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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
Description
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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The-Author-Issues
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1894-07-02
Volume
5
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2
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33–60
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18940702
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C be El utb or,
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESAN. T.
WoL. W.-No. 2.]
JULY 2, 1894.
[PRICE SIXPENCE.
For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the Authors alone are
Tesponsible. Wome of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as earpressing the
collective opinions of the committee unless
they are officially signed by G. Herbert
Thring, Sec. -
HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and
requests that all members not receiving an answer to
important communications within two days will write to him
without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union
Bank of London, Chancery-lame, or be sent by registered
letter only.
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.
*~ * ~ *
g- - -,
WARNINGS AND ADVICE,
I. T is not generally understood that the author, as
the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the
agreement upon whatever terms the transaction
is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to
exercise that right. In every form of business, this among
others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him
who sells, leases, or has the control of the property.
2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember
that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that
is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you
object to this, insert a clause to that effect.
3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most
URGENTLY warmed not to neglect stamping their agreements
immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected
for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree-
ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every
case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter
which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The
author may be assured that the other party to the agree-
ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society,
to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of
members stamped for them at no eaſpense to themselves
eacept the cost of the stamp.
4. AsCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To
BOTH SLDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an
arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi-
ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party
WOL. W.
refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he
reserved for himself. r
5. LITERARY AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be
too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your
agent. Remember that you place your property almost un-
reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting
the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience
of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. -
6. CosT OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of
which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part,
until you have proved the figures.
7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor-
respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad-
vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced
friends or by this Society.
8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any accownt whatever,
bind yourself down for future work to anyone.
9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or
responsibility whatever without advice.
Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re-
fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises
they may put forward, for the production of the work.
II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American
rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any
agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the
publisher, unless for a substantial consideration.
12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper,
either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright,
without advice.
13. ADVERTISEMENTS. — Keep some control over the
advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in
the agreement.
I4. 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. Be yourself a business man.
Society’s Offices :-
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs.
*— — —”
e= *
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY,
I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. If the advice
sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member
has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the
case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com-
mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member,
E 2
## p. 34 (#48) ##############################################
3+ THE
AUTHOR.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually
engaged upon such questions for us.
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past
accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in
order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree-
ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively
so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any
agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor-
mation thus obtained may prove invaluable.
4. If the examination of your previous business trans-
actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should
take advice as to a change of publishers.
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-
posed document to the Society for examination.
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in
the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-
ing firm in the country.
7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-
dence of the writer.
8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.
*- - -º
r- - -
THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE,
EMBERS are informed :
1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of
the business of members of the Society. With, when
necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi-
cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines
and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the
trouble of managing business details.
2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are
defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights
placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby
given that in all cases where there is no current account, a
booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage.
3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those
members of the Society whose work possesses a market
value.
4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation
whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia-
tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all
communications relating thereto are referred to it.
5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by
appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days'
notice should be given.
6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre-
spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number
of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps
should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage.
7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS.
without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself
responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice.
8. The Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures
by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has
a “Transfer Department * for the sale and purchase of
journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants
and Wanted” has been opened. Members anxious to obtain
literary or artistic work are invited to communicate with
the Manager. - *. -
There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services
will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It
is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the
Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in
the Syndicate.
NOTICES,
HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.
The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and
communications on all subjects connected with literature
from members and others. Nothing can do more good to
the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive,
and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this
work send their names and the special subjects on which
they are willing to write P
Communications for the Author should reach the Editor
not later than the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether
members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate
to the Editor any points connected with their work which
it would be advisable in the general interest to publish.
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 under-
stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances,
undertake the publication of MSS.
The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at
3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary
for information, rules of admission, &c.
Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they
have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do
this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s
order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the
trouble of sending out a reminder. -
Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the
warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a
most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding
for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they
would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five
years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest
or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why them
hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them-
selves into literary bondage for three or five years P
Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15
per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble
of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the
pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding
is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be
added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at
389 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth
as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so
elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at.
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged
in the “Cost of Production ” for advertising. Of course, we
have not included any sums which may be charged for
inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines,
or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too
## p. 35 (#49) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
35
often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from
sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket,
by inserting any number of advertisements in his own
magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are
who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.
*- - -
r- > -s
LITERARY PROPERTY.
I.—A CASE OF SECRET PROFITs.
WHE case which was mentioned in the Author
for March, 1893 (p. 353), and June, 1894,
(p. 14), plain as it may have appeared,
has now dragged along for some four years,
The French writer, known by the nom de
plume of “Léo Taxil,” had some reason or other
for suspecting that his publishers were treating
him unfairly as to the number of copies of his
many books printed and sold, and that they were
thus depriving him wholesale of his royalty per
copy. He therefore called for an account which,
when received in July, 1890, showed him some
438 in debt to the publishing firm.
The author, naturally indignant, set in motion
a criminal prosecution for “abuse of confidence.”
The outcome of this move was that the publishers
informed the author that they had unfortunately
omitted from the account rendered two whole
editions of one of his books, and that there was due
to him in consequence 3133. At the same time
they admitted that on his other works the number
of copies sold had exceeded the figures shown in
the account rendered to such an extent that the
royalty due to the author was understated by
312O more, making £253 due to him instead of
398 due from him.
But expert accountants were then put in by the
courts to examine the firm’s books, and the total
damage to the author was assessed by them at
no less than £152O, for Léo Taxil's books, what-
ever may be thought of them, have had a con-
siderable circulation.
The criminal prosecution therefore went on,
though the legal proceedings are somewhat diffi-
cult to reconcile. Here, however, is a resumé of
the facts as taken from the Journal des Débats,
the Gazette des Tribunawa, and the Siècle. To
begin with, the correctional tribunal (a criminal
court) acquitted the publishers, in Feb., 1892,
of “abuse of confidence.” On appeal by the
Public Prosecutor (and by the author also on the
point of damages) a decision of the court above,
in the following April, quashed the previous pro-
ceedings as having been in error, because the
facts as alleged would, if proved, constitute not
mere “abuse of confidence,” but falsification of
documents and criminal use of the same.
Accordingly, in Feb., 1893, the case was sent
down again (in spite of a fresh appeal from the
publishers) for retrial in this sense.
Eventually the publishers were again indicted
for entering in their books, and in their accounts
rendered, certain erroneous items, with the effect
of depriving M. Léo Taxil of a portion of his
“author's rights” to the extent of £152O. In
the meanwhile, however, as the Gazette des
Tribunaua, reports the case, the publisher had
induced the author to desist, paying him £4600
(115,000 francs) as damages. But the court,
nevertheless, compelled him to continue to appear
in the case as an interested party.
The case only came on for trial at the May
assizes of this year, when the defence was that
the admitted errors in the books were merely
clerical, and that, according to a custom of the
trade, publishers had a right to print for them-
selves twenty copies of a work over and above
every 100 copies acknowledged to the author.
That is to say, that when an author receives
royalty on 5000 copies, 6000 have actually been
printed and sold.
The Public Prosecutor having admitted that
there were “extenuating circumstances” in favour
of the accused, a Parisian jury acquitted them,
while M. Léo Taxil was, in consequence of this
acquittal, cast in the costs. How much these
may be we know not, nor are we told what
offence he had committed to merit this penalty;
but it would be well for English authors who may
purpose any professional work in France to make
a careful mote of this strange case, and of that
alleged secret custom of confiscating one in six of
the copies of every edition as publisher's per-
quisites. J. O’N.
The following is the official report from the
Gazette des Tribunawa .
L'affaire dont a eu ä connaitre aujourd’hui la Cour
d’Assizes mettait en présence, d'une part, M. Léo Taxil
et son gendre, M. Joubert, et de l'autre, MM. Letouzey et
Ané, editeurs.
Il s'agit, non d’un procès de presse, mais d’une affaire
de faux, engagée sur la plainte de M. Léo Taxil. C'est
l’épilogue des nombreux incidents qui signalèrent les
démélés de M. Léo Taxil avec ses éditeurs et dont le début
remonte à 1892. Ceux-ci ont successivement publié un
grand nombre de volumes et des brochures de M. Léo
Taxil. Soupçonnant que ses éditeurs ne lui remettaient pas
exactenment les droits d’auteur auxquels il avait droit, M.
Léo Taxil, ne pouvant obtenir un relevé de compte exact,
déposa une plainte contre eux.
Une instruction fut ouverte qui se termina par la com-
parution de M.M. Letouzey et Ané et de M. Picquoin, leur
imprimeur, devant le Tribunal correctionnel sous la pré-
vention d’abus deconfiance et de complicité. Tous trois furent
acquittés (W. Gaz. des Trib. du 17 février 1892).
Le ministère publie et M. Léo Taxil ayant fait appel, la
Cour confirma le jugement de première instance en déclarant
que les faits relevés à la charge des prévenus constitue-
## p. 36 (#50) ##############################################
36
THE A UTHOR.
raient, s'ils étaient établis, des faux et non pas le délit
d'abus de confiance (V. Gaz. des Trib. du 15 avril 1892),
La Cour de Cassation, saisie d'une demande de règlement
de juges et d'un pourvoi de MM. Letouzey et Ané, rejeta
le pourvoi et renvoya les prévenus devant la Chambre des
mises en accusation (V. Gaz. des Trib. du 12 février 1893).
Un arrêt de cette chambre ordonna un supplément d'informa-
tion à la suit de laquelle, l'imprimeur Picquoin a été écarté
de la poursuite et MM. Letouzey et Ané renvoyés devant la
Cour d'Assizes.
C'est dans ces condition que ceux-ci se présentent
aujourd'hui, devant le jury. L'accusation leurs reproche
d'avoir porté sur leurs livres et dans leurs règlements de
comptes, des chiffres inexacts, de manière à frustrer M.
Léo Taxil d'une partie de ses droits d'auteur évaluée dans
l'expertise à environ 38,ooo francs. Pour arriver à ce
résultat MM. Letouzey et Ané auraient, non seulement
indiqué un nombre de volumes inférieur à la réalité, mais
aussi omis de mentionner deux éditions entières.
Les accusés prétendent pour leur défense que les irrégu-
larités constatées sont de simples erreurs de comptabilité ;
que, de plus, d'après les usages de librairie, ils avaient le droit
de tirer un nombre d'exemplaires supérieur de 2o p. IOO au
chiffre officiel. L'expertise conteste l'exactitude de ces
explications. •
· Au cours de l'instruction MM. Letouzey et Ané ont
obtenu de Léo Taxil son désistement, moyennant le paiement
d'une somme de I 15,ooo francs, chiffre auquel a été évalué
le préjudice éprouvé par celui-ci.
M. Léo Taxil n'en a pas moins été assigné comme partie
civile, qualité qu'il a prise dès le début de ces contestations.
Il est assisté à l'audience par son gendre M. Joubert.
Divers témoins sont entendus : M. Rossignol, expert, M.
Eugène Moreau, éditeur, qui confirment les fait de l'accusa-
tion. M. Picquoin, l'imprimeur primitivement compris dans
les poursuites, fait une déposition embarrassée et très peu
précise.
M. Léo Taxil présente certaines explications et conteste
les allégations des accusés.
L'audience est levée à six heures et renvoyée à demain
pour les réquisitions de M. l'avocat général Van Cassel, et
les plaidoiries de M° Pouillet et de M° Georges Maillard,
défenseurs des accusée.
(Cour d'Assises de la Seine.—Présidence de M. le con-
seiller Potier.—Audience du 28 mai.)
· L'affaire de faux, suivie contre MM. Letouzey et Ané,
éditeurs, sur la plainte de M. Leo Taxil, s'est terminée
aujourd'hui devant la Cour d'Assises.
M. l'avocat général Van Cassel soutient l'accusation ; il
ne s'oppose pas à l'admission de circonstances atténuantes.
M° Pouillet et Me Georges Maillard présentent la défense
des accusés, qui sont acquittés.
La partie civile est condamnée aux dépens.
(Cour d'Assises de la Seine.—Présidence de M. le con-
seiller Potier.—Audience du 29 mai.)—G. des T. 3o mai,
I894.
II.—PUBLISHING ON COMMIssIoN.
It seems a method so fair and so simple. The
author goes to a publisher and says : º Take my
book and publish it. I will pay you for your
trouble so much per cent. on all the sales.'' What
can be fairer ?
What, indeed ? Now, the following is an illus-
tration of how the plan may work. This is an
actual case which occurred yesterday.
- First of all, the publisher demands payment in
advance of the whole amount which, according to
him, the book will cost.
For himself, he pays the printer three or six
months after the work is done. -
If he takes six months'credit, he has the money
to use for his own business purposes for this time.
It is an addition to his working capital on which
he calculates to make something like 2o per cent.,
but, if it is not to be considered working capital,
it is money on which he may get interest at, say,
4 per cent.
Next, he sends in an estimate lumping every-
thing together, the said estimate being enormously
overcharged. He explains that he has only
allowed for binding of a certain number, He
further notes, casually, that advertising is not
included. But he points out that the sale will
give the author so much for every hundred
volumes sold.
The luckless author falls into the trap, pays
the money, calculates what he is to receive, and
expects the returns. There will be so much
profit, he thinks : he cannot lose anything. Alas !
He knows nothing : he actually forgets the adver-
tising. There will be a tremendous bill on that
account. And he forgets the corrections, and the
remaining copies will have to be bound. Then
there are the illustrations. Finally, the author,
even when the whole edition has gone, will find
himself a loser to the tune of a hundred pounds
Ol" SO .
In the case before us, the cost of production was
overcharged by about 83o. The author stood to
lose 87O on the most favourable result, viz., the
sale of the whole edition.
The publisher's profit would stand as follows :
Overcharge of production s£3O O O
Interest on money advanced (say)... 3 O O
@ @ @ • • • • • • • • e
Commission on sales .................. 23 O O
Overcharge on binding the rest of
the edition ........................... 3 O O
Overcharge on advertisements
reckoned on the same scale ...... 8 O O
Illustrations overcharge on same
scale ................................ I O O O
Overcharge on corrections ............ 5 O O
Whole profit ............ 4282 o o
The reader will please observe these figures.
Remark that, if not one single copy sells, the
publisher makes 86o by the job, and the whole
by secret profits !
And yet we are accused of " attacking pub-
lishers " when we expose these tricks !
How, then, is an author to publish on commis-
sion ? He must get advice from the Society on
the proper firm to employ. He must then have
## p. 37 (#51) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
37
an estimate showing the exact details on every
point. This, with the agreement proposed, he
must submit to the consideration of the secre-
tary.
# the publisher refuses to furnish the details,
there is but one inference to be drawn.
Meantime, let it be distinctly understood, when
estimates are sent in, that the Society can get the
work done at the prices given in the “Cost of
Production,” with the change in the item of bind-
ing, as advertised every month in the Author.
III.-CANADIAN COPYRIGHT.
Since the last article appeared in the Author on
Canadian copyright, certain papers have been
forwarded to the Society by the Secretary of State
for the Colonies. The Society has taken the
opinion of counsel on the papers.
Mr. William Oliver Hodges, of 3, Paper-
buildings, Temple, E.C., barrister, and Mr. G.
Herbert Thring, secretary to the Society, have
been appointed by the committee as delegates to
attend the meetings of the Copyright Committee
alluded to in the last number. The first meeting
was held on Monday, June 25. A statement of
what passed at this meeting will be printed,
together with counsel's opinion on the papers on
Canadian copyright, in next month's Author.
IV.-AMERICAN COPYRIGHT.
The Speaker, in recently reviewing an American
book, said: “This book is twenty years old in
America, and what is stated to be its fifth edition
is now brought over here to be sold, having been
printed and copyrighted in America by the
American publisher, and then again copyrighted
by him here, by entry at Stationers' Hall, as the
liberal English law allows him to do. By the
unfairly unequal American law—drafted and
passed so as to be unfairly unequal—it is
impossible for a book printed in England to be
similarly copyrighted in the United States, for it
must be first printed there too. Therefore this
book is one of those by which the Yankee cobbler
manages to cut a whang out of our leather.”
W.—LIBRARIES AND NOVELS.
The following circulars were published in the
Daily Chronicle of June 30. At the moment of
going to press we have not yet received a copy,
but it may be supposed that the text is accu-
rately printed, and first, Messrs. Mudie's runs as
follows:— - -
Owing to the constantly increasing number of novels and
high-priced books, and to the rapid issue of the cheaper
editions, the directors are compelled in the interests of the
business to ask publishers to consider the following
suggestions:— - -
I. That after Dec. 31, 1894, the charge to the library for
works of fiction shall not be higher than 4s. per volume,
less the discount now given, and with the odd copy as
before. | -
II. That the publishers shall agree not to issue cheaper
editions of novels, and of other books which have been
taken for library circulation, within twelve months from the
date of publication.
The directors have no wish to dictate to the publishers,
but, in making these suggestions, they point out the only
terms upon which it will be possible in the future to buy
books in any quantity for library use. - -
The terms of Messrs. Smith and Son’s circular
are these :— -
For some time past we have noted with concern a great
and increasing demand on the part of the subscribers to our
library for novels in sets of two and three volumes.
To meet their requisitions, we are committed to an expen-
diture much out of proportion to the outlay for other kinds
of literature.
Most of the novels are ephemeral in their interest, and
the few with an enduring character are published in cheap
editions so soon after the first issue that the market we for-
merly had for the disposal of surplus stock in sets is almost
lost.
You may conceive that this state of matters very seriously
reduces the commercial value of the subscription library.
We are therefore compelled to consider what means can be
taken to improve this branch of our business. As a result
of our deliberations, we would submit for your favourable
consideration :- -
(1) That after Dec. 31 next the price of novels in sets
shall not be more than 4.s. per volume, less the discount now
given, and with the odd copy as before. You will please
observe that the date we name for the alteration of terms is
fixed at six months from the end of this current month, in
order that your arrangements may not be affected by the
suggested alterations. - -
(2) In respect of the issue of the cheaper editions, and the
loss to us of our market for the sale of the best and earlier
editions of novels and other works, through their publication
in a cheaper form before we have had an opportunity
of selling the surplus stock, we propose that you be so good
as to undertake that no work appear in the cheaper form
from the original price until twelve months after the date of
its first publication. -
The libraries, certainly, have a perfect right to
name their own price within recognised bounds of
fairness for a form of book which only exists for
them. The price now proposed is, according to
the Chronicle, 4s. a volume, discount and odd
volume to remain as they are, i.e., 5 per cent.
discount and twenty-five as twenty-four. This
means 3s. 8d., within a very tiny fraction, per
volume, or I Is. a copy. +
The former price was not fixed; it varied with
the library and with the house. If we take it at
an average of 5s. a volume, with discount and
the odd copy we have an average price of a little
under I 4s. Let us suppose that there is a
difference under the new tariff of 3s. a copy—a
loss of 3s. a copy. , - . " -
This loss must be met by the author as well as
## p. 38 (#52) ##############################################
38
THE AUTHOR.
the publisher. It can be met by changing the
royalty to that extent. The advertised price of
31s. 6d. has, in this case, nothing at all to do
with the question, because the circulating
libraries alone need be considered.
