
that sweating cabinet-maker, that sweating shoe-
maker, that sweating shirt-maker who sweats his
workmen to the tune of a profit six times the men's
wage? And there are other cases behind even
worse than those quoted in the pamphlet which
shall be produced in good time.
It remains to be said that as yet no reply at all
to this pamphlet has been issued by the Publication
Committee, nor has any answer been received by
the author from the President of the Society.
*
THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF
AUTHORS.
AS at present constituted the Deutsche Schrift-
steller Verbund originated from a fusion of
the old Schriftsteller Verbund (founded in
1878) and the former Schriftsteller Verein, a fusion
which took place some three years ago, and it
comprises now about 700 literary men and women
of Germany, Austria, and German Switzerland.
Its objects are :—
{a.) To look after the members' interests as to
their calling in general.
(6.) To support them in case of need and in old
age, as well as to provide for those they may
leave behind.
The constitution of the Society under the
Presidency of Herr Robert Schweichel in Berlin,
is similar to that of the English Society of Authors,
but it is at the same time sub-divided into branch
societies at Berlin, Breslau, Hamburg, Leipsic,
Frankfort-on-Maine, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna,
Prague, and Gratz.
Rather important factors in the working order of
the General Society are :—
(a.) The "literary bureau," a kind of agency
established with a view to placing literary
work of the members, to providing situa-
tions (in editorial offices, &c), and to find
out pirated reprints.
(d.) The "Syndikat," under a lawyer, to give
advice gratis on all questions regarding
their literary interests.
(c.) Courts of Arbitration, settling any disputes
between the members who, it must be
remembered, consist of editors as well as
contributors, and even as regards publishers,
I should think he would be a rash man
who would not readily submit to it.
The official organ of the Society is the "Deutsche
Presse," which comes out weekly.
All this may look satisfactory enough, but I am
afraid I must add that all is not yet in such perfect
working order as it might be, and I feel sure, one
day—will be.
As a special feature of our Society, however, I
should like to mention also the facilities for social
intercourse afforded thereby, and which by drawing
kindred—or may be sometimes even the reverse—
spirits of the same calling together, constitute
perhaps the greatest advantages cf all. There are
not only frequent meetings all through the year ot
the members of the different branch societies—some
having even special "Vergniigungs" Committees
for arranging entertainments, excursions, &c.—but
once a year a particular place is chosen, to which
a goodly number of the members always flock from
all sides for several days' fete, and of course for the
transaction of some important business of the
Society. The place chosen for this summer is
Breslau, and if you, or any of your members, should
like to have any further information on the
"Schriftsteller Tag" of this summer, I should be
happy to give it as soon as the programme is out.
If any of the members of your Society should be
anywhere near Breslau at the time and care to be
present at the gathering, I feel sure they would be
heartily welcomed by my friends in Germany.
Wilhelm F. Brand.
## p. 68 (#92) ##############################################
68
THE AUTHOR.
A HARD CASE.
No. III.
THIS was certainly a hard case, but it was
also one where the author's negligence
largely contributed to his own mishaps.
For this was a publishing transaction undertaken
without any agreement at all.
The publisher approached the author with
regard to the production of a technical work.
According to his proposal the author was not only
to contribute to the work, but was also to obtain
and edit the other material necessary, and to pay
towards the cost of production of the first edition
^150; it being understood that all other monies
necessary for the issue should be found by the
publisher. Any profits that might result were to
be equally divided between the author and the
publisher. These terms, however, were never
embodied in any agreement.
It is easy to see what they might mean.
When the cost of production is left entirely in
the publisher's hands, he can make it as high as he
likes. He can make it as low as he likes. He can
advertise to what extent he chooses. He need not
even advertise at all. He can receive money for
advertisements to be inserted in the work—it was
an annual of the nature of an almanac, appealing to
a very large body of scientific men, and especially
likely to be used as a medium of advertisement by
many tradesmen—and he can settle the scale at
which such advertisement shall be charged for.
He can print as many, or as few copies as he chooses.
He can, in fact, if he pleases, put off the author's
chance of a share of profits indefinitely, because it
is in his power so to manage matters that there
shall never seem to be any profit to share. He
can, almost without fear of detection, add what
sums he likes to the various items of the cost of
production; he can receive from tradesmen and
from advertisers whatever commission they may
choose to give him: he can, in fact, so arrange
a system of secret profits for himself, that he shall
receive at least six times as much as the author,
even should he allow the author ever to receive
anything at all. Of course he would always and
in all cases do such things at the risk of a law-suit
or a criminal prosecution, and, if the author had
provided himself with an agreement, having in it
a clause giving him the right to demand an audit
of the account, with the examination of the actual
charges incurred by the publisher, it is clear that
the publisher—though as unjust as the steward of
Scripture—would not be able to render "cooked"
accounts.
Whether or no some such "cooking" took place
in the case before us, cannot be certainly stated,
but the publisher asserted that the first three annual
editions only just covered the expenses, so that
there were no profits to divide, while it came to
the author's ears that considerable profits had really
been made. He then directed his solicitors to
apply for a statement of accounts.
Then a strange thing happened. The publishers
wrote repudiating the author's claim on the grounds
that they had nothing to do with the matter at all!
They were, they said, only issuing the annual on
commission for another gentleman—naming one of
their own employes, whose Christian name was par-
tially, andsurname entirely identical with those of the
head of the firm—and that to him all application for
redress must be made. They reminded the author
that all the correspondence concerning the business
had been transacted between himself and this
gentleman, who had, it appeared, represented him-
self as the firm.
Shortly afterwards the publishers went into bank-
ruptcy. The trustees then communicated with the
author, telling him that the accounts of his publish-
ing transaction with the bankrupts were open to
his inspection, but refusing to recognise his claim"
against the estate upon the grounds alleged by the
bankrupts.
Considerable profits were then found to have
been obtained upon the first three editions. The
employe^ whom the publishers declare to be their
client, and responsible to the author for the author's
share of profits, then wrote and denied his liability.
He asserted that the book was issued by the firm,
and not hy himself, and that it was ridiculous for
the firm to attempt to set up such a plea. He
promised to give the author every assistance in his
power, and, further, said that the accounts opened
for inspection did not reveal the true state of the
case, but that the profits were really larger than
they were there made to appear.
There was nothing to be done. The offenders
were bankrupt, and the author had no agreement
whereby to substantiate his claim.
The want of a proper agreement has often, to
our knowledge, been the source of great loss to an
author in various ways, but this is the only case
that has come before us in which the author was
not able to prove with whom he had made a con-
tract, having no written contract at all to show.
This book, treated with such a contemptuous
want of formality, seems to have been a fairly
valuable property. Would tlie author have allmved
a pig-stye of his to be hired of him without knowing
who his tenant actually was, and without taking the
trouble to record on paper the terms of the trans-
action?
## p. 69 (#93) ##############################################
THE A UTHOR.
69
It remains to be stated that the author, who
only came to the Society when he thought it might
help him, retired when he found that nothing could
be done for him. This was, in fact, a Hard Case
for the Society. There have been many such, of
writers who keep aloof till they are in trouble, then
get proposed and elected, pay the first year's sub-
scription, sometimes entail upon the Society legal
expenses amounting to many years' subscription,
and then resign.
*
LA FEDERATION DU LIVRE.
To the Editor of'The Author.
I have read the " Literary Handmaid" with much
interest; the correspondence in the Guardian I
had seen at the time. I hope the Authors' Society
will keep up the discussion, and give an eye also
toother Religious Societies, which I do not imagine
to behave much better to their authors than the
S.P.C.K. This question of the duty of charitable
or religious institutions, as employers of labour, is
not new ; it must be thirty years or more since the
Bookbinders' Union appealed to the dignitaries at
the head of the Bible Society not to cheapen Bibles
to such a point as to make them hateful to the
starving folders and sewers. But in those days
good people were afraid of labour questions and
the operatives got no satisfaction.
Has it occurred to you that in this matter the
author, the printer, the binder—and even the ink
and paper-makers—are more or less in the same
boat? The unprincipled publisher, who grows
rich by grinding the faces of poor authors, also
has his binding and printing done cheap by the
houses which the Workmen's Unions call "unfair."
And these employers of cheap labour undersell
liberal publishers, and make it more difficult for
them to deal fairly by all grades of book pro-
ducers.
Now as authors—I won't say are—but are sup-
posed by an indulgent public to be—a superior
race of intellectual beings, would it not be appro-
priate for them to take the initiative in organizing
the industry with which they are connected dc fond
en cortbic, in a reasonable and righteous manner?
Should we not have a better position, as regards
the public, when trying to convince the " Literary
Handmaid " that the labourer is worthy of his hire,
if we spoke on behalf of all those who get their
living by assisting in the manufacture of books as
well as in the interests of the writers? Is it even
fair for the author to take a high moral ground and
lecture the publisher on his duties unless he him-
self is careful not to have any share in the profits
of iniquity?
But unless there is some concert and co-opera-
tion between authors and operatives, through their
respective organizations, how can the most scrupu-
lous writer be secure against a partnership in the
very evils, perhaps denounced in his book? At
present there is nothing to prevent authors who,
by position or principles ought to be most secure
against such dangers, from falling a victim to them.
There must be something rotten in the state of the
book trade when it is possible for the works of a
great and honourable writer to be printed at—what
the mass of workmen call—an "unfair " house : or
when the journal of a certain most illustrious
Authoress (who does not depend for maintenance
on her pen) narrowly escapes causing a strike
among the women sewing it. (The book referred
to was on extra thick paper, and the firm of binders
employed by the publisher refused to pay extra on
this account; the sore fingers produced by the
hard work required in a short time are still well
remembered in the trade.)
On the other hand, supposing the printing trade
to be hampered by any unreasonable or ignorant
prejudices among the operatives, who could medi-
ate with more effect than writers, who have an
interest in cheap printing, controlled by the con-
scientious desire to secure fair wages throughout
the trade?
Some slight approach has been made in Paris
towards recognizing this natural solidarity among
all workers in the book industry. I do not know
whether the Soci^ti; des Gens de Lettres is in any
relation with the Federation du Livre, which last
year had between 5,000 and 6,000 members in
Paris, including, besides ordinary compositors and
bookbinders, highly-paid lithographers and various
classes which have not yet learnt to act together
in England.
In the printing trade the State is not a better
employer than the Church, and while State, Church,
and competing private publishers continue to en-
force the "Law of elevenpence ha'penny," what
avails it for one eloquent author to lift up his voice
against it?
No doubt some people will say, authors have
enough to do to fight their own battles without
troubling about the operatives, who can take care
of themselves.
But it is often easier to do a big thing than a
small one. Suppose there are six sets of work-
men employed in turning out a book, including
the humble functionary who writes it. Each of
the six has to do with an employer or entrepreneur,
with an interest in keeping down his wages; and
all six, author included, are more often defeated
A
## p. 70 (#94) ##############################################
70
THE AUTHOR.
thrm victorious in their bargains with this opponent.
But let the six interests be allied, and they are
stronger than any one adversary; and as a disin-
terested alliance is only possible in a good cause,
there is nothing to be feared from a rival federation
of sweaters.
If you object that the plea for extended organi-
zation comes with a bad grace from a scribbler
who has not joined the Society, I plead guilty and
am willing to amend, but the fact is, I have been
waiting for an occasion to ask your views on this
point first, as one feels now-a-days that any or-
ganization partaking of the character of a Trade
Union is particularly bound to recognize the rights
and interests interwoven with its own, and to sus-
tain rather than endanger their just claims.
Edith J. Simcox. *
UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION
OF SERMONS.
I.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK in your June
number criticises my note on "Copyright in
Lectures " which you published in May. I
hope you will permit me, as the writer of the note,
to point out that the common law only gives protec-
tion to lecturers so long as their lectures are not
published by being publicly delivered. This protec-
tion is afforded by the Courts in a practical way
by issuing an injunction against infringers. But
directly there is publication (as when a clergyman
preaches a sermon in church or a public lecture
open to all without condition is delivered) the
common law protection is at an end, and the
lecturer is left to such protection as the statute gives
him. I am glad of an opportunity to make this
distinction clear, although as my note only referred
to public lectures I did not before allude to the
common law rights in unpublished lectures.
Sir Frederick Pollock cites the case of "Caird
v. Sime" (12 App. Ca. 326) but it was there held
by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Watson (Lord
Fitzgerald dissenting) that Professor Caird's lec-
tures to the students of Glasgow University were
not public but private, and that, therefore, he was
entitled to a "perpetual interdict" against their
publication. Moreover, Lord Watson in his
judgment remarks :—" On the other hand I do not
doubt that a lecturer who addresses himself to the
public generally without distinction of persons or
selection or restriction of his hearers has, as the
Lord President observes in this case, abandoned
his ideas and words to the use of the public at
large." The preamble of the Statute 5 and 6,
Will. IV, c. 65, runs:—"Whereas printers, &c,
have frequently taken the liberty of printing and
publishing lectures delivered upon divers subjects
without the consent of the authors, &c, to the
great detriment of such authors, &c." This, I
suppose, was true. As Lord Watson puts it in
"Caird v. Sime," the purpose of the Act is to
secure their right of property to the authors of such
lectures, notwithstanding their having been pub-
lished by delivery. Nor are all University, &c,
lectures private, for, as Lord Watson was careful to
add, "there may be lectures delivered within the
walls of such institutions which do by their delivery
become public property just as there may be others
which do not." It was pointed out by the Copy-
right Commissioners, 1878, that these are denied
statutory protection. It was, as Lord P'itzgerald
observes in his dissenting judgment in the same
case, thought desirable by the House of Commons
of the day that these lectures should remain public
property, and that their authors should be denied
statutory copyright.
My authority for the statement that " a lecturer
is powerless to prevent unauthorized re-delivery," is
in the Report of the Copyright Commission, 1878,
pp. xvi, xvii. "The present Act of Parliament," the
Report runs, "which gives copyright in lectures,
seems only to contemplate one kind of copyright,
namely, that of printed publication, whereas it is
obvious that for their entire protection lectures
require copyright of two kinds, the one to protect
them from printed publication by unauthorised
persons, the other to protect them from re-delivery."
The Report goes on to suggest that an author's
copyright should extend to prevent re-delivery. If
the Commissioners are right, I am correct in stat-
ing that "there is no such thing as" performing
right "in a species of literary production in which
this may be really valuable."
Sir Frederick Pollock further remarks:—"There-
fore, a person acting on the commentator's opinion
that sermons 'seem to be clearly public property,'
would be more likely to make practical acquaint-
ance with the nature and operation of an injunction
than to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of
pulpit eloquence." But I contend that it is a fact
that the piracy of pulpit eloquence is a systematic,
and, perhaps, a profitable trade. Lord Eldon, in
Abernethy v. Hutchinson [3 L. J. (Ch.) 214], distin-
guished the case of a clergyman as one in which
there was no remedy by injunction, and Copinger
remarks (Lmv of Copyright, p. 35), "it would appear
that sermons by Clergy of the Established Church,
## p. 71 (#95) ##############################################
THE A UTHOR.
7i
in endowed places of public worship, are deemed
public property." The Bishop of Peterborough,
to whose case I referred, in complaining of the
unlicensed publication of his sermons by the Editor
of the Contemporary Pulpit, remarked (Times, June
14th, 1888):—"I am aware that for this kind of
literary assassination an unhappy preacher has no
redress; he is completely at the mercy of penny-
a-liners and enterprising editors who make 'per-
nicious nonsense ' of his discourses, and then vend
them for their own gain." A story is told of the
late Canon Henry Melvill to the effect that, on
one occasion, he paused in the middle of a sermon,
and exclaimed, pointing an indignant finger at a
reporter, "There is a thief. He is stealing my
property." Sir Frederick Pollock writes with
authority, but it is more than singular that an
injunction was never sought by any injured and
outraged preacher; and I venture to think that
the explanation is to be found in the fact that
sermons, like public lectures, are, in Lord Eldon's
phrase, "communicated urbi et orbi by the mere
act of delivery."
W. Morris Collet
II.
The point is certainly unsettled. I have little
doubt that a generation or two ago Mr. Colles's
opinion was the commonly received one. But, in
addition to disclaiming any pretension of writing
with authority myself (which would be superfluous
if I were writing for lawyers only), I may point
out that there is no real authority on the other
side. The opinion of the Copyright Commissioners
could not be referred to in a Court of Justice, and
the dicta in Caird v. Sime are extra-judicial, not
being at all necessary to the decision. It may be
a long time before we get a legislative declaration,
and meanwhile case-law can be improved only by
those who have the courage to dispute current
opinions. Many opinions quite as current as this,
and having more show of authority, have been
over-ruled in our own time. There would be a
fair chance, to the best of my judgment, of inducing
the Court of Appeal to throw on the unauthorized
reproducer the burden of proving an unlimited
dedication to the public. I do not know why
authors should acquiesce more than other men in
that view of a doubtful point which is least favour-
able to themselves, and I only wish the Bishop of
Peterborough had been advised to stand in the
breach. At all events the author who publishes a
revised text of his discourse has the protection of
ordinary literary copyright for his additions and
corrections. F. P.
III.
[Reprinted from The Times, June 14th, 1888. By permission
of the Bishop of Peterborough.]
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir,
I have just received a copy of a publication
purporting to be a series of sermons on the Church
Catechism by the Bishop of Peterborough, re-
printed, apparently, from the Contemporary Pulpit.
I ask your permission to state that this publication
has been made without my consent or knowledge;
and that (with the exception of the first sermon of
the series, which was partially corrected by me) I
am in no way responsible for its contents.
The facts of the case are interesting as an illus-
tration of what preachers, who, like myself, do not
use manuscript, have to suffer at the hands of re-
porters and editors of religious periodicals. I have
preached lately a series of short sermons in Peter-
borough Cathedral on the Church Catechism.
These were reported in the local newspapers; and
the editor, I think, of the Contemporary Pulpit, or,
if not, some other editor, sent me shortly after a
proof of the first of these for correction, with a
view to publication in his magazine. I found it,
as might have been expected, both imperfect and
inaccurate. I could not afford the time, even if I
had the ability, to reproduce the sermon from
memory. I was obliged, therefore, to content
myself with rendering into English a good many
sentences which were certainly not printed in that
language, and with erasing one or two amazing
doctrinal statements which were the reporter's and
not mine.
The remaining sermons were published in the
Contemporary Pulpit without any revision or cor-
rection from me, and are now republished in a
permanent form for the profit of the publisher or
editor, with the heading "Magee Extra; price
sixpence.
I am aware that for this kind of literary assassina-
tion an unhappy preacher has no legal redress; he
is completely at the mercy of penny-a-liners and
enterprising editors, who make "pernicious non-
sense" of his discourses and then vend them for
their own gain. I do not grudge them their gains,
though, if I might be allowed the choice, I would
gladly pay them what they might think their
venture worth on condition that they would forego
it. But what I do complain of is that, because I
will not, and indeed cannot, reproduce for them
my sermons, I must submit to the publication
and circulation of all the bad English and worse
theology which they think fit to give to the public
as mine. I complain, too, of the further annoyance
of having to answer numerous letters from per-
## p. 72 (#96) ##############################################
72
THE AUTHOR.
plexed, and occasionally angry, correspondents,
who ask, "Did you really say this?" "Can it be
possible that you said that ?"and of having to write
to each one an assurance that I never said "this"
or "that," and an explanation—sometimes a long
one—as to what I really did say.
I know that these complaints of mine will fall—
so far as enterprising editors are concerned—upon
deaf ears. Preachers are their natural prey and
diet. But, as a matter of common honesty, I think
it only due to any intending purchaser of this
particular "Magee Extra "to apprise him that, if
he expends upon it the sum of sixpence, he will get
for his money a good deal more of the "Extra"
than of the " Magee."
I am, Sir,
Faithfully yours,
W. C. Peterborough.
Palace, Peterborough, June nth.
—»
IV.
[Reprinted from The Times, June 25th, 1888. By permission
of the Bishop of Peterborough.]
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir,
The editor of the Contemporary Pulpit alleges
that "misunderstanding has been caused" by my
not having "communicated with him" on the
subject of his " Magee Extra," about which I lately
wrote to you. I confess that I see no reason why
I should have communicated with him on the
matter. The injury of which I complained—
namely, the publication of a volume of sermons as
mine without my consent or knowledge and with-
out any correction or revision from me—was done
and could not be undone by means of any com-
munication of mine to the doer of it. It seems to
me that it would be as reasonable to expect me to
"communicate " with a person who had assaulted
me in the street in order to prevent any misunder-
standing that might arise from my giving him into
custody. Might I suggest to the editor of the
Contemporary Pulpit that previous communication,
in either of these cases, from the intending assailant
to his intended victim, would be the more reason-
able course of the two? It would prevent some
pain to one of the parties concerned, and a good
deal of trouble to both.
I hasten, however, to correct, as far as possible
to make amends for these "misunderstandings"
that I have caused. I was "mistaken," it appears,
in thinking "that my sermons were reprinted from
the Contemporary Pulpit." That periodical, it
seems, is none of your "penny dailies," nor six-
penny weeklies even. It is nothing less—so please
you—than a quarterly, which "publishes every
quarter full reflexes of the best preaching of the
day"—obtained in my case, at least, by printing off
a bundle of uncorrected newspaper cuttings—
edited with no greater pains or cost than is implied
in the use of the scissors and the paste pot. I
admit and apologise for my ignorance as to the
rank and dignity of this youngest of the "quarterlies."
Possibly, however, some of the editor's elder breth-
ren may think that, under the circumstances, and
for the credit of the family, some apology is due to
them from him. I was also wrong, I am told, in
believing that the editor was guilty of the weakness
of allowing me to revise the proof of even one of
my sermons. As a matter of fact, I did not assert
this. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and
said that this was done either by him or " by some
other editor." I admit, however, my mistake in
crediting him with even this small amount of fair-
ness and courtesy, and I apologize accordingly.
Having now, I trust, sufficiently explained my
"mistake," I proceed briefly to comment on the
remainder of the editor's letter. He is evidently a
person who, in conducting his business, is in the
habit of "supposing" a good deal. For (1) he
"supposed " (he does not say why) that I revised
all the reports of my sermons for the newspapers in
which they appeared." (2) He " supposed" that
the necessarily hurried and rough correction of
reporters' errors and mistakes of the Press, which
alone is possible in such a case, was really equiva-
lent to the careful revision and to the supply of
omitted passages which a preacher might not un-
reasonably desire to make in a re-publication in a
permanent form of newspaper reports of bis sermons.
(3) He "supposed" that I had no "intention of
publishing these sermons myself." For, as he
assures us that it is his rule in such a case never to
publish, and as he certainly never said a word to
me on the subject, he must have either taken for
granted that I had no such intention, or he must
(4) have "supposed" that it was my business to
notify such intention to every religious editor in
the country, and that failing such notification they
were free to publish the sermons on their own
account.
In the next place, I observe that this editor
measures out his civilities to preachers in the
same way that railway servants are sometimes
accused of measuring theirs to railway passengers
—namely, according to their rank. To a "more
eminent preacher" than myself, it seems, "any
terms " for the right to publish his sermons revised
and corrected by himself." To second class
preachers like myself he offers no terms whatever,
## p. 73 (#97) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
73
and no opportunity for revision or correction. He
roundly claims the right to republish our sermons
as a literary speculation, uncorrected and unrevised,
when and how he pleases, unless, indeed, we in-
form him beforehand of our intention to publish
them for ourselves. How he treats third-class
preachers I hardly dare to imagine. It may be
that he does not publish their sermons in any
shape. If so, I should be infinitely obliged to him
if he would henceforth put me in the third class.
Probably, however, if we had the opportunity of
interviewing the eminent preacher above referred
to, he would tell us that, having been offered the
uncomfortable alternative either of devoting much
valuable time and pains to revising and correcting
his sermons for another man's profit, or of allowing
them to go forth unrevised, he chose, as the least
of two evils, the latter course. So should I, were
I given the choice, of which, however, it appears I
am not worthy.
The editor adds that "it is impossible for him
to yield to any further claim of mine." Let me
assure him that I made and make no claim upon
him whatsoever. I fully anticipated, as I said in
my former letter, that any claim of mine on him,
either for justice or mercy, would "fall on deaf
ears." Preachers are, as I said, "the natural prey
and diet of religious editors;" and I have never
heard that the carnivorous animals are much
affected by the sufferings of the creatures upon
which they dine.
All that I claimed was the right to disclaim all
responsibility for the "bald, disjointed trash,"
which he has published as mine, and to warn in-
tending purchasers of it as to what they would get
for their money.
One word more on the general subject. I make
no complaint of reporters. They do their best,
often under very difficult circumstances, and it is
no discredit to a country reporter if he is not as
deft and practised as one of the staff of The Times,
nor so well skilled in divinity as to qualify him for
detecting doctrinal misstatements in his reports,
which nevertheless may be distressing to a preacher.
Nor do I in the least complain of the editors of
local newspapers for publishing such reports. I
am not so absurd as to expect that editors of
newspapers should send me, even if it were always
possible to do so, the proofs of my sermons or
speeches, and still less that they should find space,
to the exclusion of other matter, for sermons in
extenso. I am quite content in this respect to
share "neighbours' fare," and to suffer, as every
public speaker must, the passing annoyance of
some misquotation, which I can correct, if I care
to do so, in the next day's paper, or the suppression
of what I might wish had been published, but
which the editor, probably quite rightly, thought
might not interest his readers. I know that all
such reports will, in a day or two, find decent in-
terment and oblivion in the common grave of
speeches and sermons, the back files of old news-
papers.
But it is quite another matter when some re-
ligious editor exhumes the mangled corpse, labels
it as mine, and displays it in an exhibition, "ad-
mission sixpence," in order that he may turn what
I suppose he calls an honest penny at my expense.
To protest against this may appear to the editor a
"claim " so outrageous that he "declines to com-
ment on it." To me it appears a perfectly just and
reasonable protest against a practice which I had
rather not describe by its proper name.
I am, Sir,
Yours faithfully,
W. C. Peterborough.
The Palace, Peterborough, June 22nd.
*
THE INAUTHORATED CORPSES.
TWO Congresses, fifteen Legislatures, one
House of Commons, and several hundred
newspapers had sat upon the question of
International Copyright for years; and nothing
beyond pirated editions were ever hatched of it.
As the honourable member for Lower Idaho
pointed out in Congress: "If we can hike down
the fruit of the centuries from the moss-gnarled
trunks of an effete civilization over the sea, why in
Paradise should we pay a dollar for a book when we
can hook it for a dime? Let the good work go on."
In England every vestryman knew that there were
no votes to be obtained from authors, and no one
could quite understand what it was the gang
wanted, or why they should actually own what
they had " made out of their heads, y' know," and
the situation crystallued itself into a round game
of grab. The American publishers began by giving
an English author ten pounds for advance-sheets
of a book which they brought out for fifty cents.
Then the Sad Sea Wave Library would undercut
the first firm, and produce a thirty cent edition;
and last of all the "Bowery Bloodsucker Serials"
would set a muzzy German to abridge and adapt
the book and would issue the mutilated fragments
for a dime or ten cents. When a man had taken
some trouble over his book and put perhaps one
or two ideas into it, and was feeling happy, his
friends would post him American variorum edi-
tions of that book to make him happier. Later
## p. 74 (#98) ##############################################
74
THE A UTHOR.
on the American publisher discovered that it was
not worth while to pay the author for advance-
sheets at all. The syndicates established an agency
for appropriation, and their agents moved among
the English printing-houses and turned the handle
of a printing press four or five times more than
was necessary, and went away with the advance-
sheets. That was called Enterprise, and it made
both the British and American reading public
laugh.
Then the authors borrowed some writing-paper
and wrote a petition to Parliament asking that the
fight might be made if not a fair, at least a free one.
They respectfully prayed that all the laws were on
one side, but, they said, if the matter of copyrights
were "left to be fought out by such instruments as
your petitioners' resources allow they would ever
pray, &c." Parliament being then extremely busy
with a new scheme for Local Self-Government
in Cornwall (which county had discovered that it
was Phoenician and not British), said, "Let it be
law as it is desired," and it was law.
Three days after it came into effect, the London
representative of the great "publishing" firm of
Fibbs and Glew met an author-man by appoint-
ment in the former's rooms.
"How is the Legend of the Spotted Death getting
on ?" said the representative, with a grin.
"Gone to press," said the author. "What are
you going to do about it?"
"Nothing much. One of our men photoed
the MS. page by page in the office, with a button-
hole camera. I've mailed the enlarged films to
America, and I guess we've got the drop on your
English lirm this time."
"But I'm going to knock the thing about in proof
a great deal," said the author. "There's more bad
work in the last chapter than I care to think of."
"'Can't help that," said the representative.
"We must be first in the market if you wrote a
revised edition of the alphabet with twenty-six
misprints. However, we've dealt with you from
way back. Here's a tenner. Take it or leave it."
He turned to his desk to get the money. When
he faced round he was looking directly down the
barrel of a '440 Derringer. His hands stiffened
above his head, the bank note in the right fist.
"Who has the drop now?" said the author.
"It's a fair fight at last—with such resources as we
can command. Keep your hands up, please."
"Don't be an ass," said the representative.
"This isn't a theatre."
"Quite right. It's a court of law. Understand,
I'm not in the least angry with you. You had a
perfect right to steal my work, which is about all
the property I have or ever shall have. You were
entitled to insult me with the sort of 'tip' his
uncle gives to a boy going to Eton, as well as to
make hay of my sentences to suit your con-
venience. There was no law, and so you reverted
to the primitive man. Quite right. Now you're
going to learn the law just as a horse-thief in Idaho
learns it—through fear of death and physical pain."
He took the bank note from the uplifted hand.
"Lie down on the hearth-rug with your hands
behind you. I'm going to take all the money I
can find in the office. Drop!"
The representative obeyed, and the author made
investigations which repaid him for two years'
sales of unauthorized editions.
"Now it's not safe," he concluded, "to leave you
with a fighting hand. I should be within my right
if I killed you as your countrymen kill horse-thieves.
And let us be moral. Why do they kill horse-
thieves?"
"Because," said the representative, his face on
the hearth-rug, "the assumption is that when you
steal a horse you dismount a man, and the man
may die in the wilderness."
"Exactly. How do you know where I wish to
ride on these my books, and why do you try to
dismount me before I dismount myself?"
"There was no law," said the representative.
"The law has come now. It's primitive for the
nineteenth century, but I think it will work. Hold
your right hand over the fender-rim; I don't want
to spoil your carpet. There! Through the right
wrist. That will cripple you for life. If you can
shoot me with your left next time we meet, well and
good. Then you can go on stealing without fear.
Let me tie your hand up. We must all learn the
Law with pain and sorrow. Good bye!"
The author departed while the representative lay
fainting with his head in the fender. He came of
a nation eminently just at heart, so he brought
neither a civil nor a criminal suit against the
author, but went to the very best doctor and the
best gunmaker in all London, and made arrange-
ments to bring out an edition as soon as possible
of that author—in boards—limited to one copy.
## p. 75 (#99) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
75
LEAFLET No. III.
On Paying for Publication.
THOSE who pay for the publication of their
works are young poets, travellers, novelists,
essayists, and clergymen who bring out
their sermons. The number of poets who at the
present moment can dispense with the ceremony of
pre-payment for publication is certainly small,
probably not more than eight or nine. And there
appears no indication of an immediate increase in
their number. The handsome illustrated books of
travel appear also, for the most part, and judging
from the agreements sent to this Society, to be
largely paid for by the author, who is asked to
"guarantee," that is, to take and pay for, at a
certain price, so many copies. The greater number,
however, of those who pay for the production of
their books are novelists. Now in the year 1889
lhere were 828 new novels published and 353 new
editions of novels. (Let us here remark that both
writing and publishing of novels ought to be in a
healthy condition since so many new editions are
called for.) Out of the 828 new works of fiction
at least one-half are children's books or goody books,
of which the output is enormous. Of the remaining
half between two and three hundred are three volume
novels; the rest are either six shilling one volume
novels, or shilling stories. In any case at least
two-thirds, and perhaps three-fourths, of this long
list of novels are books paid for by the author.
The following is the invariable process. The
author has written the book—perhaps with im-
mense pains and trouble; perhaps he has " dashed"
it off at odd moments when there was nothing else
to do. In any case the MS. is at last ready. The
writer of it now begins to send it round. He
looks at the advertised lists of books. He selects
a firm: if he is wise, he begins with a big house:
and he sends off his manuscript. He then waits
with a beating heart for a reply. Presently he
receives a polite answer declining the work. He
tries another publisher with the same result. And
a third —being rejected again. At this point he
generally commits a fatal error. For, if he were a
wise man, he would argue that (1), these firms all
vol.. 1.
ardently desire to publish good work which they
can sell; that (2), the fact of their refusal to pub-
lish his work shows that it lacks at least com-
mercial value, if not literary merit; and that (3),
he should now revise it and submit it to some third
person, say one of the readers for this Society, for
an independent opinion as to the cause of these
repeated failures. But he does not take this line at
all. He says, "Perhaps, if a great house will not
take my MS., a smaller house will." Now, there
are small houses of various kinds. Most of them
mainly live by bringing out books which are paid
for by the authors. Some of them do this work,
which can hardly be called the highest class of
publishing, honourably and honestly. Others, to
put it mildly, do not. He goes to one of these
and he pays for production.
Whether the author pays a large sum or a small
sum need not here be considered. The question
is, why he pays anything at all.
Consider. There are many authors and many
publishers. But there is only one public. It is
true that there are many branches of the public.
One branch, for instance, likes sporting books, and
another likes religious books; some like love
stories and others like murders. Still only one
public, wherever the author goes—for all publishers
alike.
Let him ask this question then. If this public
should refuse to buy this MS. if published—say
—by Longman or Bentley, of what other pub-
lisher would they buy it? and for what reason ? .
In other words:—If a MS. is offered to all the
respectable houses in vain, it is refused because
all the respectable houses are agreed in thinking
that the public will have none of it. Where, then,
is that other public which will demand it when it
is published elsewhere?
In this Society, cases by the score—by the
hundred—have been examined in which the author
has had to pay for the production. Nay, in look-
ing down the lists of new books advertised in the
papers, we are able to name the books which are
paid for because we know the houses which publish
in this way. Seldom, indeed, does a case come
before us in which the writer gets any of his money
back. Never does he get any kuIo* at all. He
1
## p. 76 (#100) #############################################
76
THE A UTHOR.
gets contemptuous reviews, his friends snigger at
his failure, he writhes under the shame and pain
of the plain truth : and when his accounts come
in there prove to have been no sales.
Only yesterday I read a letter from a young lady.
She had paid ^50, being deluded by glowing
hopes, but not actual promises, of large profits
to divide. The sales amounted to £1 2s. gd.
Sometimes, however, there are absolutely no sales
at all.
Literary vanity is, of course, at the bottom of
this folly. All the writer asks for is to be in print,
only to be printed; if he can obtain this, as he
always can on such terms, he will pay anything
and sign anything. No rebuffs, no reader's
opinions, no rejections can persuade him that his
MS. is worthless, and that, whatever he pays, he
will meet with nothing but disappointment, vexa-
tion and shame. He is quite sure that his work is
brilliant and certain to succeed.
There are instances on record of books, after-
wards successful, having been refused by one pub-
lisher after the other. The famous and leading
case of Vanity Fair is one. These instances do
mightily comfort the rejected author. He feels
himself a possible Thackeray // only he can get
printed. Mistakes, he says, have occurred before
now. Readers are fallible. Mistakes may occur
again. And perhaps the reader is also himself a
novelist. We all know that jealousy is a common as
well as a hateful vice. Or perhaps the reader knows
some private enemy of the author and bears a grudge.
What more likely than that the jealous reader
should wish to smother a dangerous rival? Or
perhaps the perfidious reader has not even taken
the trouble to look at his work. Anyhow, since
the best firms are so foolish as to refuse to make
money by his work, some other shall have the
chance. He will get it printed even though he
has to pay for it. And so the output of worthless
books is increased by one more, and the reviewers
grow more and more savage over the swelling
flood of rubbish, and the noble art of fiction is
degraded and insulted. Will not the readers of
this paper join in dissuading, by all means in
their power, their friends from paying for produc-
tion? Editor.
QUESTIONS, CASES, AND
ANSWERS.
"Some years ago I wrote a biographical paper
for a magazine. It was accepted and published.
When I wrote for payment I had no reply. I
wrote another paper also on an historical subject for
a weekly newspaper. The editor returned it, ask-
ing me to enlarge it. This I did, and he printed
it. But he never paid me.
"I recently sent an article of a similar character,
on which I had expended a considerable amount
of trouble and time, to a monthly magazine. The
editor has now lost it. I have kept no copy, and
must write it again. Is there no redress?
"A publisher lately signed an agreement in which
he covenanted to bring out a written work in a
certain series at a certain price. He has printed
the work and now refuses to bring it out, alleging
that he believes it would be a failure. He offers
the author the printed sheets for the price of set-
ting up the work. What should the author do?" ♦
If such a thing should now occur of an editor
accepting a MS., publishing it in his paper, and
refusing payment, the author has only to bring the
case before the Society and he will get redress.
But the Society cannot take up old cases.
As for losing a MS. most editors find it necessary
to warn authors that they will not be responsible
for losing MSS. If contributors could see the piles
of MSS. offered to every editor they would not be
surprised at this stipulation.
The third question is one for a lawyer to con-
sider. The proposer of the case should sent up
all the agreements and letters to the Secretary.
"When an author has paid for the publication of
a book is it fair on the part of the publisher to sell
the remainder of the edition as waste paper without
consulting the author, without giving him the choice
of buying up the remaining copies, which he would
assuredly in many cases be glad to do at a price
even above that of waste paper?
"If the publisher is entiiled to do this can the
poor author lay no claim to a share in the proceeds
of this melancholy transaction?"
The reply to the last question is that the agreement
generally contains a clause giving the publisher
such power. It is for the author before signing
the agreement to make a stipulation that he shall
first be consulted If he has paid for the publi-
cation all the copies should be his own, and the
remainder of the stock should be sent to him as
soon as the sale is finished.
## p. 77 (#101) #############################################
THE A UTHOR.
77
Up to the present, authors have always felt that
to have an MS. published in a magazine was to
ensure payment according to the scale of the maga-
zine. This prop appears about to be knocked from
under them. An enterprising publisher has now
hit upon the ingenious plan of getting work into
his magazine for nothing. His method and the
generosity of his soul are shown in a letter addressed
to an author. He says that he has been in con-
sultation with the editor of the Magazine
since he received the writer's MS. The Editor is
willing to insert this story as a serial, if it is illus-
trated. This the Firm would be willing to do at
their expense, "if you are willing to make over the
story to us free of charge." Should the Firm, in
the future, think to bring out the work as a volume,
they should perhaps be able to offer some small
sum. The pages of the magazine, he says, are full
for twelve months to come, but the Firm will retain
the MS. and insert it after that period if the writer
wishes. "It would have the effect of placing your
name before the public at all events."
He goes on to say, "The Firm feel that the
publication is such a speculation, that considering
that a great deal of money will have to be spent
upon illustration and advertising before its publica-
tion, no payment can be offered to the author until
the work appears in book form." The letter con-
dudes with these words: "We have really only
made the offer to insert the story in the magazine
so as to try and give you some encouragement to
continue writing."
Observe upon this:—i. The publisher, con-
sidering the vast sums he spends on illustrating and
advertising his magazine, cannot pay for the work
at all. The same reasons apply to all other con-
tributions. Therefore, we suppose, he has a good
reason for paying nobody. 2. The author is to give
him the copyright of the work. If he chooses, he
is to give her " some small sum," whether it succeeds
or not. Even if it turns out to be a great success,
he is not bound to give the author anything.
3. This noble offer is wholly disvnteresttd and
prompted by nothing but a disposition to help a
struggling author! Generous, large-hearted, whole-
souled Patron of Letters! One other observation
presents itself. How enviable is the lot of the
editor of such a magazine!
"In your last number, quoting Mr. Rider Hag-
gard's letter to Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., you
very justly denounce what you call a 'new terror
to literary men.' But this piratical liberty of
mutilating as well as stealing literary property is by
no means new. It must be some fifteen years ago
that I picked up by chance on an American book-
vor. 1.
stall a little book of my own, which, without my
knowledge, had been fitted for theft by the altera-
tion of phrases likely to wound transatlantic sus-
ceptibilities. I fancy such a process of judicious
editing of stolen matter is far from uncommon.
Has no enterprising American firm thought of
bringing out a revised edition of the Bible, with
desirable omissions—for instance, of the eighih
commandment! We can sympathize with Mr.
Rider Haggard; but he must not expect from all
robbers the courtesy of a Claude Duval."
A. R. H. M.
"Do warn," a lady writes, "all young authors of
the folly of doing all or nearly all their work for
one editor. Editors die, or, as in my case, take
up another paper or magazine, and the faithful old
contributor finds her position changed.
"Ten years ago I did an immense amount of
work for a certain paper, which we will call the
Strand Circus—essays, stories, &c. It was then
edited by the eldest son of the proprietor, and I
was given to understand that it would be worth my
while to work away at the Strand Circus, to study-
its interests, and not go roving here and there
with MSS. Therefore I declined offers of work from
other papers, and never sought new openings. All
went well for many years. Then the father died;
his son had to take over other work, and a new
editor was appointed." The sequel may be guessed.
The warning, however, is serious. Let no young
author be contented with one magazine or journal.
In every fresh opening he should find another
pillar of support, and another body of readers and
friends.
♦
Bad authors create bad publishers. This fact, once
fully apprehended, should be an inceniive to the
production of good work. But perhaps the state-
ment wants explanation. A correspondent fur-
nishes an illustration.
"A lady once wrote to me 'as a successful
author'—I had at that time published one in-
different novel, which had been gently reviewed—
asking my advice under the following conditions.
She had published three novels at her own expense,
not one of which had attracted any attention.
What did I think she had better do now? The
style of her stationery, as well as this confession,
pointed to her being wealthy, while the literary
style of her letter proved that she had no idea of
writing at all.
"This experience directed me in certain inquiries,
and I discovered how- the idiotic three volume
novels which are found in circulating libraries at
F 2
## p. 78 (#102) #############################################
7«
THE A UTHOR.
seaside places get beyond the MS. stage. They
are written by well-to do women who are ready to
pay £200 to get a novel published.
"Does not the existence of 'authors' of this
kind account in some measure for the existence of
low class publishers? May we not go even further
and call this fact a justification of their existence?
Honourable publishers refuse books which .ire
foregone failures; they will not allow their names
to appear on the title-page of such rubbish. Where,
then, are the poor rich things to go with their MSS.
and their money, save to such a friendly gentleman,
who will kindly take £200 for publishing a book
which costs less than £100 to produce?"
My correspondent is a little too hasty. It is not
only the rich woman but the poor woman as well
who is responsible for the existence of these persons.
It is any one, man or woman, who believes that a
MS., refused by those who only publish books
certain to be in demand, will be accepted by the
public when they are issued by those who publish
any rubbish brought to them. In another part of
this number we deal with the question of paying for
publishing at greater length.
"I think," says a correspondent, "that you do
not realise that small authors really get a great
advantage in selling their copyright. In this way
we get the money at once, without waiting for a
year, and we have no risk or anxiety as to whether
the book will sell or not." Well, if there is any
risk or anxiety on that score the publisher will not
buy the MS. at all. At the same time there are
very few writers who would not rather take a lump
sum down than the same or a little more spread
over a term of years. The hardship is that the
lump sum down is too often such a very little lump
indeed. One fair and honest way would be for the
publisher to buy an edition of so many copies, a
new arrangement to be made when these were
gone.
*
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
MY remarks arise out of one made by Mr.
Max Miiller :—" Find a respectable pub-
lisher and stick to him." It has been
the ambition of my literary life to do so, but I shall
have to postpone it, I fancy, to another and a better
world! I began full of hope ten years ago, deter-
mined to give the public the best work of which I
was capable as a novel writer. I loved the work
and spared no pains to make it good. I sent what
I had written to a firm of leading publishers, who
accepted my novel. Terms—half profits. I
accepted the offer with joy, thinking myself fortu-
nate th:it I had not been asked to take any risks.
My book was well launched and excellently re-
viewed by all but the Athenceum, Academy, and the
Saturday Revieiv. The Athenceitm called it "a
wealth of nonsense," whereupon I asked the
editor—when I told him it had been accepted on
its merits by the firm in question, who, he admitted,
would not have accepted "a wealth of nonsense "—
how he permitted such an unjust criticism in the
pages of a journal supposed to guide literary
opinion. The Academy critic cast odium on his
paper by uttering an opinion on the book and the
writing which a subsequent critic in the same paper
emphatically contradicted. He spoke of the book
as "beneath criticism," while my next critic
in the same referred to it as a book of " distinct
merit." The Saturday Review danced upon it.
The result of this handling by the three leading
papers then, was, that the short three months'
existence enjoyed by a three volume novel, by an
unknown author, was insufficient to sell the number
of copies published, and my publishers, while
admitting that I had written a good book, found
me a non-financial success, and bade me go else-
where. The consequence of their decision was
that other firms fought shy of my next book, which
took three years in finding a publisher and was
refused by twelve, one of whom took twelve months
to consider it, and finally refused it "regretting—"!
It was published at length and favourably reviewed.
But all this came too late. The three years lost in
finding a publisher made me practically once more a
beginner after the lapse of five years between my
first and second book. I lost heart after this, and
tried no more "leading firms," since I found it was
not good work they wanted so much as quick
financial returns.
Last year, ten years after my first work appeared,
I went casually and as a stranger into a first class
library in a fashionable watering place. I asked for
a small shilling story I had just brought out—not
by a leading firm. Of course it had never been
heard of, so I humbly said, "It is by the author of and "naming my books. "Oh," ex-
claimed the librarian, brightening up, "I know
those books well, they are among the best read in
our library." This after ten years!
Moral:—Would it not be well for leading firms
to be a little more patient with the slow sales of an
unknown author's work ripening into "profits." My
difficulty has been not so much in not being able
to find a publisher I could stick to, but in finding
one who would stick to me. I think I have proved
that the adhesive properties are not lacking in
## p. 79 (#103) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
79
consequence of bad work, or work that is short-
lived. Where is the remedy for such a case as
mine?
Editor's Note.—Perhaps the author is wrong,
and the three leading literary papers were right.
That is to say, they were probably right when they
condemned the book from a literary point of view,
and in regard to style or artistic construction. In
such matters these papers do not often go wrong.
But there are readers in plenty who regard neither
style nor artistic construction. For them the
story—that is the leading situation—is everything.
And the leading firms do publish many books every
year the sale of which is necessarily slow.
*
CHESTNUT BELLS ENCORE.
APROPOS of Chestnut Bells. We often see the
hand-bell in grotesque sculptures of the
middle ages used in a manner which clearly
indicates that it is intended to impose silence, oras an
intimation that what one person is saying is not
believed in, or is ridiculed by another. Thus on the
grand portal of St. Stephen's Church, Vienna, there
is a sp;rited stone-picture of a rollicking witch and a
reprobate priest (perhaps a sorcerer), engaged in
a tussle, he holding her by one leg, while she with
the right hand pulls his head back by the capote,
and with the other rings a bell in his ear—as if to
silence his love-making, and say, "Yes, I have
heard all that before—enough—shut up!"
A copy of this will appear as a vignette in my
work on gypsy sorcery now in the press. On more
than one bas-relief of the fourteenth century, we
see a goat dressed as a monk, and in one instance,
a sow, ringing a small bell. The allusion here is
to telling coarse tales, since in modern German
phrase doing this is called ringing the Sauglocke,
or sow-bell, and I possess an outrageous little old
work bearing that name, with the picture of a bell
on the cover depicted in a manner "which could
convey little joy to either moralist or Christian."
The Lumpenglock, or blackguard's bell, is a term
applied in Germany to the bells in steeples, rung
at eleven o'clock p.m., as a signal to close all the
beer-houses. So we are told of that veteran rois-
terer, the Herr von Rodenstein, that when he died—
"The blackguard's l>ell in the old Town Hall,
Began of itself to ring."
A man who is always telling coarse and rude tales
—or a Zotenreisser—is commonly said to be contin-
ually ringing the sow-bell. And I think it very probable
that at a time when symbolism entered into every-
thing, there was something of all this implied by the
bells on the cap of the professional jester or fool.
There was mockery in their sound, as in the words
of their wearer, and both were like the ring of the
chestnut bell, and the tinkling of brass pots of
yore—all synonyms for vain repetition and idle
chatter.
It may be here observed that the primary object
of church bells was not so much to call the faithful
together to worship, as to drive away and avert
evil influences, especially devils, concerning all
which there is a deeply learned chapter in Southey's
Doctor. The primitive Christian church bell was
very truly what Mr. William Sikes called a " tinkler,"
since it was precisely of the shape, material, and
make of the same which, in America especially, is
hung to the necks of cows. Their object is to
keep the cows from straying afield too far—that of
the chestnut bell to recall men from wandering in
discourse.
When I was a schoolboy, I once invested my
last cent in the purchase of a black letter Latin
folio—the " Moralization of the entire Bible," by
Petrus Berchorius, all of which I perused faithfully
and admiringly many times. By the way, my copy
had belonged to Melancthon. It just occurs to
me that the spirit of the old monk Pierre Bercheur
is living again in these disquisitions on the true
inwardness of the chestnut bell, and the esoteric
mysteries of the Sauglocke. "Oh, good old man—
even from the grave thy spirit" comes over thy
disciple, into the year eighteen hundred and ninety,
prompting him to find preaching in pebbles and
sermons in grains of sand ; of which "making great
amount of small things," all that can be said is that
it is better than making no account of or be-littling
great ones, which is the vice of our day.
Chari.es G. Leland.
*
THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH.
'"T^ HE enrolment into a single company of
I so numerous and influential a body of
English writers as composes the Society
of Authors, may perhaps be profitably utilized in a
manner which, if it be a little outside the scope
of its foundation, would interest and benefit every
reader and writer of the English language.
There has never yet existed in this country any
academic body, any authoritative company of edu-
cated Englishmen qualified to pronounce judgment
upon moot points connected with the writing of
English. It has been questioned whether the
formal institution of such an Academy would be
## p. 80 (#104) #############################################
8o
THE AUTHOR.
for the lasting benefit of literature, and I doubt
myself if the ex cathedra pronouncements of an
official Board of Letters would ever carry much
weight with Englishmen. We are too impatient of
law and precedent; but in a humble way some nse-
ful work might surely be done. An expression of
the consensus of opinion of so influential a body
as our Society, can never be without influence and
effect, and a resolution of the doubts and uncer-
tainties that exist on manypoints in syntax, spelling,
prosody, and phraseology would be welcomed by
every educated man and woman in the land inside
and outside of our own circle. I venture to sug-
gest therefore that the Society of Authors should
from time to time hold an inquest upon some one
or other of the aforesaid moot points, and that their
deliberation should issue in the shape of verdicts
to be arrived at by unanimity, or by a large
majority of votes; the verdicts to be published to
the world at large in the columns of The Author.
There is another and perhaps a still greater service
which our Society and its new organ might confer
upon English letters, and that is by their sanction of
the admission of useful provincial words into general
usage. Many an admirable English word has no
circulation beyond a limited district, many a word
expressing ideas that can only be rendered else-
where by a clumsy paraphrase. More competent
persons than myself could cite many local words,
which, if they were made general, would enrich the
language. I will give but one example at present.
In parts of the West and of the North of England
backword signifies a refusal to comply with a
pomise made or to fulfil some intention declared.
The following telegram was recently offered at a
London Post Office: "Dine with me on Saturday.
A sends me a backword." The telegraph clerk
refused "backword" as a single word, properly
observing that it was in no dictionary, and the
recipient of the message—a cockney—had no
notion of its meaning. Now surely such a word
deserves to pass into circulation, to enjoy the
approval, to be stamped with the mint mark of
some academic body, and to become at once
current coin of full weight and value in the realm
of English literature.
Oswald Crawfurd.
THE CIVIL LIST.
I.
The following is the Memorial which it was
proposed to submit to Mr. W. H. Smith :—
"This Memorial Sheweth as follows:—
"(a) It was enacted by section 5 of 1 Vict., c. 2.
That your Memorialists respectfully submit that
further Legislation is urgently needed on the
grounds and for the following purposes :—
"(b) Section 6 of 1 Vict., c. 2, declared that it
is the bounden duty of the responsible advisers of
the Crown to recommend to her Majesty, for grants
of pensions of the Civil List, such persons only as
have just claims on the Royal beneficence, or who
by their personal services to the Crown by the
performance of duties to the public, or by their
useful discoveries in science or attainments in
literature and the arts, have merited the gracious
consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude
of their country.
"(c) The Select Committee appointed in 1837
to inquire into the then existing pensions, classed
them under the following heads:—(i)Army; (2)
Navy; (3) Diplomatic; (4) Judicial and Legal; (5)
Political; (6) Civil and Revenue; (7) Colonial;
(8) Services to Royal Family and in Household;
(9) Rewards for Literary and Scientific Attain-
ments; (10) Royal Bounty and Charity; (11)
Compensation for Forfeited Estates; (12) Mis-
cellaneous.
"The said Select Committee also reported as
follows :—The operation of the Superannuation
Acts, the system of retired allowances, the military
and naval pensions for good services, the pensions
granted by 57 Geo. iii, c. 65, for pensions holding
high political offices, and the pensions for the
diplomatic and consular services, have to a great
extent superseded one of the original purposes of
the Pension List. These Acts have also substi-
tuted a strictly-defined and regulated system of
reward for a system which depended on the
arbitrary selection of the Crown or the recommen-
dation of the existing Government exposed to the
bias of party or personal consideration.
"(d) The said regulated system of reward has
since the passing of 1 Vict., c. 2, been confirmed,
amended, and extended by the following statutes:
The Superannuation Act, 1859 ; The Naval and
Marine Pay and Pensions Act, 1865 ; The Colonial
Governors' Pensions Act, 1865; The Superannua-
tion Act, 1866; The Diplomatic Salaries Act,
1869; The Political Offices Pensions Act, 1869;
The Colonial Governors' Pensions Act, 1872;
## p. 81 (#105) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
81
The Superannuation Act, 1876; The Pensions
and Yeomanry Pay Act, 1884; The Pensions
(Colonial Service) Act, 1887.
"(e) Notwithstanding the said Statutes, and the
Report of the said Select Committee, pensions on
the Civil List have been granted for services per-
formed in the (1) Army; (2) Navy; (3) Diplo-
matic Service; (4) Civil and Revenue Services;
and (5) Colonial Service.
"(J) It appears from the 'Returns of all Per-
sons now in receipt of Pensions charged on the
Civil List' (1889), that of the ,£25,221 13*. 4*/.
(the total annual charge of the pensions payable at
the date of the said Return) £8,625 was payable
at the date of the said Return in the following
proportions for services in the (1) Army (.£2,710);
(2) Navy (£1,335) j (3) Diplomatic Service
(£9°°); (4) Civil Service and Revenue (£3,455) J
(5) Colonial Service (.£225).
"And your Memorialists respectfully submit
that further Legislation is urgently needed for the
following purposes :—
"(a) The restriction of the grant of pensions on
tie Civil List within ascertained limits.
"(b) The allocation of pensions amounting to
ru t less than £800 in each year to those who by
th.iir useful discoveries in Science or attainments
in Literature and the Arts have merited the gra-
cious consideration of their Sovereign and the
gratitude of their country, or their widows and
children.
"(c) The increase of the Royal Bounty Fund
and the Civil List Pension Fund so that her
Majesty may be enabled to relieve distress and
reward merit in a manner worthy of the dignity of
the Crown."
The Memorial speaks for itself and requires
little further elucidation here. It places on record
the following facts :—(1) That notwithstanding the
wording of the Civil List Act, and notwithstanding
the Report of the Select Committee, pensions on
the Civil List have been improperly granted; (2)
That of the £25,221 13*. ^d. (the total annual
charge of the pensions payable in May, 1889),
.£8,625 was paid to the classes of persons not
contemplated by the Act or the Report of the
Committee.
Mr. VV. H. Smith remarks in his letter to Mr.
S. S. Sprigge, which we published last month, " that
the figures in the Memorial, accepting them as
fairly correct, show that the practical administration
of the Fund is almost identical with the distribu-
tion proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third
to services rendered to the Sovereign, and two-
thirds to the representatives of Science, Literature,
and Art" From this it appears that the First
Lord of the Treasury defends the grant of pensions
on the "Civil List" for services performed in the
Army, Navy, Diplomatic, Civil and Revenue, and
Colonial Services on the grounds that these are
"services to the Sovereign." The Act, however,
only empowers the grant of pensions for " personal
services to the Crown," and it is, we imagine,
merely idle to pretend that this expression was
ever intended to have any such meaning as that
which it is now sought to give it. It was no
doubt one of the original purposes of the Pension
List to reward all these classes of public servants,
but as the Report of the Select Committee (cited
in the Memorial) points out, various statutes have
been passed "substituting a strictly-defined and
regulated system of reward " in all these cases fcr
a system which depended on the caprice of the
Crown and of Her Majesty's advisers. It was
clearly not the intention of the Act or the desire of
the Committee-—and it is necessary to remember
that it was a Select Committee of Inquiry into this
very question appointed in deference to a loudly
expressed public opinion—that any pensions for
these services should in future be charged on the
Civil List. We think, then, that we have fully
established the irregularity of all these pensions,
and we regret that the First Lord of the Treasury,
who admits that he enjoys "that discretion which
must in such cases finally rest with some one res-
ponsible minister," has attempted to evade the
conclusion.
Mr. W. H. Smith further remarks that" to make
such changes as the Memorial suggests would
necessitate a new Act of Parliament." This we
are not prepared to deny. The Memorial prays
for " further legislation " for certain specified pur-
poses. We feel some diffidence in making any
rejoinder to Mr. Smith's expression of opinion that
there has not been "any such expression of dis-
satisfaction either in the House or outside of it as
would justify the proposal." But we think it due
to ourselves to say that the Incorporated Society
of Authors and the Institute of Journalists do
not stand alone in objecting to the present
administration of the Civil List Pension Fund.
The press has almost without distinction or
exception condemned the existing system in no
measured terms, and we are not aware that a single
voice has been raised in its defence. If the Fund
were administered strictly within its proper limits,
it would, it is universally admitted, be impossible
to satisfy the just claimants. Restrictions, it
appears, already exist. It will be seen from the
correspondence published in the current report of
the Executive Committee that literary pensions
can only be granted to the writers of "historical
novels and technical and useful books," owing
## p. 82 (#106) #############################################
82
THE AUTHOR.
to the unexpected existence of certain regulations,
or, as Mr. Smith denned them in the House of
Commons, "notes on practice." The Society has
already placed on record a protest against the
"permanent exclusion of any class of Literary,
Scientific, or Artistic production from the just
claims on the Royal beneficence contemplated by
section 6 of i Vict., c. 2." The Society has already
demanded that "the regulations, if any, under
which the Civil List Pension Fund is administered
should be communicated to the public." The
case for reform is now complete. It cannot be
left to private secretaries to draw up rules which
vary the meaning and affect the application of an
Act of Parliament. It is high time that genuine
regulations were framed, if necessary by statute,
which should restrict the grant of pensions not upon
an artificial theory but in accordance with public
opinion. Mr. Smith "fears that Parliament would
be very unlikely to agree to an increase of the sum
annually set apart for the Pension List." We, on
the other hand, believe that if the necessity were
shown to exist, the popular representatives would
ungrudgingly support such a use of public money.
And there is only too little doubt as to the urgent
character of the necessity. It is the unanimous
testimony of every First Lord of the Treasury that
he is year by year deluged with applications for
pensions which he is unable to grant. Many of
those cases which now, perhaps, "lie forgotten in
the cupboards of the Treasury," were, we do not
doubt, sad and saddening, although no whisper
of them reached the unofficial world. There are
moreover, few years that pass by without the
country being startled by the announcement that a
pension has been refused to some distinguished
man of letters or his surviving widow and children.
We do not doubt, we repeat, that the public
would support even an increase of the Pension
List, but be that as it may, it cannot be denied
that the country at large would welcome a re-
form in the administration of the Pension Fund,
which would ensure it being devoted to the pur-
poses for which it was founded.
II,
The Pensions of the Year.
The Civil List Pensions granted during the last
twelve months have now been published. They
are as follows:—William Muggins, LL.D., a pension
of ^150 (very good). Ellen S. Scott, widow of
(General H. Scott, R,E., a pension of j£iqo (very
bad). The widow of a soldier does not fall within
the limits of the grant. Bessie Hatch (widow of
Rev. Edwin Hatch, a pension of £100 (very good).
Ellen Isabella Tupper, daughter of Martin Tupper,
a pension of ^75 (very good). Rosamond Bur-
nard, daughter of Gen. Sir H. W. Burnard, a pension
°f £lS- 1"ne daughter of a soldier has no business
in the list at all, unless that soldier was also dis-
tinguished for service, art or literature. Henrietta
Elizabeth Wood, widow of the late J. T. Wood, a
pension of £,!$■ Augusta Theresa Motteram,
widow of the late Judge Motteram, a pension 0^75.
l>ady Wilde, a pension of ^70. Pensions of ^50
each to Mrs. Caroline Blanchard, Mr. John
Absolon, Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Dr. William
Spark, Mrs. Kate Livingstone, Miss Catherine
Shilleto, Mrs. Jane Eleanor Wood (widow of Rev.
J. G. Wood). Pensions of ^25 each have been
granted to the Misses Eliza and Mary Maquire,
daughters of the late Dr. Thomas Maquire, of
Trinity College, Dublin, and of £20 each to the
four unmarried daughters of the late Rev. M. J.
Berkeley, F.R.S. General verdict. On the whole,
a great improvement on many recent lists.
*
A NEW GUIDE TO BOOKS.
AGUIDE to Books should be found in any
review. That is to say, the reader should
be able to depend upon the review which
he reads regularly to guide him in the ordering of
books from the library. And, no doubt, the
reader of the Saturday Review, for instance, would
find no difficulty in understanding what is promis-
ing in the way of new literature. But one can
very well understand that there may arise cases in
which the most perfect review may fail to inform
the reader as to the best books on special subjects.
For instance, the Saturday Review may be acknow-
ledged by its best friends to be weak in the
Department of Surgery, or of Pure Mathematics,
or of Electricity. Therefore, a certain compilation
which will first appear in the autumn may prove of
great use to specialists, if not to the general reader.
The object of the editors is to "place at the
service of the reader the opinions of those who
may be trusted to give sound advice upon the
books which are of value in each department of
knowledge." A great many people—specialists-
have promised to assist. Among them—members
of the Society—we find the names of William
Archer, Courthope Bowen, James Bryce, John
Earle, Richard Gamett, J, W. Hales, E. Ray
Lankester, J. Norman Lockyer, Erikr Magnusson,
Max Miiller, Sir Frederick Pollock, Burden San-
derson, J. R. Seeley, Sir Henry Thompson, Andrew
Tuer, and Sir Charles Wilson,
## p. 83 (#107) #############################################
THE AUTHOR. 83
MR. BAINTON ON HIMSELF.
To the Editor of The Author.
Sir,
I deeply regret I should have been the cause of so serious
an amount of feeling and annoyance as the correspondence
in your paper reveals—a correspondence which comes upon
me as a most painful surprise. I must ask your corres-
pondents to believe me when I say that my fault or folly,
whichever it may be, was wholly unintentional ; and that how-
ever carelessly I may appear to have acted in certain instances,
I have had no other than the purest purpose in view, and have
been moved by no mean or dishonourable motive. Un-
fortunately the book in question was quite an after-thought.
When preparing my address I had no idea of so extended a
compilation. I simply desired my lecture to be issued in
pamphlet form, shoul 1 it stem likely to answer the purpose
for which it was designed. My fault has been in changing
the form of publication without first acquainting all my
generous correspondents of what I purposed doing. But I
acted under the impression that this was not necessary after
having solicited their consent to use their words in print.
That in this I committed a serious over-ight I now learn to
my bitter cost, and I deeply regret it should have happ ned.
But that I have been guilty of the unfairness, the wilful
discourtesy, and other outrageous sins which some of your
correspondents—and especially yourself—are anxious to fasten
upon me, I most earnestly and indignantly deny.
After the first portion of the address was given here in the
Old Grammar School, to a united meeting of the Young
Men's Associations of the City, and largely reproduced in
the columns of our local papers, I was repeatedly urged to
return to the subject, and put the matter I had already
spoken into print. Through lack of time long delays inter-
vened before I could make any attempt to compile a
promised second part of the same address, or before I could
do anything towards remoulding what I had roughly sketched
out. When I did the contributions with which I had to
deal were so many, and the interest attaching to them so
great, that my MS. quickly exceeded the limits of an ordinary
pamphlet. It was then, and not till then, the idea of the
book occurred to me. Had I for a moment conceived that
in this I was exceeding the bounds of a strict courtesy and
integrity, I should most certainly have communicated again
with the authors who had generously sent me the items of
their experience. Indeed the book would have been at once
abandoned had I known it would have given pain to any. I
had no interest to serve by concealment, and nothing what-
ever to lead me to act in the spirit Mr. Hall Caine insinuates.
Some of your correspondents, and several critics outside
the columns of The Author, have Hung the ungenial sneer at
my supposed sordid desire for gain. The imputation is most
unjust, and does not speak well for the spirit of those by
whom it is made. I have not received one penny from the
book. When towards the close of last year I finished the
MS. and submitted it to the publishers, I did not stipulate
for any payment, I did not ask for any terms on my own
behalf, but gladly accepted their suggestions, with the
assurance I should be only too pleased and grateful if the
book repaid them the cost of production, and proved of some
real in erest and value to its readers. Should anything ever
come to me from its sale it will be hea tily at the disposal of
those who made the book possible. I prepared the book
with a good motive, and it was not the motive of personal
gain.
I notice in many of the letters you have reproduced your cor-
respondents speak of their communications to me as private.
They quite overlook the fact that I wrote to them upon a
matter for a pitblic and not a private purpose. Letters sent
expressly for use in illustrating a lecture can hardly be
regarded as ordinary private correspondence. A lecture is
not usually private ami confidential. It is liable to be
reported and reproduced in print, with or without the
lecturer's consent ; and as a matter of fact the lecture in
question, which Mr. Hall Caine angrily infers was never
given, was in great part printed in the columns of a local
paper,* portions of the same appearing three successive
weeks, with Ion*; extracts from the most interesting and
useful letters, Mr. Hall Caine's not excepted. The com-
munications were not sent to me as private, or for a private
purpose ; they were not requested for any private aim, else
they would have been treated strictly as such. A few of the
most helpful letters I received and retain, were not used at
all, because the writers expressly objected to their contents
being made public.
You mention several persons and say they were all ignorant
that I intended to print their remarks. That is not correct.
I wrote to almost every person you name, to almost every
correspondent in your columns, asking permission to use
their words in print. Only in two instances am I uncertain
of having done so. To Mr. Allen, then in Italy, I wrote
twice, to make sure he should receive my request, and neither
letter was returned. Several like Mr. Allen did not reply.
Was I wrong in assuming that such silence meant either
indirierence or consent? If Mrs. Parr, Mr. Gilbe rt, and
others had the opportunity to refuse and did not, where is
the breach of faith of which they speak? Surely if they had
felt so serious an objection to the use of their words they
would at least have given expression to it. But though
opportunity was afforded they did nothing of the kind; they
left me, therefore, free to act as I thought best, and I inter-
preted silence as consent. The majoiity did reply, and gave
the consent I asked. How then can they have been ignorant
of my intention to print their remarks? One of the most
eminent of your correspondents assures you I acted in his
case with perfect frankness and consistency throughout. In
no instance have I sought to be less open and (rank. Why
should I i What had I to gain by such concealment with
one person more than another? Whatever you or others
may affirm to the ontrary I am at least guiltless of any
intention to deceive.
Memory does not serve some of your correspondents with
any great fidelity. Miss Yonge mvy perhaps recall her
assurance that I could make the use I asked of what she had
written, when I remind her that such consent was given upon
condition that no mention should be made of a statement
concerning a recent writer. I was careful to respect her
wish. Mr. Blackmore too was asked and consented to the
use of his letter in print ; and only a few weeks since, May
3rd, 1890, wrote in acknowledgment of acopyof his printed
letter, "Am glad to hear of the appearance of your book,
which I hope to procure at the first opportunity. With all
good wishes for its success, &c." Yet this gentleman
"'objects to the use Mr. Bainton has made of the reply
procured through the good will due to a clergyman, and lor
clerical purposes." Mrs. Kennard also joins in the protest
that she did not know, though her letter was printed with
her consent ; while writing on May 5th, 1890, she says,
"My poor remarks scarcely deserved such prominence as
you have been g'>od en ugh to give them. Thanking you
for the compliment you have paid me, &c." To Mr. Rider
Hagyaid I owe a special word of explanation and apology.
The proof he requested when consenting to mv use of his
letter would have been submi'ted, but for a statement I saw
at the time that he was travelling in the Erst. I trust he
will accept the expression of my sincere regret that for this
reason his desire was not complied with.
* Coventry Times.
## p. 84 (#108) #############################################
«4
THE AUTHOR.
Permit me to add in conclusion that only this week have I
learned, and that quite casually, of this painful corres-
pondence. No copy of The Author was sent me, and no
intimation was given that you were endeavouring so seriously
to injure my good name. Is it fair dealing to stab a man in
the dark? Is it fair dealing to seek to destroy a man's
reputation without a word of warning, and without so much
as a hint of the course of action you have taken? Is this the
spirit in which the Society of Authors is conducted? If so
it is the spirit of a ruthless cruel'y. I do not for a moment
doubt that your purpose is just and your motive pure; but
surely before seeking fataby to injure the reputation and
character of another, you might at least have had sufficient
considerate feeling to give him a chance to vindicate himself
and explain his conduct in the same issue of the journal in
which you have printed your hard and harsh judgment. You
have not done so, and I now claim the right that my letter
shall appear in the following number of the paper, the
columns of which have been used to do me so grievous a
wrong.
Gf.orgf. Bainton.
Coventry, /tine 26/h, 1890.
P. S.—When writing the above letter more than a week
since, I could discover scarcely any of the replies I had re-
ceived frc-m authors giving me permission to use their
communications in print. 1 can now put my hands upon
several, and I may even yet find others. Unfortunately I
did not conceive the matter would ever be called in question,
and, therefore, never thought it necessary to preserve them.
But it would have been strange had I been so punctilious
about the consent of some, and so careless about that of others
of my correspondents. An impartial judge would surely
admit the strong probability that what was done in so many
cases was haidly neglected in the bulk cf the others. When
I have used no more than a sentence or two I did not trouble
the writers with a note of request ; but if I missed any others
the omission was purely accidental. My complaint of the
lady who opened this painful controversy is, that she printed
two of my letters, and said not a word about the letter in
which I responded to and thanked her for her communica-
tion. It was in that I asked her to do me the kindness to
consent to the use of her letter.
Much has been made of the fact that I used in many cases
the same form of request. After writing to the first author I
retained a rough copy of the letter sent, and used it whenever
its terms made it possible, or altered it as the circumstances
of the case rt quired. This was done to save unnecessary
trouble, and I cannot think in doing so I did wrong. I spoke
in some of those letters of the author's books as having given
me very special pleasure and help. After twenty-five years
constant reading, a man may well have very many pleasant
companions amongst the authors of the day—it would be
strange if he had not. In my own case I think the book
itself will sufficiently show I hardly deserve the suspicious
comments you have made. It is easy for a critic to indicate
a special point in the speech or conduct of another, and then
draw from it a general adverse conclusion.
At first I only purposed securing the aid of a few favourite
authors, and wrote to that end. The words, which I fain
hope were not often used, to which you so seriously and
justly object, formed part of the draft of the earliest commu-
nication sent out, and were not written with any attempt to
mislead.
All the correspondence I hold relating to the matter in
question is freely open to the inspection of anyone concerned
in it.
George Bainton.
July 5th, 1890.
To the Editor of The AUTHOR.
Sir,
Mr. Bainton has only himself to thank for our change of
tone towards him.
Many may have wished him success—as I did—through
misconception of his purpose. W ho could foretell from a
page of his book what the nature of the volume was to be?
It proves to be a piece of patchwork, collected from fifty
quarters; and the patches, though not exactly pilfered, were
procured for a very different use.
If Mr. Bainton had said at first—" I am writing to all the
English authors I have heard of, to ask them how they do
their work; I shall use their replies for my own pupils first,
and then (if I see my way) make a book out of them "—how
many answers would he have got?
Later on, when he had obtained replies (by writing to
scores of authors, as if to each exclusively and for a benevolent
purpose), in fairness he should have explained to each the
character of his forthcoming volume, instead of describing it
as a mere expansion of his lecture. In that case, how many
would have allowed him to pour on the literary world
(instead of his Coventry class) their off-handed replies?
Faithfully yours,
R. D. Blackmore.
[Mr. Bainton's letter only shows the justice of those who
complained of his conduct. He asked certain questions,
the answers to be used for a lecture. That he admits. He
then used them for a book. That he also admits. If a man
prints a communication for one purpose which was intended
for another it is not enough ;o write for permission—he must
also obtain permission. A letter is a private document,
unless the contrary is stipulated expressly. As for the spirit
in which this Society is conducted, it is one of continued
hostility to all who invade or attack the rights of authors.
Having printed Mr. Bainton's reply, we can now leave the
matter as between Mr. Bainton and his correspondents and
between him and The Author to be judged by our readers.
—Editor.]
*
AT WORK.
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society,
who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their
work and engagements.
R. J. NORMAN LOCKYER, F.R.S., is editing
Am£dee Guillemin's work, "The Heavens."
Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., has presented to the Royal
Irish Academy a "Catalogue of binary Stars for which
orbits have been computed." The Catalogue, which will be
published by the Academy, contains the elements of all the
orbits hitherto calculated, the magnitudes and colours of the
components, spectra, "hypothetical," and measured parellax,
the relative brightness of each compared with a standard star,
and data for computing the velocity in the line of sight, for
use in the spectroscopic method of measuring the star's
distance from the earth. The Catalogue is followed by a
series of notes giving further details and the most recent
measures of position of the component stars.
There has been a change in the Editorship of the
Publishers' Circular"; Mr. J. A. Steuart is the new Editor.
Mr. Steuart has in the press a work of Criticism and a
novel, both of which will be published in the autumn by-
Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co.
## p. 85 (#109) #############################################
THE A UTHOR
85
Mr. Charles Leland is now preparing a work on "Gypsy
Sorcery and Fortune Telling." There will be an Edition de
Luxe. 150 copies only, and all numbered. The publisher,
Mr. Fisher Unwin, receives names of intending subscribers.
Mrs. Cashel Hoey has this year written the summer
number for Household Words. It is a complete story called
"His Match and More."
In last month's "At Work," two mistakes were left
uncorrected. The name of William Westall appeared as
"William Werlah," and Mr. Watt wis announced as the agent
for The Author under Ithe heading of Mr. W. F. Smith's
new version of "Rabelais." The author should not be in
italics. It refers to the translation of "Rabelais," not the
Journal.
Mr. E. M. Edmonds will contribute an English edition of
the "Autobiography of Koloko Kenes," with an historical
introduction on the Klephts for Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Adven-
ture Series." His biography of Klugas, the Protomartyr of
Greece (Longman), has already shown his knowledge of
kindred subjects.
Mr. Oscar Wilde's story, " The Picture of Dorrin Grey,"
which constituted the July number of LippincotCs Magazine,
will shortly be issued as a one volume novel by Messrs.
Ward and Lock.
Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson will shortly issue, through
Messrs. Chatto and Windus, "Father Damien: an open
letter to the Kev. Dr. Ande."
A second edition is ready of Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball's
"Mediterranean Winter Resorts." It is a handbook to the
principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the
Mediterranean (London, L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand; and
Paris, The Galignani Library, 224, Rue de Rivoli).
The article on "Alexandria," in Nos. 9 and 10 of Cassell's
"Picturesque Mediterranean," is by Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball,
who is also the author, under the pseudonym of Evelyn
Ballantyne, of the article called "The Pit and Its Critic."
Rev. James J. Hillock has issued the third edition of his
"Hard Battles for Life and Usefulness" (Houlston and
Sons). Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d.
Miss Frances Armstrong begins a story for the young
called "Changed Lots; or, Nobody Cares," in the July-
Number of Newbery House Magazine.
Miss BIyth's new story is entitled " Adolphus Etherton ; or,
the Boy who was Always Amused."
Mr. Edric Vredenburg has recently completed a new story
which will be published in the Weekly Times and Echo,
beginning January 3rd of next year.
Mrs. Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell's book on Palestine,
called " Forty Days in Holy Land," is in the press, and will
be published by Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co.
A new edition of Mr. Justin McCarthy's " History of the
Four Georges" is being issued by the same publishers.
Volumes I and II are now ready.
Esme Stuart commences a new serial tale in the July
number of the Newbery House Magazine.
It is now stated that Mr. Christie Murray is not lost at all.
He has sailed for Samoa vid Sydney with the intention of
joining Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson.
The author of "Thoth" (Blackwood), and of " Toxar"
(Longman) is Professor Nicholson of Edinburgh, a member of
this Society.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Aubyn, St. Alan. A Fellow of Trinity. Chatto and
Windus. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. (Shortly.)
Author ok "Thoth." Toxar, a romance. 1 vol. 6s.
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BESANT, W. H., D.Sc, F.R.S. Notes on Roulettes and
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Crommelin, May. Midge. Trischler and Co. 6s.
Dowden, Professor. The Poetry of John Donne. Chap-
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With English Note and a Vocabulary. Messrs. Bell.
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Co. 6s.
Oliver, Cai'T. P. Madagascar; or, Robert Deury'sJournal
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Powell, F. York, M. A. History of England, Part I,
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Rivington. 2s. 6d.
Robinson, F. W. The Keeper of the Keys. Hurst and
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Ruskin, John, D.C.L., LL.D. The Seven Lamps of
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Small post 8vo. p. 6d. each.
■ Aratra Pentelici. Seven Lectures on the Elements of
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Val D'Arno. Ten Lectures on Art of the Thirteenth
Century in Pisa and Florence.
Salmone, H. Anthony. An Arabic-English Dictionary
on a New System. 2 vols. Triibner & Co.
Symonds, John Addingto.n. Essays, Speculative and
Suggestive. Chapman and Hall. 2 vols.
Warden, Florence. St. Cuthbert's Tower. Popular
Edition. Cassell and Co. $s.
Westall, William. Strange Crimes. I vol. 6s. Ward
and Downey.
Whistler, J. McN. Gentle Art of Making Enemies. W.
Heinemann. 4th thousand, ioj. 6d.
## p. 86 (#110) #############################################
86
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J3 -V -%KT AIiTBB 3B E S A T.
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The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide
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This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to
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which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.
## p. 87 (#111) #############################################
87
NEW BOOKS.
RABELAIS.
A New Translation. liy W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow
and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge.
Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750
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introduced. Great attention has been paid
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points bearing on the political and religious
affairs of the times have been carefully
noticed. As the work must be presented as
a whole, and as certain passages and parts
can no longer l>e presented in English, these
have been left in the original old French, where
they can lie read by such as desire it. The work
will be accompanied by a life of Rabelais, a notice
of the translators, Urquhart, and Motteux, a map of
the environs of Chinon, the part of France where
Ra!>elais was brought up, notes on the language and
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a/plication from the Publisher.
A HOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR.
SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES — Past and
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## p. 88 (#112) #############################################
88
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type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition
preparing.)
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
## p. 88 (#114) #############################################
The Society of Authors (Jncorporated).
PRESIDENT.
The Right IIon. The LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I.
ALFRED AUSTIN.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
Sir HenRY BERGNE.
WALTER BESANT,
R. D. BLACKMORE.
REV. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S.
LORD BRABOURNE.
JAMES BRYCE.
P. W. CLAYDEN.
J. Comen's CARR.
EDWARD Clodd.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
MARION CRAWFORD.
OSWALD CRAWFURD.
THE EARL OF DESArt..
A. W. DUBOURG,
ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S.
PROF. Michael Foster, F.R.S.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D,
COUNCIL.
EDMUND Gosse.
II. RIDER HaggarD.
THOMAS HARDY.
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.:
Rev. W. J. LOFTIÉ, F.S.A.
GEORGE Meredith.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE. .
T. C. PARKINSON..
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D.
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK..
A. G. Ross.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS Sala.
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAS. Sully.
WILLIAM MOY THOMAS.
H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L.
EDMUND YATES.
-
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WKAE, F.L.S.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman-WALTER BESANT.
I
ROBERT BATEMAN.
W. MARTIN COYWAY..
EDMUND Gosse.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
A. G. Ross.
J. M. LELY,
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK.
Solicitors.
Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, PORTUGAL Street, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westminster.
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Vol. I.–No. 4.]
:
AUGUST 15, 1890.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
published for the Society be
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1890.
## p. 88 (#116) #############################################
B Bertan lebt na 1878
and trousands of lettus.
Meu Matie, Foad Co.,
Heee it in as o an one
Gentlemen.
... und and I hohe you all
Thave sur me of your
do the beach you can for in
reus, to have a point mended though I have sin the mean
rough New Horhe Luis
hier tought acurther of your
Ito. of the city.
Ion may like to know that shake - Corrugatia macked C.
I have made this seu constantly
. Toe neut know whether
formue han twenty Ecard,
que cau hire this testimonial
time the days of a book of min
won't feel as if the pen when
called "The Autonatop the
han canied out to much of
Breakfast talle "1857-8 mutie
.. any trought and brought back
last Friday without refrain and
To much in basiese forms air :
alway kiho heafect Dalesfachan
return was enlitted to this
I have wither with is halfa
carojicut of ammala tecnce
dozen or more volumes, a
Sau, Gunthen Yous turly
Jance neemba of Enrays the
Diva Wonotele Homes
Illustrated Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to Mabie, TodD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
## p. 89 (#117) #############################################
flbt Jttttljar.
(The Organ oj the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly?)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 4-]
AUGUST i5, 1890.
- - [Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
PAGE 1
PAGE
News and Notes
89 | The Annual Dinner
90
NEWS AND NOTES.
IT has always been our custom to publish the
proceedings at the annual dinner of the
Society as a pamphlet, and send it round to
our members, in order that those unable to be
present on the occasion may benefit, equally with
the guests, from the speeches, and may resolve not
to absent themselves on a future occasion.
There is a dearth of matter for Literary Notes
and News in the month of August. The Author
for this month has therefore been made to consist
wholly of the proceedings at the dinner. We have
received communications, which in the natural
course of events would have been inserted in The
Author this month, but have decided to delay their
appearance.
Several of these are so interesting, and so dis-
tinctly have reference to our aims and objects that
it would be the greatest pity to attempt to discuss
them now.
It is not fair upon any question of interest to
submit it to the public—especially to a public
largely made up of working litterateurs—at this
season of the year.
—*-—
Paying for Production.—Thefollowingcutting
from some unknown journal was sent to me :—
"According to Mr. Besant's thinking, authors
should not pay for the printing and publishing of
their own books.
"I am loth to mention names, but I can assure Mr.
Besant that a great many of our now most popular
vol. l
authors did pay for the printing and publishing of
their first books, including Mr. Besant and his
clever partner, the late Mr. James Rice."
This is one of the little paragraphs which contrive
to tell the truth and to suggest a falsehood.
It is perfectly false to say that my late partner
and myself ever were such fools as to "pay for
production."
It is perfectly true that with many of our novels
—certainly the first three—we chose to print and
bind the work ourselves, and placed it ready for
publication in the publisher's hands. He sold it on
commission, which, in honest hands, is a very good
way of publishing a book though it involves some
knowledge of practical publishing and a good deal
of trouble. The way to work it is—
(1) To arrange with a printer and bookbinder.
(2) Tofind a commission publisher and arrange
about terms.
(3) To make the time ofpayment to the printer
fall at the time of receiving the first
publisher's return.
The advance or prepayment of money is thus
avoided. What the author risks is the difference
between the sales and the printers' bills.
As in the case of those persons who insist on
publishing what all the respectable houses refuse,
it is perfectly easy to work in this way, I have
always been amazed to find that they still fall into
the trap of so much down towards "cost of pro-
duction."
The Committee wish to impress upon members
of the Society, who are kind enough to interest
themselves in obtaining new members, that only
G
## p. 90 (#118) #############################################
90
THE AUTHOR.
such persons are eligible for membership who have
at any time published work which may fairly entitle
them to be described as authors, or those who have
been or are at present engaged in journalistic work.
♦
In last month's issue of The Author by an over-
sight the names of Professor Max-Miiller and
Augustine Birrell, M.P., were unfortunately omitted
from those who have consented to join our Council.
A document called a Memorandum, in reply to a
certain pamphlet which is exercising the mind of
the Society for the Promotion of Christian Know-
ledge by sweating Christian authors, has been
received. It shall be published in the September
number with a few remarks; meantime, it is sufficient
to say here, that it does not answer a single point
raised in that pamphlet, that it gives no figures,
that it explains nothing, that it admits everything,
and that it ends by denying everything.
*
THE ANNUAL DINNER
OF THE
INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF
AUTHORS
WAS HELD AT "THE CRITERION"
ON
Tuesday, July 8th, 1890,
PROFESSOR JEBB, Litt.D., IN THE CHAIR. •
TH ERE were about two hundred members
and guests present at the dinner, amongst
whom were the following:—
T. Bailey Aldrich.
Dr. Allon.
J. P. Anderson.
Miss Anderson.
A. E. Armstrong.
Alfred Austin.
James Baker. F.R.G.S.
W. Balestier.
E. A. R. Ball.
A. Barczinsky.
Mrs. Batty.
Dr. Beattie-Crozier.
E. Bechmann.
A. W. a Beckett.
Mrs. Belloc.
Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G
Oscar Berry.
Walter Besant.
Mrs. Walter Besant.
J. A.-Blaikie.
Herr Brand.
C. Brookfield.
Mrs. Brookfield.
Oscar Browning.
General Burton.
Mrs. Mona Caird.
A. C. Calmour.
Mrs. Lovett Cameron.
William Carey.
Miss Childar.
Professor Church, F.R.S.
P. W. Clayden.
Mrs. Clifford.
Miss Clodd.
Edward Clodd.
W. Morris Colles.
F. Howard Collins.
W. M. Conway.
Miss Roalfe Cox.
Mrs. Roalfe Cox.
Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G.
Miss S. Creed.
Miss May Crommelin.
A. P. Crouch.
Miss Curtis.
Mrs-. Cuthell
Austin Dobson.
Mrs. Edmonds.
Charles Edwardes.
John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S.
Professor Michael Foster, F.R.S.
G. W. Forrest.
H. Gilzean-Reid, P.I.J.
Mrs. Gilzean-Reid.
Dr. Ginsburg.
Dr. Goodchild.
Edmund Gosse.
Mrs. Edmund Gosse.
Mrs. Egmont Hake.
Egmont Hake.
Professor Hales.
Captain Harding, R.N.
Henry Harland.
Isaac Henderson.
W. L. Hetherington.
Mrs. Cashel Hoey.
J. Hollingshead.
H. M. Holman.
Miss Eleanor Holmes.
## p. 91 (#119) #############################################
THE
AUTHOR. ■ 91
Mrs. Holmes.
Rev. J. Inches Hillocks.
Fergus Hume.
Rev. W. Hunt.
A. James.
Mrs. James. (" Florence Warden.")
C. T. C. James.
Jerome K. Jerome.
Rev. Prebendary Harry Jones.
Major Jones, R.E.
Mrs. Charles Jones.
Mr. Jones.
Miss Jones.
C. F. Keary.
H. G. Keene, CLE.
Rudyard Kipling.
R. B. S. Knowles.
James Stanley Little.
L£on Little.
Mrs. Long.
E. J. Martyn.
Campbell McKellar.
Dr. McKinney.
Mrs. Middleton-Wake.
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S.
Mme. Mijiatovich.
C. Mitchell.
B. Mitford.
J. Fitzgerald Molloy.
A. Montefiore.
H. J. Montgomery.
George Moore.
Mrs. Chandler Moulton.
H. Naidley.
Professor Nicholson.
Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D.
Mrs. Goddard Orpen.
J. R. Osgood.
Mrs. Louisa Parr.
Dr. Parker.
A. Paterson.
Mrs. J. Pennell.
Miss E. Pollock.
Mrs. Walter Pollock.
Walter Herries Pollock.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart.
H. Campbell Praed.
Mrs. Campbell Praed.
Geo. Haven Putnam.
Mrs. Rohlf. (" Anna K. Green.")
Mr. Rohlf.
A. Gait Ross.
R. B. Ross.
Mrs. Mary Rowsell.
Mrs. Sala.
T. Bailey Saunders.
W. Baptiste Scoones.
Sydney Scott.
Professor A. Sedgwick, F.R.S.
Mrs. William Sharp.
William Sharp.
Mrs. Olive Logan Sikes.
G. R. Sims.
Dr. Sisley.
Professor Skeat.
G. W. Smalley.
G. Smith.
Mr. Crafton Smith.
Mrs. Crafton Smith. (" Nomad.")
Rev. J. Smith.
Miss S. J. Smith.
S. S. Sprigge {Secretary).
Dr. Balmanno Squire.
Sir John Stainer, Mus. Doc.
Lady Stainer.
Captain Stannard.
Mrs. Stannard. ("John Strange Winter.")
James Sully.
Miss Moy Thomas.
W. Moy Thomas.
A. W. Tuer.
Mrs. Underdown.
E. M. Underdown, Q.C.
Edric Vredenburg.
Arthur Warren.
A. P. Watt.
Theodore Watts.
William Westall.
Percy White.
Rev. Henry White.
Oscar Wilde.
W. H. Wilkinson.
Dr. C. J. Wills.
T. Woolner, R.A.
At the conclusion of dinner :—The Chairman
(in proposing the toast of "The Queen") said:
Ladies and gentlemen, the toast which I have the
honour now to propose to you is ever the first
where British subjects are assembled, and is ever
received with sincere loyalty and reverential attach-
ment,—sentiments justly inspired by a reign which
has given to this Empire, in the fullest measure, the
blessings of constitutional freedom, and which, in
every sphere of thought and action, has been auspi-
cious for the fruitful rivalries of peace. (Cheers.)
I ask you to drink to the health of our most
gracious Sovereign, the Queen.
The toast having been duly honoured—
The Chairman said: Ladies and gentlemen, the
next toast which I have the honour to propose to you
is that of the "Incorporated Society of Authors,"
and I rejoice that I can commence by offering
congratulations. During the past year, as the
VOL. I.
G 2
## p. 92 (#120) #############################################
92
THE AUTHOR.
Report shows, the prosperity of this Society has
not only been fully maintained, but has been
increased in a marked degree. There has been a
very large accession to the number of members;
in every sphere of work which the Society has
entered, it has received fresh encouragement to
persevere; and amongst the new forms of activity
which it has developed, there is one which is
especially deserving of mention. The Society now
possesses a monthly periodical of its own in a
journal entitled The Author, which was published
for the first time in the month of May, and the
second number of which we have had in June.
It is an organ for the record and discussion of
everything that concerns the profession of letters;
it is also designed to be the medium by which
the Committee of the Society of Authors may keep
the other members informed of their proceedings.
The inception and editing of this Journal is a new
benefit which the Society owes to a member of its
Council, to whom it has been indebted for so
much else—Mr. Walter Besant. (Cheers.) I
think one may say that the establishment of this
Journal is a formal expression of the fact that this
Society is now the recognised guardian of great
and constantly growing interests. (Hear, hear.)
It is well known to all of you that on the list of
this Society's members are found some of the
foremost names in every branch of literature,
science, and art; and therefore in its corporate
capacity the Society may claim that representative
character which the appearance of this Journal
indicates. (Hear, hear.)
Literary property is no inconsiderable element in
the wealth of the nation; and yet hitherto the
producers of this wealth have, for various reasons,
been too often careless of their rights, and some-
times unable to defend them. This Society was
formed for the purpose of diffusing clearer know-
ledge regarding the nature and the value of literary
property, and also for the purpose of adopting all
possible means which may render such property
more secure.
In pursuing these aims there are, broadly
speaking, two principal provinces of endeavour
which such a Society as this is called upon to
enter:—One is that of the relations which exist
between authors and publishers; the other is the
Law of Copyright. As regards the relations which
exist between authors and publishers, the desire of
this Society is simply to see those relations placed
on a thoroughly intelligible and equitable footing
(hear, hear), a footing equitable for both the
partners in the joint enterprise. The Society
w;-' :s to see literary business conducted on prin-
■ similar to those which regulate business in
Lther form. Simply to state this is to say
that this Society has no quarrel whatsoever with
any honourable publishing firm. (Hear, hear.) On
the contrary, the work which this Society is attempt-
ing must be not less welcome to such firms than
it is to the authors themselves, for that work tends
to eliminate from the publishing vocation any
persons who may be likely to discredit it. It also,
by securing the fruits of his labour to the labourer,
encourages the deserving, and so seeks to elevate
the standard of literary produce.
It is fully and cordially recognised by the mem-
bers of this Society—recognised with a pride natural
to Englishmen—that the general history of publishing
in this country has been marked by integrity, in
many cases by enterprise, and in very many cases
by generosity. (Hear, hear.) On the other hand
it is undeniable that many authors are incapable
of appreciating the merits of a bargain proposed to
them by a trained man of business who regards the
matter from a commercial point of view; and it is
also undeniable that the details of the publishing
trade have too often been surrounded with a
needless amount of technical obscurity. (Hear,
hear, and laughter.) We fully recognize that
publishing is a useful, it may be a fine art, but we
deny that it ought to be a mystery. (Hear, hear.)
Now what have been the principal causes of such
mystery as has existed? The first cause concerns
what is termed the cost of production, that is to say,
of printing a book and introducing it to the public.
The Society has contributed to the elucidation
of this subject, which is well within the range of the
capacity conventionally described as "mean," by
publishing a little work for the use of its members,
called "The Cost of Production."
The other great cause of the haziness to which
I have alluded is of a subtler character: it is in
fact the time-honoured doctrine of "risk," which
might be described as the fundamental dogma of
bibliopolic orthodoxy. The classical adage that
"books have their fates" has been extended into
the doctrine that the fate of most books is very
nearly a toss up, and that, if a publisher has the
intrepidity to take his chance of heads or tails, such
heroism deserves a golden reward. (Laughter.)
Well, we are very far from denying that, down at
least to the early part of the eighteenth century,
the business of the publisher was in fact very often
an extremely hazardous one. But why was it so?
Because the reading public for most books was
then comparatively small; because circulation was
not assisted by such agencies as Book Clubs or
Literary Institutes; and because, for both those
reasons, the publisher found it difficult to feel the
pulse of the book-market. But before the end of
the eighteenth century a considerable change had
already occurred in that respect; and at the present
## p. 93 (#121) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
93
day it is affirmed by competent persons, who have
investigated the subject, that a publisher very
seldom indeed brings out a book with the danger of
losing much by it. A certain margin of uncertainty
must of course always exist; but the authors of these
original researches say that theamount of speculative
element in the publishing trade has been greatly
exaggerated. And yet how strange, how almost
pathetic it is to reflect on the large part which this
dreaded monster "risk" has played in literary
destinies! There was a time when the average
author, after receiving from the publisher that
modest recompense which was appropriate to those
who ventured nothing, beheld almost with awe the
publisher pass within the veil, bound for those
mysterious regions, "farin the unapparent," where,
like Hercules or Sir Calidore, he was to meet single-
handed that appalling bogey " risk," and to conquer
or to fall. It must be our best comfort to reflect
that by far the larger proportion of these daring
publishers have survived the ordeal. And surely in
their turn they will permit us to say that writers
desire a revelation of this monster "risk" which
shall be less in the manner of Milton and more in
the manner of Dante. It it not enough for us to
know that he floats many a rood. We should like to
have some more exact measure of his dimensions.
(Laughter.) Before leaving this topic of the relations
between author and publisher, I would onlyadd that,
when an author submits to the Committee of this
Society a proposed but still unsigned agreement with
a publisher, the Committee does him a service if it
points out a flaw, but it does him a service also if
it tells him that there is no flaw—that he has no
just grievance, and that he is getting as much as he
can fairly expect. (Hear, hear.)
Now I will touch very briefly on the question of
copyright. As you are aware, the International
Copyright Act of June, 1886, enables this country
to enter any International Copyright Union which
may be established. But before this country can
do so on equal terms it is desirable—it is even
necessary—that the various existing Acts affecting
Domestic Copyright should be amended and con-
solidated. (Hear, hear.) The draft of a Bill for
that purpose has been prepared by a Committee of
this Society, of which the chairman is Sir Frederick
Pollock. (Applause.) As regards International
Copyright, the case of course in which it most
directly affects British authors is that of protection
for their works in the United States. (Hear, hear.)
It was naturally with a certain feeling of dis-
appointment that we lately learned that the House
of Representatives in Congress had thrown out, by
a majority of 28—by 126 votes against 98—the Bill
which would have afforded such protection. But
under our disappointment it is no small alleviation
vol. 1.
to know that everything that is soundest in American
opinion deplores that result (hear, hear), and
anxiously desires a correction of a state of things
which is felt to be unworthy of a great country.
(Hear, hear.) The present situation has been
clearly described in the current number of the
Fortnightly Review, by Mr. Edmund Gosse. (Ap-
plause.)
Among our guests this evening, the educated
opinion of the United States on this subject is
represented by some gentlemen who have been
strenuous supporters of that much-needed measure
of justice. One among them I may be permitted
to mention—one who for a long series of years has
been an indefatigable worker in that just cause—
Mr. George Haven Putnam. (Applause.) We
greet him and them, not as the champions of a
defeated cause, but as the champions of a cause
which in our hope and belief is destined to no
uncertain and no distant victory. (Cheers.) The
true interests of literature in the largest sense
are always international; and it is a source of
peculiar gratification to us that our meeting this
evening should be graced by the presence of a
representative of the German Society of Letters, to
whom we offer a respectful and cordial welcome.
(Cheers.)
And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I sit
down, it is my privilege to give you a message,
which I know you will receive with deep interest
and gratification. It is from the venerable an'd
illustrious President of this Society (general cheer-
ing), whose recent restoration to health has caused
rejoicing, not only throughout the British Empire,
but wherever the English language js spoken.
Lord Tennyson desires to assure you with what
sincere pleasure he learns of the continued and
increasing prosperity of this Society, and how glad
he is to know of the excellent work which it is
doing, in trying to make literary property more
secure. (Hear, hear.)
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the toast of
"The Incorporated Society of Authors." (Loud
and prolonged cheering.)
Sir Frederick Pollock, in acknowledging the
toast, called attention to the practical work of the
Society in matters of foreign and colonial copyright,
and pointed out that the best and most certain way
to make the Society still more useful to its members
and to the world of letters, was for the members to
exert themselves to procure recruits and diffuse
knowledge of the Society and its operations.
Mr. Alfred Austin (in proposing the toast of
"Literature, Science, and Art") said: Professor
Jebb, ladies and gentlemen, when somewhat to my
surprise, and certainly very much above my deserts,
I was invited by the brilliant and vigorous man of
c 3
## p. 94 (#122) #############################################
94
THE AUTHOR.
letters, who is the Chairman of this Society, to
propose this evening the toast of "Literature,
Science, and Art," my first impression was that it
would be difficult for any man, and for me well
nigh impossible, to rise to the height of so great a
task; but on further reflection it occurred to me
that perhaps I was taking the toast, and myself as
well, a little too seriously, and I remembered
that in days less decorous, but perhaps more
convivial than these, there invariably appeared in
the programme of a festive evening the toast
"Our noble selves." Well, sir, in an assembly
consisting for the most part of men of letters, of
men of science, and of artists, what after all is the
toast of "Literature, Science, and Art," but the
ancient toast "Our noble selves"? So far as
science and art are concerned, I almost think that
toast is superfluous. Science certainly has received
abundant homage in this way: it has been hailed,
justly no doubt as the master of the modern world,
and art too it seems to me, still enjoys the favour
of princes, and the deference and adulation of critics.
But I feel sure that literature stands in poorer
case. Whatever we men of letters may think of
ourselves, I fancy the present age thinks very little
of us, most pedple in the present generation it
seems to me, being of opinion that the writing of
great works is a thing no longer worth doing, or
that writing is a thing that anybody can do. In
the face of such an attitude towards letters, is it
not natural, nay indeed, is it not necessary to ask
ourselves the question—What is literature? But
the moment we propound that question we find
ourselves confronted by two principles, two opinions,
that are a little hard to reconcile. Is literature
whatever people may choose to write and publish,
or is it that finer breadth of knowledge, that finer
spirit of thought, that finer form of expression,
which, as we all know, is the secret of only a
minority of those who write? In a word, is
literature something refined, elevated, fastidious—
allow me the word exclusive—or is it on the other
hand something broad, comprehensive, familiar,
and in which anyone, if so he chooses, may share?
The man who in these days seeks to be the
champion tif exclusiveness, or indeed of superiority
in any form, sets himself a difficult, an invidious,
and certainly a most unpopular task. Yet in an
assembly like this—an assembly consisting of men
who are proud of literature, proud of being men of
letters, and to whom the only patent of nobility
that they would think of for a moment, is literary
distinction—perhaps I may be allowed to add, in
which, so far as I can observe, any belief in any
other form of aristocracy, is well nigh dead—it may
still be desirable to maintain an aristocracy; it may
be a natural, but withal a recognisable aristocracy
of letters. Of course, by "aristocracy," I mean
the influence and recognition of what is best, and
I think that in this age an aristocracy of letters
might well be maintained. But, sir, if it is to be
maintained, is it not the fact that it must be imbued
with a deep reverence for tradition. Whatever
position we men of letters may occupy in the
present age, we at least have had great ancestors,
and the greatness of those ancestors, it seems to
me, compels us in our turn, whether we succeed or
whether we fail, at any rate to try to be great, or
they will reproach us if we fail to do so. But what
was it that made the distinction of those ancestors?
Surely it was the manner in which they presented
their thoughts, the methods by which those great
writers contrived to insinuate their thoughts at
once, and to make them abide for ever in the minds
of men. In a word it was the style, style, which is
the most aristocratic of all things, because it implies
absolute self-respect on the part of the writer, and a
most perfect consideration and deference for those
whom he addresses; surely without style, before
these days, no one would have supposed that there
could have been such a thing as literature at all.
Nevertheless, I suppose we shall all be of opinion
that even the claims of style may be pressed too
far. Everything in this world most readily and
most rapidly tend to degeneration and to decay,
and it is conceivable that a select class of writers,
animated by a passionate attachment to style, may
end by caring for nothing else.
Now, substance without form is better than form
without substance; and is it not possible that in
our search for that harmony, that common ground,
of which I spoke, between the champions of easy
going comprehensiveness on the one side, and
fastidious exclusiveness on the other side, with
regard to literature, is it not possible that we may
now have come upon that very thing of which we
are in search? The barbarians destroyed the
Roman Empire, but in that very act they renovated
the world and sowed the seeds even on the fields
they devastated, of the love of literature in the
future. And may we not be seeing at this moment
something akin—something analogous? I think
the masters of style whom I see around me to-night
will concur in the observation that in this age there
has been a tremendous irruption of barbarians into
the domain of literature; but instead of reviling
them should you not receive them with open arms?
They bring with them I suppose the modern spirit.
Their baggage may be sometimes rude and
occasionally perhaps a trifle scanty ; but at any rate
it is new and it is their own. Nor do I think there
is any fear of their overwhelming you, the masters
of style. At any rale they will not overwhelm you
permanently nor for ever keep back from mankind
## p. 95 (#123) #############################################
THE AUTHOR,
95
that in you which deserves to be perpetuated and
when the fear of their onset, the onset of these
barbarians, has passed away, style, like Shelley's
cloud, will " silently laugh at its own cenotaph," and
changing, but never dying, will arise after a time
and re-assert its perpetual fascination.
Therefore I am sure I shall most faithfully carry
out your behests if in proposing the toast of
"Literature, Science, and Art," I regard literature
in no narrow spirit, but in the broadest possible
signification, heartily sympathising with all those,
whether they may be masters or apprentices, whether
poets or novelists, historians or artists, dramatists
or journalists, who aspire to be regarded as men
of letters.
Many of us are of opinion that the state of
English Society with its infinite variety and easy,
endless gradations, is the most satisfactory, as
assuredly it is the most natural that the world has
ever seen. And is not this infinite variety—are not
these easy, endless, elastic gradations represented
in literature? It is no question of high and low;
it is no question of superior and inferior; it is only
a heterogeneous but harmonious company, ani-
mated by a common animation, and marching on
to a common end under the banner of a generous
brotherhood.
And here, sir, I think I might cease to occupy
your attention, were it not that 1 find that in this
toast science and art are coupled with literature,
and I should gladly testify, however inadequately,
to the close kinship which subsists between litera-
ture and science, and between science and art.
Many persons in these days have expressed grave
anxiety lest science, with its hard-headed temper
and practical spirit, should prove to be the enemy
of literature. Surely, sir, there never was a more
idle or more unfounded fear. Astronomy, I sup-
pose, is the oldest of the sciences; but surely the
definite and helpful discoveries of Kepler and
Copernicus, or of Newton and Galileo, have in no
degree diminished the magic and" mystery of the
stars. But there is a still more helpful relation
between science and literature. It is more than
250 years since Harvey published his celebrated
treatise on the circulation of the blood, but I
suppose that neither lovers nor men of letters
discourse less effectively or less fervently about
the heart than they did in days of old when Helen
was killed, or Dido was abandoned.
With regard to the connection between literature
and art, I prefer that Professor Conway should
discourse upon that subject. Therefore, ladies and
gentlemen, I propose to you the toast of " Litera-
ture, Science, and Art," coupled with the names of
Professor Hales, Professor Erichsen, and Professor
Conway. (Cheers.)
Professor Hales: Professor Jebb, ladies and
gentlemen, at this late hour of the night I will
not waste your time. Though I am sorry that no
more worthy name than my own could be selected
to respond to this toast, I thank you sincerely for
the honour you have done me. One thing strikes
me forcibly, however. I can imagine the amaze-
ment with which the authors of the last century
would have contemplated such a sight as we are
witnessing here to-night, downright regular authors
dining in state as wre are dining this evening.
(Laughter.)
Projessor John Eric Erichsen: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen, when the history of the
nineteenth century comes to be written, the future
Lecky of another generation will have the task
before him of endeavouring to show the great and
deep influence that science has exercised during
the Victorian age, and not in its academic, or so
to speak, its scientific relations alone, but in all
that concerns the improvement of the social con-
ditions and the well-being of man, and in much
thatconcerns the political and international relations
of the civilized communities of the world. Every
century is an epoch or presents an epoch peculiarly
characteristic of itself in which some dominant
method of thought has found expression and has
influenced the feelings and the work of mankind;
and one may truly say that science in the nineteenth
century governs that expression. If we compare the
position of science as it was in the first decade of this
century with that which it now occupies in the last
decade, we cannot but be struck with the enormous
progress that it has made and the enormous
influence that it is exercising upon all classes and
all conditions of the community. If we look back
to what natural and applied science was in the
earliest period of this century—in the first decade
of this century—and compare it with what it is
now, we shall be struck with this enormous
difference—we shall see that in the early period
of this century what is called Natural History or
Zoology was really nothing but a description of
animals, the collection of stuffed beasts, the
classification of plants, and the giving, as it was
somewhat cynically termed, of " barbaric names to
worthless weeds," we shall find that more than half
a century had to elapse before that great doctrine of
evolution which has exercised so deep an impres-
sion, not only upon the scientific, but on the
philosophic and religious thought of this generation
had been put forward by Darwin. If we look
at the other natural sciences, and I shall not
attempt to lead you through them—we shall
find the same remarkable fact—that chemistry,
which was only getting into the position of a
science under the guidance of Davy and Wollaslon,
## p. 96 (#124) #############################################
96
THE AUTHOR.
has now become not the handmaiden but the master
of every technical art, of every manufacture, and
has contributed largely to the comfort and happi-
ness of mankind. We shall find if we look back
to physical science, greatly advanced as it was,
that the professors of it had not the remotest
conception of the enormous strides it was destined
to take in days antecedent to railways and locomo-
tives—still more was it impossible, in the wildest
dreams of science, to think of locomotives not only
running along a level plane but ascending moun-
tain sides, tunnelling through Alpine chains for many
miles, carried aloft on gigantic structures many
hundred feet high above arms of the sea, and founded
upon bases that were buried a hundred feet below
the surface of the tide. If we look to the other
sciences, to electricity, for instance, which at that
period was simply a toy to amuse schoolboys, or
to instruct the audiences of mechanics' institutes,
we find now, beating gas as an illuminant, that other
great power which has been created almost within
our own time, that it has in the electric telegraph
connection in every part of the world, that by
telephone it conveys, not only the voice, but the
very tones of that voice, to a distance of hundreds
of miles, that by the phonograph it records on
almost indelible tablets the accents in which those
words were spoken. And if we go to other
departments of Science—to that with which I
am the most conversant—we shall find that by
those inestimable chemical agencies pain has been
rendered a thing of the past, that surgery has been
deprived of its terrors, that procedures which
appalled the stoutest, the most heroic breast, are
now submitted to by the most timid person with
complacency and without a murmur. These great
triumphs of science are enduring; they are perma-
nent, and can never be lost to mankind. There is
no such thing as retrogression in science; science
never moves in circles, but ever in advance; year
after year some fresh position is conquered, often
it is true, after a hot conflict, though happily not a
sanguinary one; and once having been obtained,
it is never lost. There is no finality in science.
Art may be final—it may be final, if not in its
conception, at all events in its perfection; but
science is illimitable alike in its conception and in
its execution. What oi)r ancestors knew we well
know, and we know much more than they did.
What they could'db we can accomplish, and more
—more than they ever dreamed of accomplishing.
The same will be the case with our successors
undoubtedly. They will stand in the same relation
to us that we now stand in in regard to our
predecessors.
Great as the triumphs of science have been, there
are yet, in all probability, greater triumphs still in
store for science. Any day may bring forth a
discovery that may revolutionize the world. We
are ever on the threshold, as it were, looking over
boundless plains of research, great fields of know-
ledge which may yield most fruitful results.
Whatever may happen in the future, if we may
judge from the past, we may be sure that nothing
but benefit from science will accrue to mankind—
that his social condition will be improved, that his
intellectual status will be raised, and that he will
have a wider horizon of knowledge constantly
spreading before him in the field of science.
(Cheers.)
Professor Conway: Ladies and gentlemen, I
will only detain you for one moment, and during
that moment I will express my astonishment at
"Art " having been included in this toast. I have
been debating in my own mind during the course
of dinner for what reason it has been done, and it
was not until I heard the words of the Chairman
with reference to the art of publishing that I under-
stood why art should be included in our toast list.
Unfortunately, I am no representative of that art.
The only art I know is the art of listening, and I
hoped that I should not have been called upon
for an after-dinner speech.
Professor Michael Foster (in the absence of Mr.
George Augustus Sala) then proposed the toast of
"The Guests." He said: Mr. President, ladies
and gentlemen, I am very sorry—it is not necessary
for me to say—that I am not George Augustus
Sala. Why George Augustus Sala is not here and
where he may be at the present moment I do not
know; but I am very sorry that he is not here—
sorry for those whose health he was about to pro-
pose, sorry for those who were about to listen to
him, and sorrowing still more for myself who have
to put my diminutive feet into his somewhat roomy
shoes. (Laughter.) Who I am does not, I think,
concern you to know; it is sufficient to say that I
belong to a large class, to those who cannot say
"no" when Walter Besant asks you to do a thing,
and I do it under circumstances of great difficulty.
Just before dinner in the room down below, when
we were expecting the time when the clock would
strike half-past seven precisely, I was talking to
one of our distinguished members, and he drew the
conversation towards speeches after dinner, and I
thought then that I had no speech before me. I
do not like to quote his exact words—in my scien-
tific memoirs I always quote the exact words of
authors—in this assembly I feel a diffidence in
doing so, but I will give you the effect, and it was
that instructive speeches after dinner are detestable.
Now I must unfortunately, be instructive, because
I have to propose to you "The Guests," and
although they are known to all the world they are
## p. 97 (#125) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
97
not all of them known to all of you. In the first place,
there is Mr. Gilzean Reid, who is the President of
the Institute of Journalists, which is a kindred
Institution with similar aims and identical objects.
If that is so Mr. Gilzean Reid is not a guest but a
brother. Then there is the German Society of
Authors, represented by Herr Brand, who has
already been referred to by the Chairman, and on
the principle that bis dat qui cito dat and therefore
qui bis dat cito dat, the toast will get to him all
the earlier if I ask you to repeat what has been
said. Then we come to a whole group which,
in the instructions that Mr. Walter Besant has
kindly given me, is spoken of as our American
friends, and here again I must commit an act of
reduplication. The first name I have to mention
is that of Mr. Geo. Haven Putnam, the greatest
friend of American Copyright. I have further to
mention Mr. Harry Harvey, who is well known all
over America—and perhaps I might venture to
say in the obscure little island of England—as
Sydney Scott. Then there is Mr. Bailey Aldrich,
an American poet, whom an English poet dares
to welcome as his guest. Lastly there is Mrs.
Chandler Moulton, the American poetess, with
whose poems all of us are familiar. Then I come
to one of whom, perhaps, though she is last is not
least Arriving at King's Cross this afternoon I
had an opportunity of a hurried word with a lady
who is not distantly connected with your Chairman.
I spoke to her of the interest attaching to ladies
dining in public with gentlemen. She said she
always thought that ladie s were in the way; she
then rushed into a cab before I had time to say
that that way was in all cases a shining way. But
perhaps Walter Besant will allow me to say that
with all respect for the great deeds that you have
done of late, I am inclined to think that the great
work of this Society of Authors has been that
they have instituted the practice of ladies dining
in public with gentlemen. (Applause.) I do not
know how the ladies have stood the severe baptism
of smoke, as my friend near me calls it, to which
they have been subjected; but I trust that in spite
of that and in spite of the speeches to which they
have listened and to which they are listening, they
have passed a pleasant evening. (Hear, hear.)
Ladies and gentlemen, I propose to you "Our
Guests," mentioning particularly the names of Mr.
Gilzean Reid, the President of the Institute of
Journalists, Herr Brand, and Mr. George Haven
Putnam. (Cheering.)
Mr. Giltean Reid: Mr. Chairman, Professor
Foster, ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that
I shall not occupy your attention very long. A
friend has reminded rae that this is only the three
hundred and thirty-ninth time that I have responded
to the toast of the Institute of Journalists, and you
may rest assured that I am as anxious to get rid of
it as you are to get rid of me. I must protest
against being classed as a guest. I may claim in
one respect to be an author, as I wrote a book
which had a circulation of 1,400, which was sold to
the public at 6s., and which brought me the hand-
some recompense of £2 \2S. 3d. I also wrote
another book which had a circulation of 100,000,
and which never brought me a farthing profit. And
therefore I think I can claim to be one of your-
selves. We have not present here to-night George
Augustus Sala, and I always feel that a meeting of
literary men is defective without his genial sparkling
picturesque personality, which has added lustre to a
great profession. (Hear, hear.) Let me say we,
the Institute of Journalists, are entirely in sympathy
with the Society of Authors, and you may rest
assured that we shall continue, as we have been
doing, to work together for common and bene--
ficial ends. There are many common ends to
which we can co-operate, and to which we
have co-operated with this Society of Authors in
seeking to promote an equitable distribution of the
property in literature, and we have agreed to co-
operate in trying to establish an equitable inter-
national scheme of copyright, and I hope we
journalists shall also co-operate in exposing those
publishers—for a few still remain—who, whether
they be artists or not, know something about being
artful dodgers. (Laughter.)
Let me say that our Institute has made consider-
able progress. A few years ago we had only a
handful of members; to-day we have between two
and three thousand; and I can fairly say that our
membership represents nearly all that is best and
certainly all that is thoroughly representative in
Journalism. A friend has hinted here that the times
have changed. In the days of Queen Anne Acts were
introduced to restrain and repress and tax news-
papers. The press of the country was even then
becoming too powerful for the powers that were.
But a great change has taken place since that time.
Within the last few months another monarch,
good Queen Victoria, has given the journalists of the
Empire a royal charter, which enables them to define
their position, to secure privileges, and to establish
a scheme of administration and education; and we
shall work on as we have worked with this Society
of Authors, and other kindred institutions, so that
we may establish that which will be in truth a real
and healthy brotherhood of the pencil and the pen.
(Cheers.)
Herr Brand: Ladies and gentlemen, I beg to
thank you for inviting me to this charming assembly
to-night. I shall not fail to report it in the proper
quarters, hoping that if any of you were ever to come
## p. 98 (#126) #############################################
98
THE AUTHOR.
to our assemblies, you would be made to feel welcome
in the veryheartiest manner as we have been made to
feel welcome amongst you here to-night. I am afraid
we could not offer you such a splendid banquet, but
we would try to make up for that in the extension
of our festivities. Our annual assembly actually
extends over three whole days and part of the night
as well. (Laughter.) It is chiefly devoted to the
transaction of the business of the Society, but still
there remains some time left, as there was last
summer in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, for a festival
performance at the Opera one night; for an
excursion to the Rhine; for an excursion to
Wiesbaden, and for a few other entertainments.
With those exceptions the time was strictly devoted
to business. This summer, next month, the gather-
ing will take place at Breslau, and if any of those
present here to-night should be there, we shall offer
them a hearty welcome. (Cheers.)
Mr. George Haven Putnam: If I remember my
Scriptures, directly Daniel was able to get safely out
of the Den of Lions he made a speech; but I do
not think he was asked to make a speech before he
got out. (Laughter.) I am conscious of being a
publisher; however, I am not come here to speak
these words to-night in the rdle of a publisher; but
only because my business happens to be associated
with international copyright. On behalf of the
associated trades of authors and publishers of the
United States, who have been doing very hard work
under circumstances of some little discouragement
and difficulty, I have to express to this Society
that it is their fixed intention to carry on that work
with the hope that in the future international
copyright will be put in a proper position of
solidarity, and that the relations of authors and
publishers will be put on a proper footing. I need
only say with regard to the work already done, and
in connection with the discouraging vote in the
House of Representatives a few weeks back, a great
deal has been done in the United States. As you
Englishmen know, we have used English books
very largely during the last century, and not paid
for them. A great many of the States have instructed
their representatives to vote in behalf of authors,
both English and American, and the middle States,
and the greater portion of the States of the North
West, voted solidly in support of that Bill. So that
we have won over communities, and the work of
winning over communities will still go on, and will
not be so long a task as people here dreaded. I
look forward to the day when all these difficulties
between authors and publishers will be settled on
a mutually remunerative basis. Publishers will
soon I expect have an association of their own, and
we shall hear of the grievances of publishers against
authors, and we shall then have our own organs on
the other side. But these are practically, as between
honest publishers and honest authors, matters of
detail. I look forward to the day when authors all
over the world will be receiving the highest
remuneration. Then authors will become princes
of finance, as well as princes of literature.
Mr. Oscar Wilde: Ladies and gentlemen, I
confess that I am of opinion that in the case of
authors while speech is silver, writing is gold, and
that on the whole those of us, who claim at all the
distinction of being men of letters, should not
get up after dinner and make serious speeches,
except for the purpose, so necessary in a great re-
ligious country like England, of conveying in a
certain popular manner the sense of the tediousness
of eternity. But on the other hand when I was
invited by the Committee of this Society to pro-
pose the health of our Chairman this evening, I
felt that no incorporated author could attempt to
draw back. This is, ladies and gentlemen, our
third banquet. We had first Mr. Bryce, and I
think it was a privilege to us to have as guest
on that occasion a man so loved and so honoured
amongst the people of the largest English-speaking
country in the world, as Mr. J. Russell Lowell.
Lord Pembroke, an author and a man of
culture, and one whose name being so intimately
connected with English literature, going back in-
deed to Elizabethan days, conferred distinction
upon our Society. And to-night we have to wel-
come as our Chairman Professor Richard Claver-
house Jebb, who is known, not merely in England,
but certainly in Germany, France and Holland, and
everywhere where Greek and Latin literature is
read, as a scholar and a man of letters. (Cheers.)
I must confess, sir, if you will allow me to address
you personally, that I think that you, in confining
yourself to the wide sphere of University life, have
chosen the better part. The man of letters, on
the whole, should live in a University and with
University surroundings. We have constantly be-
fore us the irresistible temptations of modern life,
and now and then a dreadful rumour appears in
the papers that many of our most popular writers
are tempted to abandon literature for other things.
I remember the pang that shot through many of
us when we read in the Times one morning that
Mr. Walter Besant was going to become a member
of the County Council. Subsequently there ap-
peared a statement that Mr. Rider Haggard, de-
siring to find a fuller scope for the mendacity of
Allan Quatermain, intended to seek distraction on
a political platform, and that charming and graceful
writer, the author of "Obiter Dicta," has lately
joined the minority in the House of Commons.
Yes, sir, you have chosen the better part. A
scholar—a man of letters—should not live in
## p. 99 (#127) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
99
the turmoil of modern life. With us Ariel
comes too rarely and Caliban criticizes our books.
You have written, sir, upon Homer. Alas! in our
life there is nothing that is Homeric except the
uncouth Thersites. Sir, we look upon you as one
who has realized the ideal and as one who has
devoted himself to literature. When I was at
Oxford I was always consoled for the extraordinary
and, as it seemed to me at the time, the deliberate
dullness of my tutor, by the fact that one could
loiter in the grey cloisters at morning listening to
the voices singing, and lie in the garden on the
grass and see the sunlight reflected on the towers
and gilded panes, or wander up the staircase of
Christ Church beneath its vaulted ceilings, and
stroll across the College of St. John's and see the
house that Laud built for his pleasure. You, sir,
have surroundings no less lovely and beautiful;
and those are the surroundings that a man of
letters should have. Nor is it a question of sur-
roundings merely. The great eras in English
literature have been those when the Universities
have been in immediate touch with the literature
of the times; one imperishable thing we have in
our literature—the work of Milton, which shows
what I mean.
I remember, sir, having the pleasure some years
ago of reading a book of yours upon the Attic
orators, a book, I need hardly say, distinguished
by the highest scholarship j and in those days
it seemed that the literary man was also able
to make a speech. I am inclined to think that
now that is the one thing we should never do.
But as I have touched upon the definite work
that you have done, not merely for your own
University, but for all of us, allow me to remind
the company present of other things you have done
also. That great scholar, Richard Bentley, seems
to me to have left the mantle of his critical insight
to that scholar who now holds the position of Regius
Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge,
and who has written a monograph on his great
predecessor that is a little masterpiece of style and
method. It is said sometimes of those scholars who
deal critically with minute work that they deal merely
with words. Sometimes I think that words are
the only reality, and I wish that the English critics
whom we have now working amongst us would
expend upon the linguistic criticism of the English
language one-twentieth part of the care and trouble
that a scholar of Oxford or Cambridge gives to the
language of the Greek or the Roman. What is the
mission of criticism but to preserve language pure
and uncorrupted, to test every new intruder, to keep
the old words from getting old-fashioned, and to
always keep before the eyes of the writer that language
is precious material. Our ordinary books have passed
into uncouth realism or into what is not literature at
all, and when one remembers what the Universities
do for us in keeping alive the Greek and Latin lan-
guages and Greek and Latin modes of thought, and
then takes up some ordinary and possibly evening
newspaper, one is tempted to think that the only
dead language is the English language. (Laughter.)
And finally, sir, you will allow me to remind the
audience of authors who are present here to-night
that your work is not merely confined to perfect
scholarship, to the delicate traditions of the most
perfect literature of the world, but that by your quick
insight into modern culture you have been the link
between the life of our own time and the life of
the Greek; and that you yourself have also con-
tributed to modern literature a work that no one
would ever dream of parting with—that beautiful
translation of Sophocles that enables us to hear
the imaginative voice of music that once stirred
the people of Athens. There is an Italian proverb
"tradittori traduttori." I think the translation of
the work of the creator of CEdipus Tyrannos shows,
so far as we are concerned, that our withers are
unwrung. There have been beautiful translations
in verse of Greek and Latin things and one, a gentle
and most courteous man of letters, Lord Carnarvon,
whose death we all deplore, did recently into verse
a translation of the "Odyssey," but your transla-
tion, sir, is a classic. And so, sir, let me felicitate
you in that you have chosen the better part: let
me felicitate the University that has had so dis-
tinguished a son: let me felicitate the Society of
Authors in that we have as our Chairman one who
is not only a perfect scholar but also a brilliant man
of letters.
Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to drink to the
Chairman of the evening. (Loud cheers.)
The Chairman: Let me ask permission to
thank you most sincerely for the kind words
you have spoken, words which I felt to be most
deeply sympathetic, and to thank this distinguished
company for the very kind manner in which those
words have been received.
Allow me simply to say from my heart that it
has been felt by me as the greatest possible honour
and pleasure to be here this evening. I thank
you.
## p. 100 (#128) ############################################
IOO
AD VER TISEMENTS.
"THE LITERARY HAflDJKAID OF THE
CHURCH-"
HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING.
NOW READY.
This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for
the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will
gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid
of the Church of England throughout the world."
The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide
honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as
illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of
the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps.
THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION.
BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A.
READY IN OCTOBER.
This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to
show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to
say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The
different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced
which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.
## p. 101 (#129) ############################################
ADVER TISEMENTS.
101
NEW BOOKS.
A New Translation. By W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow
\ and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge.
\ Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750
\ copies, all numbered, of which 500 copies are for
\ this country and 250 for America. In two hand-
\ some 8vo vols. Price 25*. the set. The aim of
\ the above translation has been to render more
\ accessible, to explain and illustrate a book which
\ has exercised a wide influence on the French
\ language as well as on European literature.
\ A system of marginal reference has been
\ introduced. Great attention has been paid
RAREI AIQ I t0 ^e historical aspect of the book, and
flHDLLHIO. J points bearing on the political and religious
/ affairs of the times have been carefully
/ noticed. As the work must be presented as
/ a whole, and as certain passages and parts
/ can no longer be presented in English, these
/ have been left in the original old French, where
/ they can be read by such as desire it. The work
/ will be accompanied by a life of Rabelais, a notice
/ of the translators, Urquhart, and Motteux, a map of
/ the environs of Chinon, the part of France where
/ Rabelais was brought up, notes on the language and
/ style, and on other points. It will be, in fact, an entirely
I new and complete presentation of the great French master.
Prospectus giving full details and ail information to be had on
application from the Publisher.
A BOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR.
SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES — Past and
Present. By John S. Farmer, Author of "Americanisms—Old
and New/' sc. A new and absolutely unique Slang Dictionary.
In three volumes, foolscap 4to,printed antique style, on thick paper,
large margin, to the number of 500 copies for England and 250 for
America, each copy being numbered and signed, to Subscribers
only as follows: The Set (3 vols.) £$ $s. net. In half-calf, parch-
ment sides. The price will be raised on completion as in the case'of
"Americanisms—Old and New." A Dictionary, Historical and
Comparative (on the lines of Dr. Murray's New English Dictionary)
of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of Society for more than
300 years, the whole presenting a Curious Picture of Social Life
and Manners of the English People.
Notes and Queries says—'* For the first time in a dictionary the subject
of V. ntflish slang is seriously treated. Recent works have been catchpennies,
and Mr, Farmer is the first to treat the subject of slang In a manner com.
mensuratc with its importance. . . . Very full is Mr. Farmer's list, the
first volume extending to over four hundred double columned pages. . . .
His book commends itself warmly to our readers, and its progress cannot be
otherwise than interesting. As it is issued in a limited edition it can scarcely
fail of becoming a prized possession."
Prospectus and all information to be hadfrom the Publisher.
AMERICANISMS: OLD AND NEW. By John
S. Farmer. In 1 vol. Foolscap ato, printed in antique style, and
bound in vellum. £2 2s.
A book for the library, desk, or general reading; for journalists.
Members of Parliament, public speakers, and all professional men. It is
a dictionary of words, phrases, and colloquialisms peculiar to the United
States, British America, the West Indies, Sic, Sic, together with their
derivation, meaning, and application.
"Certainly the best and complctest dictionary of Americanisms at
present existing."—Athenaum,
THREE NEW BOOKS ON THE
HOLY LAND.
PALESTINE UNDER THE MOSLEMS. By
Guy le Strange, With Map, and numerous Plans and Drawings
specially executed for this work. Handsome post 8vo, pp. 604.
Cloth extra, 12*. 6d.
** A work intended to render the mass of interesting intormation about
Palestine, which lies buried in the Arabic texts of the Moslem geographers
and travellers of the middle ages, available to the English reader."
".... is written throughout with a sort of loving care which
proves how thoroughly the author has felt the fascination of his subject."—
Saturday Review.
Third Edition y now ready.
THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES.
By Henky A. Harper. With an Introduction by Walter Besant.
Coloured Map and numerous Illustrations, demy 8vo, i6r.
"Instructive, interesting, and in many ways admirable . . . enables
the reader so to revise his impressions of Scripture typography as In many
cases to throw quite a flood of new light upon a hitherto obscure narrative.
—Ma nchater Examiner,
"Supplies a long-felt want by connecting in a popular and vivid manner
the work, which has Deen done by the Society with the Bible narrative."—
Christian Leader.
NORTHERN AJLUN, "Within the Decapolis,"
By Herr Schumacher, Author of "Across the Jordan," &c.
With Maps, Plans, and over 60 Illustrations, crown 8vo, 35. 6d.
"Altogether we have to thank Mr. Schumacher for an important
addition to our knowledge of what has long remained a terra incognita.' —
Saturday Rei-iev.
THE SURVEY OF WESTERN
PALESTINE,
Only 17 sets of this magnificent work new remain. It will
never be reprinted, with the exception of the two volumes
"Flora and Fauna " and "Jerusalem." The price of the
set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven
uniform and handsomely bound volumes, qto.
THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field
by Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E., and Colonel Kitchener, C.M.G.,
A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after their return. With
thousands of illustrations of tombs, ruins, &c, drawn expressly for
these volumes, aud not to be found anywhere else. 3 vols.
THE NAME LISTS. Transliterated from the Arabic
with translation by Major Conder, R.E.,and edited by Professor E.
H. Palmer. 1 vol.
THE VOLUME OF SPECIAL PAPERS, Con-
swing mostly of reprints of important papers from the '1 Quarteily
Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S.,
D.C.L., LL.D..R.E. ; Col. Sir Charles Warren,G.C.M.G..K.C.B.,
F.R.S., R.E.: Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont-
Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, &c. 1 vol.
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE.
With many Illustrations (hand-painted). By Canon Tristram,
LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol.
THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio
of 50 Plates. By Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major
Conder, D.C.L., R.E. I vol.
THE MAPS.
An Illustrated Circular, giving all information about the above, will be
sent, poit free, on application.
Publishedfor the Palestine Exploration Fund by
London: ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C,
## p. 102 (#130) ############################################
102
A D VER TISEMENTS.
TYPE-WRITING!
CHARING CROSS TYPE-WRITING ASSOCIATION,
■* 447, STRAND *■
(Directly opposite Charing Cross Station).
Managers - Miss ROUSE & Mrs. URQUHART.
Authors' MSS. copied with accuracy and despatch.
Specifications. Law copying.
Translations from and into all foreign languages.
Shorthand Writers always in attendance.
MISS GILL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,
6, ADAM STREET,
HARRISON & SONS,
Printer* tn Or&marg to ftjrr jHajnttji,
GIVE SPECIAL ATTENTION TO
ARTISTIC AND OLD STYLE PRINTING,
ALSO TO THE ACCURATE PRODUCTION OF
SCIENTIFIC AND MATHEMATICAL WORKS,
AND PRINTING IN
ORIENTAL TYPES.
45 46, & 47, St. Martin's Lane; 14,15,16, & 20, Great May's
Buildings; 59, Pall Mall; 10, Tower Street,
LONDON.
MISS ETHEL DICKENS,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND
(Over the Office of "All the Year Round" ).
MSS. copied. Price List on application.
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LDDGATE HILL, E.C.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from
i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy
(carbon) supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many
well-known Authors and Publishers.
Further particulars on application.
SECOND-HAND AND SCARCE BOOKS.
HARRISON & SONS have special facilities
for the supply of Second-Hand and Scarce Books.
All orders entrusted to them will receive immediate
and careful attention. No charge is made until
successful in procuring the work desired. Price,
Condition of Binding, Plates, &c, will be reported
before securing.
Address—
HARRISON & SONS,
NEW & SECOND-HAND BOOKSELLERS,
59, PALL JWALL, LONDON, S.W.
ESTABLISHED 1851.
SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE.
THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.
TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when not drawn below £100.
STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold.
SATINOS DEPARTMElffT.
For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows interest, at the rate of THREE
per CENT, per Annum, on each completed £1. The Interest is added to the principal on the 31st March annually.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR
A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate
possession. Apply at Office of the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society.
THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars post free on application.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
## p. 102 (#131) ############################################
A D VER TISEMENTS.
iii.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents ronnd shoulders.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables yon to keep pace
with yonr thoughts, the operation requires less mental
effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate
your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on.
The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as
such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the
cost of a Bar-Lock.
Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System.
CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED.
W. J. RICHARDSON & Co, 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St., E.C.
40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfleld Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building,
Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance ot
Literary Property. Issued to all members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2*. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4s. 6d.
5. The History of the Socie"te" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition
preparing.)
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
## p. 102 (#132) ############################################
REMINGTON
STANDARD TYPEWRITER.
From
No more writer's cramp.
No more round shoulders.
ra
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
New York, Publishers.
"The value of having MSS.
copied by the Typewriter is so
evident that it is hardly necessary
to advise authors to use the
Typewriter for preparing copy for
the printer."
No more late hours.
No more delayed correspondence
No more illegible letters.
SAVES COST OF PRINTER'S PROOF.
Apply for Price List and particulars to Sole London Office-
WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT,
100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C.
Branch Offices,
MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET.
LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET.
BIRMINGHAM : 88, COLMORE ROW.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westminster.
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Title
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 04 (August 1890)
Subject
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 04 (August 1890)
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publications
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890-09-15
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5
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Vol. I.-- No. 5.].
SEPTEMBER 15, 1890.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Published for the Society Be
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1890.
## p. 102 (#134) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Why is “Vinolia" Soap
FREE FROM THE EVILS
OF OTHER TOILET SOAPS?
wwwwwwwwwwwww
After careful investigation, the highest authority on Soaps, Dr. ALDER WRIGHT, F.R.S.,
reports as follows:--
FIRST.
INGREDIENTS PUREST. "The ingredients are of excellent quality for the manufacture of a first-class soap.
SECOND.
PATENT PROCESSES. “The process is carried out in such a way as to render the products wholly free from all surplus
uncombined alkaline matter, and therefore incapable of acting on tender skins, in the injurious and objection-
able fashion exhibited by most kinds of ordinary soap."
THIRD.
Extra CREAM.
“A further amelioration is also effected by the incorporation with the soap of extra fatty matter, well
calculated to soften the skin, and diminish the tendency to irritation sometimes caused in very tender
subjects by even the Purest of Ordinary Soaps."
FOURTH.
DELICATE SCENT. " Vinolia' Soap is Delicately Scented, and wholly free from poisonous Metallic Colouring
Matters.”
An overwhelming Proof that it is without any rival whatever is this:--
o IT IS THE SOAP OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
OF ALL CHEMISTS. SAMPLES FORWARDED POST FREE ON RECEIPT OF THREE PENNY STAMPS.
PRICES:-VINOLIA SOAP, Floral, 6d. ; Medical (Balsamic), 8d.; and Toilet (Otto of Rose), rod. per Tablet. VINOLIA SHAVING
SOAP, Is., IS. 6d., and zs. 6d. per Stick, and Flat Cakes in Porcelain-lined metal boxes, 2s. VINOLIA CREAM (a Plastic Emollient
Cream for the Skin in Health and Disease ; for Itching, Eczema, Sunburn, Roughness, &c.), is, ed., 35. 6d., and 6s. per Box. VINOLIA
POWDER (a Soothing, Soluble, Rose Dusting Powder, for the Toilet, Nursery, Skin Irritation, &c.), in Pink, White, and Cream,
IS. 9d., 35. 6d. and 6s. per box.
BLONDEAU ET CIE., RYLAND ROAD, LONDON, N.W.
## p. 103 (#135) ############################################
The Society of Authors (Incorporated).
PRESIDENT.
THE Right Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I.
ALFRED AUSTIN.
Robert BATEMAN.
SIR HENRY BERGNE.
WALTER BESANT.
R. D. BLACKMORE.
Rev, PROF. BONNEY, F.R.S.
LORD BRABOURNE.
JAMES BRYCE.
P. W. CLAYDEN.
J. COMYNS CARR.
EDWARD CLODD.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
MARION CRAWFORD.
OSWALD CRAWFURD.
THE EARL OF DESART.
A. W. DUBOURG.
ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S.
ProF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
COUNCIL.
EDMUND Gosse.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
THOMAS HARDY.
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.
Rev. W. J. Lortie, F.S.A.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
J. C. PARKINSON.
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D.
WALTER Herries Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAS. SULLY.
WILLIAM Moy THOMAS.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
EDMUND YATES.
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman-Walter BESANT.
EDMUND Gosse.
H. Rider HAGGARD.
A. G. Ross.
J. M. LELY.
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK.
Solicitors.
Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary–S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C.
VOL. I.
## p. 104 (#136) ############################################
104
ADVERTISEMENTS,
1. Bertan, Sept nyt 1878
Men. Marie, Todd & lo.
Gentleman,
- Thave seur me of your
Reus, to have a paina mended
through Men. Hochen, Leurs
Ito. of Mencity.
For may like to know that
Shune had tri fen Cmitute
formue han twenty years,
rune the days of a book of men
called" The Autorahas the
Breckfact tere 1857-8 mute
last Friday without retain and
alway with herfect Dalesjacken
I have written with is halfa
dozen arimare volumes, a
Tance neember of Enneps to
auce reusands of letters.
Tere bir as of an ole
rence and I hohe yeu ance
do the beat you can for it
Though I have in the meci
Hier bought austan of qui
mate' corrugała? mashed C.
- The net know whether
que crue fire this testimonial,
hor's feel as if the free which
han Casies out to much of
may throught and brought back
To much in various forms in
return was enlithed to this
Carlisicut of hionnaha seccica
Sau, Centhum Yorus terly
Mica Wendell Hemed
ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to Mabie, Todd & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
## p. 105 (#137) ############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 5.] SEPTEMBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence.
C O N T
PAGE
News and Notes ~ 105
The Poet's Seat: An Idyll of the Suburbs. By Austin Dobson ... 111
English Authors and the Colonial Book Market in
A Hard Case, No. IV 114
A Society of Authors for America 115
An Author's Home "8
The Word " Slang." By Charles G. Leland 119
Go Slow. By H. G. Keene 110
NEWS AND NOTES.
IHOPE that readers of The Author'will regard
with favour the arrangement of last month's
number, which contained nothing but the
Report of the Dinner and the speeches pronounced
on that occasion. For my own part I would gladly
have a close season for magazines, journals, and
new books of every kind. It would do the world
every kind of good to rest from ephemerals during
the months of August and September. There is
plenty of old literature to read: no one can read
anything like the number of good things that
come out. If we would only rest! In a sense we
do. The summer is the season for publishing in
the magazines the papers which nobody cares to
read. How if there were no publications at all ?•
The Authors' Dinner I regard as chiefly valuable
because it is the only function in which authors, as
a body, have ever come together. It is difficult to
manage; it causes little frictions of the moment;
there is always the usual excuse from the man you
want most to get. He who is best qualified to speak
on this or that point is sure to be ill or absent. Yet
with all these difficulties we have met for the third
time, and we have met very successfully in increas-
ing numbers. Would it be possible, or would it be
better for us—in our own interests—to meet in any
other way? A conference has been suggested, or a
E N T S.
PAGE
Correspondence—
I. A Club of Critics "i
II. American Cookery "I
III. The Society's Readers i«
IV. Black Beauty m
The Library of Toronto University "4
International Copyright - "4
At Work - "5
New Books and New Editions "5
Advertisements "7
conversazione, as a change from the dinner. As
regards the former we should require certain very
definite points of discussion, and there would have
to be a very rigid chairman, and I think that reporters
should be excluded. A conference of two days
followed by a conversazione might be a change for
the better in our annual programme. I shall be very
glad to receive any communications on this subject. ♦
For reasons not wholly unconnected with laziness
and a long holiday I have to defer the few observa-
tions I wish to make on a certain Memorandum
recently issued by the Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge until next month. However,
two letters on the subject which appeared in the
Daily News and in the Guardian early in August,
have perhaps explained my views as to the value of
that document and have prevented my silence being
misconstrued. Meantime, let us note one thing very
carefully. There is not in the minds either of the
Publication Committee of that Society or in the
minds of those who were persuaded to sign this
precious Memorandum, the slightest perception;
not the least glimmering of perception; that literary
property now exists. Yet they make thousands
every year by literary property. And they obsti-
nately refuse to inquire, as to their methods of ac-
quisition, whether they are honest and honourable,
or the reverse.
This prevailing ignorance of the existence of
vol. 1.
h 2
## p. 106 (#138) ############################################
io6
THE AUTHOR.
literary property and its rights has been also illus-
trated in other ways. Thus, a man who has long
been connected with literature writes to a journal
that he has been more "generously " treated by the
S.P.C.K. than byother publishers. More generously!
But the question is not one of generosity, but of
justice. When will the world understand this?
Are authors to stand, hat in hand, the tears of grati-
tude running down their hungry cheeks, when these
high-minded Christiangentlemen bestow theirdoles? •
The awakening, however, even of the religious
mind is illustrated by a recent fact. A lady writes
that another religious publishing society—noncon-
formists, these—have sent her word, that although
they bought certain books of hers outright, and she
has no claim, in spite of their success, they recognise
the equity of her case. They have therefore sent
her a substantial cheque for past years and promise
her a royalty in future.
This, you see, concedes the first principle to be
observed by all honest men in the acquisition of
literary property, viz., that the price paid for it, or
the rental for the use of it, must depend on the
actual sale of the book and not upon the amount
fixed by the avarice of a sweater or the necessities
of an author. But this is a Society managed by
humble nonconformists, not by high - minded
Churchmen. And a second lady, herself one of
the unfortunate victims of the S.P.C.K., writes that
shehas just negotiated with another religious publish-
ing house for the production of a book. She has
received the same sum which she has been accus-
tomed to get from the former liberal and honourable
house, but accompanied by a very reasonable royalty
in addition. We are waking up, after all.
Why is it that religious societies are always
doing things of which private firms would be
ashamed? I have, still further, received the par-
ticulars of a case which I set down as it was told
to me. If I had time to investigate the case fully
I would publish the name of the Society. The
accountant of a certain society discovered that
another officer, by an elaborate system of secret
book-keeping, had turned the society into a firm
trading for his own advantage! He proceeded to
expose the whole business after an immense deal of
trouble in unearthing the intricacies of the method.
The result was that the committee, on the offender
saying that he had now repented, with prayer and
tears, and had turned over a new leaf, passed a vote
of confirmed confidence—and dismissed the ac-
countant! It seems incredible, and there may be
another side to the story, but the documents, which
I have received and read, appear to leave no doubt
on the matter.
Here, again, is another case which speaks for
itself. It is an advertisement cut out of a paper.
In this case the name of the truly conscientious
Society is given at full, for the admiration of the
world:—
"Competition for Twenty Pounds.
"The Junior Division Church of England
Temperance Society offers the following prizes :--
"Ten Pounds for the best set of eight dialogues
suitable for Church Bands of Hope, illus-
trating respectively the eight lectures of the
syllabus (health, wealth, and temperance)
for the next year's examination.
"Ten pounds for the best set of eight stories for
tracts for children (not exceeding 1,000
words), illustrating, respectively, the eight
lectures above mentioned.
"The Society reserves the right to publish any
competition, whether it gain the prize or not.
"For further particulars apply to the Secretary,
(Junior Division C.E.T.S.), 9, Bridge Street,
Westminster, S.W."
This Church of England Society calmly proposes,
in fact, to keep for nothing all the things that are
sent in to them. It " reserves the right to publish
any competition, whether it gains the prize or not."
Now if an enterprising butcher was to offer a prize
of twenty pounds for the best pig, "reserving the
right" of keeping and selling for himself all the
competing pigs, whether they gained a prize or not,
what would be said of that butcher's impudence?
How would his brother butchers speak of the offer?
In what light would it be regarded by the pro-
prietors of pigs? Yet, because it is only literary
property that is concerned, the respectable Com-
mittee of the Junior Division of the Church of
England Temperance Society does not scruple to
imitate that enterprising butcher. The committees
of religious societies always, I believe, begin with
prayer. Would it be possible for the Archbishop
to draw up a form of prayer suitable for those
committees which have to do with publishing?
Some kind person has sent me the prospectus of
a Society which really does seem to meet that "long-
felt want" which calls for every new association.
One need not mention it by name, because an
association with such benevolent aims cannot fail to
make rapid way. It is, in fact, the much-desired
Ghost Society. There has never been a time when
people have more ardently desired dramatic success.
There has also never been a time when so few
people have possessed the first elements of dramatic
success. They may now, however, by joining this
Association, whose terms of membership ought to be
very high, be able to gratify their laudable ambition.
## p. 107 (#139) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
They can have their manuscript plays corrected, re-
vised, and put into practical dramatic form for them
—no doubt by Messrs. Sims, Pinero, Henry Jones,
Petlitt, and other leading dramatists. The Society
is also about to issue a monthly paper, "supported
by tales of the Association," which is a very odd
form of support. They are also going to find
engagements for ladies and gentlemen who wish to
go on the stage, and they will teach people to play
the violin or the harp, to sing, to become eloquent,
and to compose music; in short, a most excellent
Ghost Society. One department is, no doubt
only for the moment, omitted. They do not yet
propose to correct literary work and make it fit
for publication. But here is a very great field
lying open for the first comer. If only those who
are now so foolish as to spend their money in
paying for their own productions, receiving
in return nothing but a nasty, spiteful notice
in the papers, would only lay out that money
in buying MSS. worth printing and put their own
names to them, how much better it would be
for all parties! For the author would get properly
paid, the person with the money would get the
glory, and the public would be spared the trash that
is now offered them. We look for the develop-
ment of this new Society in the direction of litera-
ture. Perhaps we might do a good turn to our own
members by creating a new Branch—the Ghostly
Branch—of the Society of Authors ; or it might
seem better adapted—a more natural growth—to
the S.P.C.K.
—♦
An American paper, the Critic, has lately been
preparing a list of the Forty living Immortals—the
Academy—of the United States. Here they are,
divided into the States or countries of their resi-
dence :—
Massachusetts. Aldrich, Brooks, Cable, Child,
Fiske, Frothingham, Hall, Higginson, Holmes,
Howells, Lowell, Norton, Parkman, Whittier.
New York. Burroughs, Curtis, Dana, Gilder,
Hawthorne, Stedman, Stoddard, Tylor, White.
Connecticut. Clemens, Fisher, Lathrop, Mitchell,
Porter, Warner, Whitney.
New Jersey. Stockton, Whitman.
Pennsylvania. Furness.
England. Bret Harte, James.
Columbia District. Bancroft.
Michigan. Winchell.
Georgia. Harris.
Italy. Story.
The same paper is about to prepare a new li*>t,
containing the twenty who shall be considered the
truest representatives of what is best in cultivated
American womanhood.
In a lecture entitled "Literature as a Profession,"
Col. T. W. Higginson has made some remarks
which are quoted in the Critic of New York.
Among them are the following :—
"Here, as nowhere else, the author stands free
and dignified in his profession, with no class above
him. How does a literary man stand to-day in
England? So long as he is not raised to the
peerage, he takes rank below the meanest man
who has been: and if, like Tennyson, he consents
to join it, he has the extreme felicity of being
followed in that body by a prosperous London
brewer. The separation of set from set makes its
mark in all the literature of England. Why is it
that the American magazines have marched in
solid column into England and displaced the
English magazines? It is because the American
magazine is a magazine. It is a place of compre-
hension. It brings people together."
Here are two interesting points. The first is the
wonderful inability of the American mind to under-
standj^'hat rank means. As regards precedence the
best English poet, if he had no title, would have to
walk behind the lowest birthday or jubilee knight.
But what Englishman in his senses would rank the
birthday knight above the poet? What does it
matter to the author and his position whether a
brewer or a brewer's clerk receive a title? His
own position remains the same. It is that acquired
by his reputation alone. The next point is more
serious. The lecturer says that the American
magazines have displaced the English magazines in
their own land. Is this so? Does the statement
approach the truth? If it is true, or nearly true,
it is a very great reproach on English writers and
a great blow and discouragement. Well, we have
the Contemporary, the Nineteenth Century, the
Fornightly, the National, the Universal, the New
Review, Blaekwood's, Macmillan's, the Cornhill,
Longman's, Temple Bar, and a dozen others,
all of which are well known to be flourishing,
more or less—some, exceedingly—all supposed
to be good properties, and all taken in and
read in every part of our great Empire. The
American magazines have come over here. One
or two have succeeded, and deservedly. But to
the detriment of the English magazines? I be-
lieve, not at all. If this had been the case, it
would have been proved by a falling-off in prices
paid to contributors, when the Society would have
heard of it. But no such thing has happened.
Some magazines there are which are in a bad way,
and have been in a bad way for years, because,
when a magazine -takes a turn for the worse, it
seems unable to recover itself, but goes continually
down till it reaches the point of extinction.
O" the other hand, the success of one magazine
## p. 108 (#140) ############################################
io8
THE AUTHOR.
may create such a demand as will make room for
half a dozen more, and this, I take it, is the reason
of the English success of the American magazines.
—♦
I wonder if it is too late to speak with admiration
of a paper in an August magazine. The " Perilous
Amour" of Mr. Weyman, in Temple Bar for that
month, stood out, as regards interest, workmanship,
and freshness, above and beyond everything else
of that month—I mean, of course, everything else
that I saw.
In August we received a letter from Lord Monks-
well, who has charge of our Copyright Bill, informing
us that the great length of the Bill made it for
various reasons inadvisable that it should - be in-
troduced at so late a period in the Session. Both
his lordship and others whom he kindly consulted
on the matter, recommended that it should be held
over until November. This little delay is quite
unimportant; the more so when we remember the
many long years through which authors have waited
for some attempt at the remedial legislation, which
is now only some three months away. Of course it
is the attempt only, and not the legislation, which
is so near.
The ingenious hidalgo, Don Quixote de la
Mancha, seems to have thought that there were cer-
tain plights from which the extremest knight-errantry-
could not extricate a man. At any rate he tilts no
lance on the author's behalf, but commends him
simply to God. The passage runs as follows:—
"Tell me, your worship, print you this book
upon your own charges, or have you sold the
copyright to some publisher?"
"I print it on my own account," said the author,
"and think to gain a thousand crowns by the first
impression, which will be of two thousand copies,
which they will sell at six reales a piece in a brace
of straws."
"Your worship is mighty well up in the account.
It is well seen that you know nothing of the ins
and outs of publishers. I promise you that when
you shall find you laden with the bodies of two
thousand books, your own body shall be so wearied
that it will affiright you, especially if the book be a
little dull and is nothing piquant."
"So then, your worship," said the author," would
have me give my copyright for three maravedis to
a publisher, who will think he does me a kindness
in giving me so much? I do not print my books
to achieve fame in the world, for I am already
known by my works; I want profit, for without it
fine fame is not worth a farthing."
"God give your worship good fortune," said
Pon Quixote, and passed on.
"I cannot," says an eminent author and drama-
tist (who surely wants a holiday badly), "use my
own judgment in a literary contract without being
pounced upon and bullied by a trades union of
authors." Now this is meant for us, and is not fair.
We have pounced upon nobody, we have bullied
nobody, nor have we ever attempted to pounce or
to bully. We have never set ourselves up as a
tribunal to which authors, eminent or otherwise,
should apply before acceding to a publisher's terms,
unless they wish to do so. We may have excellent
reasons for thinking that they would be very wise
if they did come to us, but we leave it to them:
and more and more come daily. As for this
particular author, he has never applied to us for
advice and has therefore never received any. But
a trades' union, I believe, dictates to its members
[hat they should accept certain terms only, upon cer-
tain conditions only, and members cannot continue
to belong to the union unless they do as they are told.
We have never attempted or wished to take up this
position. We simply say to all authors and to this
our eminent member among them :—" Com-
plaints have been made and are still being made
by men of letters that they have not obtained
fair terms for their work, that they have been
led to sign contracts to which they never would
have assented had the meaning of those con-
tracts been apparent to them, and the ultimate
division of profits foreshadowed; that in short in
the business side of the literary profession they
have been at a disadvantage. Therefore the
Society offers to make clear to its members the
meaning of any proposal submitted to them, so
that they may be, perhaps for the first time, in a
position to understand whether they should take
an offer or leave it." That is not the same thing as
preventing an author from using his own judgment
about a literary contract. Let those who have
judgment exercise it, but what is to become of
those whose judicial faculties are small, or who
from absence of technical knowledge, or data from
which to make deduction, cannot tell a good bargain
from a bad one, when its terms are submitted to
them? Must such an one always go to the wall?
——♦
Mrs. Craik and Mr. Richard Jefferies are both
to be honoured in the same way.
There has lately been placed in Tewkesbury
Abbey a medallion portrait of the author of "John
Halifax, Gentleman." Tewkesbury was the home
of John Halifax, and the last place visited by the
author before her death.
Salisbury Cathedral very fitly has been selected
as the right place to do similar honour to the
memory of Richard Jefferies, a Wiltshire man and
## p. 109 (#141) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
109
the poet of the Wiltshire Downs. As regards the
latter, subscriptions may be sent to myself, and I
shall be very grateful to any who will help to erect
this monument to the great naturalist and writer.
The following seems to me a remarkable story
of perseverance. A young author writes :—
"My story,' ,' has only been rejected
twice, as yet. My first story, published just three
years ago, was rejected thirty-six times before it
was finally accepted. Another story of mine was
only taken after forty-two publishers had refused it.
So, you see, I cannot despair about' .'
Besides, she is the only child of my brain that I
have left to see settled in the world, all my other
MSS. having been accepted, with the exception of
a four-act drama."
One can only wish every success to the four-act
drama. This author has worked his way to suc-
cess against discouragement that would almost
have dashed the ardour of the Bruce's spider.
Probably he could have spared himself a good
proportion of these refusals, if he had been advised
earlier of the most suitable direction in which to
seek for a publisher. At the Society, we are often
asked to "recommend a publisher," and it is
possible that a mere glance at these books would
have enabled us to save this author at least two
dozen refusals by pointing out the publishers to
whom it would be useless or unwise to apply.
We are glad to learn from their organ, The
Journalist, that the Institute of Journalists thinks,
like ourselves, on the matter of International Copy-
right, and that the Committee of Management
propose to take such steps towards its establish-
ment as may seem expedient. The question was
brought to their notice through a resolution, passed
on the motion of Mr. James Baker, by the Bristol
Branch of the Institute. The motion was to the
effect that "this meeting pledges itself to do all in
its power to hasten the passing of a just and equit-
able copyright convention between this country and
America, especially urging that in such a conven-
tion no injustice be done to the printers and paper-
makers of this country; and that copies of this
resolution be sent to the Institute of Journalists
and the Society of Authors."
M. Chatrian is dead. Chatrian, of the Erckmann-
Chatrian series-—Chatrian whom we have all loved
since first we read him. As for me, I think I made
the acquaintance of this godlike pair early in the
sixties—the remote sixties. What popularity has
been the lot of these twins! Who can say how much
they have done towards the extinction of the idiotic
thirst for glory that formerly filled every ardent
Gaul? Not that it has disappeared, but it burns
now with a dimmer force. The young men go out
to war because they must, but they know that it is
not d la gloire but aux abattoirs. They will fight
no worse for the knowledge, but they will not fight
unless they must. Chatrian is dead! And before
he died he had quarrels with his partner! The
latter is as bad to think of as the former. One
thing is quite certain—when two men form a literary
partnership, they construct by talk and confidence,
by weaving and interweaving, by selection and by
arrangement, between them a work of art. Treason
to Art if one begins to count how many pages he
has written more than his partner!
Charles Gibbon, who died last month at Yar-
mouth, while still a middle-aged man, was a most
prolific novelist. He wrote over thirty novels,
some of which, "For Lack of Gold," and "The
Queen of the Meadow," for example, enjoyed
considerable popularity.
I find the following in the Athenaum;—
"In the course of nearly thirty years' continuous
literary work, I have had frequent occasion for
protest against the dishonesty of American pub-
lishers, but I think my latest experience supplies
one of the most striking examples of unscrupulous-
ness in piracy.
"I am credited in a glowing advertisement with
the authorship of a sensational romance called
'Tiger-Head; or, the Ghost of the Avalanche,'
now being published in the New York Sunday
Mercury. Now I never wrote a story called
'Tiger-Head; or, the Ghost of the Avalanche,'
nor any story which could, by any possibility, be
described by such a title, and 1 beg to protest
most earnestly against this misuse of my name.
In the words of the great Burke I may say, 'My
errors, if any, are my own. I bear no man's
proxy.'
"Mary E. Maxwell, nee Braddon."
At present in America, as everyone who enjoys
any circulation in England knows, there is nothing
to prevent the unauthorized publication of English
books on the other side of the Atlantic. But it
seems to me that Miss Braddon has, in this case,
some chance of an indirect remedy, or has, at any
rate, an opportunity of some sort for some sort of
reprisal, though blood would hardly wash out the
## p. 110 (#142) ############################################
I IO
THE AUTHOR.
insult of being publicly accused of having invented
the title of "Tiger-Head; or, the Ghost of the
Avalanche." Miss Braddon's enormous and well-
deserved popularity with all classes makes her
name very valuable to the go-ahead Editor of
the Sunday Mercury, and it is her name and
not the story that is selling the periodical.
Would it not be possible to send out to America
an earnestly-worded repudiation of the literary
honours thrust upon her? If this were sent to
The New York Tribune, and The New York
Herald, and the Sunday papers, most of the
other journals might be trusted to copy it,
without being requested to do so. This might
damage the boom of the Sunday Mercury. Charles
Reade was victimized in the same way, and, if I
mistake not, Wilkie Collins was also.
Here is a very interesting communication, based
entirely upon the question of "What is trade-
custom?"
Without expressing any opinion on the case, we
cordially echo our correspondent's wish that the
customs of the trade could be made comprehensible
to the intelligence of the author.
"A publisher makes the following agreement:—
"Messrs. X. and Y. agree to pay a royalty of so
much per copy on all copies sold after the sale of
the first copies of the said work, the publishing
price of which shall be so much. The royalty on
copies sold in America shall be one-half."
The figures are omitted in charity to the pub-
lisher and pity for the author.
"In a few years about 1,000 copies are sold in
America, and the royalty is duly paid; but these
copies are not allowed to be reckoned among
'the first '; so that the author has to wait till
that number, plus the copies taken in America, are
sold before he gets his royalty of ;i.e., the
publisher, bypaying in advancethe stipulated royalty
on the 1,000 copies sold in America, avoids the
payment of the full royalty. Is this the 'custom
of the trade'? It certainly seems an infraction of
the agreement."
"I found, too, by sad experience," continues the
letter, "that it was the custom of the trade to
distribute a large number of presentation copies,
without consultation, and to advertise in such a
way that in one year the cost of advertisements
alone exceeded the receipts from the sale of the
book. Having stopped this, I still had to submit
to items like the following:—(The published price
being, say, 3*. 6d.) 101 sold as 97, at 2s. 6d., less
5 per cent., trade allowance (besides, of course,
publisher's commission); or 52 (America) sold as
48, at is. 4d. All this may be quite fair and
necessary in a business way; but I think
publishers should let authors know of these
customs of the trade before the latter put a price
on their book. Few new authors realize that in
this way they can only expect (not counting adver-
tisements), at most, one-half of the published price,
and that six months after the whole year's account
is made up."
Our correspondent raises many questions in his
letter, with all of which we hope at one time or
another to deal. For the present I note only
that this author has been made to sign an agree-
ment, the nature of which he has not understood.
For example, he is to receive nothing till the
publisher has sold so many copies. How much
will the publisher have made when the author's
time begins? The author does not know. Yet
he signed the agreement in the dark. When his
time arrives, how much will the publisher make
for his share? He knows very well, but the
author does not. In this case the agreement was
such, that the publisher would make, on a rough
estimate, at least ^150 profit before the author got
anything. He would afterwards make about twice
as much as the author.
There is given, later on, a resumi of an enquiry
commenced last spring, into the position of the
English author with reference to the Colonial
book market. That this market is an ever-in-
creasing one is plain. In the Colonies there are
not only more people to read than formerly, but,
in proportion, many more now who do read, and
in both directions this increase will go on.
The Society will do its best to deal with this
problem. We shall probably first memorialize
Government to enforce the existing protection,
and shall then consider whether there is any direc-
tion in which more protection could be obtained,
and whether we have any chance of obtaining it.
Local Copyright Acts might perhaps be procured
in the interests of the English owners of the copy-
rights, if the representations were made in the
proper direction.
At the present it may seem that great importance
is being attached to a small matter, but our Colonial
readers are no small matter, and it would be a
thousand pities if, through supineness now, we lost'
a splendid market in the future.
In the meantime, let everybody see that his book
is duly and promptly entered at Stationers' Hall.
I beg to invite suggestions as to a future plan.
Walter Besant.
## p. 111 (#143) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
111
THE POET'S SEAT:
AN IDYLL OF THE SUBURBS.
"Ille terrarum mihi prater omnes
Angulus RIDET."—Hor. ii, 6.
IT was a towering tree of yore,
A lordly elm, before they lopped it,
And weighty, said those five who bore
Its bulk across the lawn, and dropped it
Not once or twice, before it lay,
With two young pear trees to protect it,
Safe where the Poet hoped some day
The curious pilgrim would inspect it.
He saw him with his Poet's eye,
The tall Maori, turned from etching
The ruin of St. Paul's, to try
Some object better worth the sketching ;—
He saw him, and it nerved his strength
What time he hacked and hewed and scraped it,
Until the monster grew at length
The Master-piece to which he shaped it.
To wit—a goodly garden-seat,
And fit alike for Shah or Sophy,
With shelf for cigarettes complete,
And one, but lower down, for coffee;
He planted pansies round its foot,—
"Pansies for thoughts," and rose and arum;
The Motto (that he meant to put)
Was Ille angulus terrarum.
But "Oh ! the change (as Milton sings)—
The heavy change!" When May departed,
When June with its "delightful things"
Had come and gone, the rough bark started,—
Began to lose its sylvan brown,
Grew parched, and powdery, and spotted,
And, though the Poet nailed it down,
It still flapped up, and dropped, and rotted.
Nor was this all. 'Twas next the scene
Of vague (and viscous) vegetations;
Queer fissures gaped, with oozings green,
And moist, unsavoury exhalations,—
Faint wafts of wood decayed and sick,
Till, where he meant to carve his Motto,
Strange leathery fungi sprouted thick,
And made it like an oyster grotto.
In short it grew a Seat of Scorn,
Bare,—shameless,—till, for fresh disaster,
From end to end, one April morn,
'Twas riddled like a pepper caster,—
Drilled like a vellum of old time,
And musing on this final mystery,
The Poet left off scribbling rhyme
And took to studying Natural History.
This was the turning of the tide:
His five-act-play is still unwritten;
The dreams that now his soul divide
Are more of Lubbock than of Lytton;
"Ballades " are "verses vain " to him
Whose first ambition is to lecture
(So much is man the sport of whim !)
On "Insects and their Architecture."
Austin Dobson. *
ENGLISH AUTHORS AND THE
COLONIAL BOOK MARKET.
IT may be remembered that at the end of last
year we published a communication received
by us from the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, informing us that steps should be taken
in accordance with our representations, to prevent
the introduction of foreign reprints into the Straits
Settlements. Shortly after this Mr. Rider Haggard
sent to us a copy of his novel "Jess," which was
circulating largely in an unauthorized edition in
Africa, and pointed out the advisability of making
an enquiry into the matter, with a view of finding
out how far such practices were generally pre-
valent in the Crown Colonies.*
It is evident that our novelists have a large and
ever-increasing market in the Colonies, and that
some steps ought to be taken to prevent such
robbery and secure the profits to them. At the
same time it did not appear so very clear what
those steps should be.
We therefore addressed the following questions to
prominent book-sellers in our various Colonies, in
the hope that we should thus learn how much the
author is at present injured by these reprints, which
are mostly American, and how far anything could
be done to prevent the injury :—
"(i.) Are pirated editions imported freely
into the colony?
"(2.) Is there any legislation to prevent this
importation?
"(3.) Are such books openly exposed for
sale?
"(4.) To what extent in your opinion do
pirated books and American reprints
damage the books of the English trade?
"(5.) What in your opinion would be the
best steps to take for the protection of
English and Colonial authors?"
* The cost of this production was twenty cents, and it was
the meanest Americanism we ever saw.
## p. 112 (#144) ############################################
i 12
THE AUTHOR.
The result of the answers we have received, as
yet, is as follows :—
Pirated editions are imported freely into Africa
generally, into some parts of India, and into
British Guiana, but not to any extent into Australia
or New Zealand. In some colonies, what legal
protection the law affords, is enforced, and in
some it is not. For there is imperial legislation
to meet the ppint. If the books are registered at
Stationers' Hall, an import duty of 20 per cent, on
the published price is collected by the Custom
House for the good of the owner of the copyright.
This, of course, is legislation for the regulation
of the abuse, not for its prevention. It is very
significant, however, that in Australia and New
Zealand, where the Custom House officials levy the
duty carefully, pirated editions are by no means
rife.
We are indebted to the courtesy of the Registrar
of Canterbury College, Christchurch, N.Z., for the
following information—
"Lists of English copyright books are sent by
the British Customs House to Wellington, and
thence distributed to the collectors of customs at
the different ports. I have this morning inspected
the latest; it is dated May, 1889. The collector
of Customs informs me that quite recently a
quantity of music from America was destroyed
under his directions, because of infringement of
English copyright."
From Auckland, New Zealand, we have received
almost the same information, our correspondents
believing that the existing law is sufficient if strictly
carried out. Instances are given of the efficient
working of the law.
A correspondent writes from Dunedin to the
same effect, adding that no bookseller worthy of
the name would import reprints to the prejudice of
the publishers of the old country.
In Adelaide the law is enforced. The Principal
Librarian of the Free Public Library at Sydney
considers that the protection extended to authors
and publishers by the Custom House is adequate.
He has not received in seven years of office fifty
such unauthorized books. In Melbourne we are
informed that pirated editions are but seldom seen,
and our correspondent is of opinion that the Eng-
lish owners of the copyright have sustained no
damage from them. In Brisbane the Act seems to
be a sufficient protection, for but few American
reprints have been seen there, and the fact that
they are prohibited seems to be distinctly under-
stood.
In India, we hear from Calcutta that pirated
editions are sometimes extensively imported. Our
correspondent also casually throws out a horrible
suggestion. He thinks that copyright books are
sometimes printed in secrecy in India. This, of
course, is quite beside the question, but it is a
matter for grave apprehension.
The Honorary Secretary of the Library at Simla
Station informs us that pirated editions are freely
imported into India, and that such legislation as
exists to prevent this is not put in force.
We learn from Bombay that the Custom House
is very strict in preventing the import of pirated
books, and that hardly any such editions find their
way into British possessions.
In Madras pirated editions are imported, but
only rarely. They are always cheap American
reprints. But in Madras the law is recognised,
for one of our correspondents points out that the
importation into British India of pirated editions,
which infringe any law in force in the territory, can
be punished by forfeiture and fine.
Neither in Australia, New Zealand, or India, are
these books openly exposed for sale, and the damage
done to authors in the first two colonies by their
sale is, of course, very slight.
In Africa the tale is different; we print the
following letter from the biggest book-seller at Cape
Town, as it so clearly sets out the points at issue :—■
"As the question of the prevention of Ameri-
can reprints is an important one and damaging
to a honest book-selling establishment, we beg-
to reply to your queries, at the same time
assuring you that you will have our heartiest co-
operation. We may, however, tell you that we
tried some two years ago this very same question,
and we, as the largest publishers and importers of
books into the Cape Colony, would have petitioned
Government, but wanted the assistance of the
London publishers. We were already in corres-
pondence with the firms of Macmillan & Co.,
Hurst & Blackett & Co., but we are sorry to say
the matter has been allowed to drop. We have
no doubt that, with the assistance of your Society,
this evil will now be remedied, and those authors,
whose works are stolen, will be protected from the
American's avarice, which is allowed free play
simply and only through the absence of an Inter-
national Copyright Act. We, in the Cape Colony,
are somewhat similarly placed to the injured authors
with respect to the neighbouring States; for in-
stance, books we publish are being sold in the
Orange Free State and the South African Republic
with impunity, without our being able to stop it,
also for the want of an International Copyright
Act
## p. 113 (#145) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
"(i.) Pirated editions are imported into the
Colony in places like Cape Town and Port
Elizabeth, as long as they pay the 20 per cent.
Customs duty. These reprints, we learn, are
imported direct from America.
"(2.) There is no legislation to prevent this
importation as long as they pay the duty.
"(3.) Such books openly exposed for sale: it
was not so very long ago there was a book-seller
in Cape Town who had his windows simply
swamped with these pirated American books,
exhibiting books of authors like Rider Haggard s,
Edna Lyall's, Mrs. Wood's, George Macdonald's,
Ruskin's works, and others, selling them at is. 6d.
per vol., whereas we had, of course, only the
honest English edition at 6s., as the cheapest to
sell.
"(4.) The extent to which the pirated books
and American reprints damage the books of the
English trade is made evident by reading the fore-
going paragraph. Moreover, this illicit trade is
specially damaging in the Cape, where the majority
of the population are not' reading people,' and may
be induced to buy a book for cheapness sake, when
they would not purchase it otherwise."
At Cape Town, therefore,-in which town, by-the-
bye, it was that the pirated copy of "Jess" was
bought, the English author's property is greatly
damaged by these illicit editions, and the law, even
when enforced, is found powerless to check the
evil. From Natal we have much the same story.
From British Guiana we learn that the Custom
House exacts on American editions, which are
freely imported, the duty of 20 per cent, on the pub-
lished price of all registered books.
Here the penalty does not, in any way, stop the
abuse. The impost is cheerfully paid, and the
sale goes on to the detriment of the owners of the
copyright.
From the Straits Settlements we leam that the
American reprint has been rife there. The Chap-
lain of Penang, who is also honorary librarian of
the Public Library, informs us that there were few
books, except the pirated editions, to be bought
on the Island, and that the question of purchasing
these volumes for the use of the Library had been
frequently before him. But from Singapore we
have the following significant letter:—
"We beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour
of the 29th ult., and in reply beg to inform you
that pirated editions are not sold in Singapore
at all. All the firms here have agreed, in response
to an appeal from the Colonial Government, not to
keep them in stock."
We say significant, for our attention was first
called to this matter in reference to the Straits
Settlements, so that before making this inquiry
into the prevalence of the abuse in the Colonies
generally, we were able to direct the attention of
the Colonial Office to Singapore in particular: and
the fact that action in Singapore has been so suc-
cessful is encouraging to future effort.
We invited, in our letter, suggestions for the
remedy of the evil where it existed, and, with great
unanimity, the Colonial book-sellers point out that
the most certain remedy imaginable would be to
issue cheap authorised editions for the Colonial
market A Colonial edition of more expensive
books is already issued by several publishers, and
the plan has proved successful. One book-seller
tells us that he could have sold perhaps 100 copies
of Stanley's "Darkest Africa " at the English price
of 42s., whereas he is confident that he will dispose
of over 2,000 copies of the i6.r. edition, which has
been prepared for Colonial use. It is suggested
by most of our correspondents that this plan
should be tried for cheaper books, that, in
fact, the 3J. 6d., 5s. and 6s. novel, as each
appears in England, should be accompanied by a
is., is. 6d., 2s., paper-covered edition for the
Colonies. It is too much to expect that people
will give the large sums asked for the English
edition, when they can buy the American copies
for 25 cents.
In New Zealand and Australia present legislation
seems sufficient, and the English author does not
appear to have been really damaged in India, but
in Africa something must be done. Either the
law is not enforced, or else the demand for these
books is so large that, after the 20 per cent, has
been paid to the Custom House officers, a hand-
some profit can be made by their sale of them.
The present law is not too neat in its working.
The lists supplied to the Custom House are often
a year old and more, which means that the pirate
has a year's clear run before an official notice
reaches the colony that the book is a registered
property, and that a duty of 20 per cent, is due to
the owner of its copyright. Now the edge is taken
off the sale of a novel in a year. Again, the lists
are made up from the registrations at Stationers'
Hall, but very few authors trouble themselves to
find out if their books are duly registered. They
generally do get registered, but often not at the
moment of publication, so that, during the first
rush for the work, the book will often be unprotected
in the Colonies, even though the Custom House
officials should happen to be furnished with the
latest lists.
Lastly, if all goes well, the pecuniary return is a
pitiful one. It was from this source that Charles
## p. 114 (#146) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
Reade received i6.f. 4J. as the result of two years'
sale of " Never too late to Mend."
There is no doubt that English authors ought to
secure a better hold on this enormous market.
The result of this inquiry will be laid before our
Committee at once, and a sub-Committee formed
to decide upon the best course. We know from
experience that we can depend upon the courteous
co-operation of the Colonial Office.
*
A HARD CASE.
No. IV.
AN author, already favourably known to a
good if small public, wrote a story and
took it to a literary gentleman, who had
offered him friendly assistance in his search for a
publisher. This gentleman approved of the story,
and, on his recommendation, a publisher offered to
bring the book out on the half-profit system. The
agreement was a perfectly informal document, drawn
by the intermediary on a sheet of writing paper.
Under it the author gave up all his rights in the
book in return for a half share in future profits.
Let us stop here and consider what that means.
The author gives up his work entirely to another
person, a joint-adventurer, on the understanding
that all profits shall be shared between them, and
from the moment that he does so he ceases to have
any voice in the management of the transaction,
and any control over the expenditure. He is con-
sidered to have done his share of the task. His
has been the simple and easy part, the writing of
the book. Why it is a thing, some people say, that
any educated gentleman can do, if he can get credit
for pens and paper; and a thing, moreover, which
is constantly done by people of no education what-
ever. The author is at no expense. It is true
that the work may occupy all his leisure time for a
year. It is true that if he had devoted that time,
to (say) digging, he would have earned perhaps fifty
pounds, and that there are still more people who
can dig than spell. Indeed we do not ourselves
think that writing even a very bad book is so simple
a matter, but let it be conceded that the author's
lot's a very happy one, and let us suppose that he
has just written a book. He expects to be repaid
in money and in increased reputation. If he does
get money so much the better, but if he only gets
fame from any one venture, that will mean money
from his next venture. Now comes in the daring
publisher and proceeds to take the risk. He can
take it how he likes, either fighting—like Colonel
Quaggs—or with sugar—as Orpheus C. Kerr took
the oath—but how he takes it is a matter for his
own private consideration. And this is the fact
with which we find fault. The publisher can pro-
duce so small an edition that if the whole sold, there
would still be a loss on the book. Then, one may
say, where are his own profits to come from? There
won't be any for him, but that is a most unchristian,
as well as an empty sort of satisfaction for his partner.
He can produce so large an edition that it never
can sell, so that the results of all the sales that do
take place do not cover the printer's bill. He can
advertise once a month in a circular privately sent
out to a few customers, or daily in The Times, and
take a column of it. He can bind the book in any-
thing. There is or was a book in a well-known
local library, bound in the skin of the Red Barn
murderer; between anything so expensive and
unique as this and a paper wrapper, there is a large
choice for the publisher to whom the total manage-
ment of details is left, and the chance of there
being a profit depends greatly on the publisher's
choice.
It was in this way that the entire management of
the book in question fell into the publisher's hands;
he could produce it entirely as he pleased, all the
details of publishing were left to his discretion.
But alas! he appears to have had no discretion.
He employed good artists and first-class printers,
and he ordered an enormous first edition of this
costly book, an edition he would hardly have been
justified in ordering, if the book had been written
by one of the most popular writers of fiction.
Doubtless he relied on the splendid work put into
the production to largely assist in the sale, for, in
spite of the expense incurred over illustration, the
book was announced at a popular price. The fact
that the name of his firm was and is one honoured
in book-land, would also be a great help to the
author.
Then came a series of delays in the publication,
quite incomprehensible to the author, for neither
the publisher nor the common friend gave him a
hint that there was any definite reason for these
delays. The book was announced for this month
and for that month; now it was to stimulate the
wear)' palate of August, now to satisfy the hungry
cravings of Christmas, but still it never appeared.
But at last an explanation of some sort or another
leaked out. The publisher was at variance with
his partners, who repudiated, as a firm, this and
other contracts, into which he had entered in their
name. Certainly this one partner had signed the
agreement, given all the orders and effected all
communications with the author, but the idea that,
when doing so, he wasnot in a position to speak
for his firm never occurred to the author. The
## p. 115 (#147) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
legal side of this question was never discussed. It
is possible and even probable, that the firm would
have been obliged to carry out the undertaking, but
the author was advised to try and get away from his
original arrangements and find a fresh publisher.
The position now was this.
An enormous and splendidly illustrated stock lay
in sheets at the printers, and an enormous bill had
to be paid for it, before the printer would let it
out of his hands, and the copyright of the work
had been assigned—at any rate, for this enormous
number of copies—to a man who could not meet
the bill himself, and whose firm repudiated their
liability. This was awkward, but further complica-
tions were yet to follow.
The publisher's creditors proceeded against him,
and chose to consider this luckless novel one of
his most valuable assets. So much money had
already been spent upon it in the way of illustra-
tion, and the chance that it would achieve a large
sale seemed so good, that they were probably right
in so appreciating it. But that meant that the aulhor
could not get his book from the printer without much
trouble and legal formality. For if the copyright
was undoubtedly partly the author's, it was un-
doubtedly partly the publisher's, and if the author
redeemed his stock and sold it for his own benefit,
he might be held to have injured the publisher's
estate. On the other hand, the author had many
grounds upon which to base a large pecuniary
claim against the publisher, and some to substan-
tiate a breach of contract. Their joint property
had been damaged by the continual delay; large
orders which had been given for the book were
not, of course, executed, and perhaps would not
be repeated later, while many advertisements,
some representing a tolerable sum of money, were
lost for good. This was a side of the question
which, we are happy to allow, the publisher's re-
presentatives saw most clearly. Their behaviour
throughout to the author was very considerate, and
a definite understanding was at last arrived at, that
no obstacle would be put in the way of the author
if he chose to treat directly with the printer for the
stock.
Now things began to look smoother, when there
appeared on the scene another claimant to rights
over the unfortunate book. It appeared that i/ie
publisher had assigned the copyright of the work for
this enormous first edition to another publisher at
the actual cost price of the work! Of course he had
no power whatever thus to assign a copyright, which
was not unconditionally his, to a third person, who
was unknown to the author, and to do so without
the author's sanction: but, setting this point aside,
consider his interpretation of his agreement. He
was to give the author half-profits. Avowedly to
effect this, he took the book, gave nothing for it,
but promised "as remuneration," to give the author
one-half of any receipts over and above his disburse-
ments. Then he sells the book for the exact sum
he had disbursed, or, at any rate, for the exact sum
he is stated to have disbursed.
This assignment was set aside by the author,
who was advised that he need not be bound by
such an arrangement, and the hard case had a happy
termination. With the co-operation of the first
publisher's solicitors, the author recovered his stock
from the printers, and came to an arrangement with
the second publisher (who had already advertised
the book and taken orders for it), to publish it for
him.
The book has been so far a success.
*
A SOCIETY OF AUTHORS FOR
AMERICA.
I.
[Reprinted from the Xciv York Tribune.]
London, July igth.
WHY is there no Society of Authors in the
United States? I shall, perhaps, be
told there is one, but is there one answer-
ing to the Society of Men of Letters in France, or
to that which exists in England? The work this
Society has done here is most useful, and it would
be hard to praise it too highly, if you consider that
it has been done by authors who are themselves both
busy and successful. They give many hours a
week to the cause of Literature, and to the interests
of their fellow-authors. They have made the
Society what it is; a body with purely practical
aims, using practical methods to attain them. It
takes a long time for the English—and, perhaps,
sometimes for others than English—to grasp a new
fact, or comprehend the real object of a new enter-
prise.
There are people, as 7'he Author tells us, who
look on the Society as one which exists for the
purpose of patching up, or even of creating quarrels
and grievances with publishers. It is nothing of
the kind. The Society has no quarrel with pub-
lishers as such, and never had any: that it exists
mainly for the purpose of maintaining the rights,
the sacredness, and the reality of Literary Property.
With the honest publisher the Society has no
quarrel; with the dishonest publisher it has, and
it makes no secret of its desire and intention to
keep the author out of the clutches of the dis-
honest publisher. As success in that laudable
## p. 116 (#148) ############################################
u6
THE AUTHOR.
effort will increase the business of the honest pub-
lisher, they and the Society ought to be on good
terms. The honest publisher, like the author,
owes, or will owe, a debt of gratitude to all who
are concerned with it.
It has some 600 members, with Lord Tennyson as
President. On its Council are—besides Mr. Besant
—Sir Edwin Arnold, Mr. Bryce, Sir Frederick
Pollock, Mr. Rider Haggard, Mr. Marion Craw-
ford, Mr. George Meredith, Prof. Michael Foster,
and many more men of leading and light in the
world of letters. It has offices in Portugal Street,
Lincoln's Inn Fields. It has legal counsel, solici-
tors, a committee of management, and a monthly
organ. And it has principles. These have just
been restated in a brief and convenient form, and
I cannot do better than quote them:—
1. Literary property is created by the author,
and belongs, at the outset, to him.
2. Literary property must be held as sacred as
any other kind of property.
3. Literary property is ruled by the demand for
a book, just as colliery property means the
sale of the output. And as the value of
a colliery depends first on the output in
tons and their price, so the value of a book
can only be estimated with reference to the
number of copies sold.
4. The author must not part with his property
without due consideration, nor without
understanding exactly what possibilities,
as well as what certainties, he gives and
what he receives.
5. What the author is entitled to is, after pay-
ment of the cost of production and the pub-
lisher's agency and labour, all the remaining
proceeds. This proportion of the returns is
the property which he has to sell for a lump
sum down, or to receive year by year.
6. The publisher has to be remunerated for his
agency and labour out of the returns of the
book in a certain proportion which should
be a fixed proportion recognized by both
contracting parties and understood by both.
To some of these the publisher may demur, but
they are principles which the French Society of Men
of Letters have established in France. There is, I
apprehend, no country in the world where the rights
of Literature are better understood or settled on a
more practical basis than in France. The English
Society of Authors is, in fact, an imitator of the
French, and will perhaps end by doing for the
English author what has been done for the French,
Both in England and America a public opinion
on this subject has yet to be created. Recent events
have shown that in America there is a great body of
opinion which is hostile to the whole idea of literary
property. Mr. Payson of Illinois and Mr. Mills of
Texas seem to deny its existence. That they repre-
sent the majority of the American people I do not
believe. It is enough for them to have carried with
with them a majority of the House of Represen-
tatives. They and their majority have brought such
discredit and disgrace upon the American name as
many years of honesty and honourable dealing will
not altogether efface. Judge Shipman, of the
United States Circuit Court, has done something to
efface it—all honour to him, strange as it still seems
to be proclaiming honour to a Judge because he will
not admit it to be legal to steal.
The question of copyright, domestic or inter-
national, may seem aside from the main subject, but
all questions of literary property are inextricably in-
terwoven and cannot be separated. They all have
the Eighth Commandment for their basis. Until
the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" case, it had been
supposed that the American Pirate put forth no
pretension to rob any other than the foreign author.
It was then seen that he claimed the right to rob the
native author also; the American man of letters was
to be his spoil just as much as the British. There
can be—outside of the courts, and the courts are
always a last resort—no complete remedy for such
a state of things, and no redress of grievances,
otherwise than by the creation of a sound public
opinion, and that is one of the aims of the
Society of Authors. Very different, I may re-
mark, is the handling of the copyright business in
the Society's Journal from that of Mr. Wemyss
Reid, whose heavy-handed invective attracted some
notice at the time. Mr. Wemyss Reid would fain
hold all America responsible for Mr. Payson and
Mr. Mills. The Society urges, on the other hand,
a recognition of the noble efforts in behalf of copy-
right made by the leading men, the men of culture,
in the Eastern States. These men, it tells its British
readers, include all the authors of America, all the
honourable publishers and a great number of editors.
The opponents of the Bill were Western farmers,
who knew nothing about literature, literary property,
authors' rights or anything else except their own
local interests. And The Author boldly says that
the views of the British world, with respect to literary
property, are not much more enlightened than those
of the ignorant Western farmer.
Education, however, and most of all the educa
tion of public opinion, is a slow process, and the
Society of Authors meanwhile busies itself with
the most practical and pressing necessities of its
clients. Any respectable author may join it on
payment of a yearly subscription of 85. Once a
member, he becomes a client, and may have his
business transacted for him without further charge.
## p. 117 (#149) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
117
It is the cheapest advice anywhere to be had, and
it is also the best. The relations between author
and publisher undergo a change at once. It is
no longer the case of a business man dealing with
one who, as a rule, is not a man of business, and
knows nothing of the mysteries of manufacturing
and publishing printed books. The Society does
know, and knows how to make its knowledge
useful to the author.
He has only to send to the Committee the form
of contract prepared for him by the publisher.
He will be told whether it is a fair one or not,
and, if not, in what particulars it is unfair. He
will be told what it costs to manufacture his
book if he is himself to bear, or to share, the
cost of publication. If he is to be paid by a
royalty, he will be advised what percentage upon
the selling price of the book he ought to receive.
He will be warned, if need be, against the dis-
honest publisher. If the publisher he has selected
be honest, his negotiation with him is still a
matter of business, and he needs all the help he
can get toward looking after his own end of the
bargain. Legal advice is of little or no use.
Few lawyers have taken the trouble to master
the intricacies of publishing, or are aware of the
pitfalls and traps in which some of these pub-
lishers' forms of contract abound. The author who
goes to this Society may or may not be able to
command good terms. But at least he will know
whether they are good or bad, and know exactly
what the contract is which he is asked to sign.
A case came to my knowledge the other day.
An author submitted two contracts to his solicitor:
one of the few who are supposed really to under-
stand the subject. He approved of both, and
advised his client to sign both, with, in one case, a
trivial technical alteration. Not quite satisfied, the
author sent them to the Society; with this sur-
prising result, that he was advised to object to
many of the clauses, and did object. The pub-
lishers in both cases were among the best, and
assented readily enough to the modifications pro-
posed. The effect of them was that in both cases
the agreement ultimately signed was far more
beneficial to the author than those first submitted
to him and sanctioned by his solicitor.
The organ of the Society gives singular instances
of the adventures which have befallen the authors
in quest of publicity. The latest case is the most
extreme,—that of a lady who handed her manu-
script to a publisher, and was told that the cost of
printing a specified number of copies would be
$600. A friend sent it direct to a printer, who
offered to print and bind that number of copies for
$80! Perhaps this publisher was one of that firm,
elsewhere described in The Author, as one "of
which all the worst things ever alleged against the
publishing trade may be alleged with the greatest
truth." The paper adds: "We have for a long time
kept work out of their hands, and we intend to
go on doing so until they mend their ways."
An earlier statement shows that the dishonest
publisher is not such a rarity that the author need
not beware of him. There are, according to this
estimate, not more than a dozen publishers in all
London with whom publishing is anything but a
system of robbery. If the condition of things in
America be in any degree analogous to this, the
foundation of a Society of American Authors is a
pressing need. And even if the American be, as
we are bound to suppose, vastly more virtuous
than his British brother, there are other reasons
which make the need for such a Society hardly
less imperative. I have touched on but few of
them, and it is for the American at home to
consider the whole subject for himself. But I may
repeat what I have said before, that, perhaps
evenmorethan the author, the honourable publisher
has an interest in suppressing his dishonourable
rival.
G. W. S.
II.
{Reprintedfrom the Brooklyn Times.)
Mrs. Katherine Hodges, the authoress, of this
city, has a grievance against her publishers of long
standing and grave nature. To ventilate that
grievance a meeting of authors took place yester-
day afternoon in the green room of Historical
Hall.
Dr. Ingersoll, who was voted to the chair,
said that the gathering had been called to assist
those who seemed to have been wronged and to
prevent others from falling into the same trouble.
He then called on Mrs. Hodges to recite the story
of the wrong that she had suffered at the hands of
her publishers.
The authoress said: "In the urgent need for an
Authors' Protective Union or for some means by
which this class of bread-winners may be protected
in their rights, as are all other wage-workers save
the author, perhaps the best argument I could
offer would be some experiences of my own in
dealing with publications. The book, 'Fifty
Years a Queen,' was published on my account by
Belford, Clarke & Co., New York and Chicago,
in the last days of April, 1887. A few days after
it appeared, Mr. Robert Belford, manager of the
New York branch, told me in his office, 386,
Broadway, that he had on that morning received
an order for 100 of the books from one house and
## p. 118 (#150) ############################################
n8
THE AUTHOR.
had the morning before had an order from another
house for 200. When the publisher's first state-
ment was rendered in September, 1887 (four
months after this conversation), I was astonished
to see that the total receipts up to that date were
given as §101.88! I remembered the sale of 300
books mentioned by Mr. Belford in the first days
of May, the price of which alone would aggregate
more than the whole sum of money stated, and
that four months had passed since that time, from
May to September, these months including the
Jubilee celebration, when the book had a good
sale. My surprise was followed by doubts. This
statement of September, 1887, also gave the issue
of the book as one edition of 1,000, which seemed
to me to be as doubtful as was the statement of
money said to have been received by the pub-
lishers.
"In this dilemma, and in order to explain, if
possible, the seeming discrepancy between facts
and figures, I made an appeal for information and
learned from an undoubted authority that instead
of 1,000 copies of the book being made Belford,
Clarke & Co. had issued no less than 3,000.
"On February 1, 1888, a further statement was
furnished by the publishers, in which the receipts
were stated as $101.88, and the number of books
as 1,000, as in the first account. In February, 1888,
however, as I have since learned and can conclu-
sively prove, these publishers (without my know-
ledge), surreptitiously issued the book in paper
covers under the title of 'Great Britain under
Queen Victoria,' and altered my name as author."
Mrs. Hodges here produced the two issues of
the book to illustrate her remarks. (The alteration
was thus: In the genuine edition the proper name
of the authoress is given—Mrs. Katherine Hodges;
in the paper covered and spurious edition the book
is stated to be by " Mrs. K. Hodge.")
"Of this paper covered edition," resumed the
speaker, " they put out an edition of at least 4,000
copies at 50 cents a book at retail, and in May, 1888,
they issued (as Mr. Belford now acknowledges) 4,000
more in paper covers, cheaper form, &c, which were
sold to Butler Brothers, also under the altered title,
obviously with fraudulent intent. In all I have
traced nearly 20,000 copies of my book issued by
the firm in question, and I believe that they have
issued a great many more. They have not paid
me one dollar. They have appropriated the whole
work, and in the present defenceless condition of
authors, who are without any protection whatever,
the chance of gaining redress which people who
labour in other channels may resort to for remedy
in cases of spoliation does not exist. This case, it
seems to me—and I know of other cases similar to
mine—proves the necessity for immediate action
for the protection of authors, and adequate action
at that. That there are honourable publishers,
honest men who would scorn to rob persons so
entirely at their mercy as the authors, no one can
doubt. To such men the protection to authors
would be welcome and gratifying, while in cases of
the unscrupulous classes of publishers who make it
a practice to pilfer when they can, the author
would have his safeguard as others have, and even
those men in whom morality must be at low ebb
would be made better, higher and more human by
the utilization of this portion of the Lord's Prayer:
'Lead us not into temptation.'"
*
AN AUTHOR'S HOME.
AREFUGE for brain workers in need has
been started within the last year by Miss
Fisher, of Brooklyn, New York.
This lady owns a large house, and having only
an invalid father occupying it with her, she con-
ceived the idea of sharing it with some authors
who are in need.
Miss Fisher wisely thinks it more humane to
help the author before he quite breaks down, rather
than subscribe to a monument to him after he has
been starved to death. About half a century ago,
Mr. N. P. Willis tried to establish such a home. The
terrible sufferings of Edgar Poe and his wife made
such an impression on him, that he appealed to
several of his contemporaries to help him in found-
ing a refuge where literary workers and others of
refinement, whose pursuits had been of an intellec-
tual character, might find a temporary home and
rest, to help them to "tide " over a season of diffi-
culty or illness, without any publicity. He did
not succeed. Now, in its infancy, Miss Fisher's
Home Hotel, it is hoped, will fulfil this mission.
The object is to afford the guests of the Home a
retreat until able to resume their labours, or to
find a permanent home (for those who are unable
to work) for the rest of their lives. This home is
free to those who cannot pay; to others a merely
nominal charge is made.
It has been asked in busy America, " How can
gifted people come to such terrible want?" And
yet it is said that Edgar Poe worked hard as a
newspaper slave from morning until midnight,
while his devoted wife lay dying on a bed of straw
with his only coat covering her shivering body.
The poem which has made his fame, "The Raven,"
brought him only ten dollars—about two guineas.
A case was lately cited of dire poverty of an
author in a wealthy city like New York, which
seems almost too horrible to tell. An aged pro-
## p. 119 (#151) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
119
fessor and his wife, dreading the poor-house, com-
mitted suicide together, bequeathing to Columbia
College (N.Y.) his valuable writings, notes, and
researches, the study of a lifetime. A writer in
the Woman's Cycle (from whom I collate these
facts) tells me that an aged and well-known author
whose books are read by every youth in America,
has said that the future was appalling to him.
"After a lifetime devoted to authorship, I see
nothing for my old age but want and privation."
These cannot all be divided into Mr. Gosse's
helpable and unhelpable folks. As we know, in
the terrible contradictions of society, there are
scoundrels who pay their tradespeople, so also do
those, whose experience outruns popular " saws,"
understand that there are practically honourable
people who are breaking their hearts because they
cannot do so.
Miss Fisher's home is supported by many patrons,
but those who have helped it most generously
with money are, Mrs. Chauncey M. Depew, Mrs.
Russell Sage, and Mrs. Whittlow Reid, wife of the
American Minister to Paris.
In Paris, an author's home has been founded by
the publisher, Galignani. He left a sum sufficient
to build a home for those who bad been less
fortunate than himself, without depriving them of
their independence or self-respect. This home
shelters one hundred people of both sexes, who
have each a sleeping room and a dining room. Fifty
of this number are to pay one hundred dollars a
year for lodging and board, the remaining fifty pay
nothing, but they must belong to the literary or
artistic profession. Ten must have been publishers,
twenty savants, and twenty literary men or artists.
Once inmates of the house they are as free as if
at an hotel; they come and go as they like.
Ralph Waldo Emerson calls the scholar and
thinker one beloved of God; with a few Miss
Fishers and Galignanis we may come to think
him not ignored of men.
*
THE WORD "SLANG."
IT would seem as if by some strange law of de-
velopment, or non-development, all men,
but especially philologists, are incapable of
understanding that a word may be derived from
several sources. The fewer words a man possesses,
the more meanings he makes them carry—as it is
said in Egypt that the poorer the peasant the more
water jars must his wife bear. In jargons and
slangs with limited vocabularies such as Chinook,
pidgin English and English Gypsy, a single word has
vol. 1.
very frequently from ten to twelve or more meanings,
which is natural enough, when the whole language
or dialect contains less than five hundred words
all told. Thus in English Gypsy a dozen Hindi
terms with entirely different meanings, become one
word, e.g., shukdr, which means dry, sweet, gently,
forcibly, loud, &c.; that is to say, it is derived from
words which separately mean dry, gentle, and so
forth. So it would be difficult to decide whether
bully, boss, the master of a house of vile character,
comes entirely from bully and boss (Dutch bas,
master), or whether it does not owe something by
association, to the Yiddisch baal-habos, which means
precisely the same thing (bal, master, bas, house)
and which is very widely disseminated in foreign
slangs.
This is all curiously enough illustrated by the
word slang itself. According to Skeat, in his
Etymological Dictionary, slang is of Norse or
Northern origin, and meant originally to revile or
abuse. And so far as abuse goes, I see no reason
to differ from him. In popular parlance, when one
man "slangs" another, he "gives him a bit
of his mind," in the gypsy sense in which to
give means to hit a hard blow. And it therefore
"follows perforce as a matter of course," that this
is the sole source and origin of the word! So in
my boyhood, having learned that the Mississippi
came from a small rivulet which ran out of Turtle
Pond, I speculated on the dire consequences
which would ensue—such as the desolate dessica-
tion of the entire valley of the Mississippi—
should any small Indian boy take it into his head
to dam the rivulet.
For to return to slang, it has other meanings
besides abuse. One of these, and the one most
familiar to Alltheworld, as well as Mrs. Alltheworld,
his wife, is that of vulgar, or at least unlicensed,
synonyme. Some of these plebians in quarantine
rise eventually to the pratique of aristocracy (excuse
mixed metaphors) but I speak of those which are—
like the good knight in the old German tale,
ascensionem expectans—waiting to be hanged and to
rise to heaven. Now, to abuse a man is one thing,
but to call him by a fond nick-name which may be
highly complimentary—as, for instance, a gom—is
quite another, both being however "slanguage" of
the most decided description.
Now, it is worth noting that slang, in the sense
of vulgar synonyme, has long been popularly
regarded as a gypsy word, and that the gypsies
themselves claim it. And though they be no
philologists, the accuracy with which these people
distinguish between words which belong to their
own tongue, and those which do not, is very
remarkable. Having taken down as they came,
by chance here and there, about four thousand
1
## p. 120 (#152) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
English gypsy words, chiefly from old people, I
have been astonished to find what a vast proportion
of these, especially those now obsolete, are Hindi-
Persian, especially the former, and how very few
really English slang words have crept into Romany.
One especially gypsy use of the word slang is its
application to all matters connected with the stage,
or with "shows," requiringtheatrical language, which
they in common with the vulgar regard as "a way of
talk" quite different from that of common life.
Hence, being "on the slangs" in common parlance
means connected with exhibitions, and also licensed
to hold forth in any way whatever. In this sense,
Mr. Henry Irving, Miss Ellen Terry, or the Rev.
Mr. Spurgeon (I am not so sure as to his Grace the
Archbishop of Canterbury), are all "on the slangs"
—and long may they wave there as credits to them-
selves and their country 1
Now, be it noted that the word "swdngi" means
in India just what slangi (the old form) does in
gypsy—all which is of the shows, showy, and of
theatres, theatrical. As for the conversion of W to
L, it took place innumerable times in India, just as
it takes place now, ever and anon, in England, when
it comes easier. The better philologer a man is, and
the more familiar with strictly correct language, the
more foreign and forced does the change from
swangi to slangi seem, but to a gypsy it is the most
natural thing in the world. It is within the memory
of man that at one time there were few side or
small shows, or even large theatres in which gypsies
were not to be found, and the terms current among
actors, such as cully, gorger, and mash, indicate
their influence. By the way I have been reproved
in print, for extravagance in declaiming that mask
is gypsy, but I earnestly reply with the exquisite
logic of the American darkey, "I wish I had as
many dollars as I can prove dat to be true."
It maybe remarked—"to top of faith"—that slang
of yore meant abuse, and that its connection with
things theatrical, and as a canting jargon, is subse-
quent to the incoming of Gypsyness to England.
And for a supernaculum to the topping-off, that the
fact that slang is in these senses possibly not
known to Continental gypsies, goes for little,
considering that English Gypsy has retained a vast
number of Indian words—such as Kushte and
Koshko (good), which are rarely, if ever, heard out
of England.
Charles G. Leland.
GO SLOW.
ALL here, give ear, to whom I sing,
Whatever your degree;
Don't go to fast in anything,
However fast you be.
If people try to give you tips
Because "they love you so,"
Don't let your heart approach your lips—
Go slow, my friends, go slow.
If girls with curls above their brow,
And roses on their cheek,
Smile innocently when you bow,
Or listen when you speak;
If one of them, in times of grief,
Desires to share your woe,
Avoid the dangerous relief—
Go slow, my friends, go slow.
If folks that hoax should call on you
To stand for Parliament,
And ask you for an I.O.U.
For cash they say they've spent;
Or talk to you of "bulls and bears,"
Like people "in the know,"
And undertake to get you shares—
Go slow, my friends, go slow.
If men, again, pronounce your verse
Too precious to be lost,
And try to dip into your purse
"To meet production's cost "j
However pleasant they appear
In Paternoster Row,
That whistle will be bought too dear—
Then, most of all, go slow.
H. G. Keene.
*
INSCRIPTION FOR A MEMORIAL BUST OF
FIELDING.
[From The Atlantic Monthly, August, 1890.]
He looked on naked Nature unashamed,
And saw the Sphinx, now bestial, now divine,
In change and rechange; he nor praised nor blamed,
But drew her as he saw with fearless line.
Did he good service? God must judge, not we;
Manly he was, and generous and sincere;
English in all, of genius blithely free:
Who loves a Man may see his image here.
James Russell Lowell.
## p. 121 (#153) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
A Club of Critics.
Can it be that a 'plan for the foundation of a
club of critics is really and seriously under con-
sideration, or has the suggestion merely been
thrown out by an enterprising daily paper on the
chance of eliciting an interesting correspondence?
I have now read this statement in half-a-dozen
different places. The much-maligned critic, who
is generally a very good fellow, and, in letters
at any rate, almost always knows what he is about,
has three or four good clubs open to him already;
he has to share them with his victims but, if they
do not mind, it is difficult to see why he should.
It seems to me, also, that it would be very hard
to define the qualifications for membership, for
the critic of to-day is the criticised of to-morrow.
Again, is the expert in Greek art or German music
to compete for a vacancy with the man who can
appreciate the qualities of a prize-fighter or the legs
of an horse?
Mr. Robert Buchanan says that his night is made
hideous by journalistic birds of prey, and begs
that a Trades' Union of critics may boycott the
slanderer and blackmailer. If a slanderer is to
be blackballed at the critics' club, and if everybody
who falls foul of an author's work is to be held to
have slandered that author, where are the members
of the club to come from, and how is the Com-
mittee, who elect, to be constituted?
That the blackmailer exists is a serious sugges-
tion (has Mr. Robert Buchanan made it
seriously?), but I am unwilling to believe in the
venal critic. I remember that Mr. Lang, in his
very humorous lecture, " How to fail in Literature,"
pointed out that the writers who affected to believe
that the critic had gone out of his way to slander
them, in spite of their poor opinion of his manners
and his morals, never approached him with gifts.
A. B.
II.
American Cookery.
August "jth, 1890.
I think that my experience of cookery at the
hands of the Americans caps that of Mr. Rider
Haggard and "A. R. H. M." The recipe is as
as follows, the cook being one "Smith, D.D. " :—
Take the whole of Clodd's Childhood of the
World, garble all the passages which tell against
vol. 1.
the doctrine of man's total depravity (which doc-
trine the aforesaid Smith's act is designed to further
establish), add thereto a few chapters from Cox's
Gods and Herons; strain all the juice therefrom;
pour in some pious reflections on the fall of man,
and on echoes of the Hebrew revelation in Greek
mythology; mix well together, so as not to know
"t'other from which," and serve up cold under the
title of "Myths and Herons; or, the Childhood of
the World." Edited by Rev. S. F. Smith, D.D.
This is how they served up Sir George W. Cox
and
Your obedient servant,
Edward Clodd.
III.
The Society's Readers.
I have read "Leaflet No. Ill" on the subject
of "Paying for Publication," which appeared in the
last issue of The Author, with interest and with
some amusement. After describing the process
—too familiar to all writers—of the rejection of a
MS. by successive publishers, and the subsequent
determination of the author to pay for its produc-
tion himself, you condemn the conduct of such an
author as foolish, and suggest the proper course
for him to follow. You say, "If a MS. is offered
to all the respectable houses in vain, it is refused
because all the respectable houses are agreed that
the public will have none of it." You tell the
poor author to ask himself these questions, "If
this public should refuse to buy this MS. if pub-
lished—say, by or of what other publisher
would they buy it? and for what reason?" In short
you imply that a MS. is always rejected by respect-
able publishers because it is worthless, and you con-
sequently suggest to the author that instead, after
such rejection, of rushing recklessly into print at
his own expense, he should revise his MS. and
submit it some third person—"say one of the
readers for this Society, for an independent opinion
as to the cause of these repeated failures." Now,
sir, it is this last sentence which tickled my fancy
in an especial degree for reasons which I shall now
mention.
Some little time ago I had ready for publication
the materials of a book! I submitted them to
various well-known publishers, with the usual
result—they were declined with thanks. I then,
instead of determining to pay for the production of
them, adopted precisely the course you recommend.
I took the MS. to the Incorporated Society of
Authors, of which I have the honour to be a mem-
ber, and requested to have the opinion of " one of
1 a
## p. 122 (#154) ############################################
122
THE AUTHOR.
your readers." In due course the opinion was
given to the effect that it would be unwise to pub-
lish the book, as it was not likely to have a sale.
Thereupon, I suppose, I ought to have concluded
that, in your own words, my work "lacked at least
commercial value, if not literary merit," and should
have thrown it behind the fire. However, with
the folly which characterises the race of scribblers,
I had one more try and found in Messrs.
a firm willing to produce my book at their own
risk. Subsequently at my request they permitted
me to alter my arrangement with them and pay
for the production of the book myself, but this
change, though advantageous to me, does not
affect the question with which I am dealing. Now
what has been the result? The first edition of
1,000 copies was exhausted in less than three
weeks, and the demand for the second edition is
most encouraging. In a word, the book, which
your reader condemned, is a success—and your
reader has proved himself just as fallible as the
majority of publishers' readers; and no wonder,
as the sequel will show. Calling a few days ago
at the office of the Society, I could not resist the
temptation to draw the attention of the courteous
Secretary to the passages in " Leaflet No. Ill," on
which I am commenting, and to point the moral.
This gentleman said he could not understand how
my book had been misjudged, for he had sub-
mitted it to one of Messrs. 's most ex-
perienced readers. He could only suppose that
the reader in question, being a seriously minded
man, had been misled by the title—" Four years in
Parliament with Hard Labour "—and finding the
contents not so grave as he had been led to expect
therefrom, had condemned the work in conse-
quence of the inconsistency between the inside and
the outside.
I own that I was not much impressed with this
suggested explanation, but I certainly was struck
with the discovery that the readers for the Society
should be none other than the very same publishers'
readers to whom in the ordinary course and with-
out the intervention of the Society, the work would
be submitted by the author.
Surely when you advise an author who has had
his MS. returned by publishers to submit it "to
some third person—say one of the readers for this
Society—for an independent opinion as to the
cause of these repeated failures," no one would
suppose that these independent third persons
would be of the very class of men, possibly the
very men themselves, by whom the MS. had already
been examined and rejected! It is clear that if
the Society desire to set up, what I think might be
a useful tribunal, namely, a Court of Appeal from
the judgment of publishers' readers, which may
gain and retain the confidence of authors, such a
Court will have to be composed of persons other
than than those who at present seem to constitute
it.
Do not suppose, however, because I have given
a quite recent instance of a case in which the
advice of the Society, if followed, would have pre-
vented the publication of a successful book, that
therefore I can see no good in the existence of the
Society. On the contrary I acknowledge that the
Society has by its disclosures of the practices of
dishonest publishers done an excellent work—a
work which will benefit authors and improve and
strengthen the position of respectable publishers.
If it proceed on these lines and receive the support
to which it will then be entitled, it will become not
merely a prosperous but also a powerful body—a
body able to make good terms for authors because
it will be able to say how the constant output of
new literary work on which publishers in a great
measure subsist shall be divided among them.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
C. W. Radcliffe Cooke.
House of Commons,
August 6lh, 1890.
Editor's Note.—We think Mr. Radcliffe Cooke expects
too much of us, although we appreciate the compliment.
Our readers are not infallible, nor have we made any such
claim for them. We think also that the reader for a pub-
lisher is in a position to give the surest prognosis that can
be given as to the future of a book.
This was our meaning when we invited authors, after
continued rejection, to submit their MSS. for an "indepen-
dent" opinion. From a good publisher, such an author
receives, as a rule, only a few words regretting the inability
of the firm to undertake 'the work. Sometimes the answer
comes back so promptly that the author cannot believe his
claims have been properly considered. From others he
receives invitations to provide the expense of production.
From some he receives a letter of high commendation by
return of post, with an effusive offer to publish at once on
the half-profit system, if the author will pay—say £<)0—in
three instalments. Whom is he to believe! What is he to
do?
We try to tell him. But we are not infallible. In this
case our reader's opinion proved completely wrong. We are,
however, quite certain that this reader has kept from publica-
tion, at the author's risk and expense, a mass of stuff which
would never repay the author, and would only have swollen
the mass of worthless literature.
IV.
Black Beauty.
There are cases so strong that any comment
weakens them. Permit me, therefore, to tell the
story of "Black Beauty," and to leave you and
the British public to admire it. This book, written
## p. 123 (#155) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
by Miss Anna Sewell and published by a reputable
English firm, made its way to this country early in
the current year, was placed on the shelves of the
public and private circulating libraries, and made
a reputation for itself and accomplished a good
work among young equestrians, and among the
owners of costly horses. In time, its influence
would doubtless have been felt among the teams-
ters and the drivers of public conveyances, but,
early in April, Mr. George T. Angell, the Presi-
dent of the American Humane Society, published
an edition of his own, and boldly announced that
he should give away several hundred copies, and
should sell the remainder of the 10,000 issued at
twelve cents a copy. He added the words, "The
'Uncle Tom's Cabin' of the Horse," to the
English author's title-page, and he wrote a beauti-
ful preface, running over with benevolence, and
stating, in substance, that this was the book he
long had sought, and mourned because he found
it not, and he kindly italicized certain passages
which he considered were not strong enough in
plain Roman type. The importers, booksellers,
and librarians shrugged their shoulders, but wisely
saved their breath, about the only thing which the
present state of the law has left them to save.
A Mortified Yankee.
Boston, May 2.2nd, 1890.
We were unaware that " Black Beauty" was so
valuable a property, but the manner in which the
possessor of the copyright has been treated is
deeply remarkable. For here we have not a story
of the doings of the pirate-publisher, but of the
practical philanthropist, yet we doubt if the late Mr.
Charles Reade, in his wonderful store-house of notes,
possessed a more bare-faced example of robbery.
Here is a really valuable property—of some-
body's—appropriated by a man who has not the
slightest claim to it, and sold at such a ridiculous
price that no legitimate edition can possibly live
in the market with it. "It is highly improbable,"
says the Boston Herald, "that 'An Uncle Tom's
Cabin' of the horse will be written, or even at-
tempted, in the country now, since the publication
of the American edition of 'Black Beauty.' The
proper price of the book should be 50 cents, and
even in the present ludicrous condition of the
book trade would be at least 25 cents for the im-
ported edition. This would remunerate the author,
the publisher and the bookseller; but the American
edition being frankly stolen, pays nobody, and
inspires the person who buys it for 12 cents, for
the good of the horse, with a disinclination to pay
more than 12 cents for any other similar book.
Twelve cents from the purchaser means 12 mills
for the author, or $12 a thousand, and American
authors, not being donkeys, do not write books for
that price, even for the good of the horse. If
'Uncle Tom's Cabin' had been sold for next to
nothing, does anybody suppose that the hundreds
of later anti-slavery novels which powerfully affected
public opinion would ever have seen the light?
Would even 'Dred' have been written, had not
its author expected a fair recompense?"
It is impossible to attribute any but the very
best and highest intentions to the publishers of the
American edition, but to do evil that good may
come is invariably unwise. "The ten command-
ments will not budge," as Mr. Lowell says, and
giving away conveyed copies of "Black Beauty"
destroys the chance that an American will write a
better book in behalf of the horse. True, it is
possible that there is a combination of saint and
clever writer somewhere in the country, and that
he may be willing to work for nothing, and to bear
all manner of abuse by way of compensation, but
few will believe in his existence until he actually
appears.
Here is Mr. George T. Angell's logical reply :—
"To the Editor of the Herald .—In the Herald's
review of 'Black Beauty,' the book which the
American Humane Society is distributing free of
charge, the statement is made that the author re-
ceives no remuneration. I answer:
"(1) The authoress died unmarried shortly after
the publication of the book.
"(2) Her mother, a widow, died soon after.
"(3) So far as we are aware no one but the
English publisher gets a sixpence from it.
"(4) He has already sold 103,000 copies in
England.
"(5) Its immense advertisement and circulation
in the United States will give it a large sale in
Upper and Lower Canada, where his copyright
holds good, and will attract increased attention and
sale both in Great Britain and all British colonies.
"(6) The publisher can better afford to make
a present to the American Humane Education
Society than the American Humane Education
Society can afford to make a present to him.
"Boston, May -]th, 1890."
Was there ever such a condition of hopeless
mental confusion, for it is fair to suppose that his
action has been entirely dictated by a confused
idea that good would follow his evil deed. The
Society of Authors, in spite of its actions and printed
disclaimers, has often been accused in the press 01
cherishing savagely unjust views concerning pub-
lishers, but Mr. Angell—in his own argdt—" goes
us one better." Stealing does not matter a cent,
says President Angell, for we are only robbing a
## p. 124 (#156) ############################################
124 THE AUTHOR.
publisher. This is the doctrine of "'eave 'arf a
brick at him " with a vengeance.
Mr. Angell holds out to the publisher, as
though perhaps to show that he was acting for the
the best all round, the immense sale that his work
will have in certain Crown colonies where the copy-
right restrictions hold good. In view of the letters
whose substance has been reproduced later in this
number of The Author, we are doubtful if any of
our colonies are very safe from American enterprise,
but certainly we cannot believe that there will be
much demand for this book at its proper price north
of the American frontier line, while it is being given
away with a pound of tea on the southern side.
*
information, and trust that all willing to contribute
will communicate with the Executive at 13, King's
Bench Walk, Temple, London, E.C.
The Marquis of Lorne {Chairman
of the Executive Committee),
Alex. Staveley Hill, Esq., Q.C.,
M.P. {Hon. Treasurer),
Sir George Baden-Powell, M.P.
{Hon. Secretary).
There has been gathered together a Committee,
chiefly consisting of lords and noblemen, to collect
books. Among them appears the name of James
Bryce, as almost the solitary man of letters, though
science is well represented. In any other country
such a Committee would have contained none but
men of letters and of science.
THE LIBRARY OF TORONTO
UNIVERSITY.
E have great pleasure in giving publicity
to the following communication, which
has been received at the office:—
The loss which the University of Toronto has
sustained in the destruction by fire of its valuable
Library, has aroused a widespread feeling of sym-
pathy in the Mother Country.
In order to give practical effect to this feeling
a Committee has now been formed in order to
collect and forward to Toronto gifts of books.
The Committee will also gladly receive any con-
tributions in money to be expended in the purchase
of suitable books.
Many possessors of books will be willing to con-
tribute. The Committee are happy to state that
the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin,
the British Museum, and other public bodies, as
well as many private firms and individuals, have
already offered to contribute books. The Com-
mittee are also happy to state that the Allan and
Dominion Steamship Lines and the Canadian
Railways have generously offered to carry the
books free of charge.
It will be a convenience if those willing to con-
tribute would, first of all, send to the Executive
Committee a list of such books as they may be
willing to give, with a view to the avoidance of
the unnecessary multiplication of copies of the
same book.
A plate will be prepared for insertion in each
volume, upon which will appear the name of the
contributor of the books or of the money expended
upon the purchase.
The Committee will be glad to afford every
*
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
ON July 29th, Samuel Gompers, President of
the Federation of Labour, addressed the
following letter to Speaker Reed :—
Dear Sir,—By direction of the Executive
Council of the American Federation of Labour,
it becomes my duty to inform you, and I take
pleasure in so doing, that the organised working
men of this country feel a deep interest in the
enactment of an International Copyright Law by
the Congress of the United States.
In favouring such a law, however, we do so pro-
vided it contains a clause which shall protect the
compositors and all other wage-workers in the
printer's trade, as well as the authors and manu-
facturers, and believe that House Bill 10,254,
introduced by Mr. Win. E. Simonds, representing
the First District of Connecticut, covers all the
points in interest.
Seldom if ever have all the interests in an in-
dustry been so thoroughly united in the advocacy
of a measure as represented in the Bill referred to.
No injury is contemplated, or can occur, to any of
the people of our country. It can be followed with
but one, and that a good, effect upon all.
We earnestly ask you to give the Bill such
assistance as will bring it before the House, and
secure its passage, and that I may hear from you
to that effect.
## p. 125 (#157) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
125
AT WORK.
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society,
who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their
work and engagements.
THE first volume of Mr. York Powell's new series,
"Scottish History from Contemporary Writers," has
appeared. It is entitled "The Days of James IV,"
and is edited by Mr. Gregory Smith, and published by Nutt.
The object of this series is to send the reader to the best
original authorities for information.
Mr. Walter Besant's novel "Armorel of Lyonnesse," which
ran in the Illustrated London Nenus from January to July of
this year, will be published by Chatto and Windus in October.
"Fantasia," by Matilda Serrao, is to be translated from
the Italian by Sir. H. Harland (Sidney Luska) for the
"International Library," edited by Mr. Edmund Gosse, and
published by Mr. Heinemann.
Professor J. S. Nicholson's romance "Thoth," which is
now in a third edition, has been translated into German, and
will shortly appear in the Berlin National Zeitung.
A new serial story by Mr. Marion Crawford will begin in
an early number of the English Illustrated Magazine.
Messrs. Macmillan and Co. will publish "A Cigarette
Maker's Romance," by the same author, this autumn.
Mr. C. F. Keary's novel in letters, "A Mariage de Cove-
nance," is to appear shortly in cheap form in Mr. Fisher
Unwin's novel series.
Dr. W. H. Russell has finished his book on "A Visit to
Chile and the Nitrate Fields of Tarapaca, &c.,"and it will be
published shortly by Messrs. Virtue and Co. Mr. Melton
Prior has furnished some sixty illustrations.
"Mademoiselle," a 1 vol. story by Miss Peard, will shortly
be published (Walter Smith and Innes).
Mrs. Oliphant's story, " Kirstein," was concluded in last
month's number of Macmillan's Magazine.
Mr. Leland's " Memory and Thought" is now appearing
in a series of six manuals in New York. The publisher is
T. P. Downs.
Dr. Goodchild has in the press a sequel to his clever and
fanciful little book, "Chats at Sant Ampelio."
The poems of Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton) form the
latest volume in the Canterbury series issued by Walter Scott.
The selection is preceded by an introduction by M. Bethane
Edwards.
"Esme Stuart's" novel is continued through The New-
bery House Magazine.
Messrs. Chatto and Windus have again commissioned Mr.
T. W. Speight, author of " The Mysteries of Heron Dyke,"
&c, to write 714* Gentleman's Annual for Christmas next.
This will make the sixth consecutive year that the Annual in
question has been from Mr. Speight's pen. The same
writer has a three-volume novel well under way, which he
hopes to have finished by the beginning of the new year.
A paper on " Binary Stars of Short Period," by Mr. J. E.
Gore, F.K.A.S., appears in the August numl>er of Kno-Mledgc.
The paper is illustrated by drawings of the apparent orbits
of some remarkable binary stars. These have been drawn
to scale and reduced by photography.
"John Strange Winter" has three different novels running
as serials at the present time in London periodicals, viz.,
"Other People's Children," in The Gentlewoman, "He Went
for a Soldier," in Tit-Bits, and "The Other Man's Wife,"
in The Weekly Times and in Tinslcy Magazine, and numerous
provincial and colonial newspapers. These three novels
have been written during this year.
The Rev. Frederick Langbridge has nearly completed a
volume relating for children the lives of Samuel, Saul, and
David. The Ixjok will form a number of the "Stepping
Stones " Series, published by the R.T.S. The same Society
will also issue immediately the Fourth Part of "What to
Read," edited by Mr. Langbridge. Mr. Langbridge has
just completed a story called, "I Bide My Time," which
will run as a serial in the Church Monthly during the first
half of 1891. In conjunction with Mrs. Lysaght, Mr.
Langbridge has written a somewhat sensational story, called
"The Burden of Cassandra," which, previously to its issue
in volume form, will appear as a feuilleton in the Bristol
Observer.
*
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Allingham, William (The Late). Thought and Word,
and Ashby Manor. Reeves and Turner. I vol.
Archer, William. Prose Dramas of Henrik Ibsen.
Authorized English Edition. Edited by. Vol. I—III.
Scott.
Austin, Alfred. English Lyrics. Edited by William
Watson. Crown 8vo. ys. 6d. Macmillan and Co.
Black, William. The New Prince Fortunatus. Cr. 8vo.,
cloth. Sampson Low.
Blind, Mathilde. The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff.
Translated, with Introduction by. Cassell and Co.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Louisiana; and That Lass
o' Lowrie's. I vol. Crown 8vo. y. 6d. Macmillan
and Co.
Campbell, Lady Colin. Darell Blake. 1 vol. Trischler
and Co.
Clodd, Edward. Story of Creation: A Plain Account of
Evolution. I vol. Longmans and Co.
Cobb, Thomas. For Value Received. 3 vols. Ward and
Downey.
Conway, W. M. Climber's Guide to the Central Pennine
Alps. Fisher Unwin.
Crommelin, May. Midge. 1 vol. Trischler and Co.
Dickens (Charles) and Collins (Wilkie). The Lazy
Tour of Two Idle Apprentices; No Thoroughfare; The
Perils of Certain English Prisoners. Crown 8vo. I vol.
Chapman and Hall.
*#* These stories are now reprinted in complete
form for the first time.
Dobson, Austin. Selected Poems of Matthew Prior.
Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trubner and Co.
Esler, E. Rentoul. The Way of Transgressors. 3 vols.
31*. 6d. Sampson Low and Co.
Farrar, F. W., D.D. The Passion Play at Oberammergau,
1890. 4to., cloth. I vol. William Heinemann.
Frazf.r, J. G. The Golden Bough: A Study in Compara-
tive Religion. Macmillan and Co. 2 vols.
Harley, Ethel B. (Mrs. Alex. Tweedie). A Girl's Ride
in Iceland. Crown 8vo. 1 vol. Ss- Griffith and
F arran.
Hethbrington, Helen, and Burton, Rfv. H. Darwin.
Paul Nugent, Materialist. 2 vols. 2If. Griffith and
Farran.
Hume, Fergus. The Man with a Secret. F. V. White.
3 vols.
The Gentleman who Vanished. F. V. White.
James. Henry. The Tragic Muse. 3 vols. Crown 8vo.
31 j. 6d. Macmillan and Co.
## p. 126 (#158) ############################################
126
THE AUTHOR.
Kirh'.T,, R';dtarj>. In Black and White. Demy 8vo.,
c/vers. Saropvjn Low. Rain Tales from the Hills. Third edition. I voL
Crown tn<i. (a. Macmillan and Co.
Lyw*» Lywto*, Mrs. E. Sowing the Wind. Chattoand
Wrryius. I rol. 3/. <*/.
Lrrrojt, Earl op. Poem*. ivoL Walter Scott.
Marty*, EkwarMSirius). Morgante the Lesser. Swan
.Sonnensthein and Co. I vol. 6s.
Mekciek, Dk. Chaei.es. Sanity and Insanity. 1 vol.
Walter Scott.
Mo*KHOL'»E, Cosmo. The Earlier English Water-colour
Painter n. Illustrated. Seeley and Co.
Corn and Poppies. Elkin Mathews.
Murray, Christie, and Herman, Hesry. Wild
Darrie: A Novel. New and cheaper edition. Crown
8vo. I vol. 21/. Longmans, Green and Co.
Nicholson, J. Shield. Toxar: A Romance. Longman
and Co. 8vo. 6s.
"Nomad." A Railway Foundling. 3 vols. Trischler and
Co.
Oliphant, Mrs. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow. 1 vol.
Spencer lilackett.
Parry, E. A. Letters from Dorothy Oslx>rne to Sir William
Temple, 1652-54. New edition. 6s. Griffith and
larran.
I'ATEKson, Arthur. The Better Man. 1 vol. Ward
and Downey.
I'ayn, Ja.mf.s. Mystery of Mirlvidge. 12 mo. 2s., bds.
— Notes from the "News." Chatto and Windus.
Crown 8vo. is.
Pollock, Sir Frederick. An Introduction to the History
of the Science of Politics. I vol. 2s. 6d. Macmillan
and Co.
I'ooi.e, Stanley Lane. Story of the Nations. The
liarlary Corsairs. Fisher Unwin.
Praed, Mrs. CamI'HELL. The Romance of a Station.
2 vols. Trischler and Co.
Kohinson, Mahk.i.. The Plan of Campaign. Crown 8vo.
I vol. Mclhuen and Co.
Rohinson, F. W. A Very Strange Family. Crown 8vo.
I vol. 3/. 6d. William Ileinemann.
The Keeper of the Keys. Hurst and lilackett. 3 vols.
SlDGWICK, Henry. The Methods of Ethics. Fourth
edition. 8vo. 14/. Macmillan and Co.
Sims, GkorckK. The Case of George Candlemas. Chatto
and Windus. 1 vol. is.
Stevenson, Roiiert Louis. Father Damien: an Open
I-etlcr to the Rev. Dr. Hyde. 1 vol. Chatto and
Windus. is.
Symonds, John AddINCTON. Essays, Speculative and
Suggestive. Crown 8vo. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall.
Toynhrk, William. Lays of Common Life. Remington
and Co.
Tyti.kr, Sarah. French Janet. Smith, Elder and Co. 1
vol, 2r.
Wariikn, Florence. City and Surhurban. F. V. White.
Westai.l, W. Two Pinches of Snuff. I vol. Crown 8vo.
2f., hoards.
Whistler, J. M'Neii.l. The Gentle Art of Making
Enemies. 410. 1 vol. William Ileinemann. Large-
Taper Edition, numbered and signed, £2 2s.
Winter, John Strange." "Dinna Forget. 1 vol.
Trischler and Co.
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. Trie maintenance, definition, and defence of
literary property.
2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws
of Domestic Copyright
3. The promotion of International Copyright.
The first of these objects requires explanation. In
order to defend Literary Property, the Society
acts as follows :—
a. It aims at defining and establishing the
principles which should rule the methods
of publishing.
/3. It examines agreements submitted to
authors, and points out to them the
clauses which are injurious to their in-
terests.
! 7. It advises authors as to the best publishers
for their purpose, and keeps them out of
the hands of unscrupulous traders.
£. It publishes from time to time, books,
papers, &c, on the subjects which fall
within its province.
e. In every other way possible the Society
protects, warns, and informs its members
as to the pecuniary interest of their works.
*
WARNINGS.
Authors are most earnestly warned—
(1) Not to sign any agreement of which the
alleged cost of production forms an in-
tegral part unless an opportunity of
proving the correctness of the figures is
given them.
(2) Not to enter into any correspondence with
publishers, who are not recommended by
experienced friends, or by this Society.
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind
themselves down to any one firm of pub-
lishers.
(4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty
without consultation with the Society.
(5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS.,
without previously taking advice of the
Society.
(6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or res-
ponsibility without advice.
(7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a
MS. has been refused by the well-known
houses, to pay small houses for the pro-
duction of the work,
## p. 127 (#159) ############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
127
"THE LITERARY HAflDJKAID OF THE
CHURCH-"
HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND.
Price ONE SHILLING.
NOW READY.
This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for
the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will
gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid
of the Church of England throughout the world."
The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide
honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as
illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of *
the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps.
THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION,
BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A.
READY IN OCTOBER.
This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to
show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to
say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The
different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced
which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.
## p. 128 (#160) ############################################
128
AD VER TISEMENTS.
TYPE-WRITING!
CHARM CROSS TYPE-WRITING ASSOCIATION,
h| 447, STRAND *•
(Directly opposite Charing Cross Station).
Managers - Miss ROUSE & Mrs. URQUHART.
Authors' MSS. copied with accuracy and despatch.
Specifications. Law copying.
Translations from and into all foreign languages.
Shorthand Writers always in attendance.
MISS GILL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,
6, ADAM STREET,
HARRISON & SONS,
$)rtntrnr in Ortfnarn to $?er fHajeltg,
GIVE SPECIAL ATTENTION TO
ARTISTIC AND OLD STYLE PRINTING,
ALSO TO THE ACCURATE PRODUCTION OF
SCIENTIFIC AND MATHEMATICAL WORKS,
AND PRINTING IN
ORIENTAL TYPES.
45, 46, & 47, 8t. Martin's Lane; 14,15,16, & 20, Great May's
Buildings; 59, Pall Mall; 10, Tower Street,
LONDON.
MISS ETHEL DICKENS,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND
(Over tie Office of " Alt tie Year Round").
MSS. copied. Price List on application.
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LDDGATE HILL, E.C.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from
i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy
(carbon) supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many
well-known Authors and Publishers.
Further particulars on application.
SECOND-HAND AND SCARCE BOOKS.
HARRISON & SONS have special facilities
for the supply of Second-Hand and Scarce Books.
All orders entrusted to them will receive immediate
and careful attention. No charge is made until
successful in procuring the work desired. Price,
Condition of Binding, Plates, &C, will be reported
before securing.
Address—
HARRISON & SONS,
NEW & SECOND-HAND BOOKSELLERS,
59, PALL JWALL, LONDON, S.W.
ESTABLISHED 1851.
SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE.
THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.
TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when not drawn below £100.
STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold.
DEPARTMEHTT.
For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows interest, at the rate of THREE
per CENT, per Annum, on each completed £l. The Interest is added to the principal on the 31st March annually.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR
A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate
possession. Apply at Office of the Eirkbeck Freehold Land .Society.
THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars post free on application.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
## p. 128 (#161) ############################################
A D VER TISEMEN TS.
Hi.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace
with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental
effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate
your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on.
The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to
a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving
large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray
the cost of a Bar-Lock.
Supplied for Cash, or on Our Easy Payment System by
Twelve Monthly Payments of £1 19s., or on
Hire at £2 2s. per Month.
CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED.
THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited,
12 & 14, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfleld Street, Glasgow; 25, Market Street,
Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne.
Type- Writing Taught by Experts. Author s MSS. Copied at is. jif. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of
Literary Property. Issued to all members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.} 2*. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colle=, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry
(llaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4*. 6d.
5. The History of the Society des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition
preparing.)
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession willfollow.
THIS VIEW IS REFHOOUCH) HtOM APHOTDGRAPH OFAN OPERATOR*
oarlock
TYPEWRITER
^TlMES
THE SPEED
OF A PEN.
Till: TYPK WRITER CO., I^d.,
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40. North Jnim St.-Liverpool; Guardian Bide.,
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## p. 128 (#162) ############################################
iv.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
NEW MODEL REMINGTON
STANDARD TYPEWRITER.
Sim
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WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT,
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LONDON: 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C.
(CORNER OF LEADENHALL STREET).
Branch Offices-
LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET.
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MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the Cit
of Westminster.
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 05 (September 1890)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 05 (September 1890)
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890-10-15
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6
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Vol. I.—No. 6.]
OCTOBER 15, 1890.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT
Published for iße Societê Be
ALEXANDER P: WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUÀRË;
LONDON, E.C:
1890.
## p. 128 (#164) ############################################
ii.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Berton, Sept 1y* 1878
muu. Málie, Toad y los
: Gentleman
I have sout me of your
Reus, to have a hana mended
trough Meus. Hoche, leurs
Ito of theicity
Tome may like to know that
I have made this heu constantly .
formue han twenty years, i
Trine the days of a book of man
called "The Autrict of the
Bruckbank tere "1857–8 mutć .
last Friday without repair and
1.
aliray with herfect Oale jachten
I have written with in halfa
1.
.
dozen or onare volumes, a
Jacce neember of Enraps la
ause Mousands of letters.
Tere bit ai to an ole
und and I hate you will
do the ben you can for it
hough I hura in the mean
hier bought anotion of pain
mate'' corigazine marked.C.
Too not know whether
que cau hir This testimonial
har I feel as if the pen when
bar caned out to much of
Buy thought and thought back
To much si ranon forms in
whuan was enlithed to this
Carlisicut of himnaha Reconce
. Sans Eurther Homes tunly
Miera Honeell Hemmer
ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TodD & BARD, 93, Cheapside, LONDON,
## p. 129 (#165) ############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly!)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 6.] OCTOBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence.
C O N T
PAGE
News and Notes — 129
"The Methods of Publishing." By S. Squire Sprigge 138
"The Literary Handmaid of the Church." A Reply by the Author
of the Pamphlet 139
American Literature in America 148
An Old Man s Rejoinder. By Walt Whitman 149
Leaflet No. IV. Authors' Quarrels 151
Examination in Vanity Fair 153
A Model Agreement 153
A Hard Case, No. V. Through a Literary Agent 154
E N T S.
PAGE
International Copyright « *55
"Sing a Song for Sixpence." By W. R. Colles »55
Correspondence 156
Queries 156
Dreams and the Imagination *57
"The Authors' Manual" 158
At Work »58
New Books and New Editions »59
Advertisements 160
NEWS AND NOTES.
IT is very much to be regretted that the Inter-
national Literary and Artistic Congress,
which has been sitting from October 4th to
October nth, should have been managed with so
little consideration for its success. Nobody knew
that it was going to be held; nobody knows, now,
who invited the Congress to assemble in London.