The problem is therefore very simple. Given
a reduction of 3s. a copy, how is that reduction to
be met by the author P
Clearly, by reducing the royalty by half that
amount.
Thus the reduction being by one-fifth the
former price the publisher and the author must
each bear the loss of one-tenth.
Or the royalty would be thus adjusted:
Suppose the author had a royalty of 6s. a copy,
i.e., a fraction on the assumed price of one-third.
It would now have to be 6s. less one-tenth the
former price, i.e., 6s. less one-tenth of 15s., or 6s.
less Is. 6d., i.e., 4s. 6d.
Bow would this work out P
An edition of IOOO copies costs nearly £200,
and can be produced for less. It would, under
the new tariff, sell for £550. The clear profit is,
therefore, 3350.
The author's share at 4s. 6d. a copy is 3225.
The publisher's share would be £125.
The editor will be very glad to receive
suggestions and opinions on the above.
WI.-AN IMPORTANT CASE.
The reserved judgment of the Court of Appeal
delivered by Lord Justice Lindley, reversing -
the decision of Mr. Justice Stirling in the
“Living Pictures” case, involved a point of great
importance and interest in the law of copy-
right. Herr Hanfstaengl, who is a German Art
publisher, brought two actions asking for injunc-
tions to restrain the directors of the Empire
Palace Company Limited and the proprietors and
publishers of the Daily Graphic from infringing
his copyright in certain pictures. In the former
case he complained that his pictures were repro-
duced in the form of tableaua vivants upon the
stage of the Empire Theatre, but Mr. Justice
Stirling held that the representations of these
pictures on the stage by means of living actors
were not an infringement of the plaintiff’s copy-
right, and that decision was affirmed by the Court
of Appeal in February last. In the case of the
Daily Graphic, the complaint was that accounts
were published in that paper of the represen-
tations at the Empire Theatre, which were illus-
trated by sketches taken by artists who attended
the theatre for that purpose. Although the
newspaper illustrations were sketched from the
living figures employed in the representations on
the stage, the plaintiff contended that they were
copies of the designs of his original pictures, and
therefore were infringements of his copyright.
Mr. Justice Stirling adopted that view, and
granted an injunction restraining the proprietors
and publishers of the newspaper from printing
publishing, selling, or offering for sale, or other
wise disposing of, any copies or colourable
imitations of the copyright pictures of the
plaintiff. From that decision the defendants
have successfully appealed, and judgment was
directed to be entered for them with costs both
of the appeal and of the application in the court
below. The plaintiff based his claim for pro-
tection on the International Copyright Act of
1886 and the Order in Council thereunder of the
28th Nov. 1887, and on the English Copyright
Act of 1862, and it is highly satisfactory that,
alike on the consideration of the facts and circum-
stances, and of the law as it has been laid down
and is applicable to them, the Court of Appeal
has unanimously determined that the plaintiff
has suffered no wrong which these statutes
were intended to redress, and that he is not
entitled to the protection which he claimed. Lord
Justice Lindley cited and adopted the definition
long ago laid down by the late Mr. Justice Bayley
of a “copy” as that which so closely resembles
the original as to convey the same idea as that
created by the original. Both Lord Justice Lopes
and Lord Justice Davey, in the brief judgments
in which they assented to that of Lord Justice
Lindley, quoted with approval this definition;
and, tried by that test, it could not be reasonably
suggested that the rough sketches in the news-
paper of the tableaua vivants at the Empire were
copies of the original pictures of the plaintiff, and
were calculated to injure his rights or depreciate
the value of the original pictures. The learned
Lord Justice emphatically declared that neither
intentionally nor unintentionally, neither directly
nor indirectly, had the artist of the Daily Graphic
copied in the correct sense of the term the plain-
tiff's pictures so as to infringe his copyright in
them. He had not in the slightest degree repro-
duced, or attempted to reproduce, the artistic
merits and beauties of the original pictures, which
indeed, he had never seen. The whole intention
of the sketch was to give a rough and ready
impression of the representations at the Empire
Theatre, and there was no design of making gain
by a colourable imitation or reproduction of the
plaintiff's pictures. The court founded its
decision on broad grounds and on a wide view of
the aspects of the case and of the law. “Copy-
right law and patent law,” said Lord Justice
Lindley, “conferred monopolies on individuals
in certain respects, thereby preventing people from
doing that which otherwise it would be lawful for
## p. 39 (#53) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
39
them to do, and they were designed to insure to
those protected the enjoyment of the advantages
of their own abilities when these took the form of
pictures, designs, inventions, and so forth. So
far as they did this, and did this only, they
were just and right, but they were not to be made
the instruments of oppression and extortion.”
This sound principle, will commend itself to every
reasonable and fair-minded judgment.—Times.
g- - -
THE AUTHORS' CLUB,
I.-AT HOME.
N the 3oth ult., at 4 o’clock in the afternoon,
() the Authors’ Club were “at home * to a
select number of guests of both sexes.
In spite of inclement weather and frequent
showers of rain the rooms were crowded with
literary and artistic people. No doubt the pro-
longed inclemency of the elements had hardened
the heart against its dangers.
Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G., the chairman of
the club, was present to welcome the arrivals,
and he was seconded by Lord Monkswell, Mr.
Walter Besant, and Mr. H. R. Tedder, the other
directors. Lady writers were very well repre-
sented, Mrs. W. K. Clifford, Madame Sarah
Grand, the Misses Hepworth Dixon, Mrs. Craigie,
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Mrs. Croker, Mrs. Hodgson
Burnett, and Miss Helen Mathers being among
those present. ..at
The meeting was a success, and no doubt the
club will repeat the gathering in the winter in the
same or some other similar way.
Mr. Hall Caine has joined the Board of
Directors, --
II.-IN NEW YORK.
At the Authors Club of New York the
following gentlemen were in May elected
honorary members:—Alphonse Daudet (France),
Maartin Maartens (Holland), Maeterlinck (Bel-
gium), Walter Besant (Great Britain).
*- - --"
-- - -,
THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS,
BEPORT of DINNER, 3 IST MAY, 1894.
HE annual dinner of the Society of Authors
T was held last night at the Holborn Res-
taurant, Mr. Leslie Stephen presiding.
The following is the list of the guests:
E. A. Armstrong John Bumpus
Mrs. Armstrong Miss Marie Belloc
Oscar Browning Walter Besant
WOT. W.
Mrs. Walter Besant
F. H. Balfour
The Rev. Prof. Bonney
W. H. Besant,
Mackenzie Bell
Poulteney Bigelow
Mrs. Brightwen
F. G. Breton
Mrs. Oscar Beringer
James Baker
C. F. Moberley Bell
Rev. Canon Bell, D.D.
Rev. J. B. Baynard
A. W. A. Beckett
Thos. Catling
Mrs. W. K. Clifford
Miss K. M. Cordeaux and
Guest
Edward Clodd
Miss Roalfe Cox and Guest
Mrs. Craigie
Mrs. McCosh Clarke
Lieut.-Col. J. R. Campbell
Miss Carpenter
Sir. W. T. Charley
R. Copley Christie
Miss E. R. Chapman
W. Morris Colles
Mrs. Colles
P. W. Clayden (President
Institute of Journalists)
Egerton Castle, F.S.A.
Miss Lily Croft
Professor Lewis Campbell
Miss B. Chambers and
Guest
Moncure Conway
Mrs. Custer
E. H. Cooper
H. Cust, M.P.
John Davidson
C. F. Dowsett
Mrs. Dambrill Davies
Arthur Dillon
Austin Dobson
A. Conan Doyle
A. W. Dubourg
Gerald Duckworth
Miss Doyle
Miss Duckworth
Daily Graphic
Daily News
Daily Telegraph,
Daily Chronicle
A. Symons Eccles
W. L. Ellis
Mrs. Edmonds
Mr. Edmonds
Mrs. Walter Ellis
Miss Agnes Fraser
Mrs. Gerard Ford
Prof. Michael Foster
S. M. Fox
Mrs. Gordon
Henry Glaisher
Alfred Giles (President In-
stitute of Civil Engineers)
Edmund Gosse
Mrs. Aylmer Gowing
J. C. Grant
Mrs. Grant
Dr. L. Garnett
Miss Goodrich-Freer
Miss H. F. Gethen
Mrs. Gamlin
Francis Gribble
Mme. Sarah Grand
Mrs. Spencer Graves
Maj.-Gen. Sir F. J.
smid, C.B.
J. A. Goodchild
A. P. Graves
Miss Mabel Hawtrey
Holman Hunt
Bernard Hamilton
Dr. Vaughan Harley
E. G. Hobbes
Miss W. Hunt
Rev. W. Hunt
Miss Hargreaves
H. Holman
F. de Haviland Hall
Mrs. Wyndham Hill
Clive Holland
Comtesse Hugo
Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake
C. T. C. James
Miss Kenealy
A. C. Kenealy
Rev. Dr. S. Kinns
Lord Kelvin
Royal Society)
C. B. Roylance Kent.
C. A. Kelly.
Mrs. Lynn Linton
Mrs. Long
A. H. N. Lewers
Sidney Lee
Edmund Lee
John Lane
Sidney Low (St. James's
Gazette)
W. Meredith
Mrs. W. Meredith • '
Rev. C. H. Middleton-
Wake
George Moore
Mrs. Morgan
Miss A. A. Martin
Norman Maccoll
Morning Post
S. B. G. McKinney ,
Miss Helen Mathers and
Guest
Cosmo Monkhouse
Miss Moss
Gold-
(President
W. E. Norris
Henry Norman
The Lord Bishop of Oxford:
John Warden Page
Stanley Lane Poole
Arthur Paterson
Miss E. C. Pollock
Sir F. Pollock, Bart., LL.D.
Lady Pollock , -.
D. H. Parry -
Pall Mall Gazette
The Queen
W. Fraser Rae
C. F. Rideal
## p. 40 (#54) ##############################################
4O
THE AUTHOR.
Miss Ross
R. Sisley
Percy Spalding
Douglas Sladen
T. Bailey Saunders
Mrs. Steel
Leslie Stephen
Mrs. Leslie Stephen
David Stott
H. G. Sweet
The Standard
S. S. Sprigge
M. H. Spielmann.
Howard Swan
Rev. Prof. W. W. Skeat,
LL.D.
Ballard Smith
Colonel Sutherland
J. Ashby Sterry
The Times
T. S. Townend
G. H. Thring
Mrs. G. H. Thring
Sir Henry Thompson
A. W. Tuer
W. Moy Thomas
Mrs. F. Moy Thomas
Mrs. Tweedie
E. Maunde Thompson (Chief
Librarian British Museum)
Miss Traver -
Miss Tabberner -
Miss E. Underdown
John Underhill
Mrs. J. Owen Visger
Rev. C. Voysey
Westminster Gazette
Hagberg Wright
Library)
A. P. Watt,
Theodore Watts
W. J. Walsham
Mrs. Woolastom White
Miss B. Whitby
W. H. Wilkins
S. F. Walker
Colonel Sir Charles W.
Wilson, K.C.M.G.
Arnold White
Dr. Wallace
P. F. Walker
I. Zangwill
(London
The Chairman first proposed the health of the
Queen.
The Chairman next proposed “The Society of
Authors.” He said: I have now to undertake a
more difficult task. It is not that I have any
doubt that you will receive with sympathy the
toast which I am about to propose, for I am
going to ask you to drink your own health. But,
however much you may approve the Society of
Authors, I think it highly probable that you will
doubt whether I am the proper person to propose
it. As a matter of fact, I not only doubt,
but am rather convinced that I am a highly
improper person to do so. I will, however, say
in self-defence that when I was first asked to
accept this honourable position, I declined it. I
was foolish enough (it is inconceivable that any-
one could have been so foolish at my time of life)
to give a reason, and of course my reason not
only broke down, but recoiled upon myself in the
way that reasons always will recoil. (Laughter.)
My reason is, that I had not the honour to be a
member of this Society, and it puts me in rather
an uncomfortable dilemma, because the question
naturally occurs, why am I not a member of the
Society P I feel a great difficulty in answering it.
I could not say, what would have been conclusive,
that I disapproved of the Society on high moral
grounds. (Laughter.) In the first place, it would
not have been polite, and in the second place, it
would not have come so near the truth as even
those deviations which I generally allow myself
will permit. I myself feel that my real reason is
one which I must decline to confide to you, and I
must be content to give you in imaginary reason
which will answer for the present occasion. I
will suggest as, at least, a possible reason, that
in the first place I do not like to dwell upon my
own mental defects and moral obliquities; I am
attached to them, but do not like to intrude
them upon others. I would suggest perhaps a
more plausible, but still, perhaps, not the true,
reason—namely, that I am known to most of you,
not so much as an author as an editor. Now,
you are aware that an editor is a kind of equivocal
being, and that he resembles the bat in AEsop's
fable, who was equally at war with the birds and
with the beasts. The birds, of course, find
their analogue in the author who soared into the
literary heavens; as for the beasts, perhaps I had
better not attempt to specify what would corre-
spond to them. (Laughter.) Now, as an editor, I
know what view the authors take of me. I
remember a long time ago receiving a frank con-
fession from a young gentleman (I hope he is
wiser now) who had written a tragedy in five
acts upon a subject which he had discovered in
course of his researches into history. I believe it
was Mary Queen of Scots (I may mention that I
am not referring to Lord Tennyson)–(laughter)
—and when I declined to publish this tragedy
in the next number of the magazine which I
was then editing, the author informed me that my
refusal was due to a base jealousy, which was not
surprising, as my own attempts to rival Shake-
speare had never got into print. He was kind
enough to add, that there was nothing to be
ashamed of in this, because, he said, my occupa-
tion was such as would have deadened any sense
of justice or fair play, even in an angel, and he
had no reason to believe that my qualities had
ever been angelic. Now you will understand,
that the class of persons who is regarded in this
way by the unthinking author is apt to see the
weaknesses of authors. I occasionally became
aware of their little vanities, of their self-illusions,
of their conviction that they are the objects of
the demoniacal malignity of a clique of critics.
I must add that I should have been a much
harder hearted person than I believe I am, if I
had not also learnt to see a great deal of the
hardships of a literary career, and to sympathise
with those who suffer. I had the honour to
succeed to the cushion occupied by Thackeray
before me, and I have found that some of the
thorns of which Thackeray spoke are still left in
it. I had to read letters from the decayed lady
who had a widowed mother or a small family
dependent upon her exertions, and who tried to
brush up her old recollections of French, and
expected to make a living by translating from
that recondite language. There was something
ridiculous, but a great deal more that was
pathetic in such letters. I have had to
## p. 41 (#55) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR. 41.
deal with many of those people who in the
last century would have been ridiculed and
taunted with their poverty as occupants of
Grub-street. When I had to cut down contribu-
tions from such gentlemen to about a third of
the length of that they had sent me, I used to
feel that I was taking a crust from a beggar and
scraping off the butter, and yet my action, how-
ever cruel it might appear, was necessary, and
was received on the whole with an amount of
common sense and consideration for which I
Ought to be grateful. I do not know whether
I ever snuffed out a heaven-born genius. If I
did, I am very sorry; but I snuffed him out so
effectually that he has never been able to make
any protest. People are apt to fall on the
critics who extinguished Keats and poo-poohed
Wordsworth. We are quite clear that we are
much wiser, and yet I know one or two men,
whom every one now honours, who have had to
go through a long probation of disregard and
contempt. I must confess that, with all respect
to the critics of to-day, I do not think they
are infallible, and I cannot help fancying it
possible that some fifty years hence someone
may point out how wrongly they have acted to
the rising geniuses whose names none of them
know at the present moment. I have only re-
ferred to this to show that I have seen some
of the seamy side of the author's profession,
and I claim to have sympathised with their
sufferings, and to be very anxious to see the pro-
fession raised by every possible means. There
are various opinions as to the best way in which
that could be done; some people are of the
opinion that authors ought to be paid for their
writings; some are of the opinion that every
promising aspirant should receive a good salary
from Government, and that it should be left to
their sense of honour to turn out whatever work
seemed to them best. I am of the opinion that,
considering how pleasant an occupation writing
is, and how valuable it is to read what we write,
perhaps the right plan would be for a future
Chancellor of the Exchequer to lay a heavy tax
on the luxury, and to make everybody who is
impertinent enough to suppose that what he said
would be of value to the public, pay for it. I
won’t, however, argue the question, because I am
afraid that I should not have either a sympa-
thetic or impartial audience. I have no doubt
that authors will be paid, and will want to be
paid more for some years to come, and I also feel
that there will always be more or less of that
difficulty which naturally occurs now in the rela-
tions between authors and publishers. The
author is a man of genius, sometimes; he is
always sensitive ; he is apt to place an excessive
WOL, W.
value upon the children of his own brain ; and if
his work fails he is rather inclined to throw the
blame upon any other cause than his own stupi-
dity. The author is apt to be one of those
persons to whom a balance-sheet is a source of
hopeless bewilderment; he is rarely a man of busi-
ness; while on the other hand the publisher is a
man of business, and has that peculiar talent in
which all men of business are so conspicuous, the
talent for proving that he is always losing by his
business, and yet of living as if his business were
distinctly profitable; and very often he has had
to console himself for the losses which he made
by speculating in unsuccessful literature by
accepting some of the profit made out of the
brains of men of genius. Undoubtedly such a
relation must be a very difficult one, and so far
as this Society endeavours to put it on a better
basis I most heartily and cordially sympathise
with the work which it is doing. Undoubtedly
it is desirable that when bargains are made, and
when the author is for the time in partnership
with the publisher, they should distinctly under-
stand the terms on which they come together,
and that they should take advantage of the
experience of their comrades in making terms in
such a form that it is not likely to lead to mis-
understandings, and that honourable men on
both sides may be brought together and put
in such a position that if any misunderstanding
arise it must be a mere accident, and not
involve any disagreeable suspicion on either
side. That is, I believe, a state of things which
you are endeavouring to bring about, and there-
fore, as I have said, I most cordially wish you
success. Mr. Stephen coupled the toast of “The
Society” with the name of Sir Frederick Pollock.
In responding, Sir Frederick Pollock said: My
Lord Bishop, ladies and gentlemen, the first
thing which I must express in the name of the
Society is the great pleasure which we all feel in
having Mr. Leslie Stephen as our chairman. If
there is to be found a worthy representative of
the higher art of literature I think Mr. Leslie
Stephen is that representative, but as Mr.
Stephen is a very old friend of mine, and I am
speaking not in my personal capacity, but in the
name of the Society, it would be unfair to take
the words out of the mouth of Mr. Gosse, who will
have something to say on the subject. At present
the question of Canadian copyright is the most
urgent matter under our notice, and within a few
weeks a joint committee will probably be formed,
representing this Society, the Copyright Associa-
tion, the Iondon Chamber of Commerce, and
possibly other bodies, and I hope that that com-
mittee will be able to do some useful work in
strengthening the hands of the home authorities.