They have received the hospitality of the Lord
Mayor, who has proved himself ever ready to
welcome every kind of work and every good
worker. But that is not enough. English authors
have been conspicuous by their absence. How
could they be expected to attend? They knew
nothing about the Congress. The Society of
Authors was not informed until a few days before
the Congress met. Nor were they officially
informed even then, but heard casually through
the Mansion House. Two or three of the members,
however, joined, at this last moment, the Reception
Committee. But the Society was absolutely ignored
by the managers of the Congress. As a natural
result, not a single English author took part in the
proceedings of the Congress. The proceedings will
be briefly reported in the next number.
—«
At the Church Congress, which has just con-
cluded, Archdeacon Farrar read a paper on the
"Ethics of Commerce." He began by saying that
he would purposely take only the most obvious
and elementary side. This is well. Men require
to have always kept before them the elementary
side. The Decalogue is extremely elementary, yet
it is found most useful to hang it up, written large,
in every Church. "Human beings," he said, "do
not constitute a mass of dead, impersonal force, to
be treated only in accordance with the laws of
supply and demand; every living soul has rights,
indivisible, inalienable, eternal, which cannot be
trampled and crushed into the mire as though
political economy were some monstrous Juggernaut
which must be dragged along in triumph . . . .
As for the law of honesty . . . what are we
to say ... of bargains made by skilled prey-
ing on the ignorance or the necessities of others;
. . . of betraying a confidence fraudulently
gained by pretence of simplicity? . .' . I might
expose the dishonourable customs which in many
cases taint what should be, and often is, the eminently
respectable trade of the publisher; I might speak
of the sweating publishers who, without a blush,
toss to the author perhaps a hundredth part of
what, by bargains grossly inequitable, they have
themselves obtained. . . . There are many
reasons why the conscience of England should be
awakened on this subject. In the words of a
vol. 1.
K
## p. 130 (#166) ############################################
130
THE AUTHOR.
living historian, 'When men live only to make
money, and the service of God is become a thing
of words and ceremonies, and the Kingdom of
Heaven is bought and sold, a fire bursts out in
higher natures. Show me a people whose trade is
dishonest, and I will show you a people whose
trade is a sham.'"
Dishonest trade may be the buying or selling of
things adulterated, bad, not what they pretend to
be; or it may be selling at such a price as to give
an unjust profit to the seller, over and above what
he has given to the producer. He then becomes a
Sweater. Now there will be found on p. i 39, certain
examples of profit made by the S.P.C.K., which do
not, indeed, touch the hundredfold spoken of by
the Archdeacon, but they are double, treble, ten-
fold, and even twenty-fold! Other traders Sweat
for their private gain. These traders sweat for the
promotion of Christian Knowledge. Which is
worse—the poor wretch who only degrades him-
self, or he who traffics in the sacred name of
religion?
My answer to this "Memorandum" of the so-
called Committee of Inquiry of the S.P.C.K. will
be found on pp. 141-148.
The Standard has recently published a long
string of letters coricerning a so-called Society 6f
Science, Letters, and Art. It is an interesting ex-
posure of human folly and human cunning. This
precious Society confers upon a member the privi-
lege of calling himself a " Fellow," of wearing a gowrt
and a hood, showing a diploma, and even wearing
a badge, like an omnibus cad. As for any qualifi-
cations necessary to secure these privileges, there
appear to be none; and as for any joy to be got by
wearing the badge of the Society, this writer cannot
understand where it comes in. Certain school-
masters, it is stated, find it to their advantage to
call themselves F.S.Sc, and on prize-giving days to
wear the hood, which appears to be a very splendid
thing. The Society, however, holds examinations,
Well, so does the College of Preceptors, so does
the Society of Arts; there is no reason why one
Society should not hold examinations as well as
any other Society, if they can persuade people to
believe in their certificates. It does not appear
that this Society of Science, Letters, and Art, does
anything else at all to justify its existence. It is
slid to publish no balance sheet, and the evidence
is overwhelming that it offers its membership for
sale, although the President—they have got a Presi-
dent, as well as a Secretary—parades the fact that a
form of election is gone through. Oneneednot, how-
ever, be too hard upon the S.Sc.L. and A. It does
pretty much what all Societies do which permit
their members to put letters after their names. How
many antiquarians, geographers, geologists, as-
tronomers, would belong to the Societies represent-
ing and supporting these sciences if it were not for
the letters which they allow their members to use.
Schoolmasters, writers, lecturers, and people gener-
ally anxious to make themselves known,always try to
make up for the absence of a degree by the addi-
tion of these letters. To be an F.R.G.S., F.R.H.S.,
F.R.C.S, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.L., seems to the outside
world a proof of distinction. Why not, therefore,
F.S.Sc.? It means nothing, nor do any of the
letters, except the plain old-fashioned M.A., R'.A.
(whether Royal Academy or Royal Artillery), R.E.,
LL.D., D.C.L. or F.R.S. The poor schoolmaster
who cannot use one of these legitimate titles might
as well call himself F.S.Sc. as F.R.G.S. And if it
helps him in his business, he will, I suppose, con-
tinue to do so. As for the hood, it seems to be
believed that only a University can confer a hood.
That is not so. All that a University can do is to
confer a certain kind of hood; and, indeed, if a
man chooses to make and to wear an Oxford hood
when he does not possess an Oxford degree, what
pains and penalties does he incur? 1 once saw
a reverend gentleman mount the reading desk
in quite a splendid hood, of the Oxford colour,
but ampler, fuller, more magnificent. I did not
remember to have heard that he was an Oxford
rrtan. He was not, in fact. He wore, I was told,
the hood of St. Bees or of St. Augustine. Perhaps,
after all, it was the hood of the Society of Science,
Letters, and Art. Five guineas would have been
cheap for such a hood.
When a daily paper has exhausted all the sub-
jects of the day, there remains, at the bottom of the
basket, one—the novel of the period. The editor
can always have a fling at the novelists. In every
paper, once a year at least, and generally twice a
year, there is the leader on modern fiction by a
leader writer who never reads any modern fiction.
His view, of course, is pessimistic. In the same
way, when a man has attained a certain position
—nd matter in what line—he considers himself
qualified to address his fellow-creatures on the
choice of books. This gives him also an opportunity
of " slating" fiction of the day.
Mr. Frederick Harrison, I learn from the fol-
lowing extract, has been lecturing us on the Choice
of Books, and has naturally seized the occasion to
fling mud at the novelists. Let him speak—
"But assuredly black night will quickly cover the vast
bulk of modern fiction—work as perishable as the generations
whose idleness it has amused. It belongs not to the great
## p. 131 (#167) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
creations of the world. Beside them it is flat and poor.
Such facts in human nature as it reveals are trivial and special
in themselves, and for the most part abnormal and unwhole-
some. I stand beside the ceaseless flow of this miscellaneous
torrent as one stands watching the turbid rush of the Thames
at London Bridge, wondering whence it all comes, whither
it all goes, what can be done with it, and what may be its
ultimate function in the order of Providence. To a reader
who would nourish his laste on the boundless harvests of the
poetry of mankind, this sewage outfall of to-day offers as
little in creative as in moral value. Lurid and irregular
streaks ol imagination, extravagance of plot and incident,
petty and mean subjects of study, forced and unnatural situa-
tions, moroid pathology of crime, duM copying of the dullest
comm mplace, melodramatic hurly-burly, form the certain
evidence of an art that is exhausted, produced by men and
women to whom it is become a mere trade, in an age wherein
change and excitement have corrupted the power of pure
enjoyment."
♦
Let us add a few words of question and of ■
comment. Mr. Harrison not only watches the
ceaseless flow of this miscellaneous torrent, but he
carefully examines the bulk of the books which
form the torrent. He reads masses of modern
fiction. He must, else how can he speak with
so much authority and precision on the subject?
Unless, that is, he has evolved from his own brain
the " lurid and irregular streaks of imagination " and
nil the rest of it. Most of us do not read all the
fiction, and therefore we must accept his judgment
ho far. He complains, however, that he does not
know whence it conies or whither it goes. Let
us tell him. Three-fourths of the "torrent"
consists of feeble, harmless, and imitative stories,
the production of which is paid for by the
writers in the vain hope of getting money out
of them. Very few copies arc printed, still fewer
are bought; they would be absolutely unheard of
if the reviewers did not notice them; they die
as soon as they are born. As regards the
remaining fourth part, I suppose I may be allowed
an opinion as a humble follower of the art, and
I maintain that as regards that fourth part, the
art of fiction never stood on a higher level than it
stands to-day. It is not only ridiculously false—it
is ridiculously foolish—to speak of the works that
are now produced every year as a " sewage outfall."
There is no Thackeray now living, but there are
writers of fiction among us who would adorn any
age. I say that the names of Black, Blackmore,
Rider Haggard, Hardy, Howells, James, Litton,
Meredith, Murray, Norris, Oliphant, Payn, Steven-
son—which I write down not as exhaustive but as
occurring to me at the moment—are names of
writers who have advanced and are advancing the
Art of Fiction. If anyone will take the trouble to
read the novels of fifty years ago—it has been my
lot to read a good many—he must acknowledge
VOL. 1.
that the art is far better understood now than
then, that the style is infinitely better, that the
work is more dramatic, cleaner, and clearer,
better finished—in a word, that the modern work
far surpasses the older work. Yet there is among
us no living Thackeray, Dickens, Scott, or
Fielding.
♦
This adviser on the Choice of Books further
informs us gloomily that the Art is exhausted; that
it is followed by men and women as a trade, and
that the age has lost the power of pure enjoyment.
Now let us consider this statement—so wide and so
sweeping. First, how can an Art ever be ex-
hausted? It is the first quality, the chief quality, of
all Art, that it is as inexhaustible as the whole range
of human emotion; nay, that for every new gener-
ation Art shall be young, strong, and immortal.
It is only when one is old, when there is no
longer anything to hope, that Art appears decrepit
or exhausted. The Art of Fiction can no more
be exhausted than the Art of Painting. As to
the trade of it, novelists have always, like painters,
followed their art as a trade. If Mr. Harrison
means that modern novelists turn out their work
with no care or thought of Art, why—there is
nothing to reply but a flat denial. I suppose that
Dickens and Thackeray scorned to sell their books
or to turn them out as a trade! What futile
rubbish is this!
4
Lastly the age . . the age . . Alas! when was
there ever an age which was not corrupt, ruined,
hopeless? The present time is more especially lost
and hopeless on account of the fin de sifrle. Let
me protest against this fin de stick cry. It means
that because the century is coming to an end, art,
thought, invention, science—everything is senile
too, in sympathy with the dying century. Let us
consider again. For literary purposes there are
only four centuries to think of. First, the sixteenth.
Where is the fin de sikle in the last decade of that
century? Shakespeare wrote fifteen of his plays in
that decade; Ben Jonson began; Kit Marlow ran
his brief course; Raleigh, Peele, Greene, Spenser,
Lyly, Drayton, Harrington, Stow, Cervantes, Tasso,
Montaigne, Du Bartas, Malherbe, all adorn this
last decade. Where is the fin de si'ede here? Let
us pass on to the years 1690-1700. What do we
find? Any weariness, any decay, any senility?
Not so—Dryden, Wycherly, Congreve, Steele,
Dennis, Price, Swift, Burnet, Defoe, Bentley, Tom
Brown and Ned Ward (a savoury pair), Garth,
k 2
## p. 132 (#168) ############################################
132
THE AUTHOR.
Philips, Rovve, Buxton, John Locke, Tillotson,
Jeremy Taylor, Colley Gibber, Tom D'Urfey,
Boileau, Racine, Calderon, Bossuet, Fenelon, La
Fontaine, Fontenelle—all adorned the last years of
the seventeenth century. Pass on to the years
1790-1800. Was there here any decay, any
senility? Burns, Wordsworth, Crabbe, Bloomfield,
Coleridge, Southey, Scott, Cooper, Priestley, Paley,
Cumberland, Dibdin, Sheridan, Ferguson, Monk
Lewis, Mary Godwin, William Godwin, White of
Selborne, Ritson, Thomas Percy, Gifford, Erasmus
Darwin, Anne Seward, Dugald Stewart, Jeremy
Bentham, Hannah More, Frances Burney, John
Aikin, Letitia Burbauld, Roscoe, Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds, Porson, Edmund Burke, Boswell, Campbell,
Rogers, Mrs. Inchbald, Malone, D'Israeli, Sir
James Mackintosh, Charles Lamb, Landor,
Schiller, Goethe, and a whole crowd of French
writers wrote; why, so far from being a time of
decay the last decade of each century has proved
a period of great intellectual vigour—a time of
youth and spring, as every time should be. Let
us have done with the fin de sikle rubbish. There
is no more connection between Art or Science
and the age of the century, than there is between
the news of this hour's post and the clouds in the
sky.
Last month I asked a foolish question. It was
foolish because the wise man should not, speaking
generally, ask a question to which there is no answer.
In this case, perhaps, one was justified; one put,
wisely, a foolish question. I asked why religious
societies allow themselves to do things which indi
viduals with any self-respect would not dare to do.
I now ask another foolish question. Why is it that
men professionally connected with religion are
generally so extremely irreligious? There is no
answer to this question. But I will illustrate it by a
case in point. There is a certain religious publisher
—from whose clutches may the Lord preserve us!
—who found a lady with a MS.—they areas plenti-
ful as blackberries. This MS., however, was a
saleable MS. He consented to publish it, and 10
give her half the profits. Further, he agreed that
a fresh arrangement was to be made for a second
edition. The man, however, was too foxy to set
down this in writing. He allowed the lady to
make a note of the agreement, and forgot to send
it to her in writing. Two or three years after-
wards the author discovered that there had been
a new edition published without reference to her-
self and without sending her any accounts. She
wrote and got no reply. The religious person took
no notice of her letter. She wrote again and got at
last a letter and a statement of accounts. It was
as follows :—
Cost of production ...
By Sales
Deficiency
£
s.
d.
in
16
6
£
s.
d.
80
II
9
31
4
9
in
16
6
The letter deplored the heavy loss of the firm on
the book, said nothingabout breaking the agreement,
and offered the lady ten guineas to finish up the
business. She accepted the offer, and the book is
now running triumphantly in its seventh or eighth
edition. It may be argued, of course, that she
need not have taken the offer, considering the
nature of the account rendered. I think she was
right to get anything she could. I have had an
estimate made of the cost of the book. It comes
out as follows :- Pubjishers'
bill.
£ s. d. £ s. d.
Cost of production 67 3 4 ... 111 16 6
Supposing the other items of engraving and
advertising to be correct, we reduce the cost of
production from £\\i i6y. 6d. to £67 3.C 4*/., a
difference of £42 11s. ?>d.! And yet they talk
of the heavy loss to the firm.
Mr. Radclyffe Cooke's letter in our last number
has very naturally called forth a reply from the
reader concerned. He says, "May I be permitted
to say that while I certainly claim no infallibility, I
think Mr. Cooke has a little mistaken the gist of my
'opinion.' I said that if certain alterations were
made I thought the book, especially if got up in
an attractive style, 'would be accepted, and would
obtain a sale. I am glad that it has obtained a
success greater than I looked for."
Mr. Radclyffe Cooke himself writes :—
"The Editorial Comment does not meet my
point, which is, that if you invite authors whose
MSS. have been rejected by publishers' readers to
submit them for an independent opinion to one of
the readers of the Society, that opinion cannot be
independent if the readers of the Society and the
readers of the publishers are identically the same
persons."
## p. 133 (#169) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
06
What is an independent opinion? A. B. receives
a MS. from a publisher. He is asked to give an
opinion on the MS., especially as to its commercial
value. He does so. He does not give a long critical
opinion for the author, but merely a note for the
publisher. The author receives in polite language
a plain No. Suppose—which is possible, but not
likely—the same reader received afterwards the
same MS. from the same author, he wou;d state
at length his opinion of the faults in style, the errors
of taste and judgment, and the other defects which
—-always in his opinion—might militate against the
woik, either from a literary or a commercial point
of view. He would give, in fact, such an opinion
as might be of assistance to the writer.
-Publishers, in fact, do not give authors a critical
opinion on the MSS. submitted. Considering that
they have to refuse ninety-nine per cent, of MSS.
offered, it can hardly be expected thattheycan act as
teachers and coachesintheartofliterarycomposition.
The author receives his MS. back with a courteous
letter giving no reason, or perhaps only general
reasons. This is the practice. I have seen one or
two carefully drawn readers' opinions, calculated to
help the aspirant, but these are rare. What the
Society gives is such an opinion. The reader is
asked to consider a MS. partly as a schoolmaster
considers a set of Latin verses, and partly as a
publisher would consider it, namely, from the
commercial point of view. He is asked to give
his opinion partly on the artistic, dramatic, and
literary worth or demerits of the work, and partly
on its chances as a saleable article. As a writer
or a critic of experience he can do the former; as a
publisher's reader he can do the latter. This part
of our work, therefore, if it is properly carried out,
may be very useful indeed, and in many cases has
proved very useful; for instance, a recent work was
altered in accordance with the suggestions of the
very reader quoted above, and has proved a very
considerable success owing to these very alterations.
And many young writers in consequence of the
"opinion" they received, have either abandoned
further effort in a hopeless direction, or are working
intelligently and earnestly in the right direction.
Needless to add, that these opinions have kept
many young writers out of the hands of the
gentry whose readers never fail to "report so
favourably that they are prepared to offer the
following liberal terms."
Our friends, the knavish publisher and the
sweating publisher, are never weary of procuring
misrepresentations of the Society and its objects
and actions. I saw the other day an apparently
harmless paragraph, beginning about a certain
literary man of eminence, but ending with the
slander which was the sole reason of its existence.
It was inferred, not actually stated, that the Society
advocated the breaking of agreements, and regarded
keeping them as "the basest way of evading a moral
obligation." A similar slander was admitted some
months ago into a monthly magazine, and I
daresay, will be admitted in a good many other
papers whenever a tool, or a fool, or a busybody
can be found. Let our friends meet such charges
with the assurance that the Society has always pro-
claimed the necessity of keeping agreements—
indeed, the law takes care of that. But that, if
the Society has any influence at all, it is persistently
directed to encourage the examination of agree-
ments; to awaken jealousy and suspicion as to
literary, as well as any other kind of property; and
to make writers insist upon knowing what they
concede to their agent, as well as what he proposes
to give them. It is this persistence, not any
exhortations to break agreements, which makes
certain tools and busybodies active, and it is a
sure and most satisfactory sign of influence* that
they are active. It is not until the wasps' nest
is disturbed that the wasps try to sting.
I have received from a Victim certain papers
connected with a now defunct "Association." It
perished perhaps under the weight of its own
vast labours, which were concerned with the
advancement of literature, art, science, music, the
drama, and "&c." As regards the literary depart-
ment, which was managed by a gentleman calling
himself the Hon. Sec, it undertook for the small
sum of one guinea a year: 1. To reply by return of
post to questions of all kinds; 2. To read and report
on MSS.; 3. To publish works at the expense of
the Association; 4. To offer MSS. for sale; and 5.
To give commissions to members. Here were in-
ducements for young, and even for experienced
writers. The Association would publish their work
at its own expense, all out of the yearly guineas! If
the work was not good enough for the Association,
it would be sold to publishers, w-ho, it is very well
known, are content with the leavings of such a
Society, and deeply grateful for getting them; and
it would, besides, give commissions—what writer
would not leap at the chance of getting commis-
sions? A benevolent Association, truly. In one
case mentioned in the prospectus, a writer whose
work had been refused by seven publishers in
succession, got, through the instrumentality of the
Association, the sum of ^157 io.y., cash down, for
it! The oddness of the amount carries convic-
tion with it. The commission offered to members
## p. 134 (#170) ############################################
134
THE AUTHOR.
was noble. It could be obtained in this way: the
Association ran a sixpenny monthly magazine,
which was written entirely by members. Now, any
member who should procure twenty new subscribers
to the magazine might receive twenty copies of the
magazine for £4 a year, which of course he would
sell for sixpence a copy, to his twenty subscribers,
pocketing £2 a year by the transaction. His
yearly subscription was also remitted to such an
active worker. Never was such a disinterested
Association!
»
The Victim was a young writer who hoped to
obtain in this Association the opening which up
to that time he had failed to find. He became a
member—he sent up a guinea for membership, and
six and sixpence for subscription to the magazine;
he also sent a MS. This was immediately read by
the official reader of the Society, and as an acknow-
ledgment of its worth, the writer was promoted
from a simple member to a "staff member," that is,
"one whose contributions can be accepted and paid
for immediately proofs are passed by the Editor."
Here was .success! and after the nasty envious
editors of the other magazines had all with one
consent refused this writer's works! He submitted
accordingly more MSS. He was informed that
one was accepted for the magazine, and would be
shortly published and paid for; that another was
under consideration; and that they were "sparing
no efforts to place " a third, but as yet, unsuccess-
fully. The result may be foreseen. He lost his
money, his time, and his MSS. Nothing was
placed, nothing was published; and in course of
time the "Association" disappeared.
There have been several other associations or
societies of a similar character during the last few
years. Considering the comparative safety of the
enterprise, one is astonished that there are not more.
One of them called itself the City of London Pub-
lishing Company. Among other little dodges of this
concern they proposed to publish a volume of poetry,
a copy of which was to be bought byevery contributor
of a one page poem for half-a-guinea. The aim of
the projectors was, of course, to make unknown
poets known to the public. I never heard anything
more of this volume. The Company succeeded
the Charing Cross Publishing Company, and took
over, I believe, the valuable business of that
eminent house. The Literary Guild started in
the same year, and with the same address as the
City of London Publishing Company, but I know
not if the two were the same concern. The
objects of the Guild were to afford to amateur
and non-professional authors the same advantages
of popularity and price enjoyed by established
writers. The prospectus promised to "introduce
them"—one does not know how—"to the reading
public," and "to open to the inexperienced the road
to one of the most agreeable and remunerative of
the professions." Through the agency of the
Guild, members, we are told, might publish on
exceptional terms—and so on. The Guild, in fact,
was an agency, whether connected or unconnected
with the City of London Publishing Company does
not appear. I do not know if the Guild still
exists. Its members were entitled to affix the
letters M.L.G. after their names. That, indeed,
was a most valuable privilege. But the Company
during its existence succeeded in pursuading a
good many to believe in them, and published no
fewer than a hundred and fifty books, and not
one in the whole list that anybody ever heard of!
The London Literary Society was the longest
lived of these bogus publishers. It lasted for
eight or nine years. The manager of this Society,
in fact, the chairman and the committee, and the
secretary, all in one, was a gentleman, now' un-
fortunately bankrupt. He had some genius, as
shown in the invention of a certain clause in the
letter which he invariably sent on the receipt of a
MS.
He said, "Sir or Madam,—Our reader has
reported so favourably on your MS. that we are
prepared to offer you the following terms. We are
willing to produce the work shortly .... and meet
all demands for sales, through the trade, up to io,oco
copies, at the publishing price of provided you
pay us j£ "(generally double the actual cost of
production), "and give us one-half the profits."
The notion of modestlylimiting his liability to 10,000
copies caught the flats right and left, because they
immediately sat down and calculated how much
they would get on a sale of 10,000 copies at least.
The London Literary Society (Manager, Playster
Steeds) is now defunct, but a business of the same
kind, including the favourable report of the reader,
the offer to meet all sales up to so many thousand,
and the proviso of the cheque down, is still carried
on by a firm called Digby and Long. We have in
the office a letter signed J. Baptiste Long for J.
Playster Steeds. That gentleman when passing
his examination in the Bankruptcy Court, stated
that Long had been his clerk. Messrs. Digby and
Long wrote to the Publishers' Circular, on Novem-
ber 15th, 1888, protesting that their firm had never
had anything to do with the Literary Society.
## p. 135 (#171) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
i35
Lastly, we have a little legal document connected
with Digby and Long, in which the Christian
name of Long is given as J. Baptiste Long, so
that, after all, there would seem to be a kind of a
sort of a succession or connection, apart from the
similarity in the conduct of the business.
To make an end of these so-called companies,
there was the Amateur Authors' Association, hailing
from Windsor. The "manager " of this precious
concern vanished with all the MSS. There was
another man called Bentley who advertised for
MSS. Many were taken in, thinking of the well
known firm in New Burlington Street. This person
also vanished with all the MSS. There was quite
lately one McGuire, who vanished under circum-
stances detailed in the first number of The Author.
There are doubtless others contemplating the same
career. Let us be on the watch for them.
One thing is truly astonishing, that respectable
people—people of decent position—should befound
to give their names in support of these schemes.
Thus the Literary Society had quite a long list of
apparently respectable people who were called
patrons. They thought, I suppose, that to figure
on such a list, gave them a position in the literary
world. As regards authors, it is quite certain,
that credulity will never cease. It is as lasting
and as full of life as the roguery which feeds and
thrives upon it.
It seemscruel to disturb the innocent faith of a
guileless world, but really one is jealous! Why
should publishers, alone of all trades, professions,
and callings, bear upon their front the seal of
perfect sincerity and honesty? We are always
exhorting everybody to extend to this class of
community exactly the same confidence—that,
and no more—that is offered to every other trade
or calling. Yet no sooner does a man call him-
self publisher than the simple folk rush into the
trap that he has spread for them. The other day
an advertisement appeared in one of the morning
papers to the effect that a "literary firm" was
ready to give clerical work to ladies in their own
homes. Applicants were instructed to write to
"Publisher "—the advertiser knew the saintliness
which clings to that venerated name—and to
enclose a stamp for reply. In two days 1,100
letters reached the address. The advertiser, un-
luckily, did not apply for them. His courage
failed. One or two of the letters were opened.
Finally they were all opened by the Post Office
and sent back to their writers. Now here is a case
in which an active detective should have rooted out
the whole business. The man should be caught
and prosecuted. To call himself a publisher, in-
deed! To trade on the character for disinterested-
ness and generosity which belongs to that body!
It was a touch of genius, however. I would advise
him next time to "go one better." He should
advertise the address of the "S.P.C.K." He would
then get a million answers, so great is the admira-
tion of the world for that venerable Society and
its publishing department.
I have read in one or two papers that I am
endeavouring to establish an Authors' Club. This
is news to me. I am endeavouring no such thing.
It is true that an Authors' Club has been spoken
of, and that it may be attempted in friendly union
with the Society, not as a part of it nor in oppo-
sition to it. The Society exists for the purpose of
advancing and protecting authors' material interests,
pot for social purposes, and if authors will only be
good enough all to belong to it—at present we
number only 600 instead of 1,000 at least—there
can be no doubt of efficient safeguarding. One
difficulty in forming such a club would seem to be
the fact that a club implies a certain uniformity of
social level. Now authors belong to a great many
social levels, and though there can be no reason
why they should not, as members of the same
profession, meet together in friendliness, we do not
see that other professions do so. There is a Law
Institute which is a kind of club, but it is really a
society for protecting the material interests of
solicitors. There are military clubs, but then all
military men are supposed to be on the same social
level. At the same time, for country or suburban
members—even for town members—it would be a
very useful thing if the Society could have near it
a set of rooms with a library of reference, conve-
nience for writing, facilities for getting lunch or
afternoon tea, and so forth; in fact, a house of call
and convenience. And this has certainly been
suggested a rid advocated by several persons.
►—
Mr. Brander Mathews has sent me the little book
of the Authors' Club in New York. The objects
of the club are stated in the prospectus to be for
"literary and library purposes, and the promotion
of social intercourse among authors." It is to
consist of not more than 300 men—no ladies. All
the members are to be actual authors; the sub-
scription is four pounds a year and five pounds
## p. 136 (#172) ############################################
136
THE AUTHOR.
entrance; the club is to assemble fortnightly; the
committee elect; the fortnightly meeting means, I
believe, a dinner; and there are about 250 mem-
bers. I understand that the club rooms are generally
empty except at the fortnightly meeting. This
seems as if American authors were not exactly
clubable among each other. Whether we have an
Authors' Club or not, what we want most is a
Members' House of Call—and perhaps some day
we may get it, though our annual guinea sub-
scription would not go very far towards supporting
it.
♦
An interesting experiment in publishing is about
to be tried, which we shall follow with great
curiosity. It will, if successfully carried out, as
there seems every hope that it will be, reveal
practically what we have advanced and maintained
from estimates and the piecing together of infor-
mation, namely, the need of exact information as
to the proportion of publishers' profits on successful
works compared with author's. I would suggest to
the inventor of this scheme that the greater reticence
he observes about it for the present, the better it will
be for the scheme. Once successful, all the world
may know and follow the example. Once divulged,
every kind of opposition, hindrance, and secret
spokes will be set for it.
An entirely new profession has lately come into
existence, and though in these days every honest
way of making money is immediately thronged,
and this way will certainly prove no exception, it
is in these columns freely offered and given away.
There are as yet only two ways of practising it, but
of course the wit of man will speedily multiply
those ways. First, you write to as many well-known
men as you can; you ask them, as if you were
thirsting for knowledge, for an opinion on any
point that happens to be under discussion at the
time. When you have got answers from most of
them, advertise autograph letters from W. E. G.,
or anybody else, containing his opinion on such
and such a subject. Price of this unique autograph
letter—two guineas. An industrious man who
knows how to choose and to change the subject
may do very well indeed on this lay.
The second method is simpler. You write for
an autograph, you keep on writing to everybody
until you have got quite a nice collection, because
it is surprising how many people will grant your
simple prayer. You then advertise your collection
for sale. One young gentleman of sixteen who has
already begun to practise this business, confidently
hopes to pay his expenses through Oxford out of
the proceeds.
The following lines seem to show that the
practice is of great antiquity. We may yet chance
somewhere upon a collection with the autographs
of Cicero, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid.
Nomina facta manu venatur odora viri vis;
En, sibi vir prcedam destinat ille suam;
Nescit ut accipiter flecti, miserescere tigris,
Sic quoque venator solvere nescit iter.
Et licet aufugiens se victima torqueat usque,
Haud mora; mox proprio sanguine tincta jacet
Turn spolia assiduus retulit venator opima,
Collectasque novo nomine ditat opes.
To which the following is tendered as an imi-
tation :—
The autograph hunters are keen on the scent,
The autograph hunters have singled their prey;
As a hawk cannot swerve, or a tiger relent,
So these never turn them nor stop on their way.
And though he may wriggle and though he may
run,
The quarry will presently lie in his gore;
And the autograph hunter, his victory won,
With exult o'er the fallen with one name the
more.
*
A scrap-book library is being formed in the
Brooklyn Library to utilise the material relating
to topics of interest which would be lost in the
files of the daily papers. Its nucleus was the
gathering of a large number of excerpts from the
newspapers by one Wilcox, a war correspondent.
The librarian, Mr. Bardwell, got his assistants to sort
the scraps, and they were arranged by subjects and
pasted on sheets of uniform size. They are not
bound, but are on heavy manilla paper, and additions
can be made at any time. Those relating to any
particular subject are put together in a box, which is
properly labelled, and the subjects are arranged in
alphabetical order. For some subjects several
boxes are needed, as biography, for instance. It is
as easy to find any particular topic in the boxes as
in an encyclopaedia or dictionary. Besides 50
volumes already made up, with about 350 clippings
in each, there are three times as many not yet
pasted and prepared for use, making a total of over
75,000 clippings. This seems a thing to be
imitated.
Mr. Howells made an onslaught in the August
number of Harpers on the literary critic, and
especially on the anonymous critic of the news-
papers. The Boston Herald has taken up the
case. Here the writer declares that so far as
America is concerned there are not more than
## p. 137 (#173) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
137
half-a-dozen journals whose critical judgments of
current literature carry weight and credit for more
than book-advertising. "Literary criticism in the
United States was never at so low as ebb. Mr.
Howells is justifiedin what he saysof the anonymous
American critic. He is dreadful in his blunders,
in his bad manners, and in the venom which is
too often characteristic of his work. This is due
to the fact that but little attention is paid to critical
writing. It is thrown out of the magazines, it has
but a precarious existence in the weekly papers, it
lacks authority in the purely literary journals, and
very few of the principal dailies employ critical
writers who are competent for their task."
♦
What about our own criticisms? In the matter
of literary criticism there are two or three pro-
vincial papers a long way ahead of the London
dailies, which have mostly got into the unholy
habit of lumping all the books together, and dis-
missing each with a few lines. Of the weeklies it
cannot be said that they have in any way lost their
authority. A good review in the Saturday, the
Spectator, or the Guardian, is still excellent for
stimulating the demand. Unfortunately the Spec-
tator's notices are too often belated. I recall the
case of a certain book which appeared in a certain
month of May. By the month of November it
had had a great run; but the first rush after it was
over, the libraries could do without more copies,
and people were borrowing copies instead of buy-
ing them. At this time appeared a notice of the
book—long and laudatory—in the Spectator. It
was too late—the world had already pronounced
(verdict, and the book had practically had its run.
Another point in which authors veniure to disagree
with the Saturday, the Spectator, the Athemcum,
and the Academy, is the lumping of all the novels,
all the theological books, or indeed, all the books
of any one class, into one article, and reviewing
them each with half-a-dozen lines. Now if a novel
is worth reviewing at all, it is worth reviewing
seriously, and as a work of art. Certainly there
is not an average of two novels a week which are
worth reviewing seriously. Again, ;t cannot but be
known to the editors that three-fourths of the novels
are paid for by the authors—that can always be
told by the name of the publisher: that these
things are always the sorry rubbish refused by the
better houses; that nobody ever buys them, and
that to review them is labour, time, temper, and
space absolutely thrown away. Does one review
all the trash and daubs that hang on the walls of
the Royal Institute or the Grosvenor among and
between the good pictures?
An unadorned marble cross has been set up over
the grave of Wilkie Collins in Kensal Green
Cemetery with the words, "Author of 'The
Woman in White' and other works of Fiction"
placed underneath the name and usual dates. A
few yards away lies Sydney Smith, and not much
farther distant, Leigh Hunt.
On May 7th of this year a MS. was sent to a
certain journal for the editor's consideration.
On June 5th, exactly four weeks later, the editor
says that he thinks he can shortly use it. On this
understanding the author allows the MS. to remain
until September 28th, when he sends a reminder
on September 26th. The editor writes that he
may be able to use it for a Christmas number.
Again on this understanding the author allows the
MS. to remain.
On October 2nd the editor instructs a secretary
to write that he will not be able "for some time"
to give "any further information " about the subject.
He therefore sends back the MS.
This is five months after receiving it. Is there
any other business in the world where the common
courtesies of civilized life are so little regarded as
in literary matters? Here is an author—not un-
known or obscure—kept cooling his heels on the
kerbstone for five months while the editor makes
up his mind. Four months after promising to use
the MS. he sends it back.
A writer in Life is responsible for the following
story. It would not be printed here but for the
fact that similar cases have been brought before
the Society by victims. And it is a pity that the
exact accounts in this case are not given, because
it would seem as if the case might be really worse
than the editor thinks. He says that in receiving
the arcounts for a certain work, written either by
himself or by some friend, he made the discovery
that 25 per cent, had been fraudulently charged on
all the accounts, which showed a profit of ^7 ioj.
Also he says that the book had run through three
editions. Now, I do not know what kind of book
that is of which three editions—3,000 copies—could
be sold to produce a profit of only £1 10s., even
making allowance for the fraudulent 25 per cent.,
or by what kind of agreement the result was arrived
at. The author, on discovering the fraud, called
upon that publisher and demanded a cheque for
the whole amount, with interest. And he got it.
This strong-armed person has now taken up the
case of two ladies, who have given him a power of
attorney to act for them, Let us await the result.
## p. 138 (#174) ############################################
138
THE AUTHOR.
We have to deplore the death of one who has
been a steady friend of the Society from its founda-
tion, the Rev. Henry White. He published little,
but his sympathies with literature and with those
who make the literature of the day were deep.
His loss will be widely deplored. The Church has
few clergymen who can quite fill the place he
occupied in public esteem and affection.
Walter Besant. *
"THE METHODS OF PUBLISHING."*
THIS book may be regarded as a sequel to the
"Cost of Production." In that work, which
was issued for the use of members only,
men of letters learned for the first time what is the
actual cost of composing, printing, paper, and bind-
ing, for the production of books of various kinds.
The little book was the result of a great deal of
trouble, investigation, comparison of estimates and
consultation with printers. Even when finished it
has been found incomplete in parts, and a new
edition is under preparation.
Meantime, there has been accumulating in the
offices of the Society since its foundation a great
quantity of "cases," generally of complaint arid
grievance. Nearly every one of these cases contains
among its papers and letters an agreement signed by
the publisher and the author. In this way the
Society has been enabled to peruse agreements
from nearly every publishing house in the country.
In the same way it has also been enabled to learn
the tricks and frauds which these agreements may
be designed to cover in the hands of unscru-
pulous men. Now a signed agreement can only,
as a rule, even when it can be clearly proved to be
one-sided, unjust, and procured by misrepresenta-
tion, be broken and set aside by a costly and
doubtful action in the High Court of Justice. Con-
sequently, in many of the cases brought to the
Society in which highly unjust agreements had
been carried out to the letter, no redress could be
obtained. When a man signs a document which
he does not understand, he has only himself to
blame if the agreement places him, bound hand and
foot, in the hands of a robber. It is therefore ap-
parent that prevention is better than attempt to
cure.
This conclusion is the raison d'etre of the book.
Mr. Sprigge designs, by classifying agreements,
quoting examples, explaining the meaning of ciauses,
* " The Mclhoils of Publishing," by S. Squire .Sprigge.
(Jlaiiher, Strand. Trice 4s. t>d.
and exposing the frauds and tricks that are carried
on under cover of agreements, to educate his readers
into a becoming jealousy of their property, whether
it lies in fields or in written pages.
We have long lifted up a warning voice and
cautioned authors against signing any agreement
whatever, underany pretence or after any representa-
tions, without advice—and that, not from their
own solicitors, or from any lawyer lhat offers, but
from the Society whose business it is to protect
them. We are now in a position to explain and
justify this admonition. Authors may now read for
themselves and learn in detail what is actually and
daily practised, and what is the meaning of the
various clauses by which they sign away, and part
with, valuable property.
In other words—Let no writer sign any agree-
ment until he has teamed what the publisher reserves
for himself, and what he proposes to give the author.
In no other transaction affecting property would
one party dare to present an agreement designedly
drawn up so that the other party should understand
nothing of what it means.
The book is very earnestly recommended to the
attention of every person engaged in literature. It
is designed as the most serious contribution to the
defence of the author ever yet offered—most serious
because it is the only paper which rests, not on
argument, but on facts and figures. These facts
cannot be denied, nor can these figures be dis-
proved. They are all in the archives of the
Society, and can, if necessary, be published at
length with the names of the publishers con-
cerned. Probably, however, they will not be
anxious for this kind of publicity. The position of
the Society in respect to this kind of information is
absolutely unique. No publishers have it; no
single individual possesses this knowledge; no other
body possesses it; and the whole of it has been
placed in Mr. Sprigge's hands.
The book is divided into eleven chapters. The
first two of these are devoted to the general
consideration of literary property. The next four to
the four methods under which all kinds of pub-
lishing may be classed, viz., the Half Profit System,
the Royalty System, Sale Outright or Limited, and
Publishing on Commission. Agreements of all
kinds will be found set forth at length and
analyzed in these chapters. The remaining five
deal chiefly with certain common ways of trickery,
with the statement of such safeguards as may
protect the author.
One quotation only shall be made here. It is a
short summing up as to the laxity with which
literary property is generally treated :—
"At present it would seem that too often the
author does not, and the publisher cannot, rea''~e
## p. 139 (#175) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
139
that literary property has an existence and a
value.
"If a man believed his book was an actual
property he would not deal with it by methods so
vague, unsatisfactory, and unbusinesslike, under
agreements teeming with clauses he does not
understand.
"He would not dispose of his right over it
without the formality of a written agreement. He
certainly would not airily hand over to the publisher
his rights in other property of a similar kind whose
value he does not yet know, and for an indefinite
number of years, simply on request.
"He would insist upon alleged expenditure
being proved to him, before his account was
debited with it.
"He would insist upon having accounts rendered
at the right times, and his executors at his death
would similarly insist.
"lastly, if a man thought his MS. was a
property in the sense that his watch is a property,
what would he do if he found that, in spite of his
letters, he could not get it returned to him by the
tradesman who had it for inspection?"
*
"THE LITERARY HANDMAID OF
THE CHURCH."
I.
Memorandum on the S.P.C.K.'s relations to
Authors, drawn up by the ^ijb-Committee
appointed to consider the Charges made
in Mr Besant's Pamphlet.
I.—The principles on which the Society's publishing
business is conducted.
THE Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge is not a General Publishing Agency.
The sole purpose of its publishing enterprise
is to produce and circulate as widely as possible a
wholesome literature, both religious and secular.
This purpose is realised by putting on its publications
as low a price as is consistent with giving a fair re-
muneration to Authors, and securing such a margin
of profit as will protect the Society against a finan-
cial loss. The average yearly profit of its entire
business has for many years been about ^6,000,
and is not a larger percentage on the capital
employed than the vicissitudes of a very large
publishing business require for its stability. More-
over, this profit is not really profit accruing to the
Society through purchases by the public, inasmuch
as the Society annually gives away in Grants of
Books several thousand pounds more than the
profit, and in the ledgers of the Publishing Depart
ment credit is taken for all these grants, averaging
some ^12,000 a year. It will be thus seen that
the sales and grants of books, taken together, so
far from bringing in a revenue applicable to other
purposes, take several thousand pounds annually
out of the Society's income.
II. —Dealings with Authors.
1. Royalties (varying from one-tenth to one-sixth
of the published price) are in ordinary circumstances
paid to writers who are recognized as specialists in
any particular subject, or whose names, inserted on
the title-page of a book, would give it a distinctly
greater commercial value than the book would
have if published by the Society without fuch
name. Some writers who would naturally fall into
this class prefer a sum down in place of a royalty.
2. Commissions for most of the chief works of
fiction, published every autumn, are given before-
hand to writers of whose competence the Com-
mittee is satisfied, on the following conditions :—
"If the work be accepted by the Society, the sum of
£ will I>e paid you for the copyright, which
will then be the property of the Society. The Society will
reserve to itself the right to use the author's name. If the
Committee for any reason do not accept the work on behalf
of the Society, one-half of the sum offered for the copyright
will be paid to you; and you will have in addition the offer
of the use of the standing type with a view to your making
other arrangements for the publication of your work."
The payments made in this manner are certainly
as high as, and probably higher than, those offered
by other publishers for the same class of litera-
ture.
3. Besides these commissioned works, the
Society receives unsought, every year, thousands
of MSS. of small stories, which are offered without
condition for the Society's approval and for publi-
cation. Such of these MSS. as the Committee may
approve are paid for according to the Committee's
view of their merit, but generally somewhat lower
than the scale adopted in the case of commissioned
works. The Society has had no reason to suppose
that these payments have been disappointing to
the writers who have contributed works to the
Society.
III. —Royalties v. Copyright.
It has sometimes been suggested, and the
suggestion is endorsed by Mr. Besant, that it
would be better that all writers for the Society
should be paid by royalty, but it is not difficult to
show that the indiscriminate giving of royalties by
## p. 140 (#176) ############################################
140
THE AUTHOR.
the Society would be inequitable, and even im-
practicable. With respect to the stories and small
works of fiction published with the advantage of
the Society's imprimatur, it has to be remembered
—whether the fact be satisfactory or not—that in
most cases the circulation of such books depends
at least as much upon the manner in which they
are printed, bound, and illustrated—arrangements
with which the writer has little or nothing to do—
as upon the merit of the writer himself. The fact
that this is so throws upon the Society's Com-
mittees a very grave responsibility for the character
of what is thus circulated by their agency, and at
the same time it materially affects the question of
the equitable mode of remunerating the authors of
these little works. Vast quantities of such books
are annually given away by the Society, or sold at
a reduced rate, thus swelling the apparent sales far
beyond the real purchases by the public. In fact,
if royalties were given on the small works of fiction,
which, by means of its peculiar organization and
connections, the Society is enabled to circulate by
thousands, not only would the price of the books
be materially raised, and the sales proportionately
diminished, but the anomaly would arise that a
writer of little training and capability would, from
a book costing a few days' labour, receive a far
larger sum than could be obtained either by
royalties or otherwise by the most distinguished
writers on the Society's list. Thus, a narrative
Tract of four pages, which is circulated by grants
to the extent of hundreds of thousands, would
bring to the writer, by any appreciable royalty, a
sum out of all proportion to the literary work
involved, and a similar principle applies in its
degree to many of the Society's larger publications.
IV.—Mr. Besanfs Specific Charges.
Much of Mr. Besant's pamphlet forms part of a
controversy in which the author has been long
engaged respecting the general system of pub-
lishing adopted both in England and abroad, and
into the merits of that controversy it is not
necessary here to enter.
With respect to his charges against the Society,
the author asked, through the Guardian of
January 23rd, 1889, for information from writers
for the Society as to their treatment. Three of
the answers he received seemed to him to call for
notice, and on these his specific charges rest.
1. The first and principal case is that of a writer
from whom only one book has been accepted by
the Society. This book was published—not, as
alleged, "two or three years ago "—but thirteen
years ago. The author received a small sum for
the copyright of the work (,£12 12.C), because
the Committee of the time did not see their way
to estimate it at a higher figure. Probably the
Committee were unwise in yielding to the writer's
urgency to accept it at all. As the Committee
truly foresaw, it has not proved a commercial suc-
cess. During the long lapse of thirteen years the
apparent circulation has gradually mounted up to
5,520 copies, but a very large proportion of these
have not been purchased by the public, but have
been issued by the Society in grants for lending
libraries, &c, at home and in the Colonies. Even
crediting the bookselling account with the value of
all the copies both sold and given away, the total
apparent profit up to date is ,£57 8s. \od.—a very
small percentage on the money sunk on it for
thirteen years. No promise of future payments
was made to the author; but, in reply to his
inquiries, he was informed that the Society did
then (what it continues to do now) give, in the
shape of a gratuity, and not in any way as a con-
dition of purchase of copyright, occasional pay-
ments in cases where books turned out exceptionally
successful.
It appears evident that whatever strength may
seem to be afforded by this case to the charges
levelled against the Society is derived from a mis-
conception of the facts.
2. The second case is that of a writer who has
been contributing to the Society's list since 1861,
and who has, within the last three months, been
paid for a book which will appear next October.
During this time she has supplied some twenty
works to the Society, ranging from little tales at 2d.
and 3d. each, to books of three or four hundred
pages. The writer has received in all for these
twenty books ^716 2s. That she has voluntarily
continued to write during all these years for the
Society would seem to indicate that she has had
no serious cause of complaint, especially as she
has, it is understood, been also publishing books
through ether agencies, and has thus been able to
weigh the relative terms offered to her. As to the
allegation, which is made in general terms, that she
received more in times past for her books than at
present, the evidence, speaking in the same general
way, seems to point to an opposite conclusion. In
1871 she received ^25 for a book of 50,000 words,
in 1876 ^40 for a volume of 75,000 words, and
in 1886 £50 for a book of 57,000 words. The
varying quality of her books must also be taken
into consideration, as well as the fact that some of
them had been previously published elsewhere.
3. The remaining case is that of a writer who
also continues to write for the Society. He has
written in all for the Society since 1873 twelve
small books, for which he has received .£060.
He says that for his first work for the Society he
received ,£30, and seven months afterwards for
## p. 141 (#177) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
the same book an unsolicited cheque for £20.
The memory of this gentleman seems to have
misled him, as the Society's ledgers show no trace
of such a cheque, and the inference drawn from
its supposed payment must therefore be allowed to
fall to the ground. The additional .£30 paid in
1882 was not a gratuity; it was payment for
bringing a new edition up to date. The charge
that " half the sums expended in founding Bishop-
rics belong in all equity to needy authors " is of
the same baseless character, as will be seen from
the statement given above. Further comment on
this writer's letter seems needless.
Such are the grounds on which the author of
the pamphlet bases his somewhat sensational
indictment, and they appear signally insufficient.
So far as can be ascertained, the Society holds a
prominent position among publishers for its fair
dealing with authors, and enjoys their esteem and
even gratitude. That works of all kinds are
pressed on its acceptance by thousands of writers,
and that out of the many hundreds of whose
services use has been made, only three seem to
have responded to the invitation to state a
grievance, are facts which afford strong evidence
of the injustice of Mr. Besant's accusations.
Nathanaei. Powell,
H. C. Daubeney,
H. Wace, Principal of King's College,
Treasurers of S. P. C%K.
Randall T. Davidson, Dean of Windsor.
William Sinclair, Archdeacon of London.
Brownlow Maitland.
W. II. Clay.
C. J. Bun yon.
July 25, 1890. _
II.
The Reply to the Memorandum.
I.—The Principles of the S.P.C.K.
This is the document which is tendered as a
reply to my pamphlet. It contains a false state-
ment on its very title. I made no charges in that
pamphlet. I called the attention of the Publica-
tion Committee of the S.P.C.K. to certain well-
known and recognized principles in the acquisition
and the administration of literary property. I enu-
merated certain classes of publishers. I then
detailed certain cases selected from a great many
in my hands; and I asked the Committee to which
class they themselves belong. It is to this question
that we seek an answer in the Memorandum. But
we seek in vain.
The "Memorandum" contains four sections.
Let us take each in order. The first is called
"The Principles on which the Society's publishing
is conducted."
Principles? But there are none.
The S.P.C.K. is "not a General Publishing
Agency." Well, they publish, for as much profit as
they can get, every kind of book. If that is not a
"General Publishing Agency," what is it?
"Its sole purpose is to produce wholesome
literature." And make no profit? That can I not
believe. If so, why was not that ^7,660 profit,
made last year, divided among the sweated authors?
"This purpose is realised by putting on its pub-
lications as low a price .as is consistent with a fair
remuneration to authors." What is "fair"? On
what principles is this justice to authors? This is
the gist of the whole question: what do they mean
by "fair"? There is no reply. There is no
attempt to reply. The signatories are so careless
as to their words, so blind to the real point, or
so determined to evade the real issue, that they
refuse so much as to state the principles by which
they are guided in deciding what is fair. Now we
might very well lay the paper down at this point
and refuse to read any more.
But there is much more to be noted, if only to
show the condition of mind to which a body of
apparently intelligent men may be reduced when
they are bidden to sign such a paper as this.
"The average profits (we are told) amount to
about ^6,000." Well, but last year they were put
at £7,660.
This seems, at first sight, a straightforward state-
ment. But there is no such thing as a straight-
forward statement in the whole paper.
"An average profit of ^6,000."
What is " profit"? The tradesman buys a thing
for a shilling and sells it for eighteen pence. The
sixpence over is his profit. The sixpence is his
pay for storing and distributing, buying and selling.
This a law universal in every kind of trade. In the
publishing trade, if a book costs twopence to pro-
duce and twopence for the author, and sells for
sixpence, the twopence is the publisher's profit.
Out of this he has to keep up his establishment
and make his own income.*
* Since they may attempt to deny this, I subjoin two
publishers' accounts. They are the accounts of honourable
men. One is that of the sale of one volume of Gibbon's
"Decline and Kail"; the other is an account of this year,
also rendered by an honourable publisher. The practice of
reckoning profit on this difference is, it will be remarked, the
same to-day as a hundred years ago.
"State of the Account of Mr. Gibbon's ' Roman Empire."'
Third Edition. Eirst Vol. Number printed, 1,000.
April 30, 1777.
£ s. J.
Printing 90 sheets, at .£1 6s., with notes at the
lx>ttom of the page ... ... ... ... 117 o o
180 reams of paper, at lgs. ... ... ... 171 o o
Paid the Corrector, extra 5 5 0
Advertisements and incidental expenses ... 16 15 o
° °
## p. 142 (#178) ############################################
142
THE A U Til OR.
The ingenious gentlemen of the S.P.C.K. have
invented a new kind of profit. What they call
profit is the remainder after tlu zvliole expenses of
their establishment are met. Thus a partner in a
house of business would say, "I have kept a whole
army of clerks. I have kept up my country house
and my carriages. I have paid for the boys at
Cambridge and Rugby. There remain £6,000.
These are the profits of my business for the year."
In this case the Secretaries represent the partners.
What remained over is not the profit, but the
saving, of the year.
Thus they made last year by selling books,
.£85,013. (Report for 1889, pp. 92, 93.)
They had to spend ,£22,812 in buying books to
sell again, chiefly Bibles and Prayer Books.
They spent on producing books, £38,375.
They paid editors and authors—poor authors !—
,£2,988 altogether for the whole year.
Let us deduct the money spent in buying books.
^85,013
22,812
There remains ,£62,201
They spent on producing books... •••.£38,375
There remains ,£23,826
l,00O books, at i6j.
Deduct as above ...
£ s.
800 0
• 3>° 0
d.
0
0
Profit on the Edition
£49° 0
0
Mr. Gibbon's two-thirds is
£ s.
... 326 13
d.
4
S
Messrs. Strahan and Cadcll's third is ...
... 163 6
The next, an account of the present day, is ns follows.
The figures are not necessary, and for obvious reasons are
£400 0
0
suppressed :— £ s. </.
Composing — sheets, at £—
Machining ... ... ... ... ... ...
Paper
Corrections
Binding
Advertising '..
Total cost ...
■ ■£
By sale of— copies, producing
£ '■
d.
Less cost of production
Profit
■■■£
Of which Author's two-thirds
£ s.
d.
Publisher's one-third
/
as the real profit for the year on the sale of the
books. On the half-profit system the authors
would have had £11,913. What did they get?
Less than £3,000 1
But, they say, large quantities of books are given
away, "amounting to an average of £12,000 a year,"
so that there is a loss on the publishing business of
many thousands.
Observe that if they lost a hundred thousand a
year by giving books away it would not affect tha
question in the least. The grant of books belongs
to another department. Whatever expenditure is
made under this head is made out of the general
funds of the Society, and from the income derived
from all sources.
However, let us look into the allegation. What
do they give away? Chiefly Bibles and Prayer
Books, as appears from the Report. They issued
during the year 561,869 Bibles and Prayer Books.
The greater part of the annual grant consists of
Bibles and Prayer Books. Now if they had not
been given away they would not have been bought.
Therefore the amount expended in giving Bibles and
Prayer Books must be deductedfrom both sides. Did
the Committee of Inquiry inquire into the meaning
of their own assertion before they set it down? If
they did and discovered what it means, what are we
to think of them? If they did not, but signed the
Memorandum without examination, what, again,
can we think of them?
Suppose, for instance, ,£5,000 worth of Bibles
and Prayer Books and other books bought by the
Society were included in the ,£8,562 set down for
grants in 1889, that amount would have to be taken
from the £22,812 spent in buying books. Where
then is the loss of " many thousands "?
♦
II.—On Dealings with Authors.
We are told that "royalties varying from one-
tenth to one-sixth of the published price are {Jven
to writers who are recognized as specialists, or
whose names on the title-page of a book give it a
greater commercial value, &c."
Did the Committee examine this statement before
they made it?
Do they know how to examine into the truth of
such a statement?
I will tell them.
They shouid first learn what is meant by a
royalty of one-tenth, one-sixth, &c, that is to say,
what it gives the author and what it leaves the
publisher. They must, of course, bear in mind at
the same time the legitimate gains of the publisher,
## p. 143 (#179) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
143
else they have no standard of right and wrong.
Next, they should inquire into the reasons of the
difference—why a tenth here and a sixth there?
They should then demand an exact list of the
books published on royalties, and ascertain what
considerations the royalty fixed in each case, what
the publisher made by the transaction, counting
the publisher's profit legitimately in excess of
receipt over expenditure, not after "establishment
charges " are made.
I should like very much to see this list.
The variation of the royalty, without cau se assigned,
is accepted by the Committee of Inquiry without
the least question. Why should there be variation
in a royalty? The system of royalties means an
admission that the work of an author is to be
remunerated in proportion to the saleable nature of
the book. The money value of a property—which
is a separate thing from its artistic value—means
plainly what it will fetch. Further, the price of a
book is always regulated by the cost of production.
Thus we have (1) price; (2) cost of production;
(3) difference between these two. The royalty
means that propottion of the difference which should
be justly divided between author and publisher:
why, then, should there be any variation? As an
abstract proposition there should be none. But
one can quite understand a house declining to
publish certain books whose sale will be small unless
so small a royalty is granted to the author as will
leave the masters a remunerative profit.
But "recognised specialists." Take the excellent
short histories issued' by the Society, for instance—
Roman-Britain, Saxon-Britain, Norman-Britain—
all by specialists. Did they get a royalty? Not so.
They got ^50 each for the copyright. So that
this statement must be received with reservations.
We then come to works of fiction. They con-
fess that in these books their method is to pay "a
sum " down for the copyright. They do not dare
to allege that in their decision as to the amount
offered there is any regard whatever paid to the
profits which they mean to make on the book. The
most they venture to plead is an allegation that
their payments are "as high as, and probably higher
than," those offered by other publishers.
Can anything be weaker or more unworthy of a
great religious Society than such a plea?
Weak, because it is evidently signed without the
least investigation. Into what publishers' books
did the Committee look before they put their
names to this assertion? What publishers have
given them information as to their treatment of
novelists? I can assure them, from my own know-
ledge, and most earnestly and truthfully—that the
only publishers whose prices can compare with
their own are the lowest class sweating publishers.
I declare deliberately, and with a full knowledge of
what is done in every house in London, that none
but the sweating publishers can be ranked or
compared with the Literary Handmaid of the
Church. I have given the prices paid to one
writer. I have before me those paid to a great
many others. It is the same dreary tale—from
£20 to ^50 for the whole copyright—sweater's
prices. In my pamphlet I mentioned three
authors only. They were meant to be represen-
tative, and the Memorandum impudently pretends
that they were all I could get! They do represent,
in fact, the great bulk of the unfortunate writers
who have fallen into the clutches of this religious
Society. What do they prove? This. That the
Society habitually and deliberately pay the lowest
price that will be taken, without any reference to
the profit that they know will certainly be made.
Once more—He who buys a piece of work for the
lowest sum which the necessities of the producer will
allow him to take—knowing that he will make twice,
three times, fifty times that sum for his own profit—
is a Sweater.
Will the Committee of Inquiry deny this propo-
sition?
Now, in the case even of untried and unknown
writers, the Publication Committee know by ex-
perience that there is a certain minimum sale on
which they can confidently reckon, provided that
reasonable care has been exercised in the refusal of
absolute rubbish. In the case of a popular writer
they can reckon on a sale of many thousands. Will
the Committee enquire into the case of those few
popular authors whose works have been published
by the Society, and ascertain what royalties have
been paid to those authors, if any.
The section winds up with the allegation that
the Society's authors are satisfied with their pay.
That is not my experience. That is not what I
learn from the dozens of letters I have received.
The writers of these letters hate the Society. They
loathe the Society. They say that they only write
for the Society because they must. They tell me
so in confidence, but they implore me not to let the
Committee guess that they have done so—lest they
feel the vengeance of that Committee—the Com-
mittee of the Literary Handmaid of the Church!
But even if all the authors in the world are con-
tented with their pay, that would not make an in-
justice become just.
III.—On Royalties.
Here follows a very muddled passage. I gather
from it, if it means anything, the following remark-
able statements and opinions :—
## p. 144 (#180) ############################################
144
THE AUTHOR.
1. The sale of books depends partly on their
get-up and appearance.
This is perfectly true. The fact belongs to all
books, not especially those published by the
S.P.C.K. It is the part of the publisher's business
to put out his books handsomely. He is paid for
looking after this part of the work.
Therefore, says the Memorandum, an author
must not have a royalty.
The connection of thought is difficult to follow.
2. "Vast quantities of books are given away."
I have already considered the giants. They
belong to another department, and cannot be
considered in connection with the Publishing
Department. "Vast quantities," however, is a
vague -statement. Last year books to the amount
of ^8,562 were given away. If ^5,000 represents
Bibles given, and ,£17,000 represents Bibles sold,
we have it that about 6 per cent, of the books sold
are bought by the General Department to be used
in accordance with the objects of the Society.
Tlurefore, says the Memorandum, the author must
not expect a royalty.
3. If royalties were given, the price of the books
would be raised.
Indeed! Then how is it that in other houses
where royalties are given the price of the books is
not raised? In fact, the royalty system depends
upon a proportion, not a price. It applies equally
to a shilling book and to a six-shilling book.
4. If royalties are allowed, an author, by a few
days' labour, would present the "anomaly" of
obtaining—what ?—the produce of his own labour!
Here is, indeed, an anomaly. Here is a muddle
of thought.
If with a few days' labour an author can produce
a work which commands a large and continued
sale—why not? It is his production—his book—
his property. The "anomaly " is that the Society
■—a religious Society—should want to take away
his property. That a body of Christian men should
say, "You shall have none of this income. It is
true that it is of your own making. We will take
it. All shall be ours." Is it possible that the
Committee of Inquiry should not understand the
immorality of such a contention?
5. There seems to underlie this section a feeling
that because the S.P.C.K. has exceptional powers
of selling books—which I recognize fully—the
books should belong to them. In other words,
because the administration of property can be
carried on advantageously, the property belongs to
them. Or, again, because it can be sold for very-
large sums, it should be bought for very small
sums.
I do not suppose that this view would be
seriously advanced. But let us clear away the fogs,
and show it in its nakedness. He who acquires
property must pay for it in proportion to its value.
Otherwise he is a sweater, or a thief, or both. He
who administrates property must be paid in pro-
portion to the extent and value of that property.
Thus, an honest publisher who administers a
successful book is rewarded according to the extent
of his sales. The book does not belong to him
because he sells a great many; but he reaps the
advantage by the proportion equitably allotted to
him. As a matter of fact, the larger and more
important is the house, the better, we commonly
find, are the terms which a successful author
receives.
6. There is another very odd confusion of
thought lying on the mind of the writer of this
Memorandum. It is one of contempt for authors.
He cannot bear to think that a little story—a
simple little thing—the delicacy, artistic finish,
and simplicity of which he cannot for the life of
him understand—should be able to bring in for the
author an income for years. That it does bring in
to the Society an income for years he knows very
well—has he not bought it for a ten-pound note,
out and out, of the trembling gentlewoman who
wrote it? But that she should have the proceeds
of her own labour—that she, whom he has
sweated with impunity—should get rich, is beyond
him. He cannot understand it. The thing cannot
be right. Why, he has bought a whole six-months'
work of her for thirty pounds over and over again!
IV.—Specific Charges.
We come next to what are called "Specific
Charges." Again, I repeat, there have been no
specific charges. A few facts, out of many, were
advanced, and the S.P.C.K. were invited to give
their own opinion on them.
1. As to the first case—not the most important,
as they pretend, but the most obvious and glaring
case—they acknowledge the sale of 5,200 copies.
It does not matter to us whether the other depart-
ment bought them or the general public. The
book is now priced at 2s. I think, but am not
sure, that it was formerly 2s. 6d. This means a
trade price of is. 2d. very nearly. But the ready-
money sales (about one-fifth of the whole, see
Report, p. 93) are at i*. 6d. each.
The cost of production is about 5^. a copy.
By sales—
£ s. d.
4,400 at is. 2d. a copy ... 256 13 4
i, 100 at is. 6d. a copy ... 82 10 o
^339 3 4
## p. 145 (#181) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
M5
Hence:—
5,520 at sd.
Paid to Author
Advertising, say
Profit of the Society
£ s. d.
. 115 0 o
12 12 O
5 0O
206 II 4
£2,2,9 3 4
And this profit, £206—that is, seventeen times
that of the author !—they call "not a commercial
success "1
If these figures are wrong let us have the right
ones, only let us refuse to have dust thrown into our
eyes by taking savings for profit.
2. "No promise of future payments was made
to the author."
My client says there was. On whose authority
does this Committee of Inquiry rest their asser-
tion? My client insists that there was. By what
right, or after what investigation, does the Com-
mittee dare to deny the truth of this positive
assertion? Is it on the word of one man? Why
is he to be believed more than the author? Now
there is one simple way of testing this fact. Have
the Committee tried this way?
3. "The total profit"—we have seen the real
profit above—"is ^57 8*. iod., a very small per-
centage on (he money sunk in it for 13 years."
The italics are my own. This sentence actually
belongs to the Memorandum.
Can it be possible that intelligent men should
have been deluded into a statement so ridiculous?
Consider. The book began with 3,000 copies,
say, and subsequently another 3,000 have been
printed.
Thirteen years ago the sum of £70, or so, was
expended in producing the book and paying the
author that noble—that princely—honorarium of
twelve guineas.
The sale of 1,200 copies, which was certainly
reached within a year, paid back this £70.
Observe, therefore, that £70 was sunk in the book
for the period of one year only. The interest, at
3^ per cent., on that sum for that period was
Jj2 gs. exactly. That would take a few more
copies. Then the ^70 was back again in the
Committee's hands to be invested in some other
book. It has been used over and over again in
the thirteen years. It has been sunk over and over
again, invested, recovered, and re-invested in twenty
books.
Yet the Committee of Inquiry actually advance
the claim that this £70, paid off—returned to the
investors—twelve years ago, should be still paying
interest!
In other words. A lends B ,£70. At the end
VOL. I.
of a year B repays the amount with interest.
According to these gentlemen, B ought to be pay-
ing interest to this day.
4. The second case, one of a great number, is
met by the statement that the lady has received in
all ^716.
5. The third case is met in the same way. The
author has received in all £660.
What has that to do with the question? The
sweated needlewoman's pay of n^d. a-day, spread
over twenty years, mounts up to the prodigious
sum of ^300, and yet she is discontented.
Let us make a little estimate, taking a book by the
third writer, who is a capital writer for boys—and
very popular. I take a 35. book by him. It is a
very rough estimate, but the figures, I know by
experience, are not far wrong.
Sale of 5,000—
£ s. d.
4,000 at if. gd. ... ... 350 o o
1,000 at 2s. 3d. ... ... 112 10 o
^462 10 o
Cost of an edition of 5,000—
At 8d. a copy, say
Author, say...
Advertising, say
Profit to S.P.C.K
£ s.
170 o
45 0
*5 °
232 10
d.
o
o
o
o
^462 10 o
If these figures are wrong let us have the right
figures.
The Committee of Inquiry affect to believe that
I have three cases, and three cases only, of injustice
and cruelty to allege against the S.P.C.K.
In the first place, before I wrote a line, I had
satisfied myself that the practice of buying their
books at a miserable sweater's price, without the
least regard to the profits which would accrue, is
only departed from when the Committee find that
they must—that they cannot get a book without
some show of fair treatment.
The lady, whose case I brought forward, is
typical of I know not how many others. Grasping
in all their dealings, the Publishing Committee
make even success an excuse for lowering
their terms. I will show how. A lady wrote a
book and submitted the MS. They accepted
it, offered her ^30, and published it. Probably
they sold five or six thousand copies and cleared
seven hundred. It was so successful that they in-
vited her to do some work for them.
She completed a second work. She took the
MS. to the office and left it with the Editor, or his
## p. 146 (#182) ############################################
146
THE AUTHOR.
representative, explaining clearly that if they wanted
it they must make an offer. What did they do?
They seized the MS. Having appropriated this
lady's property, without her consent, they set up
the copy in type, and they sent her the proof with
£,■20. Her success had actually lowered her price!
And they seized on her property without her con-
sent. Perhaps they measured her manuscript with
a tape and found it a few pages shorter than the
last. One would like to know, in both cases, viz.,
the first and the second book, what the Society
made by the transaction. Meantime, it is quite
certain that no private publisher would dare so to
treat the property of other people.
There is another lady who has done a good deal
for the Society. Her work is very fine, delicate,
dainty, and of high tone. She is deservedly
popular. What have her prices been? I have
a list before me. She averages ^25 to £do.
Let us consider. I take one of her books, pub-
lished at 2S. 6d. Let us suppose an edition of
5,000, all sold.
Sold— £ s. d.
4,000, at is. 6d.... ... ... 300 o o
1,000, at is. gd.... ... ... 87 10 o
£387 1° o
£ s. d.
Cost of production, say 8d. a copy ... 166 13 4
Author, say ... ... ... ... 40 o o
Profit of the Society 180 16 8
£387 10 0
Now, from an honourable house, that lady would
have received at least a royalty of one-sixth, or 5*/.
on every copy. She would have made over a
hundred pounds, and the publisher would have
made rather more.
Are these enormous profits denied? Then here
is a case which cannot be denied. It is a very
pretty story, and, I daresay, has been placed in the
hands of the President and the Vice-President by
this time.
A. B. wrote for the Society four books. For the
first book he received a royalty, which gave the Society
only double what he himself obtained; for the
second he received a royalty which gave the Society
three times what they gave him. Let me explain
that these amounts were, on their own showing,
after deducting establishment charges—the true
publishers' profit was very much greater.
Then there came the next two books.
The author was persuaded to leave the royalty to
the Society, on the ground that a fixed sum ham-
pered them.
Presently he became very much dissatisfied with
the result.
As he could get no satisfaction from them, he
very properly brought an action, at the same time
offering to submit the thing to arbitration.
They doubtless believed that he would not dare
to go into court against so powerful a corporation.
But he did dare. The case was set down for
hearing before Lord Coleridge.
At the last moment they backed out. They
consented to an arbitration.
The arbitrator ordered the production of the
accounts. You shall now understand how far greed
can be carried by a body of Christian gentlemen.
The first of the two books showed, after the
precaution of knocking off establishment expenses,
a profit of ^633 to the Society, and £62 to the
author, a proportion of 10 : 1.
The other book showed the same proportion, a
profit of £1,246 to the Society, against .£130 to
the author.*
The arbitrator awarded a lump sum to be paid
by the Society, together with all the costs of the
action.
This is a very pretty case. It shows that the
Publication Committee simply grasp at the highest
profit they can screw out of the poor unfortunate
author. If this case is denied or questioned the
author is willing to publish his name.
Again, one of the ladies who has been writing
largely for the S.P.C.K. has recently taken her work
to another religious society. She receives from
them the same amount which the S.P.C.K. gave,
but, coupled with a royalty from the beginning.
Will the Church of England be too proud to
learn from the Dissenters? A writer for a Noncon-
formist Society recently addressed the Secretary on
the subject of the pay awarded her for the copy-
right of a certain book. Remember that she had
no claim; she had sold her rights. The Society,
however, reconsidered her case; they said that her
work had proved a far greater success than when
they bought it; they sent her a large cheque, and,
in addition, placed the book upon a royalty system.
Again, in illustration of the unscrupulous manner
in which they appropriate other people's property,
here is a case :—
A.B. offered to prepare a book of a special charac-
ter for S.P.C.K. In reply, the Secretary wrote that
he did not think that it would be a commercial suc-
cess, but he would consider anything submitted. As
this alone would not justify the preparation of such a
* Taking the figures of the balance sheet, the establishment
expenses amount to 27 per cent, of the whole profit. There-
fore the whole profit on this last book would be about £2,000
against £130 to the author. Are these figures wrong? Then
let them be set right.
## p. 147 (#183) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
147
work, A. B. sent two articles which he had written,
merely as specimens of the manner in which he
would treat the subject. This he was careful to
explain. He received a printed acknowledgment,
which was all that he did receive for three months.
Then to his amazement his MSS. were sent to him
with proofs, but not a word of explanation, beyond
a note on the MSS. probably for the printer, "Set up
for Dawn of Day." Dawn of Day is a halfpenny
monthly of S.P.C.K., against which A. B. has not
a word to say, but that he had not the most remote
intention that his articles should appear in it. As
the matter had gone so far, he did not like to seem
ungracious and withdraw. The articles came out
in driblets, with the connection of the subject
broken, and without illustrations. When the first
instalment appearedheventured to askforacheque—
he had parted with his MSS. for more than six
months—adding a gentle hint which he thought that
S.P.C.A'. would esteem, viz., that anything that he
could earn with his- pen was devoted to a religious
purpose. He had to wait, however, four months
more, and then received the magnificent sum of
three guineas for the two articles, and not a word
of apology for their misappropriation.
For the shilling books which the Society issues it
appears that they pay £10 or jQ\2 down, and the
authors have no means whatever of ascertaining
their own success. There are no dates and no
numbered editions. Some of them are selling
for many years. Now to one who knows the large
sums made by shilling books, this dealing seems to
require the strongest and the plainest language.
A shilling book is generally produced at 2d. or
2\d.
Consider the figures—
Sale of 10,000 at 6|</. ... j£21° 'fa- &d.
£ s. d.
10,000 at 2\d., cost 104 3 4
Author ... ... 10 o o
Advertising ... 15 o o
Society's profit ... 141 13 4
^270 16 8
The Committee of Inquiry state that the prices
f aid compare with those paid by other publishers.
Well, I have myself written two or three shilling
books which have had a good sale. Now, had they
sold only io,oco copies each I should have received
royalties for each over ^, 80, and my publisher would
have made nearly as much. There are, perhaps,
sweating publishers who give even less than the
S.P.C.K. I know of one firm where the rule is to
give^5 for a shilling book,,£8 for an eigliteenpenny
book, and so on. But even this is equalled by the
vol.. 1.
S.P.C.K. when they gave £\2 \2S. for a two shil-
ling book of which they sold nearly 6,000 copies.
Enough of cases. We have seen enough also of
the Committee of Inquiry.
In illustration of the concluding paragraph, I
add one or two extracts from letters from authors
who have written for this noble Society. One lady
writes to say that she prays the Lord to awaken
their conscience—words used not flippantly, but
in deep, sad seriousness. Another—nay, a dozen
others—sends her case and implores me not to let
the Society know that she has done so. Clergymen
have written to me begging me to persevere in
throwing light—and yet more light—into this dark
place! Author after author has written, all to tell
the same tale of wretched pay and immense sales.
Nay, in some cases, the greater the success the less
is the pay. Witness the case already quoted.
In token of the esteem in which the Society is
held by its writers, let me add a few words taken
from a letter written by one of the most charming
authors of the age. She says, advising a young
writer about the S.P.C.K. :—
"The Society, as a rule, makes books from
copyrights bought outright. It pays them best
"If the work is not very good, their clientele is so
large that, with a smart binding, they can command
sufficient sale to save them from loss. If they are
fortunate enough to have caught a young genius,
their profits are very large. The profit of their
book trade is enormous "—we have seen what it is.
"Their publications have not, however, stood high
as literature, which has led them to make great
efforts to secure writers of reputation, and as these will
not part with copyright, they, have to pay a royalty.
Your friend's fate depends entirely on what she
can command. They are notoriously close-fisted,
and will not give her one farthing more than they can
help"—no question of justice and honesty, then?
"And if they cannot afford to part with her, they
will give her anything she wants. If she thinks
her book likely to continue to sell for years, 1
advise her to try for the royalty system, but if not,
they have so many dodges for squeezing you at all
corners, and it is so difficult to get behind the
scenes, that I should think it better to struggle for
a good sum down."
This is very pleasant reading. This is an ap-
preciation of the S.P.C.K.—to the "Literary
Handmaid of the Church "—by a woman of the
very highest character. I will not, in this place,
give her name.
Well, is there more to be said?
I pointed out in my pamphlet—and I repeat
here—that the sweater is one who, knov\ing before-
hand that he will make a great profit, pays only
what he must. The S.P.C.K., which nteci never
l 2
## p. 148 (#184) ############################################
148
THE AUTHOR.
lose by a book—and knows beforehand, within
a few copies, the minimum of its sales—is proved
by the cases I have alleged and by the admissions
of the so-called Committee of Inquiry, to do
exactly for authors what the other sweater does
for needlewomen.
I pointed out in the pamphlet certain plain
broad principles of honest publishing. They are
not my invention. They are acted upon by every
honourable house; they are reduced to a system
in France. The Committee refuse so much as to
consider them. They say that "part of the pam-
phlet" is part of a controversy in which I have
long been engaged. It is not part of a contro-
versy. These principles have never formed part
of any controversy, because no honourable pub-
lisher has ever disputed them.
I pointed out that the S.P.C.K. frequently
followed the plan adopted by all sweating pub-
lishers, of carefully concealing the date of the book
and the number of the edition, so that the author
shall not learn his own popularity. No notice is
taken of this point.
I pointed out very carefully that the eighth Com-
mandment must be read with reference to literary
property. It must, by all honest men. The
Committee of Inquiry pass over this point. Why?
Can that also be part of a controversy with English
clergymen and gentlemen of honour?
I pointed out that their list of authors does not
include half-a-dozen authors of repute. I asked
why the best authors never go near the S.P.C.K.
The Committee of Inquiry give no answer. There
is no answer to give, except the answer that I sub-
mit, viz., that none who can escape the sweater's
yoke submit to it of their own accord.
Had the Committee of Inquiry inquired at all,
they wouldhave foundoutthesecases for themselves.
But they have not. To inquire means taking
trouble; it also looks suspicious; and it needs a
clear head because of the dust that would be
thrown in their eyes. Such an inquiry would
reveal very startling things to those who understand
what is meant by honourable publishing.
So to all the real questions at issue, no answer.
What is an equitable division of profit between
author and publisher? No answer.
On what principles are their authors paid? No
answer.
How much his the Society made—profit, not
savings—out of the lady whose case was advanced?
No answer.
Why do the foremost living authors refuse to
enter their walls? No answer.
Why do the clergy themselves—those who are
leaders in literature—never go to the S.P.C.K.?
No answer.
Why do not the Bishops themselves—let me add
—go to the Society of which they are Vice-Presi-
dents? To this question also there will be no
answer.
Now, if the Publication Committee dare to brave
a real inquiry, which (hey will not do unless it is
forced upon t/iem, I will tell the inquirers how to
set to work.
They must send in outside accountants—pro-
fessional accountants—who must be instructed to
proceed after a uniform method. This will be
quite simple.
They must construct a table as follows, and
fill it in.
first
itions
bpies
T3
6
1
aid to
the
er.
ook.
s
1
v
e
m
0
"o .
O
N
&
J
unt p
thor.
ox
V
0 a
Title
Date
9
dl
JM
s
|J
0
! Profi
Pu
iss
d Q.
>
6<
<
*
<
The profit will be the difference between the cost
of production (including the author) and the sales.
That is publisher's profit.
When this table is constructed, and not till then
will the true nature of the transactions of the
S.P.C.K. stand out revealed to the world. We
shall then understand to its full extent what can be
accomplished behind the shield of religion and
under the secrecy of books undated, editions un-
numbered, and accounts concealed.
W. B.
*
AMERICAN LITERATURE IN
AMERICA.
IF we were to take any four consecutive numbers
of the Athenceum or Academy, and classify the
books reviewed, noticed, or announced in
those numbers, we should arrive at a pretty
accurate idea of the books published during these
four or five weeks. In the same way, if we take
four consecutive numbers of the Critic of New
York, we shall arrive at the books published in the
States during the same period. There are now
before us the numbers of that paper from August
16th to September 13th, but that for September
6th has somehow been mislaid. Let us see what
books are reviewed in these four numbers. The
## p. 149 (#185) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
149
titles are written in the order of the reviews and
notices as they come, and without any attempt at
classification.
Kipling's Plain Tales of the Hills. Macmillan.
M. Conway Hawthorne. Great Writer Series. Walter
Scott. Lovell and Co.
Canadian and Australian Verse. Lovell and Co.
Cassell.
FitzGerald's Omar Khayyam. Macmillan.
Mrs. McGahan's Xenia Repnina. Routledge.
George Ohnet's Pytre's Soul. Cassell.
The Blind Men and the Devil. Lee and Shepard.
50 cents.
Smitten and Slain. Nelson and Co.
Blind Musician. Stepniak and Westall. Lovell and
Co.
Aline. Greville. Appleton. 50 cents.
A Smuggler's Secret. Frank Barrett. Lovell and Co.
Ida. Mabel Collins. Lovell and Co.
Boston Unitarianism. Nottingham. G. P. Putnam
and Sons.
Defoe's Complcat Gentleman, David Nutt.
Northern Studies. Edmund Gosse. Walter Scott.
Lovell and Co.
Hanley's Views and Reviews. Scribner.
fava, the Pearl of the East. Houghton, Mifflin and
Co.
Drury's Journal in Madagascar. Macmillan.
Sister Saint Sulpia. Valdes. Lovell and Co.
Guy de Maupassant. New Stories. Minerva Pub-
lishing Co.
Guy de Maupassant. Pierre et Jean. Routledge.
Stanley. In Darkest Africa. Sampson Low. Scribner.
Underwood's Corean Dictionary. Randolph and Co.
Molee's Pure Saxon English. Rand, McNalty and Co.
Hearne's Youma. Harper and Bros.
Italian Characters. Martenengo Cesaresco. Scribner
and Welford.
Hall's Society in the Elizabethan Age. Macmillan.
Harland's Two Women or One. Cassell.
Bjomson's In God's Way. Gosse. Lovell and Co.
An Artist's Heaven. Octave Feuillet. Cassell.
Written in Red. Cassell.
Were they Sinners? Authors' Publishing Co.
Vivien. Cassell.
Annie Edwardes' Pearl Poivder. Lippincott.
Mad. de Mauriscamp. O. Feuillet. Lippincott.
7ss Americains chez Eux. Paris Librairie de la Nouvelle
Reveu.
Fascimiles of MSS. relating to America. London.
Stevens.
Poetry. Three English and Three American Poets,
Foster's Studies in Theology. Hunt and Eaton.
Kipling's Phantom Rickshaw. Lovell.
Payn's Burnt Million. Harper and Bros.
Throctmcnton. Seawell. Appleton.
Stead's Passion Play. Merrill and Co.
Three novels from the French.
Here are forty-five books reviewed and noticed;
of these nine are French or translated from the
French, nine are American, the rest are all English.
Now it may be that at this time of year there are
fewer books of native production than earlier or
later. But what should we think were we to find
in an English review twenty-six books written by
Americans to nine written by Britons—a proportion
of one hundred to thirty-six, or nearly three to one?
This, then, is one result of the present system, and
a result which everybody can understand. The
American author is ousted and starved to make
room for the Englishman, who, poor wretch, is
starved although he is received.
*
AN OLD MAN'S REJOINDER.
IN the domain of literature loftily considered
(an accomplished and veteran critic in his
just out work* now says), "the kingdom of
the Father has passed; the kingdom of the Son is
passing; the kingdom of the Spirit begins."
Leaving the reader to chew on and extract the
juice and meaning ot this, I will proceed to say in
melanged form what I have had brought out by the
English author's essay (he discusses the poetic
art mostly) on my own, real, or by him supposed,
views and purports. If I give any answers to him,
or explanations of what my books intend, they will
be not direct but indirect and derivative. Of course
this brief jotting is personal. Something very like
querulous egotism and growling may break through
the narrative (for I have been and am rejected by
all the great magazines, carry now my 72nd
annual burden, and have been a paralytic for 18
years).
No great poem or other literary or artistic work
of any scope, old or new, can be essentially con-
sidered without weighing first the age, politics (or
want of politics) and aim, visible forms, unseen
soul, and current times, out of the midst of which
it rises and is formulated: as the Bible canticles
and their days and spirit—as the Homeric, or
Dante's utterance, or Shakespeare's, or the old
Scotch or Irish ballads, or Ossian, or Omar
Khayyam. So I have conceived and launched,
and worked for years at, my "Leaves of Grass"
—personal emanations only at best, but with
specialty of emergence and background — the
ripening of the nineteenth century, the thought and
fact and radiation individuality, of America, the
Secession war, and showing the democratic condi-
tions supplanting everything that insults them or
impedes their aggregate way. Doubtless my poems
illustrate (one of novel thousands to come for a
* Two new volumes, "Essays Speculative and Suggestive,"
by John Addington Symonds. One of the Essays is on
"Democratic Art," in which I and my books are largely
alluded to and cited ai d dissected. It is this part ot the
vols, that has caused the off-hand lines above—(first thank-
ing Mr. S. for his invariable courtesy of personal treatment).
The Essays are remarkably tine specimens of type, paper,
and press work—Chapman & Hall their English publishers
—and jobbed here by Scribners, New York.
## p. 150 (#186) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
long period) those conditions; but "democratic
art " will have to wait long before it is satisfactorily
formulated and defined—if it ever is.
I will now for one indicative moment lock horns
with what many think the greatest thing, the ques-
tion of art, so-called. I have not seen without
learning something therefrom, how, with hardly an
exception, the poets of this age devote themselves,
always mainly, sometimes altogether, to fine rhyme,
spicy verbalism, the fabric and cut of the garment,
jewelry, concetti, style, art. To-day these adjuncts
are certainly the effort, beyond all else. Yet the
lesson of Nature undoubtedly is, to proceed with
single purpose toward the result necessitated and
for which the time has arrived, utterly regardless
of the outputs of shape, appearance or criticism,
which are always left to settle themselves. T have
not only not bothered much about style, form, art,
etc., but confess to more or less apathy (I believe
I have sometimes caught myself in decided aver-
sion) toward them throughout, asking nothing of
them but negative advantages—that they should
never impede me, and never under any circum-
stances, or for their own purposes only, assume any
mastery over me.
From the beginning I have watched the sharp
and sometimes heavy and deep-penetrating objec-
tions and reviews against my work, and I hope
entertained and audited them (for I have probably
had an advantage in constructing from a central
and unitary principle since the first, but at long
intervals and stages—sometimes lapses of five or
six years, or peace or war). Ruskin, the English-
man, charges as a fearful and serious lack that my
poems have no humour. A profound German
critic complains that, compared with the luxuriant
and well-accepted songs of the world, there is about
my verse a certain coldness, severity, absence of
spice, polish, or of consecutive meaning and plot.
(The book is autobiographic at bottom, and maybe
I do not exhibit and make ado about stock pas-
sions: I am partly of Quaker stock.) Then E. C.
Steadman finds (or found) marked fault with me
because while celebrating the common people en
masse, I do not allow enough heroism and moral
merit and good intentions to the choicer classes,
the college-bred, the etat-major. It is quite
probable that S. is right in the matter. In the
main I myself look, and'have from the first looked,
to the bulky democratic torso of the United States
even for esthetic and moral attributes of serious
account—and refused to aim at or accept anything
less. If America is only for the rule and fashion
and small typicality of other lands (the rule of the
etat-major), it is not the land I take it for, and
should to-day feel that my literary aim and theory
had been blanks and misdirections. Strictly
judged, most modern poems are but larger or
smaller lumps of sugar, or slices of toothsome
sweetcake—even the banqueters dwelling on those
glucose flavours as a main part of the dish. Which
perhaps leads to something: to have great heroic
poetry we need great readers—a heroic appetite and
audience. Have we at present any such?
Then the thought at the centre, never too often
repeated. Boundless material wealth, free politi-
cal organization, immense geographic area, and
unprecedented "business" and products—even
the most active intellect and "culture "—-will not
place this Commonwealth of ours on the topmost
range of history and humanity—or any eminence
of " democratic art "—to say nothing of its pinnacle.
Only the production (and on the most copious
scale) of loftiest moral, spiritual and heroic
personal illustrations—a great native Literature
headed with a Poetry stronger and sweeter than
any yet. If there can be any such thing as a
kosmic modern and original song, America needs
it and is worthy of it.
In my opinion to-day what is meant through
civilized nations everywhere by the great words
Literature, Art, Religion, &c, with their conven-
tional administerers, stand squarely in the way of
what the vitalities of those great words signify,
more than they really prepare the soil for them, or
plant the seeds, or cultivate or garner the crop.
My own opinion has long been, that for New
World service our ideas of beauty (inherited from
the Greeks, and so on to Shakespeare—query—■
perverted from them?) need to be radically
changed, and made anew for to-day's purposes and
finer standards. But if so, it will all come in due
time—the real change will be an autochthonic,
interior, constitutional, even local one, from which
our notions of beauty (lines and colours are won-
drous lovely, but character is lovelier) will branch
or offshoot.
So much have I now rattled off (old age's
garrulity), that there is not space for explaining the
most important and pregnant principle of all, viz.:
that Art is one, is not partial, but includes all
times and forms and sorts—is not exclusively
aristocratic or democratic, or oriental or occi-
dental. My favourite symbol would be a good
font of type, where the impeccable long-primer
rejects nothing. Or the old Dutch flour-miller who
said, "I never bother myself what road the folks
come—I only want good wheat and rye."
The font is about the same forever. Democratic
art results of the democratic development from
tinge, true nationality, belief, in the one setting up
from it.
Walt Whitman.
{In the New York Critic.)
## p. 151 (#187) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
LEAFLET No. IV.
The Quarrels of Authors.
IT has been the melancholy privilege of authors,
for two hundred years at least, that everything
which fortune brings to them, whether good
or bad, shall sooner or later become known to
all the world This exclusive privilege will, there
is reason to believe, shortly be withdrawn from
them, partly because they have become too
numerous for its general exercise, and partly
because other people are beginning to think that
their own lives are quite as interesting as those
of authors. Hitherto people who are not authors
have been contented to sit down and endure in
silence. Think of what we know concerning
judges compared with what we know concerning
poets. Compare the personal interest attached
to the names of Erskine, Mansfield, VVedderburn,
with that which belongs to Pope, Dryden, Gold-
smith. Who wants to know how a Q.C. lives,
what letters he writes, what friendships and
enimities he makes? Who, again, cares for a
life of the ordinary physician? Yet quite small
authors find their biographers, and even when one
cannot reach the level which demands a special
biography, there are countless volumes of re-
miniscences, autobiographies, and memoirs which
serve to rescue the small fry from oblivion, and
set them once more talking and acting, writing,
feasting, and drinking for the admiration of pos-
terity.
The world, I believe, first began to like memoirs
of authors because they were the only articulate
creatures, and they naturally liked to talk about
themselves. Therefore the only memoirs were
those written by literary men. Then they have
always been such unlucky creatures—born with a
most splendid birthright, a noble inheritance, which
has always been snatched away from them. Their
very misfortunes have lent interest to their lives.
For another reason, their lives used to contain quan-
tities of letters, and there is no reading in the
world more delightful than the reading of letters.
Consider the tons of books written about authors,
the masses of recollections and memoirs of persons
connected with literature. The world reads all; it
makes little distinction; it receives the auto-
biography of Leigh Hunt with as much joy as
if it had been that of Shelley, and it devours
the Recollections of a Jerdan with as much avidity
as the Confessions of Rousseau.
The literary calling, chiefly owing to this readi-
ness of authors to talk and of the world to listen,
has been so fully illustrated that there seems
nothing new to be said about it. Within the
memory of man, however, a great change has
come over the profession. The Bohemian has
well-nigh disappeared; the author has become re-
spectable. He no longer thinks it due to the
profession that he should behave, even while he
is in the twenties, after the manner depicted by
Henri Miirger, or, when he is past the twenties,
like certain gentlemen of the pen in Thackeray
He is even, gradually and slowly, becoming a
man of business; He actually demands the audit
of his accounts, and he has begun to refuse
signing agreements unless he knows what they
mean. There are also signs that he is beginning
to give up his old bad habit of quarrelling with
his brother author. The last is a great step in
advance. When an author is no longer ready to
fall upon a rival writer; to overwhelm him with
contempt: to sting him with epigram, and be-
labour him with abuse, there will be the greater
hope of his rising to the level of acting with his
brother as one member of a profession acts with
another—for mutual protection and advantage.
Hitherto, it may fairly be said that in no other
profession has there ever been witnessed or allowed
such unbridled license, such unrestrained insolence
of speech, as has been claimed and practised by
literary men towards each other. No one can
even think of a barrister speaking of another
barrister in such terms as are still sometimes
used by one author speaking of another. Can we
understand the Law Times opening its columns to
a young barrister who desires to call his seniors
quacks in law and humbugs in oratory? Does
one physician charge another in the Lancet with
ignorance? Does one architect, in the organs of
that calling, accuse another of theft? No. He is
## p. 152 (#188) ############################################
152
THE AUTHOR.
restrained, first by the unwritten law of the pro-
fession, which enjoins the outward signs of respect;
and next by the simple laws of good breeding,
which do not allow men always to tell each other
what they think. Why, some of the very best
things recorded of the "wits" are things which
in any other class would not be tolerated for a
moment. There is, one acknowledges with grati-
tude, a marked improvement of late years; yet
even now, every editor is quite ready to admit from
one literary man an attack upon another. It is not
many months ago that there appeared, in a monthly
magazine of high standing, an attack upon a living
author by another, so scurrilous, so virulent, so full
of rage and malice, that it ought to have been
brought into a High Court of Justice. But I
suppose it never occurred, either to the editor who
admitted this article, or to the man who wrote it,
that in no other profession would such an article
by one follower of the craft concerning another
have been admitted, and that a barrister would be
disbarred if he dared to write such a paper on
the professional character of another barrister.
In the old days literary men rejoiced and gloried
in giving pain; they killed each other if they could,
with abuse and contempt. They loved to dance
and jump upon another man simply because he
belonged to their own trade. The first reception
of Keats, Byron, and Tennyson is well known.
The savage ferocity of Macaulay remains gibbeted
in that volume of essays which every schoolboy
still gets for a prize. Nay, the old spirit is not yet
dead; it is only growing gradually disreputable.
Within the last twenty years we have seen actions
brought for libel by Charles Reade, George Augustus
Sala, Hepworth Dixon, Gilbert, Robert Buchanan,
Keith Johnston, William Black, and Whistler—
there have probably been others. Mostly, the
libels which formed the cause of action were written
by literary men, and in some cases by well-known
literary men. Why? It is difficult to understand
the pleasure or the profit of inventing deliberately,
and then publishing, a malignant falsehood, con-
cerning a man who is not an enemy. Is it envy,
or is it sheer stupidity, or is it recklessness? Does
the writer desire to pose as a champion of virtue?
Possibly this desire has been generally the ruling
motive. Vanity is also probably a factor. It is
always grand to attack somebody ever so much
bigger than yourself. Thus, this Society is accus-
tomed to misrepresentation whenever the knavish
publisher or the sweater can find an agent. But it
was an author who wrote an article in the Contem-
porary, indignantly charging the Society with ad-
vocating the breaking of agreements—actually, the
breaking of agreements! What did he do it for?
Probably because it made him feel grand.
Are we to have no criticism, then? There is
plenty of room for real criticism: it exists already,
though, to be sure, not in large quantities. The
true critic—he also exists, but in small quantities—
does not call names; he does not suggest motives;
he does not recklessly accuse of plagiarism; he
does not account for success by any but the real
reasons—especially that the author deserves success;
he neither down-cries, nor depreciates, nor mis-
represents. These arts he leaves for the baser sort.
One does not find the larger men playing the
part of defendants in libel suits brought by authors.
Can we imagine a case of Dickens v. Thackeray?
This is how it might be reported.
"The defendant, a well known man of letters, has
recently written an anonymous critique, the author-
ship of which is not denied, on a certain work
by the plaintiff called Martin Chuzzlewit. In
this review he spoke of the writer as a creature
of low humour—rather of no humour at all;
he said that the characters are dragged out of the
gutter; that their language, their action, and their
manners are entirely in accordance with their
station in life, to which the author himself probably
belongs; that some of the scenes, especially
those in which a monthly nurse figures, are of a
revolting indecency; that the book is throughout
destitute of principle or honour; that the hero
is nothing but a penniless adventurer: that the
author laughs with wickedness and at morality; that
he goes so far as to deride, in the person of a
respectable undertaker, the solemnity and the awful-
ness of Death. . . . Counsel for the plaintiff, after
reading tiie reviewand dwelling on certain extractson
which his client based his case, pointed out that the
defendant was a rival of the plaintiff and jealous of
his superior fame. For the defence it was argued
## p. 153 (#189) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
>53
that authors are notoriously a highly sensitive set of
people; that they naturally hate and suspect each
other; and that the review was in every particular
justified in the interests of religion, morals, and
literature. The Judge summed up. . . . The
Jury, without leaving the box, accorded damages
of ,£10,000. The defendant, a tall man with a
broken nose, appeared astonished at the verdict,
and left the court promising to make mincemeat of
his rival in spite of all the Courts in Christendom."
The case reads prettily—but one feels that
Thackeray could not have been the defendant. It
is not every author, however, who tries to conduct
himself according to the laws of good breeding. Nor
is it every barrister—yet the barrister must, or else
the Benchers will speak seriously to him. Cannot
authors create a Bar of Opinion equally potent,
though it has no power to expel from a profession
which any may enter at any time or leave at any
time without asking permission? Can we not beg
them, while they are in it, to respect themselves
in respecting their fellow-workers?
*
EXAMINATION IN VANITY FAIR.
1. What do you know of Mary Box, of Mr.
Chopper (state his Christian name), of the Rev.
Silas Hornblower? Have you any later informa-
tion about this gentleman and his wife?
2. Where did Mr. James Crawley reside on the
first night of his arrival at Brighton? What favourite
accompanied him thither?
3. Who laid the odds, and what odds, against
Kangaroo? What charge of unsportsmanlike con-
duct was brought against Captain Rawdon Crawley?
4. State the second title in Lord Southdown's
family.
5. Give the circumstances of Mrs. MajorO'Dowd's
education. What was her favourite consolatory
reading?
6. Discuss the relations of Sir Pitt Crawley and
his tenantry, and state the results of Dr. Squills'
conversation with Mr. Clump.
7. What did Miss Sharp call her maternal stock
before they were Montmorencys?
Andrew Lang {The Sign of the Ship).
Overheard outside the Senate House. "Scan-
dalous! Disgraceful! Couldn't answer a single
question. We shall all be plucked. Like to set
the examiner to answer his own paper."
A MODEL AGREEMENT.
WE have received from a member of the
Society one of the most delightful agree-
ments ever submitted to an author. We
hasten to submit it to our readers with a few words
of explanation. Here it is in brief:—
Book. A demy 8vo. volume of 300 pages. Price,
1 of. 6d. Edition of 500 copies.
Author to give. (1) Whole copyright; i.e., to
part absolutely with his property. (2) Also to con-
tribute £60 towards publishing. Certainly more
than enough to cover the whole necessary cost of
production.
Publisher to give. Royalty of 2/. 6d. a copy up
to 250, and 3-f. a copy afterwards.
What under the most favourable terms can the
author get?
Here is his account, supposing that all the copies
are sold :— jQ s d.
250 copies at 2s. 6d. ... 3150
194 » >, 3* 29 2 o
Press, 5° "I _
Author, 6 J
£60 7 o
So that for all his labour the author may, on the
most favourable circumstances, get a profit of 7*.!
What does the publisher get also under the most
favourable circumstances?
Here is the account:—
£ s- d.
Paid by author ... ... 60 o o
444 copies at 6s. a copy ... 133 4 o
£i93 4 o
Whole cost of production, £ s. d.
including advertising, say 60 o o
Royalties to author... ... 60 7 o
Profit to publisher ... ... 7217 o
£i93 4 o
So that if the book sells 500 copies, the publisher
will make a profit of j£j2s. to 7*., or a proportion
of more than 200 : 1!!!!
But, it will be urged, he is taking a great risk;
he does not know how many he will sell. Why, it
is all profit to him, whether he sells few or many.
Let us suppose that he only sells 250. How
does the account stand then? It will be found
that the publisher has made a profit of £41 odd
to the author's loss of £28 15^. Corrections are
here neglected, because there is a clause by which
the author is to be liable for all corrections above a
certain amount.
## p. 154 (#190) ############################################
154
THE AUTHOR.
A HARD CASE.
V.
Through a Literary Agent.
IN this hard case an author agreed to publish
a novel upon the following "advantageous"
terms :—
a. The publisher was to take "all " the risk.
(3. The author was to pay him the trifling sum
of £50 to help him support the same.
7. The author was to pay .£21 as a reader's
honorarium! Happy reader!
8. The clear profits were to be divided into
three equal shares, one of which was to accrue to
the author and the other two to the publisher.
c. The publisher was to take the copyright.
A literary agent, who also had to be paid by
somebody, introduced the author to the publisher.
Then the bill came in. Every item was ex-
cessive. The total cost of production as rendered
was .£181 us. nd., inclusive of the enormous
reader's fee, and an independent estimate shows
that 3,000 copies of the book could have been
produced and advertised for under £100. The
work was stereotyped. About 800 copies seem to
have been sold, and these are set down as having
realized £44 14^. 1 id., or 125a'. a copy. The sum
is arrived at in this way. The book was published
at 2s., but copies are accdunted for at trade price (in
accordance with the agreement), but 15 per cent,
of all receipts has been deducted by the publisher,
to justify which there is not a word in the agree-
ment.
The probability is that at this period matters
stood thus. The publisher had spent dn the pro-
duction of the book; if he produced 3,000 copies,
from £90 to j£loo. If he printed a smaller
edition, it would have cost rriuch less He had
received from the author £50 towards the cost of
production, and from the public ^52 odd by sales.
He certainly was already not out of pocket. The
author was ,£50 to the bad, and his chance of
obtaining his share of the clear profits is made
smaller by the fact that although the sales have
realized £52, the publisher has pocketed 15 per
cent, of this unlawfully. The account, as rendered,
shows a loss on the transaction of £86 17*., and
probably there has been really a gain of £10.
It must be noted that if the whole edition
of 3,000 copies were sold at the ordinary trade
terms of 13 as 12 less 10 per cent, and the pub-
lisher then deducted 15 per cent, from the result,
there would only be about ^142 to place to the
credit of the book. Allowing that the book really
cost ,£100 to produce, there would then only be
£42 to divide between author and publisher. This
profit, according to the astounding terms of the
agreement, would be divided in the proportion
of three to one, the author taking the smaller share.
The most then that the author could possibly gain is
one-third of £42—or £14, if the whole edition sold.
Yet he is asked to pay £50, any or all of which he
may lose.
This seems to us a particularly hard case, because
the author, so far from being careless, seems to have
made a very proper attempt to get good advice.
Feeling himself unable to understand the business
side of the transaction he employed an agent. But
what are we to say of the agent?
Imagine a man, whose business it is to know
what a publishing transaction really means, sanction-
ing for his client such downright enormities.
First, he allows the author to get one-third only
of the profits—that is disgraceful. Secondly, he
makes him risk jQ^o on the chance of winning
£14, which is surely odds that no one expects a
comparatively unknown novelist to lay on
himself. Thirdly, he has so little idea of the proper
way to word an agreement that he allows the pub-
lisher to appropriate percentages to which he has no
shadow of right. Fourthly, he sanctions the swelling
of the cost of production by a monstrous fee of
twenty guineas, as a reader's honorarium. Fifthly,
he is so satisfied with his handiwork that he assigns
the copyright to the publisher, so that in case the
book should be a success the wretched position
of the author throughout the first edition might
be maintained during the whole period of sale.
This is not the first occasion on which it has
been forcibly brought home to us that a literary
agent is not always the author's best friend. Some-
times we think the agent has simply been an ass,
which is bad: but sometimes we think that he has
deliberately handed over the author for slaughter,
which is very bad indeed, seeing that he is occupy-
ing in the author's mind the position of guide and
counsellor. Let authors understand that just as
there are doctors and doctors, lawyers and lawyers,
honest men and knaves, wise men and fools, com-
petent men and incompetent, so there may be
literary agents and literary agents—some competent
and some incompetent, some honest men and some
knaves. In the search for a Literary Agent it may
save some trouble to ask counsel of the Society.
## p. 155 (#191) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
155
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
WHATEVER may be the fate of the
Copyright Bill in Congress, it is plain
that the copyright cause has gained
greatly by the discussion of the last year. The
essential question was never so generally and
so well understood as now, and in its recent dis-
cussion there has been a refreshing persistence.
The old argument—the most ancient, if not the
most honourable veteran in a bad cause—that
there can be no property in an idea, has been
effectually disposed of. He appeared in Congress
with his familiar air of conclusiveness and the what-
do-you-say-to-that aspect with which he has bullied
his way through the debate for many a year. But
he has been neatly tripped and floored by Judge
Shipman, and will be henceforth only a crippled
pensioner upon good nature.
Nobody can say whether there can be property
in an idea; but whether there can be or not, an
idea can be made available only in a way in which
there can be property. The good cause has never
alleged any other kind of property, and that is the
form which the law concedes. Whether the law
concedes it as fairly and fully as it should is a
question, but there is rio question that it concedes
it.
The American law having granted to Americans
that kind of right, the right is not weakened or lost
by mixing it with different things. My diamond
does not cease to be mine and valuable to me
because you throw it among a heap of pebbles that
may be common property. The law says that the
form which I give an idea is my property, and it
does not cease to be so because the law does not
say that something else is property. It may in-
evitably follow that by acknowledging my right,
the law logically concedes that right in general.
But whether this follows or not, the law protects
my property in the form of my idea, and lays its
hand upon you if you do not respect my right.
You cannot take my diamond and make it yours
by placing it between two pebbles which the law
ought to say, but does not say, belongs to Others.
Even if the law gives you a pound of flesh, it gives
you no more and no less. Above all, not a single
drop of blood. Judge Shipman came evidently
from the School of Bellario. My diamond is mine,
says the law; and whoever takes it without my
permission is a-—conveyor, says the law, and the
judgment of the law is ratified in the higher court
of conscience and common sense.
The great present gain of the cause is that it has
been transferred to that higher court whose juris-
diction takes cognizance of moral convictions. A
moral right exists independent of law. Such, also,
is the quality of what is called natural rights.
Alexander Hamilton was the chief of pur practical
statesmen. But it was Hamilton who said that the
rights of human nature are written as with a sun-
beam on human consciousness. Among all lovers
of justice those rights exist, whether with law or
without it, and those lovers do not justify an evi-
dent wrong by the plea that no law forbids it. But
in truth the highest law forbids it. The absence
of good laws from the statute-book is as sig-
nificant as the presence of bad laws. Good sir,
do you justify the King of the Cannibal Islands for
dining upon your lamented grandfather because
there was no law of the islands that forbade it?
G. W. Curtis {Harpers)
*
"SING A SONG FOR SIXPENCE."
THE jackal sat up in a garret bare
And wrote in the midnight cold;
Undaunted though hunger and sickness
were
Sapping his spirit bold.
He penn'd for libeity, knowledge, and right
A song that will live for aye,
To be to the world a beacon of light
Until the perfect day.
The lion reclined in his easy chair,
And drain'd a bumper of wine,
As he read with cautious critical air
Each bright and burning line.
He read and shouted " A triumph I see!
I can easily make it go;
The fellow's starving; he'll sell it to me
For an odd pound or so."
The poem came forth and the people read,
By thousands editions ran,
Till the hearts of all were stirr'd, and they said,
"Tell us who is this man;
Where dwelleth the poet that we may crown
With a world's honour his head,
The people's idol from monarch to clown?"
Leo replied, " He is dead."
W. R. Colles.
## p. 156 (#192) ############################################
156
THE AUTHOR
CORRESPONDENCE.
I
The following is from a well-known American
woman of letters. Her name is not appended
because she has not given permission to use it.
For the same reason the title of her work is sup-
pressed :—
"I have just finished reading a sketch of your
Society of Authors, and I feel such a deep and per-
sonal interest in it that I must write to you at once.
"I have tried in vain to arouse our women to
action in the very line which you have so success-
fully adopted. Three years since, we proposed
an Authors' Club of Women, similar to the one my
life-long friend, Dr. Holmes, has presided over,
but the women did not respond with enthusiasm.
I have worked for years quietly and almost alone,
hoping some day to have leisure to do what you
have done. I have been defrauded and insulted
by publishers, and calmly told that they had made
thousands of dollars out of my work, and it is in
constant demand. Last Christmas a Boston firm
published a book with my name on the ewer with-
out my knowledge or consent. It was sold far and
wide to my own friends, and liberally advertised with
my name. When I called upon them for redress
they denied having injured me, and I had no money
with which to bring a suit.
"Other publishers said it was shameful, 'but the
firm was rich, and would fight me cruelly if I at-
tempted to obtain justice.' You can never under-
stand the burning indignation with which I listened
to the robber who said, 'Oh! yes, I used your
name because it was the strongest to carry the
book, you know.' Had I belonged to a Society,
then, which would stand behind me, he would not
have dared so to insult and to rob me."
No—he certainly would not. In this country
things pretty bad are attempted, and very often
carried out, but to advertise a book as by a certain
well-known author, and to sell it anywhere with
that pretence, would be very soon set right. But
why does not the Authors' Club of New York take
up a thing of this kind? Is there no sense of
justice in the States at all? Will honourable men
sit down and suffer such a thing to be done? This
rascally firm of liars and robbers would fight the
poor lady " cruelly " if she dared to bring an action.
Are there no good men and true who will band
together and fight the firm "cruelly"? We are
accustomed to be robbed in the States; we are
aliens there; we have no rights; but here is an
American lady —she is foully injured by having a
Thing labelled with her name and sold as her work,
and she can get no redress!
II
An Authors' Club.
Sir,—
In your September number the question is asked
whether it would be possible for us or better for us
to meet in any other way than at an annual dinner.
As one of your original members, who has attended
all its functions, may I be permitted to remark that
they are not satisfying—at least to the soul?
Like Oliver Twist, one feels a desperate desire to
get up and "ask for more." And, sir, I doubt
whether a conversazione would satisfy this craving
for professional companionship. These occasions
would, no doubt, be useful, from a disciplinary
point of view, but so far as my experience of
gatherings of the kind extends, one always finds
those one wanted to meet, "unavoidably absent."
A proposal was made in your pages some time ago
of founding an "Authors' Club," and I hope that it
will not be allowed to drop, for it seems to me that
it would meet the want which is admitted to exist.
VVill it be believed, that in days when we hear
so much of "Literary London," there is not a
single institution which encourages social inter-
course between men and women of letters? There
are more or less literary clubs enough and to spare,
but I am not aware that ladies are admitted to
any of these. Considerable financial difficulties are
generally encountered in starting a club on tra-
ditional lines, but if we began modestly with only
a few rooms, it would be better than nothing, and
would give people who only meet at " crushes " and
"functions " an opportunity of seeing one another
informally and of exchanging ideas. If such an
attempt met with a reasonable amount of support
it would be a comparatively simple matter to develop
it to any extent.
A Member.
*
QUERIES.
"I find among certain books which have come
into my possession one entitled 'The Life and
Entertaining Adventures of Mr. Cleveland, Natural
Son of Oliver Cromwell, written by himself.'
My copy is the second edition in three volumes,
printed for T. Astley at the Rose in St. I'aul's
Churchyard, 1741. The first edition, as stajgd
on the title-page, was in five volumes. Can anyone
tell me whether there is any foundation in fact for
this work? Was there a natural son of Oliver
Cromwell?"
"The Author is not a mathematical paper, but
I venture to send it a kind of mathematical
## p. 157 (#193) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
157
question. It was suggested by a remark in the
Saturday Review. How did they carry on the
processes of multiplication, division, addition, and
subtraction with Roman numerals? For instance,
how did they multiply mdcccxc by lvh? And
how did they divide mcxlviii by vm?"
"Can you tell me who wrote [the following
lines, and where the rest of the poem may be
found? My husband has had the lines in his
possession for nearly fifty years. He believes them
to be modern Latin—
"Siderum claros imitata vultus
Quid lates dudum, Rosa? Delicatum
Effer e terris caput, O tepentis
Filia cceli!"
The same lady suggests that in cases where a
lady is a Professor, a Doctor, or any other profes-
sion, the German termination—inn—might save a
good deal of awkwardness. For instance, instead
of saying Mrs. Doctor Garratt Anderson, we should
say Doctorinn Garratt Anderson. Perhaps the
suggestion is worth taking up.
"Was Browning's Poem, 'How they brought the
good news to Ghent,' inspired by Turpin's Ride?
"Browning once told me in conversation that he
frequently received letters asking him on what
incident or event in Flemish History the Ride was
founded, and declared that it was not based on
any."
"A monk made a bargain with the Devil.
The latter was to pay all the former's debts,
in return for which he was to have the monk's
soul. The Devil duly fulfilled his part of the
bargain, paid off every liability to the last far-
thing, and came to claim the other part. 'Not so
fast,' said the monk. 'You were first to pay off
all my debts. You now say that I owe you my
soul. I cannot allow your claim, because, if I am
indebted to you for my soul, I am not yet clear
from debt, and you have no claim.'" Where does
this story occur?
DREAMS AND THE IMAGINATION.
THE following questions have been drawn up
by Mr. James Sully (author of "Pes-
simism," "Outlines of Psychology,"
"Illusions," &c, &c.) and sent by him to writers,
especially those who deal with imaginative and
creative work. The collection of trustworthy infor-
mation on this subject is of the greatest import-
ance, and therefore all our members are invited to
reply to the circular, even though they have not
received one from Mr. Sully direct. His address
is East Heath Road, Hampstead. All the replies
will be received and treated as confidential; they
will, however, be used as materials by him in the
scientific work in which he is engaged.
1. Do you frequently dream?
2. How would you describe your dreams? Are
they distinct and elaborate, or shadowy and
incohate? Do visual imagery and language
(whether heard merely or spoken) play an equally
prominent part in your dreams? Are they in
general characterized by some particular emotional
effect, as terrifying, romantically lovely, humorous,
&c?
3. Are you able to exert any volitional control
over your dreams? More particularly can you
prolong a dream when you wish to do so, and can
you afterwards pick up the thread of a dream and
continue it?
4. Besides dreams proper during sleep (com-
plete or partial) are you in the habit of developing
visions in your waking hours by gazing into the fire,
closing your eyes, or otherwise?
5. Have you for longer or for shorter periods
been subject to illusions of sight or of hearing?
If so, can you point out the circumstances which
appear to favour their appearance?
6. When intently occupied with imaginative
work, are you aware of a muffling of the senses as
during the visionary state? Do the pictures that
come before you at such a time resemble in their
distinctness, vividness, and suddenness of presenta-
tion, dreams and visions?
7. Can you trace in your case any connection
between the process of dreaming and that of
artistic creation? For example—(a) Do you find
that you dream more (or less) when busily occupied
in some imaginative work? (fi) Has the habit of
dreaming increased since you took to fiction?
(c) Did the faculty of weaving stories grow out of
the childish habit of conjuring up faces in the fire
or other form of day-dreaming? (d) Have you
made any use of dreams or visions in inventing
your stories?
## p. 158 (#194) ############################################
153
THE AUTHOR.
"THE AUTHORS' MANUAL."*
THIS book is noticed here in order to em-
phasize the fact that the Society has had
nothing to do with it. Let our readers
make a note of this fact. Let them next make a
note of the fact that, although there is in this
small volume information—various and mostly use-
less—concerning musical criticism, Volupuk (sic),
the comic papers, Appuleins (sic), deipnosophy, and
the works of Mr. John Dawson, there is nothing in
it discoverable that seems likely to be of any real
service to authors. Indeed, it seems that the book
might as well have been called a manual for wire-
drawers, or arch-dukes, so little practical good cap
it be to the real author.
To Mr. Percy Russell, who, it must be added, is
the author of "King Alfred," "After this Life,"
"A Journey to Lake Taupo," "Australian Tales
and Sketches," and of "A Manual of Litera-
ture," published by the defunct London Literary
Society, "it has always seemed that the whole
art of right reviewing lies in this little formula—
find out what the book says and how it says it."
Now his book, like the walrus, talks of many
things. In it the reporter is encouraged to attempt
to master "a reportorial style," which "cannot be
acquired in a few months"; the paragraphist is
exhorted to his own self to be true; and an
example of style and truth is given in a paragraph
from the pen of Mr. Percy Russell, which appeared
in, and was paid for by The North Times, and was
derived from Whittaker's Almanac and an Ency-
clopedia.
The aspirant to leader-writing obtains more
practical aid, for he is presented, presumably from
the author's Commonplace Book, with some pithy
sayings with which to begin his leader. And here
they are, "As Lucian says in one of his famous
dialogues—The beginning is indeed half of the
whole." "Voltaire in one of his most satirical
moods asserts," and "Sydney Smith has a story."
An aspirant thus armed with apt reference to the
classics, to French, and to Sydney Smith ought,
certainly, to go far.
The Editor and the Sub-Editor, who receive
counsel, as well as the journalist and the author,
arc urged to make their copy fit their columns, a
thing which it is obvious was not likely to have
occurred to them, until they saw its convenience
recommended in a Manual. Mr. Percy Russell
calls attention to "the complete parallelism that
* "The Authors' Manual," a complete and practical guide
to all branches of literary work, by Percy Russell. London,
Digby and Long, Publishers, l8, Bouverie Street, Fleet
Street, E.C.
exists between the advice given," in his Manuali
"and the things to be done." This appears to
mean that when he has presented the reader with
a precept, he will follow it with an example. Here
is the example, given by him for the use of editors,
to illustrate the right way to make copy fit. The
original sentence runs thus :—" There are poems
which the world will not willingly let die, and which
will endure long after the dismal caterwaulings of
the 'life-not-worth-living' school are buried in
oblivion." This, we are told, should, if necessary,
and exasperating
V .'
be edited into "long after the dismal ^ caterwaul-
palpably insincere and childish
1 ,'
ings of the X 'life-not-worth-living' school of
contemporary pessimist well-merited
> , 1 1 ^ 1
X are buried in oblivion." When Mr.
Russell says this is not a very good example, no
one is likely to contradict him.
The second part of "The Authors' Manual " is
concerned with book-literature, and tells us of
ballads ("not to be confounded with ballades")
of blank verse, as distinguished from poetry and
the " Iliad," of punctuation, and of making a name
in Literature. This last heading seems to make it
clear that for "The Authors' Manual "we should
read "The Aspirants' Manual," and in a chapter
on "Proof-reading" we find a really sensible piece
of advice to the aspirant. It is " If you want to be
paid, say so." It only remains for Mr. Russell to
inform the aspirant what he is to do when he has
said it, and when he cannot get the money. Of
course authors who are no longer aspirants con-
tinue on the rare occasions where they take money
for their works, to warn these publishers before-
hand. Many people used to say it to the "London
Literary Society" constantly, with the result that
they don't get it, and they keep on saying it with
the same result to those upon whom the mantle of
Mr. Playster Steeds has fallen.
S. S. Sprigge.
AT WORK.
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society,
who are invited to ktvp the Editor acquainted with their
work and engagements.
MISS ESME STUART'S novel, "Kestell of Grey-
stone," 3 vols., which has been running through
All the YearHound, will be published immediately
by Hurst and Blackett.
Professor Max Miiller is preparing a new and completely
revised edition of his "Lectures on the Science of Language.'
This new edition, the fifteenth in England, will have a new
title, " Science of Language, founded on Lectures delivered
## p. 159 (#195) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
159
at the Royal Institution in 1861 and 1863." The stereotype
plates from which the later editions were printed have been
broken up. Large portions have been omitted, new chapters
have been added, and much has been rewritten. The new
work will contain 400 pages more than the last edition of
the Lectures. A German translation of it will be published
by Engelmann, at Leipzig.
The editor of Ruskin's poems is Mr. W. G. Collinwood.
It is expected that the poems, which include a great many
hitherto unpublished, will take three volumes.
"Thoth," Prof. Nicholson's romance, the predecessor of
"Toxar," has been translated into German.
The authorised life of Ibsen, by Henrik Jager, will ap])ear
shortly in an English version. The poetical quotations have
been translated from the Norwegian by Mr. Edmund
Gosse.
Mr. Douglas Sladen, having spent six months in Japan, is
contributing a series of illustrated articles on that country to
the San Francisco Chronicle.
One of our members, who modestly hides himself under
the initials of X. L.—perhaps a certain story called Aiit
Diabolus aul nullus may be renienbered in Blackivood with
these letters appended—has written a one act comedy drama,
which he calls " It was a Dream." It was originally written
in French, and under the name of " La Fin du Bonheur" was
actually accepted by the Comtdie Francaisc. It has been
produced with great success by Mr. Kendal at Birmingham,
and is intended for his strongest piece in his American tour.
Dr. W. H. Besant has in the press a new edition—the fifth—
of "Hydromechanics," Part I, and also solutions of the
examples in his "Elementary Hydrostatics." These books
will be ready about the end of the year.
Mr. Hume Nisbet will publish shortly, " The Black Drop"
(Trischler and Co.), "A Colonial Tramp" (Ward and
Downey), and "Bail up; a Romance of Bushrangers and
Blacks " (Chatto and Windus). The second of these works
is illustrated by the author.
Mr. P. H. Emerson, author of " Pictures of East Anglian
Life," "English Idyls," " Idyls of the Norfolk Broads," &c,
&c, announces "Wild Life on a Tidal Water" (Messrs.
Sampson Low and Co.), with 30 Photo-Etchings by the
author and T. F. Goodall, joint authors of "Life and
Landscape on the Norfolk Broads." The price to Sub
scribers of the Edition de Luxe will be £2 12s. 6d., and
after publication the price will be raised to £i y. The
ordinary edition is limited to 1,000 num!>ered opies for
Great Britain, and 250 for America. The price to sub-
scribers will be ,£ I is., and after publication the price will
be raised to £1 $s.
Mrs. Lovett Cameron's new novel, entitled "Jack's Secret,"
which has been running as a serial in Belgrama, will l>e pub-
lished early in November. The same author announces to
appear soon, one of the short-long stories which form the
principal feature of Lifpincott's Magazine.
A new volume by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., entitled
"Astronomical Lessons, or Chapters on the Elementary
Principles and Facts of Astronomy," is in the Press, and will
shortly be published by Messrs. Roper and Drowley, of II,
Ludgate Hill.
Mrs. E. M. Edmonds will contribute an English edition
of the "Autobiography of Kolokotrenes," with an historical
introduction on the Klephts for Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Adven-
ture Series." A biography of Rhigas, the Protomartyr of
Greece (Longman), has already shown the author's know-
ledge of kindred subjects. [We regret that when this book
was first announced the title should have been misprinted.]
I. H. Leney has just issued "Shadowland in Elian Vannin;
or, Folk Tales of the Isle of Man."
Professor Skeat has completed his shilling edition of
Chaucer's "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" for the
Clarendon Press.
The second volume of Professor Skeat's "Principles of
English Etymology " is far advanced, and will shortly appear.
It deals with the "foreign element" of English, especially
with words of Anglo-French origin, and such as are borrow ed
from various modern languages.
*
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Allen, Grant. This Mortal Coil: A Novel. New Edi-
tion. 2S.
Besant, Walter. The Demoniac. Arrowsmith. is.
Immediately.
Birrell, Augustine, M. P. Obiter Dicta. Third Edition.
1 vol. $s.
Cresswell, Henry. Sliding Sands. 3 vols. 31.1. 6d.
Green, Anna Katharine. A Matter of Millions. 2s.
Haggard, H. Rider. Dawn. 1 vol. y. 6d.
Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean; or, the Castle of the De
Stancys: A Story. New Edition. I vol. 2s. 6d.
Hoey, Mrs. Cashel. Falsely True: A Novel. 1 vol.
fir.
Hume, Fergus. The Gentleman who Vanished, is. and
is. 6d.
Karsland, Veva and Collis. The Witness-box ; or, The
Murder of Mr. A. B. C. I vol. Is.
Kipling, Rudyard. Departmental Ditties. Fifth Edition.
I vol. i6mo. 5*. In Black and White. IS.
Linton, E. Lynn. The True History of Joshua Davidson,
Christian and Communist. Tenth Edition, is.
Momerie, Rev. A. W., D.D. Preaching and Hearing.
Third Edition. I vol. y.
Murray, D. Christie. John Vale's Guardian: A Novel.
1 vol. y. 6d.
Murray, David Christie and Henry Herman. One
Traveller Returns: A Novel. New Edition. 2s.
Pollock, Sir Frederick. An Introduction to the History
of the Science of Politics. 2s. td.
"Rita." Edelweiss: A Romance. I vol. is.
Rohin'Son, F. W. A Very Strange Family: A Novel.
Second Edition, y 6d.
SlME, William. The Rajah and the Rosebud: A Novel.
is. and is. 6d.
Sims, G. R. The Case of George Candlemas: A Novel.
is. and is. 6d.
Stevenson, R. L. Father Damien: An Open Letter to
the Reverend Doctor Hyde, of Honolulu, from. u.
Tytler, Sarah. A Voung Oxford Maid in the Days of
the King and the Parliament. Illustrated, y. 6d.
Warden, Florence. City and Surburban: A Novel.
is. and is. 6d.
Nurse Revel s Mistake: A Novel. Fifth Edition, is.
Westall, William. Two Pinches of Snuff: A Novel
New Edition. 2s. and 2s. td.
## p. 160 (#196) ############################################
]6o
AD VERTISEMENTS.
"THE LITERARY HAJYDJHAID OF THE
CHURCH-"
HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING.
NOW READY.
This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for
the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will
gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid
of the Church of England throughout the world."
The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide
honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as
illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of
the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps.
THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION.
BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A.
NOW READY.
This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to
show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to
say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The
different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced
which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.
## p. 161 (#197) ############################################
The Society of Authors (Jncorporated).
PRESIDENT
The Right Ilon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I.
ALFRED AUSTIN,
ROBERT BATEMAN.
SIR HENRY BERGNE.
WALTER BESANT.
R. D. BLACKMORE.
Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S.
LORD BRABOURNE.
JAMES BRYCE.
P. W. CLAYDEN.
J. Comexs Carr.
EDWARD CLODD.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
MARION CRAWFORD.
Oswald CRAWFURD.
THE EARL OF DESART.
A. W. DUBOURG.
ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S.
Prof. MICHAEL Foster, F.R.S.
HERBERT Gardner, M.P.
Richard GARNETT, LL.D.
COUNCIL.
EDMUND GOSSE.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
THOMAS HARDY.
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.
Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
1. C. PARKINSON.
The EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D.
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
George AUGUSTUS Sala.
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAS. SULLY.
William MoY THOMAS.
H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L.
EDMUND YATES.
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-Wake, F.L.S.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Robert BATEMAN.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
I EL MUND GO
Chairman-WALTER BESANT.
EDMUND Gosse.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
A. G. Ross.
J. M. Lely.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK.
Solicitors.
Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary--S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, Portugal Street, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C.
VOL. I.
M
## p. 162 (#198) ############################################
162
ADVERTISEMENTS.
TYPE-WRITING.
MISS ETHEL DICKENS,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED.
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND
Writings by Post receive prompt attention.
(Over the Ofhce of " All the Year Round").
SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY.
MSS. copied. Price List on application.
MRS. GILL,
MISSES ERWIN,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
13, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from
MISS GILL,
I/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy
(carbon) supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES
well-known Authors and Publishers.
Further particulars on application.
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| JO, DARKE, M.T.S.,
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BRISTOL.
Published every FRIDAY, price 2d.
The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY,
NEATNESS, RAPIDITY, and Ease of Manifolding.
DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E.
Now is the time to subscribe.
| AUTHORS MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the
A New Vol. commenced
Publisher.
4th April, 1890.
Companies* Reports and patent @gentot
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THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.
TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when not drawn below £100.
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SAVINGS DEPARTMENT.
For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows interest, at the rate of THREE
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HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR
A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate
possession. Apply at Office of the BirKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY.
THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars post free on application.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
## p. 162 (#199) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
THIS VIEW IS REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OFAN OPERATOR &
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace
with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental
effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate
your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on.
The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to
a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving
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THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited,
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Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne,
Type-Writing Taught by Experts. Author's MSS. Copied at is. 3d. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of
Literary Property. Issued to all members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 25. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. MORRIS COLLES, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 45. 6d.
5. The History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. SQUIRE Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society. 15.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of
type, size of page, &c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 25. 6d. (A new Edition
preparing.)
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
## p. 162 (#200) ############################################
iv.
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Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westeninster,
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 06 (October 1890)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 06 (October 1890)
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The Author
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Vol. I.-No. 7.].
NOVEMBER 15, 1890.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Published for the Society be
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1890.
## p. 162 (#202) ############################################
ADVERTISEJENTS.
.
.
Bertan, Pest iga 1878
Men. Marie, Todd & Co.
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. I have seun me of your
rus, to have a haina mended
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I have nice this heu constantly
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called "The Autonatof the
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etuin was enlitted to this
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Viva Wendell Hesmed.
IllustraTED PRICE List of Gold Pens will be sent, free and post paid, on application to Mabie, Todd & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, London.
i
## p. 163 (#203) ############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
—No. 7.] 'NOVEMBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence.
Vol. I.
C O N T
PAGE
News and Notes 163
Mr. Blaikie's New Poems 170
In Grub Street 170
Canadian Copyright. By \V. Oliver Hodges 175
Fin de Siccle ... 177
Literature as a Trade. By Edmund Gosse 178
"The Farrar-Cassell Case" (from the AWw York Tribune). By
G. W. S 180
Mr. Brander Mathews* "American Authors and British Pirates" 182
The German Association of Authors 183
NEWS AND NOTES.
READERS of The Author are most seriously
warned not to forward MSS. to persons
advertising for them, even though these
advertisements appear in the most respectable
papers. The practice is to advertise for MSS. on
various pretexts—for descriptive articles, fiction,
&c, and to promise payment. The MSS. are
sent and are heard of no more. No respectable
firm ever advertises for MSS. In a recent case a
MS. sent in answer to such an advertisement, has
been retained. No answer can be obtained by the
victim, and the name of the advertiser is not given
up at the office of the paper.
The Syndicate Branch of the Society has been
undertaken by Mr. W. Morris Colles, author of
"Literature and the Civil Pension List," &c, as
Honorary Secretary. All communications on this
subject should be made to him at the address of the
Society's office.
In the Churches a very useful custom obtains of
hanging up the Ten Commandments, so that first
principles in the Conduct of Life should always
be presented to the eyes of the congregation.
Sunday after Sunday they have to read and to
vol. 1.
E N T S.
PACE
The International Literary Congress
... 186
A Curious Case
... 188
The American Tongue
... 190
An English Academy
... 190
An Encouraging Experience
... 192
Queries and Answers
... 193
The Late, Rev. Henry White. By Rev. W. J. Loftie
... 195
At Work
... 195
New Books and New Editions
... .96
Advertisements
... 198
hear these first principles, whether they like it or
not. It is reported, by those who have oppor-
tunities of knowing, to be a custom favourable to
morality. In the same way we must, from time
to time, advance the elements, the rudimentary
laws, on which we rest every cause. Therefore we
may be excused for setting forth, in this number,
two or three truisms. They are as follows.
Literature, in all times, has had two sides—the
artistic and the commercial kind. The singer
expects to be paid, the poet is rejoiced at solid
recognition of his genius. What is more, the
artistic work of the highest genius in no way
suffers from a careful attention to its material
interests. Does anyone in his senses pretend that
the work of Byron, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray,
George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade, lost
anything in Art because these writers were good
and careful men of business?
Let us not confuse these two sides of the literary
profession. They are equally important, because
unless the latter is looked after, the artist perishes.
Both must be guarded jealously, the one because
Literature is Art, and the other because the artist
must be a free man—not the slave of the man who
has the money, nor a hack, nor one who drives his
N
## p. 164 (#204) ############################################
164
THE AUTHOR.
pen all day long for a daily pittance, nor a man
continually fretted by a sense of wrong and
injustice, real or fancied. When, therefore, we
insist continually upon the necessity of safe-
guarding literary property, of understanding what
is meant by an agreement before we sign it, we are
working in the highest and best interests of litera-
ture.
Consider, again. In no other branch of Art is
a voice ever raised against those who fight for its
material interests. The sculptor, the actor, the
singer, the musician, the painter—all alike are
understood to be working honestly at their art,
even though at the same time they are watching
carefully over their material interests. No one
accuses Meissonnier of bad workmanship because
his pictures are worth a pyramid of gold. Yet,
directly a serious attempt is made to put these
interests on a proper basis as regards letters, there
is raised at once an outcry about degrading Art,
taking all the joy out of Art, destroying the nobility
of Art, and the rest of it. To which, in the words
of Mr. Burchell—Fudge! To be sure, these
charges are always preferred by the writers whose
works do not possess any pecuniary value, or by
those who dabble and play with literature, content
to issue, now and then, a critical essay or a volume
of critical essays. To them, but not to the men
and women whom the world loves, it seems a degra-
dation of Art to insist upon the rights of property,
and they pretend to regard a great writer as deprived
of the joy and nobility of his work because he looks
after his own interests. Again, in the words of
Mr. Burchell—Fudge!
We mix up these two sides of literature. It is
absurd to suppose that George Eliot was thinking
of her commercial value when she wrote "Romola."
Yet she thought very much of it afterwards. That
is the way of it. The true artist thinks about
nothing but his work while he is engaged upon it.
The man who is not an artist cannot understand how
he can ever think about the business side of his
work at all. Yet he always can, and does, as soon
as he is satisfied that there is a business side to his
work. And to some minds—to most minds—the
knowledge that there is this commercial value in it
acts as a constant stimulus—a wholesome incen-
tive; it gives the writer confidence and courage
and selfrespect; it makes him watch over his work
with jealousy, lest its artistic standard be lowered.
He takes this recognition, this popularity, this de-
mand, as a proof that his work is good and artistic.
I have printed, in another part of this number, an
article written for an evening paper by Mr. Edmund
Gosse on a cognate subject, by his permission.
Indeed, whatever Mr. Gosse writes on the subject
of the literary life commands attention by itself,
apart from the fact that he is one of ourselves, of
our inner ring, one who has spoken for us, and
will again, one is assured, become, if necessary,
our champion. Therefore I would not willingly
differ from him in any particular, and in this paper
of his, which is mainly a protest against the
wretched gossip about authors' prices which is con-
stantly published in certain journals I wholly and
entirely agree with him. To observe the extrava-
gant curiosity about money realized in literature
and art disgusts one. And it is not only true, but
most opportune, to point out that "such curiosity
about literary prices is unwholesome, and because
it tends to make money the standard in a species
of labour where the rewards are in no degree
analogous to the deserts." Nothing is more true;
some of the finest work produced has wholly
failed from the commercial point of view. Again,
it is most true "that no great work was ever com-
posed primarily for the purpose of making as much
money as possible." Yet, in my judgment, he
overstates a very good case when he arraigns
authors with a want of modesty in the pursuit of
guineas. It is not greed that actuates the author,
it is an instinctive yearning for justice and fair
play. Let us be fair to our own motives: once
secure this justice and all will be secured. We ask
for nothing more. But let us, above all things, keep
separate the two sides of the literary life, the side of
Art and the side of affairs—the soul that animates
and the body in which the soul must live.
There is a certain sorrowful significance about
this incessant and prying curiosity into literary
prices which should not be overlooked. It is a time
when the difficulties of getting on in any calling or
profession are increasing daily. But it is not a
time when simplicity of living is also increasing.
Further, it is a time when women are longing for
their independence, and rushing into every kind of
work by which money may be made. Especially
they long to enter the literary profession. It seems
so easy. Anybody could write like—say Mrs.
Gaskell—the thing is so simple, and there seem to
be such splendid prizes. Think of a book like this
or like that being worth thousands! Or, again, since
journalism is itself a branch of the literary profession,
the young country journalist is always dreaming
of an exchange from his hard work and scanty pay
to the splendour and ease of a successful novelist.
Therefore he collects assiduously all the scraps—
most of them pure inventions—about the prices
obtained by this man and by that man, and dangles
## p. 165 (#205) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
them before his own eyes, and sticks them in his
paper for all the world to read. In this curiosity
I discern that of yearning after the impossible,
which makes the literary aspirations of ninety and
nine out of every hundred tragic and mournful.
There has been a special utterance on the subject
by Mr. Andrew Lang. It contains one or two ser-
viceable statements. Thus, he says, quite truly, "the
author must conquer his casual disposition." It
is what the Society insists upon in every paper and
every report. Let the author bring to his literary
business the same common sense that he brings to
other business, and half the trouble will vanish.
Again he says, "one has very little sympathy with
authors who grumble at the publishers getting their
share." No sympathy whatever. Let us only
agree upon what should be the publisher's share.
That settled, the whole of the trouble would vanish.
One thing he says which seems to me mis-
chievous, because everything is mischievous which
is not based upon a knowledge of facts. It is
this. "The publisher, I think, in spite of Mr.
Besant, does incur a good deal of risk, not per-
haps on one book or two, but on the general result
of his business." Exactly the reverse is the truth.
The publisher, who very, very seldom knowingly
runs any risk at all, may lose—because in all trades
there are mistakes made—on one or two books,
but as the general result of a large business he
is certain, as his business is now conducted, not
to lose. This is a very delightful result, and
one does not grudge the honourable House its
income however great it may become. May
such a House increase and continue in prosperity
as in honour! Another point to which he takes
exception is the assumption that the Society is
inimical to publishers. This is an unwarranted
assumption, calculated to injure the Society, and
contradicted by every utterance of the Society.
Suppose a novelist draws the character of a
scoundrel attorney, is he therefore hostile to all
lawyers? Is it fair to call his attention to the fact
that some gentlemen have friends among solicitors?
Yet this is what Mr. Andrew Lang does. He says,
"extraordinary as it may appear, there are even
cases of friendship between authors and publishers."
I suppose there is not one upon the Committee of
this Society who is not proud to number a publisher
among his friends.
lastly, I have had many letters from ladies
calling indignant attention to one clause which I
regret to see at the close of the paper. "As far
as I can see, the authors who do suffer are those
who should receive ioj. 6d. and only get
■js. . . . Their work is worth very little,
VOL. I.
and they get even less. . . . Generally, they
are women easily ' put upon' and rather unreason-
able." "Why," ask my correspondents, "should
not even a woman demand and receive justice?
Why should she take "js. $d. when 10s. 6d. is
due to her?" Really, one cannot give any reason.
And considering that the poor wretch who steals
a handkerchief worth twopence is sent to prison as
much as the bold burglar who robs a bank, there
does seem no reply to this question.
We must maintain the sacredness of the contract,
because that underlies every kind of trade, exchange,
or service rendered. Without the keeping of agree-
ments nothing could be done. All that can be done
is to implore authors not to sign away their property,
and to hope that sweating by certain publishers will
speedily become as disgraceful as any other form of
dishonesty. When, however, one reads of certain
cases, it is difficult not to wish that a contract, obtained
by studiously withholding the facts of the case from
one party, should be set aside. For instance, here
is one. A certain specialist, a very popular writer,
was asked by a firm to undertake a book on his
own subject. They named a price. He took it.
Therefore he had no right to complain. The book
proved an immediate and very great success. The
publishers then asked him to produce another.
Remember—they knew that the first had been an
enormous success. They knew that the second
would prove equally successful. It is said that
they began, in fact, with an edition of 100,000 copies
of the second book. This seems incredible, and
perhaps is an exaggerated statement. Edition has
followed edition. It is still, after many years, a
living book. The author received ^30 for the first
book; and in spite of the full knowledge possessed
by the publishers of what they had done with the first,
and would do with the second, they gave him the
same sum, ^30, for the second. What is to be
said of such a contract? That the author was a
fool? Perhaps. But what were the publishers?
—«
Piracy, with mutilation, is even more intolerable
than piracy pure and simple. Indeed, as will be seen
in another page, I think we should give up the use of
the word piracy and write publishing-as-permitted-
by-the-law. It is a long word, but at present there
is no short equivalent. Here is a case of publish-
ing-as-permitted-by-the-law, with mutilation :—
"A few months ago I published a book on
Bronchitis here in London, and made an arrange-
ment with a publisher of Philadelphia for the
production of an American edition. It appeared
and was selling well when Wood and Co., of New
n 2
## p. 166 (#206) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
York, reprinted it entirely without a word of com-
munication with me or my real publishers. This
firm has, within the last year or so, published some
fifty medical and surgical works or monographs;
and, as far as I can learn, they have in every case
been taken without permission. I have quite a
collection of letters from men who have suffered
in this way. We have no legal redress, but our
Medical Associations on both sides of the Atlantic
have promised to take up the matter, and will go
to work pretty energetically."
Mr. Louis Stevenson has been interviewed by the
Melbourne Argus. 'Tis the common lot. He is
reported to have said a good many things of which
one, at least, is important, as a contribution to the
vexed question of plagiarism. Everybody knows how
novelists are perpetually charged with plagiarism.
It is, indeed, a difficult thing to refute such a charge.
Given the facts, given the absolute coincidence,
character for character, incident for incident—how
could they occur, one asks, in the later work unless
they had been copied from the earlier? To speak
only of one who can speak no more. I once dis-
covered an extraordinary resemblance between an
incident in one of Charles Reade's books and an
exactly similar incident in a book published some
forty years ago before. The resemblance was so
striking, the events were so exactly the same, that
I at once, in my ignorance, set it down to inten-
tional plagiarism. I am now convinced that I
did Charles Reade a grievous wrong. How then
did he contrive to reproduce so exactly that
part of the earlier work? The following illustra-
tions supplied in the course of this interview pro-
vide an answer. This is what Mr. Stevenson is
reported to have said :—
"I suspect most of our inventions are docu-
mentary enough, and taken out of the note-book
of the memory. I will give you a couple of
examples from my own case. Some five or six
years after I had written 'Treasure Island,' I picked
up Washington Irving's 'Tales of a Traveller,'
and there I find Billy Bones, with his voice, his
manners, his talk, his sabre-cut, his sea-chest, and
all that is Billy Bones's. I had read it long ago,
and, if you will allow me a bull, I had forgotten,
but my memory had remembered. Again, I fondly
supposed I had invented a scene when Alan Breck
quarrels with one of the M'Gregors in a house in
Balquidder. Here, in Sydney, not two days ago,
a gentleman informs me that I had read the out-
lines of that scene, even to the names of the three
principal characters engaged, in Pitcairn's ' Criminal
Trials.' I do not remember. I do not suppose
there is a copy of Pitcairn in the Colonies, so that
I cannot make sure, but I have not the least doubt
that it is so. We all, idealists and realists alike,
rearrange that matter of observed life with which
our memories are charged, and the most we can
mean by the word invention is some happy con-
gruity or surprise in the method of arranging it."
This is a novel but a sufficient explanation to
those who know that the accused is a man of
honour.
The mind forgets but the memory remembers.
In the last number of The Author the arts and
wiles of the gentry who seek to catch the literary flats
were exposed in some detail. I have now before me
the prospectus of an enterprise whose object is to
advance the interests of Rising Authors (with a
capital "r "). Every effort of this kind, particularly
when conducted in a disinterested spirit and with-
out the least consideration of sordid gains, com-
mands our sympathy. Here is the scheme, then.
A new monthly magazine is to be started. It will
be called by a most attractive title, viz., "Literary
Fame." Literary Fame! The words cause the
eyes of the Rising Author to glisten and his lip to
tremble. Literary Fame! Nothing short of this.
The magazine has no other objects in view—the
prospectus, which cannot lie, says so indeed,]in plain
words—than the true interests of English Litera-
ture. It is designed to introduce to the great
British Public that large class of writers who feel
that they have a Message to convey to the world
at large. To these—as the candid prospectus says
—" Literary Fame" offers an unexampled, nay,
an unparalleled opportunity. I should think so
indeed. The Rising Author has only to send in
his contribution. It will be read for nothing—it is
well-known that in all other magazines the editor has
to be bribed before he will read anything. Each
"suitable" contribution—here a note of discord—
are not all contributions from Rising Authors, who
have a Message for the world, suitable ?—will be
accepted and printed, signed with the author's
name. Why, what could be more disinterested?
The only condition—a ridiculous one—is that the
author shall pay beforehand for fifteen copies of
the magazine for every column of his paper. Thus,
suppose he has a paper of twelve pages, or twenty-
four columns, and a Message to the world can
hardly be delivered in less, he will only take 180
copies, which will cost him the sum of j£g. Who
would not gladly pay j£g for the privilege ot
delivering a Message? Should he run a serial
story for a twelvemonth, taking twenty-four pages
each number, he will only pay ^216 for the year!
Of course, thousands will jump at the offer.
## p. 167 (#207) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
167
In other words, how great must be the belief in
the credulity of writers when they are calmly
invited to consider such a proposal? Let us
see how it works out. An ordinary magazine con-
tains about 120 pages or 240 columns. This if
paid for at the rate of 15 copies a column, pro-
duces ^90. To this must be added the advertise-
ments and the sale, if any. And after paying for
printing and paper, there will remain a very com-
fortable little property indeed. But I observe that
in case of novels a higher charge will be made.
Excellent, enterprising, benevolent editor!
When Germans undertake to found and to manage
a society, there are no half measures. The pro-
gramme of their yearly meeting, a somewhat
bulky document, is so thorough that I have had
it translated and published for our own instruction.
When one considers the infinite trouble we have in
inducing our own brethren to unite, it is refreshing
to read of such enthusiasm and belief among the
Germans in the cause. One lives in the hope that
we are really succeeding little by little in bringing
literary men and women to make common cause.
The difficulty is being illustrated at the present
moment by a series of papers in the Daily Graphic
on the proposed National Academy of Letters.
First the scheme was proposed in general terms by
an anonymous correspondent. It has been fol-
lowed by a succession of papers from men of letters
invited by the Editor. My own paper, which
happened to be the first, was taken hold of as a peg
by all who came afterwards, and the scheme has
been everywhere attributed to me. It is not mine
at all. I was only asked what I thought of it Now
observe, I began by a most serious warning, as
follows:—
"The influence of the English Academy would
depend entirely upon the position and reputation
which it might obtain in the estimation of the world
at large, and of litterateurs in particular. If every-
body was agreed that to be a R.A. in Letters was
as great a thing as to be a R.A. in Arts oraF.R.S.
in Science, then the distinction would be an object
of ambition, and the voice of the Academy would
be potent and authoritative. If it failed to command
this respect; if the true leaders refused to enter
its walls; if it was considered to be under Court
favouritism or to be involved in party interests, or
to be the home of the second rate, it never would
acquire any influence at all. Therefore it is
absolutely necessary that it should, from the very
outset, number in its body all the leaders of the
day in every department of literature."
"Supposing," I added, "this extremely difficult
preliminary accomplished, what could the Academy
effect?"
I then proceeded to show what, in my opinion,
such an Academy might accomplish.
Most of the letters, beginning with that of Mr.
Leslie Stephen, have proved that it is utterly impos-
sible in the present condition of things for men of
letters to work together as an Academy—a National
Institution.
They have nearly all written as if union was a thing
impossible, and practical aims were out of the ques-
tion.
Why cannot men of letters act together? First,
I believe, because they have got into the habit of
speaking and writing about each other as men of
no other profession would be allowed to do. A
barrister would be disbarred who should dare to
speak of another barrister in terms that are con-
stantly and without censure used by one man of
letters concerning another. Now were there exist-
ing a great critical body, a controlling power, pos-
sessing the power of leadership, the power of wealth,
jhe power of bestowing distinction, the power of
reprimand—this curse of literature, this license
which fills the history of authorship with con-
temptible quarrels and fish-wife recriminations,
would instantly cease.
An Academy, however, after the manner of the
French would be absurd in this country. It is
obsolete in Paris. It survives, but it has ceased to
be a great power. Such an Academy as I should
like to see founded in this country would deal with
everything connected with literature. Mr. Leslie
Stephen, whose name and work I hold in as much
respect as those of any living writer, says dis-
tinctly that such a body could not deal with prac-
tical things. Why not? One does not expect the
individual academician to become at once a
steward in the House of Literature: not at all.
We engage officers and pay them for such services.
Every day the profession of letters is becoming
larger; every day the dangers which threaten litera-
ture, because its followers are a scattered crowd
with no leaders, no authority over them, no guides,
and no advisers, are growing greater and greater.
Farther on, in this number, will be found a paper
showing the views of another writer on the subject.
Let me therefore only repeat what I advanced in
this paper of mine in the Daily Graphic.
1. Such an Academy must have the support of
all the leaders in literature of every depart-
ment, or it will be ridiculous.
## p. 168 (#208) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
2. It should recognize and honour good work by
public recognition, and by distinction of
some kind.
3. It should regulate and control the production
of literature on principles which would,
once for all, destroy the present friction
between authors and publishers, and would
make the present widespread frauds and
sweatings disgraceful, if not impossible.
4. It should contain the official register of every
book published.
5. It should take over and administrate the
annual grant for Literature.
6. It should concern itself with every question
that may arise in any one of the numerous
interests of Literature.
These were the principles which I laid down in
my paper. The longer I consider them, the more
I am convinced that such a body, so constituted,
with such work before it, might confer the greatest
benefits upon letters. Some of the work has been
attempted, not without success, by this Society.
But it would come with more authority from an
Academy.
The last few weeks have also been enlivened by
a correspondence in the Times. Whenever the
Society has been publicly proving its existence and
its activity in some way which makes certain of its
friends wriggle, there is sure to occur such a corres-
pondence. Then we have the old, old things—the
bogey of risk; the awful losses in publishing; the
misstatements; the trail across the scent; the
misleading suggestions—everything to keep the
public in the dark. Newspapers either in the
interests of dishonourable houses, or in ignorance,
take up the cry, and with paragraphs, letters, and
leading articles repeat the misstatements. Then
we repeat the truth again—and they are silenced
for awhile. Meantime the Society advances.
—♦—
The controversy was conducted on the usual
lines. Hardly any of the writers seemed able to
conceive that there were any principles of justice
underlying the question. There was misrepresen-
tation, there was misstatement, and there was
deliberate falsehood—there was no attempt at
reasoning. The worst letter of all—the most silly
and the most spiteful—was written by an "Author."
It illustrated exactly what was advanced in the last
number of this Journal on the ill-bred malice
which some writers permit themselves to use
towards others. This person, who says that he has
been treated with fairness—very likely—but he does
not understand what is meant by fairness—states that
he received a bigger cheque than he expected, and
was afterwards told by the publisher that his book
had been a loss of so much. "Hit or miss," said
this airy speculator—" Hit or miss." He saw no
accounts, and asked for none. He took the man's
word. In no other business transaction known
would he have taken the man's word There is a
sweet simplicity about this author which seems to
point to the country clergyman. He is often an
excellent person, but it is his foible to believe that
he is a good man of business. This person, so
skilled in matters of business, goes on to call a
scholar, a gentleman, a dignitary of the Church—
the author in fact of the work under discussion—
a publisher's " paid clerk." A clerk copies, casts
up accounts, and writes letters to order. A clerk
does not, as clerk, produce a work of art, genius,
and learning. This is the first time that one has
heard an author called a publisher's paid clerk.
Now that the thing has been started it will not
doubtless be the last we shall hear of it.
The main point of the recent controversy in the
Times was, of course, ignored from the outset. It is
this: A. B. engages C. D. to do a piece of literary
work on a subject in which he is a specialist. He
is certain to do it well, and to produce a popular
book. C. D., not knowing the extent of his own
popularity, which A. B. does, produces this work,
and receives a sum of money. A. B., in order to
secure this popular writer for another work, after-
wards gives him four times what was bargained.
Now what is the profit of A. B.? He will not say
—nor, of course, can he be expected to confess.
But it can be guessed by experts, and it is variously
reckoned at sixtyfold and a hundredfold what he
originally gave C. D. Yet C. D. has no right to
complain, because an agreement must be kept.
But when A. B. asks C. D. to write another book,
knowing that he is certain to make again an enor-
mous sum, how far is he justified in offering the
writer a sum equivalent to about one-fiftieth of
what he himself reasonably expects to make?
That is the question. We shall have no answer
to it from the other side; but the question itself
should be laid to heart by every writer. Sooner or
later it will be laid to heart, and then such an
agreement will become impossible.
The deadly rancour shown towards the Society
in most of the letters showed the mind of the writer.
It is a most healthy sign. The revelations made
in our publications have begun at last to make the
author want to understand his agreements, what it
## p. 169 (#209) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
is he gives, and what he gets in return. An end
of the good old days, when the author would sign
anything that was put before him, is seen to be
approaching. He now understands, or can easily
learn, what it costs to produce a book, and what is
meant by a royalty of ten, fifteen or twenty per cent.
Therefore the gentry who have been accustomed in
every account they make up, to overcharge on
every item, find that they can no longer do so with
impunity. Also those who have been fattening on
ten per cent, royalties find that their gains are now
discovered. In order to divert public attention from
the real point at issue, of course side issues have
to be found. This has been done chiefly by mis-
stating or wilfully misunderstanding what has been
advanced by the Society. Especially, and as a
matter of course, the old bogey of great risk and
enormous losses is trotted out. Let us again affirm
very seriously that publishers very, very seldom
take any book at all about which there is any risk.
They may make mistakes, of course. This is the
rule, even with the great houses. Indeed, they
would not be men of business if they did not avoid
risks. As to the smaller houses, they never take
any risk at all. Of course they cannot afford to
do so. They have discovered a better plan—to
make the author pay.
*
For instance, this is the busiest time of the year.
The publishers' advertisements are now the longest.
I take up a paper and examine the publishers' lists
in its columns. The following is an analysis :—
a. A firm of the first rank. Eighteen books
advertised. Nine of these are new editions.
Seven are new books. Of the seven five
are absolutely without risk, unless of course,
they were over-printed or under-priced. Two
are novels of which we can only say that
this firm has always been careful to produce
none but good work, and therefore that it
is probably well advised that there is no risk
in producing them.
B. A small firm. Seven books. Six certainly
paid for by the authors. The seventh
presents no risk.
c A small firm. Four books, all by popular
authors. No risk.
D. An old established firm. Six books, of which
three are new editions. The other three
carry no risk whatever.
E. Another great firm. Sixteen books advertised.
Ten are by authors whose names command
a large sale. Five are educational, of the
better kind. Of the whole lot one only
appears doubtful.
f. A new firm. Fourteen books. Four belong
to well established series. One is a standard
book. Three have names which command
success. Of the remaining six, four are cer-
tainly paid for by their authors, and
probably the other two.
G. A firm of high standing. Fifteen books.
Eleven are by popular and well-known
authors. Three are reprints. One is a
work whose subject commands success.
H. Another high class firm. Seven works only
advertised out of their longer list. Three of
these books will command a certain success,
that kind of success which remunerates the
publisher, but does not enrich the author.
Four are by popular authors.
This is the kind of illustration that might be
followed up every week. I have taken eight
houses at random in the order in which they
advertised out of the whole list. I can find but
three books out of eighty-seven which appear to
me doubtful. Of the three I strongly suspect that
two are paid for by the authors.
We shall have in course of time, a good deal
more to say on the general questions of publishers'
contracts, unexpected and enormous profits, alleged
losses and so forth.
Meantime, here is an instance of what we re-
commend to the consideration of Messrs. Cassell
and Co., the Literary Handmaid of the Church,
and other firms like-minded. In the year 1884 a
certain author produced with a certain provincial
publisher a little work which both believed would
prove a modest success. It obtained, however, an
enormous run. The publisher, meantime, had
bought his modest venture for a modest sum.
When the success of the book became known, he
voluntarily, unsolicited, tore up the agreement and
made another, based on the success of the book.
What can be said of such an act? It was spon-
taneous, and it was based upon the honourable
feeling that, agreement or no agreement, the
author should share in this unexpected good
fortune. The publisher was Mr. Arrowsmith, of
Bristol, the author was Mr. Fargus.
The Editor of the Critic (New York) invites his
readers to select twenty American literary women
as Immortelles. In order to assist the reader, he
gives a list of 139 living writers " not unknown to
the reading public." In looking through this list
one is struck with a profound sense of ignorance,
because one knows so few of these names. Sixteen
only are known to me. Can there be a rising liter-
## p. 170 (#210) ############################################
170
THE AUTHOR.
ature in the Slates wholly apart from, and unknown
to, ourselves? Yet it seems as if every good book
which appears in the States is welcomed here.
Are there, again, 139 English women of letters all
known to our own reading public, of whom no
more than sixteen are known across the Atlantic?
Literature has many branches, but these ladies
represent fiction almost entirely, and fiction is the
most popular of all the branches of literature,
and as Mr. Brander Mathews explains later on,
American novelists are here published—by per-
mission of the law—in great numbers.
Walter Besant.
*
MR. BLAIKIE'S NEW POEMS.
IT is now a good many years since a little volume
of verse, the first work of two very young
writers, made its modest appearance. The
book was perceived at the outset to possess far more
promise than is usually shown in first essays at
verse. It is now among the very scarce books, and
is worth its weight in silver. One of these writers
has gone on producing poetry and is now read and
known wherever the English language is spoken.
The other has remained silent until now. He is
about to publish a new volume which will appear
immediately. The name of the former is Edmund
Gosse—of the latter, J. A. Blaikie. The following
are taken, by his permission, from his new volume
(Percival & Co.).
r.
Love, like a bird, with gladsome wings did fly,
In jocund springtide's first delicious hour,
Unto my heart's forlorn and wintry bower,
And rested there, and sang, till suddenly
It opened flowerwise that was like to die;
And all the winds his singing, as a shower,
Took, and outpoured on tree and herb and flower,
And life was light, and warmth, and ecstasy,
Until the first rude breath of winter's power;—
Then Love, a bird of passage, winged the sky.
II.
As when a weary troop doth eastward file
Through many a dreary league of Lybian sand
By wind unwinnow'd, and a listless band
Doth struggle, hopelessly, depress'd the while;
Till keen the cry of one doth them beguile,
Who, catching the first breeze from Nilus fann'd,
Scents the faint odours of that verdurous land,
Syene's height and Philx's palm-set isle;
So I when, mid the city's grinding roar,
Thy presence fills the vacancy of eyes,
Work-wearied, with thy grace beneficent;—
That antique Garden view I where of yore
Tu live and love were one, and paradise;
And the twain trees in Beauty's vine are blent.
IN GRUB STREET.
THE most attractive volume that has lately
been issued is undoubtedly Mr. Frederic
Tennyson's "Isles of Greece" (Macmillan.)
Anything coming from a member of the Laureate's
family will have an interest for Englishmen in all
parts of the world. But Mr. Tennyson's volume
can well rest on its own merits. A writer in the
Saturday Review says, " Whatever poetic fruits the
present season may yet bring forth, be they notable
or the reverse, Mr. Frederic Tennyson's new poem
is alone sufficient to make the season memorable."
Mr. Lecky has completed his monumental
work, "The History of England in the Eighteenth
Century." Those portions of it which deal with
the Irish Question have of course a peculiar interest
in the present time. It is a great tribute to Mr.
Lecky as an historian, that even those who differ
from him are agreed as to the good taste, modera-
tion, and judgment he has shown in dealing with
a very vexed question. Prejudice and bias are said
to be an ornament of history, but restraint is even
a greater gift. The work is worthy of Mr. Lecky's
already considerable reputation. Both political
parties are promising to quote from him in support
of their own views.
»—
Dr. Verrall's edition of the "Ion of Euripides,"
witha translation into English verse, an introduction,
and notes, comes very opportunely at the present
time in view of the forthcoming representation of
the drama at Cambridge. He certainly throws a
great deal of new light on the play, and takes up a
very original position on the plot as it is usually
received. That a general acceptance of his theory
will be adopted cannot, of course, be expected.
Commentaries on the classics are not, as a rule,
exhilarating to the ordinary public, but Dr. Verrall's
introduction should find readers beyond the sphere
of scholarship. From the same centre of learning
comes Professor Jebb's "Philoctetes," welcome to
all lovers of the classics. Such able scholars give
the lie to the old charge, " What could Cambridge
do but quote?"
—♦
Mr. Froude's life of Lord Beaconsfield has been
of course a disappointment to those who relish
back-kitchen biography. One would think that
the public craving for that sort of thing had been
more than satisfied. Someone discovered not
long ago an unpaid washing bill of Shelley's,
which was considered an important contribution to
## p. 171 (#211) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
171
"Shelley's Biographia." It is, no doubt, the
absence of a similar item in Lord Beaconsfield's
recent biography that is the "felt want." Those,
however, who considered Mr. Froude's "Carlyle " a
little too circumstantial will not regret any omission
of a similar nature.
The death of Simonides, the forger, will awaken
painful memories among those persons who are
wise after the event. Simonides was in many
ways a great genius, and he had also indefatigable
industry wherewith to apply his art. Some years
ago he gave out that he had died of typhoid in
the East, and sceptics may still refuse to believe in
his demise. There is an amusing story of his
which is characteristic of his amazing audacity.
After his MSS. and letters of introduction had been
exposed by Tischendorff and Mr. Aldis Wright,
he revenged himself by admitting the forgery and
volunteering the information that he had also
written the authentic MS. of the Gospel which
Tischendorff himself had unearthed.
In these days of popular series, when English
Men of Letters, English Men of Action, Remarkable
Women, and Talented Journalists have been so
successful, why should we not have a Criminal
Series? It of course must not be a vulgar reprint
of Newgate Calendar heroes, but lives of such
men as Chatterton, Samuel Ireland, Shapira,
and Simonides. Some enterprising publisher has
already, I believe, commissioned the "Buccaneers"
and the "Highwaymen"; and "Forgers" would
make a very entertaining third volume. Neo-
Christians have their Elsmere House and Oxford
culture its Toynbee Hall, but the criminal classes
have been overlooked, that is, from their own
point of view. They have had no vehicle wherein
to express themselves hitherto.
The Times of November 5th has an interesting
reprint from the North China Herald on the subject
of " Celestial" novels. The latest expounders of
Confucian philosophy have condemned the art of
fiction, and one Shih, emulating Savanarola, estab-
lished a pyramid of vanities, where all immoral
novels were burnt. If this condemned literature
was of the "Sweeney Todd " and "Cheeky Charlie"
order which the respectable Quarterly Review has
been denouncing lately, no one will regret the con-
flagration. But pedagogues and philosophers have
not always been the best judges of an art for which
they have had no sympathy. Roger Ascham, who,
if he was the first schoolmaster, was also the first of
prigs, denounced as harmful to youthful morals the
delightful Morte d'Arthur, the gay stories of Cynthio
and Bandello, and Mr. Herbert Spencer has
announced that literature nauseates him.
Apropos of conflagrations it is very satisfactory
to know that the famous library of Siena Cathedral
with its magnificent frescoes and illuminated missals
has been spared in the recent fire. A correspondent
in the Times the other day drew attention to the
very careless way in which the library of St. Mark
in the Ducal Palace at Venice was exposed to
danger. All this does not reflect much credit on
the municipalities of modern Italy, who are always
throwing stones at the religious bodies who have
any works of art in their keeping. The Liberals
are ever looking with envious eyes on the Vatican
Library, but until they can prove themselves better
curators, the longer the collection remains with its
present owners the better.
It is pleasant to see that some of the shorter
stories of Balzac have been issued by Walter Scott,
under the title of " Don Juan,'or the Elixir of Life."
Those who are unable to read French have hitherto
only been acquainted with the longer and more
famous portions of the Com£die Humaine as the
Peau de Chagrin and the Pere Goriot. Mr. Saints-
bury says, "he is happiest when his subject has a
strong touch of the fantastic," and in this collection
the fantastic is remarkably well represented.
With regard to the correspondence on the
English Academy in the Daily Graphic, and which
is discussed elsewhere in these pages, it may
interestpeopleto see again the 40 immortals selected
by a plebiscite in 1887, which by the courtesy of
the Pall Mall Gazette is here reprinted.
W. E. Gladstone. Cardinal Newman.
Tennyson. Walter Besant.
Matthew Arnold. Leslie Stephen.
Professor Huxley. Benjamin Jowett.
Herbert Spencer. John Bright.
John Ruskin. Frederic Harrison.
J. H. Froude. William Black.
Robert Browning. Justin Macarthy.
John Morley. Lord Salisbury.
Professor Tyndall. Sir Theodore Martin.
Professor Freeman. Henry Irving.
A. C. Swinburne. George Meredith
Archdeacon Farrar. Wilkie Collins.
Professor Max Miiller. Canon Liddon.
Sir John Lubbock.' Duke of Argyle.
William Morris. R. D. Blackmore.
## p. 172 (#212) ############################################
172
THE AUTHOR.
W. E. H. Lecky. Andrew Lang.
G. A. Sala. Bishop Stubbs.
R. L. Stevenson. Cardinal Manning.
Sir Frederic Leighton. Professor J. R. Seeley.
Six of this forty are now unhappily dead. There
are many names one would have included, as there
are others one would have excluded, not because
they lacked greatness, but because their connection
with literature is remote. The list is a remarkable
one in many ways; for instance, there are only three
Anglican clergymen, the present Bishop of Oxford
and Archdeacon Farrar,and the late Canon Liddon.
Mr. Sala, about the same time, gave an academy of
his own contriving in "Echoes of the Week," then
in the Illustrated London News. Among his im-
mortals not included in the above were Mr. Lewis
Morris, Mr. Alfred Austin, and Sir Edwin Arnold.
I believe it is considered very vulgar now to talk
about the price of a book, and when one speaks of
the value of any particular volume, the aesthetic
value is meant—the value of the binding, the type,
the paper, and the contents. Sordid commercialism
must not enter into the sacred profession of letters.
Booksellers no doubt will soon be giving away first
editions and luxe editions for the pure love of pro-
pagating these new ideas. One advantage of an
academy would be that it could decide on such
niceties of language.
♦—
The interest which was aroused by the publica-
tion of "Lux Mundi" has of course begun to
subside, and Churchmen are turning their attention
to the Lincoln and St. Paul's Reredos and reconci-
liation cases. But its success has been phenomenal;
no book of the kind has had such a sale since
"Tracts for the Times," and "Essaysand Reviews."
The controversy still continues in seme of the
Church papers, and the " Luces Mundi " have been
explaining doubtful points to remove any suspicion
of heterodoxy that has attached to their remarkable
essays.
Someone has taken the trouble to collect all the
grammatical solecisms in the late Cardinal Newman's
works, and confided the result of his labours to
one of the Scotch weeklies, and has refused to ac-
cept the Cardinal as a stylist in consequence.
Such attempts remind one of those theologians who,
having added up all the animals in the Ark and
worked out other mathematical problems from
Genesis, reject Christianity because they cannot
find a satisfactory answer. How many great
authors could one not put to a similar test? and
how many would come out unscathed? Thackeray,
above all 'things a stylist, often made slips in
grammar, but are we to reject him as well? When
Sir John Everett Millais was asked by him to write
something for the Cornhill and the painter ex-
pressed doubts as to his grammatical proficiency,
Thackeray replied, " D n the grammar!"
No one that I know of has as yet criticised the
fifty-copies-on-large-paper-system—of which twenty-
five are sent to America, wherever that is, five are
reserved for the author's friends, and the next ten
are destroyed. We hear of the republic of letters,
but this is surely the plutocracy of letters. There
are a number of books that could only be printed
or published by subscription, and it is but fair to
the subscribers that only a limited number should
be issued. Such are expensive catalogues, Art
books, or works like Burton's "Arabian Nights";
but why should a work, already well printed and
"got up," have a sort of extra special edition for
the benefit of wealthy people who very often never
read it? It only gives a book an artificial value,
except in the cases I have mentioned. Very often
it takes a very selfish form, and ordinary purchasers
are deprived of a good deal of matter, to which they
are fully entitled, because they are unable to pay
two guineas, instead of "\s. 6d.
On the propriety of publishing Sir Walter Scott's
journal a good many people will differ. From the
review in the Times it does not appear that it tends
to shatter an idol, and only confirms the prevalent
belief in the nobility and integrity of his character
It will raise, however, the old questions of how
much a public has a right to know of a writer's
private life, and how much private life a public man
is permitted to have. It depends, one would think,
on the author himself. Mr. Browning, a few years
before his death, destroyed boxes full of letters, so
fearful was he of the biographers, while writers like
St. Augustine, Rousseau, Maria Bashkirtseff, and Sir
Austin Feverel, all gave their " bruised heart to the
world." It is quite impossible to dogmatize on
the subject.
How far has the popularity of Scott waned?
Some people get very angry at the bare idea of it.
Mr. Swinburne, in one of his essays, says, " His pop-
ularity may fluctuate now and then with olderreaders
—so much the worse for them . . . but when
it comes among English boys and girls, a dooms-
day will be dawning of which as yet there are most
assuredly no signs orpresages perceptible." Now it is
reported that among boys his popularity has waned.
Older readers who knew him in their youth, read
## p. 173 (#213) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
173
him again and again, and like him better each time.
Boys prefer the more flashy novels of the elder
Dumas. Scott's position in literature is as firm as
Shakespeare's, but as a novelist for boys par excel-
lence he has been succeeded.
In the same way Byron is no longer the poet of
young men, or Moore of young ladies. Thackeray,
with very natural dislike of affectation, killed
Byron the man—the hero of society, and the same
able critic quoted before has no doubt influenced
popular feeling as to Byron's rank on Parnassus.
By a curious irony of fate it is Mr. Swinburne
himself, the poet of his early volumes, who has
taken Byron's place. It is " Faustine, Fragolletta,
Dolores," who occupy in youthful minds the place of
the " Bride of Abydos," the " Maid of Athens," and
"Donna Julia." Not very long ago there existed at
Oxford and Cambridge a Dolores Society, and as
a well-known man of letters once said, "Swinburne
set us on fire at Oxford."
To appreciate Byron we must talk to foreigners.
They seem to regard him with unflagging admira-
tion. Wherever he went he left the stamp of his
wonderful personality, and cities which he has
celebrated in "Childe Harold" (now irreverently
called the "Rhyming Baedeker"), remember him
with'gratitude. The Greek colony in London cele-
brated his centenary with great pomp two or three
years ago, and after a memorial service in the
Orthodox Church in Moscow Road, and an address
in modern Greek on the services Byron had
rendered to their country, they marched to his
image in Hyde Park and placed a wreath there.
But the centenary was quite ignored by the English
people. The two English names which are most
familiar in Italy to-day are those of John
Ruskin and Lord Byron. The guides will always
tell you what "Rusconi" has said of a particular
building, and the street Arabs point out the palace
where Byron lived.
The publication of "Major Barttelot's Diaries
and Letters" has been speedily followed by Mr.
Rose Troup's "With Stanley's Rear Column," and
the Jameson Diaries are promised shortly. This
literature of recrimination which has sprung up is
not very edifying, the more so as it seems to be
the only tangible outcome of the ill-considered
Emin Relief Expedition. It would not be surpris-
ing, after the criminal nature of the charge which
Mr. Stanley has preferred against the] unfortunate
commander of the rear column, to hear Mr. Stanley
himself and the advance column accused in turn
of subsisting on pigmy in the wilderness.
The French genius for delineating character was
never more highly displayed than in the "De
Goncourt Journals," of which the third volume has
just been published. Although it professes to be
a memoir of the literary coteries of the period, it
is really little more than a description of the
nightly dinners at Brebants, and it is the figure of
Renan which is the most vividly drawn. Half
philosophic, half mystic, Renan certainly values
himself hugely. "I should have made an indul-
gent paternal charitable priest," he has said of
himself. As a rule humility is also an advantage
in an ecclesiastic. A writer in the current
Quarterly errs when he describes him as a second
Voltaire, who had a keen sense of humour,
while Renan, if he is to be judged by his own
words, apparently has none.
"London City," by Mr. Loftie, bids fair to be
the book of the month. It will be enriched with
vivid illustrations of London city as it is to-day,
engraved from original drawings by Mr. William
Luker, and every possible care has been taken to
make the book a model of artistic and skilled pro-
duction. Mr. Loftie is to the nineteenth century
what Stow was to the sixteenth—he is this and a
great deal more besides.
I believe the fashion of writing confessions in
ladies' albums exists no longer, but if anyone was
asked now who was their favourite writer, after
the favourite novelist and favourite poet had been
decided on, the favourite writer would be Mr.
Andrew Lang. But Mr. Lang is a poet as well,
and this month in collaboration with Mr.'Haggard,
he has become a novelist too, "The World's
Desire" having been just issued in one volume.
His fairy book (red this time) gives a number of
stories which will be new to a great many of us.
There are two from the Russian. Has Mr. Lang
reconsidered his strictures on the Russian novelists?
He has written a preface to a translation of Langisms
which has given occasion for the Scotch to make
a bad joke. Homer sometimes nods, but Mr. Lang
never seems even to wink.
»
Mr. George W. Smalley, the London correspon-
dent of the New York Tribune, has collected his
famous letters to that journal in two volumes, en-
titled "London Letters and Others" (Macmillan).
They are certainly the best things of their kind
that have appeared, and were well worth republish-
ing in book form. The stories or anecdotes are
many and excellent.
## p. 174 (#214) ############################################
174
THE AUTHOR
A new work is announced by Ralph Iron, the
talented authoress of "The African Farm." And
Messrs. Methuen have just published a second
series of Mr. Baring Gould's fascinating " Historic
Oddities." In his last volume Mr. Baring Gould
certainly succeeded in raising history to the level of
romance, which should be the first duty of a con-
scientious historian.
The new edition of Matthew Arnold's complete
poems, lately issued by Messrs. Macmillan, as a
companion to Lord Tennyson's, will be welcome
to the increasing admirers of the poet. Those
who prefer Arnold the poet, to Arnold the essayist,
will regret his unfortunate excursions into theology.
His keen critical ability no doubt hampered
his poetical achievement—for thorough criticism,
if rightly considered, is a creative faculty. The
greatest poets are not, as a rule, great critics.
Theirs is the magnificent endowment of bias and
enthusiasm, and though their opinions are always
interesting, the critical power is not infrequently
developed at the expense of their poetic gifts.
Matthew Arnold is one of those who are pointed
to as an example of a man who excelled in many
things at once—poetry, criticism, and theology.
Censuring Bishop Colenso he said, "Let us have
all the science there is from men of science; from
the men of religion let us have religion." As a poet,
and as some think as a critic, Mr. Arnold excelled,
but what about his theology? From theologians
let us have theology! Rossetti, on the other hand,
is given in support of the other view, that a man
cannot excel in two different arts. To say this
is like saying that a person must not be able to
talk two languages, or that if you are a good
runner you must not be a good walker, or a good
rider. But if the quantity of Rossetti's produc-
tions is meant, the remark becomes a platitude.
It is entirely a different thing when science and art
get mixed up, as science and religion are sometimes.
It is terribly old-fashioned to say so, but I believe
literature and art are nearer to one another than
we think; at any rate, they are not so distant as
the brand-new critics tell us.
A paper on the " Drift of Religious Thought in
England" will shortly appear in the Forum—where
a good many excellent papers have lately appeared.
It is by the Rev. Prof. Momerie, author of " Church
and Creed." Mr. Moinerie is one of the very few
men in the Church of England to whom the posi-
tive and negative aspects of truth (positive in the
metaphysical foundation, and negative in his con-
tempt for ecclesiasticism) have equal attractions.
In his forthcoming article he will show how, in
spite of its tendency to retrograde, the Church of
England is being forced by circumstances towards
Rationalism, the goal which all Churches must, in
his opinion, reach or perish.
Another novel of Egypt—or partly of Egypt—
not an imitation of " She." It is by Clive Holland,
whose name is becoming better known, and appears
at the end of the year.
I also note "Mademoiselle," by Frances Mary
Peard, to be published immediately by Messrs.
Walter Smith and Innes.
The following is from a publisher. Of course
we all agree with him in his claim that the
purchase outright of a book releases the purchaser
from any further payment unless he chooses. The
other points are also in substantial accord with the
views of the Society.
"I am much obliged by your note. I am myself
most anxious to offer fair terms to authors.
"The one broad principle on which I prefer to
take my stand, is that the author should share in
the success of the book up to the sale of the last
copy; and this can only be attained by the use of
the royalty system in one form or another. The
difficulty is when authors cannot afford to wait and
demand a sum down. This at once increases the
risk and forces the publisher to provide for
emergencies at the cost of the author. The ideal
method is to pay a sum down in advance of
royalties, and to pay the royalties after that sum
has been reached in the sales.
"The recent developments of the quarrel between
authors and publishers are evidently due to those
new and more generous views on social and
economic problems which are forcing their way to
the front. Political economy is rapidly becoming
less a cold science treating solely of the distribu-
tion and nature of wealth, and more an inquiry into
the means available for improving the condition of
the producer, and for discovering an equitable
method of distributing profits. Authors are pro-
ducers, and though there may be something repug-
nant to a sensitive mind in the publicity given to
details of literary commerce, we must allow that
literature, which has now to be reckoned with as
one of the great wealth-producing limbs of com-
merce, has every claim to be paid in accordance
with recognised principles.
"The proportion of divided profit is a delicate
question. Where an author has a sure audience,
he may claim two-thirds to the publisher's one-third.
## p. 175 (#215) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
175
But when the publisher is working out an idea of
his own with trouble and thought, he may justly
claim a higher proportion. I think that the royalty
paid to an author should be increased in case of a
largely increased sale.
"The half profit system is an abomination. If
resorted to, the sums charged against the book
should be those really paid. But of course the
publisher may charge a preliminary fee for his
trouble.
"When a publisher issues a book at the expense
of the author, he should charge a reasonable sum,
but he has a right to say 'I will produce the
book at such a sum; whether you can get the
book produced more cheaply elsewhere is not to
the point—my charge is so and so.'
"When a publisher agrees to give a fixed price
for the copyright of a book, the author's claim
vanishes with the payment of that sum. The
publisher pays for his bargain and has a right to
any profits which may accrue. If I buy a plot of
ground and find coal on it, the seller could hardly
claim an additional share of the profits. Per-
sonally, I would give the author a share of any
such profits if they were large. But this is hardly
a matter of honesty. At the same time such
bargains should not degenerate into sweating.
"These remarks are crude and written hastily,
but I think they are in the main just.
"I fear you will never be able to stop the depre-
dations of those who infest the shady places of
publishing. At the same time your Society has
done a vast amount of good, and has, I should
say, greatly increased the safety and profits of
literary folk."
—♦
It is pleasant to announce that Mr. Sprigge's
"Methods of Publication " has already run through
one edition, and that another is in preparation and
will be out in a few days. Contrary to reasonable
expectation, the greater part of the edition has
been taken by the general public, and not by the
members of the Society. Now the book is written
especially for the benefit of the members, and
could not have been written but for their support
in maintaining the Society. It throws a flood of
light upon the meaning of the various methods
pursued in this chaotic business, and upon the
frauds which are often perpetrated under cover of
these methods by unscrupulous men. The book
ought to be on the shelf of every literary man.
Some, perhaps, will not trouble to "do the sums."
They may take the general conclusions and note
the warnings. With this book should go the
"Cost of Production," published only for mem-
bers. A new edition of this is in preparation.
Messrs. Clowes and Son, of Fleet Street, have in
the press, and will publish very shortly "The Law of
the Press," by Mr. J. R. Fisher, of The Standard,
and Mr. J. A. Strahan, LL.B., Regius Professor of
Law, Queen's College, Belfast. The object of the
authors has been to present in handy form a com-
plete digest of all the laws affecting the Periodical
Press, whether from the point of view of editors,
contributors, or proprietors.
There has of late been growing up a consider-
able body of statute and case law of the utmost
importance to the literary profession, but although
we have excellent works on libel, copyright, and
other branches of the subject, there is no book
covering the whole ground, and written expressly
with a view to the interests of the journalist.
For purposes of comparison a chapter is added
giving a full account of the Press Laws of France
and Germany.
*
CANADIAN COPYRIGHT.
THIS is a subject which has been much dis-
cussed during the year by those interested
in the Copyright question.
Canada, it is well known, occupies a peculiar
position with regard to copyright legislation. On
the one hand, as one of our colonies, literary pro-
perty receives there the same attention and protec-
tion as in any other Imperial Colony. On the other
hand, such legislation is very little use to author
or publisher. A long and easily crossed frontier
between Canada and America renders payment for
and publication of copyrighted works a thankless
task in Canada; the unshackled American can do
the job so much cheaper.
Canada has for many years designed to obtain
leave from Imperial Parliament to regulate copy-
right in the colony by domestic legislation, and the
idea has met with varying and various support from
ministers of all ways of thinking. The position is
now as follows :—
In 1889, the Government of Canada passed an
Act (entitled 52 Vic, cap. 29) relating to the law
of copyright in Canada, and this Act is now awaiting
the Royal Assent—or was awaiting it in the spring
of this year. But since that date the Ministers of
the Ciown, whilst regretting the fact, have been
unable to authorize the Governor-General of
Canada to issue a Proclamation to bring the Act
into force.
The principal provisions of the Canadian Copy-
right Act, 52 Vic, cap. 29, are briefly these :—
i. Sec. 1 enacts that the conditions for obtaining
copyright in a work in Canada, shall be that
## p. 176 (#216) ############################################
176
THE AUTHOR.
the work shall, before publication or pro-
duction elsewhere, or simultaneously with
the first publication or production thereof
elsewhere, be registered in the office of the
Minister of Agriculture, by the author or
his legal representatives, and further that
such work shall be printed, published, or
produced in Canada, or reprinted, repub-
lished, or reproduced in Canada, within
one month after publication or production
elsewhere.
ii. Sec. 3 (i) enables the Minister of Agriculture,
in the event of the person entitled to copy-
right failing to reprint or republish as pro-
vided in Sec. 1, to grant licenses to persons
domiciled in Canada to print and publish
the work, for which copyright, but for such
neglect or failure mi"ht have been obtained;
but no such license shall convey exclusive
rights to print and publish or produce any
work.
Sec. 3 (ii) provides that a license shall be
granted to any applicant agreeing to pay the
author or his legal representative a royalty
of ten per cent, on the retail price of each
copy or reproduction issued of the work;
and he shall also give security for such
payment to the satisfaction of the Minister.
Sec. 4 enacts that the royalty shall be collected
by the officers of the Department of Inland
Revenue, and paid over to the persons en-
titled thereto, but the Government shall not
be liable to account for any such royalty
not actually collected.
Sec. 5 provides that if a license has been granted
for the publication of any work, and evidence
has been adduced to the satisfaction of the
Governor in Council that such work is being
printed and published or produced in such
a manner as to meet the demand therefoi
in Canada, the Governor-General may by
proclamation prohibit the importation, while
the author's copyright or that of his assignors
is in force, of any copies or reproductions
of the work to which such license relates.
Sec. 6 enacts that no such prohibition as last
mentioned shall apply to the importation of
copies of such works from the United
Kingdom.
In June last the above-mentioned Act was
brought under the notice of the Sub-Committee
on Copyright, as was also an announcement in the
press that Sir John Thompson, the Canadian
Minister of Justice, was on his way from Canada
to confer with the Colonial Office authorities
relative to the Canadian Copyright Act.
In consequence of this announcement, Sir
Fredk. Pollock, the Chairman of the Sub-Com-
mittee, communicated with the Colonial Office in
July last, drawing attention to the fact that the
Canadian Copyright Act was ultra vires, as being
inconsistent with and repugnant to the Imperial
Copyright Act of 1842.
The receipt of Sir Fredk. Pollock's letter was
duly acknowledged by the Colonial Office, and
then for a time nothing more was heard of the
matter.
On the 17th September, a letter was written by
the direction of Ixird Knutsford, from the Colonial
Office to the Incorporated Society of Authors,
but owing to a mistake of the Post Office autho-
rities the letter was delivered to a wrong address,
and was not received by the Society until some
weeks afterwards.
The purport of the letter was to the effect that
Lord Knutsford had directed Sir John Thompson's
report on the Canadian Copyright Act, together
with other official documents, to be forwarded to
the Society of Authors, and ended by saying that
his Lordship would be glad to be favoured with
any observations which the Society might desire to
make upon the questions raised in the report and
other documents.
Sir J. Thompson's report really consists of a
very powerful argument as to why either the
Canadian Copyright Act should receive the Royal
Assent; or, if the Crown cannot properly give its
assent to the Bill on account of its being in conflict
with the Imperial Act, that the Government should
promote legislation in the Parliament of Great
Britain to remove any doubt which may exist as to
the power of the Parliament of Canada to deal
with the question fully and effectually.
The main points upon which this demand is
based may be shortly summarized thus :—
1. The Imperial Government has, during the
last 40 years, on several occasions promised
to pass a Bill whereby the Canadian Parlia-
ment might legislate upon the subject of
copyright in Canada, although such legis-
lation might be repugnant to or inconsistent
with the copyright law of this country.
This is proved by reference to various despatches
from the Colonial Office to the Governor-General
of Canada, which are set out at length in Sir J.
Thompson's report.
2. The rights which British authors and pub-
lishers have under the Imperial Copyright
Act have been greatly abused by the sale of
their copyright privileges to American
publishers and by their refusal to sell to
Canadian publishers on like terms.
3. The prices of American prints are so low
## p. 177 (#217) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
177
that British publications have no chance
of competing with them in Canada—the
price of British publications exceeding by
four to tenfold that for which reprints are
purchased in America; the result being
that the business of publishing British
literature for the Canadian market is done
almost exclusively in the United States.
4. The American publisher is free to reprint
any British work and to supply it to the
Canadian public, while the Canadian pub-
lisher is restrained from publishing such
work on any terms, except with the per-
mission of the copyright holder in Great
Britain.
5. On account of the facts mentioned in para-
graph 4, publishing establishments have
been transferred from Canada to the United
States.
6. The peculiar position in which Canada is
placed on account of her proximity to the
United States, and the copyright policy of
the United States demand peculiar treat-
ment in legislation.
7. The royalty provision of the Act is reason-
able, and affords ample facilities for collec-
tion.
8. The royalty system was recommended by
the Royal Commission on Copyright in
their report of 1876.
Sir J. Thompson also adds that any suggestions
as to details which the Colonial Office may think
proper to make, will receive the earnest and re-
spectful attention of the Governor-General.
On October the 23rd a meeting was held at the
Society's offices, to discuss the answer which the
Society should return to Lord Knutsford's flatter-
ing letter.
The purport of Sir J. Thompson's report having
been explained, the following reply was sent to the
Colonial Office :—
"In answer to the letter from Mr. Robert Herbert
of the 17th September, 1890, I have the honour to
inform your Lordship that a meeting of the General
Committee of the Incorporated Society of Authors,
including the Sub-Committee on Copyright, has
been held to consider the questions raised by Sir
J. Thompson in his report to your Lordship of
July 14th, 1890. I am directed by the Committee
to inform your Lordship as follows:—
1. "They can express no opinion on the question
of the general policy which Her Majesty's
Government may think fit to adopt towards
Canada with regard to the question of
copyright.
2 "They hope, however, that if Her Majesty's
Government think fit to undertake legisla-
tion in order to give effect to the principles
of the Canadian Copyright Act, such legis-
lation will embody due precautions for
making "the collections of royalty charges
really efficient.
3. "They submit that the clauses relating to the
collection of royalty charges as drafted in
the Canadian Copyright Act, 52 Vic, cap.
29, are not sufficient for the proper collec-
tion thereof; and
4. "It appears to the Committee doubtful whether
the Canadian Copyright Act, 52 Vic, cap.
29, does not purport to abolish copyright
altogether, unless the person entitled thereto
reprints or republishes in Canada within
one month after printing or publishing
elsewhere. At best, the language of the
Act is ambiguous on this point."
It must be remembered, though I hope I may
be pardoned for pointing out anything so obvious,
that these views of the copyright question in
Canada have been forced upon us by the enterprise
of America. It is hard on the English author to
lose his problematical rights in the colony, but
the blow is tempered by the remembrance that
America has taken due care that he should lose
his real rights.
W. Oliver Hodges.
Hon. Sec. Copyright Committee.
*
FIN DE SIECLE.
THERE is much talk about the fin de stick
or decadent writers at the present moment.
Most of it, however, springs from an entire
misconception of the true application of the phrase
when literature is in question. As applied to social
manners or morals, it is the merest affectation to use
the term to describe anything but what has
become at least jejune, if not absolutely decayed.
When applied to literature, on the other hand, the
phrase does not necessarily bear any such interpre-
tation. Quite the contrary. An author may be
described at once as the typical decadent and the
greatest living writer with perfect propriety. It
may not be out of place at the same time to
remind some persons that the decadent spirit is not
absolutely dissociated from the vilest writing. The
school, however, is honourably d stinguished by
great technical excellence. It may fairly be asked
then, "What is a decadent}" A complete
definition is at all times difficult to obtain, and we
do not pretend to offer anything of the kind; but
a writer is rightly described as a decadent when his
## p. 178 (#218) ############################################
178
THE AUTHOR.
work reflects decay, or even triviality, in any shape.
The true decadent never really cares to handle any
subject when those elements are wholly absent;
he is always a literary voluptuary and generally
dabbles in psychology.
M. Jules Lemaitre, speaking of the decadence
literature, goes so far as to say that it should perhaps
be regarded rather as the dawn of a new era than
the decay of an old. If this be so the term "Neo-
Romantic" even might not be considered as a
misnomer as applied to the school. Again, M. Jules
Lemaitre in reviewing a piece by M. Catulle Mendes,
hails its author as "the true decadent, the decadent
of the classical period, the Grasco-Latin decadent full
of knowledge and dexterity." M. Catulle Mendes,
he says, is like Callimachus, Claudius, Ausonius, and
then further on, "M. Catulle Mendes loves literature
with the ardour of a voluptuary who is never
glutted . . and this debauchee is an artist with the
most tender conscience, whose style is immaculate.
I am sure that he would rather lose his head than
write an ill-turned sentence." And finally in regard
to his subjects, "I am obliged to recognise that
he has written much on the details of psychology less
with the avowed object of satisfying his own
sensuality and exciting that of his readers. He
has offended in the same way as did his I>atin name-
sake, Ovid, Martial, and nearly all the poets of the
Renaissance, in the same way as Montesquieu,
Crebillon fils, Voltaire, Gentil-Bernard, Parny, &c."
In fact, we may say that the decadent may be
generally recognized by his unsavoury subject and
his superb style. Many excellent persons, believing
themselves to be lovers of literature,condemn decadent
literature on this ground alone, and hold the hetero-
dox view that no literature can be truly great which is
not also truly good. There is a wide margin of taste
in letters as in other things; but those persons
who really hold this veiw do not care about literature
at all—what they like is a popular treatise on moral
philosophy written on the anecdotal method.
With the exception of Mr. Pater and Mr.
Symonds, we have no decadents, though Mr.
Henry James is spoken of as a novelist fin de siecle,
and there is one story about which there has been
a great controversy lately; it is the only work of
fiction a Frenchman would recognise as the work
of a true decadent. But the spirit is here, and in
Mr. Pater's postscript to his delightful Renaissance
will be found a system of ethics that has a large
following in England. Mr. Pater, it may be said, is
among the greatest of our stylists. A writer to the
St. James's Gazette once spoke of an infatuation for
a certain painter, and fin de siecle is an "infatuation"
for all forms of art and all things with form. But
we have as yet no one to correspond to Pierre-
Zoti, Huissmans and Paul Verlain.
LITERATURE AS A TRADE.
{Reprinted from the Sr. James's Gazette by permission
of the author.)
THE day is long past when the Muses lived
in retired and modest seclusion, in a place
that smelt "sweet as the vestry of the
oracles." Those ladies came up to town many
years ago, and are well known to have cultivated
business habits. They are no more afraid of its
being understood that they work for money than
a reduced viscountess blushes to have it said that
she sells bonnets under a pseudonym. But the
importance which they attach to the commercial
aspect of their duties, and their extreme anxiety to
take care of the pence, have never been insisted
upon as they have quite lately. Literature, which
was still looked upon in 1889 as a sort of pro-
fession, is treated in 1890 as a mere trade; and it
seems worth while to note this curious change of
sentiment, and to gauge the effect which it will
produce. The signs of the new position are too
numerous to be overlooked. Mr. John Morley
and Mr. Walter Besant wrangle about the number
of literary persons in Britain who earn a thousand
a year—that very princely sum. A congress of
unfortunate foreigners of dubious distinction, in-
vited by nobody knows whom, meet in the golden
recesses of the Mansion House, and talk in French
for a week, about the way in which more francs
may be secured in this way, and that way, and the
other. And, finally, the columns of the Times
reverberate for many successive days with angry
voices discussing whether or no the chromo-litho-
graphy of a certain " Palestinian" divine (as they
say in America) is properly paid with eight, or
eight thousand, or eight hundred thousand
guineas.
That literary work, like all other work, should
be honestly and sufficiently rewarded, is so obvious
that it seems hardly necessary to go on repeating
it. What appears to a mere child of nature ex-
traordinary is that so great a wrangle and a chatter
should be made about the returns of this one
particular kind of employment. It cannot be on
account of the huge sums involved. A maker of
agricultural machinery or of ordnance, the pro-
prietor of a large mill or of a successful patent
medicine, would scoff at the figures which are
bandied to and fro in the existing discussion. If
money-making is the first object, and if it needs
transcendent gifts to make ,£8,000 in twenty years,
those gifts might surely with advantage be diverted
to the selling of dairy produce. In spite of all
that is said about its profits, literature remains, and
is likely to remain, the only profession in which the
## p. 179 (#219) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
179
most genuinely successful man cannot make a
comfortable living. Not all the optimism of Mr.
Walter Besant is likely to rob it of this unique
distinction. Why, then, are the modest emolu-
ments of such a poor trade the object of keen
public curiosity? This is a conundrum to which
I cannot even suggest an answer.
It may be asked whether I think there are no
abuses in the publishing trade, and whether 1
ignore or depreciate the service of the Society of
Authors. Neither the one nor the other. I am
afraid that there have been, and perhaps even still
are, irregularities and injustices which require to
be remedied. I have been admitted to the debates
of the Society of Authors, and have been proud to
think that I was allowed to share in work so
obviously useful. But I fancy that there are
dangers even in the necessary process of reform;
and I dread that the personal interests of authors
may be given a prominence which will be injurious
to the development of literature. The present
extravagant curiosity about "royalties " and "intel-
lectual property" and the like, goes far beyond the
circle of those who are disinterested trying to
remove certain trading anomalies. It begins to
supersede all other curiosity about literature. This
species of talk pervades what is styled "literary
gossip." Do you know that Orpheus has published
a new volume of his "Argonautics "? Ah 1 that
magnificent passage about the Sirens and the
sunset! And are you aware that he insisted on
being paid five pounds a line for it? You have
seen, of course, the new Nemaean ode that Pindar
has written in honour of young Adrastus, who
won the glove fight at the Cormorant Club?
Oh ! such a splendid stanza about the sunlight
flashing oft* his left elbow; and they say that the
father—the great soap boiler, you know—is so
pleased that he has sent Pindar a cheque for a
thousand pounds! Pindar, very properly, would
not cash it till the old fellow had altered it to
guineas. I venture to ask whether all the columns
of correspondence in last week's Times amounted
to much more than this?
Why such curiosity about literary prices is un-
wholesome is, that it tends to make money the
standard in a species of labour where the rewards
are in no degree analogous to the deserts. It
directly encourages the measurement of intellectual
prestige by the amount which an intellectual pro-
duct fetches in the market. It leads at once to
deadly errors of taste. If gaudy " Lives of Christ"
are valued at ,£4,000 apiece, what is the price of
divinity by a Lightfoot or a Westcott? Four
millions might perhaps be taken as an average
answer, if this is to be a simple sum in the rule of
three. But the retailer of gossip pursues his in-
vol. 1
quiries, and discovers that theology, as it was and
is understood at Durham, is practically not rewarded
at this rate. The concentration of his attention
on price immediately thereupon produces its effect
on his taste. The direct result is that he makes
up his mind to regard the famous Bishops as
persons of very much smaller literary importance
than he had vaguely believed them to be. They
are weighed in the golden balances and found
wanting. They are looked upon as two small
hosiers might be measured by the magnitude of Mr.
Whiteley.
How far we have diverged, in these last days,
from the ambition of Keats, who desired to live
like those primitive Sicilian bards,
who died content on pleasant sward,
Leaving great verse unto a little clan?
O, give me their old vigour, and unheard
Save of the quiet primrose, and the span
Of Heaven and few ears ....
.... my song should die away
Content as theirs,
Rich in the simple worship of a day.
That is the last thing that our modern authors
are expected to be content with. Yet sooner or
later, unless literature is doomed to pass into a
mechanism and disappear, the spirit that actuated
the noble and poor masters of our language must
be revived. It may safely be said that no great
work in prose or verse was ever yet composed
primarily for the purpose of making as much
money as possible. The very spontaneity of the
art would disappear in so gross a fume. Nor will
those men and women who are led by the current
gossip to "take up" literature as a trade, and to
write novels, theology, or criticism, for the sake of
competing successfully with the best-paid favourites
of the hasty public, add anything at all to the
riches of our language. The tendency of the
moment is to reverse the natural order of things.
The principle nowadays is not to write because we
must, and then, if necessary, to sell the product,
but to write for money mainly, and to get praise
and pleasure, if possible, into the bargain.
There should be a little modesty, one feels, in
this pursuit of the guineas. It looks as though
authors were such a hungry set that the mere jingle
of gold intoxicated them. A measure of dignity
must surely be aimed at, even by novelists, or we
shall refuse to be interested in plots that are sold
across the counter like cheese, or love-passages
that are plainly ticketed as "very cheap at 31. i\d."
No one wants to return to the old hypocrisy about
"obliging the town " or " publishing at the earnest
request of friends." There need be no mock
modesty about the processes of literary business.
Manuscripts must be sold, agreements entered into,
0
## p. 180 (#220) ############################################
i8o
THE AUTHOR.
and a proper care taken that the author does not
let himself be defrauded. But these functions
should be performed in private, not flaunted before
the public. I no more desire to know what my
neighbour the poet makes by his verses than I
crave to see the account books of my other
neighbour the lawyer. I am anxious that each of
them should make the best of both worlds—the
world of praise and the world of profit; but I am
not listening at either wall to hear the clink of the
money-bags. It is time that literary people should
be requested to show the same decent reserve
about their money matters which is shown by
doctors and stockbrokers, and shopkeepers.
Edmund Gosse. *
THE FARRAR-CASSELL CASE.
(From the New York Tribune by permission of the
author.)
London, October 13M.
The Farrar-Cassell correspondence has taken, as
such correspondence is apt to, a wide range. The
personal issue between the particular author and par-
ticular publisher gave place, after awhile, to a general
discussion of the relations that exist and of the other
relations that ought to exist between these two in-
teresting classes of the community. Various sorts of
people have taken a hand in it, and their contribu-
tions fillaltogetherrathermore than twelve columns of
The Times. They would make a respectable volume;
very amusing and instructive, too. If any American
publisher likes to act on this hint he may do so
without fear of copyright, or royalty, or any demand
for payment from any author whomsoever; least
of all from the author of the hint. But he should,
I think, have the courage to reprint all, and not
a part merely. Some of the letters, for example,
may not seem to him, or to anybody, intrinsically
valuable, but they are all so connected as to make
one whole.
It might not be easy to say what the impression
of the whole is on the general public. The Times
itself is not a safe guide in such matters. In any
controversy where the interests of trade are con-
cerned, this very commercial journal is prone to
take the trade side. It does so in this case.
There is a plausible case, though not a real case,
for Messrs. Cassell, and the great organ of the
great nation of shopkeepers makes the most of it.
Messrs. Cassell gave Archdeacon Farrar some
thousands of dollars more than they were bound
to give him; therefore they were generous to him;
therefore he ought not to complain. Such is, in
substance, the view of this journal; a view which
ignores nearly everything that has been said from
the other point of view, and takes no account of
the fact that it was Messrs. Cassell, not the Arch-
deacon, who published the figures on one side
only of the transaction, and on the strength of this
one-sided statement appealed to the public to say
whether they had not behaved equitably. The
challenge to set forth the facts on the other side
remains unanswered. We know what Messrs.
Cassell paid Archdeacon Farrar for the "Life of
Christ"; some $10,000 in all. We do not know,
and they stubbornly refuse to tell, what their own
profits were, and their silence leaves us nothing
better than the conjecture of my last letter to go
upon. They are supposed to have made at least
a quarter of a million. Is it, then, an equitable
transaction by which the author of a book makes
$10,000, and the publisher $250,000?
Some of the letters printed during the last week
are written by publishers; not the least interesting,
by any means. It is well when the publisher
unbosoms himself, and states his claim nakedly.
One of them thinks the notion that the division
of profits in this case may have been inequitable
an "impudent" notion. "The creation of the
property was in a very large measure due to the
publishers, and the author was paid all he asked,
and, presumably, all he wanted." Mr. Andrew
W. Tuer, whose view is less extreme than those
of most of his colleagues, says: "If an author is
to share profits with the publisher he must in
equity be made a partner in the business, and then
he shares losses also." This is one of those
arguments which proves too much. Every author
who is paid by a royalty is, in the sense Mr.
Tuer means, a sharer in profits. He is paid in
proportion to the sale of the book. But he does
not share losses on other books. The partner-
ship between him and the publisher, so far as it
exists at all, is confined to the particular book of
which he is the author. If Messrs. Cassell had
agreed to pay Canon Farrar a fair royalty on
every copy sold, his share of the profits might
still have been much less than theirs, but it would
have been a share of the profits.
Among the most cynical of these correspondents
are a firm who sign themselves contentedly
"West End Publishers." "It is believed," say these
gentlemen, "that the 'Life of Christ' was judiciously
advertised, and the work being made well known
by that means in our opinion, made Archdeacon
Farrar as an author." And they ask—the question
is a favourite one with the letter-writing pub-
lisher: "Would the reverend gentleman have re
## p. 181 (#221) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
181
couped Messrs. Cassell for their large outlay if the
work had been a failure?" Probably not, but
whether he would or not the question frequently
and triumphantly as it is put, has absolutely
nothing to do with the point under discussion.
The point is not whether Messrs. Cassell paid all
they agreed to, and more besides. It is admitted
they did, They point is simply whether upon a
voluntary statement by Messrs. Cassell of what
they paid Archdeacon Farrar, and a continuing
concealment of what they themselves made, they
are in a position to ask the public to say that
the adjustment and distribution of the profits
derived from the " Life of Christ" was or was not
equitable.
A publisher asks a similar question: "If I paid
an author 820,000 and lost 810,000 by the book,
would he repay me the difference? If not, why
should I share profits with him if I make 850,000?"
Such is the question, stripped of circumlo-
cutions, and put, I hope, not less pointedly
and not less strongly for the publisher than he
puts it. Leaving the dispute between Messrs.
Cassell and Farrar on one side, the question is
one which a publisher is entitled to ask, though
I do not imagine he will be satisfied with the
answer. For the true answer can only be given
by referring once more to the relations that have
in times past existed, and to some extent do still
exist, between the publisher and the author. It
is, in fact, a question of circumstances. I can
imagine a case in which I should answer yes to
the first part of the question, and say the author
ought to make good the publisher's loss. But
such cases would be infrequent, for this reason.
Nineteen times out of twenty the publisher is a
man of business, and the author is not. A con-
tract is entered into between two parties, one of
whom knows all about the business side of it and
the other knows nothing. The publisher draws
the contract, fills it full of technical clauses
designed to protect his own interest, each one
of them or many of them covering a "custom of
the trade" of which no warning is given the
author. The publisher not only draws the con-
tract for his own advantage, but interprets it by
a code known to himself only. Nineteen times
out of twenty such a contract, in which every
right is safeguarded on one side and none on the
other, is put before an author to take or to leave.
It is perhaps the only transaction among all the
millions of commercial transactions in which one
party has everything to say, and the other nothing.
If the author refuses to sign and goes elsewhere,
he may or may not get better terms, but he will be
in precisely the same position with reference to the
one publisher as to the other. He must, as a rule,
VOL. I.
publish upon the terms of the trade or not at all
Is it then probable that the publisher will have an
equitable claim on the author outside of and
beyond the terms of the contract which the
publisher himself has framed in his own interest?
Is it not, on the other hand, extremely probable
that the author may have an equitable claim against
the publisher?
That is one answer. There are others, but
this is not a treatise on the general question, and
I pass on. It will be time enough to produce the
other answers when a sufficient reply has been
offered to this first. I add only on this point
that I make no accusation. I state what I believe
to be facts. I assume that the publisher acts
after his kind, and up to the standard of his pro-
fession. "Business men," writes another of these
numerous correspondents, rather forcibly, "are
largely colour-blind when any higher standard than
that of their particular trade is concerned. Every-
thing shady in their respective callings has its
ready defence."
I will, however, instead of going on to another
branch of the subject, as I meant to, and adding
other testimony from other publishers, turn to a
letter which illustrates what I have just been
saying-—a letter which I have read since I wrote
the foregoing. The letter appeared in The Times of
Monday, over or under, the curious signature
"Ellbee and Eebee"; which perhaps might at a
guess be read L. B. and E. B. Some seven years
ago, say these writers, they issued as joint authors
a book on terms which are known as "Agreement
for publishing on commission." They do not name
the publishers. They conveyed to them the right
to act as publishers and wholesale vendors for
Great Britain, the rest of Europe, and the United
States. The authors were to bear all cost and
risk; the publishers receiving a commission of 15
per cent, on net sales, and taking the risk of bad
debts. They add: "This 15 per cent, was subject
to the trade reduction of one-third from the pub-
lished price (thirteen copies being considered as
twelve), with an additional embargo on special sales,
the number of which we had no power to check or
control, at a reduced price. But we were still
further charged the full retail, or, at any rate, the
estimated price on all outlays, of printing, binding,
advertisements, &c.—items on which it is not
unreasonable to suppose the publishers received
discount from the firms they employed."
This book thus published ran into six editions
at $3 75 a copy. A popular edition was then
issued at $1 25, for which the type was not reset,
but two pages condensed into one by taking out
the leads and omitting photographs. Eight editions
were thus disposed of. It was a successful book.
o 2
## p. 182 (#222) ############################################
l82
THE AUTHOR.
How much do you suppose the share of the
authors came to? They shall say.
"We were debited with a considerable sum,
almost double the amount of the original deposit,
and so sick were we of the whole transaction that
we were glad to compromise it by surrendering all
our rights—save the mark! The book is now in
its twelfth edition—it may be even in a still more
advanced issue."
Will some publisher who is fond of letter-writing
tell us how much he supposes the publishers made
out of this transaction? No comment on it or
explanation of it has yet appeared, and I venture
to predict that none will. Yet the publishers'
story would be extremely interesting. Any paper
would print it with alacrity. Or, if the firm with
whom these unlucky authors dealt do not care for
publicity, another publisher's view of the case would
be welcome.
G. W. S.
"AMERICAN AUTHORS AND
BRITISH PIRATES."
ATU QUOQUE retort is, in popular minds,
considered as an excellent and most
effective argument. And in fact it has its
advantages, because, if it is true, it convicts the
accuser of hypocrisy. With what face, for instance,
can we charge the Americans with wholesale literary
piracy, when they can round upon us with the
statement that we are doing just exactly the same
thing ourselves?
Everybody knows that we do practise literary
piracy. But we have hitherto been under the
comfortable delusion that it was only on a small
scale, and in the case of small and unknown
authors. Mr. Brander Mathews, in a pamphlet
issued by the American Copyright League, for the
first time enables us to realize the extent of the
injury and loss inflicted upon American authors by
British pirates. As the pamphlet will not probably
be published here it will be well for us, before we
bring our own charges of piracy, to illustrate the
American case by the actual cases and figures
ascertained by Mr. Brander Mathews. In Novem-
ber, 1874, Longfellow wrote to a lady in England,
whose works had been republished in America
without permission or compensation, " I have had
twenty-two publishers in England and Scotland,
and only four of them ever took the slightest notice
of my existence, even so far as to send me a copy
of the books."
Hawthorne has long been among the most
popular novelists of the time. It would be diffi-
cult, now, to number all the British editions of
Hawthorne.
Emerson, Lowell, and Holmes are also among
the popular writers of the time. How have they
been treated?
As everybody knows, there are a great many
collection of books called "Series" in libraries.
Mr. Brander Mathews examines some of these with
the following results :—
(1) Series A.
(*)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
\8}
9
10)
11)
12)
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J-
K.
L.
No. of books in the No. of American
collection. books.
91 ... 36
19 ... 17
.. not given ... 4
38 ... 30
.. not given ... 7
20 ... 17
27 ... 7
.. 400 ... 30
100 ... 20
79 ... 60
80 ... 65
52 ... all
This is instructive. It is clear, to begin with,
that we must give up using the word pirate in con-
nection with either New York or London publishers.
Henceforth we shall speak of books thus issued
as published-by-permission-of-the-law.
Let us descend to special cases. The following
are some of the little stories told by Mr. Brander
Mathews concerning these publishers-by-permission-
of-the-law.
First, they alter titles. Mr. Bret Harte's name
is affixed to a work called "Tid Bits "; Mr. John
Habberton is made to call a book of his "Rich
Sells and Horrid Hoaxes"; Mr. J. G. Saxe writes
"Fie, Fie, you Flirt"; and Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes is made to produce a book called "Yankee
Ticklers"!
Mr. Noah Brooks's " Boy Emigrants" was pro-
duced in England by the "Religious Publishing
Society," which gave the author a trifling sum for a
preface and nothing for the book. Here we are a
little in doubt. There is no " Religious Publishing
Society " so called, though there are three or four
religious societies which publish books. Which
Society was it? Not the S.P.C.K. They would
not give the author a trifling sum for the preface
and nothing for the book. They would have given
him the trifling sum for the preface and the book.
They are nothing at all if they are not just and
generous.
Of Mr. O B. Bunce's ingenious little manual of
manners "Don't," three editions were issued in
## p. 183 (#223) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
183
England. One of the publishers sent the author a
five pound note. "Helen's Babies " was reprinted
by nine houses here—the author received something
from three of them.
Dr. Holland thought to protect his "Arthur
Bonnicastle," by causing the number of Scribner's
Monthly which contained the last part, to appear
first in London. It was reprinted, however, with
the last part altered and garb'ed.
On mutilation, indeed, which is even worse than
piracy, Mr. Brander Mathews has a great deal to
say.
Professor William Mathews, for instance, has
written two popular and successful works. Both
of these have been republished in this country,
cut to pieces and garbled.
Mrs. Champney's tale, "The Bubbling Teapot,"
is actually printed here with the word "England"
substituted for "America" all through.
Finally, to make an end, Mr. Brander Mathews
states that his own book, "Common Sense about
Women," published in 1881 at Boston, was re-
printed here with a whole third part bodily cut out!
Now Mr. Brander Mathews frankly and readily
admits that the wrongs of English authors in
America are and have been very great. But it is
clear that Americans have also suffered much.
He acknowledges that far greater protection is
afforded by English than by American law. But
before our hands are quite clean, before we can
raise the cry of pirate with clear conscience, we
must purge ourselves of our own piracy. "What we
desire," says Mr. Mathews, "from Great Britain, is
the enactment of a law which will give full copy-
right to every American book exactly as if its
author were a British subject." Exactly. This is
what we must do as soon as we can. Not retalia-
tion in wrong-doing—but an example in right—
is most likely to bring about the understanding we
all desire.
*
THE GERMAN ASSOCIATION OF
AUTHORS.
MEETING AT BRESLAU, AUGUST, 1890.
Saturday, 16th August.
3 p.m. Meeting of the General Management at
Gebauer's Hotel, 13, Tauenzienplatz.
8 p.m. Reception of the Members and Guests
by the Management of the Second District Society,
and by the representatives of the public authorities
at the Breslau Concert House, 16, Gartenstrasse.
To conclude with an entertainment, at 10.30,
provided by the "Breslauer Dichterschule" Club.
Sunday, \-]th August.
8 a.m. Visit to the Breslau Town Hall, con-
ducted by Mr. Maximilian Schlesinger.
9.30 a.m. Meeting of the Association in the
small saloon of the Concert House.
Programme for the Day.
1. Financial Report of the Executive Com-
mittee.
2. Report of the Treasurer and Statement for
the coming year.
3. Report of the Auditors.
4. Election of two Auditors for the year 1890.
5. Resignation and fresh election of three
members of the General Management.
6. Fresh election of the Syndicate's Committee
of Experts.
7. Motion of Dr. Robert Keil:—
"That the General Meeting be pleased to
resolve: taking into consideration that the regula-
tion of Copyright in the German Empire is always
becoming more necessary; taking into considera-
tion also, that the petition sent to the Chancellor a
year and a half ago, in accordance with the Munich
resolution, has up to the present not proved success-
ful; taking into consideration further, that the
resolution arrived at on the 4th May of this year
upon the proposal of Mr. Robert Voigtlander has
chiefly in view the interest of the book trade, and
does not satisfy the well-grounded wish of the
German Association of Authors, as the authoritative
representative of German literati, to be included in
the Committee in question; taking into considera-
tion finally, that the German Association of Authors,
according to paragraph 1 of their Statutes, has as its
object the protection and furtherance of the
interests of the profession of its members :—
"(a) That a Committee consisting of six mem-
bers be elected from the German Association
of Authors, who, with the assistance of the
Syndic of the Association, as a qualified
voting member, shall prepare a draft of
German copyright.
"(b) That the Committee be allowed to add to
their number, by their own selection, from
among the members of the German Associa-
tion of Authors,
(c) That the travelling expenses and other
disbursements of the members of the Com-
mittee be paid out of the funds of the
Association.
## p. 184 (#224) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
"(d) That the draft when prepared be published
by the Committee in the Deutsche Presse,
nnd be submitted for discussion.
•' (e) That the same be submitted to the General
Meeting of the Association in the year
1891, for possible alterations and final
approval.
"(/) That, after such approval, it be forwarded
by the Committee of Management to the
Office of the Imperial Chancellor, with the
request that, upon the codification of the
German Copyright, the said draft may be
favourably considered."
8. Report of the Committee on the formation of
a Provident Fund for the Aged.
9. Report by Dr. Moritz Brasch as to a general
lottery in aid of the German Association of Authors'
Provident Fund for the Aged.
10. Proposal by Dr. Bienemann and Dr. Hans
Blum.
"That the General Meeting be pleased to
resolve further:—
"I. That a Committee of five members be
elected to examine the Statutes of the Association,
in order to thoroughly and minutely investigate
the following provisions—
"(a) The acquisition and loss of membership.
"(b) The privileges and duties of the Manage-
ment and its members, of the Executive
Committee, and of the General Meeting.
"(c) The privileges and duties of the District
Societies and their respective Committees.
"(d) The sphere of activity and the duties of
the Literary Bureau and that for controlling
pirated editions; as also of the Syndicate,
and of the Court of Arbitration.
"II. That the Chairman of this examining and
editing Committee be not a member of the
Executive Committee. In other respects, the
Committee to be free to elect its Chairman from
among its members, by means of voting papers, by
an absolute majority of votes, which may also
be effected by letter. The preparation and
conduct of the election to be entrusted to the
oldest member or to the one whose name stands
first in alphabetical order at the General Meeting,
or soon after the close of the same.
"That the elected Chairman appoint the time
and place of the deliberations of the Committee.
The members of the Committee not residing at
the locality where the meeting is held, to receive
their travelling and daily expenses out of the
general funds of the Association, in the proportion
mentioned at paragraph 21 of the Statutes.
"III. That the proposals for changes accepted
by this Committee, as well as the views of the
minority, should the proposers consider them of
sufficient importance, be published by the Chair-
man in the organ of the Association, and be soon
afterwards laid for acceptance before an Extra-
ordinary General Meeting, or, in the case of a
protracted termination of the business of the
Committee, before the next Ordinary General
Meeting."
Breakfast and dinner, a la carte, served in the
Concert House during the pause in the proceed-
ings.
6 p.m.—Festival of the Town of Breslau, at
Liebichshohe.
Monday, i&t/i August.
9 a.m.—Meeting of the Association.
Programme for the Day.
1. Notice of the allotment of offices among the
members of the General Management for the
ensuing year.
2. Reports of the District Societies as to their
activity during the past year.
3. Proposal of Dr. Robert Keil.
"That paragraph 7 of the Statutes, so far as it
refers to No. 3, be supplemented as follows:
in the case at 3 on decision of the District
Management. Against this decision, 'which
is only to be taken after hearing the accused,
and, in order to be valid, requires a majority
of two-thirds of the voters and to be com-
municated to the General Management
with a statement of the reasons, the accused
is at liberty within seven days to deposit in
writing with the District Management an
appeal to the General Management, which
is bound to allow the accused, who may be
represented by counsel, a verbal or written
defence. The Chairman of the District
Management is excluded from participation
in this decision of second existence. It is
necessary that there should be a majority
of two-thirds of the voters to confirm the
decision of the District Management. Only
after the lapse of the period allowed for appeal,
and in case of appeal, only after issue of the
confirmation to the District Management
and to the accused, can the latter be ejected.
No appeal to the law against the decisions of
the Association can be entertained. Should
a member of a District Society have offended
against paragraph 7, 3, tlie matter is to be
transferred from the Chairman of the
General Management to the Chairman of
another District Society for treatment and
dec.'fioi in the first instance"
## p. 185 (#225) ############################################
THE AUTHOR,
'85
4. Proposal of the Eighth District Society, repre-
sented by Dr. K. von Thaler :—
"(a) That the following resolution be added to
paragraph 5 of the Statutes of the Association,
'The third part of the contributions of
members to be retained for the District
Societies.'
"(b) That paragraph 21 of the Statutes be
altered as follows: 'The members of the
Executive Committee, as also the remainder
of the members of the General Manage-
ment, perform their functions in a honorary
capacity and gratuitously; nevertheless
those members of the Executive Committee
who take part in the General Yearly
Meetings, are indemnified for their travel-
ling expenses, at second class railway fare,
along with a daily allowance of fifteen
marks.'"
5. Proposals of the Second District Society,
represented by Mr. Maximilian Schlesinger:—
"(a) That to paragraph 33, section 1, of the
Statutes the following resolution be added:
'The Aid Fund out of its resources renders
assistance towards the support of members,
who, through no fault of their own, find
themselves in straightened circumstances;
and especially to those who, in consequence
of illness or bodily infirmities, have become
unfitted for their avocations.'
"(b) That the highest amount be fixed which
the District Societies may go in rendering
aid independently. (Paragraph 34, 3)."
6. That the apportionment be fixed which is to
be granted (under paragraph 29, 3) to the District
Societies out of the proceeds from theatrical per-
formances, concerts, lectures, &c, given on behalf
of the Association.
7. Proposals of the First District Society as
regards the organ of the Association, the Deutsche
Presse, represented by Dr. A. von Hanstein.
"(a) That the organ of the Association, the
Deutsche Presse, introduce for the future
amongst its articles only those which have
relation to the social and ethical circum-
stances connected with German literature
and the German literary world; all other
belle lettristic matter, such as novels, &c,
to be excluded. The newspaper to be
viewed as an organ for the furtherance of
the interests of the Association, as an official
medium of correspondence for the authorities
of the Association, and as a journal devoted
specially to the social and ethical efforts at
reform espoused by the German Associa-
tion of Authors.
"(b) That the Association undertake the publi-
cation and sale of the organ of the Associa-
tion.
"(c) That the organ of the Association, the
Deutsche Presse, be forwarded gratuitously
and free of postage to the members, in con-
sideration of an adequate increase in the
amount of the yearly subscription.
Amendment by Dr. J. Riilf:—" That the organ
of the Association be delivered free of charge
to each member by augmenting the amount
of the quarterly subscription by the addi-
tional sum of 50 pfennigs."
8. Proposals by Mr. Ernst Lunge.
"A. I. That the German Association of Authors
may resolve to appoint an Enquete (Commission
of Enquiry) upon the business relations of German
journalism, especially as to the
"(a) Conditions of engagement and of salary of
editors.
"lb) Mode of payment, and tariff for assistants.
"(c) Business usages in the treatment of for-
warded manuscripts.
"II. That the results of the said Enquete be
brought under the notice of the members in a
suitable form.
"III. That proper steps be taken to arrange for
a uniform system in business relations as regards
assistants and editors, or at least to insure this
mode of treatment with members of the German
Association of Authors.
"IV. That the Executive Committee or a Special
Commission be instructed to see that the resolutions
of the Enquete be carried out.
"B. I. That the German Association of Authors
resolve to establish a central station for the distri-
bution of (actual) news, specially for reports on
festivities, noteworthy events, &c, which news
would be afterwards spread by correspondence.
"II. That the German Association of Authors
take into consideration the erection of a telegraphic
central station according to the pattern of the
American 'Press Association.'"
9. Proposals as to the time and place of the
next General Meeting.
5 p.m.—Social Dinner in the Saloon of the Wine
Tavern of Chr. Hansen, 16, 18, Schweidnitzer-
strasse.
7.30 p.m.—Gala performance in the Lobetheatre
(Silesian historical comedy, for this evening.)
After the performance a convivial meeting at the
Lowenbrau, 36, Schweidnitzerstrasse.
Tuesday, 19th August.
Excursion to Fiirstenstein.—Departure at 8 a.m.
from the Freiburger Railway Station (Berlinerplatz)
## p. 186 (#226) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
by special train to Sorgau. From thence at 9.45
a.m. by carriage drive to Fiirstenstein. Ramble
through the grounds of Fiirstenstein to the old
Castle. At 11 a.m. a social breakfast in the Castle
ruins. At 2 p.m. carriage drive to the Baths of
Salzbounn. Social dinner in the Kursaal. Coffee
in the gardens. At 8.30 p.m. return to Sorgau and
arrival at Breslau at 11 p.m.
For those members who desire to visit the
Riesengeberge, the County of Glatz, Adersbach,
Weckelsdorf, and other parts of the Sudeten, it
may be mentioned that the junction with the
Gebirgsbahn at Sorgau must be made at 8.30 a.m.
Those who participate in the meetings will each
have to pay three marks in order to defray expenses.
The charge for the Gala Dinner on Monday, 18th
August, will be four marks each person. Those
who join in the excursion to Fiirstenstein must
pay eight marks, which includes railway fares and
cost of carriage drives, breakfast, and dinner.
It is requested that all communications be
addressed to Mr. F. G. A. Weiss, Chairman of the
Breslau District Society, 6, Kleine Fiirstenstrasse,
before the 12th August. The Reception Bureau
will after the 15th August be at Gebauer's Hotel,
13, Tauenzienplatz, where members of the Associa-
tion may obtain rooms at reduced prices. In fact,
lodgings are amply provided for by the Reception
Committee.
Considering the exceptional importance of the
matters to be discussed, we earnestly request the
members to participate personally in the General
Meeting of the Association at Breslau. We submit
a form of proxy to be filled up by those who are
unable to attend; as according to paragraph 26 of
the Statutes, the vote may be transferred to other
members; we may mention, however, that no
member is allowed to represent more than ten
votes.
With the compliments of the Executive Com-
mittee.
Robert Schweichel.
Berlin, 12/A July, 1890.
AUTHORIZATION.
I hereby authorize, in accordance with paragraph 26
of the -Statutes of the German Association of Authors
to represent me at the
deliberations and votings of the General Meeting at
Breslau on the 17th and 18th August, 1890.
Place and date.
Signature.
*
INTERNATIONAL LITERARY AND
ARTISTIC CONGRESS.
HE Congress met on Saturday, October 4th,
at 3 o'clock, being received by the Lord
Mayor and a Reception Committee.
As already stated it was unfortunately impossible
for the Society to be officially represented at the
Congress, and not a single English man of letters
was present at the Congress.
On Monday the 6th, a report by M. Eugene
1'ouillet on the "Convention of Berne" was pre-
sented to the Congress. It stated that, thanks to
the initiative of the association, an international
conference met privately at Berne in 1883, drew
up a scheme for a convention which seemed likely
to serve as a basis for official negotiations, and
asked the Swiss Government to present it at an
opportune moment to other Governments. Switzer-
land gave her consent, and, having been assured
of the favourable inclination of a certain number
of States to the project, convened a conference,
this time official, at Berne in 1884. It was from
that conference and the discussions to which it
gave rise that the convention had sprung. The
object pursued by the "Association Litteraire et
ArtistiqueInternationale,"andalready accomplished
in some measure by the convention, was the
protection of the rights of authors in all civilized
countries, the passing of laws which would assure
to the author the profits of his work and defend
him against those who enriched themselves at his
expense. Such an object could not be effected in
a day, but only step by step. Intellectual needs
were not the same among all nations; the degrees
of literary progress were not everywhere alike.
The convention of Berne did something to fulfil
this aspiration. It created a minimum of unifica-
tion among a few countries. Nevertheless, it was
of its essence to be revised from time to time,
and in order to bring about such a revision the
association organized a new congress every year.
In regard to the question of translation, a point
of some difficulty, the convention had made a
step in advance by fixing at ten years from the
time of the publication the right of the author to
prevent unauthorized translations of his work. In
1884, the Swiss Government went further, since
it proposed that at the end of ten years the author,
if he had himself published a translation of his
work, should be invested with the exclusive right
of translation during the whole period to which
his right over the original extended. This pro-
posal seemed to be logical, but was thought too
sweeping to be adopted. It was to be hoped
that at the next revision of the convention the
idea would be found to have made headway, and
## p. 187 (#227) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
187
would be taken up by all the countries which had
signed the instrument. Translation was to literary
work what engraving was to painting; it merely
gave sufficient expression to the same thought.
M. Pouillet asked the Congress to pass, as before,
the following resolution :—" Translation is only a
mode of reproduction; the right of reproduction
which constitutes literary property, includes of
necessity the exclusive right of translation."
At the second meeting of the Congress, a
report on copyright in the United States was
read. It stated that the Association heard with
deep regret of the issue of the discussion raised in
the House of Representatives on the Copyright
Bill. 126 members opposed a third reading, 98
were favourable to it, and 103 abstained from
voting. As Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, proudly
pointed out, 13 Bills of a similar character had
already been introduced with the same result—
namely, the positive rejection of any measure
designed to extend protection to non-American
authors. The views endorsed by the definitive vote
were not of a nature, despite the hopes entertained
in Europe, to indicate any progress, however slight,
in the tendencies of the American Parliament;
indeed, some of the arguments employed tended
rather to make the situation worse. It was not
merely the modus vivendi proposed that had been
the object of violent attack, but the principle of in-
tellectual property itself. To all impartial observers
it was evident that the debate was governed by
considerations quite foreign to that principle. The
opposition was determined by two particular motives
—the first, irreconcilable antagonism towards Eng-
land, a country directly interested in the vote, and
the second an intestine struggle between the east
and west of America. The most rancorous
opponents of the proposed reform belonged to
regions the least given to reading and study,
countries purely industrial, where writers and
publishers were seldom to be found. In the
constituencies of these representatives, Kansas,
Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas, intellectual
rights were not tangible and real things. The
people disregarded alike the security and dignity
of authors, whom they treated as speculators and
monopolisers. On the other hand, authors might
be proud of having been defended by the repre-
sentatives of States which constituted the intellectual
elect of the country. New York, New Jersey,
Boston, and Philadelphia had contended for right
and justice, and it was to them that the Association
would owe a crowning victory. It would be of
interest to glance briefly at the arguments advanced
by the opponents of the law. The notion that an
idea once put forth belonged to the whole world had
long since been exploded. Mr. Hopkins, however,
had not feared to take up the most untenable
positions. According to him, authors created
nothing, but simply gave form to elements with
which their predecessors had provided them. They
found their ideas in books, and merely put them in
circulation again. This was equivalent to saying
that a man could not create his house, since he
took his material for it from the earth. Mr.
Hopkins added that a writer worthy of the name
would not work for money. He had to be thanked
for that proof of esteem, but at the same time it
must be pointed out that even the best of writers
had a right to live by his work, like every other
human being. Mr. Hopkins did not seem to think
that in refusing to an author the right of remunera-
tion he was closing the door of a literary career to
every one without fortune and without patrimony.
It was the doctrine of silencing the poor in all its
cruelty. Another argument was that the interest
of an author was opposed to the general interest,
as the remuneration which he claimed would tend
to increase the price of books. Mr. Payson, of
Illinois, desired that even American writers should
not be protected. An author, it was said, "ought
to be a devotee, an apostle who sacrificed himself
to the pleasure of the greatest number. The public
owed him nothing. He was free not to write. If
he did write, the delight of expounding his thoughts
to millions of readers should appear to him a suffi-
cient recompense for his labours." Mr. Hopkins
and his friends said that if they admitted a right in
the American writer to protection it did not follow
that they should do the same in regard to the
foreigner. "What is there in common between us
and other countries?" Mr. Parson asked; "they
take interest in us only because we are a source of
profit to them." The antipathy against England
was here shown in the clearest light. It was
England and England alone that would profit by
the law. Why should America favour the pub-
lishers of the land of feudality? As to the
authors, what good was it to speak of them? They
made money at home. America owed them nothing.
The Copyright Bill had no other object than to
open to foreigners the vast market of the American
reading public, and that without exacting any re-
ciprocity on the part of other countries." One
speaker added that in order to ensure protection
to a foreign author in England it was necessary
that he should live there and take an oath of
allegiance to the Queen, and no one had replied
to such fantastic statements. Americans knew
that in most countries of Europe their rights were
protected even now. In France, among other
countries, was not the principle of protection, even
without reciprocity, embodied in the law? To
speak only of England, what connection was there
## p. 188 (#228) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
between a registration at Stationers' Hall and an
oath of allegiance to the Queen? Had not Eng-
land always offered a treaty to the United States,
and had the Association lost the recollection of a
project submitted for its consideration in 1881 by
the Board of Trade—a project which established
the principle of reciprocity between the two
countries? Let the United States enter the Con-
vention of Berne, and they would at once have a
proof that no condition of a nature to wound their
sentiments of American loyalty would be imposed
upon them. The American people were great
readers, there being scarcely a farm or cabin, even
in the remotest places in the Rocky Mountains,
where a book or magazine was not to be found.
Owing to the present system the works of European
writers had been published at too cheap a rate.
What cost 5of. in England, cost 1 sf. or iof. in the
United States. General Gordon's "Journal,"
worth in London 21s., was sold at Chicago for a
dollar and a half. The protection of the author's
right, it was maintained, would lead to a for-
midable increase in the price of books. It was
singular that in a country which piqued itself upon
being eminently practical, the representatives of the
people in Parliament seemed to be so ill provided
with trustworthy documents bearing on the ques-
tions which they discussed, for a man having any
knowledge of what was going on in Europe might
easily refute that argument. To leave England for
a moment out of the question—the price of books
there, on account of special circumstances, such as
circulating libraries, being high—in France, in
Spain, and in Germany the extreme of cheaphess
had been reached. Where was the right of authors
more respected than in those countries? Could
the Americans cite a single work for which the
author's right had not been paid in some form or
another? And yet, with the exception of some
editions degrand luxe, the average price was 2f. 50c,
two marks, or two pesetas and a half. There had
been published a number of "libraries" at if.
the volume. The masterpieces of contemporary
authors were even republished by Marpon at 60c.
the volume. Was it supposed in America that the
rights of the author were not paid on all these
works? Did not Tauchnitz pay English authors
for permission to bring out cheap editions of their
works? As a matter of fact, were not contracts
daily entered into between the publishers of Lon-
don, Leipsic, and Madrid with European authors?
This was a proof that respect for the author's right
was in no way incompatible with low prices. In
regard to the special relations between the United
States and England, it was to be observed that the
payment to English authors would not be increased
by the cost of translation, inasmuch as the lan-
guages were the same. Belgium arranged with
French authors for the reproduction of their
works on better conditions than Germany and
England. The requirements of the author were
not such that the increase of price would appear so
formidable. The average rate could be fixed at
10 per cent, on the price marked. As a conse-
quence, the book brought out in America for half-
a-dollar—that was, about 2s., or 2f. 50c.—would
go up to 2f. 75c—an insignificant increase when it
was considered that in return for it a great and
admirable country would be in the paths of probity.
Should such a sacrifice be thought impossible?
Let the United States declare themselves ready to
accept these conditions, and they would have the
signature of every man who used a pen.
*
CURIOUS CASE.
VI.
THIS case was only prevented from turning
out a hard one by the agreeable readiness
on the part of the publishers to see with
the author's eyes.
The question at issue was a very curious one,
and one which might often crop up in badly
worded agreements. It was this: if a publisher
has covenanted to pay an author a certain sum on
a certain number of sales of his book, the book
being originally issued at a certain price, can he
raise the price of the book legally, no mention of
the price being made in the agreement and the
copyright being his? In other words, having in
the first instance covenanted to pay a larger
royalty, can he at his discretion pay a smaller
royalty?
This is the case.
An author delivered a course of lectures on a
technical subject, and their favourable reception
prompted him to issue them in book form. He
received a promise of two hundred subscribers for
the book at five shillings each, and armed with
this guarantee against total loss he issued the
book with the best publishers he could have found
for such a subject.
He drew up a contract of which the following is
the abstract:—
a. The publishers shall print and publish the
book at their own risk.
/3. The author shall receive from them five
pounds for every fifty pages of MSS. he supplies;
twenty-five pounds, when the first five hundred
## p. 189 (#229) ############################################
THE AUTHOR
copies are sold, twenty-five pounds for the second
five hundred copies sold, and, in each case, money
in the same proportion for any less number; and
thirty-five pounds for each five hundred copies sold
after the first thousand.
7. The publishers shall keep accurate accounts,
accessible to the author or his accredited agent.
S. The publisher shall have the copyright.
We have here an admirable agreement in its
first three clauses. The idea of the sliding scale
royalty—the most equitable method of publishing
if well carried out—and the demand that both
parties should have access to the accounts of their
joint venture, are both most sensible.
But the author forgot to mention the price at
which his work was to be issued, and he assigned
his copyright unreservedly. to the publishers.
Nothing short of an absolute breach of the agree-
ment could ever regain for him any power over or
discretion in the management of the book he had
written.
There was an understanding that the book
should be issued at five shillings. Under this
agreement, therefore, the author proposes to receive
a small sum down proportionate to the length of
his work, and a royalty of 20 per cent, on the first
thousand copies, and of 28 per cent, on subsequent
editions, the royalty being, as usual, calculated on
the nominal or published price. That a nominal
price of five shillings was throughout in the minds
of both parties, when the agreement was made, is
proved practically by the fact that the author
brought with him to the publisher two hundred
subscribers at that sum, after which the agreement
was drawn by the author himself.
In time two thousand copies were sold.
The publishers then applied for a reduction of
the royalties, stating that the book would not bear
such large payments to the author. This state-
ment they demonstrated by submitting the accounts.
Now certainly a very large sale must be effected
before a book will bear a royalty of 28 per cent.,*
when it is issued at the publisher's expense.
If the sale of the book can be calculated by tens
of thousands, such payments can be easily made to
the author, but here we have a book whose sales
attained only to two thousand copies in two years,
although it was an extremely successful book, and
has run into two new editions since. It is easy to
see that the author had much the best of the
bargain, although the publisher was not actually at
a loss.
The author offered to accept a royalty of 20 per
cent, throughout, i.e., he was willing to accept is.
* Compare table in The Author, No. 2—a leaflet entitled
"Royalties "—and " Methods of Publishing," p. 68.
per copy for every copy sold. The publishers
wished to reduce his share to gd. per copy. To
this demand the author refused to accede. When
the third edition appeared, it was issued at a nominal
price of 7s. 6d. It will be seen at once that this
change reduced the author's royalty at a stroke
from the 28 per cent, designed in the agreement,
to under 20 per cent.
Was the publisher's action legal?
The agreement enacted that ^35 should be
paid for every 500 copies sold over the first 1,000.
That is all, and that was done. The agreement
said nothing whatever about the price at which
these copies were to be sold—a most foolish
omission. But there is distinct evidence that the
agreement was drawn upon the mutually understood
basis of a nominal price of 5.?. for each copy.
Did therefore the raising of the price to 7*. 6d.
constitute a breach of agreement, under which
the author could regain possession of his copyright,
and make other arrangements for publication?
We were advised that such a view was tenable.
The publishers, also advised, did not share this
view, but expressed themselves willing to enter into
a new contract, whereby the royalty paid to the
author should be always 20 per cent, of the nominal
price of the work, whatever that price might be,
and an agreement was duly signed upon those
lines.
To us it seems that it is a most instructive case.
We have often been told, and have often read,
(this is when we are being called grasping), that no
case is on record where an author has foregone any
advantages he may have obtained over a publisher,
and are requested to remember that publishers
have done this thing scores of times for authors.
Here is an author, who seeing that his book
would not bear a royalty of 28 per cent., voluntarily
consented to its being lowered.
We have been assured that no publisher who
respected himself would allow his books to be
inspected by an author or an author's agent.
(This is when we are being called meddlesome.)
Here is a publisher—and there are many such—
who inserts a clause giving this right in his agree-
ment.
Once again a badly worded agreement has
brought trouble. Once again an unreserved assign-
ment of the copyright to the publisher has made
the trouble acuter.
It is very gratifying that the case has been
brought to an amicable termination.
## p. 190 (#230) ############################################
190
THE AUTHOR.
THE AMERICAN TONGUE.
THE New York Herald has sent, through its
London correspondent, a circular asking
a few questions. He proposes to write
an article on "American English," and desires to
incorporate in it the views of English men of
letters. The questions are as follows :—
1. VVhether you think that the English language
has suffered in its purity and elegance by
transplantation to American soil?
2. Whether you regard the "Yankee twang"
and "Yankee slang" as unfortunate lin-
guistic developments?
3. Whether you think that the best classes of
American men and women speak with less
refinement than corresponding classes in
England?
I lay these questions before the readers of The
Autlwr. They may perhaps be inclined to answer
them. The address of the New York Herald is
no, Strand, W.C.
The development of the - language on the other
side of the Atlantic for nearly three hundred years
for the most part with no influence at all of one
country upon the other, that is to say, upon the
language of the common people, requires a philolo-
gist to investigate and to describe. For a hundred
and fifty years, that is to say, from the beginning
of the last century to the middle of this, there was
hardly any emigration from this country; very few
Americans ever came here, very few Englishmen
ever went to America. After the War of Indepen-
dence, the Americans simply hated England—one
can never understand why—we need only read
Hawthorne, Thoreau, and other writers of fifty years
ago to understand the unreasoning and childish
hatred then nourished towards the mother country, a
feeling never in the least degree felt by ourselves.
By reason of this long separation, this hostility,
this absence of intercourse, and the lack of any
American literature worth bringing over, changes
in the language of the Americans produced no
effect whatever on this country, while the bulk of
their people, being illiterate, were not influencd by
our literature. Now that our people read American
books by the million, our common speech has
become greatly influenced by theirs. It is from
them, for instance, that we learned to use the
substantive for the adjective—as, a monster bal-
loon for a large balloon. We have learned most of
our exaggerations from them: we have received a
great quantity of new words which are certainly no
improvement on the old—as "boss, loafer, boom,
corner," and a thousand others. We have caught
from them that trick of irreverence which runs
through the whole of American literature. I
cannot say, for my own part, that I think the
language has been improved across the Atlantic.
As regards the second question, the "Yankee
twang " is a mere accident, to be explained I know
not how. The Americans remark our English
twang or brogue, or manner of speech. Formerly,
every county had its brogue. The Cockney twang
which says "laidy" for "lady," "whoy" for
"why," is the Essex brogue.
As for the third question, I am convinced that
cultivated people in the States talk better than those
of the same class here. The reason is that they
think more about their manner of speech. This is
natural in a country where manners alone prove
the cultivation and refinement which are here
taken for granted when one stands on a certain
social level. For the same reason their manners
seem to me in one sense better, because they
think more of manners, yet they are self-conscious,
simply because they do think of manners, while
English people who have been well-bred from
infancy, wear their manners unconsciously as they
wear themselves.
W. B.
*
AN ENGLISH ACADEMY.
THE English writer whose letter to the Daily
Graphic provoked the interesting discus-
sion on an English Academy of Letters, has
been so long in Paris admiring French institu-
tions, that he has had no time to read our
contemporary literature, of which he seems, like
Mr. Frederic Harrison, to hold a very poor
opinion. The question was discussed by Matthew
Arnold in his first series of " Essays in Criticism,"
and the Pall Mall Gazette, in February, 1887,
gave a list of forty names elected by the popular
vote, to form an English equivalent to the French
Academy.
The Daily Graphic has already printed the
opinions of several eminent writers on the subject.
Mr. Leslie Stephen, Mr. Lang, and Mr. Swinburne
have objected to the scheme, and other daily
papers have been occupied in misunderstanding
Mr. Besant. They say he has been clamouring for
an academy. If his letter on Friday, October 24th,
be referred to, it will be found that Mr. Besant
only pointed out what the advantages of an
academy might be as compared with the disadvan-
tages. He did not say that he wished for an
academy on the French lines, consisting of forty
immortals, who were to be regarded as the only
## p. 191 (#231) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
191
representatives of English writers, all entitled to
tombs in the Abbey, and statues in Trafalgar
Square. He sketched out what he considered to
be the functions of an English academy, and
he rather invited the opinions of others than dog-
matised on the subject. Mr. Leslie Stephen was
among the first to respond, and his name carries
weight on any subject connected with English
letters. He dreads the formation of cliques, the
canvassing that would inevitably come about,
nepotism, and the creation of a State convention
inimical to new theories. He only sees in an
academy a society of greybeards, who resent
originality and look with suspicion on a coming
author.
A letter, signed by Mr. Whibley, shows the
absurdity of pointing to the Royal Academy of
Arts as a model. "The English writer" is again
shown to be entirely ignorant of current opinions
in England, when he talks of Burlington House
"as an inducement to do good work, not merely
saleable work, but epoch-making, with the gloriole
of the National Gallery, of which I presume the
Royal Academy is an almost certain ante-chamber."
Imagine our National Gallery, now one of the finest
collections in Europe, choked in future with works
of art now exhibited annually at Burlington
House. The Academy of Arts is a terrible warn-
ing rather than an inducement to found an Academy
of Letters. As Mr. Whibley says, it has resolutely
set its face against new methods and new schools.
Our younger painters of any eminence go to Paris
now to study in the ateliers of the leading French
masters.
Mr. Andrew Lang admits that the technique of
our language might be improved, but at the expense
of its idiosyncrasies, its individuality, its peculiar
genius. Now it is the want of technical excellence,
not only in our art, but in our literature, that the
French are always throwing in our faces, assisted
by a chorus of Philo-Gallic Britons. Mr. Arnold
called this national want a lack of intelligence,
quick and flexible.
Mr. Lang seems to think that professional
jealousies, intrigue, and personal enmity would be
the natural result of an academy, and those
unhappy differences between authors, now, alas!
too common, would only be aggravated.
This is a very pessimistic view. One would
hope that those national virtues of which Mr.
Lang is so sincere an admirer would overbalance
any such evil passions latent, as he would have us
believe, in our philosophers, authors, and historians.
And Mr. Swinburne animadverts rather on the sins
of the French Academy than any possible crimes
or virtues of the unborn English society. He says,
with great truth, "The mere fact that the names of
Honors de Balzac and Dumas do not appear on the
academic register of contemporary distinction, is
enough to dispose of its claims to our notice as a
literary institution," and writing in 1867 he said,
"Does it include one of high and fine genius
besides MeVimle?"
M. Coppe"e does not take his own academy very
seriously, but his remarks are of the greatest
importance. According to his view it has not
influenced a single writer either for good or bad,
but it has supplied writers with the words they may
use without incurring the reproach of using, slang,
and that in England an Academy would dignify the
profession of letters.
M. Coppee has crystalized in a few sentences
most of the arguments that can be said in favour
of an academy.
Slang, whether it be the slang of the Sporting
Times, of the art critic, or the reviewer, always
encourages poverty of language and expression.
All the correspondents have concurred with
Matthew Arnold that the technique of our
language requires a guide ; that genius requires a
rein to direct it; but gentlemen who may be
regarded as literary experts condemn the formation
of an academy on the French principles.
But—and here is another proposition—how if we
were to form an academy, not consisting of our
great creative or imaginative writers such as poets,
novelists, essayists, or historians, but of those
who are universally considered authorities on the
technique of language, criticism, and style, men
like Mr. Leslie Stephen, Professor Max Miiller,
Professor Skeat, Professor Seeley, and Mr. Saints-
bury? It would avoid those jealousies so feared
by Mr. Lang and Mr. Leslie Stephen, and the
exclusion of great names in imaginative literature,
as Mr. Swinburne anticipates. We should not have
people writing and saying "A is a greater novelist
than B; C is a much greater poet than D. Of
course academies always encouraged mediocrity;
there has been some jobbery and chicanery some-
where. B and D to our personal knowledge can-
vassed and squared the Electing Committee." No,
this academy would be an association of scholars
and philologists; its members would be, if I may
use such a term, the "nurses" of the language.
They would encourage the science of letters and
proficiency in expression; they would encourage
that intelligence Mr. Arnold extolled. Scholars
are not made in a day; it would not be in
obedience to a popular opinion that they elected
a new member. They could not aggravate the
populace by rejecting a coming author whose book
had lately taken the town by storm, whom they
believed would remain—promising.
Admission to its ranks would not be a certificate
## p. 192 (#232) ############################################
192
THE AUTHOR.
of immortality, but a certificate of scholarly
proficiency.
We might not agree with its conclusions, but it
would teach us how to arrive at conclusions instead
of jumping at them—the methods of criticism,
construction, and grammar.
If there had been an academy of the precon-
ceived type, would Martin Tupper have died a
member? If he had escaped election how much
abuse would have been heaped "on the old-
fashioned conventional fogies who did not know
what real poetry was." If it had taken him to its
bosom, others more discriminating would have
said, "How very premature! our academy is
truckling to the vox populi." Such are some of the
dangers of an academy founded on the prevailing
notions of such an institution. Mr. Besant suggests
other functions as the duty of an English academy,
but these seem to belong rather to a body like the
Incorporated Society of Authors, as Mr. Whibley
pointed out.
Another point M. Coppee referred to, namely,
the Dignity of the Profession of Letters. In France,
he said, the author is considered in a way he is not
in England. Complaints on this score are often
made. The Bar, the Church, and Medicine are a
kind of passport to a social standing. Why should
not the Arts and Letters be a similar "open sesame."
An English academy, M. Coppee thinks, would
have the requisite effect. No doubt, but it would
create at once an aristocracy in the world of letters
which in England at any rate has up to now been
a Republic. It opens up, however, new paths for
discussion divorced from the immediate question,
"Shall we have an English Academy of Letters?"
R.
*
AN ENCOURAGING EXPERIENCE.
I.
A. B. entered into an agreement with a firm who
proposed to publish his book on the half profit
system " for the first edition." What was meant
by that does not appear. Two years later, no
accounts having been sent in, A. B. found that a
new edition had been issued, without his consent
or advice being asked. The publishers then sent
in their accounts. They stated the cost of pro-
duction, including a sum of ^17 for illustrations
and ^10 for advertising, as j£no. This did not
include stereotyping, and there was a very small
sum for corrections. Of course every item of this
bill, which seems monstrous on the face of it,
should have been examined and audited. They
had sold the whole edition, producing £io. There
was therefore a loss of ^30. They offered to take
over the loss and to buy out the book for £,\o.
This was done, and the book still lives and is in
its twentieth edition.
Moral.—The author should not have accepted
the account without an audit.
II.
The same author was so unfortunate as to fall a
victim to the payment-in-advance dodge. He
paid ^45 down, and was to have two-thirds of the
proceeds. Some time afterwards he received £8.
He then suggested that it would be as well to
spend something in advertising it. The publishers
did so—at the author's expense—and charged him
with .£36 on this account. This, together with a
bill for ^16 for copies taken by the author, made
up a very pretty account. Thus:—
£ s. d.
Paid by the author... ... 45 o o
Do. for advertising ... ... 36 5 o
Do. for copies taken ... 16 2 6
£97 7 6
£ s. d.
Received by the author on
account of sales ... ... 8 o o
Received from private sales,
say ... ... ... 20 o o
£28 o o
Loss of author by the transaction, ^77 is. 6d.
Moral.—The only protection which can be
afforded to writers who fall into such a trap is
the publication of the figures as above. If they
will not deter the unwary nothing will.
## p. 193 (#233) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
QUERIES AND ANSWERS.
By Way of Precaution.
The following is from the Nation (New York),
of October 2nd, 1890 :—
"Two Lost Centuries of Britain," namely, the
period immediately following the departure of the
Romans, is the title of a historical study by William
H. Babcock, which J. B. Lippincott Company will
shortly issue."
I do not know what views and opinions Mr.
Babcock has formed and is about to publish. But
it so happens that I have been myself engaged in
an attempt to restore the lost history of London
during these two centuries. There is only one
set of documents open to those who investigate
this subject, and in case my own opinions should
also be those of Mr. Babcock, I place on record
that my paper was handed to the type-writer on
Monday, October 20th, and has been posted to
the Editor of Harper's Magazine, before I have had
had any opportunity of seeing Mr. Babcock's paper.
Walter Besant.
Hampstead,
October, 1890.
On Accepted Papers.
Will you tell me why writers have to give almost
unlimited time to the editors of magazines for the
publication (and payment) of accepted articles?
To cite from many similar instances. In 1885 a
story of mine was—with warm encomium—
accepted for a magazine "payment on publication."
That story only appeared in 1889—rather long
credit!
In 1889, also with approval, another story was
accepted for the same serial, and I presume I may
look for it in print at some distant period. When
this happens in all quarters, though perhaps not
such aggravated cases of delay as in the case of
the serial I mean, how are writers who are not
millionaires to get on financially? Why are not
short articles met with ready money payments, and
then if the editor chooses to reserve them months
or years, no one is inconvenienced.
This is done in America, but, so far as I have
experienced, not in England, although such short
papers are looked on in the light of " pot-boilers."
S.
An Authors' Club.
October 1.0th, 1890.
In the September number of The Author, and
while referring to the Authors' Dinner, the following
question is proposed :—
"Would it be possible, or would it be better for
us—in our own interests—to meet in any other
way?"
Now, although I infer that the Editor had in his
mind the alternatives of a conference or a con-
versazione when he put this question, I should
like to make a reply on another issue. In fact, I
wish to urge what I have urged before in the pages
of The Author, and that is the speedy formation of
an Authors' Club.
It seems to me almost ridiculous that a city like
New York can have a flourishing Authors' Club,
and that London apparently can find no use for
one. I have no late tidings of the New York Club,
but when I was a sojourner in the States some
three years ago, I know that it was not only an
extremely popular institution, but .hospitable as
well.
A. M.
—*—
The Colonial Custom House.
"I have read the article in the September issue
of the Authors' Society, entitled 'English Authors
and the Colonial Book Market.'
"All the correspondents quoted in the article
assume (with you) that Custom House officers have
both the power and the duty to seize books printed
abroad, in which there exists a copyright. I
believe they have no such right. They are officers
paid a salary exclusively to see that all dutiable
goods pay their duty. There is no duty on books,
and a Custom House officer seizing books would do
so at the risk of an action to which I can see no
defence.
"How many Custom House officers know of what
books a copyright exists?
"I have been referring to the law as in England,
and I assume that Colonial Custom House officers
have the same power only as here.
"C. A. G."
—♦—
The Distribution and Display of Books.
How important this subject is, and how singular
are the ideas of the distributors upon it were forced
on my notice.
Some years ago, on the occasion of the death in
distressed circumstances of Richard Jefferies, the
## p. 194 (#234) ############################################
194
THE AUTHOR.
charming, and in common repute, successful writer,
public attention had been widely drawn to his
case by correspondence and articles in the press,
and I concluded that his books would probably,
therefore, be prominently displayed in the book-
sellers' shops. I went to several large shops in
London, but none of his books were exposed either
in the windows or on the stalls outside.
Ultimately I entered one where I had been
accustomed to deal, and made enquiries. After a
little search copies of some of his books were
produced, among them being an illustrated edition
of "The Gamekeeper at Home," the very thing for
a gift to a child. I bought the copy, the only one
in the shop, and expressed my surprise at never
having seen that edition before. "Oh," said the
young man who served me, "very few people have.
It does not seem to have been pushed. The
public won't buy what they don't see, you know."
"Then," said I, "why didn't you put it in your
window?" "Oh, we only put books in the window
for which there is a demand." I pointed out the
contradiction between his preaching and his prac-
tice, but he cut me short with a "Well, sir, it's our
rule, that's all I know. Besides, it's an old book
now."
C. W. Radcliffe Cooke.
—«—
Query.
"In a collection of Sonnets published many
years ago—my copy of which has long been lost—■
was a sonnet 'by A. Tennyson,' of which I re-
member so much :—
"Poland.
"Sound ye the trumpet; summon from afar
The hosts to battle; be not bought and sold;
Arise, brave Poles, the boldest of the bold!
O, for the days of Piast, ere the Czar
Grew to this strength among his mountains cold
When, even to Moscow's battlements, were rolled
The growing murmurs of the Polish war,
Now must your noble anger blaze out more
Than when Zamoyski [Zmole ?] the Tartar clan
• • • • #
* # • * *
Or later, when, upon the Baltic shore,
Boleslas smote the Pomeranian.
"What was the word to which I have affixed a
note of interrogation, and what were the tenth and
eleventh lines?
ib/h October. "H. G. Keene."
Roman Numerals.
"The question as to Roman numerals was one
of the puzzles of my childhood. But did not the
Romans use an abacus to calculate with? The
Japanese do, or did a few years back, and their
numbers do not admit of being added up in
columns.
"L. M. S."
«
The method of multiplication in Roman
numerals will be understood by considering that
the rotation is not decimal, but additive.
Thus—dcviii x ix. may be effected in the
following manner:—
VIII X IX = LXXII.
C X IX = LCCCC.
D X IX = MMMML.
And the total obtained by adding is :—
MMMMLCCCCII.
DOCTORESS?
"If it were advisable to add a feminine termina-
tion to doctor, would it not be better to use 'ess,'
which is generally employed in English, rather than
the German 'inn,' which we only have in a modified
form in words translated from the German, as ' Mar-
gravine ' ?" L. M. S."
Literary Methods.
"I have no intention of entering into the
controversy as to Mr. Bainton's pamphlet, but
should like, if you will allow me, to tell an anecdote
apropos of it, which some who were at Brasenose
at the time when it occurred, will still remember.
"The then Bursar, jealous for the credit of his
cuisine, desired ardently the receipt for a certain
fondu, for which another college was famous. He
therefore, made acquaintance with the rival cook,
and after much amiable conversation, said cordially,
'By the way, I daresay you would tell me how you
make that of fondu yours.' 'Well, sir,' answered
the cook, frankly, 'I've no objection; I take such
and such materials.' 'So do we. You must do
something else?' said the Bursar. 'No, sir, I only
use those I mentioned, and then I puts them into
the fondoo dish and Ifondoos them'
"That was all; he 'fondooed them,' but how,
he could not explain, nor could the Bursar
discover.
"There are things which may be analysed and
told, and yet can only be done by the expert, who
in this case is the author.
"The Author of ' Mademoiselle Mori. '"
## p. 195 (#235) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
THE LATE REV. HENRY WHITE.
THE first meeting of the Incorporated Society
of Authors was held in November, 1883,
at the offices of the Social Science Society
at the Adelphi. In the assembly there was no
figure more conspicuous than that of the Rev.
Henry White, Chaplain to the Queen, and to the
Speaker of the House of Commons. He had to
move a resolution on the occasion, but with charac-
teristic modesty, was content to do so without
making a speech. Mr. White's connexion with
literature pure and simple was but slender. He
had published a sermon or two, and had edited a
volume written by his Curate; but there was no
preacher in London, with the exception perhaps Of
Canon Liddon, whom literary men were more de-
sirous of " sitting under." He had undergone the
experience of other literary men, although in a
modified way, and was well acquainted with the
necessity which existed among authors for some
such organization as that offered by the establish-
ment of this Society. From the first, then, he
became and remained a sympathetic and indus-
trious member, and often expressed himself as
pleased with the share he had taken in promoting
the movement. Mr. White's literary tastes were
unerring, for without being critical in the strict
sense of the word, his reading traversed an enor-
mous field, and wasentirelydevoted to theillustration
of the subjects on which he touched in his sermons.
He was extremely fond, in the pulpit, of making
quotations from the thoughts of others, whom he
esteemed greater than himself, and whom he always
quoted by name. In this way the newspapers of
the day came under contribution, and The Times,
The Saturday Review, even Punch, were frequently
named in their turn with Fenelon, Hyacinth, Mr.
Spurgeon, and Cardinal Newman; in fact, the
skeleton of the sermon was all his own, but it was
like one of those Egyptian mosaics which so closely
resemble cloisonnee enamel, where the framework
is of gold, and the interstices are filled with precious
stones. He was fastidious, though as we have said,
not critical, and contrived to keep together for a
protracted period—he was thirty years at the
Chapel Royal, Savoy—a congregation composed of
Cabinet Ministers, eminent actors, journalists,
doctors, lawyers, and artists, ladies of every rank,
and the tradespeople of the precinct. The most
striking characteristic, which all now dwell upon
who cherish his memory, was an unfailing sympathy
with any who were in trouble. Those who knew
him best loved him most. He was a man who was
not to be "found out." He was as transparent as
sunshine, except in relation to the secrets of others
intrusted to him.
vol. I,
There is little to say with regard to Mr. White's
life, except in connexion with the Savoy, to which
he was appointed soon after taking orders. He
lived and died at the top storey of 4, Lancaster
Place, in the precinct. From this modest centre he
wove a web which seemed to embrace, and we may
confidently say, largely influenced, London Society.
This influence did not come from money or ex-
ceptional talent, or even position. It was the
result of that charity that hopeth all things, believeth
all things. By this he forged a chain of love which
even death has not been able to break—for, being
dead, he yet speaketh.
W. J. I.OFT1E.
*
AT WORK.
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society^
who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their
work and engagements.
THE Christmas Numlier of Tinsley's Magazine con-
tains contributions from Miss Mary C. Rowsell,
Austin Dobson, James Stanley Little, and John
Coleman.
Mr. T. Bailey Saunders will bring out immediately a fourth
volume of his selections from the Essays of Schopenhauer.
Mrs. Price's last story, "Hamilton of King's," which
appeared as a serial in one of Messrs. Partridge's Magazines,
has just been reissued by that firm in one vol., 2s. 6d.
The concluding volume of the "Henry Irving Shake-
speare" has made its appearance, with an introduction from
Mr. Edward Dowden and a preface from Mr. Henry
Irving.
Mrs. A. Phillips, author of " Benedicta," &c., is writing a
series of articles on Social Bath in the last Century, for
Murray's Magazine.
Miss Mary C. Rowsell publishes with Mr. French (89,
Strand), two Fairy Extravaganzas for amateur [icrformance.
Mr. W. M. Rossetti edits the poetical works of William
Blake for the "Aldine Editions" of the British Poets
(G. Bell and Sons). Mr. Rossetti writes the biographical
introduction. ^
Mr. Augustine Birrell is responsible for the lieauliful
edition of the "Essays of Elia" just issued by Messrs.
J. M. Dent and Co. Mr. Andrew Tuer edits "■ Prince
Dorvs," also by Charles Lamb. The edition is in facsimile of
the original form in which the book was published, and is
issued by the Leadenhall Press.
Eleanor Stredder is engaged in writing a series of colonial
and foreign stories for children for Messrs. Nelson and Sons.
The first, "Jack and his Ostrich," appeared last Christmas.
The second, "Archie's Find: A Story of Australian Life,"
is just ready.
Mr. J. A. Blaikie's volume of Poems will lie issued
immediately by Messrs. Percival and Co., Covent Garden.
Mr. Walter Besant is writing a series of papers on London
at various periods, for Harper's Magazine. They will
probably be published in the course of next year.
?
## p. 196 (#236) ############################################
196
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Loftic's "London City" (Tuer and Co.) is very
nearly ready.
William Westall has written, specially for the Manchester
JVeeily Times, a Christmas story, entitled " In Queer Street."
The same author and Stepniak, encouraged by the success
of "The Blind Musician," are translating, in collalx>ration,
another of Korolenko's Russian stories.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Armstrong, Frances. The Fortunes of Ruby, Paul and
Diamond. Hogg. Is.
Besant, Wai ter. Armorcl of Lyonnesse. 3 vols.
Chatto and Windus. £1 lis. 6V/.
Birrell, Augustine. Obiter Dicta. Second scries.
Third edition. Elliot Stock. $s. and 6s.
Bramston, M. Dangerous Jewels. National Society.
Buchanan, Robert. The Moment After: A Tale of the
Unseen. Heinemann. 10s. 6d.
Buckton, 0. B., F.R.S. British Cicada:. Illustrated.
Vol. I. Macmillan and Co. £1 13*. 61/.
Cressweli , Henry. Sliding Sands. 3 vols. Hurst and
Blackett. ,£1 nr. 6<l.
Croker, B. M. Two Masters: A Novel. 3 vols. F. V.
White. £1 lis. 6d.
Daudet, Ai.phonse. Kings in Exile. Routledge. 2s-
Haggard, H. Rider. Dawn. New edition. S. Blackett.
3*. 6d.
Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the
De Stanleys: A Story of To-day. New edition. Low.
2s. and 2.(. 61/.
IIarte. Bret. The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh, and other
Tales. Macmillan. 3*. 6d.
IIoey, Mrs. Cashel. Falsely True: A Novel. New and
revised edition. Ward and Downey. 6s.
Kipling, Rl'DVARD. Departmental Ditties, and other
Verses. Fifth edition. Thacker. 5*.
Soldiers Three; The Story of the Gadsbys; In Black
and White. I vol. Low. 31. 6</.
Wee Willie Winkie, and other Stories. Low. If.
Langbridge, Rev. F. What to Read. Sunday Readings
in Prose, is. 6d. Religious Tract Society.
LYALL, Edna. Derrick Vaughan. I vol. New edition.
Methuen and Co.
Momf.rie, A. Wm. Treadling and Hearing, and other
Sermons: Delivered in the Chapel of the Foundling.
Third edition. Blackwood and Sons. 5*.
Murray, D. Christie. John Vale's Guardian. 1 vol-
Macmillan and Co.
OLiritANT, Mrs. Sons and Daughters: A Novel. Black-
wood and Sons. 3s. 6d.
Peard, Frances M. The Locked Desk. National Society
I'raf.d, Mrs. Campbell. Under the Gum Tree. Trisch-
ler and Co.
St. Aubyn, A., and Wheeler, W. A Fellow of Trinity.
3 vols. Chatto and Windus. £1 iu. 6d.
Stuart, Esmk. The Vicar's Trio. 1 vol. National
Society.
Suter, Julie. Luther and the Cardinal: An Historical
and Biographical Tale of the Reformation in Germany.
New half-crown series. Religious Tract Society.
is. 6d.
Tytt.er. Sarah. A Voung Oxford Maid. Religious
Tract Society.
Nobody's Girls. Sunday School Union.
Footprints: Nature seen on its Human Side. Fourth
edition. Fisher Unwin. 3*. 6d.
Underbill, G. F. The Hand of Vengeance. Trischler
and Co.
Wills, C. J., and Philips, F. C. A Maiden Fair to Sec.
13 illustrations by G. A. Storey, A.R.A. Trischler.
Wills, C. J. In the Sunny South of France. 12 monthly
illustrated articles. Atalanta.
Jardine's Wife. Trischler and Co. 3 vols.
—— John Squire's Secret. 3 vols. Ward and Downey.
New 3 vol. novel. Gardner and Co.
—— Pit Town Coronet. Cheap edition. Trischler and Co.
Vonge, Charlotte M. The Slaves of Sabinus. National
Society.
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of
literary property.
2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws
of Domestic Copyright.
3. The promotion of International Copyright.
The first of these objects requires explanation. In
order to defend Literary Property, the Society
acts as follows :—
(i. It aims at defining and establishing the
principles which should rule the methods
of publishing.
ft. It examines agreements submitted to
authors, and points out to them the
clauses which are injurious to their in-
terests.
7. It advises authors as to the best publishers
for their purpose, and keeps them out of
the hands of unscrupulous traders.
c. It publishes from time to time, books
papers, &c, on the subjects which fall
within its province.
e. In every other way possible the Society
protects, warns, and informs its members
as to the pecuniary interest of their works.
## p. 197 (#237) ############################################
Zhe Society of Hutbors (Jncotporateb).
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
COUNCIL.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I.
H. Rider Haggard.
Alfred Austin.
Thomas Hardy.
Robert Bateman.
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.
Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G.
J. M. Lely.
Walter Besant.
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.
Augustine Birrell, M.P.
F. Max-Muller, LL.D.
R. D. Blackmorr.
George Meredith.
Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S.
Herman C. Merivale.
Lord Brabourne.
J. C. Parkinson.
James Bryce, M.P.
The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
P. W. Clayden.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.
Edward Clodd.
Walter Herries Pollock.
W. Martin Conway.
A. G. Ross.
Marion Crawford.
George Augustus Sala.
Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G.
W. Baptiste Scoones.
The Earl of Desart.
G. R. Sims.
A. W. Dubourg.
J. J. Stevenson.
John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S.
Jas. Sully.
Trof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.
William Moy Thomas.
Herbert Gardner, M.P.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
Richard Garnett, LL.D.
Edmund Yates.
Edmund Gosse.
Bon. Counsel—Y,. M. Underdown, Q.C.
Auditor—Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman—Walter Besant.
Robert Bateman. I Edmund Gosse.
W. Martin Conway. I IL Rider Haggard.
A. G. Ross.
Solicitors.
Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.
J. M. Lei.y.
Sir Frederick Pollock.
OFFICE&
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
## p. 198 (#238) ############################################
198
ADVERTISEMENTS.
TYPE-WRITING. I MISS ETHEL DICKENS,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED,
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND
Writings by Post receive prompt attention.
(Over the Office of “ All the Year Round”).
SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY.
MSS. copied. Price List on application.
MRS. GILL,
MISSES ERWIN,
TYPE:WRITING OFFICE,
13, DORSET STREET, PORTMAV SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from
I/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy
(carbon) supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many
well-known Authors and Publishers,
Further particulars on application.
TYPE - WRITING & SHORTHAND.
MISS GILL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES
6, ADAM STREET,
STRAND, W.C.
.
EDITED BY
T
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T.
A
E
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JO, DARKE, M.T.S.,
LION CHAMBERS, * BROAD STREET,
“The best of all Journals."
BRISTOL.
Published every FRIDAY, price 2d.
The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY,
NEATNESS, RAPIDITY, and Ease of Manifolding.
DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E.
Now is the time to subscribe.
AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the
A New Vol. commenced
Publisher.
4th April, 1890.
Companies Reports and patent @gento*
Send
Specifications Dritten up and
Post-card for
Specimen Copy.
Manifolded.
LITHOGRAPHY froin TYPING done in the best
To be had at all Railway Bookstalls and
Style.
Newsagents, or direct from the Publisher-
MEMORY LESSONS IN TYPING GIVEN BY
2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.
POST. WRITE FOR TERMS.
ESTABLISHED 1851.
BIRKBE C K B A N K ,
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THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.
TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS, calculated on minimum monthly balances, when not drawn
below £100.
STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold.
SAVINGS DEPARTMENT.
For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows Interest, at the rate of THREE
per CENT. per Annum, on each completed £1. Accounts are balanced and Interest added on the zist March annually.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
OW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR
A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate
possession. Apply at Office of the BIRKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOciety.
THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars, post free on application.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SANITARY AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE.
How
## p. 198 (#239) ############################################
A D VER TISEMENTS.
iii.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders.
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace with your
thoughts, the operation requires less mental effort than the use of
a pen, allowing you to concentrate your mind more fully on the
matter you are writing on.
The writing of the BAR-LOCK. TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed
proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving large printers
charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the cost of a Bar-I.ock.
Supplied for Cash, or on Our Easy Payment System by Twelve Monthly Payments
of £1 19s., or on Hire at £2 2s. per Month.
CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED.
THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited,
12 & 14, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22. Renfleld Street, Glasgow; 25, Market Street,
Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne.
Type-Writing Taught by Experts. Author's AfSS. Copied at is. $J. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of
Literary Property. Issued to all members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.^ 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W.. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 3-r.
5. The History of the Socidte" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms ot
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition
preparing.)
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements.
Price 3-r. (A new Edition in the Press.)
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
## p. 198 (#240) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
NEW MODEL REMINGTON
STANDARD TYPEWRITER
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For Fifteen Years the Standard, and
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of the writing machine, embodying the
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AS
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Principal Office-
LONDON: 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C.
(CORNER OF LEADENHALL STREET).
Branch Offices
LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET.
BIRMINGHAM: 88, COLMORE ROW.
MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westminster.
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 07 (November 1890)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 07 (November 1890)
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Vol. I.—No. 8.]
DECEMBER 15, 1890.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT
Published for the Society be
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1890.
## p. 198 (#242) ############################################
| ADVERTISEMENTS.
Berton, Sept ly* 1878 .
Men. Marie, Todd & Co.
Gentlema.
I have seus me of your
Reus, to have a haina mended
trough Men. Horhu, leurs
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You may like to know that
I have ned this feu constantly
formue han twenty years,
time the days of a book of men
called " The Autonakap the
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last Friday without repair and
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lange neember and Enugs ete .
ause thousands of letters...
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har I fue as if the her which
has Canied out to much of
Buy Thought and brought back
. To much in barones forms in
return was entitled to this
Certificat of himnaha kecerca
. Sau, Ceuthen times turly
Diva Wendell Remmer.
.
.
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ILLUSTRATED Price List of Gold Pens will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
## p. 199 (#243) ############################################
Jtttthttr.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 8.] DECEMBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence.
C O N T
PAGE
Conditions of Membership 199
News and Notes 199
On Committee 203
Our Copyright liill 203
"Father Francis," by Walter H. Pollock 205
Reasonable Ladies :— I, by Andrew Lang 206
II, by Walter Bcsant 207
Consolation ; or, the Romance of a Sea-side Library 209
E N T S.
PAGE
An English Academy :— I, by H. G. Keene 212
II, by J. Stanley Little 213
A Reminder 213
A Hard Case 213
In Grub Street 215
Points and Cases 218
1 New Books and New Editions ... 221
I Advertisements ... ... ..- 222
CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.
The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the
1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for
life memljership entitles the subscriber to full membership of
the Society. Authors only are eligible.
Cheques and Postal Outers should be crossed "The Im-
perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch."
Names of those who wish to be proposed as members may
be sent at any time to the Secretary at the Society's Offices.
Subscriptions entered after the 1st of October will cover the
next year.
The Secretary may be personally consulted between the
hours of 1 p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable
that an appointment should be made by letter.
The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured
through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt,
2, Paternoster Square, E.G.
A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for
one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped,
however, that most members will subscribe to the paper.
The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d.t including post.ige, which
may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, VV.G.
With regard to the reading of MSS., the fee for this
service is one guinea. MSS. will be read and reported upon
for others than members, but members cannot have their
works read for nothing.
In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript,
the author should send With it a table of contents. A type-
written scenario is also of very great assistance, for it must
be clearly understood that a practised reader does not require
to read the whole of an author's work before being perfectly
able to give a just opinion on its merits. If by the help of a
scenario the reader can grasp at once the story, he is so much
the more able readily to point out any errors of construction,
and to devote more time to examination of style and other
technical points.
It must be understood that such a reader's report, even if
favourable, does not assist the author towards publication.
NEWS AND NOTES.
r I HE American House of Representatives, on
I Wednesday, December 3rd, passed the
International Copyright Bill. It has now
to be passed by the Senate and by the President.
As it has already passed the former, and as the
latter makes no secret of his intentions about it, we
may consider that the passing of the Bill is nearly
certain, and that it will come into operation in July
next.
It is too early to discuss the possible results
from this Bill. We must first get the Act itself
in our hands. We have written to the American
Copyright League asking for a copy, and we hope
to have it in time for our next number. Mean-
time there is no harm in warning everybody to
refuse signing any agreement which surrenders
possible American rights. One thing is quite
certain, that many English authors are popular in
the States; hut no one knows how far their popu-
larity extends, or who are included. Almost every
living English novelist is included in the cheap
American reprints, even those who seem least
worth reproducing. But then nobody knows who
buys these works when they are reproduced.
Now if one of the pirates—whom we are agreed
to call publishers-by-permission-of-the-law—would
only favour the world with a few figures, these
might be destructive to the vanity of some, but
vol. 1.
Q
## p. 200 (#244) ############################################
200
THE AUTHOR.
would prove a factor of great importance in
obtaining a forecast of the future.
As to American writers and copyright in this
country, a correspondent writes as follows:—"I find
that it is an everyday occurrence for an English
publisher to secure copyright for an American
author by the simple process of registration at
Stationers' Hall, depositing one copy of the book
in the British Museum, and selling two copies.
These are all the formalities that are required: the
residence on English soil is never exacted, and
hardly ever practised. If, as certain Anglophobes
complain, American authors are pirated in this
country, then these latter have their own ignorance
or carelessness to thank for it: English law affords
them ample protection, if they choose to avail
themselves of its provisions."
«
Our own Bill for the Consolidating and Amend-
ing the Copyright Laws has been introduced by
Lord Monkswell in the House of Lords, and was
read by him for the first time on November 26th.
The preamble of the Bill will be found on p. 203.
—♦—
Are we to have a Club of Authors? A good
many letters have been addressed to the Editor on
this subject, since the appearance of the last number.
It is pointed out that the Authors' Club of New York
is a flourishing institution, though there are not in
New York one-tenth the number of authors who live
in London, not to speak of the country generally.
It is also urged that such a club would serve the
useful purpose of a central place for consultation
about all matters connected with the literary life and
profession; that it would greatly assist in bringing
authors to a corporate sense; that it would help to
clear away the darkness in which literary affairs
have been designedly kept: that it would be a
powerful aid in bringing about that respect for
each other and for themselves in which authors
have always been lamentably deficient, so that they
may perhaps be persuaded to cease exercising their
wit in epigrams and criticisms on each other, while
there remain so many other excellent subjects in
the outside world. Also, for country members, it
would be useful to have a place where they could
find a small library of reference, writing rooms,
reading rooms, and luncheon rooms. On the
other hand, it is argued that authors do not want a
club any more than barristers or solicitors—but
barristers have their Inns of Court, and solicitors
their Law Institute; that the older authors would not
come in—but some of them would, and it must be
remembered, that the older men are much more
difficult to persuade out of their old ways than the
younger; that there are already clubs enough—
with other objections.
For my own part I am always prepared to wel-
come and to advocate anything in the direction of
union. Once persuaded that the greatest advan-
tages of independence, self-respect, and assistance
in the conduct of affairs are certain to result from
increased union, those who follow the literary pro-
fession will no longer hesitate to press for union in
every possible way. The advance and increase of
the Society is one way, and the best way of all;
the advance of this Journal is another way; a
Club may be—I do not go so far as to say that it
must be—another way. For there certainly are
difficulties. It would have to be a club of men
and women; but the Albemarle Club has shown how
the difficulties of making a club equally comfortable
for both sexes may be met and overcome. Then
it must be remembered that merely to be an author
would not by itself make one eligible for such a
club. A candidate must be admissible on other
grounds. And it must not be an expensive club;
yet to run a club at all, requires an income of at
least a couple of thousand. It would require a
considerable sum at the outset for furniture—yet
the difficulty has been experienced elsewhere and
successfully met. I think that the best wa/, before
any further steps are taken, will be to submit the
question to the members of the Society, and to ask
those who think thatsuch a club would be a good and
useful institution, having regard to all the interests
of literature and especially to those persons who
have to work alone, in ignorance of affairs, and
without the encouragement of the friendships which
it is not unreasonable to hope would be formed in
such a club. I have therefore drawn up an
alternative scheme. One is for a club pure and
simple. The other is for an "Authors' House,"
the nature of which I have sketched out.
First—The Club.
The Club of Authors would consist of as many
members as the House could conveniently accom-
modate. Perhaps, following the example of the
Press Club, this club could be formed into a
Limited Liability Company, every member becom-
ing a shareholder to the extent of one guinea share
at least. With 500 members at an annual sub-
scription of four guineas each the club could be
efficiently conducted. Perhaps a subscription of
three guineas each would be found sufficient.
## p. 201 (#245) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
201
The club should not attempt to become an
expensive or luxurious dining club, but it should
be possible, as at the Burlington Fine Arts Club,
to order a simple dinner, while luncheon and after-
noon tea should be always provided.
It would contain writing rooms, reading rooms,
a library of reference, a smoking room for men, a
drawing room, a coffee room, a conversation room
for ladies only, and a billiard room, though this is
not absolutely necessary.
It would also be very desirable that the Society
should have its own roams on the same premises.
Everybody would be eligible for election who
was connected professionally with any branch of
literature. Journalists, for instance, would be eligible.
Also every man or woman who writes books.
But no one could claim the right of admission.
The election would be in the hands of the Com-
mittee.
It would be desirable to fix the prices of
refreshments and meals at as low a figure as
possible.
Second—The Authors' House.
I propose the following as an alternative plan:
That a house be taken in the immediate vicinity
of the Museum. Here the rent of houses is
moderate, the houses themselves are good and
spacious, and the situation, though not central,
is not much out of the way, and, for those who work
at the Museum, very convenient.
That the ground floor (or the first floor) be
allotted to the Society for the offices.
That the first floor (or the ground floor), be set
apart, one room for a luncheon or tea room, and
the other, if there are only two, for a reference
library and writing tables.
That the rooms on the second floor, and third,
if possible, be let as private offices or working
rooms. There are many who live outside London,
and would willingly pay a small rent for a room of
their own, where they could work in complete quiet,
undisturbed by anybody.
Let us see how this scheme would work out.
The rent and taxes would cost ^250 a year.
The service, including a housekeeper, would come
to about ^250 more. The lighting, fire, &c,
another ^100. The furniture would cost about
£400. The coffee room would support itself.
Therefore the Authors' House would cost ^600
a year.
If the Society paid £100 towards this for its
own rent, if four rooms were sub-let at £30 each,
there would remain ^380 a year to be found.
Members to the number of 350 at a guinea a year
VOL. I.
each would make the House possible, or if the
subscription were a guinea and a half, 250 mem-
bers would be enough.
In the case of the House every member would
have to be a member of the Society as well. In
the case of the Club that would not be necessary.
When the Society advances so far as to number,
say 1,500 members, such an Authors' House would
be possible without any additional subscription.
With this scheme before them will those mem-
bers who feel willing to assist in founding either
an Authors' Club or Authors' House communicate
with me? I enclose a form for suggestions. And
should either scheme approve itself to a suffi-
cient number, a meeting might be called for the
further discussion of the business. One would
like it considered first as regards the general
question—the best interests of Letters; next from
the private point of view, how it would benefit the
individual.
♦
I think it was Sir Arthur Helps who called
attention in one of his little essays to the diablerie
of printers' errors. A most exasperating error crept
into the last number of the Author. It was clearly
instigated by the printer's devil, who, at the same
time, blinded the eyes of all those who passed the
proofs. The writer was made to state that Mr.
Andrew Lang had "collected Langisms." This
stood for "edited Longinus." No editor can find
any excuse for passing such things; he is always to
blame for negligence; and yet they do get passed.
I suppose everybody can tell of maddening
blunders of this kind. In a certain printed book
for which I am half responsible, one of the charac-
ters was represented by the authors as walking along
the street while meditating a great revenge, and
"smiling all the way." The fiend of a printer
changed it to "smoking all the way"! And this
passed without being seen. In the same book refer-
ence was made to sorrows as evanescent as child-
hood's earache. In the first edition this appeared as
earache, simply by a mistake of the first letter.
The error passed unobserved. In the cheap edition
the printer had, I suppose, a tincture of foreign
languages, and thought the word should be in
italics. It now stands earache, and looks almost
French. There is another book for which I am
also half responsible. The other day an industrious
person sent me a list of about twenty bad printer's
mistakes in this one book, not one of which had
been suspected or discovered. This person claimed
payment for his trouble—which he has not yet
received.
Q 2
## p. 202 (#246) ############################################
202
THE AUTHOR.
I have not yet read Mr. Wemyss Reid's "Life
Lord Houghton." I hope, however, that the
biographer has not passed over the sympathy shown
by Lord Houghton towards the Society at its foun-
dation. He belonged to the older generation which
believed that literature would be advanced by the
union of living writers. He saw the failure of more
than one attempt at such an union. Yet he wel-
comed with generous sympathy and ardour the
renewed attempt, and he spoke in its defence at the
first Function at which the Society was recognized—
the banquet given by Sir Robert Fowler, Lord
Mayor, in 1884. I think, had he been living, he
would have owned that by this time the new Society
has done enough not only to justify its existence,
but also to lead its supporters to look hopefully
into the future. We are no longer making tenta-
tive efforts here and there; we know what is wanted.
First of all—light. Then—more light. We cannot
have too much light. Next, the suppression of
those who will still be talking ignorant nonsense
about literary affairs; on this point enough was
said in the last number. Thirdly, the rescue of those
unfortunates who lie in the hell of the sweating
publisher. Alas! there are many of these poor
creatures. Their relief can only be accomplished
by making the methods of the sweaters known, and
proclaiming their iniquitous gains.
More: we have not only to destroy but to build
up. We have to arrive at an understanding with
the honourable houses as to honourable methods,
conceding what is right to either party, and early
next year we propose taking a first step in this
direction.
We have been hearing from various quarters
that the French Academy of Letters is an effete
institution regarded by nobody, having done its
work, and of no further influence in literature. It
is a curious comment on these assurances that the
papers have been full of the vacancy in this unre-
garded body, and of the chances of the candidates
who desire to fill it. Why all this excitement and
interest about an institution which is moribund?
A letter is going the rounds of authorland. It
begins with a charming simplicity. "I am ex-
tremely fond of getting presents of books from
their authors. May I hope you will kindly give
me one of yours, and add to its value, in my eyes,
by writing my name in it?" The writer sends this
letter, I believe, in perfect good faith, and certainly
does not seem to understand that he is doing any-
thing unusual. Why should not authors give copies
of their works to every stranger who asks? Why
should not the manager of a theatre fill his house
with orders? Why should not a singer sing for
nothing in any village choir? Why should not
drapers present their silk neck ties to strangers
across the counter? And why should not all the
world ask to have everything for nothing?
This is how it is done in America. A corres-
pondent writes :—
"Some months since, a so-called American
Publishing Association wrote, asking permission
to use one or two of my poems in a book to be
called 'The Poets of America.' 1 hesitated, as no
reasons were given, and I had been 'written up'
in 'The Poets of New Enghnd,' 'Distinguished
Women of America,' &c. My secretary sent two
poems after a third request came. Then followed
a request for a photograph. One was sent. Soon
followed a demand for §5 to have the photograph
engraved. I replied, ' Not a penny. I have been
caricatured too often.' The demand for money
was repeated, and by advice of my publishers no
notice was taken of it. Some three or four weeks
since, an Express brought to my door a package of
books with a C. O. 1). bill of $20. I declined to
receive them. A few days later came a letter with
a printed circular asking me 'to write a few lines
to advertise the book, as most of the authors had
done so.' This I declined to do, giving my
reasons. Yesterday, on reaching home, I find a
letter telling me that a package of books for me
are here in the Express Office. If I cannot pay
the full amount on them now, I can pay part and
send the rest when convenient. I have sent the
letter to a Chicago lawyer to deal with as he thinks
best."
We have no Express Office in this country and
no C. O. D. (Cash On Delivery ?) system. When
we have these blessings no doubt the same kind
of game will be introduced among us.
—«—
The following address has been drawn up by
a few Californians. It is an address to the United
States Senators and the Representatives in Con-
gress, from the State of California. At the time
when it was sent off to us the document was in
course of receiving signatures at the University of
California, the Mercantile Library, the Free Public
Library, and certain leading establishments.
Gentlemen,
We, the undersigned, urge you to vote for and
work for the International Copyright Bill, as
prepared by the American Copyright League.
## p. 203 (#247) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
203
We urge it because the present law is legalized
robbery and a national disgrace.
We especially urge it because the better elements
of American literature are being overwhelmed with
foreign sensationalism, and American enterprises
are being destroyed. The works of our own writers,
many of them Californians, are published without
compensation in other countries. Gresham's
currency law works in respect to literature:
the debased currency drives out the pure metal.
Shall the whole warp and woof of the literature
offered to Americans be un-American—and stolen
besides?
We believe that every candid investigator of the
subject will come to the conclusion that an
International Copyright must benefit the American
printer, type-setter, founder, publisher, editor, writer
and illustrator, and finally, and most of all, the
purchaser of books, pamphlets and magazines.
It is simply the recognition of a property right,
which no one denies, or can deny. It will build
up still greater publishing houses, and will ultimately
move the intellectual centre of the English-speaking
people from England to America.
We acknowledge, gentlemen, that we expect
much from you in this matter. You are the
keepers of the honour of the Commonwealth of
California. It becomes you, as statesmen of
liberal education and broad ideas, to represent the
higher interests of the Pacific Coast community.
Believe us, all Californians desire justice to be
done; all Californians desire the development of
American literature. We hope for a united vote
from our delegation for International Copyright.
Since this was sent to press, the news of victory
has arrived. Let the above stand as a record of
the very last effort made in America in the cause
of national honour.
Walter Besant. *
ON COMMITTEE.
THE following Bye law has been passed :—
"Should anyone desire to consult the
Society as to literary work, without having
as yet qualified for membership, the Secretary may
then and there—reporting the case at the next
meeting of Committee—admit him or her as an
Associate only, on payment of a guinea. His
privileges to consist of the right to advice from
the office, and to terminate at the end of the
current year. Such an Associate to have no right
to take part in the administration of the Society."
Members may be reminded that "Associates"
can always be received who desire, by joining the
Society, to assist in its objects, though they are not
persons engaged in literary pursuits. They cannot
be members, nor can they have voice or part in
administering the Society. Two were elected at
a recent Committee meeting, and have become
Life Associates by payment of ten guineas each.
The Report of the Copyright Committee, which
formed the substance of a paper in the November
number of the Author, has been laid before the
Committee of Management.
The Committee have been in correspondence
with the London Chamber of Commerce on the
subject of the Society's Bill for the Consolidation
of the Copyright Law. And as was stated by Mr.
Hodges in the Author for November, there has
been an important correspondence with Lord
Knutsford on the subject of Canadian copyright.
Opinion on American rights in England has been
obtained from Counsel.
At the November meeting, the Secretary sub
mitted a statement of recent cases which the
Society had taken up and carried through, in every
case, with a satisfactory result. In two of them
the Society compelled the return of the work to
the author with the surrender of all rights.
One hundred and six new members were elected
between June 26th and December 4th, 1890.
The news of the passing of the International
Copyright Bill was received at the meeting of
Committee of December 4th. A telegram of
congratulation was sent to the Copyright League
of New York, which has done so much for the
promotion of the Bill. Its President is Mr.
Russell Lowell.
*
OUR COPYRIGHT BILL.
HIS bill was introduced by Lord Monkswell
and read for the first time in the House of
Lords on November 26th last.
The following Memorandum sets out its contents,
and shows the various authorities for the changes
in present legislation suggested by the Bill.
Memorandum.
This Bill is intended to consolidate and amend
the Law of Copyright other than copyright in
designs.
The existing law on the subject consists of no
less than 18 Acts of Parliament, besides common
law principles, which are to be found only by search
ing the Law Reports. Owing to the manner in which
## p. 204 (#248) ############################################
204
THE AUTHOR.
these Acts have been drawn, the law is in many
cases hardly intelligible, and is full of arbitrary
distinctions for which it is impossible to find a
reason. (See paragraphs 9 to 13 of the Report of
the Royal Commission oh Copyright of 1878.)
For instance, the term of copyright in books is
the life of the author and 7 years, or 42 years from
publication, whichever period is the longer; in
lectures, when printed and published, the term is
probably the life of the author or 28 years; in
engravings, 28 years; and in sculpture, 14 years,
with a possible further extension for another 14
years; while the term of copyright in music and
lectures which have been publicly performed or
delivered but not printed is wholly uncertain.
Again the necessity for and effect of registration
is entirely different with regard to (1) books, (2)
painting, (3) dramatic works.
In consolidating these enactments (all of which
it is proposed to repeal) it has been thought
advisable to deal separately with the various subjects
of copyright, viz., (1) Literature, (2) Music and
Dramatic Works, and (3) Works of Art, and to
make the part of the Bill dealing with each of these
as far as possible complete in itself. This will
account for certain repetitions which might other-
wise seem unnecessary.
The alterations proposed to be made in the law
are for the most part those suggested in the Report
of the Royal Commission on Copyright of 1878, and
einbodied in a Bill introduced at the end of the
Session of 1879 by Lord John Manners, Viscount
Sandon, and the Attorney-General on behalf of the
then Government. References will be found in
the margin of the present Bill both to the Report
of the Commission and the Bill of 1879.
The most important of these alterations may be
summarised as follows :—
1. A uniform term of copyright is introduced for
all classes of work, consisting of the life of the
author and 30 years after his death. The only
exceptions are in the cases of engravings and
photographs, and anonymous and pseudonymous
works for which, owing to the difficulty or impossi-
bility of identifying the author, the term is to be 30
years only, with power for the author of an anony-
mous or pseudonymous work at any time during
such 30 years to declare his true name and acquire
the full term of copyright.
2. The period after which the author of an
article or essay in a collective work (other than an
encyclopedia) is to be entitled to the right of
separate publication, is reduced from 28 years to 3
years.
3. The right to make an abridgment of a work
is for the first time expressly recognised as part of
the copyright, and an abridgment by a person other
than the copyright owner is made an infringement
of copyright.
4. The authors of works of fiction are given the
exclusive right of dramatizing the same as part of
their copyright, and the converse right is conferred
on authors of dramatic works.
5. The exhibition of photographs taken on com-
mission, except with the consent of the person for
whom they are taken, is rendered illegal.*
6. Registration is made compulsory for all
classes of work in which copyright exists, except
painting and sculpture; that is to say, no proceed-
ings for infringement or otherwise can be taken
before registration, nor can any proceedings be
taken after registration in respect of anything done
before the date of registration, except on payment
of a penalty. This penally, it should be mentioned,
was not recommended by the Royal Commission,
but is introduced in order that an accidental
omission to register may not entirely deprive the
copyright owner of his remedies. Registration of
paintings and sculpture is made optional owing to
their being so frequently subject to alteration, that
it is practically impossible to say when they are
completed, so as to be capable of registration.
7. Provision is made (in Clause 89) for the seizure
of piratical copies of copyright works which are
being hawked about or offered for sale. Some
such provision is required particularly for the pro-
tection of works of Art, and was recommended by
the Royal Commission.
The part of the Bill which relates to the fine
arts and photography is taken, almost without
alteration, from the Copyright (Works of Fine Art)
Bill which was introduced into the House of
Commons in the session of 1886 by Mr. Hastings,
Mr. Gregory, and Mr. Agnew. That Bill received
the general approval of those interested in the
fine arts; and although it does not altogether
follow the recommendations of the Royal Com-
mission, there does not appear to be any serious
reason against adopting its provisions.
The part of the Bill which relates to Foreign
and Colonial Copyright is practically a re-enact-
ment of the provisions of the International Copy-
right Act, 1886, which was passed in order to
carry into effect the "Berne Convention" for
giving to authors of literary and artistic works
first published in one of the countries, parties to
the Convention, copyright in such works through-
out the other countries parties to the Convention.
By the earlier parts of the Bill, the same rights
are given to Colonial as to British authors; while
* At present it seems to be merely a matter of implied
contract (see Pollard v. The Photographic Co., 40 Ch. D.,
345)-
## p. 205 (#249) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
205
the right of the Colonial Legislatures to deal with
the subject is expressly recognised and preserved.
The Foreign Reprints Act of 1847 (10 and n
Vic. c. 95) is re-enacted in the form adopted in
the Bill of 1879, but it has not been found
possible to frame provisions for the introduction
of any such licensing system of republication in
the Colonies as that suggested by the Royal
Commission. There appear to be great difficulties
in providing for the practical working of any such
system, and even if they could be overcome, it is
felt that while it is more than doubtful whether the
colonial reader would benefit to any great extent,
the British copyright owner must suffer con-
siderable loss.
With regard to Registration, the Bill (as was
recommended by the Royal Commission) provides
for the establishment of a Copyright Registration
Office, under the control of Government, in lieu of
the present office at Stationers' Hall, established
under 5 and 6 Vict. c. 45. This office has even
under the present law been found inadequate, and
would be still more so upon the introduction of
compulsory registration in all cases.
It is felt, however, that the details and form-
alities of any scheme of registration can only be
satisfactorily settled by Government officials, and
the provisions of Part V of the Bill are put forward
rather by way of suggestion than as a definitely
settled scheme. It will probably be found desir-
able either now or hereafter to combine the Copy-
right Registration Office with the Registry of
Designs and Trade Marks, and this part of the
Bill has, therefore, as far as possible, been modelled
on the corresponding provisions of the Patents
Designs and Trade Marks Act, 1883.
The chief points on which the recommendations
of the Royal Commission are departed from in the
present Bill are as follows :—
1. The Commissioners recommended that the
universities and libraries (other than the
British Museum) which are now entitled to
receive a copy of every book published in
the United Kingdom, should be left to
purchase the books they required in the
market, and that their present privilege
should be taken away. But from com-
munications which have been received from
the librarians, it appears that they are most
anxious to retain their present privilege;
that the libraries could not be properly
supplied if it was abolished, and that the
cases in which it can cause any real hard-
ship are very few. The Bill, therefore,
provides for the continuance of the supply
to these institutions.
2. With regard to the Fine Arts, the Com
missioners were of Opinion that the copy-
right in paintings, &c, should pass to the
purchaser unless specially reserved to the
artist. Under-the Bill, however, the copy-
right will remain in the artist, unless ex-
pressly assigned to the purchaser. This, it
is believed, is in accordance with the general
wish of artists, and as no replica can be
produced without the consent of the owner
of the original painting, no injury will be
inflicted on purchasers, who will moreover
have the right (under section 46) of pre-
venting unauthorised reproductions, even
though they have not (as of course it will
be open to them to do) taken an express
assignment of the copyright. Practically
the only effect of the artist retaining the
copyright after parting with the picture,
will be to give him a control over its re-
production by engraving or otherwise, and
this control it seems proper that he should
have.
3. The exception made in the Act, 5 and 6 Will.
IV c. 65, with respect to lectures delivered
in universities and elsewhere, is not pro-
posed to be re-enacted in the present Bill.
What the exact meaning and effect of that
exception may be seems to be far from
clear (see the observations of the Lords in
Caird v. Sime, L.R. 12 App. Ca. 326),
and moreover, it does not by any means
seem to follow that because a lecture is
delivered in a university, or in virtue
of an endowment or foundation, the
lecturer should be deprived of rights con-
ferred on all other lecturers whether they
are paid for their services or not.
4. The omission of any provisions for the
.introduction of a licensing system into the
Colonies; and
5. The right given to a copyright owner of
taking proceedings in respect of infringe-
ments, committed before he registers his
title on payment of a penalty, have been
already noticed and explained.
FATHER FRANCIS.
ICOME your sin-rid souls to shrive—
Is this the way wherein ye live?"
We lightly think of virtue,
Enjoyment cannot hurt you.
## p. 206 (#250) ############################################
206
THE AUTHOR.
"Ye love. Hear then of chivalry,
Of gallant truth and constancy."
We find new loves the meetest,
And stolen kisses sweetest.
"Voices ye have. Then should ye sing
In praise of heaven's mighty king."
We deem it is our duty
To chant our darlings' beauty.
"Strait are the gates of worldly pleasure,
The joy beyond no soul can measure."
Alas! we are but mortal,
And much prefer the portal.
"Nay, sons, then must I leave ye so,
But lost will be your souls, I trow."
Nay, father, make you merry;
Come, drawer, bring some sherry.
"Me drink? Old birds are not unwary,
Still less—ha !—well, 'tis fine canary."
Mark how his old blood prances—
A stoup for Father Francis!
"Your wine, my sons, is wondrous good,
And hath been long time in the wood."
Mark how his old eye dances—
More wine for Father Francis!
"A man, my sons—a man, I say,
Might well drink here till judgment day."
Now for soft words and glances
But where is Father Francis?
"Heed me, my sons, I pray, no more;
I always sleep upon the floor."
Alas! for old wine's chances,
A shutter for Father Francis!
(From "OLD and New." By Walter /ferries Pollock.
Eden, Remington &• Co.)
*
REASONABLE LADIES.
I.
In commenting on some remarks of mine about
literature as a profession, you write thus :—•
"Lastly, I have had many letters from ladies
calling indignant attention to one clause which I
regret to see at the close of the paper. 'As far
as I can see, the authors who do suffer are those
who should receive .£3 10s. 6d. and only get
js. 41/. . . . Their work is worth very little,
and they get even less. . . . Generally, they
are women easily "put upon" and rather unreason-
able.' 'Why,' ask my correspondents, 'should
not even a woman demand and receive justice?
Why should she take 7-f. ii,d. when \os. Gd. is
due to her?' Really one cannot give any reason.
And considering that the poor wretch who steals
a handkerchief worth twopence is sent to prison as
much as the bold burglar who robs a bank, there
does seem no reply to this question."
But, may I ask, are the many ladies who write
these letters reasonable themselves on this occasion?
"Why should not even a woman demand and re-
ceive justice?" cry these correspondents. Why not,
indeed? These ladies argue as if I had said that a
woman who deserved ^3 \os. 6d. might justifiably
be put off with 7*. t\d. But I never, never said
anything of the kind. It is the favourite feminine
fallacy, Ignoratio clenchi, that these nymphs em-
ploy. I said that writers of little pecuniar}' value,
so to speak, are the writers who suffer. I did not
say that they ought to suffer, nor that it did not
matter if they did suffer. Very far from it. My
article is not here, but dimly I remember observing
that the Society of Authors found most of its work
in looking after these cases. I may be wrong
about that, I only judge by what I read in your
agreeable serial. In any case to look after the
authors who are defrauded of some two or three
pounds is a chivalrous and necessary task. My
point was that it is those writers, not the authors
of more successful, possibly of better work, who
need to be protected. You do not agree with me;
however, that is my opinion. I sincerely believe
that men and women who have brains enough to
write moderately profitable works, have also brains
enough to make proper arrangements with their
publishers if they are not too indifferent. In
that case they are like the man wrho fishes with
rotten tackle, and gets broken by his salmon. It
is their own fault. It is, I repeat, the others who
need assistance and advice, and I consider that
the Society is doing a kind work in helping them.
If the Society would only induce myriads of them
not to write huge worthless novels, the Society's
action would be still more valuable. But is it
reasonable, now, for ladies to argue as if I had said
that women should not receive justice? That
is exactly the way in which many women argue.
They don't reply to your contention, but they
invent something else which they erect as your
position, and then they attack that airy fortress of
their fancy. Sir, you know the heart of woman a
deal better than I do, and you are well aware that
it is infinitely better than her head. She jumps at
the notion that I said something cruel, and she is
"indignant" with me, for what I never said at all.
By all means secure their rights for authors, male
or female, whose rights are not great, reckoned in
## p. 207 (#251) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
207
money. These, in my poor opinion, are almost
the only kind of authors who get much less than
their dues, and, in a literary sense, their work is
generally unimportant. Justice to them is not
unimportant.
Of course I do not mean that only women are
unreasonable. Any author, of whatever sex, is
unreasonable who, having covenanted to do a job
for a given sum, grumbles because he did not get
more than he bargained for. Like most penmen,
I have done jobs out of which the publisher
probably made a much greater profit than the sum
which he offered, and which I took. Rut then one
has done other jobs out of which the publisher
made no profit at all, by which, indeed, he lost
money. Should I have returned him his fees?
To tell the truth I did twt return them; and I
fancy that he would not have permitted me to do
so. We never have a reasonable right to grumble,
after getting all we asked for, unless we also return
our fees when the speculation is unsuccessful. I
believe Collins did this: the example was unusual.
By the way, to relieve one's mind, is the
Religious Society—the S.P.C.K.—which pays its
authors so small a proportion of its profits, as you
say, so beyond all language vile, after all? How
much do many of those authors contribute to the
success of their own books? They have a huge
sale, let us put it, but if the authors command a
huge sale, why should they not, if dissatisfied, carry
their MSS. to Bacon or to Bungay, who will treat
them moderately well?
Why should they remain under the rod of bishops
and other pious malefactors? Is it possible that
the Society, not the authors, provides the public,
that the Society can vend any quantity of wares
which would lie for ever unsold on the shelves of
Bungay or of Bacon? I only ask for information.
May it not be that the Society can sell bales and
tons of twaddle which any man, womar, or child
could write, " if he abandoned his mind to it," but
which the public will only accept from the Society?
If not, why, once more, do not the Society's authors
revolt, and secede to Paternoster Row? If it is
their books that the public desires, the public will
as readily purchase from Bungay as from the
Society. But if all that this very peculiar public
wants is a book with S.P.C.K. on the title-page,
then the book may be worth no more, as work,
than the author gets for it. This view of the case
is, at least, worth considering. There may be
some mystery in the matter which one cannot
fathom. But I still do not understand if Miss
Bunnion's " Little Totty," published by the S.P.C.K.
sells 40,000 copies, why Miss B., if unsatisfied with
her reward, does not simply take her next work,
"Billy Boy," to a more righteous bookseller. There
must be competition for the work of so popular an
author, unless, indeed, the popularity is given merely
by the magic letters S.P.C.K. If that be the case,
don't you see that the S.P.C.K is the proprietor of
its own charm, that the genius of Miss Bunnion
has nothing to do with it, that anyone with a pen
and a vein of mild narrative would suit the Society
just as well?
It is not that I grudge Miss Bunnion her fair
share of the profits, say two-thirds. I wish with all
my heart that she got them. But I can see what
sort of explanation of its behaviour the S.P.C.K.
might make, if the circumstances are really those
set forth in this hypothesis. The Society may say,
"the value of these works is a value of our creation.
We, and we alone, have made this funny public,
have created this queer demand. From us the
public will buy Miss Bunnion's artless legends as
readily as if she had the genius of Scott or Fielding,
whereas, except from us, nobody will buy Miss
Bunnion at all." It is a curious state of the literary
market; perhaps it is a fanciful state, a mere myth.
But if it isamyth,why ah! why, do not the S.P.C.K.
authors go to other publishers, all of them pining for
popular copyrights? These remarks, of course, apply
only to one of the charges against the S.P.C.K., if
they apply to that even, which is just what I want
to know. A popular author can strike without any
union, without injuring trade, without making a
disturbance. He merely carries his wares across
the Row, to the other firm of publishers. But if it
is the publishers who are popular, not the author,
then the case is very different; then the question of
raising the author's wages becomes one, not of
trade, but of honourable feeling—a scarce article.
A. Lang.
II.
Mr. Andrew Lang's letter, like everything that
he writes, will be read with great interest.
He takes, however, the line that may be ex-
pected of those who have not had the advantage
of being able to ascertain the facts. His view is,
briefly, as follows :—
1. The writers who suffer are those only whose
books possess little pecuniary value.
2. Anyone who contracts to do a piece of
work for a certain sum must keep to his
agreement, and has no right to grumble.
3. The S.P.C.K. publishes nothing but goody
goody rubbish, beneath the contempt of
reasoning beings, and has a large market
for their trash because the letters S.P.C.K.
are on the title-page. Therefore the value
## p. 208 (#252) ############################################
208
THE AUTHOR.
of this stuff is not in the producer or the
production, but in the publisher.
4. If the writers for the S.P C.K. are discon-
tented, they can carry their MSS. elsewhere.
5. Men and women who have brains enough
to write profitable work, have also brains
enough to make proper arrangements with
their publishers, if they are not too in-
different.
I think that this is a fair resume of the above.
(1.) Clauses 1 and 5 may be answered together.
Not only those whose work is of little value, but
all who write books have hitherto suffered from
the disadvantage of being called upon to sign
agreements in which the meaning of the clauses
as they affect the other party has been carefully
concealed from the author.
For instance, when a royalty was offered, what
data, before our publications, had the author to
go upon in arriving at what he conceded and what
he received?
Those, in fact, have suffered most whose writings
have commanded the greatest amount of success.
Take, however, the case in Mr. Lang's mind of
the ladies whose work he thinks possess little
value. The words "little" and " great" are elastic.
To a modest gentlewoman whose wants are
covered by a hundred pounds a year, that amount
is not little. Now there are scores of ladies whose
works produce—but not to them—a great deal
more than that amount.
There is no risk in producing their books; the
publisher knows very well the minimum that he
can depend upon. What are we to say, then, of
people who, knmving this minimum, which they
carefully hide from the author, give her a tenth, or
a twentieth, of that amount?
Apply to this business the rules of any other.
What would be said of a shopkeeper who bought,
say, a desk, at a tenth part of the retail price?
What is said daily of a shirtmaker's sweater? and
how do these differ from the sweating publisher?
(2.) On the subject of agreements the Society is
at one with Mr. Lang. It has always proclaimed that
agreements must be kept.
At the same time, when agreements are imposed
upon writers, carrying clauses which they cannot
understand, whose meaning is concealed, we have
a very good right to raise a cry of warning, and a
warning is not a grumble.
(3.) The assumption that the S.P.C.K. publishes
nothing but goody books of no literary value cannot
for a moment be allowed. No one who has studied
their lists could possibly allow it. Their fiction is
for the most part written by ladies,'and contains a
great deal of work that is dainty and delicate, and of
artistic value. And it is not the case that their sale
depends wholly on the name of the S.P.C.K. Of
course, that goes for much—so does the name of
Longman. If the S.P.C.K. put their name to a
book, that is a reasonable guarantee that the book
is not at variance with a certain set of doctrines
which some people prize very highly. If the name
of Longman is on a title-page, that is a reasonable
guarantee of good literary work. But if the
customers of the S.P.C.K. do not like a book they
will not buy it, whether those initials are on it or
not. And I have never yet heard of a great house
exacting from its authors all the profits on the
ground that it provided the public.
As a proof that the S.P.C.K. cannot sell tons of
trash it may be remarked that twenty years ago
the then Committee tried to carry out this opera-
tion. They had tons and tons of rubbish on sale.
No one would buy the stuff, and the Society lost
heavily. In the end they made a new start,and sold
the trash for waste paper. They are now wiser.
I think we have in this part of the letter the
same confusion of ideas between literary worth and
commercial worth t^at has already been noticed in
these pages.
Thus, if a person writes trash which commands a
wide sale, he has a property. That property is his
own. He has as much right to protection in the
sale and management of his property as if it were
a barrowful of whelks.
Now a great deal of trash is written, and some of
it is very saleable indeed. And if a religious
Society or any firm of publishers takes this saleable
trash, which is genuine property, as much as silks
or gloves or chairs, and sells it for its own profit;
or if it hides from the possessor its value, and pays
a wretched sum for it; or if it sweats and grinds
the possessor and fattens on the sale of that pro-
perty—then that body or that publisher should be
informed of his iniquity, and it should be made
disagreeable for him to continue in the paths of
unrighteousness.
(4.) But why do not its authors go elsewhere?
Those who can, do. One lady, deeply aggrieved
at her treatment, went elsewhere and got at once,
not only the honorarium which her former truly
Christian employers had given her, but a good
royalty as well. But all cannot. First, they have
got into the habit of writing for the Church of
England, with its doctrines and holy days always in
their mind. They have learned what is wanted, and
they have fallen into a certain style and language
which suit the Society. This practically determines
their market. Next, the so-called religious pub-
lishers to whom they might go naturally take their
cue from a Society whose President and Vice-
Presidents are all the Archbishops and Bishops, and
behave accordingly. Thirdly, ladies do not like to
## p. 209 (#253) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
209
go hawking about their things, subject to snubs and
refusals. Lastly, they do not know their own value.
This eminently religious Society carefully avoids
telling them the minimum profit certain to be made
on their work, and so they take their ^30 meekly
and go home to write another dainty little book
for school girls on the bread and butter which their
pay affords.
(5.) Lastly, that men who have brains enough
to write profitable work, have brains enough to
make proper terms.
This is already answered. It is not a question
of brains, but of power to get at the facts. And
this power has hitherto been very carefully with-
held. Until the Society ascertained and published
the facts no one knew them.
There is only one more point, that of losses.
In every business there must be losses. It is
essential to trade that accidents cause losses, even to
the most prudent. In no trade need there be fewer
losses than in the publishers' trade. They very
seldom—-it cannot be repeated too often, or be too
strongly asserted—they very seldom take any risk
whatever. That is to say, as good men of business,
they will not spend money on what they cannot
sell for at least what it cost. They constantly, I
daresay, fail to make as much as they hoped. But
even granting an occasional and unavoidable loss,
why, in the name of Heaven, should this trade be
so different from all other trades, that the man
who sells the thing he has made should refund
what the purchaser has paid him, so as to make
up losses caused by bad management? And
if anything more need be said, there are now very
few nouses indeed which ever do buy anything.
They remunerate the author with a royalty—which
most of them make as small as possible.
Walter Besant.
*
CONSOLATION; OR, THE ROMANCE
OF A SEA-SIDE LIBRARY.
THE library was contained in the back room of
a shop—" place of business" the lady pro-
prietor preferred to call it—where the articles
peculiar to the sea-side were sold: spades, buckets,
shrimping nets, shell work, photographs of the local
views, inkstands, paper knives, postage stamp boxes,
and all the trifles which nobody buys except at the
sea-side. There were also in the shop the London
papers on sale, and a case full of gaudily bound
religious books, warranted to soften the brains of the
unfortunate children for whom they were written,
and to whom they were presented. The subscribers
to the library passed through the place of business
and found themselves in a large room to which
their subscriptions gave them the right of admission.
There was a table covered with papers, there were
chairs, and on two sides of the room the walls were
lined with bookshelves, half filled with volumes.
The half which was empty represented the books
which were out. The books were all—to a book—■
three volume novels, and to him who inspected
their titles for the first time, the impression pro-
duced was one of bewilderment and surprise that
so many works—so many rows of works—so many
hundreds of works—could be published of which
the ordinary visitor, himself probably a reader of
novels, should never have heard. Row upon row,
shelf after shelf, the new subscriber looked along the
backs in vain searching for a name that was known,
and for a title that was familiar. Tempted by won-
der and curiosity he took down one. After a hasty
glance at a page or two he replaced it quickly and
decidedly. Another; this he put back with as
little hesitation ; a third and a fourth. Then the
new subscriber turned away, and came no more to
the library unless to read the morning papers
which lay upon the table, and if he wanted any-
thing to read during the rest of his stay at that
watering place, he bought it or ordered it at the rail-
way bookstall. For the library consisted of nothing
but the works of the Great Obscure. Strange
perversity of choice! With all the Victorian litera-
ture before them, the founders of this Institution—
half-a-crown a month, or a penny a volume—selected
nothing but the works of those whom nobody knew,
even by name, except the critics. Moreover, these
gentlemen had said nothing of these works that was
not contemptuous and scornful. Thereupon the
new subscriber, who was not unacquainted with the
ways of critics, marvelled greatly.
Now one morning, the sun being hot upon the
sands, and the glow of the water intolerable to the
eyes, this new subscriber sat at the open window, the
Times in his hand, looking sleepily now at-the
dazzling waters and the ships which passed to and
fro in the far distance; now at those bookshelves
filled with the works of the Unknown: and his mind
returned—but lazily—to the questionsand the doubts
which haunted him. Why, why did they furnish the
library with none but books which had been trampled
upon and derided, and had sunk into obscurity as
soon as they were born? Was it from benevolent
motives, in order to promote the somnolence which
is so sovereign a cure for overwork and nervous
worry? Was it the deliberate elevation and assertion
of another literary standard difficult at first to
understand, but perhaps higher than that of the
ordinary critic? Was there to be a revolution in style
## p. 210 (#254) ############################################
2 IO
THE AUTHOR.
and in art'? Was he in the m idst of a newly founded
school? Did these books preach some social or
religious doctrines? Was he, perhaps, in a Home
of Occult Mystery? Was there a literature, popular,
widespread, read by thousands, of which he and his
friends knew nothing except that it had been made
the subject of scorn and derision?
He was alone in the room. He laid down the
paper, and he began again curiously to turn over
the pages of the volumes on the shelves. He
looked at twenty, one after the other. "Why," he
murmured, "they are all alike. They are all
feeble, wishy washy, weak, all alike, and the library
holds nothing else. What can it mean?"
He returned to his chair, because it was too hot
to walk back to his lodgings, and sat down ponder-
ing over this marvel. He pondered so deeply that
his eyelids dropped.
Presently, two girls came in. They ran along
the shelves, trying to make a choice. "Here is a
pretty title," cried one of them. "' Daisyletta's
Romance.' I think I will have this."
"And I will take this,' Queenie Leenie; or, the
Pet of the Cherubims.' That's sure to be nice. I do
like to read about officers. Besides," she glanced
at the man in the chair who seemed to be asleep,
"the dear creatures are always saying and doing
something—not quite—you know, and you wonder
what's coming next."
They took their books and vanished.
Five minutes passed. Then there came stump-
ing into the room with footsteps of resolution which
awakened the sleeper so that he opened his eyes
and looked round, two ladies of more mature age.
They were both dressed alike, in garments of a brown
hue; they both wore spectacles; both were gaunt
and spare; they were certainly sisters. They had
sharp and prominent features, thin lips and pale
faces. They turned to the books, but they did not,
like the two girls, hover lightly in butterfly fashion
over the shelves. Not at all. They took each one
end of the room and, mounting on chairs, began in a
systematic manner to search for something. "Like
looking for a good man in the ancient city," thought
the new subscriber. "You will find nothing, ma'am"
—buthe spoke notthisaloud—"Volumes—volumes
—everywhere, and not a book to read. Most
remarkable library in the world!"
They continued their search. They took down
nothing: they only examined the titles. Presently,
however, one gave a little cry and pounced upon
three volumes which presented as battered and tat-
tered an appearance as any of the company. She
took them out, descended from her chair, and
showed them to her sister.
"My dear," she said, holding out the books.
Her lips closed with a snap, and she said no more.
"As usual," said the other, getting down and
looking at the volumes curiously. They had there-
fore found what they wanted.
"Read to rags," said the first.
"Almost torn to pieces," said the second.
"Gratifying!"
"Falling apart from excessive popularity," said
the first.
"Ah !" said the second. "What more could one
wish?"
"Yes," said the first, "and it is always the
same. At Margate, at Broadstairs, at Ilfracombe,
at Penmaenmawr, at Whitby. Always the same.
You ought at last to be satisfied, my dear. What
more could you desire?"
"No. Yet—poor human nature!" said the
second.
"Envy—black Envy—Spite—Malice !" said the
first.
"We can now afford to laugh at them," said the
second. "What has their malice effected?"
"We can now laugh," said the first, but without
any hilarity of manner. "Ho! yes, I should think
so. Those laugh who win. If popularity such as
this"
"Thepopular voice is the Highest Court of Appeal,
certainly," said the second.
"Then, my dear, there can be no doubt what-
ever. You are one of the most popular authors of
the age. Wherever the English language is spoken
you are eagerly read. You are a great power.
How glad I am that you allowed no scruples of
false modesty to stand in your way, but boldly
placed your name upon the title-page!"
The other lady purred. She purred with her
nose, and she inclined her head backward.
"I thought, at church yesterday," continued the
first, "that the people looked at you strangely. No
doubt they were saying, 'That is Lucretia
Crumbell, author of '"The Family Vault;"' of
course I know, now. My dear, we must remember
that you are recognized. You shall not make
yourself too cheap. I will myself go to the
butcher and the greengrocer. You shall only
go abroad to take the air in the morning and
the evening."
They replaced the volumes, and went out ambling
and bridling.
Then the subscriber got up and looked at the
work of such uncommon popularity. It was, in
fact, that great romance called "The Family
Vault," by Lucretia Crumbell, and it was published
by one of those benevolent houses which issue any-
thing if the author will only pay for it. He turned
over the pages. Could there, bethought, be found
anywhere even a school girl capable of reading this
windy, wordy, nerveless, boneless stuff! Is there,
## p. 211 (#255) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
21 I
somewhere, a stratum of society where drivel—he
called it drivel—can be received as literature? As
he asked the question he looked out of window.
At his feet on the sands the girls sat in rows. They
had done their bathing; they had to get through
the morning; and they sat on the sands reading.
They were all reading, with one consent. The
young men were listening to the nigger minstrels—
the girls were reading—they were reading the books
provided at this Circulating Library. "Here," said
the subscriber, "is, I perceive, nothing less than
the hitherto unknown Literature of the Sea-side.
I have now discovered for whom these books are
written, and for what purpose. At the sea-side,
girls put on another mind. It is a great discovery.
I must follow it up."
He did follow it up. At half-past eight in the
evening, when the band was playing and the people
were all out on the cliff, he met these two ladies.
One of them was walking bolt upright with looks
of importance. The other—who was the author—
walked with a little amble and a smile. She was
conscious of being observed. • It is not every day
that a sea-side place gets a live author to gaze upon.
The new subscriber boldly took off his hat and
begged permission to introduce himself to the author
of the "Family Vault." Both ladies bowed and
smiled sweetly. He said that he had long wished
for an opportunity of expressing, in person, his
sense of the Subtle Art—he called it Subtle Art—
and of the romantic setting of the work; the
strength—he said this without a blush; the origin-
ality—he said this without a quivering of the eyelid;
the dramatic character of the situations, and the
profound knowledge of the heart which the work
betrayed in every page.
"All this, sir," said the first sister, "is quite true,
but we are not, of course, accustomed to hear it
said openly. The only public appreciation my
sister has ever received is the proof at all the
libraries that the work is eagerly read by the mass
of people for whom it was intended."
"Oh! then," said the subscriber, "you wrote it
intentionally for the sea-side."
"Sea-side as well as land-side," replied the
author. "I wrote it for the whole world."
"Yes, of course," he said, thinking of his dis-
covery. "But don't you think—perhaps—that
one form of literature—yours—the romantic—the
absorbing—the exciting, suits the sea-side better
than that which is quiet and meditative?"
"My sister's work," said the first speaker, "con-
tains passages for every mood. We cannot suppose
that there is only one kind of reader here or else-
where. It is the quality of a great book to be loved
by all readers. Witness the condition of the book
in the library."
"You are doubtless engaged upon another work?"
asked the subscriber, a little disappointed.
"Perhaps. But I am not certain when—or
whether—I shall publish."
"Oh! But to write and not to publish is treason
against the Muse."
"There were painful things connected with the
publication of my book."
"Very painful. Very shameful!" said her sister.
"But now we have our revenge. What do the critics
say now?"
"Let me explain. You are not yourself a
novelist?" asked the author.
"I am not, indeed. I sometimes wish I was."
"Should you become one, you will learn by your
own experience what I have suffered."
"Envy—Hatred—Malice," said the sister.
"I do not quite understand." Yet he was
beginning to understand. And the perception only
made him wonder all the more how these books
came to the library.
"That is because you do not understand the
literary world. There is, sir," she added, with
solemnity, "a Ring."
"Oh!"
"A Ring. It contains authors, publishers,
editors, critics, and booksellers. A Ring. First
of all, if you do not belong to the Ring, you find
that you have to pay for the production of your
book. A hundred and eighty pounds I paid for
mine."
"At least eighty pounds too much."
"Then, when it comes out, the Ring which has
first fined you, proceeds to destroy you. Every-
body is in league—editors, critics, publishers,
and booksellers. The papers take your money for
advertising you, but the editors make the critics cut
you up. Shameful things they wrote about my
book."
"Shameful — wicked — things!" echoed the
sister.
"Yet you have read the work"
"The beautiful work," murmured the new sub-
scriber.
"And you know how good it is. Well, the
great libraries, also in the Ring, refused it. All
the booksellers, who are in the Ring, refused it.
Of course this check to the success of the book
destroyed its commercial value. I never got back
any part of the money which I had advanced. No-
body bought any copies at all. Yet you see the
book, after seven short years, torn to pieces by the
eagerness of its admirers. We find it so in every
library round the whole of England. In every
sea-side circulating library."
"Strange," said her admirer.
"It is Fame," said the sister.
## p. 212 (#256) ############################################
212
THE AUTHOR.
"It is," said the admirer. "And Consolation.
And Compensation."
"The artist," continued the author, "must not
put money considerations first. At the same time
I did hope to get some of the hundred and eighty
pounds back again. We could ill afford to lose
the money, I assure you."
"It was very hard."
"Very hard. And in the end the publisher sold
off the whole as a remainder stock at two shillings
a set, and said the money belonged to him."
"Yes, he would do that, I daresay. Remainder
stock!" He started. For now he perceived that his
first discovery was imaginary, but that another was
in full view. "Remainder stock! Now I under-
stand it all. My dear lady, your Fame is assured.
That is the first thing to think of. You have full
Consolation. Remainder stock! Yes—yes. Those
empty wind bags—the men of the Ring—the so-
called leaders—they never have any remainder
stock to sell—the humbugs! Therefore—oh! I
quite understand. Stupid not to have thought of
that before. Remainder stock! Madam, you have
your Consolation. Rich and full, it is. Rich and
full."
*
AN ENGLISH ACADEMY.
I.
IN reading the November number of the Author
I have been struck by the two papers on pp.
190-192, which, though bearing different
signatures, appear to be happily printed one after
the other. I venture to think that, so read, they
go far to show that the following points ought to
be taken as essential:—
1. If we are to have an Academy it must be
made, from the first, and above all else, an
organ of English philology; and,
2. It should contain English scholars from the
United States no less than English scholars
from Great Britain (not necessarily popular
authors).
1. On the first point, it is well said by "R."
that Matthew Arnold is to be accepted as showing
that the technique of our language requires a guide.
"French principles" are objected to; and it is
elsewhere observed that some of the greatest French
authors were not members of the Academy. But
what were the principles of the French Academy,
as originally constituted? They were dictionarial,
grammatical, conservative; and it was natural that
Balzac, Vaugelas, and Boileau should be members,
rather than Moliere or I^a Bruyere: the former
were experts in the French language, the latter
mere successful artists. Let me quote Mr. Saints-
bury on the change that has taken place since the
Revolution :—■
"The language and literature have been flooded
with new words, new forms of speech, new ideas,
new models. ... At present it may be said,
and not without truth, that, putting the work of
extraordinary writers aside, ordinary French prose
has lost some of its former graces, its lucidity, its
proportion, its easy march."
That this is not overstated maybe seen by setting
down the names of a few of those writers who are
the literary glory of France; Boileau, Racine, the
Preachers (Bossuet, F^nelon), &c, with, among
later but still Academical authors, Voltaire, Rous-
seau, Chateaubriand.
The English language has been, to a less degree,
fixed by the unwritten canons of educated people,
and by the practice of those who contributed to
their literary pleasure. Now that everyone can
read, and literature has to be produced for multi-
tudes who, for the most part, are without the means
of criticism, there does seem to be, at least, as
much need for an antiseptic power in literary art
as there was in France in the time of Richelieu.
2. But, besides the dangers to which our language
is exposed by the unlettered condition of the great
majority of readers on this side of the Atlantic,
there is the further illimitable peril from a public
like that of the Western part of the United States.
That "cultivated people in the United States talk
better than those of the same class here" is pointed
out by " W. B.," and the true reason is doubtless
assigned by him. But books are not written,
chiefly or at all, for the use of the select few of
Boston or New York. There was a time when it
was so, and the fact is no less true than instructive
that the American writers who have become classic
are all remarkable as stylists. One need only to
name Washington Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne,
Emerson, Wendell Holmes, and Russell Lowell.
All these—and their like—are surely among the
Immortals, not merely by virtue of their sincerity
or depth of thought, but also by virtue of their
purity of diction and the manly urbanity of their
style. Nevertheless, there are some among their
later followers who have not shown the same tender
reverence for their mother-tongue, and many
modern writers among ourselves have been no
better. The great evils against which writers of
English, however able, have now- to be guarded
are—abridgment of phrase and neologism. The
first arises from every one being in a hurry; the
second, the desire to attract by smartness and by
## p. 213 (#257) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
213
using new locutions where words of excellence and
sufficiency already exist.
If an Academy of philological experts could
really do anything to provide against these practices,
it would surely render valuable service to the cause
that we must all have at heart.
H. G. Keene.
II.
In this matter why instance the French Academy?
The French are an academic people; we are not.
In their judgments of works of art, Frenchmen are
directed by artistic impulses; we are not so directed.
The Royal Academy of Arts should he, to us, "a
solemn warning." This august body does not and
never did represent British art, and yet, until quite
recently, the letters "R.A." after a painter's name
were as dust in the eyes of the ordinary English-
man.
The Royal Academy of Arts is in its decadence,
as any art dealer or any Academician, were he to
speak the truth, would admit. In founding an
Academy of Letters we shall bring into being, on
parallel lines, all the abuses and foibles which the
critics have so valiantly combated in the case of
the existing institution. The R.A.'s are the
carriage folk of art; why should we not also have,
it is asked, the carriage folk of literature? Un-
doubtedly the prospect has attractions. It would
be pleasant to know what authors were really great,
really entitled to respect; what authors might be
freely and openly received. The British Philistine
wants names with which he may safely conjure.
But surely we can do without ribbons and medals.
Art is the highest end to which a man can devote
his energies, and when the silent recognition of his
fellow workers is vouchsafed, the artist should feel,
if he be anything of a man, that he has gained a
distinction which neither kings nor heralds, nor
bodies collegiate, nor societies inchoate can give
him—a distinction, moreover, readily granted to
him by so much of society generally as he need
trouble himself about.
An Academy of Letters would, without doubt,
ignore the original and sincere workers. The men
who concern themselves with the training, perfecting
and accentuating of their own individuality would be
left hopelessly in the cold, as the Royal Academy-
has left in the cold the painters who have worked
to a like end. Such an Academy would, in the
nature of things, be mainly formed of men who
had successfully tickled the palate of the ground-
lings, or mildly reflected classic models.
I am convinced that there is not an evil of
over production, nor of gold or notoriety hunting
which the institution of an Academy of Letters
would not increase tenfold. As for the standards
of language and style, they are not to be obtained
or preserved by such means. Again I instance the
Royal Academy, which has done nothing for
English art in the concrete sense, and in regard to
individual artists of the highest distinction, has
done all it'could to crush them out of existence.
The things actually desired by men seeking
election would be the purple and fine linen.
Literature would go into competition with shoddy
men, the brewers and bankers, the newly-rich
generally, and hang about the Court for title and
preferment. Membership of such an institution,
although it would seem a great thing to the ordinary
British trader, would make a man contemptible in
the eyes of his fellow workers. To found an
Academy of Letters would be to institute, open-
eyed, another crying evil.
J. Stanley Little.
*
A REMINDER.
WILL you allow me to remind the writers of
magazine articles, and journalists, what
injury they may inflict on their fellow-
workers byofferingtheir contributions "for nothing";
or on "low," "moderate," or "nominal" terms.
Perhaps they share the apparently prevalent idea
that authors live on nectar and ambrosia, with a
drink of the water of Helicon for a change. Authors
do not, and the bread-winners among them are
finding to their cost that remuneration is being
lowered, and that if they ask a fair price for their
work, it is rejected in favour of the "low priced"
or "gratuitous " article. If literary work is worth
publishing, it is worth paying for.
A Sufferer.
*
A HARD CASE.
—♦—
VII.
THIS case, like all those previously selected
from the Society's archives for comment,
illustrates in a typical way the disadvan-
tages under which the author labours in his business
arrangements with publishers, when he does not
quite understand his agreement, or at any rate
does not quite see the position in which it places
him.
## p. 214 (#258) ############################################
214
THE AUTHOR.
The book in question was published on the half
profit system, the following being the terms of
the agreement:—The publishers were to take all
the risk and expense, subject to a payment to
them by the author of ^40. They were to debit
the book with the invoice amounts paid for printing,
paper, binding, and advertisements, together with
10 per cent, on all sums expended. This last was
"to defray the cost of establishment." The pub-
lishers were to retain as profit any discount they
might receive on the accounts for printing, paper,
binding, and advertisement. Author's corrections
were allowed gratis, to the extent of 15X. per
sheet of 32 pages. The author was to have a
dozen copies for nothing: otherwise he was to
pay trade price for them. Accounts were to be
made out half-yearly. Arrangements for remainder
sales were to be left to the publishers. Profits were
to be shared, and one would have thought it
reasonable that the cost of the publishers' estab-
lishment should be defrayed out of their half of
the profits. The author's establishment costs will
have to be defrayed by his share.
Here is an agreement that has in it almost every
fault, from the author's point of view, that is possible.
It is all the more objectionable a document because
it has upon its surface an appearance of fairness
and candour. "We will bear all the expense," say
the publishers, "and you shall give us ^40."
There are here no petty details, no hair-splitting
reasons given for requesting ^40 from the author,
as well as his brain-work. It is quite conceivable
that the payment by the author of .£40 was a
very reasonable proceeding, but one cannot know
that, until one knows what the publishers' risk
actually was.
However, letting that point go, we come to the
fact that the author is not to receive payment
until the cost of production is covered—that is,
until there are profits to be halved—and this
happy result the publishers can indefinitely post-
pone by increasing the cost of production, left
entirely to their discretion 1
Of course the situation is a very common one,
but it is none the less a very extraordinary one, and
one for which no parallel could be found in other
business transactions.
The publishers are to debit the work with the
invoice amounts for the various items of production,
advertisements, &c. Excellent! But, firstly, they
receive 10 per cent, of all sums so spent, which
is hardly an inducement to keep the cost low; and,
secondly, though it is an admirable thing to know
exactly where the money spent on advertising has
gone, the author would often be much better off
by being placed in a position to prevent its going
The author has a direct interest in keeping the
cost of advertisement low, for he then comes
nearer to his profits; the publishers" have a direct
interest in making it high, and so increasing their
percentages.
The publishers are again to receive all discounts
for ready-money payment. Well, if they really
were at all the risk and expense of publication, in
accordance with the first clause of their agreement,
this would be quite fair—though again hardly an
inducement to keep the prices low; but the author
is asked to contribute £40 ready money. Why
then should not he share in the discounts? At
the same time the allusion to the existence of
such a source of profit is commendable. In many
instances these discounts are secretly pocketed.
The author is allowed to correct gratis to the
extent of 1$s. for 32 pages. To what extent is this?
How is the author to know when he is above, and
when he is below an average of fifteen shillingsworth
of corrections for each double-sheet. The clause
sounds all right; it is a very common one, though
a larger amount of correction is generally allowed
gratis; but as far as the author is concerned it is
nonsense. Under this agreement the publishers
could arbitrarily charge any sum against the book
as author's corrections. No item in the cost of
production should thus be left to the caprice of
the publishers, when the author's chance of
remuneration depends upon the cost being low,
and the publishers' best opportunity of "defraying
the cost of their establishment" is to make the
same as high as possible.
The following was the result of the transaction :—
The cost of production was returned as £202,
inclusive of advertisements, returned as £50. The
sales amounted to ^199. The author got back his
^40, and there were no profits to divide. He lost
no money, but all the labour expended over his book
went for exactly nothing. The publishers received
certain percentages and discounts, and cannot be
said to have made a good thing out of the trans-
action. But it appears that they made as much
as they expected to make, and that they made it
in the way they intended to make it; for, firstly,
the book was not moulded, so that a larger demand
could only have been met by incurring all the
original heavy expenditure of setting up the type,
and, secondly, the results of the sale of the first
edition were minimised by a remainder sale in
November of a book published for the first time
in March of the same year. This proceeding seems
to us, unless it can otherwise be explained, an
abuse of the discretion given to them by the last
clause of the agreement.
There is no special hardness about this case,
which is a very good illustration of all the faults
of the old half-profit method of publishing. There
## p. 215 (#259) ############################################
THE AUTHOR
215
was a possible profit of say ^50 on this book, i.e.,
the production and advertisement could have been
done for ^£150. In a fair half-profit agreement
^25 of this would have come to the author and
^25 to the publisher as shares of the profit.
Under this rubbishy contract ^25 or more has
gone to the publisher as discounts and percentages,
and the rest has been wasted in over-expensive pro-
duction : and to make the vicious circle complete,
the more the cost of production is raised, the
larger will become the publishers' perquisites.
The author wrote the book, and backed its
chances to the extent of /I40 ready money. He
is glad to have got the money back, but he got
nothing more.
*
IN GRUB STREET.
EMIN PASHA literature, if we may so call
the Stanley, Barttellot, and Jameson con-
troversy, hasundergonetemporary cessation,
and society is going into committee over the subject,
seeing no prospect of a commission of inquiry. One
does not like to deprive Assad Farranofhis origin-
ality, but much of his story is, I fear, borrowed from
Mr. Haggard's " She." There are plenty of parallel
passages that might be printed to prove this. It
is certainly pleasanter to read Mr. Haggard on
Africa, for his heroes behave much better. It
would be nice to think that Assad Farran is only
one of Mr. Haggard's imitators who has misunder-
stood the art of the master.
If anyone has not read by this time Mr.
Haggard's latest novel in collaboration with Mr.
Lang, let him do so at once. It should be read
for several reasons; firstly, because everything that
comes from these authors is interesting; and
secondly, because it is the best book of its kind
that has appeared for some time. The "young
men" who "do the books" for the evening papers
have been very critical indeed. It has afforded
them a splendid opportunity of airing their slight
acquaintance with Egyptology and the classics they
happen not to have forgotten since they left school.
In these days, when Heliodorus, Achilles, Tatius,
and Longus are household words, surely some-
one could find that Mr. I^ng or Mr. Haggard
had been plagiarising. It would not matter in the
least if all Mr. Haggard's ideas were taken from
some other author; as Lord Houghton would have
said, it rather enhanced their value. It is said
when someone asked him who was the first plagi-
arist, he replied, "God, who made man after His
own image."
VOL. I.
The "World's Desire " seems to be a complete
answer to those who object to novels of prehistoric
times or the antique world. Historians, of course,
are jealous. Anything that soars above the level
of a "chronicle " is to thera distasteful. And the
archaeologist regards it as poaching. Flaubert's
"Salambo" and Mr. Pater's "Marius," though of
course not on the same platform, have been objected
to for similar reasons. I think the "World's
Djsire " is as successful in its own line as "Salambo"
and " Marius " are in theirs. Mr. Lang, who has
rescued so many classics from the school room,
might give us a version (of his own) of Heliodorus,
the Rider Haggard of the fifth century. Mr.
Haggard might be tempted to try the "Middle
Ages '• after his recent successes. '' Ivanhoe " and
the "Cloister and the Heath" are the two suc-
cessful mediaeval novels in English. Will Mr.
Haggard give us a rival? k
Mr. Wemyss Reid's "Life of Lord Houghton,"
about which everyone is talking and will talk for
some lime to come, differs from the ordinary
memoirs of an ephemeral value that come out every
year, for it will always be an excellent book of
reference. Mr. Reid is to be felicitated on his
performance. He has allowed the letters to and
from Lord Houghton to tell their own story, and
has filled up the gaps with his own writing only
when necessary.
He has shown no want of taste in publishing
letters prematurely calculated to wound the feelings
of those who are living. It is hardly paradoxical
to say that the merit of these two volumes consist
not merely on their contents as on their judicious
omissions.
Among Lord Houghton's many and great merits
was his appreciation of the times he lived in. He
never brayed about the past. He was not one of
those who thought that because a book was old,
it must be also good. The present day has per-
haps gone into the other extreme—we think things
good merely because they are new. Lord Houghton
was always the first to recognize genius, to mark
the coming man; his ducklings were generally
swans. Genius hunting is a dangerous game, but
he played it very well. The story of David Grey
has been likened to that of Chatterton, who also
came up to London to gain a literary reputation,
and Lord Houghton's generosity certainly compares
favourably with Horace Walpole's treatment of the
"Marvellous Boy."
The difference between a paradox and a truism is
said to be, "that while the former is usually true,
the latter is always false." Lord Houghton's para-
dox on perpetual copyright had far more truth in it
R
## p. 216 (#260) ############################################
2l6
THE AUTHOR.
than Mr Gladstone or Mr. Wemyss Reid seem to
imagine. Everyone is now occupied in relating
all the anecdotes and bon mots not included in
Mr. Reid's pages. There is one against Lord
Houghton not told in the life. "Why is Lord
Houghton like St. Jerome?" was a riddle going
about at one time. It is so obvious to anyone
who has looked at old pictures that readers may
guess the answer for themselves.
The Scots Observer is now to be known as the
National Observer, and there are rumours of the
offices being removed to London. To change a
paper's name is not unattended with risk, but there
was every reason for the alteration in this case.
The Scotch element was very small indeed, but
there was enough of it to bore a great many-
English readers. And it is said by some that its
views are not always convincing. Some of Mr.
Kipling's most delightful ballads have appeared in
its pages, and the editor's poems are found there
occasionally. Under ihe new title it will, doubt-
less, appeal to a larger audience no less apprecia-
tive. The old literary traditions of Edinburgh
have passed away, and the Edinburgh Review will
have all its own way in the north if the National
Obsei ver comes to town.
Dr. Verrall's new theory of the "Ion" has, as
was anticipated in last month's Author, met with a
great deal of opposition. He believes Euripides
to have written the play with a profound didactic
intention, namely, that of exposing the Delphic
oracle. Those who are interested, however, must
get Dr. Verrall's edition, which is published by the
University Press.
The performance of the "Ion" was a great
success, and all the credit must be given to Mr. J.
W. Clarke. The difficulties, though enormous,
were completely overcome. The leading part of
Creusa was very ably sustained by Mr. E. A.
Neston, of King's College, who showed great power
and a wonderful appreciation of the part. He,
with Mr. Palk, of Trinity, as the old slave, rather
eclipsed the acting of the others, who were pains-
taking, but hardly satisfactory. Greek plays are
very entertaining experiments, and if everyone was
as capable as the two actors mentioned, the
"Ion" would have been favourably received in
London with a larger and less generous audience.
Mr. Booth must be congratulated on having at
last got the audience he has longed for. Polite
society has been like the adder of Scripture—deaf
to the voice of the charmer; though Sir. Booth's
own music has largely contributed to the physical,
if not moral, deafness of the community. The
outside of his book is certainly sensational and the
name was clever, so it deserves success. Philan-
thropists and economists must judge as to the sound-
ness of his scheme. I cannot see the alleged
resemblance between the General and St. Francis
of Assisi, nor did Professor Huxley institute
such a comparison. Contradicting statements that
have not been made is a journalistic trick becoming
too common. He compared the two move-
ments, not the two men; and pointed out that
what wrecked the Franciscans might also prove
fatal to the schemes propounded in "Darkest
England."
The boom in De Quincey's works has subsided.
"Some Unpublished Letters of the Opium
Eater" threatened to become to the magazines
what the sea serpent and big gooseberry are to the
daily papers in the silly season. Still there is a
continual shower, however, of new editions and
complete works. Mr. Saintsbury, with great
felicity, speaks of him as a man "of great though
capricious critical power." No one now is frightened
by the perusal of the "opium eater," and the
immoral tendencies it is said to have produced
have been grossly exaggerated. The bogies of one
age become the bores of the next, to adapt a very
old proverb, and De Quincey is open to the
charge of writing to "shock the great middle
classes of England."
Mr. Oscar Wilde has collected his brilliant
"Dialogues and Essays," and they will be issued
by Osgood and Macllvain, of Albemarle Street,
shortly after Christmas. No one will have for-
gotten the '• Decay of Lying," in the Nineteenth
Century, some time ago the article of the month,
in the opinion of many the best thing he has ever
done. Hut as he never does anything like anything
he has done before, best might be applied to all of
them. Mr. Wilde will live to hear many of his
aphorisms and paradoxes attributed to Sydnev
Smith, who is constantly being found out and
exposed in memoirs, and the book of Proverbs too
will share the spoil. The dead prey too much on
the living in these days.
Mr. Wilde once said that an unbiassed opinion
was absolutely valueless. And those who find
fault with Mr. Meynell's Neivman (Kegan Paul)
would do well to remember this. The duty of a
## p. 217 (#261) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
217
biographer is to be prejudiced in favour of his
subject, or the reverse, and to endeavour to convert
his audience. None of us know how Boswell over-
estimated Johnson; he fulfilled his task. We are
of his opinion now. Mr. Traill's Strafford was
another example of a prejudiced and successful
biography.
Mr. Pater's lecture on "Merimee," which he
delivered in Oxford and repeated in London, was
everything that one has a right to expect from this
distinguished critic, whom we hear too seldom.
His many admirers will look forward to its publica-
tion in his next volume of essays.
M. Taine is on the side of the angels; with Mr.
Frederic Harrison, he thinks little enough of
English fiction. Miss Rhoda Broughton, however,
must be sensible of the high compliment paid her
by the French Academician, who declares she is
the only novelist who has enriched our fiction
since George Eliot's death. It is not derogatory
to Miss Broughton's high position among English
novelists to say that she has been ably assisted by
authors with whom M. Taine is unacquainted.
—*
A new work on " The Engraved Gems of Classical
Times," by Professor Middleton, published by the
Cambridge University Press, will be ready by
Christmas. Jt is no exaggeration to say that Pro-
fessor Middleton is one of the greatest living
authorities on classic and mediaeval art. In an
age when so much nonsense is talked on art
questions, which English people treat as they
would politics, anything Professor Middleton has
to say will be especially welcome. Gems are
things, however, which have not yet become the
babble of the charlatans. So let us hope they
will keep a discreet silence, until they know at
least as half as much as Professor Middleton.
One of the most pleasing of new books is the
"Life and Letters of Philip Henry Gosse,
F.R.S."; it is the record of a patient and useful
life, not without pathos of a kind. Not only was
he an enthusiastic student of science, but he
retained throughout it all what many of us will
envy, his faith. The task of a biographer, at all
times difficult, becomes very arduous for the son
who must treat of his father's life with fulness
tempered by discretion. Mr. Gosse has fulfilled
his task with his accustomed felicity.
♦
Mr. Frank Harbut is finishing a novel dealing
with the genesis of an American millionaire. It
VOL. I.
will appear in three vols, early next year. M.
Tessand Maissonneuve has obtained leave from the
same author to translate his novel, "The Con-
spirator," into French.
A new novel by Scott Graham (author of " The
Golden Milestone," "Sandcliffe Mystery," &c),
entitled "A Bolt from the Blue," will be ready-
shortly. It is published by Sampson Low and
Co.
A tale of the 15th century, entitled "The
Goldsmith's Ward," by Mrs. P. H. Reade, will be
published immediately by Messrs. Chapman and
Hall.
Mr. William Toynbee is engaged on a transla-
tion of Beranger's songs for Mr. Walter Scott's
Canterbury Poet Series.
Among novels already published this season is
"Kestell of Greystoke," by Esme Stuart (Hurst
and Blackett).
The sixth volume of the " International Library"
(W. Heinemann) will be a new book by the
eminent Spanish novelist, A. Palacio Valdis,
entitled "La Espuma" (Frott). It has been
translated by Mrs. Bell (that admirable translator
whom the critics persist in describing as Miss Clara
Bell).
The Norwegian poet, Ibsen, has given all rights
in his forthcoming drama, for England and America,
to Mr. Gosse, whose translation of it will appear
simultaneously in both countries. The English
edition will be issued by Mr. Heinemann, the
American by Mr. Lovell, of New York. The
drama is understood to deal with a modern social
problem not less interesting than that treated in
"A Doll's House."
Volumes I, II, and VI of Mr. Alfred H. Miles's
"Poets and Poetry of the Century," are about to
be issued by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. Among
the contributors are Mr. Austin Dobson, Dr.
Garnett, and other well-known critics. Mr.
Mackenzie Bell has written the critical and
biographical articles on Sir Aubrey de Vere and
Mr. Theodore Watts.
Messrs. Eden and Remington have just issued the
third volume of the Rosslyn series "Old and New,"
by Walter Herries Pollock. Some of these poems
r 2
## p. 218 (#262) ############################################
218
THE AUTHOR.
have been published previously, and have been
appreciated by a circle of readers that should be
wider. It is unfortunate that the publishers have
seen fit to clothe this often exquisite verse in such
unattractive guise. The quality of paper, print,
and binding may almost be said to be in inverse
ratio to that of the verse. Mr. Pollock's masterly
rendering of Musset's "Nights" has been included
in this volume, and will satisfy the most fastidious
admirers of the French poet. And the little
poem quoted on page 205 is a masterpiece in its
way.
"In the Land of the Lion and Sun," Dr.
Wills's popular book about Persia, will appear in
the Minerva Series (Ward and Lock) shortly. This
edition will be illustrated.
*
The scheme for providing comfortable residential
chambers, combined with a restaurant and attend-
ance, for educated women of limited means, earning
their own livelihood, may now be spoken of as an
assured success. The first block of buildings in
Chenies Street, Bloomsbury, was opened last summer,
and the applications for rooms was much greater
than could be satisfied. The Company pays 5 per
cent, to the shareholders, and the Directors feel
justified in extending their operations. A site
for another block has been leased from Lord
Portman in Yoik Street, Bryanston Square. Every
literary woman knows what a help it is to have the
worries of housekeeping taken off her shoulders.
Merely to have a dinner provided without having
to think about it is no small assistance to the
busy worker. The proposed new buildings will
contain about 60 sets of rooms. Miss Agnes
Garrett is one of the Directors, and the Company
owes much to Miss Anne Townshend's untiring
exertions on its behalf.
*
POINTS AND CASES.
I.
A Pictorial Paper.
TWO months ago, on the occasion of a royal
visit to my native town, I forwarded a
description of the place to a well-known
pictorial paper, and offered, if my article was
ac cepted, to get some views to illustrate it. My
offer was accepted, and the Editor wished to know
whether any sketches would be taken of the cere-
monial itself. On the 16th September I procured
seve.al views of the town, and sent them off as I
had promised, and asked in what issue my article
would appear. My question was not noticed, but
on the 16th I made enquiries, and found I could
get sketches of the Duke's reception the following
week. I wrote accordingly to the , and I
also asked for some remuneration. Much to my
surprise, I received a letter, some days later,
thanking me for my trouble, but saying that as
the sketches could not appear till the issue of the
4th October, it was useless for me to send any.
and that he had forwarded me a paper of the
18th September. In this I found three views, but
no article, and that, with the rest of the views,
remains at the 's office, unless, indeed,
they appeared in an issue prior to the 18th Sep-
tember. Another letter in which I again urged
my claims to remuneration, having purchased the
views and supplied him with an article, the Editor
hits not noticed.
So, as it stands at present, I have had all my
trouble for nothing, have had an article accepted,
but neither printed nor paid for, and am out of
pocket.
I must add that one magazine, to which I sent
an article, inserted it without my knowledge and
without my signature, but on my writing to ask for
payment, the Editor honestly sent me a cheque.
II.
"The Author."
What costs nothing is worth nothing, and is
thought nothing of! This is the rough principle
underlying an author's business claims, and the
standpoint of the Society, as I read it. What is
gifted to the public is paid for by their magnani-
mously reading it—well paid for, they think. Now,
while there are numerous exceptions, I hold this
principle to be a wholesome one, and not lightly
to be parted from.
Judge, therefore, how you are supporting this
principle, when you yourself act in the style of the
cabman who leaves it to "yourself, sir"! If the
Author-is worth reading, it is worth paying for. If
not definitely and positively charged for, it is either
looked upon as an adverti'ement or a means of
disseminating unsaleable material.
I look upon it as really valuable to all who live
or attempt to live by the produce of their pens,
but my mind is influenced (through my pocket)
by the fact that the owners themselves question its
value. Do you not think you are breaking through
your own admirable rule, in supplying good
## p. 219 (#263) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
219
literature without a proper agreement, and that
authors of mediocre talents and unbusiness habits
will do to you as they are so constantly done by,
and pay you by "magnanimously perusing your
lucubrations." Have the courage of your con-
victions, and supply the Author only on payment.
It is the flood of unpaid productions that lowers
the standard of payment of others.
W. A. S.
2ind November, 1890.
III.
A Lost Chance.
While in Australia, I wrote a farcical comedy.
It was stolen from me, and brought out in London
at a high class theatre by the "conveyor." It
proved a great success, though the man rewrote
the third act, and so spoiled the piece. The sup-
posed author was called before the curtain and
received the congratulations of the house smilingly.
Afterwards he received with equal smiles the fees
of the play. As soon as I read in the London
papers about this "clever young dramatist" and
his play, I sent home and stopped it at once, so
the play was taken off the boards without delay.
Meantime he has completely ruined my chance
of doing anything with the comedy, as the London
managers, though they like the piece, say that its
removal from the stage counts for failure.
F. H.
IV.
An Experience.
In the first place perhaps the writer of "The
Troubles of a Beginner," might like to know
what would have been the sequel, had he per-
severed in his dealings with "The Southampton
Association." I received from that august body a
most flattering letter stating that my MSS. were
"admirably suited to their requirements"; and so
indeed they were: that statement I can now accept
without the slightest hesitation. I was also informed
that they would appear in an early number.
I paid my guinea, and 6s. 6d. for " Pen and Ink,"
and awaited the many benefits which were to accrue
to me from joining so excellent a Society. What
did I receive? About nine very trashy magazines,
of which I have never seen a single copy except
those which I myself received.
I was told in the coolest manner, after about
nine months had elapsed, that the magazine "would
be discontinued for a time," but that "the business
would go on as usual."
I never received any report on MSS. sent to the
Association except the letter to which I have
already alluded.
I was addressed by the editor as Rev. A. B.,
M.S.A. (Member of the Southampton Associa-
tion), a style which I requested (with some
asperity) might be discontinued. Moreover, I was
informed that the rate of remuneration was 5*. per
printed page; now the pages were so large that I
assessed my little poems, judging by the space they
would take, at about $d. each. I should be indeed
sorry for myself if I had to depend for my livelihood
on the good offices of such a Society as the South-
ampton Association. You will not wonder that I
gave the required three months' notice and sent in
my resignation.
About three months after I received a post card
to the following effect:—"Your MSS., left in charge
of the late Southampton Association, will be for-
warded on receipt of postage."
Now I should like to tell you of my dealings
with the Church of England Temperance Society,
a sore subject with me. To the C.E. T.S. Chronicle
I have contributed in all some ten or a dozen
pieces in prose and verse. After this had been
going on some time, I wrote a letter to the editor,
the gist of which was that if none of the writers
were paid I would not press the matter, but if they
were paid of course I should like some acknow-
ledgment of my work. I saw the Editor a few days
afterwards, when he told me that "All their writers
were paid." I did get two guineas for a little Christ-
mas comedietta, entitled "TheConspiracy," but with
regard to any of the others I have got nothing but
a few copies, compliments, and the acknowledg-
ment "that I ought to be paid."
Most of these temperance pieces, with one or
two new ones, I sent in to the S.P.C.K. office, now
nearly two years ago; but I cannot get any answer.
Now for, perhaps, "the unkindest cut of all." I
published at my own expense in 1887 a very small
volume of poems, which was most kindly reviewed.
Shortly alterwards I discovered, by accident, that one
of my pieces under an altered name, but still attri-
buted to me, was occupying the first page of a
certain Christmas Annual. I had written previously
to Mr. on one or two occasions, but received
no reply. I did not wonder so much at this,
though even as a boy at school I have been treated
with courtesy by editors declining MSS., but I
thought that the kind review, which I attributed
to him, demanded a word of thanks, and also that
the insertion of my poem gave me the entree. I
wrote saying how glad I was that he had given me
such a lift, and asking whether I might send some
other small articles, since I was naturally anxious
to add to my income by my pen. To this letter I
## p. 220 (#264) ############################################
220
THE AUTHOR.
received no reply. It is due to Mr. to say
that he may never have received my letter. But
still he traded on my brains. I am easily accessible,
and I think I ought to have had some acknow-
ledgment.
A. B.
V.
"The American Tongue."
I would rather reply to the Autlior than to
the Neiv York Herald, whilst, as one who has
visited America, and admires the Americans
■—without considering them perfect, any more
than ourselves—I wish to tabulate certain proposi-
tions :—
1. No country, more than any individual, can
be an impartial judge in a comparison of its own
accent, language, intonation, and refinement with
those of another. It is a mere vain contest of
rival conceits.
2. In view of the glaring but cherished imper-
fections of the home brewed English, even in its
"purity," we should be careful in throwing stones
at the Americans.
3. Many "Americanisms" are only common
colonialisms; due to the aboriginal illiteracy of
immigrants, to isolation, to necessity or convenience,
and to the admixture of other foreign tongues.
Others are mere relics of more conservative English,
such as survives in remote districts of the home
country, in the Bible, Shakespeare, &c, e.g., "sick"
is Anglo-Indian, and Biblical as well as American.
"Boss " and " loafer" appear to be Anglo-Dutch;
whilst the American pronunciation of such words
as "half" is simply the transported Irish pronun-
ciation. Moreover, I have heard a Canadian assert
that " the skin of the teeth" was a vulgar Ameri-
canism.
4. The English tongue being of entirely foreign
origin, its development is continuous in spite of
rival lexicographers, and there must result differen-
tiation according to variation of habilat. Each
heir has an equal right to alter his share of the
inheritance, as his stay-at-home kinsman does.
Perhaps it might be better to nominally as well as
actually differentiate American from Essexual,
Australian from Oxfordian, English.
5. The American "twang" is partly climatic, as
in Canada and New South Wales, but it is also
partly due to previous isolation, and now largely to
imitation. A species of "chronic catarrh " seems
to afflict the residents of countries possessing such
anti-English extremes of climate, so that the nasal
accent is neither peculiar to, nor universal in, the
United States. A visible nasal strcture is one
physiological result; and this is just as clearly
observable in some British-born Canadians, whilst,
as far as this «<?«-employment of the nose in speech
is concerned, the lower Cockney is not so very far
removed from the Yankee.
6. There is no intonational standard of English
accent, nor ever was. Anyone with a fair ear
may perceive that scarcely two members of our
own Houses of Legislature pronounce quite alike.
There may be a certain or uncertain fashionably
fickle standard of "good society," which each one
makes or takes for himself; but it results only in a
chronic contest between imitation and affectation.
Concentred conceit is, so far, the sole criterion
of linguistic culture. Even in the "highest circles"
of our land the abuses of the r and the h are
outrageous.
7. Any genuine hatred towards this country was,
and is, due to several fluctuating causes, such as
international jealousy, which is somewhat flattering
to our national vanity; ignorance, which we all
share from lack of intercommunication; a just
resentment felt at the contempt which the average
Briton so often manifests, even unconsciously,
towards other nationalities; and, too often, a re-
gretable inheritance of the hate of our Irish
brethren transplanted to American soil.
8. Self-consciousness in the cultured American
is not, it seems to me, a wholly satisfactory reason
for his superior refinement; but still, the social
absence of demarcated classes may make the
better-class American more careful to act up to his
assumed or inherited position, or noblesse oblige.
Phinlay Glenelg.
VI.
Who is the Author?
21 st November, 1890.
In reply to query by "H. G. Keene," on p.
194 of the Author, I give below the sonnet by
Tennyson, of which he is desirous to learn the
tenth and eleventh lines. As the poem differs
considerably from the version given by the querist,
I have concluded that I had better transcribe ihe
whole fourteen lines. This sonnet appeared
in an edition of Tennyson's poems in 1833, and
has not since been reprinted in any save pirated
editions of the poet's works.
Ramsay Colles.
Sonnet.
Written on hearing of the outbreak of the Polish Insurrection.
"Blow ye the trumpet; gather from afar,
The hosts to battle: be not bought and sold.
Arise, brave Poles, the boldest of the bold;
## p. 221 (#265) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
22 r
Break through your iron shackles—fling them far.
O for those days of Piast, ere the Czar
Grew to his strength among his deserts cold;
When even to Moscow's cupolas were rolled
The growing murmurs of the Polish war!
"Now must your noble anger blaze out more
Than when from Sobieski, clan by clan,
The Moslem myriads fell, and fled before—
Than when Zamoysky smote the Tartar Khan;
Than earlier, when on the Baltic shore
Boleslas drove the Pomeranian."
[The word that you printed (Zmole?) in line nine
should have been "smote." One sees reasons of
technique which explain to us the reason why our
noble President should have dropped his sonnet
out of his works; but I think there is fire in it,
and a genuine sincerity of expression.]
H. G. K.
[Several correspondents, including Mr. Ramsay
Colles, have replied giving the sonnet as above.—
Ed.]
VII.
Query.
Who wrote the following?—
"I never yet could see that face
Which had no dart for me:
From fifteen years to fifty's space,
They all victorious be."
VIII.
A case has been submitted for consideration.
It illustrates very well the maxim—a well-known
trading maxim—that there is no friendship in
business.
The author gave a MS. to certain publishers,
personal friends of her own. They undertook to
publish the work, saying that they would give half
profits after 1,000 copies were sold. This nobly
generous offer was not put into writing. Hitherto
the author has had no accounts and no profits.
Asks what he should do, and whether the copyright
remains with him or is lost.
Our experience in previous cases of this descrip-
tion is that there never are any profits. There
never are any accounts. And the cost of produc-
tion has been so great as to swallow everything,
leaving the poor publishers with a heavy loss.
The sensible procedure would be to demand an
account and to sink, for the time being, the
personal friendship. When the accounts are forth-
coming, further advice should be taken.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
"Albert of E*bach." Translated from the German by
H.R.H. Bea'rice, Princess Henry of Batlenburg.
Allen, Grant. The Great Taboo.
Ali.inoham, Edward. New and Original Poems.
Arnold, Sir Edwin. Light of Asia. Elisions edition.
Artemus Ward's Works.
Austin, A. Tower of Babel: A Celestial Love Drama.
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Complete Works. Edited
by Edmund Gosse. 2 vols. Dent and Co. los. 6J.
"Blackwood's Tales." Third series.
Boisgobev, F. DU. An Ocean Knight.
Child, Theodore. Young People and Old Pictures.
Coleridge, S. T. Political Works.
Crawfurd, Oswald, C.M.G. Round the Calendar in
Portugal.
Dean Stanley. Sermons, &c.
D >nsoN, Austin. Four French Women.
Fitzgerald, Percy, F.S.A. Music-hall Land.
Froude, J. A. Earl of Beaconsfield.
Gilbert, W. S. Songs of a Savoyard.
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E. The Impregnable Rock of
Holy Scripture.
Goodchild, J. A., M.D. My Friends at St. Ampelio.
Gosse, Edmund. Life of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S
Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. I$s.
Gould, Baring. In Troubadour Land.
Gunter, A. C. Miss Nobody.
Haggard (Rider) and Lang (A). The World's Desire.
Hetherington (H. F.) and Burton (Rev. H. D.). Paul
Nugent, Materialist. New edition.
Ingelow, Jean. Very Young, and Quite Another Story.
"Ion " (Euripides). Translated by Dr. Verrall.
Jekferies, Richard. Bevis: The Story of a Boy.
"Journal of Sir Walter Scott."
Lady Baker's Letters.
Morris, Lewis. A Vision of Saints.
Morris, William. The Earthly Paradise. New edition.
Nisret, Hume. Bail-up: A Romance.
Norris, W. E. Miss Shafto.
Pollock, Sir Frederick. Oxford Lectures, and other
Discourses.
Pollock, W. H. Old and New.
"Red Fairy Book." Edited by Andrew Lang.
Rossetti, D. G. Poems.
Serao, Matildf. Fantasy: A Novel. Translated h) If.
Harland (Sidney Luska). Heinemann's Internntion.il
Library. Edited by Edmund Gosse. Vol. V. W.
Heinemann. y. 6J.
Smalley, G. W. London Letters.
Steps'I ak. Career of a Nihilist.
T. de Quincey's Works.
Tolstoi, Count. Work while ye have the Light.
Troup, J. Rose. With Stanley's Rear Column.
## p. 222 (#266) ############################################
222
ADVERTISEMENTS.
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AD VER TISEMENTS.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
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2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of
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3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.} is. The Report of three Meetings on the
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4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 3s.
5. The History of the Soctete" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms ot
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition
preparing.)
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements.
Price 3-r. (A new Edition in the Press.)
Other works bearing on tlte Literary Profession will follow.
## p. 222 (#268) ############################################
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Vol. I.–No. 9]
-
JANUARY 15, 1891.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Qublished for the Society by
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1891.
## p. 222 (#270) ############################################
ii. ADVERTISEMENTS.
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By S. BARING GOULD.
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Author of **'l'hc Wreck of the Grosvenor," &c. 2 vols.
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By W. H. POLLOCK.
FERDINAND'S DEVICE. By Walticr Hkrriks
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THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By Richard Pryce.
Crown 8v0. 3*. 6d. [February.
By J. B. BURNE, M.A.
PARSON AND PEASANT: Chapters of their Natural
History. By J. B. Bl rne, M.A., Rector of Wasing. Crown 8vo.
$s. [Ready,
By E. LYNN LINTON.
THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON,
Christian and Communist. By E. Lynn Linton. Tenth and
Cheaper Edition. Post Svo. is. [Ready.
Works by S. BARING GOULD,
Author of 11 Mchalah" &c.
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Mrs. LEITH ADAMS (mrs. de courcy i.aifan).
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G. MANVILLE FENN.
4. ELI'S CHILDREN.
S. BARING GOULD. Auihor of "Mchalah,"
5. ARMINELL : A Social Romance.
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Under the above title Messrs. METHUEK have commenced
the publication of a series of books on historical, literary,
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THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By
H. de B. GntniNS, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oson.,
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By L. L. Price, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon., Extension
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PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the
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SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TQ-DAY.
A series of volumes upon the most important topics of social,
economic, and industrial interest—written by the highest
authorities on the various subjects. The first two volumes
will be—
TRADES UNIONISM-New and Old. By G. Howell,
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## p. 223 (#271) ############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly?)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 9.]
JANUARY 15, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENT S;
PAGE
PACK
Conditions of Membership
223
Balzac and his English Critics
24>
Warnings
223
Tarstow, Denver & Co., Limited
»43
News and Notes
224
Ah English Academy
244
International Copyright
■ »9
The Exchange of Books
• • 245
The American Copyright Act
333
In Grub Street
=45
A Proprietor-Editor
"35
Cases
*»7
"The Kinds of Criticism"
■• "38
New Books and New Editions :..
'48
On some Parallel Passages
240
Advertisements ...
250
CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.
WARNINGS;
The Subscription is One Guinea anriually, payable on the
1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for
life membership entitles the subscriber to full membership of
the Society.
Authors of published works alone are eligible for member-
ship.
Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors
are admitted as Associates, on the same subscription; but
have no voice in the government of the Society.
Cheques and Postal Oiders should be crossed "The Im-
perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch."
Those who Wish to be proposed as members may serlH
their names at any time to the Secretary at the Society's
Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration
of their works. Subscriptions entered after the 1st of
Oc'ober will cover the next year.
The Secretary may be personally consulted between the
hours of I p.m. and 5. except on Saturdays. It is preferable
that an appointment should be made by letter.
The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured
through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Walt,
2, Paternoster Square, E.C.
A copy will l)c sent free to any member of the Society fo.r
one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped,
however, that most members will subscribe to the paper.
The yearly subscription is 6s. 6it., including postage, which
may be sent to the Secretory, 4, Portugal Street, W.C.
With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers,
the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read
and reported upon for others than members, but members
cannot have their works read for nothing.
In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript,
the author should send with it a table of contents. A type-
written scenario is also of very great assistance.
It must be understood that such a reader's report, however
favourable, does not assist the author towards publication.
VOL. I.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to make the
following warnings as widely known as possible. They are
based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers
to which literary property is exposed :—
(1) Never to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost
of production forms an integral part, unless an
opportuniiy of proving the correctness of the figures
is given them.
(2) Never to enter into any correspondence with publishers,
especially wiih advertising publishers, who are not
recommended by experienced friends, or by this
Society.
(3) Never; on any account whatever, to bind themselves
down for future work to any one firm of publishers.
(4) Never to accept any proposal of royalty without con-
sultation with the Socie'y, or, at least, ascertaining
exactly what the agreement gives to the author and
what to ihe publisher.
(5) Never to accept any offer of money for MSS., with-
out previously taking advice of the Society.
(6) Never to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility
without advice.
(7) Never, when a MS. has been refused by respectable
houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may
put forward, for the production of the work.
(8) Never to sign away American or foreign rights.
Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing
a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If
the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it
to another.
(9) Never forget that publishing is a business, like any-
other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy,
charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do
with business men.
## p. 224 (#272) ############################################
224
THE AUTHOR.
NEWS AND NOTES.
THE New York Nation, speaking of the Copy-
right Bill, remarks on the curious ideas
which have been shown to prevail as to
literary property. "They are ideas which one
naturally expects to meet with among those who
have never known anybody who possessed literary
property, or made any money out of it. The notion
that there can be property in the expression of
ideas, has owed its acceptance in every country to
familiarity with the spectacle of authors receiving
money from publishers." Exactly the same ignor-
ance has long prevailed in this country. People
understand property in a book: but property in
what makes a book, the soul of the book, they
cannot understand. Nor, too often, can he who
infused that soul into paper and press understand'
it. There are many, very many, still who are
willing to take whatever is offered, in absolute
disregard of what the honest merchant who buys
it is going to make out of it. The spectacle which
we desire to present to the world is not that of
authors " receiving money," like a dole, and greedily
stipulating and sticking out for more, but that of
authors negotiating, on business principles, for the
transfer, or arranging for the management of
property as real as a mine or an estate.
The proposed memorial to the late Rev. Henry
White has met with a ready response. The sum
of £goo has been collected. A stained glass
window is to be placed in the Savoy Chapel and
a mosaic in the Chapel of King's College, London.
The rest of the money will be expended in the en-
dowment of cots in the children's ward of King's
College Hospital. The memory of such a man as
Henry White, who wrote but little, necessarily
passes away when his friends are dead. It is
well that something should survive to show that
there once lived this man whom all men loved.
I have received a good many letters concerning
the suggested Authors' Club or Authors' House,
but I want more, and I keep the question open for
another month. Meantime will those who have
as yet expressed no opinion be good enough to let
me have their views? The case is now fairly
before us. We understand what such an institution
may do for the cause of literature, and what may
be its dangers and difficulties. If either is resolved
upon there will be wanted a volunteer Committee
of management or, at least, s< me who are ready
to do the work of starting the preliminary
organization. Will those who are willing to help
in this way send in their names?
The Spectator offers certain facts of interest to
some of our readers. They concern the produc-
tion of Christmas gift-books. Twenty years ago,
the writer states, that paper noticed eighty volumes
of the kind, and devoted seven columns to the task.
Ten years ago a hundred and eight were reviewed
in thirteen columns. This year there are more
than a hundred and fifty brought out by fifty pub-
lishers. In twenty years, therefore, the output of
gift-books at Christmas has been doubled. The
population has increased by twenty per cent, in
the same time, which accounts for some of the in-
crease. Education, not only of the Board School
kind, but of the more liberal kind, has been enor-
mously extended, so that the sons of that class
which formerly attended wretched private schools
now go to great schools like St. Paul's or the City
of London, where they get as good an education
as if they were at Harrow or Rugby. And the
education of girls has widened even more astonish-
ingly. This accounts for another part of the in-
crease. The Spectator thinks that the middle-class
Englishman never buys books except to give away,
and that the increase in the number of Christmas
gift-books shows the increase of the custom of giving
books which are cheap and pretty, and look costly.
Well, there is something in the theory. But it is not
completely true. The ordinary professional man
does not buy books. That is true. Why? Be-
cause he doesn't want to read. When he is not at
work it is after dinner, when he talks or he takes
his pipe. Very often he works every evening,
and has no time at all for reading. A doctor
in practice, for instance, has very little time in-
deed for reading. But his household have; and
his boys and girls buy as many books as they can
afford. In fact, this common belief that books are not
bought by English people is based on nothing more
than the two facts that men in active work have
very little time for reading, and that their means
are too slender to admit of doing much more than
subscribe to the library. But, by hook or by
crook, the younger ones do get books. Look at a
school-boy's shelves. And see the people buying
books at the stalls. I will try to get some statistics,
if I can, on the people who buy books as a contri-
bution to social manners.
The Spectator has likewise in purblind fashion
begun to teach us what Christmas books ought to
be. Now Christmas books mean books printed
and published about Christmas time. Five and
twenty years ago they meant books or stories con-
nected, in some way or other, with the Festival of
Joy and Good Tidings and Gargantuan Feeding.
That time has gone by. He who writes a tale tq
## p. 225 (#273) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
225
be published for Christmas no longer troubles
himself the least about Yule Tide and the feasting.
In fact, I think the feasting itself is decreasing
every year. For my own part I have had a hand
in about fifteen Christmas stories. They have been
published in October, and they have no more to do
with the Feast of Christmas than with the Feast of
Lanterns. The better the story, the more highly
finished as a work of art, the better Christmas
book it makes.
Mr. George Saintsbury's book, or rather the first
chapter of it, has been considered in another place.
Here is a remark somewhat after the comparative
method which he advocates. He has treated not of
the greatest men—Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Byron, find no place in his book—but of those who
standnextto the greatest. Among them, forinstance,
are Crabbe, Hogg, Sydney Smith, Hazlitt, Moore,
Leigh Hunt, Peacock, De Quincey, Praed, Lock-
hart, and Borrow. These are all very respectable
names; they stand very nearly in the first line;
one doubts whether we could now find, taking
England and America together, a living eleven
capable of standing up to this dead eleven. Yet,
though we seem to know so much about them,
how little do we really know of their work and their
personality? Who now regardeth Crabbe? who
readeth Hogg? A few lines from the former,
a few verses from the latter, are all we know.
Moore is read no longer. Leigh Hunt is fading
into oblivion surely and swiftly; De Quincey, for
a few things that he did, still lives; Praed, for the
same reason, still lives; Hazlitt no longer lives in
the common mind; Peacock belongs to the library
of the student; Borrow has a few lovers here and
there; Lockhart, save for his Life of Scott—a large
saving—is no more than a name. In fact, the list
teaches that a very limited immortality is the in-
evitable lot of all but one or two. He, however,
who has succeeded in catching the ear of the
world and pleasing or helping along his own genera-
tion just for his own life, ought to be contented,
because he has really achieved a great thing. He
who, like Praed, succeeds in getting the world to
put one single poem in that Treasury of Literature,
which will last so long as the present speech is
maintained, has accomplished a most wonderful
feat. He is truly blessed of the gods. But for
most writers, even of those who seem well to the
front in their generation, a strictly limited immor-
tality is their portion. And this we should do
well to remember.
The death of M. Octave Feuillet removes one
of the foremost figures in French literature. I
VOL. I.
suppose that everybody has read the "Vicomte de
Camors" and the "Roman d'un jeune homme
pauvre." Not so many have read his "Honneur
d'artiste," the "Histoire de Sibylle," or "La
Morte." But there is hardly any artist in fiction
of whom a young writer could learn more. A
careful study of his methods should be a liberal
education in the art. May we venture to recom-
mend it to some of our young writers?
—♦
Another death, that of Kinglake, removes a
veteran of letters. I suppose his " History of the
Crimean War" is a great work, but I have never
read it. The reason is that as a lad I suffered,
. with all the other young men of the time, such
agonies of impotent rage at the sufferings of our
soldiers in that terrible Crimean winter, when they
were mocked with green coffee berries, boots made
of brown paper, putrid tins of beef, and all the rest
of it, that I have never ventured to open the book
or to read over again the dismal and maddening
story. Kinglake to me was always Eothen King-
lake.
Mr. Louis Stevenson (see Author, November,
1890, p. 166) furnished good and sufficient reasons
why one must not too hastily bring charges of
plagiarism against a novelist. Mr. Hall Caine, in
a story given in the PallMall Gazette oi December
22nd, 1890, gives another warning against hasty
charges of this kind. He tells how, when a boy,
he saw, sitting in a chamber of an Infirmary, a
young woman with bandaged eyes waiting for some
one. She had recently been operated upon for
cataract; she was ordered to keep on her bandages
for a fortnight under penalty of permanent blind-
ness; she was waiting for her child, born before
the operation, whom she had, therefore, not yet
seen. Twenty years later, he wrote a novel with
exactly that situation. But he made the mother
brave the consequences. In order to see her child
she tears off the bandage. Now exactly the same
situation was used by the French novelist, Leon
Lespes, in a novel written sometime in the thirties
or the forties. At the first discovery every one
holds up his hands. Plain plagiarism! Shame!
Yet with what a plain tale is the resemblance
proved to be no plagiarism at all!
This was pure accident. Such a thing might
happen to anyone who observes a fact and makes
it into a dramatic situation. Another danger is
that of using the same materials and authorities as
another novelist. Suppose, for instance, that two
s a
## p. 226 (#274) ############################################
226
THE AUTHOR.
men were at the same time engaged upon separate
works, turning on the manners and customs of the
early sixteenth century. They would both go to
Erasmus—they must. Once there were two
novelists engaged jointly upon a romance of the
middle of the last century. They agreed upon
sending their heroine to Tunbridge Wells. It was
not until they had paid a longish visit to the place,
and after all the contemporary literature and gossip
about Tunbridge had been studied, that they
remembered that Thackeray had already made
Tunbridge Wells his own. They therefore re-
treated and found another place, and began' again.
But suppose it had not beeri Thackeray, but
another and sbme obscure and unsuccessfiil writer
who had thus treated of the place—there would
have beeri a fine opportunity for a cry of plagiar-
ism. BecaiiSe, you see, there is only one "crib,"
or set of cribs, for Tunbridge Wells in 1750, and
whether it is Thdckeray or Ignotus who wants to
use that place at that tinie, he must Use that set
Of cribs and ndrie other.
"AUTHORS.—Introductionstopublishersand
editors, by journalist of standing; commis-
sion only on MS. sold; exceptional chance;
_H. D. F., Office."
The above advertisement has appeared in an
evening paper. A member of the Society answered
it, stating that he was a writer of some success, but
would be pleased to extend his connection among
editors of magazines. He received no reply. It
is difficult to understand what the advertiser means.
As everyone knows perfectly well, an introduction
to editors and publishers is never wanted and is of
no use. They are almost the only people in the
world who want no introduction: Any respectable
solicitor requires one with a new client. The best
editor in the world wants none. A perfect stranger
may go to him and will be received with cordiality
if he has anything good to offer. Hdw, then, can a
writer be benefited by the "journalist of standing"?
Considering this question and waiting for an answer
from the advertiser, we advise readers to send their
MSS. themselves to editors until they get a satis-
factory reply
Another advertisement inviting authors to send
MSS. to the advertiser which appeared in a leading
paper early in October, attracted many. The
advertiser called once only, a few days after the
insertion of his invitation. He took away a bundle
of MSS. and returned no more. Meantime one of
those who answered the advertisement, after writing
again and again to the advertiser, and failing to get
any reply, appealed to the Society. Other com-
plaints reaching the Secretary of MSS. having been
sent and kept without any reply, the case was laid
before the manager of the paper, who delivered up
to the office all the MSS. lying in his office. These
have been returned to the authors. The others
which had been carried away, have since been
returned, and an explanation has been offered.
From a correspondent:—"Talking of misprints
the following occurred to me in my journalistic
experience. I had written the familiar proverb,
'Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take
care of themselves.' The sporting compositor
turned it out—' Take care of the fence, and the
hounds will take care of themselves.' It is not only
smart, but true."
The Times arindunces that the Handbook to the
Public Records, upon which Mr. Scargill Bird, the
Superintendent to the Search Department at the
Public Record Office; has been engaged for some
years in compiling, is now finally revised and ready
for press, and may be expected shortly. The work
is an elaborate catalogue raisonnec of the Public
Records:
The "National Cyclopaedia of American Bio-
graphy " is published by James T. White and Co.
It contains the autobiographies of "prominent"
citizens of the big Republic, such as mayors and
other great men, authors included. Each notice
contains a portrait and an autograph; and, in some
cases, a picture of the great man's residence: The
portraits are little things, costing two or three dollars
a-piece. The following is an extract from a letter
addressed by the enterprising publishers to an
American author, who has forwarded it to us. It
will, perhaps, furnish a hint to other enterprising
gentlemen on this side the ocean. Every sug-
gestion by which authors may be tricked is gladly
welcomed by British, as well as by American,
enterprise.
"We are asked to embellish these biographies
with vignette portraits, like those shown ; and they
are in such request, we are obliged to restrict them
to only the more prominent persons.
"We feel that your position and work in the
world entitles you to this portrait. There are 6,000
representative persons living who should have
portraits, which would require an outlay that no
publisher would be justified in assuming. This
expense, however, distributed pro rata is so small
and we feel that its addition to the biography is so
## p. 227 (#275) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
227
great, that no one can afford to have it omitted.
They cost $70 each. A photo process plate, such
as can only be printed on special coated paper,
cannot be used. This is an etching drawn by a
portrait artist of the highest ability, and engraved,
so as to retain its vigour and delicacy through large
editions. This is what gives the life to the portrait,
&c."
Such an appeal to vanity, patriotism, justice, and
cheapness all combined must be irresistible. There
are actually 6,000 "representative" Americans—
happy country to possess 6,000great men!—one in
every 10,000 souls, one in every 6,oco adults, one
in every 3.000 men, one in every 1,000 educated
men! If all these, except a remnant, pay up the
S70 for what costs $2, there is a little trifle of
$400,000 profit for the enterprising publisher.
Well, we give it away. Millions in it. But the
Author only lives to benefit his fellow creatures.
A paper calling itself an agreement has just been
placed in my hands by one of the parties concerned.
It is a lady. She did not sign the document until
she had asked the advice of her bankers, who jhem:
selves, she states, also took advice. This is much
as if she had asked the opinion of the grocer, who
had diffidently taken counsel with his friend the
butcher. The result is pleasing, and reflects the
highest credit on fhe general intelligence of the
bankers and their advisers.
(1.) The author paid ^58 towards the production
of a work which'would cost about £$0.
(2.) She agreed to pay whatever the honest pub-
lisher should please to charge for correc-
tions.
(3.) She agreed to give him a free hand to adver-
tise anywhere—in his own lists at a pound
a word if he chooses—up to £20.
(4.) She agreed to give the man "half the
profits."
Half the profits! This is a beautiful example
of trading on the ignorance of the author. Half
the profits! For here is the account as it is pretty
certain to be rendered. It must be remembered
that, as stated above, the actual cost of prpducing
the work will be about £$0. The extreme case
of selling off the whole edition is taken.
£ s. a.
Cost of production, stated at 58 o o
Corrections (say) ... <.. 717 6
Advertising ... ... ... 20 o o
500 copies—■
400 sold, producing
60 press
20 author
20 in stock
500
Loss
£ s. d.
70 o o
J5 «?
£85 17 6
So that on the most favourable chance there can
be no profits, and must be a loss.
But the loss will very likely be a great deal
more. Probably, an account more like the follow-
ing will be submitted :—
Cost of production
Corrections (or any other fancy amount)
Advertising (or any other fancy amount)
£
75
11
30
s. d.
o o
IS 8
6 o
500 copies—
20 sold, producing
60 press
420 in stock
500
Loss...
£"6 15 8
£ s- d.
3 10 o
... 113 5 8
£"6 '5 8
This, however, is how the transaction will figure
up in the publisher's private book :—
£ s. d.
Actual cost of production ... ... 4c o o
Corrections (say) ... ... ... 1104
Advertising (say) ... ... ... 5 o o
Profit to publisher ... ... ... 74 o o
By payment of author
Ditto for corrections ...
Ditto for advertising ...
By sale of (say 200 copies)
,£120 10 o
£ s. d.
... 58 o o
7 10 o
20 o o
•• 35 0 0
£l20 IO O
£»5 17 6
This is what one gets by taking advice of people
who know nothing whatever about the subject.
## p. 228 (#276) ############################################
228
THE AUTHOR.
We are constantly being asked what royalties
mean when they are offered in agreements. Now,
in the June number of the Author we gave a
distinct statement of what is really meant by the
various kinds of royalties offered; a six shilling
novel of average length being taken as the basis of
calculation. Let us repeat what was there proved.
It was shown that a ten per cent, royalty gives the
following proportions :—■
For the first edition of 1,000 copies—■
Publisher: Author : : 3:2;
For the second edition of 3,000 copies—
Publisher : Author : : 3:1;
and so on, for which we refer the reader to that num-
ber. A practical though rough and imperfect way
of testing a royalty is this. For a first edition of a
thousand the cost of production may be taken at
one-sixth the published price, viz. :—at is. for a
6s. book. The retail price may be taken at T7j, or,
to be very liberal to the publisher, at ^.
For a second edition of large numbers, the cost
of production is about ith the published price: the
retail price remains at -^j.
These figures can be very easily applied by the
reader when his next agreement is offered for
signature.
After two hundred and fifty years the countrymen
of Drummond of Hawthornden are about to erect a
tomb over the neglected grave of their poet. It
will be the tomb which he himself asked his friend
the Earl of Stirling, to place over him.
Alexis, when thou shalt hear wandering Fame,
Tell, Death hath triumphed o'er my mortal spoils,
And that on earth I am but a sad name,
If thou e'er held me dear, by all our love,
By all that bliss, those joys, Heaven here us gave,
I conjure thee, and by the Maids of Jove,
To grave this short remembrance on my grave:
"Here Damon lies, whose songs did sometimes
grace
The murmuring Esk. May Hoses shade the
place I"
I wonder how many living folk have read
Drummond. A few of his verses are well known
because they are preserved in that collection which
is in most English houses, the "Golden Treasury."
Readers who feel moved—may many be moved !—
to contribute to this monument, may note that Mr.
A. P. Purvis, Esk Town, Lasswade, is the Hon. Sec,
to whom their tribute may be paid. The Com-
mittee is entirely composed of Scottish gentlemen.
Among them I see the name of Mr. Andrew Lang
—but they will allow the Southron to assist.
We have read with amazement certain remarks
made in the English Court of Justice by a certain
person learned in the law concerning a great
French writer. The person learned in the law,
going outside his case, which had nothing to do
with the works of this great French writer, but
only with certain pictures professing to illustrate
these works, called the said great French writer a
"filthy-minded old monk, who is only considered
a classic because he has been dead three hundred
years." It is not likely that among the readers of
this paper there can be any who want a defence
of Rabelais. If to speak words of wisdom for the
instruction of humanity for all time is the work
one expects of a filthy-minded monk, then is
the said person learned in the law a critic who
may be followed. If it is a decent thing for an
advocate to go beyond his case in order to throw
mud at an author whom he.does not understand,
then is the above-named person learned in the
law a* model for all advocates. To those who do
understand this great master, it seems a de-
plorable thing that such words should be uttered
of such a man by a member of that profession
which is generally believed to be not only learned
in the law, but cultivated above and beyond all
other professions. As regards the pictures, they
seem to have been seized with all the zeal which
might be expected. Eleven of those seized were
ordered by the magistrate to be returned immedi-
ately. No one, meantime, has so much as raised
the question, how far they really illustrate the work.
I have myself been twice to the Gallery, and I dare
say I shall go again. Some of the drawings are
extremely clever, and some, but not many, seem
really to have caught the spirit of the writer.
Some clothe his robust pages with pruriency.
4
This is the busiest time of the year as regards
publications. It is therefore a favourable time for
pursuing our researches into the extent of the
alleged "risks" run by those whose business it is
to produce new books. My allegation is that
publishers very seldom run any risk at all—in the
matter of belles lettres, of course. I know very little
about the risks, if any, incurred in technical,
scientific, legal, or medical works. These, how-
ever, are not advertised in the Times.
The sheet of the Times before me contains four
columns of advertisements, two of which are
restricted to books published during the last three
months. Let us take these two.
The following is the analysis :—
(1.) Nine books. Of these five are novels by
## p. 229 (#277) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
229
tried and proved writers; three are on
special subjects which appeal to large classss
and are by writers whose names command
respect; one is a book of travels in a country
of which people are never tired of hearing.
Result: no risk.
(2.) Five books: one a second edition. One a
new volume of a successful series. Three
on subjects and by writers about whom
there can be no doubt. Result: no risk.
(3.) Six books. All novels. All by proved
writers. No risk.
(4.) Eight books. Two books of travel certain
to be greatly in demand. Two novels by
well-known writers. A book of poems with
a well-known name. A book of essays by
a name of world-wide celebrity. A large
and expensive historical book. Result:
one book—the last—which may carry risk
with it.
(5.) Seven books. One of biography, certain to
command an audience. One an addition
to a greatly successful series. One of
popular science. One a novel by a proved
writer. Two books of verse, evidently paid
for by the authors. One a translation which
seems also paid for. If not, risky, but of
little importance.
(6.) Seven books. All religious. All by well-
known men. No risk.
(7.) One book. By a writer of surprising success.
No risk.
(8.) Eight books. Six books on Art. Two by
very well-known writers. No risk.
(9.) Five books. One, a novel by a new hand;
might seem risky. But it is a reprint, and
has already been proved in serial form. No
risk.
(10.) Fifteen books. A varied list. The sub-
ject and writers prove that the books are
certain to command success. No risk.
(11.) Seven books. Four of tbem are technical,
The remaining three are by authors whose
names stand very high indeed. No risk.
(12.) Five books. Four by very well-known and
successful writers. The fifth a well-
advised venture. Risk, unless the author
takes it, in one case.
Thus, out of eighty-three new books and among
thirteen publishers we can discover two books
only in which there is any risk. These are those who
are considered first class publishers. The books
are published on a half-profit system and a royalty
system. A few, but very few, are bought. But it
must be understood that the practice of buying
books is rapidly going out.
Let us understand, however, what is meant
exactly by saying that there is no risk. This: that
the publisher, being a sensible man of business,
very seldom pays for producing a book unless he
sees his way very clearly to at least such a sale as
will give him back his money with some return for
his own profit.
The obituary of the year includes among those
who attained literary distinction the names of
Cardinal Newman, of whom 1 am inclined to
believe that his hymns will give him an abiding
place in the English memory long after his Apologia
and other works have been forgotten. His great
age, his scholarly reputation, his individual
character and his position in the Church to which
he seceded, all helped to exaggerate at his death
his literary rank Dr. Dollinger, Professor Delitsch,
the Archbishop of York, the Dean of St. Paul's,
Dr. Littledale, Canon Liddon, Canon Molesworth,
the Rev. Henry White, and Dr. Adler, are among
the divines deceased; Sir Richard Burton, Pro-
fessor Thorold Rogers, Professor Sellar, Dr. Schlie-
mann, among the scholars and archaeologists;
Lord Carnarvon, Lord Rosslyn, Sir Louis Malet,
Dion Eoucicault, Alphonse Karr, Octave Feuillet,
Chatrian, Adolphe Belot, Charles Gibbon,
Gustave Revilliot of Geneva, George Hooper,
represent the losses in general literature. There
are also many names of scientific and medical
writers. No great English writer has passed away
during the last twelve months.
The paper of the month is "The Light that
Failed," in Lippincott.
Walter Besant.
*
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
I.
[The following account of the passage of the
Copyright Bill by the House was written by the
Secretary of the American Copyright League for
the New York Critic.]
The passage of the International Copyright Bill
by the House of Representatives on the 3rd inst.
was by no means wholly unexpected to the Com-
mittee representing the Leagues, most of whom
know what laborious work has been done in the
"campaign of education " that has been carried on
since the defeat of May 2nd. This campaign,
which resulted in a change of 72 votes, began on
the morning after that disaster, when the printed
arguments of the friends of the bill were placed in
the boxes of members on the theory that then if
## p. 230 (#278) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
ever they would be sure to receive attention.
From that day to this, in the face of the hopeless-
ness of some of the most prominent friends of the
cause, there has been no intermission in the effort
to reach the House with argument, and with
evidences that the best sentiment of the country
demands the bill. Time would fail to tell here the
details of the summer campaign, and of the un-
expected dangers which had to be guarded against.
These must be reserved for the official report of
the year's work. It is probably unnecessary after
the vote of December 3rd to apologize to those
who in August thought that the summons of the
Secretary to another struggle was only another cry
of wolf.
The vote qf last week was to me unexpected
only to the extent of a week's margin. It was
easy to see upon my arrival ip Washington on
Sunday night that the work of the Committee
during the recess and especially since the election
was bearing fruits. Interviews on Sunday night,
on Monday and on Tuesday morning showed a
determination on the part of leading friends of the
bill to put it through promptly. To avoid con-
sideration of a bill virtually at the head of Com-
mittee business, would have indicated a hostility on
the part of the leaders of the majority which did
not exist. On the contrary, it was evident that
while the measure was in no sense a partisan one,
the LI. Congress could not afford to leave as part
of its record the official license of literary piracy.
This consideration assured the bill its chance, but
not its success, which came from an accession of
individual votes on each side of the Chamber. On
Tuesday at 11.30, when it was known that the
"morning hour" was to be restored that day,
pimphlets and petitions of {he League were placed
in the boxes of tho^e members whose attitude was
not known to be fr.endly, all of whom had received
at their homes since the election the arguments
issued by the American Copyright League, and
those of Mr Putnam, the indefatigable Secretary
of the Publishers' League, together with letters
supplementing personal appeals. The vote on the
question of consideration, 132 to 74, though npt a
test vote, was most encouraging, but, in view of the
information of the Committee, not surprising. The
unworthy tactics of the enemy in filibustering
against the Eighth Commandment were maintained
with more acerbity than skill or intelligence, and
in some cases without sincere conviction. (It is
reported that even Mr. Springer, who added to the
di-grace of Illinois by leading the opposition, has
acknowledged since the vote that the bill was a
good one.) These tactics were, however, a gross
parliamentary mistake, since they gave Mr. Simonds
the best of reasons for moving the previous ques-
tion, which was ordered late in the day in a thin
house by 106 to 73. This was a test vote and was
accepted as conclusive proof that the final vote
would occur on the next day, and that it would be
largely favourable. It was the opinion of our
Congressional friends that the fight was won.
On Wednesday morning Dr. Eggleston, Mr. W.
W. Appleton and Mr. Scribner arrived, and the
work of soliciting votes was renewed. Dr. Eggle-
ston, whose laborious work in the cause at Washing-
ton two years ago and last year will be remembered,
and the state of whose health had deprived the
Committee of his services during the summer
campaign, though still suffering from illness, could
not keep out of the fight. Wednesday's work on
the floor was like nothing so much as a fine con-
test at football. The copyright wedge was again
formed with Captain Simonds in the angle with the
ball (i.e., the bill), and with a strong rush line, an 1
with Butterworth as right tackle, and Breckinridge
as left tackle, the steady and persistent advance
was continued until the goal was reached
The great moral victory thus accomplished is
belittled by attempting to assign personal credits
for it. It is, first of all, a victory for honest public
sentiment, and in this part of the contest the press
of the country, with one notorious exception, has
done an enormous service, in which the Washing-
ton correspondents almost without an exception
have joined. The laborious service in past years
of a few energetic and devoted men must not be
forgotten, foremost of whom, for the length and
efficiency of his pioneer work, was George Parsons
Lathrop. Secondly, it is a victory for a clean
campaign of argument, and should inspirit advo-
cates of other just causes to depend upon frank
approach to Representatives on that plane rather
than upon any other. Thirdly, with all the effort
that has been put forth in various quarters by
authors, by publishers, by the Typothetae, and'
others, it would be idle to deny that the chief
factor in the fight has been the organizations of the
typographers, who, beginning by working for their
own interest, have become warm advocates of
copyright as a principle.
But, as I write, the bill is not yet through the
Senate, though it is difficult to entertain the idea
of its defeat there for any reason. The remem-
brance of Jonathan Chace's wise and gentle
championship of it in that body is itself a tower of
strength. The calamity it would be to civilization
were the newspapers of March 4th, 1891, to
announce that the reform had gone by default,
ought to stir every reader of these lines to write at
once to his two Senators to urge upon them right
of way for the copyright bill.
Robert Undekwoud Johnson.
## p. 231 (#279) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
231
n.
The following is from an American correspon-
dent, one of the inner ring in the cause of Copy-
right :—
"The fight has been short and sharp, and deci-
sive; and on the lines laid out by the Copyright
Committee. ... It was important to impress
on the leaders of the Republican side, who were
friendly to us, the fact that this was their last chance
of having the Copyright Bill put to their credit.
The late elections made them particularly impres-
sionable on the side of public opinion, and since
the vote of May 2nd we have poured in upon them
evidences of the popular strength of the cause. I
am not saying that their course was dictated wholly
by policy. I believe the organization of our sup-
port has been so thorough that had the elections
been otherwise the Bill would have passed at this
Session. But the Republicans' calamity was our
opportunity. Lodge and McKinley have been
especially helpful in getting a day. ... It
was a pretty fight—much like a football fight under
the Rugby Rules. Our men formed a wedge with
Simonds with the ball (i.e., the Bill) inside the
angle, and they moved steadily forward with each
defeat of the evening's five dilatory votes, reaching
the ordering of the question after three hours and
a-half of filibustering, which gave Simonds the pre-
text he wanted for that motion. The first day
ended with the success of that vote, making it sure
that the Bill would pass the next day. The intermis-
sion was like the quarter-hour before the second half
at football. After twenty minutes' debate on either
side, our wedge again began its advance, un-
checked by five dilatory motions, with the result,
as you know, of the passage of the Bill by 139 to
95."
Ill
The American Copyright Act is already producing
a shower of letters and articles, which one watches,
day by day, hoping for instruction and dreading
mischief. Nothing more mischievous and dan-
gerous could have been devised than this rushing
into print of terrified printers, self-advertising pub-
lishers and others, crying out before they are
hurt. The only word of wisdom was from Professor
Max Miiller. Said the Professor, "Sit down and
hold your tongues." All the writers seemed agreed
that a deadly blow is about be dealt at English
printers. For my own part, I do not believe in
the deadliness of the blow, nor, in fact, in any
blow at all. At the same time, I think that there
is some doubt as to the ultimate effect of the Bill,
whether we are justified in clamouring for a clause
granting copyright to books in the English lan-
guage, only on the condition that a copy printed in
this country is deposited—not in Stationers' Hall
—but in a Government office created for this pur-
pose, is a doubtful question. There are one or two
points on the general question which I submit for
consideration.
1. We read everywhere that the pirates are
smitten with confusion and dispersed. Are they?
First of all, they have a stock of hundreds of
volumes containing all the literature of Great
Britain from the beginning. It will take a very-
long time to get through this stock,, and, in fact,
no living man will see the end of it, because the
copyright is always expiring of modern literature,
which then becomes everybody's property.
2. Secondly, suppose, as will certainly happen,
that the people hitherto called pirates want to pub-
lish new works by British authors. They will not
be able to get the best new books because they
cannot afford to pay for them. But they will get
the second and third-rate books because they will
offer a five-pound note for the copyright. Now the
author, if he can get nothing better, will generally
take a five-pound note. If the history of many
cheap editions was known, we should find that
many very well known books had been bought up
for cheap rights at absurd sums. I once saw a
little document—some years ago—showing such a
negotiation, between two publishers, over a quantity
0/ copyrights. Among them the copyright of
a certain work by a very popular novelist, now
deceased, was actually disposed of for five pounds.
Therefore, the cheap libraries will have little diffi-
culty in keeping up, and the Americans will go on
having their cheap literature.
3. Will our own books be printed in the first
place in America? I think not. When a book is
going to be successful why trouble about the cost
of composition? It is a trifle; so many sheets
at three-and-twenty shillings—say—it is nothing
compared with the manifest advantages of double
printing.
4. Then there is the spelling. Lives there a
caitiff Briton so vile as to allow, if he can prevent
it, his work to appear in his own country, in the
vulgar and debased spelling which they have adopted
in the States? Let us remember that this is a
spelling which destroys the history of our language
as told by the growth of our words; that it ruins
the familiar appearance of our classics; and that
it was only adopted in a spirit of spitefulness against
Great Britain. In small things as well as in great,
the magnanimous great Republic lias always, it
seems to me, been spiteful against the Mother
Country. Are we prepared to adopt traveler,
theater, favor, and the 01 her abominations? Never.
## p. 232 (#280) ############################################
232
THE AUTHOR.
5. "But," it is argued, "we must not treat America
as we treat France. This is not a question of free
trade or protection. We must consider the
absolute mischief which may be done to us by the
free importation to our shores of printed sheets with
their bad spelling and ugly type, and the loss ihey
will cause to the printers. They are afraid of us.
If they wish to preserve their trade and their
spelling they are right, because we print and we
spell better and more cheaply than they do.
They cannot complain if we guard ourselves. It
is not retaliation—it is simple self-defence if we
grant copyright only to books in the English
language, composed in this country, and registered
at a Government office provided for the purpose."
This is what is said: The danger is said to be two-
fold (1) that American editions will be printed by
American printers. Well, if so we are no worse off
than before. (2) That American printed books
will flood our market. They cannot, I believe, for
the reasons above stated. Still, no one knows
exactly what is going to happen, and we had better
wait and look on awhile, and not suffer ourselves
to be excited about possibilities.
6. The letters all pretend to treat the question
as an authors' question. This is very humorous.
How long will it be before authors will be per-
suaded into signing away their American rights as
well as all their other rights? And even in cases
when a royalty is the basis of agreement. How
much more is it a publishers' than an authors'
question? Yet Mr. Arnold Forster, who is
Secretary, I believe, of Cassell's Company, talks
without'a smile of authors foregoing some of their
profits as if—poor wretches !—they had much to
forego. The recent Farrar-Cassell case let a little
daylight into many things. Let us, however, endea-
vour to make this an authors' question by keeping
American rights in our own hands. Let us do all we
can in this direction; but in many cases—perhaps
in most—it will become a publishers' question.
W. B.
IV.
The following from a correspondent. "What
effect will the American Bill produce? In other
words what kinds of literature will be affected by
the Bill, and to what extent? First let us con-
sider what English books are produced in America
at the present moment. According to the Nation
of December nth, 1890, the number of books
produced during the preceding week was seventy-
two. Of these, twenty-eight seem—because one is
not sure about two or three—to be written or
compiled by Americans. The rest, forty-four in
number, are of "foreign," i.e., chiefly English
origin. Of these, twenty-one are works of fiction,
but three are French or German, and four are
reprints. Remain, out of seventy-two books, four-
teen—or about one in five—novels written by
living English writers. Twenty-three remain to be
accounted for. Books of religion, travel, Greek
and Roman literature, and general literature, fill
up the list. Now, ten of the novels are published
at 25 or 50 cents. This price will certainly
become impossible unless the reign of the penny
novelette is to begin in America. Therefore, out
of the ten, only those authors who enjoy any
popularity in America will profit by the Bill.
In other words, it will only be worth while to
produce those works for which there is certain to
be some demand. It has to be proved what English
authors are in demand. Next, for the first time the
American author will be enabled to compete for
popularity with the Englishman. If one may judge
from certain indications, he will prove a very
formidable competitor indeed, both in America
and in the country. Therefore, while the success-
ful novelist will—unless he allows his publishers
to seize the whole increase—very largely im-
prove his position, it will become doubly—trebly,
nay, ten times as difficult to gain the ear of the
two worlds. And some of those who believe that
because they have been reprinted in a cheap
series, they are therefore popular, will be dis-
appointed.
"Will better work in fiction be produced—work
of better and truer art? I am convinced that this
will be one effect of International Copyright. That
is to say, those who now rely solely on the strength
of situations and the interest of a plot will go on
disregarding style and finish. As for construction
and dramatic effect they have it already, or they
could not succeed at all. But those who aim
higher will meet with encouragement from both
sides of the Atlantic, wherever there are people
of culture able to value style and finish. The
success of those writers—headed by George Mere-
dith—who, an artist in the highest sense, shows
that there are wide circles open to them wherever
the common language is spoken."
V.
The probable passing of the Bill necessitates an-
other warning which has been added to the list. No
one must now sign any agreement which does not
specially reserve American rights. No one as yet
knows what these may be worth, but it is at least
safe to suppose that a successful book on this side
of the Atlantic will be also successful on the other
side. Let us, at any rate, assume that it will be
successful, and safeguard our chances accordingly.
## p. 233 (#281) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
233
THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT ACT.
51s/ Congress, 2nd Session.
H. R. 10881.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED
STATES.
December 3, 1890.
Head twice and ordered to lie on the table.
AN ACT
to amend title sixty, chapter three, of
the Revised Statutes of the United
States, relating to Copyrights.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United Stales of America in
Congress assembled, That section forty-nine
hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes be,
and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as
follows:—
"Sec 4952. The author, inventor, designer,
or proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic
or musical composition, engraving, cut, print,
or photograph or negative thereof, or of a
painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and
of models or designs intended to be per-
fected as works of the fine arts, and the
executors, administrators, or assigns of any
such person shall, upon complying with the
provisions of this chapter, have the sole
liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, com-
pleting, copying, executing, finishing, and
vending the same; and, in the case of dramatic
composition, of publicly performing or repre-
senting it or causing it to be performed or
represented by others; and authors or their
assigns shall have exclusive right to dramatise
and translate any of their works for which
copyright shall have been obtained under the
laws of the United States."
Sec 2. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec. 4954. The author, inventor, or
designer, if he be still living, or his widow or
children, if he be dead, shall have the same
exclusive right continued for the further term
of fourteen years, upon recording the title of
the work or description of the article so
secured a second time, and complying with
all other regulations in regard to original
copyrights, within six months before the ex-
piration of the first term ; and such persons
shall, within two months from the date of
said renewal, cause a copy of the record thereof
to be published in one or more newspapers
printed in the United States for the space of
four weeks."
Sec. 3. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-six of the Revised Statutes of the United
States be, and the same is hereby, amended so
that it shall read as follows:
"Sec. 4956. No person shall be entitled
to a copyright unless he shall, on or before
the day of publication in this or any foreign
country, deliver at the office of the Librarian
of Congress, or deposit in the mail within
the United States, addressed to the Librarian
of Congress, at Washington, District of
Columbia, a printed copy of the title of the
book, map, chart, dramatic or musical com-
position, engraving, cut, print, photograph, or
chromo, or a description of the painting,
drawing, statue, statuary, or a model or
design for a work of the fine arts for which he
desires a copyright, nor unless he shall also,
not later than the day of publication thereof
in this or any foreign country, deliver at the
office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, District of Columbia, or deposit
in the mail within the United States, addressed
to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,
District of Columbia, two copies of such
copyright book, map, chart, dramatic or
musical composition, engraving, chromo, cut,
print, or photograph, or in case of a painting,
drawing, statue, statuary, model, or design
for a work of the fine arts, a photograph of
same: Provided, That in the case of a book
the two copies of the same required to be
delivered or deposited as above shall be
printed from type set within the limits of the
United States, or from plates made therefrom.
During the existence of such copyright the
importation into the United States of any book
so copyrighted, or any edition or editions
thereof, or any plates of the same not made
from type set within the limits of the United
States, shall be, and it is hereby, prohibited,
except in the cases specified in section twenty-
five hundred and five of the Revised Statutes of
the United States, and except in the case of
persons purchasing for use and not for sale,
who import not more than two copies of such
## p. 234 (#282) ############################################
234
THE AUTHOR.
book at any one time in each of which cases
the written consent of the proprietor of the
copyright, signed in the presence of two wit-
nesses, shall be furnished with each impor-
tation: And provided, That any publisher of
a newspaper or magazine may, without such
consent, import for his own use but not for
sale not more than two copies of any news-
paper or magazine published in a foreign
country. Frovided, nevertheless, That in the
case of books in foreign languages, of which
only translations in English are copyrighted,
the prohibition of importation shall apply
only to the translations of the same, and the
importation of the books in the original lan-
guage shall be permitted."
Sec. 4. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so that it will read as follows:
"Sec. 4958. The Librarian of Congress
shall receive from the persons to whom the
services designated are rendered the following
fees:
"First. For recording the title qr descrip-
tion of any copyright book or pther article,
fifty cents.
"Second. For every copy under seal of such
record actually given to the person claiming
the copyright, or his assigns, fifty cents.
"Third. For recording and certifying any
instrument of writing for the assignment of a
copyright, one dollar.
"Fourth. For every copy of an assignment,
one dollar.
"All fees so received shall be paid into the
Treasury of the United States: Provided,
That the charge for recording the title of
description of any article entered for copyright,
the production of a person not a citizen or
resident of the United States, shall be one
dollar, to be paid as above into the Treasury
of the United States, to defray the expenses
of lists of copyrighted articles as hereinafter
provided for.
"And it is hereby made the duty of the
Librarian of Congress to furnish to the
Secretary of the Treasury copies of the entries
of titles of all books and other articles wherein
the copyright has been completed by the de-
posit of two copies of such book printed from
type set within the limits of the United States,
in accordance with the provisions of this Act
and by the deposit of two copies of such other
article made or produced in the United States;
and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby
directed to prepare and print, at intervals of
not more than a week, catalogues of such
title-entries for distribution to the collectors
of customs of the United States and to the
postmasters of all post-offices receiving foreign
mails, and such weekly lists, as they are issued,
shall be furnished to all parties desiring them,
at a sum not exceeding five dollars per annum;
and the Secretary and the Postmaster-General
are hereby empowered and required to make
and enforce such rules and regulations as shall
prevent the importation into the United States,
except upon the conditions above specified,
of all articles copyrighted under this Act
during the term of the copyright."
Sec. 5. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-nine of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
•'Sec. 4959. The proprietor of every copy-
right book or other article shall deliver at the
offipe of thp Librarian of Congress, or deposit
in the mail, addressed to the Librarian of Con
gress, at Washington, District of Columbia,
a copy of every subsequent edition wherein
any substantial changes shall be made: Pro-
vided, however, That the alterations, revisions,
and additions made to books by foreign
authors, heretofore published, of which new
additions shall appear subsequently to the
taking effect of this Act, shall be held and
deemed capable of being popyrighted as above
provided for in this Act, unless they form a
part Qf the serjes in cqurse of publication at
the time this Act shall take effect."
Sec. 6. That section forty-nine hundred and
sixty-three of the Revised Statutes be, and the
same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec. 49Q3. Every person who shall insert
or impress such notice, or words of the same
purport, in or upon any book, map, chart,
dramatic or musical composition, print, cut,
engraving, or photograph, or other article, for
which he has not obtained a copyright, shall
be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars,
recoverable one-half for the person who shall
sue fpr such penalty, and one-half to the use
of the United States."
Sec. 7. That section forty-nine hundred and
sixty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec. 4964. Every person who, after the
recording of the title of any book and the
depositing of two copies of such book, as
provided by this Act, shall, within the term
limited, and without the consent of the pro
prietor of the copyright first obtained in
writing, signed in presence of two or more
witnesses, print, publish, dramatise, translate,
or import, or knowing the same to be so
## p. 235 (#283) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
235
printed, published, dramatised, translated, or
imported, shall sell or expose to sale any copy
of such book, shall forfeit every copy thereof
to such proprietor, and shall also forfeit and
pay such damages as may be recoverad in a
civil action by such proprietor in any coUrt 6f
competent jurisdiction."
Sec 8. That section' forty-nine hundred and
sixty-five of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, so aniended as to read as follows:
"Sec. 4965. If any person, after the record-
ing of the title of any map, chart, dramatic or
musical composition, print, cut, engraving, or
photograph, or chronio, or of the description
of any painting; drawing, statiie, statuary, or
model or design intended to be perfected and
executed as a work of the fine arts, as pro-
vided by this Act, shall within the term limited,
and without the consent of the proprietor of
the copyright first obtained in writing, signed
in presence of two or more witnesses, engrave,
etch, work, copy, print, publish, dramatise,
translate, or import, either in whole or in part,
or by varying the main design with intent to
evade the law, or, knowing the same to be so
printed, published, dramatised, translated, or
imported, shall sell or expose to sale any copy
of such map or other article as aforesaid, he
shall forfeit to the proprietor all the plates on
which the same shall he copied and every
sheet thereof, either copied or printed, arid
shall further forfeit one dollar for every sheet
of the same found in his possession, either
printing, printed, copied, published, imported,
or exposed for sale, and in case of a painting,
statue, or statuary, he shall forfeit ten dollars
for every copy of the same in his possession,
or by him sold or exposed for sale; one-half
thereof to the proprietor and the other half to
the use of the United States."
Sec. 9. That section fdrty-niHe hundred arid
sixty-seven of the Revised Statutes be, arid the
same is hereby, arhended so as to read as follows:
"Sec: 4967. Every person who shall print
or publish any rrianUscript whatever without
the consent of the author or proprietor first
obtained, shall be liable to the author or pro-
prietor for all damages occasioned by such
injury."
Sec. 10. That section forty-nine hundred and
seventy-one of the Revised Statutes be, and the
same is hereby, Repealed.
Sec. 11. That for the purpose of this Act each
volume of a book in two or more volumes, when
such volumes are published separately and the first
one shall not have been issued before this Act shall
take effect, and each number of a periodical shall
be considered an independent publication, subject
to the form of copyrighting as above.
Sec. 12. That this Act shall go into effect on
the first day of July, anno domini eighteen
hundred and ninety-one.
Sec: 13. That this Act shall only apply to a
citizen of a foreign state or nation when such
foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the
United States of America the benefit of copyright
on substantially the same basis as its own citizens;
or when such foreign state or nation permits to
citizens of the United States of Arherica copyright
privileges substaritially similar to those provided
for in this Act; or when such foreign state or
nation is a party to ah international agreement
which provides for reciprocity in the grant of
copyright, by the terms of which agreement the
United States of America may at its pleasure
become a party to such agreement. The existence
of either of these conditions shall be determined
by the opinion of the Attofney;General of the
United States, whenever ah occasion for such a
determination arises.
Passed the House of Representatives December
3. '890-
Attest: Ebwii. McPherson, Clerk.
A PROPRIETOR-EDITOR.
HIS methods of gaining a livelihood were
simple enough in conception, though
somewhat tortuous in their working. He
did not seem rich, or even to have escaped far
from the clutch of actual poverty, yet, alter his way,
He had solved the problem of '"the struggle for
life," and had learned how to pass easelul days
supported by other folks' weaknesses.
He was the Proprietor-Editor of a Society
journal, printed on the finest hand-woven paper,
and embellished with occasional illustrations. It
was, according to its own head-lines (which ought
to have known), the chosen organ of "haul ton"
yet had but a limited sale, and I was not the only
one of the Proprietor-Editor's acquaintances who
had vaguely wondered how such an expensively
produced and vilely written paper could possibly
be made to produce any profits for anybody.
And now I know, and the gorgeous simplicity of
it all fills me with admiration.
The Proprietor-Editor and I were fellow-members
of a small club, where the food was excellent and
the conditions of membership lax, and it was in
the smoking room of this institution, and under the
## p. 236 (#284) ############################################
236
THE AUTHOR.
stimulus of his afternoon whiskey, that he made the
following proposal to me.
"I see," said he, "that you come here a great
deal. You are not busy? Looking for a job,
perhaps? How would Babylon suit you? I'm
giving it up."
I inquired why: also how much the post was
worth: and thirdly in whose gift it lay.
It may have been that the Proprietor-Editor's
whiskey was more potent than usual, it may have
been that I seemed to him a complacent, nay,
almost an unscrupulous sort of person ; it may have
been that he held in light esteem the morals of all
the members of our club, but—for this reason or
for that—he unbosomed himself to me.
"My dear fellow—to answer your questions—
the post is in my gift, as you call it. I am not
giving it away, however, but I'll sell it to you. It's
worth whatever you like to make it worth. I call it
a thousand a year. I'm leaving because I want
peace. The thing is getting a bit blown on. But
you'll be fresh, and you're younger, and it won't
worry you. I've got a brother-in-law in the City, a
biggish man at the wholesale furnishing game, who
wants a partner, and I'm going to him. He thinks
my literary attainments will be useful in the
catalogues. You know! Calling a little cup-
board 'a rose-wood cabinet with inlaid top and
claw pedestal (Empire),' &c. I'm getting an old
man and I want peace—and literary people are such
quarrelsome folk. Now I'll sell you the property
right out—prospects and liabilities, copyrights, and
office furniture"
"Inlaid, with claw pedestal (Empire)," I mur-
mured.
"And accepted MSS.," he continued, dis-
regarding the interruption, "for the totally
inadequate sum of five hundred pounds. Say the
word, and your fortune's made, and we'll have a
split whiskey in honour of the event."
I begged for details.
"I have always thought," he went on unctuously,
"that those for whose chief benefit and amuse-
ment a paper is carried on, should be the people
who should pay for it. Now the people for whose
chief benefit my magazine has been circulated are
the advertisers; this is obvious, and I have always
taken steps, therefore, to ensure that they should
be practically grateful. Again, those who derive
the greatest pleasure from reading my journal are
the people who write it, therefore I leave my con-
tributors to take their pay out in pure, healthy
pleasure. I allow no sordid money question to
come between me and those whom I am anxious
to serve."
"You do not pay for contributions, you mean."
"Young fellow," he responded, perhaps a little
thickly, "I pay nobody. But I like you. There's
no literary rot about you, and I'll show you how to
be an editor like me." Here he settled himself
luxuriously in his chair, and let his admiring eyes
rove up and down his podgey little person, from
the heavy gold chain across his waistcoat to the
new patent toe on the fender. He was not a proud
man, but he felt that I must be consumed with
envy at his distinguished position in the world of
letters.
"I pay nobody," he repeated, "but printers are
not so easily to be got over; they are generally one's
chief trouble. I have had three since I started the
paper. The first man I paid, regularly. That was for
a very little time, for I had very little money, and I
didn't know the ropes as I do now. Then I printed
on the nod for two or three months—till he began
to get anxious. Then I sent him a cheque for the
whole and a bit over. And that's the last that I
ever paid him. He allowed me a year's credit after
that, as my behaviour seemed so handsome, and at
the end of that time he got nasty, so I left him.
He came round to me and talked big. He said
he should make it warm for me in the court.
'Stop,' says I, 'what's your game? My blood or
my money?' 'Why, your money, you little
brute,' says he—he was a very violent man.
'Then you'd better sit down,' said I, 'and have a
whiskey and soda and talk it over. You might be
able to help me get it for you.' He was agreeable,
and I put it to him that he must do nothing to
spoil my credit, as I could not undertake to pay
two printers at once. But I promised to pay him,
if he would give me such an introduction to some
other printer that I could again get credit. He
thought for a bit and then he said, 'Well, you
might do worse, and I'll give you a line of
introduction,' and would you believe it, the fool
sent me to my own brother. Of course that was
sheer luck, and you mustn't expect to have that sort
of luck often. He said, 'I'm sending you to another
confounded Israelite, and I wish him joy of you,'
and he wrote a flaming letter about my commercial
habits, integrity, and the rest, and directed it to
Messrs. Silverton and Co., my brother Isaac's
trading name. And I stopped with my brother for
one year, and paid him every week ready money
for printing. I couldn't even get a week's credit out
of him. 'The first day your money isn't here on
Tuesday morning by twelve, I stop work on the
paper,' said he, 'and it won't come out. If you're
ten minutes late with the money, I stop the job.'
He's a hard man is Isaac, and he had all this down
on paper. One day I was half-an-hour late, I
think. 'I won't go to press,' says he, 'unless you
give me a five pound note as a bonus.' To his
own brother! I had to give it him though. I
## p. 237 (#285) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
237
could not afford to break with him just then. But
he's a hard man is Isaac. Don't you print with
him.
"In the course of a month or so my old printer
began to ask. about his account. I was pretty
civil with him. I told him I thought it best to
pay a bit in ready money at first, so as to establish
a credit and get the work done cheaply. He
agreed, for he remembered how he had been done
clean that way himself. At last he got savage;
then he got threatening; then he sent trie a
lawyer's letter, and then a writ. I paid no atten-
tion till it got to terra-cotta, and then I spoke to
my brother Isaac, and he took a hand. 'Did
you write this here introduction to me?' says he
to the poor chap. 'Yes,' says the man. 'I
have always found Mr. Reuben a most satisfactory
and punctual man to deal with,' quoted my
brother. 'Here, you bring ) our action, and I'll
bring mine at the same time.' We heard no more
of him.
"Then my brother says, 'This is too warm.
I'll give you a letter of introduction to the beast
who undersold me about the Penny Pilferer.
He can come to see by my books what regular
pay you are, and I'll show him the good recom-
mendation you brought with you to me. It's a
pity that such a document should not be used
somewhere outside the family circle. You ought to
get a year's credit at least out of him—and that's all
I can do for you.' I've been with that chap ever
since; I haven't paid him a cent yet. But I shall
have to do so soon, and that's why I'm leaving."
He paused.
"Splendid!" said I. "Now about the contri-
butors."
"Oh, them!" he continued, slightingly, "we
generally go in for women, you know. Their
cackle is much neater than men's, and their writing
is much better. They don't want so much tnone),
and it's easier to get them for nothing at all.
Most of my magazine is done by my staff—er—
my sub-editor does it with scissors and paste. A
lady clerk runs about and takes notes of functions;
she bribes pew-openers and makes up to house-
maids, and so we get our original matter. I—er—
write the city article. An outside broker gives me
the information, and one of his clerks answers the
financial correspondence. I don't pay them; they
do it for love of letters, I suppose, and it's nothing
to me if their sisters, and their cousins, and their
aunts unload on my public. There remains the
feuilleton. I advertise for this. One three-and-
sixpenny advertisement will generally bring in over
fifty MSS., and the stamps which accompany them
are always handy for the office."
"But how about returning the MSS.?"
"I never return MSS. I may want 'em."
"But," said I, in my innocence, "you'll have to
pay for them, if you obtain contributions like
that."
"Oh ! shall I ?" said he, finely contemptuous at
the idea. "Oh! shall I? I pay nobody, as I began
by informing you, until I cannot help it, and there
are not many of these people who force me to
extremes. Some wait on for months without
saying anything. Some begin writing letters to me
from the first. Some are polite, some are more
threatening; but I answer none, at any rate for
months. That alone chokes off two-thirds of them.
It almost always finishes the women. I write to a
few of the men, under certain circumstances, and
tell them that their previous communication was
mislaid, that the Proprietor-Editor is now out of
town, but that he will certainly write to them
immediately on his return. That keeps them
going for another two months. Then, if they still
keep bothering, I say the paper will shortly change
hands, when definite conclusions concerning the
return or retention of MSS. will be come to in
every case. You would hardly believe it, but that
chokes off a good half of the few that remain.
This is how it works out. Say forty-five people
answer the advertisement, which brings in 30^
worth of stamps at once, and that goes a long way
in an office where you don't answer letters till
you've got to. Of these two or three people never
write at all about the matter, and we never hear
of them again. They are the totally inexperienced,
and become subscribers to my paper for years, so
as to watch the columns for their contributions.
They believe that to be the usual method of pro
cedure. All the rest will write once or twice at
least, and thirty or so will write regularly once a
week for two or three months, sometimes, I am glad
to say, enclosing more stamps for replies; a dozen
of these will still keep on writing after the patience
of the rest has been exhausted, and these are the
people who may have to be told about the con-
templated sale of the property, or the absence of
the Proprietor-Editor, before they get thoroughly
tired. With the remaining six or so I have to deal
further. They will generally call and talk about
law, and want to know what I am going to do.
They are usually men with sticks. I look at those
MSS. They are in all likelihood the only ones
by practised hands, being written by authors who
have experience of the silly way in which other
journals are worked, and expect me to behave
likewise. If any of these stories suit my purpose
I have them printed, and that's a very practical
answer to any questionings about what I am going
to do. When they write for payment I say nothing.
Then they write urgently, and I say, 'At the end
## p. 238 (#286) ############################################
238
THE AUTHOR.
of our financial quarter, we shall have the pleasure
of sending you our cheque in payment of your con-
tributions to Babylon at scale prices.' The date
you see is pretty vague, and that keeps them quiet
for another three months. It is probably now
over a year since they answered my advertisement.
If they continue to worry I pay them at the rate
of half-a-crown a column, and that terminates the
transaction, fori can always swear that is my 'scale
price.' And that's how to get original contribu-
tions. It's simple, certain and cheap, and if you
don't mind abu ive letters (I don't) there's not a
word to be said against it. But it is easier to
work the oracle with women than with men."
"And suppose they call and kick up a row?"
"My dear sir, I use the strong arm' of the law.
I send for a policeman, and have them turned out.
Of course my methods occasionally lead to un-
pleasantness. For instance, I wouldn't go to the
Aborigines Club, even if I could get a story from
Mr. Rudyard Kipling for nothing, by doing so. I
daren't; I should be kicked. But then I don't
want to go. The whiskey's better here, and I hate
literary people. Sometimes, when things are very
stormy in the office, I take a trip until the storm has
blown over. I find such a change very pleasant
and by no means expensive.
"And now I'll tell you how I work the adver-
tisers. I mark out a little tour, and then I write
to the best hotels in the places, and inform the
owners that the editor and owner of Babylon, 'an
influential weekly journal of fact, fiction, society,
sport, and finance,' proposes to stay a few days at
their hotel, and will feel better able to recommend
the establishment if a liberal reduction in the tariff
is extended to him. Nearly all the answers I
receive are favourable. I go, and I am treated
en prince. When I leave I suggest to the pro-
prietor that his bill, 'really a small one consider-
ing the admirable character of the service and
the luxury of the appointments,' should be met
by a column or so of advertisement in my valu-
able paper. The proprietor almost always ac-
quiesces, in which case we part the best of
friends. If he doesn't, well, 1 have to pay, and
then I don't say anything about his rubbishing
public-house in Babylon. He daren't ask me why,
for of course I should come the honest, and say
that I found nothing in his establishment worth
noticing. It would look at once as if he had tried
to nobble a fine and independent editor. Oh! it's
quite cheap. Before I start I go round among the
general advertisers, and get any little thing I want
—an umbrella, a Gladstone bag, a travelling lamp,
or a rug; these generous fellows are always ready
to supply me, knowing that if they do not some one
else will, and will get the gratuitous puffs. This
kind of thing, you know :—' If any of my readers
think of going north in this bitter weather I would
advise them to pay a visit to Messrs. So-and-So's
stores, and inspect their admirable stock of travel-
ling rugs, with patent lined pockets, and reversible
india-rubber covering.' It's quite easy to do, and
I daresay you could learn to write them quite
quickly if you gave your mind to it. The plan,
you see, supplies me with subject for paragraphs
as well as creature comforts. Quite cheap, as I
say, and also quite simple. I believe it's what they
call the new journalism. I don't read much my-
self, but I see that expression cropping up now and
then, and I fancy that's what must be meant by
it Well, sir, what do you say to becoming the
new editor of Babylon?"
He stopped, with closing eyes.
"I don't think it's a deal," said I.
"Well," he said slowly and sleepily, as he put his
glass down empty for the last time before he dozed
off, "you know your own business best, but it seems
to me that I am selling you a valuable position,
and business enough to support it, for a ridicu-
lously small sum. I have also told you how to work
it, instead of leaving you to find out for yourself.
But I daresay you feel you are not fitted for the
post."
*
"THE KINDS OF CRITICISM."
"■ "HE full and proper office of the critic can
I never be discharged except by those
-*- who remember that 'critic' means judge.
Expressions of personal liking, though they can
hardly be kept but of criticism, are not by them-
selves judgment. The famous 'J'aime mieux
Alfred de Mussei,' is not criticism . . . There
must be, at least, some attempt to take in and
render the whole virtue of the subjects considered,
some effort to compare them with their likes in
other as well as the same languages, some en-
deavour to class and value them. And as a con-
dition preliminary, there must, I think, be a not
inconsiderable study of widely differing periods,
forms, manners, of litera'ure itself. The test
question, as I should put it of the value of criticism
is, 'What idea of the original could this critic give
to a tolerahly instructed person who did not know
that original?' And again, how far has this critic
seen steadily and seen whole, the subject which
he has set himself to consider? How far has he
referred the main peculiarities of that subject to
their proximate causes and effects? How far has
he attempted to place, and succeeded in placing,
the subject in the general history of literature, i"
## p. 239 (#287) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
239
the particular history of his own language, in the
collection of authors of its own department?"
These excellent and weighty words form part of
an introduction to a book which, in its own depart-
ment, that of pure criticism, promises to be the
book of the year—Mr. George Saintsbury's "Essays
in English Literature, 1780-1860" (Percival and
Co.)- This introduction is called "The Kinds of
Criticism." It is, in itself, a short Treatise on the
Art of Criticism, and it should be printed separately
and placed in the hands of everyone who pretends
to become a reviewer. It may be, as Mr. Andrew
Lang suggests, that critics and reviewers have
nothing to do with each other essentially, though
accidentally the discharge of their functions may
he combined in the same person. Yet even a
reviewer can do himself no harm in learning the
functions of a critic.
How then shall the young man become a critic?
First, Mr. Saintsbury tells him, by reading; by
wide and careful reading. Not that reading will
make a critic, but few are the critics who can be
made without it. "For my part," says the author,
"I should not dare to continue criticising so much
as a circulating library novel"—but there are novels
and novels—a man may do worse than criticise a
Meredith, and he, too, is "circulated "—" if I did
not perpetually pay my respects to the classics of
many literatures." In short, the critic, truly
equipped, must start from a wide comparative
study of different languages and literatures. This is
the first principle, the only road to criticism. If
we accept it, we understand at once the reason,
first, why there are so few critics, and secondly,
why women are seldom good critics. For the
different literatures must include Greek, Latin,
French, and should include German and Italian
as well, not to speak of the Hebrew literature,
which even Mr. Saintsbury's critic must be gener-
ally content to have in translation. Very well, thus
prepared, the critic "must constantly refer back
his sensations of agreement and disagreement, of
liking arid disliking, in the comparative fashion.
Let Englishmen be compared with
Englishmen of other times to bring out this set of
differences, with foreigners of modern tiroes to
bring out that, with Greeks and Romans to bring
out the other. Let poets of old days be compared
with poets of new, classics with romantics, rhymed
with unrhymed. . . . 'Compare, always com-
pare,' is the first axiom of criticism."
After these rules follows another equally useful.
"Always make sure, as far as you possibly can,
that what you like and dislike is the literary, and
not the extra-literary character, of the matter under
examination."
And yet another. "Never be content without
VOL. I.
at least endeavouring to connect cause and effect-
in some way, without giving something like a reason
for the faith that is in you."
The readers of the Author are, one and all,
deeply interested in the elevation and maintenance
of the standard of criticism. The literature of every
age, in fact, in great measure depends upon the
standard set up by the critics. Where criticism is
low and ignorant of better things, unable even to
appreciate effort in the true direction, the writers
sink with their judges. For true criticism, a point not
insisted by Mr. Saintsbury, does not destroy, but
builds up: it does not deride ; it instructs. Why is
it, for instance, that the modern taste for the best and
highest poetry is so much belter than their taste for
the higher work in fiction or in the drama? That
it is so is proved, first by the excellent critical work
on poetry, which is given to the world in the
magazines of the day; next by the Browning
Societies, which show, if they show nothing else,
an intense and widespread love for great verse.
One reason lies, one is tempted to believe, in the
ineffable incompetence of the ordinary reviews of
fiction. The young writer finds no instruction in the
reviews which he reads. He never even looks for any;
he is content if he gets off without a contemptuous
jeer. He knows that he is making an essay towards
a fine Art, but he has no guides; those who should
lead him are dumb; they do not even understand
that they have a fine Art to deal with; his judges
do not know the rules of the Art; they do not
know that there are any rules; nay, too often they
cannot understand that there is any artistic work
at all to be reviewed. As a natural consequence
the great mass of the fiction put forth is without
form and void. Of the ordinary criticism as applied
to fiction we will perhaps speak on a future occasion.
It is enough here to claim for criticism at its best
its educational importance.
Mr. Saintsbury's views of the ordinary reviewer
are stated with great clearness. "That a very
large amount of reviewing is determined by doubt-
less well-meaning incompetence, there is no doubt
whatever. It is, on the whole, the most difficult
kind of newspaper writing, and it is, on the whole,
the most lightly assigned and the most irresponsibly
performed. I have heard of newspapers where the
reviews depended almost wholly on the accident of
some of the staff taking a holiday, or being laid up
for a time on the shelf, or being considered not up
to other work; of others—though this, I own, is
scarcely credible—when the whole reviewing was
farmed out to a manager, to be allotted to devils as
good to him seemed; of many where the reviews
were a sort of exercising ground on which novices
were trained, broken down hacks turned out to
grass, and invalids allowed a little gentle exercise.
I
## p. 240 (#288) ############################################
240
THE AUTHOR.
• . . . Of common mistakes on the subject
which are not merely silly crazes, such as the log
rolling craze and the five-pound note craze, and the
like; the worst known to him, though it is shared
by some who should know better, is that a specialist
is the best reviewer. I do not say that he is always
the worst, but that is about as far as my charity,
informed by much experience, can go."
The present writer has also heard of newspapers
when the books are all bundled off together to one
man, who turns them off in little paragraphs of
half-a-dozen lines each at eighteenpence a book.
And yet authors and publishers are such fools as
to send their books to such a paper and to expose
themselves to such treatment.
For one thing, let us take comfort. Books are
abused by many reviewers for many reasons. They
are never abused—Mr. Saintsbury maintains—for
the good things in them.
This brief resume of a highly important and op-
portune paper must not be supposed to be tendered
as an adequate criticism. It is tendered as an
introduction and as an invitation. The former is
likely to make readers of the Author uneasy on the
subject of criticism—perhaps to awaken their con-
sciences as to their own sins, because we have
reviewers, if not critics among us: the latter as
an invitation to get the book for themselves and
to read carefully point by point what a good critic
should be.
*
ON SOME PARALLEL PASSAGES.
IT has for many years been to me a source of
wonder that the many annotators of the text
of Shelley's poems should not have noticed
that in the fifth song of "St. Irvyne" the poet
appropriates, with the alteration of but two insig-
nificant words, a complete line from Beattie's
"Minstrel," viz.:—
"O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave."
This line, familiar to all readers of poetry, Shelley
transferred bodily to the song above mentioned,
where it appears as—
"Ah ! when shall day dawn on the night of the grave."
A new edition of Shelley's poems is daily expected,
annotated by one of his ablest biographers, and it
may be that this edition will contain a note on this
passage, but no such note is to be found in any
existing edition.
Readers of Mr. W. M. Rossctti's exhaustive
memoir of Blake will doubtless remember that
Milton frequently appeared in Blake's visions, and
held converse on matters celestial and terrestrial
with the imaginative poet-painter. On one occasion,
Blake said, speaking of these visits, "He came to
ask a favour of me; said he had committed an
error in ' Paradise Lost,' which he wanted me to
correct in a poem or picture. But I declined; I
said I had my own duties to perform." Other
remarks made by Milton during these visitations
have not been recorded by Blake, but a student of
both poets may be forgiven for fancying that Milton
would have been justified in asking Blake in what
moment of forgetfulness he had written in "The
Keys of the Gates of Paradise," the lines—
"On the shadows of the moon
Climbing through night's highest noon,"
lines so closely akin to—
"To behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon,"
which form one of the many beauties of "II
Penseroso"; or why, when penning " King Edward
III," he had put into the mouth of his bishop the
words—
"... the arts of peace are great,
And no less glorious than those of war,"
thereby making him echo sentiments to be found
in a celebrated sonnet addressed to the Lord
General Cromwell, May, 1652, in which the writer
declares that—
"Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than War."*
Landor occasionally complained of the manner in
which his poems were treated, and certainly in one
remarkable instance two brother bards attempted
to beautify their work with a sea-shell stolen from
his grottos; a shell which lost all its murmurous
melody and glimmering beauty in their hands, and
justified his remarks upon their action. But Landor
was himself on one occasion a defaulter. The
reader of his poem "The Phocceans," a poem
published with others in 1802, will find the follow-
ing lines—
"In his own image the Creator made,
His own pure sunbeam quicken'd thee, O man!
Thou breathing dial! since thy day began
The present hour was always tiiarht with shade!"
* Were Landor alive, not the least delightful of his
"Imaginary Conversations " would be a dialogue between
these two great poets. We learn from that priceless l>ook,
Forster's " Life of Landor," that the old lion in his declining
days, "picked up some of the writings of Blake, and was
strangely fascinated by them," and had this conversation
been added to the long list of treasures received from the
same hand, the anachronism of making the dead and living
]X>et meet would have been as justifiable as was that which
was justified for all time in the poem wherein Landor made
Laertes and Homer meet, and bade Homer sing once more.
## p. 241 (#289) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
241
and if iie turns to Wordsworth's "An Evening
Walk," written 1789, published 1793, he will
find the same imagery—
"Alas! the idle tale of man is found
Depicted in the dial's moral round;
Hope with reflection blends her social rays
, To gild the golden tablet of his days;
Vet still, the sport of some malignant power,
He knows but from its shade the present hour."
I.andor's version is undeniably the finer both in
composition and sentiment.
Blanco White's sonnet, "Mysterious Night," first
printed in 1828, has recently been paraphrased in
one of Walt Whitman's prose poems. In his
"Night on the Prairies," he says—■
"I was thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the
not-day exhibited,
I was thinking the globe enough till there sprang out so
noiseless around me myriads of other globes.
And he adds after quiet contemplation of the stars—
"0 I see noiv that life cannot exhibit all to me, as the day
cannot,
I see that I am to "wait for "what will be exhibited by deith."
The "rawest as well as the ripest student" of
English literature will at once recognise in these
lines the sentiments expressed in White's solitary
sonnet of which the concluding lines are—
"Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed
Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find,
Whilst flow'r and leaf and insect stood revealed,
7'hat to such countless orbs thou mad*st us blind!
Why do vie then shun Death with anxious strife?
If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?"
In that glorious poem, Charles Wells's "Joseph
and his Brethren," which owes its rescue from " the
waste-paper basket of forgetfulness," to the energetic
action of Mr. Swinburne, will be found lines bearing
a perilous resemblance to familiar verses by Words-
worth, viz.—'
"To me a simple flower is cloth'd with thoughts
That lead the mind to Heaven."
words which at once recall the concluding lines of
the great "Ode "—
"To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
Wells's drama did not appear until twenty years
after the publication of \\ ordsworth's "Ode."
At the risk of multiplying examples ad nauseam
I may add that in Mr. Alfred Austin's "Tower of
Babel," Act ii, scene 1, a philosopher named Sidon
gives expression to sentiments closely resembling
those of King Lear. The gods say Sidon deals
hardly with men—
vol I
". . . . they make sport of us,
Treating us much as boys treat cockroaches
They prick us just to see what we will do."
Lear, it will be remembered, exclaimed—
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport."
A much more grim reflection upon "the unjust
justice of omnipotence."
Richard W. Colles.
*
BALZAC AND HIS ENGLISH
CRITICS.
THE primacy of Balzac in French fiction has
at length been acknowledged by English -
speaking critics. The recognition of his
universal supremacy is approaching, but it seems
that it will be long before his proper place as a
philosopher and a seer of rare inspiration will be
allowed him. It is, however, an encouraging sign
that his critics agree on one point, that any attempt
at general criticism of his whole work and especially
of La Com^die Humaine, is futile, and that any
review must be but the slightest sketch. Each
new attempt confirms the opinion that we must
confine ourselves to commentary alone.
It is well for us that Balzac counts among his
critics some of the most eminent living writers of
English. I cannot, however, consider the clever
essays of Mr. Henry James and Mr. Leslie Stephen
nor yet of the gifted author of a recent article in
the Quarterly, as representing him with great
fidelity. Mr. W. S. Lilly unfortunately spoils an
otherwise appreciative notice by a most irrelevant
inquiry into Balzac's interior religion. Mr. Parsons
has written a very trustworthy general review in the
Atlantic Monthly, careful and accurate, and free
from obtrusive originality. Mr. Thomas Hake
has a trustworthy article, "A Realist at Work," in
Belgravia. Of more particular articles Mr. Philip
Kent's "Balzac's views of the Artistic Tempera-
ment," is excellent, and Mr. George Moore's
"Some of Balzac's Minor Pieces," if a little dis-
connected, is interesting and enthusiastic. The
criticisms which I know in English are usually to
be relied on for justice of criticism, in inverse ratio
to the cleverness with which they are written. It
is a remarkable tribute to the breadth and depth
of Balzac's intellect that his critics can always find
predominant in his works those traits which they
are individually disposed to notice. In this he is
like the Bible, to which every sect which has arisen
since the canon was formed appeals for confirmation
T 2
## p. 242 (#290) ############################################
242
THE AUTHOR.
of its peculiar doctrines. On these controverted
points I believe his critics misrepresent him most.
Mr. Leslie Stephen denies that Balzac possessed
a knowledge of the human heart, on the ground
that such knowledge does not exist. He considers
individuality so strong in every man that it prevents
a writer from embodying feeling outside his own
potential experience. He explains Balzac's thou-
sand creations as the reflection of the thousand
facets of his many-sided self. On the other hand,
an evident altruist writing lately in Lippincotfs
Magazine, considers that there is no such thing as
individuality, and implies that Mr. Leslie Stephen
lacked experience because he recognizes it.
The fact that Balzac has been largely introduced
into England by the school which claims him as
their founder—the realistic school divided between
M. Zola and M. Bourget—is misleading. He is
accredited with the philosophy, as well as the
method, of his followers. He is deprived of one
of his strongest claims to supremacy in his art, the
union of idealism in conception with extraordinary
realism in expression.
Sheer realism is incompatible with art; it must
logically lead to the gross bad taste which disfigures
M. Zola's powerful work, the monotonous vivisection
of M. Bourget, or the intolerable dulness of their
lesser pupils.
Literature is limited in its possible subjects; to
pass these limitations is to fail as M. Zola has
failed, by excess in one direction, and less gifted
followers of Mr. Henry James may fail in another.
The idealist, misled by Balzac's minuteness, pre-
judges that his philosophy is materialistic. The
realist has an evident undercurrent of distrust for
the idealism which to him is antipathetic and
spiritualises his master's creations. The optimist
objects to La Comedie Humaine as a wicked
parody of the world he reveres. Mr. Leslie Stephen
has said, "We don't often catch sight in his pages
of God frowning or the devil grinning; his world
seems to be pretty well forgotten by the one, and
its inhabitants quite able to dispense with the
services of the other." The same may be said with
equal truth of English society at the present time,
for even if the morality of romantic fiction requires
it, in actual life at least, a god has no need to
advertise, and a devil is too discreet to display his
tail. The immorality ascribed to Balzac is in
reality that subtlest and most powerful form of
morality which teaches by suggestion without di-
dacticism. It is strange that his Christian critics
should be shocked because he represents evil as
apparently getting the best of the bargain of life,
and the children of this world, in their generation,
wiser than the children of Light. It is also strange
that idealists should accuse him of realism when
the actor he so often brings to the stake is the
perfect wise man. But, on the other hand, it has
been more truly said that Balzac is so moral as to
be sometimes untrue. In this cross fire of criticism
one position has not, I think, been taken, that the
object Balzac set before him was itself immoral,
that a detailed history of contemporary society is
a story too horrible to be told. On this point he
might possibly be held to fail as a moralist. Perfect
attainment of an end in view is recognized as so
high an excellence in art, and Balzac has achieved
so much that the morality of his aim is little
questioned The historical nature of his work is
accepted at the outset, but there are very few
critics who do not forget it in the course of their
arguments. To keep this steadily in view is
essential to rendering him justice, and to obtaining
a full appreciation of his marvellous work. It is
noticeable that he calls the subdivisions of the
scenes not "romans" or "contes," but "e'tudes."
The truth of his characters has been attacked,
contemporaries adverse to him confirm it, and it
would not be difficult to surpass his most terrible
examples of iniquity by quoting actual events
occurring daily in London. It is quite true that
the abnormal is not the ideal. But considering that
romance deals with the less rather than the more
usual event—with the marriape or murder of its
heroes rather than with their downsitting and up-
rising. And considering the greater effect that
dramatic situations leave upon the mind and
memory, it will be found that the proportion borne
by the abnormal in La Comedie Humaine is none
too great for artistic effect, and establishes no
presumption that Balzac misunderstood the nature
of the ideal.
There is a tendency among brilliant critics to
criticise adversely separate studies of the Comedie
Humaine, and to apply their criticism to the whole.
In this way Balzac is censured for long and elabo-
rate details concerning characters of "minor impor-
tance. There is truth in the censure; no doubt
the artistic value of some of the studies is lessened
by digressions, but it must be remembered that the
minor character so minutely described in one is
usually destined to be the hero of another. To
appreciate this arrangement the studies should be
read in their internal chronological order, beginning
with "Le Martyr Calviniste," and ending with
"Comedians sans le savoir." It is impossible to
criticise one study rightly without a knowledge of
the rest.
To discuss the morality of Balzac in detail would
require a volume. Mr. Swinburne alone, in a note
to his Essay on William Blake, fully appreciates his
power as a "master of morals." I believe that he
exercises this power at least equally with Shakes-
## p. 243 (#291) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
243
peare, not by interpretation, but as a pure artist by
implication; this question the high authority of
Mr. Swinburne has decided to the contrary.
One study by Balzac is so well known and has
been so much criticised that I may perhaps notice
a very common misapprehension concerning it.
The blind devotion of Pere Goriot is almost always
regarded as ignoble, and Pere Goriot as a libel on
the heroic character of King Lear. But the short
account of his life before the drama begins, gives
a clue not sufficiently considered. Pere Goriot is
a man of vile character; he has practised the most
despicable trade; he has grown rich by usurious
corn-dealing in time of famine. He has fattened
on the starvation of the poor. He is not a Jew
spoiling the Egyptians, but a Frenchman of the
people preying on the keen hunger of his own
brothers. He has no religion, no education, no
morality. But in him is one—instinct perhaps—
not wholly evil, his utter devotion to his daughters.
(If this had been Shakespeare's work this point
would long ago have been seized on and
belauded as "a touch of nature " of extraordinary
beauty.) Le Pere Goriot's nature is too contracted,
too frozen into its separate cells by long habit, for
the good to leaven it perceptibly. He is a low
type of nature incapable of rising (as all nature
is incapable) above its own sphere, but the one
good quality does raise him to the extreme bounds
of his sphere, and he dies by so cruel a martyrdom
that we are ready to forget his infamous greed.
He is a character with one talent, and he uses it.
Pere Goriot is not likely to attract the optimist;
however, there is nature and idealism in the sketch
of him all the same.
A certain "snobbishness" and want of taste has
been charged against Balzac, because his leaders
of society are guilty of impertinences and want of
refined feeling. The usually adverse Sainte Beuve
testifies that these characters are extraordinarily
like contemporary life at the time, and then Balzac
does not necessarily approve of what he describes.
In many of the cases specially noticed, his critics
are deceived by his power of concealment. It is
to fall into the error of which he is accused, to
imagine that perfection in etiquette or a prominent
position in society ensure perfect gentleness of
mind.
Lastly, the monarchismand Catholicism of Balzac
are said to be mere affectations. Passages are
quoted to prove this. The Abbe, tutor to de Marsay
in "Ferragus," is even regarded as a type of
Balzac's priest. Even that most brilliant and
convincing of critics, Mr. Henry James, cannot
make us consider this quite fair. Balzac has
explicitly declared that he wrote as a monarchist
and a Catholic. There are strong expressions of
reverence in his writing for both the throne and the
Church; no word is found disrespectful to religion
or the family. If the philosophy of Louis Lambert
is incompatible with Christian Philosophy, which
I am not prepared to maintain, it is purely specu-
lative, and has not the evidential value of distinct
purpose.
As a race devoted to licence in politics and
religion, we may regret the lack of it in so compre-
hensivea mind as Balzac's; but by isolating passages
in his writing and reading in our own meanings at
variance with his expressed purpose, we shall neither
do justice to their artistic merit nor arrive at a
true knowledge of their philosophy.
William Wilson.
*
TARSTOW, DENVER AND COM-
PANY, LIMITED.
THE author is getting on. Here we have
before us the most practical realisation of
our statements that literary property is
real, and should meet with the same business-like
treatment that other forms of property meet with
as a matter of course. For is not Tarstow, Denver
and Company, Limited, a business-like affair with
a business-like prospectus, and a capital of
jQ 10,000 to be divided in orthodox manner into
Deferred, Preferred, and Founders' Shares, and
are not its objects the publication of the works of
one novelist and the arrangement of a literary
syndicate for the supply to newspapers and maga-
zines of novels and other material?
When we look back upon our own earlier circu-
lars and remember how hopeless, in days gone by,
it would have seemed to us to attempt to persuade
anyone that there might be as much money in a
good novel as in a good pill, and that the business
treatment of each might, with advantage, be made
more similar; when we recall our own interest in
a syndicate for the supply of newspapers, and our
own idea—still present to us—of some profit-
sharing scheme for the benefit of our members, it
seems almost cantankerous to reflect upon Tarstow,
Denver and Company, Limited, in terms of anything
short of praise.
Yet, from the perusal of the prospectus, we are
constrained to prophesy badly for the future of this
concern.
The following are the chief advantages offered
to the shareholders :—
(1) The copyrights of the "J.E.M." guide-
books.
(2) The profits of a syndicate for the supply of
novels and other literary matter by well
## p. 244 (#292) ############################################
244
THE AUTHOR.
known authors to newspapers and maga-
zines.
(3) The copyrights of twelve romances.
We should like to say a few words about each.
(1) The money value of the copyrights of the
J.E.M. guide-books has been estimated by a
person of experience, and we are bound to presume
that he had before him all the necessary data, but
we do not find that a statement made in the
prospectus is borne out either by the literary
agent's estimate or our own personal experience as
to the value of different forms of literary property.
It is said in the prospectus that guide-books pay
almost better than any other class of books. On
this we have to remark first, that in some cases the
receipts obtained from the sale of guide-books are
1 irge, these are the cases where the expense to be
incurred to make the production accurate and up
to date, will be proportionately large; and secondly,
that the number of guide-books which achieve
substantial success is very small in comparison
with the numbers issued. For each of which
reasons we demur at the statement that they form
a valuable class of books. If anyone has private
information concerning the sale of the J.E.M.
guide-books, such a person can act on his
judgment, but to the ordinary public this would
not be a safe guide on this subject.
(2) There are large profits to be made by the
syndicating of the works of certain authors, but
not by the syndicating of the works of the writer in
general. Now Tarstow, Denver and Company,
Limited, has, we gather from the prospectus, arisen
from the ashes of " The Authors' Co-operative Pub-
lishing Company, Limited," and this latter Company
published a list of certain of their clients whose
work was available for syndicating purposes. In
the absence from Tarstow, Denver and Company's
prospectus of all mention of the well-known names
upon whom it is proposed to rely, it is difficult not
to come to the conclusion that the authors whose
works are to be syndicated are those mentioned in
the Authors' Co-operative Publishing Company,
Limited's list. Now this list did not consist of
well-known authors. There were in it one or two
good names and one or two more or less familiar
names, but, as a whole, the gentlemen and ladies
who were ready to supply work in serial form
through the agency of the Authors' Co-operative
Publishing Company, Limited, were not well-
known authors. If it is to these authors that the
prospectus of Tarstow, Denver and Company,
Limited, refers, then, having recollection of the
great practical difficulty in finding a serial market
for any but the work of the very best known
people, we respectfully submit that the chances
of large profits to the shareholders are very poor.
(3) The Company are to acquire the copy-
rights of twelve romances by a certain author.
Here we are face to face with a difficulty.
Romances are a valuable property, and do not
require either the accurate attention or the careful
revision, editing, and bringing up to date which
must be so annoying to the author of a guide-book;
but it is with romances as it is with guide-books—if
they are not good the public won't have them, and
if they are not by a well-known name the public
won't look at them.
To which class do these twelve romances
belong :—to either? to neither? to both?
We do not speak in the least bit other than
most courteously, but if the author writes under
the name given in the circular he has not a
well-known name; and to the best of our belief
has not under that name given to the public as yet
a good book. If, however, he writes under a
nom-de-plume it is a different case entirely, and he
may be the popular author of admirable romances;
but then how does he come to have twelve on
hand? We make bold to say that Miss Braddon
and Mrs. Oliphant never yet got so far ahead of
their market and their printer. The directors
ought to take the investor more into their confi-
dence, but in the absence of information on the
subject we must examine this matter for ourselves.
Either this author has tried to dispose of these
romances in book form, and has not met with
encouragement from the purblind publisher, and
in that case we make bold to say that these
copyrights are not worth buying or he has pur-
posely kept his work back from a large and eager
public, so that its value might be enhanced by
the delay. In this latter case it would seem that
he might be disposing of his copyrights cheaply,
and that his best method of repaying himself for
his work would be to take his payment in shares.
If he has not wanted the publishers' money why
should he want the money of Tarstow, Denver and
Company, Limited?
But, after all, these matters would become clear
if we knew the names of the twelve romances
and the places where they could be read in serial
form. The investor is left too much in the dark.
The Society of Authors would only too gladly
recognize with cordiality the success of any scheme
of any sort whereby authors, their agents, their
employers, and their public could be brought to
look upon literary work as property to be dealt with
according to the usual rules prevalent in the
disposal of other forms of property, but it cannot
be conceded that Tarstow, Denver and Company
Limited, hold forth—on examination of their
prospectus—much chance of pecuniary benefit to
the investor.
## p. 245 (#293) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
245
AN ENGLISH ACADEMY.
THE pressure on our space does not allow of
a long letter from Mr. J. McGrigor Allan
being printed in full. He quotes Bulwer
Lytton on the Royal Society; but the Royal Society
of 1891 is a very different institution from that of
1827. Also the same authority on the French
Academy and on the Royal Academy. He con-
cludes :—" Human nature and English character
have not changed since Bulwer wrote. We know
exactly what to expect, if an Academy of Letters
should be established. It would be powerfully
influenced—if not leavened, and actually governed
by Royalty, Aristocracy, and the Clergy. The
Republic of Letters would be heavily handicapped.
A British Forty of Bishops, Historians, Poets,
Essayists, Moral Philosophers, Philologists, and
Scientists might not deign to recognise even a first-
rate novelist as a man, or woman of letters. To
many such, a popular novelist would hardly be
known by report. Horace Walpole relates that
Bishop Warburton recommended 'Tristram
Shandy' to the Bench of Bishops, saying that the
author was the English Rabelais. They had never
heard of such a writer! An Oxford Professor
thought Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' a religious
work! In a Literary Academy, Clerical influence
would be against novelists. Novels are denounced
from the pulpit. Yet wise preachers recommended
Richardson's novels. The most philosophical of
French novelists, Balzac, was not a member of the
Academy. If I am correct in thinking that an
English Literary Academy (while welcoming
princes and dukes) would hardly admit a Walter
Scott, Literature would lose far more than it
would gain, by establishing an English Academy of
Letters."
*
THE EXCHANGE OF BOOKS.
IN the Author tor June of last year, a suggestion
was made that we might organize a kind of
Book Exchange. It was there pointed out
that some men are constantly obliged to buy books
for some special purpose which they do not want
any more, and would be glad to exchange. Others
there are who are always wanting to complete their
sets, improve their collections, get first editions,
all kinds of things.
Why, it was asked, cannot the Author give us
space to advertise these wants and wares? Why
not? If the idea seems practical, and one which
might be taken up with advantage, let it be carried
out. Will those who are ready to make trial send
me their lists? They should be two-fold, thus—
c. Books wanted.
2. Books to exchange or to sell. The price
should be stated.
Names, but not for publication, should accom-
pany the list.
*
IN GRUB STREET.
AUTHORS may be interested to know that
the movement set on foot at Mr. Henry
Blackburn's Art School in Victoria Street,
to give information as to the best way to draw for
reproduction in the press, is now thoroughly estab-
lished. A considerable number of students have
qualified themselves according to their ability, for
drawing for the press, and more than one author of
note has mastered the technique of book illustration.
But Mr. Henry Blackburn's greatest prize in his
school is a real life "art-critic." "At last," he
says, "there will be one reviewer capable of
speaking of the modern 'processes' from personal
knowledge."
The firm of Field and Tuer is dissolved, Mr.
Field retiring. Mr. Andrew W. Tuer will continue
the publishing and printing businesses, &c, undo
the style of the Leadenhall Press.
Messrs. Bentley have just issued a novel by Mr.
Egerton Castle, under the title of "Consequences."
Mr. Castle is well-known as a skilful swordsman
and also as a writer on swordsmanship. His
"Masters of Fence" is highly thought of by the
comparatively small circle of readers competent to
express an opinion; such a work and his biblio-
graphy of fencing appended to Mr. W. H. Pollock
and Mr. Grove's " Fencing" volume of the Bad-
minton Library showed that a master of fence
may be at the same time an antiquarian and a
scholar. Readers who had the good fortune to
light on a short story which Mr. Castle contributed
some time ago to the Cornhill will not be
surprised if he wins laurels on a larger field.
Mr. Lockwood, speaking the other day on
literature at the Graphic dinner, expressed himself
profoundly sensible of the truth of the proverb,
that " the pen is mightier than the sword." His
experience of the sword, however, he went on to
confess, was limited. It seems he had to wear one
once at a Mansion House Dinner.
## p. 246 (#294) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
It would be invidious to inquire as regards :he
obituary of the rear 18^0. 'whether the year has
given us as much as it has taken away. Half-a-
dozen future geniuses may have been bom. and
it would be premature to prophesy irr.rnGruiliry cr
oblivion for this or that work. Many may have
h/een overestimated, many great bocks may have
been passed over. Even ailowir.g for this, however,
it cannot be said to have been an annus miraiuis.
Of course everyone has been occupied with mere
important subjects than literature. Cannibalism,
libel actions, divorce suits, ecclesiastical persecu-
tion, and a thousand other burning topics have taken
up everyone's time. Curiously enough poetry has
come out the best Setting aside the work of those
already famous, there has been some excellent
verses from recent hands this last year. Much of it
should find a place in some future England's
Helicon.
To find the annus mirabilis of English literature
one must go back to the fifties. Take 1855. In
tliat excellent catalogue of Mr. Henry Morley's,
"A Sketch of English Literature,'' he gives, among
others, the following as all issued in this remarkable
year: Robert Browning, "Men and Women";
Alfred Tennyson, "Maud"; Dickens, "Little
Dorrit"; Thackeray, "The Rose and the Ring";
Charles Kingsley, "Westward Hoi"; George
Meredith, "shaving of Shagpat"; Leigh Hunt,
"Old Court Suburb"; Anthony Trollope, "The
Warden"; Matthew Arnold. "Poems"; and the
Saturday Review was established. '58, '59, '62, '64,
wctc also extraordinary for the number and excel-
lence of great works. The Saturday Review was
a contribution to literature no less than journalism.
As a Radical remarked the other day, the Times
and the Saturday Review are the two best papers
in the world.
The public have a right, perhaps, to expect some-
thing ever new and delightful from the author of
"A Daughter of Heth"; yet the most sanguine
may well be enthusiastic over Mr. Black's latest
novel, " Stand Fast, Craig Royston." Though pub-
lished at the end of the year, it is rather the book
of the New Year. It will be admitted that even
Mr. Black has never achieved such a masterly
piece of characterisation as that of old George
Bethune. One of the great merits of the book is
its modernity. You feel you have met the sort of
people Mr. Black describes; they are not stuffed
dolls dressed in nineteenth century clothes, with
conversation culled from primaeval Ollendorf. Mr.
Harris, the millionaire socialist, is highly humorous,
hut of minor characters the best is Mr. Courtney
Fox, London Correspondent of the Edinburgh
Chrcnidt. whose sentiments about the nor.hem
capital I must confess to sharing.
Messrs. Macmillan have just issued a pocket
volume of the complete works of Lord Tennyson.
Of course the double co'amn was a necessity, but
why should the exterior be made to resemble a
prayer bock? Surely it was not an intentional
resemblance to defy detection when the Idylls of
the King are preferable to a dull sermon. I
su: 70-e there are people who carry favourite
books about in their pockets wherever they go, but
one only hears of them in romance. Except on a
railway jcumey it is the last place I should put a
bock. For the prevailing passion of compressing
great authors into the smallest space I have very
little sympathy, unless it is to take them to church.
Mr. Walter Scott, by the way, is to be congratulated
on having erased the hideous red border on the
pages of his Canterbury Poets, which disfigured the
early volumes; it gave a very Common Prayer Book
air to a number of not very religious bards.
The new edition of the "Earthly Paradise" in
one volume has long been among the traditional
felt wants. Mr. William Morris is certainly the
third among the sons of light now living. His many
admirers cannot but regret his desertion of the
Muses for very ephemeral socialistic literature,
whose chief object is to promote an earthly other
place. Once I was talking to a follower and
admirer of Mr. William Morris, who was deeply
read in the master's works; but he objected to the
"Earthly Paradise" for two reasons. One was
that there was too much about kings, the other,
a certain passage in which farm labourers were
called by what he thought an offensive name. It
is in one of those beautiful interludes for each
month. I believe it refers to the Roman earth-
works at Dorchester, near Oxford, cut up by the
plough :—
"Across the gap made by our English kinds,
Ami(l>t the Roman's handiwork, behold
Far oft the long roofed church."
If my friend had only read Mr. Freeman's
works, he would have known all about hinds, and
moots, and gemots, which to the uninitiated do
sound offensive.
The Daily News of the 5th inst. devoted an
interesting leader to one of the most interesting of
new reprints. Etonians and Cambridge men, as
well as book collectors, have long treasured the two
small thin volumes of "Ionica," by Mr. William
## p. 247 (#295) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
Cory, and fortunate possessors of these have always
recognised in him one of the most original of
modern poets, as indeed he was the most rare.
At the sale of the late Provost of King's Library a
copy went for as much as three guineas. In the
anthology of " Living English Poets," the author
was represented by " Mimnermus in Church," but
until Mr. George Allen's republication there has
been no second edition. The wonderful rendering
of the lines of Callimachus from the Greek
Anthology has long been in verbal circulation, but
I do not think it has ever been reprinted. There
are many poems that are new in this volume, but
this will not detract from the first edition, so that
bibliophils need not despair. I believe a first
edition only becomes precious when a second has
been issued. There was more of fulfilment than
promise in "Ionica," and the new poems show
no sign of falling off.
Some American, I hear, is buying up all the
edition de luxe of the Henry Irving Shakespeare;
as a speculation, I suppose. It has not gone very
well so far, but this should make it valuable, and
would please political economists if no one else.
Among many other reprints is the " Hypnoto-
machia Poliphili," which comes out under the
auspices of Mr. Andrew Lang, in the "Tudor
Library," and therefore everyone who is able will
purchase; those who are unable will sell all they
have to do so.
Does the study of Greek, even of the most
superficial nature, benefit a man? Those schools
with modern and classic sides surely will meet the
views of the cheap science and Stratford-atte-
P.owe-French advocates. John Bright is always
held up as a master of English, as one who
knew no Greek, who preferred Thucydides in
translation to the original (with which he was un-
acquainted). But it is not by selecting individual
exceptions that the case is proved. Everyone can-
not know Greek, but if it becomes a speciality it
will not have the influence it has had hitherto.
As Mr. Oscar Wilde said, Bohn's cribs would be a
much better instance than john Bright against the
retention of Greek as a compulsory subject. It
might be a case for an academy to decide.
A new novel by John Strange Winter will be
commenced in Lloyd's weekly newspaper, on
February ist. It is a tale of the Divorce Court.
VOL. I.
A new novel by Bertram Mitford, author of " The
Fire Trumpet," is announced by Messrs. Sutton
and Drowley, under the terrific title of "The
Weird of Murderer's Hollow."
*
CASES.
I.
"T" AST January a certain artistic journal was
I taken over by a well-known London pub-
■*—' lisher, re-named, and re-issued with a
flourish of trumpets in the shape of a list of contri-
butors, containing some of our best known writers
and artists. Thinking this a sufficient guarantee,
I sent a MS. with ten or twelve tone drawings (I
had already contributed to the journal under its
old name). Some time in the early days of 1890
I heard unpleasant rumours, and to make sure
I wrote to the editor, and stating my price, asked
for its return, if unavailable. In May he replied
that the sum was too high, that he did not wish
'to beat me down' if I could place it elsewhere,
but that if 'you care to let me have it, I shall be
glad to hear your lowest price, and perhaps we
may come to terms.' My price being at the
usual rate, I replied that as I could not take less,
I should be glad to have the MS. back. Sum-
mer came; I went abroad, and only in October
did I hear that the review had collapsed. I there-
upon wrote to the publisher for my MS. (a friend
had received hers), and he replied that my letter
had been sent on to the late editor. Hearing
nothing, I wrote again with the same results.
What is to be done? Is the publisher liable?
MSS. may get mislaid, but drawings do not easily,
and they make pretty scrap books."
II.
Another case. "MS. accepted and price stated
by letter. Review ceases to exist. Editor wishes
to return them because they are no longer of any
use (one was waiting eighteen months before the
crash came, for its turn). Is this just? Supposing
I order coals in June, and in December I take to
gas stoves, am I honest in refusing to pay for the
coals, and will the merchant come and fetch them
if I say I have no longer any use for them?
Probably I should be marched to the County
Court under such conditions. Why then should
not editors and publishers be made to pay for
goods they have distinctly bought at a specified
u
## p. 248 (#296) ############################################
248
THE AUTHOR.
price? In the discussion which took place in
the Times touching publishers and authors,
we were told that as the former bore the losses,
they were entitled to the profits. But here are
cases in which the publishers and proprietors
take the profits, and the authors bear the loss,
pecuniary and otherwise, as well as of their
absolute property. It is not the author's fault
if an editor accepts more MSS. than he can use
before the smash comes; and they seem to me
to be the only sort of dry goods which a purchaser
can send back after eighteen months' possession.
In the discussion referred to, one of the writers
spoke of its being "charity" to give an author
more money than he agreed to take, supposing
his work prove a success; but he omitted to state
whether he considered it to be mean, to say the
least, to refuse to pay what had been arranged,
because the periodical comes to an end. It is no
question of extra payment under certain conditions,
but of the sum promised months ago. We hear a
great deal of abuse of American procedure; I can
only say, that in my limited experience, I have
always been treated justly, and in a gentlemanly
manner, by Americans. The cases I have cited
are purely British."
X. Y. Z.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Theology.
III.
We have at different times received numerous
complaints from our members, and from authors
outside our ranks, that the behaviour of the pro-
prietors or editors of certain magazines is not only
wanting in courtesy—which may be nothing in
business, but in honesty—which is a great deal.
We have before us information as to the pay-
ments usually made by all sorts of serials, daily,
weekly, and monthly, high-class, middle and low,
to their contributors, and the result has been that
we know which are the just and courteous, which
are the grave offenders, and which are the merely
unmannerly and unbusinesslike. If anybody is
anxious to know what his or her chance may be of
getting paid for contributions to any particular
paper, and how long they may have to wait for
the money, the information can in most cases be
obtained from our Secretary, whose communications
will in all necessary cases be of a strictly libellous
character.
BETTANV, G. T. The World's Religions. 7s. 6J.
Carlyle, Rev. G. Moses and the Profits, 2s. 6d.
DlMOCK, Rev. N. The Doctrine of the Death of Christ in
Relation to the Sin of Man. 7s. 6d.
Dixon, R. W. History of Church of England. Vol. IV.
16 j.
Fouard (Abbe Constant). The Christ the Son of God.
Translated by Griffith. Introduction by Cardinal
Manning. 2 vols. 14*.
Girdleston, R. B. Foundations of the Bible, Studies in
Old Testament Criticism. 3*. 6d.
Kennedy, J. H. Natural Theology and Modern Thought.
5-f<
Leckie, J. Life and Religion. 6s.
Newell, E. J. St. Patrick, his Life and Teaching.
2S. 6d.
Owen, J. W. The Letter of the Larger Hope. 2s. 6d.
Rankin, J. The Creed in Scotland. W. Blackwood.
■js. (xi.
Wright, Rev. C. II. II. Introduction to the Old Tesia-
mcnt. 2j. 6tf.
History and Biography.
CLINCH, G. Marylelione and St. Pancras, their History,
Celebrities, &c. Truslove and Shirley. 21s. and 12s.
Freytag, G. Reminiscences of my Life. 2 vols. i8j.
Gibbon, E. Memoirs. Edited by II. Morley. (Carisbrook
Library.) 2/. 6d.
HUGHES, G. M. History of Windsor Forest, Sunning Hill,
and the Great Park. 42s.
Jackson, L. Ten Centuries of European Progress.
12s. 6d.
Jameson, J. S. Story of Rear Column of Emin Pasha's
Relief Expedition. Edited by Mrs. Jameson, ids.
MaZZINI, J. Life and Writings. Vol. III. 4.1-. 6d.
McAritiur, Sir W. A Biography. By T. McCullagh.
Js. 6d.
Olii'HANT, Mrs. Royal Edinburgh, her Saints, Kings,
and Scholars. Illustrations by George Reid, R.S.A.
Macmillan. 21s.
STEPHEN, L.,and Lee, S. Dictionary of National Biography.
Edited by. Vol. XXV. 15-f.
Thornton, P. M. The Stuart Dynasty. Popular Edition.
Wrights, H. C. Stories in American History. 3*. 6d.
General Literature.
Andrews, W. Old-Time Punishments. Hull, Andrews;
London, Simpkin, Marshall and Co. 6s.
Baker, Lady. Letters to my Girl Friends. Wells Gardner.
6s.
Batty, J. The Spirit and Influence of Chivalry, y. 6a.
Besant, Walter. To Call her Mine. With 8 Illustra-
tions by A. Forestier. Chatto and Windus. 3*. 6t(.
Black, William. Stand Fast, Craig Royston! Sampson
Low and Co. 3 vols. y. 6</.
## p. 249 (#297) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
249
BRAMSTON, M. Dangerous Jewels. National Society.
V-
Silver Star Valley. National Society. 3/.
Boyessf.n, H. H. Against Heavy Odds : a Tale of Norse
Heroism. $s.
Burnand, F. C. Happy Thoughts and More Happy
Thoughts. 5-f.
Carew, F. W. No. 747, being the Autobiography of a
Gipsy. Js. 6d.
Cobb, T. On Trust. Hurst and Blackett. 3 vols.
3U. 6d.
Collins, E. L. Hatlasseh; or, From Captivity to the
Persian Throne. Illustrated. T. Fisher Unwin. 6j.
Crawford, F. M. Sanl' Ilario. Macmillan and Co.
Cheap Edition. 35. 6d.
Cremer, G. H. A Vision of Empires. 7/. 6d.
Davibs, R. D. Talks with Men, Women, and Children.
2nd Series. 6s. 6d.
Dickens, C. Little Dorrit. Crown Edition. 5/.
Dixie, Lady F. Aniwee; or, the Warrior Queen. $s.
Dowi.ing, R. The Ciimson Chair, and other Stories.
6s.
Edwards, Mrs. S. The Secret of the Princess. Bentley
and Son. 2 vols. 21s.
Emerson, P. II., and Goodali., T. F. Wild Life on a
Tidal Water. Sampson Low. £3 y. and £1 151.
Evelyn, J. A Baffled Vengeance: a Tale. y. 6d.
Goodchild, J. A. My Friends at Sant' Ampelio. Kegan
Paul. 7s. 6d.
Haggard, H. Rider, and Lang, Andrew. The World's
Desire. Longman and Co. 1 vol. 6s.
Heimburg, W. Was she his Wife? From the German.
By II. Wolff. 6*.
Hutcheson, M. Sjiia: a Shadow of the Nile. y. 6d.
Low, Frances H. The Air Child and other New Fairy
Tales. Griffith, Farran, and Co.
Martineau, J. Essays, Reviews, and Addresses. Long-
man and Co. Vol. I. Js. 6d.
Mitchell, Elizabeth Harcourt. Forty Days in the
Holy Land. Illustrated. Kegan Paul. 6s.
Murray, D. C, and Herman, II. The Bishop's Bible.
Chatto and Windus. 3s. 6d.
Nevill, F. The Victory of Love. Kegan Paul. 3.;. 6J.
Nisbet, Hume. "Bail-up." With Frontispiece and Vig-
nette by the Author. Chatto and Windus. 2nd Edition.
y. 6d.
Norris, W. E. Marcia. J. Murray. 2nd Edition. 3 vols.
31/. 6d.
Oliphant, Mrs. Kirsteen : the Story of a Scotch Family
Seventy Years Ago. Macmillan. 3 vols. y. 6d.
PEARDr F. Mary. To Horse and Away. National Society.
p. 6d.
Scapegrave Dick. National Society. 31. 6d.
"Percy Pomo." Dick Darley's School Days. 5*.
Perry, N. Another Flock* if Girls. Js. 6d.
Price, Eleanor. The Little One. R. Bentley and Son.
2 vols.
Ranking, B. M. Thorkell. 6/.
Reade, Mrs. R. H. The Goldsmith's Ward: a Tale of
London City in Fifteenth Century. Chapman and Hall.
6s.
Robinson, F. Mabel. Disenchantment; an Every-Day
Story, Methuen and Co. y. 6d.
ROWSELL, Mary C. Home Plays. New and Revised
Edition. Samuel French. 6d.
Saintsbury, G. Essays in English Literature. 7.r. 61/.
Schreiner, O. Dreams. Portrait. T. Fisher Unwin.
6s.
Scrivener, S. C. Our Fields and Cities; or, Misdirected
Industry. T. Fislier Unwin. y. 6d.