F 2
## p. 42 (#56) ##############################################
42 THE AUTHOR.
Some people think that our Society encourages
nothing but light literature, and that we look to
nothing but a rapid sale of our volumes. I will
simply observe that I have here at my right hand
one of our most serious writers of literature, the
Bishop of Oxford. He has shown us how litera-
ture in the highest sense can be dealt with. The
Bishop is one of those whom I was proud to count
among my colleagues for a few years at Oxford.
He has done more than write a classical history;
he has shown us what history is and how history
ought to be treated. Mr. Conan Doyle has shown
us the legitimate use of history for the purposes
of (what is called) lighter literature. The
Society will doubtless join me in the hope that
he will lose no time in giving us another “White
Company.” I ask you, therefore, to couple the
toast of Literature with the name of the Bishop
of Oxford and that of Mr. Conan Doyle.
The Bishop of Oxford, in responding, said:
“Mr. Stephen, ladies and gentlemen, I will not
waste your time by telling you how very grateful
I am for the kind reception given to me. When
I was told last week that it would be my duty to
return thanks on behalf of the serious side of
literature, I began to think what I should say.
In the first place, I was not quite sure what
serious literature was, and in the second
place, I am not quite sure whether my
writings are such as to entitle me to reply
to the toast. I have written many hundred-
weights of books, and have been frequently asked
how I acquired my “style.’ I reply by saying I
do not know that I have any special style; but, if
I had, I acquired it by writing two sermons every
week. I only wish that I could have answered
better for the great society which I have been
called upon to represent.” -
Mr. Conan Doyle said: “While I had rather
that it had been in other hands than mine, I am
still glad that fiction should be represented on
this occasion. It is an honour, and fiction is
accustomed to be more popular than honoured.
Our Colleagues of poetry, of science, and of
history have made their way as high as the House
of Peers and the Privy Council. But fiction has
always been the Cinderella of the family. When
her fair sisters go to the prince's ball, she remains
behind with her wicked stepmother the critic.
But she has her compensation. She still has that
good old fairy godmother, and her name is Imagi-
nation. With her aid, it is still as easy as ever to
turn the pumpkin into the carriage and the white
mice into steeds. One might even do more.
With her help one might imagine that all is well
with fiction, that among the successful business
men from whom the peerage is recruited a place
had been found also for a Scott, a Dickens, or a
Thackeray; or, to come to more modern instances,
that the State had shown its recognition of work
done by such men as Charles Reade in the past,
or Walter Besant in the present. We are periodi-
cally informed by the papers, which are usually
owned and edited by knights and baronets, that
State recognition does not increase the prestige
of the literary man. It is true. It does not
increase the prestige of the author. But it
enormously increases the prestige of the State.
Still, come what may, we have our own kingdom
of fiction, and in it we can all be kings and
queens. But that kingdom has, in this country,
well defined boundaries. We know how these
frontiers run. To the north we are bounded by
the Glasgow baillie, to the south the young ladies'
seminary, and then to the east and west, of course
by the two great circulating libraries. Still, it would
be idle to deny that within these limitations there
is room for plenty of good work. And our frontiers.
are enlarging. Within the last ten years several
noble novels have come from the pens of men and
women which would have been, I think, impos-
sible a decade earlier. It is becoming year by
year more understood that it is not the indication
of vice, but its glorification, which is objection-
able, and that the most immoral thing which can
befall literature is that it should be entirely
divorced from life and truth. Fiction is at
present in a state of unrest and fermentation,
Some critics, I know, say that the old tree is
barren, but it seems to me that I see green shoots
on all her branches. I believe from my heart
that the present generation will uphold the
glorious inheritance which has come down to us,
and will pass it on to our posterity in a manner
which shall not be unworthy.
Mr. EDMUND GossE.—Sir Frederick Pollock,
my Lords, ladies, and gentlemen. —It is my
pleasant duty to ask you to fill your glasses, and
drink to the health of our chairman, Mr. Leslie
Stephen. It Ought not, I think, to be difficult to
speak appropriately of one who has himself
spoken so wisely and so genially of a host of
others. No one here to-night but must feel a
debt of gratitude for some gift or other of Mr.
Leslie Stephen's, But, as the Society of Authors,
we welcome him among us with unusual cheer-
fulness, because he is one of the prodigal fathers
of our society. He is one of the very few leading
men of his generation who have always looked
out of window when anybody spoke of the Society
of Authors. He has been not with us, and there-
fore against us. He is now with us, and will for
the future always be for us. We rejoice over Mr.
Leslie Stephen more than over ten celebrities who
have been perfectly kind to us from our foundation.
If we regard the literary career of our chair-
## p. 43 (#57) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
43
man of to-night, we are struck, I think, first
of all, by the width and catholicity of his sym-
pathies, and then by the curious fate which has
driven him from one corner of the intellectual
province to another. He has been an authority
on mountaineering and on ethics, and alternately
at home with the founders of deism and with the
makers of dictionaries. He began literary life, I
think, as one of those who, conscious of their
unconfessed offences, voluntarily make them-
selves excessively uncomfortable with penitential
hard labour in the Alps. Flung from peak to
peak, and picking himself up at last, more dead
than alive, at the foot of a glacier, he decided in
future to spend his hours in the shelter of a
library. And there he began a new thing;
there he took down book after book, and talked
to us about them, not as one of the pedantic
Sanhedrim, but easily, confidentially, penetra-
tively. He was dragged out of his library to
become editor of the Cornhill Magazine, and now
a wider work of influence began.
I think he must be a little moved to-night
to see around him here not a few of those
whom he marshalled and encouraged in the
pages of that serial, then unquestionably the
most purely literary magazine which has ever
been issued in this country. It was in the
capacity of a contributor to the Cornhill that
my own acquaintance with our chairman began,
just twenty years ago. It was quite a little
close corporation, and there were always wel-
come, before they were welcome elsewhere, many
who are widely known to-day — Mr. Thomas
Hardy, Mr. Norris, Mr Austin Dobson, Mr. Grant
Allen, our lamented friend John Addington
Symonds, you, Sir, yourself, and many whom I
do not at this moment recall. And to these, one
day in 1875, was added a new writer who signed
himself R. L. S. I have a letter from our chair-
man, written at that time, in which he says,
replying to a question of mine, “The initials are
not those of the Real Leslie Stephen, as a friend
of mine suggests, but of a young Scotchman
from Edinburgh, called Robert Louis Stevenson.”
Everyone of these, I think I may boldly say,
looks back to the patient encouragement, the
cordial and tireless sympathy of the best of
editors with genuine gratitude.
In those early days, as many of us remember,
and as he himself no doubt forgets, there was no
one who laughed more gaily at the trivialities of
biographical literature, or who less resembled Dr.
Dryasdust. It is whispered to me that a letter
exists in which Mr. Leslie Stephen repudiates with
contempt the man who cares to know who any
other man's grandmother was. Ah! the irony of
fate | Some twelve years ago, he was called upon
to undertake a colossal work, the very essence of
which depends upon knowing everything about
everybody’s grandmother, nay, more, upon being
familiar with all those mysterious consangui-
nities which we read on summer Sundays at the
back of the church-door. Well, he took up this
task, too, as he has taken up so many others, with
perfect good-nature, with exhaustive erudition,
with combined energy and patience, and we all
know what he made of it. But now he is
released at last, this weary Titan of National
Biography. He has shaken off the cousins' sisters
and the mother-in-law’s nieces' husbands of
genius. He can come back to literature, and that
is where we love to see him. We love to see him
here, at the table of the Society of Authors, and I
beg you all to join with me in testifying your
satisfaction. Mr. Leslie Stephen!
ar- - -s
REAL AUTHORS,
To the City Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.
SIR,-A paragraph-writer in this morning's
press on the dinner of the Society of Authors is
pleased to remark on the small proportion of
“real authors” present. Apparently he does
not mean to deny that (omitting all those who
could be said in any sense to be officially present)
such people as Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr. Morris,
Mr. George Moore, Mrs. W. K. Clifford, Miss
Helen Mathers, Mrs. (or Madame as the reporters
will have it, I cannot think why) Sarah Grand,
and so forth, are real authors, but only to be sur-
prised that they were in a minority; in fact, he
guesses that not more than one in three of the
company was a well-known author.
It may be well to point out that the Society of
Authors exists for the benefit, not of those
authors who have already made their reputation,
and may be presumed able to look after their
own interests, but of those who still have their
reputation to make. It does not profess to be
a club of literary celebrities. If a representa-
tive gathering of the society did consist mostly
of writers already well known, it might be a
more brilliant assembly from the reporter's point
of view, but the fact would only show that the
society was failing in its proper work, and had
ceased to be useful, or a centre of interest to
those for whose sake it was founded. The
society’s definition of a “real author’’ is a
person who has written and published at least
one book, or its equivalent. This is a much less
ambitious definition than the commentator's, but
I venture to think it more accurate.—Yours, &c.
June I. F. POLLOCK.
## p. 44 (#58) ##############################################
44
THE AUTHOR.
AN AMERICAN MAGAZINE.
HE President of the Century Company has
been reading a paper on the methods and
the production of the Century magazine.
The paper contains certain facts which may be
useful and instructive to ourselves, especially in
the light of the fact that one or two American
magazines, not for their cheapness, nor because
they can be charged with a low standard of style
and subject, can fairly boast that the circulation
of each as a monthly actually represents by itself
at least three times the circulation of all the
English monthly magazines combined, excepting
two or three; and that the circulation in this
country alone, of one or two, is equal to the circu-
lation of any three English magazines combined,
still excepting these two or three. It is worth
while, perhaps, to read this paper, and to attempt
some explanation of what is certainly astonishing,
and, except on the theory that the English maga-
zines are written for the highest culture only—a
theory which it would be difficult to maintain—
extremely humiliating.
The Century magazine contains 160 pages,
making about thirty articles—long and short.
There are, then, from 350 to 4oo articles every
year. Out of this number about 175 are either
poetry or fiction. The rest are historical, bio-
graphical, of travel, of social matters, and miscel-
laneous. It is found that fiction, even when a
novel is produced by one of the foremost English
or American writers of the day, does not seem to
advance the circulation of the paper. Yet it
keeps up the circulation which begins to drop
when the fiction is weak or unattractive. This
statement probably amounts to saying that
general excellence in every branch must be main-
tained or the circulation suffers. On the other
hand, the most popular subject ever started by
the Century was that of the Civil War, on which
a series of papers appeared. This series caused
the circulation to go up by leaps and bounds.
It is found, next, that no American magazine
has ever attained a popular success unless it
was illustrated. In recognition of this fact, the
Century has always paid the greatest attention
to its illustrations, which are now the finest that
can be procured. That is to say, the artistic branch
demands now a very large part of the expenditure.
So great is the outlay on illustrations, as well as
contributions, that every number costs, before it
goes to press, about £2OOO. Even if this includes
the salaries of editors, managers, and clerks, the
rent of offices and the service of distribution, it is
evident that a very large capital is embarked in
'an American magazine, and that the risk of a
fall in the circulation means a possible loss of
this large capital. This danger alone proves the
necessity for the most unceasing watchfulness,
the most intelligent apprehension of the subjects
that the public like to read about, and the
greatest care in finding the writers most capable
of presenting those subjects. That artists and
authors when engaged should be paid in pro-
portion to the services they render, i.e., greatly in
excess of what they have been accustomed to
receive from journals of less circulation, is a
natural result of increased interests and a larger
property to defend and to advance.
What is the circulation of American maga-
zines P Of one it is said that it circulates 200,000
in America and 30,000 in this country. Another
is reported greatly to surpass this number in
America, though its circulation is small in Great
Britain; of two or three more it is said that they
circulate over IOO,OOO in the States, besides having
a small circulation in this country. Now, in
America, our magazines are hardly ever seen; there
are none on the bookstalls, either at the stations or
in the hotels. Why does the American magazine
come here P Why does not the English maga-
zine go over there P. How comes it that while in
a population of 60,000,000 some of their journals
arrive at a circulation of 200,000, we find, in our
own population of 37,000,000, without counting the
I 5,OOO,OOO of Britons abroad and in the Colonies,
our magazines crawling along with a circulation of
2OOO to 20,000 P. We speak here of old-estab-
lished magazines which, like those of America,
are “serious,” that is, do not aim at popularity
alone. There are monthly magazines here which
appeal to popular tastes, and, without being
necessarily unwholesome or sensational, do attain
to a popularity which rivals that of the Americans;
but those we do not here consider. Why is it, in
short, that the old established and highly respect-
able paper the Cheapside is sending out every
month its ten thousand instead of its quarter of a
million ?
Among some of the causes are, perhaps, these :
In the States, the editor—always a man of proved
ability—is engaged to give his whole time, all his
thoughts, all his ability, to the conduct of his
paper. He has assistants, all of whom are
engaged also to give to the paper their whole
time and all their thoughts. In this country the
editor too often does a great many other things;
he has engagements which distract his attention;
he does work of his own which absorbs him. The
first essential for the successful conduct of a
magazine seems to be that one man, at least,
should think for it—think all day for it.
Again, it has hitherto been considered enough
for an editor to sit at his table and receive the
contributions poured in upon him by every post,
## p. 45 (#59) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
45
to read them, reject most of them, and select a
few. It is only quite recently that he has even
begun the American method—to plan beforehand,
to arrange what he will have for the next year,
and for the year after, what fiction he will invite,
what poetry he will invite, what special subjects
he will treat, and, to be in touch with points of
the day, what men will be best to treat them for
him. One lesson for us would seem to be that
the casual contributor by himself cannot be trusted
to create a popular demand.
Few of our magazines are illustrated. Is the
absence of illustrations a cause of failure ? Some
years ago a new illustrated monthly was started,
in which the artistic element was treated most
carefully. One knows not, with any certainty,
how far this magazine failed or succeeded. But
it has changed hands twice. Therefore good
illustrations alone do not seem to bring success.
Perhaps the English are not so keen after
pictures as the Americans. Some English
readers, certainly, do not like the photogravure
processes with the broad black line all round
which decorate the American page.
As regards fiction, our magazines are apt to
fall into one of two extremes; either, that is,
they neglect and “starve” fiction, publishing
poor weak stuff; or they sacrifice everything to
fiction, running two or three serials and depending
entirely on them for success. Fiction in a high
class magazine must be of the best; but it must
never be considered the only thing.
Another lesson we may learn from the
Americans. We have hardly yet got beyond the
prejudice that the only serial in a magazine must
be the novel. This is a very foolish prejudice,
mischievous alike to the publisher of the magazine
and to the author. For there are many books
written every year—books of historical research,
biographies, collections of verse, essays, travels,
popular science, which, if first run through a
magazine as serials, would attract thousands of
readers, and give the book when published a far
greater chance of success. At present the author
has to be content, say, with a single edition of a
thousand, or even 500 copies. If he expects any
money he is disappointed. Perhaps he only expects
general reputation or distinction. How much of
either can he get from this mere mite of a circula-
tion? One or two attempts in this direction have
already been made—but tentatively. It is as if
editors do not as yet recognise the fact that an
extremely attractive serial may be made of a sub-
ject not belonging to fiction at all. For instance,
many volumes of poetry are run through various
magazines first. I would run them through one
magazine only. “Mr. Austin Dobson’s new
volume of verse will be commenced in the January
number of the New Year; it will run through
twelve months, and will be published in volume
form in November.” Would not such an an-
nouncement be attractive P Or this: “Professor
Dowden's new work on Shakespeare is nearly
completed. It consists of twelve chapters, and
is to run through twelve numbers of the Cheapside
magazine; it will then be published in the
autumn books of Messrs. Bungay.” Does any
one pretend that the comparatively wide cir-
culation of the magazine would not assist the
author in disseminating his teaching and the
publisher in afterwards distributing the book?
The next point is the investment of large sums
of money in the enterprise. This, no doubt, is
risk; such risk as few publishers care to face.
Yet, if one appeals to the great public there are
but two ways: to hope for gradual recognition of
work always good; or by a bid for popularity—
immediate and wide-spread — by treatment of
topics always fresh and interesting, and by wide
advertisement. Both methods, however, mean
the investment of money. g
One more reason, perhaps, why our higher class
magazines are not popular. Nearly all of them aim,
more or less, at expounding and perhaps solving
the many questions and problems of the day.
Not, that is, the treatment of fresh topics, but
the difficulties of the day. The articles are, as a
rule, very well written; the American magazines
do not seem to me, on the whole, nearly so well
written as our own ; but if we take up the new
numbers of any magazine of the better kind,
what we find in it is too often the continuation
or even the repetition of the daily and weekly
leading article. If the editors would only con-
sider that the same subject which we gladly
read when treated in the Times of to-day and
in the Spectator of next Saturday, will become
wearisome when treated, without much new light
or much new wisdom, in the monthly magazine of
the week after next, they would perhaps refuse
certain papers. There are, of course, brilliant
exceptions, as when the One man who knows
can be got to speak, or when one who is allowed
to be a leader speaks. For the most part the
writers are not known by the world to be of
greater eminence on this question or on that
than the anonymous writer in the Times or the
Spectator.
Another reason, perhaps equally weighty, is
the undue prominence given by English maga-
zines to literary papers and especially those of the
mournful or the savage kind. It is a great
mistake to suppose that people, even of culture,
are always wanting to tear the literature of the
day up by the roots, to see how it is getting on;
and it is quite certain that the kind of criticism
## p. 46 (#60) ##############################################
46
THE AUTHOR.
which only sneers and depreciates, and can only
find in the popularity of a writer a reason for
pretended contempt, is offensive to all readers,
whether of culture or not. Of the “Decay of
Fiction,” the “Decay of Poetry,” the “Decay of
the Drama,” people have already heard too much.
Americans do not strike this note, nor will they
endure it; theirs must be the note of hope, eager
looking forward and confidence. There is no
reason why in every field of intellect, art, science,
imagination, this note of confidence should not be
struck by ourselves. I, for one, believe that it is
the true note—that the present is a time of great
endeavour and of deserved success. It is true
that there are failures by the million, because
there are attempts by the million. Instinctively
the people — better class and all — turn with
disgust from the pessimist and the mournful
downcrier of what he dares not even try to
imitate. Let us leave the million failures to die
in nameless peace. Let us rejoice in the successes,
and lift up our heads with something of the
American hope and confidence. We are a young
country still, with our future still before us.
These are some of the reasons why the English
magazine is distanced and beaten by the American:
rival. The problem before us is this: “How are
we to maintain a high level of style and subject,
and yet make a serious bid for the popularity
which this rival obtains P” W. B.
*- - -º
- - -
NOTES AND NEWS,
Tº Literary Congress of San Francisco
seems to have been a comparative failure.
The original plans, a correspondent writes,
were changed, and it was hurried upon the boards
long before the time originally planned. Conse-
quently few were there, and “it became merely a
provincial gathering of people of unequal ability,
and not in the least representative of California.