Sister Eva. Scenes in the Life of a Nurse, is.
Spence, Very Rev. H. D. M. Dreamland in History.
2U.
Stuart, Esmk. Kestell of Greystone. Hurst and Blacken.
3 vols.
Carried Off. National Society. 3^.
Tytler, Sarah. Duchess Frances: a Novel. Sampson
Low. 6s.
Wentwortii, W. Kiboo Ganey; or, the Lost Chief of tin-
Copper Mountain. 2s. 6d.
Wright, II. C. Stories in English Literature. 2s. 6,1.
YONGE, C. M. A Reputed Changeling. Macmillan and
Co. Cheap Edition. y. 6d.
The Two Penniless Princesses: a Story of the Time of
James I of Scotland. Macmillan. 2 vols. 12s.
Poetry.
Austin, Alfred. The Poetical Works of. Macmillan.
5 vols. $s. each.
Bi.aikie, J. A. Love's Victory. Lyrical Poems. 5 c
Burnand, F. C, and Others. Short Plays for Drawing
Room Performance. 2s. 6d.
O'DONNEtx, J. F. Poems. With Introduction by R.
Dowling. 5^.
Palgrave, F. T. Golden Treasury. Macmillan and C".
10s. 6d., 21s.
PtTRARCA, F. Selections from the Canzoniere of. Trans-
lated by Cyfraill. 3*. 6d.
Shelley, P. B. Poetical Works. Edited by G. Dowden.
7s. 6d.
Stevenson, R. L. Ballads. Chatto and Windus. 6s.
Tennyson, Lord, D.C.L. The Poetical Works of.
Pocket Edition. Macmillan. 7s. 6d.
Whitby, Chari.es Joseph. The Love Songs of Barbara:
a Poem in Ten Cantos. Elliot Stock, y. 6J.
Music.
I.athom, M. The Renaissance of Music. 6s.
Morris, Lydia T. Famous Musical Composers, Bio-
graphies of Eminent Musicians, Portraits. T. Fisher
Unwin. 6s.
Rubinstein, Anton. Autobiography of. Translated from
the Russian by A. Delano, y.
Science.
Braithwaite, Dr. Retrospect of Medicine. Vol. CD.
6s. 6<i.
Gore, J. E. Astronomical Lessons. Roper and Drowley.
y. 6d.
Gowan, T. W. The Honey Bee: its Natural History.
2s. 6d.
Green, E. F., and Severn, W. D. Handbook to Dr.
Koch's Treatment, y. 6d.
Renan, E. The Future of Science. Translated from the
French. Chapman and Hall. l&s.
## p. 250 (#298) ############################################
250
ADVERTISEMENTS.
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TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
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## p. 250 (#299) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS
IL
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ADVERTISEMENTS.
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Vol. 1.- No. 10)
FEBRUARY 16, 1891.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
.: WALTER BESANT
Published for the Society by
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1891.
## p. 250 (#302) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
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SH
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SPIRIT OF THE AGU
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PROGRESS IS THE
0
THE 'BAR-LOCK' TYPE-WRITER
Is the ONLY Machine combining the following Advantages-
PERFECT AND PERMANENT ALIGNMENT.
AUTOMATIC LINE SPACING. A DUPLICATE KEY-BOARD.
ADJUSTABLE BALL BEARINGS TO THE TYPE-BAR JOINTS.
And it is the ONLY Type Writer
HAVING ABSOLUTELY VISIBLE WRITING,
Sime Type-Writers may have ore or two of these Advantages, but no other combines them all.
SOLD FOR CASH; ALSO ON THE EASY PAYMENT SYSTEM.
THE TYPE-WRITER CO., LTD.,
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GLASGOW : 22, Renfield St. SHEFFIELD: 39, Norfolk St. MELBOURNE: 385, Little Collins St.
## p. 251 (#303) ############################################
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly?)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 10.]
FEBRUARY 16, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
Conditions of Membership
Warnings
News and Notes
"Ionica
Recent American Literature
How wc lost the Itook of Jashcr ..
On Committee
A Hard Case
PACK
I'ACE
251
A Note on Ibsen
268
251
In Grub Street ...
270
252
The Cost of Production
»7»
'57
Correspondence
274
257
The Author's Hook Stall
276
'59
New Books
277
263
The Reading of MSS
278
267
Advertisements
279
CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.
The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the
1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for
life meml>ersnip entitles the subscriber to full membership of
the Society.
Authors of published works alone are eligible for member-
ship.
Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors
are admitted as Associates, on the same suliscription, but
have no voice in the government of the Society.
Cheques and Postal Otders should be crossed "The Im-
perial liank, Limited, Westminster Branch."
Those who wish to be proposed as members may send
their names at any lime to the Secretary at the Society's
Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration
of their works. Subscriptions entered after the 1st of
Ociober w ill cover the next year.
The Secretary may be personally consulted between the
hours of I p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable
that an appointment should be made by letter.
The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured
through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt,
2, Paternoster Square, E.G.
A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for
one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped,
however, that most members will subscribe to the paper.
The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d., including postage, which
may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.G.
With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers,
the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read
and reported upon for others than menil>ers, but members
cannot have their works read for nothing.
In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript,
the author should send with it a table of contents. A type-
written scenario is also of very great assistance.
It must be understood that such a reader's report, however
favourable, does not assist the author towards publication.
VOL. I.
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to make the
following warnings as widely known as possible. They are
based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers
to which literary property is exposed :—
(1) Never to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost
of production forms an integral part, unless an
opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures
is given them.
(2) Never to enter into any correspondence with publishers,
especially with advertising publishers, who are not
recommended by experienced friends, or by this
Society.
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves
down for future work to any one firm of publishers.
(4) Never to accept any proposal of royalty without con-
sultation with the Sociely, or, at least, ascertaining
exactly what the agreement gives to the author and
w hat to the publisher.
(5) Never to accept any offer of money for MSS., with-
out previously taking advice of the Society.
(6) Never to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility
without advice.
(7) Never, when a MS. has been refused by respectable
houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may
put forward, for the production of the work.
(8) Never to sign away American or foreign rights.
Keep them. Kefuse to sign an agreement containing
a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If
the publisher insists, take away the MS. and ofTer it
to another.
(9) Never forget that publishing is a business, like any
other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy,
charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do
with business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
## p. 252 (#304) ############################################
252
THE A UTHOR.
NOTES AND NEWS.
THE International Copyright Act has not
passed the United States Senate after all.
So that we have had all our congratula-
tions over American honesty for nothing. Also
all our outcry over the deadly injury the Bill was
going to inflict upon the British printer for nothing.
Why did it fail to pass? My own ignorant belief
is that the Senate made a discovery. They learned
that the Bill w^ould not inflict any injury on any
Briton at all, but quite the reverse. They, there-
fore, in their well-established friendship to this
country, resolved not to pass the Bill. An
American friend tells me that their action was
probably due to bribery. Fancy our own feelings
if Lord Monkswell's Bill should be defeated through
the bribery of his brother Peers!
Is it to be Club or House? A large number of
replies have been received to the request for
information as to the advisability of starting one
or other of these institutions. An analysis of the
replies gives the following result—up to this date :—
For the Club, 60 per cent.
For the House, 30 ,, ,,
For neither, 8 „ ,,
For both, 2 „ „
More than one-third of those who have voted for
the House were ladies; more than five-sixths of
those who have voted for a Club were men. The
ladies who voted for a Club did not raise a word
against the admission of men, but many of the
men, speaking for a club, urged strongly upon us
the necessity of excluding the ladies.
The. reasons for giving the preference to the
House were in each case almost the same: that
such a place would give an opportunity for quiet
work not enjoyed at home. Many seemed to
believe that a Club could be started successfully
later on, using the organization and machinery
already in employ for the management of the
House. Those who have voted in favour of the
Club haveall been actuated by the ideathat anything
which promotes good fellowship and unity between
authors must, if able to work at all, work for good.
What next? The next thing is to form a Com-
mittee, to draw up the constitution of the club,
and to leave the Committee to take all the steps
necessary. This will be done as quickly as possible,
and I hope that by next month we shall be able to
announce that the Club is actually in a fair way to
be started. One rule will be rigid. No one will be
admitted who is not author of some book or a
professional journalist.
Let us learn how the Americans pay honour to
their men of letters.
On Monday last the President issued the
following order :—
"Executive Mansion, Washington,
"■January ig//i, 1891.
"The death of George Bancroft, which occurred
in the City of Washington on Saturday, January
17, at 3.40 o'clock p.m., removes from among the
living one of the most distinguished Americans.
As an expression of the public loss and sorrow, the
flags of all the executive departments at Washing-
ton, and of the public buildings in the cities
through which the funeral party is to pass, will be
placed at half-mast to-morrow, and until the body
of this eminent statesman, scholar and historian
shall rest in the State that gave him to his country
and to the world."
The Secretary of the Navy also ordered that
the Navy Department be draped in mourning for
thirty days, and that all business be suspended
therein on the day of the funeral; and, in the
Senate, Mr. Hoar moved that the adjournment be
till 12 o'clock on Tuesday, in order to give
Senators who desired to attend the funeral an
opportunity to do so. He said that Mr. Bancroft's
name had been honoured by the Senate in a way
in which no other name had been, by special
permission that he should be admitted to the
floor of the Senate at all times. The motion was
adopted.
Of course we do the thing just as well in this
country, though people forget and grumble.
Looking back to the Times of December 26th,
1863, for instance, I read—
"The following order has been issued by
command of the Queen :—
"'The death of William Makepeace Thackeray,
which occurred on the 24th, removes from among
the living one of the most distinguished English-
men. His name will for ever be associated with
the nineteenth century as that of its noblest
novelist. This great man, cut off at the early age
of 52, was about to be raised to the highest
honours of the Peerage as Duke of Kensington
Gardens. His daughters are authorized to receive
the rank and courtesy title of a Duke's daughter.
As an expression of the public loss and sorrow the
flags of all the Executive Departments at London,
and of the public buildings, will be placed at
half-mast to-morrow until the funeral is over.'
"'All the Departments will be draped in mourn-
ing for thirty days, and business will be suspended
on the day of the funeral.' In both Houses a
## p. 253 (#305) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
253
resolution was unanimously adopted to adjourn
over the day of the funeral."
It is pleasant to be able to prove, though people
have such short memories, that this country is not
behind America in the recognition of her great
men. We may remind our readers also of the
Court and general mourning ordered through-
out the country on the lamented death of Carlyle,
and of the honours which were heaped upon
Robert Browning, alive and dead. And we must
not forget the extraordinary care always taken by
the First Lord of the Treasury, whether it be Mr.
VV. H. Smith or Mr. W. E. Gladstone, not to allow
any outsider to have any share in the grant
annually made for Literature, Science and Art.
Here, indeed, we do claim superiority over our
cousins, for they have no Civil List, while we
grant ^1,200 a year to those whose work advances
humanity, and we never, r.ever, never suffer one
penny of this to be jobbed away on any considera-
tion whatever.
Is verse in danger? The question was asked by
Mr. Edmund Gosse in the Forum for January. This
American magazine, which always contains some
articles of suggestion or instruction, is published
in this country by Mr. Edward Arnold, of Warwick
Lane. The question is asked and answered, and
it ought to cause other answers and yet others,
because no question is more important in its
bearings in the future of literature. "Sculptors,
singers, painters must always exist; but need we
have poets any longer since the world has dis-
covered how to say all it wants to say in prose?
Will anyone who has anything of importance to
communicate be likely, in the future, to express it
through the medium of metrical language?" The
writer points to the reprinting and the reviving of the
dead and gone poets as an illustration that poetry
may have done its work. Pope succeeded so well
because his predecessors were already forgotten;
but we no longer allow the dead to lie in their
graves. We drag them out and clothe them with
new print, and paper, and bindings rich and rare.
"How," asks the writer, "in this great throng of
resuscitated souls is the modern poet to exist?"
Well, I do not think that the resuscitated souls
have much to do with the threatened decay in
poetry. As a fact, we have not a single poet under
forty. This is very serious, but the same thing
might have been said before the advent of
Wordsworth, while Mr. Gosse himself evidently
feels that it is impossible for the world to be
carried on without new poetry.
He indicates the kinds of verse which may be
expected. "Poetry, if it exists at all, will deal,
and probably to a greater degree than ever before,
with those more frail and ephemeral shades of
emotion which prose scarcely ventures to describe
. . . . The most realistic novel, the closest
psychological analysis in prose, does no more than
skim the surface of the soul; verse has the privi-
lege of descending into its depths. In the future,
lyrical poetry will probably grow less musical and
less conventional at the risk of being less popular.
It will interpret that prose does not suggest." And
further on he predicts that the verse of the future
will be essentially democratic. It will, perhaps,
present short and highly finished studies in narra-
tive like those of Copp£e. It may abandon the
extreme refinement of its extreme mechanism. It
will seek to give pleasure less by the manner than
by the matter. "But," he concludes, "whatever
the issue may be we may be confident that the art
will retain that poignant charm over undeveloped
minds, and that exquisite fascination which for so
many successive generations have made poetry the
wisest and the fairest prose of youth."
♦
Poetry will not willingly be allowed to die in the
States. This conclusion is drawn, perhaps hastily,
from the encouragement offered to poets by the
Charles E. Hires Co., Philadelphia. They offer a
prize of $50 cash for the best poem on their Beer,
their Root Beer. It is not stated that English poets
are excluded from this interesting competition.
We await the result, the immortal result, the
Eulogy of Root Beer, with impatience.
There has been a little controversy in the
Illustrated London Naus concerning the proposed
Authors' Club. It consisted of two short papers,
which may be read by the curious in that excellent
journal. It has now been supplemented by an
account of the New York Authors' Club, of which
I venture to reprint a portion :—
"When I first mounted the stairs, I heard the
comforting rattle of plates and cutlery, and found
the hungry authors rapidly disposing of a substan-
tial meal. The operation was so thorough and
convincing that when an athletic friend of mine,
with a far-famed appetite, came bounding in an
hour late, one glance sufficed to prove to him that
Mother Hubbard's historic cupboard was not more
completely bare than the American authors' board.
During the evening I had an opportunity of
observing some notable members of the club. I
was most anxious to see the American humourist
in undress, so to speak, to find out how much of
vol. 1.
X 2
## p. 254 (#306) ############################################
254
THE AUTHOR.
him was natural and how much professional, and
whether the habit of producing everlasting fun had
left in him any deep furrows of care. Some of the
best-known humourists in America are rarely heard
of on this side of the ocean. They write chiefly in
the newspapers. They take care that the news of
the day shall not distress you too sorely. The
American citizen might learn from his morning
sheet that some awful disaster had happened to
the nation, but he would be soothed, if not
consoled, by a piece of sprightly humour in the
next column. It is this agreeable dispensation,
I think, which keeps most Americans alive amid
the rush and the turmoil and the extravagant
nervous pressure of their existence. One of the
most distinguished of these newspaper humourists
is the gentleman who calls himself Bill Nye. I
had often laughed to the point of suffocation over
his writings, and I could not help picturing him as
a small man with a large comical head and a
perpetual twinkle in a particularly knowing eye,
and a conversational manner perhaps a little too
obtrusively merry for the repose which distinguishes
the library of the Athenaeum Club. I felt ex-
tremely apologetic when I found that Bill Nye was
a tall man, perfectly bald, with a quiet pensive
smile and a pleasant unaffected speech, which
might have led the stranger to put him down
as a genial professor who had written a good deal
for encyclopaedias.
"What struck me chiefly was that, with the
exception of an excellent man who favoured me in
a corner and at some length with his theory of
international copyright, nobody talked about
hobbies. There were no literary arguments. The
prophetic sketch in these columns of the people who
would bore one another in an Authors' Club has no
counterpart in my remembrances of these American
authors. They were not pedantic, prosy, or eager
to carry the talk about shop over their particular
little counters. I think there is, on the whole, an
easier current of life in American clubs of all kinds
than in our own. There is certainly a more genial
intercourse and a greater disposition to entertain
the stranger. I have in my mind now one of the
best storytellers I ever met—an engineer, a painter,
a writer, a traveller in many lands. If these lines
should catch his vision, I hope he will take them
as an assurance that I still cherish those anecdotes
of Colonel Carter, of Cartersville, which he used to
tell me with infinite humour, and which I see he
has moulded into admirably artistic form in
Harpers Magazine. I cannot imagine any asso-
ciation of authors animated by a better esprit de
corps than I found in this New York club, or freer
from those angles of the literary character which
pome of us seem to dread. Perhaps I shall com-
mend the American authors all the more strongly
to some English writers when I say that a very
wealthy man was once blackballed at the Authors'
Club in New York, because it was held to be no
place for millionaires."
A correspondent sends the following suggestion.
He may be wrong—if so, one would be glad to
learn what the advertiser really did intend by his
proposal to act as an intermediary where none is
wanted :—
"In the January number of the Author, you
appear to be somewhat puzzled about the following
advertisement:—
'AUTHORS.—Introductions to publishers
and editors, by journalist of standing; com-
mission only on MS. sold; exceptional
chance.—H. D. F., Office.'
"I know nothing of the source of the advertise
ment, but to me it is, on the face of it, clearly a
dodge of the bogus publisher to get hold of the
names and addresses of amateur authors.
"A member of your Society who answered it,
you say, received no reply. Had a score of your
members answered it, they would not probably
have received a single reply among them. The
object—or rather the immediate object—of the
advertiser has been attained when he has secured
the names and addresses of a large number of
persons who have literary aspirations, and these
persons at a later date—when they have forgotten
all about the above advertisement—will, in all
probability, be bombarded with prospectuses of an
amateur magazine, or an amateur literary society,
or polite invitations to send in their 'MSS.' of
novels, tales, poems, and travels' to a bogus
publisher, who speaks of dazzling things in the
shape of fame and fortune to be won.
"' However did they get hold of my address?'
wonders the literary novice when he receives
such a document, and, perchance, vaguely begins
to think that he must be getting known in literary
circles. I fancy I have made it clear how both his
name and address are procured. Whatever else
the bogus publisher is, he is not a fool, and he well
knows the value (wholly spurious, of course) that
the amateur author attaches to 'introductions to
publishers and editors.'"
A question asked by Mr. James Baker at the
meeting of January 15th, raises a difficult and
interesting point. He asked how far literary
"notes," which frequently embody matters of
lasting value, are to be protected by the new Copy-
## p. 255 (#307) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
255
right Bill. That these notes may be, and some- The second prejudice is based on the first. It
times are, property of considerable value, is shown is the error which we have attacked again and
by the fact that Mr. James Payn, whose weekly again, that publishing is a highly speculative and
notes constitute one of the principal attractions of risky business. On the contrary, no publisher
the paper in which they appear, has thought well to need even run any risk at all; and in point
reprint them in a volume, which has been eagerly* of fact very few publishers do. I have already
taken up. It is also proved by the fact that Mr. proved this by an analysis of the advertising
George Augustus Sala has done the same thing, columns, and I shall continue, from time to time,
Now such notes ought certainly to be protected, to prove the fact in the same way.
and I hope this point will be borne in mind when
the Bill goes into Committee. »
—
Mr. Baker also suggests that at the Annual
Meeting members should discuss points rising out
of the Report. The Chairman did invite dis-
cussion at the last meeting—and there was some,
but such discussion can be only valuable when
none are allowed to speak except members who
have given due notice and have prepared themselves
beforehand, and have followed the action of the
committee, and so placed themselves in a position
to judge the questions from many points of view.
Such discussions are apt to be desultory and to go
away from the question before the meeting. For
instance, at one of our meetings in Willis s Rooms,
there a few years ago, when Lord Lytton invited
discussion on the principles which should guide the
management of literary property, one man got up
and asked the meeting if his publisher was a liar
for sending him certain accounts? As if such a
very important question could be asked without
examining the accounts! Another got up to say
that there was no such thing as a 5*. book. And a
third rose to deny a statement made in the paper
that had just been read that an ordinary 6s.
novel could be produced, in numbers, at is. If,
however, we were to lay down certain definite points
for discussion, if these were announced before-
hand, such a conference, it is conceivable, might
produce great good if only by clearing the air of
prejudice and error.
For instance, there are two prejudices which
seem to defy any amount of argument. The first
is the belief that the English people are not buyers
of books, but that they get all their literature from
the circulating library. I confess to having held
this view myself until recently. Now, we have
recently undertaken a little investigation, as yet
incomplete, into the present condition of the book
trade, which seems to dissipate this view pretty
completely. The fact is that within certain limits
there are no greater buyers of books than the
inhabitants of Great Britain and her colonies.
Mr. J. M. Lely, Barrister-at-Law, and member
of our Committee, has completed a popular
analysis of the new Copyright Bill, with explana-
tions of the clauses and their bearing. We have
arranged with him to add this pamphlet to our list
of publications. It will therefore be accessible to
members of the Society at the cost of is. 6d.
—♦—
The following note may possibly have been sent
to many other readers of this paper :—
"Sir,—I am collecting the opinions of men
eminent in the various departments of Ait and
Science on the question, 'Is Life Worth Living?'
and should esteem it a very great favour if you
would kindly send me a few lines, giving your
opinion on the matter."
Nobody should take any notice of such com-
munications as the above. If the writer is really
desirous of finding out what the person addressed
thinks on any subject, he should consult the
published works of that person. If, as is most
likely, he wants an autograph, or if.he is only
trying to "draw" the man, he should certainly
be snubbed with silence.
♦
People in the literary line mostly know other
people who are not. They also know young
people who would like to be. They are, therefore,
earnestly and urgently entreated and implored to
spread abroad the following simple truths :—
1. MSS. must not be sent to literary people
with a request that they will read them and write
an opinion. They really must not.
2. Authors must not be asked to "use their
powerful influence" with publishers. They have no
influence. If the best author in the world were to
kneel and supplicate the most friendly publisher in
the world, he would not persuade that publisher to
issue unsaleable work.
## p. 256 (#308) ############################################
256
THE AUTHOR.
In a certain secondhand bookshop where there are
generally things worth seeing, there is nowtobe seen,
nearly complete, a collection quite unique of its
kind. They have had the same book bound by
all the best bookbinders in Europe, each in his
own best style. The result is a collection illustra-
ting the finest kinds of binding procurable at this
time. When it is complete it will be exhibited
either in the shop or in some more public place.
There will be various opinions on the various
bindings: for my own part, I think that we can
hold our own in London. The book chosen is the
"Water Babies," but of course it is not half good
enough for such binding. One can picture the
poet gazing in despair upon this work, and
wondering in sadness whether he will ever be able
to write up to such a binding.
Mr. Rider Haggard on his arrival in New York,
was interviewed. He cannot escape the common
lot. But he seems to have suffered more than is usual
at the hands of his persecutors. Eight or ten news-
paper men surrounded him and all asked him
questions at once. The following are selected by
the Neiv York Times as specimens of the inter-
rogatory. The interview took place, it must be
remembered, immediately after landing.
"How do you like New York?"
"Where are you going to when you leave here,
and what for?"
"How old are you?"
"What is your opinion about the elevated rail-
way?"
"Were you born in Africa?"
"Do you consider that you have exhausted
Africa?"
"How about Rudyard Kipling and India?"
"Do you consider that Kipling has exhausted
India?"
"How do you work? Dictate it? Work
nights?"
"Do you make your plots before you write your
stories, or do you write your stories first?"
The last question reminds one of the inquirer
who asked the cook whether she made her pud-
dings first and boiled them afterwards, or whether
she boiled them first, and made them afterwards.
It also reminds one of King George the Third's
difficulty about the apple dumpling.
Many are the writers who send their MSS. for
perusal by busy men. Few indeed are so con-
siderate as the one who sent me the other day a
letter, asking me to read his work, and in order to
save trouble, enclosed a letter of refusal for my
signature. This letter I subjoin as an example to
all other young men and maidens who want to get
their MSS. read. May one remind them that
'one never hears of young students, say in
mathematics, inviting a mathematician to teach
them by correspondence? The letter is everything
that could be desired.
London, February, 1891.
Sir,—I have received your letter, but I must
decline, though reluctantly, to entertain the appli-
cation. It would give me great pleasure to assist
any worthy aspirant to literary honours, but the
many demands upon my time forbid me to comply
with all requests of this kind, of which I receive
many. In fact, I strongly advise you not to sub-
scribe to a ticket in the literary lottery, for it offers
few prizes and many blanks, and especially is the
department of poetry open to this objection. With
every hope for your success if you should persist
in your endeavours,
I beg to remain, yours faithfully,
«
The ten years' Retrospect of American Literature
noticed below may be supplemented by a reference to
a new periodical issued by Mr. Edward Arnold, pub-
lisher, of Warwick Square. It is a monthly list of
American and French books. The selected list
of American books published during the last
quarter is not very attractive. One would suggest
that such a work as "Our Early Presidents, their
Wives and Children," hardly appeals to the
Englishman, to whom the past Presidents of the
United States are mere names and shadows. The
Notes and Notices are very meagre. A list of
"Standard" American Literature includes, like the
selected list, a great quantity of work that can
never be popular here, e.g., the biographies of
American statesmen, books on the Civil War, &c.
It is curious to note when one passes from
American to French literature how much broader
is the field of letters. We do not find Frenchmen
occupying their time with lives of men or histories
of places whose interest is purely local and
ephemeral. There is the note of world-wide and
human interest in a French list which is strangely
absent from the American literature—perhaps also
though in less degree, from our own. The first
number of the " List " will doubtless be improved
upon, as the editor enlarges his experience. It
should, however, fill a gap in the service of current
literature.
## p. 257 (#309) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
257
The death is announced of Alice Bronte, sister
of Patrick Bronte, and aunt to the three Bronte
girls. She was ninety-five years of age and was
never married. I have just seen a photograph of
her, taken shortly before her death. The face
singularly reminds one of Charlotte, though Alice
was, in her youth, a most beautiful girl, which, I
fear, was never the case with any of her nieces.
She was six feet high, as strong as any three men.
and possessed all her faculties to the very end.
The Rev. Dr. William Wright, of the Bible
Society, who knew her well, is about to write a
short account of her. She lived all her years in
the North of Ireland.
Who would have dreamed that there would be
living an ancient lady, the survivor of the
generation before Charlotte, Emily and Anne?
The three sisters were born in the years 1816,
1818 and 1820, respectively. Charlotte died at
thirty-nine, her two sisters at thirty. They might
all three be living still, old, but not so very old,
and youthful, compared with Alice. What sort
of work would they have done had they lived?
I think that one remembers "Shirley" with
greater readiness than any other of the Bronte
novels. Perhaps their works have been partly
kept alive by the biography of Mrs. Gaskell,
certainly one of the best and most life-like portraits
ever drawn. The world was touched with the
picture of the three girls in their far-off country
parsonage close to the wild moor, with neither
neighbours nor friends, with a morose father and a
drunken brother. "Jane Eyre " and "Wuthering
Heights " would have lived, I suppose, whether Mrs.
Gaskell had written that book or not, but they
would not have lived with a vitality so intense.
My opinion as to the fading vitality of certain
writers mentioned in the last number of the
Author, has been disputed in various quarters.
Yet I adhere to my opinion. We may reprint
Hogg, and we may put him on our shelves, but we
have ceased to read him in the sense in which we
read Browning; we look at him sometimes for
curiosity, or we may seek out favourite pieces, but
he is no longer a poet of our time, or of all time.
Scholars and students, of course, will read all the
writers whom I named—has not Mr. Saintsbury
made a book about them? Yet, they no longer
attract the omnivorous young—which is a very
good and fair test of vitality—and their best things
are in the Anthologies and Golden Treasuries.
Walter Besant.
"IONICA."
THE question whether good verse can still
become popular might be practically
answered by the success or the failure of
"Ionica." Rarely, indeed, does a volume of verses
appear in which the workmanship is so delicate,
the thought so refined, the phrases so subtle, the
flow and ring of the lines so full of music. The
book, a dainty volume, is published by Mr. George
Allen of Bell Court, beside the Inns of Court, at
the Sign of the Ruskin Arms. The song printed
below, by permission of the author, is written for
Mendelssohn's music generally known as " O wert
thou in the cauld, cauld blast?"
I.
Oh! earlier shall the rosebuds blow,
In after years, those happier years,
And children weep when we lie low,
Far fewer tears—far softer tears.
Oh! true shall boyish laughter ring,
Like tinkling chimes, in kinder times,
And merrier shall the maiden sing,
And I not there—and I not there.
in.
Like lightning in the summer night
Their mirth shall be, so quick and free,
And oh! the flash of their delight,
1 shall not see—I may not see.
IV.
In deeper dream, with wider range,
Those eyes shall shine, but not on mine,
Unmoved, unblest by worldly change,
The dead must rest, the dead shall rest.
*
RECENT AMERICAN LITERATURE.
THE very few Englishmen who read the
literary papers of the United States have
long been aware that the output of original
literature of all kinds has become almost as great
there as in this country, and that in spite of the
competition with cheap reprints of British books.
A short analysis of the last ten years' American
literature, published in the New York Critic of
January 17th, presents an instructive and extremely
interesting view of the whole subject. Death his
removed the great figures of Emerson, Longfellow,
## p. 258 (#310) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
and Bancroft, while the surviving leaders, Holmes,
Whittier, Whitman, and Lowell, have passed into
more or less complete retirement. The loss of
leaders has not yet been replaced. In America,
as everywhere else, there is a lack of acknowledged
leaders; the general standard has been greatly
raised; the number of those who write has been
largely increased—never have there been so many
writers able to write well—but those who used to
dominate the literary world hardly exist any
longer.
In poetry, the total disappearance of the first
rank is especially deplored. There have been
published during the last decade, verses from
Lowell, Holmes, Whittier, Stoddard, W. W. Story,
William Winter, and Aldrich, names all known to
English readers. In addition, the names are
mentioned of Edgar Eawcett, Francis Saltus,
George Woodberry, Richard Gilder, Mrs. Whitney,
Mrs. Deland, Edith Thompson, Mrs. Moulton (a
head and shoulders above most of those enumerated),
H. B. Carpenter, S. H. Nichol, Mrs. Jackson, E.
R. Sill, Miss Dickenson, Emma Lazarus, Sydney
Lanier, H. C. Bunner, Edward Martin, Herbert
Nurse, F. D. Newman, and Clinton Scollard,
called the best of the younger men. Now of these
twenty minor poets there are three names—Mrs.
Moulton, Sydney Lanier, and Emma Lazarus—
whose verses are known in this country. Would
it not be well if some of our critics would make a
voyage of discovery in this land of sweet singers
and bring home some of their songs? And would
it be possible to make so long a list of minor poets
in this country?
It is in fiction, however, that the emotion and
thought of the time have in America, as every-
where, found adequate expression. Democracy,
becoming self-conscious, has felt ever-increasing
interest in familiar human life. The growth of the
sentiment of sympathy has stimulated curiosity and
interest in the daily lives of our neighbours. The
scientific spirit of the day has popularized the
love of accurate description. The great Russian
novelists have moved some and the French school
has moved others. There is an enormous demand
for short stories in papers and magazines, par-
ticularly such stories as those on phases in
American life. We know the names that come
first in such a list—Howells and James. Besides
these are mentioned as in the same line, Fawcett,
Mrs. Burnett, and Miss Baylor.
There has been an especially noteworthy
development in the direction of local colour and
local types. Some of the works of this kind we
know, others are not familiar to us. For instance,
Louisiana has George Cable; Tennessee, Miss
Murfill; the hill folk of Virginia, Miss Baylor
and Edward Eggleston; Georgia, Johnston's
Dukesborough stories; the negroes, Harris,
Nelson Page, and Edwards; Kansas, Howe;
New England, Miss Williams and Miss Jewett;
the Cape Cod folk, Miss McLean; the Jews of
New York, Henry Harland; the Western boy,
Mark Twain. Considering that all this is the
outcome of ten years, the advance seems very
remarkable.
Then there are books which are successful, one
knows not why, such as Wallace's "Ben Hur, a Tale
of the Christ"; which are successful, one does know
why, such as "Mr. Barnes of New York"; which
are successful because they deal with questions of
the day, such as "John Ward, Preacher," and
"Looking Backward"; which are successful be-
cause they appeal to serious and common-place
people who understand nothing but calmly moving
stories with a happy ending.
The spirit of Thoreau is continued by John
Burroughs, Dr. C. C. Abbott, Theodore Roosevelt,
and Mrs. Custer, while Lufcadic Hearn's " Two
Years in the French West Indies" is spoken of
with the highest praise.
Reminiscence and biography are plentifully
represented by the names of Grant, Sheridan, Sher-
man, Jefferson Davis, Hugh McCullock, Blaine,
by the lives of Lincoln, Emerson, Longfellow,
Bryant, Molley, Hawthorne, Poe, Dana, Garrison,
Agassiz, Ericsen, Henry Ward Beecher, and
others.
In history the last ten years show the completion
of Bancroft-Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe,"
McMaster's "History of the People," and other
works. Let us pass over political economy, literary
criticism, art criticism, philosophy, law, education,
and science. Enough has been said to show
what we are too ready to forget, or to ignore, that
there exists across the Atlantic a literature which
is comparable with our own in every respect. If
they have no poets who can stand beside Tenny-
son, Browning, or Swinburne; if they have no
novelists in the same line with Thackeray, Dickens,
George Eliot, George Meredith; they have many
who can meet the novelists who come after these
great names. If they have no historian who can
be ranked with Stubbs, Green, or Freeman, they
have many who are equal to those who stand in
the second line, while in science and philosophy
they are rapidly stepping to the front. One branch
is unnoticed by the reviewer of this decade. It is
the branch of scholarship. In that department
Great Britain still seems to hold her own. Mean-
while, as an unexpected record of unexampled
development, this little paper in the Critic, from
which we have taken these remarks, is instructive
and suggestive.
## p. 259 (#311) ############################################
THE AUTHOk.
259
It suggests, especially, this very important fact.
With the enormous development of their own
literature it will become increasingly rare for the
Americans to want the new books of our produc-
tion. When, if ever, an International Copyright
Bill is passed, those fortunate authors, American or
British, who are in demand on both sides, will be
few indeed. It will be mortifying when we have
got all we have clamoured for to be told that our
wares are not wanted. But this seems quite likely
to happen.
*
HOW WE LOST THE BOOK OF
JASHER.
EVERYONE who knows anything about
art, archaeology, or science has heard of
the famous FitzTaylor Museum at Ox-
bridge. And even outsiders who care for none
of these things have heard of the quarrels and in-
ternal dissensions that have, from time to time,
disturbed that academic calm which ought to
reign within the walls of a museum. The il-
lustrious founder, to whose munificence we owe
this justly famous institution, provided in his will
for the support of four curators, who were to govern
the two separate departments of science and art,
and the University has been in the habit of making
grants of money from time to time to these separate
departments for the acquisition of scientific or
archaeological curiosities and MSS. I suppose
there was something wrong in the system, but
whatever it may be it led to those notorious
jealousies and disputes. At the time I am writing
the principal curators of the art section were
Professor Girdelstone and Mr. Monteagle, of
Princes College, while I myself looked after the
scientific welfare of the museum with Lowestoft as
my understudy—he was practically a nonenity, but
an authority on lepidoptera. Now whenever a
grant was made to the left wing of the building, as
I call it, I always used to say that science was
being sacrificed to archaeology. I mocked at the
illuminated MSS. over which Girdelstone grew en-
thusiastic and the musty theological folios which
Monteagle had purchased. They heaped abuse
upon me, of course, when my turn came, and
cracked many a quip on my splendid skeleton of
the ichthyosaurus, the only known specimen from
Greenland. At one time the strife broke into print,
and the London press animadverted on our
conduct. It became a positive scandal. We
were advised, I remember, to wash our dirty linen
at home, and though I have often wondered
why the press should act as a voluntary laundress
on such occasions, I suppose the remark is a just
one.
There came a day when we took the advice of
the press, and from then until now science and
art have gone hand in hand at the University
of Oxbridge. How the breach was healed
forms the subject of the present leaf from my
memoir.
America, it has been wisely said, is the great
land of fraud. It is the Egypt of the modern
world. From America came spiritualists, from
America bogus goods, cheap ideas and pirated
editions, and from America, I have every reason
to believe, came Dr. Groschen. It is true that
he spoke American with an English accent at
times, at others, English with a German. But
if his ancestors came from the Rhine, that he
received his education on the other side of the
Atlantic I have no doubt. Why he came to
Oxbridge I cannot say. He appeared quite
suddenly, like a comet. He brought introduc-
tions from various parts of the world, from the
English embassy at Constantinople, from the
British and German Schools of Archaeology at
Athens, from certain French Egyptologists at
Alexandria, and a holograph letter from Arch-
bishop Sarpedon, Patriarch of Hermaphroditopolis,
Curator of the MSS. in the monastery of St.
Basil, at Mount Olympus. It was this last that
endeared him, I believe, to the High Church party
in Oxbridge. Dr. Groschen was already the talk
of the University, the lion of the hour, before I
met him, and there was already a rumour of an
honorary degree before I even saw him in the
flesh, at the high table of my college, as guest of
the Master. If Dr. Groschen did not inspire
me with any confidence, I cannot say that he
excited any feeling of distrust. He was a small,
blond, commonplace looking little man, very neat
in his attire, without the alchemical look of most
archaeologists. Had I known then, as I know
now, that he presented his first credentials to
Professor Girdelstone, I might have suspected him.
Of course I took it for granted they were friends.
When the University was ringing with praises of
the generosity of Dr. Groschen in transferring his
splendid collection of Greek inscriptions to the
FitzTaylor Museum, I rejoiced; the next grant
would be devoted to science, in consideration of
the already crowded galleries of the Art and
Archaeology section. I only pitied the fatuity of
the authorities for being grateful. Dr. Groschen
had now wound himself into everybody's good
## p. 260 (#312) ############################################
260
THE AUTHOR.
wishes, and the University degree had been
conferred. He had been offered a fine set of
rooms in a college famous for culture. He was a
well known figure on the Q.P. But he was not
always with us; he went to Greece or the East
sometimes, for the purpose, it was said, of adding
to the Groschen collection, now the glory of the
FitzTaylor.
It was after one of these prolonged periods of
absence that he wrote to Girdelstone privately, that
he had made a great discovery, and on his return
brought with him, he said, some MSS. which had
been unearthed in the monastic library of St. Basil,
where he bought them for an enormous sum from
Sarpedon, the Patriarch of Hermaphroditopolis, and
that he was willing to sell them to "some public
institution" for very little over the original price.
Girdelstone told several of us in confidence. It was
public news next day. Scholars grew excited;
there had been hints at the recovery of a lost MS.,
"which was to add to our knowledge of the antique
world and materially alter accepted views of the
early state of Roman and Greek society." On
hearing the news I smiled. "Someinstitution,"that
was suspicious—MSS.—they meant forgery. It was
described as a palimpsest MS., consisting of fifty or
sixty leaves of papyrus. On one side was a portion
of the last book of Jasher, of a date not later than
the fourth century, on the other in ancient characters
that too notorious work of Aulus Gellius, which
Suetonius tells us that Tiberius ordered to be
burned—De moribus Romanorum.
But why should I go over old history? Every
one remembers the excitement that the discovery
caused—the leaders inthe Times and {he AI hen a urn,
the doubts of the sceptical, the enthusiasm of the
archaeologists, the jealousy of the Berlin authorities,
the offers from all the libraries of Europe, the
aspersions of the British Museum. "Why,"
asked indignant critics, "did Dr. Groschen offer his
MS. to the authorities at Oxbridge?" "Because
Oxbridge had been the first to recognise his
genius," was the crushing reply. And Professor
Girdelstone said that should the FitzTaylor fail to
acquire the MS. by any false economy on the part
of the University authorities, the prestige of the
museum would be gone. But this is all old
history. I only remind the reader of what he knows
already. I had begun to bring all my powers, and
the force of the scientific world in Oxbridge, to
bear in opposition to the purchase of the MS. I
had pulled every wire I knew, and execration was
heaped on me as a vandal, though I only said
that the University money should be devoted to
other channels than the purchase of MSS. I was
doing all this, when I was startled by the
intelligence that Dr. Groschen had suddenly come
to the conclusion that his find was after all only a
forgery.
The book of Jasher, he now said, was a four-
teenth century Byzantine forgery, and heascribed the
date at the very earliest to the reign of Alexis Com-
nenus. Theologians became fierce on the subject.
They had seen the MS. ; they knew it was genuine.
And when Dr. Groschen began to have doubts
as to Aulus Gellius, suggesting that this part of
the MS. was a sixteenth century fabrication, the
classical world morally and physically rose and
denounced him. Dr. Groschen, who had some-
thing of the early Christian in his character, bore
this shower of opprobrium like a martyr. "I may
be mistaken," he said, "but I believe I have been
deceived. I have been taken in before, and I
should not like the MS. offered to any library
until two of the very highest experts had decided
as to its authenticity."
People by this time had learnt to regard Dr.
Groschen himself as quite the highest expert in
the world. They thought he was out of his
senses, though the press commended him for his
honesty, and one journal, which had been loudest
in declaring its authenticity, said it was glad Dr.
Groschen had seen the forgery that it had already
anticipated. Dr. Groschen was furthermore asked
what experts he would submit his MS. to, and
by whose decision he would abide. After some
delay and correspondence, he could think of
only two—Professor Girdelstone and Mr. Mont-
eagle. "They had had great opportunities," he
said, "of judging on such matters. Their erudi-
tion was of a steadier and more solid nature
than his own." Then the world and Oxbridge
joined again in a chorus of praise. What could
be more honest, more straightforward, than to
submit the MS. to a final examination at the
hands of the two curators of the FitzTaylor, who
were to' have the first refusal of the MS. if it was
considered authentic? If it was a forgery, and
they decided on purchasing, they had themselves
to thank. No museum was ever before given
such an opportunity. Professor Girdelstone and
his colleague soon came to a conclusion. They
decided that there could be no doubt as to the
authenticity of the Aulus Gellius. In portions it
was true that between the lines certain Greek
characters almost obliterated were visible, but this
threw no slur on the MS. itself. As to the book
of Jasher they gave no decisive opinion, and it is
still an open question; but they expressed their
belief that the Aulus Gellius was alone worth the
price asked for it by Dr. Groschen. It only
remained now for the University to advance a sum
to the FitzTaylor for the purchase of this treasure.
The curators, rather prematurely perhaps, wrote
## p. 261 (#313) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
261
privately to Dr. Groschen making him an offer for
his MS., and paid him half the amount out of their
own pockets, so as to close the bargain once and
for all.
The delay of the University in making the
grant caused a good deal of apprehension in the
hearts of Professor Girdelstone and Mr. Mont-
eagle, and they feared that the enormous sums
offered by the Berlin Museum would tempt even
the single-minded Dr. Groschen, even though
he had the interests of the FitzTaylor so much
at heart. These suspicions were unfounded as
they were ungenerous. The German savant was
contented with his degree and college rooms, and
showed no hurry for the remainder of the sum to
be paid.
One night when I was seated in my rooms
beside the fire preparing lectures on the ichthyo-
saurus, to quote the poet, "I heard a rapping at my
chamber door." It was a hurried jerky rap. I
shouted, "Come in," the door burst open, and on
the threshold I saw Monteagle with a white face, on
which the beads of perspiration glittered. At
first I thought it was the rain which had drenched
his cap and gown, but in a moment I saw that the
perspiration was the result of terror or anxiety (cf.
my lectures on Mental Equilibrium). Monteagle
and I in our undergraduate days had been friends,
but like many University friendships, ours had
proved evanescent; our paths had lain in different
directions.
He had chosen archaeology. We had failed to
convert one another to each other's views, and
when he became a member of " The Disciples," a
mystic Oxbridge society, the fissure between us
widened to a gulf. We nodded when we met, but
that was all. With Girdelstone I was not on speak-
ing terms. So when I found Monteagle on my
threshold I confess I was startled.
"May I come in?" he asked.
"Certainly, certainly," I said, cordially. "But
what is the matter?"
"Good God! Newall," he cried, "that MS.
after all is a forgery."
This expression I thought unbecoming in a
"Disciple," but I only smiled and said, "Really?
You think so?" Monteagle then made reference to
our old friendship, our unfortunate dissension. He
asked for my help, and then really excited my pity.
He poured into my ear a tale of woe. Some
member of the High Church party in Oxbridge had
been to Greece in order to attend a Conference
at Cyprus on the union of the Greek and Anglican
Churches. While there he had met Sarpedon,
Patriarch of Hermaphroditopolis, and in course of
conversation told him of the renowned Dr. Gros-
chen. Sarpedon had become distant at mention of
the doctor's name. He denied all knowledge of the
famous letter of introduction, and said the only
thing he knew of the Professor was that he was
usually supposed to have been the thief who had
made off with a large chest of parchments from the
monastery of St. Basil.
The Greek Patriarch refused to give any further
information. The English clergyman had reported
this privately to Girdelstone.
Dr. Groschen's other letters were examined, and
had been found to be all fabrications. The book
of Jasher and Aulus Gellius had been submitted to
a like scrutiny, and Girdelstone and Monteagle had
reluctantly come to the conclusion that they were
also vulgar and palpable forgeries. At the end of
his story Monteagle almost burst into tears. I
endeavoured to cheer him, although I was shrieking
with laughter at the whole situation.
Of course it was dreadful for him. If he exposed
Dr. Groschen, his own reputation as an expert
would be gone, and the doctor already had half
the money, which Girdelstone and he had paid in
advance. Monteagle was so agitated that it was
with difficulty I could get his story out of him, and
to this day I have never quite learned the truth.
Controlling my laughter, I sent a note round to
Professor Girdelstone, asking him to come to my
rooms. In about ten minutes he appeared, looking
as draggled and sheepish as poor Monteagle. In
his bosom he carried the fateful MS., which I had
never seen before. If it was a forgery (and I am
not sure now that it was) it was certainly a master-
piece. From what Girdelstone said to me then
and since, I think that the Aulus Gellius portion
was genuine enough, and the book of Jasher the
invention of Groschen; however, it will never be
discovered if one or neither were genuine. Mont-
eagle thought the ink that was used was a compound
of tea and charcoal, but both he and Girdelstone
were too suspicious to believe even each other by
this time.
I tried to console them, and promised all help
in my power. They were rather startled and
alarmed when I laid out my basis of operations.
In the first place, I was to withdraw all opposition
to the purchase of the MS. Girdelstone and Mont-
eagle, meanwhile, were to set about having the
Aulus Gellius printed and facsimiled; for I thought
it was a pity such work should be lost to the
world. The facsimile was only to be announced,
but the publishing by the University press to be
got in hand at once. The text of Aulus Gellius
can still be obtained, and a translation of those
portions which can be rendered into English
forms a volume of Mr. Bohn's excellent classical
library, which will satisfy the curious who are
unacquainted with Latin. Professor Girdelstone
## p. 262 (#314) ############################################
262
THE AUTHOR.
was to write a preface in very guarded terms.
This will be familiar to all classical scholars.
It was with great difficulty that I could persuade
Girdelstone and Monteagle, who had come to me,
their enemy, and in distress, of the sincerity of my
actions, but the poor fellows were ready to catch at
any straw for hope from exposure, and they listened
to every word I said. As the whole University
knew I was not on speaking terms with Girdelstone,
I told him to adopt a Nicodemus-like attitude, and
to come to me in the night-time, when we could
hold consultation. To the outer world, during these
anxious evenings, when my oak was sported, and
I would see no one, I was supposed to be pre-
paring my great syllabus of lectures on the ichthyo-
saurus. I only communicated to my fellow curators
my plans bit by bit, for I thought it would be better
for their nerves. I made Monteagle send round
a notice to the press :—" That the MS. about to
become the property of the University Museum
was being edited and published and facsimiled,
and at the earliest possible date it would be on
view in the Galleries where Dr. Groschen's collec-
tions are now exhibited." This was to quiet the
complaints that already were being made by scholars
and commentators of the difficulty of examining
the MSS. The importunities of several religious
societies to get a sight of the book of Jasher
became intolerable. The Dean of Boking, an old
friend of Girdelstone's, came from the north on
purpose to examine the new found work. With
permission he intended, he said, to write a small
brochure for the S.P.C.K. on the book of Jasher:
I believe that he also had some curiosity as to
the Aulus Gellius, but here I may be wronging him.
The subterfuges, lies, and devices to which we re-
sorted were not very creditable to ourselves. Girdel-
stone gave him a dinner, and Monteagle and I
persuaded the Senate to confer on him an honorary
degree. We amused him with advance sheets of the
commentary, and with assurances that he would be
the first to examine the MS. He was quite a month
at Oxbridge, but at last was called on business to the
north by some lucky domestic family bereavement.
Our next difficulty was the news that Sarpcdon,
Patriarch of Hermaphroditopolis, was about to visit
England to attend an Anglican Synod. I thought
Girdelstone would go off his head, and Monteagle's
hair had already become grey in the last few days.
Sarpedon was sure to be invited to Oxbridge.
He would meet Dr. Groschen, and then expose
him. Our fears, 1 soon found out, were shared
by the German saiant, who left shortly after the
news of the advent of Sarpedon, on one of those
mysterious visits to the East. I saw that our
action at once must be prompt, or Girdelstone and
Monteagle would be lost. They were horrified
when I told them I proposed placing the MS. to
public view in the museum on the following day.
A large plate glass case had been made by my
orders, and Girdelstone and Monteagle, who obeyed
me like lambs, deposited their precious burden as
I told them in the Groschen Hall of the Fitz-
Taylor. The crush that afternoon was terrible.
All the University came to peer into the glass case
at the new acquisition. I must tell you that Dr.
Groschen's antiquities had been placed temporarily
in a fire-proof erection built of wood and tin, at
the back of the museum, while they were waiting
for room in the body of the museum. This
erection was connected with the building by a long
stone gallery along which were placed plaster
casts.
I mingled with the crowd, and heard the remarks,
but I advised Girdelstone and Monteagle to keep
out of the way, as it would only upset them.
Various dons came up and chaffed me about the
opposition I had made to the MS. being pur-
chased, and a little man of dark, sallow com-
plexion came up and asked me if I was Professor
Girdelstone. I said I had not the honour. He
was a Bohemian, and wanted to obtain leave to
examine the MS. I gave him my card, and asked
him to call on me, when I would arrange a day.
He told me he was a Lutheran pastor from
Bohemia.
I was the last to leave the museum that day. I
was often kept In the library long after four, when
the museum usually closed, and so T dismissed
the attendants when they had locked up everything
with the exception of a small door in the stone
gallery which I usually used on such occasions.
I waited till six in the evening, and as I went out
I opened near this door a sash window and
removed the iron shutters. After dinner I went
round to Monteagle's rooms. He and Girdelstone
were sitting in a despondent way on each side of
the fire, sipping weak coffee and nibbling Albert
biscuits. They were startled at my entrance.
"What have you decided?" asked Girdelstone,
hoarsely.
"All is arranged. Monteagle and I will set fire
to the museum to night," I said, quietly.
Girdelstone buried his face in his hands and
began to sob.
"Anything but that—anything but that!" he
cried. And Monteagle turned a little pale. At
first they protested, but I overcame their scruples
by saying they might get out of the mess how they
liked. 1 advised Girdelstone to go to bed and
plead illness for the next few days, for he really
wanted rest. At eleven o'clock that night Mont-
eagle and myself crossed the meadows at the back
of our college, and by a circuitous route reached
## p. 263 (#315) ############################################
THE AUTHOR. 263
r
the grounds surrounding the museum, which were
planted with rhododendrons and other shrubs.
It was pouring with rain, unfortunately not
favourable for our enterprise. I had brought with
me a small box of combustibles from the Univer-
sity Laboratories, and a dark lantern. When we
climbed over the low wall not far from the stone
gallery I saw to my horror a light emerging from
the Groschen Hall. Monteagle, who is fearfully
superstitious, began chattering his teeth. When we
reached the small door I saw that it was open. A
thief had evidently forestalled us. Monteagle sug-
gested going back, and leaving the thief to make
off with the MS.; but I would not hear of such a
proposal.
The door opening to the Groschen Hall at the
end of the gallery was open, and beyond, a man—
who had his back towards us, and who I at once
recognised as the little Lutheran—was busily
engaged in picking the lock of the case where were
deposited the book of Jasher and Aulus Gellius.
Telling Monteagle to guard the door, I approached
very softly, keeping behind the plaster casts. I was
within a yard of the man before he heard my
boots creak. Then he turned round, and I found
myself face to face with Dr. Groschen. I have
never seen such a look of terror on anyone's face
before.
"You scoundrel!" I cried, collecting myself,
"drop those things at once !" and I made for him
with my fist. He dodged me. I ran after him;
but he threaded his way like a rat through the
statues and cases of antiquities, and bolted down
the passage out of the door, where he upset
Monteagle and the lantern, and disappeared in the
darkness and rain. I then returned to the scene
of his labours. Monteagle was too frightened, as
the museum had rather a ghostly appearance by
the light of the feeble oil lamp. There was some
dry sacking in a small cupboard. I had deposited
it there for the purpose. This I ignited along
with some native curiosities of straw and skin and
wickerwork.
There were also some new unpacked cases of
casts which the attendants had left there in the
afternoon, which materially assisted the conflagra-
tion.
It was an impressive scene as the flames played
round the pedestals of the torsos, statues, and cases,
but I only waited for a few moments to see that my
work was complete. I shut the door between the
gallery and the hall, so as to avoid the possibility of
the fire spreading to the rest of the building. I
seized Monteagle by the arm and hurried him
through the rhododendrons, over the wall, into the
meadows stretching down to the river I turned
back once, and just caught a glimpse of red flame
bursting through the windows. Having seen Mont-
eagle half way back to the college, I returned to see
if any alarm had been given. Some passers by had
already noticed it, and a small crowd had collected
in front. A fire engine had been sent for, while a
local pump had almost been set going. I returned
to my college gate, where I found the porter was
standing, believing I had been in Trinity all the
evening.
"The FitzTaylor is burning," he said. "I have
been looking out for you, sir."
• * *
There is nothing more to tell. To this day no
one suspects but that the fire was the work of an
incendiary, jealous of Dr. Groschen's discovery.
The Professor has returned from the East, but lives
in great retirement, and his friends say that he has
never quite recovered the shock occasioned by the
loss of his collection. The rest of the museum
was uninjured.
The death of Sarpedon, Patriarch of Hermaph-
roditopolis, at Naples, was a sudden and melan-
choly catastrophe, which people say affected Dr.
Groschen more than the fire. Strangely enough,
as he had just been dining with the Doctor the
evening before, for they had met at Naples pur-
posely.
Sometimes I ask myself if I did right in setting
fire to the museum. It was, you see, for the sake
of others, not myself, and Monteagle was an old
friend.
*
ON COMMITTEE.
OUR Copyright Sub-Committee has been
busy at the close of its successful career.
On January 29th a meeting was held of
the General Committee and also of the Copyright
Sub-Committee to consider the report made by
the Fine Art Committee of the London Chamber
of Commerce upon the Fine Art Sections of our
Bill. The London Chamber of Commerce had
evidently given every attention to our Bill in detail,
and their criticism was considered most valuable
to us. As far as our Sub-Committee considered
themselves able to do so, without violating the
spirit of the Bill, or making propositions in
opposition to the recommendations of the Royal
Commission of 1878, the practical suggestions of
the London Chamber of Commerce have been
adopted. For the information of those of our
## p. 264 (#316) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
members who possess copies of the Bill, these
suggestions are appended, with the reply of our
Committee to them.
The London Chamber of Commerce
(Incorporated).
Fine Art Section.
Report of the Special Copyright Sub-Committee.
Your Committee were appointed to examine the
terms of the Copyright Bill of the Society of Authors,
and "report to the Section how far it includes, and
in what way it differs, from the 1885 Bill, intended
to be supported by the Section." Your Committee
have held four meetings, and have carefully con-
sidered the two Bills with a view to ascertaining
the difference between them, and submit as an
appendix an analysis which has been prepared by
one of their number, Mr. Boydell Graves.
Speaking generally, the Committee found that
the Bill of the Society of Authors embraces many
of the points specially dealt with in the Bill of
1885 ; but in regard to the Penal clauses, they
recommend that the Society of Authors Bill should
be amended in the direction of approximating the
penalties imposed more nearly to those laid down
in the Bill of" 1885, which are more stringent in the
latter than in the former. The Committee, how-
ever, are of opinion that it should be possible so to
amend the Bill of the Society of Authors as to
meet the views of all who are interested in fine art
copyright, whether as artists or publishers. They
submit, therefore, the following recommendations
for acceptance by the Section.
Taking Part III of the Bill, which deals separately
with copyright in works of fine art and photographs,
and following the order in which the Bill is drafted,
the Committee recommend that the words, "offer
for sale," should be omitted from the definition of
"publication," on the ground that it is the custom
among artistic publishers to take subscribers' names
for an engraving not only during the progress of
such work, but even prior to its commencement.
The omission of the words in question would
prevent the publisher from being made liable for
publication before the actual issue of the work.
The definition of " replica" is unsatisfactory, in
so far as a replica is laid down as a work which
may be executed by a person other than the artist
himself. The objection of the Committee would
be met, however, by the omission of the words
"caused by him to be executed." The Committee
were unanimous in agreeing that a replica must be
executed by a painter himself, in the same material,
approximating to the same size as the original, and
that it should be considered as being an authorized
copy if not wholly or mainly done by the artist's
own hand. In other words, it might be desirable
to define a replica as a work executed by the
artist himself, or, if commenced by another person,
completed under his own hand.
The definition of " sale" was not considered by
the Committee to sufficiently cover the giving and
acceptance of a commission to and by the artist.
They suggest the following addition to the defini-
tions in Part III: "'Commission,' when used
with reference to a work of fine art, shall mean an
order to execute the same for a valuable considera-
tion." Sections 36 and 40 of the Society of Authors
Bill only propose to confer copyright for a period
of thirty years after the death of the artist. The
Committee strongly urge that the period should be
extended to fifty years to paintings (as in the 18S5
Bill where applicable to engravings), and as pro-
posed in the case of " books" in the present Society
of Authors Eill, and as already conferred in
Germany. In no case, the Committee consider,
should copyright expire in less than a period of
fifty years after the first sale or registration of a
work.
Respecting Section 38, the Committee suggest
no amendment, provided the Section is read in
connection with and governed by the definition of
replica as proposed by them.
It was pointed out to the Committee by one of
its artist members that no fainter would care to
give up his right to execute a water colour copy of
an oil painting, and that such water colour copy
could in no wise be mistaken for the original or a
replica thereof.
In Section 48, Sub-Section (3), which deals with
the delivery of copies to the owners of copyright in
certain cases of infringement, the Committee
recommend that the words "or take other pro-
ceedings" be added after the word "action," as it
would not in all cases be necessary to have recourse
to the law courts.
As regards the reproduction of copyright works,
specially dealt with in Section 47, the Committee
are of opinion that in cases where a picture has
been bought with the copyright it should, if repro-
duced, be reproduced in its entirety, and the law
should not allow of a part being taken out of it, so
that it could be made into a separate picture, with-
out the permission of the artist being given. They
therefore recommend the addition of the following
or similar provisions to Sub-Section C of Section
47: "Without the consent in writing of the author
of the work or his assigns to such alterations, addi-
tions, or subtractions."
Part IV of the Bill deals with foreign and
## p. 265 (#317) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
265
colonial copyright, and, with respect to its pro-
visions, the Committee offer no remarks.
The Committee raise no objection to Part V
as drafted, provided it is made clear that the in-
clusion of paintings and works of sculpture from
Section 85 (in which it is laid down that only the
registered owner of a copyright shall be recognized
as such), is due to the fact that the registration of
such works is not compulsory.
As regards Part VI of the Bill, which relates
to Penalties and Procedure, the Committee are
strongly of opinion that the limitation of the time
during which actions or other proceedings for in-
fringement of copyright may be maintained, should
be extended, and that Sub-Section 2 of Section 87
should be modified, so that an action could be
brought within twelve months after the offence
had come to the knowledge of the copyright owner,
and not twelve months after the same is com-
mitted, as proposed in the draft.
The Committee observe that the Society of
Authors Bill does not contain the stipulation in
the Bill of 1885 (Section 17),—that any peace
officer shall have power to search in the daytime
any house, shop, or other place where it may
be reasonably suspected that pirated works are
kept for sale. They recommend that Section 18
of the 1885 Bill should be embodied in the present
measure, subject to verbal alteration of the mar-
ginal reference, so as to read, "power to search
premises used for business purposes."
With reference to Section 89, Sub-Section B,
governing power to seize unlawful copies when
hawked about for sale, the Committee recommend
the introduction of a similar provision to that con-
tained in the Bill of 1885, Clause 18, so that
illegal copies could be taken before a Court of
Summary Jurisdiction, and, upon proof, that any
such copy, repetition, or imitation was unlawfully
made, such copy, repetition, or imitation shall be
forfeited, and delivered up to the owner of the
copyright as his property. (Clause 17 of the
1885 Bill.) This additional clause will involve
the omission from the Bill of the Society of
Authors of the words, "with a view to obtaining
an order for its delivery to the proprietor of the
copyright."
As regards Section 91, relative to the right of a
copyright owner to apply in a summary manner in
cases of infringement to a Court of Summary
Jurisdiction in that part of the British dominions
"where the wrong has been committed, or where
the person who has been guilty of the infringement
dwells," the Committee strongly recommend that
an effort should be made in order that an action
might also be tried in the place where the aggrieved
person resides. They further urge that fines should
be cumulative, and applicable to each separate
offence, as set forth in the Bill of 1885, inasmuch
as it would otherwise appear to be possible for a
person to infringe copyright and produce any num-
ber of copies, for which he would only be fined
Five Pounds. ,
The Committee generally approve of the re-
maining parts of the Bill, and would draw special
attention to the method of registration proposed,
which provides for the gradual transfer from the
Stationers' Company of the powers and duties at
present vested in them to a new Government
Department, in connection with, and probably in
the same building as, the Registration of Trade
Marks and Designs, under the control of the Board
of Trade.
The Committee, in conclusion, recommend that
in the event of their functions being continued by
the Fine Art Section, they should have power to
arrange with the Society of Authors and the
draughtsman of the Bill for an interview, to dis-
cuss some slight verbal modifications which they
consider necessary to make the meaning of the
Bill absolutely clear, and otherwise to meet the
views of copyright owners in fine art as embodied
in the Bill of 1885.
Arthur Lucas (Chairman).
Wyke Bayliss.
Boydell Graves.
Heywood Hardy.
Charles Dowdeswell.
December, 1890.
Reply from the Sub-Committee on
Copyright.
A Committee Meeting composed of members of
the General Committee of the Society of Authors,
and of the Sub-Committee on Copyright, was held
on the 29th January last, to consider the report and
the suggestions contained therein of the Fine Art
Section Committee of the London Chamber of
Commerce.
The Committee have instructed me to offer their
best thanks to the Committee of the Fine Art
Secjion for the valuable suggestions contained in
their report, and also for their offer to meet the
Committee of the Society of Authors to discuss the
Copyright Bill.
The Committee having carefully considered in
detail the suggestions and proposed amendments,
do not think that any good purpose would be
served by further discussion of the Bill as a whole,
## p. 266 (#318) ############################################
266
THE AUTHOR.
but I am instructed to inform you that my Com-
mittee have, in consequence of your Report, re-
commended certain alterations to Lord Monkswell
(who now has charge of the Bill), and that they
feel assured that his lordship will consent to
introduce such alterations into the Bill at the
proper time.
As regards the penal clauses suggested in the
report, my Committee are quite in sympathy with
your Committee, but from intimations received
from various sources they are convinced that it
would not be advisable to introduce the proposed
clauses, at least at present, as such a course might
tend to imperil the progress of the Bill.
It is hardly necessary to add that if, and when
the Bill reaches the Committee stage, the Society
will offer no opposition to any such amendments,
as you suggest, being made.
I append below somewhat in detail the comments
made and conclusions arrived at by my Committee
upon the report of your Committee.
With regard to :—
Publication.—It was agreed to amend the
definition so as to read as follows :—" The
first Act of offering, advertising, &c. . . .
as ready for sale to the public." This will
meet the point raised by your report.
Replica.—My Committee think that the exi-
gencies of the case will be sufficiently met
by adding the words "under his immediate
supervision" after the word "executed."
Sale.—The word sale was- not intended to
cover the giving and acceptance of a com-
mission to and by the artist. A commission
is merely an agreement for sale, and the
word " sale" as defined covers it as soon
as the work is done.
The period of copyright in paintings.—My
Committee would point out that the period
of copyright proposed in the case of books
is for life and thirty years. It is desired to
give an uniform term for all classes of work,
and therefore it is proposed to give the same
period in the case of paintings as in books
set. The term of life and thirty years was
expressly adopted by the Royal Commis-
sioners as being that adopted by Germany
(see paragraph 40 of their Report).
The right of an artist to execute a water-colour
copy of an oil painting.—Section 38 of the
Bill does not in any way affect this right.
(See the definition of Replica.)
Section 48, Sufi-Section (3).—My Committee
would point out that the parties can always
agree to refer to arbitration if they wish.
They do not perceive what other proceed-
ings are referred to.
Section 47, Sufi-Section (C).—The objection
to Section 47 appears to be that it does not
expressly provide against an original work
which has been added to or subtracted from
being sold as unaltered. In order to meet
this objection it is proposed to add in Sub-
Section (D), line 21 of paragraph 20, after
the word "alterations" the words "addi-
tions or subtractions." The clause will, of
course, only apply to cases where the altera-
tions, &c, are made without the author's
consent, and it does not seem necessary to
add the words suggested in your report.
Section 85.—The reason given for the omission
of paintings and sculpture from Section 85
is that mentioned in the Report, but it
seems quite unnecessery to refer to it
specifically in the section.
Sec/ion 87, Sufi-Section 2.—The proposed
amendment would be contrary to the
general principles of statutes of limitation.
Section 17, 1885 Bill.—As originally drafted,
the Society of Authors Bill had this section
inserted, but on mature deliberation the
Committee rejected it as too severe. (See
also paragraph 175 of the Report of the
Royal Commissioners as to this section.)
Section 89, Sub-Section B.—Sections 88 and
89, taken together, appear to provide all
that is necessary with regard to the forfeiture
of illegal copies.
Section 91.—The proposed amendment is con-
trary to the general principles of procedure.
Fines being made cumulative, this proce-
dure is only intended for small and trivial
offences. Where the offence is more
serious, the ordinary action for damages
for infringement can be brought.
On February 5th a meeting was held to confer
with representatives of the Copyright Association
and of the Newspaper Society [informal]. Mr. F.
R. Daldy, the Honorary Secretary of the Copyright
Association, and a member of the Royal Com
mission of 1878, made an exhaustive report to us
of the views of his body on the Bill. It will be suffi-
cient here to say that our Sub-Committee recognized
the great value attaching to his suggestions, and that
alteration in accordance with them will in some
cases be made.
The Secretary will be happy to supply any
member with a copy of the Bill upon receipt of
•j^d. in stamps.
## p. 267 (#319) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
267
A HARD CASE.
VIII.
WE have on the last three occasions given
examples of what may be termed more
or less constitutional methods of "best-
ing" the author. But lest anyone should think
sanguinely that the day of gross malpractice has
gone by, we recur to the exploits of the " half-profit"
publisher, and give an account of one of the recent
cases that has come into the office. It was not a
"half-profit " case, for the publisher only proposed
to receive one-third of the profits, but the methods
employed for obtaining money from the author
were the old ones, first made familiar to us by the
"half-profit" practitioner.
The following were the terms agreed upon
between author and publisher, and for once in a
way they were placed upon paper, and correctly
witnessed and stamped.
(1) . The first edition was to consist of 1,000
copies, to be bound up as required, and sold at a
guinea each.
(2) . The remainder-stock could not be sold
without the permission of the author.
(3) . Author was to pay ^120—^60 on signing
agreement, and ^60 on receiving final proofs.
(4) . Author was to pay for corrections.
(5) . Author was to pay £10 towards advertise-
ment.
(6) . Author was to receive two-thirds, and pub-
lisher one-third of any profits.
(7) . Half-yearly accounts were to be rendered.
To this there was appended a formal authoriza-
tion to the author to inspect the publisher's books.
This seemed at first sight a very satisfactory
agreement, and by comparison with a great many
half-profit agreements it must be conceded at once
that it was satisfactory. By comparison with some
of this particular firm's agreements which we have
had an opportunity of perusing, it was mo3t satis-
factory. The contract was a formal instrument, duly
and properly stamped. The expenses of advertise-
ment were limited, instead of being left unreservedly
to the prodigality of the agent, while control over
the destinies of the remainder-stock was very pro-
perly retained. One omission only was made, but
that omission was so important that it has ruined an
otherwise fair and equitable contract. The author
has omitted to ask for details concerning the cost
of production, towards which he is to contribute
,£120, also ^10, and also the cost of "author's
corrections," to an unlimited extent. He appears
never to have asked himself why ^120, more
than £20 or £220, but simply to have agreed to
vol. 1.
pay the sum asked of him. If authors are so
simple, can it be wondered that the publishing
trade is here and there, if not everywhere, invaded
by persons who make it a business to take advan-
tage of such simplicity.
It is this extraordinary incapacity for under-
standing that there is no mystery attached to
publishing, that creates the class of bogus-pub-
lishers. In every other sort of business short of
the confidence trick, if a man's agent opened the
proceedings by asking for a sum down, he would
as a matter course be expected to show why, and
state what he was going to do with it.
This curious trustfulness in the integrity of
strangers who tout for business by advertisement,
is, we believe, almost peculiar to the relations
between young authors and dishonest publishers,
and between the male and female clients of the
matrimonial journals. However, the point did
not occur to the author, and the agreement was
signed.
The next thing that occurred in the transaction
could have been foretold by anyone of the least
experience in these matters. A demand for more
money was made. The sum asked for was £40,
and it was demanded for purposes of advertise-
ment. In our humble opinion, to make this
demand on the grounds that more money was
required for advertisement was by no means
astute, as it was flying so dead in the face of a
special clause in the agreement that the most easy-
going of authors might be expected to resent such
treatment. It is clear that the weak spot in the
agreement was the fourth clause, under which the
author expressed his willingness to pay for correc-
tions, if only the publisher would kindly name the
price, and it is as a charge for "author's correc-
tions " that this further demand should have been
made. It is to this shortsightedness on the part
of the publisher that we owe our ability to tell this
story, for the author proceeded to take advice as
to the propriety of paying any more money. Of
course he was not liable in any way, and from the
first he very properly refused to send it. But
that proceeding placed him in the usual predica-
ment, a predicament in which this half-profit pub-
lisher has doubtless placed others of his clients.
If the author did send the money he felt himself
to be swindled—at any rate he felt that his agree-
ment specially limiting his liability for advertise-
ment to ^10 was very little protection to him; if
he did not send it, the publisher would not
advertise his book (in a letter they intimated as
much), and the ,£130 already spent on its produc-
tion would be lost, or to a great extent lost. Should
he yield, or should he hold out?
As for advice that should bring a man peacefully
Y
## p. 268 (#320) ############################################
268
THE AUTHOR.
out of such a predicament—none could be given.
He had signed a bad agreement, and if the result
of doing so proved to be bad for him, he had only
himself or his advisers to blame. It was too late
to do anything to remedy the fact that he had
signed the contract.
A copy of the book was lent to the Society of
Authors, and we had a careful estimate of the
cost of production made. We found that it would
have cost about £100 to produce 1,000 copies of
the book and bind 250 of them, but from previous
experience we were inclined to believe that so large
a number of copies were not bound. That is to
say, the publisher, according to our computations,
made £$0 or so before he started to sell the book.
Then he proposed to make ^40 more. "Which
he would have done, we at least believe it," if he
had made the demand on the ground of "author's
corrections." But his clumsiness lost him the
money. His proposal not being accepted, he
decided to remain content with his position, that
of a small and safe profit duly received.
The author, on the other hand, had spent ^130.
Of this sum we have not heard how much has
been recovered as profits, in accordance with the
accounts, no doubt rendered half-yearly, as exacted
from the publisher by the agreement.
This author has no practical remedy. It seems
to us impossible that he can ever get back his
money by the sales of his book, while the pub-
lisher has very little motive in selling the book.
Probably there are not many copies bound, and he
would have to bind them at his own expense
before he could sell them. He has already made a
little money, and he is content that things should
remain as they are, though he probably still regrets
the loss of that £\o "for advertisement." And
in the publisher's apathy as to the sale of the book
lies the explanation of all the trouble No doubt
the author thought that a publisher who proposed
to receive one-third of the profits was also pro-
posing to accept at least one-third of the risks.
No doubt he thought that the publisher would
work to secure his own third and therefore the
author's two-thirds simultaneously. But the pub-
lisher—to give him his due—has nowhere suggested
that he was advancing a penny out of his own
pocket. He said he should like ^120, and he
got it, but he has told no lies about it. He has
never represented, at least in the papers that have
reached the Society, that he wanted this sum
because the whole cost was going to be ^180, of
which he would pay £,(>o. Nor has he attempted
to account for the demand of ^r2o by some
humbugging schedule of "estimated cost," in
which all the items are double as expensive as
they should be. His method has been more
simple. He said, I want ,£120—£bo now and
_^6o later—and he got it.
Authors cannot be too strongly advised to have
nothing todo with advertisingpublishers, unlessafter
consultation with the Society, to make no money
payments whatever until they understand what they
are going to get in return, and to sign no agreements
save under the advice of those who understand.
*
A NOTE ON IBSEN.
—♦—
MR. GOSSE'S translation of Herr Ibsen's
last drama will be welcome to his English
followers and to others interested in
Scandinavian literature. Herr Ibsen is to be con-
gratulated both on the ability of his translator and
on having for once escaped from his professional
disciples.
"Hedda Gabler," or to call her by her husband's
scarcely more euphonious name, "Fru Tesman,"
comes as a relief from Herr Ibsen's other heroines.
She descends upon us as a refreshing douche of
unredeemed criminality. At last we feel quite at
home after our wanderings up and down the cross
currents of Ibsenitish morals. I have always hoped
to find in Herr Ibsen some sort of system after all,
and now my hope is fortified.
"There is no point to which, I trow,
Norwegian Bishops cannot go,"
in the opinion of their illustrious countryman, but
he surely has a code of morals for the guidance of
the enlightened sex. In "Hedda Gabler" one
seems to descry something like a first prohibitory
commandment. Insolence, desertion, adultery,
and incest are misfortunes in females attributable,
no doubt, to "some externally false conditions of
society which have turned to bitterness that which
should have been rich and full for its use."
These indiscretions are feminine perquisites,
legitimate weapons against the tyranny of natural
affections; but women should not shed blood.
We all of us are glad to subscribe to any recom-
mendation issued by the exiled prophet of Dresden,
now that we have found one. "Thou shalt—
except of course in certain cases—do no murder."
'The new representation of the " Doll's House"
does not throw any very great light on the play. The
character of Fru Linden has been developed, and
the character of Thorvald is interpreted probably
more to the liking of those " bearded ladies " who
form so large a part of the audience. These fair
## p. 269 (#321) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
269
creatures—for we do not allude to their chins—
will rejoice in any emphasis given to the prejudices
of their master against his own characters. It is
just to Herr Ibsen to remark that these prejudices
exist rather in his followers than in his own
work. None of his characters have been so mis-
represented as the unfortunate, kind, conceited,
natural Thorvald, the only human being in this
house of moral puppets.
If a man has a wife and children to support,
and they are dependant on his reputation, he is
not necessarily a selfish brute, or a sneaking,
sententious hypocrite because he is anxious to
preserve it. An actor who so represents Thorvald
misses the delicacy of the writer's characterization.
Neither is it a mark of gross egotism for a man to
regard another's affection for himself as likely to
be a stronger motive with him, or her, than his own
fancies, but frequently the contrary.
It is interesting to note that Herr Ibsen's minor
characters and incidents are generally drawn with
more truth and vividness than those possessing
more dramatic interest. His pictures of everyday
life are peculiarly natural, his departures from these
spheres frequently lead him into the region of
monstrosities too often trivial and mesguins, like
Nora, sometimes splendid like Peer Gynt, rarely
sublime like Brand, but all unreal as dreams.
The eccentricity of his genius does not, as might
have been expected, enable him to represent truth
outside the narrow circle of frequent occurrence.
Perhaps his floating standard of morality is a sign
rather than a cause of this weakness. He appears
not to accept any principle whatever as sufficiently
certain to serve him as a standard for the creation
of beings at the same time unusual and natural.
His skill and observation enable him to describe
truthfully only what is familiar to him in detail.
Herr Ibsen has been well called "the Prophet of
the Eternal Interrogative." He advocates no
system of religion, sociology, or morality; he is
more than neutral; he is neuter ; he seldom trusts
himself even to deny. It must be remembered
that it is the Ibsenites, not their master, who are
responsible for the amalgam of sentiments to
which they give his name.
Few comedies have approached nearer to farces
than the unconscious comedy played by Ibsenism
in England. But there is matter for regret in this
fact. The solemnity with which Herr Ibsen's
disciples here have accepted his queries as oracles
has nearly ruined the high reputation which he
deserves. He is best known by his weakest work,
his prose dramas, but it would be unfair to judge
the author of "Peer Gynt " and "Brand" until
these really great creations are better known. The
exquisite fancy of " Peer Gynt," its exuberance and
vol. 1.
ingenuity, its quaint humour, its bold originality
and delicate beauty are alone enough to rank its
author among the greatest geniuses Europe has
produced this century. The pathos of humour has
never been carried so far as in the scene at the
death-bed of Peer's mother, with so much success.
The incident of the Strange Passenger represents the
subtlest moral facts in a peculiarly original form.
The well known story of the Disguised Angel in the
Gesta Romanorum is scarcely more remarkable.
The scenes in Norway, Africa, and on the high seas
are equally excellent. As far as foreigners can
judge, the form of the verse is always agreeable
and in some passages deserves much higher praise.
If Peer Gynt himself is intended to represents
young Norway no doubt the drama is all the
more interesting to Scandinavians on that
account. The rest of the world may perhaps take
some interest in young Norway for the sake of
"Peer Gynt."
"Brand " is difficult to speak of concisely, its
faults are so obvious and its meaning so profound.
It is only too evident that large parts of it had
better have been omitted or written in prose.
There is but one character, the giant who gives his
name to the drama; the Baillie is a mere abstrac-
tion of the commonplace, and Agnes a foil to
enhance the characteristics of the hero. Perhaps
the strongest element in the play is its pathos, but
it is a pity that the climax in this respect is reached
too soon. For the incident itself no praise is too
high. The sorrow of maternity has seldom been
more tenderly and more tragically represented.
The character of Brand will probably elicit very
little sympathy; his enormous faults and his heroic
virtues are those peculiarly antipathetic to present
opinion. Can there be anything more terrible in
its simple directness, its hideous baldness, than the
story of the disillusion of Brand's childhood?
He is almost a baby, his father dies, he creeps into
the room where he lies dead, he wonders most at
his hands so thin and pale in the taper light, he
hears footsteps on the stairs, he hides in a corner;
a woman enters, she pulls the pillow from the
dead man's head, she searches hither and thither,
gropes about; she rummaages and rifles the dead
miser of his treasure, she mutters " More, more!"
and gasps, as she can find no more, "It is not
much!" This woman is his mother, the dead
man's wife, she who finds later that her son's heart
is flint.
W. \V.
Y 2
## p. 270 (#322) ############################################
270
THE AUTHOR.
IN GRUB STREET.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD'S new poem, "The
Light of the World; or, the Great
Consummation," is published on the 15th
inst. by Messrs. Longmans. It is a volume of
about 300 pages, and is dedicated to the Queen.
It consists of an introduction in rhymed couplets
entitled "At Bethlehem," and the rest of the poem
is for the most part in blank verse, the titles of the
six books into which it is divided being "Mary
Magdalene," ".The Magus," "The Alabaster Box,"
"The Parables at Tyre," "The Love of God and
Man," and "The Great Consummation." The
poem tells the story of Christ chiefly through the
medium of a dialogue between Mary Magdalene
and one of the Magi, a Buddhist who has returned
to hear the wondrous tale of which rumours had
come to his ears. The holy history is invested
with a peculiar charm by the fancy and vivid word
painting in which it is here reset, and its moral is
then conveyed in the words of the Magus.
"I <16 perceive—since Age, which dims the eye,
Opens the inward vision—there shall spread
News of these high 'Good Tidings '; growing gleams
Of this strange Star are followed to the fold.
I do discern that, forth from this fair Life,
And this meek Death, and thine arisen Christ,
Measureless things are wrought; a Thought-Dawn born
Which shall not cease to broaden, till its beam
Makes more of knowledge for a gathered World,
Completing what our Buddha left unsaid;
Carpeting bright his noble Eight-fold Way
With fragrant blooms of all-renouncing love,
And bringing high Nirvana nearer hope,
Easier and plainer."
The volume has been in print for several months,
but its publication has been delayed in order to
secure the copyright in the United States.
"Essays in Little," by Andrew Lang (Henry and
Co.) is the first of a series of books whose avowed
aim is "to smooth the wrinkles from the brow of
care, and to dislodge the sneer from the cynic's lip."
An admirable aim, truly. I cannot say whether
my own lip has lost its habitual sneer, or my brow
its care-worn furrow by the perusal of the volume.
If not, that is my own fault, because the book
has all the author's well-known charm of style.
It is a collection of critical essays on the works
of a dozen writers. Among these are Louis
Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling. When Mr. Lang
makes up his mind to like a man, he likes him
through and through. And he says so, whether he
is accused of log-rolling or not. I accept all that
he says about Rudyard Kipling—and I would "go
one better" for that infant phenomenon. I dare
say I should accept all that he says about Louis
Stevenson if I were a Scot. But I cannct agree
with Mr. Lang that the "absence of the petticoats"
is a thing to be admired in Stevenson's works. I
am old-fashioned enough to love the frou-frou, and
to find the study of a woman much more delightful
than that of a man.
"London, Past and Present," by Henry Wheat-
ley (Murray). This great work, in three large
volumes, is based upon Peter Cunningham, who
was based on Strype, who was based on Stow, who
was the father of all such as write on London. It
is alphabetical, like Peter Cunningham's book,
and it is exactly twice as long. When one has said
this, and has also added that Mr. Wheatley is well
known for the carefulness and thoroughness of
his work, one has said enough to show that no
library which contains any work on London
should be without these volumes.
*—
An interesting book entitled "Canada First,"
with an introduction by Mr. Goldwin Smith, has
just been issued by Hunter and Rose of Toronto.
The book is especially welcome at this time when
Canadian politics are occupying everyone's atten-
tion. It consists of a number of reprints from
political articles, contributed to the press by the
late Mr. William Forster, once a prominent figure
in the national movement of the Colony. Every
one interested in the history of "Greater Britain"
should purchase this excellent little volume.
Many of Mr. Forster's opinions will naturally
challenge a certain amount of discussion, which
therefore only increases the interest of the work.
*—
Mr. Bailey Saunders will bring out immediately
with Messrs. Swan, Sonnenschein and Co. the fifth
volume of his selection from the essays of
Schopenhauer. It will be entitled "The Art of
Literature," and will deal with Authorship,
Style, Criticism, Reputation, Genius, and kindred
subjects.
•
Mr. James Sully is giving to the public a new
and cheaper edition of "Pessimism: a History
and a Criticism." A review of pessimistic litera-
ture up to date is appended. The publishers are
Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trtibner and Co.
A change has been made in the new edition of
Mr. Alfred Austin's collected works now being
## p. 271 (#323) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
271
issued in monthly parts by Marmillan and Co. The
volumes will now appear in the following order :—
"The Tower of Babel."
"Savonarola."
"Prince Lucifer."
"The Human Tragedy."
"Lyrical Poems."
"Short Narrative Poems."
The "Satires " will not appear in this edition.
The "Savonarola," dedicated to Henry Irving, has
been out about ten days.
M. W. A. Gibbs has in the press a work en-
titled "The Power of Gold." In the preface, an
advanced copy of which he forwards us, he shows
his sympathy with some aspect of socialism, and
promises to indicate in the pages of his book "the
splendid powers and possibilities of rightly used
gold."
In order to make the short notices of new books
under the heading of "In Grub Street" more
complete and effective, it is suggested by one of
those who contribute these columns that members
should send their new books to the Society either
for presentation or to be returned. If this is done
the book shall be noticed if possible.
I have long wondered why, in the general
emancipation and advance of women, no woman,
or only one here and there, has attempted the
stage. It is a difficult fortress to besiege, but once
captured, there is no richer prize either for fame or
fortune. One more exception is to be made on
February 20th, when Miss Mary Rowsell will
produce, at Terry's Theatre, a comedietta entitled
"Richard's Play." Let us hope that it may prove
successful, if only in order to encourage other
ladies to follow her example.
The announcement of the discovery of the lost
works of Aristotle followed curiously enough on the
proposal to abolish Greek from our public schools.
The excitement among scholars of course has been
great; but if Mr. Weldon ever carries his point,
fifty years hence the public will care little for such
things. Should any of the lost works of antiquity
be recovered then, a small notice of half a dozen
lines will chronicle the fact, that a "discovery
which will interest our antiquarian readers, has been
made, of the Prometheus Unbound of /F.schylus,
among the ledgers of the British Museum. This
does not reflect much credit on the authorities, who
may have mislaid more valuable MSS. in the last
few years." And no one will then grudge the Times
the merit of being first in the field.
♦—
The discovery has been received with great
caution and qualified enthusiasm by the press.
Some papers thought that the very fact of the
Times standing as godmother to the MS. was alone
suspicious. Grub Street wits hint that Mr. Haggard
has been hoaxing again, and that Mr. Andrew Lang
must have a hand in it. Others cannot conceal
their disappointment "after a perusal of its con-
tents." Before the publication! And one paper
came to the original conclusion that history
often repeats itself. Expert journals hint at rank
forgery; but of course this is to be expected.
Such deceptions have been numerous, and there
were some time ago many who believed that the
annals of Tacitus were a sixteenth century fabrication
fa whole work has been written to prove it), and
that the Paston Letters were a latterday forgery.
Forgery or not, Aristotle will provide new food for
the commentators.
In the history of books one marvels not so much
at the number that have been lost, but the number
that have been spared or escaped the ravages of
Puritans, Mohammedans, and early Christians, or
the achievements of such as Mr. Warburton's cook.
England has sinned as no other modern nation has
done in the official destruction of books. When
the officers of Henry VIII were destroying the
splendid monastic libraries, the unenlightened
Popes and Cardinals in Italy were collecting MSS.
from all parts of the world, and when the Puritans
were hashing up the "Popish" works in the Bodleian
and elsewhere, Mazarin was forming his suptrb
library. The passion for manuscript hunting now
of course is confined to a limited few, but it was
once as general in Europe as the present struggle
for old masters.
Black and White and the Anti-Jacobin are the
two events in the journalistic world of late, and come
to console us for the death of the Universal Rei'iew.
People have begun to prophesy evil for the Graphic
and Illustrated on the ground that there is no room
for the three sixpenny illustrated weeklies. There
was a similar prophecy when the Graphic was
started twenty years ago. Black and White will
neither affect nor be affected by either of the other
illustrated papers, but will create its own audience
and its own clientele. It is on totally different lints.
## p. 272 (#324) ############################################
272
THE AUTHOR.
Newspapers are not like hotels, and the survival of
the fittest is a law from which journals are exempt.
The editor was wise in not bringing out a flashy
number for the first issue, as then the critics would
have said "it would be impossible to keep it up
for long.' So far Black and White has fulfilled its
promise, while it has left what few new journals
leave—room for improvement.
Members ot the White Rose League will have
discovered already that the Anli-Jacobin was not
started to counterblast their tenets or to dance on
the sleeping Whirlwind. The confusion of Jacob/V
and Jacob/'/V is as common an error as the confu-
sion of poor Frankenstein and his monster. Every
one will wish success to Mr. Greenwood's new ven-
ture. To his able editorial management we owe
the old Pall Mall Gazette and the present St.
fames's, and there seems no reason why the Anti-
Jacobin should not have as long and as glorious a
career.
Mr. Barker has brought out another collection
of amusing stories about schoolboys and girls. He
might give our masters a turn next time. There
are plenty of capital stories against dominies extant.
I was told the other day that a boy who was always
censured for his essays on the ground that there
were no original ideas in them, at last resorted to
cribbing, and copied George Osborne's theme from
Vanity Fair, when the master allowed him to
choose his subject. He gained the prize at the
end of the term. One often hears again that
English Literature at schools is entirely neglected.
Here is a specimen of what took place at one of
our seminaries. There was a detestable practice
apparently of making boys put verse into English
prose (no verse worth anything is capable of such
transformation). The master had written up
Wordsworth's famous stanzas, "The Solitary
Reaper," and after every boy had tried his best
and failed, he gave them a model version.
The lines, as every one knows, are as follows :—
"Will no one tell me what she sings?
Perhaps the plantive numbers How
For old, unhappy, far-off things
And battles long ago.
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day,
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been and may be again?"
They were rendered into the following :—
"Will no one," I again inquired, "tell me what
the girl is singing and the name of the composer
of the piece?" But no one seemed either able or
willing to afford me any information. "Perhaps,"
I ventured to suggest, encouraged by the plaintive
character of both words and music, "perhaps it is
an original composition of the fair performer's
relating I know not what unhappy incident in her
own past, some strugg'e bravely contested and
triumphantly concluded. Or is it," I went on,
"some misfortune of yesterday, such as comes
into the life of many of us—some grief or even some
advantage likely to recur in the course of a larger
experience?"
In the first number of Black and White there
was an amusing, but not a new, anecdote about a
journalist who asked his fellow craftsmen, before he
was hanged, not to say that he ' was launched into
eternity." I remember seeing a very amusing
specimen of fine writing in an American paper. A
correspondent from Naples was describing a recently
uncovered fresco of Europa and the bull. His
enthusiasm carried him as far as Europa nearly.
This was his opening description: "Europa, clutch-
ing with her manual limb the aureated horn of her
Tauric Jovine lover," &c.
*
"THE COST OF PRODUCTION. *
[Second Edition.]
AT last this much promised pamphlet is
ready. The numerous delays in its
appearance have been unavoidable, which
means that the compilers have constantly been
forced by the pressure of work for the Society in
other directions to lay this aside, even when it was
quite near completion. We can only hope that our
members will find the information profitable, now
that it is placed within their reach. No pains
have been spared to make it trustworthy.
The plan of the pamphlet remains the same as
before, but a preliminary explanation of the terms
which occur in the book—and which also occur in
publishers' bills—has been added. Thispreliminary
explanation considers the publishers' charges
under all the usual heads, i.e., composition,
printing, paper, stereotyping, binding, and
advertisement, but it does not include mention
of the charges for "author's corrections," for
"publisher's lists," for "reader's fee," for "fees
for revision," or "preparation for the press," or for
"assurance against fire," or for "warehousing."
* "The Cost of Production." 2nd Edition, enlarged and
revised. Published by Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C
2s. bd.
## p. 273 (#325) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
273
Of these six last charges there is nothing to be
said, except that in no way and under no circum-
stances should the author ever pay them, if they
are "sprung upon" him. It might be worth
while for an author to have his book prepared for
the press for him, or revised in some way—many
authors, for instance, have their index made for
them—but he should certainly be told about the
matter beforehand, and allowed to make his own
arrangements. He might employ the gentleman
dasignated by the publishers, or he might not,
but at least he must know who he is paying, and
what he is getting for his money. It is ridiculous
to attempt to make the author bear any of the other
charges. Yet we have in this office seen number-
less bills and publishers' accounts in which some
or all of these items have been set down as part of
the expense of the production of a book. We
remember in one case, where the author had paid
£27 separate as half the cost of production of a tiny
paper-covered book, that we had occasion to take
l;gal measures to obtain a true account of the cost.
The composition, printing, paper, and binding
cime to about £12. There was certain alleged
expenditure on advertisement, of which no proof
was offered. But yet the account against the book
made quite a brave appearance, so swollen was it
by the irregular items we have just mentioned.
The actual ,£54 necessary to justify £27 being
charged as half the cost of production was not
reached, but quite a bold bid was made for it. Yet
^12, plus somesmall unknown amount of advertise-
ment expenditure, was all that had really been spent.
In all cases where an attempt is made by a half-
profit publisher to exact payment for "reader's
fees," "revision," "warehousing," &c, the author
is advised to refuse, and refuse utterly to sanction
such charges—unless of course he has previously
signed some agreement preventing him from
objecting.
The question of "author's corrections" is
different. It is undoubted that in some cases a
charge must be made. It is the practice of many
authors to cut their proofs about, and make
alterations and additions or subtractions,
resulting in a serious increase of labour to the
printers. This kind of thing must be paid for.
But the present system of obtaining payment for it
seems to be to charge all authors, whether they have
rightly incurred the charge or no, something for
"corrections," if it is only for the correction of the
printer's own errors. Thus it is secured that
publishers as a whole shall not lose, because some
people cannot make up their minds what they are
going to say, until they have seen it in print.
This is ridiculous. If an author is in any way
concerned in the cost of production, he is advised
to keep by him his first proofs until the publisher's
bill comes in. If he is then charged a large sum
for corrections, larger than seems to be warranted
by the amount of alterations due to his errors or
changes of mind, he should refuse to pay, until
he knows how and why it is he asked to pay so
much. This, again, is supposing that he has not
agreed beforehand to pay whatever is asked of
him. "Author's corrections " is a vexed question.
Something sometimes ought to be paid, but
everybody ought not to be made to pay as a
matter of course.
"One word to those who say that the cost of
production has nothing to do with them. It has
to do with all authors under every method of
publishing, for it must be the one fixed thing
which dictates equitable terms. An author may
not care to know it—that is a very comprehensible
condition—but it must, or at any rate it ought to,
affect his remuneration. It costs as much, and no
more, to produce a bad book as a good book, a
popular author's book or an unknown amateur's
book. The results of the probable and possible
variations in sale must be provided for in the
agreement.
"The copyright of a book should only be ceded
to a publisher for a sum, when the author knows
how much the publ'sher has yet to spend, and how
much he will probably obtain.
"Its connection with the half-profit system is
obvious.
"These figures prove its connection with the
royalty system of publishing. Ten thousand copies
of a 6s. book will cost ,£400 to produce and adver-
tise. This is a very liberal estimate indetd (v.
page 28). They will sell for ,£1,750. There will
then be .£1,350 for author and publisher to divide.
Here is how this sum is divided, according to the
royalty the author gets :—
Per Cent.
Royally
5
.0
■5
20 35
30
35
£
1,050
300
£
£ £
C
£
300
1,050
Publisher
1,200
150
900
750 , 600
600 | 750
450
Author
45°
900
The agreement should provide for the fortunate
issue as much as for the unfortunate.
"Of course, the man who is going to publish at
his own expense should know what that expense
will be. Equally, the divine and the poet should
know how much the publisher's expense is really
going to be before they guarantee to be respon-
sible for the sale of a large number of copies
at the trade price."
## p. 274 (#326) ############################################
274
THE AUTHOR,
The compilers beg to offer their best thanks to
the numerous correspondents whose corrections
and questions have guided them in preparing the
second edition.
.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
On Plagiarism.
PLAGIARISM, the most odious, the most
injurious of charges to which authors are
exposed, has recently been placed in a novel
light by Mr. Louis Stevenson and others ; according
to them to coincidence, and the unconscious
machination of the mind, must be ascribed much
of the supposed plagiarism. I believe they are
right, in the main, in their contentions. But other
factors, besides the aforementioned, work from time
to time against authors and with damaging effect.
The following incident may interest some of your
readers.
In 1884, I published, anonymously, a small
volume on a technical subject. The book was
written in a spirit of literary pugilism, showing but
scant regard for persons or Institutions. For these
reasons I expected no consideration from critics,
and those attacked. Numerous reviews appeared
within a few weeks after the publication of the
book, and much to my surprise all were of a most
favourable nature.
The laudatory spell was presently broken by a
powerfully written letter, emanating from high
quarters, and addressed to a service paper, of which
I am an occasional contributor. I replied in a
leader; the war raged for some time, and contributed
not a little to the success of my book. This suc-
cess encouraged me to publish a more ambitious
work of a similar nature; in fact, an expansion of
the first.
Immediately after the appearance of this book a
scurrilous attack was made upon it in a paper owned
by my publishers. My critic did not confine himself
to literary and technical criticisms, in fact he barely
attempted that feat, and simply charged me with
barefaced plagiarism. Three or four other papers
followed in the same strain, and the book was
promptly killed.
I complained bitterly to my publishers, and
insisted upon being confron'ed with my detractor.
After some delay an interview took place at the
publishers' office.
"I do not complain of your criticism on my
book, unfair and totally irrelevant as I consider
most of it, but I should like to know what right
you think you possess of accusing me of plagiarism,
without even naming the sources from which I
plagiarized?" I asked my detractor.
"I regret," said the latter, "that you have com-
pelled me to perform a very disagreeable_jtask.
Will you be so good as to read those passages, and
examine these cuttings from the Service Gazette,'
handing me a small volume and some newspaper
cuttings.
"Do you think we could see Mr. Brown, the
senior partner?" I asked.
Ere long Mr. Brown made his appearance.
"Will you kindly tell us who is the author of
this little work?" handing him the aforementioned
small volume.
"Why you, of course!" Tableau!
"Those articles were written by me," I said to my
detractor, who promised to make the amende Iwnour-
ab/e, but never did.
I related this incident to the editor of a monthly
magazine, of which I was a contributor. "Why
X ... is the man whose articles on the continental
events of '66 you cut to pieces. Don't you
recollect?" observed rny editor friend.
"I recollect writing you a couple of private
letters, not intended for publication, in which I
drew your attention to numerous historical inac-
curacies, and other serious blunders, contained in
those articles, the author of which was till this
moment unknown to me; in fact, I believed them
to be from your pen."
"Yes, but X . . . saw those letters !" replied the
editor.
"Can you tell me whether X ... is connected
with ?" naming the other papers in which my
book had been assailed.
"Yes, I think he is," was the reply.
So much for plagiarism, and so much for reviewers.
The indiscretion of an editor, and the vindictiveness
of a literary hack, exposed me to an odious accusa-
tion, and to heavy pecuniary losses. Could such
a dishonourable act have been committed with
impunity by a member of any other profession? I
venture to think not. The culprit would have been
arraigned before a tribune of his brother pro-
fessionals, and made to answer for his misdeeds.
Is it too much to hope that the Society of
Authors will some day wield a similar power, and
establish something like an esprit de corps amongst
authors?
H. N.
## p. 275 (#327) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
2/5
II.
"The Kinds of Criticism."
To the Editor of the Author.
Sir,—I have read with lively interest your admir-
able article in last month's Author on reviewing.
Perhaps all of your readers have suffered some time
or other from careless, or what is worse, ignorant
criticism, while many have been misled into getting
bad books by the puffing notices which are so
common. On the other hand there is infinitely
more conscientious reviewing done than either
authors or the public dream of, while the sensitive
vanity of some writers is so great that nothing
short of unmixed eulogium will satisfy them. The
subject is one which has for many years occupied
my mind, and I will now set down a few practical
suggestions upon it.
1. All books sent for review should be cut.
2. The reviewer should be helped in his work
by the preface, which should always be dated.
3. As far as practicable, the reviewer should be
unknown to the reviewed.
4. The number of pages and the price of a book
should be stated in the review.
5. In advertisements, extracts from the writer's
own preface should be preferred to extracts from
reviews.
6. A book should either be reviewed within six
months from its receipt, or returned.
7. The plot of a novel should never be disclosed
in the review of it.
8. Though the reviewer should be set right by
the author on clear mistakes, the general criticism
of a review is to be deprecated.
9. There is something to be said for a practice
of the author sending with his book a "draft
review."
10. There is something to be said for a practice
of the author sending a small fee.
I need hardly say that I make the two last
suggestions with the greatest fear and trembling,
and hasten to subscribe myself
A Reviewer and Reviewed
of nearly twenty years standing.
[Note.—One would like to know exactly what there is to
be said for the last two suggestions.—Editor.]
III.
Prize Competitions.
May I draw the attention of the Author to the
recent conduct of a well-known weekly paper with
regard to its prize competitions? The paper in
vol. 1.
question has a large circulation, principally due, I
should think, to these competitions.
Some weeks ago it, the , offered a prize
for the best Sonnet to the New Year, for which
prize there were some dozen or so of competitors
Now it is reasonable to suppose that some out of
this number, however limited their capacity, must
have been conversant with the rules of this style of
composition, yet the prize was divided between
two sets of verses that failed to comply with these
rules. The first prize-winner made a comparatively
trivial deviation from them, but at the same time
one that took away a good deal of the difficulties
of composition that other competitors were, no
doubt, handicapped by.
The verses of the second prize-winner were not
even limited to fourteen lines, and bore no re-
semblance to a sonnet in any way. A third sonnet
was printed, which was correct, but to this no prize
was given. (I was a competitor myself, but out of
the running altogether, as my sonnet was not even
acknowledged with the names of the other com-
petitors.)
It did not seem to me fair that a prize which was
offered for a sonnet should be given to any other
species of composition, and the fact pointed to igno-
rance or incompetency on the part of the judges of the
competition. So I wrote a civil letter to the editor,
merely pointing out that the prize-winners had not
complied with the rules, and suggesting that the
prize should be given to the writer of the third
poem, which was, strictly speaking, a sonnet.
I enclosed a stamped envelope for reply, but no
notice was taken of my letter.
During the summer I won two prizes in the
competitions, which I was directed to claim, but
no notice was taken for some time of my letters
doing so. Finally, the money was sent to me, but
not the full amount. I did not remonstrate at the
time, but now that another competition does not
seem to have been properly conducted, I wish
very much to have the Author's opinion on the
matter.
Apparently, the numerous prize competitions
help to sell the paper, and are looked on by young
writers as an opening for their efforts; but it seems
to me that if all reasonable complaints are to be
suppressed altogether, or treated with contempt,
the sooner the whole system of prize competitions
is put a stop to the better.
X. Y
[The case is quoted not because prize competitions are a
very important branch of letters, but to show the trickery
which goes on unrestrained by any fear of public opinion.
The winner should have instantly claimed the full amount ol
his prize, and enforced the claim, if necessary, by legal
action.—Editor.]
z
## p. 276 (#328) ############################################
276
THE AUTHOR:
IV.
An Artistic Journal.
In 1888 I was asked to become one on the
staff of presumably the same artistic journal men-
tioned among cases in last issue. I wrote three
papers by especial request, and was at some trouble in
procuring illustrations. The first paper was issued
in six months after the journal appeared, the
second after two years, and the third, for which a
royal lady was solicited for her portrait, which she
kindly sent ine, has not appeared at all, nor has any
notice been taken about it, although the journal has
been "smashed" for some months. As it was
expressly written for this journal it would be useless
to me, so I have not written to demand its return;
but it comes surely under goods bought, but not
paid for. The American periodicals for which I
have written are more honourable and satisfactory,
for they send a cheque the moment the paper is
accepted.
*
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Books for Sale.
Tennyson's Poems. Moxon. 1856.
Keats' Poems. Moxon. 1855.
Palgrave's Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics. 1S62.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, illustrated, with frontispiece, " Phiz."
Massingf.r's Plays. Edited by Gifford. 1S53.
Reprint of James I's Bible. Oxford. 1833.
Campbell s Pleasures of Hope. Illustrated by Birkct Foster
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Poesies de Marie de France. 1820.
Delphine, Madame de Stael. 6 vols. 1S09.
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Lettere e dissertazioni Numismatiche de Dominio Sestini.
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Rariora Maximi Moduli Numismatica selecta ex bibliothcca
Casp. Car. pegnae. Amsterdam. 1686.
Oct: Falconerii de Nummo Apamensi. Koma. 1667.
Greek and Roman History illustrated by coins and medals.
By O. Walker. 1692.
Delia raritd dellc Medaglic Antiche. N. Scotti. Firenze.
1819.
De la rarete et du prix des Medailles romaines. Par Mionnet.
Paris. 1815.
An historical account of English money. By Stephen Martin-
Leake. 2nd Edition. London. 1745.
An Essay on the Coins of Conobelin. By Samuel Pegge.
London. 1766.
Medallic History of Carausius. By William Stukeley. Book
II. London. 1759.
Thesaurus Numismatum e Musaeo Caroli Patini. Paris.
1672.
Two Dissertations upon the Mint and Coins of the Episcopal
Palatinate of Durham. By Mark Noble. Birmingham.
1780.
Act: Numismat: Imp: Romanorum a Vaillantio edita
supplementum a Jos: Khell. Vindobona. 1767.
Numismata Imperatorum Joan Vaillant. Amsterdam. 1700.
Dissertationes de prcestantia et usu Numismatum nntiquorum,
2 vols. Ezechiel Spanheim Elzever. Amsterdam.
1671.
Dis corso di M. Sebastiano Erizzo sopra le mcdaglie antiche
in Vinegia. Varisco. 1571.
Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata a Pompeio Magno ad
Horaclium ab Adolfo Occonc, exhibita cara F. M.
Bargi. Mediolani. 1683.
Copic d'un manuscrit original donne a M. Durau le 23 Juillet,
1733. Par M. l'escatory qui lui assura pour lors-que
e'etait le Vade mecum de M. Vaillant. Apparently un-
finished.
Byron. Childe Harold. 2nd Edition. 1812.
Manfred. Paper covers. 1817.
Works. 6 vols. 1829.
Vol. VII of Works. 1819.
Carmina Quadressimalia. 2nd Edition. 174!.
Lusus Westmonasteriensis. 1730.
Metastasio Opere seelte. 2 vols. 1S06.
Southey. Madoc. 1805.
Curse of Kehama. 1810.
Tale of Paraguay. 1825.
Siege of Corinth and Parisina. 1816.
Works. 2 vols. 3rd Edition. 1799.
Scott. Doom of Devorgil and Auchindrane. Oiiginal
boards. 1830.
Shakespeare. Pope's. 6 vols. 1728.
Bell's. Vol. I. 1774.
Sharpe's. 9 vols. 1803.
Wordsworth. Yarrow re-visited. 1835.
YOUNG. Complaint. 2 vols. 1743. Night Thoughts. 1787.
Dickens. Mystery of Edwin Drood. Fragment in 6nio.
in original paper covers. 1S70.
Lever. Charles O'Malley. Illustrated by Phiz. Vol. II.
1841.
Our Mess. Vol. Ill, i.e., Tom Burke of Ours. Vol.
II. Illustrated by Phiz. 1S44.
Scott. (Euvres de. Vols. X, XXV.
Rise and Progress of Society of Ancient Britons. 1717.
Mrs. Cockburn's Works. 2 vols. 1751.
Scott. Paul's Letters. 1S1S.
Senaior. Calrendon's Parliamentary Chronicle. 10 vols,
in 9, beginning November, 1790.
Address" M.A."
Lockyer's Meteoritic Hypothesis, yfcr Miss Clarke's System
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J. E. Gore's Astronomical Lessons, for Serviss's Astronomy
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Glazebrook's Physical Optics, for Proctor's Our Place
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Address "A.F."
## p. 277 (#329) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
277
Books Wanted.
Poetry for Children (in two i6mo. volumes), by the
Author of "Mrs. Leicester's School," 1809. Also any
books, tracts, pamphlets, or prints illustrating early
English railway engines, carriages, &c. Address Andrew
IV. Tuer, 18, Notling Hill Square, W.
Scott's Poems. 12 vols. Uniform with Waverley Novels
and Prose Works.
Hallam. Literature of Europe.
Lacroix. Science et Lettres au Moyen Age. 1st Edition.
Good copy. Science and Letters, &c. English trans-
lation. Any edition.
Gentleman's Magazine. 1748, 1786, 1787, 1791. Part 2.
Household Words. Vols. IV, V, VI.
Nineteenth Century. September, 1878.
Blackwood. October, 1849 ; July, 1851; February, 1852;
July, 1864; Octolier, November, December, 1067.
All the Year Round. September, October, November,
December, 1867.
Sidney Smith. Sermons. Vol. I. 1809.
Disraeli. Tancred. Vol. I. 1847.
Victor Hugo. L'Homme qui rit. Vol. II. 2nd Edition.
Heaumont and Fletcher. Vols. I, II, III. 1711.
Joseph Glanville. Anything.
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1891-02-16-The-Author-1-10
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The Author
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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The-Author-Issues
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1891-03-16
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1
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11
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18910316
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Vol. 1.- No. 11]
MARCH 16, 1891.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
:: .. (INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER. BESANT.
Published for the Society Bë
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1891.
## p. 280 (#336) ############################################
ii.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Messrs. METHUEN'S NEW BOOKS.
| METHUEN'S NOYEL SERIES.
55.
English Leaders of Religion.
Side By S. BARING GOULD.
URITH : A Story of Dartmoor, By S. BARING GOULD,
Author of "Mehalah," "Arminell," &c. 3 vols.
(Ready.
Three Shillings and Sixpence.
By HANNAH LYNCH.
Messrs. METHUEN will issue from time to time a Series
PRINCE OF THE GLADES. By HANNAH LYNCH, of copyright Novels, by well-known Authors, handsomely
2 vols.
(Ready. bound, at the above popular price. The first voluntes (now
GEORGE MEREDITH. A Study. Crown 8vo. (May. ready) are :
By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
F. MABEL ROBINSON.
A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. CLARK RUSSELL,
1. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
Author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor," &c. 2 vols.
(Ready, S. BARING GOULD. Author of “Mehalah,” Soc.
THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. . 2. JACQUETTA.
By W. CLARK RUSSELL, Author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor." Mrs. LEITH ADAMS (MRS. DE COURCY LAFFAN).
With Ilustrations by F. BRANGWYN. 8vo.
(Ready.
3. MY LAND OF BEULAH.
By W. H. POLLOCK..
G. MANVILLE FENN. -
FERDINAND'S DEVICE. By WALTER HERRIES
POLLOCK. Post 8vo. 1S.
4. ELI'S CHILDREN.
- (April
By R. PRYCE. .
S. BARING GOULD. Author of " Mehalah," GoC.
THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By RICHARD PRYCE.
5. ARMINELL: A Social Romance.
Crown 8vo. 3. 6d.
. (Ready. EDNA LYALL. Author of " Donovan," Sr.
By J. B, BURNE, M.A..
6. DERRICK VAUGHÁN, NOVELIST.
PARSON AND PEASANT : Chapters of their Natural
With portrait of Author.
History. By J. B. BURNE, M.A., Rector of Wasing. Crown 8vo. F. MABEL ROBINSON.
. [Ready.
By E. LYNN LINTON.
7. DISENCHANTMENT.
THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON,
Other Volumes will be announced in due course.
Christian and Communist. By E. Lynn LINTON. Tenth and
Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo. 15.
(Ready.
Works by S. BARING GOULD,
Author of “Mehalah," &c.
Edited by A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A.
OLD COUNTRY LIFE. By S. BARING GOULD. With
Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.
Sixty-seven Illustrations by W. PARKINSON, F. D. BEDFORD, and
. F. MASEY. Large Crown 8vo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt,
A series of short biographies, free from party bias, of the
1os. 6d. Second Edition.
most prominent leaders of religious life and thought in this
"Old Country Life, as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy and the last century.
life and movement, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be
excelled by any book to be published throughout the year. Sound,
CARDINAL NEWMAN. R. H. Hutton. (Reair.
hearty and English to the core."-World.
JOHN WESLEY. J. H. Overion,
(Ready
HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS.
By S. BARING Govlp. FIRST SEries. Demy Svo, ios, 6d.
Second Edition.
"A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole
volume is delightful reading." -Times.
Crown 8vo. 28. 6d.
SECOND SERIES.
Under the above title Messrs. METHU EN have commenced
HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. the publication of a series of books on historical, literary,
SECOND SERIES. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of “Mehalah." ] and economic subjects, suitable for extension students and
Demy 8vo. Tos, 6d.
(Ready.
“A fascinating book."- Leeds Mercury.
home-reading circles.
SONGS OF THE WEST : Traditional Ballads and Songs
THE INDÚSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.' By
of the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. Collected
H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon.,
Cobden Prizeman. With Maps and Plans.
(Ready.
by S. BARING GOULD, M.A., and H. FLEETWOOD SHEPPARD, M.A.
Arranged for Voice and Piano. in 4 Parts (containing 25 Songs
LA HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY.
each), 3s, each nett. Part I., Third Edition Part II., Second
By L. L. PRICE, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon., Extension
Edition. Part III., ready. Part IV., in preparation.
• Lecturer in Political Econoiny.
(Ready.
"A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic
| VICTORIAN POETS. By A. SHARP. (Nearly Keady.
fancy."-Satunlay Review.
PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the
YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. Industrial Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A., late
By S. BARING GOULD. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s.
Scholar of Lincoln College, Oxon., U. E. Lecturer in Economies.
[Now Ready.
(Ready.
| THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. Symes, M.A.,
TWO BOUK'S FOR BOYS. Cr. 8vo.
Principal of University College, Nottingham. (Nearly Ready.
MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By W.
Clark Russell, Author of “The Wreck of the Grosvenor," &c.
Tilustrated by GORDON BROWNE.
SYD BELTON; or, The Boy who would not go to Sea. 1. A series of volumes upon the most important topics of social,
· By G. MANVILLE FENN, Author of “In the King's Namne," &c. economic, and industrial interest-written by the highest
Illustrated by GORDON BROWNE. .
TWO BOOKS FOR GIRLS.
authorities on the various subjects. The first two volumes
Cr. 8vo. 35. 6d. will be
DUMPS. By Mrs. Parr, Author of "Adam and Eve," TRADES UNIONISM-New and Old. By G. Howell.,
“ Dorothy Fox," &c. Illustrated by W. PARKINSON.
M.P.
(Ready.
A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. MEADE, Author POVERTY AND PAUPERISM. By Rev. L. R. PHELPS.
of “Scamp and I," &c. Illustrated by R. BARNES.
M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon.
(4 pril.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES.
SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY.
METHUEN & Co., 18, Bury Street, W.C.
## p. 280 (#337) ############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
Zhc Society of Butbors (Jncorporateb).
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
COUNCIL.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C1.E.
II. Rider Haggard.
Alfred Austin.
Thomas Hardy.
A. W. k Beckett.
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.
Robert Bateman.
J. M. Lely.
Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G.
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.
Walter Besant.
F. Max-Mullbr, LL.D.
Augustine Birrell, M.P.
George Meredith.
R. D. Blackmore.
Herman C. Merivale.
Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S.
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.LS.
Lord Brabourne.
J. C. Parkinson.
James Bryce, M.P.
The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.
P. W. Clayden.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.
Edward Clodd.
Walter Herries Pollock.
W. Martin Conway.
A. G. Ross.
Marion Crawford.
George Augustus Sala.
Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G.
W. Baptiste Scoones.
The Earl of Desart.
G. R. Sims.
A. W. Dubourg.
J. J. Stevenson.
John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S.
Jas. Sully.
Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.
William Moy Thomas.
Herbert Gardner, M.P.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
Richard Garnett, LL.D.
Edmund Yates.
Edmund Gosse.
Hon. Counsel—E. M. Underdown, Q.C.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman—Walter Besant.
Robert Bateman. i W. Martin Conway. I H. Rider Haggard. I Sir Frederick Pollock.
A. W. a Beckett. | Edmund Gosse. | J. M. Lely. I A. G. Ross.
Solicitors.
Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.
VOL. I.
OFFICES.
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
2 A
## p. 280 (#338) ############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
The "Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which it
supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant work,
or a week's ordinary writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With the
cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser may
try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for another
without charge, or his money returned if wanted.
There are various points to select from, broad, medium, and fine, every handwriting can be suited, and
the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10/6.
The Gold Pens in the " Swan " are Mabie, Todd & Co.'s famous make; they are 14-carat tempered
gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with selected
polished iridium. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" says—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of high
specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be gained upon it."
They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens; one will
outwear a gross of steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing about Gold
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Dr. Olives Wbsdell Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd k Co.'s Gold Pens since 1857, and is using the same
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Sydney Grundy, Esq., says—" It is a vast improvement on every Stylograph."
Moberly Bell, Esq., Manager, The Times, says—" One pen lasted me for six years."
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have never failed me."
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from
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## p. 281 (#339) ############################################
%\it JCtttljar.
(The Organ oj the Incorporated Society of Authors, Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. ii.]
MARCH 16, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
Conditions of Membership
Warnings
Notes and News
A Note on the New Act
In the I.ast Ditch
Do English People Buy Books 1...
Un Debut Dans La Vie
The Signed Article
In Grub Street ... t
The Parnassus Publishing Company
Correspondence and Cases
The Production of Vouchers
On Advertisements
fAGE
. 281
. 281
.. 38a
. 286
. 287
. 288
. 391
• 293
• 294
.. 298
• =99
■ 399
. 300
Correspondence and Cases—continued—
Authors and Reviewers
Accepted...
Literary Godchildren
Gratuitous Contributions
A Coincidence?
The Authors' Club
The Author's Book Stall
New Books
The Reading of MSS
Publications of the Society
Advertisements
300
301
301
301
303
303
303
304
3°6
306
307
CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.
The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the
1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for
life memljership entitles the subscriber to full membership of
the Society.
Authors of published works alone are eligible for member-
ship.
Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors
are admitted as Associates, on the same subscription, but
have no voice in the government of the Society.
Cheques and Postal Oiders should be crossed "The Im-
perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch."
Those who wish to be proposed as members may send
their names at any lime to the Secretary at the Society's
Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration
of their works. Subscriptions entered after the 1st of
October will cover the next year.
The Secretary may be personally consulted between the
hours of 1 p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable
that an appointment should be made by letter.
The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured
through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt,
2, Paternoster Square, K.C.
A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for
one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped,
however, that most members will subscribe to the paper.
The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d., including postage, which
may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.C.
With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers,
the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read
and reported upon for others than members, but members
cannot have their works read for nothing.
In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript,
the author should send with it a table of contents. A type-
written scenario is also of very great assistance.
It must be understood that such a reader's report, however
favourable, does not assist the author towards publication.
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to make the
following warnings as widely known as possible. They are
based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers
to which liteiary property is exposed :—
(1) Never to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost
of production forms an integral part, unless an
opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures
is given them.
(2) Never to enter into any correspondence with publishers,
especially with advertising publishers, who are not
recommended by experienced friends, or by this
Society.
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves
down for future work to any one firm of publishers.
(4) Never to accept any proposal of royalty without con-
sultation with the Society, or, at least, ascertaining
exactly what the agreement gives to the author and
what to the publisher.
(5) Never to accept any offer of money for MSS., with-
out previously taking advice of the Society.
(6) Never to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility
without advice.
(7) Never, when a MS. has been refused by respectable
houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may
put forward, for the production of the work.
(8) Never to sign away American or foreign rights.
Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing
a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If
the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it
to another.
(9) Never forget that publishing is a business, like any
other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy,
charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do
with business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
vol. 1.
2 a 2
## p. 282 (#340) ############################################
282
THE AUTHOR.
NOTES AND NEWS.
—4
THE American Copyright Bill has passed,
and unexpectedly. Thus ends, we hope,
happily for all concerned, the long and
bitter reproach of English authors and the hard
battle of American authors. We shall no longer
pirate and plunder and prey upon each other as
the law permits. Now we begin to look round
and to ask—what next? First, let us carefully
consider the following question and answer found
in the Parliamentary Debates on Saturday, March
7th.
"Mr. Vincent asked the following question :—
Bearing in mind the renewed declaration of the
Prime Minister, on March 4th, to the Associated
Chambers of Commerce, that English remonstrance
on foreign commercial policy prejudicial to British
trade at home or abroad is wholly futile under the
present fiscal system, as we have no means of sup-
porting the remonstrance, or giving any advantage
in return for favourable concessions, what definite
domestic action, asdistinguished from remonstrance,
with a foreign power Her Majesty's Government
proposes to take to prevent injury being done to
industry and labour in the United Kingdom, and
the probable disemployment of many workpeople
concerned in the book trade, to restrain the transfer
to America of the productions of the works of
British authors desirous of securing American copy-
tight by the use in the United States of American
type or plates, and simultaneously enjoying copy-
right in Great Britain and Ireland.
"Mr. W. H. Smith.—We have no official know-
ledge of the measure, and only know from the
newspapers that it has been passed. It is quite
impossible for me to express any opinion respecting
its provisions until we see them. I do not know
what changes may have been made in the Bill
during its passage through Congress, and I am
therefore quite unable to indicate what would be
the policy or action of the Government with respect
to it."
1
Quite so. We do hot know exactly what changes
have been made in the Bill during its passage
through Congress. Therefore we must wait until
we do know. Meantime we have telegraphed for
a copy of the Act.
A meeting of the Council was called on March
12th, to consider the situation as changed by the
passing of the International Copyright Act. The
chair was taken by Sir Frederick Pollock.
The following Resolutions were proposed and
adopted:—
(1.) That at this stage of the long struggle for
International Copyright carried on in America
by the Copyright League and other citizens of
the United States, to secure copyright to foreign
authors in the States and td remove the long
existing hindrance to the natural growth of
American literature, the congratulations of the
Society be, and hereby are, expressed by the
Council now assembled.
(2.) That the Secretary be instructed on the
arrival of the Act, to have it printed and to send
a copy to every member of the Society, inviting
their advice, suggestions, or criticisms on the
probable working of the Act.
(3.) That the Copyright Committee be re-
quested to receive these criticisms and to draw
up a report on the subject.
(4.) That authors be warned meanwhile not
to sign any agreements giving up their American
rights , and not to accept any offers whatever
that may be made until the Act shall be in
working order.
(5.) That the Society without delay draw up
a Petition to the House of Lords, urging the
immediate consideration of Lord Monkswell's
Bill.
—*
Here are a few points which may be of use to u&
They certainly will not be affected by any amend-
ments that may have been carried.
It will be news to many, as it was to me, to hear
that in many cases it will be unnecessary to take
out copyright, and that the practice will still con-
tinue of sending over a whole edition in sheets and
paying the duty, twenty-five per cent, on the cost
of production. Take, for instance, a book which
appeals to the scholarly and cultured class only,
and therefore cannot possibly have a large sale.
An edition of a thousand copies in sheets might
Cost, say ;£ioo. The American publisher would
pay .£125 for it. He would then produce it just
as he does now, on the chance that no one else
will pirate it. Why should they? It is too small
a market to be interfered with. Or take a book
with dainty and beautiful plates. This cannot be
pirated because the plates cannot be cheaply and
successfully imitated. It must be remembered
that in considering whether it would pay to take
out copyright, the cost of production in America
is a much larger factor than it is in this country—
wages are much higher, materials are higher. ♦—
To those who expect a magnificent harvest
immediately—a warning. Last month there was
## p. 283 (#341) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
283
an attempt in the Author to show that America is
taking rapid strides to the production of nearly all
her own literature. Hitherto the great mass of her
books have been of English origin. This is now
true only of the ten cent novels. These, it is true,
are English. But who can believe that the American
will prefer to read of English manners and modes
depicted in fiction, when he can get his own
equally well presented and at the same price? At
the same time, should there be any capable of really
striking the popular imagination, he will do so in
all the English-speaking countries alike. For him—-
unless he gives himself away to the first offer—
there is indeed hope. How many are there among
the living who possess this power? In a few months
we shall see.
There is another point to be borne in mind.
On this a word was said last month. The cheap
libraries, even if they are not enlarged, will have
another twenty years' run at least. To compete
with them is like competing with the works of the
dead, which can be issued by anybody and at any
price. But they will continue to be enlarged.
They will say to the English writers who are not
so much in demand in America as to call for a
copyrighted edition, "You will get nothing here
except from us—we will give you twenty dollars
for your rights." That offer will be accepted, and
so the ten cent library will be continued. Again,
even if a writer is popular, people will ask why they
should give a dollar and a half for his new book
when they can get all his old books at sixpence.
The Anti-Jacobin suggests the danger that
English writers may try to pander to American
prejudices, manners, and custpms. I do not think
this is a real danger, first, because no living
English authors have ever remained long enough
in the States to learn these prejudices. We know
the American who travels on the Continent. We
meet the American gentleman in society. But
neither the rich American who can travel nor the
American gentleman represents the great mass of
the American people, who, again, differ widely
among each other. There can be little resemblance
between the prairie farmer and the New England
lawyer—nor between the white folk of North
Carolina and the trader of Chicago. Wp cannot
pander to ordinary American prejudice, because we
do not know anything about it.
Lower down will be found a few notes on the
practical working of the Bill which will not be
affected by any amendments that may have been
added. To these notes we add a very serious
warning. Let the author be more than commonly
careful in his agreements. He must reserve
American rights by a special clause. He must
take care not to accept the first offer that is made
—men are already in the field trying to "rush"
the British author, and, if he is wise, he will refuse
to treat at all until he has seen how the new Act
works.
On the evening of the day when President
Harrison signed the Bill, he received quite a little
shower of letters and telegrams. They were lying
on the Presidental pillow when, at midnight, he was
about to climb into the gilded tour-poster assigned
to the Chosen of the Caucus. One of them, from
the shade of John Milton, began as follows:
"Grandson of my friend the Regicide," it said,
"I have witnessed with joy thine action of this
day. Thy Republic at length proves itself a des-
cendant of my own. Thou hast shaken off" the
Iniquity of a hundred years. Thou hast set free
thine own people in doing justice to another nation.
Lo! I see in my mind a noble and a puissant
nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep
and shaking her invincible locks; a nation npt slow
and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing
spirit; acute to invent, subtile and sinewy to dis-
course. I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty
youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the ful)
mid-day beam." The rest need riot be quoted.
Another was from Charles Dickens. "Fifty years
ago," he said, "I beat the air with my fists, fondly
thinking that I was fighting an easy battle against
ignorance and greed. 'For fifty years the best of
your own people have been vainly, until now,
fighting that easy battle. You have shared with
us our noble inheritance, the literature of the past;
but the baser sort among you have stolen the
literature of the present. It was unworthy of a
nation desirous to be thought great. The loss you
have inflicted upon us is that of dollars only.
Upon yourselves you have inflicted the starvation of
your own literature. Henceforth, however, what is
yours is ours, and what is ours is yours. Farewell."
There were also telegrams from Charles Reade,
Wilkie Collins, Thackeray, George Eliot, and
others. They were the same in effect, though the
words differed. "We complain no longer," said
Charles Reade. "Earthly injustice affects us not.
Its memory has no longer any sting. Yet we
rejoice that we stood up for honour and equity
while we lived. And for those who have followed
us, we are glad that your people have at last chosen
the better way." These are noticeable communi-
cations, and I hear that they are to be preserved
in the Washington Library.
## p. 284 (#342) ############################################
284
THE AUTHOR.
I am very pleased to publish the following com-
munication from Professor Middleton, of King's
College, Cambridge :—
"After the many instructive warnings to authors
which you have printed, with regard to what might
politely be called the conventional morality of
certain publishers, it may be a pleasure to turn to
the other side of the picture, and receive a state-
ment which will show that there are publishers in
Britain whose practice is not only just in the
highest sense of the word, but even goes beyond
that, and amounts to real generosity.
"I had an agreement with a well-known firm that
they would publish a book of mine, and pay me
for it a certain sum of money down, as soon as the
book was printed.
"This sum I received, expecting nothing further.
"Some time after, without any suggestion of
mine, I was informed by my publishers that they
proposed to give me half-profits in addition to the
lump sum they had paid me for the copyright of
my book—a quite voluntary piece of generosity cn
their part. Since then I have received, as half-
profits, a sum about equal to the original payment
for which I had bargained.
"That is to say, that in consideration of
my book being a success, the publishers have paid
me nearly double of what they were bound to do.
"Though I have no authority to do so, it can, I
hope, offend no one if I mention that the pub-
lishers referred to are Messrs. A. and C. Black, of
Edinburgh and Soho Square, London."
This document should be read prayerfully by
certain reverend and revered friends of ours.
Religion, we know, is not a thing of works, which
are rags. Yet the carnal man remarks with
surprise that a thing like this is done by the
secular, not the sacred, publisher. Messrs. A. and
C. Black were influenced by that spirit of justice
which goes beyond the letter of the agreement.
Professor Middleton, having signed his agreement,
had no further claim, made none, expected nothing
more, and entertained no other feeling towards his
publishers than that of friendly content. Yet they
went beyond their agreement. One is willing to
believe that other cases of the kind are not un-
known, though they are certainly infrequent.
Personally, I would prefer such a system of
publishing as would allow both publisher and
author to know beforehand in what proportion
results would be apportioned, and such a system I
hope that we shall arrive at Then indeed will come
the Golden Age, and we may all crown ourselves
with garlands, take down our harps and sing
madrigals by purling brooks, authors and publishers
together, while the world looks on envious and
admiring.
♦
There was held a dinner, the other day, of Pub-
lishers and Booksellers. I hope that, before long,
the other branch, perhaps the lower branch, of
the Literary Profession—that of the Authors—
may be admitted, as a branch, to this gathering.
The chair was taken by Mr. John Murray, Junior.
A person, whom I once believed to be a friend,
brought me, the day after the dinner, a paper
containing what purported to be an extract from
his speech. I am a credulous creature, and I sent
it to press. I have since discovered that I was
the victim of a hoax. These words, in fact, did
not form part of the speech. Nevertheless, as they
seem to me brave and honest words, and such as one
would expect from the heir apparent of the House
of Murray, I prefer to believe that they were
spoken. The following, then, is the forged docu-
ment in question:—
The Chairman then alluded—it does not appear
from the reports that he so much as mentioned the
Society—to the Society of Authors. "This associa-
tion of writers "—really, he said nothing of the
kind—" has of late proved that it aims at becoming
a great power in the world of living literature. It
has detected and exposed many of the cheats and
robberies practised by the dishonest members of
our trade: it has caused restitution to be made to
many victims; it has diverted a great amount of
business into the hands of honourable houses.
For these reasons, gentlemen, we have every cause
to congratulate ourselves upon its prosperity and
activity. We ought to welcome any step which
helps to purify the moral atmosphere and maintain
the honour of the calling by which we live.
Recently the Society has issued two books which
are, I venture to say, the most noteworthy things
ever done for the higher interests of publisher and
author. The first of these, called the ' Methods of
Publication,' shows exactly what is meant by every
kind of agreement—what the publisher offers the
author and the author cedes to the publisher. It
also shows the frauds which are commonly practised.
This exposure will be new to most of us here present.
But it cannot fail to do great good. The next book
is called the 'Cost of Production.' By these two
books the author is, for the first time, placed in
the position of knowing what his agreement means,
namely, what risks his publisher runs, if any, what
are his reasonable expectations, and how the joint
venture is shared. Gentlemen, an honourable man
has nothing—he can have nothing—to conceal.
We therefore rejoice at the publication of these
books, and we congratulate the Society upon the
steps it has taken."
## p. 285 (#343) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
285
The enclosed is a sign of the times. It has
been sent to me by one of the promoters of the
movement We shall rejoice to learn that the new
Association is flourishing. Meantime, why women
alone? Why not men and women?
"We the undersigned, pledge ourselves as
authors who believe in pure literature and high
standards of literary work, to co-operate as members
of a Society to be known as—
"The Authors' Guild of American Women.
"We are convinced that union is strength and
consultation a source of education; and we hereby
pledge ourselves to aid each other in all legitimate
channels of work; to exercise our utmost diligence
to purify publications; and to insist that literary
work performed by women, if worthy of publication,
is also worthy of just remuneration."
♦
The following communication needs no com-
ment. One might, however, point out to the
people concerned, that these things get talked
about and do not improve the name of the House
concerned. Also, that authors are getting more
shy and suspicious every day, and more inclined to
inquiry.
"In December last, induced by a friend, I sent
a MS. to a certain firm of publishers. Hearing
nothing about it I wrote in January two letters to
them, pointing out that delay would destroy my
chance of publication for the season, and requesting
their answer or the MS. They did not vouchsafe
a word of reply for some weeks, when I received a
curt note informing me that my MS. would be
returned if I sent stamps for the purpose. I sent
stamps, and after two or three days I got back the
MS., all crushed, dirtied, and disordered. On
putting it to rights I found one section missing, I
wrote again, and after another delay of some days,
the missing part was sent to me without one word
of apology."
The preceding case of discourtesy on the part
of a publisher is capped by a case of equal dis-
courtesy on the part of an editor—a religious paper
this. Religion, we know, forgives every kind of sin,
which is why sweaters flourish in religious societies
and editors of religious papers behave like the
gentleman mentioned below,
"In September an author sent to this editor an
article for his magazine. He was careful to
enclose a stamped and addressed envelope in
accordance with the directions to contributors.
"He waited five months in patience. He then
wrote, politely pointing out that he had heard
nothing about it.
"No reply at all.
"He waited nine days and then wrote again, say-
ing that if he obtained no reply he should lay the
matter before this Society.
"The MS. was promptly returned, but without a
single word of explanation or commentary."
An editor has, no doubt, to wade through a vast
quantity of rubbish, but that is no excuse for
absolute discourtesy.
The preliminary Committee of the Authors' Club
has been formed, It will begin to meet at once in
order to draw up a working scheme for the foun-
dation of the Club on a stable basis. The Authors'
House will not be forgotten, should there be found
room for it after the establishment of the Club. I
beg to announce that I am not a member of this
Committee, a statement which will perhaps make
it unnecessary henceforth for the irresponsible
paragraph writer to call it my club. But I hope
they will elect me a member.
The little exhibition of bindings of which
mention was made last month is at Tregaskis',
Holborn. It is now open to the public. All those
who care for binding should visit the place before
the books are dispersed.
I once more invite members of the Society to
consider the Author the natural home for all kinds
of questions, cases, points, difficulties, anecdotes,
&c, connected with literature. I do so because
there is a danger that the paper should be regarded
as nothing more than the organ of counsel and
advice as regards agreements. That—most cer-
tainly. But we are not always signing agreements,
and in the world of letters there are many
interests.
♦
The lovers of the works of Richard Jefferies are
rapidly increasing in numbers and in enthusiasm.
I am sure that a great many of them are on the lists
of the Society—among our 750. Be it known to
these that a bust of this great interpreter of Nature
has been executed, that the Eishop and Dean of
Salisbury has granted permission to place it in the
Cathedral—and that the subscriptions still fall
short of the amount required. Will every reader
of this note—that is, every reader who can appre-
ciate the "Pageant of Summer "—send me some-
thing towards the completion of this work? I do
not beg in the name of Literature generally, of all
authors, but only of those who belong with me to
the company of those who feel that never did any
man write of field and wood, of hillside and of
## p. 286 (#344) ############################################
286
THE AUTHOR.
hedge, as this man wrote. The treasurer of the
fund is Mr. Arthur Kinglake, but I will receive
subscriptions and send them on.
On Friday last the first performance at the
English Free Theatre took place. The piece was
Ibsen's " Ghosts." The accounts of the play differ a
good deal. If the critic is an ardent Ibsenite he
says that it is a most beautiful play. If he is not,
he says that it has all the faults which an acting
play ought not to have. If he is a disciple he
says it is a most wonderful sermon. If he is not,
he says that sermons are things which can, and
should, be delivered before the whole people with
open doors, not with shut doors and in fear of the
Lord Chamberlain. One thing is agreed upon by
all, that the piece owed whatever success it ob-
tained entirely to the acting of one lady. I suppose
that Ibsen has some message to deliver or he
would not have so many admirers. Meantime, let
us for the present suspend our judgment on the
new Free Theatre.
Walter Besant.
*
A NOTE ON THE NEW ACT.
ON and after July ist, authors, no matter what
their nationality, will be able to acquire
copyright in the United States, to add sixty
millions to their "public." It is simply impossible
to exaggerate the importance of such a change, not
only to "popular" writers, but to the authors
of all standard works. We hope in the next num-
berof the Author to give the Revised Statute as it will
pass into law. But, meanwhile, sundry considera-
tions suggest themselves. The conditions attached to
the acquisition of copyright are not a little onerous.
Imprimis, it is necessary (i) that before the day of
publication (in any country) the applicant should
deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress,
&c, a printed copy of the title of the "book, map,
chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving,
cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description
of the painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or a model
or the design for a work of the finearts for which he de-
sires a copyright"; and (2) "not later than the day
of publication" (in any country), deliver at the
office of the Librarian of Congress two copies of such
copyright " book," &c, or in the case of a painting,
&c., a photograph of the same. But in the case of a
"book" it is provided (3) that the said copies shall
be "printed from type set within the limits of the
United States, or from plates made therefrom."
This provision was extended by the famous "chromo
amendment," so as to require engravings, cuts,
prints, photographs or chromo lithographs to be
printed from engravings, cuts, negatives, or drawings
on stone made within the limits of the United States,
or from transfers made therefrom. But, according
to Reuter's cablegram of the 2nd inst., this amend-
ment was amended by the Conference Committee
of the Senate and the House of Representatives so
as to confine its operation to "lithographs, chromos,
and photographs," all of which, to be the subject of
American copyright, must, we take it, have been
"produced" within the States.
A question at once arises as to the definition put
by American law upon the term "book." Does it
include, as in England, "every volume, part of a
volume, pamphlet, sheet of letterpress, sheet of
music, map, chart, or plan separately published "?
If so, obviously, the necessity of securing cony-
right arises from the commencement of publication.
It will be necessary, for instance, in order to obtain
American copyright, to duly deliver each and every
part of a serial story or work published in parts.
But as against this it may surely be argued that the
"day of publication" is the day of first publication
in complete form. (4) The "person claiming" the
copyright, may again, it appears, from Section 4952
of the Revised Statutes, be the "author, inventor,
designer, or proprietor of any book," &c.—a
sufficiently wide definition. Is it intended that
anyone, acquiring priority, should, by going through
the necessary formalities, become the owner of the
copyright? Or is it necessary that he must acquire
rights from the author or his assigns?
The effect of the Bill upon the English publishers,
printers, compositors, bookbinders, and paper-
makers cannot as yet be determined. But the
fears which are openly expressed that New York
will become the centre of the book trade, are, we
believe, exaggerated. If English "stereo" is ex-
cluded from the States, in the case of copyright
works, it is practically certain that American
"stereo" will prove useless in England. The differ-
ence in typography alone would prove a fatal
objection. The same remark applies to the im-
portation of sheets or bound volumes from the
States.
It may, too, be remarked that in case it should
be necessary, there exists a useful machinery under
the Merchandize Marks Act. If there is any doubt
as to the "country of origin," the Customs author-
ities can require this to be declared on every copy.
"Printed frpm type set within the limits of the
United States " would pot, in England, be a popular
line on a title-page, The "cost of production"
will, too, thanks to the McKinley tariff, remain
much higher in the States than in England, and
English papermakers and bookbinders have not
much to fear.
## p. 287 (#345) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
287
IN THE LAST DITCH.
"/^VNE of the oddest and most unfortunate
I I phenomena in the history of the copy-
right discussion," says the New York
Nation, "is the appearance every now and then,
when the Pirates are ready to throw up their hands
and ask for quarter, of some moralist or theologian
to cheer them up and encourage them to make
some further resistance, by proclaiming that the
poor men have done nothing wrong, and that we
musi not call them hard names or despitefully use
them."
The last appearance of the moralist or the-
ologian, one is pleased to observe, is that of
an Englishman. Not an American at all. An
Englishman of letters. A very distinguished man
of letters. His name is here suppressed because
he does not appear to have sent his protest to
any English organ. He has been protesting in
an American paper against certain harsh language
used towards the House of Representatives for
failing to pass the Copyright Bill last session.
As regards the bad language, it never did any
good to call names, and it never will. Yet we
shall always continue to call names because it
relieves the feelings. Hear, however, the Nation
further in the matter.
"But what concerns us now is the reasons Mr.
A. gives for deprecating vituperation. One of them
is that all property, and especially literary property,
is the creation of law, and that copyright is 'a
purely artificial privilege,' and that, therefore, it is
highly indecent to speak of persons who publish
other men's works without paying for them, as
'thieves' or 'pirates.' That this man should
offer the world, in such a cause, the plea that
property is the creation of law is very curious,
because there is hardly a step in the creation of
the present English Constitution, from Magna
Charta down, which was not a protest, in some
shape, against the doctrine that a man's moral
right to his goods and chattels is at all dependent
on the provision made by law for his protection in
the enjoyment of them. The great doctrine that
taxation without representation is a thing to be
resisted with the sword, if necessary, rests on the
very proposition which Mr. A. denies. When
Hampden refused to pay the ship-money because
he had not voted it through his representatives,
seven of the twelve judges decided against him,
and his refusal was therefore illegal; but he per-
sisted in it, nevertheless, to the death, and all
Englishmen now hold his memory in reverence
therefor. The amount was trifling, but, as has been
finely said, if he had paid it he would have been a
slave.
"Property, in truth, in its moral aspect, is no more
a creation of law than justice is. It was created,
as justice was, by the appearance of a second man
on the globe. On each of the two there then
descended that great moral obligation which the
friends of copyright now seek to have embodied in
legislation—the obligation not to steal and not
to covet his neighbour's goods, his ox or his ass,
his man-servant or maid-servant, his wife, 'or any-
thing that is his.' This obligation existed before
either Parliaments or kings, before even the Ten
Commandments. It arose out of the very nature
of things. Mr. A. confounds, as do thousands of
inferior men, the question of right with the question
of security. Law cannot give a man a moral right
to the product of his labour, nor can it take it
away from him, a good illustration of which rule is
to be found in the institution of slavery. The law
deprived the negro of all legal rights, but it could
not touch any of his moral or natural right.'.
What the law does for property is to give it security.
It can, by denying security, as in the case of
literary property, make it worthless, but it cannot
lessen the owner's right to it. It cannot diminish
the moral guilt of stealing it from him. What the
apologists of Pirates mean, therefore, when they
talk of the law as a 'creator of property,' is simply
that no man can, without the help of the law, get
from property the sum of those pleasures which
make it valuable. This may be true, but how can
this fact excuse in the forum of morals the man
who avails himself of this absence of legal defence
to appropriate as much of his neighbour's goods
as he takes a fancy to? Is it possible that when
Arabs strip travellers in the desert, the offence is
not robbery, but a failure of the law to create pro-
perty in watches, guns, and camels in that particular
region?
"Mr. A., in like manner, when he comes to
speak of copyright as 'a special privilege,' con-
founds plagiarism and piracy. This is the most
fertile source of misunderstanding in the whole
discussion. What is a plagiarist? It is, says the
dictionary, a man 1 who purloins the words, writ-
ings, or ideas of another and passes them off as his
own.' Now, it is no easy thing to convict a man
of this offence unless he makes long textual
extracts. The ownership of an idea, and even of
forms of expression, is generally very difficult to
trace. The same idea often occurs to hundreds
of men at the same time, and often finds very
similar expression at the hands of hundreds of
different authors or writers. Therefore defenders
of literary property have never attempted to set
up the doctrine of 'property in ideas' which
opponents of copyright are so fond of attacking.
They have never maintained that it is or ought to
## p. 288 (#346) ############################################
288
THE AUTHOR.
be unlawful to use a thought uttered by one man
for the moral or mental culture of another man,
or of forbidding the reproduction, in one man's
book or speech, of as many ideas of other men as
he can collect or re-cast to suit his purpose.
Authors or writers who do this a good deal, un-
doubtedly incur discredit by it with their fellows
and the general public. It greatly damages a
writer's fame to be rightfully accused of want of
originality, or of imitation, or of getting materials
at second-hand. But no one has ever proposed to
punish or restrain this sort of misappropriation by
law. No one has ever contended for the infliction
on the purloiners of other men's ideas of any
penalty but ridicule or disgrace, although their
name is legion and their depredations ruthless and
notorious; and yet a very large proportion of the
Pirates and their apologists expend all their
strength in showing that one man may lawfully
appropriate another man's ideas for his own use or
behoof, or even present them to the world as the
product of his own brain,
"What the champions of copyright, both national
and international, assail is, not the appropriation
of one man's ideas for another man's use and
behoof, but the sale of one man's ideas and forms
of expression in open market by another man in com-
petition with the author. This is 'piracy,' This
is what we ask to have stopped and punished by
law. We do not say to Pirates, You shall not take
the Blacks' Encyclopaedia to your home and pre-
pare articles and speeches or even books out of
its rich stores of information, and, if you are dis-
honest enough to do so, give them to the world as
your own, or absorb as much of the facts and
ideas as your mental powers will permit. What
we say is, You shall not, while denying the right of
property in it in the hands of the original author
or compiler, tseat it as property in your own hands,
and offer it for sale in competition with the man
whom you are plundering."
■ *
DO ENGLISH PEOPLE BUY BOOKS?
THE theory that English people never buy
books has long been a commonplace with
writers of leading articles and press para-
graphs. It is one of those fine old truths which
are not to be questioned: it is taken as proved.
The undoubted fact that novels are published at
a price which prohibits their purchase, is held to
establish the theory, which is irrefutable from a
certain point of view—that naturally taken by one
who buys books from him who creates them.
Without doubt, while the prices of books were
high, and when the book club provided all the
new books, very few even of the richer households
bought books at all. The book clubs, however,
have nearly all vanished; their place has been
only partly, not altogether, taken by the Circulating
Libraries. The country has become very much
richer than it was a half century since; it has also
become much more populous: the education
of the people has been enormously developed, and
the taste for reading has grown with the education
of the people. Therefore it would seem as if the
circulating libraries alone would hardly suffice for
the wants of the reading public, In addition, the
last half century has witnessed the growth of the
colonial empire from a few hundred thousands to
something like twenty millions. And they have
no circulating libraries at all. Yet they read.
Let us, however, for the moment disregard the
colonial demand. What do we see at first sight?
Take, first, our own houses. Everybody knows the
house where the dining room contains a bookcase
filled with books which are never changed and
never taken down. Gibbon is there; Robertson is
there; probablyBlair'ssermons; HumeandSmollett;
a Gazetteer; an edition of the Spectator. Formerly,
that is to say, twenty years ago, or so, this book-
case contained all the books of the house. Now,
however, there are other shelves—a case in the
drawing room filled with poetry and pretty editions:
a bookcase in the school room, or breakfast room,
filled with modern and new books—there will you find
Rider Haggard, Stevenson, Lang, Black, Hardy,
Blackmore, the newest essayist, not to mention
Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Collins, and
Reade. There you will find evidence that somebody
or other in the house not only knows contemporary
literature but buys it, and that plentifully, and with
no sparing hand,
Again, watch the bookstall at a London railway
station. The place is not a stall, it is a great shop
filled with new books. Here are all the newest
works, the biographies, the dozens of Series, the
novels, the essays—everything, Stand beside the
place for a quarter of an hour before the departure
of the express. Look at the people. They crowd
about the stall: they are all buying books. Con-
sider that this goes on every hour from morning
till night—for twelve hours, or thereabouts, the
people flock to this stall and buy books. Consider,
further, that there are a dozen such stations in
London, and that the same thing goes on at every
big town in the United Kingdom. Will you still
consider us a nation which does not buy books?
But—a point which seems to make against the
extension of the book trade—the country book-
sellers' shops have certainly decreased in import-
## p. 289 (#347) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
289
ance and in profits during the last half century.
That is quite true. The bookseller of the old
county town was a person of great weight and con-
sideration. He had down all the new books, the
clergy and the reading public of the place looked
upon his shop as a place where literary news could
be heard and the new books examined. But then
there was no other way of getting the literary news.
The country papers had none, the London literary
papers went but little out of London, the people
seldom went to town. They were therefore de-
pendent upon the local bookseller, who, as one who
studies his market, provided for his customers the
things which he knew they would take. Also, a
thing of the greatest importance, there was no dis-
count of threepence in the shilling, and the published
price was high. A bookseller who sold a book for
1 of. 6d. which he had purchased for 7*., managed
to do very well. He was a substantial person: on
the social ladder he ranked first among the trades-
men: he stood next to the solicitor and the
doctor. Now, he has to give a discount of three-
pence in the shilling. His half-guinea volume is
reduced to three and six, which he sells for two
and eight, and for which he pays two shillings.
Therefore, he is fain to sell, in addition to books,
stationery, photographs, albums, fancy things, and
perhaps toys. His customers are independent of
him; they learn easily from the reviews all that
goes on; they order their books from London, or
from the railway stall, and they desert the local shop.
The book trade, in fact, has increased a thousand-
fold, and yet the bookseller has decayed.
Consider, next, the publishers' lists. I have
before me the Athenaum, which contains, I sup-
pose, more book advertisements than any other
paper. This single number represents fourteen firms
of publishers, most, in fact, of what are called leading
publishers. It is by no means the best publishing
time of the year. Yet, leaving out the books which
are announced only, no price being affixed, we find
an astonishing activity. Of biographical works there
are 28, ranging in price from 2s. 6d. to £5 55.; of
essays there are 29, namely, 9 at 2s. 6d., 3 at
3f. 6d., 3 at 5s., 7 at 6s., 1 at 7*., 1 at 7f. 6d, 1 at
9f., and 4 at iof. 6d. Of fiction there are some
90 works, counting new books and new editions,
viz., 17 at 3 if. 6d., 9 at 2 if., 1 at i7f., 24 at 6s.,
1 at i2f., 3 at 7f. 6d., 29 at 3f. 6d., 1 at sf., 4 at
2f. 6d., and two or three at 2f. We may pass over
art books, histories, and one or two books of
travel. If we look at this advertisememt sheet in
another three months, most of these books will be
changed for others. Now, if you please, for whom
are these books published? For the circulating
libraries? They may take all the three volume
novels. For whom are the other books issued?
For the general public. These advertisements
represent the sale of, at least, half a million
volumes; and, to repeat, the lists will be all changed
in three months' time. Is that, then, the whole
life's duration of our modern literature? It is of
the great majority of books that are published.
We remark on the price of these books. The
favourite prices are 6s. and 3f. 6d. The books
most bought are novels either at that price, or
those in the cheaper form at 2f., which are not
generally advertised in the Athenaum. And the
novels which become popular retain their vitality
for many years. Not to speak of Scott, Dickens,
or Marryat, any popular novel of the last forty
years is popular still.
But these, remember, are only the advertisements
of a casual week. Consider, one after the other,
the general list of a great publisher, that long and
encyclopaedic document embracing all subjects, and
all authors, dead and living; think of the lists of the
religious publishing houses, which cater chiefly for the
uncultivated class, and administer doctrine disguised
as fiction; think of the immense lists of books by
the so-called popular houses, which issue cheap
literature. One would like to have an enumeration
and an analysis of all the books at this moment
offered to the British public by the publishers.
Certain it is that no shop could contain a tenth
portion. Yet they are in demand—else they would
be withdrawn from the list. For whom are these
thousands of books published, and year after year
reprinted? For this folk who never buy books.
In fact, a great change has come over us in this
as in every other respect. Increased ease in cir
cumstances with an increased taste for letters has
caused us to buy books as we never bought them
before. We are now buyers on a gigantic scale.
Every good book is caught up eagerly. There is
no longer the slightest foundation for the old bogie
of risk; there is no risk about a good book except
the risk of over-printing, which no prudent man will
incur; there are novelists, not by ones or twos, but
by the score, whose books are in demand unknown
even to such admirable writers as, say, Mrs. Gaskell,
of thirty years ago. The three volume novel has
its run as of old; I have not heard that it is
decreasing in demand; but when the cheap edition
of it comes out, if it is a favourite, it is bought by the
very people who have first read it from the library.
Whether we devote as large a proportion of our
expenditure to buying books as we should is another
question. The mind must be nourished as well
as the body; it requires continual reception of new
facts, new thoughts, new theories, new lights, new
arguments. It requires continually to be refreshed
by the exhibition of the old things. In an ordi-
nary middleclass household the wife spends ^400 a
## p. 290 (#348) ############################################
290
THE AUTHOR.
year on her house ; the husband, ,£75 a year on his
wine ; the family, jQi 50 a year on clothes ; the same
amount on travelling; there is also rent; there
are the hundred and fifty little things in which
money is wasted all day long. How much is spent
on books? Formerly, three guineas a year. That
was all. Only three guineas a year for the circu-
lating library and for books, nothing, except a
birthday present or two, and what the children
bought out of their pocket money. But as for any
idea that it is the duty of a man of culture to buy
his mental food as he buys his meat and bread, that
had not dawned upon their minds, nor has it yet,
though, for convenience sake, people have begun
to buy, and will, before long, buy yet more largely.
It will be now understood from these considera-
tions why we drew up certain questions and sub-
mitted them to certain well-known booksellers in
London; our best thanks are due for the courtesy
with which these questions have been answered.
They were not meant to be inquisitive or prying
questions, but general, and directed mainly to
finding an answer to the question at the head of this
paper. Had not the views already expressed been
confirmed, in the main, by these answers, they would
not have been advanced.
The following, therefore, is summarised from the
replies received. Those received from different
houses are put together so as to present a con-
tinuous opinion.
Every well-educated Englishman buys some
books. In every house will be found shelves filled
with books, chiefly new, and in most houses there is
a library, or study, or school room. Students of all
kinds have to buy their text books—a large trade
ir| itself; most professional men have a taste for
reading, and are frequently very good buyers.
Schoolboys, besides having to buy school books,
and young clerks, are great buyers of the cheap
reprints of Lytton, Ainsworth, Dickens, Jules Verne,
&c, which are sold at 4^1. a copy. Ladies are
not, as a rule, good book buyers, except of books
for children, and for household purposes; when
they do buy, it is the two shilling novel. Country
people and visitors buy a great many books. City
men are often large and constant buyers. Some
have their favourite authors, and buy everything
that bears the name. The ordinary middle-class
Englishman, he who lives by his shop, does not, as
a rule, buy or read books at all. His daily paper
is sufficient for him. Yet he will, on occasion, buy
something that strikes his imagination, or that is
much talked about.
Opinions differ as to the best price for selling a
novel. One, for instance, finds that the price of
6s. is paid as readily as that of 35. 6d. Another
says that the best way to treat an author is to
publish him in uniform binding at 3s. 6d. In the
case of a really good and lasting work it seems
best to have several editions at 6.?., at 3s. 6d., and
at 2s. The 6d. books have an enormous sale.
They are generally editions of books whose copy-
right is lapsed. There is, therefore, no author to be
considered. If 100,000 copies go off, the publisher
gets id. a copy, and the bookseller id., and so a
handsome profit is realised.
There is always a great demand for old works of
fiction. Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Scott,
Marryat, Charles Kingsley, and Wilkie Collins,
still continue in greater popularity than any living
writers. The bookseller suffers the living writers
to drop out of his shelves, but always keeps them
well stocked with these dead writers.
Books of travel very quickly die when the first
curiosity is satisfied. Yet there are a few excep-
tions. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle," the
"Voyage of the Sunbeam," Waterton's Travels,
Cook s Voyages, are always in steady demand.
Very few people buy new poetry. Yet for
Tennyson, Browning, Swinburne, Edwin Arnold,
Mathew Arnold, and Longfellow there is always a
steady demand.
As regards essays: these vary with the subjects.
For steady demand we may mention John Morley's
Essays, Charles Lamb, Lubbock's "Pleasures of
Life," Carlyle, &c, while for sudden popularity
may be cited Augustine Birrell and Jerome.
Books of biography possess either a wide interest
soon satisfied, as in the life of a man recently dead,
or an abiding interest as is shown in the steady
demand for the many series now before the world.
Books of history are always in demand. The
most popular are Macaulay, Green, and Froude.
The " Story of the Nations " series is very popular.
The most popular American authors are, taking
them in order of demand—Mark Twain, Bret
Harte. Marion Crawford (if he is to be reckoned
an American), and Howells, Henry James, Holmes,
Emerson.
Foreign books do not compare in popularity
with native productions. Daudet, Georges Ohnet,
Boisgobey, Gaboriau, Dumas, Eugene Sue, Jules
Verne, are largely asked for.
The discount of $d. in the is. has been much
discussed by the trade. A Booksellers' Associa-
tion has been formed to consider this among other
matters. They have come to the conclusion that
the discount must be retained, but that it must not
be increased.
As regards the extent of the colonial trade, no
statistics have been furnished, and perhaps one
cannot expect to arrive at any. But one book-
seller pertinently points out that many houses are
## p. 291 (#349) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
291
engaged in nothing else but the export of books, a
fact which proves that the trade is very great.
Enough has been adduced to prove that it can
no longer be charged against us that we do not
buy books. On the contrary, we buy vast quan-
tities. Whether we buy as many as we ought,
considering the number we read, is another matter.
In our next number we may perhaps, by some
analysis of publishers' lists, arrive at a closer
estimate of the vast national interest of what is
familiarly called the Trade.
UN DEBUT DANS LA VlE.
"OU are now, Martha Londers," said the
Matron of the Orphanage, "about to
enter upon the duties and responsibilities
of life. Your career begins to-day. It depends
upon yourself where it ends. It may be that you
will rise to be housekeeper in a mansion, or even
—such things have happened—to be Matron of an
Institution."
Martha Londers blushed; that is to say, a
naturally rosy face .became fiery red, or even, in
spots, purple; then she smiled—with breadth;
then her eyes became humid, and a big tear, not
of sorrow, but of joyful, emotional hope, swam
gently over the amplitude of her cheek; and her
nose, naturally broad, widened and glistenedi The
occasion was great; the emotion of Martha was
natural; for the first time in her life she was going
to leave the retreat of the Orphanage, and to enter
upon the world. All was before her: she was
seventeen years of age, and she was beginning her
career as assistant housemaid. What then? Many
a field marshal has begun as a common soldier:
many an archbishop has risen from the plough.
To have one foot upon the ladder, even it be the
lowest rung, is something. Martha Londers had
two—solid and substantial feet they were—and she
felt as if she must rise.
"You must be ambitious," continued the
Matron. "Remember that your present wages—
they will be ten pounds at first"—Martha gasped
and choked—" are only a beginning to one who
is ambitious. She who means to rise must show
her ambition by her work. She must be active,
early rising—I think I have detected in you, Martha,
a tendency to an inclination to love your bed—
thorough and zealous. Let all that you do be well
done, thoroughly done—done in earnest—done as
if you meant it to be so well done that not even
the most scrupulous housewife could detect a
fault With these maxims to guide you, Martha
Londers, I may safely leave you. To some girls I
should add a warning about beauty being only
skin deep,"—where, as in Martha's case, it is deeper
than that, it sinks below the surface and becomes
invisible.—"To you I would only say that temp-
tation to all women, beautiful or otherwise, fre-
quently assumes the shape of Man. Beware,
therefore."
"He will be home," said the housemaid, "to
morrow morning. The Master's study has been
left to the last. You can do it this morning,
Martha. As he won't have it touched while he is at
home, make a good job of it"
It was eight o'clock in the morning. The day
was all before her. Martha felt that her work—
she had only been- in the house two days—was
already appreciated. She had been kindly allowed
to scrub the greater part of the house from garret
to cellar, and she was now entrusted with the
important mission of cleaning up the Master's study.
Everybody in the collecting line knows the
name of that Master. No man had a safer judg-
ment about Aldines and Elzevirs; his collection of
Elizabethan poets was almost complete; he knew
the prices of books better than Mr. Bain himself;
and he could talk by the hour of the prices which
books had fetched. Then for bindings, he knew
the work of everyone, Maioli, Grolier, Eve, Derome
—all—and he possessed specimens which were the
envy of all his brother collectors. Again, he had
books which belonged to the library of Marie
Antoinette, of Madame Du Barry, Madame de
Pompadour, and others whose books are valuable
for their bindings and their rarity. In fine, the
chase of books was the chief occupation of his life.
What sayeth "A. L" in his book of the Library?
"Pour tout plaisir que Ton goute icy-bas
La Grace a Dieu. Mieulx vaut, sans altercas,
Chasser bouquin. Nul mat n'en peult s'eh suivre.
Or sus au livre; il est le grand appas.
Clair est le ciel. Amis, qui veult me suivre
En bouquinant?"
He was a man—say, rather, a collector—of
catholic tastes, not bounded by books alone
though his real strength lay in books. He had,
for instance, on a great study table beside the
catalogues which formed his library of reference,
trays of valuable coins; he had Things—he called
them Things—in bronze, Things in brass, Things in
silver; panels lay about with wood carvings upon
them—precious carvings picked up at sales, in
brie h. brae shops, Things from city churches which
they were pulling down, Things from Egypt, Things
from Etruscan tombs, Things from Phoenicia, Things
from Tunis, Things from Spain, Things ancient,
Things mediaeval. The study, in short, a large and
## p. 292 (#350) ############################################
292
THE AUTHOR.
handsome room on the first floor of a big house
in Fitzjohn's Avenue, was crammed and crowded
with old and curious Things.
And Martha Londers, bursting with impatience
to show her zeal, was turned into this room to clean
it up.
It was the last day of the Master's summer
holiday. He had spent it wholly among the
Italian shops. It was never too hot for him, so
long as he could sit among the Things. Rome
in August was as pleasant as Rome in April,
provided there were Things to look at. Where
are there no Things in Italy—Land of Things?
It was over, and he was on his way home. And
Martha Londers was in his study.
She had the house all to herself, because the
other servants went out for a holiday and left
her alone with her work. Alone? No, not alone.
There sat on a corner of the highest shelf, invisible
to Martha, a Creature which grinned and mocked
and laughed, and held its sides and rolled about
with laughing. But not aloud—so that Martha
neither heard nor saw, but went on with her work.
Thorough work; zealous work; work in which
not the most scrupulous housewife could find the
least fault or omission. Work methodical and
complete. Observe that Martha had never before
seen a study or a library. There were books for
the girls at the Orphanage ; they were distributed
for Sunday reading between the three services;
but a library she had never before seen.
First she surveyed the whole; then she took
down a book and found that it was dusty on the
top, and that the shelf behind was very dusty.
Then she saw that many of the books presented a
faded and careworn exterior which she thought she
could improve; and she observed with concern that a
great quantity of the Things wanted cleaning badly.
She went out and returned bearing a mop, a
bucket of warm water, some soap, a scrubbing-
brush, a knife for scraping, some plate powder, and
other ingredients, with the help of which she pur-
posed to pass a useful and a pleasant time.
As she was alone in the house she sang over her
work. At the Orphanage the girls only sang
hymns. Martha, therefore, in a contented mur-
murous kind of croon, while she scrubbed with zeal,
beguiled the time with "Lead, kindly Light."
She first removed the books from the top shelf;
then, mounted on a chair, she sluiced that shelf
with water and scrubbed it with soap, wiping it dry
with a towel. It was beautifully clean when she
finished it. No one would blame her, of course,
because the water dripped through upon the books
below, lodged and lurked between their bindings,
and splashed their backs. She took out those of
the second row, wiped them dry with her towel—
everybody knows how a book bound in Russia
leather or Morocco is improved by a splash of
water and a good rub with a damp towel—and
proceeded to sluice and scrub the boards; and so
on until the morning was spent—the shelves
completely cleaned, and the books, one and all,
beautified for ever with her towel.
Martha, well content so far, now retired to the
kitchen and made a hearty meal off the cold
mutton and potatoes provided for her by the cook
before she left the house. She then mounted the
stairs once more and began the second part of her
work, singing again; but she changed her tune
and now encouraged herself with "Art thou weary?
art thou languid?"
All day long the Creature who sat on the highest
shelf laughed and rolled about with laughing.
But he was invisible to Martha.
When, about seven in the evening, she com-
pleted her job, she had scraped and polished the
bronzes, the coins—for which she used a file—and
the old silver; she had "restored" the old leather
bindings with a material commonly used for
saddles; she had cleaned and wiped the books;
some, though very old, had never been cut—this
omission she repaired; others, mostly pamphlets,
which had ragged edges, she cut even and neat
with a pair of scissors; the wood carvings she had
scraped when that process seemed necessary, and
in all cases had scrubbed so that the panels now
looked really beautiful. No one would notice
and, indeed, it could not matter, that a few bits
had come off—a grape or two, a flower, a flourish,
the round knob of a cherub's nose. Finally, the
Things looked now so very, very much better for
their thorough repair and so different from their
former grimy condition that Martha's honest heart
swelled with pride and pleasure. What would the
Master say when he returned? He would look
about him with surprised satisfaction; he would
ask what new hand had done this: he would be
told that it was the hand of the new under house-
maid, Martha Londers; and he would nod his head,
promising himself to keep his eye upon Martha.
Perhaps he would send for her to express his satis-
faction and his approbation. When Martha, on her
knees that night, made the usual confession of her
sins, she could not help—it was not in human
nature—feeling that for once the good deeds
outweighed the bad, and left a balance to carry
forward. 'Twas a Papistical thought, but she
knew not the errors of the Roman Church, and
may be excused.
The Master, who had been travelling all night,
arrived about seven o'clock. Martha observed
him with curiosity. He was an elderly mm,
somewhere in the fifties or perhaps in the early
## p. 293 (#351) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
293
sixties; he was red-faced and of a full habit, but
he moved with activity—a collector is always
active; sometimes, to get before other collectors,
he must even run. He entered the house.
Martha was dusting the stairs and dropped a
curtsey which he noticed with a nod. It will be a
nod and a smile to-morrow, Martha thought. He
went up stairs—but no—not yet—not into the
study. He first had a change in his bed room,
and then he descended to the dining room and
took breakfast and the morning paper; he then,
being fatigued with his night's travelling, fell asleep
in his easy chair and so continued until noon or
thereabouts.
When he awoke he rose, yawned loudly, and
walked to the door. Martha was dusting the
hall clock. Now, at last, he was going into his
own study.
He was.
As he went up the stairs Martha in her agitation
nearly slipped off the chair on which she was
standing. She stopped her dusting, and steadied
herself to listen. Surely, surely he would notice—
he would not fail to notice—the thoroughness of the
cleaning, the zeal of the cleaner, the completeness
of the job. He must notice it; he must ask who
did it; he must be ready to-morrow with a smile
of appreciation.
What was that? The house trembled from
rafter ridge to basement; the walls rocked to and
fro; the glass on the side-board vibrated musically
but strangely; the pictures rocked and swung;
and Martha's heart stood quite still.
A roar—a long prolonged roar j another roar;
a third, louder and more terrifying. Martha's
cheek turned white and her knees trembled
beneath her as she stood upon the chair. Then a
howl—a prolonged howl as of a wild beast in
agony—and then the ringing of the bell—the study
bell, as if all the bells in the whole house were
ringing at once. Then a hasty footstep upon the
landing, and the Master's head, purple, his eyes
standing out, his arms outstretched, his fists
clenched, showed over the balustrade, while he
cursed and swore with such language as Martha
had never before heard even from the lowest
court, while the Orphans took their walks abroad.
Her head reeled; she fell from the chair headlong
and lay upon the floor.
The housekeeper rushed up the stairs. "Good
Lord !" she cried, "what's the matter?"
The Master seized her by the arm and dragged
her into the study. Now reduced to speechlessness,
save for half articulate interjections which betrayed
his emotion, he pointed to the trays of coins, to
the bronzes, to the old silver, to the books—
to the Things. The woman, who knew what
Things meant, gazed in stupefaction. The Master
roared again. He could now do nothing but
roar.
Downstairs, in the hall, Martha came to herself
and sat up sick with fright. What was the
matter?
The other servants were gathered at the foot of
the stairs listening. Presently, the roaring died
away, and the voice of feminine weeping and
lamentation, mixed with masculine thunderous
rumblings, succeeded.
Still the housekeeper came not down, and still
they listened awestruck by the unknown disaster.
No one took any notice of Martha, though she had
got a lump as big as an egg at the back of her
head by her fall, and though she was white with
terror. For now she understood, somehow or
other, that the trouble overhead was connected
with herself.
At last, the housekeeper came down, her eyes
red with tears.
"Martha," she said, with an attempt at calmness,
"go upstairs and pack your box. Not another
hour shall you stay. Go! You shall have your
month's wages. Go back to your Orphanage.
Tell them that sent you out that you're only fit to
scrub the floors of your Asylum. Go! She's
ruined," the housekeeper explained, "the whole
of the Master's collections—the finest collections
in London. Ruined and spoiled them all, she
has. That's all. Nothing more. Books and
coins, and old silver and all. Go, I say, for fear
I take and slap you. Ruined them all. The
work of the Master's life ruined, and in a single
day by a . . by a . . by a Drab." Martha
screamed and fled. "Oh! it's too much—it's too
much! Poor dear gentleman! He's quite broken
hearted. He can never, never get over it. He's
quieted a bit, at last, and he's sittin' on the floor
now, with his ruined collections round him."
This was Martha Londers' entrance upon her
Career. This was the lamentable fashion in which
she returned to the Matron that same day,
*
THE SIGNED ARTICLE.
THE proposal of Mr, Atkinson to compel the
writers of editorial articles to sigh what
they write has not led to the discussion
one might have expected. But Mr. George
Augustus Sala, in his "Echoes of the Week," had
some very interesting remarks on the merits and
demerits of the signed article. He says, "I have
always been a strenuous advocate of the anony-
## p. 294 (#352) ############################################
294
THE AUTHOR.
mous in journalism so far as leading articles are
concerned." Few people are better qualified to
speak with the authority of so experienced a
journalist as Mr. Sala. If anything should be
anonymous surely it is the leading article, which is
supposed to be the expression of the opinion of the
whole staff of a paper or party rather than of an
individual. Nevertheless there seems to be a
tendency now in favour of signed articles, other
than editorials in the weeklies, for instance; and
the monthly reviews are certainly more read than
the stale confections of the Quarterly and Edin-
burgh, which, if people ever read at all, they pay
little heed to. True, there is a pleasant antiquarian
flavour about the notorious reviews on Keats,
Byron, Thackeray, Tennyson, and the Brontes.
They are relics of the haute ecole of scurrility—
that scurrility which, though like everything else,
as we are told, is in its decadence, is found not
in the new journalism^ but in the newest, the
brand-new journalism. While endorsing the
opinions of Mr. Sala, it is impossible to agree with
Mr. W. H. Smith, that " the liberty of the press,"
with rare exceptions, is far from being abused. The
most disgusting personalities about eminent men
are read every day with relish by thousands. We
hear what an eminent poet eats for breakfast, what
a politician drinks for dinner, the colour of the hair
of the eldest daughter of an eminent painter, and
the details of an internal disease that a well-
known doctor is suffering from. If this is toler-
ated would we be any better by knowing who the
purveyor of such small talk was? What middle-
man of journalism is responsible for jottings from
the area, nursery, and servants' hall?
No, far better to let him or her remain
anonymous. Again, the question of reviewing
books is an insurmountable objection to signed
articles. Some books are bad, and some we do
not like. A reviewer would be plunged into an
impossible correspondence, and the editor would
come in for his share if a review were signed.
Why review books at all? is the question some
people ask; but authors, especially young authors,
like other human beings, are vain, and prefer to
have their works attacked than not noticed at all.
Anonymity in an article on some general
question by an unknown writer, gives that article
a value it might not otherwise possess. It is a
distinct blow to learn that some fine piece
of criticism is not by a Pater or Saintsbury, or
an Andrew Lang, but the first effort of a Mr.
Snook, who has just left the University. Then,
too, there are many really important things a
journalist might say (personality and scurrility
barred) that he could not and would not care to
say if the article were signed. That is why the
Saturday Review contains so much the best
reading in the whole of any of the weeklies. The
signed article should be left to the monthly
reviews, where we can find out what Mr.
Gladstone has been reading, and what Mr. Parnell
is thinking of. This, we believe, is the public point
of view. Many eminent writers take the other side
of the question; but in a daily morning paper, at any
rate, the only signed contributions should be
Reuter's telegrams and the advertisements, so
that false news and false witness may be traced to
their original source. Perhaps the most offensive
type of the brand-new journalism which is always
anonymous, is art criticism. Like science, art
requires a thorough expert, and while anyone is
at liberty to dislike this or that painting, no one
should indulge in personal abuse and offensive
invective of the painter himself.
In all journalism, where some qualification as
well as opinion is requisite, it is as well that a name
should appear; to use Mr. Atkinson's words, "so
that the public may know in each case how much
or how little attention is due to each article.''
F.
[This is one side of the question. Perhaps
some readers might like to add, briefly, their views.
—Editor.]
*
IN GRUB STREET.
—»—
TH R proprietors of Answers are certainly the
most generous patrons of literature. They
have forwarded j£i,ooo, I am told, to the
widow of a man who was killed on the railway,
because he had in his possession a copy of their
entertaining periodical when he met his death.
The advertisement was certainly a splendid one.
The widow of any gentleman found dead with a
copy of the Author on his person, will receive
either a thousand copies of the current number,
or a free copy for life. This generosity should
be encouraged in all grades of journalism and
letters. The Author, though only costing sixpence,
is worth quite a guinea a number.
There are many authors who will not sympathise
with Ouida's complaint in the Titnes, and who
would have considered it rather a compliment than
otherwise to have their nom de plume utilised in
the interests of commerce. It was an act, however,
of flagrant literary piracy, and let us hope that the
company will be courteous enough to find some
## p. 295 (#353) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
295
no less musical and attractive sobriquet as that
which at present belongs to a distinguished
authoress. Shakespeare's creations have been
used to advertise soap and pills, so that Ouida
is certainly in excellent company.
There is a "melancholy and altogether pathetic
interest" attaching to the last story of Mr.
Ignatius Donelly's Great Cryptogam, in which a
Daniel indeed came to judgment. An American
farmer, according to Black and White, had pur-
chased his two volumes under the impression
that Shakespeare would be exposed; when, how-
ever, the tallyman came round for payment he
professed himself unconvinced, and returned the
books. A law suit followed, and the learned
judge, who had something of an Arabian caliph in
him, decided that the farmer would have to disprove
the cryptogam before he would be exempt from pay-
ment. Had it gone the other way, a very dangerous
precedent would have been created. For, on the
same principle, we might refuse to pay booksellers
who supplied us with dull or disappointing works.
The biography of John Wesley, by J. H. Overton
(Methuen and Co.), is one of the very best of the
many lives that have been written, and shows the
great preacher in quite a new light. The compli-
ments that are being paid by one sect of Christians
to another now-a-days are very charming. At the
same time it appears strange for the press, com-
menting on the Wesley centenary, to say that
Wesley " belongs as much to the English Church"
as to the Nonconformists. The same thing has
been said of Newman lately. Now these two
eminent divines made themselves famous, either
by leaving the English Church or causing others
to leave it. I do not think, therefore, that the
Anglican Church can lay much more claim to them
than the Roman Communion can Dollinger or
Renan.
♦
To return once more to Mr. Andrew Lang's
"Essays in Little." The boldest of us may tremble
before admitting that we disagree with him.
There is no more appreciative writer living, unless
it be Mr. Ruskin; then why cannot he see some-
thing in the Russian novelists? He is always tilt-
ing at them : whether he is speaking of Dumas,
Thackeray, or Dickens. Perhaps it is the admirers
of Tolstoi that Mr. I^ang objects to. There are
three ways of taking Tolstoi: one of them is to read
him, the second way is to admire him, and the
third way is to abuse him. Mr. Lang has tried a
vol. L
combination of all three, but surely one may burn
incense at the high altar of Shakespeare, let us say,
and at the same time have a side chapel for Mr.
Andrew Lang. Cannot the same argument be
applied to Dumas and Dostoieffsky? In Tolstoi's
short stories especially there are moments as good
as any in English literature.
Speaking of Dickens again, Mr. Andrew Lang
is very angry with those people who say they
cannot read Dickens, but it is much better to say
so than to pretend to an admiration of the
"darling of the English people." In one of
Mr. James Payn's delightful essays on the sham
admiration of literature, he tells several amusing
stories thereon, one of a lady who confessed she
could not see the fun of John Gilpin, and a gentle-
man who preferred the "Earthly Paradise" to
"Paradise Lost." Even at the expense of cutting
a poor figure, surely it is better to be honest about
what you like to read. I much prefer reading, for
instance (I know many will, but in secret, agree
with me), "Essays in Little" to Milton's reply to
Salmasius.
The death of Poet Close was a local rather than
a national loss. No doubt some future Mr. Andrew
Lang will be able to find something as amusing in
his work, as Mr. Lang has found in that of Haynes
Baily. Like Mr. Martin Tupper, he belonged to
the good rather than to the great. The death of
Fortune1 du Boisgobey, though hardly noticed in
most of the English papers, received an eloquent
obituary notice in the pages of the Saturday
Revieiv. I confess that I envy those people who
were amused by him. I think Hugh Conway told
much better stories, and that several other English
writers of sensational fiction are better than this
French novelist on his own ground.
All writers of sensational novels have at one time
or another been hard pressed for an idea, and the
mysterious disappearance of a lady from the Law
Courts the other day is full of suggestion for a
capital romance. Some enterprising journal might
offer a prize for the best story founded on the
incident. It would be very amusing to see how
each person worked at the explanation of the
mystery.
Mr. Egerton Castle, having already distinguished
himself as an author, has been winning further
laurels at the Lyceum. "Consequences" has
2 13
## p. 296 (#354) ############################################
296
THE AUTHOR.
reached its second edition, so let us hope it will
soon appear in one~ volume. If poetry is in
danger, fiction is certainly safe when Mr. Castle
has won the public applause. Perhaps he will
be generous enough to give us also ere long a
second edition of his delightful lecture.
The March number of the Fortnightly Revinv
which, with the exception of the Author, is the best,
I think, of all the monthly periodicals, is particularly
interesting. Mr. Swinburne has some splendid
stanzas for a statue of Marlowe, and Mr.
Meredith continues "One of our Conquerors."
Mr. Oscar Wilde gives a very original form of a
preface for "Dorian Grey," in which he rebukes
his critics in a series of pregnant aphorisms.
"Dorian Grey," who shines like an evil thing in a
very good story, will shortly appear with more
harmonious surroundings than Lippincotfs Maga-
zine. Among the many good articles in the
Fortnightly, that on "Rossetti and the Moralists"
is unfortunate. The writer seems to me to have
entirely misconceived Rossetti's genius, and mis-
understood the position he occupies in literature
and art.
Mr. George Moore has reprinted more than a
dozen articles. They form a most interesting
volume. It would be pleasant to notice many of
them at some length. The articles on Balzac,
Turgenieff, Verlaine, Rimbault, are highly
suggestive, as is indeed all Mr. George Moore's
work in this his special field of criticism. With
regard to Turgenieff, I have never understood the
disproportionate admiration felt for the least re-
markable of the new Russian novelists. We have
again studies on " Le Reve " and Ibsen's "Ghosts."
The " Notes on Ghosts " has come very opportunely
before the appearance of the play at the Royalty.
If there is anything to be said against Mr.
George Moore's book, it is that the egoism which
he displays is to be regretted.
♦
Perhaps the article on the new pictures in the
National Gallery is rather out of place in a volume
on literary subjects, nor can I think that the
pictures of Mr. Frith are otherwise than eminently
in their place in the British School. Whether
that school deserves a place in the Gallery is another
matter.
Verlaine is one of the most remarkable
characters of the second half of the century,
reminding us, as we are apt now to forget, that strong
and sincere religious belief has always been found
compatible with great disorder of life. A considera-
tion of his life and works would be a wholesome
occupation for " Moralitarians " of all kinds. They
cannot do better than begin with Mr. George Moore's
study. The "Balzac " is an article first printed
in the Fortnightly, "increased to nearly three times
its original length," and greatly improved. As a
realistic critic of Balzac, Mr. George Moore is
far superior in power and appreciation to any other
Englishman. His notice of that little appreciated
and most powerful etude, "La Vieille Fille," is
masterly, and his remarks on "Le Cure" de Tours"
entitle him to even higher praise; they are
peculiarly terse and elucidating, a really fine
example of appreciative criticism. I cannot wholly
agree with Mr. George Moore's rubric, "that pro-
bably the only way to convey a suggestion of the
genius of the great novelist lies through the minor
pieces." But certainly the minor pieces have never
been sufficiently considered, and " La Vieille Fille"
is one of the finest, superior in every respect to
the better known" Femme de trente ans."
Apropos of Balzac, compilers of anecdotes con-
cerning him generally forget the characteristic
note of Hans Christian Andersen in his "Mit
Livs Eventyr." Describing his visit to Paris in
1843, ne says:—" Balzac, whose acquaintance I
made at this time, I first saw in the salon of
Madame laComtesse de Bocarmd, as a fashionable,
well-dressed personage. His white teeth gleamed
between his red lips. He seemed a jovial man,
but he did not talk much, at any rate in that
circle. A lady who wrote verses fastened herself
on to him and me; she drew us aside to a sofa
and sat herself down between us. While she was
talking with modest hesitation about how small she
felt between us, I turned my head and caught
sight behind her back of Balzac's laughing, satirical
face and half-open mouth, slyly turned towards me.
This was our first meeting. One day I was going
through the Louvre. There I met a man in face,
figure, and gait exactly like Balzac. But the man
was dressed in shabby, worn-out clothes—really
dirty they were. His shoes were all burst out, his
trousers bespattered with dry mud, and his hat all
misshapen and cracked. I stopped short; the
man smiled at me, then I went on, but he was so
incredibly like—I turned back, ran after him, and
said, 'It can't be Herr Balzac!' The man
laughed, showing his white teeth, and said only,
'Monsieur Balzac started for St. Petersburg this
morning.' He pressed my hand, his own was fine
and soft, he nodded, and was gone. It must
## p. 297 (#355) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
297
have been Balzac; perhaps he had been on one of
his exploring expeditions among the mysteries of
Paris. Or was the man someone else, who,
being extremely like Balzac, and having often
been taken for him, was amusing himself by
mystifying a foreigner? Two days afterwards,
when I was talking to Madame Bocarml, she
gave me a message of farewell from Balzac—he
had gone to St. Petersburg."
As we might have expected, a delicate, half-
satiric sense of humour was the point of contact
between the all-comprehensive Balzac and the
charming, childlike Dane. How delighted Balzac
would be with the exquisite blending of pathos
and humour in the tale, " En Hjertesorg," the grief
of a little child who had no trouser button to pay
the toll the other children exacted to attend the
funeral of a dead pug.
Everyone knows the story which Byron told
Medwin. Shortly before Shelley's death he had a
horrible nightmare. "He thought that a figure
wrapped in a mantle came to his bedside and
beckoned him; he got up and followed it; when
in the hall the phantom lifted up the hood of his
cloak, showed Shelley the phantasm of himself,
and saying ' Siete satisfatto ?'—vanished. Shelley
had been reading a strange drama, which is
supposed to have been written by Calderon,
entitled, "El embozado, 6 el encapotado." It is
so scarce that Washington Irving told me he had
sought for it without success in several of the
public libraries of Spain."
Where did Shelley obtain this play? Was it a
Spanish play at all which he had read? Were
Byron or Medwin correct? Does Washington
Irving throw any further light on the subject?
The authorship of Calderon is immaterial; so
many plays by other authors were printed as his in
his lifetime that it was necessary for him to make
a list of his works. This list is known to be
incomplete, but the point for remark is that no
play entitled "El embozado " or "El encapotado"
is mentioned in any of the exhaustive editions of
Calderon among plays erroneously attributed to
him. The title, again, is not mentioned in the
lists of anonymous Spanish dramas. On the other
hand there is a play of Agustin Moreto which
in certain details suggests that he may have
known some such story. The subject is a fasci-
nating one, suggesting, as it must have done, one
of the finest tales of the greatest of English writers
vol. 1.
of short tales, and again brought to our memory
by the wonderful pen and ink sketch of Rossetti
called "How they met themselves." The well-
known stories of Theophile Gautier and Robert
Louis Stevenson represent a similar but not the
same idea; at any rate the point of view from
which they regard the idea is different. Can any
of our readers give any information concerning the
play?
Miss E. S. G. Saunders is bringing out a volume
entitled, " Thoughts for the present Lectionary; or,
the New Christian Year."
Mr. Stanley Little contributes an article entitled,
"The Camera's Service to Art," to the April
number of the Photographic Quarterly.
Mr. Hume Nisbet is producing this month, (1)
"A Colonial Tramp: Being Adventures through
Australasia and New Guinea." 2 vols. 32^.
Ward and Downey. (2) "The Black Drop."
2s. 6d. Trischler and Co. (3) The third edition
of " Bail Up!" Chatto and Windus.
He has also an article on "The Papuan and
his Master," in the Fortnightly Review.
Under the pseudonym of Evelyn Ballantyne,
Mr. Eustace R. Ball has contributed on Continental
Music Halls to the March number of the
Theatre.
An article on " Weighing the Stars," by Mr. J.
E. Gore, F.R.A.S., appears in the Gentleman's
Magazine for February, and another on "Planetary
Nebula;" in the February number of the Monthly
Packet.
♦
A new and cheaper edition of Mr. James Sully's
"Pessimism," with a review of pessimistic literature
up to the present date, has just been issued by the
publishers, Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench and Co.
Mr. William Westall has written a one volume
story, entitled "Back to Africa: A Confession."
It will be published by Ward and Downey in the
course of the present month. R.
*
2 B 2
## p. 298 (#356) ############################################
298
THE AUTHOR.
THE PARNASSUS PUBLISHING
ASSOCIATION.
THE Association consists of one man, Mr.
Joseph Haggerston Dalston. With him
are associated as many literary aspirants
as he can persuade to publish with him at their cost
and risk.
Here is my experience with Mr. Joseph Hag-
gerston Dalston. Some time ago, while I was con-
cluding a novel with which I intended to astonish
the world, I received a letter from Mr. Dalston,
stating that he was an author's agent, and as he
enclosed what appeared to be bonA fide testimonials,
I replied to his letter. This reply doubtless war-
ranted him in assuming my inexperience of
business.
In subsequent letters he offered to read my
story for a fee of one guinea. This, for what
he called himself, "an editorial expert whose
opinion should be at once authoritative and final,"
was not expensive. Before closing with his offer,
however, I asked for proof that he had that
influence with publishers which he claimed. By
return came a letter enclosing one of recent date,
from a publishing house of the highest standing,
which was to the effect that they were very much
obliged to him for having brought them the MS.
of Mr. •, which they were prepared to publish
immediately, paying the author a royalty. This
proof seemed to me sufficient, especially when
read in connection with the following wail of Mr.
Dalston. "Unfortunately, however, even in large
London publishing houses of assured authority and
repute, few follow religiously the 'reading' of a
new MS. by an unknown writer, while so many
knmvn (yet not always repeatedly successful)
authors are at the ' beck and call' of the majority
of the large publishers to go on at any time
mechanically writing 'to order'—too often a curse
to the 'pot-boiling' reputation of the author, and
ergo lesseningly attractive to these authors' favourite
readers—a majority of the stupid reading public,
too easily and too stupidly satisfied, to the
oft-time exclusion of a new writer waiting with
better work, but unable to pass with it through
the barrier that too often bars the way to talent
and genius in other directions than 1 literary
land."'
The "rough copy" of my manuscript I for-
warded to his address for an opinion.
Nearly a month elapsed before I obtained any
reply, but repeated applications elicited the follow-
ing: "Your MS. has really demanded from me
more attention and deliberate care than I had at
first anticipated. In the first place, I may say,
that I did not like your introduction, but the con-
cluding chapters minimise my first objection, which
we may now let pass. The opening is clever and
startling, and prepares the reader's mind with a
powerful piquancy for the more attractive artistic
'actualities' so skilfully drawn throughout the
book; and the successive chapters increasing, as
they do in interest, will hold the reader in sensa-
tional subjection—fascinated by that mental mes-
merism which enthralls at every turn of your
pages.
"Splendidly subjective and appalling are Chaps,
xxi and xxii. 'The Captain' also is interestingly
introduced and cleverly conducted to his doom!
"Other chapters teeming with touches of talent
will gain 'good words' for your work from the
Reading World and Critics, even as fine present-
ments of human passion, the littleness of life, and
the greatness of death pourtrayed by your pen, inter
alia in , , , have never been formed
in the one time ever-praised pages of Bulwer!
Dickens!! and Wilkie Collins!!!
"So swayed in this connexion, then, I hold to
the belief that there are 'situations' in your nar-
rative that will awaken attention from many who
are now steeped in sluggish 'society' stupor, whilst
the psychological problems still awaiting solution
will invite keener study from the scientist, and 'set
the mind thinking'!
"The lurid light of English intellectuality, quick-
ening in its intensity by recent remarkable revela-
tions in the Press, now searchingly turns toward
what little is known of lawless life in Africa, that
mysterious and uncivilized clime—and in the near
future, perhaps, when we can discern more truths
—coming to us, though they may, through the
thinly-veiled romanticism of another Hanwell—
then your and other philanthropic warning words
shall stir the public pulse into indignation or re-
volt, until the lightning message of rnercy, release,
and reform is flashed from England to Mashona!"
I am still inclined to think that this gratifying
opinion is worth the guinea it cost me, especially
when it is compared with the trivial comments of
friends who have begged my books, or of critics whom
I have feasted, treated, and entertained at a much
greater cost. The indefatigable Mr. Dalston did
not, however, expect to rest with one guinea, for
with the letter which accompanied his opinion, was
one with "Suggestions for Publishing," in which
I was reminded that, "Looking at the immediate
interest that would probably result from bringing
out the book at once, it may be considered ex-
pedient to publish the book on the author's own
account! Mr. Haggerston Dalston, trading as the
Mongoose Publishing Co., and publisher of the
Muses' Herald, will undertake the work. "The first
cost would be ^ioo (the actual cost of producing
## p. 299 (#357) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
299
the first edition of a book in same form as pro-
posed by Mr. Dalston is £23 17-r.), after sending
100 copies for reviews, &c, the sale of 900 books,
1 vol., at 6s. (less discount to trade, &c), would
leave about £80 net profit. A smaller size type
and vol. would cost £60, first edition, and leave
about £40 net profit. The total editions of the
first twelve months would probably leave a net
profit (if published as suggested) of ,£1,000 to
It would be interesting to know the figures upon
which the estimated profits are based; there is a
preciseness about the £1,575 greatly at variance
with the round sum of £100, the estimated cost
of production.
I did not close with the offer, and directed my
man to "place" the story with a good firm of
publishers.
A few days later he wrote making a further offer
to publish on same terms as had been accepted
by an author whose agreement (!) he forwarded to
me. "You will forward me a cheque for £10,
agreeing to pay a further £10 on receipt of proofs,
and a final £10 when the book is in your hands,
remaining risk and profits will be equally divided
between publisher and author."
Returning the stamped agreement of the author
who had accepted these terms (his book has not
yet appeared), 1 again asked Mr. Dalston to get my
MS. accepted by a publisher. He wrote me that
his offer was not "unworthy of acceptance," seeing
that, for the gradual outlay of ^30, an edition of
1,000 copies would have expeditiously followed,"
then for six weeks failed to reply to any of my letters.
"Respecting your MS.," he wrote in the last
letter I received from him, "I am greatly dis-
appointed at receiving it back from , whose
manager I had seen before submitting yours and
two other MSS.—all now returned.
"When unaccepted, the daily consensus of suc-
cessful scribblers seems to be—publish on your
own account; but of course, this, as you know,
is not an easy matter. However, I shall venture
to publish the three MSS. (yours and the com-
mercial's, and that written by a doctor's wife) under
the following conditions, namely:—£10 in ad-
vance, £10 further to be paid to me when proofs
are in the hands of author, and £10 when the
book is published and distributed, profits after
publication to be equally divided between author
and publisher."
This being a similar offer to the one already
proffered and refused, I determined to call upon
the man and to secure my MS.
The gentleman who is manager of the Mongoose
Publishing Company, manager of the Muses' Pub-
lishing Association, editor and publisher of the
Muses' Herald, must surely be a busy man, yet I
had to call many times at the room—it was on the
second floor back—before I found the room occu-
pied. Mr. Dalston is not a. young man, and he has
a pleasing manner of address. He rarely speaks
to the point, but abuses in general terms all the pub-
lishing houses and their readers, and he never
allows you to leave his presence without asking
you for a money contribution to one or other of
his ventures.
As for the contents of his office there were two
chairs, a table, a set of pigeon holes and MSS.
In fact, the room was entirely furnished with MSS.
It was simply full of "copy" piled from floor to
ceiling, lying upon chairs and table, and floor, and
fender. By a lucky chance my packet was upper-
most of a newly made file, and was rescued without
difficulty.
Mr. Haggerston Dalston is now manager and
everything else of a brand new association called
the Parnassus Publishing Association. A clean
sweep has been made of the MSS., and the name
plate at the house and the Muses' Herald being
defunct, with the Mongoose Publishing Company,
a new plate is in preparation showing that here are
the Central Offices (second floor back) of the
"Parnassus Publishing Company" and of "Par-
nassus Slopes," its magazine. Authors are now
being invited by such papers as will take the ad-
vertisements, to send their MSS. to the Company,
and the old game has begun apain. The bait is
the offer of "remunerative openings" and the
promise that " suitable MSS.J' are promptly paid for.
As for the magazine, every contributor must pay
in advance for a whole year—it will probably
collapse in a month or two, as happened with
"Parnassus Slopes."
Then the Company will disappear too. What
becomes in the end of all the MSS., nobody knows.
Perhaps not one in a thousand is worth anything.
Yet that such an end—disappearance in this sink
of low cunning—should be the fate of MSS. about
which so many glowing hopes were formed, is
melancholy indeed.
*
CORRESPONDENCE AND CASES.
( The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed or
the statements made by correspondents.)
The Production of Vouchers.
ACASE has been lately brought before a
London Court which promises to become
interesting and useful. It was to this
effect. A certain publisher transferred his business
## p. 300 (#358) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
to another firm. Two of the authors whose books
he had published on the "half-profit" system,
moved by Counsel that the second firm should
be called upon to find vouchers for all the items of
receipts and expenditure supplied to the authors.
Their Counsel argued that the first firm only was
responsible for any claims. The judge, however,
granted the order asked for, reserving the question
of costs. We hope to publish the further history
of this case.
»
On Advertisements.
I wish to draw the attention of your readers to
two points which are generally lost sight of by an
author when signing his contract. When disposing
of a book upon the royalty system, one of the usual
clauses is, "That all expenses of advertising shall
be borne by the said publishers."
It is by paying out monies for advertisements in
addition to disbursing the cost of production that
the publisher earns his right to his lion's share, i.e.,
the amount of cash that remains after paying the
royalty to the author.
Now let us suppose the case of an author who
is pretty well known and whose three volume novels
will be assuredly subscribed, we will say, to be well
within the mark, to five hundred copies. If the
publisher does not advertise at all he nets the
entire difference between the trade price and the
cost of production less the author's royalties—upon
the five hundred copies. Therefore the less he
advertises the better for it.
But this is not all, the author who is absolutely
in the hands of his publishers in the matter of
advertising, often finds his book a sort of Christian
thrown to the lions. The reason is not far to seek;
somebody has to be "gibbeted," somebody has to
be "guyed," and naturally the books that are not
advertised go upon the black list, and the reviewer
is given a free hand and told to work his wicked
will upon them.
The result of such "gibbeting" is probably not
felt by the author till he comes to dispose of his
next venture, say to some other publisher. "Your
last book was very severely reviewed, Mr. Nibbs,"
says the publisher, " and we have sent over to our
friends, Messrs. Barabbas, who tell us that only five
hundred copies were subscribed."
It is thus that an author may lose ground, all
for the want of a ha'porth of tar in the shape of
having a cut and dried clause as to hoto much is to
be spent in advertisements, and where it is to be
spent.
For novels, at all events, a certain amount of
advertisement is necessary; reviews even very
favourable reviews, and the mere fact that the book
is on Messrs. Smith's and Mudie's lists to be
issued to first class subscribers only is not enough
to keep the book before the public.
Then where advertisements are to appear is m
portant.
The writer once published an eight and sixpenny
book, on the half-profit system, which ran into a
second edition. There were no profits, because the
book was advertised not wisely, but too well. "If,"
thought the writer, "that mighty firm went on with
a second edition, surely there must be profits, some
profits, at all events, upon the first." Not a bit of
it; the book was said to be swamped by advertise-
ments. The writer went through the list of
advertisements, and he found that his book had
been advertised in the " Piscatorial Bulletin." He
innocently wondered at this selection; when he
found who the Bulletin belonged to, his wonder
ceased. Perhaps after all the Fishing Fraternity
are fond of oriental experiences. Who knows but
that they may buy up the whole second edition?
Not that the writer cares one brass button, because
even if it were so, he feels certain that no half
profits would ever accrue to him, because of course
they'd be all mopped up by judicious advertise-
ments in the " Piscatorial Bulletin," &c.
Pachyderm.
[The writer will find the subject of advertising
treated in Mr. Sprigge's "Methods of Publishing."
—Ed.]
Authors and Reviewers.
There are two questions I should like answered.
First—Do reviewers conscientiously read the books
with which they deal? Second—Do their criti-
cisms honestly reflect the opinions that they have
formed?
Now any author worthy of the name must value
and appreciate criticism which, however adverse,
is nevertheless honest, discriminating, and intelli-
gent. So far, at any rate, even if no farther, do I
consider myself worthy to be called an author. I
like being told what points in a work of mine are
good, and what are bad. It is an intellectual
satisfaction to me, and I feel precisely the same
sort of gratitude to any reviewer that an intelligent
student of painting or music unquestionably feels
towards an able teacher, however severe his stric-
tures occasionally may be. But my faith in critics,
and consequently my good disposition towards
them, have been considerably shaken of late. I
find they contradict each other so wildly, that it
is impossible for the most humble-minded writer
## p. 301 (#359) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
301
to learn anything from them; and they occasionally
give grave grounds for the suspicion that they
have never even read the book they are professing
to review.
Let me give an instance from my own experience.
Two years ago or thereabouts, I published a novel.
The book was widely reviewed, and I, a tyro in
the art of fiction, felt very curious indeed to see
how my first effort would be received by experts.
Here are some of the verdicts.
The Saturday said it was undeniably a clever
book—satirical, humorous, and amusing; appa-
rently the work of a man who had observed and
thought; an original and readable novel.
The AthetuBum said that it was the most com-
pletely worthless novel the editor had seen for a
long time.
The Manchester Examiner said that were the
critic compelled to characterise it by one epithet,
that epithet would be "vivacious." Unflagging
vivacity was its great charm.
The Sunday Times, on the other hand, con-
demned it as " always dull."
The Manchester Examiner, again, praised my
"constructive ability"; while—
My publisher's reader informed me that a lack
of constructive ability was my chief weakness.
I might fill two columns of your paper with
similar examples. But surely these are enough—
enough to bewilder anybody. Am I dull, or am I
vivacious? Am I clever, or am I a fool? Is my
book original, satirical, humorous, &c, or is it
the most completely worthless novel out? Surely
I am not unreasonable in asking whom I am to
believe.
One word more. I spoke to my publishers about
one of the notices—a notice which appeared to me
gratuitously and unintelligently insolent. "Oh!"
replied the worthy man I was addressing, "I think
I can explain that. The gentleman who wrote
that review of your book threatened to 'slate'
whatever we might send him, unless we advertised
in his paper. We did not give him an advertise-
ment, and you, unfortunately, are made to suffer."
Perhaps this may throw some light on my second
question. An Obscure Novelist.
—»~—
Accepted.
In January, 1889, a MS. was accepted for a
certain periodical. In May the publisher was
changed. In July, the new publisher accepted
three other MSS. and "also the one sent to the
late Editor," the price of the whole being stated
by letter. My writing name was published among
the other contributors, and I was urged in different
ways to help to make the magazine known.
None of the MSS. appearing, after eighteen months
I wrote to ask the cause, and was coolly informed
that the Editor had more MSS. on hand than he
could use, and he would return them.
I offered to wait, but positively declined to have
them back, but by return of post they arrived in a
very tattered condition. There was neither
"smash " nor "crash " in this case—the periodical
is said to be flourishing. M. J. D. S.
Literary Godchildren.
There is a literary Nemesis when a popular
author suffers from the intrusion of the manuscripts
of aspirants after fame. But when an unknown
writer—who finds a difficulty in having an article
accepted, and as great trouble to get paid for it—
is troubled for advice and assistance in getting the
work of others placed and remunerated—then the
Furies are the old women one blames for the mis-
management of affairs.
Fifteen years ago a friend of mine wrote a play and
demanded my opinion of it. I did not dare to give
anyexpression of criticism of a tragedy thathe assured
me was more tragical than Scott's "Bride of Lam-
mermoor," and more impregnated with humour
than Schiller's "Wallenstein." I was even able to
refuse when I knew that one of the poet's friends
said, "No such work of genius had been written
since Shakespeare's plays first saw the light." For-
tunately, I escaped without much censure in this
case. My friend said that he regretted my decision,
because he "had a certain amount of respect for
my taste." He did not insist on submitting his
proofs to me.
The next experience was more amusing, if a little
more costly. A schoolboy who had got into debt
wrote to a member of my family asking for 7*.,
stating that he was about to write a three volume
novel, that he had money owing for a short story,
and enclosing some of his essays. The money was
sent without any literary advice. And by the next
post came a request for 1is. more " to save him
from disgrace."
Another manuscript was submitted to my judg-
ment by a young woman who wished to make a
profession of letters. It was clearly written, well
paragraphed, and fairly interesting in matter. I
had great pleasure in encouraging the writer, and
urging her to perseverance. Now, I am glad to
write, she is successfully supplementing her income
by her pen.
The last case is perhaps the most painful. In
my desk at this moment there lies a morocco
bound volume, in whose pages a beautiful, unfortu-
nate girl has written part of her life experience. She
## p. 302 (#360) ############################################
302
THE AUTHOR.
asks my opinion of her confession. It has origin-
ality and observation, but otherwise it is unreadable.
The writer is sensitive, and so much spoiled by
the flattery of her friends, that it will be puzzling
for me to speak the truth without giving some
pain. A.
Gratuitous Contributions.
I lately offered a short story to the editor of a
popular magazine. It was accepted, but when I
came to ask what was the scale of remuneration
for such contributions I was blandly informed that
ladies and gentlemen were usually willing to supply
the magazine in question with " copy," without hope
of any other remuneration than the pleasure and
glory of seeing themselves in print! Now this is
by no means a rare instance of a practice on the part
of authors which I think cannot be better described
than as the process of " cutting their own throats."
The lamentable weakness with which writers
consent to give away the work of such brains as they
possess is one to be severely deprecated. It is to
my thinking an act of arrant folly, injurious not only
to those who indulge in it, but to others. I can,
in fact, conceive nothing more mischievous, as
lowering the price of literature in the market, than
this habit, widely spread as it is, of gorging the
pages of periodical publications with gratuitous con-
tributions to the exclusion of matter that would
otherwise be paid for. For is it to be expected
that the proprietor of a magazine would pay for the
stories, articles, &c, offered to him by some writers
when he is able to get any quantity of such com-
positions from others at no cost whatever?
The scale of pay allowed by many magazines is
poor enough as it is. It is not uncommon for
certain very well-known periodicals to offer such
miserable remuneration as 2s. and 2s. 6d. a page,
while 5*. a page is considered in such quarters as
something magnificent in its liberality. I have
really been surprised to find how strictly moderate
are the views on the subject of payment entertained
by the conductors of magazines which might be
expected to offer at any rate something like ade-
quate compensation for one's time and trouble.
The reason of this parsimony is of course "gratuit-
ous contributions." It is poor stuff for the most
part, no doubt, that is thus given away, but it seems
to be good enough for the editor's purpose. But,
I contend, everything, whether good, bad or
indifferent, should have its price. It is not to be
expected that the magazines should be filled in
every page, every month, with first-class literature.
Many of these periodicals are circulated among a
class of readers who are not over particular as to
the quality of the wares supplied to them, just as
in other markets people are content with cheap and
inferior articles. Yet everything is surely worth
something, if it can be sold, and every story, or
other lucubration, which is worth printing ought to
be worth paying for.
I am afraid it must be said that ladies are the
worst offenders in this particular. I do not greatly
blame them. They have, as a rule, little experience
or knowledge of the business side of literature, and
though some of them dream of making fortunes by
their pens, too many, with an excess of diffidence,
think they can hardly aspire so high as to be paid
like what they call "a regular author." It is these
amateurs who cheapen the literary market, and
many of them are worth a price, even though it be
a small one. Let them at any rate not be content
with the mere acceptance of their stories and
sketches, but ask for pay, and, when refused, with-
draw their contributions and send them elsewhere.
Many an article which would be eagerly taken by
one of those editors who never pay when they can
help it, would be found acceptable by others of
more liberal habit. At the worst, failing to get
their contributions into the paying magazines, they
could fall back upon the non-paying ones. These
last only deserve to have the very dregs of the
scribbling art.
I therefore raise my voice in earnest protest
against this pernicious custom of offering contri-
butions for nothing, or allowing them to be pub-
lished without any remuneration whatever. The
Society of Authors, I think, could do no greater
service to the cause at least of periodical literature
than by making it as widely known as possible that
all contributors to magazines, &c, will be duly paid
for if only the contributors are firm enough to
refuse to write for nothing. If such an appeal did
not put a stop to this practice it might at least
diminish the mischief arising from it. Pray then
advise all authors, amateur and otherwise, whenever
it is proposed to print their contributions for noth-
ing, to return the reply so often received by some
of them—" declined with thanks."
No Pay, No Pen.
—*—
A Coincidence?
Will you allow me to draw attention to a case of
curious similarity between two stories—the one by
Mr. Ernest Rhys, entitled "The Last Drearn of
Julius Roy," which appeared in Macmillan's Maga-
zine last month, and the other signed by my name,
which appeared in the Newbery House Magazine
## p. 303 (#361) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
3°3
of July, 1890, and which was entitled, "A Great
Success"? I sketch the outline of the two stories
in parallel columns :—
Mr. Ernest Rhys's story.
My story.
"A GREAT SUCCESS."
THE LAST DREAM OF
TULIUS ROY."
July, 1890.
An author after a long life
of failure starts from Trafalgar
Square in a condition of ab-
normal excitement, and rushes
down the .Strand, intent upon
lunching at a Tavern, Fleet
Street being suggested. He
orders a lunch which for him
is unusually sumptuous. He
has been full of unreal inflated
hope, but overhears a con-
versation in which he realises
for the first time the abject -
ness of his own failure. He
has had ale with his lunch.
He throws his arms over the
table, lays his head on them,
falls asleep and dreams. The
dream takes the form of his
own troubled experience.
Again he is "hurrying through
the streets of the great city."
He is on his way to the
palace of Fame. There is a
gate which has to be passed
through; before he gets in he
has to present a gift. This
gift he holds in his hand, but
it dwindles and vanishes.
He falls before the door at
last, defeated and in despair.
Then the dream changes;
the door is unexpectedly
opened by an unseen hand,
and he beholds a face known
yet unknown, which smiles
upon him. The poor author
enters in to find the aspiration
of his life satisfied in ways
not looked for by him. When
found by the people of the
Tavern, he is dead.
February, 1891.
An author after ten years
of failure, starts from Trafal-
gar Square, goes to Pall Mall
to put on a dress coat, and
finally returns in an abnormal
state of excitement on his way
to a Tavern ("The Three
Friars") in Fleet Street, to
have supper there. He orders
an unusually sumptuous me al
He has been realising the
abjectness of his own failure,
but on his way he meets with
his old love, who gives him a
flower, and he i« now in a state
of wild, unreal hope. He has
wine with his supper, and he
throws his arms over the table,
falls asleep, and dreams. The
dream takes the form of his
own troubled experience.
He is "being whirled rapidly
through the streets of a dark
and unknown city," in a car-
riage with the beloved woman
by his side. He gets to a
place which is a Theatre, and
sees a phantasm of himself on
the stage struggling in vain
to pass in at a Gate; the
phantasm falls down at last
before the Gate, baffled and
defeated. He goes on to the
Stage to look after his own
Phantasm. He himself knocks
at the Gate, and it is thrown
open, and the beloved woman
stands before him smiling.
Then he receives in unex-
pected ways the desire of his
life. When the waiter comes
to rouse him, he is dead.
E. Fairfax Byrrne.
The Authors' Club.
I am in favour of an Authors' Club. I think it
would be greatly to the advantage of authors to
come together oftener than once a year at a big
dinner, and to have more frequent opportunity
of exchanging ideas and "comparing notes." Of
this I can give an illustration. Two years ago
at our annual dinner, I sat next to a brother
novelist, whose acquaintance I then made for the
first time. That morning I had received from the
vol. 1.
editor of a weekly magazine of whose financial
position I knew nothing, a request to write a
Christmas story for him. Thinking my neighbour
might be better informed, I inquired whether he
had ever done ought for the periodical in question.
"Yes," says he, "I did a Christmas story for it
last year but one, and I have not got paid for it
yet."
On this hint I acted; when I answered the
editor's letter, I named my price, and made it a
condition that I should be paid on his receipt of
my MS. With this condition he did not see fit
to comply, and I did not see fit to write the story.
Again, the other day I chanced to meet a
member of the Society of Authors at the office in
Portugal Street, to whom I mentioned that I had
been requested to write a story for a well known
magazine. "Be sure you make a bargain before-
hand," he observed, "or you will get a good deal
less than you expect." On this hint also I acted.
I named my price, and was offered half—which I
did not accept. Observe that in neither of these
cases did the editor make any mention of terms.
That, presumably, was to be left an open question,
and would have proved a troublesome one for me,
a trouble from which I was saved by being a
member of the Society of Authors.
The chief difficulty in the formation of an
Authors Club' seems to me to lie in the defini-
tion of "author." Will every man and woman
who has written a trashy novel or volume of
poetry, and paid for its production, be eligible
for admission? And if not, where will you draw
the line? W.
[The line must be drawn by the Committee or
the managing body of the Club.—Editor.]
THE AUTHOR'S BOOK STALL.
[This column is open for lists of books wanted, books
offered for exchange and books offered for sale. Initials
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editor will place correspondents in communication with each
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Letters enclosing list may be addressed "X,"care of the
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Atalanta in Calydon. Original Edition.
Leckie's Leader of Public Opinion in Ireland.
Berzelin's Jahresbericht der Chemie. Complete set.
vols. Address "E.A.
2 C
27
## p. 304 (#362) ############################################
3°4
THE AUTHOR.
Henry Irving Shakspeare. 8 vols. Edition de luxe, un-
cut, in original cases. 11 guineas.
The Odyssey. Translated by William Morris. I edition.
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Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottis-
woode. is. 6d.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will
follow.
## p. 307 (#365) ############################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
307
Telegrams a Cablegrams:
LONGEVITY. LONDON.
TO AUTHORS.
In view of the passing of the Copyright Bill in America,
allow me to draw your attention to the fact that this measure,
by securing Copyright to you there, will greatly increase the
value of your future work, provided proper arrangements are
made on your behalf in the United States.
As you are no doubt aware, I have for many years acted as the Literary Agent, and conducted
the entire commercial dealings, of many of the most eminent British Authors. I have friendly business
relations with all the leading Publishers, both in this country and in America, and am, therefore, in the
best position to take advantage of the present state of affairs, and obtain in both countries the very best
terms for Authors.
As Author's Agent—and, I may say, the first and only one to act in this capacity—I make it my
study to advance the Author's interests, my remuneration being a commission on the amount received
through my exertions.
Should you decide to place your future work in my hands, I shall be glad to put my services at
your disposal, and do my best in your interest.
Among the Authors who have entrusted me with the negotiation of their literary business are:—
The Right Hon. the Earl of
Lytton, G.C.B., &c.
George McDonald, LL.D.
D. Christie Murray.
Mrs. Oi.iphant.
W. Clark Russell.
Stanley J. Weyman.
&c, Sec, &c.
Grant Allen.
Walter Eesant.
William Black.
Mrs. W. K. Clifford.
Author of " Mrs. Keith's Crime."
The Ven. Archdeacon Farrar.
F. Anstey Guthrie.
Capt. A. C. P. Haggard.
H. Rider Haggard.
Bret Harte.
H. Herman.
Henry James.
Rudyard Kipling.
Mrs. Lynn Linton.
Edna Lyall.
2, Paternoster Square, London, E.C.
\th March, 1891.
A. P. WATT.
1. WORIt—Always in sight.
2. SPEED—Highest Record, 181 words per minute.
ALItfSMEJT-Perfect and Permanent.
3. TYPE—Instantly interchangeable (21 kinds). ,
IBUPlHaMHMMf— Uniform, being independent of touch.
4. PAPER—Takes any width, also 20 yards in length.
THE HAMMOND TYPEWRITER CO.,
50,QUEEN VICTORIA ST., E.C.
## p. 308 (#366) ############################################
308
ADVERTISEMENTS.
TYPE-WRITING. I MISS ETHEL DICKENS,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED.
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND
Writings by Post receive prompt attention.
(Over the Ofice of “ All the Year Round”).
SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY.
MSS. copied. Price List on application.
EDITED BY
A New Vol. commenced
MRS. GILL,
MISSES ERWIN,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
13, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from
CHARLES DICKENS. I/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy
(carbon) supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many
The MSS. of Two Important Poems
well-known Authors and Publishers.
Further particulars on application.
for Sale.—Apply,
TYPE - WRITING & SHORTHAND.
A. P. WATT,
2, Paternoster Square.
JO. DARKE, M.T.S.,
LION – CHAMBERS, * BROAD – STREET,
“The best of all Journals."
BRISTOL.
Published every FRIDAY, price 2d.
The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY,
NEATNESS, RAPIDITY, and EASE of Manifolding.
DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E.
Now is the time to subscribe.
AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the
Publisher.
4th April, 1890.
Companies* Reports and patent agents
Specifications Written up and
Post-card for
Specimen Copy.
Manifolded.
LITHOGRAPHY froin TYPING done in the best
To be had at all Railway Bookstalls and
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Newsagents, or direct from the Publisher-
MEMORY LESSONS IN TYPING GIVEN BY
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ESTABLISHED 1851.
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THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.
TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS, calculated on minimum monthly balances, when not drawn
below £100.
STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold.
SAVINGS DEPARTMENT.
For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows Interest, at the rate of THREE
per CENT. per Annum, on each completed £i. Accounts are balanced and Interest added on the 31st March annually.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
W TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR
A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate
possession. Apply at Office of the BIRKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY.
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FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.
Send
H E AIT HI.
A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SANITARY AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE,
## p. 308 (#367) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS
1
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THANHH VERWALTAFUGEGUIDELIAM
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SOLD FOR CASH; ALSO ON THE EASY PAYMENT SYSTEM.
THE TYPE-WRITER CO., LTD.,
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## p. 308 (#368) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
NEW MODEL REMINGTON
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Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
of Westminster.
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The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 11 (March 1891)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 11 (March 1891)
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1891-04-15
Volume
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12
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18910415
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Vol. I.–No. 12.]
APRIL 15, 1891
.
[Price, Sixpence.
The Author.
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
(INCORPORATED).
CONDUCTED BY
WALTER BESANT.
Published for the Society by
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
LONDON, E.C.
1891.
## p. 308 (#370) ############################################
ii. :
ADVERTISEMENTS.
1
I
I
I
I
IN
ID
I
IN THE
TEL
IE
Fl
SI
ILLER
IL
TU
TA
ILU
LE
VE
PROGRES
2
SPIRIT OF THE AGU)
PROGRESS IS THU C
WE USE
E The
BAR-LOCK
TYPE
WRITER.
INIMH
Hill
IP
H
Lilla
be
AZER
LE
V
THE BAR-LOCK' TYPE-WRITER
Is the ONLY Machine combining the following Advantages
PERFECT AND PERMANENT ALIGNMENT.
AUTOMATIC LINE SPACING. A DUPLICATE KEY-BOARD.
ADJUSTABLE BALL BEARINGS TO THE TYPE-BAR JOINTS.
And it is the ONLY Type Writer .
HAVING ABSOLUTELY VISIBLE WRITING,
Some Type-Writers may have one or two of these Advantages, but no other combines them all.
SOLD FOR CASH; ALSO ON THE EASY PAYMENT SYSTEM.
THE TYPE-WRITER CO., LTD.
12, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E.C.
MANCHESTER: 25, Market Street. LIVERPOOL: 40, North John St. CARDIFF: Exchange Building.
GLASGOW : 22, Renfield St. SHEFFIELD : 39, Norfolk St. MELBOURNE: 385, Little Collins St.
## p. 308 (#371) ############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
The Society of Authors (Jncorporated),
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
Sir EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.I. E.
ALFRED AUSTIN.
A. W. À BECKETT.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
SIR HENRY BERGNE, K.C.M.G.
WALTER BESANT.
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P.
R. D. BLACKMORE.
Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S.
LORD BRABOURNE.
JAMES BRYCE, M.P.
P. W. CLAYDEN.
EDWARD CLODD.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
MARION CRAWFORD.
OSWALD CRAWFURD, C.M.G.
The Earl OF DESART.
A. W. DUBOURG.
John Eric ERICHSEN, F.R.S.
PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
EDMUND GOSSE.
COUNCIL.
II. Rider HAGGARD.
THOMAS HARDY,
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.
J. M. LELY.
Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
F. MAX-MÜLLER, LL.D.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S.
T. C. PARKINSON.
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D.
WALTER Herries POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAS. SULLY.
William Moy THOMAS
H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L.
EDMUND YATES.
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman-WALTER BESANT.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
A. W. À BECKETT.
W. MARTIN COSWAY.
EDMUND Gosse.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
! J. M. LELY.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
|
Solicitors.
Messrs. FiELI', Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.
VOL. I.
2
D
## p. 308 (#372) ############################################
A D VER Tl SEMEN TS.
The "Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which it
supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. Tt will hold enough ink for two days' constant work,
or a week's ordina.-y writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With the
cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser nny
try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for another
without charge, or have his money returned if wanted.
There are various points to select from, broad, medium, and fine, every handwriting can be suited, and
the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10/6.
The Gold Pens in the " Swan " are Mabie, Told & Co.'s famous make; they are 14-carat tempered
gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with selected
polished iridium. The " Encyclopedia Britannica" says—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of high
specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon it."
They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens; one will
outwear 90 gross of steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing about
Gold Pens.
Da. Olivkb \Vkndkll Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd & Co.'s Gold Pens since 1857, and is using the same
one (his " old friend ") to-day.
Sydney Gkuxdy, Esq., savs (referring to the Fountain Pen), " It ij a Yast improvement on every Stylograph."
Mobekly Bell, Esq., Manager, The Times, s.iys (referring to the Fountain Pen)," One pen lasted me for six years.'
S. D, Wadot, Esq., Q.C., M.P , says (referring to the Fountain Pen), " I have used them constantly for some years,
ond, as far as I can remember, have never failed me."
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing: interesting Testimonials from
the best people, who have used them for years) to
MABIE, TODD I BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON,
## p. 309 (#373) ############################################
{The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly!)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. I.—No. 12.]
APRIL 15, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
Conditions of Membership
Warnings
Notes and News
The American Copyright Bill—
I. By E. L. Godkin
II. ...
A School for Novelists
Author v. Editor
"1 hey all lived happy ever afterwards
M L'fcnfant Prodigue"
Correspondence—
I. Authors and Reviewers
II. Baron 1 auchnitz
I'AGE
■ 3°9
- 3°9
.. 310
• 3M
. 316
• 3'7
• 3^0
.. 320
■ 323
• 3»4
■ 325
Correspondence—continued—
III. F rom Chastclard ...
IV. Gratuitous Contributions
V. "The Last Dream of Julius Roy"
VI. The Signed Article
VII. Note on a Case
VIII. The Cost of a Stamp
In Grub Street
A Bill to amend title sixty, chapter three, of the Revised Statutes
of the United States, relating to copyrights
New Books
Advertisements
3-5
3-*5
3-'5
326
3-7
3=7
3=9
332
333
CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.
The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the
1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for
life membership entitles the subscriber to full membership of
the S> ciety.
Authors of published works alone are eligible for member-
ship.
Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors
are admitted as Associates, on the same subscription, but
have no voice in the government of the Society.
Cheques and Postal Oiders should be crossed "The Im-
perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch."
Those who wish to be proposed as members may send
their names at any lime to the Secretary at the Society's
Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration
of their works. Subscriptions entered alter the 1st of
October will cover the next year.
The Secretary may be personally consulted between the
hours of I p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable
that an appointment should be made by letter.
The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured
through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt,
2, Paternoster Square, E.G.
A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for
one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped,
however, that most members will subscribe to the paper.
The yearly subscription is 6s. 61/., including postjge, which
may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.C.
With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers,
the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read
and reported upon for others than members, but members
cannot have their works read for nothing.
In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript,
the author should send with it a table of contents. A type-
written scenario is also of very great assistance.
It must be understood that such a reader's report, however
favourable, does not assist the author towards publication.
vol.
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to make the
following warnings as widely known as possible. They are
based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers
to which literary property is exposed :—
(1) Never to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost
of production forms an integral part, unless an
opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures
is given them.
(2) Never to enter into any correspondence with publishers,
especially with advertising publishers, who are not
recommended by experienced friends, or by this
Society.
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves
down for future work to any one firm of publishers.
(4) Never to accept any proposal of royalty without con-
sultation with the Society, or, at least, ascertaining
exactly what the agreement gives to the author ami
what to the publisher.
(5) Never to accept any offer of money for MSS., with-
out previously taking advice of the Society.
(6) Never to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility
without advice.
(7) Never, when a MS. has l>een refused by respectable
houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may
put forward, for the production of the work.
(8) Never to sign away American or foreign rights.
Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing
a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If
the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it
to another.
(9) Never forget that publishing is a business, like any-
other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy,
charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do
with business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
2 l> 2
A
## p. 310 (#374) ############################################
3io
THE AUTHOR.
NOTES AND NEWS.
THE President of the United States signed
the International Copyright Bill, the papers
say, with a quill taken from an American
eagle—an eagle of the bald variety, caught for the
occasion, and kindly persuaded to have the feather
pulled out of the wing by the united pleadings of
the British Lion and the Eagles of France, Germany,
Austria and Russia. It was a beautiful quill, though
the noble bird appeared to resent the loss of it and
the pain caused by its extraction. The cutting of
the quill was undertaken by the Secretary of the
International Copyright League, Mr. R. Underwood
Johnson. After the signature, he received the
instrument as a reward for his services. On his
return home Mr. Johnson found, we are happy to
report, his desk ornamented with flowers and small
United States flags—why not the flags of all the
world ?—in honour of his success.
A copy of the new American Copyright Bill has
been sent to every member of the Society, with a
request that he will read it and forward any remarks
or suggestions on the subject. Some replies have
already been sent in, but too late for this number.
It would be well if most of us, who are not lawyers,
would, before writing on the subject, read Sir
Frederick Pollock's article in the current Contem-
porary. His last words are a warning :—
"Learned friends who may do me the honour to
read this paper, will perhaps think that I have in-
sisted too much on elementary legal conclusions.
But there are amateur lawyers as well as learned
and qualified lawyers, and the law of copyright is
called a favourite hunting ground of amateurs.
When an amateur lawyer once goes a" mare's-
nesting among Acts of Parliament, there is no
knowing what falls may ensue to him, or anyone
who follows him ; and my only fear in this respect
is that I may not have been elementary enough."
Our members are therefore solemnly warned
that we do not ask for the opinions of the amateur
lawyer on points of law.
M. Zola is the new President of the Soriite des
Gens de Lcttres. The accumulated funds of this
Society now amount to .£95,000, of which two-
thirds are available for pension purposes. When
shall we be able to boast of our accumulations?
and protection of the material interests of literature,
but will become a kind of Academy, admission to
which will be a distinction only conferred on those
of proved and marked ability. This proposed
change, it is said, explains certain exclusions or
blackballings which have recently taken place in
the Society. One of the rejected candidates was
a lady, and at first it was supposed that the Com-
mittee wished to exclude women altogether—which,
in the words of Euclid, is absurd. Therefore,
that could not be the cause of rejection. But, the
Debats asks, what power has the Society to change
its constitution? It is not a question of titular
membership. The Committee are trustees for a
great Pension Fund, created for the benefit of all
litterateurs. If it becomes an Academy, the
Government would have the right of withdrawing
this Trust and creating another Society. It is, in
fact, as if the Chemical Society should try to
make its membership as great a distinction as the
Fellowship of the Royal Society, and should
refuse to admit any but the most distinguished
chemists; or it is as if the Institute of Civil
Engineers would have none but the best and
most famous engineers. We have ourselves
learned so much from the practical common sense
of the Socic'te that one is sorry to hear of such a
change even in contemplation. As for ourselves,
we are the servants of all writers of every degree.
Membership is open to any who have published a
book. We advance no other object than the pro-
tection of our material interests.
If this Society should happen to want in the course
of the year assistance, unpaid, voluntary, and active,
are thereanymembers—orfriendsof members—who
would be ready to give it? If so, will they kindly
give me their names and tell me what they could do
for us? It is the strength of our Association
that most of the work hitherto done for it has been
done by unpaid members, who have nothing what-
ever to gain out of it for themselves. As things
look at present, I think that there will very soon
be work enough for a good many more volunteers.
The Societc des Gens de Let/res according to the
Debats, is contemplating a new departure. It will
no longer confine its operations to the maintenance
Here is a satisfactory testimony to the good
results of what seemed to some a barren contro-
versy. The writer's name is suppressed for obvious
reasons. For one thing he might incur ecclesias-
tical censure, or even bell, book, and candle, which
would be dreadful. "With regard to the S.P.C.K.,
against whom you took up the cudgels last year
for those who are unable or afraid to do so them-
selves, I have reaped the benefit in increased
payment for work of mine. This has the, perhaps,
## p. 311 (#375) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
311
intended effect of preventing my voice from being
raised with others." Can the Literary Housemaid
of the Church be cleaning and sweeping—it would
be the spring cleaning—with the aid, one supposes,
of the Literary Cook of the Church, and the Literary
Charwoman of the Church?
Mr. Edmund Gosse very wisely and opportunely
calls attention, in his article in the April Contem-
porary, to the distinction between literary merit and
pecuniary reward. They are, as we have already
insisted more than once in these columns, things
which have no necessary relations to each other.
The most popular of authors may be the most
worthless, so far as regards many essentials of
literary style and form. One or two qualities, and
these certainly the rarest, the successful man must
have. First of all, he must be able to catch and
to rivet the attention. If he is a novelist or a
dramatist, he must have "grip." Now I think it
will be allowed that "grip" is a very valuable
quality indeed. But we must altogether put out
of our minds the idea that the author who makes
a large income is therefore a good writer. I say,
altogether, because there is not only no proportion,
but there is no possible comparison. For instance
—not to touch on living examples—the late
Countess of Blessington made for some years a
very large income indeed by her novels. Let
anyone, now, try to read those terrible works. At
the same time it is not in human nature for the
popular author not to believe that his head also
touches the skies. After all, this only means that
persons of cultivation, education, and taste will
desire the best literature, and the lower sort the
lower literature. Now the lower sort will always
be the larger sort.
Mr. Gosse further says that he considers the
Society of Authors as a firm of solicitors acting
solely for literary clients. That seems to me on
the whole a very fair definition. But there is this
important difference. A firm of solicitors sends in
its little bill. The Society of Authors does not.
The solicitors interpret, explain, and employ the
law for their clients only. The Society of Authors
publishes information about law and the breaking
of the law for all the world to read.
On Friday, April 3rd, a letter appeared in the
Times, signed "Ouida," on the justice and necessity
of safe-guarding dramatic rights in fiction by Act
of Parliament. This letter, a very able, lucid and
eloquent exposition of the case, is the thousand
and first protest of novelists against the cruel
injustice with which their rights are treated. Pro-
tests indignant, sarcastic, comic, wrathful, have
been uttered by Dickens, by Wilkie Collins, by
John Hollingshead, by Charles Reade and I know
not by what others. Ouida's is only one more
added to the list. They are all read to-day and for-
gotten to-morrow. To protest, in fact, does no good
at all. There is not, unhappily, in human nature
such a passion for justice as regards other people's
property as makes them long to be up and acting
when a protest against injustice is uttered. As
regards their own property, of course, the passion for
justice does exist in its most intense form. Every
time a slave shrieked under the lash he protested
against the injustice of his lot; but his protests
did him little good. Nay, they did him harm,
because there arises, in time, a contempt for those
who can only shriek, but cannot help themselves.
Ouida's protest, therefore, considered as a cry of
the helpless, is much more likely to do harm than
to do good. Meantime—a fact of which she is
apparently quite ignorant—the Society, without
making any protest at all, has been quietly engaged
in taking the first steps towards removing this in-
justice. It has drafted a Bill consolidating and
amending the Copyright Law in which the dra-
matic rights are reserved, defined and protected.
This Bill, as our readers know, is in Lord Monks-
well's hands, and has already been read once in
the House of Lords.
Now this is a very apt illustration of what may
be done when authors combine. We have a
Copyright Committee composed entirely of lawyers.
They have done for us what we certainly could
never do for ourselves, working separately and by
means of protests and letters in the Times. The
passing of this Bill, which is in no sense political
and attacks no interests, we may regard as merely
a matter of time. Another illustration of what
may be done when people combine is to be found
in the two books of the Society—the "Cost of
Production" and the "Methods of Publishing."
Hitherto, authors have been kept designedly in
the dark as to the actual cost of printing and pro-
ducing a book. They have been kept equally in
the dark as to the retail prices and the actual pro-
ceeds of their books. Therefore they cor.ld not
possibly tell what any agreement submitted to
them meant. By united action, that is to say, by
supporting an office and a staff, whose duty it was to
work and to collect information, this has now been
done. Henceforth, no author need sign any
agreement without understanding exactly what the
publisher offers to give him and what he designs
to keep for himself. No honourable man can
possibly object to this understanding. It is there-
## p. 312 (#376) ############################################
312
THE AUTHOR.
fore a step in which all honourable publishers as
well as all authors must rejoice over. And it is
the first fruit of combined action.
A lady sends me, as a protest against the book-
sellers' opinion that women buy few books except
novels, a list of books purchased by herself and
her sisters during a few years of residence in the
country. The letter is not for publication, but
I hope I do not violate confidence if I say that
these ladies seem to have read—and bought—all
the principal books of the last two or three years,
together with a great number of standard books by
authors now deceased. There are books of science,
books of religion, histories, biographies, belles
lettres, poetry, and fiction, the books of the last-
named being in a very small minority. The large
amount of poetry in the list seems to confirm my
belief that we are going to have a return of the
popularity of poetry, not of course among the baser
sort who have never loved poetry, but among those
of cultivation and education. But perhaps these
ladies are exceptions even among the higher class.
The list gives one a glimpse into a very pleasant
and refined interior. Such ladies want no vindi-
cation, and such statements as that against which
my correspondent enters her protest do not apply
to them.
We have spoken in the Author of recent
American verse, and it was suggested that since
there are so many living poets in the States it would
be well if some of their work was introduced to
English readers who are thirsting for new poets.
I am happy to say that something has been already-
done in this direction. A dainty volume in brown
paper (" Garde Joyeuse," Frank Murray, Derby and
Nottingham) has been presented to me. It is a
collection of Society verses. They suggest Praed
and Austin Dobson, with a reminiscence here and
there of Andrew Lang. Many of them are very
pretty and dexterous. Perhaps some of our
readers would like to make acquaintance with the
volume. I am not able to state the price. Here
is one little thing, as light as froth, but pretty. It
is called " Private Theatricals."
You were a haughty beaut)', Polly
( That was in the play),
I was the lover melancholy
(That was in the play);
And when your fan and you receded,
And all my passion lay unheeded,
If still with tenderer words I pleaded,
They were in the play.
I met my rival in the gateway
(That was in the play),
And so we fought a duel straightway
(That was in the play);
But when Jack hurt my arm unduly,
And you rushed over, softened newly,
And kissed me, Polly! truly, truly,
Was that in the play?
The author of this little poem is Miss Louise
Imogene Guiney. I should like also to quote Miss
Eva L. Ogden's "The Sea," but I think it has
already appeared in some English magazine. At
least the lines seem familiar to me.
I have had a good many communications from
novelists on the subject of reviewing quite apart from
the subject of the School of Novelists, considered
later. It is natural that authors should feel strongly
upon the subject. There never was a time when
they liked the reviewer, either the one who wields the
bludgeon, or the one who carries the rapier, or the
man who employs the dissecting scalpel. There-
fore one accepts the ordinary grumble as a grumble,
and nothing more. Yet there seems a real grievance
in the lumping of a dozen or twenty novels into a
set to be reviewed in a single coluinn or two
columns. This makes it not only impossible to
give anything like a review—what may be called a
serious review—to a work of art, but it degrades a
most important branch of literature thus to treat it
as if all the books of this branch are to be thrown
together into a heap. Moreover, it is absolutely
absurd to expect a man who works for pay to read
books of which he has to furnish a dozen reviews
every week. The thing is too ridiculous. There
are, for instance, papers in which books receive a
line and a half or two lines of notice. How much
of these books can be read? Now, we cannot
possibly make good reviewers out of bad, but we
can reconsider the rights and uses of reviews.
Certainly the contemptuous "batch" method of
reviewing can do no good at all to either authors or
publishers or the interests of literature. Perhaps
editors only want to have their attention turned to
the absurdity.
The reviewing of novels in the batch was started
at a time when novels were about at their lowest
pointof commonplace and conventionality. Fiction
is now the most vigorous branch of letters, the most
useful, the most instructive, the most influential, in
every civilized country throughout the world. It1S
monstrous that novels should be still treated as if
the best novel was a thing of less importance than
the most trifling addition to the many series of
## p. 313 (#377) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
1 o
o 1 T 1
biographies, each of which gets its two columns
of notice all to itself. We must not allow this
question to rest.
The following is a somewhat remarkable question:
the Society, so far, has not been able, such is the
ignorance of its staff, to furnish an answer.
"Mr. A. B. presents his compliments to the
Society of Authors, and would feel exceedingly
obliged if they would kindly inform him what the
cost of an international copyright would be, and
also the price of one for Great Britain and the
colonies; also how Mr. A. B. could succeed in
procuring a copyright when required."
It has been brought to the noticeof the Society that
under theexistingconditionsof Registration of Copy-
right, the following extraordinary position can be
arrived at. The instructions for Registration under
the Act are, among others, as follows:—No proprietor
of copyright can take any proceedings in respect
to infringement unless he has previously registered
his book, and, secondly, under the head of Foreign
Reprints, proprietors of books first composed, or
written, or printed, in the United Kingdom, de-
siring to prevent the importation of foreign reprints
must give notice in writing to the Commissioners
of Customs. If, in fact, an author has iiot regis-
tered his book, a foreign reprint can be made of it,
and introduced into England subject to the pay-
ment of the ordinary duty, because the Custom
House officials cannot take cognizance of any
book that has not been registered. If the book
has been registered, reprints are not admitted at
all. They may be seized, but such seizure can
only be made after registration has been notified
at the Custom House. If, in short, the publisher
forgets to enter the book at Stationers' Hall, it is
possible to be undersold by the legal admission
of foreign reprints. In other words, there is often
nothing to prevent the ten cent. American edition
actually being sold in this country beside the six
shilling edition. For instance, a pirated edition of
"King Solomon's Mines" would be received as
such, but a kindly welcome was accorded to
"Jess" at the Cape of Good Hope on account of
this little formality being neglected.
A certain man—one of letters Three—has been
getting money out of kindly people in the city of
Philadelphia, U.S.A., by representing himself to be
a brother—down on his luck—of a certain man—of
letters Many—a resident in the older country. He
also said that he was himself a Novelist, a Poet,
and an Actor. The first and the last he un-
doubtedly is, and he seems to make his gifts of
fiction and personation pay better than some of us
here at home. The man of letters Many suffered
himself to feel a certain annoyance at this incident,
because he has no brother in America, nor any
brother who is either Novelist, Poet, or Actor. He
even went so far as to cable a message calling that
man a Fraud, so that his little game is probably
quite ruined so far as Philadelphia is concerned.
When this was done, he reflected. Perhaps he had
been hasty. He considered. The art of Persona-
tion has become in the States almost a Fine Art.
As in Mark Twain's well-known case of Faded
Greatness, the American Fraud has always hitherto
been a noble Lord. That he should now become a
common Novelist speaks volumes for the increased
respect paid to the craft. Professionally speaking,
the thing is a compliment. It is, in fact, most grati-
fying. Every one who lent a dollar to the Brother,
Novelist, Poet, Actor, has taken off his hat and
saluted the craft.
A curious instance of resemblance so close is to
suggest how plagiarism is found in the corres-
pondence of last month and this of E. Fairfax
Byrrne and Ernest Rhys. There can be no doubt
as to the similarity of the two plots. There can
be no doubt of the entire independence of their
invention. These resemblances are very strange.
For myself, I prefer, when I can get them, plots
depending on events that really happened. But
these are hard to find. Here is another anec-
dote of resemblance. A few weeks ago a certain
story went the round of some of the papers. It
came straight from a far off country. Then the
following discoveries were made:—(i) that the
leading incident had been invented and used by a
novelist quite recently; (2) that the leading in-
cident was used in an American magazine ten
years ago; (3) that the leading incident was used
by Charles Reade fifteen years ago. Now I have
not the least doubt that in each one of these cases
the invention was entirely original.
It is stated by a New York paper, an American
correspondent informs us, that ceitain English
authors have entered into arrangements for pub-
lishing English books in America, and intend
"either to lay down plant or to acquire control
of an already established business." This is news
to all the English authors with whom I have
spoken on the matter. No such intention, so far
as has yet been learned, exists among English
authors.
## p. 314 (#378) ############################################
314
THE AUTHOR.
The following suggestion is one which should be
noted. I think we might very easily form such a
branch and that we might carry it on usefully.
"There are, as I have reason to know, many
persons now engaged upon archaeological or
historical work who are quite willing to pay for
efficient help in such matters as translations, precis,
verification of references, and correction of proofs.
On the other hand, there are a great number of
literaly men to whom such work would be a
godsend.
Do you not think that a register—through which
the would-be employer could state his wants, and
the would-be employed his qualifications—would
help to bring the two classes together?"
If such a register were to be kept at the
Society's office, or published in the columns of the
Author, a small charge for each advertisement (or,
possibly, for those of employers only) ought to
make it self-supporting.
The expenses would be only the share of a clerk
and the necessity of advertising. We ought not
to take money from those who seek employment,
but only from those who have employment to give,
and from those who through our agency receive
employment. And the money so obtained could
be a very modest fee.
Walter Besant.
*
THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT BILL.
I.
By E. L. Godkin.
{Editor of the New York "Nation.")
YOUR request that I should express an opinion
in your columns on the possibilities of in-
fluence on English and American literature,
jointly and severally, of the recently passed American
Copyright Bill, reminds me forcibly of the warning
"not to prophecy unless you know." I think even
those whoknow most about past relations of the pub-
lishers on each side of the water with the authors
on the other, generally feel most diffident about
prescribing with any particularity the effects of the
Bill. My own notion, which I offer with due
modesty, is, that the necessities of the agitation in
support of the Bill have led its advocates to over-
estimate considerably what it will do in the near
future, either for American or British authors as a
class desiring pay for their work. It was only by
putting the grievous wrongs of American authors
prominently in the foreground, that the attention
of a considerable portion both of the public and of
Members of Congress could be secured. The
amour propre, too, of a large body of American
authors was flattered by the plea that they were
kept out of wide sales and large profits in their own
country by the cheap pirated editions of British
books. I have myself thought much of this argu-
ment, because I have never believed in the exis-
tence of a purely mercantile competition between
British and American authors, except perhaps in
railway trains, or on steamboats. I have never
believed that people took an English book of the
same class, in preference to an American one, because
it cost a little less. Other differences than differ-
ence in price have been much more powerful as a
general rule in determining the reader's choice.
Even novel writers, who are now the largest class of
writers in this country, do not compete with each
other, as butchers or grocers do, by offering the
same goods for less money. Consequently the
Copyright Bill, by making British books dearer, will
not have the effect on the domestic product which
a good many enthusiastic authors think it will have,
and this, mutatis mutandis, is true of American
books in England.
Moreover, if you go over the publishers' lists
you will find that the actual injustice inflicted by
piracy fell on a very small class in both countries.
The number of authors whom it paid to pirate was
after all limited, but the number of those who
liked to think that the pirates were eager to get at
them, or that they were themselves actually suffer-
ing in purse or reputation from English or Ameri-
can marauding, was large. There is a great deal
of human nature in authors.
I do not mean by this to underrate the wrong
and injustice done by the absence of international
copyright. I think the unpunished robbery of
ten authors a year is just as great a national dis-
grace as the unpunished robbery of one hundred,
and the more distinguished and popular an author
is, the greater shame it is to rob him. I am
simply pointing out that the friends of the Copy-
right Bill, naturally and quite justifiably, got all
the help they could from every quarter, that is,
from people's illusions and vanities, as well as
from their sense of justice and right. They had
to do so in order to succeed, and are not to be
blamed. But the effect was to magnify the pe-
cuniary importance of the Bill, that is, to use a
slang phrase here, to produce the impression that
there was "more money in it" than there really
was. I submit these observations as applicable
both to England and America.
The great value of the Bill, in my own mind,
certainly on this side of the water, lies in the aid it
will render in elevating literature and authorship
as a profession in the eyes of the mass of the
J
## p. 315 (#379) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
3i5
people. Away from the Atlantic Sea Coast the
great bulk of the population have never seen an
author, or anybody except1 newspaper editors, who
makes money by the sale of any species of litera-
ture, and, as a rule, they are disposed to estimate
a man's intellectual and social value by his capacity
for making money. There prevails, therefore, in a
large measure, also pity and contempt for the
thinking class, the writers, professors, and so forth,
who are unable or do not care to share in the great
industrial successes of the day. This prejudice
was undoubtedly strengthened and deepened by
the spectacle of books made cheap by theft, and
by finding that very good and prominent men in
and out of Congress thought it no harm to steal
them. Wares, which the law did not think wonh
protection, could not, it seemed, be of very great
account. International Copyright will undoubtedly
help to elevate the popular mind into a higher ap-
preciation of literature as a calling, by recognizing
its value as property.
The Copyright Bill, too, will probably stimulate
authors on each side into seeking a market on the
other, and they will thus make themselves better
known. That is, they will expose their wares
more, and you will in this way become acquainted
with more American authors in the region of light
literature than you are now, and some of those
who are coming forward on this side are very
promising. Whether there will ever be anything
in either country in the nature of real competition
between English and American novelists seems to
me doubtful. Readers in every country most
enjoy reading about social conditions differing
widely from their own. Pictures of English and
continental life will always have the charm of
variety for Americans. Whether in the long run
pictures of American life will held their own in
Europe may be questioned. I have always thought
society here either too homogeneous, or one might
say monotonous, to make America a good place
for a novelist to learn or follow his trade in, in com-
petition with Europeans. There does not seem to
be enough variety of motive, type, and manners
here for his purpose, but I may be greatly mistaken
in this. But in any case I do not think the Copy-
right Bill will affect the result in any way, except,
as I have said, by stimulating authors to greater
activity in seeking a foreign publisher. The
prospect seems to me much more encouraging for
American authors in the fields of philosophy,
science, law, and political economy. I do not think
you know in England what excellent and vigorous
work is being done by the younger generation in
these fields in this country, and the prospect of a
safe English market is certain to increase their
industry.
The hardship supposed to lie in the clause of
the Bill which calls for simultaneous publication in
both countries is, I think, greatly overrated. Of
course it would be for the English and American
author's advantage to be able to wait before taking
out his copyright in the foreign country, until his
book had made a success in his own. He could
then make a better bargain with a foreign pub-
lisher. But this is largely one of the hardships of
the imagination. An obscure author who prints
simultaneously in both countries will have in each
the advantage of any subsequent success of his
book in the other. If his book is taken up eagerly
in England, the effect will at once be felt in his
American edition, and vice versa. Moreover, the
search for the foreign publisher will, for him, be no
more serious than the search for the home pub-
lisher. If an obscure Englishman has no friends
here to offer his work to the publishers, he will
find competent persons to do it, as a matter of
business, for a small commission. Organizations
for this special business are, I am told, already
springing up, and I feel sure that a thirty days'
search, conducted simultaneously in both countries,
will be just as likely to succeed here as in
England. The publisher who has no wish to take
advantage of the foreigner's necessities can never
hold the field against the publisher who is eager
to get into the market with a good thing, when he
thinks he has got hold of it, now when the law
protects him in the possession of foreign goods.
These views are a somewhat promiscuous assort
ment. The best thing I can say for them is, that
they are probably as good as anybody else's can be
as yet, on this topic. I repeat that I think the
Copyright Bill is mainly valuable as putting a stop
to the demoralizing spectacle of unrestrained,
shameless cheating of foreign authors and pub-
lishers, practiced even by doctors of divinity and
connived at, even encouraged, by the Government,
and defended by all sorts of hypocrisy and sophistry.
The demurrer in a recent suit over the piracy 01
the " Encyclopedia Britannica," that the plaintiffs
were not entitled to protection by Courts of Equity,
because they had cunningly and fraudulently inter-
polated small quantities of American matter in the
book, so as to make it difficult for Americans to
exercise their ancient and undoubted right to steal
foreign books, showed to what depths of degrada
tion and absurdity we were hastening.
New York, March $ist, 1891.
## p. 316 (#380) ############################################
3i6
THE AUTHOR.
II.
The enclosed letter unfortunately nrrived too late
for last month's Author. It is addressed to Mr.
Edmund Gosse by Mr. R. U. Johnson, Secretary
of the American Copyright League, to whom it
will be found that English authors in the future
will owe an immense debt.
"March j/n, 1891.
"I have only time, in addition to sending the
enclosed text of the Copyright Bill as printed in
the Tribune, to say that I hope you will use
your influence to allay the silly talk of some of the
English papers in regard to the Copyright Bill
being a 'fraud.' How can a Bill be a fraud which
gives unconditional copyright to artistic property,
and which gives copyright to literary property on
conditions, after all, not onerous?
"The abolition of the requirement of the
consent of the author in the importation of two
copies of the English edition of copyright works in
each package, is a decided improvement. I
myself voted against that clause when the Bill was
framed, believing that the friction it would produce
would react against the law.
"I am compelled to close this letter abruptly
to catch the mail, but I want to say that I believe
that you and Mr. Bryce and our most intelligent
English friends will not be misled by the clamour
of your publishers and distributors of literary
property, into forgetting the enormous moral
progress, and the great material benefit to your
countrymen, which this Bill effects."
Mr. Johnson's own opinion upon the Bill is thus
stated by a reporter to the New York Tribune:—
"Those who think that anything is to be
regretted in the changes that have been made in
the Copyright Bill since its passage by the House,
have probably not s| oken by the book, for in my
opinion the friends of copyright have not only
succeeded in defeating dangerous amendments
which would have taken the heart out of the Bill,
but the concessions that have been made have
been of such a nature as to be a source of strength
to the law in its practical working hereafter. It
must first be understood that the non-importation
clause was a necessary corollary of the typesetting
clause. It was, indeed, the mandatory part of the
Bill, and it would have been of no use to assert
the 'condition precedent' of manufacture in this
country for the purpose of giving the market to
American workmen, if the market had been
immediately taken away by permitting its invasion
by books of English manufacture. Therefore,
those who voted for the Sherman amendment
and assumed to be in favour of the typesetting
clause were in the position of the man who was in
favour of the law, but 'agin ' its enforcement.
"The chief point of objection on which it was
necessary to make confession was in the clause
which permitted the importation of only two copies
of a foreign book, and required the consent of the
owner of the American copyright to this importa-
tion. It is likely that had this remained in the Bill
there would have been a reaction against the copy-
right movement, by reason of the annoyances to
which the public might have considered that they
were subject by having to obtain written permission
to import. The substitute for this clause abolishes
the requirement of the owner's permission, and
the proposal of this substitute in the Conference
Committee was due to a concession on the part of
the typographical unions, and was done by them,
although somewhat reluctantly, for the purpose of
saving the Bill, a service which should not be for-
gotten by the friends of the cause.
"The Ingalls amendment, which permitted free
importation of new.'papers and periodicals, would
have simply transferred the piratical establishments
from the American to the Canadian side of the
border, and all sorts of American books, as well as
foreign books, might thus have been freely im-
ported in periodical form, either in the form adopted
by the so-called 'cheap libraries,' or in magazine
form, whole books being included in a magazine.
This form of publication in copyright material is
seen in Lippincott's Magazine, and there is no
reason why under the Ingalls amendment as
originally proposed it could not have been easily
adopted for piratical works. The Ingalls amend-
ment as modified in the present Bill, however,
secures the American owner of copyright against
such importations of works not authorized by the
author.
"The conditions of trade will, of course, have
hereafter to adjust themselves, but one of the first
things in connection with the Bill that seems never
to have entered the minds of people, is that now
the publishers under the workings of this law can
afford to advertise English books more than they
have ever clone before, because they can feel sure
of the returns to them of the wider market."
Among other opinions is that of Mr. Gilder :—
"The general effect of the new law will be to
impiove the conditions of authorship throughout
the world. Its tendency will be to increase all
literary values—that is, authors will have a wider
market for their wares, and by the removal of the
illegitimate side of publishing, the publishing busi-
ness will be strengthened and improved, and this
## p. 317 (#381) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
3'7
will also be a good thing for the producers of
literature. I confess, however, that the thing which
gives me greatest pleasure is the removal of the
stain of literary piracy from the American flag.
It is, moreover, without exaggeration, a long step
forward in the march of civilization. Would to
God that it had come in time to help Scott and
Dickens and all the great foreign authors of our
century. But the present and the future are ours,
and I sincerely believe that no other single device
could be so sure of giving an impulse to the literary
art. Foreign artists and musical composers, as
well as American artists and composers, will also
greatly profit from this great victory."
The Post of New York last evening published
a telegram from Washington, in which the cor-
respondent gives an account of an interview
with Mr. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, who
has charge of the Copyright Department, as
to the effect of the new copyright law upon
periodical publications. Mr. Spofford said: "An
American periodical will not be privileged to copy
a story or essay from an English magazine if the
magazine has been copyrighted in the United
States. An English magazine will be compelled
to be reprinted in the United States in order to be
copyrighted, and the same rule will be applied to
a magazine as a book—in fact, for copyright pur-
poses a magazine is a book." Asked whether it
would be necessary to copyright English magazines
number by number, or whether a whole year's
numbers would be included in one entry, Mr.
Spofford replied: "Oh, number by number.
Section 11 provides that each number of a
periodical shall be considered as an independent
publication. That suggests at once the question
whether, since the term periodical is used in the
section concerning independent publications, but
omitted in that relating to reprints, the point may
not be raised by some English periodical publisher
against an application to reprint a clause of his
work. It is not improbable that such a fight will
be made, though I have my own opinion as to the
result."
The Americans have done their part of the work
as well as they could. Have we done ours? The
Society most certainly has, because our Bill, as
soon as it has passed, will place Americans on
exactly the same footing as Englishmen. But if
the Bill does not pass, we shall probably have to
wait—see the last section of the Bill (page 332)—
for our Copyright until it does. This is very
serious. We shall meantime do all we can to
promote the passage of the Bill.
A SCHOOL FOR NOVELISTS.
IS Fiction one of the Fine Arts? In the current
number of the New Review I have argued,
on that assumption, that it has certain laws
and rules and a technique, all of which might be
reduced to writing in exactly the same manner
as those for the Art of Painting. I then go
on to show that these things may be taught,
and I try to show that if they were taught our
young writers would certainly be spared a good
deal of trouble, disappointment, and vexation.
Also, I point out that one must have the natural
aptitude, or one cannot become a novelist. Such
instruction would have to be very general and on
broad lines only, or there would be the danger of
turning out a tribe of soulless imitators. But the
main point on which one insists is that Fiction is
an Art. Now I see in a certain paper a letter,
from one who says that he is a schoolmaster. He
says, also, that boys learn the elements of English
composition at school, and asks, "What more have
they to learn?" Oh! Foolish and Ignorant per-
son! They have to learn an Art—an Art—an
Art! As well say that the drawing master's lesson
once a week can make a Royal Academician!
The writer, however, illustrates the general belief
on the subject. Everything else, it is acknow-
ledged, has to be learned and studied. The Art
of Fiction alone is supposed to come by nature.
An Art? They cannot understand how it can be
called an Art. This little paper of mine, however,
has called forth two papers, one in the Saturday
Review and one in the Spectator, which deserve
consideration.
In support of these contentions of mine, I
advanced certain facts—they are facts not to be
denied, viz., that young novelists do not learn any-
thing from their critics; that the ordinary critic
knows nothing about the Art of Fiction ; that a great
deal of so-called novel reviewing is scandalous and
inadequate; and that there is no reason at all why
writers should allow their books to be sent to
papers which continue to review them in this
scandalous and inadequate fashion.
These facts I repeat, and am prepared to main-
tain, if necessary, by quotation from the journals
which review novels. The Saturday Revieic, which
takes up the subject and becomes somewhat heated
over it, as if it were itself attacked, treats it
personally—which is not fair fighting—and plainly
intimates that I am the last person to harbour
animosity towards reviewers. First, I harbour
none, as I have explained, any more than one
harbours animosity towards a blind man in saying
that he is blind. The ordinary reviewer of novels,
I say, knows nothing of the Art of Fiction. Well,
## p. 318 (#382) ############################################
3i8
THE AUTHOR.
it is not an answer to say, "A pretty fellow you
are, to attack reviewers!" The thing is to con-
sider whether the charge is true. And it is not
enough to sny that you know this paper and that
paper wheie it is not true. We must take all the
journals together and consider whether it is true
generally. Or the writer may mean that I, who have
been'treated more kindly than my deserts perhaps—
God knoweth—should feel myself bribed not to re-
view reviewers. If not, what does the 3<7/«rrfiry mean?
The writer goes on to say, "The really curious
thing is that the author of this paper should first
think that it is the critic's duty to teach their art to
authors whose works he criticizes; and secondly,
that he should fail to perceive that even the briefest
judgment of a competent critic is based upon, and
necessarily implies, the study and knowledge of the
art which he denies to reviewers."
These lines have no justification whatever. They
are a distortion of my words. I nowhere said that
such is the critic's duty. I nowhere implied any
failure to perceive this simple truth.
It is not, in fact, the duty of the critic to teach
his authors. It is, however, his duty, before he
undertakes to review novels, to learn what are the
points of a good novel, and what goes to make a
good novel.
Further, it is impossible for a competent critic to
write a review without teaching his author some-
thing. It is equally impossible for an incompetent
critic to teach his author anything.
Now, then, is it, or is it not, true, that the
ordinary review of a novel teaches the author
nothing? I will quote presently a few words bear-
ing on this subject from a writer who speaks with
authority.
Again, a competent critic may certainly dismiss
a book in a few scornful words—such as those
quoted by the Saturday Reviewer. And these, as
the writer says, and I nowhere deny, may be just,
true, well deserved, and based on sound criticism.
The few words are the judgment of the critic.
Without explanation they mean no more than what
I said; that is, either they mean "I like the work,"
or, "I do not like the work."
A judgment, however, is not a criticism or a
review ; it is only a part of a criticism. It is the
summary of the matter. Is the reviewer always,
then, to give his reasons? That is a matter for
him to consider. It may be that his name alone
gives weight to his judgment. It may be that he
thinks the paper in which it appears gives weight
to his judgment. In any case, can he wonder if
the author should say, "This man dismisses me
with half a dozen scornful words: he gives no
reason, argument, or example. This judgment
does not advance me in my endeavour after
better work: it does my publisher no good; it
does literature no good. I will not ask him for
another. Why should I ask an opinion of a man
who only tells me that my work is worthless and
refuses any reasons?" Can the Saturday Review
object to the author taking that line?
I will now recommend the Saturday Reviewer to
read a page or two in Mr. George Salisbury's
"Essays in English Literature" (page xxiii). He
there says (the italics are ours) :—
"That a very large amount of reviewing is
determined by doubtless well-meaning incompe-
tence, there is no doubt whatever. It is, on the
whole, the most difficult kind of newspaper
writing, and it is, on the whole, the most lightly
assigned and the most irresponsibly performed. I
have heard of newspapers where the reviews
depended almost wholly on the accident of some
of the staff taking a holiday, or being laid for a
time on the shelf, or being considered not up to
other work; of others, though this, I own, is
scarcely credible, where the whole reviewing was
farmed out to a manager, to be allotted to devils as
good to him seemed; of many where the reviews
ivere a sort of exercising ground on which novices
were trained, broken down hacks turned out to
grass, and invalids allowed a little gentle exercise."
He goes on to say that he knows of not a few
papers and not a fewreviewers in which and by whom
the best work possible is given to one of the most
important kinds of work.
I do not remember that the Saturday Review
expressed, at the time when these words appeared,
any objection to this sweeping condemnation of
the prevalent modes of reviewing. Yet my charge
is a mere trifle compared with it. All I say is,
that the ordinary reviewer of fiction—only one
branch of literature—does not recognize that he
has to do with a Fine Art, does not know that there
is an Art of Fiction, and never by any remarks,
criticisms, or judgments of his assists the writer.
Would the Saturday Review blame the novelist
who refused to give his books for review to Mr.
Saintsbury's broken down hacks, novices, and
invalids? Or to papers where the reviewing is put
out to farm? Or to those whose reviewers are
considered not fit for any other work?
I say that, not only out of self-respect, but out of
respect for literature, an author ought to refuse his
books to such papers. This the Saturday Review
very needlessly calls "boycotting" those papers.
It is not a fair use of the word. You do not boy-
cott a workman because he works badly. You
leave him: you ask someone else to do the work.
The Saturday sneers at the proposed School of
Fiction. It will, however, come. Of that there is
doubt. Let us turn again from the Saturday to
## p. 319 (#383) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Saintsbury. He says (p. xxiii of the same
work), "I think that if I were dictator, one of the
first non-political things that I should do, would
be to make the order of reviewers as close a one,
at least, as the Bench of Judges, or the staff of the
Mint, or of any public establishment of a similar
character." He, you see, would have a College of
Reviewers. One of the things they must learn to
qualify for the fellowship in that College would be
the technique and the laws of the Art of Fiction.
Will Mr. Saintsbury allow them, in order to
facilitate their studies, to attend my School of
Fiction?
There is, however, an article in the Spectator
which is much more useful for our purposes, be-
cause it artlessly and ingenuously illustrates the
common attitude of mind towards this Art of Fiction.
It is written by a person, apparently a Lady—it
might have been written in the Thirties—who
believes that there is no Art of Fiction at all—" no
such thing, my dear, I do assure you." Indeed, if
you come to think of it, "What is there to teach?
The most would be to tell a pupil whether he
wrote good English, or whether he had a natural
aptitude for conveying his ideas to other people.
What Mr. Besant is pleased to call technique is
not technical or teachable; it is the nice tact, the
delicate faculty . . ." and so on—and so on;
we know the prattling flow of the brook. "We
should say that in writing a novel there was no
more technical knowledge involved than that in the
power of writing intelligibly "!!! The notes of ad-
miration are not in the original. But what a noble
sixpennyworth is that which contains such a sen-
tence as this! This article ought to glorify and
light up the Spectator for a twelvemonth at least.
It ought to enlarge its circulation enormously. Not
a tea-table in all Islington should be without it.
This, you see, is the actual opinion, put more baldly
and more plainly than one could have conceived
possible, of smug, suburban, Philistinism, wholly
ignorant of Art and all its methods. It is the
opinion of the class who look at a picture for the
story, and think it grew of itself.
Construction, grouping, selection, dramatic effects,
development of character, the weaving of a plot
from a central idea, colour, atmosphere, and all the
rest of the technique (not the "nice tact, delicate
faculty," and um—um—urn) come by nature and
instinct!
Remember that what I claimed was that this
technique can be taught—not that a novelist can
be created. He is born, but I would clear his
way for him, so far as teaching and direction can
clear a way. This technique consists, according to
my Lady Solomon, "in the power of reading and
writing." Oh! most wise and learned Judge!
Of course these things are acquired, even by the
greatest genius, by study, observation, comparison,
and practice. At this Society, I am happy to say,
we have been enabled, without fuss or parade, to
clear the way for a good many young writers who
have come to us for help. We have not created
novelists, we have not tried to do so, we have only
taught them what it is to be a novelist, and we
have given them a few elementary lessons.
The Spectator asks plaintively what help or in-
struction the reviewer can give? Why, since the
reviewer denies that there is any Art in Fiction,
none—none whatever, Madame. If that is also
the belief of those who actually do the reviews for
that paper, the sooner we stop sending it novels the
better. But I have good reasons for believing that
the writer does not represent the views of all the
staff.
Then it asks what I mean by the "base and
ignominious" terms by which many writers are
persuaded to publish their works. Oh! This
good lady knows nothing—nothing at all!
I call it base and ignominious when a writer
has been refused by all the honourable Houses,
because the work is worthless, to accept the offer
of some wretched swindler who persuades him
that there are going to be vast profits, makes him
pay a lump more than enough to cover the
whole cost of production on the pretence that it
is a half, or a third; cheats him in advertisements,
corrections, and everything, and gives him back
nothing but a book ill-printed, on vile paper, ill-
bound, sent out to be cut to pieces by the
reviewers. These tricks are exposed month after
month in the Author; but this writer has never
heard of the Author. Is it, or is it not, ignominious
to publish under such conditions?
One more gem from this wonderful article.
"Until now," the writer says, "we have happily
believed that the tale of the story-teller and the
song of the poet were the results of unpremeditated
Art, even as the strains of the skylark." Have
you really thought so, Madame? They used to
think so sixty years ago in the sweet days of
Felicia Hemans and L. E. L., and the bulbul and
the gazelle. All spontaneous—all by the light of
genius—all by instinct. The poet has no workshop.
To him, rhythm, rhyme, metre, form, the rules of
verse, the history of verse, the modern conditions
of verse, come by nature—all—all—born with
him, as the song with the skylark and the quack
with the duck. Yes, indeed—indeed. How
lovely—how beautiful—how tender—and how
TRUE!
W. B.
*
## p. 320 (#384) ############################################
320
THE AUTHOR.
AUTHOR V. EDITOR.
MR. F. HARRISON'S article in the current
number of the Fortnightly Rrciav on
"Editorial Horseplay" is particularly
entertaining reading. An attack on an editor by
one who is at once a serious Radical and a brilliant
litterateur will not fail to delight the somewhat
bored world of review readers. Mr. Harrison is
heated, moreover, and strikes hard, and a display
of temper in a languid age is, some will think,
exhilarating. We cannot greatly wonder that in
most of the comments on the article which we
have happened to see, Mr. Harrison should be
treated a little jocosely. His proposal to restore
the Elgin marbles to Greece looks a wee bit
Quixotic, and his wily editor, Mr. James Knowles,
has the indisputable advantage of representing
British Philistinism shaken with side-splitting
laughter at the idea of a preposterous bit of
unpatriotism. Yet amusing as is the spectacle, it
has a larger and more serious interest too. It
raises questions of real moment to all men of
letters. For the editor is a publisher, and the
proper definition of the relation of the contributor
to the editor is now-a-days, when most writers have
to win their spurs in the pages of reviews, no less
needed for the safeguarding of authors' rights
than the settlement of the relation of the writer
to the other kind of publisher.
The facts seem to be simple enough. Mr. Har-
rison, an old member of the Nineteenth Century
staff, sent an article to Mr. Knowles advocating the
restitution of the Elgin marbles to Greece. This
article was duly published. Three months later
there appeared in the same journal a reply to Mr.
Harrison, having as signature, "The Editor."
The article treats Mr. Harrison's project with
boisterous ridicule. According to Mr. Harrison
it as good as calls him a "platform Pharisee " and
other pleasant names of the same kind, and des-
cribes his article as "flat misstatement." Mr.
Knowles appears to justify this guffaw-like ex-
plosion of editorial dignity by saying that Mr.
Harrison had consented to having his literary
bantling tossed about in this merry fashion, a
statement which Mr. Harrison stoutly denies, and
which those who know this gentleman's predilec-
tions and customary literary manner will probably
find it hard to understand. With a charming appear-
ance of fair-play Mr. Knowles invites his adversary
in the sportive combat to rejoin. At the same
time he shrewdly bethinks him of his editorship,
and lays it down as a proviso that the rejoinder
must meet with his own approval. Mr. Harrison
refuses to dance to this editorial piping, and pre-
fers to send his reply to the Fortnightly Review.
Here he lays on his former editor some pretty hard
blows, going so far as to hint pretty distinctly that
he does not believe that Mr. Knowles himself
penned the facetious periods to which he has sub-
scribed his name. We should suppose that even
Mr. Knowles will view this insinuation as passing
a joke; but there is no knowing.
It certainly strikes us, as it strikes Mr. Harrison,
that Mr. Knowles is taking a new view of the
editorial function. We cheerfully allow the auto
cracy of the editor. It is his to accept and to
reject as he will. He is at perfect liberty to con-
tribute articles to his own journal. But then,
"noblesse oblige," and the editor retains his
autocracy on the condition that he does not jump
down from his judicial bench and join in the fray of
his literary litigants. To desiderate the excitement
of the contest, and the power of the umpire at the
same moment, is soaring too high for mortals. In
the contest of the law court, of the political arena, of
the field, this is well understood. How is it, one
cannot help asking, that a code well recognized by
gentlemen in other professions seems still ignored
in the literary domain? We are not prepared to
go with Mr. Harrison, when, as we understand him,
he says that by publishing his article his editor
made himself responsible for its general soundness.
As we all know, Mr. Knowles has delighted in
making his journal a forum for the presentation
side by side of the most opposite views. Yet good
feeling might well have hindered an editor, even
when seized with the mighty impulse of laughter,
from holding up his own contributor to the con-
tempt of gods and men. Our editors are often
men of high culture and courteous feeling, and the
present writer owes them much. We must pray
that the Society of Authors may succeed in educa-
ting the rest up to the same level of excellence.
J.S.
*
"THEY ALL LIVED HAPPY EVER
AFTERWARDS."
(Kairy Books, passim.)
T AM glad to have had this little adven-
I ture.
It has grieved me much to think that while
our literature has been growing so wise and so
purpose-full, the fairy story has remained the same
pleasant irresponsible thing that it has ever been.
Physiology and psychology unroll their cheerful
page for the adult, and we learn how a man's liver
can be made answerable for the crimes in the first
two volumes, and his grandmother's tendencies for
## p. 321 (#385) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
321
the retribution which comes in the third. But in
children's books this marked improvement has
not yet taken place. The teachings of science
here are still defied, and the results of heredity
neglected. Now this should not be, and I see
an opportunity to alter it all. My eyes have been
opened. These impossible and immoral stories
must be re-written from a rational point of view,
and endued with something of the enlightened
spirit of the age.
But to my adventure.
* * * *
We were walking down the main thoroughfare
of the stately city where the heroes of fairy-land
go when they are out of print. I do not know
how we got there.
"Here," said my conductor, indicating a hand-
some building, "is the club. Come in and have
some coffee. It is rather exclusive, for we only
admit genuine figments, as poor old Selkirk will
tell you. Though between you and me he was
pilled as much for his habit of saying he was
monarch of all lie surveyed as for any truth in his
career."
These remarks made me look at the speaker
closely, and I recognized him immediately. The
■high shapeless peaked cap, the short jacket, and
open-kneed breeches and buskins, all of goat-skin,
betrayed the hero to me.
"Robinson !" I exclaimed, "this is indeed a
proud moment for me."
"It is very good of you to say so," he replied,
handing to the porter two pouches of ammunition,
a goat-skin umbrella, a fowling-piece, and a
parrot—"very good and kind indeed, for I
understand that I am not of much account in the
world now. I hear, indeed, although I can
hardly credit it, that I am not even in the best
hundred books."
We went upstairs into the smoking room, a
magnificently furnished apartment, whose ceilings
were covered with carpet, and whose floor was
painted like a ceiling. Little brick-coloured
engravings stood about the room on tables, and
large purple-tinted plates were fastened to the
walls, between panels of Lincrusta-Walton work.
Also there was gilt about in places where one badly
brought up would hardly have expected it.
"Copied from your Junior International, I
believe," said Crusoe, sniffing perceptibly, "and
considered to be the acme of comfort. There
are points, you know, about living insulated, with-
out upholstery."
We had not been seated long, when there
entered two superlatively handsome young men,
dressed in the extreme of fashion, who appeared
to accept as their bare due the homage which was
spontaneously tendered to them by all present.
Crusoe, among others, rose from his seat and bowed
as they came in.
"Who are they?" I enquired.
"The short one is Prince "(here he whis-
pered the name into my ear, cautioning me not to
repeat it, as the Prince's name had so far escaped
print), "who married Cinderella; his companion
is Prince Charming, the husband of the young
lady so well-known, and so widely celebrated as
the Sleeping Beauty. Shall I introduce you?"
"Thank you," said I, "I shall be profoundly
obliged for an opportunity of obtaining a personal
knowledge of gentlemen whose lot I have envied so
often."
The demeanour of my new acquaintances, to
whom I was immediately made known, surprised
me greatly, for the face of each wore a look of
permanent dissatisfaction. Yet I had the authority
of much uncontradicted tradition for believing that
all the future was to have been for them a sojourn
in eternal happiness. Was it that as Princes they
disdained to manifest any outward appearance of
happiness? For I knew that in some circles a
settled and serene sulk did duty for "the repose
which stamps the caste." Was I face to face with
a genuine or a spurious melancholy?
I resolved to ask them, and I did.
"Really," said Cinderella's husband, "my un-
fortunate position is so well known that it were
the veriest of affectations to disguise it. I have
married in the scullery, and am repenting at
leisure. Cinderella," he added, pityingly, "is a
good little girl, but entirely without manner. You
remember, of course, her bringing up—it is very
hard on us, but everybody knows it—and you can
scarcely, therefore, wonder at her lack of distinction.
Ah! I ought to have married one of her sisters—
fine girls, sir, with a style too! Either would have
jumped at me."
"But," said I, "your wife has the sweetest
disposition, and surely that, combined with beauty,
should bring happiness to a husband's home."
"Maybe," said the Prince, "but she doesn't
make me happy. You see, she has no adaptability
and no malleability. She has never made any
attempt to fill the position in which I have placed
her. I grant you that her housekeeping is excellent,
but then house-wif'ery is a talent which a princess
would do well to go out and bury. It never would
be missed."
"I think," broke in Prince Charming, "that you
are making the worst of your case. At least your
wife is an intelligent girl, and you get your meals
regularly. How would you like to be tied to such
a wife as mine?"
## p. 322 (#386) ############################################
322
THE AUTHOR.
"Yours, Prince?" I exclaimed, "why, the Sleep-
ing Beauty is the loveliest and purest maid in the
annals of fiction."
"I only wish I had left her as I found her,"
returned Prince Charming, viciously. "Entre
t/ous, my wife is next door to an idiot. She spends
the day arranging herself on sofas. A photo-
grapher attends to reproduce the results, and I am
expected to pass judgment upon each picture, and
say if she appears lovelier in this or in that pose,
than when she lay asleep among the briars. She
has no ideas, no powers of estimation or com-
parison, no knowledge whatever of life. What,
indeed, can be expected from a girl who has
passed all her maiden life asleep? But if I had
only thought for a moment, I should have foreseen
all this ere I woke her—and I should have
retreated on tip-toe."
Just then a very pleasing young man came
into the room, and looked ingratiatingly about
him. He was apparently well-known and popular,
for he was greeted with nods and smiles by most
of those present. His clothes were magnificent,
but his bearing was not aristocratic, and he was
treated with none of the external deference which
had been offered to the two Princes.
"Oh !" said Prince Charming, " I'm off. I can-
not stand that fellow." So saying, he rose, as did
his companion, and they lounged with linked arms
past the new-comer, ostentatiously taking no
notice of him.
"Who is he, Robinson?" I asked.
"It's Aladdin," he replied, "the man who
married the Princess Badroulbadour. She's the
handsomest and cleverest woman in the place—
quite the leader in our best set, and very fond of
circus-girls, artists' models, and religious explorers.
Would you care to know him?"
I nodded, and Crusoe signed to Aladdin to
come over and occupy Prince Charming's chair.
"Pleased to meet you, sir," said Aladdin, with
what may be described as lower middle-class
affability. "Was not that Prince Charming who
just left you? Horrid supercilious beast! I hope
he's not a particular friend of yours."
Aladdin's manner of speeding the parting guest
was so very familiar to me from club experience in
my world, that I was moved to smile, as I answered
that I had only made the acquaintance of the two
Princes some few minutes before, and that I
thought them nice young men.
"Well, I don't," he said. "I often wonder why
Cinderella puts up with her husband's airs. She's
a jolly little thing, and as beautiful as she is good;
but he's ashamed to be seen about with her, and
Prince Charming openly laments that he didn't
leave his wife where he found her, and is always
egging the poor girl on to take morphine. Is that
your idea of being nice?"
"Are you not a little hard upon him?" said I.
"You have been so happy yourself in your choice
of a consort that perhaps you hardly make due
allowance for less fortunate men."
"You must be a particular sort of an ass," he
replied, bluntly. "Badroulbadour is handsome
enough and as clever as paint, but she's not a
pleasant wife; everybody knows that. She's a
leader of society. That's what she is. We have
not dined fete d-tUte for two years. She has political
views and social views, and artistic views. She has
all sorts of explorers and nigger-drivers about the
place. (No offence to you, Crusoe.) She writes
for the monthly magazines. Sometimes her
grammar gets guyed, but her sentiments are all
right, for she lifts them from Confucius. She
speaks in public, and will blurt out to a collected
crowd things which a man would get kicked for
whispering; but she doesn't speak to me except
before company and to keep up appearances."
I murmured my sympathies as he rose to go.
"Concerning marriages," said Crusoe, as he
showed me downstairs. "What the wise ends of
God's providence are in such a disposition of
things I cannot say. There are those who rashly
presume to judge by the experience of others.
There are those who still more rashly arrive at
general conclusions from the consideration of their
own private affairs. I am pleased to have met
you. If you ever write story books you might
omit that tag. It annoys us here terribly."
I was glad to leave for I remember that my
companion was sometimes a tedious old gentleman.
* # * * *
Now after this I see before me a future for some-
body. It is clear that the fairy story—-as she is
wrote—is inconsequent and immoral. It has no
message. It is untruthful. The characters them-
selves feel it. Will this not be very generally found
out? Do you think a fin de siecle Board School
child will tolerate such void and formless attempts
towards its amusement much longer?
And this is the future for somebody :—Let him
take these old stories and write them up to date.
Let us know the psychological reasons for the
failure of the elder two brothers and the unvarying
success of the third. This is no accident: it
happens too often. It is a mental problem worthy
of Maudsley's consideration. Let him paint for us
the animal qualities of the Beast cropping up in his
descendants, in happy blend with the personal
traits of Beauty their mother, and the unamiable
characteristics of their aunts. In this way it seems
that we might attain to a Literature of searching
## p. 323 (#387) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
3*3
character-insight, and the coldest scientific ac-
curacy, with the extraordinary and pleasing addition
of a readable story.
Some "damned" English poet might be en-
trusted to re-write snatches of nursery rhyme to be
used as chapter headings.
There is money in this idea. The Society has
therefore patented it, and will be happy to entrust
the commission to the author who passes first in a
competitive examination for the post. Names will
now be received by the secretary. The com-
pulsory subjects will be :—
The works of Zola, Kipling, Tolstoi, Wilde, and
Paul Verlaine—in English.
Carpenter's " Mental Physiology."
Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations."
Brewer's " Dictionaries of, &c."
In addition the candidates will have to satisfy
the examiners in one of the following books :—
Hans Andersen's Stories.
Grimm's Stories.
The Arabian Nights Entertainments, un-
bowdlerized.
Cobbett's English Grammar.
Any Standard French Dictionary.
The books will be published by the Society on
the half-profit system, and the author will be paid,
upon repeated application, whatever sum the Com-
mittee think will make him shut his mouth. This
sum will be taken to represent his due share, and
no further question can be allowed to arise about
the matter, as the Committee are not as a body or
individually in the habit of having their bare words
doubted.
*
"L'ENFANT PRODIGUE."
THERE could not have been a better way of
keeping the Feast of Fools than by a visit
to "Monsieur Pierrot," at home, at the
Prince of Wales' Theatre. The most exquisite
gourmet of folly could find no fault with a
banquet so rich in rare and delicate food for
laughter and unexpected flavouring of grateful
bitter herbs. I was not alone in the audience; we
went to laugh and criticise, and came away
conquered and in tears. We have made the ac-
quaintance of a great author. Monsieur Michel
Carre" fils has written a most pathetic comedy
without words. He has overcome not only a
dramatic, but a literary difficulty. The phraseology
of lives somewhat sordid, placed midway between
poverty and affluence, between ignorance and high
cultivation, is so antipathetic to either extreme as
to deprive the class using it of their sympathy. In
VOL. I.
"L'Enfant Prodigue" we see before us mediocrity
relieved of all its pettiness, in its dumb human
agony. It is the story of the great sorrow of petty
comedians, the little tragedy of a family of fools.
Until we knew Monsieur Michel Carre, we should
have said no one could have done it so well, not
even Charles I amb, Gerard de Nerval, Hans An-
dersen— only Balzac himself. Again, the play could
scarcely be better represented. Monsieur Courtes
as Pierrot pcre exhausts my praise. Madame
Schmidt as Madame Pierrot is very nearly as
powerful. Consider how perfectly they co-operate
with the author. In the first act, we have the
comely, smiling, indulgent French mother, slightly
indifferent to a husband many years older, but
utterly devoted to her son. The father is the
typical middle-class Frenchman, getting old, narrow-
minded, irascible, respectable, and a niggard.
The family is prosperous in an unpretending
middle-class way; the old man stints his son, and
stints his wife and himself in order to save for him.
The gay and indulgent mother keeps as a matter
of course a cheap commonplace statue of the
Virgin as an ornament in the corner of the room.
A lamp hangs before it. The family is prosperous;
she has let the lamp go out. Notice when the boy
has been sent off to bed, how comfortably they
settle themselves, how Monsieur Pierrot reads his
newspaper; we can follow him through all the
items of news. At last he finds a story "un peu
piquant." His delight, her propriety and her
smile, furtive without the least touch of prudery—
how delicately this is acted! At length they fall
asleep, gradually, peacefully, the sleep of body and
conscience both untroubled by digestion.
They wake to find,—what we know (for the
moment Monsieur Courtes and Madame Schmidt
are on an exact equality with speaking actors), for
words here would be impossible. Nothing could
be more masterly than the contrast between their
simulated, agonizing sleep, and their natural, quiet
dozing. Monsieur Courtes is particularly fine.
The effect of their awakening we see in the
fourth act. The sorrow has inspired their dull
mediocrity, the bitter herbs have given a delicate
flavour to the common meat, the woman's tears
have served as oil to her holy lamp. The com-
monplace ornament has become the Mother of
Mercy. Both the parents are aged, the mother
saddened, the father softened; but he is old
Pierrot still. If he were not still a little irascible
we should not be afraid to laugh at him without the
least sarcasm, and this is the highest, rarest proof
of good-will. There is the old hackneyed scene,
the unused platter, and the vacant chair; but these
respectable "bourgeois," retired clowns, make it
heart-rending. The mother, of course, shows plainly
2 E
## p. 324 (#388) ############################################
324
THE AUTHOR.
that she cannot restrain her tears, the old man
affects indifference,—and fills the empty glass. By
some strange prophetic instinct he leaves it to
restore an unexpected guest. Every movement of
Monsieur Courtes's face is a study as Pierrot scolds
and comforts his wife. There is no tobacco in his
jar; this is a good excuse. The hot atmosphere must
be raising the lump in his throat. He feigns anger;
he must himself go out in the snow to buy tobacco.
When Madame Pierrot is left alone she breaks
down utterly, but she has still hope ; she confides in
the plaster image, which has attained to the highest
eminence of the best art by becoming to her the
greatest of realities. While her husband is away
she can take out an ordinary cabinet-sized photo-
graph and hug it to her breast and dandle it in
her arms. All heroines of melodramas do this,
but here it is terribly pathetic. We could swear it
is blotched and stained with real tears. Then in
comes the old man again, still the old Pierrot; he
picks up a piece of bread which has fallen on the
floor and looks angrily at his wife as he blows the
dust off. He won't have waste in his house; then
we remember, after all, he is not so well off now.
Presently, when old Pierrot is out of the room, the
prodigal returns, faint and weary. His mother, of
course, has no thought of reproach. She holds him
to her breast again, that is enough. She refreshes
him with the wine his father could not taste. The
father comes back; she nods to the Virgin, alive
to her, standing there in the room, to remind her
that she must help now, she must make the father
forgive. The mother has no thought of any moral
law concerning punishment and the fruit of faults.
But old Pierrot is a fool, by profession only. He
won't take back his son, to rob him and ruin
himself a second time. He must make atonement.
To the Frenchman whose neighbours have died on
their own doorsteps, killed by a foreign invader, ser-
vice in the army has a sacred character unintelligible
to races only accustomed to aggressive wars. And
sowe leave the family, wondering at the fool's wisdom.
By dwelling so long on Monsieur and Madame
Pierrot, I do not wish to imply dissatisfaction with
the acting of the other parts. All are very good.
In one gesture of the negro servant, Monsieur Jean
Arcueil, as he pauses an instant before he leaves
the room, is expressed the whole conversation of
the servants' hall in a "bijou residence," whose
mistress still retains the characteristics of a pretty
washerwoman when she is dressed in silks and
satins. Mdlle. Zanfretta makes a lively and clever
"Phrynette"; the little touches showing she has
after all some sort of fondness for her generous and
devoted boy, are very pretty. Monsieur Louis
Gouget also makes an excellent baron, once he is
le baron Hulot of " La Cousine Bette," to the life.
1 have purposely avoided any special notice of
the acting of Miss Jane May. She is so well
known and her reputation is so well assured that
it is unnecessary to do so. One point, however,
she emphasises with peculiar skill, the remorse of
little Pierrot even while he is robbing his parents,
and his love for his mother. He cannot make up
his mind to search his mother for the keys. Again
she uses with effect a splendid opportunity. There
is a corner of " Phrynette's" boudoir corresponding
to the corner in the old home where hung the image
and the lamp. Little "Pierrot" is in an agony,
instinctively he turns to the image, to find a por-
trait of himself. No woman could act the part
better than Miss Jane May; most men would not
act it half so well; but it is utterly impossible for
a woman's figure in man's clothes to look other-
wise than anomalous. Nature and the caprice of
present custom, and not the fine artistic powers and
personal feminine appearance of Miss Jane May,
are responsible for the anomaly. Pierrot is not a
"joli jeune garcon," but a "gamin maladie." This
one fault in the "casting" of the piece is the
"poisson d'avril " of the feast. W. W.
*
CORRESPONDENCE.
I. Authors and Reviewers.
THE remedy for the state of things com-
plained of by "An Obscure Novelist" can
only be found in the reform of the review-
ing system. At the same time it may be pointed
out that the exercise of a little discrimination by
the "Obscure Novelist" would have saved him
the troubled mind which a very common experience
has occasioned. The opinion of the Little Ped-
dlington Star is surely not so important to him as
the criticism of the Saturday Review. Then he
appears to suffer from the delusion that all re-
viewers are critics. Let him distinguish. It were
unreasonable to look for criticism in a journal
where six, or eight, or more novels—good and bad,
foreign and English—are "noticed," week after
week, in a single brief article that occupies space
which would be inadequate to the criticism of a
single notable novel. Such a system may commend
itself to publishers, and may be very suitable to a
trade journal, but it is nothing less than scandalous
in a newspaper that professes to review and to
represent current English literature. As to those
other papers of which "An Obscure Novelist"
writes, whose reviews are determined by their
advertisements, they can be, and should be, surely
left bookless by all authors and publishers.
## p. 325 (#389) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
325
The needed reform can be best effected by
editors. Unfortunately it appears that it would
first be necessary to convince a large number of
editors that reviewing is a subject of any im-
portance at all. It is notorious that reviewing is
regarded in many quarters as a field of experiment
for testing the competency of the young hand, or
for proving—for the 12th time—the inveterate dis-
abilities of the ancient hack. In short, what is, as
Mr. Saintsbury forcibly puts it, "on the whole the
most difficult kind of newspaper writing" is also
"on the whole the most lightly assigned and the
most irresponsibly performed." Now if all editors
would but devote a fair proportion of their time
and energy to these matters, the evils discussed by
"An Obscure Novelist" would be greatly
diminished.
B.
II. Baron Tauchnitz.
"Can you tell me by what right Tauchnitz pub-
lishes cheap editions of English books for con-
tinental circulation, and in what respect this differs
from piracy?
"I have heard or read that Tauchnitz always
pays authors pretty liberally, but is he obliged to
do so? And why is it that Tauchnitz alone seems
to have the privilege of printing cheap editions?"
The writer is under a misapprehension. Baron
Tauchnitz has no such rights as he supposes. To
reprint an English author without his permission
would be an act of piracy. Baron Tauchnitz
always purchases the right. The reason why he is
alone as a publisher of English books for continental
cities is simply that, though others have tried to set
up in rivalry with him, they have not hitherto suc-
ceeded. Messrs. Heinemann, Balestier and Co. are
now making another attempt. They are said to
have secured a good many leading English authors.
It remains to be seen whether their venture will
be crowned with success or not.
III. From "Chastelard."
I have been much puzzled by two allusions in
Mr. Swinburne's dramas, and hope that some of
the readers of the Author may be able and willing
to lighten my darkness. One of these is to be
found in Chastelard, Act iii, sc. 1; the hero
speaks—
"Have you read never in French books the song
Called the 'Duke's Song,' some boy made ages
back,
A song of drag-nets hauled across thwart seas
VOL. I.
And plucked up with rent sides, and caught
therein,
A strange-haired woman with sad singing lips,
Cold in the cheek like any stray of sea,
And sweet to touch? So that men, seeing her
face,
And how she sighed out little Ahs of pain,
And soft cries sobbing sideways from her mouth,
Fell in hot love, and having lain with her,
Died soon?"
Is there any foundation for this? Does such a
song as the "Duke's Song" exist?
The other allusion is in Rosamond, sc. 3. King
Henry says—
"I am as he that saith
In the great song sick words and sorrowful
Of love's hard sweet and hunger of harsh hours."
To what "great song" could our Second Henry
thus refer?
Ramsay Colles.
IV. Gratuitous Contributions.
Can the gratuitous contributions, complained of
in the March number of the Author, explain the
proceedings of the publisher with whom the writer
of the paragraph, headed "Accepted," has had to
do? The remuneration offered was certainly ex-
tremely liberal, compared with what "No pay, no
pen" speaks of as being "considered in such
quarters something magnificent." Has the pub-'
lisher in question discovered he can secure contri-
butions gratuitously, or at least at half, or quarter,
the rate agreed on, and so have broken his
contract?
Neither Pay nor Fen.
IV. "The Last Dream of Julius Roy."
Mr. Byrrne shows such a pretty faculty of
paraphrase in his version, in last month's Author,
of my story, "The Last Dream of Julius Roy,"
that I am sorry to have to discourage him in the
ingenious art of manufacturing resemblances
betwixt his own and other people's stories. Until
his letter, I had supposed the "Newbery House
Magazine " to be a theological review—a very good
reason for not going to its pages for fiction.
Indeed, I had never seen either the magazine or
his story. But the suspicion of plagiarism, like
that of heresy, is not easily upset; and, supposing
my story to have been written after his had
appeared, he would still probably make the most
of that contingency. So I hasten to add that
2 K 2
## p. 326 (#390) ############################################
326
THE AUTHOR.
"The Last Dream of Julius Roy" was written first,
early in 1889, had some considerable circulation in
MS. during that year, and was eventually sent to
the Editor of Macmillan's Magazine before July,
1890, the date when, we are told, the story re-
sembling it appeared. I hesitate to turn the
tables upon Mr. Byrrne, as an avowed writer of
fiction, by suggesting that he may have been
among those who read my story in MS.
Ernest Rhys.
Llantysilio, April 6th, 1891.
VI. The Signed Article.
Sir,—In response to your invitation appended
to the article of " F.," in your last issue, allow me,
as an old journalist, who has been engaged in
editorial work on daily papers for many years, to
say a few words on the above subject. From the
point of view taken by the Society of Authors
with regard to all such matters there can be no
doubt that the signature of newspaper articles
would be greatly to the material advantage of the
journalist, for it would enhance both his social
status and his pecuniary value. Many an able
leader writer now unknown would, if he signed his
articles, become famous and obtain higher terms
for his services. As it is, some few journalists,
are well-known by name to the public independ-
ently of their avowed literary work, and although
their newspaper articles arc not identified as theirs
it is a matter of notoriety that they write for
certain papers. All these gentlemen are pre-
sumably very highly paid, but they have many
colleagues of great ability whose names are much
less familiar to the public, but who, if they were
equally celebrated, could command similar re-
muneration. Now it is the special function of the
Society to improve the author's position, and so
far as the journalist is concerned nothing could be
better calculated to effect that end than the
removal of the veil which hides not his talent, but
his personality from the public. I have in my
mind many men, it would be invidious to mention
names, who have been labouring for the public for
years, turning out day after day brilliant or solid
articles, representing an aggregate of brain work,
which, if embodied in a book or books, must have
rendered them famous and perhaps prosperous.
Yet the public never heard of them, and they have
remained content in their modest obscurity, sub-
sisting on their moderate salaries, and their
obituary one of these days will probably be con-
tained in a six-line paragraph.
Yet all journalists, obviously as a change in the
present practice would be for their benefit, are by
no means in favour of abolishing the anonymous
system. In fact, I rather think that the majority
are opposed to such an alteration. They are led
to this conclusion by several different consider-
ations, but there is one of a practical character,
which they generally recognise as presenting an
insuperable obstacle to the proposed "reform."
All newspaper work must be edited, and it is
edited habitually to an extent of which the public
are hardly aware. In every well-regulated news-
paper office a despotic discipline is exercised,
almost as strict as that on board a man-of-war,
and no contribution is sacred to the editor. He,
or his assistant, alters, corrects, deletes, amplifies,
and re-writes as he pleases, and his authority in
this respect is never questioned. The contributor
knows that his article is anonymous; the editor
is responsible for it, not he. Now this editorial
supervision would be rendered practically impos-
sible if articles were signed. They would not be
the work of the writer whose signature was attached
to them, and no self-respecting journalist would
allow writings to go forth to the world under his
name which were not all his own.
I have reason to know that there is a very strong
feeling among both newspaper proprietors and
newspaper writers against the abolition of the
anonymous system, and I doubt very much
whether, in our time at least, the directors of any
great journal will be induced to make the proposed
change. It is possible, however, that one of them
may be bold enough to try the experiment at any
rate to a limited extent, publishing, say, one signed
article in the nature of a leader every day, instead
of putting it into the form of a "letter to the
editor," a practice frequently adopted.
I think, in short, that it would be very desirable
to effect some modification in the present anony-
mous system. Certainly it would be to the advan-
tage of the journalist in every way. But that
which is desirable is not always practicable, and
anything like a general signature of all articles in
English journals is, I fear, quite out of the ques-
tion. I am, yours, &c,
Fleet Street, March 29th. E. J. G.
VII. Note on a Case.
At County Court recently a singular pub-
lishing case came up for hearing. The plaintiffs,
Messrs. A. B. and Co., sued Mr. C. D. for nonfulfil-
ment of the terms of a contract entered into in
February, 1890. It appears that the defendant
signed an agreement with the plaintiffs, by which
he bound himself to superintend the translation,
editing, and general preparation for the press, of a
certain well-known series of volumes. The first
## p. 327 (#391) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
327
volume of the series was to have been published, if
possible, in September last year. Various reasons
were brought forward by the defendant's counsel,
accounting for the delay in the preparation of the
volumes, notably the difficulty of adapting the work
to suit English readers and the question of inter-
national copyright.
The terms of the agreement as stated in court
are so peculiar that they are worthy of being
recorded in these pages. For translating, editing,
and preparing for the press, the defendant was to
receive the sum of ^25, each volume to be pub-
lished monthly, payable one month after publica-
tion. Payment for the first volume, however, it
appears, was made in advance. Out of this sum
it was suggested by the plaintiffs that the defendant
should pay £12 each for the rough translation of
the volumes, and about ^5 or £6 for illustrations
in each volume. All expenses for corrections
(exclusive of printer's errors), exceeding \os. for
every 32 pp., were to be borne by the defendant.
None of the volumes have less than 250 pp. of
over 270 words each.
The claim of the plaintiffs was for the return of
the volumes lent for the purpose of translation,
the ^25 allowed in advance, and £,10 damages,
also costs. Judgment for ^25 was given for the
plaintiffs, his Honour at the same time expressing
sympathy towards the defendant when considering
the terms of the agreement.
[Editor's Note.—This is a case in which the
defendant signed an agreement without considering
whether he could carry out the contract. For ^25
he was to arrange the purchase of copyright, pay a
translator—say .£12 for sixteen sheets, or 155. a
sheet of 4,320 words, that is, id. for every 24
words It is the wage of a road-sweeper. He
was alno to spend £6 in illustrations, and to pay
corrections. Naturally, hi could not carry out the
contract. No doubt he ought to have thought of
this before signing it. It seems to us, however,
that equity ought to relieve persons from the
burden of such contracts as these. It is well
for us to know that such contracts as these are
still submitted to literary men.]
VIII. The Cost of a Stamp.
An author accustomed to signing the agreements
submitted to him by his publishers in the form
which may be called "the ordinary royalty agree-
ment," endeavours to embody similar terms in a
letter to his publisher, and on sending it to Somerset
House to be stamped, is surprised to receive it
back with a 10s. stamp impressed on it instead of
the 6d. stamp which he has been familiar with
upon his usual agreement. His letter runs thus :—
"Gentlemen,
"In consideration of the prepayment of -——
pounds on account of royalties and of the further
royalties hereinafter mentioned, I hereby transfer
to you the international copyright and all other
rights, if any, in a story written by me entitled
',' without any restrictions whatever as to
methods, times, or places of publication or drama-
tisation." Then follow the details of royalties to
be paid, an undertaking to correct proofs, and the
author's signature. There can hardly be any doubt
that the reason why the document set out was not
stamped with a sixpenny stamp, but at a higher
rate, is that it was considered at Somerset House
to be, as indeed it apparently is, a conveyance on
sale, which is defined in Section 70 of the Stamp Act
of 1870 (33 and 34 Vic, cap. 97), to include ' every
instrument whereby any property upon the sale
thereof is legally or equitably transferred to or vested
in the purchaser.' It has therefore been charged
with an 'ad valorem duty,' which appears to have
been arrived at by a calculation which fixed the
value of the property sold at between ^75 und^ioo.
It must be recollected, by those who would im-
mediately conclude that a document in the form
of an agreement would be the better one for
authors to use in dealing with their copyright,
that it by no means follows that because a piece
of paper is only headed, 'Memorandum of agree-
ment between A. B. and C. D.,' that it is not an
instrument whereby property is legally, or at all
events, equitably transferred. That would depend
on the construction of the words which treat par-
ticularly of the contemplated assignment, and on
the contents of the document as a whole. It can
safely be presumed that if such a document were
handed in at Somerset House with a request that
a 6d. stamp might be affixed to it, it would be
affixed without demur, while the question whether
it was a transfer or not, and if so, whether it was
sufficiently stamped, might arise at some future
time to perplex and annoy a person claiming
under it.
"If any person wishes to ascertain beyond doubt
the amount of duty with which any executed
instrument is chargeable, he may (by Sections 18
and 19 of the above-mentioned Act) require the
Commissioners of Inland Revenue to express an
opinion as to whether it is chargeable with duty,
and to what extent. If they consider that the
instrument is chargeable they are bound to assess
the duty, and any person who is dissatisfied with
the assessment as made, may within twenty-one days
after the date of it, and on payment of duty in
conformity with it, appeal against it to the Queen's
Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, and
may for that purpose require the Commissioners to
## p. 328 (#392) ############################################
328
THE AUTHOR.
state and sign a case, setting forth the question
upon which their opinion was required and the
assessment made by them.
"The Commissioners arethen obliged to state and
sign acase accordingly, which in due course is agreed
before the proper Court, and the person whose
instrument was to be stamped may end by taking
the matter up to the House of Lords, and obtain-
ing their decision upon it. If he succeeds he will
get back the amount he has overpaid, and his costs;
if he loses, he will have to pay the costs of the
Commissioners as well as his own. It must be
pointed out that it wou'.d be found impossible to
recover money overpaid for duty unless the steps
indicated above had been taken, and the Com-
missioners formally asked to assess the duty; and it
should be borne in mind that although the royalty
agreements signed by authors and publishers may
be habitually stamped with a sixpenny stamp, it by
no means follows that they ought not to be charged
with an ad valorem duty instead. An Act of Par-
liament passed in 1889 (52, 53 Vic, cap. 42, sec.
15), enncts that 'Any contract or agreement made
in England or Ireland under seal or under hand
only or made in Scotland ... for the sale of
any estate or interest in any property except lands,
tenements (and certain other specified species of
property which do not include copyrights), shall be
charged with the same ad valorem duties to be
paid by the purchaser as if it were an actual con-
veyance on sale of the estate interest or property
agreed or contracted to be sold.' It should be
remembered that (under 5 and 6 Vic, cap. 45,
sec. 43) the copyright of a book duly entered in the
Book of Registry of Stationers' Hall may be
assigned by its registered proprietor, by entry in
that Book cf Registry, without being subjected to
any stamp or duty. An agreement to assign the
copyright in a book so entered, or which is intended
to be so entered, would presumably require a six-
penny stamp only, and one would think that this
form of transfer would consequently in many cases
be found the cheapest to adopt.
E. A. A.
*
IN GRUB STREET.
ALADY'S experience. "I wrote a little book
for which I received the sum of £5. It
ran up to 10,000 copies at least. It was
sold for a few pence only. The publishers refused
any further payment on account of its success."
Technically, of course, they were quite right.
The author had accepted the agreement, and there
was nothing more to say. But—mark this—the
publishers knew pretty well, beforehand, what the
sale would be, because they had previously issued
many other books of the same kind. Therefore
they knew very nearly what the proceeds would be.
I have calculated that the publishers made a profit
of about ^70. Now, I repeat, when they gave the
author this wretched ^5, they knew that they were
going to make this profit. Are we right, in any
definition of Sweating, to accord to this Firm the
rank and title of Sweaters? And I wonder if
anyone can guess the name of this Firm of
Sweaters.
The Authors' Syndicate is under the voluntary
and unpaid management of Mr. W. Morris Colles.
The Honorary Treasurer is Mr. Walter Besant.
The principle of the Syndicate is quite simple.
The author gets all that is received for his work,
except a very small percentage to pay for clerking,
printing, and postage. Mr. Colles begs all authors
to understand that in arranging with the papers
the name is the first thing; that until a writer
has made himself a name, this form of publication
is impossible for him: and that nothing can be
done in a hurry, papers being generally engaged a
year and more in advance.
John Strange Winter is engaged upon a new
serial story for Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. The
appearance of her new venture, "Golden Gates,"
must be recorded as one of the literary events of
the month. It is said that 100,000 copies of the
first number went off.
Mr. Henry Cresswell has in the press a new
novel, in three volumes, entitled "The Hermits of
Crizebeck," which will be published by Messrs.
Hurst and Blackett early in May.
At recent book sales, the first edition of Bunyan's
Holy War (1682) sold for ^32; the original
monthly parts of Vanity Fairfax £21 e,s. ; Walton's
Compleat Angler in the original binding (1653)
and Cotton's Compleat Angler (1676), first editions,
fetched ^310; Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield,
first edition (1766), ^35 iar.; Charles Carib's
Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret, £,20 \os.;
the Poems by Two Brothers went for ;£i7- At
Boston the MS. of Poe's Eulalie fetched $225 the
other day. At the Women's Press Club at Boston
Miss Louise Imogene Guiney showed a ring con-
taining fourteen hairs from the head of Keats—the
history of that Rape of the Lock is not tendered
with the statement.
## p. 329 (#393) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
329
The Critic of New York tells a tragic story of a
lady who grew discontented at the prices she
received for her work. It was all signed, but she
thought that she ought to be paid more than
she got, and she fancied that she was underpaid
simply because she was a woman. She therefore
tried the dodge of signing with a masculine name,
and sent off her next MS. with a nam de plume.
She received no answer. Presently, however, she
found that her work had been used, and had
appeared in the magazine to which she sent it.
She wrote at once to the editor, reminding him
that she did not work for nothing. He sent her,
promptly, a cheque for $2! She had been accus-
tomed to receive for her work in own name,
and for papers of the same length, at least $35!
This experience has made her resolve to remain a
woman.
An article on Professor Lockyer's "Meteoritic
Hypothesis," by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., appears
in the Gentleman's Magazine, for April.
Some time last year a lady came to this Society
with "a case." It was a pretty bad case. She
was resident in a colony. She had written a book
which she was anxious to publish. She made the
acquaintance, in the colony, of a wandering pub-
lisher, who undertook her work on conditions. She
was to advance him ^100 down with the MS. The
copyright was to be his. She was to receive some
share—the author says, "as much as he might
choose to give me "—of the profits. And—which
shows a truly bold spirit—she was to bind herself
down to publish whatever other books she might
■write, all her life, on the same terms. The hundred
pounds was "towards the expense of publishing."
and, of course, it would cover the whole expense.
A solicitor pointed out to the lady how disastrous
the agreement was, and she came to England and
placed the matter in the hands of a London
solicitor. .The Society, therefore, could not offer
to do anything for her until her own solicitor had
acted. It is pleasing to report that he succeeded
in getting the agreement cancelled.
She then, without consulting the Society, sent
her MS. to another publisher, who undertook it
on the beautifully simple condition that she should
guarantee the sale of 500 copies to begin with. It is
not stated what price he charged her. It is possible
it was 4s. id. a copy, in which case she would have
to pay over a hundred pounds. In other words,
she was as badly off with her second publisher as
with her first. After these copies she was to receive
a royalty of tod. a copy on the remaining 500
copies. There was also an agreement about a
cheap edition which does not concern us here.
The second part of the case illustrates our reiterated
statement about risk. Here we have the publisher
guarding himself against risk or possible loss by
making the author take as many copies as would
pay the whole expense of production to begin with.
If he sells the rest of the edition of 1,000 copies,
he will realise about ^85, out of which he will
have to pay the author £26 16s. 8d., so that on
the first edition, unless she gets rid of her 500
copies, she loses about £&o, and he wins £66.
Not bad business. But suppose the lady had
known, when she signed it, what the agreement
meant? And now we may understand one of the
reasons why certain publishers so vehemently de-
nounce and decry the action of the Society. It
is because we do not allow our clients to sign any
agreements, if we can prevent them, which they
do not understand.
*
A BILL
to amend title sixty, chapter three, of the
Revised Statutes of the United States,
relating to copyrights.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-two of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec. 4952. xThe author, inventor, designer,
or proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or
musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or
photograph or negative thereof, or of a painting,
drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models
or designs intended to be perfected as works of
the fine arts, and the executors, administrators,
or assigns of any such person shall, upon com-
plying with the provisions of this chapter, have
the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing,
completing, copying, executing, finishing, and
vending the same; and in the case of dramatic
composition, of publicly performing or repre-
senting it or causing it to be performed or repre-
sented by others; and authors or their assigns
shall have exclusive right to dramatize and tran-
slate any of their works for which copyright
shall have been obtained under the laws of the United
States."
Sec. 2. That section forty-nine hundred and
1 Omits: "Any citizen of the United States or resident
therein, who shall be."
## p. 330 (#394) ############################################
33°
THE AUTHOR.
fifty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the
same is hereby, amended so as to read as fol-
lows:
"Sec. 4954. The author, inventor, or designer,
if he be still living,1 or his widow or children, if
he be dead, shall have the same exclusive right
continued for the further term of fourteen years,
upon recording the title of the work or description
of the article so secured a second time, and com-
plying with all other regulations in regard to
original copyrights, within six months before the
expiration of the first term; and such persons
shall, within two months from the date of said
renewal, cause a copy of the record thereof to
be published in one or more newspapers printed
in the United States for the space of four
weeks."
Sec. 3. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-six of the Revised Statutes of the United States
be, and the same is hereby, amended so that it
shall read as follows:
"Sec. 4956. No person shall be entitled to a
copyright unless he shall, on or before the day
of publication in this or any foreign country, deliver
at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit
in the mail within the United States, addressed to
the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District
of Columbia, a printed copy of the title of the
book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composi-
tion, engraving, cut, print, photograph, or chromo,
or a description of the painting, drawing, statue,
statuary, or a model or design for a work of the
fine arts for which he desires a copyright, nor
unless he shall also, not later than the day of the
publication thereof in this or any foreign country,
deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress,
at Washington, District of Columbia, or deposit
in the mail within the United States, addressed to
the Librarian of Congress, at Washington Dis-
trict of Columbia, two copies of such copy-
right book,~ maps, chart, dramatic or musical
composition, engraving, chromo, cut, print or photo-
graph* or in case of a painting, drawing, statue,
statuary, model, or design for a work of the
fine arts, a photograph of the same: Provided,
That in the case of a book, photograph, chromo, or
lithograph, the two copies of the same required to be
delivered or deposited as above shall be printed from
type set within the limits of the United States, or
from plates made therefrom, or from negatives, or
drawings on stone made within the limits of the
United States, or from transfers made therefrom.
During the existence of such copyright the impor-
1 Omits: "And a citizen of the United States or resident
therein."
5 These words replace the words "or other article."
tation into the United States, of any book, chromo,
lithograph, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any
edition or editions thereof, or any plates of the same
not made from type set, negatives or drawings on
stone, made within the limits of the United States,
shall be, and it is hereby, prohibited, except in the
cases specified in paragraphs 512 to 560 inclusive,
in sec/ion 2 of the act entitled "An act to reduce the
revenue and equalize the duties on imports and fur
other purposes," approved Oct. 1, 1890; and except
in the case of persons purchasing for use and not
for sale, who import, subject to the duty thereon, not
more than two copies of such booh at any one time,
and except in the case of newspapers and magazines
not containing, in whole or in part, matter copy-
righted under the provisions of this act, unautho-
rized by the author, which are hereby exempted
from prohibition of importation: Provided, never-
theless, That in the case of foreign languages, of
which only translations in English are copyrighted,
the prohibition of importation shall apply only to
the translations of the sarin; and the importation
of the books in the original language shall be per-
mitted."
Sec. 4. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes be, and the
same is hereby, amended so that it will read as
follows:
"Sec. 4958. The Librarian of Congress shall
receive from the persons to whom the services
designated are rendered the following fees:
"First. For recording the title or description
of any copyright book or other article, fifty cents.
"Second. For every copy under seal of such
record actually given to the person claiming the
copyright, or his assigns, fifty cents.
"Third. For recording and certifying any in-
strument of writing for the assignment of a copy-
right, one dollar.
"Fourth. For every copy of an assignment, one
dollar.
'' All fees so received shall be paid into the
Treasury of the United States: Provided, That the
charge for recording the title or description of any
article entered for copyright, the production of a
person not a citizen or resident of the United States,
shall be one dollar, to be paid as above into the
Treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses
of lists of copyrighted articles as hereinafter provided
for.
"And if is hereby made the duty of the Librarian
of Congress to furnish to the Secretary of the
Treasury copies of the entries of titles of all looks
and other articles wherein the copyright has been
completed by the deposit of two copies of such book
printed from type set within the limits of the United
States, in accordance with the provisions of this act
## p. 331 (#395) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
J J 1
and by the deposit of two copies of such other article
made or produced in the United States: and the
Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to pre-
pare and print, at intervals of not more than a
week, catalogues of such title-entries for distribution
to the collectors of customs of the United States and
to the postmasters of all post-offices receiving foreign
mails, and such weekly lists, as they are issued,
shall be furnished to all parties desiring them, at a
sum not exceeding five dollars per annum; and the
Secretary and the Poshnaster- General are hereby
empowered and required to make and enforce such
rules and regulations as shall prevent the importation
into the United States, except upon the conditions
above specified, of all articles prohibited by this act."
Sec. 5. That section forty-nine hundred and
fifty-nine of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
Sec. 4959. The proprietor of every copy-
right book or other article shall deliver at the
office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit in
the mail, addressed to the Librarian of Congress,
at Washington, District of Columbia,1 a copy of
every subsequent edition wherein any substantial
changes shall be made: Provided, however, That
the alterations, revisions, and additions made to
books by foreign authors, heretofore published, of
which new editions shall appear subsequently to the
taking effect of this act, shall be held and deemed
capable of being copyrighted as above provided for in
this act, unless they form a part of the series in
course of publication at the time this act shall fake
effect."
Sec. 6. That section forty-nine hundred and
sixty-three of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec 4963. Every person who shall insert or
impress such notice, or words of the same purport,
in or upon any book, map, chart, dramatic or
musical composition, print, cut, engraving, or
photograph, or other article, for which he has not
obtained a copyright, shall be liable to a penalty
of one hundred dollars, recoverable one-half for the
person who shall sue for such penalty, and one-half
to the use of the United States."
Sec 7. That section forty-nine hundred and
sixty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec 4964. Every person who, after the re-
cording of the title of any book and the depositing
of two copies of such book, as provided by this Act,
shall, contrary to the provisions of this Act, within
the term limited, and without the consent of the
'Omils: "within ten days after its publication, two com-
plete printed copies thereof, ot the best edition issued, or
description or photograph of such article as hereinbefore
required, and."
proprietor of the copyright first obtained in writing,
signed in presence of two or more witnesses, print,
publish, dramatize, translate, or import, or knowing
the same to be so printed, published, dramatized,
translated, or imported, sell or expose to sale any
copy of such book shall forfeit every copy thereof
to such proprietor, and shall also forfeit and pay
such damages as may be recovered in a civil action
by such proprietor in any court of competent juris-
diction."
Sec. 8. That section forty-nine hundred and
sixty-five of the Revised Statutes be, and the same
is hereby, so amended as to read as follows:
"Sec 4965. If any person, after the recording
of the title of any map, chart, dramatic or musical
composition, print, cut, engraving, or photograph,
or chromo, or of the description of any painting,
drawing, statue, statuary, or model or design in-
tended to be perfected and executed as a work
of the fine arts, as provided by this act, shall within
the term limited, contrary to the provisions of this
act, and without the consent of the proprietor of
the copyright first obtained in writing, signed in
presence of two or more witnesses, engrave, etch,
work, copy, print, publish, dramatize, translate, or
import, either in whole, or in part, or by varying
the main design with intent to evade the law, or,
knowing the same to be so printed, published,
dramatized, translated, or imported, should sell
or expose to sale any copy of such map or other
article as aforesaid, he shall forfeit to the pro-
prietor all the plates on which the same shall be
copied and every sheet thereof, either copied
or printed, and shall further forfeit, one dollar
for every sheet of the same found in his posses-
sion, either printing, printed, copied, published,
imported, or exposed for sale, and in case of
a painting, statue, or statuary, he shall forfeit
ten dollars for every copy of the same in his pos-
session, or by him sold or exposed for sale; one-
half thereof to the proprietor and the other half to
the use of the United States."
Sec 9. That section forty-nine hundred and
sixty-seven of the Revised Statutes be, and the
same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:
"Sec 4967. Every person who shall print or
publish any manuscript whatever without the con
sent of the author or proprietor first obtained,1 shall
be liable to the author or proprietor for all damages
occasioned by such injury."
Sec 10. That section forty-nine hundred and
seventy-one of the Revised Statutes be, and the
same is hereby, repealed.2
1 Omits: "if such author or proprietor is a citizen of the
United States, or resident therein."
a SEC. 4971 is as follows: "Nothing in this chapter shall
be construed to prohibit the printing, publishing, importation,
## p. 332 (#396) ############################################
332
THE AUTHOR.
Sec. ii. That for the purpose of this act each
volume of a book in two or more volumes, when such
volumes are published separately and the first one
shall not have been issued before this act shall
take effect, and each number of a periodical, shall be
considered an independent publication, subject to the
form of copyrighting as above.
Sec. 12. That this act shall go into effect on the
first day of July, anno Domini eighteen hundred and
ninety-one.
Sec. 13. That this act shall only apply to a citizen
or subject of a foreign state or nation when such
foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the
United States of America the benefit of copyright on
substantially the same basis as its own citizens, or
when such foreign state or nation is a party to an
international agreement which provides for reciprocity
in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which
agreement the United States of America may, at its
pleasure, become a party to such agreement. The
existence of either of the conditions aforesaid shall be
determined by the President of the United States by
proclamation made from time to time as the purposes
of this act may require.
or sale of any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical com-
position, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, written, com-
posed, or made by any person not a resident of the United
States nor resident therein."
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Harper, H. A. The Bible and Modern Discoveries. With
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Lux Mundi. A Series of Studies in the Religion of the
Incarnation. By Various Writers. Edited by Rev.
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Parker, Joseph. People's Bible. Vol. XIV. Ec-
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Anderson, J. H. History of George the Third's Reign.
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Bancroft, Mr. and Mrs. On and Off the Stage. New
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Claydrn, P. W. England under Lord Beaconsfield.
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Freeman, E. A. The History »f Sicily, from the Earliest
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Lano, Andrew. Northcote, Sir Stafford, first Earl of
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Stephen, Leslie, and Lee, S. Dictionary of National
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## p. 333 (#397) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
o
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## p. 334 (#398) ############################################
334
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For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows Interest, at the rate of THREE
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HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR
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Send
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## p. (#399) ################################################
AD VER TISEMENTS.
iii.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1891, can be had on application
to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and
maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2s. The Report of three
Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's
Rooms, March, 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By VV. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-
Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 35.
5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire
Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most
important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it
costs to produce the more common kinds of books. 2s. 6d.
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this
work, compiled from the papers in the Society*s offices, the various kinds of
agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their
meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud
which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements.
Price 3s. (A new Edition in the Press.)
8. " Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright
Bill now before Parliament. With Extracts from the Report of the
Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the Berne Convention
and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottis-
woode. is. 6d.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
## p. (#400) ################################################
iv.
AD VER TISEMENTS.
TO AUTHORS.
IMPORTANT ADYANCE
IN THE
PRINTING ART.
THE
LINOTYPE COMPOSING MACHINE.
"It is to the Printing Business of the present day what the inventions of
Gutenberg and Caxton were to the primitive writing systems of the Fifteenth
Century."
"A Machine from which I cannot but anticipate effects equally extensive and
beneficial to mankind."—The Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.
IThe Siwrtgp G'ompni; (limited)
OFFER FOR SUBSCRIPTION
£50,000 OF PREFERENCE SHARES OF £5 EACH,
BEARING INTEREST AT THE RATE OF
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Two Preference Shares and upwards applied for to be giuen in fully-paid Ordinary £5 Shares
thus entitling the holder to a further and future share of contingent profit.
The Six per Cent, interest on the Preference Shares is already amply covered by income from
Royalties (on Machines now placed and satisfactorily working in various leading newspaper and printing
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The field for these Machines is practically unlimited.
The Preference Shares are payable in five instalments of £1 each, at intervals of not less than
two months between each instalment. Interest at 5 per cent, will be paid on instalments in advance.
The Company already possess manufacturing works at Manchester.
Forms of Application for Preference Shares (with Bonus), with Copies of Reports, Pamphlets,
and other information of the fullest character, can be obtained from the undersigned.—
By order of the Board, W. C. THOMASON, Secretary.
6, Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, London, E.C., April, 1891.
N.B.—Orders to view Linotype Midlines at work will be sent upon application to the
Company's Secretary.
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON Jfc SON'S, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Uhc Eutbot\
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. i.]
JUNE i, 1891
[Pkice Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
PAGB
• 5
The Author l Second Volume
The American Copyright Act—
I. Directions for securing Copyright j
II. Rolicrt Underwood Johnson. By Edmund Gossc .. 7
III. The Passage ol thu Bill. By Kato Tannatt Woods 9
IV. Note. By C. G. I.cland 9
V. Note. By William Westall 10
VI. Mr. C. J. Longman's Article in the Economic Review 11
VII. Note. By H. Q. Kcene 11
VIII. Note. By B.H. H 11
The Petition to the House of Lords 11
The Second Reading of the Copyright Bill J
I'AOK
The Cost of a Stamp 3
Notes and News. By Walter Besant 13
In the Days of the Merry Monarch 18
Reviews and Reviewers 19
Library Secrets"
Maurice Maeterlinck. By William Wilson 13
Literature in Ireland '4
"A Word from you. Sir" »6
Mr. George Moore and Herr Ibsen a*1
"At the Author's Head"
On Some Cases '9
Correspondence 3°
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE.
ACTION OF LIGHT ON WATER COLOURS—Report
to the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council
on Education. (With Diagrams and Plates.) By post, u. 1 irf.
PLIOCENE DEPOSITS OF BRITAIN, THE. By
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LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: Guide to the
Geology of. Bv William Whitakeb, B.A. it.
LONDON AND OF PART OF THE THAMES VALLEY,
The Gedogy of. By W. Whitakeb. B.A., P.R.S., F.G.8..
Assoc. Inst. C.E. Vol. I. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 8vo.
cloth. 6». Vol. II. APPENDICES. 8vo.. cloth, 5*.
ISLE OF WIGHT, Geology of. By H. W. Bristow,
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8vo., cloth, 8». W.
COPYRIGHT LAW REFORM: an Exposition of Lord
Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament; with
Extracts from the Report of the Commis>ion of 1878, and an
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Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lblt, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. i«. 6d.
STATE TRIALS, Reports of; New Series. Published
under the direction nt the State Trials Committee. Edited by
Jonx MacDonell. M.A., of the Middle Temple. Barrister-at-
Law. Vols. I. and II. ready. Vol. III. in the Press. Price
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WEATHER, STUDY AND FORECAST OF. Aids to.
By Rev. W. Clemebt Let. M.A. is.
ROYAL MILITARY EXHIBITION, 1890. Descriptive
Catalogue of Musical Instruments recently exhibited at the
Royal Military Exhibition. Compiled by Copt. C. R. Day,
Oxfordshire Light Infantry, under the orders of Col. Siiaw-
Wellieb, Commandant Royal Military School of Music. The
instruments are fully desenbed; they are arranged systemati-
cally under their respective families and classes, nnd n chrono-
logical arrangement has, as much as possible, been adhered to.
Each family of instrument has been prefaced by a carefully-
written Introductory Essay. Musical pitch has not lieen left
unnoticed, and a learned Essay from the pen of a well-known
authority upon the subject appears in the Appendix. The b"ok
will be illustrated by a series of Twelve Artistically executed
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C.OVERXMEXT AXD GENERA!, publishers.
EYRE anil SPOTTISWOODE, ller flajesty's Printers, East Harding Slrrrt, London, E.<\
## p. 2 (#406) ##############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Messrs. METHUEN'S NEW BOOKS.
PBINCE
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By S. BARING GOULD.
IJKITH: A Story of Dartmoor. By S. Baring Gould,
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OF TAB GLADES. Ky Hannah Lynch.
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By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. Clark Russell,
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By W. Clark Russell, Author of "The Wreck of the
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Works by S. BARING GOULD,
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Gould.
6. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. By Edna
Ltall.
With portrait of Author.
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8. DISARMED. By M. Betham Edwards.
9. JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. Norris.
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Under the above title Messrs. Methuen have commenced
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THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By
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A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY.
By L. L. Price. M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon., Eitension
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VICTORIAN POETS. By A. Sharp. [Nearly Ready.
PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the
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SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY.
A series of volumes upon the most important topics of
social, economic, and industrial interest—written by the
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POVERTY AND PAUPERISM. By Rev. L. R. Phelps,
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METHUEN & Co., 18, Bury Street, W.C.
## p. 3 (#407) ##############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
The Society of Authors (Incorporated).
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
Sir Edwin ARNOLD, K.C.I.E.
ALFRED Austin.
A. W. À BECKETT.
ROBERT BATEMAN.
Sir HENRY BERGNE, K.C.M.G.
WALTER BESANT.
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P.
R. D. BLACKMORE.
Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S.
LORD BRABOURNE.
JAMES BRYCE, M.P.
P. W. CLAYDEN.
EDWARD Clodd.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
Marion CRAWFORD.
Oswald CRAWFURD, C.M.G.
THE EARL OF DESART..
A. W. DUBOURG.
Joun ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S.
Prof. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
EDMUND Gosse.
COUNCIL.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
Thomas HARDY.
Prof. E. Ray LANKESTER, F.R.S.
J. M. LELY.
Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
F. Max MÜLLER, LL.D.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
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J. C. PARKINSON.
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D.
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.
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H. D, TRAILL, D.C.L.
The Right Hon. THE BARON HENRY DE WORMS.
EDMUND YATES.
Hon. Counsel – E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman--WALTER BESANT.
EDMUND Gosse.
1 J. M. LELY.
1
H. RIDER HAGGARD. | Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK.
A. G. Ross.
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Solicitors.
Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's Inx FIELDS, WC,
## p. 4 (#408) ##############################################
A D VER TISEMEN TS.
The " Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which
it supplies to the writing point in a continuous How. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant
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the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser
may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for
another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted.
There are yarions points to select from, broad, medium, aud fine, every handwriting can be suited,
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## p. 5 (#409) ##############################################
TZhe Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.-No. i.]
JUNE i, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
THE AUTHOR—Second Volume.
"TTT ITH the Second Volume the Author makes a
V V few changes, but not many. It will continue
to advocate the material interests of litera-
ture, not only in order to obtain justice to authors of
ull kinds, but in the conviction that the highest and
best interests of literature are closely connected with
its material interests. A literature whose producers
are needy beggars, dependent on the caprice of the
man with money, servile because they are poor, un-
able to assert their rights, unable to act together,
unable to make the world understand that they have
any rights, must itself tend to become poor and
feeble. That it has shown vigour among ourselves
even when authors have been sunk in the lowest
depths, proves the strength of a plant which could
llourish in a soil so ungrateful.
In order to secure the complete independence
of the author, it is necessary that the methods of
publishing should l>e based upon principles of
justice and fairness both to the publisher and the
author. That is to say, the services of the former
must be fully recognised and remunerated, but on
a scale of proportion to be regulated and agreed
upon by both sides. In order to arrive at this end,
it is necessary that we understand (1) the cost of
printing, paper, binding, advertising, &c. involved
in the preparation of a MS. for publication; (2)
the trade price; and (3) the meaning of royalties
as applied to author and to publisher.
It is next necessary to understand the arrange-
ments commonly proposed in agreements submitted
to authors by publishers; what the clauses mean to
either side, and especially to the author.
These things have been carefully ascertained by
the Society, and the results are now published
in "The Cost of Production" and "Methods of
Publishing."
For the first time, authors can learn for them-
selves their own business.
It will be the duty of the Author to keep this
information steadily before the eyes of its readers.
VOL. 11.
The pages of the Author will also be open to
questions of every kind connected with literature.
The Editor invites correspondence on the profession
of letters in every branch from those who read this
paper or are Members of the Society.
The following, among others, have promised
literary assistance during the year:—
Arthur a Beckett.
Walter Besant.
J. A. Blnikie.
J. H. McCarthy.
Edward Clodd.
W. Morris Colles.
Austin Dobson.
Edmund Gosse.
H. Rider Haggard.
H. Hermann.
Henry Arthur Jones.
Budyard Kipling.
Andrew Lang.
C. G. Leland.
J. M. Lelv.
Rev. W. J. Lottie.
Cosmo Monkhouse.
B. M. Richardson,
M.D.
F. W. Robinson.
Robert Ross.
G. R. Sims.
S. S. Sprigge.
J. Ashby Sterrv.
William Westell.
"William Wilson."
The Author will in future be printed and
published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, East
Harding Street, on the 1st of every month, instead
of the 10th. Communications should be addressed
to the Editor, Authors' Society, 4, Portugal Street,
Lincoln's Inn Fields. They should reach him
not later than the 22nd.
THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT ACT.
I.
Directions for securing Copyrights
Under the Revised Acts of Congress, including the
Provisions for Foreign Copyright, by Act of
March 3rd, 1891.
Printed Title required.
1. A printed copy of the title of the book, map,
chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving,
cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description
a 3
## p. 6 (#410) ##############################################
6
THE AUTHOR.
of the painting, drawing, statue, .statuary, or model
or design for a work of the fine arts for which copy-
right is desired, must be delivered to the Librarian
of Congress or depos-ted in the mail within the
United States, prepaid, addressed—
Librarian of Congress,
Washington, D.C.
This must l>e done on or before day of publication
in this or any foreign country. "*
What style of Print.
The printed title required may be a copy of
the title page of such publications as have title
pages. In other cases, the title must be printed
expressly for copyright entry, with name of
claimant of copyright. The style of type is
immaterial, and the print of a type-writer will
be accepted. But a separate title is required for
each entry, and each title must be printed on
paper as large as commercial note. The title of
a periodical must include the date and numl>er,
and each number of a periodical requires a separate
entry of copyright.
Copyright Fees.
2. The legal fee for recording each copyright
claim is 5o cents, and for a copy of this record
(or certificate of copyright under seal of the office)
an additional fee of oo cents is required, making
$i in case certificate is wanted, which will be
mailed as soon as reached in the records. In
the case of publications produced by other citizens
or residents of the United States, the fee for
recording title is $l, and 5o cents additional
for a copy of the record. Certificates covering
more than one entry in one certificate are not
issued.
Two Copies required.
3. Not later than the day of publication of each
book or other article, in this country or abroad,
two complete copies of the best edition issued
must be delivered to perfect the copyright, or
deposited in the mail within the United States,
addressed—
Librarian of Congress,
"Washington, D.C.
Free by Mail.
The freight or postage must be prepaid, or the
publications enclosed in parcels covered by printed
penalty labels, furnished by the Librarian, in which
case they will come free by mail (not express),
without limit of weight, according to rulings of the
Post Office Department. In the case of books,
photographs, chromos, or lithographs, the two
copies deposited must lie printed from type set or
plates made in the United States, or from negatives
or drawings on stone, or transfers therefrom, made
within the United States.
Penalty.
Without the deposit of copies aliove required the
copyright is void, and a penalty of $20 is incurred.
No copy is required to Ik- deposited elsewhere.
The law requires one copy of each new edition
wherein any substantial changes are made to be
deposited with the Librarian of Congress.
Notice of Copyright to be given by Imprint.—
Claimant's name to be printed.
4. No copyright is valid unless notice is given
by inserting in every copy published, on the title
page or the page following, if it be a book; or if
a map, chart, musical composition, print, cut,
engraving, photograph, painting, drawing, chromo,
statue, statuary, or model or design intended to l>e
perfected as a work of the fine arts, by inscribing
upon some portion thereof, or on the substance on
which the same is mounted, the following words,
viz.: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in
the year , by , in the office
of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington," or,
at the option of the person entering the copyright,
the words: " Copyright, 18 , by ."
The law imposes a penalty of $100 upon any
person who has not obtained copyright who shall
insert the notice "Entered according to Act of
Congress," or "Copyright," &c, or words of the
same import, in or upon any lx>ok or other article.
Translations and Dramas.
5. The copyright law secures to authors or their
assigns the exclusive right to translate or to drama-
tize their own works.
Rights reserved.
Since the phrase all rights reserved refers exclu-
sively to the right to dramatize or to translate, it
has no bearing upon any publications except
original works, and will not be entered upon the
record in other cases.
Duration of Copyright.
6. The original term of copyright runs for
twenty-eight years. Within six months liefore
the end of that time, the author or designer, or his
widow or children, may secure a renewal for the
further term of fourteen years, making forty-two
years in all.
Rcneicals.
Applications for renewal must l>e accomjianied
by explicit statement of ownership, in the case of
## p. 7 (#411) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
7
the author, or of relationship, in the case of his
heirs, and must state definitely the date and place
of entry of the original copyright. Advertisement
of renewal is to l>e made within two months of
date of renewal certificate in some newspaper for
four weeks.
Time of Publication.
7. The time within which any work entered for
copyright may l>e issued from the press is not
omited by any law or regulation, but the courts
have held that it should take place within a rea-
sonable time. A copyright may be secured for
a projected work as well as for a completed one.
But the law provides for no caveat, or notice of
interference—only for actual entry of title.
Assignments.
8. A copyright is assignable in law by any
instrument of writing, and such assignment is
to be recorded in the office of the Librarian of
Congress within 60 days from its date. The fee
for this record and certificate is $1, and for a
certified copy of any record of assignment $ 1.
Copies or Duplicate Certificates.
9. A copy of the record (or duplicate certificate)
of any copyright entry will be furnished, under
seal of the office, at the rate of 5o cents each.
Serials or separate Publications.
10. In the case of lx>oks published in more than
one volume, or of periodicals published in numbers,
or of engravings, photographs, or other articles pub-
lished with variations, a copyright is to be entered
for each volume or part of a book, or number of
a periodical, or variety, as to style, title, or inscrip-
tion, of any other article. But a book published
serially in a periodical, under the same general
title, requires only one entry. To complete the
copyright on such a work, two copies of each serial
part, as well as of the complete work (if published
separately), should be deposited.
Copyright for Works of Art.
11. To secure copyright for a painting, statue,
or model or design intended to l>e perfected as
a work of the fine arts, a definite description must
accompany the application for copyright, and a
photograph of the same as large as "cabinet size,"
mailed to the Librarian of Congress not later than
the day of publication of the work or design.
The fine arts, for copyright purposes, include
only painting and sculpture, and articles of merely
ornamental and decorative art are referred to the
Patent Office, as subjects for Design Patents.
No Labels or Names Copyright.
12. Copyrights cannot be granted upon trade
marks, nor upon names of companies or articles,
nor upon an idea or device, nor upon prints or
labels intended to be used for any article of manu-
facture. If protection for such names or labels is
desired, application must be made to the Patent
Office, where they are registered at a fee of §6 for
labels and ?25 for trade marks.
Foreign or International Copyright.
13. The provisions as to copyright entry in the
United States by foreign authors, &c, by Act of
Congress approved March 3rd, 1891 (to take effect
July 1st, 1891), are the same as the foregoing.
The right of citizens or subjects of a foreign
nation to copyright within the United States is not
to take effect unless such nation permits to United
States citizens the benefit of copyright on the same
basis as to its own citizens, or unless such nation
is a party to an international agreement providing
for reciprocity in copyright, to which the United
States may become a party. The Librarian of
Congress can enter copyright for foreigners only
after a proclamation of the President of the United
States, certifying the existence of either of the
foregoing conditions.
The right of Americans to secure copyright
abroad is unchanged by the new law, pending new
legislation in foreign countries, or international
agreements as to copyright between their govern-
ments and that of the United States.
Full Name of Proprietor required.
14. Every applicant for a copyright should
state distinctly the full name and residence of the
claimant, and whether the right is claimed as
author, designer, or proprietor. No affidavit or
witness to the application is required.
Office of tub Librarian of Congress,
Washington, 1891.
H.
Robert Underwood Johnson.
It is only natural and proper that English
authors should wish to know more about the most
ardent and active of those American friends to
whom the passing of the Copyright Bill is due.
It is no exaggeration, and it conveys no slight
to other industrious promoters of the copvriglit
movement, to say that, as Secretary of the American
Authors' Copyright League and of the Joint
Executive Committee or all the organizations
## p. 8 (#412) ##############################################
8
THE AUTHOR.
supporting the Bill, Mr. 11. U. Johnson had more
than anyone else to do with the final victory. In
signing the Copyright Bill, President Harrison
used a large quill taken from an American eagle,
procured for that purpose by Mr. Johnson, to
whom the pen was then returned with the Presi-
dent's compliments. Not many authors possess
pens that so well deserve to become heirlooms.
Robert Underwood Johnson was born on Capitol
Hill, Washington, D.C., January nth, i853. He
was named after his great-grandfather, Robert
Underwood, one of the early settlers of Washing-
ton, and a mathematician of ability. His maternal
grandfather was John Underwood of that city,
afterward for many years a resident of Wayne
County, Indiana, with which Mr. Johnson's paternal
grandfather, Dr. Nathan Johnson, was also long
identified, having been one of the original Aboli-
tionists of Eastern Indiana. On his mother's side
the Underwoods and Ingles are of a Calvinistic
strain, while on his father's side the Johnsons and
Hoges who come from Loudon County, Virginia,
are of Quaker stock of a liberal type, and of
marked literary tastes.
Mr. Johnson's father, the late Honourable
Nimrod H. Johnson, in addition to his prominence
in Eastern Indiana as an able lawyer and a just
and discriminating jurist, was known among his
associates for his wide and exact knowledge of
history, poetry, fiction, and general literature. To
him Mr. Johnson owes his literary temperament
and predilections. After an ordinary high school
education at Centreville, Indiana, where his boy-
hood was passed, Robert matriculated at Earlham
College, an institution of the Society of Friends,
Richmond, Indiana, in 1867. In 1871, at the
age of 18, he was graduated from that institution
as Bachelor of Science, to which the college in
1889 added the honorary degree of Ph.D. From
college he went immediately into business as clerk
in the Western agency of the Scribner educational
books at Chicago. After nearly two years of this
work (including the year of the great fire) he
became connected, in 1873, with the editorial
staff of the Century Magazine (then Scribner's
Monthly), a connexion which still exists.
On the death of the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. J. G.
Holland, in 1881, Mr. R. W. Gilder became the
Editor, and Mr. Johnson succeeded him as the
Associate-Editor. This position he now occupies,
with a large measure of responsibility, having
also acted virtually as Managing Editor under
Dr. Holland for a year in 1879-80, during Mr.
Gilder's absence in Europe. In 18 83 Mr. Gilder
intrusted to Mr. Johnson and Mr. C. C. Buel,
the conduct of the well-known Century War
Series, and they had charge of it both in the
Magazine and in the enlarged and revised book
publication of four volumes " Battles and Leaders
of the Civil War," which was begun in 1887 and
completed in 1889—Mr. Buel, however, having
sole charge of the Magazine papers for a year
during Mr. Johnson's absence in Europe in 1885-6.
This trip was undertaken with the chief object of
becoming acquainted with the best examples of
European art and architecture, and included visits
to the galleries of London, Paris, Holland, and
Italy, and an inspection of the Greek monuments
of Athens and Sicily.
Mr. Johnson's literary work, in addition to his
daily and exacting editorial duties, has been con-
fined to editorial and critical articles and to verse.
He h:is not yet collected his graceful poems into
a volume, but has scattered them in the pages of
the Century, Harper's Monthly, St. Nicholas,
the Christian Union, the Tribune, and other
periodicals. He is a member of the Authors'
Club, the Century Club, and the Aldine Club
of New York, and of the Civil Service Reform
Association, and the Free Art League. Since
1883 he has been actively connected with the
International Copyright movement, having been
for several years Treasurer of the American Copy-
right League, and a member of its executive
committee of five. In 1889 he exchanged the
treasurership for the more responsible work of
Secretary of the League, becoming by this office
also Secretary of the Joint Executive Committee
(of Authors and Publishers) which was in charge of
the campaign for the Copyright Bill. He was
active in urging the northward extension of the
East River Park, New York, and the creation of
the Yosemite National Park, and has recently
devoted much attention to the movement in favour
of securing a better supervision of the Yosemite
Valley, which he visited in June 1889, during a
trip of two months to California in the interest of
the Century.
In a letter just received, Mr. Johnson says:
"The problem now is to establish the foundation
for the President's proclamation. I have written
officially to Mr. Blaine to see that no time is lost,
and taking the ground that the Bill must 1k> made
operative towards citizens of any country which is
a signatory of the Berne Conference, whether that
country gives America copyright or not. That
was Simonds' intention in drafting that clause of
Section XIII., but I fear our Secretary of State
will not take that view of reciprocity. On your
part, an Order in Council would, of course, put the
thing beyond penulventure, and be simpler and
easier than the Monkswell Bill, especially as Parlia-
ment is likely to be prorogued, and even if it
continue there may be a long debate on the Bill.
Of course, we cannot with a good grace ask for
more than we offer. NoImxIv could complain if we
## p. 9 (#413) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
9
got just what we offer, but our step is irretrievable
now, and it is your move! As soon as I hear, if I
do, what view our State .Department will take, I
will let you know. Meanwhile, I should think the
Order in Council the proper cue, if practicable,
and in either case, prompt action would strengthen
us here for a more liberal law in the future."
In acknowledgment of his services in the Inter-
national Copyright cause, the French Government
has just conferred upon him the Cross of the
Legion of Honour (Chevalier), and some of his
associates in the Copyright cause have presented
him with a handsome silver loving cup.
E. G.
III.
The Passing of the Bill.
In the midst of manifold business, I venture to
send you a hurried and imperfect account of the
passage of the Copyright Bill, and the "Ladies'
Night of the Authors' Club " in New York.
I find by the Author, which was here awaiting
my arrival, that someone has kept you informed as
to operations in Congress.
While I was in Washington a friend in Congress
said, "If you people want that Bill to pass, you
will have to fight for it, as the printers, litho-
graphers, &c, &c, an; lumbering it with all sorts
of weights." Several of us went up; and I talked
"Bill " most earnestly to members of Congress in
the same house with us. Through the kindness of
Senator Allen, of Washington (State), I had a
seat in the Diplomatic Gallery, where I could see
and hear all that was going on. A great many
Senators spoke eloquently for the authors, but
opposed the Bill, only on account of its clauses
created by trade unions, &c. Several senators
made fine pleas for us, notably, a young man from
Colorado, and I have the pleasure of knowing that
at least one vote was changed on my account.
Imperfect as it is, it seems to me to be a step
forward. We are recognised as authors, we have
rights; and men who were ignorant before now
know that publishers generally get richer and richer
as authors get jworer and poorer.
The Western Senators, (as a rule) broad-minded
men from broad acres, favoured the Bill or some
Bill tending towards justice. As one Senator said,
"The printers, publishers, lithographers, &c. all
have their unions; they are protected, but who
protects the author?"
We sat listening with beating hearts longing to
correct some errors, and eager to put words of truth
in the speakers' mouths. About one o'clock in the
morning the roll was called on the vote, and at 1.3o
Vol. II.
we went home to bed thankful for little, hoping for
more.
I asked one of the Senators to forward you a
copy of the Bill as revised and past. If you did
not receive it, please let me know.
From Washington I went to New York, to find
that the Authors' Club, for the first time in their
history, had issued invitations to the ladies, following
your good example. I was induced to remain over
for it, and was pleased to meet many of our noted
and quoted men and women.
Rider Haggard had left that day for England, to
the regret of many who wished to see him.
In conversation with Noah Brooks, Stedman the
Poet, Kiehard Henry Stoddard, and others, I spoke
of the English Society and its brave work for
authors.
Mr. Brooks, the President of the Club, did me
the honour to say, "That, in his opinion, the three
authors who were doing most to give clear, finished,
and admirable pictures of New England life and
philosophy were your correspondent, Sarah Ome
Jeroett, and Mary E. Wilkins," encouraging tri-
bute? from a man of Mr. Brook's standing and
truthfulness.
You speak of our little " Guild." Why not both
men and women? Sure enough; but the men
have "flocked by themselves," and we must do the
best we can.
As it is, I find some women averse to any move-
ment. They say, "Good writers get all they want";
"There is no need," &c, &c. I cannot take this
narrow view, and therefore hope to make our
Guild a quiet power for good.
You would laugh, I am sure, could you hear the
comments on our Society in Loudon. One pub-
lisher says, "It is a sort of spite company gotten
up by growlers, who cannot sell their work."
Another remarks: "I observe by the papers that
you are a member of that London Club. I advise
you to keep out of it. They are an aggressive lot
of men who want the earth." Meantime, I go
steadily on doing my work.
Kate Tannatt Woods.
"Maple Nest," Salem, Mass.,
April 8th, 1891.
IV.
The Bill enacts that not later than the day of
publication anywhere, there must 1m- two copies
of the work in question sent to the Librarian of
Congress, and these copies must be printed in
America. This is most, harrassing and unjust to
foreign authors. It can only 1k> of profit to those
who, having a great popular reputation, can secure
V.
## p. 10 (#414) #############################################
10
THE AUTHOR.
beforehand a publisher in America. But all Iwoks
which are ventures or risks, or not likely to sell
extensively (as, for instance, a young author's first
book) cannot be lienefited by the Bill. Should an
author publish a book in England alone, and should
it by chance turn out to be a success, there is
nothing to prevent any American from taking it.
There are a great many books which have a great
success contrary to all expectations of both publisher
and author, as I myself have experienced.
There are also a great many l>ooks of immense
value to the world which do not sell well. No one
book ever had such influence on the American public
as the " Political Economy of Henry Carey," yet it
was 3o years before the first edition of 1,000 copies
was sold; I having bought the very last one. I
could enumerate many such works.
According to this Bill, there can be no sending
from England to America of small amounts of
l»ooks—say 25o or 100—that is, if I understand
the expression "prohibition of importation" in
section 3, which seems to me to be very artfully
contrived so as to prevent all such importation, and
which certainly will be so carried out—making the
position of the foreign author as regards America,
on the whole, much worse than it now is. Thus I,
personally, have just published a very expensive
illustrated work. There is not the slightest pro-
bability that any American firm would ever print it,
but enough copies can now be sold to America to
materially aid the cost.
This Bill seems to me utterly adverse to all the
best interests of literature. It is founded on the
vulgar and ignorant opinion, too prevalent in
America, that a book is valuable exactly in propor-
tion to its sale. It will deter authors from making
efforts or taking risks. It is conceived entirely in a
mere tradesman-like spirit. It is really and solely
devised to favour publishers as much, and authors
as little, as possible. Public opinion in Europe, and
the complaints of American authors liave forced the
American publishers and public to grant something,
and so they give just as little as they possibly can.
This Bill will deeply injure the best interests of
culture and literature in America. But this will
Ih» a matter of no consequence to legislators, who
cannot see any difference to the public between the
sale of a black letter book and its equal value in
black tea.
As I said before, this Bill allows the American
publishers to wait and see whether books by un-
known authors (or idl not copyrighted on a certain
day) will succeed, and if they do, he can always
reprint them.
This is so peculiarly mean and contemptible, and
also cruel. It is discouraging to young authors
whose first works are always risks.
However artfully it may be worded, the intent
of this Bill is to allow no books to be sold in the
United States unless they shall be printed there.
According to section 3 an American publisher by
depositing a printed title of any forthcoming
English work can effectively stop its sale or its
republication in America if he be so minded.
That is, he can apply for a copyright, and either
make his own terms, having obtained it, or else
prevent its appearing altogether.
The Bill protects the author as regards printing
and publishing, but not against copyrighting his
title. And this same infamous injustice exists in
England. Thus, I know a publisher in Loudon,
who, having advertised a book by a certain title,
the title was copyrighted by another man who
legally notified the publisher that he must not use
his own title. I should say in conclusion, from my
very soul, that men who could conceive, carry out,
or approve of any such Bill as this, would be
capable of anything contemptible or disreputable.
It is altogether in the spirit of the great popular
theory that the minority or the weak have no
rights whatever which the majority or the strong
are l>ound to respect.
Chaiiles Godfrey Leland.
Florence.
V.
I am not concerned with the purely legal side of
the question. I leave that to Sir Frederick Pollock
and other lights of the law, by whom it has already
teen discussed. I would merely point out that the
English publisher of an American book can protect
it by the simple expedient of calling it a "copy-
right edition." This may imply either that the
book was published simultaneously in England and
the United States, or that, at the time of its publi-
cation, the author was in British territory. Lord
Westbury and other authorities have expressed the
opinion that observance of the first of the conditions
secures the American author in his copyright; all
agree that observance of the second does. And
who can lie sure that Lord Westbury was mistaken,
or that the moment the book was published in
London the author was not on the Canadian side of
the Niagara or the St. Lawrence, or elsewhere in
the Queen's dominions? The question could only
be conclusively tested by the production of a rival
edition; and where is the publisher who would
commit so great a folly? Though he might de-
stroy the copyright of the book, he could in no
circumstances acquire it for himself, while failure
in the action which would doubtless be brought
against him would involve payment of his adver-
sary's legal costs as well as his own, in addition to
## p. 11 (#415) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
the cost of producing the rival edition, to say
nothing of th«! worry, and the |>ossibility of being
cast in damages. But an ounce of practice is tetter
than a pound of theory; and, as a matter of fact, I
lx-lieve that no American book described on its
title page as " copyright" has ever been pirated in
this country.
"William Westall.
VI.
Mb. C. J. Longman on the Bill.
Mr. C. J. Longman has contributed to the April
number of the Economic Review (Percival & Co.)
a very cogent article on the American Copyright
Bill, which will be read with considerable interest.
Mr. Longman points out that those writers whose
published works are before the world, but have
hitherto, from whatever cause, failed to attract the
attention of pirates, will derive no advantage from
the Act, and it is no doubt true that the enter-
prising American publisher will not feel stimulated
to engage in undertakings of this character now
that the law makes him pay the authors. It is, as
Mr. Longman puts it, impossible to make people
read or buy unreadable books by Act of Congress.
Mr. Longman thinks that British authors will also
find that they liave to compete with books of their
own and other authors which have been published
previous to the date on which the Act comes into
force, which will of course remain on sale at the
old price, as the Bill is not retrospective. But as
to this, it may be remarked that in the opinion of
at least some authorities, copyright editions of all
these books will appear, and if so, it is possible that
the American public will buy the copyright edition
and not the cheap one.
As to the effects of the Bill upon British trade,
Mr. Longman thinks that American printers are
clever enough to adapt their type and methods of
spelling to our needs; that plates will be sent over
here, and, in some cases, l>ooks sent over in sheets.
The loss therefore in his view will fall upon
printers and subsidiary trades, as type founders,
ink manufacturers, while binders will not be greatly
affected. As for the publishing trade, Mr. Longman
thinks that it will not be much affected in so far as
publishers are concerned with the publication of
books. It of course follows that the l>est British
houses will open branches in New York or Boston,
and Mr. Longman, at any rate, thinks that American
publishers have quite as much to fear as British
linns.
VII.
Regarding this Bill solely from my own point of
view—that of a writer of historical l>ooksand works
of reference not likely to have a rapid or immediate
sale—I see no advantage to accrue from the provi-
sions. It is unlikely that such books should come
to be printed in America, as the publishers would
prefer to print in England. Wages, I presume,
are less; correction of proofs must be easier and
cheaper. Lastly, consideration is due to the eccentric
spelling of American printers, which would, in some
cases, be a disfigurement of some moment to l>ooks
intended to have an educational scope. But these
are matters to be profitably discussed in an open
meeting of the Society.
H. G. Kekne.
VIII.
The point of faithful reproduction ought to be
strenuously urged. If America desires to have
English literature, she must accept it in the
language in which it is written. The option of
acceptance or refusal being in her own hands, she
may better express her appreciation of an author's
capacity in accepting him as he writes than by
doing this violence both to his feelings and reputa-
tion that unauthorised and, in many cases, un-
educated alterations inflict.
I do not know whether others consider this as
important a point as I do, but I speak from the
experience of comparing some of our standard
writers' works with their American editions ; and in
such perusal one cannot help recognising the
malignant influence a "good book spoilt" would
have on a future generation, whose circumstances
might put it out of their power to see the work in
its original form.
B. H. H.
PETITION TO THE HOUSE OP LORDS.
THE following Petition, signed by Lord Tenny-
son, President of the Society, was presented
to the House of Lords by Lord Herschell on
Monday the 10th of May :—
In the House of Lords, Session of 1891.
Copyright.
To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of the President, Fellows,
Associates, and Members of the Incorporated
Society of Authors—
Sheweth as follows :—
I. That a Bill entitled "An Act to amend
and consolidate the Law relating to Copyright" has
B if
## p. 12 (#416) #############################################
12
THE AUTHOR.
been introduced into and read a first time by your
Right Honourable House.
2. That your Petitioners were incorporated on
the 20th June 1884 by a Board of Trade License,
granted to the Association in pursuance of section 23
of the Companies Act, 1867, under the name of the
"Incorporated Society of Authors" for the follow-
ing, amongst other, objects: " To represent, further,
aid, and assist the objects, and to protect the rights
and interests in their works, of authors, and every
kind of literary, dramatic, artistic, scientific, tech-
nical, educational, and musical works and publica-
tions, and the rights and interests in the same of
the assigns and representatives of such authors."
3. That the present state of the Law of Copy-
right is eminently unsatisfactory and injurious to
the interests both of producers of, and dealers in,
literary, dramatic, artistic, scientific, technical,
educational, and musical works, and of the public
in general. The existing law on the subject
consists of no less than 18 Acts of Parliament,
l>esides Common Law principles. Owing to the
manner in which the Acts have been drawn, the
law is, in many cases, hardly intelligible, and is full
of arbitrary distinctions, for which it is impossible
to find a reason.
4. That the provisions of the said Bill have lieen
prepared with careful regard to the recommenda-
tions of the Copyright Commission of 1878, and
with the assistance not only of authors, artists, and
musical composers, but of persons well qualified to
represent the various business interests concerned
in the production of literary, dramatic, artistic,
scientific, technical, educational, and musical works.
Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that it
may please Your Right Honourable House to pass
the said Bill into Law.
And your Petitioners will ever humbly pray, &c.
(Signed) Tennyson,
President.
COPYRIGHT.
The Second Reading of the Bill.
OUR Copyright Bill was read a second time in
the House of Lords on Monday the 10th of
May. Lord Monkswell, to whom the Bill
had been entrusted many months ago, but who has
never from the first received any encouragement
from the Qovernment, did his work bravely and
well, and our Society is under a deep obligation to
him. In a speech full of facts and illustrations, he
directed attention to the amazing confusion of the
present law in point of form, to its many admitted
defects in point of substance, and to the remarkable
unanimity (considering the complications of the
subject) with which all interested in the subject
have agreed in supporting the amendments of the
law which our draftsman had thrown into legal
shape. He quoted, of course, again and again
from the Report of the Royal Commissioners, three
of whom—the Duke of Rutland, Lord Herschell,
anil Lord Knutsford—were Members of the House
he was addressing, to show on what a strong
foundation the Bill had been built up. He duly
went through the much-needed amendments—the
substitution of "life and 3o years" for the pre-
sent awkward term of copyright, the levelling up
of artists with authors, the extinction of fraudulent,
dramatisation of novels, the enfranchisement of
newspapers, and so on. He was strong enough to
admit his weak points, such as his inability to find
a complete modus vivendi with Canada, whether
by a licensing system or otherwise. Finally he,
or rather Lord Herschell in his name, called upon
the Government either to help him in carrying
our Bill through Parliament, or forthwith to come
forward with a better Bill of their own. A11
irresistible attack!
And what did the Government say to all this?
Both Lord Balfour and the Lord Chancellor
admitted to the full the case for the Bill, but for
some inconceivable reason the Lord Chancellor
(who was too prudent to take the responsibility of
dividing the House) would consent only to a
second reading on condition that the Bill should
not be taken any further during the present Session.
Difficulties were darkly hinted at, but with the
exception of that in connexion with registration,
not a single one was specifically mentioned. To
5o clauses, it was said by Lord Balfour, certain
draftsmen had objected. Not one of them teas
named. On not a single one of the main amend-
ments, not even on the proposed new term of
"life and 3o years," was a word spoken. The
Lord Chancellor merely observed, that if the Bill
wont into Committee there would be much con-
troversy on many parts of it, and that all such
controversy would be renewed when the Bill
should come again before the House. Truly, we
are entitled to ask, What controversy, and on what
parts? Perfect, of course, the Bill is not, but if
this is all that can l>e said against it by critics so
highly qualified and painstaking as Lord Halsbury
and Lord Balfour, it is at least as perfect as any
Government measure of the present session.
Of course, the matter cannot be allowed to rest.
As Lord Herschell finely said in his pointed speech,
which will long be remembered by all interested in
the subject, the Legislature exists for the purpose of
remedying imperfect and mischievous legislation,
such as that o:i copyright is universally admitted
to be. "As far as indications go, the programme
## p. 13 (#417) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
of Hit Majesty's Government," observed the
noble and learned lord, "is approaching its end.
Why should they not take up such a subject as
copyright and deal with it? It is a matter of
interest to authors and the public alike that the
question should be settled, and the law amended.
I lielieve a great many of the supposed difficulties
will vanish if once a resolute and earnest endeavour
be made to grapple with them. What the 5o points
of objection to which the noble lord (Lord Balfour)
referred an1 I do not know, but for my part I
lielieve the real difficulties would be found to be
not more than three or four. If once these are
settled, there will be no difficulty about a consoli-
dation of the law."
THE COST OF A STAMP.
I.
"MT^HE article in the April numl>erof the Author
I on the cost of a stamp did not make clear
what I think is very desirable to have known:
that is, what the law requires in the matter of the
stamping of agreements.
"I have just signed an agreement to which a
sixpenny stamp was affixed.
"Is this mode of stamping agreements sufficient?
Is it legal? Would documents so stamped be held
valid in a court of law? Or ought they to be
submitted to and stamped by the authorities of
Somerset House?
"I am sure that many would like a competent
opinion in the matter."
A. B.
II.
Deab Sib,
We have received your letter of yesterday
and enclosures. We think there can be no doubt
as to the meaning of sub-section I. of section i5 of
the Revenue Act, 1889, to which attention is called
in the article in the April edition of the Author.
The sub-section runs: "any contract or agreement
made in England or Ireland under seal or under
hand only, or made in Scotland for
the sale of any equitable estate or interest in any
property, or for the pale of any estate or interest in
any property .... (with certain exceptions,
among which the sale of Copyright or any interest
in Copyright is not mentioned) shall 1m> charged
with the same ad valorem duty to l>e paid by the
purchaser as if it were an actual conveyance on
sale of the estate, interest, or property agreed or
contracted to be sold." It follows therefore that
since the passing of this Act the same ad valorem
duty will lie charged on a contract for the sale of
Copyright or any interest in it as on a conveyance
of Copyright. If this view is right, the 6d. stamp
is no longer sufficient, and whether a 6d. adhesive;
stamp is used or the document actually stamped
at Somerset House, wh( re a 6d. stamp might well
be jmssed by inadvertence, the document will Ik?
insufficiently stanq>ed, and the excess and £10
penalty and interest will be charged on it l>efore it
can be received as evidence in any court of law.
The Act, we think, applies not only to agreements
to sell some interest in Copyright, but also to many
licences to publish; but as the terms of licences
vary so much it would be a matter for consideration
on each document whether it came within 1 lit* Act.
We return you Mr. A.B.'s letter and the Author.
Yours truly,
Field, Roscoe, & Co.
♦-<>.♦
NOTES AND NEWS.
THE Right Honourable Baron Henry de
Worms has joined the Council of the Society.
Mr. Robert Bateman, in consequence of
leaving town, has been unfortunately compelled to
resign his post on the Committee.
The number of new Members elected since
December last—inclusive, because the elections in
that month were for 1891—amounts to g5. This
must be acknowledged to be very satisfactory. Our
numbers, however, ought now to increase at a
much more rapid rate. We look for a roll of
Members, before the lapse of many years, number-
ing thousands. Let it lie remembered that the
Society is concerned with every form of literature,
and works for Authors in every branch.
Let me call attention very particularly to the
directions for securing Copyright issued at Congress,
ami printed on page 5 of this number of the
Author.
In March last there was a large rise in the
wages of compositors, to be followed, if it has not
already been followed, by a rise in the wages of
machinists. This fact alters the figures given in
the " Cost of Production." Those who can "do
sums" may amuse themselves by adding io per
cent, to the charges of "composing" and "print-
ing." The other figures remain. If authors are
## p. 14 (#418) #############################################
»4
THE AUTHOR.
told, as they have been told, that the prices are
incorrect, that the work cannot he done for the
money, and so forth, let them understand that
this is said with intent. I tested the figures the
other day with a well-known London firm, who had
not previously seen them. "We will willingly do
the work," said their manager, " under your prices."
The American Government have sent copies of
the new International Copyright Law to all their
foreign Ministers, with instructions to bring it to
the attention of the respective Governments to which
they are accredited. The least that our Government
can do is to take care that our own laws satisfy the;
conditions on which the privileges of the Act can
be granted to ourselves. These conditions are
simply the securing to American authors of the
same powers of obtaining Copyright as we ourselves
enjoy. Practically, these powers are already
secured for them, but perhaps the President may
require the additional security of removing a certain
doubt which now exists. This must be done
without the least delay.
The following extract from the Times of May
the 20th seems very significant. Lord Monkswell's
Bill contains no clauses such as that contemplated
by the writer to the Solicitor and the Attorney
General, but could be added without altering the
structure of the Bill.
Thk Law op Copyrioiit.—The Attorney-General has
replied ns follows to a correspondent with reference to the
law of copyright:— " The Attorney-General's Chambers,
2, Pump Court, Temple, E.C., May 15, 189?.—Dear Sir,—
The subject to which your letter refers is of great interest.
I have always been of opinion that protection should be
secured to the results of intellectual labours, whether for
the author or the mechanic. You are no doubt aware that
the question is one surrounded with difficulty, but I can
promise you that it shall not escape my attention in the
event of any opportunity arising of furthering that object.
—I am, yours faithfully, Richard Wkbsteb."
Writing on the same subject, the Solicitor-
General says :—
"Royal Courts of Justice, May ij, 1891.—Dear Sir,—I
have a strong opinion in favour of some steps being taken
to protect Knglish labour against such unfair treatment as
it is subjected to by the new American copyright law, but
I do not feel at liberty to express more than a general
opinion on the subject.—Very faithfully yours, Kdward
Clarke."
Mr. William Black has been good enough to
associate myself, among others, with him in the
formation of a new publishing firm. It will be
established in New York, and its object will be
to print and publish books bv English authors
in conformity with the new Law of Copyright.
This notable scheme has l*?en hatched in silence
and secrecy. So silent and secret have been the
preliminary steps, that neither Mr. William Black
himself nor any one of his associates has even heard
of the scheme, which is gravely announced in a New
York paper. Now, if such a scheme were attempted
it would be founded on the belief that it could do
for English authors what American publishers will
not do. Perhaps it is quite conceivable that a
plan of this kind, launched at. a great expense of
capital, could be worked—provided the manager
could be found. It is also quite conceivable that
a similar scheme could be launched and worked
in this country—provided a manager could be
found. But such a manager, possessed of abilities
capable of conducting such auenterprise successfully,
would, probably, very soon find out that he could
do better for himself, and would therefore proceed
to set up for himself. And unless success was
assured from the l>eginiiing, the plan would certainly
not enlist the confidence of authors. I think,
therefore, that Mr. William Black, like myself,
prefers existing arrangements, where agreements
are fair to both sides, and fairly carried out.
Unfortunately the list of publishers in the " London
Directory," as readers of the Author very well know,
contains a great many gentry whose agreements
are never by any chance fair, and never by any
chance fairly carried out.
"The Society of Authors, I assure yon, my
dear, does no good, no good at all. Only last,
week, for instance, a dear young friend of mine, a
girl of 17, who had just left school, sent them, for
an opinion, a MS. novel which she had written for
her own amusement in leisure moments. She
spent a whole six weeks upon it, and it was
her first attempt. Would you l)elieve it? The
reader of the Society sent lmck the papers with
the most cruel remarks you ever saw. He said
that there was no possibility of considering the
piece seriously; he found fault with the plot,
and the characters, and the construction, and
advised the writer to study the Art of Fiction
seriously if she wished to succeed. Absurd!
And after that lovely article in the Spectator,
which proves that there is no study wanted
at all, but that story-making comes by nature,
"like the song to the skylark." It was in
this case doubly absurd, and it will show how
ridiculous the Society is, when I tell you that a
most respectable publisher, on receiving the MS.
actually offered to bring out and sell 5,ooo copies,
and to give her half the profits if she would only
advance £100 to begin with. It was the same
publisher who once gave my husband £10—a
## p. 15 (#419) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
whole £10—for the profits on his book. Of
course he was most unwilling to rob the poor
dear man by taking it. Well, the dear child has
jumped at the offer. She is delighted at her
good fortune, and counts on making £1,000 at
least, and means to devote herself henceforth
entirely to literature. Whereas, my dear, if she
had listened to that mischievous and meddlesome
Society!"
"The Society of Authors is a mischievous body,
Sir. It does nothing but encourage a parcel of
school girls to put their miserable trash into the
hands of scoundrels who make them pay for having
their books produced. The markets are flooded
with trash entirely through the efforts of this
Society. Say they do quite the contrary? I don't
believe it. I have heard from a very good authority,
t he leading partner in Barabbis, Ananias, & Co.—
very active new firm—that this is all they even
attempt to do."
"We consider the Society of Authors a meddle-
some body. They may have some good men
among their numbers. I don't know. But they
are distinctly meddlesome. They actually want
authors to know the meaning of their agreements.
Why, that's our business. We are the publishers;
we act entirely in the author's interests ; why does he
want to know the meaning of his agreement? And
the actual Cost of Production? Can't he trust us?
And the meaning of Royalties? Are they going
to destroy all confidence between man and man?
Trust my words, Sir, if that Society goes on,
Literature is doomed."
What a dreadful thing it is to have such a
bad character—and to deserve it!
Mr. George Gissing ought to be publicly
thanked for introducing to the world a form of
literary life which has long been known to all who
have penetrated into the by-ways and slums of this
many-sided calling. He presents to us several well
defined and by no means uncommon types. There
is the young man of literary aspirations who rashly
attempts to make of letters his livelihood, encou-
raged by the success of a single first novel. He
has no education to speak of; he has no know-
ledge of society; he has no personal ex]>erienees;
he has no travel. In fact, he is absolutely
devoid of any equipment except a true feeling for
Art, and a burning desire to succeed. He cannot
succeed. It is not jwssible for such a man to
succeed. He fails dismally, and he dies. In real
life such a man would not die. He would sink
lower—lower—until he became the wretched
drudge and hack of a penny novelette publisher,
which is Malebolge itself. Next, there is the
young man who looks about him, sees what will
pay, and how men get on in the literary pro-
fession. He enters upon his work with the
intention of succeeding, and he does succeed. In
real life such a man might succeed in the way
indicated, but not quite so easily. He Incomes an
Editor. Now, one of the chief requisites in a
modern Editor is that he should know many men,
and belong to certain social circles. This young
man, with no social position, would certainly not be
made an Editor quite so easily. On the other
hand, his career illustrates the advantages to be
derived from accepting the existing conditions, and
trading upon them. But the truest, saddest figure
in the book is that of the old litterateur, a critic
of the former school, who hangs on to letters,
getting more and more soured every day, having
a paper accepted now and then, doing a stroke of
work here and another there, living a life of
absolute dependence upon publishers and Editors,
whose work nobody wants, whose whole history
has lieen one of humiliations, disgusts, and dis-
appointments, who waits humbly on publishers and
hopes for their "generosity." Truly, as his
daughter says, his is a loathsome profession. It is
the utter degradation of letters; it is Grub Street
with us still. But he degrades his profession still
more, for he meditates constantly upon the pride of
being the Editor of a literary journal, and his only
thought, in that capacity, is how he will tear and
rend his brother writers. "I will show them,"
he says, "I will show them how to scarify." Yes,
that is still the thought of certain authors. As it
was in the days of Churchill, so it is now. Because
a man follows the calling of letters, he must,
by other followers of that profession, be slated,
scarified, torn to pieces. Every other profession
has its unwritten laws of decency and politeness.
That of literature, none. I do not supj>ose that
Mr. Gissing's book can become popular, but from
my own knowledge I can testify to its truth. I
know them all, personally,—two or three of
each—Mr. Yule—Jasper—Edwin—and the fidelity
of Mr. Gissing's portraits makes me shudder.
Zola has been passed over in favour of "Loti."
The choice of the French Academy is surprising
and disappointing. For if we grant everything
that has been said in favour of Pierre Loti, the fact
remains that he is a head and shoulders below
Zola. I have purposely abstained from reading
Germinal and one or two of Zola's last. But.one
A
## p. 16 (#420) #############################################
i6
THE AUTHOR.
can never forget L'Assommoir, a work of sur-
prising power and genius. Nor can we forget La
Curie, not to speak of those short tales in which
he has hardly an equal. When all is said and done
about Zola, he will take, I am convinced, a very
high place, far higher than the author of the
charming Madame Chrysantheme is likely to
achieve. The election is not one which can be
defended by those who would like to see an
Academy in this country. But then we want an
Academy of our own, not slavishly copied from the
French, and able to steer clear of the shoals and
rocks which are always bringing that august vessel
into danger and ridicule.
An American gentleman is making application
to various authors for the manuscript originals of
their works. Unpublished MSS., indeed, authors
have never shown any unwillingness to part with;
but published MSS. !—there is the difference. Very
few living writers now can predict with certainty the
value of their MSS. in ten, twenty, thirty years'time.
Surely it is best to take the chance, refuse to sell
the things, and keep them for the lienefit of heirs.
If an autograph work be worth anything now, its
value will be multiplied by ten in as many years'
time, supposing the book to live. Besides, there is
the sentiment of the thing. One would like to
give to one's heirs the very work in one's own
handwriting, out of which some fame, as well as
some fortune, has been achieved. Let us keep our
MSS., brethren, and lock them up.
Ouida has perpetrated a long two-column small
print letter in the Times. She is very angry
because people syndicate their novels. She is very
angry that literary agents are allowed to exist. She
is very angry that so many books are published.
She is very angry that this Society exists. She is
very angry that a certain very clever young writer
is acknowledged to 1k> clever. She is very angry
that authors find it desirable to look after their
property. She is so very, very angry with every-
thing, that one suspects the sham indignation of
the satirist which compels him—poor man !—to
make verses.
The genesis of the literary agent is quite natural.
Owing to the chaotic condition of publishing, while
the publisher depends upon the author for material;
and while the author depends upon the publisher
for proceeds of his work; the publisher has no
recognised principles on which to lmse his proffered
agreement, and is therefore in the false position
of being taken for a screw or a cheat, when,
perhaps, he is only desirous of being fair ami
just* The author, owing to the absence of
recognized principles, has to go to the publisher
and make a targain in ignorance and dependence.
This dependence is loathsome and humiliating to
him; he hates the conduct of his own business;
he considers himself cheated and cajoled — as
very often he is. All this would be avoided if
authors knew what is meant by cost of pro-
duction, trade price, royalties; in fact, what
are actually meant by the clauses of the agree-
ments they are called upon to sign. So long as
secrecy on these points is maintained, there will
remain the humiliation of the author in l>cirig
dependent on what they call the "generosity" of
the publisher. Now the literary agent who takes
up the conduct of an author's affairs is, or should
l>e, a business man as much as "the publisher.
Therefore, when he arranges an agreement, it is
one business man making a business agreement
with another, both l>eing entirely acquainted with
the nature of the transaction in all its details.
Such a man is invaluable. To find a good literary
agent, and to place all affairs in his hands is a great
step towards independence. The next great step
will 1m1 when we have at last discovered iv method
of publication fair to all sides, recognised and
adopted by all sides. Perhaps then the literary
agent may no lonjrer l>e wanted.
Even then there will be required someone to
arrange with Editors for serial rights of novelists.
Everybody knows that magazines vary in their
payments for serials: those which have but a small
circulation cannot pay much: those that circulate
largely pay more for one writer than for another.
It will always be the work of the literary agent to
arrange these things for his clients. I recommend
everybody who has any business arrangements of
importance to transact them by means of an agent.
But—and here the greatest care must be exercised
—do not go to any agent unless he is thoroughly
well recommended, if possible, by this Society.
I do not see that we need use up much space in
discussing the other points of this angry lady's letter.
She calls this Society a " Caricature of Literature,"
without explaining how a Society can be a cari-
cature. She says that its Members are " makers of
books." So they are. So they are. So is Ouida her-
self, if she conies to that—she has made 3o l>ooks,
I am told. In the same way Mr. Watts is a maker
of pictures. She feels that literature must not be
a trade. So long as literature in its making is
allowed to lie an Art, I care nothing what it is called
in its selling. The publisher is a tradesman or
a professional man, just as anybody pleases, pro-
vided that the poet remains an artist. We will
think of Art while we are engaged on Art, and we
will think of nothing else. When our work—our
## p. 17 (#421) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
17
artistic work—is in our hands, completed and ready
for issue, we will think of the property that it
represents, and we will defend that property, after
the example of Dickens, Thaekeroy, George Eliot,
Wilkic Collins, Anthony Trollope, Charles Reade,
and others, now numbered with the illustrious
dead.
Evidences are daily poured into the office to
prove my statement that in the modern fashion
publishers seldom take any risks. I have lx-fore
me, for instance, an agreement by which the author
in a half profit system is made to take 100 copies at
a certain price, viz., the full trade price, without
the discount or reduction always given to the trade.
This was only a little book. The cost of production
was set down at £36, including advertising. The
sides are said to have produced £16, and the author
is charged £18, showing a loss of £2. This, as
everybody will understand, is no loss at all, if for
no other reason, because the publisher keeps all the
rest of the edition. This is supposed to lx' a good
house of the second rank.
He sent his article to a certain journal. It had
an attractive title; it was on a subject that he
thought might also seem attractive; it was signed;
he hoped that it would lie accepted, and that its
appearance would help his name. The Editor kept
the MS. three weeks and sent it Iwick: "Editor
very sorry, pressure too great already." On looking
at the paper he found it was dirty, and there were
marks as of an inky thumb on the back of two
pages. "This," he said, " looks as if it had been
in the hands of the compositor." He then sent it
to a second paper. It came back after three weeks
with more marks as of an inky thumb, and with a
similar letter: "Thanks. No room." Now, the
compositor always has an inky thumb. If it were
not for his inky thumb, he would not be a
compositor. The writer therefore grew curious,
and began to take in these two journals. In a
fortnight he was pleased to find his article in each
of the papers, unsigned, and under another title.
There may be a conclusion to this story.
The Automatic Book Company has been long
talked alxmt, and is now apparently setting to
work seriously. You put in a penny and you take
out a l)Ook; when you have read the book you
put it back again. This is simple, and I lndieve
that everybody would Ik; glad to see it, succeed, but
for one reason. The directors propose to till their
boxes with none but books published by themselves!
The result, therefore, if the Company gets its boxes
introduced on railways will be the total destruction
of the whole l)ook trade now carried on at the
railway bookstalls. This is an enormous trade; it
means the diminution of the side of popular liooks
by perhaps 3o per cent. This is a lively prospect
for authors and publishers alike. But one cannot
believe that any railway company will grant such
a monopoly. It means a great deal more than if
such a monopoly were granted to one great
publishing house. For every great publishing
house has all its old books to offer. The new
Company will have to create its literature, which
cannot be done in a year. Fancy reducing the
choice of readers from the thousand volumes in all
branches of literature that till the stall at a London
terminus to half-a-dozen books in so many boxes
in the railway carriage!
The Reproduction of a Fourteenth Century
Poem: an Account of a French Family: a volume
of Essays: a Manual on Boating: a Catalogue of
Ancient Deeds: a History of Children's Books: a
Book on Angling: a Book on the Telescope: a
Dictionary of Authors: a new Novel by George
Meredith. Now, of all these books, which is
the most important? Which is most striking?
Which represents the greatest event in the
literary history of the week? There can be no
doubt of the reply. It is the novel. There can be
no doubt, further, of the respect with which—if
only for his previous achievements—the book
singled out of this list should be received by those,
who review as well as those who read. The
position of George Meredith is that of the heir
apparent to the crown of English Letters. There
is no one who can venture to dispute with him
that rank. Now, a certain literary paper has
selected the bundle of books above named with
half-a-dozen other novels for review in the issue
of May the 23rd. Of course it gives the first
place to George Meredith. Not at all. The first
place is given to the Fourteenth Century Poem.
Then it gives, at least, a separate notice, a place of
honour, to George Meredith. Not at all. It re-
views him a.s one of the batch. As for the review
itself that is not the question, though the reviewer
shows himself utterly out of sympathy with his
author from the outset. Fancy, at this time of day,
a reviewer of George Meredith writing "In his
former l>ooks Mr. Meredith did often succeed in
writing clever passages and smart epigrams "! The
point is, that in such a paper such a writer should
be classed and reviewed with Mr. Ready-to-Halt
and Mr. Feeble Mind, and little Miss Buttercup,
fresh from school! This comes of the Iwtch prin-
ciple. On ]>age 19 another beautiful example will
be found of the blessings of the batch method.
It will be seen from the communications pub-
lished elsewhere in this number, that complaints
## p. 18 (#422) #############################################
i8
THE AUTHOR.
are rife about the reviewing of novels—perhaps,
also, about the reviewing of books in other branches
of literature, though these have not yet been con-
sidered. Among all the complaints that have
reached me—many of them only repetitions—I
have found none against the daily papers. On
looking more closely into the question, it becomes
apparent that the best friends of literature, as if they
had not enough already on their backs, are quite
certainly the daily papers. To have a review in the
Times has generally been received as a mark of
special honour. It is much to be hoped that this
old practice may be continued. Hitherto, it has
always l>een considered beneath the dignity of the
paper to " slate " a lx>ok or a writer. And it showed
the dignity of the paper, that it never took up a
book except to do it honour. The Daily News, the
Morning Post, the Standard, all keep literature
steadily to the front, and all in a spirit of appre-
ciation, willing to recognise good work, and fully-
aware that bad books die of their own accord.
The Telegraph has its book column every week
and sometimes oftener. The Daily Chronicle has
its literary supplement and its weekly feuilleton.
The evening papers seldom appear without a review
of some new books. Of provincial jwpers, the
Scotsman has long been a stalwart friend of litera-
ture by criticism that is for the most part kindly and
always sensible. The Bradford Observer contains
excellent papers on current literature, and there are
many other country papers of great help to letters.
In fact, the daily papers, in their readiness to
note the book of the clay, their general kindliness
and appreciation, are of very much greater im-
portance to us than the weeklies.
Walter Besant.
My name and country were—Why care to know?
High was my hirth—What, if it had been low?
Glory 1 won, and died—What, if no glory?
I now lie here—Who tells to whom my story?
Srns.
Oinfta jMi—T» o-f ■nvTi; vdrpis hi /*',<—«'{ tt hi rmno;
Y.\(i*m V fifM yiwvi—d ya.p dxpavporarov;
ZijVa? eVWf&jf "Xiirax f$!o»—(2 yap aSofai?;
Kiiy.ai h',h6a$t wr—ti; tiVi Tavra Xeym;
PAULUS SlLENTIARIlTS.
■ ♦ ■»■+
Those who are interested in literature for the
Blind will please take note that a new magazine
called Playtime will be issued by the British and
Foreign Blind Association. The magazine is in-
tended for blind children. It will be edited by
Miss Florence Nevill, and will appear every two
months. The address of the Association is
33, Cambridge Square, Hyde Park.
IN THE DAYS OF THE MERRY
MONARCH.
""Jk IfY Master having now had some expe-
Y/l rience in this way of printing, was
resolved to play above board, and get
some Copy or Copies to print, that he might own;
which in short time he did, and glad was he to see
his name in print, supposing himself now to be
somebody.
"My Master having now printed two or three
things, did look upon himself as somebody; and
though he had not such good success in his last
undertakings as before, yet he made a shift to get
what they cost him for paper and print, and had
many of them still by him to sell when he would,
or exchange; but he having but two or three sorts
of books, could not do much good upon that: he
seeing this, and observing what books sold lx'st, it
being at the beginning of the late Wars, found
that factious Sermons, and such like things would
do the business; he thereupon bestirs himself, and
gets acquainted with most of the factious Priests
about Town, by often hearing them and frequent-
ing their Companies, and having learned to write
short-hand, took notes of their Sermons, which he
collected together, and now and then he would get
them to revise one of them, and print it; by this
means spending much time and mony amongst
them, he grew very intimate, and was Ix-come the
general publisher of most of their Sermons and
Controversies. This was that which brought him
great gain, in a short time he could vie with the
best, what he sold not for mony, he exchanged for
books: and now he could command any book in
all the Company without money, upon account, as is
the Cnstome. His Shop ln-ing well furnished, he
gets a Ware-house, where he bestowed his books in
quires; and being thus furnished, he was first
spoken to by some Country lwoksellers, and then
writ to by them and other, for severall l>ooks, so
that any thing that he printed he coidd sell off well
enough; for having good hap to print some very
good selling books, they helped away the other
that were not so good, and still were thrust into
the parcel among the rest: and now having some
good Authors, he would not accept of every one;
and as he formerly had sought for, and courted
Authors to write lx>oks for him, now they (knowing
his way of preferring and selling of l>ooks) followed,
and courted him to print their l>ooks. If a stranger
came with a Copy to him, though never so good,
he would tell them he had books enough already;
but however, if they would give him so much
money, he would do it, and they should have two,
or three, or six books for themselves and friends:
many a one did he thus j>erswade out of their
## p. 19 (#423) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
19
mony, licing desirous to be in print. If he had a
desire to have any tiling writ in History, Poetry, or
any other Science or Faculty, he had his several
Authors, who for a glass of Wine, and now and
then a meals Meat and half a Crown, were his
humble servants; having no other hire but that,
and six or twelve of their books, which they pre-
sented to friends or persons of Quality; nay, and
when they have had success, if they wanted any
more books, they must pay for them: further I
have known some of our Trade, that when a poor
Author hath written a book, and being acquainted
with some Person or persons of Quality whereto he
Dedicates and presents it, the Book-seller will go
snips and have half shares of what is so given him.
There is no Trade that I ever heard of, that gets
so much by their Commodity for whatever they
print, if it sels, they get eight pence in the shilling:
and for those that deal with Country-Chapmen,
they put off the bad well enough at one time or
another; and if they are very bad, then a new
title is printed as if it were a new book; and what
with this and changing, they march off in time.
He would also frequent the Schools, and by drink-
ing with the School-masters, and discoursing of
l>ooks ftnd learned men, he would get their cus-
tome to serve them with School-books. There
was one famous Country-Parson whom he much
desired to be acquainted with, and to him he rid,
telling him he was troubled in mind, and desired
him to satisfie him in a case of Conscience, the
which he did; and then for his satisfaction, and to
oblige him, he prayed and courted him to see him
when he came to London, the which he did, and
all this was to get the printing of his books. My
Master having had a book written for him by a
Poet, the Author (not having the wit to make his
liargain, and know what he should have before-
hand) when he had finished it, desired payment
for his pains: Nay, said my master, you ought
rather to pay me for printing it, and making you
famous in print. Well then, said the Author, if
you will not give me money, I hope you will give
me some twoks. How, said my master, give you
liooks, what will you have me forswear my Trade,
and 1>e a lx>ok-givcr? I am a book-seller, and to
you I will sell them assoon as to another, if you
will give me money, paper and print costs money,
and this was all the Author could have for his
pains. My Master is now one of the Grandees of
the Company, and that liesides the ordinary way
gets hiin something. Not long since, he and
others went a searching, and finding an impression
of unlicensed l>ooks, seized them, but instead of
suppressing and turning them to wast paper, they
divided the greatest part of them amongst them-
selves, and immediately my Master sent some of
them away to all his Chapmen, and the rest we sell
in the Shop. It so fell out lately; that a book
lieing to lie Printed, my Master repaired to the
Author to get the Copy, but another of the same
Trade had been then; before, to whom it was in
part promised; but however (out of respect to my
Master) the other lieing sent for, it was agreed that
they should have the printing of it between them;
whereupon one printer was iniployed by them both
to do the work. My Master soon after sent for
the Printer, and tells him, You must do ine a kind-
ness: Yes Sir, said the printer. It is this, said my
Master, I am to give away to the Authour some
Books, wherefore I would have you to print 200
for me above the number, and do not tell my
Partner, and I will pay you: Yes, said the Printer,
and so he did, and was paid for them accordingly.
But the Printer seeing the knavery of his imployers
(for the other had been with him; and engaged
him to print the same number of 200 over, pre-
tending some private use he had for them) he
likewise printed 400 over for his own use, and
publiquely sold them; and neither of them could
or would complain of him to the other, because
they knew themselves guilty of the same crime."
REVIEWS AND REVIEWERS.
I.
"TTTHAT a blessed thing it is that Nature,
Y V when she invented, manufactured, and
patented authors, contrived to make critics
out of the chips that were left! Painful as the
task is, they never fail to warn the author, in the
most impressive manner of the probabilities of
failure in what he has undertaken. Sad as the
necessity is to their delicate sensibilities, they never
hesitate to advertise him of the decline of his
powers, and to press upon him the propriety of
retiring before he sinks into imbecility."
O. W. Holmes.
11.
In the year 1889 a novel was produced by an
unknown writer. On March 3oth of that year the
liook was reviewed — or noticed — in a certain
paper, as one of a batch. Evidently the reviewer
had read it with pleasure, for after telling the story
—which never ought to be done in reviewing a
novel—he added these words, " If this is 's
first novel, she has done extremely well. . . .;
Her characters have the stamp of good breeding,
## p. 20 (#424) #############################################
20
THE AUTHOR.
her situations are probable, her conversations are
natural and lively, and she has a good style." This
was very satisfactory for the author, and perhaps
caused some readers to ask for the book.
This year the lady's publishers brought out a
new edition, and on April 18th last another review
—or notice—of the work appeared in the same
paper. It was reviewed as a new book, an accident
which might happen to any reviewer. The review
again took the form of telling the story—which
as was said above never ought to l>e allowed in
reviewing a novel—but this time without any word
of comment whatever; and so telling it as, in the
opinion of the author and some others, to condemn
the book. One may be wrong, but in reading
the review there seemed, distinctly audible, a kind
of a sniffing.
Referring again to an article in the Saturday
Review which was noticed in last number of the
Author, one reads these lines, " The really curious
thing is that the author of this paper should fail
to perceive that even the briefest judgment of a
competent critic is based upon, and necessarily
implies, the study and knowledge of the art which
he denies to reviewers."
No one had denied "the study and knowledge of
the art " to such reviewers. But never mind that.
The point is, which of these two opinions is by the
competent critic, and which by the other. Because
one sniffs and the other praises. Perhaps there is
a third way out of it. Critics of equal competency
may have reviewed the" book on both occasions,
and the second man did not really mean to sniff at
the book. He only had a cold.
III.
"M W is a story of incident,
located in Scotland, and somewhat loosely written
in three languages—for there is a large admixture
of Gaelic, and enough French to show that the
author is not too pedantic in his employment of a
foreign tongue. The Gaelic is not scrappy, like
the. French, but occurs in long conversations, and
in many successive pages. It is, moreover, suffi-
ciently uncompromising to puzzle a reader."
This is taken from a leading Review. Will it
l»e. believed that the " Gaelic" is ordinary Lowland
Scotch, the language of Walter Scott and Robert
Burns? That good old familiar language is so
strange to a reviewer in this Journal that he
thinks it is Gaelic! As to the French, the author
writes that it. is simply confined to half-a-dozen
ordinary expressions, such as savoir faire, tout
ensemble, Ac.
But Gaelic !—Shade of Sir Walter !—Gaelic!
IV.
May ist.
"May I add my mite to the subject, under
discussion, i.e., Reviewers and Novels? Last year a
novel was published, the joint work of another
writer and myself. The reviews were, save for one
or two smaller papers, remarkably good, but this is
apart from the question. What I would emphasize
is this :—At the request of the publishers, there
was added a short preface. This preface is sup-
posed to have been written by one of the characters
in the book, a High Church clergyman, and this
is readily understood by anyone who has read either
the first or the last chapter, let alone the rest.
However, if the preface only is read, the mistake
is easily made of supposing him to be instead a
'real live' vicar, and into this innocently laid trap
no less than four reviewers, three of them on well-
known London papers, fell headlong. Now I know
the poor, sad-eyed reviewer is a much-to-be-pilied
individual, and I quite acknowledge the book in
question was but a little one and only light reading,
but editors live to boast of the correctness of their
paper, and surely therefore ' The preface of'— only
three words—should have been added to the sage
remark, 'This book is amusing, or dull, or clever,
or utterly impossible, or far-fetched, &c., <fec.'
I should not have written this egotistical epistle,
however, only 1 am just a little behind the scenes
of the. journalistic stage, and I believe and dare
avow that this one proven case is only one of many,
and also that the preface system of reviewing is not
confined to the smaller fry of the sea of literature.
And yet not only the public but the authors them-
selves are dependent on such reviews for learning
the true value of their work—for what author can
judge his own writings impartially ?—and they are
also exacted to accept such lazy critic's praise or
blame as the judgment of Solomon. It is well,
surely, to review a few books properly than many
carelessly. It is time, surely, there was a school
of novelists, if only that young writers might
have an opportunity of obtaining fair, truthful,
thoughtful, and really helpful criticism, instead
of a few hurried words written by guesswork from
a short preface. Wishing all success, therefore, to
the new school, for which, spite of adverse opinion,
I prophecy a future."
A. E. S.
V.
"'An Obscure Novelist's' questions open up
fresh ground for research. Are there half-a-dozen
papers which can be said to review in the real
## p. 21 (#425) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
21
sense of the word at all? In the vast majority
of eases it seems the correct thing to turn
on the latest-acquired printer's devil, or some
half-educated hack, whose slipshod English, poverty
of ideas, and stark inability to grasp even the
most elementary points of the work lieneath his
dissecting pen, are things'to shudder at. Hence, I
take it, the unanimity wherewith our 'reviewers'
invariably set themselves to expose the whole plot,
or at any rate enough of it to spoil the reader's
interest; that of the male reader at any rate, who
does not make a point of looking at the end of a
book first. Such a hashed-up resume as can be
gleaned from a casual glance into the beginning
and end of the book answers every purpose, since
it serves to conceal their own complete lack of the
critical faculty, and makes 'copy.' The author is
credited with characters and scenes he never
invented; if there is scope for it, only too
frequently, with a geographical ignorance that
would disgrace a second form boy, the allotted
paragraph is filled up somehow, and our merry
'critic' (?) splashes out of his wallow and shakes
himself blithely preparatory to plunging into a fresh
one.
Another thing. When is fiction going to lie
relieved of those most idiotic and utterly unmeaning
terms 'hero' and 'heroine '? In the first place,
speaking with all due deference, I believe there is
no satisfactory definition extant as to what con-
stitutes a 'hero' and his feminine counterpart.
Certainly, with considerable opportunities of
observing human nature, both civilised and savage,
in many lands, I have never fallen across any man
or woman who came within measurable distance of
the popular conception of this nondescript animal.
But he is a very marrow-bone to our friend the
'horse-reviewer' who jumps around him, falls
upon him, and cracks him, and from his spoils
extracts succulent 'copy.' He objects that your
'hero' is not a hero at all. Well, you never
intended that he should lie, taking the term to
mean an impersonation of perfectibility. And
your 'heroine' is faulty and given to failure at
the crucial moment. So she is. But you intended
her to 1k>. The reviewer, however, cannot, to save
his dear life, grasp the fact that the principal male
and female characters of the lx>ok need not
necessarily lie aspirants to heroic virtues, whatever
these may lie, and that if they did happen to realise
his idea of heroics they would lie as insipid and
wholly uninteresting as perfect people must
necessarily prove. 'Our hero'!! In the name
of the Prophet, away with this fool of a word!"
Another Novelist.
VI.
"As one of the apparently hated class of reviewers,
may I lie allowed to state that I have the honour
to review for a weekly journal, which does consider
reviewing of some importance, and also, that I
take special pains to do my work in a responsible
manner? My editor does not wish the liooks to
be scamped. He gives me space for extracts, and
also I am allowed a free hand. I am not obliged to
praise; books by a popular author if I do not
consider them worthy of praise, or because the
publishers of the books sent in advertise; in the
journal for which I write. And I may add, that I
have by the letters from authors (absolutely unknown
to me personally) who have taken the trouble to write
to me through my editor, to thank me for sympa-
thetic notices. I always do my best to get a glimpse
into an author's mind—if he has one—through his
work, and then to give as intelligent a reason as
my powers of expression will admit for praise or
blame. I should like to quote some of the letters
from authors, but it would lie an unjustifiable
outbreak of vanity on my part."
A Member.
VIL
"A letter in the Author for February on ' Kinds
of Criticism' recalls an experience that is instruc-
tive, therefore I sent it to you to use or not, as you
please.
Some years ago I was in treaty with the editor
of a leading paper to become a reviewer on his
staff. I had sent some specimens of work, of
which he had approved, and was nsked to call at
his office by appointment for my instructions. He
received me courteously; praised my work; then
gave me a three-volume novel he wished me to
review at length. As he handed it to me, he said
significantly: 'Do you know Mrs.''
(speaking of the writer) ' I hate that woman.'
I knew at once what he meant. I was to lie
Balaam to this journalistic Balak. Bless his
friends and curse his enemies! Unfortunately I
possess a conscience. I read the book carefully,
and said what I thought, regardless of Balak's
hint. The review was favourable on the whole, so
much so, that from it the publishers extracted a
quotation for advertisement. With this result to
myself, however, that I was never again employed
by the editor in question, who forgot, moreover, to
pay me for the review.
He is no longer editing a paper in this world,
therefore I may venture to give this experience
without provoking him to say of me to some more
facile reviewer as he hands my liooks for review:
'I hate that woman '!" B.
## p. 22 (#426) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
LIBRARY SECRETS.
BELONGING to literary metaphysics is that
idea of the personality of a house or room.
Nathaniel Hawthorne treated this bizarre
notion successfully in his wonderful romance of the
"House with the Seven Gables," and Edgar Poe
even more so in the " Fall of the House of Usher,"
and while other writers have made inanimate
objects breathe, these are the only two English
writers who have given to houses what Mr. Pater
would call "soul." It is true now that some of
our art guilds profess to give this quality of
strangeness to furniture directly it leaves the
workshop; and nineteenth century decorators
claim to leave much of it in our modern
rooms along with the paint and ]>aj>er frieze.
Mr. James Payn tells of a young shopman who
described a sideboard "as not Chippendale, but
with a Chippendale feeling," and this expresses
the more modern phase of what originally was a
very pleasing conceit.
Human mind has been compared to a kingdom,
and with equal felicity a room may be comjmred
to a person. If rooms could talk, how much
they would have to tell us! What useful witnesses
they would be in the Divorce Court—on a Royal
Commission — or when politicians are differing
about the words used at an interview. "Walls
have ears" is only a metaphor at present, but
doubtless some future Edison will discover a
machine no less dangerous than the phonograph
by which we may recover all the conversations—
all the secrets a room has been the involuntary
witness of. Philologists have never paid sufficient
attention to the word "Room." No other synonym
of equal force has been discovered. Apartment—
what could ever happen in an apartment?
Chamber—that, too, is impossible without some
epithet as green, or blue, or red. But Room stands
alone; for poets it is particularly useful, as it is
one of the few rhymes to gloom.
Of all rooms in a house the library should have
most to tell us. Unlike its owner it would have
read all the books on the shelves, those the casual
visitor sees and those he does not see—the books
behind the shelves. We are often told that a
man's character can bo discovered by his library.
I do not think this is always the case. If the
books are very beautifully bound in Venetian and
Levant, and have the work of Grolier and Derome
on their backs, or the delicate tooling of Mr.
Zaehnsdorf or Mr. Cobden Sanderson, we may be
assured that the owner is either a bibliophile
(one who likes books and reads them) or a
bibliomaniac (one who likes books but does not
read them); if the library had a tongue it would
tell us which.
If one sees a library full of standard authors, as
Shakespeare, Johnson, Pope, Macaulay, all bound
in red morocco with gilt edges, one feels sure
they an? never read. It is almost fatal to have a
standard author well bound; even a large paper
copy (edition de luxe) is a little suspicious. But I
may be judging others by myself, for I never can
read a standard author (in red morocco and gilt
edges). I always suspect the owner has bought it
because it was the right thing to do.
Another sure sign of unread books is a library
of first editions. They have been purchased not
because the first edition of some author had better
type, or passages omitted in subsequent editions, or
plates of which the impressions were inferior—but
simply because they were first editions. Art critics
talk about "art for art's sake," and bibliomaniacs
might have a similar cant phrase of "first editions
for first editions' sake." I myself have a library
skeleton in the shape of a first edition which I
bought some years ago, hoping that its value would
increase. From time to time I take it the round
of the booksellers—but in vain. Nay, the very
wretch who sold it to me (he called it a bargain, I
remember, and it certainly was for him) now tells
me he would not give two shillings for it. I will
not reveal the name of the book, for I still live in
hope, and I show it to my friends as the greatest
treasure in my collection, for I place it back on
the shelf on my return from the goblin market of
the book-selling trade. Booksellers are only
prodigal of digits when selling books.
But if my library has its secrets, those of my
friends have theirs as well. A literary acquaintance
of mine who has made some mark in the world,
and writes delicate essays (pastels, he calls them),
often talks in public and private about classical
literature. When I speak of the achievements of
one of our modern English poets, he tells me that
Theocritus or Pindar have done the same thing
much ln'tter. On his shelves are all the Leipzig
series of the Greek poets, and Apollonius Bhodius
lies open on the table, but behind the shelves, invisible
to vulgar gaze, are Mr. Bonn's translations. I have
forgotten all my classics, but I reineml>er in Horace
there is a line altout rare sitting behind a horseman;
so it is with the library of my friend, "Behind
his classics sits blue Bohn." I hold my pence,
however, for hare I not the first edition on my
conscience?
Zola, I am told, has a large circle of admirers in
England, yet how many of them are acquainted
with him in the original? Mr. Vizetelly's versions
of realistic fiction have found a place in many a
private library, where they corrupt our educated
youth just as much as the bank clerk and
## p. 23 (#427) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
23
hairdresser. English people lire always attacking
translations, because to them they are indebted for
any acquaintance with foreign literature. Here
again I may be judging others by myself. As I
am for being candid, let me hasten to admit that
I have as large and goodly a collection of Bohns
and Vizetellies as any man living. Bohn has been
to me what Mary Stuart was to Mr. Swinburne,
"Red star of boyhood's fiery thought."
Bohns have solaced, have instructed, have enter-
tained me as I feel sure they have many others.
What a splendid language our English is, to be sure!
There is really no necessity to learn any other. I
feel I am a fine example to be held up by those
who are for abolishing Greek from the schools and
Italian from the Civil Service? examinations. Many
a translation of Dante have I reviewed; "Te duce,
Longfellow," and have not Messrs. Heinemann
and Walter Scott placed Scandinavian literature in
my reach? Petronius, Herodotus, Pausanias are no
longer closed books for me. Mr. Bohn and his
fellow workers, like the angel in Revelation, have
broken the seals of a dead language. When I talk
of such masterpieces familiar to me only in an
English form, that I have pricks of conscience I do
not deny. I am consoled, nevertheless, when I
think that writers greater than I have secrets no
less dark and base. What man of letters reveals
his books of reference? True, one novelist,
eminent for Scotch local colour, has confided to
me that he lias never been north of the Tweed.
Nor should I be surprised to learn some day that
Mr. Haggard only edited "She," in spite of his
assertion to the contrary, that the MSS. are per-
fectly genuine, but with the insidious art of the
storyteller he palmed them off as his own. In
his library perhaps are concealed the letters of
Mr. Allan Quatermain. Has Mr. Besant ever
teen further east than the Mansion House? Does
Mr. Hardy live in Wessex? These are questions
likely to raise some future literary controversy.
They are now library secrets. Long may they
remain so.
There are other kinds of books besides works of
reference and translations that a man who possesses
them would hesitate to show to any but an intimate
friend; but I trust no married men own such things.
Their price has placed them beyond my modest means,
and that original virtue in all of us would have pre-
vented my acquiring them had I the chance. I refer
to those suspicious little works published in Belgium
with delicate etchings on hand-made paper;
English volumes (privately printed, 25o copies only)
which have on the title-page the legend that they
were printed at Benares by the blameless Ethiopian.
And those offered at fancy prices, which all tear the
title of "Seqient Worship," clothed in the modest
language of a scientific brochure. I trust that a
very small per-centage of private libraries keep such
books as these. Our pure and noble literature
has fortunately supplied few examples wherewith to
swell such a depraved catalogue.
R. R.
~*~^4
MAURICE MAETERLINCK.
fl^HAT amalgam of races now called Belgian
I has produced a dramatist of great and original
power. He writes in French, but his style
raises a suspicion even in a foreigner, that it is not
his native tongue. Apart from the language, the
treatment of his three plays, "La Princesse
Maleine," "L'lntruse," and "Les Aveugles," is
sufficient proof that he is not a Frenchman.
Whatever their merits or their faults, neither are
French. They contain, even more than the work
of his countrymen Van Beers, Huysmann, and
Knopff, an element wholly foreign to French art.
No doubt none of this work would liave been
produced without French influence, but it all bears
a mark of strong native individuality. The three
plays which Maeterlinck has already written give
him a claim to the highest place among contem-
porary dramatists. So much attention has teen
devoted to detecting new schools of the drama
elsewhere, that it is a surprise to find such a school
arising in Belgium. The Flemish races are,
however, proving that they possess a reserve of
force, revived, but in no sense re-constructed, by
foreign example.
A special peculiarity in Maeterlinck's work is
the important part which he assigns to accessory
effects. He animates dead matter, he humanizes
his animals by some mysterious power of metem-
psychosis, and his atmospheric phenomena are real
Powers of the Air. He achieves even more than
this, for the visions of his youths, and the dreams
of his old men incorporate themselves in sounds
and shapes that am be j>erceived by healthier or
soberer senses. Out of this very peculiarity arises
a rare and immense dramatic merit. With him
accessories never usurp a more important place.
No one of them is necessary to the construction of
the story, but all assist materially to develop it.
They explain the situations and emphasize the
characterization, but they never distract the atten-
tion due to either. In this way Maeterlinck's is
art of the highest order, perfectly simple and direct
in construction, adorned but never burdened with a
wealth of ornament.
The special sphere of Maeterlinck's genius is dark-
ness, the darkness of hopeless destinies and sightless
eyes. So far, he is fatalist, and only so far, for
## p. 24 (#428) #############################################
24
THE AUTHOR.
his work is wholly free from any trace of didactic
fatalism; if he founds a new school it will not be
for purposes of instruction. It is noticeable that
though darkness and the fears that accompany it
till his dramas, he never has recourse to super-
natural agencies. The terror which he inspires,
he draws, as it were, from the brains of his own
characters, and expresses in the forces of nature.
For pure concentrated fear I do not know
anything more powerful than the death of La
Princesse Maleine. You may read the play in a
brightly lit room full of people, and tremble over
it, when you have read "Melmoth" even, alone
and at night. The murder scene recalls and
surpasses the most dramatic scene in " Uncle Silas."
It is, however, improbable that Maeterlinck knows
the too little appreciated novelist Le Fanu. The
comparison between them need not be pressed
further, for Maeterlinck is superior in almost every
point.
To attempt any detailed examination of the three
plays would be impossible in a short space. It will
be sufficient to consider how wonderful is the little
scene "L'Intruse." It does not take more time
to read than a quarter of an hour, it contains no
episode, it is founded on no plot that can be
properly so allied, and yet it is absorbingly
interesting, full of delicate characterization, and
careful, skilful touches. It is not only the creations
of the writer's brain that interest you, but the
creations of his creatures' brains. This subtle
compound influence upon the reader has never been
achieved in the same degree of intensity and
sustained so long. The blood that Lady Macbeth
sees upon her hands does not leave a deeper stain.
The whole of " L'Intruse" is full of this influence,
the least incident in it becomes prophetic. The old
Grandfathers fancies seem even to precreate inci-
dents in harmony with his own melancholy, incidents
which would not so much be noticed at the time, as
remembered afterwards as having accompanied an
evening full of very sad memories. There was the
wind that came out from the cypress wood, and the
trembling in the trees, and the scaring of the swans
and the fishes, and the house dog that sat silent in
his kennel, and the gardener who stood in the
shadow and whetted his scythe, and the door that
no one could shut, and the door that opened of
itself, and the carpenter to come in the morning,
and the dim burning of the half-spent lamp, and
the physician waiting until midnight, and at mid-
night the hurrying footsteps and the cry of the
dumb child, and emphasizing these trivial incidents,
re-creating them as omens, the blind fear of the
old man. All so perfectly natural and all super-
naturalized by his sick fancies.
Nor are the two similar characters of the brothers
without special merit for delicate distinctive touches.
Both are kind-hearted, matter-of-fact men. It is
so natural for them to regret the time when the
Grandfather was as "reasonable" as they were,
and "never said anything extraordinary." The
Father is an excellent domestic man who keeps
everything in order in the house during his wife's
illness. He knows all the freaks of the furniture,
and expects the servant to know them too. He
sees the lamp filled himself, and professes all the
faith of a true housewife in it that " it will burn
better presently." We are not surprised that his
ultimate conclusion concerning the blind should be
"II est certain qu'ils sont a plaindre." The Uncle
is rather clever and inclined to be strict, but the gift
he most prides himself on is common sense. He
cannot endure mystery, he detects it lurking even in
the voice. When the Grandfather asks, " What is
that at the door?" he says, "You must not ask
that in such an extraordinary voice." He has an
explanation, good or bad, ready for everything.
If there is a sound of mowing it is the gardener,
though gardeners do not mow at night. If feet
are heard on the stairs he recognises his sister's
footstep at once, although she is not there. His
standard of appeal is the doctor. He even has a
certain sympathy for his sister's monastic order,
because "the rule applies to all alike." His worst
epithet is " useless," and his sagest counsel "to 1 e
reasonable." In his eyes truth and logic are
synonyms. No wonder that when the blind
Grandfather says, <; I can see clearly there is some-
thing "that he answers a little sharply, "Then
you can see better than we can."
And here we come to another characteristic of
Maeterlinck, a hint of secret inevident forces,
triumphing out of obscurity. Here, the irrational
sight of the blind; the insight of the idiot and the
animal, in " La Princesse Maleine "; and the last
ray of hope falling on the new-born child, in
"Les Aveugles"; these are examples of what I
mean. In "Les Aveugles " indeed the climax of
the drama is the appeal of the utter powerlessness
of the blind, the deaf, the mad, and the dead to a
powerlessness seemingly more complete still. In
this scene the darkness of Maeterlinck is at its
deepest. Short as it is, so much might be said
about it, that it is too long to notice here.
w. w.
■ ■
LITERATURE IN IRELAND.
n^HE miracle performed at the request of
I Hezekiah may be daily observed by the traveller
from Holyhead to Kingstown. As the shadow
of old went back on the dial of the Hebrew King,
so apparently Time retreats as the visitor from
## p. 25 (#429) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
25
England approaches the shores of the Emerald
Isle, anil if he is a lover of order, he must in
consequenee put back bis watch five-and-twenty
minutes. Our relationship to tbe sun is not unlike
our condition in other matters. The visitor to
Ireland must be prepared to find the inhabitants a
little behind the times. It may be that Hibernia
has the same complaint to make of Britannia that
Diogenes made of Alexander, when he requested
that monarch, who stood at the aperture of the
philosopher's tub with an offer of gifts, to stand
out of his sunshine. To fully realize how small
the progress made by Ireland during the centuries
which have elapsed since her conquest has been,
one has only to turn to Spenser's "View of the
Present State of Ireland," the greater part of
which description is as true to-day as it was in
1599. Ireland has never enjoyed the "Piping
times of peace" in which art flourishes. Like
Moloch, she has always been in favour of "Open
war." She has cherished so many delusive hopes,
nursed so many futile rebellions, and been so much
occupied in endeavouring to shake off what her
demagogues designate the "yoke" of England,
that she has had no time to devote to "the arts of
peace." As a natural consequenee, such of her
children as loved the paths of wisdom, left behind
them the "drums and trampliugs" of petty
political struggles, and found in "a land of settled
government" the quiet which they sought. Thus
it comes that Goldsmith's name is associated more
closely with Fleet Street than with Lissoy; Burke
and Berkeley and Swift are English rather than
Irishmen of Letters; and the names of George
Darley and Edward Fitzgerald are almost unknown
in their native land; while Moore, "our western
bulbul, half Cupid and half tom-tit," is still
considered our "sweetest lyrist" although he has
been succeeded in his post of Irish Laureate by at
least one poet, the latchet of whose shoes he would
be unworthy to unloose. Living Irish writers, it
would seem, have, like their predecessors, adopted
Punch's recipe, and endeavoured to make home
happy by leaving it. Many years have elapsed
since Mr. Lecky was resident in Ireland. Lesser
lights have also departed from amongst us. Lady
Wilde, who as Speranza fired many hearts with
enthusiasm, lives in a land against which the most
impassioned of her lyrics were directed. The
author of "Dorian Gray," like another prodigal
son has taken his journey into a far country. Rosa
Mulholland has also taken flight, and Dr. Tod-
hunter sings of Greece in the midst of London.
Justin McCarthy, father and son, perhaps live more
in London than among their constituents. But
some writers still remain with us. Professor
Dowden, for whom the Yankees made a bid when
they failed to obtain Shakespeare's house, has, we
believe, taken out a perpetuity in the Protestant
burial ground, a fact which may be fairly con-
sidered a sign of his inclination to abide; permanently
with us. Dr. Mahaffy's rambles in Greece have
evidently not proved sufficiently attractive to tempt
him to pitch his tent on the plains of Marathon.
Professor Salmon labours alternately at theology
and mathematics in the Provost's house, Trinity
College. J. B. Bury, "the marvellous boy," has
recently electrified scholars by his edition of "The
Nemean Odes of Pindar." The author of "The
Wearing of the Green" writes three volume novels
within sound of the sea at Blackrock; and
Katherine Tynan, whose "Louise de la Valliere"
and " Shamrocks" are creditable volumes of verse,
lives in quiet old Clondalkin. Sir Robert Ball,
whose " Story of the Heavens" might lead readers
to the rash conclusion that he dwells among the
stars, resides at Dunsink; and Edwin Hamilton,
the Dublin Aristophanes, lives in one of the houses
which overlook—
"That vast enclosure, called for brevity ' The Green.'"
We can also count among the representatives
of literature resident in Ireland the following
writers :—J. K. Ingram, best known as the author
of the song "Who fears to speak of '98 ?";
R. Percival Graves, the friend of Wordsworth,
and biographer of Sir W. Rowan Hamilton; A. P.
Graves, author of "The Blarney Ballads" and
other volumes of verse; T. Caufield Irwin, the
poet; Robert Yelverton Tyrrell, whose translations
include a marvellous rendering into Greek of
Tennyson's "Lotus Eaters "; G. T. Stokes, whose
"Irish Ecclesiastical History " is a standard work;
G. F. Armstrong, author of many volumes of verse,
of which the most popular is "Tales of Wick-
low " ; Mrs. Hartley, better known as May Laff'an;
the Hon. Miss Emily Lawless, author of "Hogan,
M.P. "; Professor Bastable; Mrs. Cashel Hoey,
whose novels have won her an enviable reputation;
and W. J. Fitzpatrick, author of "The Sham
Squire." We have also Douglas Hyde, whose
hatred of " The proud Invader " forbids his signing
his name in English; the author of "Molly
Bawn" and many other popular novels, who
declines to grace the title pages of her books with
her name; J. T. Gilbert, the historian of Dublin,
and Aubrey de Vere, the veteran poet and his
brother, Sir Stephen de Vere, one of the few
successful translators of Horace; Sir Charles
Gavan Duffy, who was early "forced to roam,"
and has continued to do so from habit; George
Sigerson, author of "Poets of Munster." Hannah
Lynch, whose tales have attracted much attention;
P. W. Joyce, author of " Irish Names of Places ";
T. W. Lyster, translator of Dunster's "Life of
Goethe," and J. H. Bernard, translator with
## p. 26 (#430) #############################################
26
THE AUTHOR.
Dr. Mahaffy of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason."
Mary Fitzpatrick, the novelist, and C. G. O'Brien,
author of much pleasing verse. This list of names
might include many others of less note, but it has
already become too like the catalogue of the ships
in the Iliad to tempt any reader to ask for more.
It is not to be assumed that because these writers
reside in Ireland that therefore their books are
published in Dublin or Belfast. With the sole
exception of T. Caufield Irwin, all the above-
mentioned have publishers in London. The books
published in Dublin are either Roman Catholic
Books of Devotion or school books. Dublin
cannot, like Edinburgh, boast of a Nimmo or a
David Douglas, or of such a firm as A. & C. Black.
Her chief publishers occasionally publish a "Jus-
tice of the Peace" or a "Law of Land Tenure."
No work of art ever issues from the University
Press. Popular discontent and the turmoil which
springs from discontent have banished Art from
Ireland. Will Ireland ever be contented? She
will, when the old days return, days in which, as
Landor says,—
"Tara rose so high
That her turrets split the sky,
And about her courts were seeu
Liveried Angels robed in green,
Wearing, by Saiut Patrick's bounty,
Emcraldn big as half a county."
Ramsay Coixes.
"A WORD FROM YOU, SIB."
EVERY man known to be actively engaged as
as a litterateur counts upon receiving half-
a-dozen letters every week from people,
generally young people, and in most cases young
ladies who are ardently desirous of getting their
works published. Sometimes they send manu-
scripts for perusal, assuming as a perfectly natural
thing that a busy man can afford to give a day to
everybody who asks; sometimes they ask advice:
most often they say that they have sent the work to
this person and to that, to the editor of this or that
magazine, and that it always comes kick rejected.
The reason, they an; persuaded, is not in any
defects or faults of the work itself (as will 1h(
easily understood when the manuscript has la-en
carefully read), but in the difficulty of getting a
manuscript read by any publisher or editor what-
ever. This being so, all that is wanted is a little
personal interest from one who can influence
publishers and editors. "A word from you, sir,
whose influence is so great, would at once remove
all difficulty from my path and ensure the accept-
ance of my work." Or, as sometimes happens, the
work has been actually issued and has fallen
flat. Then the single word of influence is asked
to induce editors to give the book a favour-
able notice. Nay, if they happen to know or to
find out—their ingenuity in finding out these little
details is enormous—that a man is a personal friend
of any editor, they will even ask him to use his
influence with that editor, so that against his honour
and his conscience, he shall direct a critic against
his honour and his conscience, to write a favourable
review of a worthless book. Not only this, but
they believe tliat the thing is actually done, and
done every day. It is a curious sign of the times
that such a Ixdief is prevalent; but there is no
doubt about it. A large section of the world has
no belief in the honour of any class of mankind at
all. They believe that trickery rules everything,
from the little suburl>an shop to the editorial chair.
It is impossible to answer such people, but those
who honestly believe in the inaccessibility of editors
and publishers unless persuaded by " a single word
from you," may at least be asked to consider that
Itooks are not published by caprice, or in order to
gratify anyone, or out of kindness, but wholly and
solely for mercantile reasons. Fortunately good
work of all kinds has its mercantile value. There-
fore the only thing to advise is that they should
produce good work. The tears and entreaties
which accompany many of these letters are most
grievous to hear. A girl who is struggling to keep
herself, to help others dependent upon her, to
whom even the most miserable dole of the most
cruel of sweating publishers would la; gratefully
received, can only be told the same thing. Poverty
will not make a writer. It is not enough to yearn
ardently after a little money; if the gift has lx>en
denied another way must he found. The "single
word from you," even if it could l>e spoken, would
not move editor or publisher in the slightest
degree, except to wonder how one could l>e such a
fool as to utter that single word. The number of
those who l)esiege the gates of literature increases
daily, and will continue to increase, both here and
in America. Indeed, where there are hundreds of
pens at their futile work in Great Britain there
are thousands in the United States. All we can
do is to hope that their disappointment may come
speedily and while there is still time for them to
turn to other things.
■*-+•+
MB. GEORGE MOORE AND HERR IBSEN.
No doubt there is much in dramatic criticism
to incline a man of any taste or discrimination to
adopt views opposed to the critic's, and no doubt
the irrelevancies of professed Anti-ibsenites have
produced some able defences of the "master."
Perhaps Mr. George Moore's appearance in the
Ibsenite camp may be partly explained in this way.
## p. 27 (#431) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
27
It is, however, disappointing to find a really just
and delicate critic drawn from liis judicial attitude.
He would be the last to maintain that adverse
criticism by Mr. Clement Scott necessarily proves
the excellence of a play. He may remember also
that the school in whose company he finds himself
for the moment, is not wholly unrepresented in
bogus prophecy. It is to be hoped, however, that
he will yet examine Herr Ibsen's prose dramas for
us solely on their dramatic merits, by clearing the
ground of moral questions and Ibsenitc controversy.
No English critic is more fit to do so.
Mr. George Moore will surely allow that Art
is essentially absolute and dogmatic in principle,
having no knowledge of contradiction. Argument
or didacticism therefore, by acknowledging resist-
ance to it, violate its elementary laws. That is to
say, all works of art which purpose to illustrate
theories or drive home arguments are so far bad
art, or rather not works of art at all. This fault
is what the Ibsenitc school appear to claim as a
merit in Herr Ibsen. It appears to assert that Herr
Ibsen's prose dramas enunciate a certain philosophy
of which it approves. With the quality of this
philosophy dramatic criticism has no concern at all,
indeed, in so far as a critic praises or blames it he
shows himself careless of the canons of Art. He
has to decide whether the author is guilty of the
merit of didacticism. It would be imi>ertinent to
remind Mr. George Moore, but it is necessary to
remind many professed Ibsenites, that anti-Christian
philosophy is not exempt from the rule against
didacticism in Art. What Art abhors is teaching
not the lesson, all lessons alike are beyond its
sphere.
I am not, however, prepared to accept the
Ibsenite claim that Ibsen is an intentional moralist,
and I imagine that Mr. George Moore does not
consider him so either. If he did he would
scarcely praise "Hedda Gabler" so highly. The
morality enunciated by the Ibsenites as a system,
and deduced from Herr Ibsen's plavs, is as obvious,
and therefore as inartistic, as the morals drawn by
Mr. Barlow for the benefit of Sandford and
Merton. The Ibsenite system may present to the
vulgar an appearance of profundity, but it is none
the less subject to the artistic charge of didacticism
on that account. Having regard, however, to the
acknowledged power of Herr Ibsen's work, I
cannot imagine he would have fallen into so glaring
an artistic fault. Is it possible to account for the
opinion of his followers regarding him, in this
way? I l>elieve that inquisitiveness is the most
powerful quality of his mind, and has led him
to the perpetual setting of riddles to which he
would abhor to receive any answer. Certainty—
even probability—represents to his mind a vacuum.
Nothing can lx- more foreign to such a mind than
an intention to teach, indeed the obviousness of
such a charge should have protected from it a
dramatist of such subtle effects. To harp on a few
strings may at last become wearisome, but it is a
fault against taste rather than against the canons
of Art. The more serious charge of deliberate
didacticism may fairly be shifted upon the commen-
taries of his followers.
It cannot, however, be concealed that there are
other considerable faults in Herr Ibsen's prose
dramas. Perhaps the most glaring is the unreality
of his protagonists. They are not human; they
are not even capable of evoking human sympathy.
All they touch in humanity is the inquisitive cells
of the brain. They also afford illustrations of
theories which can now command approval. It is
true that all dramatis persona are but types to Ixi
personalized by the actor. Curiously enough, Herr
Ibsen leaves less to the actor in this respect than
perhaps any other dramatist. But, apart from this
necessity of the drama, Herr Ibsen's heroes and
heroines are intrinsically unnatural, unreal, and in-
consistent. There are exceptions, perhaps Dr.
Stohmar is the most like life—but Nora, Hedda
Gabler, and Rebckka West are notable examples.
Hedda Gabler especially contains no drop of " the
milk of human kindness" in her composition. She
has no more contact with humanity than the
vegetable to which Mr. George Moore implicitly
compares her. He admires her as the product of
Nature, which never swerves from its own ends.
She was, as he says, "born to kill herself." With
all deference to his judgment be it said: She is
therefore not a subject for dramatic art; a nettle
would be as suitable. Some plants indeed, the
pansy for instance, are said actually to possess this
suicidal property. They poison their own soil and
die. The objection to Hedda Gabler is not that
she is monstrous; Medea, Lady Macbeth, La
Cousine Bette, Melmoth, Frankenstein's Monster,
Caliban, are all monstrous, but each has some
trait in touch with man; Hedda Gabler has none.
She is not even an animal; Brer Rabbit and the
pantomime lieasts "are men of like passions to our-
selves" compared with her. She is a vegetable fit
to sow in one's enemy's garden.
Surely an essence of dramatic art is contrast and
effort, primarily between the characters, secondarily
within them. By praising a mere natural force as
a dramatis persona, Mr. George Moore seems to
ignore the latter. The triumph of a suicidal
tendency is a splendid subject for dramatic art,
but there can be no triumph where there is no
opposition, and no opposition in "a product of
Nature" "born to kill itself," for suicide then
Ceases to l>e a tendency and becomes a law. "Man
cannot yield even unto death utterly save only by
the weakness of the feeble Will." By eliminating
## p. 28 (#432) #############################################
28
THE AUTHOR.
the Will altogether, Nature is robbed of its triumphs,
ami dramatic art rendered almost impossible.
J. D.
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
Mr. Meredith's "One of our Conquerors" is
hardly a new book by this time. It is naturally
one of the great literary events of the year, and it
will be the. end of the year before we have found
out all its surpassing merits, its wit, and character-
isation hidden under that curious club-like style
which Mr. Meredith wields like a rapier. Intoler-
able in another writer, it seems the only possible
expression for one of our greatest living novelists.
We could never think of his writing in any other.
The critics have already had their say. Let us
hope he may be saved from disciples who even now
are conspiring.
The appearance of Herodotus under the auspices
of Sir John Lubbock recalls what many have
forgotton, the amusing lists in the Pall Mall
Gazette of the Best hundred books, chosen by
eminent writers. Herodotus was a very safe one
to commence with, as he appeared in nearly all of
them. I wonder if the working men, for whom
the selection was made, will read each best book as
it comes out. Sir John's list was the first and the
best in a way. Other authors forgot the object in
view, and simply wrote down the books they pre-
ferred, with little thought, I fear, of the working man.
The Pall Mall Extra is before me, and among
books I rind recommended for these " factors" in
the British Constitution are the Poems of Hafiz and
Sadi—admirable poets let me add, but hardly
suitable for the British or even the Persian working
man, if there is such a thing.
"Eric Brighteyes" will, I think, rank with
"Cleopatra " and "She" as among Mr. Haggard's
finest works. Perhaps it will not 1m» so popular
among boys, who naturally prefer " Mr. Quatermain"
and his adventures in Africa. But more critical or
older readers will appreciate not only the splendid
romance of " Eric," but the really beautiful writing
in some of its passages, and which I do not think
can be entirely attributed to Icelandic originals
(parallel passages of course excepted). Of course
the Author has been plagiarizing as usual; though
I am the first to denounce him, I shall not be the
last. It is the title this time. There are two other
Erics I can remember, "Eric; or the Golden
Thread" and "Eric; or Little by Little "; flat
plagiarism on the title page' In the next century
we shall have "Little Eric Brighteyes; or the
Golden Thread."
Mr. Oscar Wilde's "Intentions" (Osgood and
Mellvaine) is not only one of the most amusing and
delightful volumes that have come out recently,
but is a valuable contribution to English criticism.
The general "intention" which Mr. Wilde is
anxious to enunciate is that criticism is a creative
art, and not a destructive art. Mr. Wilde will, no
doubt, learn with regret that he has converted
his readers. The estimate of Browning is far the
most tempered and critical that has appeared since
the poet's death.
Certain very young men on the press are
naturally annoyed to find that Mr. Saintsbury knew
all about Flaubert, and the realists and the
naturalists long before they were born, so they
have not found his Essays on the French novelists
exhilarating. Even the "adorable" Verlaine is
not so new as they would have us think.
Although the French Academy has not yet
recognised the poet of the Decadence, a benefit has
l>een given for him at the Vaudeville in Paris. It
was an interesting and very miscellaneous perform-
ance, attended by an interesting and miscellaneous
audience. There is a very marvellous portrait of
Verlaine by Eugene Carriere in the Champs de Mars
this year. It should be brought to England and
exhibited (adults only admitted).
At the Academy M. Loti certainly had greater
claim than Henri de Bornier, who is to l>e condoled
with, however. His play of Mahomet was prohibits!
by the Government not long ago, and his election to
the Academy might have compensated him for his
disappointment. The French Republic is very
delicate about the susceptibilities of Mahomedans
and Atheists. M. Francois Coppee's Le Pater met
with a like fate because it showed Christianity in
too favourable a light. Thermidor is the last of
the offending plays. Many, I hear, are anxious for
the suppression of the Ainmergau Passion Play, as
it is calculated to wound the Jewish community in
Europe.
Of recent verse, "Lapsus Calami," by J. K. S.,
has already gained a deserved reputation for its
author, who comes from a Cambridge college already
distinguished for its minor poets—minor only from
the quantity, not the quality of their work.
"Pearl," an English poem of the Fourteenth
Century, edited by Israel Gollancz, is a beautiful
## p. 29 (#433) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
29
poem, which was worth resuscitating, and not
merely a philological conundrum. The name of Mr.
Crollanez is a passport for scholarship. "Pearl"
is embellished with a delightful frontispiece by
Mr. Holman Hunt.
Mr. James Baker's "John Westacott" and also
his " By the Western Sea " liave both just appeared
in a cheap popular edition, and are again receiving
exceptional notice from the Press. The author has
just returned from a tour in Austria, where he has
been completing his studies for the " Great For-
gotten Englishman," upon whose life he lately
published some articles in the Leisure Hour.
The Quarterly Review has been cratostratizing
again. Sir John Maundeville is now the victim of
its inateh-box. With the aid of Colonel Yule and
Mr. Warner it has reduced his claims to existence,
to dust and ashes. One of the great trio of
credible travellers has been banished into the
shades of myth. We do not know how soon
Herodotus and Marco Polo nmy follow his flight
liefore the impartial light of modern history held
aloft by Mr. Froude and Professor Freeman, and
the trusty guidance of modern travel, supplied at
first-elass prices by Mr. Stanley. Fortunately for
Marco Polo, we l>elieve he has a friend at court.
As for the Quarterly and Mr. Warner, we can
only wish them the success which has crowned the
efforts of their Ephesian antitype. Perhaps even
they may be contented with a reputation no longer
nor more brilliant than the fame of the whilom
father of English prose.
Dr. Momerie's lecture on the " Corruption of the
Church," was given at Prince's Hall on the evening
of May 25th. It was the most interesting theolo-
gical event of the year. The Hall was well tilled
in anticipation of the lecturer's skill in dealing with
questions which have to do with advanced thought,
already proved by the brilliant sermons delivered by
him at the Foundling upon "Church and Creed"
and "Inspiration." The lecture of the 20th was
introductory, but it will be followed, should the
public show interest in the subject, by others to
illustrate the mischievous effects of Ecclesiasticism
upon Art, Science, Literature, and Social Institu-
tions. Dr. Momerie is ready in the future to give
these lectures free to working men if they wish to
hear him.
Apropos to the alwve, it may interest some of
our readers to hear that the June number of
Messrs. Eglington & Co.'s popular "Men and
Women of the Day" contains a portrait of
Dr. Momerie by Barnaul, and a short biographical
sketch.
ON SOME CASES.
EVERY case, on being sent in to the Society
and read, is either dealt with at once by the
Secretary, or, in case of any doubtful point
arising out of the facts, the case is sent to the
Society's solicitors for advice. The expense
of obtaining such advice is, of course, the greatest
charge upon the Society's income, but no part of
it is expended to greater advantage or with better
results. At a late meeting of the Committee, the
following resume of recent work was laid before
the Committee—it must be observed that the Com-
mittee are not usually informed of the names
concerned—never, if the author desires secrecy. In
that case the Chairman and Secretary only know,
or perhaps the Secretary alone.
I.
1. A.B., a young author, commissioned another,
CD., to revise his work, find a publisher, and see
it through the press in consideration of certain
payments. A.B. refused to carry out the contract.
CD. submitted the case to the Society. It was
decided that the contract had not been fairly carried
out, and that A.B. should not be called upon to
pay.
2. A.B. agreed with CD. (editor of a magazine)
to write certain papers on certain terms. The
proprietor, though pledged by his editor, refused to
pay more than about two-thirds the price agreed.
Result: Full payment.
3. A.B. was to receive a certain payment by a
certain date. She lived at a considerable distance
from London, and had to conduct her business
entirely by correspondence. She parted with her
MS. on condition of receiving a certain sum at a
certain date. When the time came she could get
neither money nor any reply to her letters. She
referred the case to the Society.
Result: Payment in full.
4. A.B. sent MS. to an editor who accepted it,
and promised payment on publication. He left it
with him for a year, when the editor returned it,
stating that the magazine was coming to an end.
Had he any right to compensation? Reply : None
whatever. He should have taken his MS. out of
the hands of the editor long before.
## p. 30 (#434) #############################################
3°
THE AUTHOR.
5. A.B. (author) v. CD. (publisher).
The hook had been published for some time, but
no accounts could be obtained. A writ was issued.
The l»oks were audited, and the accounts cleared
up.
6. A.B. (author) v. CD. (publisher).
Author was induced to pay in advance for the
production of his book a sum of money repre-
sented as half the actual cost. It was in reality
about £i5 more than the whole sum actually
expended. The Secretary demanded the return
of the £i5 and all the copies. This was refused.
A writ was issued.
Result: Return of £i5 and all the copies.
7. A.B. v. CD. (editor).
A disputed claim. A.B. demanded £40. CD.
denied the indebtedness.
Result: CD. paid £20 in settlement.
8. A publisher, on receiving a MS. sent it to be
printed, and issued it without even consulting the
author or submitting any agreement with him.
Result: An agreement very much better for the
author than would have been made but for the fact
that the author was able to procure an injunction
and bring an action.
9. A.B. (author) v. CD.
No accounts to be obtained by letter. Society's
solicitor intervened.
Result: Accounts rendered.
10. Question submitted—
In the case of a royalty system, has the publisher
the right to give away books to his private friends
(not for press puq>oses) without paying the
royalty?
Reply: Certainly not. All copies except those
sent to press and those presented to author or any-
one else by agreement must be regarded as sold.
Here is the publisher's little account rendered
to himself in the most favourable event, viz., the
sale of all copies :—
The sale of 2,000 copies at is. lod. produces
£2 83 6s. Sd.
Cost of production
Less author's share
Author's royalty
Publisher's profit
Author's return :—
By royalties -
Less share of expense
Profit
£
s.
d.
160
0
0
55
0
0
io5
0
0
62
10
0
n5
16
8
£2 83
6
8
£
«.
d.
■ 62
10
8
- 55
0
0
• £7
10
8
So that the author by this beautiful arrangement
stands to win, under the most favourable circum-
stances, the enormous sum of £7 1 os. Sd., while the
publisher stands to win £115 16*. Sd.
Now woidd the author have signed the agree-
ment had he been able to do this little sum?
Another case. The publisher says: "I will
give you a 10 per cent, royalty unless I sell the
book for less than half price, and then I will give
you 5 per cent."
How does this work out? The book was of a kind
sometimes sold for just over half price, and often
sold for just under half price. The difference to
the publisher might mean a few pence on each
volume. To the author it made a difference of I*.
In other words, by lowering the price a few pence
so as to bring it under the half price, the publisher
actually gained money." This the author did not
know or he would not have signed the agreement.
II.
A certain worthy publisher -wrote as follows:
"To print and produce 2,000 copies of your work
will cost £140. If we add £20 for advertising,
that makes £160. Give me £55 towards this initial
expenditure and I will give you 12^ per cent, on
the nominal price, 5s., for all copies sold." There
was another clause about a decreased (!) royalty for
copies over and above the 2,000, but let us be
content with this.
The author accepted the proposal.
Needless to say that he did not work out the
little sum in multiplication and addition which this
proposal presented. Let us do so.
The trade price of a 5.?, book is about 2*, lod.
III.
From the Law Reports. «
On April 24th, in the Queen's Bench Divi-
sion, before Mr. Justice Smith and Mr. Justice
Grantham, judgment was delivered in the case
of Maul and another v. Greenings. Mr. Justice
Smith said it was a test action to ascertain
the true construction of section 6 of the Inter-
national Copyright Act of 1886. The county
court judge of Brighton found for the defendant,
and the -question to lie decided was whether a
foreign composer of a piece of music, protected
according to the law of the composer's country,
but not protected iti the United Kingdom, could
claim the protection afforded to foreign composers. *
## p. 31 (#435) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
3'
by the International Copyright Act as against a
bandmaster who had purchased the piece and
performed it in public with his liand prior to
December 1887, when the Act came into force.
He came to the conclusion that although neither
the publisher of the piece in the country nor the
defendant had any "rights" under the section
they had "interests," and, therefore, the learned
county court judge was right in entering judgment
for the defendant. The appeal must l)e dismissed
with costs.—Mr. Justice Grantham concurred.—
Appeal dismissed.
■
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
IN the March numl)er of the Author, women
writers are accused by "No Pay, No Pen " of
cheapening the literary market. I wish to
point out that it is often difficult to know what it
the market price of one's wares. I write a
good deal of verse. From one magazine I receive
5*. a poem, from another firm 10*., from another
magazine 15*., from yet another £1 is. I believe
these all to l>e regular prices, which those particular
editors and publishers would not alter to any con-
tributor. But after receiving such different rates
of pay, when a new employer asks me for my
charge, is it not a little difficult to fix this? And
perhaps from fear of losing the employment, one
may fix the price too low rather than too high. I
wish more uniform rates were paid.
I like much the idea, in the April numlxr, of
the register for translators, verifiers, &c. But
could not fellow authors help each other some-
times without paving for services? I should l>e
glad (living in the country) of someone to look
up points in the British Museum occasionally. In
return I could do translations. Indeed, I would
l>e quite willing (within due bounds) to help a
fellow author without return of pay or help. And
I think such services would promote a fraternal
feeling in our Society. Why, in the proposed
register, should not an asterisk be placed against
certain names, which should signify, Willing to
help a fellow mcml>er gratuitously?
ROSSIGNOL.
II.
In the Author of March I made some remarks
re Advertising. I wish to state that I had no
intention of making any charge against the firm
alluded to, and if what 1 said contained anything
that might be supposed to do that, I hereby express
my regret.
My point was, that where advertisements appear
is of great importance to authors. I had and have
no animus in the matter. I am informed by the
publishers that the amount charged to the book for
advertising in the ]>aper supjwsed to lx> referred to
was 5*. 3d., therefore I admit that my remarks, so
far as that journal is concerned, are pointless, and
I hereby withdraw them.
Pachyderm.
BOOKS FOR SALE.
Oxberry's Flowers of Literature, 4 vols.
Reflections upon the Politeness of Manners, &c.
(1710).
New Year's Gift. Alice Watts, 1829. Illus-
trated by Cruikshank, &c.
Acting Charades. Brothers Mayhew. Illustrated
by Haine and Cruikshank.
The Dangers of the Deep. Published by Orlando
Hodgson.
Australian Tales and Sketches.
Beaumont and Fletcher. First complete edition.
Address—H. G. W.
♦■»■♦
MACHINE-CUT BOOKS.
IT is greatly to be wished that the practice, now
very little observed, but slightly on the increase,
of issuing machine-cut l>ooks will before long
Income general. We have inquired carefully into
this matter. The cost of machine cutting is
infinitesimaUy small. Where we have lieen able to
get the cost estimated, a shilling for every hundred
copies is the highest amount we have heard named.
The average time expended by amateurs on
cutting by hand we believe to be 20 minutes per
octavo volume of 1000 pages. If any of our
readers (always excepting Mr. W. H. Smith's very
expert boys) can accomplish the task of cutting
more quickly, we shall be glad to hear from them.
Moreover, very few amateurs can cut with pro]>er
neatness, and efficient paper-cutters are often (as
on a railway journey) not to be had by the reader.
But stay! Perhaps the present foolish system is
kept up for the benefit of those who do not like
to have their lx>oks cut quickly for them by other
people, but rather cut by themselves only with
extreme slowness in order to lengthen out the
process of reading. If we hare any such amongst
our readers, we should like to hear from them.
To reviewers the machine cutting would be an
unmixed boon, for a reviewer never, or at least
hardly ever, reviews a book which he has not first
cut.
## p. 32 (#436) #############################################
32
ADVERTISEMENTS.
ELECTROTYPES OF ENGRAVINGS
FOR SALE
A THE attention of Authors, Publishers,
and others is directed to the large
and varied Collection of Engravings
in the possession of Cassell and Com-
pany, Limited, from which they offer
Electros for Sale. The Collection
embraces every class of subject--
History, Topography, Natural History, Scientific,
Figure Subjects, &c., &c. produced by the best Artists
and Engravers.
Call and examine this Collection, or apply for
specimens, giving íull particulars of the subjects and
sizes required to-
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED,
LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
All applications relating to Advertisements in this
Journal should be addressed to the Printers and
Publishers,
EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE,
East Harding Street, Fetter Lane, London, E.C.
LONDON: Printed by EYRE and SrottiSWOODE, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty.
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The Author, Vol. 02 Issue 01 (June 1891)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 02 Issue 01 (June 1891)
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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2
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<I b e Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 2.]
JULY i, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
"Warning 37
International Copyright —
I. Action of Ihe Society 37
II. Note. By R. U. Johnson 3"
III. Mr. Putnam'» Hook 39
IV. Extract from thu New York Critic 39
V. Note. By Julian Corbett 40
VI. Queries 4°
Some Note* on a Bill. By Rudyard Kipling 40
An Antiquary's Remonstrance 4*
Realism in Grub Street. By A. Lang 43
The Turning of the Worm.—A Pablo 44
PAGE
Mr. Gladstone on Author and Publisher 45
The Author's Club. By Arthur Moutcllorc 4*
Reviews and Reviewers 4°
Notes and News. By Walter Besant 4s
The Red Mouse. By Charles G. Leland 54
The Book of the Month 5S
If Shakspeare had been Priest. By II. Schtttz Wilson .. .. 5»
"ContesCrucls" 5°
"At the Author's Head *' 01
Similarity of Plot
Some Books of the Month
'■J
"3
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE.
ACTION OF LIGHT ON WATER COLOURS— licport
to the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council
on Education. (With Diagrams and Plates.) By post, h. i irf.
PLIOCENE DEPOSITS OF BRITAIN, THE. By
Cleur.st Rkid, F.LK. V.G 8. Five Plates (48 cuts). 5*. 6d.
LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: Guide to the
Gcolosyof. By Williak Whitakkr, B.A. 1*.
LONDON AND OF PART OK THE THAMES VALLEY,
The Gc logv of. By W. Wiiitakfr. B A.. P.R.S., F.G.8.,
Assoc. Inst. CE. Vol. I. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 8vo.
cloth, 6*. Vol. II. APPENDICES. 8vo.. cloth, <».
ISLE OF WIGHT, Geolopy of. By H. W. Bbtstow,
F.R.S., F.G.S. Second Edition. Revised and enlarged by
Cleme>t Rbid. F.G.S., and Aubrey Steahax, M.A.. F.G.S.
8vo., cioth, 8». M.
COPYRIGHT LAW REFORM: An Exposition of Lord
Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament: with
Extracts from the'Report of the Commission of 1878, and on
Appendix containing the Berne Convention and the American
Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lelt, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. i». 61I.
STATE TRIALS, Reports of; New Series. Published
nnder the direction ot the State Trials Committee. Edited by
Joun MicDosell, M.A., of the Middle Temple. Barrister-at-
Law. Vols. I. and II. ready. Vol. III. in the Press. Price
iof. per volume.
"It is for the most part interesting, not to say fascinating, study
for anyone, that is to say, who cares about history at all."—Vailf
CHINA (No. i). Report, by C. W. Campbell, of a
Journey in North Corca, in September and Octolier, iHSq. A
considerable jiortion of the narrative contains descriptive
matter that appeals to the general nnder. but there arc also
many interesting facts tearing u|xui mining, forestry, agricul-
ture, trade, and kindred topics, qd.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Final Report of the Royal
Commission appointed to inquire into the present want of space
for Monuments in Westminster Abbey; with Appendices. qtl.
KKW BULLETIN, 1890. Issued by the Director of Kew
Gardens. in. io</.
KEW BULLETIN, 1891. Monthly, ad. Appendices, id.
each. Annual Subscription, including postage, qd.
WEATHER, STUDY AND FORECAST OK. Aids to.
By Rev. W. Clemext Lev. M.A. i».
ROYAL MILITARY EXHIBITION, 1890. Descriptive
Catalogue of Musical Instruments recently exhibited at the
Royal Military Exhibition. Compiled by Capt. C. R. Day,
Oxfordshire Light Infantry, under the orders of Col. Siiaw-
Hkllikk, Commandant Royal Military School o! Music. The
instruments are fully described; they are arranged systemati-
cally under their respective families and classes, and a chrono-
logical arrangement has, as much as possible, Itetn adhered to.
Each family of instrument has been prefaced by a carefully-
written Introductory Essay. Musical pitch has not been left
unnoticed, and a learned Essay from the pen of a well-known
authority upon the subject appears in the Appendix. The book
is illustrated by a series of Twelve Artistically executed Plates
in Heliogravure, and with numerous Wood Engravings. The
issue is limited to 1,000 copies. ai».
Monthly Lists of Parliamentary Papers upon Application. Quarterly Lists Post Free,
Miscellaneous List on Application.
Every Assistance given to Correspondents j and Books not kept in stock obtained without delay. Remittance should
accompany Order.
GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL PUBLISHERS.
EYRE anil SPOTTISWOODE, Her Jlajesty's Printers, East Harding Slreet, London, E.C.
## p. 34 (#438) #############################################
34
A D VE R TI SEMEN TS.
THE CENTRAL TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
(ESTABLISHED 1887,)
57 & 58, Chancery Lane, W.C.
}Ji iitrinnls:
Miss M. E. DUCK and JIiss I. B. LOOKEB.
Type-writing and Copying of every Description under-
taken for the Literary, Dramatic, Clerical, Legal, and other
Professions. Type-writing from Dictation a Specialty.
Highest Testimonials for Excellence of Work and Promp-
titude from AUTHOBS and others.
PRICE LIST OJV APPLICATION-TERMS MODERATE.
MISS ZFt. -V. aiLL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,
6, Adam Street, Strand, W.C, and
5, Air Street, Piccadilly, W.
Authors' and Dramatists' Work a Specialty. All kinds
of MSS. copied with care. Extra attention given to diificult
hand-writing and to papers or lectures on scientific subjects.
Type-writing from dictation. Shorthand Notes taken
and transcribed.
FURTHER PARTICULARS OX APPLICATION.
TYPE-WRITING.
Authors' MSS. carefully Transcribed.
Writings by Post receive prompt attention.
Scientific and Medical Papers a Specialty.
MISSES
13, Dorskt Street, Portman Square, W.
MISSES E. & S. ALLEN,
TYPE AND SHORTHAND WRITERS.
TRANSLATIONS and Scientific Work
a Special Feature.
39, Lombard Street, E.C.
Office Ho. 59 (close to Lift).
MISS PATTEN,
TYPEWRITES,
44, Oakley Flats, Oakley Street, Chelsea, S.W.
—**—
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from Is. per 1,000 Words.
One additional Copy (Carbon) snpplied Free of Charge.
References kindly permitted to George Augustus Sala, Esq.
Particulars on Application.
ASH WORTH & Co.,
4, Abchurch Yard, Cannon Street, E.C.
— - - -
Authors' MSS. type-written from Is. 3d. per
1,000 words.
TRANSLATION'S.
CITY TYPE-WRITING & SHORTHAND OFFICES,
MANSION HOUSE CHAMBERS,
20, Bucklersbury, London, E.C.
The Department for Lady Pupils has unremitting attention, as
evidenced by the unqualified Success which has attended its
management. The Course includes Shorthand, Type writing,
Book-keeping, and Commercial Correspondence, and when Pupils
have acquired proficiency—
POSITIONS ARE GUARANTEED.
Particulars on application to—
MARY IFt. PAY.
MRS. GII.I.,
TYPEWRITING OFFICE,
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
Author's MSS. carefully copied from is. per
1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon)
supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many well-known
Authors and Publishers. Further particulars on
application.
MISSES AIRD & WEDDERSP00N,
SHORTHAND, TRANSLATING, and WP8WRITING OFFICES.
4, SUIT COURT, CORHHIIL, E.C.
Translations carefully and correctly made. Shorthand
and Typewriting Clerks sent out on short notice. Type-
writing of all kinds done with neatness, accuracy, and
despatch. Special pains taken with Authors' MSS. Pupils
trained in Pitman's System of Shorthand, and in Type-
writing.
All applications relating to Advertisements
in this Journal should be addressed to the
Printers and Publishers,
EYRE & SP0TT1SW00DE,
East Harding Street, Fetter Lane,
London, E.C.
## p. 35 (#439) #############################################
A D VERTISEMENTS.
35
CIk briery of Qutfiors (JfttcorporatrtO*
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E.
Alfred Austin.
A. W. a Becker.
Robert Bateman.
Sir Henry Behgnk, K.C.M.O.
Walter Besant.
Augustine Birrell, M.P.
R. I). IIlackmore.
Rev. Prok. Bonnet, F.B.S.
Lord Hrabourne.
James Bryce, M.P.
P. W. C'layden.
Edward Clodd.
W. Martin Conway.
Marion Crawford.
Oswald Crawkurd, C.M.G.
The Earl of Desaet.
COUNCIL.
A. W. Duhourg.
John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S.
Prof. Michael Foster, E.R.S.
Herbert Gardner, M.P.
Richard Garnett, LL.I).
Edmund Gosse.
H. Rider Haggard.
Thomas Hardy.
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, E.R.S.
J. M. Lely.
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.
F. Max Muller, LL.D.
George Meredith.
Herman C. Merivale.
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S.
J. C. Parkinson.
The Earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart.,
LL.I).
Walter Herries Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
George Augustus Sala.
W. Haitiste Scoones.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. Stevenson.
J as. Sully.
William Moy Thomas.
H. 1). Traill, D.C.L.
The Right Hon. the Baron Henry
de Worms.
Edmund Yates.
lion. Counsel—E. M. Undehdown, Q.C.
A. W. a Beckett.
W. Martin Conway.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman—Walter Besant.
Edmund Gosse. J. M. Lely.
H. Rider Haggard. Sir Frederick Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
Solicitors—Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.
OFFICES.
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for .January 1891 can 1m; ha<l on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary
Property. Issued to all Menihers.
3. The Grievances Of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the general
.subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,
g5, Strand, W.C.) 3*.
5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost of Production. Li this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,
size of page, Ac, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of liooks.
2s. 6d. Out of Print, New Edition now preparing.
7. The Various Methods Of Publication. By S. Sqt'ire Sprigge. In (his work, compiled from the
papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors
are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud
which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3s. Second
Edition.
8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord MonkswelPs Copyright Bill now before Parliament
With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the
Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottiswoode.
is. 6d.
Other works bearing on the Liternri/ Profession trill follow.
vol. 11. C a
## p. 36 (#440) #############################################
ADVER TISEMENTS.
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Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the Best
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## p. 37 (#441) #############################################
TZhe Hutbor*
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
II.—No. 2.] JULY i, 1891. [Price Sixpence.
Vol.
For the Opinions expressed in papers that arc
signed the Authors alone are responsible.
■
WARNING.
WE have recently ascertained that the " quire
stock " of books, if it should bo destroyed
by fire either at the printer's or the pub-
lisher's, is practically lost to the author, if he should
not have sold it. out and out, in the great majority
of cases. In hardly any agreements is provision
made for insurance of this stock, and without
insurance, or negligence on the part of either
publisher or printer, the author must bear the
whole loss of fire. Manuscript, we may observe,
cannot bo insured at all, no fire office being willing
to undertake the risk. We propose to return to
this important subject next month, and meanwhile
shall be glad to receive any suggestions upon it.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
1.
Action of the Society.
BY the lime that this number of the Author is
in the hands of readers, it, will probably be
known whether the American International
Copyright Act is hold on the- other side of the
Atlantic to include writers of this country or not.
It is time, therefore, to place upon record and to
make quite plain the action of the Society as regards
the position of American authors in Great Britain.
This position is perfectly well known. Two Law
Lords of the highest eminence held in a certain
case that Americans can obtain copyright by simul-
taneous publication: two other Law Lords, of
perhaps lesser eminence, doubted. Thorp has never
been any doubt that by a term of residence on
British soil copyright could be secured.
The Society two years ago undertook to draft a
Bill which should amend and consolidate the Law
of Copyright in this country.
In this Bill a clause was inserted which would
have removed at a single stroke any doubt as to the
position of the American thus made as free as
ourselves.
It was found, however, impossible when the Bill
was completed to bring it before the House of
Commons with any chance of getting it through.
It was therefore resolved to attempt the House
of Lords. The Bill was taken in charge by Lord
Monkswell, after consultation with our Copyright
Commit too. It was read for the first time in
November of last year. In April of this year it
was road a second time, and after a certain amount
of discussion was shelved for the session.
Seeing, therefore, the impossibility of getting
their Bill through either House, and seeing, further,
the necessity of immediate action, in order to give
the President of the United States an occasion to
refuse the Proclamation so far as this country was
concerned, the Committee hold consultations witli
various Members of Parliament and American
authors and publishers on the whole subject.
There appeared several ways out of the diffi-
culty :—
(1) A single-clause Act of Parliament defining
the position of Americans. The objection to this
apparently simple measure was the certainty that
the opportunity would be seized for proposing
retaliatory measures in the interests of printers and
paper makers. These measures, proposed perhaps
rashly, and before we know whether printers and
paper makers will suffer at all, would certainly give
rise to great discussion and opposition in the
House; they would certainly delay anil perhaps
wreck the Bill, in which case our position would
In- worse than over.
## p. 38 (#442) #############################################
3B
THE AUTHOR.
(2) An Order in Council.
This would take too long to procure, and it was
not at all certain that the Government would consent
to it.
(3) An opinion of the Judicial Committee.
To obtain this would probably take too long.
(4) An opinion of the Law Officers.
The last method appeared to be the readiest and
the most likely to produce a satisfactory result.
Sir Michael Hicks Beach granted an interview
on the subject to Sir Frederick Pollock, the
Chairman of the Copyright Committee, and Mr.
James Bryce, at which the views of the Committee
were submitted.
The Government then referred the point to the
law officers, including those of the late Govern-
ment.
It has been announced in the House, in reply to
a question by Mr. James Bryce, that these lawyers
are all unanimous in their opinion, and that it is a
favourable opinion as to the position and rights of
American subjects in this country, and that the
Foreign Office is in possession of this opinion.
Lord Monkswell, whatever may be the result of
this action, proposes to press on the Bill at the first
opportunity.
II.
From Mb. R. U. Johnson.
The Copyright negotiations are moving more
rapidly. As you have doubtless seen, France has
already made formal application for admittance to
the benefits of our law, accompanying its request
with a certificate (1) of its membership in the
Berne Convention, and (2) of the fact that
Americans have, substantially, the same security
under its laws as the citizens of France. It is
understood from the State Department (with which
1 am in constant unofficial communication) that the
President will admit the existence of the second con-
dition as the basis of his proclamation, leaving the
value of the first condition in abeyance. We now
are expecting that England will make similar appli-
cation and certification, and last Tuesday (June 2)
our Executive Council (of the Authors' Copyright
League) passed resolutions which I have sent to
the President, earnestly requesting that he will
consider whether the uniform security afforded to
American literary projxjrty for many years under
British law through simultaneous publication does
not furnish the condition precedent of a procla-
mation including your authors. Also, another
resolution setting forth our opinion that the Berne
Convention is such "an international agreement"
as that contemplated in Section XIII. of the new
Act. We want Great Britain to assume this to be
the case by asking for admittance on that ground—
even if she be admitted on the other, for we shall
then have the moral effect of the support of France
and Great Britain in asking that the Berne Con-
vention shall be recognised in the cases of the other
governments.
Now, as to the recognition of the fact that we
already have virtually the same rights as you under
your law: this very recognition would also have a
moral effect in aiding to preserve our status quo
Tinder your law. Moreover, a prompt settlement
of the question by the admittance of your authors
would greatly reinforce the sentiment which must
be relied upon to support the Bill here, and to
support future amendment of it after it has had
a fair working trial. We are urging all these con-
siderations upon the State Department. You
know what a provincial and uneducated opposition
we have had to contend with, and how the question
of copyright has been intentionally confused in the
public mind here with party questions. Against
this feeling (which English criticism of the details
of the Bill has heightened) we have had (1) the
prestige of success, (2) the recognition of the
French Government, and (3) the influence of the
Copyright Dinner, which was planned to strengthen
copyright sentiment. I have now proposed (4) the
striking of a medal in honour of the security
offered by the law to literary, artistic, and musical
products, and though it is not far enough along to
admit of any public mention, 1 think there is no
doubt that the project will l>c carried out. Each
one of these four events makes it more difficult for
our opponents to repeal the law or alter it except
as we desire. Now, if we can obtain a prompt
arrangement with Great Britain, it will knock out
the last of the underpinning of the opposition,
which will otherwise say that the Bill is a failure;
that "nobody is satisfied wilh it," &c., &c.
There are two other ways in which your Govern-
ment might have come in for sure recognition as
entitled to a proclamation: (1) by the Order in
Council extension to us of the Imperial and
Colonial Copyright Act, and (2) by new legislation,
such as the Monkswell Bill. I learn from
Mr. Bryce that the first is impnicticable, and that
the second has lx>en postponed to the next session
of Parliament, and I judge that he is prodding the
Foreign Office to application on the other two
grounds. I see nothing else left to do. The
President evidently expects foreign Governments
to take the initiative, and he will act promptly on
their applications.
I should be very glad if I could get a reply
to this question: Does the English law, in the
matter of residence, impose any terms upon
Americans not imposed upon yourselves? Note
## p. 39 (#443) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
39
the query carefully, for it is often being con-
founded with the question of whether or not
the residence clause is a dead letter. The
question in Section XIII. of our law is not
What conditions arc imposed I but Is there any
discrimination against Americans in imposing
them i This may seem impertinently elementary
to you, but you will, perhaps, pardon it when I
tell you that a number of our men here insist on
discussion of our absolute status under your law
instead of our relative status; just as they think it
pertinent to discuss whether or not we shall
attempt to join the Berne Convention, the only
question l>eing whether we "may at our pleasure
enter" that agreement. Simond's idea was a
reciprocity of sentiment—to give the benelits of
the Act to any country which had ever offered
copyright security to us. In this light, perhaps,
our Hill is not so entirely sordid as some of the
English manufacturers would have it thought.
Bowker has lately been (with Mr. Spofford) in
Washington, personally urging our officials to pre-
pare for the operation of the law (the Secretary of
the Treasury and the Postmaster-General must
prepare certain rules), and reinforcing my efforts
to hasten the proclamations. Everything seems
in good shape now, and no time will be lost at this
end of the negotiations.
III.
Mr. Putnam's Book.
Mr. George Putnam has compiled an exceedingly
useful volume on the question of Copyright. It
contains a useful summary of the Copyright Laws
at present in force in the chief countries of the
world, as well as a report of the legislation now
pending in Great Britain; a sketch of the contest
in the United States for 1837 to 1891 in behalf of
the International Copyright, and papers on the
development of the conception of literary property
and on the probable effect of the new American
Law. At the present juncture in the history of the
law governing literary property, such a contribution
possesses the highest interest for all concerned, and
all are concerned who either read or write. With
Mr. R.R. Bowker's paper on the " Nature and Origin
of Copyright," and Mr. Brander Matthews' valuable
article on the " Evolution of Copyright," most of our
readers are already familiar. But Mr. Putnam has
done well to reprint them in the present volume,
but for the moment Mr. Putnam's Analysis of the
Chase—Breckinridge—Adams—Simonds—Piatt—
Copyright Act of 1891 possesses a paramount
interest, explaining as it does the conditions of that
remarkable measure. Mr. Putnam believes that no
material difficulty will be experienced in securing
the assistance of American publishers in procuring
for less-known British authors their American
Copyright.
A point of importance which Mr. Putnam
makes clear is the position of foreign artisans
and designers. "The condition of American
manufacture is attached to the Copyright of repro-
ductions in the form of chromos, lithographs, and
photographs, only it was not made a condition of
the more artistic forms of reproduction, and foreign
artists therefore are now in a position to control
the copyright of their engravings or photogravures
of their productions, whether these engravings are
manufactured in Europe or the United States."
The importance of this is obvious.
IV.
Fito.M the New Yobk Critic.
In his forecast of the working of " Our Inter-
national Copyright Law," in the June Forum,
Mr. Henry Holt predicts, among other things,
that, the habit of paying foreign authors for their
work once established, royalties will be freely paid
them, in many cases, without copyright. Books
which will not at first seem likely to pay for the
American type-setting which the law requires, but
which, like Mr. Bryce's "American Common-
wealth," may become unexpectedly popular, will
continue to offer a temptation to pirates, but will
be too few to support them, and when the pirates
are starved out, respectable American houses will
either abstain from competing or will make proper
terms with the foreign publisher or author.
Another result of the law will be an improvement
in the make-up of many new books, which in
previously existing circumstances would have to be
brought out very cheaply. Since a price must now
be demanded which will cover the author's royalty,
it will l>e found better to add a little more for good
paper and presswork, and to seek a new class of
buyers for limited first editions, than to depend
wholly on the rare chance of a very wide sale.
When a book becomes popular, a cheap edition can
always l>e brought out to meet the demand. We
may hope, on this account, to compete more
extensively than we have hitherto done with French
and English editions dc luxe. Our printers,
no longer obliged to work for quantity merely,
will have a chance to take the lead in artistic
printing.
## p. 40 (#444) #############################################
40
THE AUTHOR.
v.
In answer to your invitation for comments on
the American Copyright Bill, I beg to note the
following point:—
■Sec. 4906 requires the deposit with the Librarian
of Congress of "two copies of every such
copyright booh, map, chart, dramatic or
musical composition, engraving," fyc.
The proviso requiring such two copies to be
printed, &c. within the United States applies
only to a "book, photograph, chromo, or
lithograph."
Is it then the law—
1. That a book containing only a dramatic com-
position need not be printed from American
type?
2. That to receive the right of performing a
dramatic composition the author has only to
register the title, and deposit two copies,
which may be in MS., type-written, or
printed elsewhere than in the United States?
The letter of the Bill seems on these two points
to belie its spirit.
Julian Cobbett.
VI.
1. In what ways is a book published in England
now, after the passing of the Act, open to piracy
and under-selling from America?
2. Taking all things into consideration (cost of
printing and publishing, question of piracy, &c),
on which side of the Atlantic is it best to publish,
England or America?
3. Supposing an author gave a copy of MS. of
an unpublished work to a public library (as British
Museum in England, Library of Congress in
United States of America, &c.)—notice of intention
to copyright being given at the same time—what
effect such gift would have on the subsequent
copyright of that work?
SOME NOTES ON A BILL.
0PERUSE a simple Story—read a parable detached
From the vice of vending pullets ere the little beasts arc hatched;
A weird, bi-lingual prophecy, with Hying footnotes shored,
On the means of slipping sideways from the, World's je-jogglc-board. (')
'Twas (he Broncho (-) among Nations—a severely cultured race,
Though their mode of spelling centre proved them clearly off their base— (;))
Passed a Bill of three dimensions—two of which concerned the trade—
And one, but this was fiction, books the British Author made.
Softly sang the British Author, for a dream was in his brain
Of Landaus from Longacre and of houses in Park Lane;
But ere he went to Tnttersalls' or changed his modest dwelling
He explained, per Western Union, his objections to their spelling.
"Oh, my Largest Reading Public," thus the coded cable came,
"You drop one (hell) in ' travelling ' and—get there just the same : (')
"If to Webster and to Worcester, and your sauce at large I grovel,
"It will vulgarize our fiction—taint the Holy British Novel. (')
(') An elastic Heat, found in the verandahs of Southern houses.
(■) An underbred animal with u swelled head, (riven to jumping nervously 011 inspection. Anglice: "Bounder."
(') They are very like tlieir babies, if you notice 'em they cry;
If you don't they steal your candy and their teachers call 'em " Spry ;"
Their father's name was Washington—mis-statements made him wince—
Hut his sons declare on " honor "—there's been no one like him since.
(') V. 1. Suppressed by Western I'nion as a casus belli. "Your views of spelling ' honour ' match your notions on the
same."
(') Now the Holy British Novel—from this verdict none shall warp us—
Is the Maiden's Magna Charta and the Matron's Habeas Corpus:
For when Maid and Wife have finished with the volume Father paid for—
You can read it to the Bahy, This is what all books are made for.
## p. 41 (#445) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
4i
"Yet I'll vitiate the spelling of the Children of my friends,
"If you pay me something extra for my labor." (Message ends.)
And it filled that Author's system with severe electric shocks
When his Largest Heading Public cabled back: "You're on the box. (6)
"The fact of being shouted for a dime along the cars
"Does not fix you for a planet among Literary Stars;
"Nor is it a safe assumption you can tetur continents
"When our high-toned Mister H-rp-r (7) sews you up for fiftyleents.
"British parsons make us tired—British dukes, our (laughters doubt 'em—
"Cuss-words of the British Army, we can mosey on without 'em;
"Take a walk and get your hair cut (8)—sit on Mister M-d-e-'s shelves,
"If we've got to pay for reading, guess we'll read about ourselves."
So they read by free selection on a principle their own—
'Twas the most exhaustive weeding that an inkstained earth had known;
And the palpitating cable sizzled madly under sea,
"Honour without ' u' I'll stomach; what is Honor without me '?"
No, the fame the newsboys give you when they board the C.B.Q.
Does not predicate your kiting into honour without u.
If you cannot bang the big drum, vou must twang the harp of Tarn (9)
With McGinty (ln) and O'Grady (») and the man that struck O'Hara.
It was good for Zenas Mather, Independence Psickafoos,
Adah Isaacs Menken, Shuswap, Janet, Thackeray, Van Dewze,—
They stood pat as home-grown produce, with some seven thousand more
They were paid at full face-value—they came in on the ground floor. (,:))
For they wove their country's fiction, triple-ply, of many shades,
From the big blue bergs at Sitka to the rotting Everglades;
And never since the Pilgrims furled the Mayflower's sea-worn sail,
Hail the Bounder among Nations seen herself done out to scale.
It was woolly—wild and woolly—it was more than three feet wide,
For it ran from Maine to Oregon and out the other side.
With one nasal Hallelujah, like a giant Jews' harp drone,
The Bounder among Nations claimed a bookcase of her own. (u)
Now they're running ninety Shakespeares—all with variegated dictions,
They have put the growth of Miltons under interstate restrictions,
They brake the CP. freight-cars with the Laureates of the West,
And a vigilance committee is sub-editing the rest.
They are writing of Proportion, and Reserve, and Racial Feeling,
Like an introspective sneak-thief who has just abandoned stealing,
And we can't attend to baby, and we can't lie down at night,
For those queer self-conscious schoolboys howl: "Git up and see us write."
(r') V. 1. "Come off the rocks." Anglice: "You labour under a misapprehension."
(') The leading sporting bookmaker of the United States. He does not bet on outsiders.
C) Mutilated in transmission. Supposed to indicate esteem and personal interest.
(,J) This instrument is distinguished for its enduring silences.
("') Famous for his exploration of the depths of the Ocean.
(") He was owed ten dollars—presumably on account of American royalties, for the money was never paid.
(''-) The remains of this gentleman would not furnish a biography.
i.e.. There was no necessity in their case for abasement.
('') They abandoned watered Herrick, and Elizabethan echoes,
They were not stuck on Browning like a horde of homeless geckoes,
Twas a second Boston bust-up, but it cost us more than tea,
Yot the alphabet of authors they discarded—a to zee.
VOL. 11.
I)
## p. 42 (#446) #############################################
42
THE AUTHOR.
But they're learning not to "wiggle " when you photograph their manners;
They are guessing at a medium 'twixt "yon skunk !" and matl Hosannas;
And the men who know 'em fancy—if the measure they have made lasts—
That some day they'll he a Public—not a girl's school swapping Trade-lasts." (ls)
Ends my lurid lucid legend, halts my parable divorced
From the blame of hunting Navajhoes before your scouts are horsed;
Oh, the Author 'a in the puree (l8), and the deuce is in the Bill,
But the Holy British Novel—yes—it's wholly British still.
Rudyabd Kipling.
(1S) Saidie tells Maimie that Huttie's now frock is pretty. Maimie repeats the compliment to Hattie, who tells Maimie
that Saidie is "just too sweet to live." This is a trade-last. It is also called criticism.
(""') This is the position formerly occupied by the oyster.
AN ANTIQUARTS REMONSTRANCE.
IVENTURE to think that the Authors' Society
is, without intending it, bringing about a
great and very mischievous change in the
way in which the literary profession lias hitherto
been regarded in this country and everywhere else.
For instance, the general conception of the author
is of a man—or woman—full of ideas, a crank in
his views, a fool in business, hasty, unpractical, and
liable to be cheated by the first who chooses to
undertake that easy job. He has therefore met
with universal commiseration, except from those
who live upon him.
Next, he is regarded as a dependant, a person
with no rights at all, obliged to take whatever the
"generosity" of the publisher allowed him,
subsisting on doles.
A Royal Literary Fund has been established for
him, and at a great dinner held every year charity
is asked for this unfortunate pauper. , He is .there-
lore an object of universal contempt.
Thirdly, he is supposed to be wholly unable to
combine or to act with other persons of the same
profession for his own interests. And it is known
that he takes the greatest possible joy in jumping
upon his brother authors, trampling upon them,
and sticking knives into them. He is therefore a
by-word and a proverb, and children are taught not
to hate each other like authors.
Fourthly, if he is a good author, he instructs,
amuses, and delights the whole world, so that every-
body loves him and admires him and begs him to
keep on making the world laugh and cry. In short,
the world at the same time loves, reproaches,
despises, and commiserates the author. But the
Society is changing all that. It persuades authors
to act. together for their common interest; it
exhorts them to demand justice, not to whine for
"generosity"; it exhorts them not to slash and
bludgeon each other, but to observe the common
rules of good breeding towards each other. If
this goes on, the next generation will see the
followers of literature as sober in business matters
as City men; as respectful (outwardly) to each
other as physicians and lawyers; and as much
filled with self-respect as either. What will then
be the feelings of the world towards the author?
Love and admiration may be left, it is true. Respect
will have grown up. But contempt, commiseration,
and reproach—these will have gone.
Now, tin; combination of all these emotions
together formed the romantic side of the pro-
fession. In this respect—and in this respect
alone—the author was like the highway robber.
If the romance goes out of literature, may it not
become, as some of your correspondents suggest,
a simple trade? What is Art without romance?
What is romance without illusion? Does not
the author feel, while he holds out his hand for
the doles of the Literarv Fund and the " generous"
. « . . * <•
guineas of his publisher, that he is carrying on
the best traditions of the profession? While he
squirms under "generosity," and writhes under
charity, is it not a sufficient balm for him to know
that poverty and writhing have been the lot of
nearly all who have written?
This is one aspect of the ease, which I think the
managers of the Society would do well to consider.
If the old traditions are to be swept away, let them
at least maintain, even at their own expense, a
publisher of the old school. Let him continue to
cheat in the cost, of production and in the advertise-
ments; let him advertise in none but his own
publications, and put all the money under that head
into Lis own pocket. Let him refuse the author
any rights, and exercise a noble "generosity"
towards him. An old-fashioned author ought also
to be kept at the same time its an illustration—
without him the publisher alone would be incom-
plete—one l>elonging to the good old times from
which we seem now to lie emerging.
F. S. A.
## p. 43 (#447) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
REALISM IN GRUB STREET.
GRUB Street is the mother of all of us
"(1 (1 literary fellows," whether we
dwell on the first floor or in the attics.
Even these eminences were not disenchanted, when
we were twenty, M. Beranger says; and why
should Mr. Gissing try to disenchant the whole
eligible district? I woidd be understood to speak
with all respect of Mr. Gissing's "New Grub
Street"; it is not his fault, but his misfortune,
that he sees everything in black. This is the
burden of what is queerly called " Realism."
One reads in reviews about Mr. Gissing's
"poignant realism," but is it real at all? To
myself it seems a perverted idealism, idealism on
the seamy side. In Grub Street there are many
mansions; they are not all full of failure, and
envy, and low cunning, and love of money, and
hatred of success. In the Author of June, a writer
says that he "can testify to the truth" of the
"New Grub Street." He is unlucky enough to
know people like Mr. Gissing's characters, and the
fidelity of the portraits makes him shudder. I also
am a dweller in Grub Street, but am so fortunate
as not to know anybody who resembles these
unhappy rates. I do not know the man of
comparative genius, with no health, and with an
unsympathetic wife. I do not know the impudent
and half-educated speculator in " literature." I do
not know—I wish I did—the gentleman who wants
to write on Diogenes Laertius, a delightful subject,
and I hope, when he does writ** that essay, he will
clear up the passage about the Megarian historian
and Homer.
Willamowitz is too speculative, though decidedly
ingenious; but Mr. Yule is not here. I want to
talk Diogenes Laertius and kindred pedantries with
him in vain. However, it is not to be questioned
that persons like Jasper and Mr. Yule and Edwin
may exist, or may have existed; so may Lucien
de Rul)empre. They may be "real," but then
they are not everybody. They are not the whole
population of Grub Street. There are good fellows
there, poor, plucky, contented. Them, at least,
I have known, and no picture of Grub Street is
real which leaves them out. In Miss Braddon's
excellent story, "The Doctor's Wife," there is a
line denizen of Grub Street, Mr. Sigismund Smith,
a penny novelist. He has humour, and good
humour; he likes his trade, and there are many
worse trades. The Muses have not given it to me
to write a good penny novel; would that they had.
It is an enviable art. What is much of Balzac,
but glorified penny novel? Well, nobody calls
Miss Braddon a realist, but Sigismund Smith is as
"real" as these envious failures, these evil suc-
cesses. He is not recognised as real, because he is
jolly. There are plenty of jolly people in Grub
Street, only Realism averts her blue spectacles from
them. As to "scarifying," what nonsense is talked
about it! It is only a battle with snowballs at
most. Let some gentleman have his fling at me,
let me have my fling at him, if I like; "it is such
easy writing."
Who is a penny the worse? In some
paper I read, for example, that Mr. Robert
Buchanan has been calling me a Cockney some-
where. That, surely, is "scarifying "? Perhaps
the snowball would hurt if it hit. But it seems to
go a little wide; and, if I choose, I can bowl at
Mr. Buchanan's manly legs. Does he plav cricket
in a kilt? It seems to me that, in Grab Street,
we cry out a great deal for very little hurt. This
"scarifying " is not so bad as what Apollo did to
Marsyas. Our skins, however thin, are left to
decorate our persons.
In real life, the unlucky hero of Mr. Gissing
would have had a devoted wife, who believed in her
husband's genius; but to give him such a wife
would not be Realism. It would be romance, or
something improper of that kind. There are depths
a good deal deeper in Grub Street than Mr. Gis-
sing has chosen to sound. He might have been
much more realistic, and yet have lieen not untrue,
except by the suppression of the other side of the
truth.
M. Grimaudet, in M. Paul Bourget's new book,
is excessively " realistic," but then M. Bourget has
introduced lights as well as shadows. Light is
quite as real as darkness; sun as shade. La Vic de
Boheme is as real as " The New Grab Street," but
it has the unpardonable defect of humour, and so
it is not realistic. Captain Shandon and Archer
are true to life; but they are humorous, so they
are not realistic. Again, is it real to say, Mr.
A uthor, that literature has "no unwritten laws of
decency and politeness "? It has such laws; I
hope that we try to obey them; there would be no
fun in the game if we did not. They are not uni-
versally obeyed. There are Bounders in the land,
but we are not all Bounders in Grab Street. Our
adverse criticism—the slating with slates—is not
all envy. We think things should be done diffe-
rently, and say so, with more or less urbanity;
usually, perhaps, with less. Urbanity is what we
all need. It would be l>etter to fight, like Jem
Crawley, " with the gloves." I confess that, some-
how, this method seems to irritate the enemy even
much more, but that is his fault. He should
learn to keep his temper, and to take things in
less furious earnest; to remember that, after all,
Mr. Toots was right, and "it does not signify."