It was disappointing to those who had been most
active in planning it.”
*-
It is pleasant, for one who took part in it, to
read that the Literary Congress of Chicago is
bearing fruit in the best possible way. The
following is an extract from the Critic of New
York, the only paper to which we can look for a
week-by-week record of American literature:
It was evidently not in vain that Chicago lavished her
millions in time and money upon the Fair. The intellectual
returns are beginning to come in, and they indicate a
remarkable enlargement of vision, an increased appreciation
of science and art, and of what they can offer. It was
inevitable that such would be the result; the mere labour of
design and construction was bound to develop the ingenuity
and the resources of the people. But the most sanguine of
us looked forward many years before the evidence of this
inspiration should appear. We did not expect the fruit to
ripen overnight ; we forgot the rapidity with which the
American people take up an idea and develope it and make
it their own. Of course, it is too soon for the effect to be
visible in deeds, but there are many things that indicate the
general tendency. And not the least of these is the state-
ment of Mr. Hill, the librarian of the Public Library, in
regard to the changes in the demand for books. He says
that the standard of quality in the books called for at the
library is decidedly higher than it was a year ago.
Art has felt the same stimulus from the Fair. The inte-
rest in pictures and sculpture is evidenced by the crowds
that enter the Art Institute, and even more positively by the
statements of the dealers. Mr. O’Brien, who has been giving
a series of delightful exhibitions of works by American
painters, says that a year ago such pictures would have been
utterly neglected here. But at present the galleries in which
they are hung are crowded. Many collectors, too, have been
developed by the Fair—men and women who, before it,
never thought of buying a picture. These facts are, of
course, merely straws, but they show the direction of the
wind. The fruit of the fair in production will be slower in
ripening, but the buildings, the statues, the pictures, and
poems it will inspire will be worth the waiting for.
“At the dinner of the Authors’ Club last week, which
brought together a large company, who seemed to be toler-
ably happy in spite of the continued existence of publishers,
Mr. Leslie Stephen foretold ‘the coming of that glorious
time ’ when writers will be better paid than they are now.
The prophecy excited, on the whole, more doubt than
belief. We hear, however, that a new literary agency is in
process of formation, with a large capital behind it, which
will employ its own readers, and pay authors a sum down as
soon as it has approved their works. One of its chief
objects will be to force up the average price of serial
rights.”
The above is a cutting from the Athenæum of
June 9. One wonders who are the people who
amuse themselves by concocting such paragraphs.
The Authors’ Club has held no dinner at all except
its monthly house dinner. Mr. Leslie Stephen has
never yet favoured the club with his presence at
that or any other function. The Authors’
Society held its annual dinner, and the president
of the evening was Mr. Leslie Stephen. His speech,
reported verbatim, will be found on p. 39 of this
number. The words attributed to him were not
spoken by him; he did not “foretell the coming
of that glorious time ’’—the inverted commas
mean a quotation, which makes it a deliberate
invention—when writers will be better paid than
now. He said nothing of the kind; he did not
use the words “glorious time ’’ at all; what he said
was that, in the aim of the Society towards the
adjustment of their own affairs, he wished it every
success. “The prophecy excited, on the whole,
more doubt than belief.” Wonderful | First,
to invent a prophecy, never uttered, and them to
describe the way in which that prophecy was
received Even a prophet of Baal had to say
## p. 47 (#61) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
47
something before his audience began to consider
his prophecy.
As regards the alleged “new literary agency,”
that bears on the face of it every sign of being
another invention—perhaps an invention intended
to be comic. Certainly no one in his senses could
deliberately set himself to persuade people that a
company had been formed whose “chief object”
was to force up the “average" price of serial
rights. What, to begin with, is the “average *
price? Is it the average of all the magazines
and journals that exist without reference to
subject, circulation, name, character of the paper?
As for “forcing,” one has always considered, in
matter of papers for magazines, that the editor
is a despot from whose word there is no appeal.
He can say, and he does say, that his remuneration
is a certain stipulated sum. It is for the author
to “take it or leave it.” Nor can any “forcing ”
alter this condition of things. Certain magazines
and journals acquire a good name for their
treatment of contributors in this respect; such a
good name, no doubt, is a very useful thing for a
journal to possess; one ventures to believe and to
hope that it helps the circulation. Certain other
magazines acquire precisely the opposite reputa-
tion, insomuch that the literary world regards
with complacency the decline and fall of those
magazines. The only influences that can be
brought to bear upon this monarch of all he
surveys—the editor—are those of competition
first—it needs no company “with a large capital
behind it,” to create competition among editors;
and, next, a sense of what is due to the producer,
in other words, a sense of justice. Since the most
friendly relations seem to prevail between the
editors of our high-class magazines and their con-
tributors, it seems as if this sense of justice does
exist.
The following is from the New York Critic.
The same circular has been sent to myself,
doubtless among many others:
Authors have strange requests sometimes. Here is one
recently received by a well-known novelist from the editor
of a periodical which up to this time has devoted itself to
illustration rather than to text :—“Although it is not the
custom of our paper to publish stories, yet if you have
an unpublished novel of medium length which you could
remodel only to the extent of having a portion of the scenes
laid in studios and art galleries, I should be pleased to have
you submit the same, and am willing to pay well for it. We
always pay for MSS. as soon as accepted.” There is some-
thing attractive in this last statement, for authors as a rule
are needy. The one in question is not, however, so he failed
to be caught on this well-baited hook. The editor of this
paper evidently thinks that authors have no feelings, or
why would he expect them to recast their stories to suit his
audience P
A very useful compilation is the Index to the
Periodicals of the World, published by the
Review of Reviews Office. The list of periodi-
cals fills thirty-seven pages devoted to English
and American periodicals alone, and fifty pages
for the periodicals of all countries. Reckoning
roughly, an average of thirty-four to a page, we
have 1700 periodicals of the whole world indexed
in this volume, and I 258 English and American
periodicals. Those that specially concern our-
selves—the literary journals—are about Io2 in
number, but there are many others — some
educational, musical, artistic, historical, legal,
economical, medical, and scientific, which concern
many of our members. The papers and articles
on literature in one or other of its branches are
innumerable. It is the one subject of which
editors seem never tired. The American perio-
dical abounds with personal descriptions of
literary men, especially with accounts of their
methods of working, about which one wonders
why there exists any curiosity at all; for certainly,
if one knew the methods of every writer under
the sun, without natural aptitude one would be
not a whit advanced. The discussion of the
novel is more favoured by English magazines.
The reason, one fears, is not that the public
demands this vast mass of criticism or talk about
literature, but that it can be produced in any
quantity, either from the man with a name or the
man without a name. These indexes have
become indispensable. .
I have always advocated for those writers who
are not men—or women—of business the employ-
ment of an agent. The only argument which
appears to me of any weight at all against the
middleman is that where an author is able to
manage his own affairs he may just as well do so,
and save the commission. Even in that case it
may be worth the author's while, if he is a busy
man, to let his agent think for him and plan for
him. As for those who do not possess the
necessary knowledge or habits of business, the
only danger, it seems to me, that they have to
fear is that of falling into bad hands, and the
only real objection that can be raised, by the
other side to the agent, is that he is expected to
conduct negotiations in a business manner; in
other words, he prevents his client from being
“bested ”—a word which very often covers, but
does not hide, another and an older word.
Now, if the agent works for the author, he
must be paid by the author. This seems ele-
mentary. But I have heard certain stories which
ought, I think, to be brought out into light.
There is, for instance, the story of the author who
## p. 48 (#62) ##############################################
48 THE AUTHOR.
comes to the agent, finds out the name of the editor
or the publisher to whom he proposes to send the
work, and then uses the information and goes
there himself. There is, again, the author who,
when he has been successfully placed, gets the
cheque sent to himself, and then refuses to pay
the commission. There is, again, the case where
the publisher writes direct to the author after
receiving an offer from the agent. It is of course
the author's duty, as a matter of honour, to send
that letter to the agent in whose hands he has
already placed the MS., and whose work for him
has obtained this offer. Unfortunately he does
not always do so. Now, most of these practices
come from failing to understand that transactions
in literature are like those in every other kind of
business, so that the same rules should obtain
between author and agent as between client and
solicitor. Of one thing writers may rest assured,
that any attempt made to detach the author from
his agent can only be due to an intention to
profit by the author's ignorance. As for the
pretended desire to maintain friendly relations,
a friendship which will not survive the adjust-
ment of honourable terms between two men is
worth nothing — nothing at all. Any person
who ventures to put forth this ridiculous plea
stands self-condemned.
On more than one occasion an agent's commis-
sion of so much per cent. has been represented to
an author as the deduction of a royalty of so much
per cent. " This amazingly impudent assertion has
been actually accepted and credited Let us there-
fore see exactly what it means. We will suppose
a royalty of 20 per cent., which is a little over
Is. 2d. On a 6s. book. The returns show a sale,
say, of 3OOO copies, which at this royalty means
for the author the sum of £180. On this the
agent takes, say, Io per cent., i.e., 318. Now, if
the commission had been the deduction of a IO per
cent. royalty, the agent would have received £90.
A commission is a percentage on the whole
amount received from royalties or from purchase;
a royalty is a percentage on the advertised pub-
lished price of each copy. This explanation may
seem elementary, but there are really no “sums”
in literary business which are too elementary to
be explained.
“But,” said a publisher plaintively, “why incur
this extra expense P Why not come to me,
as my friends, Lord Addlehede and Professor
Insipiens always have done, direct, and so save
the intervention of the other party P” Let us,
in reply, without calling names, or getting angry,
recognise the plain fact that when a man of
business transacts affairs with a man who does
not understand business, the former always gets
the better of the latter, which is the reason
why Lord Addlehede and the Professor above
named would do well to consider their ways, and
approach their publisher with the help of a man
of business.
The book of the month is, of course, our
President’s new novel, “Lord Ormont and His
Aminta.” A great many have followed it in its
course through the Pall Mall Magazine.
Meredithians—how large a company have they
become !—will rejoice in it, while the old charge
of obscurity certainly cannot be brought against
any of the characters in this the latest, and, in
some respects, perhaps the best of this author's
remarkable series of novels.
William Watson's sonnet to France (June 25,
1894), which appeared in the Westminster
Gazette, seems to me very fine. To France—
“immortal and indomitable France.”
Nation whom storm on storm of ruining fate
Unruined leaves—nay, fairer, more elate,
Hungrier for action, more athirst for glory !
It is the gift and the privilege of the poet to
speak the voice of one nation to another in days
of great sorrow or great disaster, as well as in
days of great joy and great victory. William
Watson speaks to France for England:
Little thou lov’st our island—
Yet let her in these dark and bodeful days,
Sinking old hatreds 'neath the sundering brine—
Immortal and indomitable France —
Marry her tears, her alien tears, to thine.
The premature death of Mr. John Underhill
from some affection of the brain—a tumour
apparently—took place on Wednesday, June 27,
at his residence, Wimbledon. Mr. Underhill was
only twenty-nine years of age. He was born at
Barnstaple, where he was privately educated by
the Rev. Dr. Cunningham Geikie, at that time
vicar of Barnstaple. He developed an intense
love for books and for everything that belongs
to literature. It became obvious that no career
except that of literature was possible for him.
He therefore came to London proposing such
a career. He was armed with one or two
letters of introduction. One of these was to
Mr. W. T. Stead, who was at that time assistant
editor, or actual editor, of the Pall Mall
Gazette. Mr. Stead assisted the lad, as he has
assisted many others, by giving him a start. He
placed him in his office and taught him
journalism. He remained on the staff of the
Pall Mall Gazette till a few weeks ago, when
## p. 49 (#63) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
49
he resigned his post, intending to devote
himself entirely to literature. As an original
writer he would not have succeeded; he knew
his own limitations, and aspired only to the
humbler but not less useful work of editing,
annotating, writing biographies, and compilations.
That is, he would never have become a bookmaker;
but he would have been, and was already, a
most useful and trustworthy editor. His private
character was beyond all reproach ; he was
always, as a journalist, on the side of honour and
of truth; as a reviewer he was wholly unin-
fluenced by personal feelings, he was incapable
of rancour or of spite. That he had his own
way to make in the world only increases the
honour of having made his way so far with so
much distinction. That he made friends every-
where is a proof of his generous and sympathetic
mature. He was especially engaged at the time
of his death on a history of journalism. He
leaves behind him a young widow and one
child.
WALTER BESANT.
*- a .sº
GEORGE ELIOT AND HER CREED,
NE little story of George Eliot's childhood
has lingered ſong in my memory, for in a
measure it typified the creed shaping each
novel and story, long after it ceased to be her
personal one, remaining the much more widely
diffused faith she chose to give to the world in
her books. When a child at school, an essay was
given her to write, and the subject set was God,
little Marian Evans drew upon her paper, for sole
essay, a large eye.
And does not each novel and poem inclose
the awful eye of unsleeping, unforgetting fate P
For no single character is ever allowed “to fly
responsibility.”
Her mind hardly seems to have been wrought
into creative sympathy with the thought of the
nineteenth century; although her youth witnessed
an era of great political reform, and her middle and
later life was surrounded by the most advanced
literary and philosophic thoughts of this century.
Notwithstanding all these stirring influences at
work around her, to a large extent her imaginative
and constructive force remained alien to the
“march of events,” political and social, which
swept past her, and left her, the dispassionate his-
torian of the provincial scenes of her early youth,
and of fifty years earlier. Her creed at times
discloses a tendency to an almost barren fatalism,
her characters invariably creating an adverse
destiny for themselves, woven out of their
early follies and failures. Like the cruel god-
mother of a fairy tale, George Eliot possesses
the fearful and mysterious gift of dowering
her dramatis personae with some one fatal, irradi-
cable weakness, which the reader foresees from
the beginning of their history pre-destines them
to certain failure and disaster; the retributive
justice of inexorable consequences frustrating
their every effort to right themselves or retrace
their hapless steps through the labyrinths of
early sins and errors, a creeping Nemesis being
evolved at each step, to hunt them down till they
sink into the slow torture of their moral and
social death. Maggie Tulliver, the slave of
generous impulse, is doomed to high failure, with
her gift of feeling and thinking nobly, yet of
acting impulsively in crucial moments; from the
early days of childhood, when on a visit to a
severe aunt she upsets brother Tom's tea by the
bestowal of a too impulsive caress, given at an
inauspicious moment, down to the time when, a
beautiful young woman, she runs away with
Stephen, gliding, indeed, but a small way down
the stream of temptation, but awaking to a sense
of duty too late to save appearances or irreme-
diable grief to those she best loved. So that
when the choice of utter renunciation of personal
happiness is made, her initial error has robbed
self-sacrifice of the first bloom of dignified
heroism, and her life has turned to the dull ache
of failure and inadequate retrieval; but this is
finely transmuted into the heroism of her death.
Running up and down the gamut of George
Eliot's creations, each one is the sport of some
apparently wilfully self-created destiny; a Jugger-
naut car of untoward consequences set loose upon
the victim of circumstances; heredity and free
will engaged in ceaseless warfare for the possession
of the human soul.
Lydgate, the lowable doctor in “Middlemarch,”
full of enthusiasm for his profession and a great
tenderness for the suffering—has not the author
chosen that fate should use him too grievously
ill, when she gave him a lovely, heartless,
shallow wife, whom he had chosen to wed, partly
from the fact that, with all his brilliant gifts
and winning traits, there is in his character just
a tinge of intellectual egoism which made him
count brains superfluous in the woman he
married; that lack of finer judgment making
him lose his hold on the ennobling ideals of life.
Yet these little flaws in Lydgate's character
doom him to be another soul's tragedy of
baulked achievement, and he tells his wife in
late years, with sad irony, that she is like a
certain plant which is known to flourish best on
dead men's brains. Perhaps a less inexorable
moralist than George Eliot would have con-
ferred happiness upon him, later in his life, by
## p. 50 (#64) ##############################################
so
THE AUTHOR.
the bestowal of Dorothea's love, but so stern a
moralist is seldom happy in the contemplation of
too much unaccounted for happiness, unrelated
to moral sequence—unweighed in the judicial
moral scales.
At times, one half suspects, the force of these
ethical strictures arose from a lack of ideality,
for an idealist abhors the fixity of moral judg-
ments. George Sand, her French prototype, who
suffered from an excess of luminous ideality,
seldom or never passed moral judgment on her
creations, for with her was the large tolerance of
the humanist, and the love which says, com-
prendre, c'est pardoner.
In the “Spanish Gipsy” is worked out the
modern conception of the forces of heredity,
playing through the woof and warp of indivi-
dual character, which she thus defines: “I saw it
might be taken (the drama of the ‘Spanish
Gypsy”) as a symbol of the part which is played
in the general human lot by hereditary conditions
in the largest sense, and of the fact that what
we call duty is entirely made up of such condi-
tions, for even in cases of just antagonism to the
narrow view of hereditary claims the whole back-
ground of the particular struggle is made up of
our inherited nature. Suppose for a moment
that our conduct at great epochs was determined
entirely by reflection, without the immediate
intervention of feeling which supersedes reflec-
tion, our determination as to the right would
consist in an adjustment of our individual needs
to the dire necessities of our lot, partly as to
natural constitution, partly as sharers of life
with fellow beings. Tragedy consists in the
terrible difficulty of this adjustment, ‘the dire
strife of poor humanity’s afflicted will struggling
in vain with ruthless destiny.’”
“The collision of Greek tragedy is often that
between hereditary entailed Nemesis and the
peculiar individual lot, awakening our sympathy
for the particular manor woman whom the Nemesis
is shown to grasp with terrific force. . . .”
IHence sprang the abiding sadness of George
Eliot's creed, the insistent sombre criticism of
life and human effort. Her private letters to her
personal friends are melancholy reading, so often
do her words limp between headache and peren-
nial pessimism. Her literary career, however,
was a smooth one, she served no long probation
to the muse, her genius burst full blown upon a
world which received it with unqualified praise,
and she won success without ever experiencing that
“grace of discouragement” by which Browning
climbed to the bracing heights of his rare
optimism.
Did the gloom of her moral dynamics crush
out of her the capacity for being happy?. She
did not labour under the bane of being in too
great advance of her time, nor of heralding
unpopular truths; for her genius lay rather in
presenting the old truths with matchless wit and
pathos, than in lending that great genius to light
the birth of the new. GRACE GILCHRIST.