Literary rivalries and hatreds, nbout which so
much is said, will lose all that is enjoyable if
we do not keep our tempers, and remember that
I) 2
## p. 44 (#448) #############################################
44
THE AUTHOR.
we are only children playing at the game which
was old in Hesiod'.s time, at the game in
which Callimachus and Apollonius were performers.
When one sees the blind ferocity of some players,
one is reminded of the Maoris, who were so dis-
gusted with a manoeuvre of ours, that they declined
to light any more. They made peace; they said
we were not the men they took us for. Now here
is a view of the "scarifying" business which is
just as true as some other excited theories. But
you shall not find it in a realistic novel of Grub
Street, because it is not grimy.
A. Lang.
- ——♦■•■»
THE TURNING OF THE WORM.-A Fable.
"rTTHEN the Worm turned, the bystanders
VV laughed and derided the presumption of
the creature. This helpless, wretched thing
had hitherto been allowed to live on sufferance; he
was unprovided with the least means of attack or
defence; he would not have been tolerated—for he
really was wretchedly shabby to look at—except for
the purpose of enriching the soil for his Master,
which he did very cleverly, wriggling in and about
the clods, converting them into a light and fertile
earth, turning them now this side up, now that,
for the sun to warm them, insomuch that the most
beautiful crops of grain, the choicest fruit in vast
quantities, grapes for wine in abundance, grass for
cattle, trees for shade, and gardens for flowers were
all produced out of the ground by the industry and
cleverness of the Worm. Now and then the
Master tossed him an apple, or a raw turnip, or
something else light and inexpensive.
"Oh! most generous patron!" cried the Worm,
the tears of gratitude rolling over his brown skin,
"How can I thank thee? How serve thee with
suflicient zeal? Take all—all—all that I produce."
"Such, Worm, is my intention," said the
Master.
Now, one clay the Worm discovered that he had
grown; he had without knowing it, grown quite
large; he was no longer a little brown thing,
wriggling among the clods; he was quite three
feet long, and of a very beautiful variegated colour,
and he was conscious that he was possessed of a
weapon in the shape of a pair of front teeth very
sharp, and poisoned. He pondered over this dis-
covery; he even conferred with his brethren, who
had undergone a similar transformation, on the
subject. But, as yet, they hardly understood the
extent of the change or their own power, and went
on, although now far more subtle than all the
creatures of the held, contentedly on the whole,
though not without a question or a growl, slaving
for the Master and taking with gratitude, though
that was now somewhat modified, whatever apples
he chose to bestow upon them. He was now also
become so rich through their labours, that he
gave them many more apples, but yet their gratitude
did not increase; so that it became a proverb with
the Masters that the more you give a Worm, the
more he wants, and that he would like to take the
whole earth.
Now, one day, when the time came for a certain
Worm to be fed, the Master tossed him, for all
his reward, a single apple, and that half rotten. So
this Worm lifted his head. Never before had a
worm so much as dared to lift his head. And the
Master marvelled.
"Sir," said the Worm, " who has made all this
wealth for you and your family? Who has created
this orchard?"
"You have, Worm. Hold your tongue, and go
on working," said the Master.
With that the ungrateful creature sprang upon
his Master, and bit him on the ankle, and the
bite was like unto a red-hot wire applied to the
foot, or like the raging fiery gout in the great toe,
or like the accursed twinge of a tooth in mortal
pain. So the Master lied, howling.
Then the Worm called together all the other
Worms who were, like himself, grown into serpents,
all long and strong and swift, and each armed with
sharp front teeth, and all able and ready to use
them. Then the Worms took possession of the
orchards, and the gardens, and the fields, and when
a Master—now called the Usurper—ventured near
the place, he was assailed in such a manner that
he was fain to flee.
Then there was great agitation among the
Masters, and they trembled excessively. But. first
they said that the Worm was no Serpent at all,
but only a Worm still, and harmless. Yet those
who had been bitten shook their heads. Then they
said that the Worms were ungrateful. But the
world laughed. Then they said that the Worms
already devoured the whole produce. But they
were themselves so fat that nobody believed them.
Long time the struggle lasted between the
Master and the Worms. At last the Master sent
swine into the. orchard. Everybody knows that
serpents cannot hurt, pigs, though they throw all
their poison into their bites, but that pigs can,
and do, hurt serpents, taking them by the tail,
and slowly munching them, ribs and skin and all,
till there is nothing left. But the Master made
in this case a mistake, because, although his pigs
were as swinish in all other respects as any other
pigs, and could befoul anything placed before them,
they could not eat, destroy, or hurt this kind of
serpent. They could only trample the orchard and
## p. 45 (#449) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
45
the gardens, and they could cover with foul abuse
and fouler lies the names of the Serpents, so that,
for a time, some people were led to ln-lieve that
they were nothing but u wicked and a mischievous
crew instead of a most harmless folk, seeking
nothing hut common justice and protection for
their own.
Now, after a long struggle, the Serpent—subtle,
wise, and clever — possesses his own. Gardens,
orchards, fields—all are his own because he created
them. The former Master now looks over the
garden wall; and as for the pigs which were to
have slain and devoured the Serpents, they are now
themselves slain and partly devoured. What is left
of them is hanging on the rafters, in shape of fat
and brown sides of bacon, large hams, and goodly
gammons.
♦•♦*♦—
ME. GLADSTONE ON THE AUTHOR AND
THE PUBLISHER.
WE are indebted to the Critic (New York)
for the following. It is extracted from the
Xew York Herald, and it is an indication
of the growing power of the Press that such a man
as Mr. Gladstone should contribute to a foreign
paper an article on such a subject, and that such a
communication should not even be noticed by our
own Press. The remarks about the necessity of
taking a partner into the enterprise of publishing
a lnjok are perfectly just. Unfortunately they are
not new, and they stop at the threshold. They lay
down a definition or an axiom and leave it there.
Also Mr. Gladstone is a few years behind the time
when he speaks of the extremely small numl>cr of
publishers. In London alone there are more than
384. This is what he has written for the New
York Herald:—
"Books are, after all, a product of manufacturing
industry; but, among manufactures, theirs is surely
the most interesting, and the most peculiar, because
it is based upon the reduction of a mental product to
a material form, and what was originally intangible
and ethereal, in this way, without losing its earlier
character, comes to be embraced within the same
category as a yard of calico or a bushel of wheat.
"But while these have no value except what is
exhibited by their outward form, so that the inde-
pendent producers of other bushels of wheat or
yards of calico meet them in 1 the market' upon
equal terms, the producer of the l>ook exhibits to
the world a double entity, one material, the other
mental; and the author pleads that, as the material
thing which we call a l>ook is protected by the law
against abstraction, so the thoughts contained in it
and wrought by him into a structure more or less
elaborate should in like manner be protected from
reproduction. For reproduction, from his point of
view, is theft. It is offering to the world, for such
price as the world lie willing to give, not. only the
paper and print which the producer has to buy and
pay for, but the composition contained in them,
which represents the time and labour, and, there-
fore, the food and raiment and lodging and all the
lawful expenditure of the author.
"On this basis has been erected that curious
formation which we call the law of copyright. The
conditions of its birth and history have lxjen
chequered and abnormal; but the reasonableness
of the proposition that mental toil, on taking
literary form, should not be deprived of the re-
muneration enjoyed by bodily labour, has brought
it out into the light of day, and so secured its
acceptance ....
"But the author, when he has obtained an ack-
nowledgment of his right to protection, has not yet
surmounted his difficulties. The grower of wheat
and the manufacturer of calico produce articles
complete in themselves, and only require certain
manipulations before reaching the ultimate con-
sumer. These processes are performed by a
multitude of persons; and the function of the
intermediate! distributors, being simple, is performed
by large numbers of persons. But the author has
given birth to a commodity which is perfectly un-
available for the purpose of yielding him support,
until he has contracted, as it were, a marriage with
a capitalist who will agree to become joint partner
of the book, giving it a body where the author has
supplied the soul, and thus at length constituting it
a marketable and productive commodity. The
author cannot himself, as a rule, 1m> the publisher,
and publishers are extremely few, so few that, until
a very recent date, they might be counted on the
lingers. Practically, and as a general rule, the author
in relation to his customer is nobody until his
initial performance has been capped by the accession
of the publisher. Better would be the position of
a man who should offer for sale the stock and
lock of a rifle without the barrel to complete.''^
A Practical Note.
"I have just read your wail over the dust on the
rough tops of uncut books. If you wish to clean
them, and also to leave them a little rough, take
the finest grade of sand-paper and rub them with
it. If a piece is tacked on a bit of wood about an
inch square at the, end anil three or four inches
long, the work can l>e done very rapidly. I have
treated uncut books in that way, and find it works
admirably."
A (JoliliESl'ONI)ENT TO THE New YoRK Critic.
+-+~*
## p. 46 (#450) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
THE AUTHORS' CLUB.
AS a large number of your readers are interested
in the formation of the Authors' Club, it may
be of some service if I give a few particulars
of the Authors' Club of New York, gleaned from the
beautifully-printed and quaintly-bound little book
which that Club issues. Such particulars may be
suggestive partly of what to imitate, and partly,
owing to your different circumstances, of what it
may be necessary to avoid. I should like to state
that I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. J. B.
Gilder, of the New York Critic, who has been
good enough to procure and send me this interesting
little book.
I first of all gather that the Authors' Club of
New York is what we call, a members' club, and
that it is incorporated pursuant to the provisions of
an Act of the Legislature of the State of New
York. On this side we should find a parallel in
a limited liability company.
In the certificate of incorporation the particular
business of the Club is set out as for literary and
library purposes, and for the promotion of social
intercourse among authors; and in the "Constitu-
tion," under section 2, I find that "the object of
the Club shall be the promotion of social intercourse
among authors."
The membership of the Club is limited to a
smaller number than would be desirable, perhaps,
in the case of the London Club; the New York
maximum lwing 3oo, more than 5o per cent, of
which number are required to reside in or within
z5 miles of New York city.
For the London Club it has, I believe, been
suggested that journalism should be a qualification:
for the New York Club, on the other hand,
"technical books of journalism as such shall not
be accounted literature," and " no person shall be
eligible to membership who is not the author of a
published book proper to literature, or who has not
a recognised position in other kinds of distinctively
literary work."
Thus it will be seen that a large and useful body
of literary men—the writers of technical manuals
and dictionaries, and those journalists who from
day to day or from week to week turn out really
sound literary work, would be disqualified if the
New York rule were adopted in the case of the
London Club. But this, I take it, is not likely to
be done.
The government of the New York Club is vested
in an executive council of nine "trustees," who
are chosen by ballot, three of whom annually
retire. The trustees elect from their own number
a secretary and treasurer, and a librarian; and
they appoint all committees except a portion of the
Committee on Membership.
This Committee on Membership consists of twelve
members, and the trustees are disqualified from
joining it. The committee fix their own time and
place of meeting, and seven members constitute a
quorum. Any member who absents himself from
three consecutive regularly-called meetings is
deemed to have resigned. The committee elects
"by ballot, three adverse ballots excluding."
Each candidate for membership has to be pro-
posed by two members, who are required to present
to the committee in writing, and through the
secretary, his claims to election. The name of
each candidate for election, together with those
of his proposer and seconder, is posted for two
weeks before he can be balloted for.
Here is rather a curious rule: "No member of
the Committee on Membership shall propose a
candidate."
Election to honorary membership of distinguished
men of letters of other nations is provided for, but
not more than one honorary member resident in
the United States can be elected in any one year.
Members may introduce one friend to the Club,
and the hospitality of the Club may be offered to
distinguished gentlemen of any profession.
The entrance! fee is §25 = £5, and the annual
subscription for those resident in or within 20 miles
of New York city is S20 - £4 ; and of those not so
resident (onr " country members ") £2. It should
be noted that these sums do not represent in the
United States anything like the amount they re-
present here, but at the same time the expenses of
the New York Club are probably not so heavy
as those of a London Club would be.
In conclusion, I hope that these few notes may
be found of interest and use to those who contem-
plate with some degree of pleasure and hopefulness,
the foundation of an Authors' Club in London for
the promotion of social intercourse among those
engaged in literary work.
Akthub Montefiobe.
REVIEWS AND REVIEWERS.
I.
ALTHOUGH I am an occasional Reviewer as
well as Author, I hope you will uot consider
the incident I am about to relate a case of
"dog biting dog."
I may commence by saving I am a scientific
writer—or one of those who often try to explain
what thev themselves do not understand, as some-
one has truly said—and author of a number of
## p. 47 (#451) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
47
successful books—italics, please Mr. Printer—my
vanity lias therefore l>een satiated some time since,
and I do not write from the standpoint of a
disappointed Author from which Critics are
popularly supposed to be made.
A few years back, when I published my well-
known work on "The Extraction of Caloric from
Cucumbers," my publisher sent a copy for review
to a paj>er with which we are all well acquainted,
viz., the Weekly Mastodon. Shortly after its
receipt I was gratified by a very favourable review
containing such remarks as the following: "Mr.
Jones's book will be found of much value to those
interested in cucumbers," "A book we have much
pleasure in recommending," <fcc, &e.
The success of this book was such that my
publisher advised the reprint of the more popular
part of it, and its re-issue at a cheaper price. This
was done, and it appeared under the title, " Cucum-
bers, sliced and otherwise; with Notes on their
Affinity for Salmon," by Thomas Cwmrag Jones,
Author of, &c, which you may remember made a
considerable sensation at the time amongst cucum-
ber eaters. A copy of this was also sent to the
Mastodon, and you may imagine my horror when
a few weeks afterwards I read a review in which
the. book was thoroughly well slated, and I was
called over the coals in all directions, the notice
being fidl of such remarks as the following: "We
are astonished that Mr. Jones can recommend
eating cucumber with salmon, as he ought to be
aware that it is most indigestible," and " Mr. Jones
says nothing whatever about oil and vinegar with
cucumber, which we consider a very grave
omission," &c, &c.
In case you should imagine that the above
account is " writ sarkastic," as Artemus Ward \ised
to say, I beg to assure you the incident absolutely
occurred, and is a fair example of a critical
journal eating its own words, and damning and
praising the same matter. I enclose you the
name of the journal, and also of the books con-
cerned, not necessarily for publication, but as a
guarantee of good faith, as the newspaper legend
has it.
Thomas Cwmrag Jones.
II.
A novel of mine—my first novel—was reviewed
by the on its first appearance. The
review was the first notice that appeared of the
work. To say that they "slated " it is to put the
case with ridiculous mildness. It was torn to bits,
and a frantic war dance was executed on the muti-
lated remains. Imagine my feelings! My first
book! My first review! What a beginning!
In course of time my publisher produced a cheap
edition of the book. I could only pray that the
would pass it by in the silence and
contempt such a worthless book deserved. Not at
all! They renewed it again, but this time they
spoke of the work in terms of the highest praise!!!
I assure; you that in my opinion that second review
of the book was a "thing of beauty and a joy for
ever."
E.
III.
"Formerly I hail to do, among other work, the
'reviewing' of the novels for a certain paper.
I was allowed a single column, or perhaps a little
over. I was paid one guinea for this column.
I had to 'review' from eight to a dozen novels
in this space. You may imagine the individual
attention and the amount of muling I could
afford to bestow on each!"
P.
In other words, this writer, to put his necessities
at a very low rate, had to make at least £3oo a year,
or six guineas a week. He got his batch of novels
every fortnight or so. How long could he afford
to give towards the earning of one guinea?
One day. One day of, say, eight hours for an
average of ten books! Less than one hour each.
What judgment, even in a single sentence, could
he pass—and write—upon a book in such a space
of time? This is an extreme case, but we must
take extreme cases into consideration. They are,
indeed, the most important as test cases. It may
l>c argued that no one has a right to accept work
of this kind unless he can perform it properly.
Quite so; but this is not an argument calculated
to carry weight with the ordinary breadwinner.
IV.
The following is a collection of judgments on a
single book which seem almost unique. The names
of the papers were given by the author concerned,
but they are suppressed for obvious reasons. An
interesting problem arises. Given i5 opinions by
as many critics, all different, on a little book, and,
remembering that each sentence is the judgment
of a truly competent critic, construct the true
character of the book.
1." . . . The story is not a clever one,
and the writer lacks the gift of making his readers
accept the impossible as at least plausible. . . ."
2." . . . Certainly ... a very clever
book, one of the cleverest of its kind that has
recently appeared."
3." The book is madness run riot,
and why the publishers should have endangered
## p. 48 (#452) #############################################
48
THE AUTHOR.
their reputation by issuing it is as inexplicable as
the pages themselves. . . ."
4. "... A tale of absorbing interest. . ."
5." . . . As a story the book is profoundly
metaphysical and very dull."
6. " This is a weird and fascinating novel. . . .
The story abounds with thrilling enigmas, and
a tragedy and a love romance are skilfully
interwoven."
7." . . . Metaphysical balderdash. . . ."
8. "A shilling shocker of the most robust
tvpc . . . Defects are compensated for by an
unlimited flow of blood, curses, and spasmodic
ejaculations."
g. "... It may l>e summed up in a quota-
tion from his own pages: 'In the name of science
—bosh ! *"
10." . . . For those fond of the mysterious
the book should lie acceptable reading."
11. "After some hours' earnest wrestling with
the extraordinary philosophy propounded herein
we have 'given it up' just in time to save our
reason. . . ."
12. "It has an ingenious, if somewhat extra-
vagant, plot of mystery and murder, and though
it never takes any very strong hold on the attention
—it deals too largely in pure philosophy for that—
the mild interest which it does excite is well
sustained to the end."
13." . . . Quite out of the usual run of
shilling shockers. . . . The writer has talent,
but it might l>e better employed."
14." . . . A praiseworthy attempt to make
the matter of a shilling shocker less rude—in the
old sense of the word—and to give even the railway
reader a few sentences which may make him take
the trouble of thinking. . . . The writer is
evidently a clever student who has drunk deep,
if not wisely, at the well of contemporary fiction."
15. "This book is very readable."
NOTES AND NEWS.
Jf^HE Annual Gathering of the Society will this
I year l>egiven in recognition of the International
Copyright Bill. It will be held at the White-
hall Rooms of the Hotel Metropole on the 16th.
Long before the dinner it will be known whether
the President has, or lias not, acknowledged that
Americans have equal rights with our own people
in this country. The function of the 16th,
however, will mark our sense of what has been
done by Americans. And as for ourselves, we shall
very shortly put the position of Americans l>eyond
any doubt. The Chairman will be Lord Monkswell,
who has done such great, service to the cause of
International Copyright by his conduct of the Bill
for the Amendment and Consolidation of Copyright.
The principal guest will be Mr. Lincoln, the United
States Minister to this country. It is greatly
hoped that we may have a.s guests a good nunil>er
of American men and women of letters, and that
we may have to receive them as brilliant a company
as can be gathered together.
The communication of Mr. Arthur Montefiore
will cause inquiries to be made as to the progress of
the Authors' Club. We have advanced to this
stage: we had got together a provisional com-
mittee; we had found a man ready to act as
honorary secretary. Then he fell ill, and could do
nothing; nor could, for a long time, another man
he found. Now we have a candidate for the post,
and we hope to begin. If the project proves a
success, the club should open about the end of the
year.
I think I have found out the reason of the
astonishing little paragraphs which, from time to
time, appear in the papers concerning this Society.
Some of them, of course, contain designed and
deliberately invented falsehoods. They are inspired
by certain friends of ours who find their old games
becoming difficult. There is, however, another
kind—sometimes they take the form of long
articles—which are not malevolent, but ignorant.
These are written by men who simply cannot
understand that there is any property in Literature.
To them the maintenance or defence of literary
proj>erty seems a fussy attempt to protect a five-
pound note at most—they call it squabbling for
guineas; they either believe in the old superstition
that authors must be beggars, or they have their
own experiences to quote, for they have themselves
written books which have brought in nothing—or
this five-pound note. Very likely their book was
good, but not popular. This kind of writer cannot
believe that a book may be both good and popular;
and his ignorance makes him a greater enemy of
the Society even than the mischievous liar. He
has in his mind a round half-dozen of deeply-
rooted prejudices. Thus—
1. There is no money in a book, and the
publisher must lose by most of his books,
and the more he loses the richer he gets.
2. The publisher is constantly playing a kind of
baccarat, in which he is always staking
immense sums of money, and always losing.
## p. 49 (#453) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
49
3. The publisher does not care in the least how
much he loses.
4. Poetry and Fiction come by nature, and
require no training.
5. True self-respect consists in throwing a MS.
at the publisher and never afterwards asking
what has been done with it in book form.
6. If money is wanted, the author must go hat
in blind, and humbly ask for it. Whatever
he gets is due to the " generosity " of the
publisher. He is not entitled to anything
at all. He has no rights; he has no
property. How can a guinea or two be
called property?
Several correspondents have sent me a prospectus
entitled "The Authors' Advice Bureau," and have
asked advice upon it. We know, at the Society,
nothing at all about the name at the end of the
prospectus, Mr. H. Douglas Vincent—nothing at
all, either for good or ill. He undertakes to read
MSS., and to suggest a suitable publisher at the
following rates :—is. for 10 pages of foolscap, and
2.v. for 20 pages. For every additional 20 pages, 6d.
extra. If he gives, in addition, literary criticism
he charges 2s. 6d. for 10 pages, and 3s. 6d. for
20 pages, with is. for every additional 20 pages.
Reckoning 35o words to a page of foolscap, this
wntleman would give a literary opinion on, and
suggt.-'t a publisher for, a three-volume novel of
average Ifssgth for the sum of 19s. This might be
what advertisers call getting "good value."
What advice can be given in such a case?
This :—
If Mr. H. Douglas Vincent has such experience
of publishers as would enable him to advise as to
the lx^st house for any particular work, his advice
to an ignorant person might be useful. The first
thing, therefore, is for him to show that he has
Mich experience.
If Mr. H. Douglas Vincent is a person of proved
lite.-ary ability, an author of repute, a critic of
posit'on, his literary opinion might be of the
greatest value to a beginner. Let him, therefore,
state his qualifications and give references.
And let anylnxly who proposes to give him 2S.
first ask him for information on these two points.
If the replies are satisfactory, we wish Mr. Douglas
Vincent every success.
Here is a suggested difficulty. "I should like to
join your Society, but at the present moment my
work is principally taken by Messrs. A. and B. and
by a certain religious society. Suppose that they
resent my Incoming a Member, and refuse, in
consequence, to take my work : what am I to do?"
Well, first of all, it is rapidly becoming thoroughly
suspected that a publisher who objects to the
Society can only belong to the dishonourable Fringe,
because the Society aims at nothing but fair agree-
ments, fairly carried out; and all that has been done,
said, or published by the Society lias been in the
advance of that aim; for instance, the Cost of
Production and the Methods of Publication. If,
then, any publisher should so attempt to punish any
such author, let us learn the fact, and we will
"govern ourselves accordingly." We are now, as
has been already stated more than once, in a
position to keep a vast quantity of work out of the
hands of persons whose methods will not bear
the light of day. This power is a very useful
weapon, and is ('very day becoming more powerful.
A great deal of wrath lias lieen aroused by a
bumble remonstrance made in these columns on
certain practices of reviewers. Bludgeons have
been waved over the head of the offender; rapiers,
flashing horribly, have been stuck into his vital
parts. Fortunately, this kind of bludgeon breaks
no head, and this kind of rapier does not kill.
Therefore, one still lives to repeat the remonstrance
as an abstract proposition or two without any
names. Tims, our contention was, and is, as
follows :—
1. Should such a thing as a good novel ever
appear, it is worth at least as much attention,
and should command as much separate space
as is allotted to, say, the smallest of the
many biographies or books of essays to
which is now accorded the respect of in-
dividual consideration.
2. When a man, holding a great and acknow-
ledged position in the world of letters,
produces a new book, its apjiearance is a
literary event. In any other country this
proposition would be commonplace. In ours,
unfortunately, it is not. The book, whether
good or bad, whether judged unfavourably
or not, should be at least treated with the
respect due to the literary rank, and the
previous work of the author.
There are three critics of every book. The
author himself, who may be presumed at least to
know what he intended; the reviewer, who ought
to take the trouble at least to find out so much;
and the reading public, who very soon finds out
whether it likes the book or not. Whether this
third party does or docs not like it, he says so
without much searching into the reason why. And
the real cause of thu l>ook's success, when it
## p. 50 (#454) #############################################
5°
THE AUTHOR.
docs succeed, is not so much the review, or the
inline of the author, but the way in which people
talk to each other about the books they read.
The free libraries, for instance, are rapidly be-
coming in this way, rough-and-ready reviewers;
they push the book around; they create the
demand. Perhaps they are too often like the
gallery at the theatre. Well, the gallery of some
houses is now very much what the pit was for-
merly: its taste is chastened. Certainly it must
be admitted that there are authors who are not
greatly asked for by the free libraries—Landor,
for instance, De Quineey, Leigh Hunt, Pater,
Meredith, Symonds, Lang—to name only a few,
and these greatly dissimilar—are seldom read at
free libraries. At the same time Marrvat—first
favourite—Scott, Dickens, Kingslcy, George Hentv,
Kingston, Charlotte Yonge—to name others also
greatly dissimilar, yet all wholesome and good—are
in very great demand. Of one thing we may be very
sure, that if a book is dull, if it treats of unin-
teresting subjects, unless it has "grip "—a thing
which an essay, or a history, or a treatise may have,
as well as a novel or a drama—the readers at the
free libraries will have none of it.
What part, then, does the reviewer play? It is
impossible to estimate too highly the enormous
advantage to literature of criticism, compe-
tent, free, and unbiassed, such as we might be
able to show under happier conditions. Every-
one knows critics who thoroughly realize the
responsibilities of their work. Everyone knows
papers where the work is at least taken in hand
seriously, even though the performance is not
always up to the editor's own standard. It is,
however, absurd to pretend that literature is
advanced by the common mass of criticism. I
refer the wider to Mr. Saintsbury's pupers on
the "Kinds of Criticism" in his "Essays on
English Literature" (Percival, 1891) for a state-
ment of the. case put at greater length and with
more fulness than we can command in these pages.
I have quoted already (Author for April 1891)
some of the following. It is quoted again because
it exactly expresses our case, and exactly justifies
our remonstrance.
He says (Introduction, p. xxiii) :—
"Reviewing is, on the whole, the most difficult
kind of newspaper writing, and it is, 011 the whole,
the most lightly assigned and the most irresponsibly
performed. I have heard of newspapers where the
reviews depended almost wholly on the accident
of some of the staff taking a holiday, or being laid
for a time on the shelf, or being considered not up
to other work; of others, though this I own is
scarcely credible, where the whole reviewing was
farmed out to a manager, to be allotted to such as
good to him seemed; of many where the reviews
were a sort of exercising ground on which novices
were trained, broken-down hacks turned out to
grass, and invalids allowed a little gentle exercise."
He goes on to say that he knows papers where
the best work possible is given to one of the most
important kinds of work. Quite so. We also
know such papers.
Again, Mr. Henry James in the May number
of the New Review draws with masterly hand a
portrait of the Ideal Critic. Here it is :—
"Not only do I not question in literature the high
utility of criticism, but I should be tempted to say
that the part it plays may l>e the supremely bene-
ficent one when it proceeds from deep sources, from
the efficient combination of experience and per-
ception. In this light one sees the critic as a real
helper of mankind, a torch-bearing outrider, the
interpreter par excellence. The more we have of
such the better, though there will surely always be
obstacles enough to our having many. When one
thinks of the outfit required for fine work in this
spirit, one is ready to pay almost any homage to
the intelligence tlnit has put it on; and when one
considers the noble figure completely equipped—-
armed cap d pie in curiosity and sympathy—one
falls in love with one's conception. It certainly
represents the knight who has knelt through his
long vigil, and who has the piety of his office. For
there is something sacrificial in his function, inas-
much as he offers himself as a touchstone. To lend
himself, to project himself and steep himself, to feel
and feel till he understands, and to understand so
well that he can say, to have perception at the
pitch of passion and expression in the form of
talent, to be infinitely curious and incorrigibly
patient, with the intensely fixed idea of turning
character and genius and history inside out—these
are ideas to give an active mind a higher programme
and to add the element of artistic beauty to the
conception of success. Just in proportion as he is
sentient and restless, just in proportion as he
vibrates with intellectual experience is the critic a
valuable instrument; for in literature, assuredly,
criticism is the critic, just as art is the artist; it
being assuredly the artist who invented art and the
critic who invented criticism, and not the other way
round."
To draw a practical conclusion from these
remarks. The author, through his publisher,
presents certain journals with a copy of his book.
## p. 51 (#455) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
5«
He says: "Gentlemen, here is my work. I shall
be grently obliged if your reviewer will give the
public his opinion on the book. If that opinion is
favourable, it will serve me by advancing my name,
and by promoting the demand for the volume. If it
is unfavourable—although an adverse verdict will
afflict me more than words can say—I cannot
complain if it is the opinion of a competent critic,
not a broken-down hack, or a novice, or an in-
valid, or a brutal scarifier, or one whose blackguard
and ill-bird delight it is to bludgeon a writer.
And if the opinion is that of a competent critic,
every word that he says ought to furnish some
suggestion or instruction for me in future efforts."
If, after this, he finds that his critics are the
hacks, the invalids, the novices, and the bludgeon
brandishers, is he not, out of self-respect alone,
justified in withholding his next book, and all his
future books, from papers where these gentry are
allowed to prance?
This is our conclusion. Journals have no pre-
scriptive right to have books sent to them for
review. A bad and incomplete review may do a
book most serious injury, and can do it no good.
Every new weekly journal thinks itself entitled lo
copies of every new book. The thing is a tax,
which, though lightly felt by the individual author,
is very serious to a great publisher, who has to
expend many hundreds a year in these presents.
Every present should be received as conditional
on the execution of a trust, namely, that the book
shall be fairly and adequately reviewed. When
that trust is broken, the presentation copies should
cease.
This is our case, and our conclusion. Editors
of papers cannot but approve of this jealousy. It
may be argued that every author who received an
unfavourable verdict would withdraw his books from
the journal where it appeared, in a rage. Not so.
But even if he did, it would make no difference,
because a lmd writer left to silence perishes, and
that quite as quickly as a bad writer who is tried at
the Court of the Critic and condemned. On the
other hand, it will be most useful for reviewers to
understand that, like the Judges in the High Court
of Justice, they hold their places only during good
behaviour; and that their work is itself as liable
to criticism as the works of the authors.
Our case is in our own hands. In stilting it in
the pages of the Author month after month, the
volume of correspondence has shown that it is a
case in which writers of every kind—not novels
only, by any means—are most deeply concerned.
The case, I repeat, again and again, is in our own
hands. It is a business in which authors may take
counsel together, and, I hope, will. Let anyone
who has suggestions to offer send them here. One
cannot publish everything in our narrow space,
but we can read everything. The vacation cometh,
and is close at hand. In that holy season we
live like gods, anil feel neither wrath nor pity.
When that is over, let us take counsel together.
In another part of this paper Mr. Andrew Lang
offers a few remarks on Mr. Gissing's " Grub Street."
So much the better for Mr. Gissing's book, which
should become in greater demand, even though the
writer says he knows no such residents in Grub
Street. He touches also on sundry questions
rising out of the book, especially on the great Ai t
of Scarifying. "It is only," he says, " a battle with
snowballs at most." The ordinary fellow who
writes, thin skinned, morbid, sensitive, fails to rise
to the height of caring no more for the Scarifier
than for the boy who throws a snowball. It is,
however, pleasant for him to feel that he ought
to receive the blows of the bludgeon, or the
rasping of the harrow with so much tranquility.
He envies the man who can: for himself, it is
beyond him, even if he knows that he shall get
the chance of hitting back again—which does
not too often happen; he writhes, he groans, he
swears. And it is small comfort to him that
another man stalks in silent dignity as careless
of bludgeon, and nike, and harrow, as if they
were no more than light and feathery snowballs.
A Game of Snowball.
Unmoved he holds his tranquil way,
The Philosophic Sage:
No whit the worse, though the critics curse,
And though the heathen rage.
And when they rolled the snowballs round,
And hurled them swift and strong,
"A merry game !" he said, "The same
I could play the whole day long."
They lodged a snowball in his neck;
One in his left ear lay;
As one who shakes the falling flukes
He brushed those balls away.
And larger rolled those snowballs still
And faster still they flew.
He only cried: "That ball's a wide!
Wait till I shy at you."
## p. 52 (#456) #############################################
52
THE AUTHOR.
He chose n drift beneath a hedge
With icicles fringed and bound:
He made a ball of the ice and all
And rolled it round and round.
The white snow wrapped its icy points
And hid its icy heart.
He smiled, "For fun, no game is done
Till each has played his part."
The other laughed and the other cried;
He laughed and he cried, and he ran;
Until the Sage his snowball shied,
Which hit that merry man.
Like David's pebble it smote him full:
He stopped, he fell—he lav— [said,
"Dear Heart! He's dead !" the Philosopher
"And all at a game of play!"
Mr. Thomas Hardy's " Group of Noble Dames"
reads exactly as if the ten stories had l>een taken
bodily from the "Cent Nouvellos Nouvelles," and
had formed one di.rain in that eolleetion. There
is the same simplicity of motive, the same directness
in the narrative; no rhetoric is here, no fine
description, no subtle analysis. They are not
society stories, although the Dames are noble.
They deal with men and women living in the
country, who belong to no time and all time;
and they deal with the simple theme of love,
and its complications, and its consequences.
Perhaps the most remarkable of the stories is that
of the girl who was married at thirteen. I believe
there are many—I have long since joined their ranks
—who consider Mr. Hardy in many respects the
most remarkable of English-speaking novelists.
The "Group of Noble Dames" will certainly
not diminish that number of disciples, though it
is food for men and women rather than for school
girls. The book appears to me, in fact, to be
what we have elsewhere called a literary event.
It ought to be added, that in type, binding, and
adornment, the book is admirably presented by
Messrs. Osgood & Go.
It is rather late to notice on the 1st of July a paper
which appeared on the ist of June. But, though
in the next generation the Author will l>c a great
daily paper, entirely devoted to Art and Letters, and
everything of importance will naturally appear in our
own columns first, to be humbly copied by the news-
papers of general interest afterwards, at present
the interval of a month is imposed upon us by the
exigency of existing arrangements. The paper I
wish to notice is that in the June Fortnightly
called "An Election at the English Academy."
Apparently we have among us a new satirist, one
with a gentle touch and a light hand. Nothing
lighter or more certainly imbued with the true
satiric vein has appeared for a long time. The
supposed English Academicians are actually capable
of electing the Archbishop of Canterbury, because
he is Archbishop, over the heads of Samuel
Bawson Gardiner and Thomas Hardy. That is
all. It might be said in one sentence. That the
Academy should, or could, do such a thing would
be accepted as its final condemnation. But to say
so in one sentence would be to imitate the bludgeon
practice of certain well-known literary friends. We
have been so long accustomed to the exhibition of the
bludgeon that we have been in danger of forgetting
the rapier. We have been so brutalized by the
heavy blows of the common weapon that we have
well-nigh forgotten the bright and dexterous play
of the nobler steel. May one venture to express a
hope that more, a great deal more, may be heard of
this new satirist—who comes with a smile in his
eyes instead of a frown and a scowl, and bears
garlands instead of brickbats, and poises a rapier
instead of a cudgel? I observe that one of the
critics, in his infinite wisdom, suggests Budvard
Kipliug as the author. That seems to me hardly
felicitous. John Milton, from internal evidence,
would be as likely a name—perhaps more likely.
As Charles Lamb would say: "There's a d.. d .. d..
deal of fun in John Milton."
Grant Allen, in the same number of the same
paper, lifts up his voice on the decadence of
English literature and on the limitations of English
novel-writing. We are very often reminded of
these limitations. Of course they exist; no one
can possibly deny that As Mr. Grant Allen truly
states, if a man writes for a paper which goes
into the middle-class family, the editor will not let
him write about things which may be considered
immoral by the ordinary paterfamilias—not, how
ever, the "dissenting grocer" because that worthy
person takes in no such paper. The simple answer
is that the novelist who does not like this limitation
may go elsewhere. Mr. Grant Allen says it means
starvation. Nonsense! Let him try. Let him
produce a novel dealing with any and every
passion or emotion that he may choose, any
problem he pleases to set before his readers of
morals, religion, human life, or social relations. One
may safely predict, from a writer of his power, that
if he dares to lay aside his fears, and to write with
freedom, he will obtain a success which will astonish
him. Let him forget the dissenting grocer and the
sentimental maiden of seventeen—that sweet young
thing, indeed, under the awakening influence of
Ne.wnham, is so changed that her own mother knows
## p. 53 (#457) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
53
her no longer. Let him forget Mudie and the
e-ditor of the Family Teapot, and let him write
fearlessly such a work as he desires to write.
Surely the time has come when men should leave
off complaining that they are not allowed, and
should just dare to do what they think ought to Ik;
allowed.
In one point, I agree altogether with Mr. Grant
Allen. English literature is too much tainted with
London fog; it is tilled with London fog. But the
same thing might l>e said of French literature and of
Paris. The reason, I suppose, is that most writers
are attracted to London, and become saturated with
its atmosphere, so that all the scenes of the Human
Comedy take place on the stage of London. And
the actors and actresses are Londoners, and the
background is always a London street. If we
consider, however, that men and women are mostly
much the same whatever their conditions and
setting, nothing would be gained, except a little
freshness and change of air, by transferring the
at tors elsewhere.
Is there a new Poet? Is the reproach that-
there are no longer any poets under forty years of
age, to be at last removed? There is before me a
most dainty little volume called "Wordsworth's
Grave." It is written by William Watson, and is
published by Mr. Fisher Unwin. I venture to
think that the contents of this book have in them
such a ring of poetry as we have not heard for a
long time—the true ring of noble thought embedded
in noble rhyme. I believe that this book has been
out for some time; the excuse for noticing it
here—that I only saw it yesterday—may pass. Let
us copy one page :—
I hear it vouched the Muse is with us still;
If less divinely frenzied than of yore,
In lieu of feelings she has wondrous skill
To simulate emotion felt no more.
Not such the authentic Presence pure that made
This valley vocal in the great days gone!
In his great days while yet the springtime played
About him, and the mighty morning shone.
No word-mosaic artificer, he sang
A lofty song of lowly weal and dole.
Itight from the heart, right to the heart it sprang,
Or from the soul leaped instant to the soul.
He felt the charm of childhood, grace of youth,
Grandeur of age, insisting to be snug.
The impassioned argument was simple truth
Half wondering at its own melodious tongue.
Impassioned? Ay, to the song's ecstatic core!
Not far removed were clangour, storm, and fiend:
For plenteous health was his, exceeding store
Of joy, and an impassioned quietude.
Surely we shall bear more of this singer.
Someone has lieen proposing in an American
paper that authors should pay a little personal
attention to the advertising of their books. He
proposes that the author should himself prepare
his advertisement just as he now writes his preface.
Well, that the author should condescend to pay a
little attention to the way in which his business is
conducted is a proposition in which we may all
agree. He should have a voice, and he should
exercise that voice, in the selection of the papers
in which his book is to be advertised, and the
money that may lie judiciously expended in adver-
tisements. In the same way he should claim a
voice, and should exercise that voice, in every other
part of the work. This right, once claimed and
exercised, would make publishing a far more careful
business than it is at present. It would certainly
lead to the restriction of the output, and to a
much more careful selection of works to be pub-
lished. And this would lie clear gain to literature.
But suppose authors were allowed their own way
in advertising. They ore not all, it must lie
confessed, remarkable for good taste. How would
it advance literature, for instance, to see the streets
placarded with such advertisements as this? "The
Empire Belle! Remember! The Empire Belle
does not clean the grates! The Empire Beli.e
does not whitewash the ceiling! The Empire
Bei.t.e does not fry bacon and eggs! The
Empire Belle. By the New Shakespeare! The
Empire Belle. By the second Dickens! Now
rendv! Price One Shilling only! The Empire
Belle for the Million!!!"
One or two complaints have been received
apropos of a certain paragraph in the June number.
The editor has lieen asked whether this paper has
religious views to advance. Certainly not. It
has none—none whatever—not even a leaning in
the direction of a kind of a sort of a something.
Therefore the editor hastens to take the sole blame
to himself of that paragraph, and begs to express
his regret that it passed his short-sighted eyes
without being shorn of its adjectives. These
adjectives! They are like women, because they
make or mar our happiness. Those used in this
paragraph may or may not lie true, but they were
quite out of place in these columns.
If the editor offers to insert a Member's grievance,
provided it is not libellous: if the Member semis
him a statement, names and all, set forth plainly
for everybody to read, and if that statement, sub-
mitted to the opinion of a lawyer, is pronounced to
be libellous in every paragraph, has that editor any
## p. 54 (#458) #############################################
54
THE AUTHOR.
right to complain it' that Member sends him letter
utter letter crammed with personal abuse? Perhaps
not. lie should possess his soul in patience.
A Boston firm, Messrs. Ester and Lauriat, are
going to produce a phenomenal edition of Scott's
novels. A thousand copies will be issued at a price
of £24 a set. The illustnitions will consist partly
of etchings) by French artists, and partly of photo-
graphic views of places made historical by the
events of the stories.
The street boys of Chicago are become students
of Browning. The Boston letter in the Critic
says so. A clergyman of that city had been
giving, in the basement of his Church, readings to
the street gamins who could be induced to enter
the doors. He read Uncle Remus and Hans
Breitmann, and then ventured on a poem by
Browning—one might surmise from the result that
it was " The Bide from Ghent to Aix." At the
very next meeting the Arabs of the Windy City
with one accord, when asked what they wanted to
hear, pointed to the works of the classical Browning
and exclaimed: "Read more out of that fellow that
wrote about the horse-race. He knows some-
thing!"
Walter Bksant.
— —
THE RED MOUSE.
MANY readers of Goethe's Faust have doubt-
less been startled or puzzled at the passage
in which the hero while dancing with
"a fair girl " leaves her abruptly because—
"A red mouse sprang from her mouth."
To which Mephistopheles replies by bidding
him be thankful that it was not a black one.
Not long ago, while reading that most eccentric
of works the "Anthropodeintis Plutonicus" of
Johannes Praetorius (1666-8), I met with a story
which easts some light on the origin of this idea.
Tt happened in the time of Praetorius that in a
certain castle in Saxony the maids were having
what is culled in America "a paring bee," that is,
they were paring and cutting up apples for drying.
One girl, seated apart from the others, fell asleep
with her mouth open, and what was the amazement
of all present to see a red mouse creep from her
mouth, which made its way to the window whence
it went forth.
There was present a certain Zoofe, a silly
conceited girl, who against the will of all present
insisted on rolling over and playing tricks on the
sleeping mnid, for the latter was put out of the
position in which she fell asleep. After a time
the mouse returned, and tried to find the sleeper's
mouth but could not, and so it vanished and never
returned, nor did the girl, indeed, return to life or
waken again. However, it was observed that a
certain man in the castle had been greviously
tormented with nightmares, and that after this
girl's death they came to him no more.
There is in South Germany a very widely
spread superstition to the effect that the liccr-
miitt.er or Gebarmutter (womb or matrix) is an
independent being of itself, that is, the life of the
body, and that very often when a girl is asleep it
leaves her mouth in the form of a crab or toad,
goes to some stream, or nibbles a certain plant, and
then returns to the mouth of the sleeper who, if
she has been ill, is always restored by this singular
occurrence.
In more than one Icelandic or Norse saga the
soul is seen to go as a little smoke or vapour from
the mouth of the sleeper and then return. On one
occasion the friend of a sleeping hero sees the
vapour go down to his feet, cross on a straw a tiny
rivulet, and enter the bleached and polished skull
of a horse which lay in the grass, in and about
which many bluebottle flies were buzzing. After
a time the vapour returned and entered the mouth
of the sleeper who, awaking, declared that he had
had a marvellous dream. For he had crossed on a
golden bridge a mighty river, till he came to a
marvellous green forest, the trees of which were
like giant sword blades; and in the forest was ,1
stupendous palace, all of ivory, which he entered,
and there were many knights all clad in burnished
blue steel armour, who danced and sang exquisitely;
he had never in all his life heard ought like it.
And after this he had returned over the golden
bridge and the sword-blade forest to his home.
Nearly connected with all this is the artistic
treatment during the Middle Age of death, and in
which the soul is represented as flying out of the
mouth sometimes as a dove and sometimes like
a little devil. As regards the former, I once had
related to me by a Bavarian young lady of good
family, a girl of singular and exceptional truth-
fulness, allied to common sense and good education,
the following :—
"I had a younger sister who had been ill for
a long time, and who predicted that she would soon
die, yet no one would witness her death. And one
day as I sat by her, the window being open, some-
thing like a white bird or a dove whirred up from
her mouth toward the open window and out of it.
I followed to look, and saw it soar far away and
vanish. When I went back to my sister I found
her dead. Her words had lieen fulfilled. No one
had seen her die."
## p. 55 (#459) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
55
That the young ladv absolutely and honestly
lielieved she had seen this, I most seriously believe.
But what was it. I think in all probability some
bird or large white moth by chance in the room,
which disturbed, had flown through the window.
Excitement, a mind prone to poetry and supersti-
tion—and this lady's family were to a very high
degree superstitious—and finally the frequent
telling the story had all led it to the form in which
I have given it.
Chaki.es G. Leland.
Florence, June 6th, 1891.
THE BOOS OP THE MONTH.
Mrs. Orr's "Life of Robert Browning."*
MRS. Sutherland Orr's "Life of Browning"
is pre-eminently judicious. It contains
none of that worthless tittle-tattle for which
the public have of late years been taught to clamour.
We do not learn from it that on such-and-such a day
Mr. Browning dined at the house of Mr. So-and-So,
where he met Lord , another distinguished
jwet, who drank nothing but claret throughout the
whole of the dinner. This welcome reticence on
the part of Mrs. Orr is partly intentional and
partly accidental. While, on the one hand, she
lias not failed to keep up the most perfect regard
for the subject of her memoir, she has never
forgotten that—
"He did but sing
A song that pleased us from its worth;
No public life was bis on earth,
Xo blazon'd statesman he, nor king."
Petty nnd useless details are carefully avoided
throughout the whole of the book. Only the
salient facts of the poet's life are given, together
with a selection from his letters, and some acute
and helpful criticism of his poems. The whole
story of Mr. Browning's life is contained in less
than 460 octavo j>ages.
Mrs. Orr's reticence is, as we have said, partly
accidental. She has not l>een able to command so
large n mass of materials as is usually placed in
the hands of the biographer. In the first place,
Browning destroyed a few years before his death,
all the letters he wrote to his sister during the
time he was in Italy (an intensely interesting
collection covering fifty years of his life); and in
the next place, he did not, so far as can be ascer-
tained, keep any diary. Lastly, it must l>e
reineiul>crcd, that there were by no means so many
* " Life and Letters of Robert Browning." By Mrs.
Sutherland Orr. (London: Smith, Elder, & Co.)
reminiscences of him forthcoming as might have
been expected. A biography like Fronde's
"Carl vie "—to cite the most popular of modern
lives—was, under these circumstances, entirely out.
of the question. Such biographies are like the
gossip of the New Journalism: interesting, but
damaging to those discussed. Our readers may
remember that it was a remark in Fitzgerald's
Memoirs which drew from Mr. Browning the
most indignant piece of verse which he ever wrote.
But in fairness to Mrs. Orr, it should he said
that, however extensive the materials placed in her
hands might have been, there need have been no fear
of her putting them to any improper use. Every-
thing that could possibly be of interest and value
would have been given in the book—no more and
no less.
The work has l>cen blamed on other grounds
than that of reticence. Mrs. Orr has been
accused of deliberately minimizing the importance
of the poet's early connexion in Dissent, This
is a point upon which she herself will, no
doubt, say something when the fitting moment
arrives. Meantime, it may be useful to point
out that Mrs. Orr had not the slightest intention
of doing anything of the kind suggested. A
good many of the facts concerning Browning's
early days were obtained by her from his sister,
Miss Browning—the facts concerning his religion
among them. It is natural, of course, that the
Nonconformist papers should desire to make as much
as possible of the fact that Browning once attended a
dissenting chapel in Camberwell; but, on the other
hand, it is equally natural that Mrs. Orr, who had
to tell the story of his whole life, and preserve a
due sense of literary perspective, should not attach
such supreme importance to it. If Nonconformity
had anything to do with moulding the poet's mind
or his character, the author of his biography ought
obviously to have laid stress upon it. But this
remains to be proved. Meantime, it will doubtless
interest Ur. Robertson Nicoll and other Noncon-
formist critics of the book to learn that Browning
never lost an opportunity of recommending
Mrs. Orr's "Handbook" to his poems, and that
he alwavs expressed particular approbation of the
manner in which his religious views wire dealt
with in that book. Her discussion of these views,
whether in the ''Handbook," or in the biography
now under consideration, is distinctly non-sectarian
in standpoint, but, at the same time, is not " bitterly
Agnostic," as has been alleged. Mrs. Orr is not
a "bitter Agnostic "; nor, indeed, in the sense
usually attached to the word is she on Agnostic at
all. Having said thus much by way of introduction,
we had l)est at once proceed briefly to sketch
Mr. Browning's career as revealed to us in the
interesting pages of Mrs. Sutherland Orr's book.
## p. 56 (#460) #############################################
56 THE AUTHOR.
Bikth and Childhood of the Poet.
Robert Browning was born at Camberwell on
May 7th, 1812.
"He was (says Mrs. On ) a handsome, vigorous, fearless
child, and soon developed an unresting activity and fiery
temper. He clamoured for occupation from the moment lie
could speak. His mother could only keep him quiet when
once he had emerged from infancy hy telling him stories—
doubtless Hihle stories—while holding him on her knee.
. . . . It has often been told how he extemporized
verse aloud while walking round and round the dining-room
table, supporting himself by his hands, when he was still so
small that his head was scarcely above it. He remembered
having entertained his mother in the very first walk he was
considered old enough to take with her, by a fantastic
account of his possessions in houses, &c, of which the
topographical details elicited from her the remark, ' Why,
sir, you are quite a geographer.' . . . This seems to
have been a first real flight of dramatic fancy, confusing
his identity for the time being."
Earliest Poetical Efforts.
Browning wont to several private schools, at
every one of which he seems to have distinguished
himself. Of course, he l>egnn to write verses at an
early age. He also read a great deal. His first
volume of poems was entitled " Incondita "—a title
which (us Mrs. Orr points out) "conveyed a certain
idea of depreciation." He was naturally very
anxious to see these verses in print, and his father
and mother, "poetry-lovers of the old school," also
found in them sufficient merit to justify their
publication. No publisher, however, could be
found. Happily, both for the poet and for his
fond parents, the bogus publisher, with whom we
are now so familiar, was in those days non-existent.
The only result of their failure to find someone
who would issue the volume was that Browning
"destroyed the little manuscript in some mingled
reaction of disappointment and disgust." In this
he acted most wisely. He proved not only that
he could write verses, but that he could do what
is infinitely more difficult—destroy them when it
became necessary to do so.
Influence of Keats and Shelley.
Browning left school soon after the completion
of his fourteenth year, and there came to him
almost immediately an influence which moulded to
no small extent the whole of his future career.
He was passing a bookstall one day, when he saw
in a box of second-hand volumes, a little book adver-
tised as "Mr. Shelley's Atheistical Poem: very
scarce." He went home, and begged his mother
to procure liim Shelley's works—a request which
she eventually complied with. He next obtained
Keats' poems, and the influence of these two writers
u|>on his life and poetry soon became very marked.
For a time, at any rate, he professed Atheism, and
was an ardent vegetarian. He soon grew dissatisfied
with his narrow home circle, and yearned for a
career. "The fact was," says his sister, in <om-
menting upon this period of unrest, "he had
outgrown his social surroundings. They were
absolutely good, but they were narrow; it could
not be otherwise. He chafed under them." All
this was, no doubt, necessary to the making of the
man and to the shaping of the poet.
Literature as a Profession.
The time at last came when young Browning
definitely decided to adopt literature its a profession.
He qualified himself for it by reading and digesting
the whole of "Johnson's Dictionary"; a course of
preparation which may l>o confidently recommended
to every young gentleman about to embark upon a
similar career. "Pauline: A Fragment of a Con-
fession," was written and published before the poet
was 21 years of age. He had an early friend
in the Rev. Mr. Fox, a Unitarian Minister, who
read his poetical effusions with interest, anil who
reviewed them in all the papers and periodicals which
could lx* said to be at his command. Most literary
men have kindly memories of some such early
friend, and by them—if by nobody else—the fol-
lowing letter from Browning to Mr. Fox will be
read with interest:—
"Perhaps, by the aid of the subjoined initials and a little
reflection, you may recollect an oddish sort of boy, who had
the honour of being introduced to you at Hackney some
years back—at that time a sayer of verse and a doer of it,
and whose doings you had a little previously commended
after a fashion—(whether in earnest or not, God knows):
that individual it is who takes the liberty of addressing one
whose slight commendation then was more thought of than
all the gun, drum, and trumpet of praise would be now, and
to submit to you a free-and-easy sort of thing which he
wrote some months ago 'On one leg,' and which conies out
this week—having either heard or dreamed that you con-
tribute to the Westminster."
Another "spontaneous appreciatior" of Mr.
Browning's genius was John Forster, the accom-
plished biographer of Goldsmith and of Charles
Dickens.
Publication of "Paracelsus."
Mr. Browning's next published work was
"Paracelsus," which did not give the young poet his
just place in popular judgment and public esteem.
"But " (as Mrs. Orr remarks) "it compelled his
recognition by the leading or rising literary men
of the day : and a fuller and more varied social life
now opened lx'fore him. The names of Sergeant
Talfourd, Home, Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall,
Monekton Milnes, Eliot Warburton, Dickens,
Wordsworth, and Walter Savage Landor represent,
with t hat of Forster, some of the acquaintances made,
or friendships begun, at this period." It was about
this time also, that he met Macready, who subse-
## p. 57 (#461) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
57
quently produced several of Browning's plays.
There was, however, a quarrel in the end, anil the
friends became permanently estranged.
"Graved inside of it, 'Italy.'"
In 1838 Browning made his tirst visit to Italy.
To what extent he loved the country may l>e
gathered from the following couplet, which occurs
in one of his poems :—
"Opi'U my heart anil you will see
Graved inside of it,' Italy.'"
The lines fitly appear upon a tablet affixed to the
Razzonico Palazzo at Venice—the house in which
the poet died. The inspirations of Asolo and
Venice appear in "Pippa Passes" nnd "In a
Gondola." More important works followed these
poems at a short interval. In 1840 "Sordello"
appeaml; and soon afterwards "Bells and Pome-
granates." The story of the publication of the
latter is pleasantly told bv Mr. Edmund Gosse in
his interesting "Personalia"—a work which Mrs.
Orr occasionally quotes.
"A Lost Leader."
Browning next wrote " A Blot in the Scutcheon"
—the last play, we fancy, that ever came from his pen
—us well as a good deal of miscellaneous verse.
Among the latter was " The Lost Leader." Every-
one knows these vigorous and beautiful lines :—
"Just for a handful of silver lie left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat."
Everyone also has heard at some time or another
that they refer to Wordsworth. Browning was
often asked the question in so many words. Here
is one of his replies :—
"I have been asked the question you put to me, I suppose,
a score of times: and I can only answer with something of
shame and contrition that I undoubtedly had Wordsworth
in ray mind—but simply as a 'model'; you know an
artist takes one or two striking traits in the features of his
'model,' and uses them to start his fane}' on a flight which
may end fur enough from the good man or woman who
happens to be 'sitting' for nose and eye. I thought of
the great poet's abandonment of Liberalism at an unlucky
juncture, and no repaying consequence that I could ever
see. But—once call my fancy-portrait Wordsworth—anil
how much more one ought to say—how much more would
not 1 have attempted to say!"
Makriaue with Miss Barrett.
The story of Robert Browning's marriage to the
greatest woman-poet which this country or this
century lias produced forms one of the most fasci-
nating chapters of Mrs. Orr's l>ook. Since, how-
ever, it has already l)een very freely quoted from,
we shall best consult the interests of our readers
by passing over it lightly, so as to leave more room
for other quotations, which the reviewers in their
haste have forgotten to make. The marriage in
question was a singularly happy one—indeed, we
do not for the moment remember any biography
of an English man of letters (except, perhaps, that
of Charles Kingsley) which contains a more perfect
picture of conjugal bliss. Browning was a devoted
husband—during the ij years of his married life
he never dined from home but once! — and
Mrs. Browning, ill though she was, proved in her
way to be an ideal wife. Mrs. Orr says that the
poet used to commemorate his marriage by going
to the church in which it. hail been solemnized,
and kissing the paving-stones in front of the door.
He certainly retained his jiassionate devotion for
ElizalK'th Barrett up to the day of his death.
"() thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be tin- rest'."
he sings in "Prospice." And just towards the
close of his life a stray reference to the woman
he had so tenderly loved in the "Memoirs of
Edward Fitzgerald "—an unkind reference—raised
his indignation to a white heat, and drew from him
the most vehement piece of invective that he ever
wrote. "There was a moment," says Mrs. Orr,
"in which he regretted these lines, and would
willingly have withdrawn them. This was the
period, unfortunately short, which intervened
between his sending them to the Athenaum and
their appearance there." That Fitzgerald's remark
deeply pained Mr. Browning there can be no doubt.
"It affected him with the directness of a sharp
physical blow. lie spoke of it, and for hours,
even days, was known to feel it as such
He only recovered his lwilance in striking the
counter-blow."
The Brownings is Italy.
But we must get on with our story. Browning
and his wife s]>cnt the greater portion of their
married life in Italy. These years must have been
the happiest of the poet's life. He was in a
country which he dearly loved: wife and child
were by his side: the most congenial company was
close at hand. Take the year 1804 for example—
the year in which the Brownings spent their first
winter in Rome. At this time the Eternal City
contained Thackeray, Lockhart, and Frederic
Leigh ton. Of Thackeray Mrs. Browning writes
as follows :—
"If anybody wants small talk by bandfuls, of glittering
dust swept out of salons, here's Mr. Thackeray!"
And of Lockhart :—
"My husband sees a good deal of him—more than I do
—because of the access of cold weather lately, which has
kept me at home chiefly. Robert went down to the seaside
on a day's excursion with him and the Sartorises—and, I
hear, found favour in his sight. Said the critic: 11 like
Browning—he isn't at all like a damned literary man.'
That's a compliment, 1 believe, according to your dic-
tionary."
## p. 58 (#462) #############################################
58 THE AUTHOR.
The Brownings in England.
In 1855 the Brownings were in London; and it
was at their house—i3, Dorset Street, Portman
Square—that Tennyson first read the manuscript of
his new poem, " Maud." It was at this time that
they first met Buskin. Here is Mrs. Browning's
allusion to him :—
"We went to Denmark Hill yesterday to have luncheon
with them, and see the Turners, which, by the way, are
divine. I like Mr. ltuskiii much, and so does ltobert. Very
gentle, yet earnest—refined and truthful. I like him very
much. We count him one among the valuable acquaintances
made this year in England."
Mrs. Browning had a hope that her father, who
would not forgive her for her marriage, would at
least so far relent towards his daughter as to kiss
her child. Her prayer to this effect remained,
however, unanswered.
Death of Mrs. Browning.
All earthly happiness has an end. Mrs.
Browning died at Casa Guidi, Florence, on the
29th of June 1861, and, for a time at any rate,
the light of the poet's life was extinguished. What
he felt may he inferred from the following letter to
his much-esteemed friend Mr.—now Sir—Frederic
Leighton.
"It is like your old kindness to write to me, and to say
what you do—1 know you feel for me. I can't write about
it—but there were many alleviating circumstances that yon
shall know one day—there seemed no pain, and (what she
would have felt most) the knowledge of separation from us
was spared her. I find these things a eomfort indeed.
. . Don't fancy I am 'prostrated '; I have enough to
do for the boy and myself in carrying out her wishes. He
is better than one would have thought, and behaves dearly
to me. Everybody has been very kind."
The blow was a terrible one; but, as Mrs. Orr
truthfully remarks, "Life conquers Death for most
of us; whether or not, 'Nature, Art, and Beauty'
assist in the conquest. It was bound to conquer in
Mr. Browning's case; first, through his many-sided
vitality; and, secondly, through the special motive
of [living and striving which remained to him in
his son."
Browning and Carlyle.
The limits of our space will not permit us to
tell the story of Browning's later years with the
fulness which it deserves. But we must not fail
to quote Mrs. Orr's reference to Carlyle. Curiously
enough, Browning's name does not once appear in
Mr. Fronde's Life of the Chelsea Sage. "Yet,"
as Mrs. Orr tells us,—
"He visited him at Chelsea in the last weary days of
his long life, as often as their distance from each other and
his own engagements allowed. He never ceased to defend
him against the charge of unkindness to bis wife, or to
believe that in the matter of their domestic nnhappiness,
she was the more responsible of the two. Vet Carlyle had
never rendered him that service, easy as it appears, which
one man of letters most justly values from another: that of
proclaiming the admiration which he privately expresses for
his works."
The closing years of Robert Browning's life had
—to put the thing briefly—all that should accom-
pany old age—" honour, love, obedience, troops of
friends." He died at Venice on December 12th,
1889, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on the
last day of the same year.
Robert Browning: Some Characteristics.
Our extended notice of this important " Book of
the Month" will best conclude with some account
of Robert Browning the man, founded upon Mrs.
Orr's twentieth chapter—an excellent summary—
obviously written by a very intimate friend. "The
poet (says our author) was strangely constant to
habit: what beloved once he loved always, from
the dearest man or woman to whom his allegiance
had been given, to the humblest piece of furniture
with had served him." But his habits were not so
strong that they could not be broken if occasion
imperatively demanded the taking of such a course.
For years he was a devoted follower of Mr. Glad-
stone; but, when the time came, he did not hesitate
to become a passionate Unionist; although (as
Mrs. Orr points out) "the question of our political
relations with Ireland weighed less with him than
those considerations of law and order, of honesty
and humanity, which had been trampled under foot
in the name of Home Rule." Like every man
who deserves Earth-room he worshipped genius—
long years ago when he was in Paris he caused
his little son to run up to and touch Beranger, in
order that the boy might be able to say in after
life that he had at least touched a great man. As
a poet he finished his work very carefully; the
most conscientious labour being always devoted to
form. He never forget that most excellent saying,
Nulla dies sine linea, and always counted a day
lost on which he had not written something. Like
Mr. George Meredith he could throw off impromptu
verses, whether serious or comical, with the utmost
ease. That he was a brilliant talker goes almost
without saying; he was admittedly more a talker
than a conversationalist. In a word, Robert
Browning, as presented to us in the fascinating
pages of Mrs. Sutherland Orr's "Life " is at once
a great poet, and an interesting, widely-gifted, and
intensely human man. Poetic gifts apart, his
character is best described in the words of
Hamlet :—
"He was a man, take him for all in all,
We shall not look upon his like again."
Pendennis.
■
## p. 59 (#463) #############################################
THE A UTHOR.
59
IF SHAKSPEARE HAD BEEN PRIEST.
|HEEE is one event which—if it had hap-
pened—might have changed the whole, rela-
tions of this world to the unseen world.
Let us consider what a difference it would have
made to the cultured dwellers upon earth if William
Shakspeare had elected, or had been called, to
become a priest or theologian by preference and
by profession. Think what the results must have
been if such an intellect had been devoted specially
to the service of God, and to the stewardship of
the divine mysteries. As layman or as priest in
his own day in Italy, in Spain, or France, he—a
man of such genius, of such honesty, and one so
near to God—would certainly have been burnt j
but it is conceivable that he might have been led,
it would be to consider too curiously if we should
try to think how, to become a clergyman in the
noble Church of England of his own great day.
A youthful frolic of park-breaking, possibly of
deer slaying, determined, mysteriously, Shakspeare's
whole career; and what we call chance shaped the
ends which he, at 18, had scarcely rough-hewn.
Then came the sudden, enforced flight from Strat-
ford-on-Avon to the London of Elizabeth, while with
this flight was coupled the necessity of earning;
and, in this wise, the steps of the glorious youth
were directed, by some unseen Power, to the play-
house; to acting upon, and then to writing for, the
stage.
Had Shakspeare been, by the same Power,
directed to the priestly office, we should, no doubt,
have lost his plays; though the examples of George
Herbert and of Herrick show that a man may be
at once priest and poet. In his dramas, Shakspeare
proved himself to be a profound and lofty theo-
logian; and yet we can hardly reconcile ourselves
to the mere idea of wanting those plays which we
possess so proudly and prize bo highly. On the
other hand, we may weigh, with a certain regret,
the certainty that, if Shakspeare had given all his
powers to theology, the relations between God and
man would have stood upon a clearer, nobler, firmer
basis; so that the blank of agnosticism, or the
sorrows of doubt, would have been the portion only
of the ignoble, or the torment merely of the weak-
ling. We cannot regret that Shakspeare was led
and gifted to do that which he did do; and yet
wi! may contemplate, not without a certain vague
sorrow, the other thing which also he might have
been, and the other services which also he might
have rendered to our iufirm and erring race.
Shakspeare, as a professed theologian, must have
made his mark; and, in addition to ordinary
preaching, would certainly, as we may well imagine,
have written and have published writings which
would have been a revelation of revelation, which
would have linked man to his Creator, would have
removed many doubts, would have rendered clear
divine truth, and would have unfolded to mankind
divine wisdom and divine love. But it was otherwise
ordained.
Our greatest man became poet and playwright.
We enjoy and admire him, past all whooping, in
that capacity; but, meanwhile, doubt spreads and
sorrow deepens; and that revelation, which is but
a hint and a glimpse, seems to want the help of his
powers to render it full, clear, and dear to suffering,
straining men, whose eyes are wasted with looking
for the light behind the veil. Behind that veil
Shakspeare, more than any other man, could see
and could divine. He had insight into divine
meanings; and to this man was granted under-
standing to conceive, and ability to interpret the
Wokd. He understood the relations between
Creator and creature, and he could comprehend
the supremacy of Good above all the transient shows
of Evil. What he saw he could make others see.
He could reconcile intellect with spiritualism; and
the highest-mounted mind of man would have been
the truest representative of the Most High.
Priests, as they exist, seem to be generally unable
to understand fully, and unworthy to reveal fitly,
Him. They scarcely comprehend that God is
divine; but Shakspeare, as a priest, would have
been of more worth to us than all tin; churches.
We bow to the inevitable; but we, the countrymen
of Shakspeare, may legitimately speculate—a specu-
lation which if fantastic is yet not idle—upon the
higher and happier world which might now exist
if William Shakspeare, with his almost superhuman
intellect and with his infinite tenderness, had been
elected to the office of Vatrs, of Prophet as of
Poet, and had thus been enabled to unfold to man
the mysteries of the universe and the nature of its
Creator.
H. Schutz Wilson.
"CONTES CRUELS."
YILLIERS de LTsle Adam represents the dis-
tinctly aristocratic element in the school of
"Les Poetes Maudits." In him is a com-
bination rarely found: the union of satire and
romance. The "Contes Cruels" are of three
kinds: purely satirical studies, without plot; tales
of mystery; and tales combining these characteristics
in varying proportions. The volume is conspicuous
for its variety, a merit further enhanced by very-
great originality. The tales are cruel not in their
detail but because of their tone of thought. Witli
## p. 60 (#464) #############################################
6o
THE AUTHOR.
very few exceptions they are full of scarcely con-
cealed scorn. Others of the stories may excel in
particular points, but the most perfectly pro-
portioned, the most successful, arc those that analyse
middle-class sentiment and weigh the resj>eetability
of the bourgeoisie.
The author possesses very strong imagination
and great descriptive powers, but the two gifts do
not run evenly. The most imaginative of the
stories do not make so distinct, an impression as
others which are less original. "LTntersigno,"
a ghost story of the most ordinary type, is perhaps
the best-produced story in the collection, and, in
spite of the familiarity of the main incidents, one of
the most striking. The fact that it suggests com-
parison with Thcophile Gautier's "La Morte
Amoureuse," and can i>car the comparison, is further
evidence of the author's skill. Such stories as
"Vera," while they recall the tales of Edgar Allan
Poe and are charming in form, are not quite
definite enough in idea. Poe is always extra-
ordinarily definite and direct in thought; Villiers
de L'Isle Adam is vague. "L'Annonciateur"
could scarcely be better in description, the im-
pression it creates is superb, so superb that it
obscures the idea which runs through it dimly
glimmering only and scarcely defining impression
into thought. For this reason I prefer " Souvenirs
Occultes," which produces impressions no less vivid,
and expresses a clear idea. The fact is that the
more material theme of "Souvenirs Occultes" is
more suited to the genius of the author.
But these stories are not his most characteristic
work, though they are excellent in themselves, and
prove that he was capable of wholly divesting his
mind of its habitual cynicism. He is most per-
fectly represented by " Les Demoiselles de Bien-
lilatre," "Deux Augures," and perhaps "Sombre
recit conteur plus sombre," which show his
different manners in his special field. "Les De-
moiselles de Bienfilatre" is a masterpiece. No
theme could be more suited to the author than the
relativity of Good and Evil; he must have felt so
himself, for he returns to it in another storv,
"Maryelle."
The two Demoiselles de Bienfilatre are
engaged in a well-established business. Though
somewhat laborious, it is not unlucrative, so that
together they arc able to support their aged parents
in comfort. Suddenly, as may happen even to the
most considerable people, the younger Demoiselle
is seized with a caprice, gives up her business, and
leaves her unselfish sister to support their parents
alone. The patience and shame of this devoted
daughter, the heart-broken desolation of the worthy
parents, plunged almost into poverty in their
honourable old age; how delicately, how sympa-
thetically these are described! The dutiful
daughter, wearied by her fallen sister's obstinacy,
at last takes the elite of her trade and her
custom into her confidence. The scandal has
spread too far to admit of reticence. Their
respectable experience! may be able to suggest some
means of reclaiming her to a healthier, a more
practical, state of mind. As Mademoiselle de
Bienfilatre axnee justly observes, "One is not put
into this world only to amuse oneself." She has
appealed to the " poor lost girl " by the "memories
of her childhood," "by the ties of blood," all in
vain. But soil watered witli parental prayers,
bedewed by a sister's tears, cannot long nourish the
weeds of selfish sentiment. At last the girl's own
conscience, formed as it has been in such respect-
able surroundings, revolts. She is dying of very
shame, " Le moral tuait le physique, la lame usait
le fourreau." The Priest arrives, and in the
dying prodigal's confession wo learn her sin. "A
lover—for pleasure—without payment." This is
her crime: she has sold the wares which were her
worthy parents' livelihood; she has left her sister to
pursue their arduous, if lucrative, calling alone.
She has deserted the beaten paths of the pavement,
to err in the labyrinth of gratuitous love. It is
true that the partner of her crime had desired to
marry her. "I want my poor daughter," the old
man had said between his sobs. "Monsieur,"
replied the young man, " I love her; I beg you to
give me her hand." "Miserable'." exclaimed
Bienfilatre, revolted by this "cynicism." But
this folly is past, and she is now repentant, lying,
waiting for death. At length her lover, a young
artist, enters. He brings her the first-fruits of his
talent, money to buy her some necessity in her
sickness. She sees the glitter of gold between his
fingers, now at last her love has received the
imprimatur of society, " The guinea stamp," and
she dies in peace. I doubt if the petticoat of
that matron, whose1 skirts would envelop the world,
has shadowed a more dutiful daughter than
Mademoiselle de Bienfilatre uince. I doubt even
if that conscience, so singular amongst us for
delicacy, could wince at the Quixotic honour of
this respectable family.
Virginie ct Paul are, as their names imply,
very young. And is not "very young" synono-
mous with "very innocent," "very thoughtless,"
"very simple "? When they meet at night, there
in the garden of Virginie's Seminaire, to discuss
their future happiness, how can we help comparing
them to the simple things of nature about them—
the calculating ant, the economical bee? Their
conversation is as irreproachable as the discussions
that follow a lecture on "Courtship" in a British
British School. And then when they part, we
seem to hear the voices of nature re-echoing their
## p. 61 (#465) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
61
conversation: the breeze in the garden murmur of
"Securities," and the nightingales warbling "Six
per Cents."
Compared with these two "barbarities," the
"cruelty " of "Le plus beau diner du monde " and
"Les Brigands" is mere salutary irony. "Lea
Brigands" is a grim farce, told with great force
and wit. The dead townsmen's logic is delightful.
The author's power of satire is sometimes so
delicate that it is almost credible that the irresis-
tible funniness of "The Duke of Portland" is in-
tentional. The peculiar vein of humour on which
it touches is, however, unknown in France.
Rather, it must be acknowledged, even to the
slight detraction of the author's great power, that
certain subjects on which the. tale touches are en-
dowed with that faculty which draws upon them
the blessings of the close of a century, the unfailing
gift of In'ing ridiculous. Nevertheless, the secret
of the story is revealed in one page with all the
simple directness of true tragedy.
"Deux Augures"' and " La machine a gloire'' are
the most remarkable of the plotless satirieal studies.
In "Deux Augures " the requisites for success in
journalism are detailed with pitiless accuracy—the
mediocrity which excites no envy, and the careless-
ness which precludes all thought. "La machine a
gloire" is a description of the logical mechanical
extension of present dramatic criticism.
"Sentimentalisme," "Sombre recit conteur plus
sombre," and "Le desir d'etre un homnie," all harp
in distinct fashions on the question whether the
exercise of the artistic faculties blunt the natural.
An incident of cruelty, unsurpassed in refinement,
is alluded to in "Sentimentalisme"—the story of the
man who made his wife laugh by the death-bed of
her dying lover. In "Le desir d'etre un honnne"
the author's cynicism rises almost into pathos when
he describes the death-bed of the incendiary-actor
in his lonely lighthouse, moaning for the sight of
but one spectre before he dies," not compre-
hending that he was himself the thing he sought."
♦••■»
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
TI^DK biographers of Archbishop Tail have
I made no indecent haste to give the details
of his life to the world. If their eulogy is, as
the Guardian hints, "laid on with a trowel," it
must l>c remembered not only that they were the
special disciples of the Archbishop, but that during
his life he was abused by his own llock with more
acrimony than any other man in England. One
Church paper even gravely disputed as to whether
he had ever been baptised, with the intention of
implying that his consecration as Archbishop was
invalid. The acrimony of the attacks upon him
have created a feeling in his favour. It will be
admitted that, as a statesmen, he excelled all the
occupants of the See of Canterbury since the
Reformation, with the exception of Parker and
Laud. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any Arch-
bishop, since those two, has had more practical
effect in politics. It is remarkable that an event
so important in the life of an Archbishop as his
Ordination to the priesthood is not even mentioned
by his ecclesiastical biographers.
Mr. William Wilson has in the press a transla-
tion of Ibsen's "Brand" (Methuen & Co.)
Mr. Wilson's translations from Balzac formed one
of the most interesting of the Camelot Series.
"Brand" is, in the opinion of many (not Ibsenites),
the Norwegian's finest work. It would l>e im-
jKissible to have rendered satisfactorily the j>oetic
drama into English verse, and the translator has
wisely prepared a prose version. According to
Mr. Swinburne, the "Childe Harold" is much
better reading in Italian prose than in the original;
perhaps "Brand," too, will benefit by the
transition.
Those who are interested in Italian Art and
History should not fail to get the life of
"Bartolomeo Colleoni" by Mr. Oscar Browning
(printed for the Arundel Society). With so
delightful a subject, it would be hard not to be
interesting. But Mr. Oscar Browning, whose life
of George Elliot proved him an ideal biographer
for these days, when time is short, has turned his
scholarship and knowledge to good account once
more by making history attractive, and archaeology
picturesque.
A candidate for poetic laurels, is no more. We
learn from France, that " the popular English poet
MacMillan" has been found dead alone on his
yacht, floating about somewhere off the coast of
Calvados. Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Edmund Gosse,
Sir Edwin Arnold, Mr. Oscar Wilde, Mr. Coventry
Patmore, and Mr. Austin Dobson have now the
lield to themselves. As for the great dead, if
an ungrateful country could find no laurels for
his brow, at least it is not too late to lav a wreath
of cypress on his tomb. I invite the above
brothers of the departed to join in a competition
to produce the ode which will no doubt be chanted
at his obsequies in Westminster Abbey shortly to
be announced. The. Queen will be petitioned to
appoint the successful poet heir-apparent to the
Laureatcship.
## p. 62 (#466) #############################################
62
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Goodman is a bold man. He leaves the last
chapter of his story untold and offers prizes to
anyone who will write it. Of course the story
must Ik! completed its the author intended. It
would not he enough to complete it as the reader
thinks it might be completed. The denouement of
the plot must be such as to follow naturally and to
explain every successive step of the history and
the situation. The book entitled " What did She
see ?" is on all the bookstalls.
More attractive than any work of fiction to
many readers, will be the Introductory Essay con-
tributed by Mr. Andrew Lang to Dr. Oskar
Sommer's " Studies on the Sources " of " Le Morte
Darthin" by Sir Thomas Mallory, a colossal work
now completed. We do not want to be told that
Sir Thomas Mallory is a writer brimful of charm
and interest and romance, but it is pleasant to
have the charm translated into words for us.
Thus Mr. Lang sums up pretty well all that we
want to say, when he calls it the hook "of all
jumbles the most poetic and the most pathetic."
Mr. Lang is a critic wrho should lie retained for
nothing but advocacy. He should stand perpetually
before some great work to explain to those who
feel but cannot speak why it is great. He used
at one time to assume occasionally the character of
the rapier and dagger man. The bludgeon, I
believe, he has never condescended to handle.
The Burlington Fine Arts has long been known
for its delightful little exhibitions. At present
there is a collection of book bindings from all the
treasuries of the United Kingdom. No art has so
improved of late years, but there is still much to
reform, and more to sweep away. The catalogue
of the present exhibition has two interesting prefaces
from the pens of Mr. E. Gordon Duff and Mr. S.
J. Prideaux.
It is rather late in the day to recommend a work
of reference that must already be in everyone's
hand—the Annual Index of the Review of
Itcvieics. If, however, any of the readers of that
most wonderful of the English (I may say of the
world's) magazines have not yet purchased the
index, they should immediately do so.
"The Directory of Secondhand Booksellers,"
edited by James Clegg, has reached a 3rd edition.
The book deserves to be even better known than it
is. It contains masses of useful information, con-
cerning all matters of literary economy. I should
suggest as improvements in subsequent editions, the
alteration of the title to one more descriptive of the
contents, and the omission of all poems and other
useless, if "literary," matter. It is a great pity
also that advertisements are bound at intervals into
the middle of the book. This most objectionable
practice at once suggests inferiority in any publi-
cation, a suggestion seldom belied. We are bound
to say the Directory is not an example of the truth
of this self-evident truth.
Mr. Powis Bale, author of "Wood-working
Machinery," "Stone-working Machinery," Ac,
has produced a new book on "Saw Mills: Their
Arrangement and Management" (Crosby, Lock-
wood, & Co.).
Mr. J. Stanley Little contributes an article
entitled, "A Conimonsense View of England's
Imperial Destiny" to the current number of
Greater Britain.
Mr. Joseph Forster, author of "Four Great
Teachers," has published a volume entitled, "Some
French and Spanish Men of Genius" (Ellis and
Elvey). It contains sketches of Marivaux,
Voltaire, Bousseau, Diderot, Beaumarchais,
Mirabeau, Dautin, Rol>espierre, Beranger, Victor
Hugo, Eugene Sue, Zola, Cervantes, Lope de
Vega, and Calderon.
Good Bye. A Novel. By John Strange Winter,
is., paper covers; cloth, I*. 6d. F. V.White
& Co. Ready June 15th.
A new serial story by John Strange Winter,
entitled "Lumley, the Painter," begins in Mrs.
Stannard's successful weekly magazine, Golden
Gates, on July 25th. It has been written specially
for her own paper, and will not appear in any
other periodical in this country.
Mr. Mackenzie Bell contributes to the Rural
World a poem called "Two Lives," which indi-
rectly refers to the "Old Age Pensions " scheme.
In the Author for June, a case is mentioned
where an author got nothing upon the smashing up
of a magazine; and the remark is that the author
left the MS. too long—a year. How long, asks
a correspondent, is a reasonable time between ac-
ceptance and appearance of an article? One of
mine has been waiting o\ years; in print 8 months
(the proofs). Again, how can one withdraw
article No. i, which may have been waiting a
## p. 63 (#467) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
year or more, when No. 2 (sent, later) has appeared
in the magazine? One naturally imagines it is
unavoidably shunted for a time.
On Friday, June 5th, a complimentary dinner
was given at the Criterion to Mr. P. W. Robinson,
the novelist and editor of Home Chimes, by a
number of personal friends and contributors. The
chair was taken by Mr. J. K. Jerome, and Mr. J.
M. Barrie was Vice-Chairman ; among those present
were Mr. Mov Thomas, Mr. Kershaw, Mr. Rol>ert
Barr (Luke Sharp), Mr. Theodore Watts, Mr. H.
E. Clarke, and Mr. Charles F. Rideal.
In the wilderness of the book world there are
few wanderers that have not felt the want of a
guide. Bibliographies there are in plenty, but most
people who have to use them are anything but
grateful to their learned and industrious compilers.
It is to the ordinary student most helpful
to lie presented with an elaborate analysis of the
entire literature of a subject. This want promises
to lie tilled by the "Guide Book to Books," which
has lx>en edited bv Mr. E. B. Sargant and Mr.
Bernhard Whishaw, and published by Mr. Frowde.
The task of producing a work which shall within
the compass of something less than 35o pages,
supply a selected catalogue of the lxwks which are
of value in each department of knowledge was
certainly not an easy one; and the editors may be
congratulated on having so capably discharged it.
Largely contributed by specialists, the sections of the
work possess an interest of their own, since they
indicate something like " the best hundred books"
in most directions of thought and action by those
who are well qualified to express an opinion. The
book, of course, tempts criticism. Anything of the
character of a selection of the essential literature
of each subject must inevitably contain omissions
which it is not easy to understand. Still, the work
as it stands may safely l>e recommended to the
most omnivorous student.
SIMILARITY OP PLOT.
"TTAVING had occasion to make the ac-
I I quaintance, at second hand, of a large
nnmlier of novels," writes W. M. G., of
Cambridge, Mass., "I have been struck by the
want of originality in plot and situation, even in
those which, at first glance, are noticeable for the
presence of that quality. Of the plot of what
work, for instance, docs the reader suppose the
following to Ik: a summary :—
"' A peculiar father is responsible for the peculiar
infancy, education, and subsequent fortunes of the
heroine. In despair at the loss of his wife, ho
rushes from the worship of love to an opposite
extreme, in which he discovers, declares, and would
fain propagate a philosophy which shall exclude love,
and herewith suffering, from the human race. He
is mad enough to try the experiment in sober earnest
on his only child.'
"Doubtless of the same work as that described
thus :—
"'The tale is of a man whose whole interest, in
existence is so centred in his wife that on her death
he becomes a pessimist. Sidney is his only child,
and from her infancy he makes it his care to rear
her in his own beliefs: chief among them, that love
is the most monstrous mistake and irony in the
universe, and is to be shunned as the most dreadful
pestilence of life.'
"It is not, however. The latter quotation
related to Mrs. Deland's 'Sidney,' which ran
through the Atlantic, in 1890; the first to
'Margaret Jermine,' both novel and criticism having
been published in 1886."
New York Critic.
SOME BOOKS OF THE MONTH.
Donald Boss of Heimra. William Black.
Sampson Low & Co.
Canon Cheyne's Bampton Lectures. Kegan
Paul.
Sir Henry Thompson's Modern Cremation.
Kegan Paid.
The Little Manx Nation. Hall Caine. Heine-
maun.
Laurence Oliphant. Mrs. Oliphant. Blackwood.
(Fifth Edition.)
St. Katherinc's by the Tower. Walter Besant.
Chatto & Windus.
Tinkletop's Crime. George R. Sims. Chatto &
Windus.
Sunny Stories. James Payn. Chatto & Windus.
A Leading Lady. Henry Hermann. Chatto &
Windus.
Robert Browning. Mrs. Sutherland Orr.
Smith & Elder. (Second Edition.)
London City. Rev. W. J. Loftie. Leadenhall
Press.
Ibsen's Prose Dramas. William Archer. Walter
Scott.
Footsteps of Fate. Heinemann. International
Library.
## p. 64 (#468) #############################################
64
THE AUTHOR.
CONDITIONS OP MEMBERSHIP.
The Subscription is One Guinea annually,
payable on the ist of January of each year.
The sum of Ten Guineas for life membership
entitles the subscriber to full membership of the
Society.
Authors of published works alone are eligible for
membership.
Those who desire to assist the Society but are
not authors can be admitted as Associates, on the
same subscription, but can have no voice in the
government of the Society.
Cheques and Postal Orders should be crossed
"The Imperial Bank, Limited, Westminster
Branch."
Those who wish to be proposed as Members may
send their names at any time to the Secretary at
the Society's Offices, when they will receive a form
for the enumeration of their works. Subscriptions
entered after the ist of October will cover the next
year.
The Secretary may be personally consulted
between the hours of i p.m. and 5, except on
Saturdays. It is preferable that an appointment
should lie made by letter.
The Author, the Organ of the Society, can lie
procured through all newsagents, or from the
publishers, Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, East
Harding Street, Fetter Lane.
A copy will lie sent free to any Member of the
Society for one twelvemonth, dating from May
1889. It is hoped, however, that most Members
will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscrip-
tion is 6s. 6f/., including postage, which may l)e sent
to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.C.
With regard to the reading of MSS. for young
writers, the fee for this service is One Guinea.
MSS. will lie read and reported upon for others
than Members, hut Members cannot have their works
read for nothing.
In all cases where an opinion is desired 14)011 a
manuscript, the author should send with it a table
of contents. A type-written scenario is also of
very great assistance.
It must be understood that such a reader's report,
however favourable, does not necessarily assist the
author towards publication.
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to
make the following warnings as widely known as
possible. They are based on the experience of six
years' work upon the dangers to which literary
property is exposed :—
(1.) Nevek sign any agreement of which the
alleged cost of production forms an
integral part, unless an opportunity of
proving the correctness of the figures is
given them.
(2.) Never enter into any correspondence with
publishers, especially with advertising
publishers, who are not recommended by
experienced friends or by this Society.
(3.) Never, on any account whatever, bind
yourself down for future work to any
one firm of publishers.
(4.) Never accept any proposal of royalty
without consultation with the Society, or,
at least, ascertaining exactly what the
agreement gives to the author and what
to the publisher.
(5.) Never accept any offer of money for MSS.,
without previously taking advice of the
Society.
(6.) Never accept any pecuniary risk or respon-
sibility whatever without advice.
(7.) Never, when a MS. has been refused by
respectable houses, pay others, whatever
promises they may put forward, for the
production of the work.
(8.) Never sign away American or foreign
rights. Keep them. Refuse to sign an
agreement containing a clause which
reserves them for the publisher. If the
publisher insists, take away the MS. and
offer it to another.
(9.) Never forget that publishing is a business,
like any other business, totally unconnected
with philanthropy, charity, or pure love
of literature. You have to do with
business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
London: Printed by Eyke and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty.
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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ZTbe Hutbor*
{The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 3.]
AUGUST i, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
FAOE
The Dinner *9
Overheard—
I. At the Black Jack Club So
II. From a Letter 81
III. In the Train 81
IV. At the Table 8j
Literary Maxims 8a
Notes and News 8a
The Authors' Club 8s
International Copyright—
I. The President's Proclamation 86
II. Mr.Secretary Foster's Regulations 87
III. What will happen? 87
IV. Opinion of Sir Horace Davey 89
PAGE
International Copyright—continued.
V. Opinion of Sir Michael Hicks-Bcach 9°
VI. Answer to Questions 9'
Correspondence—
I. Now Grub Street 1*
II. The Rev. William Shakspearfi M
III. Presentation Copies °*
IV. Payment on Publication 94
V. Insurance 95
VI. Titles
US
From Grub Street 9S
"At the Author's Head" 9S
The Author's Bookstall ,6
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE.
ACTION OF LIGHT ON WATER COLOURS—Report
to the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council
on Education. (With Diagrams and Plates.) By post, 2*. 11 d.
PLIOCENE DEPOSITS OF BRITAIN, THE. By
Clement Reid, F.L S., F.G.S. Five Plates (48 cuts), s». id.
LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: Guido to the
Geology of. By William Whitakeb, B.A. is.
LONDON AND OF PART OF THE THAMES VALLEY',
The Geology of. By W. Wiiitaker, B.A.. F.R.S., F.G.S.,
Assoc. Inst. C.E. Vol. I. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 8vo.
cloth, 6s. Vol. II. APPENDICES. 8vo., cloth, s».
ISLE OF WIGHT, Geology of. By H. W. Bkistow,
F.R.S., F.G.S. Second Edition. Revised and enlarged by
Clement Rkid. F.G.8., and Aubrey Steahan, M.A., F.G.S.
8vo., cloth, 8i. 6d.
COPYRIGHT LAW REFORM: An Exposition of Lord
Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament; with
Extracts from the Report nf the Commission of 187R, and an
Appendix containing the Berne Convention and the American
Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. is. td.
STATE TRIALS, Reports of; New Series. Published
nnder the direction ot the State Trials Committee. Edited by
John MacDonell, M.A., of the Middle Temple. Barrister-at-
Law. Vols. I., II., and III. ready. Price ios. per volume.
"It is for the most part an interesting, not to say fascinating, study
for anyone, that is to say, who cares about history at nil."—Daily
Newt.
CHINA (No. 2). Report, by C. W. Campbell, of a
Journey in North Corea, in September and October, 1889. A
considerable portion of the narrative contains descriptive
matter that appeals to the general reader, but there are also
many interesting facts bearing upon mining, forestry, agricul-
ture, trade, and kindred topics, od.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Final Report of the Royal
Commission appointed to inquire into the present want of space
for Monuments in Westminster Abbey; with Appendices. 91/.
KEW BULLETIN, 1890. Issued by the Director of Kew
Gardens, it. iod.
KEW BULLETIN, 1891. Monthly, id. Appendices, id.
each. Annual Subscription, including postage, }t. 9<f
WEATHER, STUDY AND FORECAST OF. Aids to.
By Rev. W. Clement Lev, M.A. i».
ROYAL MILITARY EXHIBITION, 1890. Descriptive
Catalogue of Musical Instruments recently exhibited at the
Royal Military Exhibition. Compiled by Capt. C. R. Day,
Oxfordshire Light Infantry, under the orders of Col. Shaw-
Hellier, Commandant Royal Military School of Music. The
instruments are fully described; they are arranged systemati-
cally under their respective families and classes, and a chrono-
logical arrangement has, as much as possible, been adhered to.
Each family of instrument has been prefaced by a carefully-
written Introductory Essay. Musical pitch has not been left
unnoticed, and a learned Essay from the pen of a well-known
authority upon the subject nppears in the Appendix. The book
is illustrated by a series of Twelve Artistically executed Plates
in Heliogravure, and with numerous Wood Engravings. The
issue is limited to 1,000 copies. 11s.
Monthly Lists of Parliamentary Papers upon Application. Quarterly Lists Post Free, id.
Miscellaneous List on Application.
Every Assistance given to Correspondents; and Books not kept in stock obtained without delay. Remittance should
accompany Order.
GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL PURLISHERS.
EYRE anil SPttTTISffOODE, Her Majesty's Printers, East Harding Street, London, B.C.
## p. 66 (#470) #############################################
66
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Messrs. METHUEN'S NEW BOOKS.
By W. E. NORRIS.
JACK'S FATHEB. By W. E. Norhis, Author of
"Matrimony," Ac. Crown 8vo. 3*. bd.
By M. BETHAM EDWARDS.
DISAEMED. By M. Betham Edwards, Author of
"Kitty," &c. Crown 8vo. 3*. bd.
By EDNA LYALL.
DEBBICK VAUQHAN, NOVELIST. By Edna Lyalt,
Author of "Donovan." New and Cheaper Edition. Paper
cover, is.; limp doth, i». bd. Thirty-first Thousand.
By S. BARING GOULD.
ABM1NELL: A Social Romance. By S. Baring Gould,
Author of " Mehalah." &c. Third and Cheaper Edition. Paper
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## p. 67 (#471) #############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS. 67
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68
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## p. 69 (#473) #############################################
^Tbe Butbot\
{The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 3.] AUGUST i, 1891. [Pbice Sixpence.
For the Opinions expressed in papers that arc
signed the Authors alone are responsible.
NOTICE.
READERS are requested to observe that during
the month of August the secretarial strength
at the Office is greatly diminished. It will,
therefore, be a great convenience if letters asking
for advice or assistance could be kept back until
September. Urgent cases, however, will be sent on
and attended to as soon as possible. The Office is
open as usual for the payment of subscriptions and
donations, the entrance of names for membership,
and all ordinary office work.
Readers of the Author are earnestly' entreated
to disseminate as widely as possibly the warnings
and advice contained in every number; above all,
to enforce everywhere the simple counsel to have
nothing whatever to do with any publisher not
recommended by a friend who has had personal
experience, or by the Society.
♦■»■♦
THE ANNUAL DINNER
OF THE
INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
HELD AT "THE WHITEHALL ROOMS,"
HOTEL METROFOLE,
ON
Thursday, July 16th, 1891,
LORD MONKSWELL in the Cuaib.
rflHERE were over two hundred members and
I guests present at the dinner. The following
is the list, but at the last moment two or three
found themselves unable to attend ;—.
More Adey.
George Allen.
Miss Grace Allen.
E. A. Armstrong.
Edwin Lester Arnold.
Mrs. Edwin Lester Arnold.
James Baker, F.R.G.S.
M. Powis Bale.
Wolcott Balestier.
The Rev. Dr. Barker.
Miss Jessie Barker.
Arthur W. a, Beckett.
Mrs. A. W. h Beckett.
Max Beerbohm.
Rev. Canon C. D. Bell.
Mackenzie Bell.
Miss Belloc.
Herbert Ben twitch.
Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G.
Mrs. Oscar Beringcr.
Walter Besant.
Mrs. Walter Besant.
M. Bhowneggree.
Augustine Birrell, M.P.
William Black.
Henry Blackburn.
Mrs. Henry Blackburn.
J. Arthur Blaikie.
Paul Blouet. (" Max O'Rell.")
Madame Blouet.
Anna, Comtesse do Bremont.
A. E. Bridger.
Oscar Browning.
James Bryce, M.P.
Professor C. A. Buchheim, Ph.D.
Mrs. Mona Caird.
Mrs. Lovett Cameron.
J. Dykes Campliell.
Thomas Catling.
A. Chatto.
Edward Clodd.
John Coleman.
W. Morris Colles.
F. Howard Collins.
W. M. Conway. .
C. H. RadclifTe Cooke, M.P.
Miss Cordeux.
Miss K. M. Cordeux. (" Daniel Dormer.")
## p. 70 (#474) #############################################
7o
THE AUTHOR.
Mrs. Roalfe Cox.
Miss Roalfe Cox.
Miss May Cronimelin.
John Beattie Crozier.
G. D. Dav.
C. F. Dowsett.
A. Conan Doyle.
A. W. Dubourg.
George Dumaurier.
J. W. Eilinonds.
Mrs. Edmonds.
Walter L. J. Ellis.
Dana Estes.
B. L. Farjeon.
George Manville Fenn.
Basil Field.
Mrs. Basil Field.
Clyde Fiteh.
Percy Fitzgerald.
Professor Michael Foster, F.R.S.
Dr. Richard Garnett.
William A. Gibbs.
Rev. Dr. Giusburg.
George W. Godfrey.
Dr. J. A. Goodchild.
Edmund Gosse.
Mrs. Edmund Gosse.
H. Rider Haggard.
Egmont Hake.
Professor John W. Hales.
Henry Harland.
Mrs. Henry Harland.
Mrs. George Harley.
Henry Harper.
Miss Harrison.
Bret Harte.
Joseph Hatton.
E. C. Haynes.
Arthur Herbert.
John W. Hill.
W. Earle Hodgson.
Clive Holland.
J. W. Houghton.
Miss Houghton.
Reginald Hughes.
Mrs. Reginald Hughes.
Rev. William Hunt.
Mrs. William Hunt.
Mrs. Hutcheson.
Professor Huxley.
Charles T. C. James.
Rev. Theodore Johnson.
Frel>endary Harry Jones.
H. G. Keene, CLE.
Joseph Knight.
Mrs. Laffan. (" Mrs. Leith Adams.")
Rev. Dr. Lansdell.
Lorin Latbrop.
Mrs. Lorin Latbrop.
Edmund Lee.
Sidney Lee.
J. M. Lely.
Lady William Lennox.
Robert Lincoln (the American Minister).
J. Stanley Little.
Mrs. Carnegie Long.
Sidney Low.
Mrs. Sidney Low.
Justin Huntly McCarthy.
Justin McCarthy.
Norman McColl.
J. W. Mcllvaine.
S. B. G. McKinney.
Dr. B. E. Martin.'
Edward Martin.
Brander Matthews.
Mrs. Brander Matthews.
Atbol Maudslay.
M. Mijatovich.
Mine. Mijatovich.
Professor W. Minto.
W. Cosmo Monkhouse.
Lord Monkswell.
Lewis Morris.
George Moore.
Rev. W. D. Morrison.
Mrs. Chandler Moulton.
Henry H. Newill.
Professor J. E. Nixon.
Miss Oakes.
John O'Neill.
James R. Osgood.
Walter Pater.
Arthur Paterson.
Dr. William Pole, F.R.S.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart ., LL.D.
Lady Pollock.
Walter H. Pollock.
Mrs. Walter H. Pollock.
Miss Edith Pollock.
Reginald S. Poole.
Stanley Lane Poole.
Norman Porritt.
John Rae.
W. Fraser Rae.
Miss Helen Leah Read.
F. W. Robinson.
John Robinson.
James Rolt.
Rol>ert Ross.
Miss Elise Ross.
Herr von Poorten Schwartz. (Mr. " Maar-
ten Maartens.")
George Sheldon.
Dr. Sisley.
Rev. Professor Skeat, Litt.D.
Douglas Sladen.
G. W. Smalley.
## p. 71 (#475) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
71
Rev. Dr. Smith.
Miss Jane Smith.
Mrs. Spender.
S. Squire Sprigge.
Dr. Balruanno Squire.
Sir John Staincr, Mus.D.
Professor C. V. Stanford, Mus.D.
Mrs. 0. V. Stanford.
Miss Stephens.
Miss J. Stephens.
J. Ashhv Sterrv.
C. T. Taylor."
Dr. Todhunter.
H. D. Traill.
Mrs. H. D. Traill.
Andrew W. Tuer.
Mrs. Alec. Twecdie.
Miss Roraola Tynte.
Dr. F. Valentine.
Dr. Henry Veale.
Edric Vredenburg.
Charles Dudley Warner.
Arthur Warren.
A. P. Watt.
Alec. Watt, jun.
Theodore Watts.
William Westall.
Miss Beatrice Whitby.
Oscar Wilde.
W. G. Wills.
H. Schiitz Wilson.
Colonel Winsloe.
At the conclusion of dinner, the toast of Her
Majesty the Queen having been heartily responded
to—
The Chairman.—Mr. Lincoln, Ladies, and Gen-
tlemen, I have to announce that I have received a
letter from Lord Tennyson, who writes that "In
the name of the United Kingdom our Society-
congratulates the United States on their great act
of justice." I have further to announce that the
following gentlemen regret their inability to attend:
The Bishops of Gloucester and Oxford, Cardinal
Manning, Mr. George Meredith, Mr. Holman
Hunt, Sir Edwin Arnold, Mr. Alfred Austin, the
Earl of Pembroke, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr. Hail
Caine, Professor Church, and the Master of Balliol.
I may also mention that Lord Coleridge told me
the other day that it was with great regret that he
was compelled to decline an invitation at the
instance of Mr. Besant to lie here to-night, l>ecause
he was receiving company at home. There is also
a letter from Mr. Thomas Hardy.
Now, it is my pleasing duty to give you another
toast—that of the President of the United Suites
of America. The toast of the Queen it is usual to
consider needs no preface. I should have adopted
the same course with regard to the President of the
United States, were it not that I wish to mention
that we owe a debt of obligation to the President,
because he has without any demur at once acceded
to our request to lx> allowed to come under the
American Law of Copyright. It seems to me that
that shows a kindly feeling on the part of the
President of the United States towards England,
for he might, I think, have adopted a different
course, and I do not know if he had, whether we
should have had any reason to complain. He might
have said that the Law of Copyright in England is
quite unintelligible; that it was doubtful whether
the clause with regard to reciprocity in the Americjin
Act was complied with. The course that he has
adopted shows that he is animated with friendly
feelings towards England, and that is why I desire
to say a few words to the toast. I give you "The
President of the United States of America."—The
toast was cordially received.
The Chairman.—Ladies and Gentlemen, the
toast that I have now the honour to propose is that
of our guests, coupled with the name of Mr. Lincoln,
the American Minister. I feel that my presence
in the chair to-night on this important occasion,
and in the midst of such a distinguished company,
exhibits the Society of Authors in a very amiable
light. It shows that they carry to its extreme
limits the virtue of gratitude, for I am here to-night
not in respect of any service I have been able to
render to the Society of Authors, but only in respect
of services attempted to l>e rendered. (No, no.)
Now, to-night, it is my pleasing duty to congratulate
the citizens of the United States of America, in the
person of their Minister, Mr. Lincoln, on the great
act of justice they have performed in recognising
the rights of British authors. I am sure we must
all lie extremelv glad to see Mr. Lincoln among us
to-night. Wc all know that Mr. Lincoln is the
distinguished son of an illustrious father. The
name of Abraham Lincoln ranks in the annals of
the United States second only to that of Washington
himself, of whom he was a worthy successor in the
Presidential Chair. If Mr. Lincoln looks around
him, I think he will discover that the company
here assembled is worthy of the occasion on which
we have met. I should not presume—it would be
impertinence for me to do so—to give a list of the
distinguished persons present here to-night, but I
should like to make one exception, I should like to
mention by name one great Englishman,—an
Englishman whose name is especially respected and
venerated in America, an Englishman whose
presence among us to-night is a signal act of
favour, inasmuch as for years past he has steadily
refused to be present at any banquet except in the
immediate circle of his intimate friends—I mean
Professor Huxley. One never knows in what
-
i
## p. 72 (#476) #############################################
72
THE AUTHOR.
unexpected ways a man of gonitis may not. break
out. We have long known Mr. Huxley as an
eminent man of science and of letters. We must
now regard him in the liglit of a great Biblical
scholar; he is, as I understand, devoting his life to
the task of reconciling theology with science. If
he Bhould fail in the attempt, perhaps he will put
the boot on the other leg and try to reconcile
science with theology. Well, then, ladies and
gentlemen, as I have said, the United States of
America have done an act of justice to English
authors, and have done this act of justice to their
own material disadvantage. We speak the same
language as the Americans. To a great extent
we read the same books. The names of many
American authors are household words in England
just as they are in America, and, indeed, some
American authors have even become acclimatized
among us. And in the same way many English
authors arc exceedingly popular in America. The
United States of America have long enjoyed what
I may call a system of assisted education; that is
to say, education assisted by the industry and by
the intellect of English writers; but at the same
time the Americans have paid their teachers ex-
ceedingly little for their lessons, and what little
they have paid has hitherto been not a matter of
right but a matter of favour. Now, I think, it is
no small thing that the American people should
have agreed to pay for what they have so long
enjoyed without payment. I agree that this is
only a matter of justice, but at the same time it
is a kind of justice that it requires a good deal
of moral courage to carry into execution. It is
justice, I may mention, not only to English authors
but also to American authors, because for a long
time American authors have been subject to what
I may call unfair competition on the part of
English writers, for English writers have been
able to have their works printed in America at
what I may call an artificially low cost owing to
the absence of Copyright; and now the American
and the English writers have a fair field and no
favour in a friendly competition one with another.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I approach a somewhat
debatable point. We know a great deal has been
said about what is called the printing clause in
the American Act, that is to say, the clause that
requires a book to be printed from type set up in
the United States before English writers can get
the benefit of American Copyright. I approach
this subject with a good deal of diffidence, partly
because my friend, Professor Bryce, has said
everything about it that I intended to say in last
Saturday's number of the Speaker. But as it is
just possible that there may be persons here present
who did not read the Speaker, perhaps I may be
allowed, in a few words, to tell yon what my views
are with regard to that clause. I must say that
I am Englishman enough to feel annoyance, and
indignation even, with my American cousins if
I consider that annoyance and indignation is
warranted by the facts of the case, but I do not
feel that any cause of indignation is given, because
the Americans have passed this printing clause.
In the first place, I would point out this: that the
supporters of the Bill had absolutely no option
whatever but to put this clause in. The American
Act wiis only passed by the. display of the greatest
tact and ability on the part of the promoters of it;
and if this sop to American printers had not been
put in it is absolutely certain that the Act would
never jmiss into law. Well, now, I think that we
in England are very well aware of the great
pressure and influence that can be brought to bear
by any organized men in the kingdom who con-
sider that their interests are threatened, and we in
England know perfectly well how helpless the
general public are in an unequal contest with an
organized and powerful and an enraged section
of the community. From what I have read it does
seem to me that the United States of America
is not entirely free from experience of that kind.
It is said, I know, that although this clause is
a necessary clause that it is a dishonest one, or, at
all events, if not dishonest, that it is a shabby piece
of legislation. Now, I confess that I am unable to
rgree with that opinion. It is perfectly certain
that if the American Act had been passed without
this clause that the American printing industry
would have suffered considerably. It would imme-
diately have lost what it now enjoys, the printing
of English copyright works; and I agree entirely
with Mr. Bryce when he says that the object of
this clause in the American Act was merely to put
the American printers in the same condition in
which they would have been in ha<l the Act not
have been passed. I believe that its effect upon
English printing will be very slight. It may be
that a certain amount of English printing hitherto
done here will go to America, but I Ixdieve the
chief difference the Act will make is this: that it
will lead to a good deal of unnecessary and
wasteful printing; that most of the copyright
lx>oks for English readers will be printed in
England, and most of the copyright books for
American readers will be printed in America. And
I would point out this: that the printing industry-
is, by the nature of things, a growing industry.
It must grow because our population is constantly
increasing, and because of the spread of education,
and any temporary check that may be administered
to it by American legislation will, I believe, be
only momentary, and will be barely perceptible.
Now, I wordd point out that this clause to which
so much objection has been taken, both on this
i
## p. 73 (#477) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
73
side and on the other side of the Atlantic, is simply
a part of the American system of Protection. Now
wc, in England, consider that this system of Pro-
tection is unwise, hut we cannot say that for those
who believe in it, it is in any respect immoral.
We believe that the effect of the clause will be
this: it will be to make not only American readers
pay toll to American printers, but also every in-
dustry throughout the United States. Our con-
tention is this: that if the American reader has to
pay more for his books, he will have to economise
in other directions; that is to say, he will wear his
old coats, his old hats, and his old boots longer,
and, worst of all, it may be that he will not be able
to afford his wife as many dresses as she requires.
Americans believe in Protection. If we, like the
Americans, believed in Protection, we should be
bound to practise it. While we did believe in
Protection we did practise it, and we almndoned
Protection not because we were more moral than
our neighbours, but because we flattered ourselves
that we were more enlightened. Now, we further
believe that Protection in the United States of
America handicaps her very severely in her com-
petition with us in the commerce of the world, and
regarded simply from the standpoint of material
interests, we can afford to regard with equanimity,
if not with satisfaction, every fresh development of
Protectionist policy in America. I am not going
to sivy that there are not some provisions in the
American Act that might very well with advantage
lx> amended, but I do say this: that, substantially,
the Americans have gone as far to meet our views
as the supposed interests of their country would
allow them to do. I say that in their position,
holding their opinions, I believe we should have
behaved very much as they have behaved. And,
ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I hope it will
be generally recognised that the Americans have
gone as far to meet our wishes as we could reason-
ably hope, and I do trust that not a vestige of
irritation or annoyance will remain either on our
part or on the part of the people of the United
States of America to cloud that perfect under-
standing that ought to subsist between two peoples
so closely allied in blood, and so worthy of one
another's friendship. I give you "Our Guests,"
coupled with the name of Mr. Lincoln.
The American Minister (Mr. Lincoln).—
Lord Monkswell, Ladies, and Gentlemen, I thank
you very heartily and sincerely for the very kind
way in which this toast has been received, at least,
in so far as it regards myself, for I am only one of
the guests of this evening, and others are here who
will speak for themselves—as for myself, I am
heartily obliged. I hope and trust that you will
acquit me of any affectation when I say that it
would be very much more agreeable to me if this
VOL. II.
event which is being celebrated here to-night, and the
response of the American minister to this toast, had
been in the time of one of my eminent predecessors,
whose distinguished career and personal qualities
not only allied him to many of those who are here
present, but made him their close friend, and whose
wit and wisdom have made his name a household
word all over the world, and who has used them
in the most strenuous way in accomplishing the
purpose which has been attained. As his presence
here is impossible, it falls upon me to have the
pleasure of expressing the honour I feel at this
opportunity of meeting this distinguished company,
composed of so many of those who are devoting
their energies and their talents to the instruction
and the literary entertainment of the great English-
speaking race; and it is especially pleasant to do
so under the circumstances which make this par-
ticular dinner of the Author's Society so peculiarly
notable. You are signalising here the end of the
impatience which has existed for so many years on
both sides of the Atlantic, over the delay in esta-
blishing what may be called proper relations
between the Copyright laws of England and the
United States. How far they may have been
established may be a question in some minds, but
at all events, we all recognise that a correct principle
has been reached and settled. It is not at all
strange that such impatience has long existed, for
while our governments differ in form, yet the duties
on the one hand, and the rights and privileges on
the other, of the people of both our nations, are
nearly identical. They have a common language,
and for the most part a common origin, and with
an equally advanced civilisation, their modes of
thought and aspirations make our races almost
the same in the history and contemplation of the
world at large. Under those conditions it has
seemed to many for a long time, and it has seemed
to me among them, that it was almost arbitrary
and unreasonable that there should be continued in
force a rule of law which denied in each country
to the authors of the other, and to them alone
of all the people carrying on the numberless active
professions and trades of the civilisation of the
present day, the property rights which each country
gave to its own citizen and resident authors. In
saying this of England as well as the United
States, I speak of course in view of the fact that it
has only just now become certain that a non-resident
alien author can obtain the benefit of English
Copyright law, and that the first official and conclu-
sive declaration to that effect has just within a few
weeks been made and drawn forth by the passage
of the new American law on this subject. Between
our countries, to a far greater degree than l>etween
those using different languages, this question of
reciprocal Copyright is a practical one and of high
F
## p. 74 (#478) #############################################
74
THE AUTHOR.
importance, and consequently opposing interests
are more numerous and more powerful with us than
anywhere else. In the very nature of things the
adhesion which was reached, by various countries
under the provisions of the Berne Convention, were
far easier to be attained than the great arrangement
which has just been closed between Great Britain
and the United States. I am one of those who for
a long time have wished such an arrangement to
be made. It seems to me a great many years since
I signed a petition to that effect. I am neither an
author on the one side or a publisher on the other;
but it is my misfortune, when I am not doing
something else, to be a practising lawyer, and, as a
practising lawyer, I have never had any difficulty
whatever in feeling the justice of myself being
paid for any printed argument that I might make,
provided always it was a good one, and this
irrespective of the nationality of my client, and
what I thought just as regards myself I could hardly
think unjust as regarded any other man, whatever
his nation or however remote might be his geo-
graphical situation, from whose mental labours I
had derived profit or pleasure. Besides feeling
this sense of justice to authors themselves — I
hope it was a sense of justice—I but followed
the lead of, I believe, almost every living author of
high repute in my own country, in wishing them,
and especially their younger brethren who are still
struggling to find their proper place in the public
estimation, to be relieved from the involuntary,
perhaps I should say from the very unwilling,
competition of uncompensated foreign authorship,
and so that there should be taken away what I
consider a very great obstacle in the path of our
own home literary progress. But to go into this is
to enter upon subjects which are very familiar, and
as it is a rule of my profession that all the details
of a controversy should be ignored and theoretically
forgotten after the controversy has been settled by
an agreement, I think it would perhaps suit you, as
it will certainly suit me, to follow that rule. This
I do not believe to be an occasion to thresh over
what is happily now only old straw. It is rather
the time and the occasion to exchange felicitations
over the harvest which we lx-lieve is to be shared
by both our countries. I myself think it idle to
inquire, and very much outside of the real question
of justice at the bottom, to inquire or to speculate in
what proportions the division of that harvest may
possibly be made. It seems quite enough to see that
you English authors who are here to-night, and I am
happy to see one or two of my American friends of
the same category, and all their American brethren
are hereafter not to see the whole fruits of their
labour reaped by other people; and if there was no
other benefit to accrue to the public at large from
this, than the acquisition of what I hope will be
an easier conscience, I think there will be a good
deal gained for them as well. But, ladies aud
gentlemen, I very heartily believe that this is not
all that has l>een provided for, for independently
and far beyond such considerations as I have
merely mentioned, it should be reineinbered that
by these contemporaneous acts of justice to authors,
the declaration of the Government of your own
country as to the existing law, and the new statute
of the United States followed by the proclamation
of the President, there has been removed a very just
cause of international irritation, and one too, if I
I may say so, that is felt most by a very influential
class of people in both countries, and by that
peculiar class who are best able to make them-
selves heard, and make their troubles known. But,
in addition to all this, I believe there has been
provided a new stimulus to literary effort, which I
think will lie felt long and on both sides of the
Atlantic, and I am sure, ladies and gentlemen, that
you will join me in hoping that in this new phase
of our community of interest and anticipation,
there may be found a new assurance of an exten-
sion in other directions of that goodwill and good
understanding which are so important to both our
countries, and which I am sure you will agree with
me in thinking it is so fitting should exist between
us.
The Chairman.—Ladies and Gentlemen, I have
the honour to propose the next toast—the toast of
"The Society of Authors." Now, if I fail, as I
am perfectly certain to fail, in doing justice to this
toast, I hope I may be recommended to mercy on
the ground that it was only yesterday that I
received notice that it would be my pleasant duty
to propose it. I had supposed, up to that time,
that the toast would have been entrusted to one of
the distinguished visitors here to-night, but as I am
asked to do it, of course I must do the best I can.
Now, it seems to me that a combination among
authors is one of the most remarkable signs of the
times. Not a great many years ago, it would
hardly have been believed that authors would have
combined together in a Society. It was supposed
that they lacked the elements of cohesion, but I am
assured that this Society is very flourishing, that it
is increasing in numbers every day, and therefore,
it is perfectly certain that this opinion that used to
be held can be held no longer. It is very desirable
that authors should combine together to get as good
a remuneration as they are entitled to in respect of
their works. The labouring man is always telling
us that he does not get the proper proportion of the
value that he creates; he is always telling us that
the middleman or the capitalist runs away with an
undue share of the profits. Now, I suppose there
is no industry in this country, in which the value
created by authors—the true value is less in
i
## p. 75 (#479) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
7S
l>n>i>ortion to what they receive than in the case of
literary men—the value is enormous in respect of
the very small proportion of the goods of this
world thai find their way into tin? pockets of authors.
The Society does, I believe, very good work in
helping young authors, and I suppose of all the
helpless people in the whole world a young author
is just about the most helpless, and the most at the
mercy of men of business.
I have already observed that you, the Society of
Authors, have carried gratitude to its extreme limits
in suggesting that I should take the chair here
to-night. Now I will venture to say with regard to
the Society of Authors, that if you have a fault it
is that you are too virtuous. You are too guileless;
there is too much of the milk of human kindness
about you. You are too simple-minded; you trust
too much in your simplicity to the justice of your
cause. Now, allow me to say that you will never
get what I consider to be a really good Law of
Copyright passed in England, either by the powers
that l>e, or with the powers that may be, without
agitation; and, I do not believe that the Society of
Authors quite understands either the arts or the
necessity of agitation. I do not mean to say, of
course, that you should march in procession to the
Reform Tree in Hyde Park, with Lord Tennyson
and Mr. Besant at your head; I do not even
suggest that you should go to Trafalgar Square and
wave red flags. But what I do suggest is that you
will never get what you want until you use the
vast influence that you possess to get the assistance
of the newspaper press. You must induce the
newspaper press to take up your case unremittingly
and enthusiastically, and without that I do not
lK-lieve you will get what you want. I think the
Society would do well to take to heart the Scrip-
tural parable of the importunate widow. It is to
be regretted that while we have met here to-night
to congratulate America on the skill and success of
their own Copyright, that we Englishmen should
still have to groan under a Copyright that is unjust,
unintelligible, and grotesque, and is condemned by
every person who knows anything at all about it.
I hope the Society of Authors will take good heart,
and that they will leave no stone unturned to
obtain what I l>elievc are just rights here. The
toast is, "The Society of Authors."
Mr. James Bryce, M.P.—Mr. Chairman, Mr.
Lincoln, Ladies, and Gentlemen, I have the honour-
able duty entrusted to me of proposing the toast
of our Benefactors, "the American Copyright
League," and I am asked to couple it with the
name of Mr. Brander Matthews. Ladies and
Gentlemen, we thank the American Copyright
League for what they have done for us, and we also
salute and congratulate them as the victors in a long
and arduous struggle. How long and how arduous
that struggle has l>eeu, perhaps very few can under-
stand, except those who have from time to time
visited America and taken opportunities there of
ascertaining how great, were the difficulties which
confronted the advocates of International Copy-
right. They hod to overcome the difficulties
which the extremely technical procedure of the
American Congress presents; they had to over-
come the argument that the effect of Copyright
would l>e to make books dearer to the American
public, and they had to cut deeper still, and to
defend the nature of literary property itself, and
to prove that a man has, and ought to have,
the same right of property in, and the same
beneficial enjoyment of, his ideas, as he has of
the labour of his hands. I remember reading,
with a good deal of entertainment, some of the
debates that passed in the American House of
Representatives, when this Bill was being debated.
There was one Member in particular, who did
the honour to a book, published upon American
institutions by myself, of selecting it as an
illustration of the evils which would follow from
the recognition of International Copyright. He
said, " Here is a l>ook which is published for six
dollars; it could be printed, and bound, and
brought out in a convenient and elegant form for
three dollars; and it is nothing but the ruthless
avarice of the author and the publisher that pre-
vents this from being done." Now, all these
difficulties, and many more difficulties, which it
would take too long to enumerate to you, have
been overcome by the patience, and the zeal, and
the tact, the untiring perseverance and the un-
quenchable hopefulness of our friends of the
American Copyright League, and we rejoice in
their success on account of the admirable earnest-
ness and public spirit which they have shown, even
more than in respect of the benefits which we hope
■will accrue to British authors; and I want to say
in passing, that we ought not to lx> ashamed of
expecting benefits for British authors. They are,
as they have often told us, a downtrodden and
necessitous class, and they an" a class which is
debarred from many of the opportunities that other
classes enjoy, of raising their remuneration. They
consist, I will not say of unskilled labourers, but
certainly of unorganised lalxmrers, and, therefore,
they are quite unable to get up a strike, and I do
not know that any philanthropist has offered to
protect them, even by an eight hours' law. But
there is a better reason still why those of us who
have watched the progress of this cause in America,
rejoice over the success of the Copyright League;
it is a victory for honesty—it is a victory of
enlightened public opinion. It is the greatest
testimony that has been given in our time of
the power of opinion expressed by a small circle
F 2
## p. 76 (#480) #############################################
76
THE AUTHOR.
of cultivated men, to permeate and leaven the
whole people. It was authors themselves that
began this movement. I should like; to mention
in particular some among those to whom we are
indebted (because we ought to seize this opportunity
of making up for the lukewarmness of our own
press in acknowledging their services) the services
of Mr. Lowell, who gave the unrivalled influence
of his name and reputation very readily on every
occasion. Let me mention also four American
writers, probably known to many of you, who have
done yeoman service in this contest—Mr. Edward
Eggleston, Mr. R. U. Johnson, Mr. R. W. Gilder,
and Mr. E. C. Stedman—and I desire to add to these
the name of the gentleman who is going to respond,
and I believe in whose house it was that the
Copyright League was first started, a gentleman
who, since that date, has given unfailing attention
and earnest labour in endeavouring to promote its
objects; I mean Mr. Brander Matthews. Nor
would it be right to omit the names of three other
gentlemen also, two of them eminent politicians
who took up the cause and fought it with much
warmth,—both of them authors, as well as politi-
cians—Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roose-
velt; one of them a publisher, Mr. George Haven
Putnam. Well, Gentlemen, there is one point more
t > which I must advert in commemorating the
services of the Copyright League. It is one to
which your attention has already been called in the
speech of Mr. Lincoln. This is an Act which
rivets the bonds of friendship between the English
branch of our people and that now larger branch
of our people which inhabits the United States, and
we may reflect with some pleasure that it is by
literary men more than by anyone else, that
the two main branches of the English-speaking
race are united and taught to sympathise with one
another. It is by our literature that we, the
English of to-day, are known in America; it is by
our poets and our novelists that our manners, our
habits, our daily life is known; and in the same
way it is by the authors of America—it is by
writers like Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, whom I
see here to-night, Mr. Bret Harte, Mr. Howells,
Mr. Henry James, Mr. Henry Nelson Page, Miss
Jewett, Mrs. Deland, Mr. Harris, Mr. Edward
Eggleston, Mr. George Cable, Mrs. Burnett, and
many others—it is by them that we in England are
taught to know what is the life, what are the
thoughts, and beliefs, and aspirations of the Ameri-
can branch of our race; and feeling that, I feel
that we may see with warm satisfaction the removal
of what was a cause of heartburning between
English authors and the American people, and an
injury to American authors themselves, since it
injured their remuneration while it emphasized the
political severance of the two counties by preventing
an English author from feeling that he was at
home wherever the English tongue was spoken.
There was a time when we used to boast that the
drum of the British army followed the rising sun
over the world. We may boast now, and we can
boast, in a far higher sense, of the Empire which
has been won by the literature of England and
America, an Empire which is more wide, and
which is far more enduring, because no political
dangers can threaten it. And at this moment,
when we congratulate American authors on the
act of justice and of friendship which they have
secured, we may remember not without pride, that
a British or an American author now addresses an
audience which consists of one-half of civilised
mankind, and we may hope that the sense of the
power and responsibility which the vastness of that
audience carries with it, will stimulate still further
the imagination of our authors, and will enlarge
the range of their thoughts with the widening
process of the suns.
Mr. Brander Matthews.—My Lord, Ladies,
and Gentlemen, it is greatly to be regretted that
this toast could not be responded to by the Presi-
dent of the Copyright League, Mr. Lowell, or by
either of its Vice-Presidents, Mr. Stedman or
Dr. Eggleston, or by its energetic secretary, Mr.
Johnson. They could explain to you far better
than I can whatever is doubtful and obscure in the
Act which has just been passed. Since my arrival
in England I have been somewhat suqirised to
discover that there are certain English authors who
do not understand the American Copyright Law,
and there are others who do not believe in it.
Their attitude towards the new American Copy-
right Law is not unlike that of the American
young lady towards the Multiplication Table: she
said that " she never could learn the Multiplication
Table, and what was more, she did not believe it
was so." About 10 years ago, Mr. Gilder, the
editor of the Century Magazine, went to Wash-
ington to urge a Copyright treaty then under
consideration. The Secretary of State heard him
with patience, and then said, "Mr. Gilder, I do
not hear any loud popular demand for this thing."
Now that was true; for 5o years the authors of
America had been asking for some kind of Copy-
right arrangement with England, but there was not
that " loud popular demand for the thing" which
a politician could not afford to ignore. There is
nothing whatever wanted only by artists, authors,
or musicians, which can be got without agitation.
If there had been a "loud popular demand" in
England for Copyright reform, the Bill which you
are advocating would have become law in the
present session. I l)elieve if an author wants any-
thing from the public he must ask for it boldly and
often; it is for that purpose the American Copy-
## p. 77 (#481) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
77
right League was formed now eight years ago. It
was intended to excite sympathy, to focus public
opinion; and the authors belonging to the League
gave meetings, and lectures, anil dinners; they
wrote articles; they issued pamphlets; and they
listened to sermons. They enlisted the aid of the
journalists, and of the teachers, and of the clergy.
It was at their suggestion, and especially by the
zeal of Mr. Putnam, that the publishers were
organised into an allied league; and yet at the end
of five years of hard work all we could do was to
report progress. All that time we had been urging
a Hill which was a simple authors' Copyright. It
granted Copyright to the foreigner without any
condition whatever, being in that resjK'Ct like the
admirable law which exists in France to-day.
Then, at that time we received word that if we
were willing to modify our Bill and to make
manufacture in the United States a condition of
Copyright the journeymen printers of America, a
very widely organised and strong body, would lend
us their assistance. They promised us also the
sympathy and aid of all the allied labour organisa-
tions of the United Suites. Well, these were too
valuable allies to refuse; and after a very severe
debate in the councils of the League we amended
our Bill. We laboured for three years longer, the
printers gave us loyal assistance, and the Bill baa
l>ecome a law. That law is not perfect; I am afraid
that there are few perfect laws in either country;
but that law will do one thing, it will put a stop
to the habit of piracy—which is a survival from
our former colonial dependence. I am afraid that
now and again an English author will still be
pirated in the Uniteil States, just as even now
there are American authors pirated every month in
England. The Act is imperfect, but it is only a
little more imperfect than the existing English
Act. We demand manufacture as a condition
precedent to Copyright, and you insist on prior
publication. Imperfect as the law is, it puts the
American and the foreigner on exactly the same
level. We have granted to the foreign author
what we have granted to the American author—
for the American author cannot now have Copy-
right unless his book is manufactured in America.
In one respect the American law is more liberal
to the English than the English law is to the
American. Under the new law now the English
novelist can reserve his exclusive right to dramatize
his story in the United States, a right still denied
to vou in this countrv. The laws of both countries
are very imperfect, but they are very much letter
than they were. When I think of them I am
reminded of the remark of the old negro to the
parson who was conducting a series of revival
meetings. Said the negro to the parson, "You do
not know what a power of good your preaching
has done us; why in my own family here since we
have been sitting under you we have given up evil-
speaking and profane swearing, lying, and stealing,
and cheating—to a considerable extent."
Professor Minto.—My Lord, Ladies, and Gen-
tlemen, it was only yesterday I received a summons
from Mr. Besant, and an intimation that I was to
speak to this toast. I cheerfully responded, because
it seems to me to be significant of the generous
friendship and esprit dc corps of this Society. I
am no longer resident in London, and it is only by
accident that I am here to-night, and I believe that
is the reason why I have been selected to propose
this important toast. The selection is intended a,s
a friendly compliment, and looking at it in that
light I warmly appreciate the compliment, and I
will repress any tendency to reflect whether after
all perhaps the choice is not due to the fact that
only the guileless person from the country could be,
found who was foolish enough to spoil his dinner
by afterwards having to make a speech. For-
tunately, the toast is safe in any hands, and I must
confess that having had only since yesterday to
think over the subject, and to collect my ideas, I
feel very much more disposed to sit down at once
than to inflict any speech upon you. I must say
that if I had teen consulted regarding the name
of the toast I should have preferred to spenk not
of American literature but of American writers of
English literature, for English literature is one,
and if, as a Scotchman, I may be allowed a theo-
logical allusion, I would say that the distinction
between American literature and English literature
is really not one of "substance " but of " i>ersons."
The English and the American literature is the
same in substance. The fact is, that American
literature has no separate individuality any more
than Scotch literature or Irish literature. Swift
and Goldsmith are equally classics, so is Sir Walter
Scott, and even Burns, although lie wrote a dialect;
and I think we may claim a Washington Irving,
Edgar Allan Poc, with whom Oliver Wendell
Holmes and Bret Harte, ought to be amongst the
English classics. In saying that American literatim;
has no separate individuality I would not be mis-
understood to mean that American literature is
imitative. But a survey of too years of American
literature (with which I do not propose to trouble
you) would not bear out the same. The fact is,
that it is absurd to say that the influences that
operate upon literature as a whole, and in the
natural user, had operated on writers on both sides
of the Atlantic. Take any period that you like:
take the very beginnings of American Hterature,
when Charles Ripton Brown wrote. The influence
that stirred literature is not by any means through
English channels, and the fact is, that writers on
both sides have been working to build up the great
## p. 78 (#482) #############################################
78
THE AUTHOR.
fabric of English literature, giving and taking, and
the Americans sometimes giving quite as much as
they took. It seems to me that if it is the case
that Washington Irving was influenced by Addison
and the essayists of the 18th Century, it is not
less true, as Mr. Dudley Warner, whose name I
have the pleasure of coupling with this toast, will
tell you, that Washington Irving had a very great
influence upon the literature of this country. I
also mentioned the great name of Edgar Allan Poe
as the greatest master of one of the new forms of
literature, the short story. The question is some-
times asked whether America is likely to produce
some new type of literature? Well, Sir, new types
of literature are not common; they do not flourish
on every hedge, and l>efore you can have a good
type of literature you must have a man of genius
to make it. Now, if the man comes and the hour
in America, as the man and the hour came in
English literature but once only—the time of
Shakspeare—I have not the slightest doubt that the
man would be welcomed by the authors of this
country, but he will be welcomed not as the maker
of a new type of American literature but as the
maker of a new type of English literature. We
should welcome his work, however racy of the soil
it might be, however much it might be filled with
what we are disposed to call Americanisms—we
should welcome it as an addition to the wealth of
the literature of our common tongue. At this late
hour, of the evening I will only venture to say this
in all seriousness, we have present among us to-
night a good many American authors, among them
Mr. Warner, a distinguished gentleman, whose
name I have to couple with this toast. He is an
example of those who make for that solidarity of
our literature of which I spoke. I ask you to
drink to the health and prosperity of American
authors.
Mr. Charles Dudley Warner. — My Lord,
Ladies, and Gentlemen, I have, in-the first place,
the pleasant duty of .thanking the' Society of
Authors and the literary people of London who
have, been good enough to come here, for the
cordial expressions which I have heard with regard
to my compatriots who are. present here and else-
where. We are not English in America. We are
made up of all the peoples' that an inscrutable
Providence has given us for purposes I do not
quite understand. We mingle there to produce a
race, the destiny and quality of which'is practically
yet unknown. But underneath all this, the
seething struggle which is going on in the United
States, the guiding impulse has always been that
regard for law and order and Christian civilisation
which has had its best exemplification in the Island
of Great Britain, and Scotland,-and Ireland. We
have besides a training in traditions which are as
old as England itself. We have always looked
with a great deal of affection, and a good deal of
wrath sometimes, towards this side of the Atlantic.
We have been trained from age to age in the
literature which is common to both countries, and
which Professor Bryce likened to the drum
which followed the sun round with the English
flag. That is all true; and besides, we have the
American, the English, the Australian, the
Canadian—I think I may say now, the Egyptian —
literature; it is all one practically; that is to say,
the great English conquering language for our
possession; and if the time ever comes which tho
prophets ever like to harp upon, from Isaiah down,
and the poets like to dwell upon, the great battle
of Armageddon, where civilisation and barbarism
contend for the mastery in this world, I know that
the English flag and the American flag on the
same field and the same side of the line, will fall
or rise together. I am, my Lord, in a good deal
of embarrassment in replying to this toast which
is limited, for I have learnt since I have lieen in
London, from one of the most authoritative of
your English Reviews, that there is no such thing
as American literature, and very small prospect,
and a widening horizon of there ever being any
such thing. Now we had thought in our humble
way that there was, that there had been a little
something contributed to this great—you do not
know what the Mississippi river is—it is a large
river—the Mississippi river of literature; and we
did not require any argument on our side from
anybody on this side to say that we had contributed
a little something. It was very much like the
gentleman in Cincinnati who met the man from
Ohio. I need not explain to you that Ohio is not
the capital of Massachusetts. Walking along the
street, he saw a gentleman opposite, and he said,
"You don't know that man, perhaps?" "No, I
do not know him; who is he?" "Well, that
is Mr. Cackendorff; he is the ablest lawyer in the
State of Ohio." "Well," he said, "I never heard
of Mr. Cackendorff, and how do you prove that
he is the greatest lawyer in the State of Ohio?"
"Oh," he said, " you do1 not have to prove it, he
admits it himself." We admit, we know that we
have had from time to time in the old times, a
little • literature of the • old English flavour, kept
perhaps and < imported ■ back and forth,- like the
cheese which we make and send over and cure,
and bring back and- think it is English cheese;
and we have had of late years, since the shekels
Of silver have released the American man from
localism, sporadically in; the west and in the south
and west, and in the middle States now and then,
something that had a flavour and type of its own,
and -'which, although English in-its form and
English in its language, was not Great Britain,
## p. 79 (#483) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
79
but which was most distinctly American. We
thought we had that, and we have not apologised
for it or been ashamed of it. There was some
time a great English literature not provincial, not
insular, the. literature which we all look to. I do
not know that it pxists to-day. I have not, in the
four weeks I have been in London, been able to
read all the smart newspapers of the place, but it
seemsto me that perhaps the literature of England
is somewhat of a local literature. Your novelist,-
your humorous papers, your newspaper press take
VP the affairs, t}iat interest the people of these
islands. We have also-in America a local litera-
ture which interests us. I believe they have in
Australia. I am certain they have in Canada. It
is just possible, that in these days of extraordinary
progress everywhere, literature is getting a little
localised, and that it will take another great period
of upheaval like that which • preceded the Eliza-
lx>tlian literature to make a literature which will
go without charge and without tariff or custom
house, all over the world. I have some belief in
that, because I know very well that the language
of England, the English language to-day is the
prevailing and the conquering language of the
civilised world, and that, in speaking on behalf of
the little 62 millions in America, I think the
English language never before had such an oppor-
tunity to be the language of the world as it has
to-day, and that the author in Piccadilly or Pall
Mall never before had such a chance as he has
to-day to become the all embracing, comprehending
author of a great civilised world. I am not making
a speech; I want to say about the Copyright Act,
however, a word. It is perfectly well known that
all the American authors are rich. We have all
been made prosperous by 1 o per cent.; the pub-
lishers know it; they are all impoverished by our
exactions. Now 1 o per cent, on a book has made
us rich, and this enormous prospect of 62,000,000
of readers—of cabdrivers and millionaires—is no
doubt going to make all the English authors
prosperous and rich. I myself rejoice in that
prospect for them, because it is merely a matter
of arithmetic, that if you sell at a cheap rate of
10 cents a copy 10,000 things you would get
about 10 dollars in your pocket. You see how
the wealth will flow in. I hope no extravagant
ideas will l>e raised in the minds of English
authors in regard to this; and I merely throw
this out by the way in pissing along. The author
all over the world lias never had any great recog-
nition; he has been asked to eulogise, to write
Laureate odes, occasionally to dine at the lower
end of the table. I myself sometimes wonder that
the authors do not, as I think Professor Bryce
suggested, strike; and I have sometimes wondered
what would l>ecome of the rest of the world if
we did. What, for instance, would become of my
friends the publishers and the printers? What,
for instance, would become of all those intelligent,
people who give you their impression of what has
gone on in the world, and what the world ought
to have, and what the general opinion is after they
have read the morning papers? I wonder very
much what would happen if the literary folk, the
unconsidered folk who write in the magazines and
in the books, were one day to strike, and say,
"For the next year we won't do anything."
Privately I do not know that it would be a great
misfortune if a book was not published within the
next 10 years. But I am simply speaking of the
effect on conversation if the literary folk were
happening to strike for a year. You have some-
times crossed on an Atlantic steamer, and perhaps
you would notice that about the second day
without any newspapers the conversation lan-
guishes, and the people have not anything to talk
about. The thing has somehow died out. The
ordinary people—and I am quite one of them—
have to fill up every morning with something that
the editors have said in order to go on with the
daily conversation. Now, I am quite serious,
however, in standing up for a certain dignity of
literature, for I very well know for historical con-
siderations that the thing which endures and lasts
in all time is that little thing which we call
literature. You build your monuments, your
warehouses, your railroads, your great factories,
your showy palaces for a generation or two, but
somewhere in that time, in that period of great
prosperity, somebody sings a song or makes a
little poem—it may l>e nothing more than a. sheet
of paper. There is the pyramid, and there is the
Trafalgar Square and New York, and there is
San Francisco, teeming with wealth and with
ostentation, but when all these things have passed
you know very well, you who have collected the
little service of Greek and of Roman intelligence,
the little, records of thought and motion that some
poet has preserved, you very well know that that
little thing, that one sheet of paper, something,
as I may say, light as air, as a bird's song—I
assure you is the thing that you love and that helps
the. world when all the rest has faded away like
a dream.
Mb. Arthub a Beckett.—Ladies and Gentle-
men, it is my fate to have to propose the con-
cluding toast of this evening. I have to propose
the health of our noble Chairman. I think you
will agree with me he has performed to-night the
duties of his office in a most satisfactory manner.
He has other claims upon our respcot, as it was
he who undertook the conduct of the Copyright
Act through Parliament, and got it as far as Par-
liament would allow it to go. It. is not yet beyond
## p. 80 (#484) #############################################
8o
THE AUTHOR.
the second reading, but Lord Monkswell was able
to extort a promise from the Lord Chancellor that
sooner or later possibly—probably later—the sub-
ject would occupy the attention of the Government.
As it is very late I would like to bring my speech
to a conclusion, although I feel that you would
like to hear what I have to say on the Triple
Alliance and other subjects. But I would like to
tell you one little anecdote in compliment to our
brethren, who, I believe, generally finish their
speeches with a short story, because it calls
attention to the fact that the feeling of fraternity
which we experience in England towards our
American brethren is growing on the other side
of the Atlantic. Not very long ago it was my
pleasure to meet a gentleman who, from the
manner in which he spoke, except for the American
accent, I should have taken to be a native of this
land. He told me that there was one omission
which he found in England, and it was a serious
omission. He was very well satisfied in England,
but this omission was in connexion with West-
minster Abbey. There was a statue absent from
Westminster Abbey which he would like to have
seen there. I wondered for the moment what
that statue should be. I remembered that all my
colleagues here present were living, and he said,
"Well, Sir, he is an Englishman who l>elongs to
a very good old English family." I was rather
surprised at this, because I understood that
Americans did not think much of old families,
they considered that beneath them. No, those
coat of arms he bad often seen about us. "The
old English gentleman, the statue of whom I
should like to see in Westminster Abbey," he said,
"is George Washington." I told him we were
making preparations to increase the size of West-
minster Abbey, and after the necessary alterations
were completed that, no doubt that statue would
appear. He went on further, and said, "You
should not only have George AVashington but you
should have his namesake, because I think that
those two Georges have done more, though in
different ways, to make the two nations what they
now are. The other George is George Farmer,
or, as yon call him, ' Farmer George.'"
The Chairman.—Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall
not make a speech at this late hour in the evening.
I can only say this: that it has afforded me very
great pleasure to preside, ami I shall lie very glad
if the result is to bind more closely the ties of
friendship which at present subsist between
England and the United States of America.
The proceedings then terminated.
,
OVERHEARD.
I.
At the Black Jack Club.
HE was an elderly gentleman with a red nose,
and an irascible manner. It was late—
towards midnight—but the room was still
full of men.
"I have been to the Dinner of the Society of
Authors. That's why I am in a dress coat. I
don't suppose I have had on evening dress for 20
years and more. Why they asked me I don't know.
Why I went I don't know. There wasn't a soul
in the place that I knew. Authors! It makes me
sick. Waiter, a Scotch and soda. Makes a man
sick, I say, to see a couple of hundred men and
women dressed up to the eyes, sitting down to a
tip-top dinner, with champagne flowing like bitter
beer, and a band playing, and noble lords about the
tables, calling themselves authors. Authors ! Why,
when I was a young man there were authors
worth the name. Douglas Jerrold, and Angus
Reach, and Brough, and good old Thack—what
did you say? Wouldn't have dared to call him
Thack? What do you know about it? You
weren't born. I say there were authors then, and
no mistake, and between 'em all not a single guinea,
most days of the week. How should there l>e any?
The publishers took all the money, and we scarified
'em with epigrams. That's how we treated 'cm;
made their lives a burden to 'em. Look at the
fellows now. They can afford to pay a guinea
apiece for their dinner. They get up a Society
which can afford to ask thirty or forty guests at a
guinea apiece, and then they dare, to grumble at
their publishers! Even when they can pay a
guinea apiece for their dinner! What's the world
coming to? Waiter, another Scotch and soda.
"They asked me. Why? I don't know; I
hate 'em. I hate all the successful men. What
have they done to be. successful when I have been
all my life a failure? Why should the world run
after 'em, and praise 'em, and buy their books?
They never ran after mine. Of course, it's the log
rolling does it—the disgraceful log rolling. There's
that new boy—what's his name? What is there
in his things? Nothing. I give you my word—
nothing. No imagination, no romance, no dialogue
—nothing. All is creeping, real, natural, low.
You read a page, and you think it is the real
soldier talking. We knew better in our time; no
common, vulgar Tommy Atkins for us. But
his log rolled, and now he makes money. I
daresay he got fifty pounds—I shouldn't wronder—
fifty pounds by a single book, though he is but a What's that? Two thousand pounds
## p. 81 (#485) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
81
by a single book? Two thousand pounds? You
don't know, Sir, what you talk about. Nobody
ever could make so much money out of a book.
Waiter, another Scotch and soda. Well, they
didn't ask me to speak, or I could have told them
something. Grumbling against their publishers,
when they can afford to drive to the place in
broughams, and to dress their wives in silk, and
to pay a guinea down for a dinner! Grumbling!
Why they ought to be on their knees, the tears of
gratitude rolling down their cheeks, before these
most generous of men. I suppose they asked me
l>ecause they wanted to bribe me into silence.
Well, they won't succeed. Waiter, another Scotch
and soda—big Scotch, little soda. Their champagne
was good. But I've got a batch of books on my
table at home, and, by gad, I'll scarify 'em. I'll
stick in the knife and I'll turn it round. I'll let 'em
know that the good old times are not gone. A
guinea for a dinner! In our days it was eighteen-
pence or two bob at most. And a band to play all
the time! Authors! Authors! The good old
name is being dragged in the mud. Never mind,
I'll scarify 'em."—[Goes home and does.]
II.
From a Letter.
"The Authors' Dinner was just lovely. I went
with my husband, and we sat next to quite pleasant
people. Everybody had a great card with the
names of all the company, so that you only had to
run down the list for a name and then look at the
table to which it belonged, to see anybody you
wanted. Unfortunately, I got the tables wrong,
and after gazing upon Mr. Rider Haggard till I
knew his features by heart, I found that it was a
certain learned professor, and I had to begin all over
again. This discovery I only made at the end of the
dinner, when it was too late to set things right.
Now I shall always think of Mr. llider Haggard
J DP
as an elderly gentleman with a red face and greyish
hair, which I am told is not at all like him. For
the same reason, I came away hopelessly mixed
with Mr. Walter Pater, Mr. William Black,
Professor Huxley, Mr. George Dumaurier, and
half-a-dozen others who were there. So that most
of the good I got from the dinner was from reading
the list. There was a band playing all the time,
but softly so as not to disturb the talk. Authors,
I was pleased to find, can talk. They talk as
fast as they can all the time. After the dinner the
speeches began. But very soon the authors rebelled
against the speeches. They wouldn't listen. In
vain the toastmaster begged for silence. They
only talked all the more. It seems a pity that they
should have any oratory at all if they dislike it so
much. I was told that there was no jealousy of the
speakers or wish to be themselves the speakers that
made them refuse to listen. English authors won't
speak, and can't speak. Many of them, if they
thought that they had to speak, would not come.
In the same way, they can't listen, and won't listen.
We ought to have an Authors' Society in New
York, with just such a dinner every year."
III.
In the Train.
The speaker was a gentleman of somewhat seedy
exterior. His hat alone proclaimed that things
were not going well with him. His eye was
restless ami perhaps shifty. "Have I l>een to
the Authors' Dinner? No, I haven't. I wouldn't
go if I was asked. Authors? Look here now.
As to authors. I've long suspected, and now
I know. It's all a swindle. There ain't any
authors in the Society at all, except one.
There ain't any Society. There's only one man.
He keeps up the racket for his own purposes: he
pretends there's five hundred—six hundred—any-
thing you like. Will he publish a list of the
Members? Not he. Will he tell us who the
Members are? Not he. There ain't any Members
at all, I tell you. He persuades a few people to
come along and dine together every year. It's very
easy. First he gets A to meet B, then C to meet
A and B, then D to meet A and B and C, and
so on. That's all. That's the way it's done. As
for there being any real authors in the Society, or
any Society at all, or anything except that one
man, I tell you that it's ail bunkum and rubbish.
They've got an office? Well, yes, they have. It's
a thing, I suppose, that costs about ten pounds a
year. And a Journal? Well, yes, they have.
There's a thing they call a Journal—circulation
about twenty. Office and Journal both paid for by
the same man. Well, as you say, I suppose they
do put out a balance sheet showing about a thousand
a year income. What's easier than to make up a
balance sheet? I bring out balance sheets every
day for the authors, and I know. You make 'em
show anything you please. The Society publishes
books?' Suppose they do. Suppose they do bring
out books and advertise second editions. What's
easier than to call out second edition when you've
sold five-and-twenty copies? Don't tell me. I've
done it myself—often. Gar—r—r!"
## p. 82 (#486) #############################################
82
THE AUTHOR.
IV.
At a Table'.,
"This dinner is only a beginning of what such an
annual gathering; ought to- l>e. What the Royal1
Academy dinner does for Art, this dinner should
do for Literature. That is to say, if it is good for
Literature to have princes as guests, then we should
have princes; if. it is good for Literature to have
ambassadors, presidents of societies and institutions,
and great men in other lines, then we should have
these illustrious persons. It should be a dinner
which confers distinction on the recipient of an
invitation. It should lie, like the Academy dinner,
one of the great functions of the season. This it
can easily l>ecome if literary men and women choose
to make it so. The dinner indicates the power
which should, and does already, lie behind, con-
cealed, but felt—a power which will be always
making rough things smooth, and causing the
sweater and the shark to have uneasy times, and
making it more and more difficult for the old-
fashioned Fraud to continue in his fraudulency.
The future of the Society opens up the most
splendid possibilities. Only let us awaken, little by
little, and maintain confidence among literary men,
and we shall carry out a programme never dreamed
of by the victims of the bad old times."
LITERARY MAXIMS.
1. Popularity is a sure sign of popularity.
2. There are only two ways of succeeding: rise
high enough or sink low enough.
3. To read a book, it is necessary to look into
it: to review, all that may be necessary is to look
at it.
4. Any fool can find fault: any knave may
destroy.
5. Four stages in Art: the ideal, the idea, the
word, and the work.
6. In construction or in .criticism, competency
depends on the harmony of the first with the last.
7. Understand before you know: know before
you judge.
8. Art, like nature, never shows her best on the
surface.
9. The reviewer should never forget, that he is
a judge, often a very bad one.
10. It is easy to judge: it is hard to judge
justly.
11. Even reviewers have rights: some of them
even a sense of right.
12. All the fog is not in the other man's head.
13. If you will write for money, write for the'
many.
14. A first failure is not always a sure sign of
genius.
. 15. To please the public may be gratifying to the
soul, but is not always satisfying to the body.
16. Put your heart in your work, if you ha\e
got one to put.
17. If you wish to be taken seriously, write
satirically.
18. To know everything one must be a young
man or a myth.
19. 'Tis a wise author that knows himself after
a course of reviews.
20. Remember that all men do not see satire,
even with a telescope.
21. Do not read every review of your works: it
is healthier for your soul, to respect even your
inferiors.
22. In reviewing there is no trial by jury: your
peers are too busy, working or loafing, to review
anything.
23. To view is to see once: to review is to see
twice—or not at all.
24. The value of the collection is not estimable
by the size of the congregation.
25. As an art, painting is more popular than
preaching.
26. Unpopularity is no sure proof of superiority.
27. When a book is unintelligible to you, this
Is invariably due to the author's insanity or im-
becility.: tell him so, lest he should feel neglected!
Phinlay Glenelg. ♦■»■♦
NOTES AND NEWS.
WILL our readers be so good as to consider
carefully the suggestions as to the Authors'
Club? It is proposed to create what is
called a first-class club on the level, say, of the
Garrick, the Savile, or the Arts, of which the first
condition of membership shall be some connexion
with the literary life. Readers of this journal
understand by this time that one of the chief
objects contemplated by the Society is the union
of those who follow Literature, after the manner
observed by those who follow the Art of Painting.
The Society is such an association, but it is not
enough, because it is only in evidence on such
occasions as the annual dinner, when about one-
fourth of the Members attend. Besides, the Society
is necessarily engaged mainly upon the business
side of the calling. A club of position and repu-
tation would represent the social and successful
## p. 83 (#487) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
83
side. It would always lx> a standing proof that
men of letters can unite together, are independent,
and have risen above the contempt which long
years of helpless dependence brought upon them.
The Club must begin with 5oo Members at least.
It is suggested that all Members of the Society
shall Ixj always eligible without entrance fee. A
form is enclosed which binds the signer to nothing
more than sympathy with the object proposed,
and his intention to belong, provided he approves
of the prospectus when decided.
It is not yet decided whether or no to admit
ladies to meml>ership. If they are not admitted I
hope we may at once proceed to the establishment
of the Authors' House, a scheme in which I place
great faith. This House would be especially useful
to ladies.
The Pension List for this present year of grace
displays the same disregard of the Resolution of
1837, which has always, year after year, under
every Government, marked this little piece of
administration. The Resolution provided that
pensions to the amount of £1,200 every year might
l)c bestowed upon persons distinguished for Litera-
ture, Science, and Art. Fifteen pensions are
granted this year. Three are given to persons
distinguished in Literature and Art. Nine are
given to widows or daughters of persons so dis-
tinguished. Four are, as I think, wrongfully,
and in breach of trust, l>estowed upon ladies whose
fathers or husbands were connected with the naval,
military, or civil service. The country votes a
sum of money for persons distinguished in Litera-
ture, Science, and Art. The Government give
it away to persons totally unconnected with
Literature, Science, and Art. When shall we
have this miserable little grant administered as
was intended? And when shall we get the
Resolution amended so as to make it impossible
for these jobs to lie committed?
The Annual Dinner, a full report of which is
contained in this number, was held on Thursday
the 16th. Every single seat in the great room of
the Hotel Metropole was taken. There were 216
guests in all, of whom 40 were guests of the
Society, and the rest were Memlxrs or Associates.
It was cheering to reflect, that this great gathering
really, contained no more than the fourth part of
our present following. The occasion, too, called
forth several letters—notably one of congratulation
from our President, Lord Tennyson; one from the
Bishop of Oxford; one from Cardinal Manning,
through Mr. A. W. a Beckett, speaking of the
interest with which he regarded the Society; from
Mr. George Meredith, who was prevented from
attending; ami many others. There was a general
feeling that the Society had never before met
together under more promising conditions, or in
greater numbers, or, to descend to smaller considera-
tions, to a better dinner. The animation of the
evening seemed to show that everyl>ody was satisfied
with his neighbours—a very satisfactory result of a
very anxious distribution of places. Of course
there were one or two faces which we missed.
Bret Harte, at the last moment, was compelled to
stay away. Henry James could not come; we
were just too late for T. B. Aldrich. Professor
Jebb, Austin Dobson, Edmund Yates, Rudyard
Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Hall Caine, Mrs. Oliphant,
Mrs. Cashel Hoey, Edna Lyall, and many others
could not come. The list of those who were
present, however, printed in full with the report,
will show that English and American Literature
was well represented in all its branches.
There have been, on previous occasions, sneers
in certain papers at the record of the names, as
present, of those who are not so well known as
others in the profession. I think that this is
a very unworthy line; in literature there are
always men and women beginning at the bottom
and going up. They are at various stages of the
ladder when they come to us; even though they arc
only beginning; though a single volume is as yet the
whole of their literary baggage, they have a perfect
right to belong to us, to call themselves authors,
and to come to our dinner. They belong to the
calling: they are fellow craftsmen. It is in litera-
ture, in short, as with every other profession, there
must be in it certain leaders, there must be rank
and file; there must be more private soldiers than
officers, yet all are fighting men. Four years ago,
for instance, I was present at a great dinner—a
very great dinner—given in the Hall of the High
Court of Justice by the Law Institute to solicitors.
There were many hundreds present. I do not
rememl)er that anyone, speaking of this dinner,
sneered at these hundreds for ljeing obscure, as
they certainly were. I make this remark on this
year's dinner, because such a sneer coidd hardly
be made of such a gathering where there were so
many leaders.
This is the Holiday Number of the Author. Let
us put away all our papers, straighten the stiffened
ringers, lay down the pen, and go forth to rest in
shady places. For my own part, I make of the
■
## p. 84 (#488) #############################################
84
THE AUTHOR.
summer holiday an occasion, which only comes once
a year, for reading the books which everybody has
been talking about. I am not more than five or six
years in arrears, and though I despair of ever quite
catching up, I daresay there will be no more than
five years' books in arrear when the, time conies for
putting up the shutters. These can be cremated
with me. Some men I can hardly look in the face
without a blush; with others, thanks to an occa-
sional ramble into the present, I am more easy.
Since, for instance, I have read the "World's
Desire " I feel more confidence in the presence of
its authors. Why has the world taken so little
notice of the wonderful allegory in that book? I
can boldly meet Thomas Hardy face to face, because
I have read the "Group of Noble Dames," and
Budyard Kipling, l>ecause I can quote the " Light
that Failed." There is nothing so delightful as to
be working up arrears; nothing so truly restful as
to let other people write for you. For this and
other reasons, the August Number of the Author
is shorter than its brethren.
We have learned, with great regret, the death of
Mr. James Runciman at the early age of 38.
Mr. Runciman was one of the youngest of our
Members, but not one of the least cordial. His
early death has prevented him from doing full
justice to his great—his very great—abilities.
What he did achieve was marked by strength and
firmness of drawing, a vivid imagination, and a
clear eye. He could write verse with ease and
grace; some of his pictures of certain strata of life
will certainly last—at least beyond the time of many
writers now more popular.
Letter from a publisher: "I have offered you so
much for your work. This sum buys the entire
Copyright. Your request that I should leave you
the American rights might have been granted a
month ago. Under existing circumstances this is
not to be thought of."
In other words, what was worth so much when
American Copyright was worthless, is worth no
more though American Copyright doubles the
publishers' returns. This is very remarkable
justice. It makes one sigh for Jedburgh justice.
The Manchester Guardian reports that a certain
religions society has discovered a muddle in their
accounts by which debts of "thousands of pounds
for advertising" had not been brought forward in
the balance sheets, so that the committees were
personally liable. This society is not, we do hope
and trust, our dear old friend who keeps a Literary
Housemaid and sweats its victims with holy zeal.
It would lm too dreadful to think that its committee,
after such a long and successful course of sweating,
should be itself sweated! No! No! The reward
of the righteous is not often so thorough and so
certain.
Of "Literary" Associations, "Authors' Pub-
lishing" companies and societies which promise
poor, struggling authors help and pay, there is no end.
A blight seems to settle, upon these associations.
Nevertheless, one is pleased to give such publicity
as is possible to nil new societies of the, kind.
Here is one, for instance, called "The Authors'
Publishing Association." The manager is one
T. M. Field, of whom we know nothing, good or
bad. His association receives members at 5s. a
year, which is indeed cheap. It also runs a little
magazine called Literary Land. The May number
—containing 16 pages—is before us at this moment,
so that it really does exist. Literary workers of
all classes are invited to become meml^r?, particu-
larly those who seek—but have not yet found—a
remunerative return for their labours. This, they
may perhaps believe, will be found for them in
Literary L.and. Now, if this paper is to go on
presenting 16 pages every month to the world it will
remunerate—reckoning each article at three pages,
and the pay at—is 5s. a page too high?—five
authors a month or Co authors a year. If, there-
fore, an author is so fortunate as to become one of
this 6o he would receive, say, ios. in the year, out
of which he would pay 5s. for the magazine and 5»'.
for the association. For himself, 5*. will remain
—a princely income. I daresay a good many sub-
scribers will be found. It .seems hopeless to expect
that people who aspire to literary success will bring
the commonest rules of arithmetic, reason, and
common sense to bear upon their hopes and their
calculations. The "association" may mean well
and honestly, but let young writers ask what any
such association can do for anybody? There is
no royal road to success—there are no back stairs
to literary fame; every writer must with his own
pen fight his own way to the, front.
Yet another Society! This time it is the pro-
spectus of the "London Copy Society." It has
offices, and a secretary, but, as yet, neither directors,
bankers, nor solicitors. Its modest capital is £ i ,ooo.
It. proposes to become a syndicate for placing
things in newspapers both here and in America.
People are asked to pay a guinea a year in order to
have a chance of being taken by the American and
## p. 85 (#489) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
85
English journals through this agency. There are
already a good many such syndicates in the field,
and their experience is always the same, namely,
that then! is little difficulty in placing writers of
repute, but tliat it is absolutely impossible to place
writers who have not yet made their name.
Very likely this syndicate sees a way out of this
difficulty. •
The "Society" will also act as literary agents,
and will establish a school for journalism. The
subscribers will have to pay for the printing, mani-
folding, stereotyping, and postage of their work to
the "hundreds of journals" spoken of in the
prospectus. Suppose one of them writes a novel.
It would cost perhaps £80 to print. Another £20
might easily be spent in sending the work among
the "hundreds of journals." Are young literary
aspirants prepared to spend £100 on the very,
very slender chance of an unknown writer l>eing
accepted by the country press? As for the school
of journalism, we wait to see who are the Professors
and Lecturers in that school.
From time to time there are sent to the Office
cuttings from certain papers in which the truth,
the whole truth, and a great deal more than the
truth is frankly and generously told about this
Society. In three or four cases we have held a
little inquiry into the cause and origin of this
generous amplification of the truth. It has been
found in all that the paragraphs have been
preceded, very strangely, by action on the part of
our Secretary. For instance, the editor of the
Universal Genius has refused to reply to a
contributor nsking payment for a MS. which has
appeared in the paper. The contributor, a Member
of the Society, brings the case before the Secretary.
The Secretary addresses a letter to the Editor.
Result: (1) Cheque to the author. (2) Nasty one
for the Society in the paper.
Again, the editor or proprietor of the Bear Pit
refuses to return a MS. sent to him by a writer for
publication, or to answer any letters relating to
that MS. The writer brings tin; case before the
Society. The Secretary addresses a letter to that
editor or proprietor. Result: (1) Return of the
MS. to the author. (2) Nasty one for the Society
in the paper. Moral—Obvious.
Readers of Mrs. Oliphant's "Life of Laurence
Oliphant" should read Mrs. Phillips' paper on
Mr. Harris in the National Review of July. Those
who possess the book should cut out the article and
bind it up as an appendix, ljecause the article gives
the other side of the question as seen by the friends
of Mr. Harris. No denial is offered by the writer
of the article of the facts as stated by Mrs. Oliphant.
They remain, presumably, undeniable. From the
point of view of Harris's disciples it is right, I
suppose, and only what was to be expected, that a
gentleman should be made to sell strawberries in
the street, that a lady should be made to tlo menial
work, and that a wedded pair should be separated.
These things l>elong to spiritual levels, to which I,
alas! cannot reach. Heaven itself is out of the
reach of most of us, unless we can get to it with
our own people and following our own manners
and customs. At the same time, the paper of
Mrs. Phillips is not only extremely interesting but
extremely instructive, if only as showing what
qualities there were in Harris which could attract
such a man as Laurence Oliphant . And so much,
I believe, the author of this beautiful biography
would be the first to acknowledge. In every
generation there arises a Harris, either in this
country, or in America, or somewhere else. To
every Harris there comes a Revelation, to every one
a school of disciples, and every disciple is convinced
that he sees the beginning of the end—and the
assurance of the Second Coming of the Lord, when,
by the aid of the Harris, all things shall be made
straight.
Walter Besant.
THE AUTHORS' CLUB.
AMEETING of the Preliminary Committee
was held at the Society's offices on Thursday,
July 23rd. Present: Mr. Walter Besant,
Mr. Howard Collins, Mr. W. M. Colles, Mr. Oswald
Crawfurd, Mr. Egmont Hake, Mr. Arthur Montc-
fiore, and Mr. Vagg Walter, as Honorary Secretary
ad interim.
Mr. Walter reported that he had visited many
houses to let in the vicinity of Piccadilly and else-
where, anil sub mitted plans and drawings of certain
houses which might seem suitable for the Club, with
estimates for furniture and installation, and for the
day-by-day management of the Club.
After conversation it was Resolved to put forth
the following Suggestions for the consideration of
the Society, and of those who might be desirous of
joining the Club, and to invite comment and further
suggestions from all interested.
1. That it is desirable to found a Club whose
first condition of meml)ership shall be a
bona fide connexion with the life of Letters.
2. That, though the rules of the Society of
Authors admit into that body as MchiIhts
none but those who have actually produced
at least one printed and published volume,
the Club shall admit not only authors of
## p. 86 (#490) #############################################
86
THE AUTHOR.
lmoks, but also . dramatists, journalists,
authors of papers in reviews and magazines,
editors of newspapers, journals, and maga-
zines, professors, lecturers, and Fellows of
colleges, men of science, scholars, and all
gentlemen who in their public or private
capacity shall advance the cause of Letters.
3. That since the first and most important side
of a Club is its social side, the new Club
should lie one in which the social attrac-
tions should at least equal those of any
other Club in London.
4. That the Club, though unconnected with the
Society of Authors, should recognise and
develop, as far as possible, the services
rendered to the cause of Letters by that
Society.
5. That the Club should be one of reasonable
charges and reasonable living.
6. That the serious and practical side of the
literary life should not be forgotten by the
Club, but that, as occasion may arise, meet-
ings and debates should be held or papers
read on subjects connected with the practical
Ride.
7. That ladies should be admitted either on
ladies' nights or on ladies' afternoons, or to
concerts or entertainments organized by the
committee.
8. That Members should present to the library
complete copies of their own works.
g. That the entrance fee be ten guineas, and the
annual subscription be five guineas; but that
the first 5oo members be admitted without
entrance fee.
10. That Members of the Society of Authors be
always admitted without entrance fee.
11. That before proceeding farther, the opinion
of the Members of the Society be ascer-
tained on the matter, and that a book be
opened at the office of the Society for the
entrance of names of those who would wish
to become original Members.
12. That the money requisite for first expenses
be subscribed by the Members in the form
of debentures at a certain interest, a method
frequently adopted by clubs.
13. That as soon as sufficient names have been
enrolled to warrant further proceeding, the
preliminary committee should dissolve and
be replaced by a Committee of Management
elected by the original Members, with power
to raise money by debentures, take pre-
mises, purchase furniture, draw up rules,
call meetings, and in all other ways act at*
may be necessary for the foundation of the
Club.
14. That the election of Members for the first year
at least should be in the hands of the
Committee of Management.
15. That these suggestions should be published
in the Author, and that Members of the
Society should Ik; earnestly requested to
contribute their own opinions, addressed to
the Secretary of the Society of Authors,
4, . Portugal Street, W.C.
♦■>■♦
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
L
The President's Proclamation.
From the " Times," July 2nd, 1891.
Washington, July 1.
PRESIDENT Harrison has issued a procla-
mation which provides for granting Copy-
right in the United States to citizens or
subjects of Great Britain, France, Belgium, and
Switzerland.
The text of the proclamation is as follows :—
"Whereas it is provided by Section i3 of the
Act of Congress of March 3, 1891, that the said
Act shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a
foreign State or nation, when such foreign State
or nation permits to citizens of the United States
the benefit of Copyright on substantially the same
basis as to its own citizens, or when such foreign
State or nation is a party to an International
agreement which provides for reciprocity in the
granting of Copyright, by the terms of which
agreement, the United States may, at their pleasure,
become a party to such agreement; and whereas,
satisfactory official assurances have been given in
Belgium, France, Great Britain, the British posses-
sions, and Switzerland, that the law permits to
citizens of the United States the same benefit of
Copyright as to their own citizens: Now, therefore,
I, as President, do declare and proclaim that the
first conditions specified in the said Section i3are
now fulfilled in respect to the citizens and subjects
of Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Switzer-
land."
This proclamation is preceded by a recital of the
Copyright Act passed by the last Congress, a copy
of the circular letter addressed to the United States
Ministers abroad, and an able and exhaustive
## p. 87 (#491) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
report to President Harrison, prepared- by' Mr.
Moon, Third Assistant Secretary of State, inter-
preting the law, and explaining why the operations
of the law are limited to the four countries named
in the proclamation, and why nations which are
parties to the Berne agreement are excluded from
the proclamation on that ground.
II.
The American Regulations.
Washington, July 6.
In pursuance of the provisions of the Copyright
Act of March 3, 1891, Mr. Foster, Secretary
of the Treasury, has prescribed the following
regulations:
1. Copyrighted books and articles of importation
which are prohibited by section 4956 of the
Revised Statutes, as amended by section 8 of
the said Act, shall not be admitted to entry. Such
books and articles, if imported with the previous
consent of the proprietor of the Copyright, shall
Ik) seized by the Collector of Customs, who shall
take proper steps for the forfeiture of the goods
to the United States under section 3o82 of the
Revised Statutes.
2. Copyrighted books and articles imported con-
trary to the said prohibition without the previous
consent of the proprietor of the Copyright, being
primarily subject to forfeiture to the proprietor
of the Copyright, shall be detained by the collector,
who shall forthwith notify such proprietor in order
to ascertain whether or not he wishes to institute
proceedings for the enforcement of the right to
forfeiture. If the proprietor institutes such pro-
ceedings, and obtains a decree of forfeiture, the
goods shall be delivered to him on payment of
the expenses incurred in the detention, storage,
and duties accruing thereon. If such proprietor
fails to institute proceedings within 60 days from
the date of notice, or declaration in writing, he
abandons his right to forfeiture, and the collector
shall proceed as in the case of articles imported
with the previous consent of the proprietor.
3. Copyrighted articles of importation which are
not prohibited, but which, by virtue of section
4965 of the Revised Statutes, as amended by
section 8 of the said Act, are forfeited to the
proprietor of the said Copyright when imported
without his previous consent, and, moreover,
subject to the forfeiture of Si or §10 per copy, as
the case may be, one-half thereof to the said
proprietor, and the other half to the United States,
shall lie taken possession of by the collector, who
shall take the necessary steps for securing to the
United States half the sum forfeited, and shall keep
the goods in his possession until the decree of
forfeiture has been obtained, and half of the sum so
forfeited, as well as the duties and charges accruing
are paid, whereupon he shall deliver the goods to
the proprietor of the Copyright. In case of a
failure to obtain a decree of forfeiture, the goods
shall be admitted to entry.—Dalziel {The Times
Special).
HI.
What will happen?
At last we have it. The next questions are:
What we shall do with it? What it will do for
us? And how we shall protect ourselves? For,
as it needs no prophet to understand, a most
determined effort will be made to defraud the author
of all the benefits which the Act might have con-
ferred upon him, and to convert it into an engine
for the further enrichment of the publisher.
Successful authors must understand—the sooner
the better—that they have now two countries to
deal with, and not one; that in many respects the
two countries are not alike, but dissimilar; that
what pleases one country may not please lx>th;
that they have two sets of publishers; that although
they must not assume because they have got their
work accepted in this country that it will l>e accepted
in the other, but they must act as if they were
going to be popular in both countries. That is to
say, in negotiating for their work they must strictly
reserve the American rights as the subject of separate
arrangement.
Again and again has the Author pointed out to
readers, that in all agreements they must put them-
selves into the position of business men agreeing
for the management of property, and this even
though the MS. represents no property at all. The
other side is always a business man actuated by no
other object than that of doing business, and
securing a good property for himself, if possible;
if not, on the best terms he can command.
If the Author warned and exhorted its readers
before the pawing of this Act, it must raise a
louder and a more warning voice still. The risk of
being plundered is twice as great as before; the
property to be defended is twice as great as before.
What books will take out Copyright? This is a
question of the greatest importance to printers, as
well as to authors. At a recent deputation to Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach, one of the speakers (see
p. 91) assumed that every author would not only
want Copyright, but would get it.
Indeed! And who is to pay the printer's bill?
A very large numl>er of books are published at
1
## p. 88 (#492) #############################################
88
THE AUTHOR.
the expense of the authors who have nothing, sub-
sequently, to show for their money but weeping,
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Printing is a much
more expensive luxury in the States than here. It
is supposed, perhaps, that the author will pay the
increased bill with the additional expense of freight.
Hut there are, it will be said, a great many books
which both countries will want. Let us see what
these are.
First, we may exclude—
a. All theological books, sermons, and religious
books. Generally speaking, the Americans
will at least find their own religious food.
/3. All educational books, except a very few.
y. All scientific and technical books, except a
very few. The Americans will continue
to find their own works on science.
8. All three-volume novels.
f. Nearly all works connected with the history
of this country.
£. Works written for a very small circle, such
as special monographs, books of scholar-
ship, &c. These books will be exported
in the same way as at present, in very
small quantities, paying a duty.
)). All our journals, magazines, and news-
papers.
What remain?
a. A great many novels.
jS. A few books of travel, history, biography,
science, and poetry.
As regards the first, I do not believe that the
popular novelist will be set up in America and
re-printed here. Why should he be? Consider.
It costs, for composition alone, of a one-volume
novel from £20 to £:5. It would cost in America
from £2o to £35. The extra cost of printing and
paper is in proportion. Considering, in addition,
all the worry and trouble, the extra cost, the cost
of freight, &c, who would incur all this in order
to save a ten-pound note in the English edition of
a popidar author? It is absurd. Then, if we
take an English author who is not popular, are
we going to print him in the States, where he
is no more popidar than here, at an increased
cost, when there is great doubt whether he will
repay here the cost of setting him up?
If, on the other hand, a popular novelist is pub-
lished simultaneously on both sides, it will be as if
he were published in two languages; there will be
separate composition. We have not considered
here the attention which must be paid to the subject
of spelling, which is a very important point.
In the same way, special books — such as
Darwin's books, Herbert Silencer's books, Stanley's
Travels, &c.—woidd be set up on both sides,
simply because in such a big thing it would
not be worth while to save a ten-pound note, at
the risk of exasperating one side or the other with
the spelling.
It certainly appears to the present writer that
printers will lose little or nothing by the "manu-
facture" clause, and that the whole action of the
Loudon Chamber of Commerce has been produced
by a panic.
The reply of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach to the
deputation was damping to their hopes. Probably,
he knew pretty well what he was saying. We
have ourselves felt the pulse of certain Members of
the House, not without influence. It may be taken
as perfectly certain and beyond all doubt, that Free
Trade Members will move Heaven and Earth
against any so-called retaliatory measures. There
need be no illusion on this head. Meantime, if it be
proved that our people suffer sensibly from the Act,
we shall do more by representations made to the
United States Government and its people than by
any fruitless agitation for Protection.
"I would suggest to printers, as a measure of self
defence, that they should join with authors and
insist upon a clause in authors' agreements, binding
the publisher to produce an English-manufactured
book. I can assure them beforehand of the
sympathy of authors, and of their rooted antipathy
to American spelling. All we have to do is to insert
that clause. If a book is worth copyrighting in
America, it is certainly worth setting up in both
countries."
In order to get an approximate idea of what
new English books are likely to take out Copyright
in America, let us run through the lists of the
advertisements in the last number of the At/iencettm.
It is true that it is a very bad time for new books,
and that the list is extremely scanty, but it will
serve our purpose to a certain extent.
The first, taking the publishers in their order
as they appear in the advertisement columns, is
the list of Messrs. Osgood, Mellvaine, and Co.
Ten books are in this list. Of these, seven
appear to be by Americans. There remain
three, viz., two by Oscar Wilde and one by
Thomas Hardy. Both these books would want
Copyright in the States. Next comes the
list of Messrs. Methuen. Here are works by
Norris, M. Betliam Edwards, Edna Lyall, S. Baring
Gould, W. Clark Russell, and Walter Pollock, all
of which would take out Copyright. There are
four books on social and political economy; two
biographies of religious leaders; two books of
poems; and a critical study on George Meredith.
Result: out of nineteen books, six would be copy-
## p. 89 (#493) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
89
righted in the States. The list of Smith and
Elder shows six books, of which three novels (by
Anstey, Norris, and Gissing) and one biography
—that of Robert Browning, by Mrs. Sutherland
Orr—would be copyrighted.
The list of Macmillan contains sixteen books,
mostly new editions. I should judge that six of
these would be published in the States. Chapman
and Hall advertise eleven books. If these were all
new books, three would certainly be copyrighted.
Of nine books advertised by Bentley, two would
certainly be copyrighted. Of fifteen advertised by
Hurst and Blackett, I do not think that more than
two would find it necessary to be copyrighted.
This, however, does not include their " Standard
Library " which is also advertised. Longman's list
contains eleven books, only two of which seem
likely to be in demand in America. Sampson
Low's list of five includes two—William Black's
last novel and the "Life of Gladstone"—which
would certainly be copyrighted. Clowes has a list of
law books which we may pass over. Then follow
a few books separately advertised. They are seven
in miml>er, and one at least—Leland's "Heine"
would be copyrighted. Then follows Arrowsmith's
list of shilling books, all of which, I suppose, would
be copyrighted as they came out. But with old
lists we are not concerned. The result is that
25 per cent, would be copyrighted. But then we
must remember that a great many of these are
new editions of successful books. Let us wait till
October, when the great rush of new books appear.
Then we shall lx; able to form a closer estimate of
the proportion. But—and this is a very important
point— nearly all the books selected are in English
form, and would always be printed in that form.
Moreover, they are for the greater part written by
authors of so much eminence that the saving of
the initial cost of composition need not be reckoned.
Let us next turn to some American paper, and
find out, if we can, the kind of book likely to be
wanted in both countries. I have before me a
number of the New York Nation, which is half
literary, half political. The book advertisements
are not very numerous, but they are suggestive.
Professor Henry Brummond's works are reprinted
in full. Mona Caird's new novel "A Romance of
theMoors": Jerome's works in full: Mrs. Oliphant's
"Life of Laurence Oliphant": the University
Extension "Manuals": Russell's "Life of Glad-
stone ": Munro's "Grammar of the Homeric
Dialect": Frederick Locker Sampson's "Lyra
Elegantiarum": Herbert Spencer's "Plea for
Lilx-rty '': Oscar Wilde's "Intentions"; appear
either in the advertisements or in the book notices.
We, do not look in the Nation for lists of novels,
but we observe that the Tauchnitz books are adver-
tised for sale. I suppose that the result of the new
Act will be to stop the sale in America of any
new additions to the " Baron's" list.
IV.
Opinion of Sin Horace Davey.
Extract from Cask of Questions put. to Sir
Horace Davey, Q.C., and Mr. James Rolt,
and their Opinion thereon.
1. Whether section i3 of the American Copy-
right Act will lie satisfied as regards Great Britain
so as to enable English authors to obtain Copyright
in the United States by (a) the present state, of
the English law, or (6) the Berne Convention?
2. What may be considered the date of first
publication of a book as recognised by the English
courts of law, whether the English courts would
consider the hour as well as day of publication, and
whether any suggestion can be made as to keeping
impartial evidence of the date of first publication of
an English book?
3. Whether a publication by an American
publisher, wrongfully claiming to be proprietor
of an English book would prevent the English
author from publishing subsequently and obtaining
Copyright?
4. How far will English authors be entitled to
American Copyright in alterations or revisions of,
or additions to, their books previously published in
the States under section 5 of the American Bill,
and will they be entitled to this Copyright in cases
where they have absolutely ]»rted with their
English Copyright in such alterations, revisions, or
additions, or in the books to which they relate?
5. Whether the publication by an English
dramatist in the United States under the present
Bill of a drama as to which he has already granted
performing rights in the States will interfere with
such rights?
Opinion.
1. Notwithstanding the decision of the House of
Lords under the Statute 8 Anne c. 19 in Jeffreys v.
Boosey, 4 H.L.C. 815, we are of opinion that
under the present statute the benefit of Copyright
in books is conferred on aliens upon substantially
the same basis as on British authors (see per Lords
Cairns and Westbury in Routledgex. Lowe, L.R. 3
H.L. 100), and that, therefore, section i3 of the
American Copyright Act should in respect of books
be satisfied as regards Great Britain by the present
state of the English law. Whether section i3 of
## p. 90 (#494) #############################################
9°
THE AUTHOR.
the American Copyright Act is satisfied, however,
depends on the construction which the President
or the American courts may give to that section.
It will be observed that the Act applies to Copy-
right not only in books but also in engravings,
prints, photographs, paintings, Ac. If section i3
be construed as not giving Copyrights of any kind
to aliens unless the foreign country gives to citizens
of the United States the benefit of Copyright in all
these subjects (as we think is the probable con-
struction) it must be observed that by 25 & 26 Vict,
c. 68. s. 1, Copyright in paintings, drawings, and
photographs is confined to British subjects or
authors resident in the dominions of the Crown,
and therefore in that case section i3 is not satisfied.
If, however, the section can be read distributively,
we think it is satisfied as regards books within the
meaning of 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, and musical and
dramatic compositions. It should also be satisfied
by the Berne Convention if adopted by the United
States.
2. The date of first publication of a book as
recognised by the English courts is, in our opinion,
the date upon which the book is first offered to the
public generally. The court will not, as a rule,
consider fractions of a day, and we see no reason
why that rule should be departed from in ascer-
taining the date of first publication. We are unable
to offer any suggestion as to the manner in which
impartial evidence of the date of first publication
can be secured. The question is in each case one
of fact which must, if necessary, be established by
the evidence of the publisher or his agent.
3. We understand this question to refer to
obtaining American and not English Copyright,
and it therefore depends on the construction which
the American courts may place on the American
Act. In our opinion the publication referred to
in section 3 of the American Act is publication by
or with the consent of the person entitled to Copy-
right under section 1, and we do not think that an
English author would be prevented from obtaining
Copyright by a prior wrongful publication made
without his authority or consent. Whether publi-
cation by a person who had purchased advanced
sheets from the author would be wrongful must
depend upon the terms on which the sale was
made.
4. English authors will, in our opinion, be
entitled to American Copyright in alterations,
revisions, or additions to their books previously
published in the States, unless the additions form
part of a series or of a work published in parts in
course of publication at the time when the Act
takes effect. Where an author has already parted
with his English Copyright in such alterations or
additions, or in the books to which they relate, he
would not, in our opinion, 1*3 entitled to American
Copyright unless under some special agreement or
reservation in his favour.
5. Publication by an English dramatist in the
United States under the present Act would not,
in our opinion, interfere with performing rights
previously granted by him. The right of repre-
sentation in a dramatic work for which Copyright
has been obtained is expressly protected by sec-
tion 4966 of the revised American statutes, and
any performing rights granted by the author would
after publication take effect under that provision.
Hoiiace Dave v.
Lincoln's Inn, J. Bolt.
3oth June 1891.
V.
Statement by Sib Michael Hicks-Beach.
The President of the Board of Trade recently
received, on the subject of the recent American
Copyright Act, a large and representative deputation
from the London Chamber of Commerce, and a
great number of Trade Societies. The Members
of Parliament present were Sir John Lubbock, Sir
Albert Rollit, and Mr. Broadhurst.
Sir John Lubbock, in introducing the depu-
tation, said that the matter upon which they came
before the President of the Board of Trade was
one as to which there was no difference of opinion
between capital and labour, between employers and
employed. It was not a matter which affected one
part of the country as against the interests of
another part. London and the provinces were all
alike interested in the subject. Whilst the depu-
tation were glad that English authors should
receive the just reward of their labours in America,
they thought that might be done without interfering
with other very considerable interests which were
affected. It was admitted that the American Copy-
right Law, as it now stood, would very much dis-
courage the production of books, photographs, and
works of that character in this country, and tend
to carry all that business into America. It was
quite necessary, while giving protection to English
authors, to do so without affecting other interests,
and a Bill had been drafted and carefully con-
sidered by the London Chamber of Commerce,
with the objects of which they hoped to have the
sympathy of the Government.
Mr. Clowes (Chairman of the Printing and
Allied Trades Association) said the American
Copyright Act granted Copyright on the condition
that a book was printed from type set up in
## p. 91 (#495) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
America; consequently, all authors who thought
their books worth reading (and what author did
not ?) would desire to have them printed in
America, so as to receive Copyright there, with the
result that a large quantity of work which had
hitherto been done in England would in future be
done in America, and a large number of operatives
in this country would be thrown out of work. In
order to prevent that, it was proposed that a short
Bill should be passed, granting English Copyright
to all books printed within a country belonging to
the International Copyright Union. Such a
measure would not in any way injure the Americans,
it would to a very small extent affect authors, and
at the same time it would confer a great benefit
upon a large number of persons in this country.
They would hesitate to propose such a measure if
it would in any way increase the price of teoks;
but the cost of printing generally was higher in
America than in England, so that no advantage
would be gained by the community in England if
books were printed in America instead of in
England. Many trades were concerned in the
manufacture of a book, all of which woidd be
injured unless some such measure as that proposed
was passed. The trades principally concerned were
represented there that day both by employers and
employed, and would lay their views before Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach.
Representatives of various trades spoke.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, in reply, said:—■
Let me understand clearly what it is that you do
propose. I take it that ithis is the practical clause
of your Bill: "Any person shall be entitled by the
Copyright Act, 5th and 6th Victoria, cap. 45, to
Copyright in any book in the English language,
photograph, chromo, or lithograph, if it is first or
simultaneously published within the British do-
minions, and printed from type set within a country
belonging to the International Copyright Union,
or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives
or drawings on stone made therein, or from
transfers made therefrom, but not otherwise."
Have you taken legal advice whether, supposing
that were law at the present moment, the American
citizens would be in the same position in England
as the subject of England is now in the United
States, because that seems to me a very important
question?
Sir A. Rollit.—The Council of the Chamber
of Commerce have not been advised on that point,
but it has teen assumed that the object of this Act
was so, and that it carried out anil placed the
British subject in that position.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach.—You will observe
that it is not the same as the American Act. It
differs from it. in very many particulars, and that
is a point which anybody proposing to introduce
such a measure as this should advise himself upon.
Sir A. Rollit.—There is no intention to gain
an advantage: equality is equity.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach.—You see the im-
mediate result would be, that we should lose for
our authors the advantage which the American Act
would give them. Then there is another question.
The American Act has a clause in it prohibiting
the importation into the United States of any book
or photograph, or plates, &c., with certain ex-
ceptions. Now, you have no proposal of that kind-
Do you intend it, or not? Because, if you do not
intend it, it seems to me that it would be not a
very difficult matter entirely to evade the provisions
of the Act, and that the reason for the insertion of
the clause in the American Act was that they were
quite aware of that fact, and advisedly put it in. I
thought it right to call your attention to these two
points, because they are both important. But
perhaps now I may make a few general observations
on what the deputation has said. I quite appre-
ciate the importance of this deputation, and the
varied interests that it represents; and the fact
also which has teen alluded to by more than one
speaker, that in those industries employers and
employed are in this matter of one mind. I do not
think that we ought to exaggerate the possible
operation of the American Act on the publishing
and printing business of this country. I believe
that that business may be said to be mainly a news-
paper and magazine business; and also there is,
of course, all the official and judicial printing, and
prospectuses and reports of companies, posters,
bills, and all kinds of circulars that come to us by
post, all those things, the great mass of printing
and publishing in this country, are absolutely
outside the operation of the American Copyright
Act. What is really in question is the printing
and publishing trade so far as books are printed.
I think that is so.
Mr. Drummond.—Yes, and nothing more.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach.—I am advised that
that is not more than 5 per cent, of the printing
business. (No, no.) That is the estimate that
has teen given to me, and therefore I do not think
that we ought to look upon this question as it has
teen rather represented by people here, and cer-
tainly by people out of doors, as if the whole
papermaking industry would be ruined, by any
possibility, or the whole publishing trade. No
doubt those industries may be affected, but the
question is, How much will they be affected? You
here think that they will be very largely affected,
and other people have taken different views. One
or two statements have teen made to-day by
speakers who support the view that, they will be
## p. 92 (#496) #############################################
92
THE AUTHOR.
largely affected. I think that something, at any
rate, of the suspension of business and the want
of employment should rather point to the fact that
people are hesitating what to do, l>eeausc they were
uncertain whether the American Act would be
applied to English authors or not; and now that
that point is settled we shall be better able to see,
after the lapse of a reasonable time, what the effect
of the American Act will be. I should 1« very
sorry to-day to express any definite opinion as
to what it may be necessary to do in this matter;
but this I must Bay, that I do not think that the
time has yet come for legislation. We do not
exactly see; we cannot tell what the effect of the
Act may be, much less can we tell in what precise
point it may pinch us, if it does pinch us at all; and
what would be the best, way to deal with this point.
I think I put two questions to-day which may give
cause for reflection as to the particular proposal
that you have made; and I must add that it does
raise principles of considerable importance; and
although I am far from saying that the Parliament
of this country might not be driven by a policy of
this kind on the part of foreign countries to do
something which may be in contravention of
economical principles which have been long held
here, yet I think it would be only at the very last
resort, and that we should see our way as to the
successful issue of any move in that direction
before we make up our minds to do it. I do not
know that I have anything to add beyond an
assurance that I will lay before my colleagues
what has passed to-day, anil the whole matter will
have our attention, and an)' information bv those
present or by any other persons connected with the
printing anil publishing trade which may show the
effect of the American Act upon that trade will
have our most careful consideration.
Sir John Lubbock having thanked the right
hon. gentleman, the deputation withdrew.
The Times, Thursday, July 16th, 1891.
VI.
Answer to Questions.
In answer to Mr. Julian Corbett's two questions
in the June numl>er of the Author, I think that,
to secure American Copyright, there can be no
question that every book, even if containing only a
dramatic composition, must be printed from type
set within the States. This proviso will be rigidly
enforced by the American authorities, and clearly
a dramatic composition is a book within the meaning
of the Revised Statute. With regard to the second
question, the performing right of a copyright
dramatic composition is clearly protected. But
the common law of the United States, the require-
ments of the common law had, therefore, better be
still observed just as if the Act had not passed.
Dramatists would be acting very foolishly if they
neglected to secure the invaluable advantages
conferred upon them by American common law.
Statute law is not an unmixed blessing, and of this,
Title Sixty, Chapter Three, of the Revised Statutes
of the United States promises to prove both an
example and a warning.
X. Y. Z.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
New Grub Street.
"~\ /I ®* Andrew Lang, writing from Olympian
Yl Heights, is a peculiarly irritating person
to a poor devil like me, who happens
to be making a somewhat lengthy stay in a back
slum off New Grub Street. Mr. Lang does not
believe that there is such a place as New Grub
Street, which Mr. Gissing has drawn with so much
fidelity and power; and says that if there were such
a place, the inmates thereof should cultivate their
sense of humour and liveliness on a little bread
and less butter. Now, is it not a little too bad
of one who moves presumably in a world of
prosperous publishers, omnipotent editors (to most
of whose funerals I would cheerfully contribute),
and superior litterateurs—to express the opinion
that because he knows nothing of the world
which Mr. Gissing depicts, he is inclined to
think it does not exist? Does Mr. Lang know
anything, for instance, about the habits and
existence of the unattached journalist? This
unhappy being may be in possession of the
greatest sobriety, industry, and sense of humour.
He may also possess a fair amount of brains,
but, like a large number of his companions in
New Grub Street, he has not been lucky enough
to get on to the regular staff of a paper. The
excessive amount of nervous energy and physical
exertion that a man in this situation is compelled
to expend is out of all proportion to his gain, and
results in nine cases out of ten in drink, or a break
down in health. To earn, say, £i or £4 a week,
he must be ever on the alert to get hold of news,
race over London for copy to write up, attend a
day of functions without a chance of getting any
food, reach home dead weary, only to know that he
must write out his notes without delay. And all
with the pleasing consciousness that his day's
earnings will amount to some 12s., nothing Wing
## p. 93 (#497) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
93
allowed for shoe leather, ink, or paper. It
may be urged that this is an exceptional ease,
but it is nothing of the sort, and represents the
average unattached journalist, to say nothing of
the British Museum literary hack, whose unsuccess
is invariably and very unjustly attributed to
irregular habits or drink. In addition, what of
the horror of a slack season, when nothing is going
on except the unhappy journalist's appetite?
What of the MSS. rejected, one after another,
liecause members of the staff of the paper have
forestalled outsiders? What of the unexpected
collapse of the "column," which brings in the
modest sum of one guinea weekly? What of the
man who translates? But Mr. Lang bids us
cultivate our sense of humour. Well, we try to,
but we do not find that this materially aids us
in the payment of our washing bill. And as
to the lightheartedness of Miirger's young men,
it is delightful; but as their poverty never seems
to have stood in the way of their having a
bottle of wine when they wanted it, and as they
give us no information as to how they eluded
their rent day, the ordinary householder who has to
pay up punctually finds it all entertaining, but
puzzling. If Mr. Lang would like some practical
acquaintance with the disagreeable side of ink-
spilling, perhaps he would change places with me
for a few days. I would not undertake to fill his
place, but I venture to think I should find the
steering of his ship less arduous and thankless than
that of mv own little bark."
X.
II.
The Rev. William Shakspeare.
In last number of the Author, a contributor
speculates regretfully upon the very different world
which we might now enjoy, had Shakspeare
devoted his life to theology. For myself, I feel
thankful that he did not thus employ his genius.
As a professional theologian, several careers were
open to him, c.p.:—
1. To win orders in the Anglican Church,
publish a profound treatise upon theologv
—now read only by a few antiquaries, and
die Archbishop of Canterbury.
2. To migrate to the Continent, fall into the hands
of the Inquisition, and be now known, in
martyrology, as St. William.
3. To 'vert to Rome, be elevated to the Chair of
St. Peter, and be known in history as Pope
Benvenuto the First.
4. To Iwcome a free-lance, and die an agnostic.
No mere man, even Shakspeare, was ever capable
of fully " revealing revelation," or even of bringing
it permanently nearer to the masses of mankind,
and less so, if born in our land three centuries ago.
For one thing, no tongue has yet been evolved
upon our planet fit to express without ambiguity
the thoughts and precepts of the highest minds and
purest souls of the human race, and, still lacking
this, even Shakspeare cannot dispense with sectarian
commentators, to help to reveal his own natural
revelation.
I venture to affirm that had he essayed a still
higher plane of thought, his works would have been
even more unintelligible to the "common people."
In the process, he might have revealed to us much
more of his own inner self than he has ever done;
but, failing the pre-existence of a language, ex
pressive enough for his genius, for the subject, and
for his lowest, disciples, Shakspeare might have
become an even wiser man, but we should—as a
race—be now the poorer.
Thank heaven, say I, that he did not become
a " priest"!
PlIINLAY Gl.EXELU.
I have been trying to imagine William
Shakespeare "leaving his mark as a professed
theologian" with something approaching a
shudder. To wish one " Born for the universe"
to " narrow his mind" "and to" churches " give
up what was meant for mankind," perhaps even to
reach such supreme eminence as would entitle him
to declare authoritatively whether side means end,
and whether north is identical with west, and why
both are important, seems in an artistic sense little
less than profane.
What more than many things calls for reverence
in ShakesjH!ivre is his serene impartiality. He
presents us with every kind of human aspect, good
and bad, noble and degraded, intellectual and
spiritual, devout and doubting, chaste and licentious,
gentle and brutal, and he as often as not lets each
plead in its own justification. Moreover, he never,
in matters supernatural, takes what may lie called
a " side," or treats them otherwise than as material
for art. So much so, indeed, that we find it
difficult, if not impossible, to find out what his
own religion, if any, was.
Could a clergyman even of the " noble Church of
England" consistently have done that?
What would poor Jack Falstaff be in the hands
of the Right Rev. W. Shakespeare, D.D., S.T.P.?
But without that portly knight where, in the name
of near three centuries of honest English laughter,
should tee be?
And would not that delightful little piece of
frailty and falsehood, Cressida, have become a
## p. 94 (#498) #############################################
94
THE AUTHOR.
penitent or an awful example, either of which
would hopelessly spoil her?
Furthermore, if this be not so, let it be other-
wise; that is, let the Rev. W. Shakespeare treat
things and persons Shakespearianly (pace the
dictionary), and how would the noble Church of
England treat him? It happens that there was
a great man, not quite contemporary with Shake-
speare, whose works we know Shakespeare to have
read and seemingly enjoyed, who was "directed to
the priestly office " in early life, and occupied it in
connexion, I think, with a parish called Meudon at
one time; but we do not recollect that his own or
any other Church appreciates that Vales as keenly
as we could wish.
While we are about it, we may as well wish that
one C. Marlowe, M.A., of Benet College, had taken
orders, and then we should have been spared the
distress of reading much of Hero and Leander, to
say nothing of the translations from Ovid (inter
respectabilcs hand nominandd), and how much
happier we should all be then!
Seriously, Shakespeare gave us the revelation lie
had to give of the lives and minds of men and
women, and there is none like it. The revelation
of what is above anil beyond men and women is
not given to any capacity of reason, however
godlike, and, personally, I am thankful to fall back
on the fact that Shakespeare was and did what we
know he did and was. He knew best. This with
all courtesy to the writer, and interest in the writing
of " If Shakespeare had lieen Priest."
John Hill.
III.
Presentation Copies.
Regarding the presentation of copies of works to
newspapers, it has always appeared to me that it is the
object of newspapers to chronicle events, and their
duty to do so if they would not belie their name.
Though, to carry out this object, they go to vast
expense in the matters of special correspondents,
telegraphic messages, &c, yet, when it comes to
reporting on a book or a play or other show, they
expect to have the first given to them, and to re-
ceive free admission to the latter. Why should this
be? Is it not as much a part of their duty to
record the production of a book or a play, as a fire
or a divorce case? Certainly, to the latter they
have free access; but why should books and admis-
sions to plays and shows be given to them? It is
the duty of newspapers to gather news. Why,
then, should publishers and lessees of places of
amusement perform part of their duty for them?
It is certainly to their advantage to have the things
they bring out brought to the knowledge of the
public by means of notices in the press; but, if this
kind of publicity were as readily given to new in-
ventions, it would be regarded as giving them an
advertisement. Yet a new invention is as much an
event as a new literary work. Why should not
newspapers gather their own news, as much in the
literary sphere as in others? Why should not they
pay for the books they intend to review, and for
admission to the plays and shows they intend to
notice? Public announcement is usually given
previous to the production of plays &c, and some-
times of books, which is not the case with many
important events instantly reported in the news-
papers; and really it looks like begging a news-
paper to perform its duty, and rewarding it for
doing so, if books and free admissions are given to
it. It cannot be that the public convenience is
enhanced by books, &c. being given to newspaper
proprietors, and though it may be a convenience to
publishers and others to send them, it certainly is a
convenience to newspaper proprietors to receive
them, and for these particular things they should
be as desirous to pay as they are for other means of
obtaining information of public interest.
H. Haes.
[The answer to this note seems to be, that unless
the Editor were supplied with copies of new books
he and all authors would lie at the mercy of the
critic, who would go round the world of Letters
and the outer offices of publishers, begging and
extorting books on the promise of a favourable
review. This would be a tyranny unendurable.
It may be said that a gentleman could not do such
things. If the reviewer had to cadge about in
order to find his own copies for review, very few
gentlemen would be left in the profession. The
extortion of books under promise of a favourable
notice is sometimes done even now. Here followeth
fact. There was a man, about 20 years ago, a
clergyman and the lecturer for a well-known society,
who persuaded a certain geographer that he was a
great man in the London press, and actually got
from him a parcel of atlases, maps, and books on a
promise of favourable notices. He wrote no notices
and he sold the parcel for £z5.—Editou.]
IV.
Payment on Publication.
"The artists who illustrate the authors' work in
magazines are treated with a fairness unknown
to the writers—probably because they are firm
enough to insist upon it. An article upon which
I had spent a fortnight's work, and the material
for which cost money as well as time in the
## p. 95 (#499) #############################################
THE AUTHOR.
95
gathering was illustrated by an artist who is a
friend of mine, of about an equal standing in his
profession—perhaps not an exalted standing—with
my own in mine. The drawings were sub-
servient to the text, which, indeed, was quite com-
plete without them, and they cost the artist less
than a week's work. The thing complete, text
and drawings, was offered to a magazine, the pro-
prietors of which expressed themselves willing to
pay £3o for the illustrations and £5 for the text—
about 7,000 words—each amount on their "usual
scale." The article, therefore, will not appear in
that magazine. But my chief object in mentioning
the matter is to draw attention to another thing.
The proprietors of the magazine were kind enough
to warn me that while the drawings would be paid
for at once the text "as usual" would only be
imiil for on publication—if that were 10 years
hence. Of course I know that this is "usual,"
but why? If the artist is paid for his goods upon
delivery why should the author wait until it pleases
the purchaser to put his goods to use? If I buy
a hat the hatter will not wait for his money until
I choose to begin wearing my purchase. Imagine
these worthy gentlemen saying to a compositor,
"Yes, you have been all the week setting up this
article, but you must wait for your wages until we
publish it—in a year's time or so." The com-
positor's union, of course, would never allow such
a " custom of the tra<le" to grow up. Can our
union do nothing to get rid of it?"
M.
V.
Insurance.
There is a statement in the Author, under the
head of "Warning," to the effect that no fire
office will insure a MS. I insured the MS. of
"Rogers and His Contemporaries" in the Union
Office, paying 2s. bd. per cent, on the value, which
I fixed. The insurance covered the risk at my
own house, at the publishers, and at the printers.
P. W. Clatokn.
VI.
On Titles.
"I work for publishers. I have been swindled
by some and sweated by others. At the same time
the publisher has sometimes just cause for com-
plaint.
Here is an instance. Books for Christmas are by
some firms arranged and edited early in the year.
Considerable time, trouble, and money was spent on
our lwok with which I was concerned. Copies—
10,000 in numl)cr—were printed by May. The
travellers go out about June to sell the book, and
are aghast to find that another book with the same
title has just been published. In the last twelve
months I have known three cases like this."
E.
[This is a mischance which has happened often
enough to authors. The best way out of it is to
liave a registry for titles. Another way is to lxi
very careful in the invention of a title.—Editor.]
FROM GRUB STREET.
ONC E upon a time—and it may not Ik; quite a
past time—a frog when slated by some ill-
conditioned boys, exclaimed, in answer to
their plea, that they did it only "for fun," that,
"if it was fun for them, it was death for him."
And I trust that you will permit me to expand that
exclamation a little in answer to Mr. Lang's jaunty
remark about its being " ouly a battle with snow-
balls at most; that the enemy should learn to keep
his temper; and that it does not signify."
First, slates are not mere idle snowballs. They
kill. They make existence for those for whom it is
already sufficiently difficult, more difficult still, or
impossible. Secondly, slating in Grub Street is not
the unpaid frolic of boys. It is a handsomely paid
business. And frog-stoning is deliberately pre-
ferred to honester work, because it is paid better.
Thirdly, frogs do not lose their temper because slates
fly about, but because they hit. Even frogs think
they have a right to live, so long as they are not
positively noxious. And it seems to them that
insult is added to injury when it is pretended that
slates thrown for pay, and known to hit in vital
parts, are thrown only " for fun."
That many frogs have objectionable ways, I
frankly admit, and doubtless I am myself of the
number. But though objectionable ways may
be corrected by responsible criticism, they arc not
to be corrected by that irresponsible indulgence of
personal likes and dislikes which is Grub Street
criticism, and the best-paid trade in the row—
unfortunately for—
A Frog.
«■•■♦
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
MR. Hall Caine, when he delivered his lectures
on the Isle of Man at the Royal Institution,
opened an unexpected mine, rich though
small. He has now put the lectures together and
## p. 96 (#500) #############################################
96
THE AUTHOR.
printed them as a book called "The Little Manx
Nation," and a very interesting book it is. The
lx>ok is divided into three parts—the story of the
Manx Kings, the story of the Manx Bishops, and
the story of the Manx People. A better book in
a small compass we have seldom seen.
Mr. W. Morris Codes contributes an article on
"London and the Housing of the Working
Classes," to the August number of Murrai/s
Magazine.
A serial story, " Miss Merewether's Money," by
Thomas Cobb, author of "On Trust," &c., will
commence in the May number of Household
Words. Messrs. Ward, Lock, & Co. have in the
press a short story, "The House by the Common,"
by the same author.
The first volume of " The Works of Heinrich
Heine," translated by Charles Godfrey Leland, has
been sent to this office by the publisher (Heine-
mann). Charles Leland has long been occupied
with this work. He began something like thirty
years ago making tentative translations of Heine,
who is at once the easiest and the most difficult of
all German writers to translate. The first volume
includes the "Florentine Nights," the "Memoirs
of Herr von Sclmbelewopski, and "Shakespeare's
Maidens and Women "—all prose works.
Mr. Edric Vredenburg's story "The Haunted
House in Berkeley Square," which recently appeared
as a serial in the Weekly Times and Echo, has
now been published in volume form by Messrs.
Trisctiler & Co.
Here is activity! By the same author, produced
in the same month, the following :—
A three-volume novel, viz., "Jardine's Wife."
(Trischler.)
A one-volume novel, viz., "Was He Justified?"
(Griffith, Farran, & Co.)
A book of travels, viz., "In the Land of the
Lion and the Sun." (Ward and Lock.)
A short story, "The Pit Town Coronet."
(Trischler.)
The author is Mr. C. J. Wills.
Mr. J. Stanley Little contributes an article
entitled, "Why Great Britain should buy out
Portugal in East Africa ?" to the current number of
Greater Britain.
We have received a copy of "The Devil and
the Doctor" from the author. It should have been
acknowledged last month, but, with certain other
books, was accidently passed over. Perhaps it is
not too late to say that this is a book to be read.
THE AUTHOR'S BOOKSTALL.
Books FOR SAr.E.
Poetical Sketches of Scarborough. Illustrated
by Engravings of Humorous Subjects. Coloured.
Original Boards. By J. Green and T. Rowlandson.
Second Edition. i8i3.
An Academy for Grown Horsemen, and the
Annals of Horsemanship. By Geoffrey Gambado.
Illustrated with cuts by Rowlandson, &c. Original
Boards. London, 1809.
Among the poetry of the year must be mentioned
William Sharp's "Sospiri di Roma," which was
received in time for notice last month, but was
unfortunately mislaid. Readers of poetry will
please make a note.
We have received and venture to recommend a
novel called "Elsn," by E. McQueen Gray
(Methuen & Co.).
Books FOB Exchange.
Four French l>ooks in a good state of preser-
vation, with Rolande's label on outside covers :—
Horizons Prochains; and, Horizons Celestes.
By'M. de Gasparin.
Souvenirs d'un Garibaldien. By Caraquel.
Garibaldi. By Dumas.
Wanted—Matthew Arnold's "Discourses in
America "; or his " Dramatic and later Poems."
London: Printed by Etbe and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty.
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The Author, Vol. 02 Issue 03 (August 1891)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 02 Issue 03 (August 1891)
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Zhc Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 4.]
SEPTEMBER 1, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
TAQE
International Copyright—
I. From the New York Critic 101
II. From Frank Leslie's Paper 103
Association Littcrairo ct Artistique International!' 05
Conference of Journalists at Dublin .. .. 105
Au Old New Word. By Professor Skeat 106
The Authors' Club 107
Notes and News. By Walter Besant 07
On a New Novelist 112
A Day at Olyinpia 113
Some Early Experiences 116
PAOE
Enemies of Literature 19
Correspondence—
I. "O Word of Fear" 1:1
II. Foreign Reprints, ill
"At the Author's Head" 121
Women Booksellers 22
Some of the Indignities of Literature .. 123
Parisians and their Fiction 133
Night-Tempest 114
New Books and New Editions 124
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE.
PLIOCENE DEPOSITS OK BRITAIN, THE. By
Clf.mfst Rkid. F.L.S.. F.G.S. Five Plates (48 cuts), .<». 6<f.
LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: Guide to the
Geology of. Bv William Whitaker, B.A. is.
LONDON AND OF PART OF THE THAMES VALLEY,
The Geilogy of. Bv W. WniTAKER. H A., F.R.S., F.G.S.,
Assoc. Inst. C.E. Vol. I. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 8vo.
Cloth, 6*. Vol. II. APPENDICES. 8vo. Cloth, 5*.
KEW BULLETIN, 1890. Issued by the Director of Kew
Gardens. is. iorf.
KEW BULLETIN, 1891. Monthly, 2<i. Appendices, id.
each. Annual Subscription, including postage, 3.*. gti.
DESCRIPl'IVE CATALOGUE OK MUSICAL INSTRU-
MENTS recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition.
Compiled by Capt. Day. Oxfordshire Light Infantry, under
the orders of Col. Sua w-Hei.likb. Commandant Royal'Militnry
School of Music. Illustrated by a scries of Twelve artistically
execulcd Plates in Heliogravure, and with numerous W(kxI
Emiravines. 21*.
"It affords information obtainable nowhere else, and it has been
put together with so much care and thoughtfulncss that Capt. Day's
volume will lie indeed welcomed by nil who have to deal with the
wind instruments, nnd can lie accepted without question as the
standard authority."—Musical Xews.
PUBLIC RECORDS. A Guide to the Principal Classes
of Documents preserved in the Public Record Office. By S. It.
Scari.'Ill-Bibd, F.S.A. j».
"The value of such a work as Mr. ScargillBird's can scarcely be
over-rated."— Times.
STATE TRIALS, Reports of. New Series. Vol. III.,
1831—40. Published under the direction of the Stab1 Trials
Committee. Edited bv .Ions Macdoxell. M.A. 10*.
MANUAL OF BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. By
Walter L. Bcllee, C.M.G., Sc.D., F.R.S. Numerous Plates.
Rova] Hvo. 10*.
INDIGENOUS GRASSES OF NEW ZEALAND. By
Joinf Bi'CHANAN. Full-page Illustrations. Imp. 4to. Half
Morocco. 15*.
FOREST FLORA OK NEW ZEALAND. By T. Kibk,
F.L.S., late Chief Conservator of State Forests, N.Z., 4c.
Numerous Plates. Fcap. folio. Cloth. i2.«. id.
HANDBOOK OK NEW ZEALAND FISHES. By R.
A. Siirrrix. Demy Svo. Cloth, is.
ORANGE CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. By G. C.
At.UERTOjf. Demv 8vo. Cloth, is.
MANUAL OK NEW ZEALAND MOLLUSCA.
Prof. Hrnox. Royal 8vo. 3s.
NEW ZEALAND i)IPTERA, HYMENOPTKRA,
ORTHOPTERA. Bv Prof. HrTTON. Royal 8vo. is.
NEW ZEALAND COLKOPTEBA. Parts 1 to 4.
Captain T. Broix. Royal 8vo. is. 6d.
THE LITERATURE RELATING TO NEW ZEALAND.
A Bibliography. Rnval Svo. Cloth, is. M.
POLYNESIAN'MYTHOLOGY AND ANCIENT TRA-
DITIONAL HISTORY OF THE NEW ZEALAND RACE.
By Sir George Grey. K.C.B. Illustrated. Royal svo. Cloth,».
ANCIENT HISTORY OK THE MAORI. By John
White. Demy Svo. Half Morocco. 4 vols. ioj. per vol.
By
AND
By
Monthly Lists of Parliamentary Papers upon Application. Quarterly Lists Post Free, id.
Miscellaneous List on Application.
Every Assistance given to Correspondents; and Books not kept in stock obtained without delay. Remittance should
accompany Order.
GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL PUBLISHERS.
EYRE and SrOTTISWOODE, Her Hajesfy's Printers, East Harding Slrcft, Londou, VA.
## p. 98 (#502) #############################################
98
AD VER TISEMENTS.
THE CENTRAL TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
(ESTABLISHED 1887,)
57 & 58, Chancery Lane, W.C.
$3rtncq>aW;
Miss M. E. DUCK and Miss I. B. LOOKER.
Type-writing and Copying of every Description under-
taken for the Literary, Dramatic, Clerical, Legal, and other
Professions. Type-writing from Dictation a Specialty.
Highest Testimonials for Excellence of Work and Promp-
titude from AUTHORS and others.
PRICE LIST ON APPLICATION-TERMS MOVERA TE.
MISS H.. T7\ GILL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,
6, Adam Street, Strand, W.C, and
5, Air Street, Piccadilly, W.
— — -
Authors' and Dramatists' Work a Specialty. All kinds
of MSS. copied -with care. Extra attention given to difficult
hand-writing and to papers or lectures on scientific subjects.
Type-writing from dictation. Shorthand Notes taken
and transcribed.
FURTHER PARTICULARS OX APPLICATION.
TYPE-WRITING.
Authors' MSS. carefully Transcribed.
Writings by Post receive prompt attention.
Scientific and Medical Papers a Specialty.
MISSES
13, Dorset Strkkt, Portman Square, W.
MISSES E. & S. ALLEN,
TYPE AND SHORTHAND WRITERS.
TRANSLATIONS and Scientific Work
a Special Feature.
39, Lombard Street, E.C.
Office No. 5(1 {close to Lift).
MISS PATTEN,
type-writer,
44, Oakley Flats, Oakley Street, Chelsea, S.W.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from Is. per 1,000 Words.
One additional Copy (Carbon) supplied Free of Charge.
References kindly permitted to George Augustus Sala, Esq.
Particulars on Application.
ASHWORTH & Co.,
4, Abchurch Yard, Cannon Street, E.C.
—
Authors' MSS. type-written from Is. 3d. per
1,000 words.
TRANSLATIONS.
CITY TYPE-WRITING & SHORTHAND OFFICES,
MANSION HOUSE CHAMBERS,
20, Bucklersbury, London, E.C.
— — —
Tho Department for Lady Pupils has unremitting attention, as
evidenced by the unqualified Success which has attended it*
management. The Course includes Shorthand, Type-writing.
Book-keeping, and Commercial Correspondence, iind when Pupil;,
have acquired proficiency—
POSITIONS ARE GUARANTEED.
Particulars on application to —
MARY 33 .A. Y-
ICUE IFt S. GILL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUOGATE HILL, E.C.
Author's MSS. carefully copied from i*. per
1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon)
supplied free of charge.
References kindly permitted to many well-known
Authors and Publishers. Further particulars on
application.
MISSES AIRD & WEDDERSP00N,
SHORTHAND, TRANSLATING, and TYPEWRITING OFFICES.
4, SUN COURT, COBHHILL, E.C.
Translations carefully and correctly made. Shorthand
and Typewriting Clerks sent out on short notice. Type-
writing of all kinds done with neatness, accuracy, and
despatch. Special pains taken with Authors' MSS. Pupils
trained in Pitman's System of Shorthand, and in Type-
writing.
All applications relating to Advertisements
in this Journal should be addressed to the
Printers and Publishers,
EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE,
East Harding Street, Fetter Lane,
London, E.C.
## p. 99 (#503) #############################################
ADVERTISEMENTS.
99
The Society of Authors (Incorporated).
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hox. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
COUNCIL.
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.I.E. I A. W. DUBOURG.
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND
ALFRED AUSTIN.
JOHN ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S.
MONTGOMERY.
A. W. À BECKETT.
PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart.,
ROBERT BATEMAN.
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.
LL.D.
SIR HENRY BERGNE, K.C.M.G. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.
WALTER BESANT.
EDMUND GOSSE.
A. G. Ross.
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS Sala.
R. D. BLACKMORE.
THOMAS HARDY.
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.
Rev. PROF. BONNEY, F.R.S.
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. G. R. SIMs.
LORD BRABOURNE.
J. M. LELY.
J. J. STEVENSON.
JAMES BRYCE, M.P.
REV. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
JAS. SULLY.
P. W. CLAYDEN.
F. Max MÜLLER, LL.D.
WILLIAM Moy THOMAS.
EDWARD CLODD.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.
THE RIGHT HON. THE BARON HENRY
MARION CRAWFORD.
Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S. DE WORMS, M.P., F.R.S.
OSWALD CRAWFURD, C.M.G.
J. C. PARKINSON.
EDMUND YATES.
THE EARL OF DESART.
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman--- WALTER BESANT.
A. W. À BECKETT.
EDMUND Gosse.
J. M. LELY.
| A. G. Ross.
W. MARTIN CONWAY.
H. RIDER HAGGARD. Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK. |
Solicitors— Messrs. FIELD, RoscoE, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.
OFFICES.
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's Inn FIELDS, W.C.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January 1891 can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary
Property. Issued to all Members. .
3. The Grievances of Authors. (The Leadenhall Press.) 28. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By. W. MORRIS COLLES, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,
95, Strand, W.C.) 38.
5. The History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE, Secretary to the
Society. 18.
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,
size of page, &c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books.
28. 6d. Out of Print, New Edition now preparing.
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. In this work, compiled from the
papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors
are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud
which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3s. Second
Edition.
8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament.
With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the
Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. LELY. Eyre and Spottiswoode.
18. 6d.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
VOL. II.
7. The 25. od Page,
## p. 100 (#504) ############################################
IOO
A I) VEli TISEMENTS.
The " Swim" is ii beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which
it supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant
work, or a week's ordinary writing, and can l>e refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With
the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser
may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for
another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted. ,
There are yarions points to select from, broad. Minn, aiiil fine, eyery handwriting can be snited,
and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10s. 6d.
The Gold Pens in the "Swan" are Mabie, Todd, & Co.'s famous make. They are 14-carat
tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with
selected polished iridium. The " Encyclopaedia Britannica" says:—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of
high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon
it." They will not jxmetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens.
One will OUtwear 90 grOSS Of Steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing
about Gold Pens.
Dr. Outer Wendkix Holmes has used one of Mubio, Todd, & Co.'s Gold Pens siuce 185;, and is using the same
one (his "old friend ") to-day.
.Sydney Guundy, Kho,., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" ft is a vast improvement on every Stylograph."
Mobkrlt Bbll, Esq., Manager, The Times, says (referring to the Fountain feu) :—" One pen lasted me for six
years."
S. D. Waddt, Ksq., (i-C, M.P., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" I have used them constantly for some
years, and, as fur as t can remember, they have never failed me."
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the Best
People, who have used them for years) to—
MABIE, TODD, & BARD,
S3, CHEAPSIDE, X-03XT1D03V.
## p. 101 (#505) ############################################
^Ibe Hutbor*
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 4.] SEPTEMBER 1, 1891. [Price Sixpence.
For the Opinions c.vprcssed in papers that arc
signed the Authors alone arc responsible.
- +~»~*
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
I.
(From the New Vork "Critic.")
Protection and Literature in France.
"A MOXG the measures of reprisal proposed in
f\ the Belgian Parliament last March," savs
the Times, " when the new French protec-
tionism with its discriminations against Belgian
products was brought into the French Chamher,
was a withdrawal of the property rights accorded
French writers and artists. J11 fact, it was only a
little later that the treaty between France and Bel-
gium, negotiated in 1881, for the reciprocal guarantee
of literary and artistic rights, was denounced by the
latter country, and will consequently soon expire.
. . . . Just about that time Switzerland came
forward and gave notice of her desire to terminate
the corresponding treaty covering the rights of
authors and artists in existence with France since
1882 But it seems probable that the
rights of workers in French literature and art are
too securely guaranteed abroad to be imperilled
even by so exasperating a law as the Bill brought
in by M. Meline. Even in the case of Belgium
and Switzerland, something more than the termi-
nation of the existing treaties on the subject must
Ikj done before French authors and artists will
suffer. Belgium has had a law on her statute hooks
since 1886 relating to Copyright, in which the same
rights are accorded foreigners as those secured to
citizens. This law would have to be repealed or
amended in order to make the proposed reprisal of
Belgium effective. And in Switzerland there is a
Federal law dating from 1883, giving to foreign
authors the same rights as natives, provided the
country of the former has reciprocal legislation, as
France has.
"Moreover, both Belgium and Switzerland are
signers of the Berne Convention of 1886. The
second article of that agreement grants*to the
citizens of any signatory Power the l ight to dispose
of their literary and artistic productions in any
other, under the same legal protection as that
enjoyed by natives. True, Belgium and Switzer-
land might withdraw7 from the Berne Convention,
but they could not do it simply as concerns France;
they would have to do it absolutely, and become
outer barbarians to all the other signers. This is
a step which they would hesitate to take. Espe-
cially would Switzerland hesitate to take it, since
it would necessarily involve the loss to Berne of
the Bureau of the International Union, maintained
there at present by the signatory States at an
expense of $12,000 a year. Thus it would
appear that whatever reprisals in other forms
France may be subjected to on account of her rush
into MeKinleyism, the property rights of her
writers and artists are too thoroughly secured in
other countries to be easily forfeited."
Penalties for Violation of the new Law.
The Secretary of the Treasury has prescribed
the following regulations :—
1. Copyrighted books and articles, the importa-
tion of which is prohibited by section 49,56,
Revised Statutes, as amended by section 3 of
said Act, shall not be admitted to entry. Such
books and articles, if imported with the previous
consent of the proprietor of the Copyright, shall
be seized by the collector of customs, who will
take the proper steps for the forfeiture of the goods
to the United States, under section 3o82, Revised
Statutes.
## p. 102 (#506) ############################################
102
THE AUTHOR.
2. Copyrighted books mid articles imported
contrary to said prohibition, and without the
previous consent of the proprietor of the Copyright,
being primarily subject to forfeiture to the pro-
prietor of the Copyright, shall lie detained by the
collector, who shall forthwith notify such proprietor,
in order to ascertain whether or not he shall
institute, proceedings for the enforcement of his
right to the forfeiture. If the proprietor institutes
such proceedings and obtains a decree of forfeiture,
the goods shall be delivered to him on payment of
the expenses incurred in the detention and storage
and the duties accrued thereon. If such proprietor
shall fail to institute such proceedings within 60
days from date of notice, or shall declare in writing
that he abandons his right to the forfeiture, then
the collector shall proceed as in the case of articles
imported with the previous consent of the pro-
prietor.
3. Copyrighted articles, the importation of which
is not prohibited, but which, by virtue of section
4965, Revised Statutes, as amended by section 8
of said Act, are forfeited to tin; proprietor of
the Copyright when imported without his previous
consent, and are, moreover, subject to the forfeiture
of $1 or §10 per copy, as the case may be, one-half
thereof to the said proprietor, and the other half to
the use of the United States, shall be taken posses-
sion of by the collector, who shall take the necessary
steps for securing to the United States half of the
sum so forfeited, and shall keep the goods in his
possession until a decree of forfeiture is obtained,
and the half of the sum so forfeited, as well as the
duties and charges accrued are paid; whereupon
he shall deliver the goods to the proprietor of the
Copyright. In case of failure to obtain a decree
of forfeiture the goods shall be admitted to entry.
The Importation of Books in foreign
Tongues.
There appears to be no room for doubt that the
new copyright law admits foreign books, of which
only the translations are copyrighted here; and
that it admits them duty-free. The free list of the
new tariff law includes (paragraph 5l2) works
20 years old), (paragraph 5i3) "books and
pamphlets printed exclusively in languages other
than English," and l>ooks and music in raised print
for the blind, (paragraph 614) works intended for
use by the Government, and (paragraph 516) works
owned, and in actual use for more than one year,
by persons or families from foreign countries.
The copyright law says tlistinctly that, "in the
case of books in foreign languages, of which
only translations in English are copyrighted, the
prohibition of importation shall apply only to the
translations of the same, and the importation of
the books in the original language shall be per-
mitted." An exception in this law suspends the
rule against importing copyrighted works not re-
printed in this country "in the cases specified in
paragraphs 5i2 to 516, inclusive," as above.
The Librarian of Congress kept busy.
"Mr. Spofford, the Librarian of Congress, is
kept very busy these warm days," says the Evening
Post, "answering the corres])ondence which pours
in upon him with every mail, most of it concerning
the interpretation of the new copyright law. A
surprisingly large number of persons manifest an
interest in the subject of the 'catalogues of title-
entries' which the law requires the Librarian to
furnish to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the
Secretary to print, at intervals of not more than a
week, for distribution among the collectors of
customs and postmasters at offices receiving foreign
mails. These catalogues are designed, of course,
primarily to inform the officers mentioned what
publications are to lie excluded from entry; but
incidentally they are of value to American authors,
publishers, librarians, collectors, and persons other-
wise interested in literature. Hence the Govern-
ment proposes to accept subscriptions for them,
at the rate of $5 a year, a sum which is expected
nearly to cover the expense of getting them out.
"The impression has got abroad that Mr.
Spofford is designated to receive subscriptions, and
he is deluged with applications and inquiries in
consequence. To all he is obliged to send the
uniform answer that the subscribing must be done
through the collectors of customs, whose duty it
is to account for the money so received, and instruct
the Department how many copies will be necessary
each week to supply their local demands."
"It is a curious thing," observes the same
paper, "that so large a number of professional
writers, musicians, publishers, &c, who make it a
part of their regular business to take out Copy-
rights, should not feel enough interest in the
protection of their own property to examine the
statute and follow its language literally in furnishing
the Librarian of Congress with the data on which
they base their claims. Some of the provisions of
the new statute are too blind for even an accom-
plished lawyer to interpret with ease, but the par-
ticulars required by the Librarian can be ascertained
by any layman's intelligent reading. A great many
applicants for Copyright—perhaps it would be not
too much to say the majority—make their appli-
cations in a way that would ascrilie to the Librarian
## p. 103 (#507) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
clairvoyant [xnvers, or an acquaintance with the
family history of persons ho has never heard of
before."
In the Case of Residents who are not
Citizens.
"Doubt has arisen," says the Tribune, "in
respect to the proper construction of section i3
of the Act, so far as it may affect foreign-born
residents of the United States who have not been
naturalized. That section provides that the Act
'shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a
foreign State or nation when such foreign State
or nation permits to citizens of the United States
of America the benefit of Copyright on substantially
the same basis as its own citizens; or when such
foreign State or nation is a party to an inter-
national agreement which provides for the reci-
procity in the granting of Copyright, by the terms
of which agreement the United States of America
may, at its pleasure, become a party to such agree-
ment.' The old law in relation to Copyright has
always been liberally construed for the benefit of
unnaturalized foreigners resident in the United
States, so that thousands of Copyrights have been
granted to citizens of France and subjects of Great
Britain, Germany, and other countries residing in
this country. Now, what shall be done if a subject
of Germany, Italy, or any other country not em-
braced in the President's proclamation of July I,
who is a resident of the United States, shall apply
for Copyright under the new law?"
The ooPYRiGHTrNG of foreign Music.
"Mr. Spofford," says the Post, "stands firmly
by his decision that foreign music may lx> copy-
righted without reprinting in this country. He
bases this view upon the fact that the new law
makes the distinction, in plain terms, lx'twoen
'a lxx>k, photograph, chromo, or lithograph,'
which it requires 'shall be printed from type set
within the limits of the United States, or from
plates made therefrom,' and the general list.
, There will, doubtless, ta a contest over
this, as certain American music publishers insist
that the new law requires that foreign books shall
be reprinted here in order to obtain the benefits
of Copyright, and that a piece of sheet-music is,
for the intents of the law, to lx> regarderl as a book.
. . . The music publishers are evidently dis-
turbed by the prospect. If they cannot get a
decision in their favour they have little hope of
getting relief from Congress for a good while to
come. Moreover, by the argument they are making,
they obviously intend to put a broader construction
on the statute than could possibly have been in
anybody's mind when the Bill was under discussion,
for they claim that tlx.' word • type' should be
held to include 'all punches and other devices
by which books, and all publications construed
to be books, are made.'"
II.
(From " Frank Leslie's Paper.")
The brilliant gathering of British writers on
Thursday night, July 16th, at the Hotel Metropole,
in London, under the auspices of the Society
of Authors, may Ira said to close the cam-
paign of International Copyright. The British
authors have now ratified, in a public and official
manner, and with a significant emphasis, tho
legislation of last winter, and that they have done
this lx-speaks at once their magnanimity and their
wisdom—magnanimity, lx»cause they undoubtedly
are hampered by some of the restrictions of the
Act as passed; wisdom, lx?cause in spite of these
limitations, and, from a purely literary standpoint,
these blemishes, the Act is a distinct step forward
in the march of ideas. The veteran Laureate of
England, and of the English speech, struck the
keynote and summed the whole matter up in his
concise despatch of greeting, wherein he said the
Society congratulated the United States "on their
great act of justice."
It is as a "great act of justice" rather than as
legislation, which will immediately benefit the
pockets of authors and publishers, that the world
feels its chief interest in the present International
Copyright law. It was this consideration which
prompted Henry Cabot Lodge to say at the recent
Copyright dinner in this city, that perhaps the
Fifty-first Congress would ultimately lx> best re-
membered for the passage of this Act. Unregarded
as the reformers were for many years, and reckoned
of only small and incidental consequence, even at
the very last, possibly their "little Bill" may yet
reflect more lustre on the Fifty-first Congress than
some others which now appear to lxi its most
important legacies.
The friends of the measure fought their tattles
o'er again, and exchanged congratulations at
Thursday's meeting in London, and the temptation
is great to do so on this side also, for when all is
said, scanty justice is done to that small and
devoted tand of men, armed with the irresistible
power of an idea, who besieged Congress for so
many years, until finally their tireless efforts
brought victory. Some of them are now receiving
## p. 104 (#508) ############################################
104
THE AUTHOR.
the formal recognition which their labours deserve.
If ever decorations were deserved, they are those
that are worn by the Copyright veterans, and that
eagle should be indeed a "proud bird of freedom"
who furnished the quill with which President
Harrison signed this "great act of justice"—this
literary magna chart a—and which he so grace-
fully presented afterward to the indefatigable
secretary of the Copyright League, Mr. Robert
Underwood Johnson. This particular pen was
mightier than many swords.
The world will not forget, however, the efforts
of several men whose names have not yet won these
formal honours. All the world of writers are
under a deep obligation to Dr. Edward Eggleston
for the patient and judicious campaigns, one after
another, which that eminent writer made from an
unselfish devotion to the interests of literature and
of his fellow-workers in that field. It was entirely
proper that, by an agreement among literary
workers, his latest novel, "The Faith Doctor,"
received the unique distinction of obtaining the
first Copyright under the new law. The name of
ex-Senator Chace is also indelibly linked with the
new epoch, as the law as it now stands on the
statute books was practically drafted by him, and
all the material amendments were submitted to him
and had his cordial approbation and support.
Without subtracting from the importance of the
work in the two halls of Congress done by Breck-
inridge, Adams, and Simonds in the House, and
by Senator Piatt, of Connecticut, in the Senate,
we still remember that it was "the Chace Bill"
which finally became the International Copyright
law. We have also to remember that but for the
earnest efforts of such men as R. R. Bowker, Dr.
Henry J. Van Dyck—who earned the sobriquet
of "chaplain" of the cause.—of Messrs. Lothrop,
Brauder Mathews, R. W. Gilder, Howard Crosby,
Henry Cabot Lodge, Charles Seribner, the Apple-
tons, and a host of other strong and devoted
advocates, the efforts of the "rush line" at
Washington would have been a failure.
What a mighty scrimmage that valiant "rush
line" had, and how gallantly they behaved them-
selves in it! The literary world has not yet done
talking about the bull-dog grip and the quick
adaptability to every emergency which were dis-
played by Senator Piatt, Representative Simonds,
and Secretary R. U. Johnson, the triumvirate! who
did the hand-to-hand fighting. A dozen times
when every danger seemed passed, a new crisis
suddenly stared them in the face, but their resources
were infinite, and, aided by Madam Fortune, who
always smiles upon such determined gallants, the
goal was finally reached and the battle won.
But aven after the President scratched his
approval with the eagle's quill it was a question
whether the law would be practically operative.
Essentially it was reciprocal in its provisions, and
would have fallen a dead letter, therefore, but
for corresponding action on the part of foreign
governments. Would this be given? Certain
provisions in the law prejudiced it in the eyes of
foreigners, and it required some breadth of view on
their part to accept them. At this point the efforts
of true friends of the reform in France and England
were of much help. Men like Professor Bryce and
the Count de Keratry proved themselves valuable
allies, and their names should not be omitted in a
list of the heroes of the war. In good time the
necessary ratifications were made by England,
France, Belgium, and Switzerland, so that now in
five of the principal nations of Christendom Inter-
national Copyright is in practical operation.
It may now be a.sked, What are the fruits to
date? In reply to such an inquiry, which is a very
natural one, it must be said that thus far little
appears in the way of changes at the business end
of literature. Although several of the leading
publishers are in negotiation for foreign works, we
believe that only one of these transactions has been
concluded. We understand that the Cassells have
purchased tin; right to bring out an American
edition of Zola's "La Guerre," and this work will
be the first sold in our market under the new
regime. Recent interviews with a number of New
York publishers show that several important works
are soon to follow, among them a volume by Pro-
fessor Bryce. It will take some time, however,
before the law modifies to any obvious extent exist-
ing conditions, and, as we said at the start, the Act
is of consequence more because it inaugurates a
new era than because it involves any very dramatic
change in the publishing business. That these
changes will come in their proper time is now
generally believed by both authors, publishers, and
booksellers, but the habit of a trade is not often
revolutionised at a blow.
The official indorsement of the Act by the British
authors comes in the nick of time to place in the
right view the selfish opposition to the law de-
veloped by certain elements of the printing and
publishing trades in England. These interests
are bestirring themselves to arouse a sentiment of
hostility to the law, as they fear—with some reason-
that what is known as the "printing clause" in the
law will have the effect of transferring to New
York a considerable part of the mechanical work
in current, literature now done abroad. The friends
of the Chace Bill have always maintained that one
of its effects might be to make New York the
centre of the publishing trade of the world. The
anxiety of the craft in England would go to show
that this claim may have some solid basis. To
obstruct any such tendency, the English printers
## p. 105 (#509) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
are demanding of their Government that Parlia-
ment shall require that the printing of American
works having an English copyright shall be done in
tluvt country. Thus far, however, the Government
has turned the cold shoulder to these demands. Sir
Michael Hicks Beach, replying to a deputation who
had an interview with him a few days ago on this
subject, said he did not think that in the present state
of the case it would be necessary for the Government
to take any action; that the printing clause in the
Bill affected only 5 per cent, of printed matter,
and it was too early yet to see what its operation
would be, even within this narrow area. The em-
phatic ratification of the law by the authors, coming
on top of this snub from the Government, will
probably put a quietus on this movement, certainly
until the law has a fair chance to show its merits.
We may assume, therefore, that a new principle
has l>een established and a new epoch opened.
Intel-national property in literary ideas is recog-
nised and imbedded in the law of the land, and
America joins hands with the principal nations of
Christendom in securing to authors the full and
just reward of their labour.
Henry B. Elliot.
ASSOCIATION LITTÉRAIRE ET ARTISTIQUE
INTERNATIONALE.
AGENERAL invitation has been extended
to the Members of this Society for the
Congress which meets at Neufchâtel on the
26th of September and continues its sittings to
the 3rd of October. It will be remembered that
the Association held a Congress at London two
years ago, which began by ignoring the existence of
this Society, and in consequence was not attended
by one single English man of letters. This
omission, there is reason to believe, was not
occidental but intentional, and suggested by
certain warm friends of the Society. It is not
probable that the omission will be repeated. As
regards the journey to the Congress of this year, a
reduction of 5o per cent, is made on the French
and Swiss lines for Members, and the daily expenses
at the hotels, the secretary informs inquirers, may
be set down at a maximum of 10 or 12 francs.
The following is the official programme of the
Congress :—
Programme des Travaux.
i° Rapport sur les travaux de l'année. Rap-
porteur: M. Jules Lennina.
2° Etude sur le projet de loi anglais. Copyright.
Rapporteurs: MM. Henri Morel et Rothlisberger.
VOL. 11.
3° Etude sur la nouvelle loi Copyright, pro-
mulguée aux Etats-Unis. Rapporteurs: MM.
Darras et Maillard.
40 De la propriété artistique. Peinture et
sculpture. Ripporteur: M. Armand Dumaresq.
5° De la propriété artistique. Musique. Rap-
porteur: M. Victor Souchon.
6° De la propriété artistique en matière de
photographie. Rapporteur: M. Bulloz.
70 Essai de législation en matière de contrat
d'édition. Rapporteurs: MM. Ocainpo et Max
Nordau.
8" De l'état de la propriété intellectuelle dans
les pays qui n'ont pas adhéré à la Convention de
Berne. Rapporteur: M. Frédéric Bœtzmann.
90 De la revision de la Convention de Berne.
De la Conférence diplomatique de 1892, à Paris.
Rapporteur: M. Eugène Pouillet.
Réunion préparatoire, Samedi 26 Septembre, à
dix heures du matin, au Cercle du Musée.
La séance solennelle de réception des membres
du Congrès aura lieu le Samedi 26 Septembre en
présence des autorités, à la Salle «les Etats, au
château de Neuchâtel. Tenue de soirée.
Le soir réception et concert, au Cercle du Musée.
Les séances plénières et les Commissions se
tiendront dans l'ancienne salle du Conseil d'Etat
et des annexes.
Dimanche 27 Septembre. Excursion sur le lac
de Neuchâtel, à l'île Saint-Pierre.
Du Lundi 28 Septembre au Samedi 3 Octobre.
Séances de travail.
Mardi. Banquet offert par la ville de Neuchâtel.
Jeudi. Excursion à la Chaux-de-Fonds et au
Saut-du-Doubs.
Samedi. Séance de clôture et banquet (l'adieu.
La langue officielle du Congrès est la langue
française: mais chacun a le droit de s'exprimer
dans sa langue nationale. Des programmes seront
imprimés chaque jour et adressés par la poste aux
congressistes, à la première distribution.
THE DUBLIN CONFERENCE OF THE
INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISTS.
fl^HE Conference of Journalists in the Irish
I capital, which took place on August the 20th
and following days, proved to be one of the
most interesting meetings the Institute has ever
held. The Dublin Reception Committee had made
strenuous efforts to enhance the pleasure of their
visitors, and the military, civic, and learned autho-
rities seconded them so ably, that the whole time
of five days was fully filled with the most pleasur-
able incidents. On the day of arrival visits were
H
## p. 106 (#510) ############################################
io6
THE AUTHOR.
made to the historic and commercial monuments of
Dublin, and in the evening the Royal Hibernian
Academy gave a charming reception in their rooms,
which were hung with the work of the members
especially for the occasion. Many knotty points
of journalistic laws were acutely and thoroughly
discussed at the meetings held in the City Hall;
upon one or two points, especially upon the
Orphans' Fund question, ladies taking a noteworthy
part. Miss Drew's sj>eech upon the system of
foster parents versus large orphanages, eliciting
much sympathy and applause. At the Annual
Dinner most of the principal dignities of Dublin
were present, the Lord Mayor being on Mr.
Gilzean Reid's right, whilst upon his left-hand sat
the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. From Lord
Ashbourne's lips fell one of the brightest and
wittiest speeches that it could fall to the lot of
journalists to listen to, and yet it embodied much
sound and useful advice as to the usage of the
mighty power of the Press. The Royal Dublin
Society met the members at their premises at
Ralls Bridge, and conducted them over the admir-
able premises which were prepared for the great
horse show. On the Saturday evening the Lord
Mayor gave a banquet to some 5oo guests in the
great circular hall of the Mansion House, which
was built to entertain George the Fourth, and a
most interesting sight was this crowded hall, when
the Lord Mayor from beneath the canopy, above
which in light blazed the Irish Harp and Shamrock,
gave most heartily the toast of " The Queen "; that
was received with ringing and renewed cheering.
On the evening before, this toast was accompanied by
the singing of the first two verses of the National
Anthem. ' The Sunday was devoted by some of our
members to visits to the Cathedrals and Churches
of Dublin, and by others to short excursions to
such spots as Bray, and the Seven Churches of
Qlendalough. One of the most marked instances
of Irish hospitality to the United Journalists was
the invitation of a large body of them by Lord and
Lady Wolseley to lunch at Kihnainham Hospital.
Lady Wolseley afterwards receiving a still larger
number of the meml>ers at an " At Home," giving
all an opportunity to inspect the Hospital grounds
and pictures under the guidance of Lord Wolseley.
This brought the Dublin proceedings to a close,
but Irishmen had not vet exhausted their generous,
cordial greeting to the "Strangers within their
gates," for the great railway companies had
signified their wish that all members should visit
other parts of Ireland, and hail placed free passes
at their disposal to the Western Highlands and
to Belfast; and the Cork ami Bandon Railway also
threw open the Glengariff route to Killarney. The
Great Northern Railway even provided lunch at
the Giant's Causeway. In short, all Ireland
welcomed the English, Scottish, anil Welsh press-
men with true Irish generosity and warmth,
hoping only in return for fair, generous descrip-
tion and criticism of Ireland and her people; and
most assuredly those who had the pleasure of being
at the Conference must leave Ireland with increased
knowledge of her country and her people, and with
hearty longings for the happiness of so warm-
hearted a people, and with pens steeped in friendship
towards their generous hosts.
James Baker. ♦■»■»
AN OLD NEW WORD.
IREGRET to see that there has been some talk,
in late numbers of the Author, about "a
slating with slates." It looks as if some
people actually suppose that "to slate " means " to
pelt with slates." That is not it at all.
I cannot go into the whole matter, as I regret to
say that it involves delicate questions of vowel-
gradation, in which the general public cannot be
expected to take much interest. I will merely sav
that I "happen to know"; because, though the
verb is not in any Anglo-Saxon dictionary, it
happened to turn up in an Anglo-Saxon text which
it was my business to edit; and I can give chapter
anil verse for every statement I shall make.
The net result is just this : There was once a verb
to slitc (now obsolete), past tense slotc, past parti-
ciple stiffen. It now remains only in two deriva-
tives; one, is, to slit, and the other is to slait or
sleat (rhyming with great), or (phonetically) to
slate.
To slite meant to tear; to slit means much the
same. To slait was the causal verb, to cause to
tear. It is precisely parallel to bait, the causal of
bite. To bait a bull is to set on dogs to bile him.
The Anglo-Saxon text I spoke of talks of slatting
a bull, or setting on dogs to slite or rend him.
That's just what it means, viz., to set on dogs to
harass, worry, and the like ; much the same as bait.
But to talk of slatting " with slates " is mere igno-
rance. Thev would be quite ineffectual as against
a bull.
Nevertheless, the word slate is ultimately from
the same root; but that is a lucre chance, and does
not justify the use of a slip-shod expression.
By all means let us use good old words, but let
us do it intelligently. There would be a mighty
fuss if we were to misuse a word of Greek origin;
but when it is only good English, why, then——■
Walter W. Skeat.
■
## p. 107 (#511) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
THE AUTHORS' CLUB.
AGREAT many letters have been received on
the subject of the proposed club. They
will all be placed in the hands of the com-
mittee, and will be duly considered by them. One
or two contributors are anxious that ladies should
be admitted. Well, it must be understood that the
Resolutions published in the last number of the
Author were preliminary and tentative onlv.
Meantime, two or three ladies, Meml>ers of the
Society, have written to ask for a reconsideration
of this point, but only two or three. Many more
have stated their inability to pay a five-guinea sub-
scription. Clearly, an ideal club of authors should
admit women as well as men. Literature is, above
all others, a profession open to both sexes. Yet
literary women are even more mercilessly sweated,
especially by religious societies, who pretend not to
know that this sweating was specially contemplated
in framing the Eighth Commandment; and the
number of ladies who live by their literary work,
and can afford even so reasonable a subscription as
five guineas, is very small.
A learned Professor, whose works are manv,
writes to invite a reconsideration of Clause VIII.
He says, " Instead of a ride that all members are
to give copies of their works, let it Ik: worded that
members be invited to give copies of their works."
In any case the rule could not be retrospective, and
the ease might arise of a costly work with a limited
edition, the presentation of which would be onerous.
These notes are only meant to mark the tirst stage.
We are still in full vacation, and it is enough that
the Authors' Club is no longer a mere suggestion,
but has advanced to the stage of practical
consideration.
The American Club, it may be noted, is not an
Authors' Club, but an Authors Club.
NOTES AND NEWS.
LET the Author, though late, lay a wreath upon
the grave of James Russell Lowell, if only
as a personal friend of many of our Members,
and a strong well-wisher to the Society. As a
writer, he was the lineal descendant of the good
old English stock; he might have contributed a
paper for Addison's Spectator, or, later on, he
might have added a chapter to Washington Irving's
Sketch Booh. He had nothing in common with the
modern writers of his own country—Bret Harte,
Mark Twain, Howell, Stockton, and others who have
broken off with the old English traditions. Lowell
was an Englishman, who was lwrn, and mostly
lived, in America. Yet an Englishman who was
attached to republican principles, and never ceased
to see in his own country the beginnings of every
kind of greatness. It will be remembered that he
made a speech at one of our dinners, a speech
whose common sense, humour, and simple eloquence
deeply impressed themselves upon all who heard it.
It should be reprinted for our own keeping. He
came to that dinner from the couch where he had
been confined by gout; it was a greater effort than
most of the guests suspected for him to stand up at
all. Yet he came out of pure love for literature,
and liecause he wanted to encourage those who
follow literature to unite for their own advantage,
and to form a corporation for their own protection.
He could speak. That fact alone placed him
above the British author, of whom it may 1m> said,
as a general rule, that he cannot speak. There are
brilliant exceptions, but, as a rule, the English
author cannot speak. The fact is a difficulty
which constantly faces us when we meet. The
English author cannot speak. If he rises to pro-
pose a toast, he says what he has to say without
art, without preparation; he stammers, he boggles,
he hesitates. Nay, sometimes he refuses abso-
lutely to speak. For example: we were once
anxious that a certain well-known writer should
preside at a certain gathering. We represented to
him that it was his proper place, that he ought to
be in that chair; that he should claim the prece-
dency he had won. He refused; he said that he
could not speak. He came to the meeting, but he
sat down below with the rank and file. As for the
exceptions: Lord Lytton is a statesman, and there-
fore accustomed to speaking; Mr. James Bryce is
also a statesman; Professor Jebb is, or was, the.
Public Orator of Cambridge, and therefore always
speaking; Mr. Edmund Yates is well known as
one of the best after-dinner speakers that we have;
Mr. Hermann Merivale is an eloquent speaker;
Mr. George Augustus Sala is full of wit and anec-
dote; Professor Michael Foster s[>eaks genially
and cordially. There are, of course, many others,
but the broad fact remains—the English author
cannot speak. Why not? Simply because he will
not take the trouble to study the art of elocution,
and to practise a little. Authors are always getting
up subjects for their own purposes. Sometimes
they know a great deal more than the mass of
mankind. What an addition to their strength
and their influence it would 1k> if they could speak
upon their subjects as well as write aliout them!
All educated men—that is, all those who ought to
lead—should practise the art of speaking. Not to
ir 2
## p. 108 (#512) ############################################
io8
THE AUTHOR.
do so is to leave the leading of the people to the
uncultivated—the men who can speak, but do not
know—who mislead because they do not know.
Lord Cranbrook sends to the Times some grace-
ful lines written to him by Lowell, apropos of his
own lines:
Life is a leaf of paper white,
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two—then conies the night.
They arc called " Cuivis cunque " :—
On earth Columbus wrote his name:
Montgolfier on the circling air:
Lesseps in water did the same:
Franklin traced his in living flame:
Newton on space's desert bare.
Safe with the primal elements
Their signatures august remain:
While the fierce hurtle of events
Whirls us and our ephemeral tents
Beyond oblivion's mere disdain.
Our names, as what we write are frail,
Time spunges out like hopeless scores,
Unless for mine it should prevail
To turn awhile the faltering scale
Of memory, thus to make it yours.
Qcivis.
Many notices, biographies, and appreciations
more or less critical have appeared on James
Russell Lowell since his death. That written by
Mr. Theodore Watts for the Athenaum of
August 22nd, stands out above all those that I have
seen. It is simply an excellent paper. It is
especially valuable for its analysis of the Puritan
element in the man, and of what that Puritan
element really means — the teaching of self-
restraint and self-governance as opposed to the
Pagan instinct of self-indulgence. It is a paper
filled with admiration of the man, yet capable of
acknowledging weak points in the poet. In spite
of the occasional ruggedness of his verse, the
world will continue to read Lowell when they
have quite forgotten poets of greater dexterity and
finer music, and this, for the sake of the things he
has to say.
Once more our old friend Bogey turns up. The
Spectatoi; in a little notice of "The Cost of Pro-
duction "—better late than never; it is just in time
for the third edition—reproduces this good old fraud
"If," it says, " the author of a shilling shocker
receives £o on a thousand copies, the publisher
receives a little more. Not more, it may lie
readily admitted, than is fair, considering the risk."
What risk? My dear Spectator, you have been
told over and over again that there is very, very
seldom any risk, and that there need be none at all.
Again, suppose there was risk. What is the pub-
lisher's risk compared witli the author's? The
author risks his labour, risks months of hard work
and time. Is that a less or a greater risk than tin-
publisher's £100, which, mind, he docs not pay
until the returns of the book come in? Now, tin;
author does advance his risk beforehand. As we
have pointed out and proved over and over again,
the great mass of published books carry no risk.
But I suppose it is quite impossible to drown this
Bogey in the Bed Sea.
It was the Spectator which, after admitting a
letter by me, signed, on this very subject—a letter
in which I advanced the undeniable fact that
nowadays publishers take very, very few risks, and
that many publishers simply cannot afford to take
any—published a letter which stated that " the man
who says that publishers never take risks must be
insane." The writer did not sign his name. But
observe: his letter conveyed a falsehood: he
meant people to believe that I had said that no
publishers ever take; any risks. It was not worth
while to complain or to explain. At the sauie time
two questions arise: (i) Howr far an editor is justi-
fied in allowing an anonymous writer to attack a
man who openly signs himself? and (2) How far
an editor is justified in inserting a letter which is
carefully worded so as to convey a falsehood? The
season is approaching when the lists of new books
will appear. We will then again proceed with
the analysis of the new books published, in order
to find out what is the proportion of books which
ma}' carry risk.
Meantime, here is a very good illustration of what
they sometimes call risk. A correspondent writes
to us: "Among publishers who do sometimes
take risks, you must include Mr. A. B. The
book called , recently published, was
actually bought by him at a good price. He gave
£— for it. Yet it was the work of a perfectly
unknown writer. If this was not risk, what is?"
Very good. Let us see. The publisher bought
the book for a certain sum. He then ran it
through his magazine. The sum given for the
book was about half that which he would have had
to pay at the current, rate of payment per page.
The other half, which he saved, paid for the
printing, paper, and binding of the book. Thus,
## p. 109 (#513) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
you see, lie brought out the book for nothing, and
got all the credit of a publisher who dares to take
a new writer in hand and to give him a start. It
was good business all round: very good for the
new writer, who got a capital start, for which he
must thank the publisher; and since, if he turns
out well, he will be under an endless debt of
gratitude to that publisher, it will prove very good
business for him as well. But, you s<«, it is not
taking a risk.
I wonder if English as well as French hooks are
going to be put up for auction in New York.
Zola's last work is reported to have l)cen offered
in this way and to have been knocked down
for £2,000, or £400. This is not much, as it
includes the right of selling it in French as well
lus in English. If the practice is to lie extended
to English books, there will be, I fear, considerable
bumbling and considerable shamefaeedness, because
there arc writers who wrap up the question of
dollars in mystery which magnifies.
Certain Americans are said, by the Critic of
New York, to be patriotically indignant because
Lord Tennyson has been invited to write an ode
for the opening of the Chicago Exhibition. The
President of the World's Congress Auxiliary thus
explains the invitation: "I thought it was not
improper to make some allusion to his long and
splendid career of half a century as Wordsworth's
successor in the office of Poet Laureate of England,
and I added the hope that it might please him to
send a song to be sung at the opening of the great
Exposition. This, to my mind, was certainly a
becoming courtesy. It by no means excludes from
the list any other poet of the world. It always
has been and still is the intention to extend a
similar invitation to other adepts in the divine art
of poesy." At the same time, one would have
thought that the Americans were prepared to ac-
knowledge that the greatest living figure in English
poetry is Lord Tennyson.
The Spectator, I read somewhere, thinks that a
great proportion of the upper and middle classes
of England never buy a book from one year's
end to another. I do not remember the paper
saying this. If it did say so—if it does think so—
it is quite wrong, as readers of the Author will
understand. The investigation which we recently
conducted into the extent of the home lxjok trade
proved conclusively that the upper and middle
class buv books very largely. There are, of course.
many houses where the head of the family never
reads a book, but even there his wife, his
daughters, his sons read and buy. For whom are
the six-shilling books published? For the poor?
For the lower middle class? And when we read
of 10,000, 20,000, copies of a six-shilling liook
being sold, who, pray, are the buyers? The lower
middle class? Look again at the lwokstall—say,
at the Great Western—a line which seems to l>c.
used by the upper class more than any other. All
day long the books are being taken by passengers.
Look at Stoneham's place in the Poultry, in the
City, or at Glaishers in the Strand. All day
long the passers by are dropping in for books.
Not the poor passers by, if you please, but
the better sort. The truth is, that people are
enabled to read a great deal more than they would
otherwise afford to do, by the existence of the cir-
culating library; they do not, certainly, buy as
much as they should, but Ihey buy a great deal,
and they are learning to buy more. The opinion
that middle-class people never buy books is one of
the numerous conventional opinions which arc a
kind of stock-in-trade of journalists who are too
lazy or are unable to examine for themselves. The
notion that every book involves an awfid risk to
publish is another. The Spectator certainly
believes that as an article of Christian faith. I
wish someone would make a little collection of
stock conventional opinions.
Mr. H. Schiitz Wilson reminds lovers of
Germany and German poets that on .September
the 21st, the centenary of the birth of the patriot
poet Theodor Korner is to be celebrated. Here
is an excellent opportunity for a paper on the
young soldier who died fighting in the liefreiungs
Krieg. Such a life as that of Korner, with such
a death after such achievements, needs to be told
for every generation.
Especially does his verse need to be re-translated,
or in some way brought ljefore the world at a time
when people are asking why German is so little
read. The fact is certain: German liooks are not
asked for in libraries so much as they were 20
years ago, although German is taught in schools
more extensively and more thoroughly than at that
time. There are several reasons for this falling off.
One is a prevalent belief that when one has read
half-a-dozen great German writers, there remain
no more worth reading. I refer to belles lettres,
because German is indispensable to scientific men
and scholars. Next, German historians mav be
valuable, but they are certainly heavy to read.
Thirdly, the reviews which try to follow modern
## p. 110 (#514) ############################################
I IO
THE AUTHOR.
German literature do not, somehow, succeed in
attracting people to read the books. Perhaps, if
some of them were to adopt the plan of recom-
mending special books withan account of them, the
reader might be stimulated to order them. Lastly,
our own literature, with American literature and
French literature, is so rich that it takes all our
•time to read even the most remarkable books.
The administration of the Free Libraries in
Paris recently made the deplorable discovery that
their readers prefer novels to any other branch of
literature. They thereupon instructed the librarians
to coax, guide, lead, and persuade the people
into more serious reading. The librarians obeyed
and exhorted. All the people walked out. The
librarians desisted. All the people came back.
They are now again diligently engaged in read-
ing nothing but novels. Humanity is the same
everywhere—both otheial humanity and natural
humanity. Official humanity laments the tendency
to read novels, because oflieial humanity cannot
understand that the average man reads for amuse-
ment, and that when he lias done his day's work
he does not want to work any longer at
anything. Also official humanity has never
arrived at the least conception of the fact that
fiction is the greatest of all the forces now in
existence for refinement of manners and for edu-
cation in ideas. Official humanity never gets
beyond the copybook maxims. Natural humanity,
no doubt, learns these and straightway forgets
them. The copybook view of a public library is
of a place where the eager youth, longing for art
and letters and learning for their own sakes, sits
every evening—or, as the schoolboy hath it, swots
every evening after a hard 12 hours' day. The
simple and unconventional truth is that the
average man finds here only a place of amusement
which has the advantage of being warm, quiet,
light, and costing nothing.
The Victorian Exhibition is to have a portrait
gallery of 400 distinguished persons, belonging to
the present reign, now deceased. Four hundred is a
considerable number. Probably the whole of the
period covered by Gibbon's " Decline and Fall " does
not contain many more, yet here we have 400, all
adorning a period of one short half-century, so that we
ought to be a proud and happy nation indeed. Nay,
since none of the living are included, and there
must be a great many more than 400 capable of
calling themselves illustrious, the Victorian age is,
indeed, in advance of all preceding ages put together.
The Victorian literature shows, among the dead:
Browning, Landor, Tom Moore, Southev, Words-
worth, Carlyle, Dickens, Thackeray, Charles Reade,
Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte,
Rogers, Grote, Hallam, Mill, Lightfoot, Trench,
Stanley, Wilberforce, Liddon, Keble, Newman,
Arnold, Darwin, Faraday, Herschel, Lyell, Mur-
ehison, Fox Talbot, J. R. Green, Mark Pattison,
Mrs. Gaskell, Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Strangford,
Edward Palmer, not to speak of a mighty host of
men of every science and art who have by their
books adorned this great and wonderful Victorian
age. It is, of course, absurd to confine the word
literature any longer to poetry, fiction, and essays;
it now includes every kind of book on every kind
of subject — scientific, technical, educational—I
think one would only except BraiLshaw, the Army
and Navy lists, the Law lists, the Oxford and
Cambridge Calendar, Crockford's Clerical Dire torv,
and the Report of the S.P.C.K. This splendid
growth of science and of letters—the true glory of
the Victorian period—will, one hopes, be adequately
illustrated bv the portrait gallery. One also hopes
that no one will ask the very awkward question of
how the Court has been advised to recognize and
to honour the men by whom the time and the reign
have been made famous.
The fashion of advertising publishers' lists at the
end of books seems falling into disuse. This is a
pity for one reason: namely, that the lists a few
years later afford such excellent food for reflection.
Here, for instance, is a book issued in the year
188-3 by a publisher who at that time produced
much, in quantity at least. At the end is his
current list of works. It contains 40 new three-
volume novels. Many of these books are by writers
then, and now, more or less known, who have
continued to write novels, and, therefore, it is pre-
sumed have found their practice of the art remune-
rative, or at least pleasant. Out of the 40 which
were all apparently published in the years 18S2
and |883, there are one or two which had then
advanced to a second edition. But not one of the
whole 40 has ever made the least impression 011 the
mind of the public. Every one of them is stone
dead. So that of 40 average novels not one has
managed to live in memory or on the bookshelves
for eight years. I do not put this forward as a
proof that they were all bad. Many novels, of
good workmanship are written with no other object
than to amuse for the moment. It is, however,
pleasing to read some of the extracts from friendly
reviewers on these immortal works : — " Fresh,
free, powerful "; "The work of a master-hand";
"A romance of the most fascinating description ";
"Will be received with delight by all classes":
these praises seem, after this short lapse of time,
somewhat extravagant. They are better, however,
## p. 111 (#515) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
111
than the work of the scarifier. The authors should
at least be thankful that their critics were easily
pleased.
The French " Syndicat pour la protect ion de la
proprietd litteraire et artistique " has presented a
gold medal to Senator Piatt for the part which he
has taken "in the triumph of a just cause."
Certain American publishers have presented a
loving cup to Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson for
his exertions in the cause of International Copy-
right, and the French Government has conferred
upon Messrs. Johnson, Putnam, Adams, and
Simonds the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
What have we done? What had our Government
done? Nothing. Yet the benefit conferred upon
us by this Act are a thousand times greater than
those conferred upon the French. It is useless, I
suppose, to think that any English Government
will ever act, under any circumstances, as if
Literature and Art were things of any value or
importance. No other country so deeply indebted
to four foreigners as we are to the four gentlemen
who have received the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour would neglect them; no other country
could afford to be so boorish; in every other
country thev would at least l>e offered something
equivalent to our knighthood of the Bath. Such
an act of courtesy, such a sense of gratitude, we
may expect in vain. It is not, however, too late
for ourselves to do something. Let us do it, and
that at once. The time approaches when we shall
be all back in our places; let the first step taken
by the Society after the vacation be one of simple
justice and acknowledgment of gratitude.
The Folk Lore Congress of October promises to
be the most literary event of the year. Mr. Andrew
Lang, the President, will open it with an address.
Mr. Sidney Hart land is tin; Chairman of the Folk-
tale Section; Professor John Rhys, of the Mytho-
logical Section; Sir Frederick Pollock, of the
Institutions Section. At the meeting of the Mytho-
logical Section there will be a representation of an
old English mumming play, with children's games,
sword dances, savage music, and folk songs. The
savage music ought to prove very attractive. I
hope the Society is increasing in numbers and
support. No transactions of any society are half
so interesting as those of the Folk Lore. The
wonder is that they keep up and show no abate-
ment in material or in interest. But the Society
deals with an inexhaustible mass of subjects. Con-
sider, for instance, how one single fact, the existence
of the king of the Arician Grove, has been shown, in
"The Golden Bough," to require two great volumes
full of illustrations, explanations, and history.
This wonderful work, as interesting as any novel,
should have been kept for the Folk Lore Congress.
A general invitation to the Members of our
Society has been received from the Council of the
German Authors' Society—iDeutscher Schriftsteller-
Verband. The Association holds a Congress at
Berlin on September 12th, i3th, and 14th. The
programme is a business-like document. The
members will be chiefly occupied with various
changes in their statutes. With them we are not
greatly concerned. Two or three proposal*, how-
ever, are interesting:—
That the Council shall every year offer a prize
for an original novel and one for a drama.
That strenuous efforts shall be made to receive
the recognition of the State.
That all German writers of eminence shall be
urged to join the Society.
I do not think that any prize which the Society
could offer would do much to advance the cause of
dramatic or fictional art. We cannot imagine a
good writer competing for a prize unless it was
a prize in four figures. And there seems to us
something ridiculous in the "crowning " of a work
by a writer of established reputation. But I have
sometimes thought that a gold medal bestowed,
not every year, but whenever a really good first
work by a young writer appeared—which is not
every year—might do something in smoothing the
way for that young writer's future success.
The German Society has local centres and local
committees. Some time ago we asked for and
received the names of Members willing to act as
honorary secretaries in their own centres. We
shall probably ask for their services this Autumn.
Will any others willing to help us, should the
occasion arise, send up their names?
The Germans will vary their dry business with a
little festivity. On Sunday they propose to have a
dinner and a ball; on Monday they will meet at the
opera; on Tuesday they will go for an excursion.
If we have a Congress, which has been some time
suggested, let us have these good things as well.
Walter Besant.
## p. 112 (#516) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
ON A NEW NOVELIST.
UNTIL Mr. Edmund Gosse's delightful intro-
duction to "The Footsteps of Fate," of
Louis Couperus on the, Dutch Sensitivists,
with other ignorant people I had l>een under the
impression that Holland possessed a language that
was inarticulate, and that the Dutch had found Art
their only medium of expression. Their grait
traditions of painting, like those of the Flemish,
have eclipsed any claims they may have had to a
literature.. While the names of the Maris Brothers,
Josef Israels, and others are known throughout
Europe, the young men of whom Mr. Gosse writes
so pleasantly (and, alas, so briefly) are almost
unknown in England, except to those enviable
persons who can master the northern languages of
Europe. Apparently, we have been wronging the
Dutch in denying them the parts of speech. They
have been having literary revolutions and aesthetic
movement*!, and slashing reviews like any other
Christian nation. It will, doubtless, shock many
respectable English critics when they learn that
much of this morbid, unwholesome, intellectual
activity is due to a deal of "poisoned honey"
stolen from England! Our authors it seems can
corrupt another nation no less than the insidious
writers of another land are able to do.
Now our insular appreciations have been roused
by the appearance of two novels in English by a
Dutch writer, Maarten Maartens: " The Sin of Joost
Avelingh," and "An Old Maid's Love." They are
two novels which promise to place their author in
the first rank of English novelists now living. I
say English, for these are riot translations from the
Dutch as some reviewers had supposed, but were
written in English—in a style which some of our
native writers would do well to emulate. Though
it is not given to everyone to form a style so
exquisite as that of Maarten Maartens; who,
furthermore, is endowed with that rare faculty of
writing with felicity in a foreign language—in a
manner, that is to say, that will deceive a foreigner.
Raging Anglo-Saxons may not find in his books a
phrase or idiom not to be found in Beowulf, but
for reasonable Englishmen the language is as pure
as Buskin's, as English as Thackeray's, as facile as
Fronde's.
In " The Sin of Joost Avelingh '' the author has,
consciously or unconsciously, proposed a conun-
drum. It is a story of moral murder, but as to
whether Joost was guilty or not, psychologists and
theologians might argue till Doomsday. To avoid
all sensation, this author deliberately gives the ma])
of the plot in a prologue, and the story is simply a
study and development of character. In absolute
narrative power it is deficient, as in the pictures of
the author's great compatriots we do not look for
a story, but for the purely pictorial—characteri-
sation, light and shadow, or the incidents of daily
life around us. Mutual antipathy like that of
Baron van Trotsem and Joost Avelingh, where
one's sympathies are enlisted for the antipathy of
each for the other though a common combination
in life has not often been treated of in fiction.
The Baron is not a brute, but a charming old-
fashioned Dutch landowner given to drinking and
swearing a little too hard, perhaps. Yet his
temperament is entirely opposed to that of his
nephew Joost, of whom he is the guardian, that
their dislike of each other is conceivable and
natural. For the murder of his uncle, Joost would
have had every excuse. He had refinement, edu-
cation, and something of the idealist, things which
the Baron considered vices. The misunder-
standings of uncle and nephew are told with
consummate skill, always bringing out some new
trait or idiosyncrasy. Bound the dignified and
gracious character of Joost Avelingh, the minor
characters group themselves naturally from the
members of the Hessel family to the untidy black-
guard, Van Asvcld. While the book throughout is
a perfect picture of contemporary life and landscape
in Holland, it would be mere cavilling to quarrel
with the author about the public confession of
Joost, but he seems to hold some theories on the
ethics of murder which he has not elaborated suffi-
ciently to be entirely convincing in either of his
stories.
In "An Old Maid's Love" we are asked to
believe that a respectable and upright, country
Dutch lady does not hesitate to murder a French
woman with whom her adopted nephew is carrying
on a flirtation. Until the attempted murder we
are not given to understand that any immoral
intercourse has taken place between them. Yet,
where is the book in which we could not find
something to alter or elaborate? Not even that
great trilogy of Shakspeare, Bradshaw, and the
Bible would answer the question.
"An Old Maid's Love," if not so strong a storv
as "Joost Avelingh," shows the great gifts of
Maarten Maartens to a better advantage. The
characterisation is even more varied, while the
humour, which he has to a high degree, is more
frequent. By a sentence, a speech, or an incident,
the author gives us all the individualities of half-a-
dozen people. We know Mynheer Van Donselaar
and Jakob te Bekel directly they are introduced to
us—a dangerous quality in real life, but in art and
fiction an indispensable one. The author does not
indulge in stale analysis, nor does he come forward
as a kind of chorus to help on the story, or give a
lift to characters who cannot explain themselves.
There is no tedious word-painting, so dear to the
## p. 113 (#517) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
"3
second-rate story-teller. Mr. Maarteiis is a master
of descriptive writing; but he is always restrained,
and never takes up the camel's-hair brush in mistake
for the grey goose quill. In brief, let those who still
doubt his place among English novelists purchase
and read "The Sin of Joost Avelingh" and "An
Old Maid's Love." They will at least make the
acquaintance of some of the most delightful people
in the most reputable Dutch society. The Widow
liarsselius has never been excelled even by
Dickens, while Mynheer Van Donselaar is the
most diverting paterfamilias I ever met. The
British matron will find heaps of things in common
with Mevrouw van Hessel, a lady who does not
think braces lit subjects for conversation, or fit
objects for presentation. Those who, like Arnout
Oostrum, prefer even lighter company, will meet
that dangerous enchantress, Dorine de Mongelas,
whose charms melted even the cynical Calvinist
pastor, Jakob te Bekel. Like all live people,
Dorine is just a little unreal. If ever I meet her
again, I must ask her whether she really thought
the proprietor of the hotel at Lugano believed that
Arnout was her brother. If so, she was not so
bad as Miss Varelkamp believed her to be. I
shall never forgive the author for having killed
the Widow Barsselius. I should like still to have
thought of her, quarrelling with Adelaida Vonk,
disinheriting Arnout, or altering her will every three
or four months, scolding Sussana, and lecturing
Dorothy Donselaar.
C. P.
A DAY AT OLYMPIA.
MAY had just set in. The brushwood of the
Peloponnesus wore its softest vesture:
each fertile valley exhaled the fresh odours
of early Spring. As I drove out of Pyrgos in the
early sunshine, I saw around me a region richer
and more beautiful than any I had hitherto explored
in Greece. The road to Olympia at first extended
itself across a plain festooned with tender garlands
of the vine, where the carefully cultivated fields
imparted now an unwonted air of civilisation to this
visually wild and barren country, which here never-
theless might rival with its vegetation an Italian
landscape in the marshes or by the fat city of
Bologna. Then, winding over the hills it passed
through several hamlets, that clung to the heights
like eagle's nests, and breathed beyond reach of
malaria from the valleys, the fresh cool breath of
the sea. We rested the horses awhile at a wayside
inn, where some dozen dark-haired brown-featured
peasant* were eating lentil soup and dry bread, for
it was the Thursday Wore the Greek Easter.
A fierce light darted from their black eyes, as they
conversed jauntily among themselves. Caricatures
of the reigning family and M. Tricoupis pasted on
the walls proclaimed the political sympathies of
the usual customers. These pictures very much
resembled in their style of draughtsmanship I lie
cartoons of United Ireland, and gave another
proof of the curious likeness I had discovered in
many ways between the people of the Morea and
my unconquerable fellow-countrymen of Erin.
I had by this time penetrated far into the region
of blue mountains, through which the road some-
times climbed tortuously, and sometimes flew
straight as an arrow along low-lying level meadows
radiant with wild flowers in the sunlight, and shrill
with the voices of secret fertilizing streams. Thus,
having driven in all about 12 miles, I at length
reached the plain of Olympia bounded on the
south by the famous river Alpheios, and on the
west by its tributary the Kladeos, and enclosed by
chains of wooded hills which guard from its sight
the modern dwellings of men.
The first impression on the beholder of this
revered site, where our civilization may be said to
have parsed the golden days of its youth, is an
impression of sublimity, desolation, and repose.
For fifteen centuries these grand ruins lay buried in
the earth, and are now, thanks to the scholarly disin-
terestedness of the great German nation, exhumed
to bask once more beneath that same sun, whose
white brilliance in the beginning inspired the happy
genius of their architects. Not a voice, not a sound
disturbs their monumental stillness, save perchance
the hum of a solitary bee, as it wanders among the
briars and poppies that grow out from the clefts of
ancient wall or pavement. Verily here, more than
anywhere on earth, a resurrection of old Greek life
has been accomplished—life public and patriotic,
not private and domestic, as Roman life is revealed
to us at Pompeii. For here, as through the rest of
the land, there remains no trace of any private
dwelling of the Hellenic age. Thus, it seems that
the Greek must have been content with a fragile,
temporary house, passing most of his time in the
sunlight, or among those beautiful public edifices,
upon which he chiefly prided himself. In truth,
he knew of no existence apart from that of the.
State. At Olympia then, in this secluded vale the
Hellenic States assembled every four years for the
celebration of those sacred games, which compelled
their divers peoples to cease from all strife, and
united them in one grand body politic, the Greek
Race. Here, therefore, we are brought into the
dead presence of a civilisation, whose incomiKirable
beautv has imralyzed all subsequent rivalry in the
realization of the beautiful in life or art. And the
incomparable beauty in Greek art still lives. It has
## p. 114 (#518) ############################################
I [4
THE AUTHOR.
re-arisen here with the Hermes of Praxiteles, which
stands in the museum hard by, rescued from the
long night of centuries. You see it, and are at
once convinced that it is the greatest statue in the
world, so perfect its type, so faultless its execution.
For like all works of the highest class, such as the
Laocoon, the ceiling of the Nistine Chapel, the
Virgin among the Rocks, its superb qualities at
once strike the eve, and ever increase in excellence
with prolonged attention. In order to experience
these sensations, the original must, of course, be
examined. No cast of this great statue throughout
Europe adequately reproduces the marvellous
modelling of the chest and body, which fashioned
in marble, delicate as alabaster, seem to throb with
the life of eternal youth. All the intense vitality
of Michael Angclo's figure of Night pulsates
in the triumphant execution that has here lent
substantial being to an ideal type of beauty,
loftier, more perfect, than any portrayed in extant
representatives of the human form.
Beautiful, indeed, is this fleet messenger of
Olympos — fresh as a white sunbeam in the
morning, piercing the green and sombre shade of
the olives, in the philosophic groves of Hellas.
There is a subtle charm in a youth's protection of
a child, a charm born of the ethereal purity and
idealism which gleam through the clean gold light
of fairyland. The old Greeks knew this sentiment
by their delicate instinct, that fathomed the philo-
sophy of the l>eautiful to its secret depths. Thus
it is that their most exquisite artist, in his delinea-
tion of Hermes with that half affectionate, half
amused smile, as of an elder brother, upon the
confiding childish Dionvsos, has recorded but one
instance of the poetic feeling of his luminous
When lH'holding this treasure, preserved for us
from the fairest days of Greece, it is impossible not
to think of the Apollo of Belvedere, which espe-
cially, in the masterful beauty of workmanship on
the torso, approaches nearer to this Hermes, than
any other statue I have ever seen. The arrival of
the Elgin marbles in our midst with their reve-
lation of austere idealism and stern execution, led
archa'ologists to look somewhat contemptuously
upon the Vatican masterpiece, and to censure
Winckelmann for his sublime eulogy of its perfec-
tions. But the discovery of this incomparable
work bv Praxiteles has proved how inspired was
the sentiment of the supremely beautiful manifested
bv that great Father of Archaeology, whose mag-
nificent imagery and glowing eloquence, arc a
continual welcome relief to the student, from the
colourless and prosaic diction of his learned
successors.
As I stood in the lonesome plain I pictured to
myself what that noble spirit Mould see, if he were
to wander through the ruins of Olympia. We
read in those volumes of vast information and
erudition, published by the German Government,
what modern archaeologists have seen. But Winckel-
mann would have discovered meanings loftier and
truer in the fittest sense. With prophetic insight
into the genius of antiquity he would have read
the dead features of each monument here, laid
bare of its shroud of clay ; and his wistful gaze
would have charmed them to answer his soul.
From their silent voices would he not have learned
a mystical tale of this fair deail region? And
then, breaking into periods of sublime impassioned
poetry, he would have told of glorious sights, as
one who himself had witnessed them, and had risen
from the grave to tell. What a description his might
have been of the famous Temple of Zeus, that lies
shivered by a mighty earthquake 011 the pavement
of the Altis, like a huge vase fallen from its
pedestal. What interest would he not have given
to this shrine of the wondrous chryselephantine
Zeus by Pheidias, about which he has written so
luminously in his monumental History of Ancient
Art? How he would have descanted on those
grand pedimental groups by Alcamenes and
Paionios, whose sculptures massed in bold outline
and splendid proportion lent majesty to the archi-
tecture, as a diadem heightens the dignity of a
king! What a fascination he would have found
in the stones of the old Heraion that guarded for
our delight the Hermes of Praxiteles! How subtle
woidd have been his appreciation of the colossal
"Victory " that alights on the earth with such swift
aerial grace! Then standing in the partially exca-
vated Stadion, what would have been his emotion,
as he thought of the beautiful contests that inspired
the matchless art of Greece!
These were some of my reflections, as I wandered
a livelong day among the ruins of a region where
beings once assembled, and sights were witnessed,
the fairest our aged world has ever known. The
genius of the place stirred strange sensations of
contentment within my heart, such as I have never
felt in other lands and scenes. For here were
enacted those deeds that lent soul to my ideal of
plastic perfection. For this reason, other centres
of art outside of Greece shine in my imagination
with a paler interest; nor indeed am I very curious
to travel more, knowing that I can never discover a
spot with memories of human beauty so sympathetic,
and so sublime. And what made the old Greek
civilisation the most beautiful of all civilisations?
Was it not their profound love of nature which
they shrank from distorting, with a sort of religious
awe? Were not all their works designed in obedi-
ence to the lessons learned of her? Look at the
Parthenon of Athens. Does it not rise from the
living rock as a thing of nature itself? hook at
## p. 115 (#519) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
the people's garments. Are they not absolutely
subordinate to the natural human form, and thereby
most lit, most rational? Whereas the costume of
after ages and modern times, in that it is a dis-
tortion of nature, is barbarous ami abominable,
and every whit as grotesque an that of the
commonest savages who wear rings in their noses,
and pad their persons in order to create odious,
lM'cause artificial, excrescences.
None of the ruins around awake more regretful
interest than those of the Palaistra, an army of
pale Ionian columns standing in pathetic stateliness,
like ghosts of the glorious athletes, who once
frequented these halls, and with their fair civilisation
have passed for ever from the world. Here,
leaning against one of the columns, which doubt-
less of yore gave support to many a tired youth
after the toils of the contest, I gazed long and
earnestly upon the fallen majesty of Olympia. The
wrath of the white sun which at mid-day had lit
up the broken architecture like blocks of crystal,
gradually grew pacified, and over the western hills
and distant sea the saffron light of a Greek evening
borne on the fluttering wings of a cool breeze,
gilded the desolate plain. The genius of the place
stirred within my soul a host of images,and strange
emotions of joy and [Miin strove for mastery in my
heart. I thought of the high deeds that graced these
sacred precincts, and of the many beautiful beings
who flourished here awhile and faded—exquisite
blossoms that bloomed and fell. I thought of
each bright fascinating scene here long ago, which
thrilled with its poetry the beholder for one rare
moment, and then passed away into the inexorable
gulf of time, never, never to return. And bitterly
I thought of this cruel Time, the destroyer of all
our sweetest impressions on earth.
Thus haunted with visions of the glorious
pictures these silent plains had witnessed in the
past, my mind brooded on the antique life of this
revered centre of Hellenism, where grew and
developed that incomparable natural beamy I lane
ever desired to behold—in vain. And, as the
moving shadows, amid fitful gusts of the night,
spread their dark wings, like angels of death,
over the valley, forel>odings of ghostly visitations
filled my imagination, and 1 felt as if transported
to the golden age of Greece. I gazed at the scene
before me in wistful contemplation, until gradually
growing in harmony with its sublime associations,
I seemed to see the ruins transformed, and the
glory of Olympia re-arise from the dust of the years.
Then stood the Temple of Zeus and the Heraion
once more in antique majesty, and the portico of
the echo resounded with the footfall of fluttering
crowds. Impatiently their faces turned towards
the Sladion, while the variegated and gold-
embroidered draperies throbbed in the waning
light like the diamond embers of a log-lire beneath
the dogs. A joyful shout arose, and from the
tunnel of the Stadion came forth the competitors
at the boys' Pentathlon, whose voices, as thev
talked together, rang like the chiming of silver
bells. Anon a great concourse of spectators
appeared overhead, which, opening in twain, made
way for the youthful victor. He advanced
dreamily, as one not realising the splendour of his
achievement which Pindar should immortalise in
an ode, and slowly descended to the Altis, where,
when he paused and looked at his garland, I saw
in him a model of the Praxitelcan Hermes. Then
white-robed choristers, and youths with festooned
flutes, and hoary priests formed themselves in
procession before him, and chanting oriental
melody they led him towards the Temple of Zeus.
And as the victor passed the statue of Victory,
raising the wreath of bay leaves from his golden
hair, he laid it at her feet, and so passed onward
to the temple amid the chorus of quivering basses
and sweet-voiced boys.
Next, I was surrounded in the Palaistra by
athletes, who practised for the contest of the
coming day. Presently one of them came
and leant against a pillar near to where I was
standing. Wearily, with the distant gaze of a
figure in a sepulchral relief, he lookeil towards the
temple that sheltered the victor, and as he laid his
cheek upon the cool marble, his features glowed
with pale transparency, like the cameo of a god. I
watched him and knew the sorrow that lav on his
heart. I read in those sad features the soaring
ambition of youth, that builds for itself a palace in
a world of phantasm, and is ever thwarted, and
vexed, and harassed in the life men call realitv.
I saw how that one passion had mastered him and
withered all faculty for pleasure; how the sight of
this lieautiful ceremony caused him only a keener
pain. And sorrowful at the thought that so bright
a season as boyhood should thus be changed to
bitterness and gloom, I looked with pity upon this
youthful toiler, and sighed because of the lot of
them that nourish the sublime aspirations of life.
A rough hand on my shoulder shattered this fair
picture of Olympia.
Then I understood I must have slumbered after
the heat and fatigue of exploring the ruins, when I
saw beside me my guide, who announced that the
sun had already set and that now the vallev, as if
to defend itself from the encroachments of modern
man, exhaled a cold and pestilential dew. With
a last regretful look I returned to my carriage, and
was borne away swiftly through the gathering
shades of night. And as I watched the purple
silhouette of the hills against the yellow sky, and
breathed the damp air of twilight, I drew my cloak
closer around me with a chill sense of loneliness,
## p. 116 (#520) ############################################
ii6
THE AUTHOR.
for I knew that the man who yearns for the ideal
of other ages, while lie still walks among his con-
temporaries, yet breathes a rarer atmosphere, and
dwells in a far-off world.
Edward Maktyn.
SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES.
MY passage into the world of literature was
made through the gateway afforded by the
"system of prize competitions—a humble
enough entrance in very truth, but one which lias
undoubtedly been the means of bringing to the
front several very good men of letters, whose talents
might otherwise have been lost to humanity.
My feelings, on seeing my first essay in print,
can be better imagined than described. To those
of mv readers who have gone through that ex-
perience, it were useless to waste words in the
telling of so familiar a story. Needless to say, I
passed through all the phases of thought usual on
such an occasion, from the hilarious exultation of
the first sight right down to the dee]) disgust and
awful despair felt when, in a more critical moment,
my work appeared sadly incomplete and unsatis-
factory.
Nevertheless, my ambition had now been fired,
and, come failure or success, I speedily found
myself launched upon the stormy seas of life in the
vessel of literary endeavour, struggling for some
foothold whereon I might take my stand with
others around me wTho were winning fame and
fortune by their daring exploits. The only special
qualification which I possessed for the work set.
before me was some slight ability in the art of
composition, coupled perhaps with a fair share of
common sense.
When I set out on my literary career, some two
years ago, I fortunately (lid not do as many others
before me had done, give up the employment
which had hitherto been my principal means of
subsistence, and expect that, by writing an article
about once a week, the remuneration received
would at once render me perfectly independent of
any other support; on the contrary, I knew a little,
to begin with, about the great difficulties which
had to be contended with, and the very slight
acknowledgment which seems the usual remuneration
for the work of unknown authors. Consequently,
I very wisely decided to retain my ordinary occu-
pation, and, for a while at least, to spend only mv
leisure time in the new pursuit which I had
taken up.
One other thing I feel it my duty to mention
before proceeding further: From the very begin-
ning of mv acquaintanceship with " the black art,"
I determined that, amateur though I was in otic
sense, I should never pay for the insertion of my
contributions in any magazine, but would demand
to be remunerated for my work in every possible
instance. The adoption of this policy may be
somewhat unusual, and it will probably be thought
by some that such a course of action as I had
decided on was essentially grasping, and, therefore,
extremely foolish for a mere tyro to take. I feel
sure, however, that this resolution is one which
should be taken by every literary aspirant to-day;
and I trust to be able to prove in this paper the
wisdom of mv decision, and the justice of the
principle upon which it is based.
During the first six months, I wrote about a
dozen articles and short stories, and sent them on
the rounds. I met with better success than I
expected; for, by the end of the time .specified,
seven of my contributions had been accepted,
published, and paid for. Six of these were ac-
cepted by the first editors to whom they were
submitted; the seventh was only out twice; but
the rest of my dozen were not so eagerly snapped
up, some of them being on my hands still.
The next 12 months I did very badly indeed, as
my leisure time was very fully occupied with other
matters than the pursuit of my literary inclinations.
I certainly wrote some eight or nine papers on
various social and political topics, but only three
were destined to secure editorial approbation that
year. The others were declined in various fashions;
sometimes being returned without comment of any
kind, sometimes with a curt note, "Declined with
thanks," written or printed on an accompanying
slip; and now and again with a letter or memo-
randum containing either a short criticism, a word
of praise, or a half promise for future offers of
work.
In October 1890 I received a circular letter pur-
porting to lie from the sub-editor of a periodical
which I will call the Literary Mantrap. The receipt
of this communication was my first direct contact
with advertising publishers. I had heard a little
about them and their curious methods before, but
I now had the pleasure of a more intimate acquaint-
ance. The letter before me announced that this
Review had been established with a view to
obviating the difficulty experienced by unknown
writers in obtaining publicity for their literary
efforts, and proceeded to further explain the reason
for its existence as follows: "It is common know-
ledge that much undeveloped talent exists anioug
the English-speaking Dices—young writers of
talent, and possibly genius, do not find the ordinary
and more noted periodicals hospitable to them at
## p. 117 (#521) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
li7
the commencement of their career, and the best
publishing firms arc extremely shy in entertaining
proposals emanating from new comers. Hence the
urgent necessity for the establishing of a Review—
for the purpose of bringing to public notice the
productions of unknown writers—conducted upon
the only honest and possible basis, viz., co-opera-
tion." The "co-operation" referred to is then
unblushingly described in manner following, that is
to say: "All authors whose contributions are accepted
for publication are, therefore, required to pay a sum,
]>ro rata to the amount of matter inserted, to cover
the cost of printing, paper, editorial revision, &c.
As a set-off against this charge, 5o per cant, will be
allowed on all copies of the Review sold by the
respective authors, i.e., for every 5o copies sold
through his agency, 25s. goes to the author." Now,
prettily worded though this communication was,
and notwithstanding the fact that it contained
much of consolation, and smacked of hope for those
whose talents were yet unappreciated by the reading
public, I considered its propositions "a bit thick,"
ami, consequently, declined to be made " fish" for
this "net." Had the hook not been so plainly
visible, and the bait been less clumsily arranged, I
might have very speedily been properly dressed for
the carving-knife of the literary chef who headed
the establishment. As matters stood, I was not
"having any."
In December of the same year, a popular weekly
journal, belonging to what good churchmen call
"The Down-Grade School," and which I shall
name, the Religious Republic, attracted mv
attention as a likely medium for the publication of
some of my work. This paper had a sub-title,
which intimated that it existed for the advance-
ment of various Christian virtues; so I thought I
would be all right in the hands of its editor. I
sent him a short paper without any accompanying
note, as I did not deem such necessary in this ciisc.
On looking through the Christmas number of the
journal-a fortnight later, I found that my essay
had been utilised as an editorial, and without any
indication as to its authorship. I made no com-
plaint on that score at the time, but simply wrote
stating that 1 was glad to note the acceptance and
publication of my contribution, and requesting the
editor to inform me, when he sent me a remittance
in payment, whether he considered another article
which I named would be suitable for his columns,
and if I might submit it for his perusal. I waited
for a month, but, as no reply or even remittance
arrived, I wrote again—this time in terms less
likely to be misunderstood. Within four days,
what I considered a very curious reply from the
editor came to hand. After remarking on the fact
that I had sent my contribution without indicating
that I expected remuneration for it, and stating
that it had, along with hundreds of other communi-
cations, passed under editorial notice, and been
approved and printed accordingly, this worthy
gentleman summed up the case in the following
terms: "It appears that you immediately wrote
asking for remuneration, and as to sending other
contributions. This was regarded as very unusual
(!), and so your letters were laid aside. My
personal attention being called to the matter, I
now wish to say that our rule lias always been to
pay for matter when payment is arranged for
previously. When articles are sent without any
pre-armngement or stipulation, they are used or
rejected without any regard to remuneration what-
ever. Most persons who are strangers are willing
to serve an apprenticeship to our paper before they
expect remuneration, &c., &c. Trusting that this
explanation may prove satisfactory, I am, yours
truly, the Editor."
On perusing this hitter, I found two alternative
courses open to me: either to quietly submit to
the editor's decision and thus forego the just
principle which I had determined should guide me
in these matters, or to fight the battle out at all
costs. The adoption of the first course seemed the
best policy to pursue, as the letter lwfore me
suggested that if I was willing to work for nothing
for a short period, arrangements for remuneration
for future contributions could then be made; but
I felt that to do this would be to do not only
myself, but my fellow-craftsmen an injustice, and
I therefore resolved to throw over policy for
principle. In my letter in reply, I argued that the
fact of my not specially indicating that payment
was expected when sending my MS. did not alter
the reasonableness or legality of my claim, and
pointed out that such a specific statement was not
necessary, as unless it was announced to contri-
butors that remuneration was not given, a reason-
able amount was always payable, and was naturally
expected. I submitted that if it was not intended
to pay me for my article, it was the editor's duty to
inform me |of that fact before such article was
published; thus giving me an opportunity to
withdraw it if I thought proper. As matters stood,
I held that if an article was worth publishing in a
journal like the Religious Republic, it was also worth
paying for. I pointed out that the allegation that
I immediately wrote for remuneration was untrue,
and that when my article was published I knew
nothing of the "rules " which guided the editor in
literary matters, and consequently could not be
expected to concur in or agree yvith them so far as
they related to my contribution. In conclusion, I
asked that the matter might be reconsidered in all
its bearings.
I waited for over a fortnight, but no reply came
to hand. As my claim was evidently being treated
## p. 118 (#522) ############################################
118
THE AUTHOR.
with contempt, I then gave the editor notice that,
unless it was paid within a week, I would proceed
to extremities. I told him that I was determined
to light this question if necessary, not because of
the small amount at stake, but on account of the
principle involved. I intimated that I had con-
sulted legal authority, and was advised that be wan
clearly liable to pay me at the current rate for the
article which he had utilised, and that his dealing
with it as owner, without previously informing me
that he did not intend to pay for it, legailv im-
plied a promise on his part to pay me its market
value. I hoped, therefore, that he would settle my
claim immediately, in order to avoid the disagree-
able publicity and other unpleasant consequences
which would inevitably ensue on my taking legal
proceedings.
Within the time mentioned the editorial answer
came to hand, and with it the amount of my claim.
The editor had evidently found himself in a bad
place, and his last letter was, from first to last,
a miserable attempt to extricate himself from his
difficulties with some show of dignity. He said he
was not in the. least disturbed by mv threats, and
thought it would do him good to appear in court
and say a few words about men like myself who
wished to secure a hearing before the public, and
then demanded pay for the insertion of their
articles! He would like to expose such men to
the public! However, he had no time for this
unlovely sort of business, and therefore sent the
amount asked for in settlement. He intimated
that the amount sent wa-s more than the article
was worth, "but," he went on, "I suppose you
are hard up and I am sending you this as a matter
of charity." (How truly Christ-like !) He con-
tinued, "Now a word of candid advice. I have
been connected with the Press for over 3o years,
and have never had dealing before with such a
bore. Had you treated the matter in the right
spirit you might have secured permanent work on
the lieligioxts Republic at a reasonable remune-
ration, but (mark how calmly, how deliberately
the man lies) I am not in the habit—nor is any
editor — of paying contributors for articles until
they have won their spurs, unless some prior
arrangement is made. Then follows this charming
piece of hypocrisy: "I am taking up considerable
space in the hope that it may do you some good.
You have some ability, but your love of money
is the root of your evil." In conclusion, the editor
makes another attempt to justify himself, and,
at the same time, to insult me, and once more
ho fails ignoniiniously: "I hope you will not
consider my sending you the money is the result
of your threats. I simply have a contempt for
your plea on legal grounds, but I am tired of
getting letters from you, and suppose you are
actually in need or you would not take the course
vou are taking."
I have taken the trouble to record the last
experience very fully, because I now know it to
be typical of many more. Since the time when
the case described came before me I have often
had occasion to remember that publishing is a
business which is conducted for the sake of prolit
alone, and that in the pursuit of it men's con-
sciences are apt to become very elastic indeed.
Many a time have I been very forcibly reminded
that with many publishers the virtues of philan-
thropy, justice, and even common honesty arc
practically unknown. I have had dealings with
several men—editors as well as publishers—whose
ideas of right and wrong had become so hopelessly
confused that they would actually steal your goods,
and believe in their inmost hearts that by so doing
they had done you a great favour. Others, not
so well versed in the tricks of their trade, satisfy
their consciences by paying merely a nominal
acknowledgment for your good services. For some
time I worked for a magazine which paid me at
the rate of io#. for articles of from 1,000 to
l,5oo words. As a proof that they were worth
much more a reviewer once said of one of them
that my four columns had arrested his attention
in a way which even the elaborate criticism of
a very popular writer had failed to do, while other
papers would copy or take extracts from my articles
as they appeared. It is scarcely necessary to say
that in due time I "struck" for a higher rate of
remuneration, and, as my reasonable demand was
refused, I declined to work any longer on the old
terms.
I was very much shocked and surprised once at
the way in which the prize competitions of a
"Labour " paper were carried on. I hail written
for information as to whether I might send a cer-
tain article for the editorial consideration, and also
as to the remuneration offered for such work. The
reply I received was to the effect that they did not
"order" contributions in advance, but I was at
liberty to start a competition. I found that this
really meant that my article would be published
along with many others on the same subject, but
that only one would be paid for. Of course I
could not, with a good conscience, work under any
such conditions, and I therefore declined the offer
with thanks. In my reply I endeavoured to point
out to the editor the iniquity of the system which
he had adopted, and illustrated my argument a.s
follows: "If I was successful in the competition
which vou propose, I should feel that I had
deprived others of their righteous reward; if I was
defeated, I would know that I had been robbed of
the fruits of my toil. In conclusion, allow me to
express my surprise that you—of all men most
## p. 119 (#523) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
119
enthusiastic in the cause of labour, in endeavouring
to gain for the workers 'a fair dav's wage for a fail-
day's work '—should stoop to such a method of
filling the pages of your paper." Unfortunately,
this direct appeal failed to awaken the editorial
conscience, and only served to harden his heart.
He even went so far as to denounce my strictures
as unjust! I never doubted the honesty of his
intentions, but" evil is wrought by want of thought
as well as want of heart." I still maintain that
competitions in literature, conducted in the fashion
referred to, are a direct encouragement of literary
"blacklegs," who arc willing to work for nothing,
and thus take away the bond fide workers'
livelihood.
I have yet another instance in proof of the theory
that editors and publishers are specially subject
to jH'culiar temptations, which need all a man's
respectability and honesty of purpose to overthrow.
In March of this year I received a note from the
editor of one of the minor monthly reviews, which
was attracting the attention of the reading public
at the time, explaining the terms on which he
accepted contributions. He intimated that all his
contributors had agreed to allow their fees to stand
over until profits began to be realised, and that, if I
agreed to these terms, he would insert such of my
contributions as he found suitable for the magazine.
In reply, I stated my acceptance of the terms men-
tioned, subject to a satisfactory answer being given
to the following queries, which, considering the
vague nature of the proposil, I thought it neces-
sary to make: "What is the amount which you
propose to put to the credit of your contributors in
return for each of their contributions; that is to
say, what sum will represent the 'fee' to which
you refer, when the magazine begins to pay? Will
the contributors be paid for their articles in
the order of publication? How long do you
think it will be before any profits are realised?"
The only answer I ever received to these questions
was of a very significant character: my MS. was
sent lmck, apparently unread, and without a word
of comment, by return of post.
I am, however, very glad to be able to sav, also
from experience, that all editors are not like those
whose treatment of their contributors I have just
deseriU'd. I have treasured up in my memory a
few instances of most kindly actions on the part of
editors towards me in my struggle for recognition
by the reading public. In one case, on the sus-
pension of a weekly magazine to which I had been
contributing, the publishers refused to pay the
contributors a farthing for their work; but the
editor took up their cause, and, after a great deal
of trouble, necessitating the employment of a
solicitor, succeeded in wresting from these sharks
a portion of their ill-gotten gains, with which he
settled the righteous claims of those whose labours
had created the wealth in the first instance.
Many, too, are the eases in which editors,
being unable to accept my work, have returned it
to me as soon as possible, together with a letter
containing a few words of encouragement, a kindly-
expressed criticism, or a useful suggestion for
improvement. Here, for instance, is a letter which
I received some three or four months ago from
Mr. Arthur Stannard, who conducts " John Strange
Winter's" correspondence in connexion with her
new venture :—" The editor has carefully read your
article, and much regrets that she cannot make use
of it in Golden Gates. She would like to do
so (if only because of the beautiful manuscript),
but the subject is not treated in a way that appeals
to her sympathies, and it may cause undesirable
controversy if she puts it in." This sympathetic
and kindly treatment has several advantages; it
quite takes the sting out of the editorial rejection,
costs nothing, and helps to maintain that feeling of
interdependence and mutual good will iK'tween
author and editor which is so essential a feature
of good magazine work.
In conclusion, let me say that I trust this faithful
record of my adventures "on the troubled sea
of letters" will not lie without its effect. If the
literary aspirant who reads it is made to think twice
before launching out on a similar errand; if those
already embarked will take to heart the hints which
it contains, and determine to adopt a similar course
to that which I have pursued; and if I have suc-
ceeded in pointing out to editors and publishers the
dangers which beset them on every hand, and they
resolve to be more rigid in their attitude towards
amateurs, and more tolerant, more charitable, more
just towards the true worker, this which I have
written will not have been written in vain.
C. E. M.
ENEMIES OP LITERATURE.
WHO are the enemies of Literature 'i Time,
fire, indifference, ignorance, bigotry, and
such notorieties as the Caliph Omar, the
handmaid of John Stuart Mill and of Mr. War-
burton. The late Mr. Matthew Arnold woidd
have added Puritanism, Lord Grimthorpe would
add Popery, and Freethinkers, religion of all
kinds; while the talented and popular novelist
Ouida would unhesitatingly write the "Society of
Authors." Then; are, of course, Optimists who
believe tbit the Literary millennium has begun at
## p. 120 (#524) ############################################
120
THE AUTHOR.
last—that Puritan orgies in the Bodleian—mobs
destroying ducal libraries, Popes burning the
classics, and reforming Monarchs dispersing
monastic collections are things of the past.
Puritanism will, perhaps, exercise the principle of
selection when it next gets into the Bodleian.
The people, already prepared by Mr. William Morris,
when it attacks Althorpe, will only convert it into a
free lending library or a committee room for the
Fabian Society, while its quondam owner will supply,
free of charge, a catalogue. The Pope, instead of
sending a Jesuit mission to England " to consign to
the flames all works of heresy," will giye his emis-
saries full power to purchase the minute books of
the Church Association and the works of General
Booth. He will then be elected an honorary
member of the S.P.C.K. for his services to our
national religious literature. Authors and pub-
lishers will never quarrel about prolits, the former
will write for nothing and the latter will publish
for love. Filthy lucre shall no longer stain these
ancient and honourable professions. It will be
a question not of half profits but half expenses;
while Ouida, if she is still spared to us, will supply
gratis, serial and short stories to all the magazines,
including the Author. Drowsy governments, who
arc already awakening to a literary sense, will levy
a tax on ink to support the profession of letters.
Those who are murmuring the words of Shelley
(if they have the time) will murmur still—■
"The world's great age begins anew."
Society, of course, must lead the way instead
of playing baccarat. It will try to answer papers
on Bowdler's Shakspere, and on Marlowe, set by
extended University lecturers.
All this is, of course, only a hasty peep into the
future, the pleasant side of the picture, for I confess
to taking a more gloomy view. I also take the
vulgar view of literature. I think an author or
poet has as much right to put a price on his work
as a painter does on his picture, a lawyer on his
opinion, a doctor on his diagnosis. Literature is
a market where bad things and good things are
sold. There are pickpockets and pirates walking
round like any other market, and critics are
strolling in the bazaar. Some are grave, full of
good advice (a thing we all dislike), others arc gay
and flippant (we like them, however wrong they
may be). Then there are those conceited fops
who go about talking a jargon no man can under-
stand; they deal in catchwords, and their pens are
made of slate pencil. Their affected phraseology,
hybrid epithets, and ridiculous mannerism is mis-
taken for style, their vulgar personalities for
scholarly invective. They admire nothing and
none, and can abuse their friends with little
compunction, thanking God they arc not as other
men, Logrollers.
These are some of the enemies of literature;
the bastard offspring of Gifford and Christopher
North. Budding genius, especially when it lakes
to authorship, is not to be encouraged, and no
one should l>e scared into admiration of a writer,
because two or three centuries have praised him;
but personal abuse of the dead or living, interlarded
with literary shibboleths, is not criticism, and
merely degrades a public palate that even relishes
the aroma of Mr. Pater's delightful essays. I
believe that this writer reminds us how short our
time for intellectual excitement is. Then why should
we waste this short time in finding out only what
is indifferent or bad? And the critics of whom I
speak should remember that it is as ea«y to be
funnv over Professor Buskin as over the Bible, and
that the humour is not of a very fine order in
consequence.
A certain section of English people go into a
far extreme by a kind of stupid conservatism in
taste. They believe that English literature began
with Spenser, and ended with Byron ; that Shakes-
peare never wrote a bad play; that Maeauluy was
the only English critic by virtue of his judicial
summing-up of the English language. They will
give nothing for an idea that was not stale when
Charles Land) wa.s in his cradle. They read
nothing more modern than "The Excursion," and
try to end all discussions by saying that Pope was
a greater poet than Shelley. No less dangerous,
and more numerous, are those who hanker after
annotated Miltons, and read Shakespeare only
through the medium of a text-book. They are
anxious that everyone should go through a " course
of the Poets," asking and answering questions on
Robert Browning, and reducing our writers to
schoolroom classics. Not content with making
boys hate Chaucer as much as Csesar, they want to
spoil Lord Tennyson for them too. Shakespeare
has been ruined long ago by the Clarendon Press
Series, and our modern poets, too, must be sacrificed
to the pedagogic fetish. Mr. Kipling will live to
see the day when Civil Service candidates may be
asked to analyse Mrs. Hunksbee's character, and
an Extension lecture on the Ethics of Plain Tales as
applied to the Russian question in India. Tom
Moore burning the autobiography of Lord Byron
is a less melancholy event than a number of half-
educated graduates turning English literature into
a round game of conundrums.
In Constantinople, the dogs who scavenge the
streets become such a nuisance that occasional
holocausts of those well-intentioned animals are
necessary. In England the so-called Purity
societies, who institute proceedings against the
vendors of Zola are no less harmful. Like the
## p. 121 (#525) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
121
niun with the muek rake, they draw attention to
an evil formerly unapparcnt, and literature ia
practically chained by a false morality, the relic
of that old Puritanism that purged the Bodleian in
the 17th Century. The enemy of literature is with
us always, be he Puritan or Prig.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
"O Word of Feab."
TN last month's Author it is noted that a letter
I from the Secretary of the Society may cause an
unwilling editor or proprietor to discharge his
liabilities. In my ca.se even so slight a measure was
unnecessary, and the mere mention of the name of
the Society was sufficient. I had three short stories
accepted by a certain weekly journal, but when I
suggested remuneration, my letters remained un-
answered. Finally, I wrote saying that unless I
received a prompt and satisfactory reply I should
place the matter in the hands of the Society of
Authors. It was, clearly, a word to the wise.
Almost by return of post came a cheque which—
had the Society been non-existent—would have
been signed somewhere in the Greek Calends.
Ignotus.
II.
Foreign Reprints.
It may interest our fellow Meml>ers of the
Society of Authors to learn that the Excise is
awakening to their interests. On arriving on the
Cornish coast last week in a small schooner from
the coast of Spain, the excise officer specially
inquired after, and searched for, foreign reprints
of Copyright works. I have reached this country
by most possible routes, and never before had such
an examination made. Naturally, therefore, I
was much gratified, and in reply to inquiries
I learned that particular directions had been
recently issued to the officers with regard to such
works. This is the practical and tangible proof of
the attention being directed to Copyright since the
Society of Authors took the matter up with spirit.
W. Anderson Smith.
■
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD.
MR. Lewis Morris writes to the Times
as follows :—
Tlie paragraph which you copy from the
Athcnmtm with reference to my ]>oem "A Vision
of Saints" is only partially correct. The idea of
doing for the Christian legends and records what
had been done so often for the mythology of
ancient Greece occurred to me very soon after the
publication of the "Epic of Hades," when the
legend of St. Christopher appeared in Fraser's
Magazine, about 10 years ago, and the other
stories composing the "Vision of Saints" were
written subsequently. Last summer, after the
book was finished, Cardinal Manning most kindly
suggested that I should write such a book, and I
was happy to be able to inform him that I had
already done so.
The death of Miss Jessie Fothergill is a distinct
loss to modern literature. Her best novel, "The
First Violin," was very good indeed, without having
any pretensions to first-rate work. She belonged
to a small class, which seems to be growing, but
not very rapidly, of those whose work is natural,
wholesome, and pure, without being strong. It is
like a school of painters who have at least learned
to avoid convention, and who try to paint what they
see, and have acquired a creditable amount of
dexterity. The Victorian age has, for the first
time in literature, produced such a school of
novelists. No one perhaps would read their works
twice; there is nothing to carry away; there is no
character to live in the memory; there are no
wise or witty things to quote; one is never moved
to tears or laughter; yet their novels are readable,
interesting, and cleverly constructed. To such a
school belonged Miss Jessie Fothergill.
Miss Robina Hardy, a well-known writer of
stories connected with Scottish life, is dead.
Miss Mary E. Wilkins's "New England Nun"
appears in a second English edition. It is pub-
lished by Osgood, Mcllvaine, & Co. Very few
writers have so rapidly stepped to the front as Miss
Mary Wilkins. Her stories have the great charm of
sincerity; they are true pictures; they are pathetic
in their fidelity; and they represent a set of people
who are not in the least like any we know. It
remains to lie seen whether she will keep up to
her present level, and whether she is capable of a
stronger flight.
## p. 122 (#526) ############################################
I 22
THE AUTHOR.
Messrs. Hutchinson are about to issue Vols. II.
and III. of "Poets and Poetry of the Century."
Among the contributors of critical articles are
Mr. Austin Dobson, the Hon. Roden Noel, Mr.
Buxtou Forman, Dr. Garnett, and Mr. Mackenzie
Bell.
The Society has sent round for signature a
Petition to the First Lord of the Admiralty for a
pension for the widow and the children of James
Runciman, one of its Members. The Petition was
suggested by Mr. Ruuciman's friend, Mr. W. E.
Henley, editor of the National Observer.
It is stated that Dr. Ullathorne, late Roman
Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, has left behind him
an autobiography. Dr. Ullathorne was chaplain to
the convict establishment of Sydney during the last
years of that horrible institution. This should make
his reminiscences more interesting than those of
most Catholic priests.
Everybody ought to read Mr. Howells' little 1kx>1c
called " Criticism and Fiction "; first, because it. is
a very clever book, and, secondly, because it illus-
trates the real weakness in American literature.
This is shown in the fact that a man of Mr. Howells'
ability cannot write about literature without con-
tinually measuring himself and comparing his
stature with that of our English masters, and
mis-stating the inches of the latter so as to
bring himself the nearer. Thackeray's six feet, for
instance, must be brought down to five feet five to
get anywhere near the stature of Howells.
Mr. Stanley Little contributes an article entitled,
"The Future of Landscape Art," to the August
number of the Nineteenth Century.
Mr. Arthur Dillon will publish a book of verse
shortly, which will contain his drama in blank
verse: "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maiden."
Mr. Rennell Rodd has two volumes in the press,
"The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece," and a
volume of poems ul>out Greece, entitled "The Violet
Crown." Mr. David Stott is the publisher.
Mrs. A. Phillips, author of "Benedicta," " Man
Proposes," Ac, will produce early in October a
romance called "A Rude Awakening." The
publishers are Trischler and Co. It is significant
of recent controversy that the motto chosen for
the title page is from the verses of Mr. T. L. Harris,
the poet and "prophet," with whom Laurence
Oliphaut's life was so closely connected.
All seeming goods that end in self are base:
Stay thou, O man : then meet God face to face.
Two men were discussing a book that had just
been handed to them by the newsboy. First Man:
"That's a great l>ook, sir, a masterpiece of
work." Second Man: " I wonder how it is
selling." First man: "Selling? I never saw
anything like it. You see I am the publisher, and
ought to know." Second Man: "Your informa-
tion delights me. I am the author." First Man
(with fallen countenance): "Well, that is, it hasn't
had much of a side yet, hut I think it will have.
A great deal of risk, you know, getting out this
sort of book."
■+•*•■*
WOMEN BOOKSELLERS.
IN New York City there are at least two women
who deal in second-hand books. They are itin-
• erants—peddlers, if you like—but dealers in
second-hand books, nevertheless, shrewd and enter-
prising, with a scent for rarities and bargains as
keen as that of a Stevens, Philes, Sabin, or any
modern book-hunter regularly established in
business.
They are characters, too, each in her own way.
The older one—and the senior in the business, if
we are not mistaken—is a typical bookworm, tall,
spare of build, with a piercing, nervous eye. The
other is short, stout, and phlegmatic in everything
excepting the striking of a bargain. Both have
their headquarters in some second-hand bookstore;
that is, a place where letters may be addressed to
them, and where, they leave an occasional parcel;
but their business is done "out of hand," if we may-
use the expression in this connexion. Making
specialties of certain lines, they keep track of what
their customers want, and supply them as they pick
14) bargains and desired volumes. This necessi-
tates their being on the wing nearly all the time,
so that they would have very little use for a shop
of their own. Both realize, a handsome income.
Then there is another woman who figures as the
"company" of an anything but insignificant
second-hand book business in New York, but who
## p. 123 (#527) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
123
is really the mainspring of the establishment, if
buying ami selling the stock, and looking after the
finances single-handed, may be considered doing
the business. She has an unerring eye for a mre
book, and most decidedly " knows beans when the
bag is opened." There is still another woman in
New York City who is making an experiment in
dealing in old art works. Thus far her efforts
have met with encouragement if not success; but
as she is only a beginner we will not yet count her
as belonging to the ranks.
In addition to the above, we are safe in saying
that there are over a dozen women in the United
States who, while not dealers exclusively in second-
hand books, deal more or less in them in connexion
with the book and stationery stores, of which they
are the sole proprietors.
We do not feel justified in giving the names of
the women alluded to, because we have misgivings
as to how they might take to notoriety thrust upon
tlieui in this manner. All of them, while eschew-
ing consideration for themselves on account of their
sex, are extremely modest, but women nevertheless.
And women—well, they sometimes will be women,
and no one can foresee where it will break out.
American Paper.
•
SOME OP THE INDIGNITIES OF
LITERATURE.
IT is observable that in all these points we are
becoming a little more candid, and in this
respect our country is beginning to take the
lead. Our leading journals, for instance, are learn-
ing to criticise frankly the works of their own contri-
butors, a thing formerly unknown in America, as
it still seems to be in Europe. This helps greatly
to keep up the dignity of the literary profession,
though not always the felicity of the individual
author. The greatest indignity which he and his
vocation have now to suffer, lies in the constant
assumption, even by otherwise well-informed
people, that it is a profession of tricks and adver-
tising devices, and that the main object of the
author is not to do good work, but to keep himself
as much as possible l>efore the public. The
author receives, not merely an annoyance, but a
distinct indignity when it is assumed by enter-
prising publishers that he is willing to pay money
to have his picture appear in their forthcoming
work; to buy a l>ook he does not want, liecause
his name occurs in it; to supply a new biography
of himself for each new cyclopaxlia, as if the old
facts were not sufficient, and the public wished
him this time to select a new birthday and birth-
place for this publication only; to furnish particulars
as to his height, weight, and the colour of his
hair, with the same particulars as to his wife,
children, and grandparents. These discourtesies
would not be so bad, were they not based obviously
on the assumption that all these requests are a
favour to the author himself, and the carrying
out of his most cherished desire. It is hard
enough to keep one's privacy, amid the publicity of
our modern life; but it is still harder to have
all preference for privacy dismissed as a base
hyprocrisy. It may happen at last that as some one
felicitously defined "society people" as including
only those whose names one never sees in the
"society columns," so we may at some future day.
limit the department of celebrated authors to those
of whose personality we know almost as little as if
they had written the Letters of Junius.
New York Independent.
PARISIANS AND THEIR FICTION.
PARISIANS—if we are to judge from some
statistics published—do not take so kindly at
present to fiction in book form. Formerly the
yellow-covered novel, which costs usually about half-
a-erown, or a little more when just issued, was to l>e
seen on every table, and in the hands of numerous
travellers by boat, rail, or car. There is now, how-
ever, a crisis threatened in the lx>ok trade, and novels
are at a considerable discount. It is estimated that
there are from fifteen to twenty popular authors,
whose books fulfil the requirements of the pub-
lishers. To attain this end, at least 3o,ooo copies
of a work must be sold. Zola and a few others
reach this point easily, but it has happened lately
that one of the most celebrated of the latter-day
fictionists had the misfortune to find that 40,000
copies of his last production were returned to the
publishers by the Maison Hachette, which has
the monopoly of railway bookstalls. It is stated,
furthermore, that one publisher in Paris has on
hand three millions of volumes which he cannot
sell. The fact is, that the authors themselves are
to blame partly for this threatened crisis in the
book trade by allowing their works to appear in
serial form in newspapers and reviews before linal
publication. People read feuilletons as eagerly as
ever in France, and, what is more they cut them
out and sew them together, so as to avoid having to
buy the stories eventually in book form.
Pall Mall Gazette.
## p. 124 (#528) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
NIGHT-TEMPEST.
Wild night of mists and driving flakes of foam!
The south-west Tyrant of the Deep unbound
Rendcth thy breast; with grim discordant sound
Piles up the mountainous waters, till thy home
(Sands, rocks, and caverns where I love to roam)
Seems held by demon voices, which resound
From crag to crag, from cliff to cliff, and bound
Afar once more across the waste of foam.
Storm-ruled and cruel is thy voice, O Night;
The breakers boom on yonder sea-girt rock
And dark thy mantle hides the sight of Death:
From thy black depths, O Night, the tempest's
breath
Bears wail of souls and one long quivering shock:
And onlv thou hast seen, O cruel Night!
* JO
Thomas Folliott.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Theology.
Brook, A. The Creed of the Christian Church.
Mowbray. 2S.
Canning, A. S. G. Thoughts on Religious History.
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Dix, M. The Authority of the Church. W. Gardner.
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Hamilton, Kkv. W. F. Words of Peace, Sermons,
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& Co. 7». 6d.
Nye, G. H. F. The Story of the Church of England.
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Owen, J. W. Common Salvation of Our Lord. I'etherick.
5s.
Singer, Rev. S. The Authorized Daily Prayer Hook of
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dace, London Wall.
Soden, J. J. Six Sermons on the Apostles' Creed.
Skeffington. is. 6rf.
History and Biography.
Baigent, F. J. The Crondal Records : a Collection of
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Part [., Historical and Manorial. Simpkin, Stationers'
Hall Court.
Brett (Robert) of Stoke Newington, his Life and
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Home, David Milne. Biographical Sketch, by his
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Johnson, Samuel. Lives of the English Poets (Waller,
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Leadman, A. D. H. Prcclia Ehoracensia: Battles fought
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Newman, Cardinal. Historical Sketches. New Edition.
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Ooilvie, William. Birthright in Land. With Biographical
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Saint Amand, J. D. Marie Louise and the Invasion
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Hutchinson and Co., 2S, Paternoster Square. 5s.
Seaforth A. Nelson. The last Great Naval War: An
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Wagner, R. A Sketch of his Life and Works. By F.
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Baumann, Otto. French Sentences and Syntax. Fourth
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Chamiiers, G. F. Pictorial Astronomy for General
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Ciiisholm, G. G., and Liebmann, Prof. Longmans'
School Geography for South Africa. Longmans.
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Flugel, Dr. Felix. A Universal English-German and
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Hartley, C. S. Natural Elocution. Pitman, Paternoster
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Hewitt, W. Elementary Science Lessons. Standard III.
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Mill, John Stuart. A System of Logic and Principles
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Sidowick, Henry. The Elements of Politics. Mac-
millan. 14s.
M Waterdale." Fresh Light on the Dynamic Action and
Ponderosity of Matter. Chapman and Hall.
## p. 125 (#529) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
General Literature.
Adams, P. Strong as Death, liemingtou. is.
Ainsworth, W. H. Windsor Castle. Pocket vols.
Koutledge. is. 6d.
Andukws, William. Old Church Lore. Simpkin. 6s.
Berlyn, Mrs. Alfred (Vera). Vera in Poppy-Land.
Illustrated by W. W. liussell. Jarrold, Paternoster
Buildings, is. 6d.
Bigelow, J. Principles of Strategy, &c. Folio. Unwin.
in.
Boldrewood, R. A Sydney Side Saxon. Crown 8vo.
Macmillau. 3s. 6d.
Booth, B. Prom Ocean to Ocean, &c. 8vo. Salvation
Army. 3s. 6d.
Broughton, K. Alas: a Novel. Bentley. 6s.
Campbell, Sir Gilbert. A Fair Freelance: a Story.
Koutledge.
Campbell, J. G. Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition.
Nutt. ios. 6d.
Carr, Mr. Comyns. Buried in the Breakers, or Paul
Crew's Story. Stott, Oxford Street. Paper covers,
is.
The Confessions of Vivian Carhuthers: A Tale of
Hypnotism. Sutton Drowley, Ludgate Hill. Paper
covers, is.
Cook, W. The Horse: its Keep, &c. Crown 8vo.
Simpkin. is. 6d.
Cotes, V. C. Two Girls in a Burge. Crown 8vo. Chatto
and Windus. 3s. 6d.
Crawford, F. M. The Witch of Prague. 3 vols. Mac-
millau. 3is. M.
Cunningham, W., D.I). The Path towards Knowledge:
Discourses on some Difficulties of the Day. Methuen
and Co., 18, Bury Street, W.C.
Dickens, C. Bleak House. Pictorial Edition. Chapman
and Hall. 3s. 6rf.
Great Expectations, &c. Chapman and Hall. Ss.
Doudnev, S. Voices in the Starlight. M. Ward. 3s.
Downey, E. Captain Lanagan's Log. Ward and Downev.
3s. 6d.
Farmer, L. Chronicles of Cardewe Manor. Hutchinson,
is. 6d.
Fenn, G. M. Princess Fedor's Pledge. Hutchinson,
is. 61/.
Eli's Children: the Chronicles of an Unhappy
Family. Fourth Edition. (Methuen's Novel Series.)
Methuen and Co. 3s. 6d.
Gould, Nat. Double Event. Koutledge. is.
Graham, S. The Sancliffe Mystery, is.
Green, E. E. A Holiday in a Manor House. Biggs
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Grey, E. Dr. Sinclair's Sister. 3 vols. Bemington. 18s.
Hankinson's New Descriptive Guide to Bournemouth
and District. (Special Edition for visit of British
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Bournemouth, T. J. Hankinson." Bound. is.
Hudson, W. C. The Man with a Thumb. Cassell and Co.
is.
Hunuerford, Mus. April's Lady. F. V. White, is. 6d.
Jackson, H. K. Stories of Sentiment. E. Stock, is. 6d.
James, M. H. Bogie Tales of East Anglia. Pawsey and
Hayes, Ancient House, Ipswich. Paper covers, is.
Kerr, W. A. Biding for Ladies. Bell. is.
Kipling, B. Life's Handicap. Macmillan. 6s.
Le Ci.erc, M. E. Mistress Beatrice Cope. Hurst and
Blackett. 3s. 6d.
Lewin, Walter. Citizenship and its Responsibilities.
Bertram Dobell, Charing Cross Road, W.C. Paper
covers, 6d.
Linton, E. Lynn. An Octave of Friends. Ward and
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Lyall, Edna. Derrick Vaughau, Novelist. (Methuen's
Novel Scries.) 3oth Thousand. Methuen and Co.
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Macleod, Norman, D.I)., Works by. The Old Lieutenant
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Meredith, L. A. Last Series of Bush Friends in Tas-
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Moore, A. W. Folk-lore of the Isle of Man. Nutt.
is. bd.
Morris, C. Summer in Kieff. Ward ami Downey,
ios. 6d.
Ml-I RUE ad, A. J. My Sister Ruth. R.T.S. is.
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Huguenot Society of London. Printed for the Society
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## p. 126 (#530) ############################################
1 26
THE AUTHOR.
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is.
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THE AUTHOR.
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128
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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The Author.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT..
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Vol. II.—No. 5.]
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OCTOBER 1, 1891.
[PRICE SIXPENCE.
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Notices
The Authors' Club.. .
A Ladies' Club .. .
To an Author who complained of Neglect..
My Brother Charles. An Extract
Pegasus in Harness .. ..
“Authors' Complaints and Publishers' Profits
Popular Platitudinous Philosophy
Notes and News ..
Lists and Risks
From America
Reviewers and Reviews ..
Magazines and Contributions ...
Commission Books
138
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CONTENTS.
PAGE 1
.. 133
An Instructive Case
.. 134 The Marlowe Memorial
“Good Work, Sure Pay"
.. 135 Correspondence-
.. 135
I. The Statute of Limitations ..
II. Fiction and Reality
1 38
II. Slating .. .. ..
IV. Words and Bricks
140
V. A Provident Society.
VI. An Honourable Action
146
VII. Reviews and Reviewers
147 Pages Cut or Uncut
"At the Author's Head "
.. 148 New Books .. .. ..
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^Ibe Hutbor.
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They are not final; they are tentative only, and
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lower than five guineas it is perfectly impossible to
think of running a high-class club. That amount
will do no more than provide a moderate sized
house and a respectable service. It is in contempla-
tion to give the club a social character on the lines
already followed by some of the newer clubs. It is
intended to make it a comfortable house; a house
of rest, and a house of recreation. The word
Author is taken to include that large and impor-
tant branch of literature called journalism. But it
must not be taken to include only those persons who
follow the profession of letters. Then; are authors
most eligible for the club among all professions
under the sun. Literature is catholic. The club
should include all kinds of humanity which possess
the requisites of culture and of literary ambition
and experience.
—
## p. 134 (#538) ############################################
'34
THE AUTHOR.
A LADIES' CLUE.
APRELIMINARY meeting has been held at
the Society's office of ladies engaged in lite-
rature and journalism anxious to found a club
themselves. The chair was taken by Mrs. Stannard
(John Strange Winter). The meeting was nume-
rously attended. It is understood that a resolution
was unanimously passed iu favour of such a club. — •
TO AN AUTHOR WHO COMPLAINED OP
NECJLECT AND DEPRECIATION.
Friend, l>c not fretful if the voice of fame,
Along the narrow ways of hurrying men
Where unto echo echo shouts again,
Be all day long not noisy with your name.
When dumb the noon-day din of praise and
blame,
And heavenly constellations hush the ken,
If yours be light celestial, you will then
Shine like a star, eternally the same.
Nor in your upward journeying stoop to con
The straining petulance of tethered spite,
That still hath railed whenever Genius shone:
As, when dogs bay the moon in midmost night,
The moon nor looks nor listens, but sails on,
Slowly ascending her predestined height.
Alfred Austin.
MY BROTHER CHARLES: An Extract.
• •••••
After these melancholy events, nothing remained
but for the company to break up, and for every
member of it to go his own way. I took a tender
farewell of Dollie, with great sorrow on both sides,
many promises of constancy, and some tears. But
I felt sure—I had a presentiment—that I should
never see her more. The dear girl proposed to
return for the moment to her " Pop," who conducted
a store at Syracuse, 111., and was a strict church
meml>er. She thought tliat by burying in oblivion,
or carefully editing, the history of the last three
months, and by pretending that she had another en-
gagement as a schoohnarm, she might get some
dollars oiit of the old man, with the help of which
she could try the stage again with better luck. Cer-
tainly, one who has once l>eeii on the boards returns
to them quite naturally, and can never again do
anything else. My presentiment proved true, that
is to sav, I have only seen her once since. I was
tramping through the city of Detroit, when I saw a
name—her name—on a poster with a picture. I
went to the gallery in my rags. I saw her dressed
in tights dancing a breakdown, singing saucy songs,
looking so happy and lively, that it made me sick
and ill just to think of her happiness and mr
rags. And all through one thing. I suppose she
had got the dollars out of her " Pop," and so got
back to the boards with l>etter luck. Well, when I
had taken her ticket and seen her off, I made the
melancholy discovery that I was left absolutely
penniless—stone broke. I returned to the hotel and
spent the rest of that day and most of the night in
trying to find a way out of the mess. What I wanted
was money to carry me on to New York, and to
keep me going there until 1 should find another
engagement. When I fell asleep, I had fully
resolved what to do. I do not defend the plan
which I finally adopted. I am aware that it mav lie
attacked, especially if a harsh and one-sided view
is adopted; but I do declare that it was forced
upon me, and that I fully intended, but for the
accursed accidents which followed, to repay all
the money I should make by my false pretences.
I daresay I shall not l>e believed, but that was my
honest intention.
I was then six and twenty years of age, an
Englishman by birth, and, as you have guessed,
an actor—not as yet a very successful actor—by
profession. I still think that if I had had the luck
to light upon a really new part, and to make it my
own, I had the touch and go, light comedy style,
and might have made a reputation—ah ! equal to
any. I've seen Charles Wyudham, and it is absurd
to suppose that I could not . . . But it is too late.
And all through the most extraordinary mis-
fortune that ever befell any man. There I was, an
honourable, scrupulous young man—I repeat, that
I intended to pay back the money—and I was
wrecked, ruined by one—just one—accident, which
nobody could have foreseen. At the same time,
I admit that I ought to have got away at once
without an hour's delay. I might have guessed;
and here I am, all in consequence of that accident,
tramp, gaolbird, swindler, thief, and can't raise
myself again as long as I live. Sometimes when I
think of that accident I feel as if the top of my
head was being lifted off.
In the morning, my plan fully formed, I dressed
myself as carefully as my slender wardrobe would
allow, and after breakfast sallied out, thankful
that it did not occur to the clerk as I passed him
in the hall, to remind me of the hotel bill. The
place was Philadelphia, which is full of rich people,
and has some liu-niry people. I had procured
from the directory certain names and addresses
which I thought would be useful. There was a
great Shakespearean scholar; there was a rich—ft
very rich—editor; there was a poet of eminence;
there were three or four clergymen; there W«*
others—scholars and authors. I called upon all of
them. The Shakespearean scholar lent me $icc; the
rich editor, $125; the poet, $zo; the others, from §to
## p. 135 (#539) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
135
to $20 each. I went l>ack to my hotel that morning
richer than when I left it by about S3oo—say, £60
in English money. This was very good business,
so good that I ought to have cleared out at once
without the least delay. I ought to have suspected
that something was going to happen after such
wonderful luck. For I had no dilliculty whatever
with my little plan. It came off without a hitch.
Such a plan generally does. It must be simple;
it must be well and naturally told; there must be
no hint or suggestion that the story could be
suspected or disbelieved. What I did was this: I
sent in my card, " Mr. Wilford Amhurst, Dramatic
Authors' Club, London." I was taken to see my man
—it was the Shakespearean scholar—in his study.
Now I certainly looked very English, and I believe
I had at that time an honest face and a frank
manner. After all these prisons, and ups and
downs, my face may be English still, but it is no
longer honest, nor is my manner frank. I began
by apologizing for intruding. I ventured to do so
on account of his well known sympathy with letters.
Then I paused a moment. He 1 rowed his head in
silence. I went on to say that the name on my
card, Wilford Amhurst," was not my real but
my stage name, that I was really Wilford Ingledew,
and that I was the youngest brother of Charles
Ingledew, the well known novelist. The scholar
started and looked suspicions. "Charles Ingle-
dew," he said, " must be a good deal older than
yourself." "Not so very much," I replied, putting
something on my own age and taking something
from his. "I am 36 and he is 46." He asked
me, still in a doubtful kind of way, but open to
conviction, to tell him a little more about myself.
I said that I was at Rugby and afterwards at
Pembroke, Cambridge, where I did not stay to
take a degree, but left at the end of my second vear.
It was rather a lucky guess about Pembroke, because
I had once stayed with a man who was stage-struck,
and I knew something about the College, a nil so
did lie. He asked me if I had written anything.
I gave him a long list of plays and poems, none of
which I had with me. He then asked me if I had
any letter or anything from my brother which
would go to prove my statement. I pulled
out of my pocket-lxx>k a letter written on some
English note paper—fortunately rather soiled and
dirty, which helped ine. It began "My dear
Wilford." It lamented my bad luck, gently
intimated that extravagance was partly the cause
of it, and exhorted me to return to England,
where, he said, he had little doubt that with my
undoubted talent I should certainly succeed. He
ended it with two or three purely family matters—
a reference to my mother's health, and' another to
a married sister who had recently been happily
confined of twins, and he remained, hoping to
sec me at home before long, my affectionate brother
Charles Ingledew. I had written the letter myself
that morning. As for the signature, I copied it
from a magazine. "This," said my scholar, "is
certainly Charles Ingledew's signature. I suppose
there is no doubt that you are the person you repre-
sent yourself to be; and, in that case, what do you
want of me?" "Well, I am absolutely j>enniless.
That is my case. I cannot beg or steal. I want to
borrow. Only I want to borrow so that my brother
should not know. He would l>c disgusted if he
knew anything about it. He is always pitching
into me about extravagance. Will you, on my
word of honour only, lend me a hundred dollars?
I am going back to London, and I shall send you
the money as soon as I possibly can. If I don't
get it by my own work, I shall have to borrow it of
Charles." Without a word he opened a drawer
and took out notes to that amount. "There," he
said, "take these for your brother's sake."
I wrung his hand, and I went away without
another word. That was the best thing to do.
Gratitude, chokes you see. You press the hand of
your benefactor and yon go, with bowed shoulders,
opening and closing the door with just a little
demonstration and without noise.
In all the other cases I was equally successful.
Not a doubt was raised. Only I asked less of the
clergymen, and wanted nothing more than to pay
my hotel bill and to get on to New York, where I
hail friends.
Now, I .say again, had I possessed any sense at all,
I ought to have been so astonished at my wonderful
good luck that I should have made tracks at once. I
should have gone on by the first train to New York.
I should have made any further question, discussion,
or difficulties impossible. I ought to have known
that such ease in getting would have been followed
by tremendous difficulty in keeping. It is always
the way. The easier you get, the quicker you lose.
Well, I had impressed upon every one the
necessity of keeping my secret. They had all
promised, and to this day I cannot tell who, if
any, did betray me. I incline on the whole to
the belief that the old scoundrel, villain, rogue who
but there, you shall see.
I dined pleasantly and had a small bottle of
Burgundy—fancy a stone-broke player drinking
Burgundy in Philadelphia! and I really felt quite
happv, comfortable, and free from anxiety. As for
baing found out, or anything, that did not enter into
my imagination. After dinner I strolled into the
saloon and s it d jwn with a cigar looking on at the
p.;ople.
They came and went in twos an J threes; they
sat down and talked or they stood at the bar and
drank. I watched and listened, sitting lazily in a
corner under a gas light.
## p. 136 (#540) ############################################
136
THE AUTHOR.
Presently two men came in, ami one had un
evening paper. He began to run his eve down the
columns, telling the news as he went on. One
thing after the other lie noted. Then he came to u
paragraph which he rend out at length. "There
is staying at the Lone Star Hotel a young English-
man who is at once actor, poet, and dramatist.
His theatrical name is Wilt'ord Amhurst. His
real name is Wilford Ingledew, and he is the
youngest brother of diaries Ingledew, the English
novelist. He has called upon one of the most
prominent citizens and revealed his name. He is
said to be a handsome Englishman of a thoroughly
Britannic aspect, looking younger than he is—
probably from wearing neither beard nor moustache.
He is ten years younger than his brother, who is
now forty-six, and he greatly resembles him in face
and stature. He has been a member of a travelling
variety company which has not been eminently
successful." You sec that nothing here was said
about begging and borrowing. Yet I felt uneasy.
He read this out, and said, "Why, I remember
Wilford Amhurst in the piece—what was it—the
Criterion comedy piece. And ..." His
voice stopped short, for he recognised me.
Even then there was still time. I should have
left the saloon immediately and taken the night
train. Fool! double—treble Fool!
The man advanced to me. "Mr. Wilford
Ingledew," he said, " I have the pleasure of wish-
ing you well. Your brother's works are so well
known to me that I feel as if-no introduction was
necessary to"
This beautiful and trustful beginning was com-
pletely spoiled, however, by a third person. He
was, to look at, a Brute—a Brute and a Beast.
He was clad in a filthy greasy gaberdine—the poor
despised Jew in the middle ages always wore a
gaberdine, therefore I use that word to describe the
ragged old thing that hung on his shoulders. He
was a man of short grey hair and long grey bristles
—the former on his head, the latter on his chin.
He had a swollen and pimply face, a swollen red
nose, and blue lips. He looked as if he was half
drunk. I never knew him afterwards or saw him
but what he looked half drunk. He had been
standing by, apparently taking no heed of what
was said. Now he came lurching forward.
"Wilford Ingledew? I believe it is. Good
Lord! Here's a chance! Wilford—Wilford, I
say. Wilford Ingledew—Ingledew—don't you
know me? Look at me, man. Don't you know
me now 'i Your eldest brother—Jack Ingledew—
I am. Jack Ingledew. Him that went away
3o years ago and never went home again. Boys,"
—he turned to some loafing blackguards behind
him,—" you all know Jack Ingledew—old Jack."
They murmured with ono consent that they all
knew Jack—old Jack. "Old Jack—that you
thought dead—eh '< long since dead. And to think
that we meet here after all these years. It makes
me thirsty. Brother—brother Wilford—a little
baby three years old when I went away—shake
hands—shake hands with your eldest brother—
long parted—grief as is felt—happy to part—
happy to meet again. Joy demands a drink. We
must celebrate this happy occasion with a drink.
Come."
This was the terrible accident. This was the
cause of all the trouble. Through the accursed
mischance of that eldest brother—if he was an
eldest brother—Lord knows !—turning up at that
juncture.
The man who had first spotted ine stepped aside,
leaving me to the Beast of the Greasy Gaberdine.
What I ought to have done is perfectly plain
and simple. 1 did not do it. In fact, I gave him
a drink. I ought, of course, to have refused any
knowledge of the Beast. I ought to have said that
there was no John Ingledew—was there, in fact?
Was this man really Charles Ingledew's elder
brother? I don't know. I never could find out.
But the knowledge of my own guilt made me weak.
I accepted his filthy hand. I gave him another
drink. I owned up to the eldest brother; I was
civil to him. I pointed out that I could not very
well remember a man whom I had not seen for so
long. He then asked certain questions which I
answered as well as I could. I incline to the belief
that he was what he pretended, because at one point
he stopped and looked suspicious. Then he caught
me by the waistcoat button and he whispered,
"Brother, Brother Wilford! They've telegraphed
across to know if Charles Ingledew has got a
brother Wilford."
I started, I turned pale.
"Brother—you'd better bolt. I knew you were
a bunco-steerer at the go off. Now, you go in and
make up your grip—quick. Else, to-morrow, you'll
be laid by the heels. I'll wait here for you—I'll
see you through. You rely on me."
I was so knocked over with the thought of the
telegraph that I curdled and curled up. I did what
he told me. My grip took no time, because it was
reduced to an empty box. I told him so.
"Then," he said, "we'll leave it behind. Now,
let's have one more drink and than catch a train.
I'll see you through. Your eldest brother John—•
old Jack—he'll stand by the family." Yet he had
just before called me a bunco-steerer. But I was
in such a fright about the telegraph that I hardly
knew what he said, and I walked along beside hi in
in a dream.
"We'll take tickets to New York and we'll get
out at a station I know," he said, " That will pre-
vent your being nabbed as soon as you get out of
## p. 137 (#541) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
i37
the train. You'll have just to lie quiet for a day
or two, and then you can go on."
I thought that the first thing I would do was to
get rid of him. That proved, as you will see, not
quite so easy. We took a night train; it left
Philadelphia at eleven. We sat down together—this
evil-smelling l>east ami myself. He talked fami-
liarly to the eonduetor—told him that I was his
younger brother, and he grinned; said that younger
brothers ought to look after the seniors, and that 1
was a model younger brother. He said many
more fncetious and pleasant things. You can
suppose that I greatly enjoyed his society and his
conversation.
In aliout two hours or so we stopped at some
small station. "Now," he whispered, "let's get
down. I know where you can find a place to hide
in for a bit—a snug quiet place, where the drink
is good. Come along."
We got down just as the train began to move
on again. The night wits pitch dark; the petro-
leum lamps of the station were extinguished
directly after the train went on.
"This way," the man took my arm and led
me along in the darkness. I knew not what
direction we took nor how long we walked. It
seemed to me a walk of hours. Presently we
stopped at a house in the midst, as it seemed, of a
wood, where lights were shown in the windows.
My man blew a whistle, and the door was thrown
open. "Walk in, brother Wilford," he said,
grinning, " Here you will l>c real welcome. Such
a chance as this has never come to you before."
Within, the place proved to be a kind of log
house. It consisted of one large room with a stove.
Along the walls were lynches, and on these benches
were mattresses, on some of which men were
sleeping. I saw that four were asleep; two more
were playing cards at a table; there was a lire
burning; anil there was the usual detestable smell
of jx'troleum from the lamp. And I discovered at
once that I was fallen among a den of thieves and
rogues.
"Gentlemen," said my eldest brother, "I have
brought you my brother—my younger brother
Wilford—Wilford Ingledew. He is in a little
trouble just now, on account of certain alleged
false pretences—people will say anything—we have
all suffered from calumny—I've asked him here to
share our hospitality for a bit. A clever fellow, I
think, you will find my younger brother Wilford."
The two men who were playing looked up
anxiously. Then they threw down their cards,
and stood up, feeling at their belts, and I began to
perspire at the nose. "What does he know,
Jack?"
"Nothing. Leave that to me. Now, brother
as we are all friends here and brothers, let us l>cgin
VOL. II.
by sharing. What did you make by the job?
Come—don't look scared—you can't get out of
this if you try—by . . ." He lugged out a re-
volver. "So begin. Clear your pockets. You've
got to do what you're told. You've got to—or—"
he fingered the pistol. I had to turn every pocket
out, and to show it empty. I had to take off my
boots and coat and waistcoat to show that nothing
was concealed. The whole now lay upon the
table—three hundred dollars and more.
"There are seven of us," said old Jatk. "You
make eight. Every man's share is $40, odd. As for
your share, we'll keep it for you. Oh! You shall
not lose it. You are among men of honour. And
now, brother, if you like to lie down and go to
sleep, you can. If you like a drink, say so. If
you like to cut in with the cards, say so. We're
all friends here and all brothers. Them as
are not brothers we make dead uns, which
saves trouble." I stayed in that den for three
weeks. I was never left alone. I was given
to understand by old Jack and one or other
of them that if I chose to throw in my lot
with these miscreants I should be received as one
of the gang. If not, I should not be allowed to
escape, and in fact . . . you may guess.
In a month's time, I was dressed like a gentle-
man: I was an English nobleman, and I was
living at a high-class New York hotel. I had a
pocket-full of money, and I was working for a big
thing.
You see what I am now—a broken-down tramp,
in rags and penniless. The gang is dispersed; we
have all had sentences to work out. As for old
Jack—my eldest brother—I don't know what has
become of him, but I should like to murder him.
If I were to meet him on a lonely road I believe I
should murder him. And the moral of my story, I
often think, is that when you have made a lucky
hit you must get away as quick as you cati before
some cussed accident sets things agee. Now, if I
had gone straight away that very moment—think
—I should now—who knows ?—be managing a
London theatre. I might have married Dollie.
Oh! it makes me mad only to think of it. Because
I stayed I had to run awny at night and fell into a
gang of rogues, and was compelled to l>ccome their
confederate and got into prison and . . . there
. you see.
It's all very well to say that I shouldn't have
pretended to be the brother of an English writer.
I was stone-broke and I had to get some money
somehow, and I meant to give that money back.
The devil of it was that I stayed and went into
that bar. I stayed. That way the lmd luck
came in.
♦••■»
K
## p. 138 (#542) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
PEGASUS IN HARNESS.
Put Pegasus in hnrness
And tench him how to trot;
Take him to the market
With his wares piping hot,
All fresh anil glowing
From his owner's mind,
Three a penny, four a penny,
Best of their kind.
Lord! here's a bother,
The creature wants to fly!
Quiet, there, my beauty,
We'll loose you by-and-bye!
Come now, it's useless,
Customers don't soar;
It won't pay, alack, to scorn
Their muddy floor.
Why, what a blessing
The harness was so strong:
What a task 'tis to get
The chafing steed along!
Fold your wings, do, now!
Keep them for the sky;
Men pay to touch their feathers, not
To see them fly.
Pegasus, when night comes
We'll fly up to the stars,
We'll soar above Venus,
And we'll mount beyond Mars;
Earth lies a ball lx»neath—
Alx>ve, still there's blue—
By day we must earn our bread;
At night we'll be true.
There—we endeavour,
Here—we must win;
There—lift up our hands,
Here—stoop for a pin;
Turn every penny
Another to gain:
Heaven bids—struggle!
Earth bids—uttain!
But oh ! when night comes
To the earth-wearied man,
To one master he's true,
And he sleeps while he can—
Swoop ! and a rushing,
The great steed has gone:
The Boundless receives him,
His master sleeps on.
I'mph! what's to do now?
There's the bread winner's flown.
Why—fetch up a mule, man,
Put the gold trappings on;
He'll give time to see them;
He's safe, sure, and slow,
If you speak still of " Pegasus"
Xobody '11 know.
Sidney Caxton.
♦*••♦
"AUTHORS' COMPLAINTS AND
PUBLISHERS' PROFITS."
IHAVE read with much interest Mr. George
Putnam's paper on this subject in the Forum
of September, the more so because I have lnul
from time to time several conversations with the
writer on the points raised in his paper, and I
always found him willing to meet me half way on
all essential points, and, to the best of my recollec-
tion, perfectly ready to admit the useful functions
of our Society, and the reasonableness of its aims.
So much, indeed, he admits in this article when he
says—the italics are my own—"Whatever shape
the compensation of the author may take (excepting
only that of a purchase outright of his copyright)
he is of course entitled to precise information us to
the publishing statistics of his boohs."
Exactly. This concession covers nearly the
whole ground. The chief grievance of the author
is that he has been, and still is, called upon to
surrender his property on terms the half of which
are carefully concealed from him; tliat he is offered
this and that without being informed what the
arrangement gives to the other side. Let us know
what the other side receives for himself as well
as what he ijices the author. Then we shall
understand what we are about. Now, the most
important part of the work of the Society has been
the publication—approximately only, for nothing is
more elastic than a printer's bill—of the actual cost
of production. With this in our hands, we have a
very simple sum in arithmetic:—(i) The actual
cost of production. (2) The royalty paid to the
author. (3) The trade price of the book. The
publisher's profit can be easily calculated. Now,
Mr. Putnam in this article talks round and round
the subject, but does not touch the real point at
issue. For instance, he carefully enumerates the
various methods of dealing with authors; he points
out the increased cost of printing, and binding, and
distribution; but he evades the main points, viz.,
the actual profit made by the publishers on the
various methods described and the proportion
which, in his opinion, should be taken by the
publisher.
He complained that I consider only tin? question of
books with a side of 10,000. I suppose he alludes to
Mr. Sprigge's book—the " Methods of Publication"
## p. 139 (#543) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
*39
—and to the "Cost of Production." But in those
books, the sale of 1,000 copies, and even less, is
carefully considered, as well as the sale of 10,000.
He says in one place (p. 74.) that I am " inclined
to contend that there are, as a matter of fact, no
such things as publishing losses," and that I "claim
that the publishers rarely take any risk in publish-
ing, as they make a practice of putting their money
only into books that an- sure to pay." On p. 7a he
says, "It is the contention of the English Society
of Authors that the publisher who understands his
business must take, ami, as a matter of fact, does
take, no risk in his undertakings." Now, there is
a difference between "rarely" and "never"—a
very great difference. What I have said, over and
over again—what I am prepared to prove, by
hundreds of cast's and agreements brought to our
office—by verbal information from persons who
have been employed in publishers' offices—and
by examination of advertised publishers' lists, is
this. There has grown up of late years a custom
of making authors pay whenever there is any real
risk. It is very seldom that publishers take any
risk. I might go further and say that there are
some houses which never will take any risk at all.
Bv this I mean the simple meaning that the words
convev. In other words, it is very seldom that a
publisher will produce a l»ook unless he sees his
way to the sale of at least as many copies as will
pay the cost of production, with something for his
services or the interest of his money.
Over and over again has this proposition been
stated. Nothing in the world could be more true—
nothing more reasonable and probable. Over and
over again interested or malicious persons have dis-
torted the statement into quite a different one, and
have virtuously argued themselves black in the face
on the assumption that 1 have said that there are
no risks in publishing.
There may be plenty of risk in publishing.
You may produce a lwok on a subject which no
one wants; you may produce a bad book on any
subject; vou may produce tot) large an edition of a
l)ook; vou may spend more money in advertising a
book than the l>ook will bear; you may bring out
a book at a wrong time; many tilings of the kind
may happen. But a skilled—or a well advised
publisher—in this great world of English readers—
with this immense market before him—with all
the various branches of letters—with all the
different audiences—with all the favourite leaders
and authorities in all these branches—need never, I
maintain, unless he pleases, run any risk at all.
And he very seldom does.
He may, it is true, l>c disappointed in the ulti-
mate proceeds. But that is not risk. My con-
tention is that he need never publish a book unless
he knows that the minimum of the sales will cover
his expenditure and something over. And I do
not for a moment agree with Mr. Putnam that a
man would be valuable to a publishing firm who
would keep them from losses, because an educated
man, brought up in the business, will easily, and
does easily, learn for himself. Of course, I am not
speaking of American risks,of which I know nothing.
I agree with Mr. Putnam—and he with me—in
so many points that I should like him to agree with
ine in all. For instance, he is perfectly right when
he says that authors cannot expect compensation—
he means pay—for work which proves to have no
marketable value. An author can only be paid out
of the proceeds of his book. But that must be a
very poor publisher who cannot tell beforehand
whether a book has a marketable value or not. One
publisher—de mes amis—has an eagle eye for the
detection of marketable value in novels He never
fails—at least, I think not—I hope not—in this in-
stinct of his. He produces works by unknown
writers, and they Income known and popular. He
knows. With this and other examples before me,
when a publisher writes complaining that he has lost
by this book and by that book, I am inclined to say,
"Friend, if that is true, you do not know your own
business." But he never shows his books, remein-
l>er. Mr. Putman makes a great ileal about the
"generosity" of certain publishers. First of all,
we do not want generosity. We do not want to
keep up the old notion which caused a publisher
to be considered as a (generally) malevolent old
man (but sometimes benevolent), who sat upon a bag
of gold—an enormous bag of untold gold—and dealt
out capricious gifts, varying according to his
temper. Nor do we want the other notion which
made of the publisher the guardian angel of letters,
thinking only how he could advance the holy
cause of literature, and careless whether he ruined
himself or not. Nor do we want the old sorry
spectacle of the writing-man who goes humbly, hat
in hand, body bent, voice hushed, to the man who
pays, ami takes with tears of gratitude whatever he
may offer or may chuck. What we now say is
this, "What do you mean by your 4 generosity'?
Hang your generosity! Keep it for the charity
sermon. Give us plain and simple justice. You have
graciously heretofore given this and tossed that;
what have you kept for yourself? Show us your
accounts before you talk of generosity."
Then; are one or two other points in which Mr.
Putnam unfortunately fails to understand the
position. Thus, he girds at Canon Farrar, saying
that he appealed to the public for sympathy, because
his publishers had made more money than himself
when he had signed a contract to do and work for
so much. Canon Farrar did nothing of the kind.
The grievance in his case was this: He did agree
to do a certain piece of work for a certain sum of
K S
## p. 140 (#544) ############################################
140
THE AUTHOR.
money. The work proved enormously successful.
He had no claim for anything more, and never set
up any claim. But when the firm in question
invited him to do another work, they did not let
him understand how successful his first work had
been. They said nothing about the proportion
of profit they had made for themselves; they
said nothing about what they knew they should
make on the next work. This, no doubt,
was what is called business. But the English
publisher has always endeavoured to make the
English author believe that he is his friend. My
own contention in that matter is that Farrar should
not have signed that second agreement until the
firm had shown him by their books what it had
made out of the first. The same remark applies to
all cases of so-called "generosity." Let the
accounts be produced. Then we shall see. We
do not wish to rob the publisher by accepting his
"generosity." We, do not wish him to rob us
under the name of "generosity." I pass over all
Mr. Putnam's remarks on American publishing for
obvious reasons. I think, for the same reasons, he
should not have entered the lists al>out English
publishing. And I also wish very much that he
had read what has l>een said and printed by my
friends on the subject before committing himself to
statements and charges which cannot be sustained.
He says that we have made "sweeping charges"
against publishers as a class. We have done no-
thing of the kind. We have proved " up to the
hilt," as the Spectator allowed, that fraudulent
practices exist, and are, indeed, rife. The fact that
many of us are on friendly terms with publishers is
quite enough to disprove the assertion of " sweeping
charges." It is also a fact that many of the prac-
tices which we have proved to exist are now carried
on in a much more secret and guarded fashion than
prevailed four or five years ago. Meantime, I
commend to Mr. Putnam the consideration of our
great principle that in all business relations, part-
nerships, joint adventures, and enterprises, it is
right, just, and proper that the two parties should
each and severally have a full knowledge of what
the agreements give to either side. That once
conceded, the rest, viz., an equitable understanding
that shall safeguard both parties may be arrived at.
Such an understanding is very much to be desired
in the interests of publishers as well as of authors,
and, indeed, cannot but Ixj desired by every honour-
able publisher as well as by any honourable and
self-respecting author.
Walter Bksant.
POPULAR PLATITUDINOUS PHILOSOPHY.
1. The publisher risks dire poverty who pays a
new author anything.
2. Publishing is the most precarious form of
"plunging."
3. Every author should rest content with the
honour of appearing in print.
4. An artist should be above alimony: Art is
degraded by any money.
5. Publishing is a matter of favouritism, by
which paper-makers, printers, lxx>kbinders, and
booksellers all conspire against unknown genius
6. Artists should Ik; angels—all soul: eating is
merely animal, and therefore inartistically vulgar.
7. The general public is divisible into those who
buy books but do not read them, those who read
but do not buy, and those who neither buy nor
read.
8. What we manufacture we should be jmid for;
but what other people make they should give us for
nothing.
9. All best work is borrowed, and therefore
belongs to someone else.
1 o. The alphabet is public property, and whoso
disarranges it into Iwoks only disturbs what belongs
to everybody.
11. Everything that was best contrived to live in
the past.
12. In the multitude of conventionalisms is to be
found the highest wisdom.
13. A publisher is a philanthropist who scorns
coarse commerce.
14. What is conscience in ourselves is only
conceit in the other man.
15. Civility is what the other people owe us.
16. There is no fine art in fiction; it is just as
easy as lying.
Phinlay Olknelo.
NOTES AND NEWS.
fl^HE Spectator devotes an article to some
I remarks made by me in another place on the
distribution of national honours, orders anil
titles. The editor, it appears, does not agree with
these remarks. Now there is one thing for which
I especially respect the Spectator. It always
seeks to represent the views which it attacks,
## p. 141 (#545) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
141
honourably and fuirly. This conceded, let me
state my case again. The State confides to the
Sovereign the task of recognising distinction and
good service l>y the grant of certain orders and
titles. The Spectator says that these decorations
are part of the wages of the State for servants of
the State. My position entirely. But I maintain
that everything — every kind of service — that
advances the happiness, the safety, the welfare,
the moral and intellectual level of mankind, is a
distinct service to the State, and should be recog-
nised as such. The Spectator would narrow the
service of the State, apparently, to service paid for
by the State. The writer says that decorations and
titles are "part of the wages of the State, outward
and visible signs of good conduct." In that case
why were Bass, Allsopp, and Guinness raised to
the peerage? Why, again, is a plain country
gentleman made a baronet? Why is the warden
of a city company made a knight? That defini-
tion clearly will not serve. There is, in fact, no
rule whatever, no principle recognised in the dis-
tribution of honours. Somebody advises the
Queen. Is it the Prime Minister? I do not
know. Whoever it is, he makes no reservation
whatever about paid servants of the State. None
whatever. He says that a soldier or a sailor, a
lawyer, a politician, a rich man, if he is rich
enough, a man in the Treasury, or the Foreign
Office, or the Diplomatic Service, may look forward
to receiving some kind of distinction. No one, he
says, however distinguished in medicine, architec-
ture, painting, literature, music, acting, sculpture,
science, or teaching, must ever expect a peerage.
If a physician were to discover a certain way of
curing gout or rheumatism and abolishing that
agony for ever, he would have no more than a
baronetcy. If a man brews enough beer, of course,
he shall lie raised to the Upper House, and sit
apart—he and his—for ever, but not if he writes
the most splendid play ever produced. In some
of these branches they from time to time offer a
very distinguished man—say a Huxley—the saine
distinction—the smallest of all—that they give the
mayor of a country town. Now, for all these
branches—for every noble calling—I claim the
right of national recognition, in whatever way
tin? nation can or does exercise that recognition.
Especially I claim it for literature, because of all
noble callings it is the one which has lieen the
least recognised.
Observe that I do not ask, as the Spectator
mistakenly asserts, that great authors should
receive the honour of Knight Bachelor. The
Spectator, you see, cannot conceive it possible
that any great author in his wildest ambitions
should look beyond a knighthood. I want a very
great deal more for them. I want ■whatever
honours the State has to bestow—the very highest.
The Spectator mentions the peerage of the
Laureate. I wonder if the Sjwctator rememliers
that at the time when Lord Tennyson received an
honour which recognised the very point I insist
upon, some of the papers tried to make out that
it was conferred upon him because he was of good
birth. Others said that poets ought not to want
peerages—the Spectator to-day says as much.
The answer is clear; great poets do not want
peerages; they confer services upon the State
which cannot be measured; but, in whatever way
the State chooses to recognise great services, it is
bound in that way to recognise a great poet. It
is no honour to Tennyson that he is a peer; it is
the acknowledgment of his vast services to the
State in the way open to a grateful nation. Such
acknowledgments are due to literature as much as
to any other profession. Not that writers will do
better work, but that the world will liegin to think
more highly of its writers and will begin to value
their work more and will lie influenced more readily
by them when it sees that they are recognised
by the State. Now, here is a case in point. In
the year 1887, when the nation rejoiced over an
event of a most remarkable kind, cards of admission
were sent to the most distinguished persons in the
country for the great ceremony in Westminster
Abliey. There were present men of every calling;
it was a national representative gathering. For
most of those who were present, the card was not
so much an honour as a thing due to their position.
Very well. Not one single man or woman of
letters was invited as such. The whole of litera-
ture was absolutely ignored and contemptuously
passed over. Would that insult have been possible
had men of letters lieen regarded, like soldiers, as
servants of the State, and, like soldiers, to lie
recognized in the distribution of honours?
The Spectator sup]Kises the Prime Minister
worried between the rival claims of half-a-dozen
poets; well, why not? There is nothing so very
absurd about that. I suppose he is now worried
lietween the rival claims of Mr. Facing-both-Ways,
politician, and Mr. Creeping Backstairs, professional
Worm, both of whom ardently desire to be
knighted. Then we are told dogmatically, "We
have no business whatever to give titles and deco-
rations to literary men. They are far lictter
without them." Does this mean that they write
lietter without them? If so, one might just as
well say that they have no business with new coats
—" they are far better without them." Or does
it mean that they will feel better in their insides
without titles and decorations? There is, in
fact, absolutely nothing that can be said against
## p. 142 (#546) ############################################
142
THE AUTHOR.
granting titles to one class any more than to any
other class j the arguments of the Spectator apply-
just as well to engineers as to poets. Do Millais
and Leighton paint worse since they had titles?
Can anyone in his senses believe that either Lecky
or Meredith would write worse if he were made a
Peer? Does anyone believe that Lord Lytton is a
worse ambassador because he is a poet? Lastly,
the Spectator asks what Browning would have done
as an ambassador? Of one thing I am quite
certain: If he was in other respects fitted for the
post of ambassador, his poetry would have l>een no
disqualification.
The Victorian reign will be glorified in after
ages mainly for three splendours. First, the
enormous and unparalleled increase of the English-
speaking race; so that they began with thirty
millions, and, after fifty years, have grown to a
hundred millions. Second, the wonderful ad-
vancement of science, by means of which almost
the elementary conditions of life have been revo-
lutionized. Thirdly, the magnificence of the
Victorian literature. When the future historian
dwells upon these illustrations of the period, he
will go on to remark that all of them flourished
under the absolute neglect and contempt of the
English Court and the English Government. The
colonies owed nothing, except snubs, to the Colonial
Office. No Government has ever attempted to
organise, to control, to assist, to direct, or to advise
emigration. The Government, without making an
effort to divert the stream, allowed the half of the
Irish ]>eople to go over bodily to the United States,
and to lend their invaluable legs and arms to the
material progress of that Republic. Until the
latter years of the reign, no colonist, however
great his services, was recognised even by the
insignificant distinction of a Knight Bachelor. As
for science, there have never been, since the world
began, such giants as those of our century. Have
any of these men of science been raised to the
House of Lords? Not one. Has there ever been
any national recognition of the best of them?
Perhaps it may be replied that a knighthood was
offered to one. A knighthood? In literature it
is an age which has produced two or three; English
writers of the first rank—the very first rank; it
has also produced a great number of writers whose
work is good, lasting, most useful, ami helpful,
beyond anything of the sort ever seen lx>fore in any
generation. Have these men received any national
honours or recognition? None whatever. The
House of Commons grants a little sum of £400 a
year for distinguished service in literature, and the
First Lord of the Treasury refuses to use it for
that purpose—gives it to widows of officers
instead. One simple distinction, or recognition,
is the command to dine with the Sovereign. Do
these men ever receive such a command. Never.
My " grievance," as the Spectator calls it, is, in
short, that national distinctions, which should
belong to every intellectual calling, are limited to
one or two, and are even bestowed without reference
to distinction at all.
I have received a paper—Hearth and Home—
which contains an account of a little discussion
between three persons—a Member of Parliament, a
"Labour Leader," and a lady journalist. The dis-
cussion turned on the influence of a certain novel
on certain changes in opinion and reforms in
action. The Member of Parliament and the Labour
Leader maintained that the novel had nothing to do
with any reform. The lady said that, the novel had
everything to do with it. It was clear, from the
remarks of the other two, that they were totally
ignorant of the force of sentiment, or the power of
the artist to create, arouse, and direct public
opinion. They could not understand that senti-
ment, of which they doubtless supposed themselves
to have none, could possibly have anything to do
with practical things. That is to say, they knew
nothing of the history of popular opinion on popular
movements, and nothing whatever of the part
played by the poet, the dramatist, and the novelist.
This is very interesting. The same men who, after
reading " Uncle Tom's Cabin," would be maddened
by the cruelty and the wickedness of slavery, and
if the opportunity arose, would be spurred to action
by that madness, stoutly maintain that sentiment
plays no part in affairs; and that poet, artist, actor,
and novelist can effect nothing. On the same day,
as an illustration of the supposed powerlessness of
sentiment, all the world reads that Mr. Hall Caine
is going to Russia to study the question of the Jews
with a view, if he sees his way, to write a novel about
it. The English Jews who have proposed this task to
him are wiser, you see, than the Member of Parlia-
ment and the Labour Leader. The genius of the
novelist, who concentrates the attention and the
interest on a single group of the wretched, starving
fugitives—perhaps on a single figure—will do more
to bring home to our understanding the true,
nature of their sufferings than a thousand telegrams
and as many leading articles.
The story which is going about the papers con-
cerning French publishers is simply incredible. It
is said that the enormous editions of novels adver-
tised on the covers of the books are to a great
extent fictitious, and that those magnificent figures
—200th edition—5ooth edition, which fill the
## p. 143 (#547) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
*43
breast of the British publisher—and, to a humbler
extent, the British author—with envy, are simply
trade lies. It is further stated that French authors
have been receiving royalties on the fictitious
numbers—in other words—that the publishers have
been paying for thousands of books which have
never been sold: in other words again that they
are possessed of secret mines of gold. It is again
stated that they have actually printed, though they
have not sold, the numbers they advertise, and that
their warehouses are bulging and bursting from top
to bottom with unsold novels. Lastly, it is stated
that certain firms are on the verge of bankruptcy
in consequence of this practice. We are not sur-
prised. There is, however, a way of explaining the
story. The trick of advertising edition after edition
of a book is not unknown in this country. The
edition may be as small as you please—a single
copy, perhaps—or fifty copies. It is a dirty trick;
a fraudulent trick; it assures the public that the
book is so much in demand that all these editions
have been taken up; the public believes that a
genuine edition is meant and is deceived ; the state-
ment was issued with intent to deceive; it is therefore
fraudulent. The trick is brother or sister of that
other trick by which a publisher buys a whole
edition of the author without stating the number
and trades on the omission. Henceforth I shall
accept the French novel in its 5ooth edition as
having probably circulated to the extent of a thou-
sand. Let us cease therefore to wish we had been
born in a country so eager to possess new literature.
The circular of a Society called the " British and
Foreign Association" lies before me. It has about
90 " Honorary Meml>ers," among whom are several
very good names indeed. It lias a President, a
Chief Secretary, General Councillors, and Repre-
sentative Councillors. Its prospectus states that it
has 4,000 members. Its objects are three-fold:
(l) To promote fraternity among the nations.
Very good indeed. (2) To encourage literary
talent among the members by means of a monthly
magazine. Hum! By means of a monthly maga-
zine? But surely there are already dozens of
monthly magazines which do that very same thing.
And (3) to aid in popularising the works of the
members. Surely that is done already by the
reviews, and by the recommendation of readers one
to the other. What other method has this
Association?
Turning to the "advantages of membership,"
we find that the first advantage is social. Wrecked
on a desert island, you find the other inhabitants
also members—and there you are. The next
advantage is that you can find persons with whom
you will correspond—" exchange ideas "—says the
prospectus. This opens up a new, broad, and
hitherto unworked field of misery. Fancy belonging
to a Society which will provide an endless supply
of unknown correspondents anxious to exchange
ideas!
A third advantage is found in "the Literary
Branch." This means the monthly magazine of
which I have never yet seen a copy. If there are
4,000 members all wanting to get their con-
tributions in, where is the advantage? If the
magazine is not known to the world, what is the
good of appearing in it? If the contributions
are worthy of publication, there are dozens of
magazines which will gladly pay for them.
Fourthly, there is a "Tutorial" department.
This seems to be a bid at a tutorial agency. Do
many of the 4,000 members join in the hope of
getting a tutorship?
Fifthly, there is the "Hotel Tariff." Members
get a reduction at certain hotels—it is not stated
which these are, or where they are, or why they
make a reduction.
Sixthly, the "Commercial" side. Valuable
business connexions are said to have been formed
by correspondence between members. This seems
quite a new departure for a Literary, Peaceful,
Popular Association.
Here you have the Association—its objects and
advantages—all drawn up by its own officers; the
annual subscription is only half-a-guinea. What is
that in return for the chance of getting into the
magazine, and "exchanging ideas" with all kinds
of wonderful people, and opening valuable business
connexions, and getting tutorships? Meantime,
one would like to know on what representations
the 90 Honorary Members gave permission for
their names to appear? We will inquire further
into this very interesting "British and Foreign
Association."
The competitive columns of certain popular
papers are producing very dangerous consequences
in inducing young winners of prizes to l>elieve
themselves born for literary fame. I fear that
these lines will not fall into the hands of any
such, but if they do, let me most earnestly implore,
them not to attempt Editor or Publisher with
original work without taking advice ns to the
quality of their work, either of the Society or of
some competent friend. We have been richly
blessed, as they used to say, in our efforts at
dissuasion. We have succeeded in leading out of
the stony fields of unsuccessful Literature many
who are now grazing sweetly in pastures of Clerk-
land or Trade-land. Sometimes those who are thus
turned aside kick and are restive. Then they
answer the advertising publisher's letter that he
## p. 144 (#548) ############################################
144
THE AUTHOR.
will moot all demands up to 5,ooo copies for £60,
and proceed to learn the rest of the lesson which
never fails to follow. After that they go hack
into Clerk*land meekly, if somewhat bruised and
battered.
Some months ago I wrote a little paper called "A
School for Novelists," in which I pointed out how,
given the natural aptitude to begin with, the
aspirant in Romance might rind his way greatly
smoothed, and might be saved from many dis-
appointments and humiliations, by learning the
technique of the Art. There was the usual and
expected kind of comment. Everybody who saw
his way to a clever thing ignored my saving clause
concerning the natural aptitude, and extended the
finger of scorn at the man who could lie such a
fool as to suppose that novelists can be made by
schools and lectures. But the project still remains
even when the clever things have all been said at
the cost of truth, and by the suppression of the most
important part of my contention. We shall see a
School of Fiction yet. If I had the time I would
start one myself, and I believe that I should do
very well with it, both for myself and for my
pupils. I now learn that there has been founded,
or will soon be founded, a College for Journalists
in the United States, out of which should come
many good things, and especially that regard
for truth which is surely the one thing most
wanted in American Journalism. And I am re-
minded that there has existed for some years a
School of Journalism in this London Town. The
school gives lectures and instruction in all the various
duties of a journalist: among them, on paragraphs,
reviewing, special and war correspondence, art and
dramatic criticism, leaders, editing, sub-editing, &c.
In other words, the school undertakes to turn out
a practical journalist in 12 months. It is directed
by Mr. David Anderson, himself a well-known
leader writer on the best London Papers.
Now, here comes in the reservation. The School
of Journalism can no more make a journalist, than
a School of Fiction could make a novelist; but it
can prepare the way for one who has the natural
aptitude. Many of those who pass through the
course may fail afterwards in their profession; but
that failure ought not to bring discredit, on the
school, so long as some can be found who attribute
their success mainly or in part to the work of the
school. For my own part, I welcome such schools
as additional proof, for the eyes of the world, that
Literature is a profession, and one with many
branches, of which journalism is one.
Certain not unfriendly critics have questioned the
use of my suggestion that authors should practise
the art of public speaking. "Why," asks one,
"should authors make public speeches at all?"
Because they are sometimes very much wanted to
do so in the interests of their own calling. Because
they often know a great deal on special subjects on
which their spoken judgment might be very useful
indeed. Because authorship belongs to every pro-
fession and (idling under the sun, and he who
would teach or guide the world should lie able to
do so by word of mouth as well as by pen. Cer-
tainly there are men, as this critic points out, who
could never become orators. Thackeray was one;
Anthony Trollope was another; John Stuart Mill
was a very ineffective, unattractive speaker. Yet,
had one of those three studied and practised the.
art, he might at least have been able to say the
thing he wautcnl to say effectively and convincingly.
The last named might certainly have increased his
influence and power enormously. He did his best
and the House emptied the moment he rose.
Their desk, my critic goes on to say, is their
proper place. If so, John Morley had lietter go
liack te his desk; Mr. Arthur Balfour also, the
author of one admirable book at least, had better
go back to his; Mr. Gladstone to his; all the
Divines and Theologians must go back to their
desks. In fact, everylnxly who writes books must
be forbidden to do anything else. Docs not this
seem a little absurd? Behind the notion, you see, is
concealed some of the old contempt of the literary
man. He is still, as of old, held te be useless except
with a pen in his hand, and not of much use then.
I find a very apt illustration of my remarks con-
cerning authors and oratory in a certain ceremony
which took place at Canterbury the other day.
The address of the occasion, which is given l>elow,
was delivered by Mr. Henry Irving. Now, there
is no iM'tter speaker than Mr. Irving — 'tis his
vocation. Also, the address was everything that
could lie desired. But I should have preferred
seeing a poet—a dramatic poet—or a leading man
of letters at least, deliver that address. And I take
it that the reason why Mr. Henry Irving was
invited to perform the task was the difficulty of
finding an English author of eminence who can
speak. It was not altogether because Mr. Lowell
was an American that he was invited to deliver the
address on the unveiling of Fielding's bust.
## p. 145 (#549) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
J45
Vague reports are flying about concerning a
monster pet ition about to be drawn up and presented
to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It will be signed
by millions, and it will bo a request that prayers
should l>e put up in all the churches, and con-
tinued for twelve months, that the heart of the
young journalist may be inclined unto verifying his
references, and that the heart of the editor may be
inclined unto visiting the neglectful with stripes.
My sympathy is entirely with that petition. I find,
for instance, that at least a dozen paragraphs have
appeared stating (i) that I myself have by myself
decided against admitting ladies to the Authors'
Club: (2) that my reason is that they write for
religious periodicals, and therefore they cannot pay
the five-guinea subscription. These statements are
entirely false. "What happened was this. At the
preliminary meeting of the Temporary Committee,
July 23rd, a set of tentative Resolutions were
drawn up and passed. These Resolutions con-
templated a club of men only. One of the chief
reasons for such a conclusion was the fact that
so many ladies had written to say that they could
not jwssibly pay a subscription of five guineas.
Therefore, the Committee, and not I myself, passed
Resolutions contemplating a club for men only.
They inserted these Resolutions in the Author,
and asked for opinions. Moreover, in the Sep-
tember number of the Author I expressly called
attention to these facts, so that it is pure invention
to say that I have excluded ladies. Another
ingenious inventor of copy has added that the reason
why ladies cannot afford five guineas is that they
work for religious periodicals. Another want of
verification! What I said was this: "An ideal
club of authors should admit women as well as men.
Literature is, above all others, a profession open to
both sexes. Yet literary women are even more
mercilessly sweated than men, especially by religious
societies, who pretend not to know that sweating
was specially contemplated in the framing of the
Eighth Commandment; and the number of ladies
who live by their literary work, and can afford even
so reasonable a subscription as five guineas is very
small." It is, indeed, very small indeed. Some
day I hope to show what the sweating of women in
literature really means. In the case of one religious
society I have already done something in tliat
direction.
Walter Besant. ♦■»■♦
LISTS AND RISES.
f |^HE long lists of announcements of new books
I show no falling off in numbers, at least.
Modern English literature appears to flourish
in every branch. Those who think that nobody buys
books may look at these lists and ask themselves for
whom the new books are all printed and published?
To lie on the shelves? To l>e given away? For the
pride of the publisher? Nay, but to be sold. There
is, again, we are expected to believe, an enormous risk
in bringing out every one of these books. The very
length of the lists shows the absurdity of the risk
bogey. Looking through the lists one sees a book
here and a l>ook there whose success seems doubt-
ful—new poems, but these are always paid for by the
author; novels by unknown hands, which are also
paitl for by the author, unless they are so striking as
to leave no doubt in the mind of the reader; books
of essays, by unknown writers; biographies of
unknown persons, and so forth, of which all that
one can say is that if a publisher were to bring
them out at his own risk he would l>e a very
sanguine person and a very bad man of business.
But the chief lesson to be learned by this enormous
output is the enormous market. We who live in
London are too apt to fall into the error of judging
everything by a London standard; more than that,
by the standard of a small piece of London. For
instance, in Club land nolxxly buys Ixwks, news-
papers, or magazines; but in the suburbs there are
hundreds—thousands of houses—who buy both
books and magazines, while in the country houses
and country towns, though the circulating library
goes for much it is not everything, and there are
India and the Colonies. The inquiry which we con-
ducted some months ago gave us some insight into
the vastness of the book market. The autumn lists
enlarge that view. To take nine publishers only out
of the daily increasing number of firms, we find the
following numbers of new lxx>ks announced re-
spectively :—82, 57, 57, 5i, 43, 37, 36, 35, and 34,
or an average of 43' 2 among the nine. Probably
there are a thousand in all for the autumn output.
This represents at an average of £100 a-piece, an
outlay, or an investment, of £ioo,coo, and, of
course, this is only a part of the whole year's
enterprise. It is a large sum of money. Would it
be embarked year after year—would new firms,
some of them without any capital at all—come into
the business if it were full of risks? Of course not.
For my part I have never been able to understand
why some publishers—not all—affect to be engaged
in a kind of gambling business. It is not reputable
to them as business men; it is not in the least
true; and it damages literature by making authors
believe that everything is a toss up. "Rider
Haggard has succeeded," says some lunatic, who
thinks he can write, "Why shouldn't I get a
chance as well as he?" Literally, this notion is
widespread. A great many people write to the
Society in this sense and under this idea. And they
are greatly helped by the absurd way in which some
publishers wish risk to be considered as the first
element in their work. You can hardly read a
## p. 146 (#550) ############################################
146
THE AUTHOR.
leading article on the subject which does not start
with the assumption that publishing is pure gamb-
ling—speculation—a toss up. The bogey springs
up like a jack-in-the-box in all kinds of unexpected
places. The other day I bought Mr. Andrew
Lang's "Hypnerotomachia," in a second-hand
bookseller's, and carried it home. It is prefaced
by an introduction which is both attractive and
instructive. In the middle of it occurs this
remarkable passage, "and there is risk in pub-
lishing, though a hundred Mr. Besants say there
is not." Where are these hundred? I only know
one person of that name who has written upon the
subject, and he most certainly has never said any-
thing so foolish. There is risk, and plenty, as I
have said elsewhere and everywhere, in publishing.
But then publishers of the present day very seldom
take any. If anybody takes upon himself to deny
this statement he must do so only after he has care-
fully examined publishers' books, with the aid of
an accountant, if he is not skilled in accounts. If
anyone will produce such proofs I am ready to
modifv my statement. For my own part, I have
been enabled to see, what nobodv else in the
world has seen, except our secretaries, a very
large and perfectly unique collection of pub-
lishers' agreements and publishers' accounts, to
which we have added a mass of information on
the cost of production never l>efore possessed by
anyone. And with this knowledge in my hands,
I lx)ldly say that very few publishers ever take any
risk in the production of new liooks. As to new
magazines and such ventures I sav nothing, of
course. I take only new books written by living
authors. Meantime, this absurd sentence stands in
the middle of Mr. Lang's Introduct ion to a mediaeval
book like a bit of modern common earthenware
on a shelf filled with Murano glass. The effect is
very striking. There will not, I suppose, be
another edition of the liook for a hundred years to
come, and many a pleasant little controversy will
arise when we are all forgotten as to this wonderful
glimpse of a hundred all clamouring like one man,
that there was no risk in publishing.—What hun-
dred? Who were they? Where did they clamour?
Why, in the nineteenth century it was notorious that
every publisher quickly went to immortal smash,
and the Court of Bankruptcy was filled with
unhappy publishers who had failed, and on days
"out," the streets were crammed with publishers
dressed in the livery of their Union!
W. B.
FROM AMERICA.
WE are certainly not going to interfere
between American authors and American
publishers. But the following seems to
show that all is not complete happiness across the
ocean. It is taken from the New York Critic:—
"A publishing-house of old and high standing
bought a MS. of 3o,ooo words at an agreed price,
plus a share on sales. A year elapsed and then the
author was asked if he would extend it to 60,000
words, which he did, without asking that the
original price should be doubled, but he drew
the balance, which was not to have been paid until
publication. At the end of 18 months it was
found that the lxx>k could not l>e issued until
two years had elapsed since the original sale.
There was no stipulation as to date of publication.
At this stage the author sent in proposals to the
publisher asking that, in consideration of the
unreasonable delay of two years, and also of his
complacency in doubling the work at their sugges-
tion, they should make a further payment, either
in full purchase of author's interest, or as an
advance. No sort of complaint had been made
against the MS. from first to last. To this the
representative of the firm replied with a flat refusal
to submit the proposal, on the ground (to quote his
letter) that ' it is absurd to claim that the delay in
publication is either a matter for which we should
be blamed or that has caused you loss.' As to the
suggestion of reciprocity in goodwill based on
the author's readiness in furnishing twice the
quantity of matter specified in the contract,
the reply is simply the remark 'you readily offered
to enlarge it without charge.' From which it
appears that time is not money to the author tribe,
and the driving of a sharp bargain absolves the
gainer from any obligation, to do a favour to the
one who suffers through his lordly leisureliness."
Thus far the correspondent, on which the editor
remarks—
"There seems in this case to have been some
'reciprocity in goodwill,' as the writer admits
having been paid 'the balance ' which was to have
been paid on publication."
True, Mr. Editor, but what were the respective
values of the "reciprocity in goodwill"? The
writer was to have received, say, £100 on
publication. This was delayed for 18 months,
although when the bargain was made, immediate
publication was, in fact, contemplated. The writer,
however, got paid his £100, so that the publisher
clearly lost 18 months' interest on his money. But
the writer doubled the length of the work, and
should have received double the pay. Therefore
the writer lost £100, while the publisher lost only
£7 io«., reckoning 5 per cent, interest. But in
what other profession in the world would an
employer dare to propose that payment made for a
stipulated piece of work should be made to serve
for double that piece of work?
## p. 147 (#551) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
EEVIEWEES AND EEVIEWS.
I.
IT would appear, from certain papers which have
at various times occupied your columns, that
many writers believe that favourable notice
from the various reviews is sufficient to secure a
reasonable sale for most books. If such an impres-
sion prevails, there may be some use in detailing my
own experiences. Some years since, I made my first
venture with a volume of verse. My reasons were
various, the proverbial vanity of the verse-writer
amongst them, but the hope of profit was not.
My own knowledge, lmcked by competent advice,
and the opinion of my publisher was sufficient, I
think, to prevent any disappointment upon that
head, when a publication which had cost me about
£70 brought in a return of £|5 in sides. Yet, in
one way, I was unfortunately very successful. The
reviews, from which I had expected very mixed
criticism, were uniformly in my favour, and some
half-dozen proved enthusiastic. It may cut matters
short if I say that, encouraged by their tone, I
followed this first venture with two similar ones,
the results, pecuniary and critical, being almost
identical, so that I was the proud possessor of
some 70 eulogiums of my work in print, besides
letters from various writers, including our great poet,
in return for which I had invested a capital of some-
thing over £200. A wealthy man might consider
this money well invested for such a result. I did
not, and encouraged this time by the advice of
friends, I set to work to recover my stake by
publishing, at my own cost, a prose work. The
reviews were even warmer in tone than they had
been as regarded my verse, with a solitary ex-
ception in a non-literary pa|X'r, and I ln-gan to
feel confident of a return ; so that I was considerably
mortified this time on receiving once more an
account of the sale of about a hundred copies out
of what I had hoped, from the tone of the critics,
would prove to be merely a first edition. This
time I thought that my publisher might be at
fault, though I had no definite cause of dissatis-
faction with him. Accordingly, I carried my
fifth venture, a work of fiction, to another firm to
which I had l>ccn recommended. With regard to
the manner in which I was advised and treated by
this firm, I may have something to say at a future
date. Once again, all the papers which reviewed
my tale praised it, and I lost something over £40.
I returned to my old publishers, anil had a sixth
book printed last year. Results were about the
same: one unfavourable review in the Church
Times; about a score of favourable notices in
various well-known papers; side about ioo
copies.
Now, as many of the sales of my various works
were made in quarters known to myself, I am able
to state, with fair certainty, that from 100 to i5o
favourable reviews have not averaged a return of
more than three or four shillings apiece from sides
obtained by their influence. How many sales the
two unfavourable notices may have prevented is a
doubtful question.
It may possibly lx- of some interest if I set down,
in conclusion, the course taken by the four chief
weekly Metropolitan Reviews, as showing the risks
which an author, otherwise favourably received,
may have of being overlooked by them.
The Saturday Review ignored my first two
volumes, and published favourable notices of the
last four with fair promptitude. No beginner
need complain of such a course.
The Spectator commenced with number two,
and has fx-en extremely kind: however, the notices
appeared at from three months to a year after
publication, and my last work, published ten
months since, is, I believe, still unnoticed by them.
The Athcnrrum noticed number five only.
The Academy noticed number one only.
I may mention that both these last notices were
favourable, and the notice in the Academy of my
first volume of verse, coupled with those in the
Scotsman, Graphic, <&c, was the chief inducement
to the publication of my second and third volumes.
Y. A. G.
II.
We have recently had a little talk about the
reviews of novels. It may be interesting to some
of our readers to see how an American paper, the
New York Critic, reviews novels. First of all, the
Critic gives to each work its own separate space
and title. The notices are short, but they are
detached. The author is treated as an individual,
not as one of a herd. This is respectful and polite.
The reviewer then gives a short account of the
work—so far as one can judge, a fair account.
In this account he tells something of the story.
And it ends with a few words of appreciative
approval or the reverse. This method is not pro-
posed as a model, but it is suggested for considera-
tion. The following, for instance, is the notice of
Hardy's "Group of Noble Dames " :—
"At a meeting of one of the Wessex Field and
Antiquarian clubs, held in the museum of the town,
certain stories were partly told, partly read from
manuscript. The club was of an inclusive and
intersocial character, the meeting was to extend
over two days, the rain came down in an obstinate
jwtter which revealed no sign of cessation, and the
members agreed to let the stories do duty for the
## p. 148 (#552) ############################################
148
THE A UTHOR.
regulation papers on deformed butterflies, fossil
ox-horns, and other prehistoric relics. Some of
them observed tlint a storm-bound club could not
be selective, and they were much pleased to hear
such curious chapters from the domestic histories
of the country. There was no lack of material in
Wessex. Many were the legends and traditions of
gentle and noble dames, renowned in times past in
that part of England, whose actions and passions
were now, but for men's memories, buried under
the brief inscription on a tomb or an entry of dates
in a dry pedigree. The stories, once told, were too
good to be lost, so they were gathered together and
published in a volume called 'A Group of Noble
Dames.' Truly fascinating tales they have proved
to be, well calculated to while away the dreary and
monotonous hours of many a club called together
for more serious work. Their local colour is perfect,
their interest is absorbing, and the style in which
they are told is so simple and so natural that, in
speaking of them, one drops unconsciously into the
quaint old English expressions in vogue in those
days. They are among the best things that
Thomas Hardy has ever done, and are issued in a
very attractive cover. (81.25. Harper & Bros.)"
MAGAZINES AND CONTRIBUTIONS.
AGliEAT many letters from time to time
have reached the Society on the subject of
prices paid for articles in magazines. There
have been so many that the Society has now an
actual knowledge of the ordinary rate of pay of
every magazine, including certain organs whose
editors (or proprietors) go on the principle of
never paying anybody if they can possibly avoid
it. The rates vary very largely, partly depend-
ing on the name and reputation of the writer,
partly on the circulation of the magazine, and,
in some cases, on the sweating disposition of
the proprietor. They vary, indeed, in an astonish-
ing manner. One or two of the oldest and the best-
known magazines are offering their contributors
sums which would be thought contemptible by the
new and cheaper organs, while some of the latter
are offering prices for work by well-known men
far above any dreamed of by their older contem-
poraries. It would seem that there is, and can be,
no fixed rate for contributions. Journals do not
all have a wide circulation. When the circulation of
a magazine has begun to go down, the effect upon
payment of contributors must, sooner or later, be
marked; in fact, at this moment certain magazines
are proving their decline and impending fall
by the decrease in the amount of the contributor's
cheque. It is impossible, without loss; to pay the
old scale for half the old subscription. On the other
hand, these things get whispered abroad. Then
good writers cease to send in work. Then the
paper is no longer looked at, or inquired after; at
the clubs it remains in its case ; no new subscribers
take it in; it gradually fades into decay and
forgetfulness. There are, besides, certain maga-
zines—of which an example was given in last
month's Author—which simply go on the broad
and intelligible principle of never paying any
contributor at all unless they are compelled. The
Society is accumulating evidence on all these points.
Other considerations affect tht question. Thus:
(I) There are always a great many people who will
willingly contribute papers for nothing, except the
joy of seeing their names in print. If, therefore,
there were enough of these writers to fill a magazine
with papers attractive, pleasant, and popular, it
could be run for nothing. Happily, the numlier
of writers who are pleasant and popular is very
limited; therefore, this resource is soon exhausted.
Yet the number of articles offered to editors on
all conceivable subjects is incredible. (2) It
must be remembered that the question is, or should
be, one of bargain only. The writer, for instance,
who might possibly be accepted on some magazine
if he offered his work for nothing, would be cer-
tainly rejected if he demanded what he might
himself consider a reasonable sum for his work;
and, even in the higher-class magazines, if an editor
chooses to offer only so much—a great deal less,
perhaps, than the writer expected—it is oi>en for
him to refuse or to accept the offer. Only, as said
above, where such small offers are made, it is a
proof of a falling circulation.
It wotdd be, perhaps, as well if writers, before
sending a paper to a magazine, were to ascertain
at the Society's office the usual scale of pay. They
could then decide whether it was worth while to
send in their papers, and could stipulate beforehand
what price they would be prepared to take.
COMMISSION BOOKS.
fl^HE Secretary is continually receiving letters
I and requests on the subject of commission
books; that is to say, books which the author
pays for and the publisher sells on a commission of
10 or 15 per cent, There are a great number of
books published at the author's expense, and yet
there are not many commission l>ooks. In other
words, as we arc always insisting, a vast number
of novels are issued every year by foolish and
deluded people who pay in advance what they are
## p. 149 (#553) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
149
informed is half the cost, and afterwards receive
what they are informed is half the proceeds.
They can then imitate Mr. Bob Sawyer by placing
their profits in a wine-glass ami covering them
with a gooseberry skin. Generally, however, they
cannot even do that, for the profits turn out to
be "nuppence." That is not commission pub-
lishing. Yet, if a man has got a good book, there
can be no better way of publishing, provided he
can get a good house. It is said, and lielieved, that
a house will not push a book on a 10 per eent.
commission. That may be true. If it is, perhaps
they would push it on a i5 per cent, commission.
Let us see how this works out, taking the
average six-shilling novel of about 17 sheets. The
first edition of 1,000 copies costs about £90. The
next edition of 3,ooo costs about £118. The price
being 3s. ^d., the first edition, allowing for pre-
sentation copies, realizes about £i5o, the next
about £5oo. On the first edition the publisher, at
15 per cent., takes £22 ios., and on the second
edition £75. The author, on the other hand,
makes on the first edition £37 10s., and on the
next edition of 3,ooo he makes about £3oo. It
certainly seems to me as if this was a very equitable
arrangement. I suppose that all the trouble of
printing the book is taken by the author.
AN INSTRUCTIVE CASE.
AN agreement and a bundle of accounts are
l)efore us. The agreement contains as an
integral part an "estimate" of the cost
of production. Observe, that if the author, having
signed the agreement, afterwards discovers that the
"estimate" was fraudulent, he has no redress
except by action in the High Court of Justice, and
a very difficult business it is to prove by experts
the fraud in such a case. In the Author we have
repeatedly warned readers against signing any
agreement containing an "estimate." Now the
book before us being submitted to a printer, it is
actually found that his "estimate" has been
exactly doubled, i.e., that the printing and produc-
tion of the book really cost exactly half of what
was stated in the "estimate." The author in the
agreement bound himself to pay half the " estimate,"
i.e., he was made liable, really, for the whole of the
cost. He did pay, in reality, half the sum in
advance, and left the rest to come out of sides.
At the close of the iirst edition the publisher
having, in addition to the other fraud, and contrary
to the agreement, charged a much larger sum for
advertisements than was arranged, how does the
account stand?
1. According to the publisher's returns, the cost
of the book exceeds the sales by about £70.
Placing against this the sum actually paid
by the author, he loses aliout £3o. Very
bad business indeed.
2. According to the reality of the case, the sales
of the book exceed the cost by about £5.
Add the sum paid by the author, and the
publisher is in pocket to the tune of about
£40. Not such IkkI business, after all,
with quite a little book, and quite a little
fraud.
THE MARLOWE MEMORIAL.
f|>HE following is the address of Mr. Henry
I Irving on the unveiling of the Marlowe
Memorial, as reported in the Times:—
"We are here to-day to pay tribute to a
great memory and to repair a great omission.
England has always set much store by the men
who helped to save the State in the supreme
crisis of her history. The statesmen and
warriors of the Elizabethan times have never
lacked a grateful recognition from their descen-
dants. The literature which was the flower and
crown of that period of our national growth ban
remained our chief glory to these days, and the
works of its greatest representative are the most
enduring possessions of all who speak the English
tongue. Of Shakespeare there are memorials which
attest at almost every turn in our daily lives our
reverence for his surpassing genius. But till to-
day we have presented to the world no conspicuous
symbol of our enormous debt to a man who was
contemporary with Shakespeare, and in one sense
his tutor, antl who was the first to employ with
a master hand the greatest instrument of our
language. It was natural enough that the fame of
Christopher Marlowe should be overshadowed by
that of William Shakespeare, but it is surely some
discredit to Englishmen that the fine sense of
Marlowe's gifts and services to letters, which
scholars have always had, have hitherto found no
substantial shape in some trophy for the acclama-
tion of the world. To-day this long oversight has
been repaired. Here, in the birthplace of Marlowe,
rich as it is in the commanding associations of our
history, you have erected a monument which to
future generations will speak with a voice no less
potent than the. historic echoes of this city.
## p. 150 (#554) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
(Hoar, hear.) What manner of man Marlowe
was in outward seeming I suppose nobody knows.
Even if it were fmniliar to us, the counterfeit
presentment could not have the force and signifi-
cance of the beautiful figure which we owe to the
art of the sculptor; but it is not with Marlowe; the
man that we need busy ourselves, even if there
were more material than there is for judgment of
his brief and sad career, for it is the ideal of the
poet whose " raptures were all air and fire" that
must constantly be present to our minds as we gaze
on this image of his worship. It recalls some
of his own Hues which are eloquent of this
devotion :—
"Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure every wandering planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Will us to wear ourselves, anil never rest
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all."
The man who struck such chords as these is not
unworthy of a monument in his native place.
(Hear, hear.) It was Marlowe who first wedded
the harmonies of the great organ of blank verse
which peals through the centuries in the music of
Shakespeare. It was Marlowe who first captured
the majestic rhythms of our tongue, and whose
"mighty line" is the most resounding note in
England's literature. Whatever may be thought
of his qualities as a dramatist, and whatever place
he may hold amongst the great writers who framed
the models of English tragedy, he stands foremost
and apart as the poet who gave us, with a rare
measure of richness, the literary form which is the
highest achievement of poetic expression. I do not
pretend to do justice to Marlowe in this very
imperfect utterance of some thoughts which are in
your minds. It has been a great privilege to me
to come here to-day to perform an office which
might have been placed in far worthier hands.
But I am glad to have an opportunity of speaking
as an Englishman of the claims of Marlowe's
fame to be prized and cherished by his countrymen.
His reputation should be an abiding element of our
national pride. And, finally, as an actor, I am
proud to remember that Marlowe's work, like
Shakespeare's, was written primarily for the stage,
that, if not an actor himself, Marlowe was intimately
associated with the actor's calling, and that the
Elizabethan dramatists, with Shakespeare, the
actor, at their head, in employing the stage as the
first medium of their appeal to posterity linked it
for ever witli an imperishable glory." (Cheers.)
GOOD WORE, SURE PAY.
IN a paragraph which recently appeared in the
Author, under the somewhat mystic headline
"One Word from you. Sir," literary aspirants
who are constantly having their overtures declined
by editors and publishers were exhorted to produce
'• (food Work "—a direct and perfectly intelligible
proposition—as the one way out of their difficulties;
and they were further assured that " Good Work,"
of no matter what kind, had always its mercantile
value, and could always (consequently or presum-
ably) command its price. It seems almost a pity
that so genteel and reputable a fallacy, the
fostering of which may suit the interests of more
than one faction in the literary state, should be
doomed to fall beneath the slow cruel axe of Time,
yet fall it must. No doubt editors and publishers
are made the recipients of a vast deal of trash (for
which commodity, by-the-bye, there is always a
brisk and healthy demand at the bookstalls, which
makes it a wonder why publishers should decline
any of it); but these gentlemen, who have some-
how l>een empowered to direct and regulate the
reading of the nation, may be accredited with dis-
crimination sufficient to enable them to know the
true metal from the base. But, distinctly and
emphatically, once and for all, the refusal of a
manuscript by an editor or publisher, or by all the
editors and publishers existent, is simply no
criterion of its merit; a fact which it seems the
object of certain (possibly interested) persons to
deny, conceal, or disguise, while it should l>o
proclaimed far and wide. Need I do more than
name the historic cases of " The Vicar of Wake-
field," "Vanity Fair," and "Sartor Resartus "?
The other day a highly popular and (it must be
concluded) able author, who made his name two or
three decades since, told me that " every publisher
wants a good work, and would not refuse one."
He subjoined—as if he were making an unexpected
and handsome concession—" Of course a publisher's
judgment is not infallible." We are told on
good authority that there is nothing either good
or Imd but thinking makes it so, and we may be
sure that in most cases the non-accepting publisher
thinks he is doing right. The fallacy which I
have defined and denounced is bolstered up in
other quarters. One example: A certain pub-
lishing house in London issues a printed circular
for the guidance, or rather misguidance, of
uninitiated writers, wherein the latter are treated
to the statement (in effect) that if he, the publisher,
does not entertain a work, it is practically useless
to try it elsewhere. Of course, every author who
has a right to the name merely chuckles at such
audacious irrelevancies. Then as for the printing
## p. 151 (#555) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
one's book at one's own expense, when publishers
will not take the risk, a course which is uniformly
discouraged by this Society (of which I have the
honour to l>e a Member, and in regard to which I
hope and predict great things). This position implies
that if (say) half-a-dozen publishers decline your
book the book is probably worthless, and had
letter therefore be left unpublished. In the
majority of cases this may Ik- the fact; in certain
others it is quite otherwise. The writer of con-
scious individuality and power will not have his
faculty explained away thus lightly, and small
wonder if, despite probable loss, he prints and
pays for it. The weakling or pretender, on the
other hand, is easily discouraged—and very pro-
perly so. If the man who, in English creative
and realistic art, stands next to Shakespeare, had
not possessed both the courage and the money
to print at his own cost, in the teeth of at least
20 head-shaking publishers, the world might this
day l>e without "Vanity Fair." Here we may
pause and tremble. This ease may be claimed as
exceptional. I do not think it is. I think—I
fear—that masterpieces have been lost to us owing
to the pecuniary helplessness of their producers.
We cannot too much insist on the hard-and-fast
distinction between intrinsic value and marketable
value. The two are sometimes associated—not
always. Every true man of letters will seek (at
least so far as his own work is concerned) to make
the two identical. But there seems to linger some
little doubt or confusion on this point in the public
head, unless it is that the idea that the successful
book is the good book—an idea which, strange? to
say, even successful authors will not very warmly
combat—is fixed immovably there.
C. Davenport Jones.
[Our correspondent is perfectly right in his
position that a good book may be refused by pub-
lishers, and that the refusal is not in itself a
sufficient condemnation. At the same time, our
contention was, and is, that publishers are always
on the look out for go<xl work—especially saleable
work—and that no publisher will let good work—
i.e., saleable work—leave his house if he can keep
it there. This is equivalent to saying that pub-
lishers are men of business, and that they do not
go to their offices for the sake of fooling away their
money. To argue that good l>ooks —i.e., saleable
l>ooks—are often refused is to argue that publishers
do not know their own business, and that their
readers are incompetent. Does not our correspon-
dent confuse two things, good literary work and
good saleable work? It is quite possible that a
very good liook indeed might be produced—good
from the literary point of view—which would, be
quite unsaleable for some defects, or from its length,
or from its subject? For instance, a mathematical
treatise on elasticity, such as is announced, would
not l>e sold on the bookstalls. If Browning
were an unknown person offering a MS. called
"The King and the Book," nobody, certainly, would
publish it for him, and it has been suggested that
the reason why "Vanity Fair " was sent round to
so many houses was its very great length, twice the
length of an ordinary novel. To be sure it was
not an ordinary novel. The advice persistently
given by the Society to an author, not to publish at
his own expense a work refused by publishers, is
based on the assumption that the latter know their
business, and that the work is commercially
worthless. It may not lie artistically worthless, but
that is a very different thing. We seek to protect
our profession in all questions that have to do with
their property. If they believe that their work
ought to appear, without consideration of its
commercial value, we can still protect them by
keeping them in honest hands.—Editor.]
+~~~*
CORRESPONDENCE.
1.
The Statute of Limitations.
IN 1886 I suggested a subject for an article to a
magazine editor. The article was ordered and
written, delivery being made in November 1886.
After a long delay and some correspondence a proof
wits submitted, corrected, and returned; the article
has not yet appeared, and of course has not been
paid for. If I allow the matter to remain another
12 months, shall I be barred, by the Statute of
Limitations, of power to recover at law? If I
am to be so barred, is it possible to recover now,
i.e., prior to the publication of the article, by taking
out a county court summons, or by any other means?
G. W.
II.
Fiction and Reality.
Some years ago a well-known novelist described,
let us say, a Polish Count as occupying rooms
in the Grand Hotel in London. The other day
two less well-known writers of fiction described
another noble Pole as occupying rooms in the same
hotel. Then comes a critic who wisely says,
"This is shocking; it is a mixture of fiction and
reality." Query: Which of the two Polish Counts
is the live man?
## p. 152 (#556) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
in.
Slating.
One must hesitate before challenging Professor
Skeat on a point of etymology. But may I call
attention to the fact that in "Books and Bookmen"
Mr. Andrew Lang, in a note to his " Ballads of the
Ileal and Ideal," says:—" Slate is a professional
term for a severe criticism. Clearly the word is
originally 'slat,' a narrow board of wood with
which a person might Ik; l>eaten." Webster gives
the verb " slat," and the quotation from Marston :—
"How did you kill him?
Slat[t]ed his brains out."
Surely this "will serve."
Jamks Nias.
IV.
Words and Biucks.
The writer of the following letter is evidently of
opinion that "the Editor" should recognise his
initials, and arrive at his subject by intuition. He
also seems to think that words, like bricks, arc sold
by the thousand, and that one man's word is as good
as another's.
Andrew W. Tukr.
The Leadenhall Press, E.C.
[Copy.]
To the Editor of the Leadenhall Press.
Dear Sir,
I shoold feel obliged if you would inform
mc whether you have any opening for a MS.
consisting of 11,000 words, the Copyright of which
I am desirous of selling. I want an early reply.
Yours truly,
P. 11. R.
V.
A Provident Society.
Whether or not Mr. Andrew Lang believes in
the existence of a New 'Grub Street, it is certain
that some of us writing-people have a perpetual
struggle to keep above water. May I suggest to
you the possibility of forming an "Authors'
Provident Society?" What I propose is this. A
graduated scale of subscriptions varying according
to the income of the writer, aud entitling him to a
weekly amount in time of sickness or nou-employ-
ment. I do not think you would find a single poor
author who would be so foolish or so reckless as
not to take advantage of a club of this kind. The
fees might lie as low as is. 6d. a week, and the
scheme be started on precisely the same lines as
working men's sick benefit clubs. As to the rich
authors, let them subserilK', and be entitled to some
advantage; in the way of recommending a poorer
brother for the club's aid.
Quill Driver.
VI.
An Honourable Action.
When so many unjust editors and publishers are
pilloried in the Author, it is only fair to give some-
times an opposite instance.
I lately sent a book to certain publishers, and in
time received a letter stating they were willing to
give me so much—about three-quarters of what I
expected—as the book would make a certain size—
which, like the sum offered, was about a quarter
less than I bad calculated. Greatly puzzled tliat
my MS. should prove so short, I still thought that
they must be able lxjst to judge the length it
would make in print, and so I accepted the sum
offered, and signed the agreement of copyright.
But when the proof came, I found I had l>ecn
right. The book was even longer than I expected.
When I pointed this out to the publishers, they
honourably gave me the remainder of the price
without a question.
But this is a hint to me—and may be to others—
in future to notice very carefully the length of
my MS. Other publishers might not be so just to
the unwary writer.
RossiGNOL.
VII.
Reviews and Newspapers.
Your note in reply to my letter printed in the
Author this month, does not seem to me to contain
such a strong objection to what I propose as at
first sight appears.
I do not for a moment advocate that copies of
new books should not be supplied to newspaper
proprietors or editors by the publishers, but that,
after the books have been sent, the bill for them
should follow. The reviewer would be at no more
trouble than now in getting his copy, for it would
l>e supplied to him either by the publisher direct,
or by the editor.
It is only just that the books should be paid for
by the newspaper proprietors, for it is primarily
for the benefit of the papers that reviews are
inserted therein.
H. Haes.
## p. 153 (#557) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
PAGES CUT OR UNCUT?
SHALL we have our books and magazines cut
or uncut?
For the cutting of the pages the following
advantages are claimed :—
1. The convenience.
One receives the book ready for reading, as it
ought to be. A book whose pages have to be cut
is not ready for the reader. It still lacks some-
thing which must be done to it. Suppose the
reader had to number the pages before he could
begin the book. Yet to cut them is no more
trouble.
2. The neatness.
Very few men can cut abook properly. They grow
impatient; they slip the paper-knife and carve into
the page; they hold it loosely and tear the page;
the only way to get a neat edge is to cut the pages
with a machine.
3. The saving of time.
To cut the pages of a thick octavo takes at least
half-an-hour of valuable time. We do not waste
half-an-hour in sweeping the floor, dusting the
table, or laying the tire. Why should we waste
our time in doing any other perfectly menial act,
such as cutting the leaves of our books?
4. Its cheapness.
The cost of cutting the leaves is estimated at
something under io«. per 1,000 volumes. This
is nothing.
Against these arguments it is urged that the
fashion of collectors is the book with rough and
uncut leaves; that a book which has been cut will
not sell so well as an uncut book.
But we are considering the general convenience
of readers, not the hobbies of collectors; and the
the interest of readers, we think, will be best served
by giving them their books ready cut.
- •
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
AMONG the announcements of the season, we
can pick out an edition de luxe of a volume
of Essays by Professor Huxley; the " Vision
of Saints," by Lewis Moris; a novel by J. M.
Barrie—" The Little Minister "; a " Dictionary of
Religion," by the Rev. AVilliam Benham; Dr.
Cunningham Geikie on the Holy Land, with
illustrations by that most charming artist, Mi-.
Henry A. Harper; a cheap illustrated Edition of
Farrar's " Life of Christ"; the eighth volume of
Professor Morley's "English Writers"; Sidney
Colvin's" Letters of Keats" ; Buchheim's "Balladen
mid Romanzen "; the publication of Mr. Henry
A. Jones's "Saints and Sinners"; new tales by
Marion Crawford, Rudvard Kipling, and Rolf
Boldrewood; a book on the Elements of Polities
by Henry Sedgwick; Sir William Muir's "History
of the Caliphate "; new novels by George Manville
Fenn and Algernon Gissing; verses by George
Sand; "Hone Sabbatiea'," a collection of essays
contributed to the Saturday lieview by Sir James
F. Stephen; essays by E. A. Freeman; a novel by
Mr. J. H. Shorthouse; a novel by Mrs. Oliphant;
essays by Bishop Lightfoot; sermons by the late
Dean of St. Paul's, by F. Denison Maurice, by
Archdeacon Farrar, by Professor Kirkpatrick;
two new volumes of " Men of Action "; "Rodney,"
by Mr. Hannay; and " Montrose," by Mr. Mowbray
Morris; two new volumes of " English Statesmen ";
Mr. Churton Collins 011 the Study of English Lite-
rature; a posthumous work of Gifford Palgrave;
novels by Clark Russell, Miss Doudney, C. J.
Wills, Florence Marryat, Norris, Rider Haggard,
Baring Gould, L. T. Meade, Hall Caine, Jessie
Fothergill, Robert Buchanan, Tasma, Maarten
Maartens, Mrs. Chandler Moulton, and many
others. It is, as said elsewhere, a truly wonderful
list; but then it is addressed to a hundred millions
of readers.
An example of the growing curiosity on the
continent about English contemporary literature is
a translation of Mr. Swinburne's "Poems and
Ballads," 1st Series, into French by Gabriel
Mourey, with an introduction by M. Guv de Mau-
passant, the greatest, perhaps, of living French
novelists. As in all translations, the magic of Un-
original has disappeared, but admirers of Mr.
Swinburne (that is to say, all competent judges of
poetry) should get this work, if only for the intro-
duction. The "Poems and Ballads," though Mr.
Swinburne calls them "Peches de Jennesse," are
after all one of the milestones in our life of literary
appreciation. Nothing can ever quite take their
place, thoHgh we have become old, good, anil
respectable.
Everyone will have read with interest Mr.
Archer's article on Maeterlinck, the new Belgian
dramatist, in the September number of the
Fortnightly Review. This is, however, by 110
means the first account of his marvellous dramas
that have been written in England. A review of
"La Princesse Maleinc" appeared in the St.
James' Gazette a long while ago, and in the June
## p. 154 (#558) ############################################
154
THE AUTHOR.
number of the Author there was a critical estimate
of Maeterlinck's dramatic and literary methods in
"Les Avengles" anil "LTntruse." Mr. Archer
writes as if he were the first in the field. Mr.
Heinemann is about to publish a translation of "La
Princesse Maleine," with an introduction by Mr.
Oscar Wilde, and then everyone will have an
opportunity of judging the merits of the Flemish
Shakespeare.
In the next Author there will be something
more, it is hoped, about the i st issue of the Oriental
Translation Fund (new series), edited bv Dr. F. F.
Arbuthnot, M.R.A.S., printed and published under
the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society. The
undertaking is due to the energetic and untiring
efforts of the editor, who is a well-known expert
in Oriental literature. Uninitiated readers should
not be frightened by the name "Rawsat-Safa, or
the Garden of Purity." Some of the Persian
versions of the old familiar Biblical stories are
delightful, being no less interesting to Christians
than Moslems.
Miss Frances Younghusband, the able trans-
lator of the "Myths of Hellas" has again used her
talents by a version of Witt's "Retreat of the
Ten Thousand," which is based on Xenophon's
"Anabasis." Xothing could possibly be better
done, though Miss Younghusband might give us
some original work for which she is so thoroughly
capable. The illustrations are artistic and in-
structive, and go far to enhance the value of this
work. Many schoolboys would like to confine
their knowledge of Xenophon to Miss Young-
husband's version, but let us hope that it will
regenerate them rather than spoil them for their
Greek studies. The book is published by Messrs.
Longman.
"The Critic's exposure of the young man who
passed himself off on credulous Americans as a
brother of Mr. Walter Besant had the effect of
stopping his depredations upon the literary guild,
and turning him off to prey upon the represen-
tatives of other professions. Sir Morell Mackenzie
has receive:! a letter from Mr. A. P. Gordon
Gumming, in which the latter informs the eminent
'medicine man' of his son's appearance at
Sykesville, en route to Xew York, after a disastrous
experience on the stage in Australia. And one of
Sir Morell's veritable sons, who is an actor and
manager, and calls himself H. H. Morell, without
the Mackenzie, writes to the Spirit of the Times
from London that he himself is the only son of his
father who is connected with the theatrical pro-
fession, and that his only brother is a physician.
Mr. Morell is Miss Fortescue's manager. The
Dramatic Jfirror also has exposed his swindling
double."—Xew York Critic.
Miss Frances Armstrong, author of "Her Own
Way," &c. has brought out a new novel called
"Changed Lots." Griffith and Farran. 5*.
Dr. L. A. Buchheim sends a copy of his
"Balladen und Romanzen" (Macmillan & Co.).
It is a selection of German ballads uniform with
the "Golden Treasury," and belonging to the
series so-called. It is a very beautiful collection,
and ought most certainly to be in the jwssession of
all who read and love German poetry. A portrait
of Uhland adorns the title page. It is a pity
that it was not taken before the poet's hair fell off.
A lady sends me a little volume of verse called,
simply, " Poems," bearing the initials "D. M. B."
and with the names of "Young and Cooper,
Maidstone," on the title page. It is a very little
volume, and there are in it verses which are quite
too simple for publication. On the other hand,
there are sonnets which seem to have the true
ring, and we may very well imagine this writer
soaring high above these early rhymes, and be-
coming ashamed of them. Then this copy in my
hands would become rare and priceless. May this
be so!
William Westall is writing Christmas stories for
the Manchester Weekly Times and the Glasgmc
Herald. He has also written a short serial for the
Traveller, a new magazine which is to appear
in December, and a novel which is being syndicated
by the Authors' Syndicate, and will "run" in
sundry English and American newspapers next
year.
"It is said that there are three million volumes
of unsold novels lying on the shelves of the Paris
publishers, and that the number increases every
dav. What to do with these unsold and apparently
unsaleable b >oks is a problem. It was proposed by
someone that they should be distributed at country
fairs as prizes for children, instead of gingerbread
or Scripture texts. The innocent country people
were greatly pleased with this proposition, and
quite e.iger to accept it; but the more knowing
## p. 155 (#559) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
i55
prefect of police interfered and stopped the dis-
tribution; not, however, until some volumes had
been given away. It is hoped that the local
Sunday schools will put in their best work in this
neighbourhood l>efore the seed already sown has
bourgeoned ami born fruit."—New York Critic.
Miss Elizabeth Bisland is said to be now engaged
on a romance and play in collaboration with Bhoda
Broughton.
Mrs. Bernhard Whishnw has disposed of the
American rights of "Zephyr," and it will be produced
before long in New York with Miss Loie Fuller in
the title part. It will be remembered that this
young actress made a decided hit its " Zephyrina"
when the play was performed at the Opera Comique
last May.
A new volume by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.B.A.S.,
entitled, " Star Groups: a Students Guide to the
Constellations," is in the press, and will be published
immediately by Messrs. Crosby, Lockwood, and
Son, Stationers' Hall Court.
The following books are about to be issued by
Miss Bramstou, author of " Apples of Sodom " :—
"Abby's Discoveries." Tale of child-life 5o years
ago. National Society.
"A Village Genius." Story of the Composer of
the Passions music still sung at Ober
Ammergau. National Society.
"Neal Russell." One-volume tale, suitable for
free and parish libraries. Swan, Sonnenschein
Miss Jessie M. Barker's "Daisy's Dream: a
Story of the Earth and its Sculptors," is to appear
in the October, November, anil December parts of
the Girls' Own Paper.
"In Two Moods," by Stepniak and Westall,
from the Russian of Korolenko, was published on
September 18, in New York, by the American
Book Company; and in London by Ward and
Downey.
Mrs. Alfred Baldwin has a one-volume novel in
the press called "Where Town and Country meet."
It will be published by Longmans and Co.
Mr. Bertram Milford will publish in the middle
of October a novel called "Golden Fan : A Tale of
the Wild AVest." (Trischler and Co.)
A new edition of "The Sandcliff Mystery," by
Scott Graham, author of " The Golden Milestone,"
"A Bolt from the Blue," &c, is published at 2s.
and 2*. 6d. by Messrs. Oliphant, Anderson, and
Ferrier.
Mrs. Jenner's novel "Love or Money," which
has been running in Temple Bar, will be issued in
volume form on October the 19th. Bentley and
Son are the publishers.
Miss Selina Gaye's new book "From Advent to
Advent " was published in the summer by Messrs.
Griffith and Farran. 2i3pp. Price 3-v. bd.
The forthcoming memoir of the late Watts
Phillips, which is to be issued by Messrs. Cassell
and Co., is written by Miss Emma Watts Phillips,
the sister, not the daughter, of the subject.
Mr. Walts Phillips had one daughter only, who is
now in Australia.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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The-Author-Issues
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1891-11-01
Volume
2
Issue
6
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161–192
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18911101
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Uhc Mutbor*
[The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 6.]
NOVEMBER i, 1891.
[Price Sixpence.
Warnings
Notices "65
On Royalties iM
The Form and Cost of a Stamp 166
Copyright in America 167
An Old Dream 16S
A Plea for the Popular iOS
Assorted Aphorisms '7°
"Slating" '1'
Notes and News 17'
The Bookman OS
The Harvest of the Year I7S
The Independent Theatre 77
CONTENTS.
PAGB 1
.. 165
PAGE
To England "7s
A Bureau of Literary Revision >78
The Writers'Club '79
Correspondence—
I.—All for Nothing '79
II.—Good Work, Sure Pay 's°
III. —" Good Work, Sure Pay" '80
IV. -More Light "8'
V.—An Honourable Action 183
VI.—Authors and Illustrations l8'
A Case for the Society for Psychical Research 83
"At the Author's Head" l8«
New Books and New Editions '85
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE.
STATE TRIALS, Reports of. New Series. Vol.
1831—40. Published under the direction of the State
III.,
Trials
Committee. Edited by John Macdoxell. M.A. 10*.
INVESTMENTS. A List of 1,600 British, Colonial and
Foreign Securities dealt in upon the London and Provincial
Exchanges, giving tho highest and lowest prices of each
particular Stock for each of tho last twenty-two years, or from
the time of the creation of such Stock, also the price on 30th
May, 1891, and the yield per cont. to the Investor. Compiled by
G. Brown, u. 6<i.
PUBLIC GENERAL ACTS, 1891. Red Cloth, 3s.
Contains all the Public Acts passed during the year, with
Index, also Tallies showing the effect of the year's legislation,
together with complete and classilicd Lists of the Titles of nil
the Local and Private Acts passed during the Session.
JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH ASTRONOMICAL
ASSOCIATION. Monthly, it. bd.\ Annual Subscription, in-
cluding postage, iR*.
FORECASTING BY MEANS OF WEATHER CHARTS,
Principles of. By the Hon. Raj.fii Abecbomby, F.R. Met.
Soc. 21.
METEROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, Instructions in the
use of. a*, (td.
THE LITERATURE RELATING TO NEW ZEALAND.
A Bibliographv. Roval «vo. Cloth, is. 6d.
POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY AND ANCIENT TRA-
DITIONAL HISTORY OF THE NEW ZEALAND RACK.
By Sir Geobge Gkkt. K.C.B. Illustrated. Royal 8vo. Cloth, St.
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE MAORI. By John
White. Demy 8vo. Half Morocco. 4 vols. ios. per vol.
PLIOCENE DEPOSITS OF BRITAIN, THE. By
Clembst Reid. F.L.S., F.G.S. Five Plates (48 cuts), St. 64
LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: Guide to the
Geology of. Bv William Wiiitakee, B.A. i».
LONDON AND OF PART OF THE THAMES VALLEY,
Tho Geology of. By W. Wiiitakeb, B.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.,
Assoc. Inst. C.E. Vol. I. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 8vo.
Cloth, bt. Vol. II. APPENDICES. 8vo. Cloth, j».
KEW BULLETIN, 1890. Issued by the Director of Kew
Gardens, is. tod.
KEW BULLETIN, 1891. Monthly, id. Appendices, id.
each. Annual Subscription, including postage, 3s. gd.
DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF MUSICAL INSTRU-
MENTS recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition.
Compiled by Capt. Day. Oxfordshire Light Infantry, under
the orders of Col. Sua w-Heli.ike. Commandant Royal Military
School of Music. Illustrated by a series of Twelve artistically
executed Plates in Heliogravure, and with numerous Wood
Engravings. lit.
"It affords information obtainable nowhere else, and it has lwen
put together with so much care and thoughtfulncss that Capt . Day's
volume will be indeed welcomed by all who have Ui deal with tho
wind instruments, and can be accepted without question as the
standard authority."—Musicat Xctct.
PUIiLIC RECORDS. A Guide to the Principal Classes
of Documents preserved in the Public Record Office. By S. R.
ScABGILL-BlBD, F.S.A. It.
"The value of such a work as Sir. Sc&rgill-Bird's can scarcely be
over-rated."— Timet.
Monthly Lists of Parliamentary Papers upon Application. Quarterly Lists Post Free, id.
Miscellaneous List on Application.
Every Assistance given to Correspondents; and Books not kept in stock obtained without delay. Remittance should
accompany Order.
GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL PURLISIIERS.
KYRE and SI'OTTISWOOOK, Her Majesty's Printers, East Harding Street, London, B.C.
## p. 162 (#566) ############################################
A D VER TISEMENTS.
THE CENTRAL TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
(ESTABLISHED 1887.)
57 & 58, Chancery Lane, W.C.
$}rtnttjial4:
Miss M. E. DUCK and Miss I. B. LOOKER.
Type-writing and Copying of every Description under-
taken for the Literary, Dramatic, Clerical, Legal, and other
Professions. Type-writing from Dictation a Specialty.
Highest Testimonials for Excellence of Work and Promp-
titude from AUTHORS and others.
PRICE LIST ON APPLICATION-TERMS MODERATE.
miss n. ~ST. GULL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,
6, Adam Street, Strand, W.C, and
5, Air Street, Piccadilly, W.
Authors' and Dramatists' Work a Specialty. All kinds
of MSS. copied with care. Extra attention given to difficult
hand-writing and to papers or lectures on scientific subjects.
Type-writing from dictation. Shorthand Notefl taken
and transcribed.
FURTHER PARTICULARS ON APPLICATION.
TYPE-WRITING.
Authors' KISS, carefully Transcribed.
Writings by Post receive prompt attention.
Scientific and Medical Papers a Specialty.
MISSES BRWIKT,
13, Dorset Street, Portman Square, W.
MISSES E. & S. ALLEN,
TYPE AND SHORTHAND WRITERS
TRANSLATIONS and Scientific Work
a Special Feature.
39, Lombard Street, E.C.
Office No. 59 (dote to Lift).
MISS □F»^-TT3ES3NT,
type-writer,
44, Oakley Plats, Oakley Street, Chelsea, S.W.
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from Is. per 1,000 Words.
One additional Copy (Carbon) supplied Free of Charge.
References kindly permitted to George Augustus Sala, Esq.
Particulars on Application.
ASHWORTH & Co.,
4, Abchurch Yard, Cannon Street, E.C.
Authors' MSS. type-written from Is. 3d. per
1,000 words.
TRANSLATIONS.
CITY TYPE-WRITING & SHORTHAND OFFICES,
MANSION HOUSE CHAMBERS,
20, Bucklersbury, London, E.C.
The Department for Lady Pupils has unremitting attention, as
evidenced by the unqualified Success which has attended its
management. The Course includes Shorthand, Tjpe-writing,
Book-keeping, and Commercial Correspondence, and when Pupils
have acquired proficiency—
POSITIONS ARE GUARANTEED.
Particulars on application to—
MARY IFJL. DAY.
MRS. GILL,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
(ESTABLISHED 1883.)
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from is. per
1,000. words. One additional copy (carbon)
supplied free of charge. Instruction given in
Pitman's System of Shorthand and in type-
writing. References kindly permitted to Walter
Besant, Esq.
MISSES AIRD & WEDDERSP00N,
SHORTHAND, TRANSLATING, and TYPEWRITING OFFICES,
4, SUIT COTJKT, COBNKZLL, E.C.
Translations carefully and correctly made. Shorthand
and Typewriting Clerks sent out on short notice. Type-
writing of all kinds done with neatness, accuracy, and
despatch. Special pains taken with Authors' MSS. Pupils
trained in Pitman's System of Shorthand, and in Type-
writing.
MISS IE. LESTTY,
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,
165, QUEEN VICTOKIA STEEET.
Highest Testimonials for all kinds of Work.
Price List on Application.
VICTORIA TYPE-WRITING OFFICE.
(FRANCES A. COX.)
565, Mansion House Chamhers;
11, ttueen Victoria Street, E.C.
Authors' MSS. carefully typed. Legal and General
Copying.
PROSPECTUS OX APPLICATION.
## p. 163 (#567) ############################################
A D VER TISEMENTS.
Cljc ^orietjj of 3ttt!)or* (Incorporate^)*
PRESIDENT.
The Night Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E.
Alfred Austin.
A. W. a Beckett.
Robert Bateman.
Sir Henry Berone, K.C.M.G.
Walter Hesant.
Augustine Birrell, M.P.
R. D. Blackmore.
Rev. Prof. Bonnet, F.R.S.
Lord Brahourne.
James Bryce, M.P.
P. W. Clayden.
Edward. Ci.odd.
W. Martin Conway.
Marion Crawford.
Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G.
The Earl of Desaht.
COUNCIL.
A. W. Dubourg.
John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S.
Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.
Herbert Gardner, M.P.
Richard Gaunett, LL.D.
Edmund Gosse.
H. Rider Haggard.
Thomas Hardy.
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F'.R.S.
J. M. Lely.
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.
F. Max Muller, LL.D.
George Meredith.
Herman C. Merivale.
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.i
J. C. Parkinson.
The Eahl of Pembroke and
Montgomery.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart.,
LL.D.
Walter Herries Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
George Augustus Sai.a.
W. Baitiste Scoones.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. Stevenson.
Jas. Sully.
William Moy Thomas.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
The Right Hon. the Baron Hknhy
de Worms, M.P., F.R.S.
Edmund Yates.
lion. Counsel—E. M. Underdown, Q.C.
A. W. A Beckett.
W. Martin Conway.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman—Walter Besant.
Edmund Gosse. J. M. Lely.
H. Rider Haggard. Sir Frederick Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
Solicitors—Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.
OFFICES.
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January 1891 can be had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A. Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary
Property. Issued to all Members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (The Leadenhall Press) 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,
g5, Strand, W.C.) 3*.
5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost Of Production. I" this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,
size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books.
2s. 6d. Out of Print, New Edition now preparing.
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Sqimre Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the
papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors
are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud
which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3s. Second
Edition.
8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament.
With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the
Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottiswoode.
is. 6d.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
vol. 11. L 2
## p. 164 (#568) ############################################
, 64 AD VERTISEMENTS.
The " Swan" is u beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which
it supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant
work, or a week's ordinary writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With
the coyer oyer the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser
may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for
another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted.
There are various points to select from, broad, medium, and fine, every handwriting can he snited,
and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post tree, is only 10s, 6d.
The Gold Pens in the "Swan" are Mabie, Todd, & Co.'s famous make. They are 14-carat
tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with
selected polished iridium. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" says:—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of
high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon
it." They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens.
On© will OUtwear 90 grOSS Of Steel pens. They arc a perfect revelation to those who know nothing
about Gold Pens.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd, & Co.'s Gold Pens since 185;, and is using the same
one (his " old friend ") to-day.
Sydney Grundy, Kso.., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" It is a vast improvement on every Stylograph."
Moberly Bell, Est)., Manager, The Timet, says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" One pen lasted me for six
years."
S. I). Waddy, Esq., Q.C., M.P., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" I have used them constantly for some
years, and, as far as I can remember, they have never failed me."
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the Best
People, who have used them for years) to—
MABIE, TODD, & BARD,
83, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON. *
## p. 165 (#569) ############################################
XI b e Hutbor*
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly,)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 6.] NOVEMBER i, 1891. [Price Sixpence.
For the Opinions expressed in papers that arc
signed the Authors alone arc responsible.
— »■»■♦
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to
make the following warnings as widely known as
possible. They are based on the experience of six
years' work upon the dangers to which literary
property is exposed :—
(1.) Never sign any agreement of which the
alleged cost of production forms an
integral part, unless an opportunity of
proving the correctness of the figures is
given them.
(2.) Never enter into any correspondence with
publishers, especially with advertising
publishers, who are not recommended by
experiencetl friends or by this Society.
(3.) Never, on any account whatever, bind
yourself down for future work to any
one firm of publishers.
(4.) Never accept any projKisal of royalty
without ascertaining exactly what the
agreement gives to the author and what
to the publisher.
(5.) Never accept any pecuniary risk or respon-
sibility whatever without advice.
(6.) Never, when a MS. has l>oon refused by
respectable houses, pay others, whatever
promises they may put forward, for the
production of the work.
(7.) Never sign away American rights. Keep
them. Refuse to sign an agreement con-
taining a clause which reserves them for
the publisher. If the publisher insists,
take away the MS. and offer it to another.
(8.) Never forget that publishing is a business,
like any other business, totally unconneeU-d
with philanthropy, charity, or pure love
of literature. You have to do with
business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
NOTICES.
THE friends of the late James Runciman, a
member of this Society, will learn with pain
that he has left a widow and children totally
unprovided for. His literary success came too
late to enable him to put by anything, and he was
cut off at the early age of 3g. Contributions are
received by Mr. W. E. Henley, National Observer,
Edinburgh, or will be sent to him if forwarded to
the Secretary at this office.
Members and others who wish their MSS. read
are requested not to send them to the Office without
previously communicating with the Secretary. The
utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS.
are read in the order in which they are received.
It must also be distinctly understood that the
Society does not, under any circumstances, under-
take the publication of MSS.
The official directions for the secviring of American
copyright by English authors were given in the
Author for June 1891. Members are earnestly
entreated to take the trouble of rending those
directions.
## p. 166 (#570) ############################################
i66
THE AUTHOR.
Members are earnestly requested to forward
agreements to the Society for inspection before
they sign them. Once signed, the mischief is
generally irreparable.
II.—On the sale of the next 3,ooo.
ON ROYALTIES,
fT^HE invention of what is called the royalty
I system was one of the neatest and prettiest
strokes eyer invented for the. pillage of the
luckless author. For, before that disaster, no
publisher ever ventured to ask for more than half
profits. To be sure he took more, in fact, he
frequently took all, and left the poor author none.
But there was the principle. He said, " I take all
the risk; that is my contribution to the joint
enterprise. Therefore I am entitled to take half
the profits." This agreed upon, the fraudulent
publisher took them all, and refused to show his
books.
Then somebody invented royalties. The author,
as the silly trout le«ps to the fly, leaped to the bait
of " something." He had been so long accustomed
to get nothing on the "half profit" system that
he thought any change would be a change for the
better, and, as has always been the curse and bane
of all dealings between author and publisher, he
never looked at the other side at all. The publisher
offered him 10 per cent., even 5 per cent. Even now
there are writers who think themselves nobly treated
at 10 per cent. Of late, since the 10 per cent,
royalty has become a little fly-blown, he has been
offering a penny in the shilling or twopence in the
shilling. Let every writer understand exactly what
he is giving away when he signs a royalty agree-
ment. The following table, taken from "Methods
of Publishing," will give him the necessary infor-
mation. It is calculated for a 6s. novel. In
proportion it will do for anything else, the cost of
production of the first edition being roughly about
one-fourth of the advertised price. The " conclu-
sions" are also taken from the same book, which
ought to be in the hands of every one who writes
books of any kind.
I.—On the side of the first l.ooo.
£175—£100
to divide.
Per cent.
S
10
■5
30
30
Publisher -
£
£
£
£
£
€
60
45
jo
Author •
30
45
Co
55
90
£52S-£iSO
to divide.
Pit eent.
5
15
20
25
30
35
£
£
385
£
£
.£
£
£
60
Publisher ■
330
240
195
ISO
10S
Author -
4S
90
'35
1S0
"5
370
3>5
III.—On the sale of an edition of 10,000.
Per cent.
£1,750—.C400
to divide.
5
20
30
3S
£
£
£
£
£
Publisher -
I.2C0
1,050
900
750
600
45o
300
Author -
I50
300
450
600
750
400
1,050
Conclusions:—
(1.) No author should sign an agreement
whereby he binds himself to receive a low royalty
for an indefinite number of editions.
This is equivalent to saying that he should retaiu
his copyright, and so give himself the opportunity
of reaping the rewards of any big success, by
securing for himself a higher percentage of the
results.
(2.) No author should sign an agreement
whereby he is not to receive a royalty until a
certain number of copies have been sold, unless the
agreement provides facilities for the verification of
the publisher's account.
(3.) No author should sign an agreement whereby
he is not to receive a royalty until the cost of
production is covered, unless he has every oppor-
tunity of satisfying himself that no more than the
actual cost is charged.
To these conclusions may be added the corollary
that no oik; should sign any royalty agreement
without learning what the publisher who proposes
it reserves for himself.
THE FORM AND COST OF A STAMP.
IT has been for a long time, as the papers in our
office show, and still is, as our daily work
informs us, a very usual custom in many of
the large publishing houses to affix to their forms
of agreement a sixpenny adhesive stamp, and
formally cancel it by writing the date or their
initials over it. This proceeding has been supposed
to be a compliance with the law, and to obviate any
## p. 167 (#571) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
risk of future penalties, should it Iwconie necessary
to produce the contract or agreement in a court of
law.
Upon this subject a few words of explanation
and of caution have become necessary, for this use
of a sixpenny adhesive stamp does not necessarily
constitute the safeguard against penalties that
seems to be expected from it.
The second clause of the Stamp Act of 1891 is
as follows:—" All stamp duties for the time being
chargeable by law upon any instruments are to bo
paid and denoted according to the regulations in
this Act contained, and, except where express pro-
vision is made to the contrary, are to be denoted by
impressed stamps only."
Under certain circumstances this express provi-
sion is made for the use of adhesive stamps,—but
only, it may be added, up to a small sum—so that
upon occasion this method of stamping the contracts
between author and publisher is effective. But,
certainly adhesive stamps of a lower value cannot
be used so as to evade the ad valorem duties
chargeable at Somerset Ilouse upon all conveyances.
Where the agreement consists of a transfer or
assignment of literary property from one person to
another these ad valorem duties have to be paid,
and to use a sixpenny adhesive stamp upon such
contracts would not be held to satisfy the Act.
Even if stamps of the correct value were affixed, it
is doubtful whether the penalty would not have to
be paid before the document in question could be
admitted in evidence in a court of justice, as the
Act demands an impressed stamp; but it is certain
that to affix an adhesive stamp of a lower value is
a futile proceeding. Yet this is constantly done.
During the past twelvemonth many agreements
stamped in this way have come through our office.
Some have been royalty agreements on the printed
forms of a publisher's office, ami such agreements
are very clearly liable to ad valorem duties. Some
have been merely letters containing the terms of
the assignment.
This fixing of a sixpenny adhesive stamp at the
bottom is not sufficient. The duty of 6d. upon
an agreement may l>e denoted by a sixpenny stamp,
to be cancelled in the usual way, but a sixpenny
stamp is not available for the conveyance of literary
property, and authors cannot too soon understand
this.
In all question of doubt application should be
made to Somerset House for light on the matter.
If an agreement should be insufficiently stamped at
Somerset House, the deficit has to be made up
l)cfore the document can be produced as evidence,
but no penalty lies against the producer. On page
32 8 of the Author, Vol. I., will be found complete
instructions on the procedure necessary to get an
agreement properly stamped.
Briefly, the agreement must be taken to Somerset
House, and the officer whose duty it is must be
asked to stamp it with the amount of duty charge-
able upon it. This amount is probably correct
according to the Act. If there is anv doubt the
Commissioners may be requested to assess it. If
any appeal is made from the decision of the Com-
missioners, it comes before the High Court of
Justice, or even, ultimately, before the House of
Lortls.
COPYRIGHT IN AMERICA.
ATRANSATLANTIC "boom" was the
inevitable sequel of the Printer's Protection
Act. It is no exaggeration to say that the
whole writing tribe is making a rush to secure
a place in the new market. But if 60,000,000
readers, now that they have to pay for their
residing, represent a public worth capturing, it may
be just as well to bear in mind that the value of
American Copyright is and must long be, in every
case, an unknown quantity. In the case of unknown
writers, or of writers who, if they have a decent
circulation here, are unknown to the American
public, the necessity for securing American Copy-
right adds a new difficulty to their already suffi-
ciently complicated business transactions. The
immediate effect of the Act has been to restrict
the output pending the completion of arrange-
ments for printing and publishing on the other
side of the Atlantic. In this connexion, moreover,
American newspaper rights have acquired an
altogether exceptional importance. There is, it
appears, no doubt whatever that publication in
the columns of a newspaper from type set within
the limits of the United States satisfies the statute
and affords a valid protection of the American
Copyright, leaving the author or his assigns free
to publish in book form if and when this is desired.
The difficulty of retaining American Copyright in
the case of matter published serially in England
only, will, perhaps, be got over by sending out
advance sheets and reprinting in America in time
to issue in l>ook form before the completion of
the English serial form. In many cases, however,
new writers will find it much easier to secure
American publication in serial than in book form.
It is, therefore, of some importance that it should
1k» known that American Copyright can be secured in
this way. A word of warning, however, seems to be
necessary. The value of American rights is, as we
have said, still in all but a very few cases (probably
3o at most) absolutely unascertainable. They can
only be secured at the expense of considerable
## p. 168 (#572) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
trouble, and there is a danger that authors, in
their anxiety to secure tliein, may accept any offer,
however inadequate. Nor is that by any means
all. A clause is coming to be inserted by common
form in agreements for the purchase of either
serial or book rights which covers all American
rights, although it may be questioned whether in
many cases this is understood by the author. It
should be borne in mind, therefore, that in all
contracts for the sale of the American serial
right the American Copyright should be expressly
reserved. Authors will have only themselves to
blame if by carelessness or through ignorance they
contract themselves out of the benefits of the
statute or assign them to others otherwise than
for good consideration.
Mr. Herbert Spencer has written to a Phila-
delphia correspondent as follows :—" I want to say
through you that I shall not take advantage of the
new American Copyright Law. I shall continue
to do as I have done heretofore. I shall send over
to America the stereotype plates of my books and
have them printed there, without seeking for any
protection from the American Government. This
new law is really prejudicial to the interests of
grave literature. . . . With this copyright law,
it will pay the American publisher less than before
to take up books of a kind which are of doubtful
sale. The fatal defect in the law is that it puts
the author or publisher to the expense of a double
manufacture in supplying two communities. . . .
Instead of encouraging the unknown author, and
the author of serious books, this law makes it
harder for him to gain due recognition than it was
before. Under this American law the publisher
will seek out the man who has made his name;
he will buy the popular author's works and dis-
tribute them very widely, and meantime the rising
man will be left to his own devices. The general
effect will be to multiply the reproduction of books
which have no serious influence on the world,
and to discourage those who write books of
instruction."
AN OLD DREAM.
Und als die Wahrheit ward geboren,
Da Kroch sie in ein Jagerhorn:
Der Jiiger bliets sie in der Wind,
Dahor man koine Trcu mchr find't.
German Proverb.
This verse I learned in German tongue,
And heard it by a harper sung,
That "when on Earth the Truth was born,
She crept into a hunting horn;
The hunter came—the horn was blown
But where Truth went was never known."
And yet sweet Truth is living still,
And sometimes on a lonely hill
In whispering leaves or reeds at choice,
I oft at evening hear her voice.
Or else it seems to softly ring
Where nightingales in woodlands sing,
Or where the lark at early morn
Kings chorals over hill and bourn.
And yet again whene'er I pass,
In dew drops over sprinkled grass,
Or violet stars in summer skies,
I see her softly shining eyes.
When in the forest shade I lay
Beside a brook one autumn day,
And breathed the fresh leaf scented air
I joyed to feel that Truth was there.
And in the mountains wild and lone
Where the wind sings its monotone;
And every thought has liberty,
There is the Truth, where man is free.
In valleys still in ocean foam
I feel sweet Truth where'er I roam,
Ho for the greenwood—rock and forn!
Alone I'll go—alone return!
Cu.w.es Godfrey Leland.
—
A PLEA FOR THE POPULAR,
MY name k placarded on every railway stall;
my books are piled in heaps behind the
placards. You may watch these heaps
diminishing rapidly as the people buy them up;
you may see them reading my books in the first
class as much as in the third. I get a royalty of
twopence in the shilling, an arrangement which
gives the publishers a good deal more than it gives
me. But I am content. The side of sixty, eighty,
a hundred thousand, two or three times a year,
yields, as you can easily calculate for yourselves, a
tidy little income. In fact, I cleared, last year,
close upon £2,000. Which is really not bad. In
any walk of life it would be a solid success. In
literature it is phenomenal.
But there is one drop of bitterness which poisons
all the cup. It is that whenever the reviews mention
my name—every week, that happens—they all
with one consent hold me up to contempt as the
## p. 169 (#573) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
kind of monstrous creature whom the coarse and
uneducated public delights to honour. They gird
at my fun, they deride my pathos, they ridicule
my philosophy. Cheap, Brummagen, sham, melo-
dramatic, commonplace, vulgar, are a few of the
adjectives which they habitually heap upon me.
This kind of criticism, observe, does not hurt my
income a bit, and therefore 1 ought not to mind it.
But it makes my publisher mad, because he wants to
Ik; considered as a pat ron and producer of nothing but
high-class literature.—the very highest—and he can-
not bring himself to forego the profit of bringing out
Me. As for me, I can very well afford to laugh
and let the critics rail. Yet the adjectives prick a
bit sometimes. They sting and prick and make
one wince. At such times I feel inclined to turn.
Although I cannot hit back I can turn and I
can explain my position. I am turning now.
"Messieurs the critics," I say, "gentlemen, all
you who write for the high-class reviews and the
'thoughtful' monthlies, are for the most part, I
believe, classical scholars. You have had the very
great advantage of the finest education that the
world can offer; you have been trained in the very
best models; you learned quite early in life what
is meant by style and taste; you sniff vulgarity a
mile off. Further, you have assumed the office
of censor; you stand up officially and for payment
as the professional defenders and advocates and pro-
tectors of literature; you demand for literature a
lofty standard of taste and style ; you insist upon
measuring all who write—that is to say, all from
you read—bv this standard, which may be, for aught
I know, an everlasting canon, handed down whom
ancient times, or a little yard measure of your
own.
"Very good. But, I pray you, consider a little.
"You, and your fathers before you, have been
for a hundred years continually advocating the
education of the whole people. You have succeeded
so far that you have given them the tools by which
education is achieved or imparted. You thought
when you taught them to read, that you were
actually educating them. You commonly talk as
if you think so still. It is not so, I assure you.
The people are as far from being educated now
as they were a hundred years ago. But they have
learned to read, which is the first step. When
you open free public libraries, you talk as if you
were creating students in science and literature.
You do not, I assure you. There are no more
students after the libraries are opened than there,
were before. Readers, however, there are in plenty
You have given, in fact, to all the people, what
was formerly the property of a few, a new ne-
cessity of life. You have taught them to read.
They must read. They will read. Heading is
their favourite occupation when they are neither
VOL. II.
working npr playing. They read when they are
in train or omnibus; they read when they are
alone; they read in the evenings; they read on
Sundays. All the world reads. They read the
newspaper first; the novelette next; and Me, and
those like me, they read next. Last of all, gentle-
men, and least of all, they read those modern
and living authors whom you praise, those who
have style, taste, refinement, breeding, scholarship,
and poetry.
"When you have imparted to the moss of the
people that craving for taste and style which is an
instinct with yourselves, they will read your
favourite authors. But not till then. And I see no
signs of your even attempting this colossal task.
"You arc perfectly right, however, in your efforts
to keep up the standard of literature. You are,
I think, wrong in not recognizing the fact that
in modern literature there are many mansions—
many standards—and that the highest is as im-
possible for the general mass as the lowest is for you.
"Again, in your public schools, gentlemen, and at
your universities, all the youths have the same
education. Yet those who travel first-class read
Me, and the like of me, as much as those who
travel third. Why? Because with all jour educa-
tion it is but a few—you yourselves, gentlemen,
and your friends—who achieve any real knowledge
or understanding of style and taste. The many
cannot arrive at this knowledge; they do not even
try; they are content with Me and with my like.
"Since this is so, would it not be well not to
demand of Me—and such as me—those qualities,
which, if I possessed them, would ruin me and do
no good to mv readers, because they would instantly
cease to read me? I am what the people want me
to be. I write what I know will please the people.
I found out what they wanted, because I know
what pleased me. I write for myself; therefore,
I write for the world. I was educated at a great
middle class school to go into the City like my
father. I did. Then I felt prickings. I always
read as much as I could lay hands upon. When
the pi'ickings became sharp goads I began to
write. Comic things I wrote first, pathetic
things next, stories of tears and laughter next.
At first, stories about the people. But they like,
1 find, something rather above their own level.
So now I give them a baronet, or even an earl
sometimes. The language is a little above them.
The way of life as much above their own as I can
make it. The manners also as much above theirs
as I can go. That is not, I acknowledge, very
much. So 1 succeeded, and 1 am in the City no more.
Again, take my essays. It is wonderful to think
of the really savage way in which my essays have
been received by you gentlemen. Yet they are
written on exactly the same principle as my stories.
M
## p. 170 (#574) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
They are as commonplace, as gaudy, as cheap, as
trite as you plea.se. But, gentlemen, they are not
so to these people. They are only just a little
above their way of looking at things. My readers
understand me by an effort of the mind—not a
fatiguing effort—yet an effort. I teach them; I
educate them. To them 1 reveal things previously
unknown. Do you call a l>ook of arithmetic
commonplace? It is not so to the school boy; it is
to him new and difficult. So with mv essays.
I teach the j)cople. Well, then, you will say
next that I ought to teach better, to teach more,
to teach a higher philosophy. Forgive me; I
can only teach what the peoples want to learn.
Should 1 preach a philosophical Atheism of the
more abstruse kind; should I bid them rise to
higher works; should I tell them that successful
shopkeeping is not the highest ambition of man;
should 1 teach the girls that to marry a man with
si good business is not the highest lot of woman-
kind; should I denounce money-getting; should I
preach a scrupulous honesty; no one would buy
me; no one would read me. Where would Ik- my
income? And some other chap would find out the
trick. As it is with me, so it is with the preachers
who please the people. Go into a chapel filled
with them. Are the preachers exhorting them to
a higher life? Not a bit. Do they persuade their
flock to honesty? Not so. They go hammering
away at an old conventional religion which leads
them to heaven by faith, and leaves their works
dubious, and their ways crooked. But I am getting
angry, and indignation is out of place in one who
looks for sales.
"In a word—gentlemen—my l)ooks represent,
though you are unwilling to confess the fact, the
average taste and the average demand. Take a
pyramid of half-a-dozen layers to stand for the world
of humanity. The lowest layer hardly reads at all.
The second, the third, and the fourth, especially
the last, read Me—and such as me. They read
none but such as me. They read whatever I give
• hem—balhuls— not the thing with the e at the
end of it— stories, essays, anything. On the fifth
level I am also read, but not so widely. The
sixth 1 leave to you. It is a very, very small ]>art of
the whole, but it contains, my critics, pretty nearly
the whole of those who read the literature that you
approve.
"You think that the pyramid will become a pillar
by the contracting of the lower levels, and the
broadening of the upper. Perhaps. But not in
my time. Therefore I am not greatly concerned
about it. I have to do with the pyramid, so have
you if you will only recognize it.
"The broadening anil the contracting will be an
affair of many centuries. Remember that the
education of man has only just commenced.
We cannot all—to repeat—read the Differential
Calculus; I cannot for my own part. Most of u.s
have to lie satisfied with arithmetic, and not very
far in that. What I should like to ask you, if I
may, is that you should take Me—or such as me—
and put yourselves, if you can, in the position of one
who has few ideas, very little knowledge, and no
literary cx[>erience or judgment. This done, ask
how far this book of mine is good or bad, for such
a person a.s you have conjured up, and whether a
better liook—a deeper philosophy—would not be
thrown away upon them.
"Take Me—and such as me—for what we are, a
product of the times; a necessity for the time;
representative of the time. You might, if you
had the time, ask through my books what are the
things which- the people want and will have.
Believe me, you will find something—a good ileal
more than you expect—of true dramatic force, of
genuine situation, and of realistic fidelity. Mean-
while, I must return to my new volume, nearlv
ready. It will 1m» very funny—quite the cheapest
kind of fun. Yes. Vulgar too. Oh! Yes—Yes.
And flashy. Yes—Yes—Yes. And commonplace
—Yes! "Yes! Yes! But the book, will it be
bought? It would surprise yon to see how it will
be bought. And it will really teach the people
something—not much. And as far as the trade
. . • but you are, of course, far above these conside-
rations."
Solomon Stallabras,
Novelist, Essayist, and Poet.
.
ASSORTED APHORISMS.
1. Inability to perceive a joke is no proof of
moral superiority.
2. To the greatest minds, nothing is insigni-
ficant.
3. Love for the creature is the highest honour
payable to the creator.
4. It is better to stimulate thought than to
bestow knowledge.
5. Only the future has never deceived.
6. The ugly are the children of the other woman.
7. Imperial women lead: imperious women
drive—or try.
8. The age of an idea is no gauge of its untruth,
g. Poverty is not always essential to happiness.
10. Every sect is somewhat uncharitable but our
own.
11. Superstition is the religion of the other man.
## p. 171 (#575) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
12. An ever-young heart is better than an ever-
green memory.
13. The highest life, like the lowest, suffers in
silence.
14. Revolution at top is safer—for the top.
15. Petty troubles worry: big misfortunes
educate.
16. The weak war with epithets, and only the
weak fear them.
17. Man is a clubbable animal—as a sage, or by
a savage.
18. Whole truths are apt. to spoil popular
digestions.
ig. It is too often easier to be loyal to friends
than to facts.
20. Humility often apes infallibility.
21. Theology demands a creed: religion com-
mands a character.
22. Some friendships are like e^gs: they dete-
riorate with age.
23. Knaves misuse science: fools abuse it.
24. Reiteration solves no problems.
25. The always polite must often deceive.
26. Inconsistency is unpardonable—by the other
inconsistent.
27. Tears, like diamonds, avail most when rarest.
28. Economy is the twin-sister of generosity.
29. Any fool may discourage: only the angels
hearten.
30. Lying natures imitate candour, by a veneer
of insolence.
31. Poison is the beneficent in excess.
32. New truths are often received as old lies.
33. Compromise, the life of society, is the death
of science.
34. One must pay dearly for the rare privilege
of helping man.
Phislay Gi.enkt.g.
"SLATING."
MAY I be permitted to say that I do not
admit the correctness of the very inadequate
and far-fetched explanation which assumes
that this word was "clearly originally slat?" I
have all the materials for proving that it was
originally slate, a distinct word, just as there is a
difference between hat and hate, rat and rate, pat
and pate. The old unscientific notion that vowel-
length does not matter has long ago been knocked
on the head.
What amuses me is the appe.d to Webster's
dictionary, because that work recognises this very
distinction, and only so much was quoted as
happened to be convenient. Even the old edition
of Webster gives " slate, to set loose, at a dog, at
anything." The new edition adds " to bait, to slat."
Anil by the Inst entry it is merely meant to refer,
not to" slat (2), to slap," but to "slat (3), to set
on, to incite," in which I believe the form really
meant is slaat, a northern form, distinct from slat,
with a as in hat. In my edition of Hay's
"Northern Words" (1691). the spelling is s/ete, a
correct variant with long e. The form in Hotten
is slate, also with a long vowel.
I believe it will be found that, as has happened
before, I am right, despite contradiction. Of
course my difficulty is that 1 cannot here produce
all my evidence at length. Bui I think the students
of phonology will understand me.
W.Ai.Tun W. Skeat,
NOTES AND NEWS.
fl^HE Secretary is urgent with me to give as
I much publicity as the Author will allow to
what is, perhaps, the greatest of the many diffi-
culties with which this Society has to contend. It
is this. A large number of those who send up their
names for election do so only when they are in
trouble with their publishers. They have known all
along that the Society exists, and that it is always
at work for the protection of authors. Put thev do
not feel any call to support the Society until they
actually need its advice. They do not, as yet, un-
derstand that the very fact of joining the great com-
pany of book-writers (not necessarily autho:s by pro
fession) lavs upon them the duty of supporting the
only institution which exists for the protection of
their literary property. They do not, further, under-
stand as yet the importance of getting advice from
the only office which can give it on the subject of
agreements. But, after they have signed a one-
sided agreement, by which they have given awav
three-fourths of their property, and rendered them-
selves liable to be cheated out of the rest, thev come
to us for help. We give them what help can be
given. We procure for them for nothing the
best legal advice possible, as to how they should
proceed, we place at their disposal the experience
of our office and our six years of work j we give
them all this. Frequently it happens that a writer
in trouble comes to us and costs the Society ten
guineas, or more, in getting legal counsel. The
questions involved are intricate, and there are few
precedents on which to go. In return this member
M 2
## p. 172 (#576) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
pays one guinea. Now it is obvious that but for
a large support of those who join for the sake of
the general good, nothing could be done at all.
There is a case on our records—there may he more
than one—in which a writer engaged the Society
to see her out of a mess. We did so; we extri-
cated her from the clutches of a great thief; we
spent about fifteen guineas upon her ease without
taking from her even the single subscriptions for
the year. She then said that she was very much
obliged to us indeed—as she ought to have been—
that she had had a lesson, and should not try any
more writing, and, therefore, she would not ask to
be made a member. This was real gratitude.
There are other cases in which the applicant ex-
pected that the Society would fight his or her case,
at the costs and charges of the Society—probably
some case depending on the interpretation of a
clause in the agreement designed to deceive the
writer—a clause which would never be allowed at
this office.
Again, some applicants have complained that they
could get legal advice just as well from their own
solicitors. As a matter of fact, they cannot. It
is no discourtesy to the average solicitor to say that
he knows nothing whatever about literary property
or its management. And if they consult their own
solicitor they will certainly have to pay, while, if
they come to us they will get an opinion for
nothing.
It comes to this. The Society has by this time
done enough to earn and to deserve the confidence
of all who belong, directly and indirectly, to the
calling of letters. It should be supported by every-
one who has written a book—only one book even
—in any branch whatever, and especially by those
who write books as part of their profession, whether
scientific, medical, legal, educational, or literary.
We do not complain because people come to us—
the more the better—there cannot be too many
members. But we ask them to come at once,
before they get into trouble, even if they are never
to get into trouble, for the sake of their less
fortunate brethren.
Not the least reason why an author should be
careful to whom he entrusts his books is the con-
sideration of the inconvenience and loss caused by
having books published by different houses. For
instance, a great many people desire to possess
complete works of Jefferies. These are in any case
difficult to procure, but the difficulty is multiplied
tenfold by the other difficulty of knowing exactly
what he wrote and where everything was published.
Of course the wise author would reserve the copy-
right, unless he sells it outright. But very, very
few are so wise.
One of the papers—the Sunday Sun—heads a
notice of the life of Laman Blanchard (by Clement
Scott and Cecil Howard) with the title " The Dog's
Trade of Literature." Truly, under certain con-
ditions, it is a veritable dog's trade. But then, con-
ditions are changing. The trade is no longer quite
so canine for those who are fit to follow it. Blanchard
wrote for the stage at the time when a dramatic
author received the magnificent sum of las. an
Act for the whole copyright in his play. He wrote
for publishers at a time when for editing maga-
zines, writing novels, essays, and successful plays,
an author thought himself lucky indeed if he made
£3oo in a single year. Things have improved,
thanks to the enormous increase of readers first;
to tilt; competition of publishers next; and to
the light thrown upon the business side of
literature' during the last two or three years by
this Society. It is a dog's trade still to the
unhappy writer who tries to live by bookmaking,
that is to say, by finding out a subject which
will, perhaps, tempt a publisher to give him
twenty or thirty pounds for a book upon it, ami
then, with scissors and paste, to make up a volume
upon that subject. The lwokmaking tribe has of
late suffered grievous minishing, but it still exists,
and it goes on plundering and blundering. Also
it goes on—poor unhappy tribe !—starving and
writing letters for money to successful men, and
making applications to the Royal Literary Fund.
There seems, however, some reason to hope that
with the end of the century the race will have
vanished altogether. It is a dog's trade, too, to
the unhappy folk who aim at imaginative work, and
just fail of success. They win, perhaps, a certain
literary success, they command a certain sale, but
they just fall short of popularity, and that for
reasons which they cannot discover for themselves.
If they are compelled to live by letters, a dog's
lot, truly, is theirs. Again, it is a dog's trade
to those who try to make money — being, to
put it mildly, imperfectly equipped—by writing
for the magazines. In a word, literature is a dog's
trade—and should be no man's trade—without
natural aptitude—one is not allowed to say genius
—without a good education, without the charm of
style, and without the gift—the unknown—the
indefinable gift—of winning the ear of the people.
Then, if a man can be kept from sharks, he may
presently thank the Lord that he has taken up the
profession of letters. He will not grow as rich as
Vanderbilt or Astor, but he will thrive, he will
live in comfort, he will even — Oh! dream of
the bourgeois!—he will, perhaps, " put by "!
## p. 173 (#577) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
In an early number of the Author it was
suggested that among the immense number of dead
and forgotten books there must be some worthy of
revival. The past is common property; in the
vast heaps of dead literature all may delve and
search about for treasures. There is no law to
prevent anyone from carrying away and repro-
ducing whatever he pleases. Is then' anything
worth republishing? Is not the contemporary
verdict sufficient? Is not the verdict of the next
generation sufficient? In ninety-nine cases out
of a hundred. Sometimes, however, there is a
book which for some reason or other attracts,
on its first appearance, no attention; the reviewers
neglect it; the publisher docs not advertise
it; readers do not hear of it; the book falls still-
born. Yet there is something in it which should
give it life. Can we find such a book in the
dtisthcap? Again, there is the man who has
produced, among a mass of stuff all deservedly dead,
one volume in which he says all that he has to say
—delivers the one message that was in him;
proclaims the one live thing which his eyes could
see. There was once a writer named Charles
Maturin. How many could answer any questions
about. Charles Maturin? Yet he made some
little figure in his day, which was between
1782 and 1824. He wrote half a dozen novels,
produced three or four tragedies, taught a school,
wrote two or three poems, preached man)'
sermons. Out of all his works one alone deserves
to live; in fact, it does live with those who
read their native literature; this is a novel called
"Melmoth the Wanderer." A reprint has been
issued of this once famous book by Richard
Bentley and Son. It will be very curious to learn
whether it proves a success. The case, by the way,
is one of the few in the production of which there
must be a certain risk. Given an author once
popular, but before the memory of living man;
given a book highly praised by Walter Scott in the
old days of the llegency; will that author, appearing
again almost a stranger, l>e able to repeat his
former success? It is an ex|x'riuient of great
interest, and I hope that we may be permitted to
learn the secret of the result. We who have so
often proclaimed the self-evident fact, so stupidly
denied, that publishers very seldom take any risks
at all, that is, very seldom produce at their own
cost any lx>oks of which there is not an assured
minimum sale enough to cover the cost—ought to
be the first to recognize an exception to this rule
when we find it, and, when the exception is
prompted by pure love of literature, we ought to
wish it every success.
The Spectator has just made the third—one
hopes not the last—of a series of brilliant dis-
coveries. In the first, a most sapient member of
its staff announced to an astonished world that
poets and novelists come into the world completely
equipped with a full knowledge of their art. All
other workers have to learn their trade. The poet
and the novelist alone — happy mortals !— have
nothing to learn. They sing; they tell tales by
instinct: as tin; skylark sings ; as the pig grunts;
as the laughing hyena laughs, so sing they, so they
tell their tales. There is no art at all; it is pure
instinct. Was not that a noble discovery for the
Spectator to make? We have already done our
best to give a world-wide publicity to this dis-
covery. After a week or two, being on the l ight
scent, they make a second discovery. Literary
men, for their own good, must be excluded from
any national recognition of their services to the
State. No honours or distinctions must be
bestowed upon them. "They arc far better with-
out," says the Oracle, leaving it in doubt whether
she refers to their insides or to their poetry. Again
a week or two, and another brilliant discovery.
This time the same Sage. The article liears every
sign of being by the same writer—may one guess
the honoured name of Angelina Gushington? She
has discovered that men of science must be debarred,
not only from national recognition by way of the
ordinary distinctions, but even from the applause
of their friends. What saith the Sybil? "Up
till now the men who have devoted themselves to
abstract science have generally done so from pure
love of the pursuit of knowledge ... In a
great measure, men of science have been persons
who have proved their indifference to worldly
considerations and their love of knowledge for its
own sake." As the Scotch minister said on a
certain well-known occasion, "Ah! Loard! It's
just too reedecklus!" On what facts, from what
knowledge of scientific men, or scientific society, is
this confident statement so confidently advanced?
What scientific society has this dear lady known?
Now everyone who has had the privilege of
knowing men of science—there are no men more
delightful, more truly sincere, more companion-
able—who has enjoyed their friendship; who has
sat at their tables; will lx>ldly declare that this is
the greatest rubbish—the most unreal, the most
conventional stuff—ever placed before intelligent
readers. It is perfectly true that the man of science
is passionately possessed, filled, and seized with the
love of knowledge, and a rage for extending know-
ledge. But to say that he is indifferent to applause
or to recognition is sheer midsummer madness.
First of all, he always ardently desires that recog-
nition of his work which is conveyed by a
Professorship or a Fellowship; next, he desires to
## p. 174 (#578) ############################################
i/4
THE AUTHOR.
be spoken of, ami to lie considered us an authority
—a leader in his own line; then he is never happy
until the distinction of F.R.S. is awarded him—
one little fact which blows the Spectator's article
into smithereens. In other words, like all men,
the follower of science eagerly desires recognition
of his work: he is jealous of his work; he claims
and tights for every discovery that he may have
made; he wishes, above all things, for the applause
of his fellows. This I say without the least blame
or reproach. It is a human desire, an intelligible
desire, a laudable desire, an honourable desire, a
desirable desire. The idea that men could possibly
work without such a desire could only be enter-
tained by persons wholly ignorant of human nature.
Jiut there may be eases where such a feeling is not
apparent to the vulgar. The sagacious writer of this
article adduces the case of a great mathematician.
Now a mathematician, because he is an abstruse
writer whose methods and conclusions are absolutely
unintelligible to the ignorant and the vulgar, cannot
look for the applause of the world. Nevertheless,
he does look for, and he does obtain, the re-
cognition of the few who can understand hint.
The Spectator also introduces, in the middle of
the article, the subject of money making. Scientific
men, we are next told, never want to make money.
Oh! Really! Indeed! Wonderful! Is that so?
Let us see. Well, there are certain branches of
science in which money cannot possibly be made.
In these branches the professors wisely agree not
to attempt the impossible. But in those branches
where money can be made I do not see that
scientific •men object to make it. For instance,
medical science may make medical men very rich
indeed; engineering, which is one of the greatest
of modern sciences, may make for its followers vast
fortunes; electricity, in the hands of its most earnest
students, is producing large incomes; by some
applications of chemistry great incomes are made.
In fact, though it is perfectly true that scientific
men, or literary men, or artists, should not, and do
not, make dollars the chief reason of their existence,
they are never indifferent to dollars, and there is
no reason why they should be. This imaginary
indifference is the consolation of the unsuccessful
and the creed of school girls. But surely the
conventional school girl creed ought not to be
produced in a paper like the Spectator. Personally,
it grieves and even humiliates me to see such
stuff in its columns. I have read the Spectator
for live-and-twenty years. No paper has taught
me more; none has suggested more. I have for
all these years regarded the paper as n private and
personal friend—one may sometime differ with a
personal friend. So that it saddens one to find it
apparently preparing to step down and to become
the organ of the school girl. Could the old friends
of the paper entreat the editor in a Round Robin
to give Angelina a letter of introduction, with a
view to employment on the staff, to the Editor
of that sweet journal, the Girts' Delight?
Nearly every year there stands out a head and
shoulders above its companions one work which
promises to make the year memorable. The pro-
mise is not always kept, but it is something to Ik.'
so good as to seem to hold forth that promise.
Everybody remembers the first appearance of
"Vice Versa," "She," "Treasure Island," Rud-
vard Kipling's stories, to speak only of later works.
This year a promise of lasting vitality is distinctly
made by Mr. Hall Caine's " Scapegoat." It is a
great book, great in conception and in execution;
a strong book, strong in situation and in character;
and a human book, human in its pathos, its terror,
and its passion. Like the authors of the other
books named, Mr. Hall Caine will henceforth have
the "Scapegoat" always behind him. Can he
produce even finer work? Perhaps.
The following circular has been sent to every
member of the Society. It is hoped that a response,
unanimous and immediate, will l>c made to this
appeal. It will be observed that we not desire
large sums; let everyone who feels that he ought
to be grateful to Mr. R. I'. Johnson send some-
thing, not more than a guinea. It is not so much
the value of the gift as the manner of it that will
be appreciated:—
"It was resolved at a Meeting of the Committee
held before the Vacation that we should prepare
and engross on vellum the thiinks of this Society
to the Secretary of the American International
Copyright Association, Mr. Robert Underwood
JOHNSON, of New York, for the very considerable
part played by him in the successful agitation for,
and the passing of, the International Copyright
Act.
"Since this resolution was passed the French
Government have presented Mr. Johnson with
the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, in
recognition of his services to the interests of
Literature.
"We have looked in vain for any such recogni-
tion on the part of our own Government, although
the interests of British Authors involved in the
Act. are ten-fold or a hundred-fold greater than
those of French Authors.
"It has been therefore determined by this
Society to express in a more concrete form their
gratitude. It is proposed to invite subscriptions
## p. 175 (#579) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
■with which to purchase a piece of plate for pre-
sentation to Mr. Johnson.
"The subscription will be limited to one guinea
as u maximum and 5*. as a minimum.
".Should you feel disposed to join in this move-
ment I shall be glad to receive your name and the
amount.
"S. Squibb Spbigoe."
THE BOOKMAN.
THE new literary journal, the Bookman, made
its first appearance on October 1st, too late
for notice in our own columns. We are
always eager to welcome anything calculated to he
helpful in the interests of literature and of book-
men. And we therefore wish every success to the
Bookman. As a society of bookmen and IkkjIc-
women we would earnestly invite our new friend
to consider that literature has many sides, that
there are many readers and many levels and
standards and many ideals of excellence and of
style. It is, however, unfortunate that the very first
number should contain a paper intended to be
practical, and endorsed by the editor, which contains
about as many misleading statements ns could well
be crammed into the space. It takes the form of
a letter written by a lady—and by one who is
most sincerely anxious for fairplay and justice.
Unfortunately she illustrates the danger of writing
loosely, and without considering the figures which
this society has provided.
She says, taking the end of her letter first, " I
am quite content that my publishers should get as
much as I do by my books, only I do not like them
to get more."
Very well. She then gws on to say that a
penny in the shilling—meaning, of course, on the
advertised or published price—is "the ordinary rate."
And further, she says, that it is a "fair rate," or,
as explained by her own words later on, that it
gives as much to herself as to the publisher.
Now, let us see. An ordinary one volume 6s.
novel, containing 17 sheets of 258 words to a page,
printed in small pica and plainly bound, can l>e
produced as follows:—
One thousand copies, with stereotyping and
advertising, less than £100—for simplicity's sake
say £100.
If they are all sold the gross return is very
nearly £166.
The profit on the edition is £66.
At one penny in the shilling the author gets
£25 and the publisher over £41.
If the l»ook is a success, so that another edit.'on
of 3,ooo is called for—which is unusual—the cost
of producing it would be under £120. The sale of
the whole would produce £5oo. The profit would
be £38o, the author would make £75, anil the
publisher would make £3o5. And this is the
fair and equal royalty advocated by the Bookman!
Next, the lady says that "the publisher has often
to sell thousands lief ore he recoups himself the
cost of production and advertising." Thousands!
Now, see the mischief of loose talk. In the case
before us, the publisher provides an outlay of £100.
Mind, he does not even pay the money down; he
waits for returns. But never mind. Here, then,
is the problem. Given a l>ook which costs £ico to
produce, saddled with a royalty of 6rf. a copy to the
author, how many has the publisher to sell, at
3s. 4r/. a copy—it is more often 3s. 6d. a copy—
Ix'fore he recoups himself? Answer—by a little
algebraical equation—a little over 700. Now,
these figures of ours are beyond any doubt; they
are furnished by different printers, and acknow-
ledged by other printers; they have also been
acknowledged by several publishers; they have
never been seriously challenged.
But it may be said that the book referred to by
the lady was a dearer book to produce in pro-
portion to its price. Boughly speaking, a first
edition of a l>ook may be taken to cost about one-
fourth of the published price. The first cost of a
book advertised at 3s. 6d. is recouped when laden
with a royalty of a penny in the shilling by some-
thing less than the first edition of 1,000—in fact, a
little over 900 copies. The lady adds certain
remarks, all out of the goodness of her heart, about
good books paying for had ones—amiable rubbish
which we had thought long since exploded.
The ordinary royalty now proposed to writers of
fair circulation by the more honourable houses is,
of course, exactly double that advocated by this
lady, and approved by the Bookman, and even this
gives the publisher on a large scale a very great
advantage.
«~«~» <
THE HARVEST OP THE YEAE.
TN the last number of the Author we gave a
I brief and necessarily incomplete notice of
some of the announcements of the season.
We have now, by taking the advertisements of the
leading |>apers and reviews for two or three
consecutive weeks, arrived at a clearer idea of
the season's harvest. We may omit all books of
medicine, physics, chemistry, geology, and science
## p. 176 (#580) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
generally; all books on theology; all technical and
educational books, children's books, military and
naval lx>oks, and books on social and political
economy—though of these last there is a consider-
able number advertised. It is, indeed, a sign of the
times that a subject once thought so hopelessly
dismal in its conclusions and so uncertain in its data,
should Ik! attracting, year after year, more and more
of those, who read, and more of those who make it
their professional pursuit. Our analysis, however,
considers only those books which belong to the
general reader, not to the expert or the specialist.
The names of the writers and the subjects treated
—to those who know anything of the subject—will
be found to bear out our contention—which is, of
course, a mere commonplace, of common sense—
that publishers very, very seldom issue anything at
their own risk which has any risk.
Biography, the most popular form of history,
is represented by lives of Bishop Wordsworth,
Boswell, Cobden, Thomas Payne, Charles West
Cope, Frederick the Great, Mrs. Carlvle, Darwin,
Caldeeott, Cervantes, Rodney, Lady Mary Wort ley
Montague, Gustavus Adolphus, Pericles, Theodoric
the Goth, Sir Philip Sidney, Nelson, Collingwood,
Watts Phillips, and E. L. Blunt-hard. History is
represented by the new work of Froude. Travel
by works on Thibet, California, New Zealand,
the Philippines, the Himalayas, the Corea, the Holy
Land, Manipur, Canada, the Black Forest, New
Guinea, Kieff, Afghanistan, and the Caspian.
Essays by the names of Lady Martin, Lady Wilde,
Augustine Birrell, W. W. .Story, Davenport Adams,
and Edmund Scherer (in translation). There are
two collections of verse, edited by Andrew Lang
and W. E. Henley.
Very little new poetry is announced—it is, indeed,
astonishing to observe how, with all this enormous
extension of readers, the love of poetry either
advances not at all, or continues steadily to di-
minish. A new volume by one of the few accepted
poets is welcomed by a small circle—how small
that circle is can only be judged by the numbers
of editions, and these are indeed limited. The
poets themselves keep silence on the subject,
a fact to be regretted, because the decay of the
national love of poetry is a distinct factor in any
examination into the intellectual position and
advance—or retreat—of the generation. On the
other hand, the recent examples of Mr. William
Watson and the author of "Iouica" ought to
encourage young poets. There are, next, anti-
quarian books, such as " Schlieman's Excavations,"
and Hubert Hall's •' Curiosities of the Exchequer,"
with a county history or two. There are letters,
such as those of Marie Bashkirtseff; artists' books,
such as Walter Crane's "Queen's Summer";
books which can hardly be classified, as Knight's
"Cruise of the Falcon "; a history of Mahdisin;
Miss Chapman's companion to " In Memoriam ";
certain American books; certain reprints, as
Maturin's "Melmoth," and Washington Irviug's
"Alhambra "; books of country life, as "On
Surrey Hills"; books on anthropology, which
may be counted as scientific books; a treatise on
Heraldry; Sycd Ameer Ali on the Teachings
of Mohammed; Gordon's "Events in the Taiping
Rebellion; Sir George Birdwood's "Records of
the India Office; Clement Scott's "Thirty Years
at the Play," and many others.
Lastly, there come the novels. Here we have an
astonishing list. We have selected only those—
about three-fourths—by writers already and favour-
ably known, novelists with whose work no one could
for a moment pretend that any risk was connected.
Making an attempt at alphabetical order, we find
novels announced as ready, or nearly ready, by
Grant Allen, Frederick Anstey, Duke of Argyll,
Rolf Boldrewood, Frank Barrett, E. M. Bnrrie,
Rev. A. J. Church, Hall Caine, M'Laren Cobban,
Marion Crawford, Alice Dield, Conan Doyle, Kick
Donovan, Miss Doudney, Archdeacon Farrar,
G. M. Fenn, Lanoe Falconer, B. I/. Farjeon,
Percy Fitzgerald, .Jessie Fothergill, George (iissing,
Hating Gould, Henry Hermann, Joseph Hatton,
Rudyard Kipling, Katberine Lee, Marquess of
Lome, Florence Marryatt, T. L. Meade. Mrs.
Marshall, Maarten Maartens, George Meredith,
Mrs. Molesworth, Lucas Malet, W. E. Norris,
Ouida, James Payn, Mrs. Phillips, Richard
Pryce, Amelia Rivers, Mabel Robinson, Clark
Russell, Frank Stockton, T. W. Speight, J. W.
Shorthouse, Alex. Shand, L. D. Walford, E. Werner,
Beatrice Whitby, Florence Warden and Stanley
Weyman. Here are fifty-one in all, popular and
weli-known writers, who will be widely read;
some of them have a special clientele, others are
simply favourite authors at the circulating libraries;
one docs not go so far as to say that they are
immortal, or that they will even enjoy the limited
immortality which awaits many popular authors;
but they are in demand. Fifty novels by as
many novelists all in demand! But there is
more. For there are at least fifty more in the
advertisements before us whose names we have
not set. down because they were to the writer
of the present lines unknown. Again, among
the second fifty are included a good many novels
paid for by the authors. These should form a
separate list by themselves, but it would be
cruel to the unfortunate people who have been
persuaded to pay. Again, then; are publishing
houses not represented in these papers. The
Religious Societies, the Society lor the Pro-
motion of Christian Knowledge, the Religious
Tract Society, and the National Society, are not
## p. 177 (#581) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
177
represented here at all. But their lists include
a gretit quantity of fiction, chiefly by writers
who are unknown. And it will be further ob-
served, that the lists do not include many of the
well known names. For instance, setting down
only the, names that occur at the first moment
among these writers, one does not find among
the advertisements the names of Mrs. Alexander,
Miss Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, Edwin
Lester Arnold, William Black, R. D. Black-
more, Walter Besant, Rol>ert Buchanan, Mrs.
Lovett Cameron, Miss Betham Edwards,
Mrs. Edwardes, Justin McCarthy, Justin H.
McCarthy, Henry Harland, Bret Hartc, George
Henty, Thomas Hardy, Howells, Henry James,
Edna Lyall, Mrs. Lynn Linton, George Maedonald,
George Moore, Christie Murray, Henry Murray,
Florence; Montgomery, Mrs. Oliphant, E. C. Philips,
Mrs. Campltell Praed, F. W. Robinson, Mrs.
Thackeray Ritchie, Mrs. Riddell, Rider Haggard,
George Sims, Louis Stevenson, Moy Thomas,
Sarah Tytler, Mark Twain, William Westall,
W. (i. Wills, Charlotte Yonge,—as many omissions,
in fact,as apj>earances. There are also many others
whose names have been for the moment passed over.
Theif* "re, In taet,anout l5o living writers of fiction
—without counting tint young journalist who sends
to the papers the paragraphs on the Society of
Authors—who have a sure and certain grasp on
our public—some of them American, but by far
the larger number English, Scotch, and Irish.
Outside this body there are always fifty or sixty
hangers on—writers who are on the borderland,
lwtween popularity and failure. They can persuade
respectable publishers to produce their wares.