*~ * ~ *
BOOK TALK,
R. EDMUNID GOSSE has admitted into
M the International Library, of which he
is the editor, two novels by authors
who have been previously represented in the
series. The novels are “Farewell Love,” from
the Italian of Matilde Serao, the author of
“Fantasy,” and “The Grandee,” from the
Spanish of Armando Palacio Valdés, the author
of “Froth.” Whether it was the great success
which attended the publication of “Fantasy.”
in English, or whether the Editor considers
“Farewell Love" to be the superior novel, does
not appear from his introduction. Though perhaps
the fact that it is a most enjoyable book would be
reason enough for publication. Mr. Gosse lays
great stress on the fact that the author is a jour-
malist, and “all her life has been spent in minis-
tering to appetites of the vast rough crowd that
buys cheap Italian newspapers.” The story is
true to its title; it tells of love and jealousy, of
a baulked elopement, an unfortunate marriage,
and self-destruction. One passionate scene
follows another so quickly that the reader is
surprised by the skill with which the real
wickedness of the characters is concealed. There
is a husband—one Cesare Dias—who is extremely
like “Grandcourt,” cold, cynical, and “not
a wordy thinker.” Except that he is Italian,
he has a thoroughly English hatred for scenes,
and finds his romantic young wife Anna Dias
— née Aquaviva — a bore, and tells her so.
In fact, previous to their engagement we are
told she had taken the humiliating step of
declaring her love; and here are three charac-
teristic letters showing what happened : “Dear
Anna, All that you say is very well; but I don’t
know yet who the man is that you love.—Very
cordially, Cesare Dias.” She read it, and
answered with one line : “I love you.-Anna
Aquaviva.” Cesare Dias waited a day before he
replied: “I)ear Anna, Very well. And what
then P-Cesare Dias.”—The translation is by
Mrs. Harland, and reads very smoothly, though
there is one odd phrase on p. 63: “‘Would you
like a rose?” She asked to placate him.”
Quite recently Mr. Grant Allen, in the West-
minster Gazette, told us Londoners to go to Italy
## p. 51 (#65) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR. 5 I
and revel in beauty denied us here. One would
think that in default we could not do better than
read the novels of Matilde Serao.
“The Grandee” is a powerful story, turning on
the horrible subject of cruelty to children, or in
this case rather to one particular child. The
author describes the state of society in a Spanish
town called Lancia, thirty or forty years ago,
which is identified for us by the editor as Oviedo,
a place of about Io,000 inhabitants, the capital of
Asturias. It is with the private life of a few of the
leading families in this town that the reader has
to make himself acquainted, and, though he must
not expect anything much more than the visits
of friends, the description of At-homes and
marriage fêtes, there is, in spite of some Sameness,
hardly a dull page in the book. It is most inte-
resting to note how, in spite of the narrowness
of life which is generally found in provincial
towns, the Spaniards here described never seem
to be at a loss for an enlivening incident. The
stock-in-trade of their amusement is, it is true,
the eternal subject of match-making, which is
described as being carried on with great vigour
by the elders, in spite of their constant mistakes.
We are uncertain whether the author intends to
reprove this custom or not, for indirectly he cer-
tainly brings out that it shielded the hero in his
adultery, enabling him to appear in public as the
accepted suitor of one lady while he is the lover
of another. This is the more amusing side of the
book; but, as we have said, there is another aspect
which is not only extremely serious, but is of
such a nature that we cannot help wondering
what moral conclusion different readers will draw
from it. That well-to-do people have been known
to treat young children with cruelty cannot be
denied, and Mr. Gosse writes: “Nor do the
reports of Mr. Benjamin Waugh permit us to
question that such horrors are daily committed
at our own doors.” This brings the matter so
directly into the sphere of practice that we may
look to the pages of this novel for light on the
question of child protection, actually under dis-
cussion by those who are not simply interested
out of curiosity, but deeply moved by the subject.
We may suppose that, in spite of its danger to
liberty, some people would ask for increased
powers of obtaining evidence, when they were
reasonably certain cruelty was being practised.
The lesson we draw from this work is of a diffe-
rent nature. We must remember that to abuse
the parent is part of the bias of some professional
men, notably the pedagogue and the cleric, and
therefore in any case of alleged cruelty it is well to
try and discover what the actual parentage of the
child is, otherwise there is a danger of legislation
being based on false information. The point
that comes out most clearly in “The Grandee”
is that where the victim is illegitimate as much
would be gained by altering the position of such
children, and so stopping the temptation to cruel
treatment, as can possibly be gained by legisla-
tion, which would also interfere with the well-
established duties of lawfully married parents
towards their children. Mr. Gosse also raises
another nice point, “Whether these maladies of
the soul are or are not fit subjects for the art of
the novelist is a question which every reader
must answer for himself.” To which it may be
suggested, by way of reply, that as long as there
are customs which shield gross immorality, the
art of the novelist is well employed in laying
bare the evil, lest these matters should fall into
the hands not of the novelist, but of the sensation-
monger, and become the cause of hurried and
ill-considered legislation. The translation of
“The Grandee’’ is by Miss Rachel Challis, and
it seems to read quite as easily as many English
novels; but we should like to know what authority
the translator has for making the word “lover”
feminine.
Mr. Gilbert Parker's latest story, “The Trans-
lation of a Savage,” is one which must come as a
happy surprise to the most persistent novel
reader. Whether the main idea is really possible
we do not care to ask, because the author has
used it so well that any carping criticism tending
to spoil the illusion, when we have been given so
much pleasure, would be entirely out of place.
We are to take it for granted that an American
Indian, the daughter of the chief of her tribe,
being sent on her marriage with an English
General’s son to his family in England, could be
translated, as Mr. Parker calls it, into a refined
member of English society. Once grant this
difficulty, and then the amusement which arises
out of the process of “translation” meets us at
every page. We are not bored with details as to
how the transformation is brought about, but the
force of example and surroundings do much, and
personal devotion does the rest. Only once does
the young lady, as we may call her, really forget
to be English, and then she takes to riding madly
across her father-in-law's property in the dress
and style of her tribe. A child is born to her in
England, but her husband remains in Canada,
and she has learnt to hate him. The reason of
all this it is not our business to tell. The matter-
of-fact reader who could find fault with Mr.
Parker for his choice of incident would be very
foolish indeed, for we have here a story in which
the author has been able to depict malice and
revenge, as well as true love and friendship, in a
compass long enough to make one good volume,
but with such a charming narrative style that
## p. 52 (#66) ##############################################
52
THE AUTHOR.
nearly every reader will make a point of finishing
it at a single sitting. +
Mr. Austin’s new volume, “The Garden that I
Love,” has much in it to awaken the envy of his
fellow poets. He obtained the lease of an old
manor house, and the reader will learn how he
converted it to suit the author-gardener's taste
and his sister Weronica's sense of comfort and
house room. It will be seen that, though the
|book is properly enough named, it is more the
garden-lover's leisure and his talks with his two
guests rather than the garden apart that we have
to hear about. Of the guests one is a poet, who
is not only so in name but recites his own poetry,
the other a young lady called Lamia. The garden
becomes the happily suggestive subject for con-
versation which takes a wide range from the
almost frivolous to the lofty and serious. Of the
two women “Veronica ’’ and “Lamia,” we prefer
the latter, though poetic justice is done by
making Veronica, the housekeeping lady, who
has a sweet sense of tidiness, marry the poet.
Her redeeming quality is a love for old-fashioned
goods, especially if she can purchase them cheap.
As to Tamia, with one’s recollection of Keat's,
her name would suggest, not a reptile itself, for,
though there four persons in this garden—two
pairs—it is not the serpent of Eden she suggests,
but the power of sudden transformation, always
seeming to be possessed by a demon of contra-
diction. Paying due attention to the large
number of flowers, shrubs, and trees which are
here given, some under their popular, others
under their Latin names, we have allowed our-
selves to imagine the author doing the honours
of “The Garden that he Loves” to Lady
Corisande, to Dr. Rappacini and his lovely
daughter, and with almost equal pleasure to
Mrs. Gardiner—Gardiner by name and gardener
by nature as Tom Hood describes her. Lady
Corisande would find much that is old fashioned
and sweet smelling—just her garden in favoured
spots, over which to grow enthusiastic. Dr.
Rappacini would be able to ponder over the
contrast between his own—the garden of an
herbalist—and the garden that the poet loves.
Mrs. Gardiner would find a friend who would
understand at once why, in spite of her widow’s
weeds she should still say of herself “I am
single and white ” and of her maiden neighbour
“she is double and bloody.” But we think these
three visitors would each have asked how the
Ampelopsis Veitchii got there, which belongs not
to manor-houses and poets, but to the jerry-
builder of the suburb. In the manor-house, if
anywhere, the old Virginia creeper should hold
its own.
The Tennyson memorial, which is to be erected
tion of a work by Wilhelm Joseph
on “the ridge of the noble down '' at Freshwater,
will be an international and not a local under-
taking. The Americans are showing an active
interest in the project. Mr. Arthur Warren, the
London correspondent of the Boston Herald,
who resides during a portion of each year in the
Isle of Wight, is a member of the committee
having the memorial in charge, and his recent
appeal to his countrymen has resulted in the
organisation of an American committee, which
has among its members Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Miss Alice Longfellow, a daughter of
the poet, Mrs. Burnett, daughter of the late
James Russell Lowell, President Eliot of Harvard
University, Mrs. Agassiz, the widow of the great
naturalist, Professor Charles Eliot, Norton, T. B.
Aldrich, Margaret Deland, the author of “John
Ward, Preacher,” Professor Shaler, Mrs. James
T. Melds, the widow of the publisher who intro-
duced Tennyson, as well as Carlyle, to American
readers, Dana Estes, the head of the publishing
house of Estes and Lauriat, Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe, Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, the Hon. Robert
C. Winthrop, Mr. Martin Brimmer, and Mr.
PIowells. The English committee met at Fresh-
water on Monday, June 5, and accepted the
design which Mr. Pearson, R.A., has submitted
for the memorial. The design is an Iona cross,
34 feet high, graceful in proportions, and beauti-
fully ornamented. By an arrangement with the
Masters of Trinity House the cross will super-
sede the present Nodes Beacon, a wooden struc-
ture, and will be known as the Tennyson Beacon.
On one face of the base will be carved in bold
1etters the name “Tennyson,” and on another
face these words: “Erected by friends in Eng-
land and America.” The cross will stand near
the seaward edge of the great down, 716 feet
above high water mark, and will be visible for
many miles by sea and land.
“The Violoncello and its History” is a transla-
Won
Wasielewski. The translation is executed by
Miss Isabella E. Stigand, and the publishers are
Messrs. Novello, Ewer, and Co. There is no other
history of the instrument at all.
“Mr. John Lee Warden Page is of medium
height, his face tanned, and his moustache
bleached in quite an Australian manner by expo-
sure to sun and storm. Mr. Page lives just out-
side Ilfracombe, and only pays flying visits to
London now, though he was once a lawyer in
London.” This notice was intended to be compli-
mentary, and it is therefore unfortunate that it
should contain so many mistakes. Mr. Page's
second name is Lloyd, not Lee; he is not of
“medium height,” unless six feet is medium ; his
## p. 53 (#67) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
53
moustache is not bleached at all, either by sun or
by storm; and he has never practised as a lawyer
in London. Still, it might have been much
WOTSé,
We recently mentioned the publication of Mr.
Joseph Hatton's early novel of “Clytie ’’ as being
published in Swedish, following the success of
his “By Order of the Czar” in that language. It
is interesting to learn that an edition of the
latter sent into Finland has been confiscated by
the Russian authorities. The Swedish Press
appears to be unanimous in its commendation of
“By Order of the Czar,” and in most cases the
criticism is couched in a high spirit of literary
appreciation. The Smaalandposten says: “Of
all the pictures of life in the great Eastern
Empire of Europe which have appeared during
recent years not one, probably, can bear com-
parison with Joseph Hatton's novelin its startling
vigour of delineation.” The Gothenburg Post
describes the book as “No average commercial
novel, but a literary work of enduring worth; ”
and the Helsingborg Dagblad speaks of “The
epic calm’’ with which the author describes the
many horrors of Russian despotism.
Messrs. Sampson Low announce in their
2s. 6d. series of novels uniform with Black,
Blackmore, and other popular writers, two novels
of Joseph Hatton previously in their 6s. library,
namely, “The Old House at Sandwich’” and
“Three Recruits and the Girls they Left Behind
Them.” The locality of “The Old House at
Sandwich * is no fiction; the house a reality and
a very interesting one.
“Patient Grizzle,” who was with us a popular
figure till about two centuries ago, would pro-
bably have been quite forgotten by this time if
it were not for Chaucer's admirable “Clerke's
Tale,” which still finds numerous readers and
admirers. In Germany the memory of the
heroine of patience has been kept up by Halm's
famous drama, “Griseldis,” of which Professor
Benbheim has just issued an edition at the
Clarendon Press. The introduction contains,
besides a short “Life " of the author, the
Griselda legend as told by Petrarch and
Boccaccio, and an account of its subsequent
literary treatment in and out of Italy. The
true gist of the drama, with its picturesque
Arthurian background, is shown in the critical
analysis.
Rürschner’s “Deutscher Litteratur Kalendar ”
which, thanks to the full notices, brought on
this valuable literary annual by the Spectator
and the Literary World, is now fairly well
known in this country, has made its sixteenth
appearance both enlarged and improved. Every
information as regards living German authors
and literary institutions now flourishing in
Germany, may be found in this publication in
a condensed form, so that it is not to be
wondered at that the Litteratur-Kalendar was
honoured two years ago, together with the same
editor's highly useful Staatshandbuch, with a
prize at Chicago. We have yet to add that
the publication of the annual has been trans-
ferred to the well-known firm of G. J. Göschen
at Stuttgart.
A story entitled “Phil Hawcroft's Son,”
by Gerda Grass, will run in serial form
through the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle from
July 14.
Mr. L. J. Nicholson, who is known among his
friends as “The Bard of Thule,” is about to pub-
lish, by Mr. Gardner, Paisley and London, a
volume of his poems, which will be entitled
“Songs of Thule.”
Mr. Bloundelle-Burton’s first novel, “The
Silent Shore,” is about to reverse the ordinary
method of procedure adopted by romances, viz.,
having originally appeared in volume form, it is
now going to be run as a serial in several country
papers. It has already been dramatised—at the
Olympic—it was reprinted in the United States,
and it has had the somewhat unusual experience
of running as a serial in the Spanish language in
South America.
A new edition (being the fifth) of “Chitty's
Statutes of Practical Utility” is just being
brought out by Mr. J. M. Lely, assisted by col-
leagues at the Bar, in about twelve volumes
(Sweet and Maxwell Timited; Stevens and Sons
Limited). It is intended to contain all public
general Acts of Parliament, except those repealed
or obsolete, or applying to Scotland or Ireland
only, or to limited areas only in England, or those
which are of little or no interest to the lawyer or
the general public. The Acts will be fully anno-
tated and indexed. The first volume will appear
in the present month. The publishers are issu-
ing a circular stating that the price of the work
when completed, will be a guinea a volume, but
that a subscription of 6 guineas, prepaid before
Aug. I next, will entitle the subscribers to the
complete work. This is being done in order that
the publishers may ascertain in advance the
approximate number to print. In an editorial
announcement which accompanies the circular,
Mr. Lely states that the Acts comprised will
number some 23OO, and enumerates the titles
under which they will be grouped in alpha-
betical order. The first volume is expected
to contain the titles “Act of Parliament” to
“Charities.”
## p. 54 (#68) ##############################################
54
THE AUTHOR.
“From Manuscript to Bookstall” ” is the title
of a book on publishing by Mr. A. D. Southam,
It professes to give information on the cost of
production and on the various methods of pub-
lishing. As regards the former, we have to
notice that the charges for composition are in
some cases higher than those in the Society’s
book called the “Cost of Production.” We do
not attach much importance to this discrepancy,
because a printer's bill is always an elastic thing.
Moreover, it is certainly not the desire of the
Society to cut down the pay of printers and book-
binders, but rather the reverse; therefore, we
welcome the book, so far, and without accepting
its figures, as a step in the right direction.
Above all things, and as the preliminary to
future and better arrangements, we must know
what things mean, what printing and paper cost,
and the rest of it. One notices a curious discre-
pancy repeated in every page of the “Cost of
Production.” It is that for an edition of 500
copies paper is reckoned by the ream, and for a
thousand copies it is reckoned by the sheet, the
ream in the first instance standing for the sheet.
One would advise the compiler of the book to lay
his prices before two or three other firms of
printers when he produces another edition. Some-
thing, too, is desired on the subject of discounts;
the prices given in the Society’s estimates do not
contemplate discounts.
The part of the book devoted to the different
methods of publishing is neither exhaustive nor
satisfactory. For instance, the word royalty is a
very vague expression. We want to know what,
given certain conditions, should be accepted as a
fair royalty; we want to know the meaning of a
deferred royalty,
The thanks of authors are, however, due to the
writer for his recognition of the principles always
advocated by the Society, viz: :
I. The audit of the accounts.
2. The understanding at the outset of all the
clauses in the agreement.
3. A voice as to the advertisements where there
is division of profits.
The real “intention” of the book, however, is
to advocate a system of seals or stamps by which
the author shall always know how many copies of
his books have gone into circulation. The method
seems to us cumbrous. It would certainly be
difficult to get publishers to accept the system.
The reader, however, is referred to the book for
the arguments in favour of it.
-*
* “From Manuscript to Bookstall.” By A. D. Southam.
London: Southam and Co., St. Paul’s-buildings, Paternoster-
row. 58.
Mr. Isidore G. Ascher, the author of “An Odd
Man's Story,” and a Canadian volume of poems,
“Voices from the Hearth,” has just sold Messrs.
Diprose, Bateman, and Co., a one-volume novel,
which will appear in the autumn. It is sensa-
tional and physiological, a somewhat rare com
bination. -
*—- ~ 2--"
r- - -,
CORRESPONDENCE,
I.—GRAMMATICAL : USE of “No R.”
Grammar depends upon usage rather than
logic. Usage depends partly upon logic and
partly on euphony, or upon what is most
readily intelligible when uttered.
The best guide, in questions such as the
present one is neither Murray nor Mason, but
Mätzner, who gives a large number of examples
from standard authors. Those who cannot read
German may consult Grice's Translation, vol. iii.,
p. 355, &c. -
“It did not rain nor blow" is logically correct.
“It did not rain or blow ’’ is colloquially permis-
sible, chiefly because the sentence is short.
Lengthen it, and observe the difference. We
could hardly say, “It did not rain any longer, or
did it blow at all.” Mätzner shows that even
good authors occasionally use neither—or instead
of neither—nor. But much depends upon the
length and general form of the sentence. I
should advise every author to judge for himself.
To doubt whether the word nor has a right to
exist is needless. Of course it will exist as long
as our language, because in many collocations it
is indispensable. WALTER W. SKEAT.
II.-KICKED OUT.
I sent in the MS. of a short story to a well-
known firm of publishers last February. Ten
weeks afterwards it was returned to me as
unsuitable. I then inquired whether the deci-
sion was final, or if Messrs. So-and-So might
be disposed to divide the risk. They wrote in
reply: “We could not undertake the publication
of the story even if you took the whole of the
risk.”
This struck me as quite a superfluous, un-
friendly sting to add to a rejection.
A SENSITIVE BookMAKER.
Authors’ Club, Whitehall Court, S.W.
III.-REPORTER’s HARD EARNINGs.