They are even so far successful that the number of
copies taken by the circulating libraries does
justify their production, but they never arrive at a
cheap edition; nor—surest test of all—are they
ever invited by editors to contribute to their
magazines. They are read because they are offered
at the libraries. They are never asked for, never
missed, never wanted. Nobody knows their names
or inquires for their former works. They may
write a dozen books, but they never impress
the mind of the public in the least. Certainly,
if the circulating library system were to break
down -— which will not suddenly happen — or
the three-volume system were to be changed—
which is not likely—these dingers to the fringe
would swiftly vanish and be no more seen. It will
be seen that in quantity, in bulk of output,
the literature of October 1891 is enormous. To
repeat what has been said before: For whom is
this mass of literature published? For a people
which docs not buy books? That, is the common
opinion. Only for the circulating libraries? That
is often asserted. In order that publishers may
get rid of their money? That, too, is a doctrine
widely circulated by conventional writers, interested
writers, and unpractical persons. In order to
gratify authors with the disinterested satisfaction of
producing good work? Another doctrine per-
sistently and widely taught. Not so; they are
written mainly, and published solely, for the sake of
profit and gain. And most of them—all the novels
—are written with the same spirit, the same
1iojh>, the same intention as actuates the cabinet-
maker when he makes a cabinet; namely, that he
mav produce good work, and that he may receive,
and enjoy in peace, that share of the proceeds of
his labour which is justly his. So long as the
Society of Authors exists it will endeavour to
secure for him that share.
♦•»•♦
THE INDEPENDENT THEATRE.
EVERYTHING attempted in this day must be
ticketed anil labelled with the name of one
man. Formerly it was enough that a thing
vwas designed and proposed, perhaps, by a company.
The object sought was the subject discussed.
The subject is now the man who has attempted it.
Therefore the Theatre Libre, or the Independent
Theatre of London, will certainly become Mr.
George Moore's theatre.
He expounded the ralson d'etre of the new
theatre in a letter to the Times of October i3th—
a letter in many ways remarkable and in many
ways calculated to make people angry. Setting
aside the latter part of the letter, we find an
eloquent and earnest ap|>eal to the world to secure
the freedom of the stage from the trammels of
convention and prejudice. "Dramatic art is the
art that to-day pre-eminently demands to l>c pro-
tected against the disease of popularity and its
concomitant commercialism. The people have had
their way with the theatre; they have made it
their recreation ground." The Independent Theatre
is founded in order to place More audiences as
refined and as highly cultured as those which read
Tennyson, Swinburne, George Meredith, dramatic
pieces which belong to literature. If, its pro-
moters argue, the dramatic art is not to perish
utterly, we must have an uncommercial theatre,
one which does not aim at making money; one
which will not play for either stalls or gallery;
one which shall create a public capable of de-
manding and of understanding good work. Well,
the demand for good work will undoubtedly create
the supply, up to a certain point, but no further.
In no age and by no imaginable demand, coupled
either with honour or with dollars, can more
than a certain amount of good work be produced
A
## p. 178 (#582) ############################################
178
THE AUTHOR.
by a single generation. For instance, tliere is at
the present moment an enormous demand for good
fiction, good essays, good writing—attractive and
pleasant writing—in all branches. How many are
there who can furnish what is wanted?
Mr. George Moore's arguments lead irresistibly
to the conclusion that the Independent Theatre
ought to be well supported. It may not achieve
all that its founders ho[>e for it. That, indeed,
may be confidently predicted. On the other hand,
it will certainly do something, and even the per-
formance of a new piece running on lines quite
different from the old conventional grooves
should stimulate departure from those grooves
and new experiments. They ask for £i,5oo
a year. That is not much. Each subscription is
at present £2 10s. a year. That means only 600
subscribers. The very smallness of the sum will
militate against the success of the promoters. It
would be better to ask at once for £10,000 a year
in £10 subscriptions. There are lovers of the
drama in plenty who would give a £10 subscrip-
tion. And then we could have fifty performances
instead of six. Of course there is an evident
danger, though it is not contemplated by the
founders, that the Independent Theatre might
become the Theatre of Crotchets and Hobbies,
of Cranks and Enthusiasts. Even then it would,
to some extent, serve its purpose, and so be
well worth all the money spent upon it. Nothing
is more wholesome for the Body Politic than to
let Cranks and Zealots have their say. Nothing
more surely reduces them to insignificance. Again,
if a piece succeeds at the Independent, it is
sure to 1*' presented at an open theatre. And,
which is worth considering, even if it is true that
the people have had the theatre to themselves, it
is also true that they have in many cases shown
themselves willing to learn, and ready to like a
piece which they arc told they ought to like. The
people do not want to prefer bad things to good;
they would rather like what better taught people
like, if only in order to be a little superior to their
neighbours. A hopeful sign, perhaps.
TO ENGLAND.
A new-raised voice from 'yond thy westward sea
Would sing unto thine ear the songs it sung
In its own land in the same Saxon tongue
Our fathers learned at thy loved mother-knee—
They, who their very life-blood drew from thee.
Ami though, in thought and speech we've
somewhat swung,
From our old moorings, yet to much have clung
That thou once heldst in full fidelity.
But I—what light have I my songs to bring
E'en to a kindred nation's judgment seat?
All! none, except the right of all to sing,
E'en though their songs be neither strong nor sweet,
And with the hope, perchance one may be found
With voice to sing itself the world around.
New York. W. S. Bate.
A BUREAU OF LITERARY REVISION.
WE were as yet in comparative ignorance
when we proposed as a branch of the
Society's work likely to prove useful to
aspirants, the reading and criticism of young
writers' work. The two objects of such a branch
then (and still) in view were (1) that it might
do a great deal to the repression of bad work,
anil the persuading of those who could never
succeed to abandon the attempt, and (2) that
in the rarer cases of young writers who show the
unmistakeable signs of. promise and natural aptitude
we might prevent many mistakes and much dis-
appointment by a little judicious advice—such as
that which a coach would give to his pupil—as to
style, arrangement, and other points with what is
very frequently wanted, instruction in quite the
elementary points of technique. In other words,
we laid the foundations for a school of novelists.
Our readers do not read, that is to say, as the pub-
lisher's reader must, with one eye always on the
commercial value of a book, but solely having regard
to its literary and artistic worth. We are cettins
on very well with this branch. Something like a
hundred and fifty MSS. will have passed through
our hands this year—not like those sent to pub-
lishers for acceptation or the reverse, but sent for
an opinion which may be a guidance and a help.
Those who send their works have the first quality
of an artist—diffidence—pity that they have not ail
the rest.
We have learned, however, that the Americans
have been before us with such a Bureau. It is
now nine years since the New York Bureau of
Literary Revision and Criticism has lieen estab-
lished. It professes to give " unbiassed and com-
petent criticism " both for publishers and authors.
It offers to revise MSS. for the press and to
"edit'' them, which must mean, in many cases, to
re-write them. And it offers to give advice to those
in search of a publisher. Its fees are elastic, as in
such kind of work would be necessary.
To give an opinion or to give advice woidd l>e
easy. But al>out revising MSS., editing them,
passing them through the press; what fee would
be asked? When the work was done, whose name
would appear on the title-page? Anybody could
## p. 179 (#583) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
179
suggest a subject, ami perhaps set down certain
facts; but it requires a literarv hand to draw them
up and set them forth to effect. And when that
wan done, who would be the author? Doubtless
there an' plenty of people who would pay well for
such work, provided their own names' appeared
upon the title; but the real hand—the hack—the
Ghost—how would he like it?
Again, it. seems as if there must be a delicate
line where revision ends and authorship begins.
One can quite understand a man rendering such
little assistance to a young writer as would make
all the difference between success and failure, ami
yet leave him the actual author of the thing. But
with a slovenly, ill-constructed, badly put together
lump of writing, which has to be pulled to pieces
and then re-arranged and re-written, where is your
author? Not the first hand on it, certainly. To
put his name as the author might, by purists, be
taken us a fraud. Perhaps, so as to avoid any
chance of the question arising here, we may leave
that branch of the work entirely to our cousins.
_ —- -
THE WRITERS' CLUB.
AFEW weeks ago a little body of women,
mostly journalists, were bold enough to
express a wish that it were possible to start
some sort of club for literary women, which would
not only serve the ordinary purposes of a club
where its members could (line, write, and meet
their friends, but would also bye-and-bye develop
into a Sisterhood of Letters, and be a means of
bringing literary women—successful and unsuc-
cessful—into eloserand more friendly relations than
have hitherto been found possible. No sooner had
the wish found expression than a host of critics
sprang up to throw cold water on the idea. Such
a club, they said, was not wanted, and if it were
wanted it ought not to l>c, ending up, as a rule, with
various unkind comments on the habits and ways
of the unhappy lady journalist. The unkindest
cuts of all came from the one or two highly suc-
cessful women journalists, who, for some reason or
other, took it into their heads to he jealous of their
less successful confreres—if I may use this expres-
sion—and who have steadily misrepresented the
views and hopes of the promoters. It is, however,
satisfactory to learn that, in spite of criticism and
opposition, the "Writers' Club" has sprung into
being during the last month, and has already nearly
60 members, all bond fide literary women. It is
intended to start the Club on a modest scale, and
at first our chief efforts will be directed to make the
place useful and comfortable to women journalists.
There are a large number of journalists with feet
upon the lowest steps of the ladder, who are lighting
a hard and uphill battle in the attempt to make a
respectable living by legitimate work. Many who
are solitary and reserved, and keep the struggles
anil disappointments of their lives locked in their
own breasts, might find their lives made sweeter
and easier if some older and more fortunately
placed woman would hold out to them the right
hand of fellowship. It is this spirit of camaraderie
which it is hoped the Club will promote, and,
judging from the way that the well-known writers
have come forward and offered their co-operation,
there is every reason to l>e sanguine. A few more
ladies who will come forward and help us financially
at the start are still wanted, and will no doubt lie
forthcoming. Amongst the Vice-Presidents are :—
Mrs. Woods, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, Lady .Icune,
Lady Paget, Countess of Minister, Miss Edith
Simcox, Mrs. John Richard Green, Edna Lyall,
and many others. The President of the Club is
Mrs. Stannard ; the Honorary Secretary, Miss Low,
21, Queen Square, Bloomsbury; ami the Treasurer,
Miss Honor Morton, Ivy Hall, Richmond, Surrey.
Any lady who is interested in promoting the
Club is invited to attend the meeting to be held on
Wednesday, November 4th, at 4. o'clock, at the
Society of Authors, 4, Portugal Street, Strand,
when definite steps as to premises will be taken.
A Women Journalists' Club is not a new thing
any more than an Authors' Club. Everything
begins in America, and most things in New York.
We are indebted to Woman (October 14, 1891) for
a note on the New York Women's Press Club. It
is unfortunately too much of a note. One would
have liked information as to the subscription, the
management, the number of members, and the way
in which the club is worked. The note, says only
that it is a " model of organisation, tact, and good
comradeship." It also gives pictures of three
leading members.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
Am. for Nothing.
APROPOS of our recent remarks on magazine
contributories, a correspondent writes:
"A literary magazine was recently offered
for side, and 11 point was made of the fact that I lie
editor had arranged with 'one of the foremost
writers of the day' to contribute gratuitously.
## p. 180 (#584) ############################################
i8o
THE AUTHOR.
The editor's services were to lie retained at a salary
of £200."
He would be dirt cheap at four times that sum.
All the proprietors of all the magazines will now
be advertising for that editor. A man who can
engage the foremost writers of the day to write for
nothing is indeed invaluable.
II.
Goon Work, Suhe Pat.
In your comments on the clever article in the
last number of the Author under the above
heading, you draw a distinction between good
work and saleable work. For the latter adjective
allow ine to substitute the word profitable. There
are, I consider, two kinds of profitable books (I
am dealing with fiction): I. Those written by
authors who have an established reputation;
II. Those written, in the penny novelette style,
by scribblers who are willing to pay all the costs
of production so long as their vanity is satisfied
by appearing in print, and for whose writings,
nevertheless, there is a large demand.
Go into any circulating library, and the books
which are most in request are trashy novels, which
might have been written by ladies' maids, professing
to describe the inner life of the aristocracy. These
are devoured bv that lanre section of the reading
public—the young women of the lower middle-
class, who are the best customers of the circulating
library.
The better, though smaller, section of the reading
public confine themselves to the works of known
authors, who are in a position to dictate terms to
publishers; but how can a writer of good average
merit get his works published unless he is pre-
pared to pay the cost, so long as he is systematically
boycotted by publishers, whose interest it is to keep
down the number of authors who expect fair
remuneration for their work?
The early histories of literary men and women,
as far as I have read them, are all very much alike:
heart-breaking struggles against the current of
adversity, which are soon forgotten when the tide
turns, and they are borne along with the stream.
A man with grit, who believes in himself, is not
satisfied to be extinguished by that obscure indi-
vidual, the publisher's reader, but is desirous of
appealing to a higher tribunal; how is he to reach
it? For those who can afford to do so, I see no
objection to their paying the cost of producing
their books, so long as they are dealt with honestly,
and have a fair share of the profits of a successful
work; if, though given a good chance, their book
still proves a failure, they have purchased a valu-
able experience. The difficulty seems to be how to
obtain honest treatment. The Society of Authors
has done much to raise the status of literary men;
but it deserves most credit for throwing some
honest rays of light on that insufferable bugl>ear,
the publisher, and his mysteries.
Claud Harding.
[Our contributor wishes to use the word
profitable instead of saleable. Very well, though
it does not seem to make any difference. He
makes, however, a great mistake when he .says that
there is a great demand for the rubbish for whose
publication bad writers have to pay. Does he not
understand that if there were such a demand the
writers would no longer have to pay?
Is it. the ca.se that it is publishers' interest to
keep down authors who must be remunerated?
It might be so if bad authors were profitable. But
they are not profitable. Therefore, our corre-
spondent's view seems untenable.
Why do the circulating libraries everywhere in
every town contain such rubbish? Because they
buy up at next to nothing a ropy, the remainder
stock. That is the whole mystery. A bad writer
pays a hundred pounds and is published. Sales—
perhaps not one, perhaps a dozen or twenty. The
rest sold off as remainder stock.
At this office we do not speak from guess, but
from knowledge of the facts. Some time ago a
creature who published in this way brought out
several hundreds of such volumes. Not one single
book had any side to speak of; not one writer got
anything. Others there are still carrying on the
same game; holding out false and lying hopes of
immense sale; charging double the cost of pro-
duction, and making their profits by the theft
first and the sale of the remainder stock next.
Literally, one young fellow who was fooled into
[laying for publication, received a return for his
book of no sales at all—not one single copy sold.
Perhaps Mr. Harding is quite right in this con-
tention: That if an author really believes that ;he
has the stuff in him, and that he has produced good
work, he might do well to produce his book at his
own expense if he can only find a man ivho will
do it honestly. But he would generally do far
better to send his MS. to one of the firms whom
we should advise, and first see what they say.—
Editob.]
III.
"Good Work, Sure Pay."
Mr. (J. Davenport Jones, in his plea that the
rejection of a work by publishers and editors must
not be accepted as proof of literary worthlessuess,
## p. 181 (#585) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
181
might have gone farther; lie might have added
that it is no proof of commercial worthlessness. Of
publishers, speaking generally, and acknowledging
exceptions, it is true to say that no body of trades-
men know less about their own business. I will
not pause to give the reasons for this assertion;
they will be sufficiently obvious to those who
rcniemlier that evil communications corrupt good
manners; the laxity of authors cannot but have
a demoralizing effect upon publishers. I assert,
without fear of contradiction, that out of every
I,ooo novels—for the purposes of this argument I
will confine myself to one branch of literature—
passing through the hands of any publisher, those
which are just above mediocrity are those which
find readiest acceptance. Out of 1,000 MSS.,
about o,5o will be "impossible;" these, as in the
case of g5 in 100 pictures rejected by the Royal
Academy Selecting Committees, will be virtuously
rejected by the publisher. As touching the re-
maining 5o, about 3o MSS. will contain much that
is good, but defects of workmanship will place them
outside the pale of the " practicable;" the authors
of tHese books have yet to learn their business.
Twemty works remain. Fifteen of these will be
just sufficiently above the dead level of mediocrity
to insure readv acceptance by the rank and file of
the reading public, and pari passu by the publisher.
There remain five works which will \w distinctly
good; it may even so happen that among these
there mav be one absolutely original work, in other
words, a creation of genius. These five are the
only books which from a literary, from an artistic,
and, in the true meaning of the word, from an
economic point of view, should be published at all;
but ofthe.se, none will stand much chance of accept-
ance, unless it have a sponsor—a friend at court —
or unless the writer, whose name it bears, has
already secured a reading clientele. If these five
l>ooks are by authors unknown, or only slightly
known—other things being equal—their very
merits will cause them to l>e looked at askance.
Publishers' readers are human, very human; very
fallible. What right has an unwreathed A, B, C,
I), or E to give token of individuality? Indi-
viduality? No, it is not individuality; it is
mannerism, perhaps even worse, affectation. As for
the unknown author of the really original book, he
is in the worst plight of all. That his work should
find favour almost presupposes that the publisher
or his reader should be a person of genius, in that
the discovery and acknowledgment of nnproclaimed
genius is alone possible to genius. Again, having
discovered a work of genius, the reader must have,
in a very high degree, the courage of his opinion.
The publisher's reader knows, none better than he,
that 99 in 100 readers of books are fools, who,
moreover, like their books cast in the moulds of
old conventions: fools do not appreciate off-hand
a new prophet. It is, indeed, because he knows
this, that he recommends for acceptance to the
firm he represents, those mediocre works which
require no literary or intellectual acumen for their
appreciation. This lack of knowledge, or of
courage on the part of publishers or of their
readers, has caused many a publisher secret heart-
burnings at the loss of a fortune once within his
reach. The writer of real power and originality
knows by an unerring instinct who and what he is.
Being able to produce books of the stoutest literary
fibre, he is the soundest critic of his work; its
most severe critic; he knows therefore that no
self-vanity deludes him. He has given months,
perhaps years, to the consideration of the work
to which a publisher's reader may have only
devoted a few hours. His sufferings before full
recognition is his will be of the keenest; these no
one can save him; but he rememliers that if he
be given sufficient physical strength to hold out to
the end, his triumph will be all the better worth
having for being delayed. Indeed, the obstacles to
the progress of the strongly individual man are of
the greatest benefit to him; they strengthen and
deepen that individuality, which is the very essence
of his genius. The historic cases mentioned by
Mr. Davenport Jones are not the only cases of the
refusal of epoch-making books. I might almost go
so far as to say that no work of genius of an
unknown and unaided author finds ready accept-
ance. Anyone who is familiar with the early
struggles of novelists of distinction, from Defoe to
Short house, will bear me out in this contention.
Bekskrkkr.
IV.
More Light.
To the Editor of the Author.
Sin,
Will you allow me a short statement of a
case which has long battled my powers of compre-
hension. It may be simple enough to a disinte-
rested reader; but, not being disinterested, I don't
quite understand it.
In 1878 Messrs. Allen & Co. published my
"Warren Hastings; a Biography," on the half
profits system. The book was intended as a
counterblast to Mill and Macaulay. Some people
arc prone to complain of their critics, but I have
no cause to complain of mine. By the press in
general, both at home and abroad, my book was
received with warm approval, both as a " readable"
work and as a timely "corrective" of the popular
notions imbibed from Macaulay's well-known
## p. 182 (#586) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
essay. My reading of Impey's conduct in the
Nuncoinar affair anil on some other occasions was
amply justified, a few years later, by Sir James
Stephen's "Nuncomar and Impey." My general
estimate of Hasting'* character and policy has now
been finally confirmed by Mr. G. Forrest's volumes
of Selections from the Bengal State Papers.
All this may seem very satisfactory from a certain
point of view. But il faut vivre, and even authors
must sometimes think of money, especially if they
have families. Has this book brought me any
substantial profit? Xot one halfpenny, so far.
My publishers inform me that they have sold about
35o copies of my book. Assuming the correctness
of their statement, I may be excused for wondering
at so poor a return for labours which many
competent judges had'deemed so fruitful.
It is a puzzle which fairly floors me. Out of a
population of 35 millions or so in these islands,
only 3oo persons have bought copies of a work
which, in 383 post-octavo pages of largish type,
deals with the foremost figure in one of the
stormiest periods of our Indian history. Did the
publishers charge too high a price—ten shillings—-
for such a volume? It was double what I would
have charged, but they ought to know their own
business best. Was it a dull book on a dull
subject? The critics all assured me to the con-
trary, and so have many private readers, who had
no special interest in Indian subjects. Was the
book insufficiently advertised? Such a question
might be unjust to the publishers. Other questions
occur to me, but why go on quessing in the dark?
With dying Goethe I ask for "more light." Can
you, Sir, or any other expert help me to a single
ray?
Yours obediently,
L. J. Trotter.
v.
An HoxoniiAiir.E Action.
Having seen the notice of the "Honourable
Action," signed llossignol, in your last issue, I
should like to say that an almost exactly similar
circumstance occurred with me, but the publishers
were, in my case, the Committee of a Religious
Society. Like Rossignol, I received a letter offer-
ing me about two-thirds of what I expected, and,
thinking I must have been mistaken in thinking
my story as long as it was, I accepted the offer,
and signed the agreement of copyright. Six
months after, the Editor wrote asking me to
kindly correct a few mistakes in the type-writing
of the story before it went to press, and sent it. to
me for that purpose; and then, to my surprise, I
found it really was a third longer than they had
evidently calculated it to be. In fact, on the back
of the MS. were the figures made by some clerk in
adding up the words, and he had made a mistake
in the last line which made it appear 20,000 words
shorter than it really was. I sent my representa-
tion of the facts to the Editor, and at the next
meeting of the Committee they at once ordered a
cheque to be made out for me for the additional
amount, and expressed their regret that the mistake
had occurred.
I may add that I have had between 20 and 3o
story books for the young published, and, with one
exception, the Religious Societies have paid iue
better than the publishers with whom I have had
dealings.
[A very satisfactory letter. It would, however,
have been better had the writer given the name of
the Society, ■ and still better had she given the
following particulars: (1) the cost of producing
the book; (2) the price of the book; (3) the
number of copies the Society was certain of selling;
(4) the sum paid to her. We should then have
been in a position to state the profit received by
the Society, and to acknowledge, if possible, that
it was a just, and fair, and Christian proportion of
profit.—Editor.]
VI.
Authors and Illustrators.
To the Editor of the Author.
Sir,
The following, which appeared in Truth of
October loth, and since in other papers, has been
responded to by several members of the Press.
1 A few weeks back I mentioned that Mr. Henry
Blackburn proposed to undertake the task of
educating the critics of illustrated books—a work
for which I can readily believe that there is
plenty of room. In pursuit of this end, Mr.
Blackburn asks me to state that he now invites
his brethren of the Press to spend an hour at his
studio, 123, Victoria Street, there to familiarize
themselves with the various mechanical processes
employed in the art of illustrating books and news-
papers. Mr. Blackburn writes :—
"At this particular time of year, when piles of
illustrated books lie waiting for 4 review,' it may not
be inopportune to ask that those upon whom the
reputations of so many artists, engravers, and makers
of ' process ' blocks depend, should know something
more than they have hitherto done of the mcdus
opcr<indi of book and newspaper illustration, and
especially of the reasons for the failures which they
see before them.
"In England it is, unfortunately, not considered
'good form ' to know much of workshops, and our
best artists, as a rule, take little interest in the
## p. 183 (#587) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
methods by which their works are reproduced.
Hence the ignorance of writers—art critics learned
in schools and styles—of what is common knowledge
in France."'
As the matter is really an important one to
authors, perhaps you will allow me to extend the
invitation through your columns, beyond the
domain of the "live" journalist to that of
the more isolated literary man.
The main object is to bring the author more " en
rapport" with the illustrator; to do this in the
easiest way and with the least restraint. Ac-
knowledge which an author can thus gain, quietly,
in an hour's visit, will, if I may say so, be useful to
him sometime or other; and amongst the uses, not
the least will be the knowledge of how he can best
aiil his illustrator.
As to "educating critics" and the general
statement that illustrations in books are continually
criticised without sufficient knowledge, I feel
bound, in a plain-speaking journal like the Author,
to give "chapter and verse."
My contention is that our leading art critics are
not, from force of circumstances, well informed on
matters of technique, e.g., that the writers in the
Athcna-urn, the Saturday Review, and the Times
speak erroneously of the photo - mechanically-
produced blocks used in the type-press, as "inferior
and rubbishing processes" (sic), which in jure the
artist's work and degrade modern illustration; that,
they ignore the fact that it is generally the misuse
of the processes, and not the processes themselves
which are at fault.
The beautiful methods of photo-engraving now
available do actually improve the illustrator's work,
if he will learn to draw aright. This can be proved
beyond question, and the younger generation of
illustrators are giving daily demonstration of the
fact. For the misuse of the processes, of course
both publishers and the makers of blocks are
mainly responsible, the latter especially for under-
taking work for which the "processes" are unfitted,
such, for instance, as attempting to turn a wash
drawing into a relief block when it should have
been handed to a wood engraver.
In the Athcnteum illustrations produced mechani-
cally are constantly referred to as "cuts" (as if
wood-engraved), a most misleading expression for
an author to read in his weekly organ.
But not to go further into details, if you think
the subject of sufficient importance, the Author
may do good service in ventilating it and inviting
discussion.
Yours faithfully,
Henry Blackburn.
123, Victoria Street, Westminster,
19th October, 1891.
■
A CASE FOR THE SOCIETY FOR
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.
ABATHER puzzling experience has just been
related to me. A man who was going abroad
last mouth met in Broadway, the day before
he sailed, an Englishman whom he believed to be
in London, and whom he expected to see when he
reached that city. As soon as he saw him, he
said to himself, "Hello, there's Vaulter !"—or
words to that effect, the real name bring immaterial
to the story. The two men—not old friends, but
acquaintances on very friendly terms—seemed glad
to see each other, and stopped anil shook hands.
The American had a moment's misgiving as to the
identity of his vis-a-vis, but it disappeared under
the reassuring influence of the replies his questions
drew forth. "When did you get here?" he
asked. "Last. Wednesday," was the answer—
Wednesday being one of the days on which the fast
steamers arrive from England. "Is your wife with
you?" "Yes." "When do you return?"
"Next Saturday." "I shall be sorry not to see
you upon the other side: I sail on the 'Majestic'
to-morrow" (it was then Tuesday) "and had
counted on seeing you and your wife in London."
"I shall be very sorry to iniss you," was the polite
response. "By the way," exclaimed the American,
"where is Mrs. . She was to be in London
now, and I had expected to learn her address front
you." The name mentioned was that of a well-
known American writer, whose cousin the English-
man had married. "She is down in the country
visiting some of her relations." After exchanging
a few more words, the two men shook hands again,
smiled, touched their hats, and parted.
On arriving at his office, five minutes later, the
American dropped a line to the son of the lady
whose exact whereabouts he had neglected to ascer-
tain from his English friend: and by return of
post received an address in Clarges Street. "What
you say about Vaulter," added the young man, " is
[Hire abracadabra to me: the last I heard of him
lie was with my people in England. Quare: Is
this a ease for the Society for Psychical Research?"
The puzzled American sailed from New York the
next day, and on his arrival at Liverpool posted to
the London address of the lady in the ease a note
reporting the contradictory statements as to her
place of sojourn. When he reached London two
days thereafter, an answer to his letter awaited him
at his hotel in Jermyn Street. It contained an
invitation to dinner; and the next evening over a
spotless cloth around which a typical English butler
## p. 184 (#588) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
moved with noiseless dignity, the tale of tlie inter-
view of ten days ago in Broadway was told at length.
"I have been visiting relations in the country,"
said the hostess, "but not for several weeks; and
Mr. Vaulter hasn't been out of England for many
months." Needless to say, the mystified American
made a point of calling upon the Vaulters at their
pleasant apartment overlooking Hyde Park. Of'
course they were out. "Out of town?" "No, sir,
in town, but not at 'omc," A letter with a London
postmark and an English stamp brings excellent
evidence that they were in town a very few days
after this fruitless call; but it does not account for
the striking resemblance to Vaulter of the gentle-
man in Broadway, nor for his appropriate replies to
the questions of his puzzled interlocutor, who is
now strongly inclined to think this is "a case for
the Society for Psychical Research."
From the New York Critic. •»..-♦
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
ARCHDEACON Farrar, in his new book
"Darkness and Dawn, or Scenes in the
Days of Nero," returns to his old field, the
beginnings of Christianity, but not to his old
publishers. Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co.
produce his new book.
There is a perennial charm in anything written
about Cervantes and Don Quixote, always provided
that the writer is competent in his subject. Mr. H.
E. Watts is well known as the latest and best
translator of the immortal work. He has now
contributed a life of the great Spaniard to the
series known as "Great Writers," which, if names
could make a serial succeed, should l>e a very great
success indeed, containing, as it does, such writers
as Hall Caine, Augustine Birrell, Rossetti, Sharp
Hannay, Austin Dobson, Garnett, Edmund Gosse,
Sime, Oscar Browning, and last, not least, H. E.
Watts. It has a stirring eventful story to tell, set in
a stirring time. The life illustrates the great book.
The book illustrates the life. Let no one read the
life who does not know the book, let no one hence-
forth read the book again until he has read the life.
A most valuable bibliography is appended to the
work.
Mrs. Goddard Orpen has just completed a
series of papers entitled "Chronicles of the
Sid," which will begin in the November number
of the Leisure Hour, and will run through-
out the year. The "Chronicles" are mainly
concerned with the journey of a lady through the
Algerian Sahara and Upper Egypt.
Miss Augusta A. Varty-Smith (Sa'imath), author
of " The Fawcette and Garods," is about to issue a
novel in three volumes, entitled " Matthew Tindale."
The story, which has already appeared in serial
form, will be published by Messrs. R. Bentley and
Sons.
On November 2nd will appear Mrs. F. Marsh's
new novel, "The Junior Dean." (Chatto and
Windus.) 3 vols.
"The Railway Foundling," by "Nomad," has
been issued in a cheap edition, 2s. 6cl. It has been
highly spoken of as a work of vivacity and adven-
ture with a clever story.
A fourth edition of Mr. M. Powis Bale's
"Handbook for Steam Users" will he published
immediately by Messrs. Longmans.
Mr. Ernest M. Bowden's " Imitation of Buddha,"
enriched by a preface from Sir Edwin Arnold, will
l>e issued immediately by Messrs. Methuen & Co.
It will contain quotations from Buddhist literature
for every day in the year. The price will be
3s. 6d.
Mrs. (Emma) Marshall will publish early in
November, through Messrs. Seeley and Co.,
"Winifrede's Journal," in the days of Joseph
Hale, D.D., sometime Bishop of Exeter and
Norwich, author of "Under Salisbury Spire and
Winchester Meads."
The same author will shortly issue—
"Little Queenie," a story of child-life 60 years
ago. Messrs. John Shaw and Co.
"These Three," a story for girls.
"Born in the Purple."
"My Lady Bountiful."
All through Messrs. Nisbet and Co.
"Bear Hunting in the White Mountains"
(Chapman and Hall) is the title of the new work
by Mr. Hey wood W. Seton-Karr. It should have
been announced in the October number.
•ft-
## p. 185 (#589) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
Note a charming little book for children, " Bub,"
by Ismay Thorn (Blackie & Son).
Among the new books of the season must be
mentioned " United States Pictures." Drawn with
pen and pencil by Richard Lovett, M.A. It has u
map and 100 engravings. It is published by the
Religious Tract Society.
appeals to everybody alike. It is Mr. Athol
Maudslay'snew book on Nature's Weather Warnings
and Natural Phenomena, published by Simpkin,
Marshall & Co. It is a book of rules for fore-
casting the weather, with a number of old world
rustic and seagoing prognostications, as useful as
they are interesting.
We regret to announce the death of Mrs. Price,
a novelist who was rapidly rising to distinction.
Several of her tales are still coming out or are
arranged for. A serial from her pen is about to
run through a Glasgow paper. She has left a one-
volume story completed, and an unfinished two-
volume story.
Mr. C. H. Cope produces "Reminiscences" of
his father, Charles West Cope, R.A. (Bentley and
Son). He has also brought out a short memoir
(Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge),
entitled " Strength Made Perfect in Weakness."
On Thursday was published "Mr. and Mrs.
Herries," by Miss May Crommelin, author of
"Goblin Gold," "Queenie," "Midge," "Violet.
Vyvian," <fcc. Another work, by the same author,
is running in Woman, called " For the Sake of the
Family."
Mr. Hume Nisbet's new Romance, entitled " The
Jolly Roger," a Tale of Sea Heroes and Pirates,
will appear immediately. The work is illustrated
by the author.
Miss Mary C. Rowsell, author of " Love Loyal,"
"Miss Vanbrugh," &c, is producing (Skeifington
and Co.), a volume of stories called "Petronella,"
of which the title story is the novel form of the
drama produced some months ago. Those who
spoke well of that play will be glad to hear that it
will be probably produced again before long and
with considerable alterations.
Among the multitude of new books all crying
out to be heard and all belonging to this or "that
school, calling, or persuasion, here is one which
NEW LOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Theology.
Axo.v, W. K. A. The Collected Sermons of Thomas
Fuller, D.D., i63i-i65<). Edited by the late J. K.
Bailey, F.S.A. Completed by. x vols. Unwin
Brothers.
Berry, T. .S. Christianity and Kuddhism. zs. 6J.
Balk, R. L., LL.D. Fellowship with Christ and other
discourses delivered on special occasions. Hodder and
Stoughton. 6.v.
Diggi.e, Rev. Canon'. Sermons for Daily Life. 5s.
Kx-ei.t., Rev. J. S. The Biblical Illustrator—St. John,
Vol. III. Nisbet, Berners Street. 7s. 6d.
Foster, Rev. J. K. Pain, its Mystery and Meaning, and
other Sermons. 3.s. 6J.
Frif.di.ander, M. The Jewish Religion. Kcgan Paul.
Harrison, Rev. Alex. Problems of Christianity and
Scepticism. Longmans, ys. 6(1.
Macduff, J. R., D.D. St. Paul's Song of Songs: A prac-
tical exposition of the Eighth Chapter of Romans.
3s. 6d.
Maurice, F. I). Sermons Preached in Lincoln's Inn
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Report of the Postmaster-General on the Post Office,
4d. Return of Public Expenditure (Exchequer
Issues), Charges on Taxes for each year, 1857-58 to
1890-91, id. Report on Sanitary Measures in India
in 1889-90. Vol. 23. 13. 6d. Eyre and Spottiswoode.
## p. 191 (#595) ############################################
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## p. 192 (#596) ############################################
192
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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XT b e Hutbor*
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 7.]
DECEMBER 1, 1891.
[Pkice Sixpence.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Warnings '97
Notices '97
The Authors' Club 98
On Royalties '99
The Cost of Production 300
International Copyright Joo
Tho Study of English aoo
Tempota (et Fcniuuc) Mntantur 301
An Arabian Night 301
To a Young Violinist 302
The Growth of Literature in New Zealand 303
Notes and News 305
The Hygiene of the Literary' Li'" 308
"The Arrowmaker" 309
TAQE
I Spirit! Dei Ponti. The Spirits of Bridges 310
A Method of Advertisement 313
A Puzzling Experience 314
Correspondence—
I.—A New Departure 314
II.—A New Reading Union 214
III. —On New Work aij
IV. —Novels in a Batch 315
V.—The Generosity of tho Religious Society .. .. 31J
VI.—The Bookman 316
Notes on the Above 316
"At the Author's Head" 317
New Books and New Editions 319
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## p. 194 (#598) ############################################
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## p. 195 (#599) ############################################
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VOL. II. JJ 2
## p. 196 (#600) ############################################
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years, and, as far ns I can remember, they have never failed me."
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the Best
People, who have used them for years) to—
MABIE, TODD, & BARD,
03, CHEAFSIDB, LOIXTDOHT. *'
## p. 197 (#601) ############################################
^Ibe Hutbor*
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authort. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 7.] DECEMBER 1, 1891. [Price Sixpence.
For the Opinions expressed in papers that arc
signed the Authors alone are responsible,
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to
make the following warnings as widely known as
possible. They are based on the experience of six
years' work upon the dangers to which literary
property is exposed:—
(1.) Never sign any agreement of which the
alleged cost of production forms an
integral part, unless an opportunity of
proving the correctness of the figures is
given them.
(2.) Never enter into any correspondence with
publishers, especially with advertising
publishers, who are not recommended by
experienced friends or by this Society.
(3.) Never, on any account whatever, bind
yourself down for future work to any
one firm of publishers.
(4.) Never accept any proposal of royalty
without ascertaining exactly what the
agreement gives to the author and what
to the publisher.
(5.) Never accept any pecuniary risk or respon-
sibility whatever without advice.
(6.) Never, when a MS. has been refused by
respectable houses, pay others, whatever
promises they may put forward, for the
production of the work.
(7.) Never sign away American rights. Keep
them. Refuse to sign an agreement con-
taining a clause which reserves them for
the publisher. If the publisher insists,
take away the MS. and offer it to another.
(8.) Never forget that publishing is a business,
like anv other business, totally unconnected
with philanthropy, charity, or pure love
of literature. You have to do with
business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Ins Fields.
«-«~»
NOTICES.
THE Committee have to acknowledge with
thanks the ample response made to their
request for subscriptions towards the pro-
posed presentation to Mr. Robert Underwood
Johnson. No more money need be sent, as the
amount received and promised will fully cover the
amount spent. We will render a further account
uext mouth.
The meaning, as between publisher and author,
of the so-called "Royalty System"—where there
is no system—was explained in the Author for
November 1891. Writers are entreated, in their
own interests, to study the facts and figures there
set forth.
Communications intended for the Authors' Syndi-
cate should be addressed to W. Morris Colles, the
Honorary Secretary. Mr. Colles will issue a report
on the financial side of the Syndicate, drawn by a
firm of chartered accountants, at the beginning of
the new year,
## p. 198 (#602) ############################################
ig8
THE AUTHOR.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of this Society or not, are invited
to communicate to the Editor any points connected
with their work which it would be advisable in the
general interest to publish.
Members and others who wish their MSS. read
are requested not to send them to the Office without
previously communicating with the Secretary. The
utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS.
are read in the order in which they are received.
It must also be distinctly understood that the
Society does not, under any circumstances, under-
take the publication of MSS.
The official directions for the securing of American
copyright by English authors were given in the
Author for June 1891. Members are earnestly
entreated to take the trouble of reading those
directions.
Members are earnestly requested to forward
agreements to the Society for inspection before
they sign them. Once signed, the mischief is
generally irreparable.
A correspondent writes to ask for information as
to the "loss" of copyright. A few elementary
points are, therefore, advanced. Copyright is the
right to copy or reproduce. It must not be parted
with, except for a consideration fair and reasonable.
Most publishers' agreements contain a clause which
assigns to them the copyright. It is called some-
times by its own name, sometimes it is called the
right to first and all subsequent editions, some-
times it. is called the right to produce future
editions at cheaper prices, should the publisher think
lit. Then follows the consideration for which the
author is asked to surrender his property. Writers
who sign this agreement in too many cases do not
even know what they are giving or selling, and in
some instances are too inexperienced in business
matters to understand plain English. Let them
before signing any agreement ask themselves these
questions:
1. Does the agreement assign the copyright to
the publishers?
2. If so, for what consideration?
3. What does that consideration leave to the
publishers on the side of the first and all
subsequent editions?
■ ■—
THE AUTHORS' CLUB.
1.
AFINAL meeting of the Parliamentary Com-
mittee of the proposed Authors' Club was
held at the Society's Office on Thursday last.
Mr. Oswald Craufurd, C.M.G., in the chair. The
rules have now been finally adopted. The pro-
spectus of the club has been drawn up and adopted.
It has been decided to bring out the club, as many
other new clubs have been successfully started, as a
Joint Stock Company. The committee have every
reason to be sanguine of success. Up to the present
moment they have received the names of many well
known men of letters. The subscription will be, at
first, four guineas a year.
II.
Prospectus.
Literature, which formerly was taken to include
little beside history, belles lettres, and poetry,
now includes writing on any and every subject
that can occupy the wit of man. There are
those who write on science—an army in them-
selves; those who write fiction—another armv;
those who write on music, painting, sculpture,
architecture, and all branches of art. There are
those who write on law, those who write on
medicine, those who write on social and political
economy, those who write on theology, those who
write their travels, those who write biography,
those who write essays and magazine articles.
There are journalists, and there are those who sit
in judgment on all who write. In every liberal
profession there are authors. In every calling out-
side the liberal professions there are authors.
Those who write books are not necessarily authors
by profession. They think they have a thing to
say, and they say it by means of a book. In may
be a contribution to their own profession, the
subject in which they have been trained. It may-
be only one book that makes its writer an author.
The living authors, including every man and every
woman who has written a book, may now be
numbered by thousands.
The Authors' Club is established for the associa-
tion of authors in every branch of literature,
including in that term the writers and editors of
books, dramatists, journalists, and contributors to
leading periodicals, or to the transactions of learned
and scientific societies, and writers in collective
publications.
But it will be understood, the fact of a man
having written books—however good or successful
## p. 199 (#603) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
199
—will not alone qualify him for admission to the
Club unless he is iilso a clubbable person.
At present it cannot be said that there is any
literary club at all. There are men of letters at
the Athenaeum, just as there are men distin-
guished in the church, in science, and in
art. There are men of letters in the Savile, the
Gnrrick, the Arts, and the Savage, but there is no
such thing as a'club where the first qualification is
that the members shall belong to the republic of
letters. There is no club which serves the interests
of literature in the same way as the Service Clubs
act for the Army and the Navy. And just as there
exist in the Army and the Navy the widest possible
differences and distinctions among the members,
.so the widest possible differences exist among
authors, and should not be a bar to union.
It is intended to make the Club a high-class in-
stitution. It will, for instance, contain reading and
■writing rooms, billiard rooms, smoking rooms, card
rooms, dressing rooms, dining rooms, &c.
Some of the special advantages of the Club for
members will be as follows :—
(1.) It will be a Club with a very reasonable
subscription and charges.
(2.) It will be placed in a central position.
(3.) Every member will be supposed to know
every other member.
(4.) It will aim at being a social club on the
lines already followed by some of the
newer clubs.
(5.) Members will have the privilege of enter-
taining their friends.
(6.) It will contain rooms for writing, provided
with a referenee library.
(7.) There will be a table d'hote dinner as well
as dinners at separate tables.
(8.) The Club will necessarily, from the quali-
fications demanded of its members, step
at the outset into the front as a society
composed of men who have at least shown
some intellectual activity.
(9.) Its members will be limited to 600.
III.
The advantages which this Club, successful and
well managed, ought to confer upon the pro-
fession of letters, may be briefly summed up as
follows: It has long been one of the chief aims
of the Society of Authors to bring together, as
barristers are brought together, though they may
l>e united by a more slender tie, those who produce
the literature of the day. It is found that the
Society, whose chief work is the defence of the
property created by these producers, has developed
some power of awakening the spirit and cama-
raderie belonging to a common profession; but
that it necessarily lacks the power of bringing
together the members of the profession. We
cannot have a common hall, we cannot have
benchers to maintain the dignity and watch for the
honour of the profession. But, we have a Society,
and we may, if we please, have a club. The spirit
engendered by the existence of common interests
lies at the root of all professional unions. When
these interests are recognised and understood to be
common to all, the professional spirit will grow
and spread. The old jealousies and quarrels of
authors, which disgrace the history of literature,
will be rendered impossible when, as in the legal
profession, men are restrained by public opinion,
or by professional etiquette, from the old miserable
practice of rending, abusing, and scarifying each
other. No reasonable person ever can or will
object to open and honourable criticism, especially
when it is invited by sending books to an editor
for review. But it is above all things desirable to
create and to foster that professional spirit which
shall make authors feel that they owe to each other
the same respect, and must pay the same outward
forms of respect, as barrister owes and pays to
barrister, or physician to physician. Now the
Authors' Club should be able, far more efficiently
than the Authors' Society, to lead in the creation
of this spirit.
Another advantage to literature will be that the
work done by the Society—the diffusing of know-
ledge; as to the cost of production—the meaning of
royalties—the frauds practised by the fraudulent
houses, &c, will become more accessible by means of
a club whose members are all men of letters, and,
therefore, interested in spreading abroad among
their own class these facts and figures.
It may be objected that the elder writers among
us will not wish to join a new literary club. It is
true that they have their own clubs, and that we
cannot expect many of them to break up old habits
and to change their circles, and to go into strange
clubs among new people. Still, some of them, for
the love of letters, will certainly join the club, and
we must remember, as regards the rest, that the
future belongs to the young. Only let the young
men join us, and the future of the club is assured.
ON ROYALTIES.
LAST month we gave approximately the mean-
ing of what is called tlie " Royalty System"
in a series of tables, which readers will do
well to study and to note carefully. A timely
incident may show one of the dangers against which
## p. 200 (#604) ############################################
200
THE AUTHOR.
au author should l>e on his guard in signing
gureoments based u]>on this system. A.B. wrote a
book, which lie took to a publisher. The latter
offered the author an agreement granting a certain
royalty on the published price, but inserted a clause
stipulating that, should he sell the book at. less than
half price, the royalty should be only a certain
amount on the nett sales instead of the published
price. This agreement was signed by the author,
who supposed that the clause could only refer to
remainder stock. Not at all. The publisher sold
the bulk of the edition just under half price; but
he gave the author no hint of his intention. What
he gained on the royalties over what he. lost by
lowering the price put something into his pocket on
every volume.
THE COST OF PRODUCTION.
ANOTHER edition of this very useful little work
is now ready. Those who possess the earlier
editions will please note that since they were
issued there has been a rise in compositors' wages,
which, so far as London is concerned, will affect
the item of composition, or setting-up, and press
work, or machining, to the extent of about i5 per
cent. It has not, we are assured, touched prices
in Edinburgh.
Those who consult the book should also bear in
mind that our estimates are very liberal, so as to be
on the safe side. A printer's bill is a very elastic
thing, one that may be shortened as well as
lengthened, in a most surprising manner. Eor in-
stance, a certain piece of work required for the
Authors' Syndicate, which began by costing 36*. a
week, 1ms now gone down to ids., without the least
alteration in length. And the other day the account
of a book was sent in which showed the cost of
production considerably less than the estimate in
the Society's book. Nor is this the only occasion
in which we have found the figures supplied to us
to have been liberal ones.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
I.
CERTAIN French writers and composers have
formed the " Societe Civile du Copyright,"
and have appointed Edward Brandus,
publisher, of New York, their agent. The French
Copyright Company has been incorporated with
a capital of ?5o,ooo, with headquarters at
No. 26, Rue Caumartin, in Paris, and an office
in New York, at 3o, Broad Street. The object
is to protect the property of French authors and
composers in the United States. To a Tribune
reporter, who asked him whether he had any
individual contracts with well-known authors, Mr.
Brandus replied: "Few great authors arc willing
to bind themselves to publish their books in any-
particular way or place. However, our Society
has met the approval of Frenchmen, and we shall
publish many works of many famous authors." He
also expressed the opinion that the Society will be
as beneficial to American authors as to French.
II.
With regard to the difficulty of retaining
copyright in America for a story that is being
published serially in England, it appears to me
that the difficulty might be got over somewhat
in the way the right in plays was retainer],
by producing to a few friends. Produce the
book in America simultaneously with the first
instalment being issued in England; but produce
also in England, say, eight copies of the book at a
prohibitive price—five for the libraries, the rest for
those who like buying scarce articles; this would
be publication simultaneously of the whole book,
here and in America, but not a publication that
would injure the run in the serial. Perhaps
opinions upon this suggestion may be obtained.
James Baker.
THE STUDY OF ENGLISH.
PROFESSOR Skeat's paper on the Educational
Value of English, published in the Educational
Review of November, is a claim for our own
language and our own literature as instruments of
the higher education. It is the first chapter onlv.
He shows that the true value of our language was
actually left to foreigners to discover. The
first Anglo-Saxon grammar of any scientific
value was written by a Dane. The only grammars
of the, English language, of any importance
are written by Germans. The best treatise on
English metre is written by a German. The best
account of Early English Literature is by a Dutch-
man, and the best book on Shakespeare is by a
German. Again, there are no periodicals in
Germany—in this country there are none—devoted
to the study of English Literature. "With a
certain few exceptions of well-known names,"
## p. 201 (#605) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
2Q\
writes Professor Skeat, "the editor of either of
tliese periodicals would not accept a contribution
sent him by a correspondent from England, lest he
should find that, when the article appeared in print,
it would prove the incompetency of the author, and
his own mismanagement." This affords a safe
measure of the reputation which English scholar-
ship enjoys abroad.
TEMPORA (ET FEMIN5J) MUTANTTJR.
"Jocund his muse was, but his life was chaste."
(Herkick.)
I.
Old Herrick's dead and gone,
Yet no hoary granite stone
Remains the Poet's resting-place to tell—
But the vicars ever since
Have been trying to convince
The world each caught his mantle as it fell!
II.
Thus you see a silly fellow
Who cannot pluck a yellow
Buttercup, without apostrophizing odes;
While my laughter-loving lasses
I must view with other glasses
Than those prescribed by Education Codes.
III.
I suppose the air of Devon
Lends a soft poetic leaven
To those who court it's enervating breeze;
For though old Herrick rated
Dean Prior, which he hated,
He worked away at his Hesperides!
IV.
His Julia is dead,
Anthea too has fled
To the land from whence no travellers return,
But his Daffodills shine bright
And his Glow-worms lend their light,
And there roars upon the rocks his rugged
bourn.
V.
Yes! The mosses ami the flowers,
Fed by everlasting showers,
Luxuriate on venerable banks;
But, alas! in vain you seek
For the cherry lip and cheek
That can coax a very anchorite to pranks!
VOL. II.
VI.
No! The beauties of the parish
Are not the sort to ravish
Your eyes, or pay for intimate inspection;
I could never care a stiver
For a lass with too much liver
Or a tallowy and sallowy complexion!
VII.
Oh! Herrick ! could you rise,
You would view with sad surprise
A cuticle of parchment or of paste;
And would own that at the most
'Twould be now a sorry boast
That while your muse was jocund you were
chaste.
Dean Prior Vicarage,
Buckfastleigh.
♦■»■♦
AN ARABIAN NIQHT.
(From the American Author.)
OvCHEHEKAZADE had just begun her thou-
sand-and-second narration. The Sultan
Schahriah held up his hand in impatient
weariness, and she stopped.
"Is this the same old thing?" he demanded.
"Genii, disguised califs, enchanted palaces, roc's
eggs, magic lamps, and all that?"
"It must be so, your Serene Placidity," the
trembling romancer replied. "Naught else is
there wonderful enough to frame a tale for ears
like thine."
"Then out you go!"
The sultan gave a wrathful signal. Slaves
seized the hapless girl and dragged her, shrieking,
toward the place where the bowstrings were kept.
She broke from them and threw herself at the
sultan's feet.
"I have thought of another one!" she cried.
"This is a new one!"
"If it be both new and good, well. We desire
originality, but we desire imagination also. The
new tale must be more wonderful than any you
have submitted to us these thousand-and-one nights
past."
"It is much more wonderful."
"Then we will consider it. There are also
other requirements. Don't ask us what they are.
If you are left alive, you may know that you have
satisfied them. If you are slain, you may know
that you have failed. Proceed. If your new story
is just the thing we want, we may accept it. Wo
can soou tell. So can you!"
O
## p. 202 (#606) ############################################
2QZ
THE AUTHOR.
Thus encouraged, poor Scheherazade began for
the second time her thousand-and-second narration.
"In the time of my youth wealth was my slave,
and luxury was the air I breathed. A wish un-
gratified was a thing I could not imagine. Another
tiling I could not imagine was the need for any
sort of effort. As for work, it simply did not exist
within my knowledge."
"Pretty good invention !" muttered the sultan.
"Rather too good, since we remember what hard
scratching your father's family had to do to get
along!"
"One terrible day," Scheherazade continued,
"all this happiness became a memory. A sudden
tempest of misfortune uprooted the beautiful tree
of prosperity; and where its roots had been was
now only the deep, black hole of poverty. In the
depths of that hole I was engulfed. I was left
alone, without help. I, who had never learned
what exertion meant, must now work if I would
keep alive, even at the bottom of the dismal hole."
"You said something about this being a new
storv," Schahriah suggested grimly. "If it is, you
had better get to the new part right away!"
"Patience, O Most Serene! It was all terribly
new to me! But I conie now at once to the
blissfully thrilling part. By one timely and supreme
effort I got out of the hole 1 was in, and renewed
the atmosphere of luxury I had l>een wont to
breathe. Pens, ink, and paper had been saved from
the wreck of our fortune. They were the instru-
ments of my deliverance. Without an instant of
delay I began to write for the magazines!"
The sultan uttered a howl. The slaves sprang
forward to seize once more the unhappy fabricator.
Their master motioned them to stand back. He
could endure yet a little more.
"The magazines, eh? That may account for
the lack of flesh on your bones when you came to
live at the palace," he remarked to Scheherazade.
"But goon. Tell us how you managed it. In
that, must lie tin; new and wonderful part of your
story—if it have any such part!"
"It managed itself, O Most Credulous One ! I
but went forth among the makers of magazines and
told them my wish. Some of them prayed me, in
tones of melting kindness, to show them what I
had written. No word, as yet, had ever been
written by me; for I knew not how to write.
Then thesB gentle-hearted men knelt before me
and begged that I would straightway begin. I
granted their prayer. The first thing I wrote for
them they published and paid for,—and never
thereafter did I write a line that was not published
and paid for. I wrote much, and forgot poverty.
That is the tale, O Most Gullible!"
The sultan reflected in silence for a little time.
"It has been told many times before," he said at
last. "We have seen it on the printed page.
Foolish men and women seem to love the telling of
it. Therefore, it is not new. It is sufficiently
marvellous to make up for that, however. It is
more wonderful than ' The Slave of the Lain]),'
and that is a recommendation. In all the thousand
and one nights you have told us nothing so in-
credible. So, only for one thing, your story might
be accepted. Among the requirements we did not
mention is truth. Truth we must have. Now, we
could believe in 'The Valley of Diamonds'; but
who could believe this latter tale? Therefore"
He gave once more the signal to the slaves; and
thev did what was expected of them.
James C. Pi*udt.
Moorestown, N. J.
TO A YOUNG VIOLINIST.
At her Debut, New York, Oct. 18, 1S91.
Fair sister of the Muses! 'tis the hour
Dearest of all, when thou dost wed thy Art.
No bride more radiant a more single heart
Gave to her chosen—and what noble dower!
Graces akin to forest and to flower;
A spirit blithe as dawn; a soul astart;
A nature rich, to keep thee what thou art —
A star of beauty and a flame of power.
Now, while the tranced throng turn each to each
Sharing their joy, think'st thou on those
young years
When many a day and night was unbeguiled
Save by this love that lightened toil and tears?
Thy music melts upon the verge of speech—
Fame crowns the artist, I, the constant child.
R. U. Johnson.
(New York Critic.)
THE GROWTH OF LITERATURE IN
NEW ZEALAND.
By Mrs. James Soisted, Cor. Mem. R.G.S.
(Australasia).
THE practical " nation making" work in which
New Zealand colonists are engaged, leaves
the majority, at least, scant leisure for
intellectual pursuits.
## p. 203 (#607) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
It is therefore a good augury for the literary
future of this beautiful country that amid the
absorbing demand upon their energies the belles
letties are not wholly neglected.
It would be impossible within the compass of
this short article to do more than briefly glance at
the intellectual history of New Zealand.
It will, however, be readily granted by my
readers that the national literature of any country
must necessarily be greatly influenced, not only by
the character of the natives, but also by the nature
of the country itself.
Moreover, every country should have its distinc-
tive character faithfully expressed in a literature
which is a reflex of the land in which it had its
birth. Further, nothing can better show the
growth of a nation than its progress in literature.
Nor does it necessarily follow that because such
literature bears a local colouring, the writers are
either narrow or insular. There were many and
exceptional causes which led not only to political,
but also to literary activity, from the very earliest
inception of settlement in this colony. For, in
addition to the ordinary political struggles—and
they were many and bitter—there was the dealings
with a warlike native population whose numbers
have been variously estimated; but it is certain
that in the North Island there must have been
over 70,(XK) people when the settlers first arrived.
It was a meeting of races, one, well trained in
civilisation, guided by their own moral code, the
other with quite a different rule of life. A stubborn
conflict of races seemed inevitable, albeit, the
natural fierceness of the Maori tribes was not
infrequently tempered with an admirable fidelity
and generosity not often surpassed.
These early struggles, extending, as they did,
ovar many years, combined witli causes to be
presently touched upon, gave the lirst impetus to
literary culture, as they led to debates, to pamphlets,
to memorials, and to a sharpening and an educating
that had a good mental effect on the colonists
generally.
One great advantage that cannot well be over-
estimated was due to the fact that among the
very earliest bands of settlers in New Zealand
might be found many men of high standing and
culture, who brought with them to the scene of
their labours elevated views of colonial life, and
exidted ideals, up to which they endeavoured to
live in the new existence; with its peculiar
environment, and in so doing they largely in-
fluenced the lives of all around them. Greed of
gain formed no part of the plan of life mapped out
for themselves by such men as Fitzgerald, Clifford,
Weld, Domett, Swanson, Godley, Pollen, Cargill,
Maeandrcw, Burns, Gillies, Martin, Wakefield,
Fit/.herbert, Richmond,Fox, Featherston,Whitaker,
Sinclair, &c. These anil many others were men
of whom any nation under the sun might well be
proud. They were actuated by the highest
motives and aimed at founding, not merely "a
bit of England" in the midst of a Polynesian
population, but a grand nation that would in time
to come develop and ultimately become the
veritable " Britain of the South."
That newspapers are no mean factors in literary
culture is an established fact, and in ably con-
ducted journals New Zealand stands pre-eminent.
As early as August 1839, there appeared the first
number of the New Zealand Gazette, while at
the present time no fewer than i3o newspapers are
published in this country. Sir Julius Vogel, to
whose ability and energy the colony is so largely
indebted, is the acknowledged father of the daily
press of New Zealand.
The leading dailies and weeklies issued now in
the chief cities, namely, Wellington, Auckland,
Dunedin, ami (Jhristchurch, will bear favourable
comparison with similar publications in the large
English towns.
Once a year the large weekly journals open their
columns to locally written novelettes, but beyond
such limited opportunity, New Zealand authors
receive but scant encouragement in their own
country. This is probably due in some measure to
the smallness of the population, the immense
quantity of books imported, anil also to the fact
that articles and stories are copied from English
magazines by the newspapers, who pay nothing for
the privilege of doing so. Still, new aspirants
for literary fame are constantly appearing in the
field, and latent talent is being developed which
cannot fail in causing our literature to rank higher
year by year. Already some of our novelists are
well known in the world of letters. Sir Julius
Vogel, Fergus Hume, B. L. Farjeon, W. Watson,
and Vincent Pyke, are amongst those who are
leading the way in fiction.
In poetry we can point with pride to such sweet
singers as Bracken, Bathgate, Domett, and Mrs. J.
G. Wilson, all of whom have, and are, helping to
originate a national literature. It is, indeed, chiefly
to the early poets of a new country, with their
warm sympathy, their tuneful eloquence, and fervid
imagination, that we look, not only for the lirst
vivid description of scenery, new flowers, trees,
birds, and animals, with their varied habits and
peculiarities, but also for the strange and hitherto
unrecorded manners, customs and legends of a
newly-discovered race of men.
Science has by no means been neglected, as New
Zealand is fortunate in possessing many admirable
naturalists, including botanists, zoologists, and
geologists, whose labours have produced most
excellent results; notably the zoological researches
O 2
## p. 204 (#608) ############################################
204
THE AUTHOR.
of Sir James Hector. Since the founding of the
"New Zealand Institute" in 1869, with its annual
volume of proceedings and transactions, science
has become thoroughly systematised, and a marked
advance has been made in the various branches.
And, I think, without undue .exultation, we may
congratulate ourselves on having outstripped the
other Colonies in the race for scientific honours.
Even Canada, with all the resources at her
command, has produced nothing at all comparable
with the "Transactions of the New Zealand
Institute," or Sir Walter Buller's magnificent
ornithological works.
Although born and reared in New Zealand, long
study among the museums of Europe, and acquaint-
ance with the literature of the subject on which
he writes, renders Sir Walter Buller absolutely the
first authority in the world on the New Zealand
avifauna, and his "History of the Birds of New
Zealand" is a book to be coveted, not only by
savants, but by all lovers of natural history.
The author was elected Fellow of the Royal
Society, and Her Majesty conferred upon him an
imperial distinction, in recognition of the great
value of his work to science. A melancholy
interest, indeed, attaches to the avifauna of this
wonderful country, where so many of the beautiful
indigenous birds are either extinct or on the verge
of extinction. Apropos of this, I may mention
that on a recent occasion when the Earl and
Countess of Onslow paid a visit to the Ngatihuia
tribes at Otaki, for the purpose of presenting to the
chiefs the Governor's infant sou, a godson of Her
Majesty the Queen, who had been named Huia, in
compliment to the Maori people. Allusion was
made there to the rapid disappearance of the sacred
huia bird. During the unique and most interesting
ceremonial, of which I would fain have given a
full description did space permit, throughout which
Sir Walter Buller acted as interpreter, and after
the child had been duly presented to the chiefs,
who cast rare and beautiful presents before him;
the women meanwhile chanting a soft and plaintive
lullaby. The young hereditary chief, Tamihana
TeHuia, concluded an eloquent and stirring speech
in the following characteristic manner. Pointing
with outstretched arm in the direction of a
magnificent mountain range that could be clearly
seen from the tribal meeting-house where the
reception was being held, he exclaimed :—
"There yonder is the snow-clad Ruahine range,
the home of our favourite bird. We ask you, O
Governor to restrain the Pakehas—white men—
from shooting it, that when your boy grows up he
may see the beautiful bird which bears his name.
We thank you and Lady Onslow again for this
proof of your regard for the Maori people, and of
your earnest desire to promote theirswelfare. You
have heard the words of the tribe. There is
nothing more to say."
But to return.
The powerful personality of such a man as Sir
George Grey has unquestionably exercised an
incalculable influence in the moulding of literarv
taste and culture in a land throughout whoso
history he has played such a prominent and
important part. A scholar himself, he has done
more to encourage and foster colonial talent than
any other man in the country.
Painters, as well as poets, scientists, and novelists,
are producing good work, and pictures from the
studios of such clever artists an Mrs. Gilbert Mair,
Miss White, John Gully, Barriuid, and others, are
gradually attracting attention outside the colonies.
Art societies flourish in all our principal towns,
and in the four chief cities art galleries have been
established.
Public libraries are to be found everywhere,
booksellers abound, magazine literature is more
than ever plentiful, and local tales and poems art'
beginning to be more sought after than heretofore.
The educationarv system prevailing hen; aims at
a high standard of excellence. The schools both
primary and secondary, are thoroughly well oquip|>ed
and taught, and a sound university training is now
open to the young colonial.
In 1889, there were no fewer than 496 matricu-
lated students in New Zealand. Thus it will be
* seen that the aim of the colony is to give in literarv
culture all that even England could bestow. Anil
all these agencies must have their effect in the
years to come. One thing at least is certain,
namely, that future generations, who may people
these lovely islands, will have no cause for com-
plaint that the dominions of their inheritance
lacked any of the advantages which tend to pro-
mote the growth of national development, through
the intellectual dormancy or supineness of the
earlier colonists. AVhatevcr may Ik; the ultimate
destiny of these fair daughters of the parent State,
the records of their infancy will ever remain as
mementoes of the capability, industry, and eminence
of a large number of early settlers in nearly every
department in the wide empires of knowledge.
Even at the present da}', New Zealand possesses
a literature which has rendered its magnificent
resources tolerably familiar to the educated world.
I am aware that some English cities are of opinion
that colonial authors introduce too much Maori
into their work, thereby making it too New-
Zealandish for the taste of English readers. But
surely a characteristic nationalism is much to be
desired, especially here, where the time has been
too short to develop any historical associations, and
far less racial peculiarities. Moreover, it is only by
the use of local colouring that anything like a
## p. 205 (#609) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
national flavour can ever be imparted to colonial
writing.
That our writers exhibit no desire to become
slavish imitators of the old models is, I am inclined
to believe, a healthy and hopeful sign of the growth
of a true colonial literature, which, being indigenous
and the product of colonial ability and culture,
cannot fail to have a peculiar attraction. But
better, far letter it. should be said of the reading
public of New Zealand, that they exercise a
sobriety of judgment and correctness of tjiste which
prevent their being satisfied with anything which is
not really good, rather than that they encourage
productions of inferior merit for the sake of boast-
ing of the increasing literature of the country.
New Zealand is, indeed, rich in all that is
capable of affording inspiration, both in poetry and
fiction. A land of mountains, torrents, geysers,
rivers, plains, sea-girt, and with a thousand
harbours, will assuredly nurture authors and poets,
just as certainly as it will sailors. Let us hope
then, that our literary pioneers may be as successful
in founding a national literature as have been the
pioneers in politics, in government, and in all the
institutions that go to ennoble a race. There can
be little doubt that despite drawbacks of many
kinds experienced in the past, the future greatness
of New Zealand in literature, as in other enter-
prises, is well assured, based as it is upon a solid
foundation of steady progress.
[I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to the'
kindness of my friend, Sir Robert Stout, for much
valuable information contained in the above
article.—L. I. S.]
NOTES AND NEWS.
IFIND it necessary (sec p. 216) to remind
certain readers of the Author that the an-
nouncement on the front page—" For the
opinions expressed in papers that are signed the
authors alone are responsible "—means what it
says. Especially does it apply to the columns
which are signed by my name.
The lamentable death of Lord Lytton deprives
this Society of one of its strongest and most dis-
tinguished supporters. Lord Lytton became a
Vice-President of the Society on its first foun-
dation. He presided at our first public meeting,
at Willis's Booms: he never failed to express on
every possible occasion the greatest interest in the
welfareand prospects of our Association, and he was
one of the few who really understood the possibilities
which lie before us, to be realized if we only
know how to make use of our power and our
opportunities. It, is not necessary that, at such a
time, we should speak critically of his contributions
to literature. That he possessed the highest love
and respect for literature in all its branches is well
known to all. All his poems were written in the
intervals of diplomatic work. They arc, at least,
remarkable for delicacy of expression and for
refinement. No man ever filled more important
posts or was known to a larger circle of ac-
quaintances. Attache and Secretary of Embassy
at Florence, the Hague, St. Petersburg, Constanti-
nople, Vienna, Copenhagen, Athens, Lisbon, and
Madrid, Viceroy of India and Ambassador to
France, his life was spent in Courts. Yet he
always found time for the cultivation of letters.
His kindness of heart, his admirable social
qualities, his urbanity, a ready wit which was never
spiteful, gathered round him an immense circle of
private friends. He died writing verses, the ink
not yet dry on the page, when lift; was extinct.
We have also lost, in the Bishop of Carlisle,
another member of distinction. He, too, was one
who entirely approved of the objects of the Society,
and, so far as can be known, of its methods. During
a recent controversy with a certain society, touching
very closely the honour of the Episcopal Pencil who
are its vice-presidents, he wrote in kindness and
sympathy. What active steps he took in the
society itself I do not know.
I ventured to call attention in the October
Author to the reckless way in which people who
write letters to the papers garble or invent their
quotations. In the Times, for instance, half the
letters every day are taken up with denying alleged
statements, or protesting against inferences drawn
from garbled ([notations. Let me give an illustra-
tion instructive of the rapid growth of false
inference from garbled quotation. It happened
the other day. I mentioned in a certain paper—
apropos of Milton's cottage at Chalfont St. Giles
—the fact that very few visitors ever go to see
the cottage. This fact is proved by the visitors'
book, which everyone signs on payment of (sd. I
then asked whether Milton could be forgotten,
and advanced two other innocent little opinions—
which I fondly thought as much beyond question
as an axiom in Euclid. They were—(1) that
very few people read Milton through more than
once in their lives; and (2) that certain poems, and
certain portions of poems, would always continue
household words.
## p. 206 (#610) ############################################
2o6
THE AUTHOR.
This little innocent passage was quoted by an
evening paper. Then the fun began. First
a learned Q.C. wrote an indignant and scornful
letter, arguing that a man who had said such things
was an ignorant creature who had never even heard
of "L'Allegro," &c.
Setting this person right, I again pointed out that
very few people go to visit the cottage, and added,
a.s an encouragement to visitors, that there is a
village inn where people can get lunch or whatever
they want. Then the Q.C. appeared again—after
bim other correspondents. The indignation of all was
virtuous, unanimous, heartfelt, wonderful. They all
started with a good bold assumption. "This man
says that Milton is forgotten." The man, observe,
had said nothing of the kind. One of them, a
lady, filled—inflated with holy wrath—invented a
new charge. "Here is a man," she said, "who
actually consults public-houses us to the vitality of
Milton!" No one can stand such an outrage as that;
so this lady, feeling that she really did well to be
angry, poured all the contents of the pepper-and-
spitebox into her letter. Another writer adopted the
sarcastic vein—everybody knows the sarcastic letter-
writer—and would like to ask, &c, &c. Of course
he neglected to say where the assumed statement
had been made. Then came along the solemn
man, who is never wanting on these occasions. He
was constrained to thank Heaven that this state-
ment was not allowed to pass without contradiction.
He, too, neglected to say where he found the
statement. Then librarians wrote to contradict
"this statement"—neglecting to say where they
found it—on the ground that many readers ask for
Milton. And others wrote to contradict the
statement—but did not say where they found it—
on the ground that new editions of Milton are
constantly issued. Not a single person ever re-
ferred to the real original statement that very few
people read Milton through more than once in
their lives. Wen; they blind or malignant?
Neither. They were simply following the trick of
the day to accept whatever they read in the paper
without examination or question.
Two more things happened in this wonderful
correspondence. In answering the Q.C, I had
observed, with the mildest possible sarcasm, that
this kind of reasoning belonged, I supposed, to the
legal mind. The Q.C. cried out to the world that
here was a man insulting the whole legal profession.
Lastly, there appeared a leading article in the
same evening paper, in which the writer concluded
by rebuking me for making inquiries of public-
houses instead of publishers! So that it comes to
this. I stand convicted on three charges. I have
stated that John Milton is forgotten; I have
insulted the whole, legal profession; I am proved
to be in the habit of consulting public-houses on
literary matters.
It only remains now to repeat the words which
caused the indignation :—
1. Very few people visit Chalfont St. Giles to
see Milton's cottage.
2. Very few people read Milton through more
than once.
3. Certain of his poems are known by heart to all
people who read at all.
But if these ladies and gentlemen had only been
so very good as to read what I did say before they
commented on it!
I have received a bundle of the American papers
called the Author and the Writer. With these
papers we may, I hope, borrow and lend, and so
be mutually helpful. One thing to be observed
about them is that they are eminently practical.
There is none of the pretence about art for art's
sake, which some of us are always advancing.
Literature is frankly approached as a profession—
a thing which some among us, especially the
disinterested persons who conduct the affairs
of authors, oppose most vehemently. These
Americans discuss their magazines, their circulation,
and their tariff. with wonderful frankness; they
write about points of practical working; in the
matter of fiction they consider endings, openings,
the conduct of dialogue—all those things which we
are generally taught to believe instinctive! and due
to nature's promptings, just as nature teaches one
baby to play the violin; and another to compose
a sonata in the cradle. The Americans, in fact,
show in these journals that they are eminently a
practical people. They mean to study the art of
fiction, anil to make a profession of it, as our people
have never yet thought of doing. What will lie the
consequence? A general raising of the level; a
vast improvement in the technique; so much, cer-
tainly. Not the production of the greatest work
any more than at present. Great men do not appear
with every generation. The standard, however,
of literary excellence may be raised very much
higher. And if our writers do not, in like manner,
consider and study the art as an art, so much the
worse for them.
In a recent libel case, tried at the High Court
of Justice, when a singer sued for damages on the
ground of a so-called libellous criticism, it was
## p. 207 (#611) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
argued by counsel for defendants that when criti-
cism is invited, the subject 1ms no right to coin-
plain of hostile judgment. This seems very
reasonable. At the theatre scats are given to the
critics; at concerts seats arc reserved for the critics;
at the offices of newspapers hooks arc presented to
the critics. These gentlemen may very fairly say,
"You ask me to tell the world what I think of
your book, your plav, your music, your singing.
Well, I think you are incapable of singing or writing
or doing anything at all worth hearing. You had
better go into obscurity, and stay there." The per-
former lias brought it upon himself ; he ought not to
complain. He has asked for an honest opinion, and
he has got it. Most probably had he not invited
the critic to witness and judge his performance,
that critic would not have seen, heard, or read it.
On the other hand, it may fairly be contended as
a general principle, and without reference to any
case, that there should be observed a certain polite-
ness. In criticism, as in society, one should remain
a gentleman, courteous in word and manner.
A gentleman should be ashamed to jump upon
the writer of a harmless book only because it
is ii weak book; nor should he shriek and
swear over that book; nor should he call the
writer names. In fact, the old fashioned blood and
bludgeon style of abuse, invective, and contempt is
brutal. Where it still lingers, which is in very few
quarters, it is brutal still. When one has to light,
the rapier, and not the club, is the weapon of a
gentleman. Some critics, it is true, have never
learned to use the rapier. That is another way of
saying that they have not received the education
of a gentleman. In any case, there is another
way open to an author. If he does not like
the criticisms of a paper he has only to refuse a
press copy of his book to that paper. If it then
reviews him, another question arises, namely, what
is permitted by the law. Any man may criticise
within limits the work of any other man, but not
to the injury of his credit or his means of liveli-
hood. And this whether a man be a fishmonger—
in which case we may not say that he habitually
sells stinking fish—or an author, in which case we
may not say, unless we are prepared to plead
justification, that his books are pernicious, immoral,
ignorant, stolen, or anything else which may
interfere with his livelihood.
If an editor a fortnight, ago had wanted a paper
on the Political Function of Imagination, to whom
would he have applied for that paper? It is not
an easy subject. Of course there are tliousands of
able pens ready to write on any subject, difficult or
not. But, as the children say, "seriously," whom
would he ask? He might ask Mr, John Morley or
Mr. Leslie Stephen—he would have an excellent
paper from either. He might ask any of twei.ty
novelists anil poets; he would get a pleasant paptr,
easy to read, but not greatly advancing the subjei t.
The last person in the world of whom he would
have thought is the one person who has actually
done it better, I believe than any other person in
the world could have done it. Mr. Goschcn, tl e
man of the city—the financier—has beaten tl e
literary craftsman in his own craft. Hardly any
better essav has ever been written than Mr. Gosehen's
discourse on Imagination. The other great essay,
that by Mr. Arthur Balfour on Progress, is^ the
work of a craftsman, one of the Company of
Authors.
Books for boys! Do any of us realise the
immense annual output of books for bovs—the
enormous mass of literature which exists for the
sole and exclusive use of bays? The other (lav,
among a lot of boys, the question rose as to their
favourite author. There was but one opinion. It
was led off by the one who spoke first. He lifted
his head, and remarked briefly, "Henty for me."
That was the opinion of all—"Henty for me." Of
course, Marrvatt will never lose his followers among
boys; nor Walter Scott; while there are writers
like Kingston, Collingwood, George Manville Fenn,
and others—good men and true. But "Henty
for me." There is a list before me, showing
thirty-three stories for boys, all written by this
wonderful story teller. A boy who has read the
whole of Henty has read a great part of the world's
history. In fact, he is the schoolboy's historian.
The school histories only teach him dates and lay
figures. His home historians put life into the
figures and meaning into the dates.
It is now live years ago, I think, that the current
number of Lonymaiis Magazine was glorified by
the appearance of the most beautiful paper ever
written by Richard Jefferies—a paper into which
he poured his whole soul, all his knowledge, all his
love for nature—a paper which shall always stand
for the man, because an author must always be
judged by his best work. This paper, as everyone
remembers, was called " The Pageant of Summer."
The present (December) number of the magazine
contains another paper recently found by his widow,
called "The Coining of Summer." It is like a
first draft of the "Pageant," a study, a series of
sketches, which the writer was afterwards to endow
with breath and vision and a soul. Most curious
ami most, interesting compared with that other
article. Bead without reference to the " Pageant,"
## p. 208 (#612) ############################################
2o8
THE AUTHOR.
it is ii paper full of knowledge, written in the
earlier style of the " Gamekeeper at Home."
When Jefferies died, a reviewer in the Athenecum
remarked that in a few years there would be no
more recollection of Jefferies and no more
documents connected with the name. At the
present moment his books are going up every day
higher and higher in value; new editions are being
issued—a new edition of "The Dewy Morn" is
out this day—and people are discussing, in . the
papers, the facts of his life; as, for instance,
whether he died a Christian, or whether his faculties
were so weak at the close that it mattered nothing
what he. said. There is every sign, as his friends
believe, of such immortality for Jefferies as belongs
to White of Selborne.
Some time ago we announced in these columns,
for the information of those who l>elong to the
company of readers of Jefferies, that a bust of him
was to be executed and placed in Salisbury
Cathedral. The bust is now ready. The Hon.
Treasurer, Mr. A. W. Kinglake, Haines Hill,
Taunton, says that he still wants about £5o, to
complete the payment for it. Will this company of
readers wipe off this debt, if only as a mark of the
love they bear the author?
The same number of Longman contains a short
story—the "History of a Failure "—which every-
body must read. Perhaps it will make some of the
readers angry; it will certainly make all of them
laugh and cry.
In the Sign of the Ship Mr. Andrew Lang has
a few words on the subject of titles. He says that
they are exploded—matters of old custom—that
nobody of an)' sense wants to be made a peer or
pines for the Garter; that he himself does not want
a title; that " Sir Charles Dickens " would be ridicu-
lous; that every author who did not get a title
would be jealous of everyone who did, and that he
would rather be commended bv the bookstall bov.
I hope 1 have put his case fairly—But—but is it
so true that nobody of sense—nobody of sense—
pines for a peerage or the Garter? Is it so true
that nobody wants a title? And is there anything
in the jealousy argument that docs not apply to
every other profession? Yet it is never urged that
titles must not be given to lawyers and soldiers
because other lawyers and soldiers would be jealous.
However, my point, which I repeat, is this. The
nation has only one way of recognizing distinction and
good service. It is by the bestowal of a title. The
man so decorated is not thereby made any greater;
it is the nation which makes itself greater by-
showing that it recognizes bis worth. This is, I
believe, the theory of rank and titles. If it is the
true theory, I want to know why men of letters are
jealously excluded from such recognition: Brown-
ing, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot
would have been no greater, but it would have Wen
better for the country had those great writers
received the highest honours the nation can bestow.
For, you see, it would be a very great thing if the
people generally could be taught to honour science,
art, and literature. It would be better for the
national character; better for those who follow
science, art, and literature. But the country at
large only honours those professions or callings
whose followers are honoured bv the Sovereign or
by the State. They accept the rule of usage. Men
of letters are not honoured, ordinary people think,
because they follow a pursuit which is not worthy
of honour.
Waltek Besant.
■
THE HYGIENE OF THE LITERARY LIFE.
TWO papers are published in Boston, both
intended, like our own, for the literary class.
Thev do not profess to be reviews, they are
meant to be professionally useful. One of these,
the Writer, appears to be designed especially as a
practical help to aspirants; the other, called the
Author, addresses itself to those already engaged
in the work of writing. The present year is their
third of existence. Apart from the personal
columns, which are too full of details for a literary
paper of this country, the Author contains a good
deal that may be of great use to its readers. Thus,
an article on hygiene reminds writers that bodily
exercise is absolutely necessary for the continued
production of good work, an elementary reminder,
which, like the Decalogue, cannot be too often
repeated, or too strongly insisted upon. A "one
or two mile walk," says our American friend.
Translated into English read a six or eight mile
walk for men, and half as much for women. He
recommends in the matter of diet a light breakfast,
nothing at noon, and the evening meal when the
work is done. But can any person go on from
nine in the morning till seven in the evening working
on a light breakfast? Wine and tobacco this
hygienist prohibits absolutely, a rule with which
we disagree absolutely. Of sleep, take, he says,
eight hours a day. Evervone must find (ait for
Jlimself what sleep he wants. Nine hours a day
## p. 209 (#613) ############################################
THE A UTHOR.
209
seems not too much for the average brain worker,
whether he l>e a man of science or of literature.
Kxercise in plenty, especially after breakfast.
That seems the first ami most important rule for the
literary life. Richard Jefferies, for instance, walked
in all weathers, without great coat or umbrella,
for an hour and a half every morning after breakfast,
and every afternoon from three to half-past four.
The next important rule is to study diet. There
seems nothing gained, but epiite the reverse, by too
great abstinence. It is certain that the brain of a
worker must be well nourished, and, therefore, the.
body. Also—a doctrine to be advanced with hesi-
tation—it seems to the present writer that a dull
uniformity of living, whether in respect to exercise,
sleep, hours of work, society, or diet, is a great
enemy of good work, and that the imagination
is stimulated by variety. A feast is good for all
kinds of men occasionally; a gathering where the
guests are joyous and careless, and the "best work
possible" is forgotten for the time. He, indeed,
who is always thinking of producing the "best
work possible," will certainly end in producing the
Prig's work, which is the worst work possible.
Another simple suggestion. The present writer
finds that occasional—and frequent—changes of
scene tend to strengthen the excision of the imagina-
tion. He goes away as often as he can ; takes a night
out; visits country places; and makes notes of
what he sees and hears. When he gets back his
work becomes brighter, the handling firmer, the
colouring more delicate.
The writer of the American article recommends
oild forms of exercise—Indian clubs, dumb bells,
and '• lung gymnastics "—which is the filling of
the lungs with pure air and then expelling it; the
"Delsarte movement," and so on. They are,
doubtless, very good, but not so good as walking
or rifling. He also instances the late William
Cullen Bryant, who "was in the habit of taking
exercise by bending backward over a wooden chair
two or three times in succession, and performing
sundry other feats with the same instrument every
morning." The poet in his study doing gymnastics
with a wooden chair would make a pleasing
illustration to his works.
Lastly, the literary worker must certainly agree
with this American writer when he lays it down as
a principle that the literary worker needs a long
life. Yes—yes—oh! yes, that is what we espe-
cially need; and it would be comforting to think,
as he thinks, if we could think it, that the greatest
and best work comes to a man late in life.
But we cannot, unhappily, think this. The pear
becomes ripe; then the |>ear becomes rotten. Let
Us, by taking exercise and not working too hard,
defer the day of |)erfect ripeness as long as we can, »■»■»
"THE ARROWMAEER."*
Day in, day out, or sun or rain,
Or sallow leaf, or summer grain,
Beneath a wintry morning moon
Or through red smouldering afternoon,
With simple joy, with careful pride,
He plies the craft he long has plied:
To shape the stave, to set the sting,
To fit the shaft with irised wing;
And farers by may hear him sing,
For still his door is wide:
"Laugh and sigh, live and die,—
The world swings round; I know not, I,
If north or south mine arrows fly!"
And sometimes, while he works, he dreams,
And on his soul a vision gleams:
Some storied field fought long ago,
Where arrows fell as thick as snow.
His breath comes fast, his eyes grow bright,
To think upon that ancient fight.
Oh, leaping from the strained string
Against an armored Wrong to ring,
Brave the song that arrows sing!
He weighs the finished fight:
"Live and die; by and by
The sun kills dark; I know not, I,
In what good fight my arrows fly!"
Or at the gray hour, weary grown,
When curfew o'er the wold is blown,
He sees, as in a magic glass,
Some lost and lonely mountain-jwiss;
And lo! a sign of deathful rout
The mocking vine has wound about,—
An earth-fixed arrow by n spring,
All greenly mossed, a mouldered thing;
That stifled shaft no more shall sing!
He shakes his head in doubt.
"Laugh and sign; live, and die,—
The hand is blind: I know not, I,
In what lost pass mine arrows lie!
One to east, one to west,
Another for the eagle's breast,—
The archer and the wind know best!"
The stars are in the sky;
He lavs his arrows by.
Helen Gray Conk.
* The Ride to the Lady, and other poems. Hy Helen
Oniy Cone. £i. Honphton, Mifflin, and Co.
## p. 210 (#614) ############################################
2 lO
THE AUTHOR.
I SPIRITI DEI PONTI.
THE SPIRITS OP BRIDGES.
"I stood upon a bridge and heard
The water rushing by,
And as I thought to every word
The water made reply."
I spoke ono day in Florence to a witch, asking
her if such a being as The Spirit of the Water was
known to her. And this was the answer:
"Yes—there is a spirit of the water, as there is
of fire, and everything else. That is to say, molti-
moltissimi—as many of them as there are men and
women. You don't see them, or only now and
then, but you can make them to be seen." How?
"Oh, easily enough, if you let them know what you
want, for they are affectionate to those who care
for them. But they are capricious and appear in
many delusive forms.
"And this is a good way to see them. You go
of an evening, and look over a bridge, or in the
daytime in the woods at a smooth stream or dark
water—chc sia sempre un poco oscttro—and pro-
nounce the incantation, and throw a handful or a
few drops of its water into the water itself. And
then you must look long and patiently; sometimes
for several days; when, poco d poco, you will see
dim shapes passing by in the water, one or two,
and then more and more, and if you are quiet,
they will come in great numbers, and show you
what you desire to know. But if you tell anyone
what you have seen, they will never appear again,
and it will be well for you should nothing worse
happen.
"There was a man, a young man, near Civitella,
and he was in great need of money—like all of
us—but his was dire and dreadful need. Kbbene—
this young man had an uncle, who was believed to
have left a great treasure buried somewhere, but no
one knew the place. Now this nephew was a
reserved, solitary youth; much by himself in lone
places—old mines — in the woods — tin poco
straghon—and he learned this secret of looking
into streams or wells or lake.-, till at last, whenever,
he pleased, he could see swarms of all kinds of
figures sweeping along in the water. And one
evening he saw a shape like that of his uncle who
had died, and, in surprise, he called out ' Zio tnio!'
Then the uncle stopped, and the youth said,
'Did'st thou but know how I suffer from poverty!'
Then he saw in the water his home, and the wood
near it, and the form of his uncle passed along the
wood, anil so on to a lonely place till it came to a
great stone, and on this it laid its hand, and looked
at the young man, and so disappeared. The next
day the young man went there, an<| under the stone
found a great treasure. So he became rich—ami
I hope the same to all of us!"
This account of the shapes and shades who—
"pass
As in a inagie glass."
made a great impression on me, and as the witch
had said, "Looking day after day they will l>econie
more clear," so I found that thinking day by day
on this Bosicrucian-like fancy revealed to me the
wondrous truth that one may dwell in the ineffable
beauties anil mysteries of nature, among oaken or
piney forests, and rushing lonely rivers in their
shades, looking at wild flowers as at girl acquaint-
ances, and at, rocks as dwelling places of thoughts,
and at one's own thoughts as spirits (just as the
Indians chronicled by Bekker believed that at our
every heart-beat a spirit is born), until poetry
becomes our own true, dearest life, and this real
life an unreality. For the qualities of matter, and
the beautiful are indeed immanent and eternal, but
matter is only that wherein they act and display
themselves. And this thought with me took tin-
following form :—
I looked into the deep river,
I looked so still and long •
Until I saw the Elfin shades
Pass by in many a throng.
They came and went like silent dreams,
Forever moving on,
As darkness tikes the starry beams,
Un-noted till they're gone.
I saw what oft I wished to see,
Anil what I ne'er had seen;
And what I oft had longed to be,
And what I had not been.
For lie who looks in the dark river,
In the hour of the Klfin grey,
Will wish that he might never go,
Or else had staid away.
And to him who looks in that river.
This thing will eome to pass,
He would not give for diamonds
The dew-drops in the grass.
He would not eall for silver bright
The moon light in the leaves,
Nor give for all the gold on earth
The sun light on the sheaves.
For all this world seems little worth,
All earthly things unsound,
'I'o him who once has seen the dreams
Which pass o'er Elfin ground.
This seeing spirits from a bridge in the water
recalls a very curious phenomena, which of every
twelve or fourteen readers, one, at least, may realize
with only a few days' practice, and all, perhaps, witli
patience in time. This i* based on what is called
## p. 211 (#615) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
21 I
pseudapia, volitional percept ion, or, as I term it, eve
memory, and it has been thoroughly established by
the experiments of many men of science, such as
Francis Galton, Clarke, and others.(i) It amounts
briefly to this, that by looking at images we can get
them by heart or by eye, so that we can at will
reproduce them to our vision. Thus, if we take,
let us say, a few coloured pictures representing
birds, or animals, or men, and look at them intently
and then close the eyes, and repeat the process, and
then put. In'fore us a mirror reflecting only a plain
grey or black or any uniform surface, we can soon
see the images exist, passing along if we will.
This is simply a matter of perseverance and deter-
mination with everybody, and in time it can be
brought to great perfection.
But there is a very marvellous phase of this
voluntary perception which comes in time. This
is when images which we have not learned by effort
begin to come from the secret store-houses of the
brain, and mingle in these mystic processions. Of
this there are many curious instances recorded.
For these latent thoughts come forth so that what
is apparently marvellous becomes so in reality,
recalling an old story told by Grosius or Prsetorius,
of someone who would fain have a grand masque
or procession of fair devils and quaint bonny
goblins, in a certain magnificent feast. Against
which a holy friar remonstrated as an exceeding
wicked and profane thing, but to no avail, save
that by his preaching he frightened more than half
of those who were to have played the parts of
demons, so that they stayed away. At which the
lord who gave the feast was very angry. How-
ever, when the procession came to [miss, there was
no lack of actors in it—for not only were there
twice as many as had been at first engaged, but
still new ones kept coming after them, and ever
more and more, and these all so wilil and strange,
some horrible, some lovely, that mortal man never
dreamed the like. There wen? Venus, her nymphs,
and satyrs, red, green, blue, and violet imps, devils
of all horrors, giants of every coarseness, fairies,
like, wines, of every fineness, howling savages,
goblins, night-mares, camias, lennires, empusai,
trees as men walking, yea, all the fancies of Jerome
Basch and Hollenbreiighel in the original casks.
But when at last they swarmed along by thousands,
us Dutch spuyten fcln, spitting tire and flames,
and appearing in naught, but ghastly insupportable
terror, the people began to ga,sp and croak for
fear. And what would come of it all, I know not,
but just then the priest who had forbidden the
procession thundered out a terrible exorcism—and
the whole diabolical spuk vanished into air.
(1) For a full account of the subject, vide my work on
Practical Education, London, Whittaker aud Co. 1886.
The reader need not fear that the forms which
will come by practising with pictures and a mirror
will be so melodramatic as these here described.
But that images and ideas will be evoked from the
brain and blend with the figures originally con-
ceived is true, and has been notably proved by the
experience of wise observers.
More than one of the old polyhistors and
curiosity hunters describe waters on whose surfaces
mysterious forms, like strange reflections in a
mirror, were ever seen coming and going. The
conception is one of the most picturesque or
sweetly strange which ever sprung up out of that
wonderful worship of nature which was so deeply
implanted in the Teutonic races, and of which
curious beaux restcs may still be seen in all
Germans. At any hotel in Europe it is always the
Germans who want to take tea in the arbour,
breakfast on the balcony, dine al fresco, and lunch
by waterfalls in lonely forests. Not many years
ago, a burgomaster in Germany cut down an
avenue of lime trees in a town, for which sacrilege
he was promptly shot dead by a student who
gloried in the deed. It was (as Saintine, who
narrates the fact, justly observes) only an hereditary
breaking out of the old German tree-worship of
Teutoburgian time. In Bavaria many still believe
that fairies live in water lilies, where they sit comfort-
ably of summer afternoons sewing, knitting, and
gossiping—alien selir achon—" cradled in silent
waters."
You understand, reader, that this exquisite
pantheistic polytheistic spirit which took form in
Psellus, and became perfectly poetical in Paracelsus
and Rosicrucianism—this religion which peoples
the waters with naiads, and kelpies, and nixies, and
the air and earth, and all that bides therein with
peculiar sprites, leads, as no other inspiration can
do, to a sincere and deep enjoyment of Xature. I
may say to the on/// very deep love of it which is
pure and real. They who go about picking out
"beautiful bits," after reading of Ituskin, or any
other of the writers or books who teach you how
and what to admire in proper form—citr, quit,
qitomodo, it quibus auxiliis—only feel beauty at
second hand, or see the tapestry as some reviewers
see books, entirely from the wrong side.
"But," I am told, "there are really no fairies."
Well, a knowledge of what man has believed in
goes very far to remedy that want. The monks
have left the old cathedral shades, the bedesman
sleeps among his ashes cold; but the cathedrals—T
mean the forests—are still with us, and it is some-
thing to know how they were once ]>copled by
man.
But the new philosophy or evolution impresses it
deeply on us, that we, our very thinking selves,
are one with the life of trees, waters, rain,
## p. 212 (#616) ############################################
212
THE AUTHOR.
air, and all that is. The electricity and mysterious
essence of ether, and all hidden forces are in
us, as in the rocks and flowers, a million years
ago you were in it, millions of years hence you will
still live and act, for we were all ever immortal
and ever shall act in Nature or in God—life thou
canst, not escape. In this view all things have
a true life in the Beautiful, and Nature from a
dead object of aesthetic twaddle becomes inspired
with soul. And he wrho will give to this, and to
the faiths of the olden time, serious thought or
repeated meditation, till they shall become familiar
to him, will soon live in Nature a new life, streams
shall speak to him with laughing voices, elfin songs
resound among the cliffs, and the wondrous light
which shines invisibly to common eyes wherever
the heroes of ancient time lie buried, shall make
clear his path, and he will see from that which was,
that which is to come.
As I write on a sunny day, I see to the right,
spreading far away, the blue Mediterranean under
as blue a sky, the white line of waves breaking
on the beach, and hear their mysterious sough
ever varying, like voices. There goes a vessel by
as in a dream, the same high prow and stem, the
same strangely long diagonal sail, which we see on
old Greek or Carthaginian coins.
Therein I see and feel the life of ancient days,
which shall ever be.
Charles Godfrey Lelanu.
Florence, Nov. 12, 1891.
♦•»■»
A METHOD OF ADVERTISEMENT.
"TT OU cannot," said Mr. Daventry, "get on
1 unless fellows jaw about you. There's no
use telling me that, if I get on first, the jaw
will follow, perhaps faster than I like, for it is not.
true. That was the old way. Now-a-davs it's the
jaw first and the success afterwards, and the more
jaw the more success. Why, there's no rubbishing
yarn I couldn't sell to the public, if I was only
known as a Mahatma, or a disciple of the Higher
Criticism. I should get a big practice at the bar,
if men would go about swearing that I was the
illegitimate son of a Begum, or one skin short.
But nobody knows my name."
For Robert Daventry was seriously discouraged.
ITnappreciative publishers had sent, back his novel,
and callous editors had rejected his articles, while,
two years close attendance at the courts had not
brought him in enough to pay for his wig.
"I will be heard of," he continued, addressing
a group of highly unsympathetic friends. "I will
be heard of, and one day you shall all go about
swaggering that you knew me to speak to, and
your female cousins, when they hear it from you,
will say, 'Really, how awfully nice!' And it
won't be very long before I manage it somehow."
And his words came true.
It chanced that one day he went up the river
with a lady. Shortly after leaving the station, the
door of the railway-carriage, on which she was
leaning, flew open. Robert Daventry jumped
forward. He could not quite reach her skirts,
but she clutched wildly and desperately in the
direction of his outstretched arm, by good fortune
secured it, anil was saved.
"That was a shave, young woman," said he, us
he settled her on a seat and adjusted his wristband,
which had been almost, torn off his shirt. "Before
vou play those pranks again, kindly cut vour
'nails."
"I was nearly killed, Bob," said she, laughing
a little hysterically. "If I had fallen out," she
added, " it might have been very awkward for you,
for people would have certainly said that vou
threw me out of the carriage."
But. Rol>ert made no reply.
"Wouldn't they, Bob?"
"We'll do it," he said, suddenly breaking silence.
"It will be splendid." And then and there he
unfolded this project, which his brain had rapidly
formed on the hint contained in his companion's
words. "We will go to the ' Horn,' have some
lunch, and start for a row. I will land you near
the X Station, and you shall run up to
town by the first train you can catch. Leave
your hat on the bank. I will return to the inn
alone, pay for the boat, anil come up by the next
train. The passer-by who finds your hat is sure
to conclude you are drowned. We will dine
together at K— 's, where I will meet you,
and we shall probably be able to read some pari! -
graphs in the evening paper about 'the mysterious
disappearance of a lady,' 'supposed drowning
fatality,' and so on. Then, when those beastly editors
have quite done making public asses of themselves,
I shall explain that the hat was left there to sec
what would happen, and all those papers will have
to talk about me. I shall send my photograph to
all the illustrated periodicals. I should think
some manager might see that I am the man for n
real good drama. What do you say to doing it?"
The lady thought, that it would not be a bad
joke, supposing it was necessary to make; a joke at
all, but rather demurred at leaving her hat on the
bank.
"You can get another one in London," said
Mr. Daventry. "If you don't leave something
## p. 213 (#617) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
tangible on the bank, the casual passer-by will not
detect the presence of the crime. Everybody
knows that a hat on the bank is the recognised
sign of a corpse in the water. You can wear my
cricket cap up to town."
Now it fell out that in the street of the village
where it was proposed to have lunch, and to hire
their boat, Mr. Robert Daventry saw a laxly of his
acquaintance coming towards them, and he turned
up a back way rather abruptly. This did not
escape his companion's notice, who began to cross-
examine him upon the subject. Robert, intent
upon his scheme, was not inclined to waste time in
idle words, and said so with a sweetness that
proved exasperating.
The lady said, " You coward, you are ashamed to
be seen with me."
Bob said, in his turn a little angry—for no one
likes the epithet of coward—" Perhaps you think I
ought to introduce you about the place as the girl
I'm going to marry?"
Then the waiter was seen standing inside the
door, looking for an opportunity to announce to
the visitors that their boat was ready. So they
laughed and were friends again.
They were a little nervous as they went down to
the water. Indeed, it is hard not to be nervous,
when on the edge of perpetrating a practical joke.
It is only the most callous and practised performer
who can venture boldly, where failure must entail
ridicule.
Mr. Daventry sculled in silence up stream, until
they reached a spot which seemed admirably suited
to their purpose. This was a small reach about
four hundred yards long, and hidden from the gaze
of anyone who chanced to be above or below, by
the abrupt winding of the stream.
Here he turned into the bank, and helped his
accomplice out.
"Leave your hat," he said, "and run down
stream about a quarter of a mile, and you will see
the station (mite near the river. Here's my cap.
K 's at 8.3o. Shove her out with your foot."
He went on sculling up stream. She, in
obedience to his instructions began to run down the
bank. As she did so, she turned every now and
then to watch him, for he was a good-looking man,
and the sculling action suited him. Seeing which
he took one of his hands off his sculls every now
and then, and waved a little encouragement to her
in the prosecution of their splendid joke. And he
came to the up-corner, and she came to the down-
corner, and he began to disappear trom her gaze,
and she hung over the brink to watch him,—and,
alas, she slipped. Vainly she clutched at all within
her grasp; the rotten twigs snapped, the rotten
bank yielded, she slipped further, and fell in.
Two hours afterwards the body was found by a
passer-by, who noticed the hat lying on the bank.
Mr. Robert Daventry's cap was firmly clutched in
her convulsive grasp.
In the meantime the gentleman had further
elaborated his joke. Why should there be only
one person drowned? Why not two or more?
To think was to act. Your practical joker is
above all things careless of the personal propertv
of other people. Mr. Daventry headed for the
other bank, landed, turned the boat bottom upper-
most and sent it spinning with a kick down stream.
Then he walked rapidly to the nearest railway
station.
That evening he was arrested for murder.
At his trial the following points were clearly
made out by the prosecution :—
He had quarrelled with the deceased at the Horn
Inn before starting on the fatal expedition,
and had said that he would not marry her.
He looked very pale on starting.
Later he was seen to turn the boat over anil kick
it down stream, and then to start running into
the country.
When arrested his hand was severely scratched,
uud his shirt cuff nearly torn off.
There were signs of a scuttle on the bank, and the
victim had the prisoner's cap in her hand.
The theory of the prosecution was that he had
been strolling along the bank with the unfortunate
girl—the mark where the boat had been put in
had been found by a detective—that he had
quarrelled with her and had pushed her into the
river. That he had then turned the boat over,
hoping to make his act appear the result of an
accident.
For the defence the true story was told.
He was found guilty.
In reply to the awful question of the judge
whether he had anything to say why the utmost
penalty should not be inflicted, he said, " My Lord,
it was all a joke."
Many have sung, and many have narrated, the
charms of mediocrity, but no one appreciates it
highly for himself. But few consider themselves
commonplace. Yet occasionally it will be borne
in upon a man that he is but an average specimen.
Sometimes he will sit down under his fate, and will
court only the average destiny; holding all public
achievements as very wondrous, for in this way his
inability to perform them may l»e best excused.
Sometimes he will turn hither and thither, vaguely,
hurriedly, inconsequentially, if haply he may cheat
his own mediocrity, or encompass fame by some
rapid bye-path.
## p. 214 (#618) ############################################
214
THE AUTHOR.
Robert Daventry was mediocre, and his soul
loathed mediocrity. And he did not die for
nothing.
"The Evening Scorpion" had in their office a
manuscript signed with the assassin's name. It
had been the design of the editor to lose this
work, for he had employed the accompanying
stamps in his urgent correspondence. But now he
saw a more honourable course open to him. He
published the story with a fac-simile of Robert's
signature attached, and he sold two editions of the
paper on the day of issue.
O. J.
A PUZZLING EXPERIENCE.
THE "puzzling experience" related in the
current number of the Author recalls very
pointedly to my mind an occurrence of a some-
what similar nature which once happened to myself.
My own experience throws no light upon that of
your other correspondent; but it shows that,
puzzling as such occurrences no doubt often are,
they may still be nothing more than mere
coincidences.
A year or two ago, I had occasion to pay several
visits to America. On one of these (I think in
1887) I was in a Liverpool tramear, on my way to
join a steamer of the Allan Line, when there
entered a certain official of the Canadian Govern-
ment with whom I was well acquainted, and whom
I expected to meet on my arrival at my destination.
I was not aware that he was then in Europe, but
it turned out that he had, for a time, left his official
duties on sick leave. My friend left the matter he
was at the moment engaged ii]jon and came down
to the docks to see me off. His last words, just as
the vessel was moving, were: "God-bye. I shall
be in [naming it well-known Canadian city]
about a fortnight after you will arrive there."
I landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and travelled
over the Intercolonial Line to Montreal. An hour
or two later, as I was seated in the writing-room of
the Windsor Hotel, attending to some corre
spondence, I felt a touch on the shoulder and looking
up, I saw the friend from whom I had parted in
Liverpool only about ten days before. At first, I
confess, the idea occured to me that it was
a case for the Psychical Society; but his
cheerful salute, "Well, Christy, here we are
again," at once proved the reverse. He pro-
ceeded to explain that, having been recalled by
cable, through pressing business, a fortnight earlier
than the date when he had told me he should leave,
he had left Liverpool by an "Ocean Greyhound"
the day after I did and travelling by the quicker
New York route, had arrived in Montreal a day
earlier than myself.
Thus, within about ten days, I had twice by the
purest accident, met the same individual, at places
nearly 5,ooo miles apart, and in different conti-
nents, when in each case I had the best of reasons
for supposing him to be in the other.
Millek Christy.
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
A New Departure.
fT^IIE following advertisement, which "caught
I my eye" in the columns of the Daily Aeir*
on November i3th, is somewhat of a new
departure in the struggle for literary fame.
"The author of a well-reviewed novel will give
20 per cent, commission to one who can place
two MSS. one-volume stories.—Address, 53o M,
'Daily News' Enquiry Office, 67, Fleet Street,
E.C."
We have all heard of those misguided individuals
who are so anxious to shine in the literary world
that they are eager to pay even a disreputable
publisher to "bring out" their lucubrations; but
here we have a new genus of simpleton. Mirabile
dirtu, the author of a " well-reviewed" (not neces-
sarily, however, a successful) novel is willing to
pay 25 per cent, to someone—anyone — who
will "place" t wo others !" M," whoever he or
she may be, must be singularly innocent of any-
thing except the. writing of the two MSS. in
question to suppose that the author of a well-
reviewed novel would find insuperable difficulties
in placing the MSS. in question if they trerc worth
printing at all. If he cannot do this alone, no
third party would be able to get them placed, unless
payment were made for publication. Let "M"
no longer tempt sharks by foolish advertisements.
It would cost him much less to submit his work to
the Society, and take their advice.
II.
A New Reading Union.
The world of novelists should be interested in a
society of working miners and others, winch has
been formed at Backworth, in Northumberland,
for the study of classical novels. After a course
of lectures upon fiction had been given by Mr.
## p. 215 (#619) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
2*5
Moulton, of Cambridge, it was found tlmt hardly
any of the greatest works of fiction were known to
his hearers, and this effort to popularise them was
the outcome. The members of the union agree
to read a specified novel every two months, meet
for discussion, and write papers upon some given
points. They ask novelists or other literary
authorities to assist them by suggesting main ideas
to be kept in view while reading a subject for
debate, and another for the essays. At the head
of their circular stand these true words, " Literature
is the Science of Life, and the great classical novels
arc among life's best text books. To study these
is the true antidote to trashy and poisonous fiction."
The books already read, or to be read, include
"Vanity Fair," " The Newcomes,"" Silas Marner,"
"Bomohi," "Anne of Geierstein," "Wood-
stock," "Sintram," "Westward Ho!" "Jane
Eyre," '"93," "Les Miserables," "Persuasion,"
"Wives and Daughters," "Martin Chuzzlewit,"
"Tale of Two Cities," " Put yourself in his place,"
&c. Many authors of standing have helped them
with ready kindness, and it is hoped that others on
reading this may write to the secretary, Mr. J.
Barrow, Northumberland Terrace, Backworth,
Neweastle-on-Tync. It is self-evident that books
suggested should be such as are published in cheap
editions.
Necessarily the books chosen must be get-at-able
in cheap editions.
III.
Ox New Work.
As bearing on "Berserker's" assertion in the
November Author, that it is impossible to get a
publisher to take up original work, it may be
interesting to your readers to know that this has
been frankly admitted by at least one of our leading
publishing houses.
The firm to whom I first offered my book on
""in refusing to bring it out
except at my own expense, gave as their reason for
declining it that it was written "on totally new
lines of thought."
J. B. C.
[It is only another way of expressing the great
fact that publishers very seldom take any risk. If
we keep on dinning this truth into the heads of
people, they will some day, perhaps, get to look
upon publishing as a trade—which it is—like any
other trade, conducted for profit.—Editor.]
IV.
Novels in a Batch.
A correspondent sends us, as an illustration of
the care and thoroughness with which the reviewing
of novels in the batch is conducted, the interesting
fact that a genealogical work, published in the
summer, was lately noticed in one of the leading
reviews as a novel among the weekly batch!
V.
The Gexkrosity of the Religious Society.
Further particulars have now been received as to
the case of munificent generosity on the part of a
religious publishing society, recorded in the No-
vember Author. The book in question was
published by this religious publishing society —
not the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
—at the price of two shillings. On a royalty of
5 per cent., which is iniquitous and sweating, the
writer would receive £5 a thousand. On a royalty
of 10 per cent., which is also a sweating royalty,
the author would receive <£io a thousand. On a
royalty of twopence in the shilling, or 16 per cent.,
he would receive £16 i3s. 4//. for every thousand.
If 3,ooo copies were sold, the following is the
estimated result :—
per cent.
S
per cent.
10
per cent.
'5
£
£
e
Publisher's profits
60
45
30
Author ...
■ 5
3°
AS,
The generous society, however, did not give any
royalty at all. They gave the writer the magnificent,
princely sum of JE12!!!! It is only a religious
society which can be so truly, nobly generous. It
will be remembered by those who read a little
pamphlet, published last year, called the "Literary
Handmaid of the Church," that one of the many
princely acts of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge was to give an author £12 for a book
of which 6,000 copies were sold, and to refuse
anything more, although the author pleaded that,
they had promised more if the book should prove
a success. How wonderfully do these societies
promote the cause of true religion! With what
self-sacrificing courage do they hold aloft the
banner of justice! Let us always and always
thank Heaven for the religious publishing society!
## p. 216 (#620) ############################################
2l6
THE AUTHOR.
VI.
The Bookman.
27, Paternoster Bow, London,
Sir, 25th November, i891.
In the lust number of the .Author you refer
to ii letter by a lady authoress published in the
first number of the Bookman. You say that the
letter is " endorsed by the editor." You go further,
and actually declare that on a six shilling book a
profit to the author of £jb, and to the publisher of
£3o.">, is " the full and equal royalty advocated by
the Bookman!"
No more gross misrepresentations could possibly
be imagined.
So far from endorsing the letter, I added the
following note :—
"The spirit of this letter is worthy of all
admiration, but it should be remembered—(1) that
on tin; matter of royalties well-known writers
should not be put on a level with beginners; and
(2) that the writer of the letter was in the habit
of publishing books which sold at a low price, and
contained a good deal of matter."
Ignoring this note, you attempt to make out
that I considered a royalty of one penny a shilling
on a very popular six shilling book as fair. No such
thing. The author of the letter was referring to
books selling about one shilling and sixpence and
two shillings, and so long as to involve quite as
much setting as an average six-shilling volume.
On such, I believe, a royalty of one penny per
shilling may be fair, but I expressed no opinion
even on that.
On a book priced at six shillings and selling
well, I agree with you that a much higher rate
may be paid; in fact, my note was written to make
this clear. Hut I do not accept your statements on
this subject. How can an addition of a thousand
copies of a six-shilling volume be all sold? Out
of a thousand a considerable number would be sent
to reviewers, and could not, therefore, be included
in an estimate of money received. But I have no
hesitation in saying that the great majority of
books published at six shillings do not reach any-
thing like a sale of a thousand. Several hundred
copies have to be got riil of for what they will
bring. And you take no account of the element of
time, one book selling a thousand in a day, another
struggling through its thousand in ten years. I
need not say that this consideration should influence
the whole reckoning
I now desire to put a direct question. I am,
and have been for years, a member of the Society
of Authors. Many of the contributors to the
Bookman arc also members. None of us, as far as
I know, have ever given you permission to speak
our minds on all subjects. We, acquiesce in the
publication of the Author at the expense of the
Society, because we think that, on the whole, it
does good, though I, for one, do not see why it
should not easily pay its way. But some of us, at
least, feel when we read you on such subjects i:s
"The man of the magnificent imagination."
"Titles for Authors," Ac, as you feel towards the
Spectator. If we cared to use your own elegant
language, we should say, we are "grieved and
humiliated to see such stuff in your columns." Our
trouble is that you talk as if you had a right to be
our spokesman. You say to me, "As a society of
bookmen and bookwomen, we would earnestly
invite, &c. Who gave you a right to say that?
At what meeting of the Society of Authors was this
invitation resolved upon? Did the Committee
authorise you to extend it? Oris it simply you,
the conductor of the paper, who are speaking
without authority from any other human being i
If so, I venture to suggest that the practice of
speaking for men who have given you no authority
to represent them, and who repudiate many of
your most cherished opinions, should be dropped
at once. Let the opinions be given simply as
those of Mr. Walter Besant, and they will receive
the respect they are entitled to, and from none
more willingly than from,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
The Editor of the " Bookman."
Notes on the Above.
1. "Endorsed by the Editor." The lady who
wrote the letter did so on the assumption that a
royalty of a penny in the shilling was a fair royalty
—the usual royalty—and that it gave the writer
as much as it left the publisher. This was the
whole point of her letter, and it was entirely
erroneous. The Editor did not correct these mis-
statements. He let them pass. If he did not
endorse them, what did he do? Our readers,
however, have his words before them. They may
judge for themselves.
2. Whether the book is a shilling book or a six
shilling book, the proportion is tlie same. The
example of a six shilling book is given as the most
convenient and the most intelligible.
3. Why should well-known writers receive more
than beginners on a royalty? A royalty gives so
much a copy. The beginner will not be in such
great demand as the well-known writer, and will,
therefore, on the same royalty, get less.
4. "The writer was in the habit of publishing
books at a low price containing a good deal of
## p. 217 (#621) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
217
matter." Well, I have myself published books for a
shilling each containing as much matter as is found
in most si.v shilling books. But never, certainly,
for a penny royalty. So that I speak from personal
experience and not from theory.
5. "How can an edition of a thousand copies of
a six shilling edition be all sold?" You may
deduct thirty or so for press copies. The rest will
be all sold if the book is successful to that extent.
If it is not going to be successful to so small an
extent the publisher will beforehand—and quite
rightly—make the author pay towards the pro-
duction of the book. Those six shilling books
which are not paid for by the author sell sometimes
a great many thousands—in every case which can
be called in the least successful a good deal more
than a thousand. The Editor of the Bookman
wants to consider the length of time in getting the
book off. Well, let us consider it. A six shilling
book costs about £100 with advertising. The first
subscription, always supposing that it is a book
sure of a reasonable success, and therefore not paid
for by the author, will certainly earn more than half
by the first subscription, in nearly all ciises the
other half in the first three months. There will
not, in any case, be much left to be covered after
the first five hundred are gone.
There is nothing whatever to be altered in the
notes of last month's Author on this unfortunate
letter.
6. In answer to the Editor's "direct question," I
have only to call his attention to the notice at the
beginning of every Author, that signed articles
represent the opinions of the writer only. The
paragraphs to which he refers are signed by me as
the writer.
W. B.
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
IN the long list of books published in November,
note for purchase or circulating library pur-
poses Austin Dobson's " Hogarth," Gardiner's
"History of the Great Civil War," Vol. III., Lord
Rosebery's " Pitt," Traill's "Marquis of Salisbury,"
Churton Collins' "Illustrations of Tennyson,"
Mrs. Grimwood's " Escape from Manipur," Andrew
Lang's "Angling Sketches," Maudslay's " Nature's
Warnings," William Morris' " Story of the Glitter-
ing Plain," Bullen's "Lyrics from Elizabethan
Dramatists," Leeky's "Poems."
A one-volume edition of George Meredith's
"One of our Conquerors" is now ready.
(Chapman and Hall).
A cheap edition is ready of George Macdonald's
"There and Back." (Kegan Paul & Co.)
A book out of the common, and far more than
commonly interesting, is Mr. Athol Maudslay's
"Nature's Weather Warnings and Natural Phe-
nomena." Here are simple rules for forecasting
the weather, obsolete weather prognostications, folk
lore, flower lore, moon lore—all kinds of things
unexpected. It is a little book published by
Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.
In the new number of the Educational
Beview are papers by Arthur Sedgwick on "The
Women's Question at Oxford "; by Lyulph
Stanley on "The Work before the London School
Board"; by A. G. Vernon Harcourt on "Greek
from the Science man's Point of View "; by Pro-
fessor Skeat on "The Educational Value of
English," Part II. ; and by Arthur Monteliore, on
"Nautical Education." The spirit of progress and
activity has at last been aroused even in educational
papers, which of old were wont to be the dullest
of dull organs.
"Glimpses into Nature's Secrets," by Edward
Alfred Martin (Elliot Stock), is an attempt to
bring under the observer's notice a few facts re-
lating to those creatures of the sea-shore, which,
familiar more or less to all, are always replete with
interest to the seaside sojourner. The descriptions
are neither lengthy nor technical, yet the infor-
mation is trustworthy, and conveyed with a
scientific spirit, although the manner chosen has
been a popular one.
There is a new edition of Jefferies' "The Dewy
Morn." It now finds a place among Messrs.
Bentlcy and Son's "Favourite Novels."
The narrative of Mrs. Frank Grimwood's escape
from tin' Mutiny of Manipur is a most wonderful
story, simply and beautifully told, full of pathos
and of situations terrible as well as pathetic. Its
success is said to be as great as it deserves.
Let us welcome among the company of novelists
a new comer in the person of Miss Mary Dickens,
granddaughter of her grandfather. In the children
of the great novelist, their father's genius, as con-
stantly happens, has manifested itself in other lines.
Perhaps it has reappeared in his granddaughter.
The name of the. work is "Cross Currents." The
publishers are Chapman and Hall. Surely all who
love their Charles Dickens will at least pay his
memory the compliment by calling for the novel of
his grandchild.
## p. 218 (#622) ############################################
2l8
THE AUTHOR.
Mrs. W. K. Clifford brings out her "Love
Letters of a Worldly Woman" this day—with
Edward Arnold.
Miss Mabel Robinson has gone to the same
publishers with her new book, " Hovenden, V.C."
Under the same name are new books by Clark
Russell, Barry Gould, MacLaren Cobban, L. B.
Walford, Mrs. Molesworth, W. E. Henley; not a
bad list for a new house.
Messrs. Longmans have in the press the auto-
biography of an actress, not a great London actress,
but an obscure member of a country company—of
that class formerly called strolling actors. It is the
only book which gives the actual life of the modern
strolling actor. The experiences and anecdotes are
strictly true. The author calls herself " Dorothy
Wallis," and Mr. Walter Besant, who is personally
acquainted with her, will contribute a preface to the
work.
The author of "John Westaeott" has com-
pleted a three-volume novel, dealing with English
characters, the scene being laid partly in the
west country and on the Cornish coast, and some
exciting scenes in a picturesque part of Bohemia.
The publication is delayed for the American
edition. Amongst the publications in which this
writer's work has appeared during the present
year are Cornhill, the Times, Black and White,
Spectator, Leisure Hour, Athenceum, the Author,
Cassell's, &c.; and he is also contributing
notes to some of the principal provincial dailies.
His article upon St. David, which appeared in
the English Illustrated some three years since,
under the title of "A Dead City," has become the
acknowledged guide to that quaint place, and in the
programme of the meeting of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland at Killarney this year it
was especially recommended to the members for
comparison with the pre-historic remains in West
Kerry.
The Duke of Argyll and his son, the Marquis of
Lome, have joined the Company of Novelists, in
the series published by the Automatic Company.
Mr. George Saintsbury has introduced the
Essays of Edmund Scherer to the English public
in translation, with a critical preface. (Sampson
Low & Co.)
We have received " A Descriptive List of British
Novels," compiled by W. M. Griswold, and pub-
lished at Cambridge, Massachussetts. The number
of novels noticed is 916, from No. i,025 to No. 1,941.
What precedes No. 1,023 probably belongs to
another collection. The intention of the collection
is to supply a notice of every novel taken from the
reviews of the day. Generally these are laudatory;
sometimes they are the reverse. A pleasing
surprise is introduced by a novel system of spelling.
We have "ar" for "are," "we'r" for "were,"
"britly" for " brightly," and so forth; the result
is that the critics' remarks appear absolutely fresh
and new.
Mrs. Edmonds, whose "Greek Lays, Idylls, and
Legends" (Triibner and Co.) were favourably
noticed some five years ago, has recently published
a new book, entitled "Kolokotrones, Klepht and
Warrior" (Fisher Unwiu). The same publisher
has also recently issued "Amaryllis," by the same
author, and a book of fairy tales.
Mr. A. R. Ropes has published, with Seelev
and Co., a Selection from the Letters of Lady Mary
Wortley Montague, with an introduction.
"Cora Langton," the author of "Jock and his
Friends," has written another children's book,
"A Parliament of Pickles." It is a funny,
natural, and pathetic story.
With regard to our announcement of Mr. Bert nun
Mitford's new novel " Golden Face; A Tale of the
Wild West," Trischler and Co., we learn that its
publication is postponed until the end of January
next.
William Wilson's translation of "Brand,"
Ibsen's most powerful drama, has been published
by Methuen. It is not a play to be acted, but the
situations are splendid in their simplicity mid the
central character is certainly as fine as anything
that Ibsen has ever drawn.
Immediately will be published "When Town
and Country Meet." Longmans. Price 6*. By
Mrs. Alfred Baldwin.
The Cassell Publishing Company, New York,
have bought the American rights of " Indian Idyls,
by an 'Idle Exile,'" originally published 'by
Messrs. Thaeker and Spink, Calcutta, and also of
a one-volume novel by "An Idle Exile," entitled,
"By a Himalayan Lake," which ran as a serial in
the "Pictorial World."
Messrs. Methuen, London, also have in the press
"In Tent and Bungalow," another collection of
short stories by the author of " Indian Idyls."
Miss Peard's new Dutch novel, "The Baroness,"
will be published simultaneously in London
(Bentley) and New York (Harper) at the beginning
of the year.
## p. 219 (#623) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
Among the new books of the month must be
included Mr. Henry Charles Moore's "Who was
She?" published by Dean and Son with the
October books.
The title of Mr. Walter Besant's new novel,
about to run through Chamber's Journal, is "The
Ivory Gate." It is the title of a novel by the late
Mortimer Collins, which was published in the year
1866. Mr. Bosant has been very kindly j>ermitted
by Miss Mabel Collins to use the title for the new
story.
A Fourth Edition is ready of Sir Monier
Williams' "Brahminisiu and Hinduism." (John
Murray.)
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Theology.
Benham, Rev. W. The Dictionary of Religion; an En-
cyclopaedia of Christian and other religious doctrines,
denominations, sects, heresies, ecclesiastical terms,
history, biography, &c. Edited by. Cassell. io«. 6rf.
The Church and Hek Doctrine. By the Bishop of
Sydney, the Bishop of Ossory, Canon Girdlestone, the
Rev. Henry Wace, D.D., and others. J. Nisbet and Co.
6s.
Farrar, Archdeacon. The Life of Christ. Illustrated.
Cassell and Co. yt. 6d.
Geikie, Rev. C, D.D. The Holy Land and the Bible.
With illustrations from original drawings. By Henry
A. Harper. Cassell. 2is.
Granger, M. E. Advent Readings, arranged for daily
reading and meditation. Griffith, Farran. 3«. 6d.
Huntinoford, Rev. E., D.C.L. Popular Misconceptions
about the First Eleven Chapters of Genesis. Second
edition, continued to the death of Joseph. Bickers,
Leicester Square, is.
Maoee, C. S. Growth in Grace, and other Sermons. By
the late W. C. Magee, D.D., Archbishop of York.
Edited by. Isbister. 7s. 6d.
Maurice, F. Denison. Sermons Preached in Lincoln's Inn
Chapel. In 6 vols. Vol.11. New edition. Macmillan
and Co. 3». 6d.
Robinson, J. A., B.D. Texts and Studies, Contributions to
Biblical and Patristic Literature. Edited by. Vol.11.,
No. I., a Study of Codex Beza?. Cambridge University-
Press. 7s. 6d.
Skene, W. F., D.C.L. The Lord's Supper and the Pass-
over Kitual; being a Translation of the Substance
of Professor Bickncll's work, termed "Messe und
Pascha." With an introduction by the Translator on
the connexion of the Early Christian Church with the
Jewish Church. Clark, Edinburgh. 5j.
What We Believe: a simple Statement of the Christian
Faith. Griffith, Farran.
White, Edward, Archbishop of Canterbury. Living
Theology. With portrait. Preachers of the Age Series.
Sampson Low.
Williams, Sir Monies, K.C.I.E. Brahminism and
Hinduism; or, Religious Thought and Life in India.
Fourth edition, enlarged and improved. Murray. i8».
History and Biography.
Armstrong, W. The Life and Work of Briton Riviere.
Christmas number of the Art Journal. With numerous
illustrations. Art Journal office, Ivy Lane, E.C.
Belford Bax, E. Selected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer.
With a biographical introduction and sketch of his
philosophy. George Bell. 5*.
Belmore, Earl of, G.C.M.G. The History of the Corry
Family of Castlecoolc. Longmans; Thorn, Dublin,
io*. 6d.
Brugsch-Bey, H. Egypt under the Pharaohs: a History
derived entirely from the Monuments. A new edition,
condensed and revised by M. Brodrick. Maps and
illustrations. Murray. 18s.
Crawford, Frederick. Hans Christian Andersen's Cor-
respondence with the late Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar,
Charles Dickens, and others. Edited by. With portrait
and memoir. Dean, Fleet Street. 6*.
Dobson, Austin. William Hogarth. Sampson Low.
Edwards, S. J. Celestine. From Slavery to a Bishopric j
or, the Life of Bishop Walter Hawkins, of the British
Methodist Episcopal Church, Canada. Kensit. London.
Fleav, F. G., M.A. A Biographical Chronicle of the
English Drama, 1559-1642. In 2 vols. Reeves and
Turner. 1/. 10s.
Forbes, Archibald. The Afghan Wars, 1839-42 and
1878-80. With portraits and plans. Seeley, Essex
Street, Strand.
Frith, Henry. The Biography of a Locomotive Engine.
Illustrated. Cassell and Co. St.
Gardiner, S. R., M.A. History of the Great Civil War,
1642-49. Vol. III. 1647-49. Longmans. 28s.
Goff, G. L. Historical Records of the 91st Argyllshire
Highlanders, now the 1st Battalion Princess Louise's
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, containing an
account of the formation of the regiment in 1794, and
of its subsequent services to 1881. Arrunged by.
Bentley.
Hamerton, P. G. Paris, in Old and Preseut Times. Illus-
trated (new edition). Seeley and Co.
Hope, M. J. Novalis: His Life, Thoughts, and Works.
Edited and translated by. Stott.
Oxenden, Right Rev. A., D.D. The History of My Life:
an Autobiography. Longmans, 5s.
Picton, J. Allansox, M.P. Sir James A. Picton: a
Biography, with facsimile sketches. Isbister and Co.
12*.
Ropes, A. R., M.A. Lady Mary Wortlcy Montagu:
Selected Passages from her Letters. Edited by.
With nine portraits, after Sir Godfrey Kueller and
other artists. Seeley.
Rosebery, Lord. Pitt. Twelve English Statesmen
Series. Macmillan. 2s. 6d.
## p. 220 (#624) ############################################
220
THE AUTHOR.
Sciierer, W. A History of German Literature, from the
Accession of Frederick the Great to the Death of
Goethe. Translated from the third German edition by
Mrs. F. C. Conybeare and edited by F. Max Miiller.
Clarendon Press. 5s.
Siborne, Maj.-Ge.v H. T. Waterloo Letters: a selection
from original and hitherto unpublished letters bearing
on the operations of the 16th, 17th, and 18th of June,
1815, by officers who served in the campaign. Edited,
with explanatory notes, by. Illustrated, with maps
and plans. Cassell. 21s.
Traill, H. D., D.C.L. The Marquis of Salisbury. The
Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria Series. Edited by
Stuart J. Heid. Sampson Low.
Villari, Prof. Pasquale. The Life and Times of
Niccolo Machiavelli. Translated by Madame Linda
Villari. Anew edition. Augmented by the author;
revised by the translator. Illustrated. Two vols.
Fisher Uuwin. 321.
Educational.
Chisholm, G. G., M.A. Longmans' School Geography
for India and Ceylon. Longmans. 3.1. 6d.
Easton, Rev. .T. G., M.A. A First Book of Mechanics
for young beginners, with numerous easy examples and
answers. Cassell. 4s. 6d.
Ferguson, F. O. Architectural Perspective. Illustrated.
Crosby Lockwood, and Son.
Maycock, W. Pekkk.n. A First Book of Electricity and
Magnetism. With illustrations. Whittakcr and Co.
2S. 6(1.
Meakin, J. E. B. An Introduction to the Arabic of
Morocco; English-Arabic Vocabulary, Grammar,
Notes, &c. Kegan Paul.
Mitchell, C. F. Forty Plates on Building Construction.
Cassell and Co. 10s. 6d.
Ramsay, Ci. E., LL.D., M.A. Latin Prose Composition.
Third edition. Volume I., containing Syntax, Exer-
cises with Notes, Vocabulary, and Appendix. Clarendon
Press. 4s. 6d.
General Literature.
Armstrong, A. E. Marian, or the Abbey Grange. Illus-
trated. Blackie and Son. is. 6d.
Armstrong, F. Changing Lots. Griffith, Farran. Ss.
Armstrong, J. Dan's Little Girl. With illustrations.
Beligious Tract Society. 3s.
Baldwin, Mrs. Alfred. Where Town and Country Sleet.
Longmans. 6s.
Baring Gould, S., M.A. Historic Oddities and Strange
Events. Third edition. Methuen.
Beale, Anne. Fay Arlington. Griffith, Farran. Ss.
Bell, Ernest. Handbook of Athletic Sports. Edited by.
Vol. V.—Athletics, Cycling, Skating. Illustrated.
George Bell and Sons. 3s. 6d.
Bewsiier, Mrs. M. E. Mischief Makers, or the Story of
Zipporah. Griffith, Farran. 3s. 6d.
Birch, U. E. Ivy's Dream. Illustrated. Religious Tract
Society, is.
Bland, E. A. Foxy Fielding's Friend. With illustrations.
Religious Tract Society, it.
Bouvet, Marguerite. Sweet William, a Tale of Early
Times in Normandy. Nelson and Sons.
Bramston, M. Neal Russell. The Story of a Brave Man.
Swan Sounenscheiu.
A Village Genius: a True Story of Oberain-
mergau. National Society's Depository. is.
Bremner, C. S. A Month in a Dandi, a Woman's Wander-
ings in Northern India. Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.
Brightwen, Mrs. Wild Nature won by Kindness. With
illustrations by the Author and F. Carruthers Gould.
Popular edition. Fisher I'nwin. Paper covers, is.
Brodie, Emilv. The Orphans of Mertou Hall. Illustrated.
Religious Tract Society, is.
Brown, Frances. Granny's Wonderful Chair. Illustrated
by M. Seymour Lucas. Griffith, Farran.
Brown, Maggie. Pleasant Work for Busy Fingers; or
Kindergarten at Home. Illustrated. Cassell and Co.
Ss.
Butler, M. M. Waiting and Serving: or the Major's
Little Sentinel. Nelson and Son.
Carey, Rosa N. Averil. Illustrated. Religious Tract
Society. 3s.
Our Bessie. Illustrated. Religious Tract Society.
3».
Clark, Alfred. A Dark Place of the Earth. Forest
Department, Ceylon. Sampson Low.
Clutterbuck, W. .1. About Ceylon and Borneo. Illus-
trated. Longmans, 10s. 6d.
Collins, J. Churton. Illustrations of Tennyson. Chatto
and Windus.
Craddock, C. E. In the "Stranger People's" Country:
a Novel. Osgood, M'llvaine. 6s.
Cresswell, H. W. How to Buy and Sell at Auction
Rooms. Routledge.
Cusack, M. F. The Story of my Life. "The Nun of
Kenmare." Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.
Debenham, Mary H. For King and Home and Mistress
Phil. National Society Depository, is. each.
Doudney, Sarah. The Love Dream of Gaily Funning
Hutchinson, is. 6d.
Where Two Ways Meet. Illustrated. Hutchin-
son. 5s.
Drayson, Lt.-Col. A. W. Among the Zulus. Griffith,
Farran. 2s.
Edwards, A. B. Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers.
Illustrated. Osgood, M'llvaine. 18s.
Everett-Green, E. Dare Lorimer's Heritage. Illustrated.
Hutchinson. 5s.
Falk, David G. Rick, or the Kecidiviste: a Romance of
Australian Life. Trischler and Co.
Fenn, G. Manville. The Rajah of Dah. Illustrated.
W. and R. Chamlwrs.
The Crystal Hunter. A Boy's Adventures in
the Higher Alps. Partridge, Paternoster Row. 5*.
Fullerton, W. M. In Cairo. Macmillan. 3s. 6rf.
Ganconagh. John Sherman and Dhoya. The Pseudonym
Library. Fisher Unwin. Paper covers. 1*. 6<f.
## p. 221 (#625) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
221
Garland, HAin.ra. Main-Travelled Roads. Mississippi
Valley Stories. Fisher Unwin. 3*. 6d.
Glanville, Ernest. The Fossicker: a Romance of
Mashonaland. Chatto and Windus.
Gollock, G. A. Light on Our Lessons; or, What is the
Use? A missionary book for Roys and Girls. With
preface by Eugene Stock. Church Missionary Society,
Salisbury Square, E.G.
Giikvillk, Lady. The Gentlewoman in Society. Henry
and Co. 6*.
Grimwood, E. St. Clair. My Throe Years in Manipur,
and Escape from the Recent Mutiny. With illustra-
tions and plan. Rentley.
Harden, Henley J. Elizabeth, or Cloud and Sunshine.
W. and R. Chambers.
Hatton, Joseph. The Princess Mazaroff, a Romance of
the Day. Two vols. Hutchinson, Paternoster Square,
us.
Hayes, Mrs. M. H. My Leper Friends: an Account of
Personal Work among Lepers, and of their Daily Life
in India. Illustrated. W. Thacker and Co., 87, New-
gate Street.
Hill, G. R., D.C.L. Writers and Readers. T. Fisher
Unwin. 5s.
HiTcncocK, Thomas. Unhappy Loves of Men of Genius.
Illustrated. Osgood, M'llvaine. 5*.
Holt, E. S. Countess Maud: a Tale of the 14th Century.
T. F. Shaw.
Kaplan, A. 0. Raby's Souvenir. Illustrated by Frances
Bruudage. Dean, Fleet Street. 10s. 6d.
Karsland, Vera. Women and their Work. Sampson
Low. i«.
Kenyon, Edith C. Ernest's Golden Thread. W. and R.
Chambers.
Kingston, W. II. G. Ben Haddeii. Religious Tract
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trated. Dean and Son.
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Rowsell, Mary C. Petronella and Madame Pono-s'ski.
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Russell, W. Clarke. The Tragedy of Ida Noble. Being
the Christmas number of Atlan'a. Illustrated by
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## p. 222 (#626) ############################################
222
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3 vols. John Murray. 31s. bd.
Wrightson, I. Farm Crops. The "Downton" Series.
Cassell.
Yonge, C. M. The Constable's Tower, or the Times of
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Poetry and the Drama.
Allen, Clement F. K. The Book of Chinese Poetry,
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other pieces known as the Shih Ching or Classic of
Poetry. Metrically translated by. Kegan Paul.
Blind, Mathii.de. Dramas in Miniature. Poems and
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Chatto and Windus.
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bethan Age. Edited by Lawrence and Bullen. 5s.
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Ewald, A. C, F.S.A. The Dramatic Works of George
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Nimmo.
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Ibsen, Heinrik. Brand; a Dramatic Poem. Translated
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Lecky, W. E. H. Poems. Longmans. 5s.
MacDonald, G. A Threefold Cord: Poems by three
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Mansfield, R. Don Juan: A Play in Four Acts.
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Sheridan, R. Brinsley. The School for Scandal. A
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## p. 223 (#627) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
223
Sullivan, T. D. Blanaiu; and other Irish Historical anil
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Dublin.
Tomson, Graham R. A Summer Night; and other
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advertisements at a low charge, viz., 2S. per 100 words, and pro rata. No agency business
undertaken. The Magazine will be posted free to all the well-known composers; and, it is hoped,
will prove a boon to buyers and sellers. Address—
THE CONDUCTOR,
ASHMOBE BUSSAN, HOBSFOBTH, LEEDS.
All applications relating to Advertisements in this
Journal should be addressed to the Printers and
Publishers,
EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE,
East Harding Street, Fetter Lane, London, E.C.
## p. 227 (#631) ############################################
A D VER TISEMENTS.
CJje J*wtetg of autfjors (finrorporatrtX
PRESIDENT.
The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSOX, D.C.L.
Sib Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E.
Alfred Austin.
A. W. a Beckett.
Robert Bateman.
Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G.
Walter Besant.
Augustine Birrei.l, M.P.
R. I). Blackmore.
Rev. Prof. Bonnet, F.R.S.
Lord Brabourne.
James Bryce, M.P.
P. W. Clayden.
Edward Clodd.
W. Martin Conway.
Marion Crawford.
Oswald Chawfurd, C.M.G.
The Earl Of Desart.
COUNCIL.
A. W. Dubourg.
John Eric Erichben, F.R.S.
Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.
Herbert Gardner, M.P.
Richard Garnett, LL.D.
Edmund Gosse.
H. Rider Haggard.
Thomas Hardy.
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.
J. M. Lely.
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.
F. Max Muller, LL.D.
George Meredith.
Herman C. Merivale.
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wakr, F.L.S.
J. C. Parkinson.
The Earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery.
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart.,
LL.D.
Walter Herries Pollock.
A. G. Ross.
George Augustus Sala.
W. Baptiste Scoones.
G. R. Sims.
J. J. Stevenson.
Jas. Sully.
William Mot Thomas.
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.
The Right Hon. the Baron Henry
de Worms, M.P., F.R.S.
Edmund Yates.
A. W. a Beckett.
W. Martin Conway.
Hon. Counsel—E. M. Underdown, Q.C.
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Chairman—Walter Besant.
I Edmund Gosse. J. M. Lely.
| H. Rider Haggard. | Sir Frederick Pollock.
Solicitors—Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.
OFFICES.
4., Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
A. G. Ross.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
1. The Annual Report. That for January 1891 can l>e had on application to the Secretary.
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary
Property. Issued to all Members.
3. The Grievances of Authors. (The Lendenhall Press.) zs. The Report of three Meetings on the
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March 1887.
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Cot.les, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,
95, Strand, W.C.) 3s.
5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the
Society, is.
6. The Cost Of Production. In tliis work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,
size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books.
2s. 6d. Out of Print, New Edition now preparing.
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the
papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors
are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud
which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3s. Second
Edition.
8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament.
With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the
Berne Convention, and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottiswoode
is. 6d.
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.
vol. 11. P i
## p. 228 (#632) ############################################
A D VER TISEMENTS.
The " Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which
it supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant
work, or a week's ordinary writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With
the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser
may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for
another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted.
There are various pints to select from, broad, medinrn, and fine, every handwriting can be suited,
and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post tree, is only 10s. 6d.
MAfciE TOOO J. BAUD NtW V0«K fej%^
The Gold Pens in the "Swan" are Mabie, Todd, & Co.'s famous make. They are 14-carat
tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are, pointed with
selected polished iridium. The " Encyclopedia Britannica" says:—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of
high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon
it." They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens.
One will OUtwear 90 grOSS Of Steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing
about Gold Pens.
Dr. Olives Wendell Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd, & Co.'s Gold Pens since 1857, and is using the same
one (his " old friend ") to-day.
Svdnky Gbumdy, Esq., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" It is a vast improvement on every Stylograph."
Moberly Bell, Esq., Manager, The Times, says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—" One pen lasted me for six
years."
S. D. Waddy, Esq., Q.C., M.P., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :—*' I have used them constantly for some
years, and, as far ns I can remember, they have never failed me."
-^^^3r3>-cf^
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the Best
People, who have used them for years) to—
MABIE, TODD, & BARD,
## p. 229 (#633) ############################################
^Ibe Butbor*
(The Organ of the Incorporated Soviety of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.
Vol. II.—No. 8.] JANUARY i, 1892. [Price Sixpence.
For the Opinions ex-pressed in papers that arc
signed the Authors alone are responsible.
WARNINGS.
Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to
make the following warnings as widely known as
possible. They are based on the experience of six
years' work upon the dangers to which literary
property is exposed :—
(l.) Never sign any agreement of which the
alleged cost of production forms an
integral part, unless an opportunity of
proving the correctness of the figures is
given them.
(2.) Never enter into any correspondence with
publishers, especially with advertising
publishers, who are not recommended by
experienced friends or by this Society.
(3.) Never, on any account whatever, bind
yourself down for future work to any
one firm of publishers.
(4.) Never accept any proposal of royalty
without ascertaining exactly what the
agreement gives to the author and what
to the publisher.
(5.) Never accept any pecuniary risk or respon-
sibility whatever without advice.
(6.) Never, when a MS. has been refused by
resectable house.s, pay others, whatever
promises they may put forward, for the
production of the work.
(7.) Never sign away American rights. Keep
them. Refuse to sign an agreement con-
taining a clause which reserves them for
the publisher. If the publisher insists,
take away the MS. and offer it to another.
(8.) Never forget that, publishing is a business,
like any other business, totally unconnected
with philanthropy, charity, or pure love
of literature. You have to do with
business men.
Society's Offices:—
4, Portugal Street, Linxoln's Inn Fields.
NOTICES.
THE Committee have to announce with great
regret the resignation of the secretary, Mr. S.
Squire Sprigge. He finds himself unable to
give his whole time to the Society, and the greatly
increased work which has now to be done makes it
necessary that the secretary should henceforth
devote the whole of his time to that work. When
Mr. Sprigge became secretary three years ago, the
number of members was 25o. It has since trebled
and the work has more than trebled. This rapid
increase is, the Committee feel, largely due to the
zeal and the intelligence which Mr. Sprigge has
brought to the work. The kind of work is often
of an extremely delicate nature; authors are not
always in the right in their disputes; and, when
they are, it is not always expedient to set things
right by the immediate intervention of the lawyer;
many disputes have been amicably arranged by
Mr. Sprigge in interviews and by conversation; in
such a position as that held for three years by
Mr. Sprigge, enemies may be very easily made.
It may be said of Mr. Sprigge that he has made
very few, and of those few, some—the persons,
namely, who live by dishonest practices—are of
the kind whose enmity is an honour. Mr. Sprigge
retires at the end of March. The Committee hope
to appoint his successor before that date, in order
that he may have a little time to learn the work.
## p. 230 (#634) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
The Committee very seriously entreat members to
sign no agreements without submitting them,
confidentially, to the secretory. The points, how-
ever, which are most to be kept in mind are, (i)
what the author gives up—his copyright, his
American rights, his rights of translation, and, in
most cases, his control of his own property. (2.)
"What consideration he gets for it. (3.) What the
publisher proposes to reserve for himself. If a
royalty is offered, the author must ascertain what
that means, both in view of a limited and of a
large sale. If he is to share in profits after the
book has jmid its expenses, he must have it dis-
tinctly laid down in the agreement that expenses
mean actual expenses paid for production, and not
a fancy charge, giving the other side a fraudulent
profit at the outset. Also he must have something
to say in the matter of advertisements, remembering
that it is not an uncommon practice for the fraudu-
lent publisher to charge what he pleases under
this head, and to "spend the money" (!) on
advertising in his own periodicals or trade lists.
In other words, the Society earnestly and un-
ceasingly exhorts those who write books to take as
much care of their property in books as they do of
their property in houses, and lands, and shares. It
may be only a very small property, or it may be
large—in either event let it be guarded as carefully
as any other kind of property.
There is no subject on which everybody is so
willing and ready to write as on the subject of
publishing, and there is no subject on which there
prevails such extraordinary ignorance. This is
because the figures of one side only have been
accessible. Those of the other side have now been
presented by this Society, and anyone can ascertain
by the help of these figures, or by special appli-
cation to the secretary, what these figures are, ami
what they mean. To those who do know what
this means and why they have been so carefully
withheld, the ordinary article which treats of
publishing is a thing which would be contemptible
if it was not pitiful and mischievous. Let it be
remembered tliat the Society has a mass of pub-
lishers' accounts, printers' estimates, information
from booksellers, bookbinders, printers, advertising
agents, agreements and returns, which has never
before been collected together, and could never be
collected except by such a Society. It is hoped
that members will consult the Secretary and use
this knowledge freely in their own interests. It is
also hoped that editors will recognise, the fact that
no articles on publishing methods are worth the
paper they an; written on unless the figures on both
sides are attainable.
The recent labour agitation in the bookbinding
trade has resulted in the concession of an eight
hours' day with higher wages to the workmen in
the trade. As to the justice of the case we are not
called upon to speak. The working of the result
is that for ordinary binding an advance of "j\ per
cent, will be made on bookbinders' charges to pub-
lishers for books, and of 12 per cent, (perhaps) for
magazines. In other words, bookbinders say, prac-
tically, "we are already cut down as far as we can
go. Somebody else must lx>ar this burden." Let
us see what it means. The cost of binding an
ordinary octavo volume ranges from ^d. to jd.
An advance of 7 \ per cent, adds \d. on the 4c?.,
and ^d. on the jd. In case of any attempt being
made to reduce royalties on the plea of this increase,
these figures should be borne in mind. It is not,
however, in books so much as in magaziues that
the difference will be felt. If the 12 per cent,
advance is made, it will make a difference to a
sixpenny magazine, perhaps all the difference.
Would the world be any the poorer if the sixpenny
magazine became a shilling magazine? The New
Review began at 6c?., was advanced to gd., and
will immediately become is. So much the better
for everybody.
On November 1st the readers of the Author,
and members of the Society, were invited to
subscribe in order to present Mr. K. U. Johnson,
Secretary of the International Copyright League.
On December 1st the Committee announced that
they had received enough money to carry out
their intentions. A silver salver has been pur-
chased, and will be sent to New York immediately.
The subscription was limited in amount, so as to
enlarge the number of those who might wish to
join. Many who would have joined were prevented
by the announcement that enough had been re-
ceived. If we had wanted more money the list
could have been extended indefinitely.
We have lost one of our earliest members. Mr
Egerton Warbnrton, one of the best known of.
Cheshire squires, was a member of the society
from the first. Without being a great author, he
was well known as the writer of excellent hunting
songs, and was at all times devoted to literature
and literary pursuits. He yvas a gentleman of
what is called the old school—of ancient descent—
## p. 231 (#635) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
231
conservative, ami a churchman—indeed, he was one
of the late Beresford Hope's friends—a good
hunting man—with all the best traditions attaching
to his class. Some years ago he instituted a May
Queen ceremony. For twenty years he was afflicted
with blindness.
Another, and a more prominent member from
the literary point of view, has been lost in Mr.
W. G. Wills. If success proves greatness, he was
a great dramatist. If prolific production means
greatness, he was great. The time has not yet
come for his work to be judged impartially as to its
place in literature. Few will forget, who ever
saw those pieces, "Oliver," and "Charles the
First." He possessed the first and greatest gift for
one who aspires to be a dramatist. He could hold
his audience. He has been charged with the
sadness of his pieces. They are lugubrious. It
was, however, in the nature of the subject that
they should be so. The man himself was far from
being lugubrious. His muse was tearful, but his
heart was light.
"We have also to regret the loss of Mr. G. T.
Bettany, who died of heart disease at Dulwich on
December 2nd. He was born at Penzance in
185o, and, being intended for the medical profes-
sion, entered Guy's Hospital in 1868. After
graduating B.Sc. at London University with First
Class Honours in Geology, he proceeded to Cam-
bridge, where he took his B.A., coining out
(bracketed Third) in the First Class of the Natural
Science Tripos in a remarkable year, Professor
H. N. Martin and the late Mr. Frank Balfour
being respectively first and second. Air. Bettany
lectured for some years at Newnham and Girton
Colleges, and at Guy's Hospital, but ultimately
decided to devote himself to literature. His chief
works are "The Morphology of the Skull," which
he wrote in collaboration with Professor W. K.
Parker, P.B.S., "Eminent Doctors; their Lives and
their Work," "Life of Darwin" (Great Writers'
Series), "The World's Inhabitants," and "The
World's Religions." At the time of his death he
was writing a "History of Christianity," and a
"History of Guy's Hospital," the latter in
collaboration with his friend Dr. S. Weeks, F.R.S.
Mr. Bettany was a contributor to the Times, the
Atheneeum, the Contemporary Jfevieic, and " Dic-
tionary of National Biography," and has, with
only one or two exceptions, edited more books than
any man living. The "Minerva Library of
Famous Books," of which he was ihe originator
and sole editor, is now generally admitted to 1h>
the cheapest and most valuable series of cheap
books in existence, and has attained an enormous
sale, while his "Popular Library of Literary
Treasures" was also the means of bringing much
that is valuable within the reach of a very large
public.
The meaning, as between publisher and author,
of the so-called "Royalty System "—where there
is no system—was explained in the Author for
November 18g t. Writers are entreated, in their
own interests, to study the facts and figures there
set forth.
Communications intended for the Authors' Syndi-
cate should be addressed to W. Morris Colles, the
Honorary Secretary. Mr. Colles will issue a report
on the financial side of the Syndicate, drawn by a
firm of chartered accountants, at the beginning of
the new year.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of this Society or not, are invited
to communicate to the Editor any points connected
with their work which it would be advisable in the
general interest to publish.
Members and others who wish their MSS. read
are requested not to send them to the Office without
previously communicating with the Secretary. The
utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS.
are read in the order in which they are received.
It must also be distinctly understood that the
Society does not, under any circumstances, under-
take the publication of MSS.
The official directions for the securing of American
copyright by English authors were given in the
Author for June 1891. Members are earnestly
entreated to take the trouble of reading those
directions.
Members are earnestly requested to forwanl
agreements to the Society for inspection before
they sign them. Once signed, the mischief is
generally irreparable.
## p. 232 (#636) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
MISPRINT.
The Author, December 1891, page 200, column
2, line 4 from bottom—
For "Again, there are no periodicals," read,
"Again, there are two periodicals." The
passage, us quoted, is unintelligible.
W. W. Skeat.
*■■*■■*
THE COST OF PRODUCTION.
ANOTHER edition of this very useful little work
is now ready. Those who possess the earlier
editions will please note that since they were
issued there has been a rise in compositors' wages,
which, so far as London is concerned, will affect
the item of composition, or setting-up, and press
work, or machining, to the extent of about i5 per
cent. It has not, we are assured, touched prices
in Edinburgh.
Those who consult the book should also bear in
mind that our estimates are very liberal, so us to be
on the safe side. A printer's bill is a very elastic
thing, one that may be shortened as well as
lengthened, in a most surprising manner. For in-
stance, a certain piece of work required for the
Authors' Syndicate, which began by costing 364'. a
week, has now gone down to l5*., without the least
alteration in length. And the other day the account
of a book was sent in which showed the cost of
production considerably less than the estimate in
the Society's book. Nor is this the only occasion
in which we have found the figures supplied to us
to have been liberal ones.
AMERICAN COPYRIGHT.
I.
IE annual meeting of the American Oopy-
I right League, by the courtesy of the Executive
Council of the Authors' Club, was held at the
rooms of the Club, 19, West 24.th Street, on Friday
afternoon, Nov. 20th, Dr. Edward Eggleston, third
Vice-President, in the chair. On motion the
meeting was adjourned to a date in December, to be
determined by the Secretary, of which (hie notifica-
tion will be given. At a preliminary meeting of
the Executive Council of the Leagues some routine
business was transacted, and a committee consisting
of Mr. E. Stedmun, first Vice-President and acting
President of the League, and Mr. 11. U. Johnson,
Secretary, were appointed to draft resolutions on
the death of James Russell Lowell, late President
of the League, to be reported at the December
meeting, which will also receive rejwrts, elect
officers, and decide upon the future policy of the
League.
II.
The following is important. It is an extract
from a communication made to an English editor
by an American house :—
"In the case of the publisher of a magazine who
uses matter which is also copyrighted in the United
States, we think it very important that he should
secure from the author in writing his or her autho-
rity, not only to publish it in their magazine, but
also his or her authority to export it, i.e., the said
magazine to the United States; also to sell the same
in the United States. This authority should \n:
given in legal form, and signed in the presence of
two witnesses, and copies of the authority should
be sent over to us, so that in case questions should
come up here we should have positive proof that
the author had given his authority to import and
sell the publication in the United States."
The Associated Press of New York has been
interviewing English publishers as to the working
of the Copyright Law. As reported, the general
opinion seems to be that none of the evils prophesied
for the printing trade are likely to come to pass.
Composition in America is twenty-five per cent, at
least more than it is here. American authors are
asking larger prices; literature which appeals to the
million will undoubtedly be greatly affected by the
Act; other literature, naturally, to a much less
extent. The benefit to the author who commands
a hearing in America will be enormous.
An American' writes to remonstrate with an
expression used in the Author. It described the.
Copyright Law as a Printer's Protection Act. He
points out that the printers are no more protected
than they were before. This is quite true; the
expression should not have been used. We regret
that it was used.—Editor.
■ ♦•«■♦
LITERARY CRITICISM.
IP literary criticism may be said to flourish
among us at all, it certainly flourishes im-
mensely, for it flows through the periodical
press like a river that has burst its dykee. The
## p. 233 (#637) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
233
quantity of it is prodigious, and it is a commodity
of which, however the demand may be estimated,
the supply will be sure to be, in any supposable
extremity, the last thing to fail us. What strikes
the observer above all, in such an affluence, is the
unexpected proportion the discourse uttered bears
to the objects discoursed of—the paucity of ex-
amples, of illustrations and productions, and the
deluge of doctrine, suspended in the void, the
profusion of talk, and the poverty of experiment,
of what one may call literary conduct.
This, indeed, ceases to be an anomaly as soon as
we look at the conditions of contemporary jour-
nalism. Then we see that these conditions have
engendered the practice of " reviewing "—a practice
that, in general, has nothing in common with the
art of criticism. Periodical literature is a huge
open mouth which has to be fed—a vessel of
immense capacity which has to be filled. It is like
a regular train which starts at an advertised hour,
but which is free to start only if every seat be
occupied. The seats are many, the train is ponder-
ously long, and hence the manufacture of dummies
for the seasons when there are not passengers
enough. A stuffed manikin is thrust into the
empty seat, where it makes a creditable figure till
the end of the journey. It looks sufficiently like a
passenger, and you know it is not only when you
perceive that it neither says anything nor gets out.
The guard attends to it when the train is shunted,
blows the cinders from its wooden face, and gives a
different crook to its elbow, so that it may serve
for another run.
In this way, in a well-conducted periodical, the
blocks of rcmplissage are the dummies of criticism
—the recurrent, regulated billows in the ocean of
talk. They have a reason for being, and the
situation is simpler when we perceive it. It helps
to explain the disproportion I just mentioned, as
well, in many a case, as the quality of the particular
discourse. It helps us to understand that the
"organs of public opinion" must be no less
copious than punctual, that publicity must main-
tain its high standard, that ladies and gentlemen
may turn an honest penny by the free expenditure
of ink.
Henby James (Philadelphia Paper).
TWO ACTIONS AT LAW.
I.
Pinnock v. Chapman and Hall.
THE same number of the Times—Wednesday,
December 9th—contained two reports of cases,
Iwth of the greatest importance. The first of
these was Pinnock v. Chapman and Hall. This case
VOL. II,
was probably seen by all our readers, who have also
read the comments upon it in most of the papers.
Briefly, it was an action by a private person against
a firm of publishers for an alleged libel contained
in a certain book of stories. In this book the
plaintiff stated that he had been introduced in such
a manner as to make the identity impossible to be
doubted, and in such a way as to convey charges
affecting his honour. The defence set up was not
that a novelist has the right to place any person he
pleases under disguise, real or slight, but tliat the
plaintiff was not intended. The judge, in summing
up, put these two questions to the jury: (1) Did
the author have the plaintiff in his mind and intend
him when writing this story? (2) Was the tale so
written that those knowing the plaintiff would
reasonably infer that he was intended? If either
question was answered in the affirmative, the jury
would have to consider only the question of
damages. The jury did find an affirmative reply to
these questions and returned a verdict for the
plaintiff with 200/. damages.
The comments on the case mostly turned
on the publisher's side of the question. Every-
body asked how a publisher could protect him-
self. Nobody seems to have perceived that it is
perfectly simple to insert 11 clause in every agree-
ment to the effect that the author is liable for any
damages or costs in fighting an action for libel.
Such a clause is inserted in some agreements, and
it is one which no author could refuse to accept.
With this clause, and with the additional pre-
caution of a careful reader—in this case the reader
was led to believe that the whole book was fiction
—there should be little danger for the publisher.
Of course, the author might be unable to pay the
damages. On that point tin; publisher would take
care to be informed beforehand. Some twenty years
ago a similar case was brought. The offending
author was reported at the time to have paid the
damages inflicted on the firm out of his own pocket.
If he did so his action was just and honourable.
The real difficulty is the novelist's, not the pub-
lisher's. Our whole gallery of fictitious characters is
a gallery of portraits. There is not a novelist living
or dead whose books are not filled with portraits
drawn from the life. There is not a single book of
any note in which there are not living characters,
and for the most part characters well known and
easy to be recognised. Fiction, like painting, must
have models. It will be the beginning of the end
for fiction when she ceases to draw from the life.
Now, it is easy to get a model for the studio—but
difficult—almost impossible—to get a model for the
study. AVho would consent to sit for the Marquis
of Steyne—for Major Pendennis—for Jos Sedley
—for Blanche Amory—for Ralph Nickleby—for
Squeers—^for the Egoist? These portraits have to
Q
## p. 234 (#638) ############################################
234
THE AUTHOR.
bo taken surreptitiously—a line here, ft line there—
here the Kodak—there ft word of talk. They have
to be drawn with selection and discrimination.
Hitherto, none of these unwilling models have
brought their unwillingness into court. All
the world, perhaps, knew who was meant, but
the subject pretended either not to know or not
to care. Henceforth the novelist must l>e very
careful. If he takes from his acquaintance a
villain, a hypocrite, a sensualist, an egotist, a man
selfish, voluptuous, vain, foolish, priggish, a hum-
bug, a bully, a poseur—anything—he must be very
careful so to disguise him that the model, though
he may know, may have no legal cause for complaint.
He may transform to his canvas the mental qualities
of the model or the physical peculiarities or the
conditions and facts of the model's life. But not
all together. Thus, if his character adorn New
York, transfer him to London; if he be mentally
humpbacked transpose the hump to a person
physically unlike the real man.
The effect is not quite so happy as the bodily
transfer of the whole man with all his surroundings,
and the conditions which have made him what he is.
But it is safer. The portrait of a dead man may,
one supposes, be shown accurately without danger of
legal'proceedings. In such a, case the painter need
only fear the vengeance of able-bodied sons, brothers,
or cousins.
II.
The Proprietor of a Magazine v. The
Proprietor of a Country Paper.
This case is also one of considerable importance,
because it involves some definition of the right of
a newspaper to copy or abridge work appearing
in a magazine. The defendant admitted the pub-
lication of an abridgment, but contended that he
had acted in perfect good faith; that he had
received a copy of the magazine containing the
story, and that he had believed that he had the
consent of the plaintiffs to publish the story. It
does not appear, in fact, that the defendant did
more than has been very often done by country
papers. Yet it was necessary that the powers of
a newspaper to reproduce magazine articles should
be defined. There can be no doubt that the
reproduction of papers or portions of papers from
certain magazines may materially advance their
popularity and increase their circulation, so that,
to some extent, editors should be encouraged to
reproduce them. But it is well to remember that
the copyright belongs to the man who has bought
it, and that copyright means the right to publish.
There can be no harm done so long as editors
recognise the necessity of getting permission to
reproduce, and so long as that permission is freely
granted, But it should not be asked, nor would
it be granted, in the case of stories which form the
most attractive part of most magazines.
♦■»■♦
THE STORYTELLER'S NIGHT.
HERE is a hint for the Authors' Club. At
the Aldiue Club, New York, they have a
Storyteller's Night. Their last was on
Thursday, December 17th. Mr. Frank Stockton
took the chair. The storytellers were Mr. George
Cable, M. Paul du Chail'lu, Mr. Charles Dudley
Warner, Mr. W. Hamilton Gibsou, Mr. Will
Carlines, and others. One after the other they
stood up and told their stories, and sat down again.
In one respect we cannot imitate the Aldine Club.
Their dinner was not served till ten o'clock. Our
]>eople wouldn't stand that. Here is Mr. Charles
Warner's story as reported in the Critic :—
"There was once a robber in Cairo who fell from the
second story of a house he was trying to enter, and broke
his leg. He went to the Cadi aud complained. The man's
window was badly made, and he wanted justice. The Cadi
said that was reasonable, and he summoned the owner of
the house. The owner confessed that the house was poorly
built, but claimed that the eaqienter was to blame, and not
he. This struck the Cadi as sound logic, aud he sent for
the carpenter. 1 The charge is, alas, too true,' said the
carpenter,' but the masonry was at fault and I couldn't fit
a good window.'
"So the Cadi, impressed with the reasonableness of the
argument, sent for the mason. The mason pleaded guilty,
but explained that a pretty girl in a blue gown had passed
the building while he was at work, aud that his attention
had been diverted from his duty. The Cadi thereupon
demanded that the girl be brought before him. 'It is true,'
she said, 'that I am pretty, but it's no fault of mine. If
my gown attracted the mason, the dyer should be punished
and not I.' 'Quite true,' said the Cadi,' send for the dyer.'
The dyer was brought to the bar and pleaded guilty. That
settled it. The Cadi told the robber to take the guilty-
wretch to his hoiiBe and hang him from the door-sill, and
the populace rejoiced that justice had been done. Hut
pretty soon the crowd returned to the Cadi's house, com-
plaining that the dyer was too long to be properly hanged
from his door-sill. 'Oh, well,' said the Cadi, who by that
time was suffering with ennui,' go find a short dyer aud
hang him. Justice shall prevail.'"
—
NOTES AND NEWS.
MB. Brander Matthews, a writer of distinction
in the world of fiction, has just published
(Longmans, " With my Friends "), a dainty
volume of short stories idl written in collaljomtion.
## p. 235 (#639) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
235
His literary partners are Mr. H. S. Bunner,
Mr. Walter Pollock, Mr. George H. Jessop, and
Mr. F. Anstey. All the stories are good, but the
first and the third seem to nie especially good.
There is an introduction in which Mr. Brander
Matthews (without a collaborateur) treats of the
art and mystery of collaboration. I think that
this is the only essay ever written on the
subject; that is to say, many have written about
literary partners, but none 011 what is really meant
by a literary partnership; how men may collaborate
in literary work; what constitutes partnership; the
advantages of such partnership; its dangers and
disadvantages and limitations. The scanty limits
of the Author do not permit a summary, however
brief, of this valuable essay, nor do they permit
certain comments which one would like to make.
These must be reserved for another place. Mean-
time I beg to recommend the book to all who write
fiction, not only for its excellent stories but for this
introductory essay.
One point I note in this place. Mr. Brander
Matthews claims for collaboration an educational
value so far as concerns construction. "It
succeeds," he says, "most abundantly where
clearness is needed, where precision, skill, and
logic are looked for, where we expect simplicity
of motive, sharpness of outline, ingenuity of
construction, and clearness of effect." Observe
that these are all things which are absolutely
essential to the success of a drama. It is, he
thinks, because the habit of collaboration so
much obtains in France that the constructive part
of their work is generally so much better than with
us. Now, in fiction as well as the drama, all these
qualities are desirable. And a want of clearness in
outline, a want of sharpness, is one of the most
common faults in English fiction. If this could be
removed by a little collaboration, let us collaborate.
The reason why collaboration proves a remedy
for this fault is, I apprehend, that the inventor of
the fable—there can be two minds working upon it,
but there can be but one inventor—is thus enabled
to see his own idea projected upon another brain;
he sees it as it is, not as he imagines it is; he sees
it in the mind of another man. Why is it that the
unsuccessful man of letters so often cannot understand
his ill success? Mainly, perhaps, because he cannot
really see his own work; he sees the vision of it in
his own brain, and he cannot understand that he has
not transferred it to the page. With a collaborateur
he would have had to bring out every character,
every incident, every name to be discussed, arranged,
altered, and made presentable. Collaboration has
many dangers and many difficulties. One would
"ot recommend a young writer to collaborate,
except for quite short things, first of all; to feel
his way; to enter into no lasting engagements; and
never, whatever disputes may afterwards happen, to
claim more than a just half share in the work.
Perhaps, after all, the best form of collaboration is
that which has produced this volume. It is when
two friends, in after-dinner talk, hit upon an idea,
begin to turn it about, to see its possibilities, and in
an hour's amusement actually to construct a story
which cither of them can write down.
Every great thought proves to have been antici-
pated by somebody else. For instance, when wo
talked of a school for novelists and of the possi-
bility of teaching those capable of learning some-
thing of the elements, just as rhetoric may be
taught to one who wishes to know how to
conduct an argument, we were quite ignorant
that there was already in the field a Professor of
the Art—a Literary Tutor—and that he had been
in practice for many years. That is, however, the
case. This gentleman edits a magazine—not one
of those, apparently, which pander to the taste of
the day and are read by such people as ourselves,
because it is not on the bookstalls. Moreover, on
application to the office we found it gone—the
people knew not whither.
The tuition is conducted by letter only. The
fees are decidedly low—thirty shillings for three
months and five guineas a year, and the tutor
offers (at least he has offered to one editor) the
splendid commission of half a guinea on every
literary pupil obtained for him. He says in his
prospectus that many of his former pupils have
now "ascended several steps up the ladder of
Fame." Now, in all departments of learning,
the teacher must be able to show that he is
able to do, himself, the thing that he teaches.
Let us, therefore, beg all who think of getting
such help as that proffered by this gentle-
man, or others like him, ascertain that he
has shown himself, by his own writings, a corn-
latent guide. That one has never heard of him is
not enough to make one refuse his services or to
warn others against him. Let him prove his
competence in the only way possible, by the pro-
duction of his own work. If it is good work,
there is a possibility that he may be able to teach.
But that proved, the next question is whether the
man 1* able to teach? Meanwhile, that offer of the
half guinea commission does not, somehow, inspire
one with confidence.
A communication has been received from the
advertiser in the Daily News whose proposal was
commented on hi the last number of the Aut/ior
(i 2
## p. 236 (#640) ############################################
236
THE AUTHOR.
under the title of "A Now Departure." What
he says is practically this—which one is quite
ready to admit—that a literary agent, or middle-
man, may be very useful for an author. It
is quite true, and there are literary agents
already in existence; the advertiser would do
well to find out a good one and employ him.
He must be very careful not to employ any-
one not well recommended. He goes on to say
that " not a quota "—what is that ?—of MSS. sub-
mitted to publishers are ever read. My own
experience is that MSS. are always read by pub-
lishers. He therefore thinks that a literary agent
would read them though the publisher will not.
A literary agent would not read MSS.; he cannot
possibly do so. Ho might, as publishers do, em-
ploy a staff of readers, but he could not, personally,
read MSS. Here then is advice for this adver-
tiser. Withdraw your advertisement; apply to
the society for advice; if you employ a literary
agent you will have to pay him a great deid less
than the 25 per cent, you foolishly offer to any
shark who may be on the look out for prey.
"It is a part of the literary gift," says a cor-
respondent, "that authors should express their
disagreements in the most disagreeable manner
possible." Profound observation! It explains in
one short sentence the whole of the history of
authors and their quarrels. It also affords hope
to the despondent. There may be a brighter
future for literature, when its followers will cease to
scratch and claw and revile and scarify each
other. Manners will, some time or other, be taught.
Thus the natural woman, when she disagrees with
her friend, scratches, clapperclaws, and tears out
hair. One has seen the natural woman so dis-
playing her disagreement; the onlooker, at such a
moment, thinks of authors with a sigh. But the
blessings of civilisation are teaching the natural
woman a better method; you may now walk
about the streets for a twelvemonth without finding
such a natural woman. In course of time we shall
find our own profession educated up to the point of
disagreeing with politeness. The Bludyers, how-
ever, are a long-lived race.
A correspondent in the St. James's Gazette
writing on the old grievance—far more real for
playwrights than for novelists—of the difficulty of
getting a piece produced, he makes a practical
suggestion. It is that the manager, like the
publisher, shall have a reader or a staff of readers.
Why not? He goes on, however, to suggest that
the dramatist shall pay the reader himself. Why?
The author does not pay the publisher's reader.
He is part of tlie office. Why should not the
manager pay his reader? But the circumstances
are not quite similar. Editors of magazines and
publishers must always l>e bringing out new
things—every month for the magazines—every
season for the book list. The manager only
brings out a new thing when he is obliged. If
he gave the world a new play every two months
or so—as he could yvere it not for the present
lavish expense of mounting and dressing—he would
want a reader. As he looks for a run of twelve
months at least, he does not; he prefers arranging
for a new play with an old hand. Think of a new
piece every month at the Lyceum, and another at
the Haymarket, and another new piece at the
Comedy, the Prince of Wales's, and all of them!
In ten years we shoidd have such a company of
dramatic authors in this country as was never
before known. A successful play would not then
be worth, as it is now, a small fortune; it would,
as it should, be worth what a successful novel is
worth, and no more. But that shoidd be quite
enough to stimulate hundreds of active brains.
And then the manager's reader would be a very
useful person indeed.
Mr. Andrew Lang's "Sign of the Ship" is
always a thing to look for— it is one of the minor
events of the month—though, like the delicacies of
the Christmas season, he does not always agree with
one. This month he contributes a few interesting
statistics concerning novels. There have been, he
says, 270 novels of the year, as recorded in a library
catalogue. As a fact, there have been many more.
A "student"—of fiction or of folk lore?—has
kindly erased 254 from this catalogue, as not to
he sent. Of these, about 24 had been read before;
of those left on the list, twelve, at least, wore experi-
mental. Of the whole 270, there were about forty
that " a male human being might read." The rest,
he says, yvere all for ladies. "Ah !" he cries, "that
authors would not write, that publishers would not
publish, that libraries would not buy, the common,
mild, middle-class domestic novel any more!" If
one were obliged to read them, one would certainly
echo that sigh. But then, you see, one is not
obliged—and one does not read them. In the same
way as we pass a pastrycook's shop, and observe the
masses of tarts, cakes, buns, chocolate, and confec-
tions of jam, one might cry, "Ah! that pastrycooks
would not make, that people would not buy, that
children would not eat the common, mild, domestic
biliousness any more!" Or, when one passes the
fragrant fried fish-shop, one might equally ejacu-
late, " Ah! that fryers would not fry, that sho[>s
would not sell, that workgirls would not eat, this
## p. 237 (#641) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
237
terrible, horrible, awful mess!" Or, again, when
one goes to an exhibition of pictures, and sees the
acres of wall space covered with feeble and conven-
tional daubs, one might cry, "Ah! that painters
would not paint, that exhibitions would not exhibit,
that people would not buy these mild, domestic,
middle-class conventional pictures any more!"
Now, let us make out what case we can for the
mild novel that nobody wants. In the first place,
does it injure the circulation of the forty which the
male human being can read? It may injure, to a
very small extent, their circulating library circula-
tion. That is to say, the latest work of the
Eminent novelist may be bought by the hundred
instead of the hundred and twenty, and readers
are made to wait a little for him, because—it is
rejK>rted—the small fry can be bought—" sorted
out "—at a much lower price—sometimes at five
shillings the three volumes. But at Smith's they
will get, I l>elieve, any book that the subscriber
asks for. If that is the case, then the Eminent
one suffers not at all, however many domestic
novels are produced. But readers always have
the remedy in their own hands. They can
send back, by return post, the rubbish which
fills the box. Or, better still, they can select books
for themselves, and return all those which 'are not
in the list. As to the cheap edition—the one-volume
edition—of course the mild domestic novel, which
never gets to that edition at all, injures nol>ody.
In fact, the whole 23oout of the 270 appear, flutter
about for a month or two, and then vanish for ever.
Their real end, which is pieces, comes to them after
a few seasons in the seaside circulating library.
Broadstairs, for instance, hath a noble, unique col-
lection of the novels that nobody wants. Even
little Llanfairfechan is not without this museum,
though on a smaller scale.
Again, there are many, very many, desperately
dull houses in country towns and country villages
where the ladies must, perforce, devote part of the
day to reading. I hope we have long since passed
the old fashioned stage of believing that one must
read only with a view to improving the mind.
Those ladies read with a view to getting out of
their dullness—away from themselves. They
therefore read novels. They read a novel in two
days, or three at the most, say three a week. They
therefore read a hundred and fifty in the year, or,
leaving out eight weeks for amusement, travel, and
other distractions, they read one hundred and
thirty-two novels in the year. Now, if there were
published none hut the forty readable by superior
VOL. IT.
man, these poor ladies would simply have nothing
to read, nothing to talk about, nothing to distract
them from the deadly petty gossip of the place, for
about fort)- weeks in the year. Think—oh!
think—What a calamity would l>e the suppression
of the Two Hundred and Thirty!
Again, let us acknowledge, for argument, the
feebleness and the conventionality of the stuff.
But it is intended for the distraction of minds not
too strong at best, and, in their hours of relaxation,
at their feeblest. Do these books harm anybody?
Indeed, no, unless feebleness of writing injures the
mentally weak. Do they lower, for those who read,
their standard of purity, of nobility? No. These
writers accept this standard to the best of their
abilities, and, for the most part, maintain it. I do
not profess to have read much of the work of this
poor company of Two Hundred and Thirty, shiver-
ing and trembling beneath the forefinger of scorn,
but I believe that if they ventured to assail our
morals, they would lx? instantly annihilated. There
is an Eye—a watchful Eye—upon the morals of the
novelist. In my own humble way, I have received
remonstrances which revealed the existence of that
Eye. Once—only once—I suffered—nay, encou-
raged—a sailor to kiss a girl in a summer house—
only a kiss, nothing more, but it was wrong—it
was sinful, and I heard of it. "I thought," wrote
the indignant moralist, " that your lxwks were safe
reading for my daughter. Most providentially I
looked into that one called 'The World went very-
well then' before placing it in my child's hands.
I can only say—may God grant you repentance
and forgive you!" If this wholesome watchfulness
is kept upon the male novelist, how much more
upon the artist of the other sex!
Again, there are about thirty or forty ladies who,
by writing these domestic novels for other ladies,
manage to make a little income, varying from fifty
to a hundred pounds a year, bringing out one
every year. The libraries take three or four
hundred copies of each. The publishers make—
say, a hundred pounds to a hundred and fifty
pounds by each work. Are we to deprive these
ladies of their income? It is of vital importance
to them. If we have no pity on the poor ladies,
shall we not find one tear for the innocent
publisher?
Or, if this company of Two Hundred and Thirty
were annihilated, think what would happen to the
R
## p. 238 (#642) ############################################
238
THE AUTHOR.
young gentlemen who write papers for the thought-
ful magazines on the Decay of Fiction! Magazines
have got to be filled, as Mr. Henry James has
pointed out. What so easy to write as an article
on the Worthlessness of Modern Fiction! The
editors like the subject. Anybody who can write
at all, whether he knows anything about, fiction
or not, whether he is capable, of writing or
inventing the smallest anecdote, thinks he can
write an article upon it. If we were to approach
the editor with an article on the Fried Fish craving
which seems so deplorably on the increase in
certain cpiarters, he would not take it. I am sure
he would not. But an article on novels? Why,
he takes at least three every year, and sometimes
more. And then there are the weekly reviews.
The novels find employment in their pages for many
eminent hands. And there are the daily papers.
The reviewer of novels finds in their columns con-
stant and remunerative occupation. And the writer
of the literary letter. He has hardly anything to talk
about but, novels and novelists. There is also the
writer of the paragraphs—what would he do without
his novelists? Indeed, when we think of the re-
viewers alone, we shrink in terror from a measure of
suppression which would abolish their chief source
of income. "Strike," we hear them cry, " strike
at church and constitution; abolish the House of
Lords; suppress the House of Commons; but leave,
oh! leave us this company of Two Hundred and
Thirty." Put all together, the libraries, the
publishers, the publishers' readers, the advertise-
ment columns, the reviewers, the thoughtful young
gentlemen of the Higher criticism who write on
Decay, the printers, the lx>okbinders, the paper
makers, the artists, and the authors, and consider
what would be meant by abolishing this poor
Company. No. Let us rather say," Go on—goon—
ye Two Hundred and Thirty. Go on writing as
long as the people go on reading. When some other
amusement is found, as attractive, as ready to hand,
as cheap as reading, perhaps there will be no longer
any demand for you. When you cease to write,
then we—your reviewers—cease to flourish. Go
on. But we reserve, meantime, the right to scoff
and sneer at you whenever there is nothing else
to write about, and whether we read you, or whether
we do not. Indeed, we never intend to read you.
Your function, next to pleasing the girls who read
you, is to furnish subject for contemptuous writing
for those who do not read you."
There is only one thing more to be said. Out
of the Two Hundred and Thirty, at least eighty are
authors who pay for the production of their books.
And then, because the library catalogue by no
means exhausts the list of new novels, there is
probably another eighty or more also paid for by
the authors which never even get into the libraries
at all.
Walter Besant.
PUBLISHING ON COMMISSION.
i. General Literature. 2. Medical Literature.
OUR first impulse at the office of the Society
of Authors, on hearing from an author that
he intends to bring out a book at his own
expense, is to dissuade him from his project, for
it is our general experience that these undertaking*
end in disappointment. Accordinglv, wo publish
a warning every month, urging a young author
never, never to pay for production. But although
we make it a rule to dissuade young authors from
publishing in this way, we have never lost sight of
the fact that in certain special cases it may be fo
the author's advantage to bear the cost of production
himself.
For instance, let us suppose that an author has n
book for which a quick sale can bo expected in
certain quarters, owing to bis own personal efforts
or private; influence, or both. This is not a very
rare state of affairs. His public is a ready-made one
and does not require to be approached through any
special channels, or with any publishing wiles. He
is more or less in the position of a man who has a
certain number of subscriptions guaranteed to him
for his work; he am get at his public himself, am!
does not want any assistance. Such a man hail
l>etter publish upon commission. He runs no risk
and his pecuniary returns will be greatest in this
way.
Take, again, the ease of an author whose chosen
subject precludes him from ever achieving real
popularity. His work may be a valuable contri-
bution to literature of the highest kind, and a useful
addition to the world's store of knowledge. There
would be good grounds for recommending the
owner of such a work to produce it at his own
expense, but we should warn him of the probability
that much of his money would be sunk, and that
he would have to take out his reward in glory for
ever. It is true that many such books are pub-
lished from time to time at the cost of learnea
societies, while a few are published on the time-
honoured subscription method, but an author is not
always so fortunate as to find either societies or
individuals, who are ready to pay his printer's bill.
It often happens that these books, thoroughly
valuable work as they may be, are left to find their
## p. 239 (#643) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
239
way to the public through the author or not nt all.
If the author does not expect anything else, but is
satisfied to lose money in making his name, and
spreading the knowledge he has gained for the
good of his fellow-man, it is most right that he
should publish at his own expense. No one asks
tliiit the author's reputation should be made at the
expense of the publisher's purse. All the Society
does in such eases is to say: "Publish by all
means, but put yourself in honourable hands, so
that you may not be cheated over the accounts,
and do not anticipate large profits."
But besides these classes of books there is
another, where, the author's resolve to publish at
his own expense can be justified by sensible and
practical reasons, although the result may be a
pecuniary loss to him. This is the position in
the publication of certain medical books.
All purely medical books may be said to belong
to one of three classes :—
(1.) Works of general medical reference.
(2.) Books written in one of the popular series.
(3.) Monographs on special medical subjects.
To the first class belong the historic medical
works. They generally remain the property of
their publishers, though it is not unknown for the
copyright to have been held by the author, editor,
or compiler. There is a steady annual sale for
these books to the, medical profession, to the general
public, to students, and to hospital and general
libraries; and the new editions, as they are issued,
are brought up to date by the author, or, in case of
his death, by the most fitting person whom the
owner of the copyright can secure for the purpose.
The price at which they are, sold is, as a rule, by no
means a popular one, so that many of these books
an'^aluable pecuniary properties. And this is very
^Jtting, for most of them are monuments of industry
and research.
The books of the second class—those written as
parts of a scries—have the double value, to their
author, always possessed by books written for a
scries, i.e., they bring him in some money and
Wime reputation. The author's name becomes
widely known, for these books always sell largely.
The good ones sell the bad ones, and the popular
prices suit the purse of a great many people. Every
copy of every book contains an advertisement of the
rest of the series. Again, as it is widely believed—
a very justifiable belief—that the best available men
for the different subjects are always desired to write
these series, the public spread of a doctor's name
attached to one of the books is directly or indirectly
so good for him, that the small fee received for
writing the book is counterbalanced thereby. The
pay and the fame should be, and doubtless are,
self-compensating and self-arranging. The more
the author was the favourably-known man in
VOL. 11.
connexion with his subject, the higher will be his
price, and the less his desire or necessity for
advertisement; the less known he is, the cheaper
would he sell his work, and the more good would
he expect to get from the publicity.
Or it may be that a doctor is approached by the
owner of one of these series, and is asked for a
work on a special subject at a certain figure,* and
is told that the sum named is the sum that is to be
paid to all the authors of all the monographs.
There is here no question of sticking out for a
higher price. If the scientist wants the notoriety
and the lucre he will exchange his brainwork for
them. If he is not tempted, the proprietor will
easily find some other person equally fitted for the
task to undertake it at the suggested price.
But it is of the third class, the monographs on
special subjects, that we particularly wish to speak,
l)ecause they appear to occupy a unique position
in publishing. Most often the work is written by
a man who is not yet widely known, in the hopes
of becoming widely known. It is thus in a way
an advertisement pure and simple, an expression,
however, for which a few words of explanation
will be necessary. But the first point to be noted
is that it may l>e a very good book, and, as a
matter of fact, it generally is a very good book.
If mere excellence would sell a medical work, so that
there should be a pecuniary profit upon it, many
of these works would l>c worth more to the
publishers than those written under contract. But,
alas! mere excellence will not by itself achieve so
desirable an object. For the public to which a
purely medical book is sold is a very small one,
though it be one, with whom excellence would have
due weight. And here, of course, conies in the
great difference between the publication on com-
mission of the medical work, and the same
proceeding, when applied to the ordinary novel.
Both acts may be looked upon as an act of adver-
tisement, but the novel addressed to a very large
and uncritical public may sell to great jiecuniary
advantage, although it be exceedingly bad, while the
treatise, being of interest only to a small and
thoughtful body, cannot ever realise a profit for its
author, though it be an exceedingly good and
valuable work. So far is this true, that we make
bold to say that if Professor Koch's discovery had
been a trustworthy or perhaps, it is more correct
to .say a complete and conclusive piece of work,
and he had embodied the results of his researches
in a book, whoever published the book would have
lost money by the transaction. Details of elaborate
experiments, with figures, numbers, illustrations,
* Fifty pounds down, and another fifty pounds towards
the cost of illustration, is the offer made by the proprietor
of one of these series to his authors.
S
## p. 240 (#644) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
foot-notes, side-note, and cross-references cannot be
printed with the ease and cheapness characteristic
of the production of a " yellow-back." And when
the expensive book, containing within its pages
priceless and authentic information as to one of
the scourges of humanity is ready for sale, who is
going to buy it? A suffering public—of course
not. It is not written for them. If it were
written for them it would not have been worth
writing. The whole medical profession? Cer-
tainly not. Doctors are not rich people, and those
books cost so much to produce, that some sub-
stantial price must be put upon them, while the
practical use to the rank and file of the medical
profession of an elaborate scientific monograph is
very small. "Who buys the work, then? A few
savants, a few professors, and a few libraries.
But from these sources the knowledge contained in
the work is disseminated in lectures, comments, re-
views, and scientific articles, so that the book becomes
broadly useful to an enormous public, who could
have gained nothing, however, by buying it for them-
selves. The good to the public is obtained, but—to
put it flippantly—where does the author come in?
This way, for there is no especial disinterested-
ness about the medical author. Public recog-
nition by his fellows as the author of a valuable
work is a reward that may at any time prove as
substantial to his pocket as it is grateful to
his self-esteem. Upon such recognition follow
appointments, upon appointments pupils, upon
these lectureships, upon lectureships practices, and
upon these legitimate notoriety, with its substantial
results. This, of course, is the rosy future for the
author of the medical book published upon com-
mission. That it actually occurs often is not
suggested, but some part of the programme is
carried out in a fair proportion of eases. Com-
paratively speaking, this sort of success is as often
met with among medical authors, as is a large
pecuniary success among the producers of fiction
upon commission.
In taking as an imaginary case a work by Koch,
it may be said that here the author had previously
obtained the very things which it is suggested are
the medical author's sole reward. This is so. That
case was selected merely to point out the unsalc-
ability of medical books. If a work by a great
man on a subject of world-wide urgency cannot
pay its way, how can pecuniary profits be expected
for the more specialistic work of a less known
man? That is the question it was desired to
raise.
It is true there is no substantial reward to come
to the von- great physician who writes a purely
medical book. He is one of the authors who ha.s
to take out his reward in fame. In this Society
we have always insisted that literary property ought.
to receive some tangible recognition, but there are
cases when in the natural course of events this is
not forthcoming. And this is so here. Let it l>e
remembered, however, that in no very far-fetched
way, the successful and distinguished physician cam
be supposed to have been prepaid for his work. His
practice and his appointments have made it possible
for him to acquire the necessary information, and
he owes it to his world-wide reputation that he
should make his discoveries public.
In speaking of "advertisement" it must he
understood that no reproach is intended by the
word. Such a medical book as we have referred
to is only intended to justify its author's position,
or enchance his reputation among his fellows. It
is not an appeal to the public to come to him and
be healed, and the Royal College of Physicians can
be trusted to see that no one whose conduct seemed
to be o[>en to this interpretation, attains to a position
of professional authority, whatever may be his
public repute. There are those who have chosen
to rely upon public opinion only, and to these—still
without reproach—the word advertisement applies
in its full sense.
THE ABT OF FICTION AND THE AUTHORS
OF ANTIQUITY.
THE majority of mankind have resolved to
believe that there is no such thing as an "art
of romance," and the novelist, in the opinion
of the greater part of his fellow creatures, is merely
a man who, being too idle, or, more likely, too great
a fool to do anything else, wastes his time—probablv
worth nothing—and pens, ink, and paper—which
cost something—in writing at random "anything
that comes into his head." Human lieings are
slow to correct received opinions, and probably
society must be left to enjoy this error, amongst,
a great many others, for a very long time to come.
Meanwhile the "scribbler" of "trashy novels,"
whilst turning over the pages of his masters, the
great authors of all ages, observes with delight that
the writers of antiquity were well acquainted with
all the canons of his art. The classical authors
were themselves guided by these same canons in
the composition of their immortal works; their
writings abound with allusions to them; and in
works upon authorship, of a purely didactic kind,
they expound these fundamental rules of construc-
tion with all their familiar force and precision.
Indeed, it would be easy to compile from
Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Epistle to the
Pisones, a code of maxims comprehending almost all
that the beginner in fiction has to learn, and a great
## p. 241 (#645) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
deal more than writers long engaged upon this
difficult art are always happy enough to be able to
remember. Aspirants after literary or dramatic
fame will scarcely find anywhere manuals of equal
value for their guidance; and whilst consulting
them may assure themselves that they are in the
very best company. Anyone who pleases may
convince himself that Fielding had been reading
Aristotle's Poetics when he wrote the second
chapter of the third book of Joseph Andrews, his
first novel.
But, to offer some evidence of an assertion that
will certainly seem startling to a good many
people.
In the first place the authors of antiquity were
fully convinced that the composition of any kind
of "history "* was an art that could be taught, and
ought to be learned. It seems odd that anyone
can be found to dispute the fact, one who knew,
and whom everyone knows, having written, pretty
nearly two thousand years ago,
Kgo nec stadium sine divite vena
Nec rude quid possit video ingenium; altering sic
Altera poscit opem res, et conjuntt amiee.f
But what is talent and what is art, the majority
do not concern themselves to discover, and, in
consequence, starting from some vague misappre-
hension of both, they easily arrive at all sorts
of absurd conclusions. Lucian, however, in his
interesting work "How History should be written"
(chap. 33), deals with this very point at some
length, and what he says is in substance this:—
"The author should have these two principal
tilings to start with, intelligence and descriptive
power. The former is a thing that cannot be
taught, a natural gift; but the power of description
must be acquired by much exercise, and by continuous
labour, and by emulation of the ancients. The
former, then, is not a matter of art, and here there
is no need of 'advice from me. For this little book
of mine does not profess to make people clever and
quick who are not so by nature. It would be a
valuable book, or rather the most valuable of all
books, if it could effect transmutations and transfor-
mations of that sort But where then
is the use of art and advice? Not to create abilities
where they already exist, but to show the right way
to use them So, pray, let no one look
askance at me if I profess to have discovered an art
in so great and difficult a matter. For I do not
say that I can make an author of anyone you
please; but that I can show a man, who is naturally
intelligent, and who is well versed in literature,
certain right ways by which he may more rapidly
and more easily attain to a certain success."
* Novels are histories. "We have properly enough entitled
this our work a history." Fielding. "Tom Jones,"
book 2, chap. 1., and passim throughout the same work.
t Horace. Ars poetica, 409.
Now the distinction between ability and artistic
power could hardly be better explained than in this
passage.
Again, in the forty-eighth chapter of the same
work, Lucian insists upon the importance of
working from a scenario, a matter about which even
a great many authors are sceptical. Here is what
W says:—
"When the author has gathered all together, or
the greater part, first of all he should weave a sort
of memorandum, ami make a kind of corpus,
without any adornments, or any joining together
of the various parts. Afterwards, when he hits
further introduced arrangement, he should add
ornament, and then set forth his book, with art,
and reflection, and finished style."
But we may turn to a writer greater than
Lucian.
Aristotle's work on poetics brims with suggestions
of the highest value. The only difficulty is to select
one or two passages amidst so great an embarras
des richesses. Aristotle addresses himself more
particularly to the tragic dramatist and the epic
poet; but as both of these must have a story, what
he has to say about the " mythos " is equally useful
to the novelist. And it is worth while to notice—
considering some opinions that have been expressed
in late years—that Aristotle sets the highest value
upon the story. "The story," he says, "is the
beginning, and, so to say, the soul of the
tragedy."* Whilst in the twenty-fourth chapter
of his work, he observes, "narrative art is above
the others." This is the sort of remark that brings
the heart of the " trashy novelist " into his mouth.
But to return to the story. A story, Aristotle
declares, should be "a whole and perfect action,
having a certain length."! Next he explains what
he means by "a whole "—something that has a
beginning, and a middle, and an end. The
beginning is that which does not of necessity result
from something else. But after it something else
naturally follows. The middle is that which both
succeeds in consequence of something and leads
to something else. And the end is that which
naturally follows, "either of necessity or in all
probability," but after which nothing further neces-
sarily ensues. Therefore "those who would put
stories together well, must neither begin acci-
dentally anywhere nor end accidently anywhere."
Aristotle is always brief to obscurity, but every
writer who has discovered with Jean Paul Richter
that, "es gibt in der ganzen entdeckten Welt
keine verdammtere Arbeit als einen ersten Secktor
zu schreiben," will feel that the Stagyrite is a
friend in need in having, at any rate, something to
say about where the story ought to begin.
* Aristotle, Poetica. Chapter 5.
t Aristotle, Poetica. Chapter 7.
## p. 242 (#646) ############################################
242
THE AUTHOR.
Respecting length, Aristotle's rule is that the
story should he of such a length that the whole
may be conveniently carried in the memory. He
considers that " taking into consideration the nature
of the action related in the story, the longer tale,
provided it be connectedly clear from end to end,
will be the better. So that we may sav, giving
a simple rule, that a sufficient length is that which
affords room for the successive incidents which
effect in some necessary or probable manner the
change of the fortunes of the diameters from happy
to sad or sad to happy."*
And these great writers were practical. It is at
this very point that Aristotle pauses to add that in
the question of length the habits and requirements
of the public must not lie overlooked.
Aristotle must not detain us longer, for to leave
Horace unquoted would not be pardonable. At
the same time to adduce passages from the familiar
"De arte pnetica" is almost an impertinence.
Some interesting lines occur, however, in the
second epistle of the second book, respecting the
great art of " cutting " :—
At qui legitimum cupiet fecisse poema,
Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honest!;
Audebit, quscumque parum splendoris habebunt
Kt sine ponders enint et honors indigna fercntur,
Verba movere loco, quamvis invita reccdant
Et versentur adhuc intra penetralia Vesta:;
The novelist cannot exist who does not feel the
force of the last two lines. How often the very
passage that lias to be cut out, the incident, the
morsel of word painting, the author's philosophic
reflection is emphatically something "most un-
willing to quit its place." How often it is some-
thing that has dwelt by the hearth-fire of the
author's thought, and has haunted his imagination
from the day when he commenced his tale. But,
"sed nunc non erat his locus," and the favourite
passage must go.
Which suggests another of Aristotle's maxims,
"Whatsoever, whether introduced or not, makes
no difference in the storv, is no part of the storv."
Such are a few passages only out of works
abounding with suggestive remarks of the greatest
value. Anyone who will open them may find for
himself paragraphs that will appear to him more
helpful than the half-a-dozen brief extracts here
offered. But these liave been selected as an
evidence that the construction of a story was
regarded as an art by the great writers of
antiquity, and one whose principles they did not
think unworthy of their serious attention.
H. C.
* Aristotle, l'oetica, Chapter 7. ♦<*•-*
THE INDEPENDENT THEATRE.
ONE of the most interesting examples of the
intellectual activity of our time is the revived
interest among the public in the present con-
dition of the English Drama. An enthusiastic num-
ber of gentlemen, following the example of Berlin
and Paris, have lately banded themselves together,
under the title of the Independent Theatres
Society—a society whose motives have been much
canvassed. If, from the point of view of subscrip-
tions, there is much to be desired, they have a hard
fighter in Mr. George Moore and an enthusiastic
helmsman in Mr. G. T. Grein, to guide their ship
through the waves of criticism. Among the many
changes which they are anxious to bring about is
the introduction, on the English stage, of the
Literarv Drama. It is not the place here to dis-
cuss the vexed question of actor and author and
stage manager—the fitness of "ghosts" for public
representation or the evils of the "star" system
prevailing in England and America, and the supe-
riority of the French conventions of the Comedie
Francaise. Suffice it to say, that the Independent
Theatre Society hold strong views on all these
subjects. I shall confine myself to the Literary
Drama, the possibilities of which Mr. H. D.
Traill, in the December number of the New
Review, has so skilfully criticised. The Inde-
pendents have been abused and misrepresented, as
founders of all new movements have been in the
world's history. All the penalties of success
promise to be theirs, and if they take themselves
a little too seriously, it is a fault on the right side.
They are accused, among other things, of trying
to crush healthy English Drama by introducing
Norwegian and French varieties. It should be
remembered, however, that it was owing to the
efforts of Mr. J. T. Grein that the "Profligate"
and the " Middleman" were performed in Holland
and Germany with great success. If I understand
them aright, they are only anxious to expel provin-
cialism from the stage, whether in Germany,
England, or Holland, or any country. Their
admirable performance of "Therese Baquin" is,
perhaps, the best answer to their critics. In
England, though there are many capable dramatists,
many capable actors, and very comfortable theatres,
and a public of moderate intelligence, there is,
practically, no such thing as a " Literary Drama."
There are hundreds of plays we are always glad
to see, but, with the exception of Mr. Pinero's and
Mr. Gilbert's, not many that we care to read. The
poetical drama is dead, Mr. George Moore admits.
Save a few instances, as the "White Pilgrim" of
Mr. Hermann Merivale, and a few others, the
modern poetical drama is a very gloomy affair. So
that witnessing n modern play, we are unable to
## p. 243 (#647) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
243
experience that pleasure which Shakes])eare or
Moliere on the stage give to some people. We
may be thrilled by dramatic situation, psychological
analysis, tine acting, stage management (whether
of the author or actor kind) but we do not feel the
intellectual excitement that literature alone can
give. In French or Norwegian plays, we do ex-
perience this feeling, even when the dramas are not-
poetical; so let us make the experiment in England.
That is all the Independent Theatre ask. Surely
it is not a very terrible request. They may be
asking the impossible—asking too much of the
drama—or, at any rate, of the English Drama.
Perhaps they are. Mr. Traill is certainly of that
opinion. It may be as absurd as asking art critics
to tell us what they mean, or architects to build us
houses that we can live in. Monstrous requests
that no one in his senses would think of making.
Still, it is an interesting experiment. And, after
all, it is the duty of art to be unable to answer
silly questions.
However delightful it may be to witness the plays
of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones and Mr. Pinero at our
leading London houses, there are moments when
at a second-rate theatre I am fain to believe that
the only legitimate English Drama is the Drury
Lane Pantomime, as interpreted by those incompar-
able artists, Mr. Herbert Campbell and Mr. Harry
Nicholls.
To inquire for a moment into the objection to a
Literary Drama. Mr. H. D. Traill does not meet
the pioneers of the new drama with the stale old
phrase of "Shakespeare is good enough for me,"
used by persons so thoroughly convinced of the
merits of "Hamlet" as a play, that they would
have dramatists imitating all Shakespeare's faults,
even if they cannot approach him in merit. Mr.
Traill points out how very few of Shakespeare's
plays have survived the stage, and how when he is
dramatic (very seldom, Mr. Traill thinks) he is
never literary— in short, that as plays for the present
requirements of the stage they are failures, because
of their literary quality. This opinion the of one
whose sympathies would lean rather towards literary
excellence than dramatic achievement. And he
continues, after exploding the hopes of returning
to the conventions of Elizabethan and Greek
dramas (owing to the altered conditions of the
stage), to- show that "The School for Scandal"
and "She stoops to conquer" are not played
because they possess the imperishable quality of
literary excellence, it is for the story, the situation,
and the opportunity for the actors. And Mr. Tree,
who has had'practical experience from the dramatic
side, as Mr. Traill from the literary side, in his
lecture to the Playgoers' Club, endorses every word.
"The first duty of a player is that he should be
actable, in fact, dramatic," said Mr. Tree, and again
"by all means let the drama be literary, but first let
it be dramatic. The drama has a literature of its
own." Mr. Tree might have adopted Mr. Whistler's
immortal principle, "That art is art. Mathematics
are mathematics," by saying "Drama is drama
and literature is literature."
Mr. Tree's inimitable acting,and Messrs. Stevenson
and Henley's brilliant dialogue did not make "Beau
Austin " a good acting play, any more than his more
wonderful impersonation of the " Village Priest," or
Mr. Sydney Grundv's splendidly written adaptation
make that drama anything but a silly caricature
of a Sacrament in the Catholic Church. Yet the
"Village Priest" was dramatic, "Beau Austin"
was not. Both had the literary quality, and failed
in spite of it, the other succeeded in spite of the
violation of fuct and probability. So there is in reality
as much reason on the side of Mr. Tree as there is
rhyme on the side of the advocates of literary or
poetic drama. There is only one unfair criticism
of the Independents, and Hamlet's unfortunate
remark about the mirror and nature cannot fairly
be quoted against them, but rather for them. It
may or may not be right to put the Whitcchapel
murders on the stage, or to dramatize divorce
proceedings, but to say "How unnatural!" is
ridiculous. If the mirror is advocated, we must
not blame it for reflecting unpleasant images. If
Mr. Tree brings us nearer to the angels, the
Independents can humble us by reminding us
what we once were. Mr. Mathew Arnold rather
contemplates the more ardent reformers when he said
our drama was the most contemptible in Europe ; but
that is hardly true at the present moment, and the
future must be exciting even if is not literary;
whether we are content with the Shakespearean past
and the Pineroan present, as Mr. Tree bids us be,
or go to Norway for subject, and to France for a
convention with the Independent Theatre, or remain
interested spectators of the scene with Mr. H. D.
Traill in the pages of the New Review.
L. F.
■ ♦•»■♦ ■
LITERARY RIGHTS.
I.
"\\J E have living minds who have done their
WW duty to their own age and posterity.
Such men complain not of the age, but of
an anomalous injustice in the laws. They com-
plain that authors are deprived of a perpetual
property in the produce of their own labours, when
all other persons enjoy it as an indefeasible and
acknowledged right; and they ask, upon what
principle, with what equity, or under what pre-
tence of public good, they are subjected to this
injurious enactments? Is it because their labour is
so light, the endowments which are required for it
## p. 244 (#648) ############################################
244
THE AUTHOR.
so common, the attainments so cheaply and easily
acquired, and the present remuneration in all cases
so adequate, so ample, and so certain? The Act is
so curiously injurious in its operation that it bears
with most hardship upon the best works. For
l>ooks of great immediate popularity have their run,
and come to a dead stop; the hardship is upon
those which win their way slowly and difficultly,
but keep the field at last. In such cases, when the
copyright, as by the existing law departs from the
author's family at his death, or at the end of 28
years from the first publication of every work (if
he dies before the expiration of that term), his
representatives are deprived of their property just
as it would begin to prove a valuable inheritance.
The last descendants of Milton died in poverty.
The descendants of Shakspeare are living in
poverty, and in the lowest condition of life. Is
this just to these individuals? Is it grateful to the
memory of those who are the pride and boast of
their country? Is it honourable or becoming to
us, as a nation, holding the name of Shaks[>eare
and Milton in veneration? To have placed the
descendants of Shakspeare and Milton in respect-
ability and comfort, simple justice was all that was
required; only that they should have possessed
the perpetual copyright of their ancestor's works—
only that they should not have been deprived of
their proper inheritance. Believing, as I do, that
if society continues to improve, no injustice will
long be permitted to continue after it has been
fairly exposed, and is clearly apprehended, I cannot
but believe that a time must come, when the rights
of literature will be acknowledged, and its wrongs
redressed; and that those authors hereafter who
shall deserve well of posterity, will have no cause
to reproach themselves for having sacrificed the
interests of their children when they disregarded
the pursuit of fortune for themselves."
SOUTHEY.
If.
"Fortune has rarely condescended to be the
companion of genius; the dunce finds a hundred
roads to her palace; there is but one open, and that
a very indifferent one, for men of letters. Why
should we not erect an asylum for venerable genius,
as we do for the brave and helpless part of our
citizens? When even fame will not protect the
man of genius from famine, charity ought. Nor
should such an act l>e considered as a debt incurred
by the helpless member, but a tribute we pay to
genius. Even in these enlightened times such
have lived in obscurity, while their reputation was
widely spread; and have perished in poverty, while
their works were enriching the booksellers."
D'Israeli.
No artist recognises any standard of lxjauty, but
that which is suggested by his own temperament.
The artist seeks to realise in a certain material his
immaterial idea of beauty, and thus to transform
an idea with an ideal. This is the way an artist
makes things. That is why an artist makes things.
The artist has no other object in making things.
Oscar Wh.de.
(From a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette.)
■—■ —
DEATH AND THE LIFEBOAT.
From the German ofRvv. Otterlich.
I stood without a ruined nave,
Whose mossed and ivied luxury
Was fed from many a circling grave:
Below me lay a still dull sea.
Then brightly grey the midnight grew;
I felt a Spirit pass me by;
Upon my cheek the breath he drew
Fell ill a chill and lingering sigh.
And straight the ivy overhead
Dropped withering on the withering turf;
And angrily the sea of lead
Curled up to break in milky surf.
For Death stood by the shattered fane,
Stood on his thick-sewn ground—a King;
His robes a shroud, his gems the train
Of death-worms on it slumbering.
What sound fulls on my shuddering ear?
A suppliant shot from off the deep;
Death laughs: his worms awake and rear
A hissing crest and o'er him creep.
Death turned, and with a jaunty trip
Passed through the shrinking grass, to reach
The sea, where on a mastless ship
Plunged headlong towards the sucking beach.
He came to the wave-smitten shore:
Hearts brave for rescue were afloat:
Is there not room for one heart more?
Death stepped into the bobbing boat.
I screamed. He heard and smiled reply
Then touched the tiller with his hand;
And lo! there lay before my eye
A waste of waves, a strip of sand.
## p. 245 (#649) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
245
CORRESPONDENCE.
I.
Reading Unions.
WHILE reading in the last issue of the
Author a paragraph on Reading Guilds, it
occurred to me that a programme of a
Heading Circle which we started a year or two ago
might prove of interest.
Rules.
I. That the Society shall be called the " Sesame
Reading Circle."
II. That its aim shall be to promote, by the
method of association, careful and thoughtful read-
ing, and the study of good literature; to approach
the subject under consideration in an inquiring
spirit, and to avoid, as far as possible, all dogmatic
opinions and personal expressions.
III. The Circle shall consist of i3 members, one
of whom shall be chosen as secretary. The execu-
tive committee shall consist of three members, of
which the secretary shall he one.
IV. At the general meeting of the Circle the
books to be studied during the next reading term
sliall be chosen. To each member shall be allotted
a work which he shall study, and upon which he
shall write an essay during the first two months.
The essays shall then be handed to the secretary,
who will redistribute them. Each memher shall
then read the book corresponding to the essay he
has received, and appending a statement that he
has perused both book and paper, he shall proceed
to criticise the subject and add his comments
thereon. A similar course shall be adopted at the
end of each successive period of six weeks. Each
period shall be understood to expire on the 14th,
or the last day of the month, as the case may be.
V. Each essay shall be retained by the writer of
it, together with the critiques, at the end of the
reading term. It shall be accessible to anv of the
members.
VI. If a member fail to read the allotted works
on two occasions during the reading term without
giving adequate reasons, he forfeits membership,
and his place shall be filled by a new member
chosen by the committee.
VII. A business meeting shall be held at the end
of the term.
X.
II.
The Generosity of the Religious Society.
In the December number of the Author there
was a paragraph on the generosity of a religious
society, and in the October number another on the
honourable conduct of a religious society. By
mistake the two paragraphs were supposed to refer
to the same author. They were different authors.
It is the same melancholy story, however, with
both. The publishing company, under the guise of
religion, buys up work for ten, twenty, thirty
pounds, out of which it means to make hundreds,
and knows that it will make hundreds.
III.
The Authobs' Club.
I read the announcement of the projected
"Authors' Club" with the warmest satisfaction.
As is stated in the Author, the Athenteum is the
only literary club pure and simple—though, perhaps,
the word " simple" is scarcely the correct descrip-
tion of that august institution—admittance to which
by the ordinary literary man is as difficult as admit-
tance to the Marlborough. In the November
number of the Century are an article and illustra-
tions describing the new Players' Club of New
York, founded by Edwin Booth. We can scarcely
hope to vie with the magnificence of this club, but
I think we should endeavour to emulate its solid
comfort. In addition to the usual dining, drawing,
and smoking rooms there should be a cosy library
in which the literary man from the country may
find a corner—like those in the National Liberal—
where he can, undisturbed, write his copy and
correct his proofs. For the best of all reasons the
tariff must not be an expensive one; and I would
suggest, with all deference, that the country
subscription should not be more than two guineas.
If pictures are wanted for the walls, and they
should be wanted, I am convinced that they would
be readily offered either as loans or gifts, portraits
of living and departed authors, scenes from their
lives or works, would be forthcoming from many
literary men who for years have l>een longing for
some central spot in the great city in which they
could feel "at home." If well-known men would,
from time to time, recount their experiences or read
papers on their calling so much the better. What
is wanted is a comfortable, artistically arranged
club, where the London author can meet and
welcome his fellow laliourer from the country, and
strengthen that union of hearts and brains which
has too long been neglected by the profession
which needs it more than any other.
## p. 246 (#650) ############################################
246
THE AUTHOR.
In conclusion, may I express a hope that all the
shares—it is, I believe, intended to make it a joint
stock affair—will be held by literary men. If a
man holds only one share of £1, £2, or £5, as the
case may be, he must necessarily feel a personal
interest in the venture, and it is this personal
interest which will tend to make the club the
success we all heartily wish it.
c. o.
IV.
'A member of the Society signing himself "Iota-
Subseript" asks a question as to publishers' liabilities
under certain cases. Will he Ik; kind enough to
send his name? It is manifestly impossible to
answer anonymous questions.
V.
The Bookman on Royalties.
Sib,
If words have any meaning, the Editor of the
Bookman did, on his own showing, accept a very
important statement that a royalty of a penny in
the shilling yields as much to the author as to the
publisher. There is not a word of correction or
of contradiction. The note which he quoted
does endorse the statement, because it does not
contradict it.
Your obedient servant,
A Constant Reader.
[Other communications have been received from
readers, all to the same effect, and none contrary to
this.—Editor.]
VI.
The Editor of the Bookman (Dr. Robertson
Nicoll) sends the following communication. It
does not touch the real point at issue, which was
that he printed, without a word of correction or
contradiction, the statement that a royalty of one
penny in the shilling gives the author as much as
it gives the publisher, and is a fair royalty.
To the Editor of the Author.
Sir,—
A very few words will suffice in answer to
your notes on my letter.
1. As you have printed my own words, I confi-
dently leave it to your readers to decide whether I
"advocated on a six-shilling book a profit of £75
to the author, and to the publisher of £3o5," or
whether the statement was not as I styled it, and
style it again, as gross a misrepresentation as can
possibly be imagined.
2. We are all much indebted to you for formu-
lating a system of publishing on royalties easily
understood and remembered. It is stated in two
propositions :—
(1.) "Whether the book is a shilling lxx>k or a
six-shilling book, the proportion is the
same." That is, upon all books, irre-
spective of their price and size, the same
percentage should l>e paid as royalty.
(2.) "Why should well-known writers receive
more than beginners on a royalty?"
That is, all writers, known or unknown,
should receive the same percentage as
royalty.
(3.) The only point remaining to be settled is,
what should be the percentage? Ob-
viously, the highest royalty any writer is
receiving. It remains therefore, to find
out that, and the whole business of
publishing is simpler than A.B.C.
Whenever I receive the name and
address of any publisher who conducts
his business on these principles, or of
any person willing to invest a shilling in
any business so conducted, I am ready to
discuss the matter. Of the extraordinary
statement that thirty or so (!) is the
average number of press copies, I say
nothing.
3. I did not ask you who wrote the article on
the Bookman. I asked by what right the author
of the article used the words "As a society of
lwokmen and bookwomen, we," <fcc. The answer
is, By no right. No one has the slightest authority
to pose as the spokesman of our society. More
especially should such action be avoided when it is
remembered that we do not elect our own com-
mittee, that no opportunity is given us for private
conference, and that our opinions are notoriously
divergent on many points. By throwing the
Author open for free discussion, some good might
be done.
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
The Editor of the Bookman.
Here are two or three simple notes :—
1. A royalty of a penny in the shilling applied
to a six-shilling book does produce the astonishing
result quoted in my notes. He who maintains that
to be a fair royalty does advocate this astonishing
result.
2. The proportion of a penny in the shilling is
certainly the same applied to any lxx>k at any
price. How can it be otherwise?
3. I certainly cannot understand why there
should be one royalty for the widely popular and
another for the less popular. I exclude the
## p. 247 (#651) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
347
question of risk, because the publishers seldom
take any risk. If of two books at the same price
one sells ten thousand and the other two thousand,
both authors should be paid in proportion to their
circulation.
4. What percentage should be paid? Not neces-
sarily what the highest-paid author receives, because
an author may for special reasons receive special
terms, but that percentage which may be adopted
as just and fair both for author and publisher, fully
recognizing the services of the latter and the rights
of the former. No greater service can be rendered
to literature than to further the adoption of such a
plan. We hare paved the way for it by learning
and publishing what has hitherto been concealed—
viz., the cost of production and the profits of pub-
lishers on the various systems of publication now
current.
5. The number of press copies is about " thirty,
or so." We do not, at this office, s]>eak of pub-
lishers' methods as they might be, or as we imagine
them to be, but as they are. "About thirty, or so,"
is a fair statement of the general practice in sending
out books of serious literature—jicrhaps in little
story books a greater liberality may be found worth
while. For instance, there are nine London dailies;
about a dozen weeklies, and about a dozen great
provincial papers exhaust the list. People may
send as many copies as they please, but it is the
usual practice of the trade not to waste good lwoks
on papers which have no weight.
6. No one has ever in the Author jwsed as the
spokesman of the Society. But the writer of the
notice which has so greatly exercised the editor of
the Bookman is surely not pretending to be the
spokesman of the Society when he used the simple
and harmless words, " Asa Society of bookmen, and
l>ookwomen, we would earnestly invite our new
friend to consider that literature has many sides,
that there are many readers, and many books and
standards, and many ideals of excellence and of
style." The " direct question " of the last number
referred to notes signed by the writer.
7. What kind of " private conference " does the
editor of the Bookman desire? He has made
no proposal for any conference of members. Such
a conference might be extremely interesting, and
most useful, provided the meeting was conducted
in the spirit of mutual courtesy and friendliness.
8. I, as the editor of the Author, have always
thought the columns open for discussion. There is
correspondence every month. Does not the inser-
tions of Dr. NicolFs letters prove that the paper is
o[X'n to discussion? But no more correspondence
on this subject can be inserted.
Walter Besant.
"AT THE AUTHOR'S HEAD."
MR. George Meredith's new volume of verso
is called "Modern Love: a Reprint, to-
gether with the Sage Enamoured ami the
Honest Lady." Macmillau & Co. are the English
publishers.
Mr. Lecky's "History of England" is to be
issued in a cheaper edition in monthly volumes
(Longmans), twelve in number.
Some of Mr. Andrew Lang's books are to be
re-issued in a half-crown form. It is a great pity
that the many admirers of this writer can only
procure complete editions of his works by painfully
toiling through publishers' lists. No writer of the
day, unless it is Thomas Hardy, is so scattered.
There is a library somewhere in a garden; the
casement windows stand wide open; outside there
are flowers of the old fashioned kinds,—gilliflowers,
sweet william, ragged robin, bachelors' buttons,
stocks, pinks, mignonette—each blooming in her
season; the rose spray Haps in at the window;
there are Japanese vases; the room is lined with
books; the table is covered with books; there is
no litter of books such as one finds in a place
when a student is searching and investigating; in
this library the lwoks are arranged neatly and
in order; many of them are old and shabby, but
not for that reason held in lesser honour. It is a
silent library; the silence is like that which one
feels in an ancient almshouse beside a busy road;
outside, in the road, is the sound of hoofs and
wheels; within is peace. In this library there is
silence; outside, the bees hum and the birds sing,
the branches rustle, the scythe mows down the
grass; but their noise is best heard within. "My
library," says the happy owner of this place, " is
the identical library in which Christian Mentzelius
was at work when he heard the male bookworm
flap his wings and crow like a cock in calling to
his mate. Come with me round the room. Let
me show you some of my books. Nothing that a
book lover likes so much as to show and talk about,
as his books. Oh! I am no buyer of scarce books
because they are scarce. Mine are here for read-
ing. I will read bits of them to you if you like
to sit an hour with me. Here are the works of
George Wither. Do you know that poet? Here
is Gerard's 'Herbal.' Do you know Lady Win-
chelsea? Do you know Amasia? Do you
know Christopher Smart? Sit down, my friend,
and listen. The air that steals through the case-
ment this hot afternoon is fragrant; that chair
invites you to rest. So you shall listen and I will
talk." Fortunately, the talk has been taken down.
## p. 248 (#652) ############################################
248
THE AUTHOR.
and everybody can hear it, because it is on Mr.
Heinemann's list, and he generously allows anyone
to become the possessor of "Gossip in a Library"
■who pays the toll and uses the name of the author,
Mr. Edmund Gosse, in such a way as to show that
he can be trusted with the book, and that he has
a feeling for a Library. In a more civilised world
we shall liave to pass examinations before we are
allowed to possess books of this kind or of that.
Not only will ignorant persons have to surrender
treasures of classical learning or of science, but
literature itself will have its stages, and every man
shall belong each to his own level, and shall have
the books corresponding to his degree, but with the
power of passing the examination for a higher
degree.
Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson and Mr. Rider
Haggard will contribute the serials for the Illus-
trated London News of 1892. There will also lie
occasional short stories. The literary department
of the paper shows a considerable increase in
activity under the editorship of Mr. Clement
Shorter.
Mr. James Sully has nearly ready a new work
on Psychology. It is said to aim at meeting the
special wants of those who desire a more complete
presentment of the results of the recent ramii'orm
developments of the science than was possible in
his earlier and more elementary work on the subject.
The new treatise will be in two volumes, and will
be published in January.
Mr. "William Black has made arrangements with
Sampson Low and Co. for an entirely new edition
of his novels in twenty-five monthly volumes. The
novels will be carefully revised by Mr. Black.
The first to appear will be " A Daughter of Heth."
A sister of Mr. Rudyard Kipling has joined the
band of story tellers. May her brother's fortune
and his genius be hers as well!
The " Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour"
seems to attract good writers. With the names of
Messrs. Andrew Lang, Arthur a Becket, Barry
Pain, Justin McCarthy, and Walter Pollock already
on the title page or promised, then; should be
hardly any stronger series in the market.
The lwok of the month is Austin Dobson's
"Hogarth," a book as beautifully written as we
have a right to expect of Mr. Dobson, and as
beautifully got up and illustrated as the subject
demands.
Mrs. Cashel Hoey, the best translator living, has
finished her version of Robida's "Centuries of
Toilette" (Sampson Low and Co.). It is a book
which all ladies who wish to understand anything
more about dress than the fashion plate of the day-
must certainly possess.
Sir Edwin Arnold seems to have fairly " caught"
the American public, if not the English as well,
by his "Japonica" (London: Osgood and Mell-
vaine). This is what the New York Critic savs of
it:—
"It is hard to decide between penman and
draughtsman in praising this dainty work of art.
Never before have we seen so happy a marriage of
pen and brush. Of the author of 'The Light of
Asia' we know, and know favourably, as an inter-
preter of Japanese aesthetics; but, fascinating as
are his word-pictures, we must award equal praise
to the artist who has brought Japan before our
eyes bv his wonderfully accurate and deeply svnqia-
thetic drawings. With only ink, and no colours
such as flush the sky and ocean, and all surfaces in
Japan, or deepen in nook and shadow, Mr. Robert
Blum has achieved wonders. As a lady may be
handsome, and enthrall a man's heart bv her
expression, even though her face lack colour, so
Mr. Blum's pictures have the rich charm of repro-
ducing Japan's witchery of form and grace. Sir
Edwin is in his happiest vein and humour while
discoursing of the country, the jwople, their ways,
and their thoughts. To him Japan is the Land i>f
Great Peace, gentle manners, pleasing thoughts,
fair morals, and exquisite conceits. He seems a
veritable child in exuberance of enjoyment, and
has reached that land, so rarely entered by the
middle aged, which is behind the looking-glass.
A fascinating freak of geography and ethnology
is this country to him, and no less fascinatingly
freakish are its people. After hearing what all the
literary, scientific, theological, and other critics say
of them, this English knight of the pen is still the
lover. 'My own opinion is,' he declares with that
solid assurance which belongs to the lover who
imagines his vision to be crystal, clear, and scienti-
fically achromatic, 'that the central characteristic
of the Japanese is self-respect, and that their
patience, their fearlessness, their quietism, their
resignation, and a large proportion of their other
virtues, have root in this deep and universal
quality.'"
There are notable papers in the new volume of
the " Dictionary of Biography," especially Dr. Gur-
nett on Edward Irving, Mr. T. R. Gardiner on
James I., Mr. Leslie Stephen on Lord Jeffrey, the
Rev. William Hunt on King John, and Mr. Regi-
nald Lane Poole on John of Salisbury.
## p. 249 (#653) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
249
Just before his death, says the New York Critic,
James Parton expressed his views on the earnings
of authors in the following words: "An indus-
trious writer, by a legitimate exercise of his calling,
that is, never writing advertisements or trash for
the snke of pay, can just exist, no more. By a
compromise, not dishonourable, though exaspe-
rating, he can average during the best years $7,000
to §8,000 a year. But no man should enter the
literary life unless he has a fortune, or can live
contentedly on $2,000 a year. The best way is to
make a fortune first and write afterward."
Mr. Henry Cresswell has in the press a new
novel, in three volumes, entitled " Fairest of Three,"
which will be published by Messrs. Hurst and
Blaekett this month. If this novel prove as clever
and entertaining as " The Hermits of Crizebeck,"
considerable popularity may be foretold for it.
"Lester the Loyalist:' is one of the most
beautiful books we have seen for a long time. It
was printed in Japan, in one of the styles pre-
scribed by their etiquette for the printing of
poetry. It was manufactured entirely by Japanese.
The only difference is that the lines are printed
horizontally, as in English, instead of vertically.
The letterpress is a poem by Douglas Sladen,
author of "Australian Lyrics," "The Spanish
Armada," &c. It is called a "Romance on the
Founding of Canada," and is in hexameter verse.
The publishers are Griffith, Farran, and Co.
In " Great Pan Lives" (London: Luzac and Co.)
"Clelia" offers a paraphrase of Shakespeare's
Sonnets, and proffers an answer to the question,
"Who and what is the 'Lovely Boy' of the
Sonnets?" The answer takes the form of a
genealogy, beginning with "Beauty All," and
ending with "Will Shakespeare." It is one more
book added to the literature of the Sonnets, and
may be left to those who have studied the subject.
A "Winter Cruise in Summer Seas," by Charles
G. Atchison (Sampson Low and Co.) is a chatty,
pleasant book, descriptive of a voyage on board one
of the Royal Mail Steam Packets to the Brazils,
Buenos Ayres, and other places. Anyone who
wants to take a holiday of two months, and does
not know where and how to spend his time, will
do well to study this book. Those who would like
to spend a holiday of two months, but cannot get
the leave or the money, would do well to read
this book.
The " Merchant's Children," by Eleanor Stred-
der (T. Nelson and Sons), is a story for the young
on life in China. It is a little book to be
recommended.
Mr. E. A. Reynolds Ball has written the article
on Naples in Messrs. CasselPs magnificent fine art
publication "The Picturesque Mediterranean,"
2 vols., price £4 4*., which has recently been
published.
The latest addition to the " Adventure Series"
is the story of the " Life and Exploits of Theodore
Kolokotrones," the Greek hero. Tt is translated
from the Greek by Mrs. Edmonds, author of
"Greek Lays," &c. The translator has written an
introduction and furnished explanatory notes. A
preface has been added by M. Gennadius, Greek
envoy to our Court.
Messrs. Cassell & Co. will bring out in January a
collection of Mr. Egerton Castle's shorter stories
under the title of " La Bella and others." It is to
be hoped that the volume will include "A Para-
graph in the Globe," which appeared a few years
ago in Remington's Christmas Annual, and was not
only one of the best Christmas stories of its year, but
one of the best of its kind in English. Our litera-
ture is by no means rich in good short stories,
though Mr. Louis Stevenson, Mr. Andrew Lang,
Mr. Pollock and others have set us such admirable
examples, and this one of Mr. Castle's was worthy
of Balzac himself in his fantastic vein.
Mr. Howells' daughter, Miss Mildred Howells,
has entered the field of literature, as a poem in the
November St. Nicholas shows. It is entitled
"Romance," and conveys some of the fancies of
young dreamers.
Mr. G. A. Henty has written for the new volume
of Young England a serial story of seafaring
life in the last century, entitled "In the Grip of
the Press Gang." The other serials which will
appear in this magazine are "Beneath the Sur-
face," by Sarah Tytler, and " The Golden Lion," a
romance of Elizabethan days, by Robert Leighton,
author of " the Pilots of Pomona."'
"Charles Kingsley: the Story of his Life" is
the title of an article to be contributed by Mr.
Mackenzie Bell to an early number of the new
series of the Welcome Hour.
"Hypocrites," the serial story by Mr. Hugh
Coleman Davidson, which is now appearing in
Hearth and Home, will be published early in the
new year by Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. It will
be illustrated by Rene.
Two very interesting papers on Burmese life and
manners which have recently appeared in the
Globe were written by Mr. Henry Charles Moore.
They are chapters from a projwsed work on
Burmah.
## p. 250 (#654) ############################################
250 THE AUTHOR.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
Theology.
Alexander, Wm., D.D., D.C.L. Verbum Crucis: being
Ten Sermons on the Mystery and the Words of the
Cross, to which are added some other sermons preached
on public occasions. Preachers of the Age Series.
Sampson Low. 3s. 6d.
Beet, J. A., D.T). The Firm Foundation of the Christian
Faith: a Handbook of Christian Evidences, for Sunday
School Teachers. Wegleyan Methodist Sunday School
Union, Ludgate Circus Buildings, E.C. is.
Denney, Rev. James. The Epistles to the Thessalonians.
Volume of the Expositor Bible. Hodder and Stough-
ton. 7s. 6d.
Duff, Archibald, M.A., LL.D. Old Testament Theology;
or, the History of Hebrew Religion from the year
800 B.C. to 640 B.C. A. and C. Black.
Ellicott, C. J., D.D. Christus Comprobator; or, the
Testimony of Christ to the Old Testament. Seven
addresses. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Fife, E. G., M.U. Analysis of Theology, Natural and
Revealed: an Essay Contrasting the Pretensions of
Religion aud Atheism to Scientific Truth. Williams
and Norgate.
Mabtineau, James. Home Prayers, with two services for
public worship. Longmans. 3s. 6d.
Maurice, F. D. Sermons preached in Lincoln's Inn
Chapel. Vol. III. (of VI.). New edition. Mac-
millan. 3s. 6d.
Stannard, Rev. J. T. The Divine Humanity, and other
Sermons. Edited by the Rev. John Hunter. Maclc-
hose, Glasgow.
Stanton, V. H., D.I). The Place of Authority in Matters
of Religious Belief. Longmans. 6s.
Vaughan, C. J., D.D. Sermons, preached in the Parish
Church of Doucaster. New edition. Mac mil lan.
1 os. 6d.
History and Biography.
Adams, Henry. Historical Essays. Fisher Unwin.
7J. 6d.
— History of the United States of America during
the first Administration of James Madison. Volumes 5
and 6. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 9s. each.
Broglie, Due de. Memoirs of the Prince de Tallyrand.
Edited, with a preface and notes, by the. Translated
by Mrs. Angus Hall. Volume IV., with a portrait.
Griffith, Farran.
Browning, Oscar, M.A. Dante, his Life and Writings,
and Goethe, his Life and Writings. Volumes of the
Dilettante Library, enlarged from articles in the
"Encyclopaedia Britannica." Swan Sonnenschein.
Clinch, George. Mayfair and Beigravia, being an
Historical Account of the Parish of St. George, Han-
over Square. With illustrations. True-love aud
Shirley. 1 2s.
Goulburn, E. M., M.D. John William Burgon, late
Dean of Chichester: a Biography, with Extracts from
his Letters and Early Journals. Two vols., with
portraits. John Murray. 14s.
Graham, P. Anderson. Nature in Books: Some Studies
in Biography. Methuen and Co.
The History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle
Ages. Drawn from the secret archives of the Vatican
and other original sources, from the German of Dr.
Ludwig Pastor, Professor of History in the University
of Innsbruck. Edited by Frederick Ignatius Antrobus,
of the Oratory, with an introduction by Cardinal
Manning. Two vols. John Hodges, Agar Street,
Charing Cross. 12s.
"Jehu Junior." The " Vanity Fair " Album—a Show of
Sovereigns, Statesmen, Judges, and Men of the Day,
with biographical and critical notices by. Vol. 23.
1S91. Vanity Fair Office, 181, Strand.
Lounsbury, T. R. Studies in Chaucer: His Life and
Writings. 3 vols. Osgood, M'llvaine. 42s.
Palmer, A. H. The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer,
painter and etcher. Written and edited by. Illus-
trated. Seelcy.
Puschman, Dr. Tiieodor. A History of Medical Educa-
tion, from the most remote to the most recent times.
Translated and edited by Evan H. Hare. H. K. Lewis.
Gowcr Street.
Selby, Charles. Events to be Remembered in the History
of England. 28th edition, with additions. Crosby
Lockwood.
Stebbing, Wm., M.A. Sir Walter Ralegh: a Biography.
With a frontispiece. Clarendon Press. 1 os. 6d.
Symes, J. E., M.A. The French Revolution, 1789-1795.
With map of France. University Extension Series.
Methuen. 2s. 6d.
Trebutien, G. S. Journal of Maurice de Guerin. With a
Biographical and Literary Memoir by Sainte-Beuve.
Translated from the 20th French edition by Jessie P.
Frothiugham. Edited by Chatto and Windus. 2*. 6d.
Waylen, James. The House of Cromwell and the Story
of Dunkirk : a Genealogical History of the Descendants
of the Protector, with Anecdotes aud Letters. Illus-
trated with engravings, portraits, and plans. Eliot
Stock. 1 os. bd.
Wicksteed, P. H., M.A. Four lectures on Heiurik Ibsen,
dealing chiefly with his Metrical Works. The Dilettante.
Library. Swan Sonnenschein.
Fiction.
Black, William. A Daughter of Heth. New aud revised
edition, with portrait and preface by the author.
Sampson Low. 2s. 6d.
Burnett, F. Hodgson. Children I have known, and
Giovanni and the Other. Stories. Osgood, M'llvaine.
6s.
Campbell, Sir G. The Romance of the Ruby. Illustrated.
Beeton's Christmas Annual; containing also an
original musical faroe by R. Andre. Ward, Lock,
Bowden.
Cardklla, G. A King's Daughter. A Novel. 3 vols.
Swan Sonneschein.
CoixODi. C. The Story of a Puppet: or, The Adventures
of Pinocchio. Translated from the Italian by M. A.
Murray. Illustrated. Fisher Unwin. is. 6d.
## p. 251 (#655) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
Conan Doyle, A. A Study in Scarlet. A new edition,
with illustrations by George Hutchinson. Ward, Lock,
Bowden. 3s. 6d.
Ccshino, Paul. Cut with His Own Diamond. A Novel in
3 vols. Blackwood.
Dowlino, Richakd. A Baffling Quest. A Novel. 3 vols.
Ward and Downey.
Eckknstein, Lisa. The Little Princess and the Great
Plot. Illustrated by Dudley Heath. And Tales from
the Mabinogion. Kdited by Meta E. Williams. Vo-
lumes of the Children's Library. Fisher Unwin.
2s. 6d. each.
Fonblanque, Albany de. Jcdwood Justice. A Novel.
3 vols. Bentley.
Francillon, R. E. Gods and Heroes: or, the Kingdom
of Jupiter. Illustrated. Blackwood.
Gray, Annabel. Through Rifted Clouds. A Novel in
a vols. Eden, Remington.
Green, F. G. Dean's Fairy Book. A Companion to the
Doyle Fairy Book. With illustrations. Edited by.
Dean, Fleet Street.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles. 3 vols.
Osgood, M'llvainc. 3is. 6d.
Hocking, Silas K. For Light and Liberty. With
original illustrations. F. Wanie. is. 6d.
Humphreys, Jennett. Some Little Britons in Brittany: a
Seaside Story. Sampson Low. 2S. 6d.
Hutchinson, Horace G. Mr. Batter's Pedigree: or,
Experiences of a Tenderfoot. Illustrated by George
Hutchinson. Whitefriars Library. Henry. 3s. 6d.
Hutchinson, Rev. H. N. The Story of the Hills: a
Popular Account of Mountains and how they were made.
Seeley.
Jones, C. A. A Modern Red Riding Hood. Frederick
Warne. 3s. 6d.
Kennedy, Patrick. Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts.
Collected and narrated by. Macmillan. 3s. 6d.
Larder, Alfred. A Sinner's Sentence. 3 vols. Chatto
and Windus.
Lawrence, Boyle, and Cadett, Herbert. Fin-de-
Siecle Stories. Biggs, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street.
Paper covers, is.
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Linton, W. J. The F'lower and the Star, and other Stories
for Children. Written and illustrated by. Lawrence
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Lucas, Annie. Love's Victory: a tale of Dursley Mine.
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Martius, "I Will Repay." Eden Remington.
Peard, Frances M. The Baroness. A Novel, 2 vols.
Bentley and Son.
The Abbot's Bridge. National Society's Deposi-
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Pinkerton, T. A. A New Saint's Tragedy. A Novel.
2 vols. Swan Sonnenschein.
Ritchie, Anne Thackeray. The Fairy Tales of Madame
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duction by. Illustrated by Clinton Peters. Lawrence
and Bullen.
Stacpoole, W. H. The Three Boots. Dean, Fleet
Street.
Stock, Lady Gertrude. A Wasted Life and MairM.
3 vols. Hurst and Blackctt.
Stoker, Bram. The Snake's Pass. New and cheaper
edition. Sampson Low. 3s. 6d.
Varty-Smith, A. A. Matthew Tindale. A Novel in
3 vols. Bentley.
Verney, Lady. Essays and Tales. Simpkin, Marshall.
Yorke, Curtis. A Romance of Modem London, a
Novel. 3 vols. F. V. White.
General Literature.
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Illustrated with photographs and sketches. Sampson
Low.
Allen, Grant. Falling in Love: with other Essays on
more Exact Branches of Science. A new edition.
Smith, Elder.
Bates, Fanny B. Between the Lights: Thoughts for the
Quiet Hours. Arranged by. Third Edition. Burnet,
Henrietta Street, Strand.
Bell, Ernest, M.A. Handbook of Athletic Sports.
Edited by. Vol. IV. Illustrated. George Bell.
3s.6rf. *
Bishop, Mrs. Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan: in-
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Visit to the Nestorian Rajahs. 2 vols. With portrait,
map, and illustrations. John Murray. 245.
Bolton, S. K. Famous Artists. Nelson and Sons.
Bonvalot, G. Across Thibet: being a translation of " De
Paris au Tonkin a travers le Tibet inconnu." With
illustrations from photographs taken by Prince Henry
of Orleans, and map of route. Translated by C. B.
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Calmore, Alfred C. Practical Play-writing, and the
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Christian, John. Behar Proverbs. Classified, arranged,
and translated into English, with notes, appendix, and
indexes. Kegan Paul.
Cook, Charles. The Prisons of the World. With Stories
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duction by C. H. Spurgeon. Second edition. Morgan
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Arthur T. Fisher, major, late 21st Hussars. Bentley.
Dixon, Edward T. An Essay on Reasoning. Deighton
Bell, Cambridge.
Eardlet-Wilmot, Capt. S., R.N. The Development of
Navies during the. last half century. With illustra-
tions. Seeley.
Earl, Ethel. Dinners in Miniature. Reprinted from the
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Gambier-Parry, Major. The Combat with Suffering.
John Murray. Paper covers. 3s. 6d.
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Hamerton, Philip G. The Portfolio: an artistic periodi-
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The Present State of the Fine Arts in France.
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Ha/.ell's Annual for 1891—Revised to November 10,
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Henderson, W. J. Preludes and Studies: Musical Themes
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Prince, ^Elian. Of Joyous Garb. New edition. E. W.
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Sterne, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through
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Vinogradoff, Paul. Villaiiiage in England. Essays in
English Mediieval History. Clarendon Press. 16s.
Warren, Mrs. The Ladies' Treasury for 1891 : a House-
hold Magazine. Edited by. Illustrated. Benirose,
Old Bailey.
Whittaker, T. P. Barker's Facts and Figures for the
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trated. Cassell. 3s. 6d.
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Holmes, G. A. Macmillan's History Headers: Stories and
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Herners Street. Paper covers, zs.
Ranken, George. The Federal Geography of British
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'Royal Atlas of Modern Geography. Part II.
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Morris, William. Poems by the Way. Reeves and
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254
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