. An occasional paragrapher for Le Figaro fell
in debt to a money-lender, who, two years ago
## p. 55 (#69) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR. - 55
(April 25, 1892), served upon that journal an
attachment of all moneys due or payable to the
said journalist. The newspaper rejoined that
there was nothing owing to the reporter, who
received no salary, and was not regularly
employed; but was always paid by the line, day
by day, for every accepted paragraph, “echo,”
or news-item he chanced to supply.
The case was, however, pursued at law by
the money-lender, who alleged the habitual
employment of the journalist by the paper, and
brought his action against the Figaro; but it
dragged on, and it was only on May 3 I last that
the matter was decided.
The 6th Civil Court, having examined a file of
the journal for two months prior to the date of
the attempted setting up of a lien, was of opinion
that the services rendered could not be called
habitual ; but, on the contrary, that the para-
graphs offered and accepted were of an “acci-
dental” type, and showed no such regularity as
would indicate an established engagement. The
court thereupon held that the sale by a contri-
butor of single articles for a sum there and then
paid (which was the case before them) is mere
buying and selling for ready money; that there
existed no inherent right in the journalist's
relations with this journal which could be con-
strued into matter for seizure or attachment;
and that thus the money-lender had shown the
court nothing which legal process could lay hold
of as attachable. The court therefore decided
for the Figaro, and cast the money-lender in costs.
Outside the court (and inside the journal)
there is a prevalent opinion that if reporters'
scant chance earnings were interceptable in this
fashion, newspapers would very soon be short of
Copy. J. O’N.
IV.-SERIAL RIGHTS ONLY.
“A Journalist” writes informing us that,
“despite the very proper and energetic action of
the Authors' Society in the interest of young
authors, there are still proprietors of publications
who send to contributors with their not too
liberal cheques, formal documents in which the
author is called upon to sign away to them all
rights whatsoever in his work. It cannot be too
frequently impressed upon authors that a contri-
bution to a periodical is for the use of the said
periodical and that only, the copyright for re-
publication remaining with the writer. Further-
more, I see that there is a question as to the
time when payment should be made for contribu-
tions. The money is due and payable when the
accepted MS. is in the hands of the editor. I
know several popular authors, and that is their
ruling. Harper's, The Century, Scribner's, The
Idler, The Ludgate Monthly, Macmillan's, and
The English Illustrated, to which a friend of
mine has contributed, always paid him on the
delivery of his MS. ; then it must, of course, not
be forgotten that the editors wanted his matter.
The very severest terms as to payment from the
honest publishers’ point of view does not go over
a week after publication.”
W.—AN AUTHOR’s GUIDE.
Correspondents in the columns of the Author
have from time to time expressed a wish to see
produced an Authors’ Guide, having for its main
object to give writers some practical and useful
information about the various periodicals, news-
papers, and publishing houses. It is a matter of
complaint that, as things now are, the in-
experienced author is quite unable to form an
opinion for which of the numerous periodicals
and newspapers his articles are most suitable,
upon what terms editors would be willing to
receive them, and also which of the publishing
houses would be most likely to undertake the
publication of any work which he may have
written. It is said that the ignorance which
prevails upon these points is the cause of much
loss of time, unnecessary trouble, and not seldom
of misunderstanding and irritation, and it is
believed that a guide which would help to dispel
this ignorance, and prevent these annoyances
would be welcome to authors, editors, and pub-
lishers alike.
I am now enabled to state that Messrs.
Southam and Co., of St. Paul’s-buildings, 29,
Paternoster-row, have undertaken the publication
of an Annual Authors’ Guide and Directory of
Publishers, Periodicals, and Newspapers, in order
to supply this want, and that they will gratefully
receive any information or suggestions from
members of the Society of Authors, with the view
of making a good start in what it is hoped will
be an annual publication. There is, of course, no
royal road or short cut to literature, and Messrs.
Southam and Co. do not intend to undertake the
impossible task of trying to make one, but they
hope that the book will be of real use to those
who intend to apply themselves seriously to the
profession of letters.
All communications will be treated in con-
fidence. C. B. ROYLANCE KENT.
VI.-QUESTIONS FOR EDITORs.
A circular to the same effect has reached us
from Messrs. Southam and Co.
It is accompanied by a list of questions sub-
mitted to editors. They are as follows:
## p. 56 (#70) ##############################################
56
THE AUTHOR.
I. What class of contributions do you consider
the most suitable for your paper ?
2. What length of contribution do you
prefer?
3. What is your scale rate of remuneration for
accepted articles?
4. What are the conditions to be observed by
authors in sending their contributions and upon
which you are willing to receive and consider
them P -
5. Then give any information which you think
may be of use to authors in connection with your
publication. -
Please send rates for advertising publications
with the discount for a series and the approxi-
mate circulation.
VII.-“THAMES RIGHTS AND THAMES WRONGs.”
“I4, Parliament-street, S.W., June 1st, 1894.
Sir, Sir Gilbert East has drawn our attention
to a mistake in “Thames Rights and Thames
Wrongs” which we have just published. Sir
Gilbert East was not a conservator at the
time he gave evidence before the Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on Thames
Preservation. He was elected on Nov. 23, 1885.
Your insertion of this would greatly oblige,_Your
obedient servants, ARCH. ConstABLE AND Co.”
*- 2-#
g- * ~ *
M. ZoDA’s “Lou RDES.”
Paris, June Io.
A telegram from Rome, published in Paris
this morning, stated that the Congregation of
Rites had put its ban upon M. Emile Zola's
romance of “Lourdes,” which is being published
by a Roman firm simultaneously with its issue in
Paris. M. Emile Zola was interviewed upon the
subject to-night, and said it was the first time
that such an honour had been conferred upon
him. He was all the more surprised, because
“Lourdes” was not in any sense an attack upon
religion, but simply a perfectly human picture of
what would take place at the famous place of
pilgrimage. One could, he added, be a very good
Catholic, and yet not believe in the miracles of
Lourdes.—Standard, June I I.
*-- * ~ *
a- - -->
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BENNETT, PROFESSOR. W. H. The Expositor's Bible : The
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DISCIPLESHIP : THE SCHEME of CHRISTIANITY.
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By the
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STRONG, JAMEs. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
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WELSH PULPIT, THE. By a Scribe, a Pharisee, and a
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CAMERON, WILLIAM E. History of the World’s Columbian
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CHRISTOPHER, CoLUMBUs. His own Book of Privileges,
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THE AUTHOR. 57
CLIMENSON, EMILY J. The History of Shiplake, Oxon.
For subscribers only. Eyre and Spottiswoode.
CUPPLEs, GEORGE. Scotch Deer-Hounds and their
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DUNN, WALTER T. Records of Transactions of the Junior
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EHRLICH, A. Celebrated Pianists of the Past and Present
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FERGUson, RICHARD S. A. History of Westmoreland.
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FISKE, JoHN. Life and Letters of Edward Livingston
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HoPE, MRs. The First Divorce of Henry VIII. Edited,
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LUDLOW, EDMUND. Memoirs, Lieutenant-General of the
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LYALL, SIR ALFRED. The Rise and Expansion of the
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MACLAY, EDGAR STANTON. A History of the United
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MÉNEVAL, BARON CLAUDE DE. Memoirs to Serve for the
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ToRRENs, W. M. History of Cabinets, from the Union with
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WALLACE, ARTHUR. The Earl of Rosebery: His Words and
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ALLIES, T. W. The Formation of Christendom. Popular
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BELL, HoRACE. Railway Policy in India. Rivington,
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BERESFORD-WEBB, H. S. Stories of Greek Heroes. With
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CAINE, HALL. The Little Man Island. Douglas, The Isle
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CALVIERT, ALBERT F. The Coolgardie Goldfield, Western
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CoGHLAN, T. A. The Wealth and Progress of New South
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Foll ETT, FRED T. The Archer's Register, 1894. Cox. 58.
## p. 58 (#72) ##############################################
58
THE AUTHOR.
Fowl.E.R., J. K. Recollections of Old Country Life.
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Powers. Swan Sonnenschein. º -
III.
The
Vol. 3.
Trans-
Chap-
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RICHARDs, A. M. O. India in Nine Chapters.
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RIVINGTON, SEPTIMUs. The Publishing House of
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SouTHAM, A. D. From Manuscript to Bookstall.
and Co.
STATISTICs of JEwisſ I PopULATION IN LONDON, &c.,
1873-1893. Compiled by Joseph Jacobs, secretary of
the Russo-Jewish Committee. London: E. W. Rabbi-
nowicz, 64, Whitechapel High-street, E.
The Anti-Liberation
Southam
## p. 59 (#73) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
59
STRACHEY, SIR John. India. New and revised edition.
Kegan Paul. 68.
STUDIA SINAITICA, No. IV. A TRACT OF PLUTARCH on
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“THE ROAD '''CoACH GUIDE, 1894. Compiled and edited
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THOMPSON, WILLIAM. A. Prospectus of Socialism. W.
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TIEDEMAN, H. Wiá Flushing ! A Comprehensive and
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TYNAN, PATRICK, J. P. The Irish National Invincibles
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UNITED STATEs Commission OF FISH AND FISHERIES :
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LINIVERSITY OF LONDON CALENDAR FOR 1894-95. Part I.
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VERESHCHAGIN, W. The War Correspondent, with Intro-
duction by Poultney Bigelow. Osgood, M*Ilvaine. 3s. 6d.
WALLIS, J. WHITE. Manual of Hygiene. Kegan Paul.
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YEIGH, FRANK. Ontario's
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Company, Marlborough.
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BALDw1N, MRs. ALFRED. Richard Dare.
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C be El u t b or,
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
CON DU CTED BY WALTER BES.A.N.T.
Vol. v.–No. 3]
AUGUST 1, 1894.
[PRICE SIXPENCE.
For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are
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## p. 62 (#76) ##############################################
62
TILE AUTIIOR.
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years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest
or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then
hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them-
selves into literary bondage for three or five years P
Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15
per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble
of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the
pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding
is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be
added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at
£9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth
as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so
clastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at.
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged
in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we
have not included any sums which may be charged for
inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines,
or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too
## p. 63 (#77) ##############################################
TIIE AUTIIOIP.
63
often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from
sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket,
by inserting any number of advertisements in his own
magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are
who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.
*-* * *-*.
LITERARY PROPERTY.
I.—THE THREE-VoI,UME Nov FL.
T a meeting of the Council of the Authors’
Society it was Resolved that: “The
Council, after taking the opinion of
several prominent novelists and other members of
the Society, and, finding them almost unani-
mously opposed to the continuance of the three
volume system, considers that the disadvantages
of that system to authors and to the public far
outweigh its advantages; that for the convenience
of the public, as well as for the widest possible
circulation of a novel, it is desirable that the
artificial form of edition produced for a small
body of readers only be now abandoned; and
that the whole of the reading public should be
placed at the outset in possession of the work at
a moderate price.”
A very large majority of the opinions received,
including those of the leading novelists, was
in favour of the resolution. Only one opinion
was opposed to it, and desired to support the
three volume system.
By order,
G. HERBERT TIIRING.
The Resolution passed at the meeting of the
council on Monday, July 23, was, so to speak,
dictated by the novelists who are members of the
Society. A “private and confidential” circular
setting forth the main facts of the case and the
principal points open to discussion, was sent by
order of the Chairman to all novelists on the
roll of the Society, asking for an opinion. The
answers received gave the opinions of most
leading novelists, together with those of many
others likely to be affected by the action of the
libraries. One or two left the matter open; one,
especially, pointed out—which is perfectly true—
that the abolition of the three-volume form would
make a beginning more difficult than ever for
a young writer. One desired the continuance of
the present plan; the rest were all against it,
and wrote in support of the one-volume form. So
that the persons most concerned in the matter
have pronounced almost unanimously in favour
of the one-volume and against the three-volume
form. -
Several points of interest have been raised, not
only in these replies, but also in the discussions
on the subject which have been carried on in the
newspapers. For instance, more than one critic
has advocated the one-volume form simply
because it will make the novel shorter. But it
has not yet produced that effect. There is no
rule as to 1-ngth; novels in one volume are very
often as long as novels in three. Moreover, it is
possible for a novel to be quite short, and yet
very ill-constructed. Again, it has been pointed
out that the large type and lightness of the
book make the three-volume form useful for
invalids, but then many books in one volume are
also in large type, and light to hold. -
The point concerning the beginner is strong
and interesting. At first sight one asks why a
beginner has a better chance under the old
system. The reason will be seen by a little
study of figures. Without advertising, a small
edition of a three-volume novel can be produced
for something less than £90, those copies only
being bound that are wanted. If the libraries
take I 30 copies only at 14s. the cost is more than
covered: anything over is profit. A single volume,
half the length of the above, costs, without
mºulding, stereotyping, or advertising, about
£7O for an edition of IOOO. Now a beginner's
three-volume novel is sometimes considered to be
sufficiently advertised by being placed in the
boxes and on the lists of the libraries. As a
rule the houses which produce these works find
it to their interest to expend very little money
in advertising them. But a single volume wants to
be advertised. Suppose only £20 spent in adver-
tising such a book. Over 500 copies must be taken
before the cost is covered. If the work is moulded
and stereotyped at a cost of £12 more, 600 copies
will be wanted to clear the cost. Who will take
these copies of a book by an unknown writer,
unless he happens to be very good indeed P And
of course a publisher does not publish in the hope
of merely paying his expenses. Now a book by a
new writer which exhausts the first edition does
exceptionally well. These figures show, therefore,
that it is easier to enter by the old way than by
the new.
The strongest point brought out is the strange
fact, which so few have understood, that under the
old system novelists positively do not offer their
books to the world at all, but only to the limited
number of those who subscribe to the libraries—
perhaps 60,000 in all—say, 240,000 readers. The
rest of the world must wait—the whole vast army
of those who read in this country and in India
and in Australia and the colonies, must wait—
until the cheap edition appears. This is an
enormous privilege to the libraries. What cor-
responding advantage does it give to the author P
## p. 64 (#78) ##############################################
64
THE AUTHOR.
Noue, apparently. What to the publisher ?
None, apparently.
There is another point still. The best chance
for the beginner has hitherto been with one or
two houses which have been privileged to send a
certain number of any novel issued by them to
one of the libraries. This was clearly a privilege
—it is understood to be now at an end—which
might be abused in two ways; first, to the detri-
ment of literature by the production of rubbish;
next, to the detriment of the author, for it was
not necessary to advertise him, or to take any
steps to make him known, or to give him a cheap
edition. Both these things have, in fact, happened.
There are a certain number of novelists wholly
unknown to the world at large, whose works, good
or bad, appear only in a very limited three-
volume edition and are heard of only by a brief
notice in the Athenæum. Will these authors
vanish P Since the privilege has ceased it is
probable that the demand for them by the
libraries will also cease or be reduced to such
narrow limits as to make the vanishing not only
of the author, but of the publisher, a certainty.
In the long run it will be better for everybody,
because the author, if only for self-preservation,
will become far more careful over his work, and
there will be a survival of the fittest.
Yet the three-volume novel will not suddenly
disappear. There will still be a demand,
especially among sick people, for that form of
reading which demands no thought and not much
attention; which diverts the mind without
fatigue; which transports the reader to another
and a more pleasant atmosphere, with a book
easy to hold, light, and in large print. It is not
a highly dignified function to amuse the weakened
in mind and body by illness, but it is at all events
useful, and so long as libraries give enough to
the publisher to make it worth his while to
continue, and the publisher gives the author
enough to make it worth his while to continue,
the old system will probably be carried on.
The appeal to the whole world of readers opens
up a great field for speculation. Will the world
of readers respond? Remember that it is not a
sudden and an unexpected appeal. We have
experience: we can answer confidently that in the
case of favourite authors readers certainly will
respond. And an author can now create his
reputation so rapidly—one could point to many
reputations made within the last year or two—that
there seems to be no fear about the future of the
better class of writers. Unknown authors, and
those who have their reputation still to make,
will certainly not leap into popularity by the mere
fact of being issued in one volume; nor will the
public buy a book by an unknown writer at
six shillings any more readily than at thirty
shillings.
Objection has been taken to the Resolution on
the ground that publishers, since they buy the
books, have the sole right to manage their own
property. Quite true, if they buy the books.
But they do not. Except in a very few cases they
issue the books on a royalty system. There are two
or three publishers who buy, and these will doubt-
less continue to manage their own property in their
own way; it is a good plan—in some cases the best
plan—for the author to sell his book, provided
he knows what he is about, or works by means of
a man of business who knows the meaning of
literary property. But in most cases the royalty
is the system, and on this system, which is one of
joint adventure, with a fiduciary obligation on
the publisher, the author has undoubtedly the
right to consider the administration of his own
property. What certain papers do not realise is
the change that has of late come upon the whole
business of publishing—the greater independence
of the author, his claims to open partnership, his
knowledge of a business which has hitherto been
kept profoundly secret, the rush of new pub-
lishers, and the increased competition. -
The last point to consider is the price of the
future. Since below a certain level nobody
buys books at all, it would be absurd to make
books too cheap. Besides, a thing of little price is
apt to be lightly regarded. We must, however,
remember that for most people six shillings is a
good deal to pay, even reduced to 4s. 6d., for an
author unless one greatly desires to possess him.
We may also remember that the area of readers
extends every year by hundreds of thousands; that
the free libraries as well as the schools are doing
us an immense service in continually enlarging
this field, and that the taste for reading brings
with it the desire for possession. It seems, there-
fore, safe to predict that books desirous of speak-
ing to many—what book is not so desirous P-
will be issued at such a price as to be within the
reach of many; that the six-shilling book will
before long become the three-shilling book ; that
where a popular writer is now advertised to be in
his sixtieth edition he will then be in his six
hundredth. There is absolutely no limit to the
enlargement of the vast circle of readers who, in
fifty years will be calling for the work of a
popular writer, living or dead. It is ten years
since some of us recognised this truth and pro-
claimed it. During these ten years we have again
and again proclaimed it. Those who cannot get
outside of London; those who know nothing about
the extent and the needs of the Empire, or even
of this little island; those who are still governed
by the prejudice of believing that below a certain
## p. 65 (#79) ##############################################
THE AUTHOR.
65
line everybody reads “slush ’’ if he reads any-
thing; cannot be made to understand this fact.
How the literature of the future will be affected by
this increased demand is another question. Mean-
time, we have to deal with the wants of the present,
which seems to ask for a book which costs four
and sixpence, while the circle is being enlarged.
As for the circulating libraries, they must con-
tinue in some form or other, because reading is
now a habit, a recognised way, in country places,
at least, of spending part of the day; and all the
popular writers together cannot produce enough
material to fill up that part of the day all the
year round.
II.-Ass IGNMENT OF CONTRACT.
The following is a case submitted to counsel as
to the right of assigning an agreement to pub-
lish : -
Instructions from Solicitor to Counsel.
Counsel will see from the agreement, that the
author agreed to grant the right of publication of
a work to the publishers until the number of copies
sold should have reached 6ooo, all details of the
publishing—as to size, price, and advertising, &c.
—being left to the publishers, who agreed to
publish a cheap edition of the said work at their
own expense and risk, and to pay to the author
one-half of the net profits arising from sales, the
author reserving to himself the right of publish-
ing an édition de luate of the work. And counsel
will observe that there are provisions in the
contract as to rendering of accounts, &c.
Subsequent to the date of the contract the
publishers, formerly a private firm, were formed
into a limited company under a name corre-
sponding with the name of the private firm, with
the addition of the word “Limited.” All the
business, goodwill, &c., was taken over by the
limited company, but no express notice of this
appears to have been given to the authors of
books which the old firm were publishing, or, at
any rate, no such notice was received by the
author in question. After the date of the transfer
of the business to a limited company, however,
the author received from the company a letter
inclosing account of sales, &c., up to date, and
signed by the name of the firm, with the addition
of the word “limited,” one of the former partners
signing the letter as “Managing Director.” This
appears to have been the first opportunity given to
the author of ascertaining that the publishers had
become a limited company, as he states that he
had heard nothing of the matter previously: but
even on the receipt of the accounts he did not
observe the alteration in the firm, and therefore
took no objection to his book being continued to
be published by the limited company. Counsel
will consider whether the fact of this letter
having been received must be taken to be notice
to the author of the change in the firm, and, if so,
whether the author must be taken to have
acquiesced in the publication of his book by the
limited company, and is so estopped from taking
objection to the book having been assigned to
the limited company without his consent, and to
its being published by them.
From the time of receiving the accounts a year
or two passed, and then the limited company got
into difficulties. A receiver and manager was
appointed by the Chancery Division in an action
commenced by debenture-holders, and later on a
resolution was passed for voluntary winding-up,
and the same gentleman was appointed liquidator
as had been appointed receiver.
On hearing of this the author wrote to the
receiver and manager protesting against his
book having been assigned to the limited com-
pany without his consent.
According to an account rendered to the
author by the receiver there was up to the date
of his appointment a loss on the book.
Counsel will please advise :
I. Assuming the author is not to be taken to
have acquiesced in the transaction, and to be
estopped from objecting, whether he had the
right to object to his book having been assigned
to a limited company, and if he is estopped from
making this objection ?
2. Can he object to the liquidator and
receiver of the company continuing to sell the
book P *-
3. Whether the liquidator and receiver is
liable to pay the share of profits in full from the
date of his appointment P
4. Would the parties be entitled to go on
selling for an unlimited time in the present state
of affairs, i.e., while the business of the company
is being carried on by a receiver ?
5. If the company were reconstructed, would
they be entitled to go on selling P -
6. Would the liquidator and receiver be
entitled to make over the book to another
publishing firm without the consent of the
author P w
Counsel's Opinion.
I. Whenever the due execution of a contract
involves the personal skill and ability of one con-
tracting party, he cannot assign the contract to a
stranger without the consent of the other con-
tracting party. In this case the author bargained
for the personal skill and attention of the pub-
lishers whom he selected ; and he cannot be com-
pelled to accept the skill and attention of some
substitute whom they select.
But as, in all probability, some, if not all, the
## p. 66 (#80) ##############################################
66
THE AUTIIOR.
members of the original firm entered into the
employ of the new company, and some, if not all.
of the persons employed by the former firm
continued to do for the company precisely the
same work as they had done previously for the
firm, the court will presume on very slight
evidence that the author assented to, or acquiesced
in, the assignment of his contract to the limited
company. Such an assignment would not
appreciably affect the prospects of a profit being
earned. In this case I think it would be held
that the author did so acquiesce, or that, at all
events, he is estopped by his conduct from denying
that he acquiesced.
2. Assuming, then, that the author acquiesced
in the assignment of the contract to the new
company, it follows that he cannot object to the
liquidator and receiver doing any act reasonably
necessary for proper realisation of the assets of
the company in liquidation. The receiver has, in
my opinion, the right to sell any copies of the book
which were in stock at the date of the petition,
and probably also to bind up any quires printed
at that date: but he may not, in my opinion, create
any new copies by printing a fresh edition from
stereos.
3. If any profit were made by the receiver
selling the copies which were in type at the date
of the petition, I incline to think that the author
would be entitled to receive his share of the
profits in full from that date; but I express no
confident opinion on this. I fear the point will
not arise. Should the receiver publish a fresh
edition with the author's consent, then I am clear
that the author would be entitled to receive his
half of the profits of that edition in full.
4. The receiver is entitled, in my opinion, to
go on selling the copies which were in type at the
date of the petition, for such period as is properly
occupied by the winding-up of the affairs of the
company.
5. If the company were reconstructed, the new
company thus constructed would, in my opinion,
have no right to print any further copies of the
book. The new company could buy the stock of
the old company, and sell it to the public ; but
could create no fresh copies without the permis-
sion of the author.
6. The liquidator can sell the stock of the old
company to anyone he pleases; he cannot convey
to anyone any right to create new copies of the
book.
(Signed) W. BLAKE ODGERs, Q.C.
4, Elm-court, Temple, E.C.
July, 3, 1894.
s-ºr-º- ºr-
III.—CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT.
The following is a copy of counsel’s opinion on
Canadian copyright from the fresh papers put
before him.
It will be seen that the position of affairs is
very little altered from the English author's
standpoint, as he is the person, coupled, perhaps,
with the Canadian public generally, who will
suffer most by the proposed change of law in
Canada. •
Counsel's Opinion.
The new documents before me consist of
(I.) A copy of a memorandum by Sir John
Thompson dealing with the report of the Depart-
mental Committee on Canadian Copyright, and
(2.) A clause in the Canadian Tariff Bill which
proposes, after March 27, 1895, to remove the
ad valorem duty payable on foreign reprints
payable under the Canadian Act of 1868.
Sir John Thompson's memorandum does not
deal with the details of the Canadian Act of
1889, but is an attempt to answer some of the
objections to the principle of that Bill set forth
in the departmental committee report, and to
show that the Canadian Legislature ought to be
allowed to repeal the Copyright Act of 1842 so
far as regards Canada, and to deprive the British
author of his rights in order to foster the
Canadian printing and publishing interests.
It does not appear to me that I can usefully
follow all the arguments contained in the memo.
randum on the above question, or that it is
within the scope of my instructions to do so.
They are all based on the fallacy that the
Canadian publishers and printers have some
inherent right to have the profit of publishing
and printing the works of British authors, and
that if the latter do not find it necessary or
convenient to publish or print in Canada the
Canadian Legislature has a right to make them
do so, and that to deny them this right is to
deprive them of the benefit of self-government.
Such arguments (even when supported appa-
rently by a threat of separation in case they are
not yielded to, as stated in page 12 of the report)
do not appear to require to be answered at
length. The argument which does, perhaps,
require special notice, is that drawn from the
example of the United States. With regard to
this it is to be observed that in the case of the
United States the British author had under the
circumstances to accept such terms as were
offered, but that such acceptance did not in any
way involve a recognition of the justice of these
terms, and it would be most unfortunate if this
exceptional case were to be drawn into a prece-
dent. If it were, it might become necessary for a
## p. 67 (#81) ##############################################
TIII,
67
A UTIIOIR.
work to be reprinted and published separately in
every British colony. The Society will no doubt
itself consider the memorandum, and will have
no difficulty in drawing up a full reply if thought
desirable, but I cannot see that the arguments
contained in it were such as to require a detailed
reply. All that it seems to me to be necessary
for the Society to do at present is to submit to the
Home Government that Sir John Thompson's
memorandum affords no answer whatever to the
reasons given in the report of the Departmental
Committee against the passing of an Act to con-
firm the Canadian Act, pointing out that the
demand for legislation appears to come solely
from the Canadian printer and publisher, and
that it would be most unfair that their industries
should be fostered and protected at the expense
of the rights of authors as established by Impe-
rial legislation and the Berne Convention. A
protest should also be added against the case of
the United States being turned into a precedent
for Imperial or Colonial legislation ; the result of
the system of protection insisted on there is no
doubt unfortunate for the Canadian printer and
publisher, but that is not, or ought not to be, a
reason for extending it to Canada or elsewhere.
The endeavour should rather be to induce the
United States to abandon its present policy.
There is no sign in the memorandum that
Canada would be prepared to accept any such
licensing system as that suggested in pars. 55
and 56 of the departmental report, and it there-
fore does not seem necessary to deal with it at
present. The objections to it would appear to
be the difficulty in fixing the amount of the
royalty, and in securing its collection when fixed;
but if it would solve the present difficulty it
might be worth acceptance.
If the memorandum is dealt with shortly, as I
have suggested, the Society should of course
intimate that if there are any particular points
on which further information is desired, or which
are thought to require a further answer, it would
be glad of an opportunity of considering them.
With regard to the proposed repeal of the ad
valorem duty on foreign reprints, it appears that
the Colonial Office has already pointed out that
repeal would or might be invalid as repugnant
to the Order made under the Foreign Reprints
Act, on the faith of such duty being imposed.
The Society should, I think, consider whether
there is any objection to that Order, so far as it
affects Canada, being repealed, if the Canadian
Government should insist on doing away with
the duty. So far as I can see there is none; the
only person who would have any reason to com-
plain would be the Canadian reader, for whose
especial benefit the Foreign Reprints Act was
WOL. W.
passed. I ought perhaps to point out that it is
not at all clear that the repeal of the ad valorem
duty would be invalid. -
|Under the Foreign Reprints Act the Order in
Council only authorises the admission of reprints
so long as the Colonial Act affording protection
to British authors is in force, from which it
would seem that the colony is at liberty to repeal
this protection if it is prepared to give up the
benefit of the Order in Council. I think it would
be as well for the Society to endeavour to find
out what is the object of the Canadian Legislation
in repealing a duty they do not appear to have even
collected, except in very few cases, and in thereby
depriving Canadian readers of the benefit of an
Act supposed to have been passed for their
special advantage. J. Rolt.
4, New-square, Lincoln’s-inn,
June 18, 1894.
On Monday, June 25, a meeting of the special
committee on Canadian copyright was called at
Mr. John Murray's offices, 50, Albemarle-street.
The following is a list of the names of the
committee, and the interests represented:—
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. -
Edward Ashdown, H. R. Clayton, Music Pub-
lishers. s
Frank Bishop, H. S. Mendelssohn, Photo-
graphers.
F. R. Daldy, T. N. Longman, the Copyright
Association. -
H. O. Arnold Foster, Edward Marston, Pub-
lishers' sub-section of Chamber of Commerce.
H. Rider Haggard, W. E. H. Lecky, Authors.
Arthur Lucas, Alex. Tooth, Fine Arts.
John Murray, Publisher.
G. Herbert Thring, W. Oliver Hodges (Barris-
ter-at-Law), Society of Authors. *
W. Agnew, D. C. Thompson, Printsellers'
Association.
The business before the committee was “To
consider the proposals received from Canada,
respecting Anglo-Canadian copyright, and to
agree as to what action should be taken thereon.”
Mr. John Murray was voted into the chair. ..
After some discussion, and considering the
unwieldy size of the committee, it was decided to
appoint a sub-committee as representative of the
different sections as possible to consider carefully,
and in detail, the Canadian proposals, and to
draft an answer to lay before the Colonial Office,
which answer would first, however, be submitted
to the general committee for its approval. --
The members of the sub-committee elected for
that purpose were: H. R. Clayton, Musical
Publishers; F. R. Daldy, Copyright Association;
EI
## p. 68 (#82) ##############################################
68 TIIE
A UTIIOIP.
Arthur Lucas, Fine Arts; G. Herbert Thring,
the Authors’ Society.
The sub-committee was subsequently called
together, and met on Monday, July 2, at 4, Portu-
gal-street, the offices of the Society of Authors.
Mr. Daldy took the chair, and before opening the
discussion stated that he thought the plans of
the sub-committee must be slightly altered, as he
saw from the Times that the question of Canadian
copyright was being brought before the meeting
of colonial delegates at Ottawa. He proceeded
to inform the sub-committee that he had con-
sented, with the approval of Her Majesty’s
Government, to attend the Canadian meeting,
both to hear what the Canadians had to say and
to keep the English authors' point of view pro-
minently before the meeting.
The sub-committee accordingly determined to
adjourn its meeting until Mr. Daldy's return, but
read through provisionally the Canadian sugges-
tions, in order to put before Mr. Daldy the salient
points of objection to the proposed legislation.
IV.-Con TRIBUTORS AND CoPYRIGHT.
A form of receipt issued by the Religious
Tract Society is thus headed:
COPYRIGHT.
This receipt conveys the copyright to the trustees of
the Religious Tract Society with liberty for them, at their
discretion, to republish in any form. Republication by
authors on their own account must be the subject of special
arrangement.
If this receipt is sent to the contributor with-
out previous special agreement conveying not only
the serial right, but also the copyright to the
Society for the consideration of a certain sum
paid, the contributor should refuse signature or
he should strike his pen through the above words.
If the Religious Tract Society refuses to pay
without these words, he should then, unless his
necessities compel him to endure everything,
lace the business in the hands of the secretary
of the Authors' Society. Nothing is more certain
than that a paper offered to any magazine is
offered, unless the contrary is stated, on the
usual terms, under Section XVIII. of the Act,
viz., the right for separate publication to be
matter of separate agreement between author and
proprietor of the magazine during the period
prescribed by law of twenty-eight years, when the
right to publish separately again reverts to the
author. Unless, therefore, the copyright and the
right to republish without the author's sanction
are bought by special agreement, the author has
the right to veto the republication by any other
person during the term aforesaid. Observe that
the condition above quoted indicates that the
copyright may be valuable, and therefore the
author should keep all his rights or make a sepa-
rate contract. If it is valuable it must be bought,
and not taken. -
[The following is Section XVIII. of the Act
above referred to :—“XVIII. And be it enacted,
That when any publisher or other person shall,
before or at the time of the passing of this Act,
have projected, conducted, and carried on, or shall
hereafter project, conduct, and carry on, or be the
proprietor of any encyclopædia, review, magazine,
periodical work, or work published in a series of
books or parts, or any book whatsoever, and
shall have employed or shall employ any persons
to compose the same, or any volumes, parts,
essays, articles, or portions thereof, for publica-
tion in or as part of the same, and such work,
Volumes, parts, essays, articles, or portions shall
have been or shall hereafter be composed under
such employment, on the terms that the copy-
right therein shall belong to such proprietor, pro-
jector, publisher, or conductor, and paid for by
such proprietor, projector, publisher, or con-
ductor, the copyright in every such encyclopædia,
review, magazine, periodical work, and work
published in a series of books or parts, and in
every volume, part, essay, article, and portion so
composed and paid for, shall be the property of
Such proprietor, projector, publisher, or other
conductor, who shall enjoy the same rights as if
he were the actual author thereof, and shall have
such term of copyright therein as is given to the
authors of books by this Act; except only that
in the case of essays, articles, or portions forming
part of and first published in reviews, magazines,
or other periodical works of a like nature, after
the term of twenty-eight years from the first
publication thereof respectively the right of pub-
lishing the same in a separate form shall revert
to the author for the remainder of the term given
by this Act: Provided always, that during the
term of twenty-eight years the said proprietor,
projector, publisher, or conductor, shall not.
publish any such essay, article, or portion
separately or singly, without the consent
previously obtained, of the author thereof, or his
assigns: Provided, also, that nothing herein con-
tained shall alter or affect the right of any person
who shall have been or who shall be so employed.
as aforesaid to publish any such his composition
in a separate form who by any contract, express
or implied, may have reserved or may hereafter
reserve to himself such right; but every author
reserving, retaining, or having such right shall be
entitled to the copyright in such composition
when published in a separate form, according to
this Act, without prejudice to the right of such
proprietor, projector, publisher, or conductor as
aforesaid.] -
## p. 69 (#83) ##############################################
TIII. A UTIIOIR.
69
THE LAUREATESHIP.
HERE seems an inclination, perhaps an in-
tention, on the part of the Government to
allow the office of Poet Laureate to fall
into abeyance.
This abeyance, if it continues, will certainly end
in abolition, because an ancient thing may easily
be destroyed, but is with great difficulty created
alléW.
Why should it be left in abeyance P There are
two reasons which may influence the Premier :
First, the impossibility of finding a successor to
Tennyson of equal weight; and, next, the diffi-
culty of selection, with the certainty of hostile
criticism whatever appointment be made.
It seems to some, however, highly desirable
that the appointment should be filled up. Among
other considerations the following are advanced :
I. It is an office of considerable antiquity,
honoured by the names of Spenser, Ben Jonson,
Dryden, Southey, Wordsworth, and Tennyson.
It has been continued and recognised as an office
of the State for 300 years.
2. It is the only recognition of literature offered
by the State. By no other office, appointment, or
distinction, does the State take the least notice of
literature.
The question of the national distinctions in
relation to literature has been frequently discussed
in these columns. It is true that there are members
of this Society whose position in the world of letters
entitles them to the highest consideration, who do
not think that the interests of literature would be
advanced by the creation of distinctive honours or
the granting to men of letters those distinctions
and orders now reserved for the Services. But it is
also true that there are other men of letters, also
of position, who hold that for a State not to
recognise literature is to teach the people that
literature is not worthy of honour. Now the
office of Poet Laureate is, to repeat, the only
attempt made by the State to show that poetry
is deserving the honour and recognition of the
people.
3. The argument that, because Tennyson stood
higher than his confrères there is to be no
successor, if applied to other offices and titles of
distinction would very soon lead to the abolition
of all such offices. There would be left, in short,
no distinctions at all.
4. The argument that hostile criticism would
follow any appointment would, if applied to
other distinctions, equally lead to their abolition.
The king is dead; another king must follow. It
is not at all a question whether the choice will
please every one. Again, hostile criticism would
WOL. W. -
die away as quickly as it arose. However hostile,'
it would hurt nobody; on the supposition that.
the Premier had made the appointment without
regard to Party, and with the sole object of
nominating the man he considered best, he could
suffer no possible harm; nor could the newly
appointed Laureate, whose name and reputation
must be already before us, suffer any harm.
After all, the worst that can be said in such a
case is that an anonymous critic considers A. a.
very much better poet than B. Besides, it is
surely unworthy of a Prime Minister to fear
hostile criticism in matters of literature when he
cannot escape it in politics.
5. The fact that such an appointment gives.
great importance to a poet in the eyes of the
world may also be considered. When a Regius
Professor of Greek is appointed, the new Pro-
fessor is lifted at once far above his fellow
scholars. Yet there may be among these as good
Greek scholars. Nobody doubts this. But nobody,
in consequence, proposes that the Regius Pro-
fessorship of Greek should be abolished for fear
of giving him an importance above his fellow
scholars. w
6. In such a case as this, public opinion— .
meaning the opinion of the cultivated public—
points out a certain number of living poets as the
fittest for the appointment. It is not a question
whether there are men of Tennyson’s stature, but
solely who are the available men in poetry with-
out reference to opinion, Party, or any other
point whatever ?
7. There are, in the opinion of most literary
men, whose opinion is not likely to be asked,
poets who are entirely worthy to fill a post
occupied by the Poets Laureate of the past;
and there is so much promise in the work of the
younger men, that, in their interests alone, the
distinction ought to be preserved. -
8. There is no question of expense. It must be .
allowed by all that this meagre national recogni-
tion of Literature is made on the cheapest possible
terms. If it be thought that the very modest
income attached to the distinction has anything to
do with the desire to retain this solitary honour,
bestowed upon Poetry among those distributed on
the Services and Law, not to speak of Physic and
Art, it might be found desirable to deprive the
Laureateship of its income.
These considerations are advanced as a few of
those which influence many of this body in their
desire to maintain the office and to see it filled
again as soon as possible.
On the eve of the general holidays nothing can
be done except to place on record these few notes.
It may be added, however, that some of the
members are desirous of bringing the matter
- H 2
## p. 70 (#84) ##############################################
70 TIII. A UTII.O.IP.
before the council with an invitation to some
public expression of opinion, if that should seem
good to the collective wisdom of the Society.
*-- * ~ *
z-- ~s
CIVIL LIST PENSIONS.
I.
HE list of pensions granted during the year
ended June 20, 1894, and charged upon the
Civil List, is as follows: Miss Adeline Amy
Leech, only surviving sister of the late Mr. John
Leech, in addition to pensions of £25 and £IO
already granted to her, 335; Professor T. W. Rhys
Davids, in recognition of his merits as a student
of Oriental literature, 32do; Mrs. Sophia Eder-
sheim, in recognition of the merits of her late
husband, Dr. Edersheim, as a writer on theology
and Biblical criticism, 375; Mrs. Elizabeth
Baker Mozley, in recognition of the merits of her
late husband, the Rev. Thomas Mozley, 375; the
Rev. Wentworth Webster, in consideration of his
researches into the language, literature, and
archaeology, of the Basques, 3150 ; the Lady
Alice Portal, in recognition of the distinguished
services of her late husband, Sir Gerald Herbert
Portal, 3150; Mr. T. H. S. Escott, in considera-
tion of his merits as an author and journalist,
281 oo; Mr. John Beattie Crozier, in consideration
of his philosophical writings and researches, 250;
Dr. Thomas Gordon Hake, in recognition of his
merits as a poet, 365; Mr. Samuel Alfred Warley,
in consideration of his services to electrical
science, 3850; Mrs. Amy Cameron, in considera-
tion of the services rendered to geographical
science by her late husband, Captain Werney
Lovett Cameron, £50; Mrs. Ellis Margaret
Hassall, in consideration of the services of
her late husband, Dr. Arthur Hill Hassall,
3850; Miss Matilda Betham-Edwards, in con-
sideration of her literary merits, £50; Mrs.
Ratharine S. Macquoid, in consideration of
her contributions to literature, 35o ; Miss
Rosalind Hawker and Miss Juliet Hawker in
consideration of the literary merits of their late
father, the Rev. Stephen Hawker, 325 each. The
total of the pensions amounts to £12Oo.
II.
“Mr. Bartley asked the Chancellor of the
Exchequer a question concerning one of the
names in this List.
“The Chancellor of the Exchequer: Civil Lis;
pensions are not intended, as the hon. Imember
appears to suppose, for ‘literary men and women
in necessitous circumstances.’ The sixth section
of the Civil Trist Act (I Wict. cap. 2) provides that
they may be granted to ‘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 and attain-
ments in literature and the arts, have merited the
gracious consideration of their Sovereign and the
gratitude of their country.”
“Mr. Bartley asked whether it was a fact that
practically this bounty had always been given to
reward those who were in necessitous circum-
stances; whether it had ever yet been given to
persons who were fairly well off and did not
require it ; and whether there were not a great
number of necessitous persons in literature and
science to whom this grant would have been of
much greater service.
“The Chancellor of the Exchequer: I must
answer in the negative every one of these
questions. I have never yet heard that the late
Lord Tennyson was in necessitous circumstances.”
— Times.
*—- - -º
* * *—s
THE AMERICAN MEMORIAL TO KEATS,
N Monday, July 17, the bust of Keats,
executed by Miss Anne Whitney, of
Boston, Mass., and given to the English
nation by a small body of Americans, lovers of
the poet, was unveiled at Hampstead parish
church, in the presence of a very large assem-
blage. The memorial was received by Mr.
Edmund Gosse, on behalf of English men and
women of letters.
The bust was presented by Mr. J. Holland
Day, the secretary of the American Memorial
Committee. He stated in a brief address that
it was by the wish of his committee that the
monument should be erected in the church of the
place where Keats spent his few happy days. The
memorial itself was highly approved by the late
Mr. Lowell. The bust was modelled twenty years
ago by Miss Whitney, and the bracket supporting
it was designed by Mr. Bertram Goodhue.
Mr. Edmund Gosse replied as follows:
It is with no small emotion that we receive
to-day, from the hands of his American admirers,
a monument inscribed to the memory of Keats.
Those of us who may be best acquainted with
the history of the poet will not be surprised that
you have convened us to the church of Hamp-
stead, although it was not here that he was born
nor here that he died. Yet some who are present.
to-day may desire to be reminded why it is that
when we think of Keats we think of Hampstead.
It is in his twenty-first year, in 1816, that we
## p. 71 (#85) ##############################################
TIII)
A UTIIOIR. 7 I
find the frst record of his ascent of this historic
eminence. He appears, then, on the brow of
Hampstead Hill as the visitor, as the disciple of
Leigh Hunt, in his cottage in the Vale of Health.
He comes, an ardent lad, with great flashing eyes
and heavy auburn curls, carrying in his hand a
wreath of ivy for the brows of Mr. Hunt.
Nearly eighty years ago—this pilgrimage of
boyish enthusiasm—but a few months after
Waterloo. The last rumblings of the long
European wars were dying away in the distance.
Our unhappy contest with that great young
republic which you, Sir, so gracefully represent
to-day, just over and done with. How long ago
it seems, this page of history, how dusty and
shadowy ; and how fresh and near across the face
of it the visit of the boyish poet to his friend
and master on the hill of Hampstead | Such at
all events was the earliest appearance of Keats in
this place, and here the “prosperous opening” of
his poetical career was made. Here he first met
Shelley, Haydon, and perhaps Wordsworth ;
hence in 1817, from under these “pleasant trees”
and the “leafy luxury" of the Vale of Health,
his earliest volume was sent forth to the world;
here, in lodgings of his own at Well-walk, he
settled in that same summer that he might
devote himself to the composition of “Endymion.”
Here his best friends clustered round him—
Bailey find Cowden Clarke, Dilke and Armitage,
Brown and Reynolds. Here it was that, in the
autumn of 1818, he met, at Wentworth-place,
that brisk and shapely lady whose fascination
was to make the cup of his sorrows overflow ;
hence it was that, on Sept. 18, 1820, he started
for Italy, a dying man. All of Keats that is
vivid and intelligent, all that is truly characteristic
of his genius and his vitality, is centred around
Hampstead, and you, his latest western friends,
have shown a fine instinct in bringing here, and
not elsewhere, the gifts and tributes of your love.
If we find it easy to justify the locality which
you have chosen for your monument to Keats, it
is surely not less easy, although more serious and
more elaborate, to bring forward reasons for the
existence of that monument itself. In the first
place, that you should so piously have prepaled,
and that we so eagerly and so unanimously
accept, a marble effigy of Keats, what does it
signify, if not that we and you alike acknowledge
the fame that it represents to be durable, stimulat-
ing, and exalted P For, consider with me for a
moment, how singularly unattached is the repu-
tation of this our Hampstead poet. It rests upon
no privilege of birth, no “stake in the country,”
as we say ; it is fostered by no alliance of powerful
friends or wide circle of personal influences; no
one living to-day has seen Keats, or artificially
preserves his memory for any private purpose.
In all but verse, his name was, as he said, “writ
on water.” He is identified with no progression
of ideas, no religious or political or social propa-
ganda. He is either a poet or absolutely
nothing—we withdraw the poetical elements
from our conception of him, and what is left P
The palestphantom of a livery-stable-keeper's son,
an unsuccessful medical student, an ineffectual
consumptive lad who died in obscurity more than
seventy years ago. .
You will forgive me for reminding you of
this absence of all secondary qualities, of all
outer accomplishments of life in the career of
that great man whom we celebrate to-day,
because in so doing I exalt the one primary
quality which raises him among the principali-
ties and powers of the human race, and makes
our celebration of him to-day perfectly rational
and explicable to all instructed men and women.
It is not every one who appreciates poetry; it
may be that such appreciation is really a some-
what rare and sequestered gift. But all practical
men can understand that honour is due to those
who have performed a difficult and noble task
with superlative distinction. We may be no
politicians, but we can comprehend the enthu-
siasm excited by a consummate statesman. Be
it a sport or a profession, an art or a discovery,
all men and women can acquiesce in the praise
which is due to him who has exercised it the
best out of a thousand who have attempted it.
This, then, would be your answer to any who
should question the propriety of your zeal or of
our gratitude to day. We are honouring John
Reats—we should reply in unison—because he
did with superlative charm and skill a thing
which mankind has agreed to include among the
noblest and most elevated occupations of the
human intelligence. We honour in the lad who
passed so long unobserved among the inhabitants
of Hampstead, a poet, and nothing but a poet,
but one of the very greatest poets that the
modern world bas seen.
The Professor of Poetry at Oxford reminds me
that Tennyson was more than once heard to
assert that Keats, had his life been prolonged,
would have been our greatest poet since Milton.
This conviction is one now open to discussion, of
course, but fit to be propounded in any assem-
'blage of competent judges. It may be stated, at
least, and yet the skies not fall upon our heads.
Fifty years ago to have made such a proposition
in public would have been thought ridiculous,
and sixty years ago almost wicked. When I was
myself a child, I remember that I met with the
name of Keats for the first time in conjunction
with that of Kirke White, an insipid poetaster
## p. 72 (#86) ##############################################
72 - TIIE
A UTIIOIP.
whose almost only merit was his early death. When
the late Lord Houghton—a name so dear to many
present, a name never to be mentioned without
sympathy in any collection of literary persons—
when Monckton Milnes—as in 1848 he still was—
published his delightful life of Keats, it was
widely looked upon as a rash and fantastic act to
concentrate so much attention on so imperfect a
‘Career.
But all that is over now. Keats lives, as he
modestly assured his friends would be the case,
among the English poets. Nor among them
merely, but in the first rank of them—among the
very few of whom we instinctively think when-
ever the characteristic versemen of our race are
spoken of. To what does he owe this pre-
eminence—he, the boy in this assemblage of
strong men and venerable greybeards, he who had
ceased to sing at an age when most of them were
still practising their prosodical scales? To
answer this adequately would take us much too far
afield for a short address, the object of which is
simply to acknowledge with decency your amiable
gift. But some brief answer we must essay to
make. -
Originality of poetic style was not, it seems to
me, the predominant characteristic of Keats. It
might have come with ripening years, but it
cannot be at all certain that it would. It never
came to Pope or to Lamartine, to Virgil, or to
Tennyson. It has come to poets infinitely the
inferiors of these, infinitely the inferiors of Keats.
They who strive after direct originality forget
that to be unlike those who have preceded us, in
all the forms and methods of expression, is not
by any means certainly to be either felicitous or
distinguished. There is hardly any excellent
feature in the poetry of I(eats which is not super-
ficially the feature of some well-recognised master
of an age precedent to his own. He boldly takes
down, as from some wardrobe of beautiful and
diverse raiment, the dress of Spenser, of Milton,
of Homer, of Ariosto, of Fletcher, and wears each
in turn, thrown over shoulders which completely
change its whole appearance and lºroportion.
But, if he makes use of modes which are already
familiar to us, in their broad outlines, as the
modes invented by earlier masters, it is mainly
because his temperament was one which impera-
tively led him to select the best of all possible
forms of expression. His excursions into other
people's provinces were always undertaken with
a view to the annexation of the richest and most
fertile acres. It is comparatively vain to specu-
late as to the future of a man whose work was
all done between the ages of nineteen and four-
and-twenty. Yet I think we may see that what
Keats was rapidly progressing towards, until the
moment when his health gave way, was a crystal-
lisation into one fused and perfect style of all the
best elements of the poetry of the ages. When
we think of Byron, we see that he would pro-
bably have become absorbed in the duties of the
ruler of a nation ; in Shelley we conjecture that
all was being merged in the politician and the
humanitarian, but in Keats poetry was ever
steadily and exclusively ascendant. Shall I say
what will startle you if I confess that I sometimes
fancy that we lost in the author of the five great
odes the most masterly capacity for poetic expres-
sion which the world has ever seen P
|Be this as it may, without vain speculation we
may agree that we possess even in this fragment
of work, in this truncated performance, one of the
most splendid inheritances of English literature.
“I have loved the principle of beauty in all
things,” Keats most truly said, “the mighty
abstract idea of beauty in all things.” It is this
passion for intellectual beauty—less disturbed,
perhaps, by distracting aims in him than in any
other writer of all time—that sets the crown on
our conception of his poetry. When he set out
upon his mission, as a boy of twenty, he entered
that “Chamber of Maiden Thought” of which he
speaks to Reynolds, where he became intoxicated
with the light and the atmosphere. Many of his
warmest admirers seem to have gone with him no
further, to have stayed there among the rich
colours and the Lydian melodies and the enchant-
ing fresh perfumes. But the real Keats evades
them if they pass no further. He had already
risen to graver and austerer things, he had
already bowed his shoulders under the Burden of
the Mystery. But even in those darker galleries
and up those harsher stairs he took one lamp with
him, the light of harmonious thought. The pro-
found and exquisite melancholy of his latest verse
is permeated with this conception of the loftiest
beauty as the only consolation in our jarring and
bewildered world : -
Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
And now, Sir, we turn again to you and to the
gracious gift you bring us. In one of his gay
moods, Keats wrote to his brother George in
Rentucky, “If I had a prayer to make, it should
be that one of your children should be the first
American poet.” That wish was not realised;
the “little child o' the western wild” remained,
I believe, resolutely neglectful of the lyre its
uncle offered to it. But the prophecies of
great poets are fulfilled in divers ways, and in
a broader sense all the recent poets of America.
are of Keats' kith and kin. Not one but has
felt his influence; not one but has been swayed
by his passion for the ethereal beauty; not one
## p. 73 (#87) ##############################################
THE AUTIIOI8. 73
but is proud to recognise his authority and
dignity.
The ceremony of to-day, so touching and so
significant, is really, therefore, the pilgrimage of
long-exiled children to what was once the home
of their father.”
Mr. Gosse then read the following sonnet by
Mr. Theodore Watts, which appeared in the
Athenæum of July 14:
Thy gardens bright with limbs of gods at play—
Those bowers whose flowers are fruits, Hesperian sweets
That light with heaven the soul of him who eats,
And lend his veins Olympian blood of day—
Were only lent, and, since thou couldst not stay,
Better to die than wake in sorrow, Keats,
Where even the Sirens' song no longer cheats—
Where Love's long “Street of Tombs' still lengthens grey.
IBotter to nestle there in arms of Flora,
Ere Youth, the king of Earth and Beauty's heir,
Drinking such breath in meadows of Aurora
As bards of morning drank, AEgean air,
Woke in Eld’s lonely caverns of Ellora,
Carven with visions dead and sights that were !
Lord Houghton (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland)
then addressed the meeting.” His Lordship
remarked that it was as the son of Richard
Monckton Milnes that he was present that day.
He wished his father could have been spared to
see that ceremony. The last occasion on which
his father appeared in public was at the unveiling
of the memorial to the poet Gray. He could not
conceive anything which would have moved his
father more profoundly than this graceful recog-
nition of a poet of whose life and work he was so
affectionate a student, by a number of dis-
tinguished citizens of that great American Union
which he so loved and honoured, and throughout
the long breadth of which he owned so many
valued friends. It was a most cherished belief
of his that, in spite of the political separation
which he supposed must be for ever, the unity
between the two great countries should be, and
was, preserved in the brotherhood of letters on
the basis of a common great poetical ancestry.
He (Lord Houghton) trusted that he might be
allowed to express his own appreciation of the
honour which was done to the English world of
letters by the graceful homage of so many
American ladies and gentlemen to the poet
Reats, of whom in his day the world was not
worthy, but who was uow regarded as one of the
most beloved of English writers.
Mr. Sidney Colvin said that these memorials
of great men were none too frequent in this
country. Here in Hampstead there were two sites
especially connected with the memory of Keats,
the beloved poet. One was Well-walk, which
* The report which follows is taken from the Hampstead
and Highgate Ea'press of July 21.
still partly retained its ancient features. He
believed that the house in which Keats lived
with Bentley the postman no longer existed—that
Well-walk had been shortened. The bench was
pointed out where he sat, but that was not
altogether satisfactory. However, lower down, in
what was the village of Hampstead, but was now
a town, in John-street, there was remarkably
little change. The house in which he lived, the
garden in which he wrote the famous “Address
to the Nightingale,” still existed. He (Mr.
Colvin) remembered going there, now ten years
ago, with one who had looked upon the features of
Adonaïs—a brother of Charles Wentworth Dilke
—who showed him what the changes were, so
that one could see at Lawn Bank what exactly
were the two houses, in one of which Keats
lived with the Browns. It had often occurred to
him that a benefactor or benefactors might secure
that house and make it a memorial to the poet
who lived and wrote and suffered there. Perhaps
that dream may be realised—perhaps not. In
any case they could not be too grateful to those
American friends who had brought this memorial
now set up in that old parish church of Hamp-
stead. Keats was bound to the American people
by special ties. Several of his collateral descen-
dants were citizens of the United States, and a
great deal of what was warmest in his nature
flowed out to that country in that invaluable
series of charming, enthusiastic letters which he
wrote to his brother and sister-in-law at Touis-
ville. There could be no question that, of all
places to choose for a memorial to Keats, Hamp-
stead was the proper place. The best and almost
the worst of his life were passed here; and it was
in what was then Wentworth House that the first
pangs of the illness from which he was never to
recover laid him low. He (Mr. Colvin) hoped
that here, in the enormously enlarged Hampstead
of to-day, would be found, with its increase of
homes, a proportionate increase of the readers
and lovers of poetry, and that amongst the popu-
lation of this place, as well as amongst the
larger populations represented in that assembly,
there would be found a unanimous sense and
voice of gratitude to the English women and
Englishmen from over the seas who had brought
them that gift.
Mr. Francis Turner Palgrave, Professor of
Poetry at the University of Oxford, said that
Rome, that city wherein were buried three
illustrious, unhappy poets—Tasso, Shelley, and
Keats, and he the youngest—already held two
records of his memory; one the tablet on the
house where he died, the other his gravestone in
the cemetery where he was buried beneath the
wall of Aurelian. Keats' short wandering life
## p. 74 (#88) ##############################################
74 - THE AUTHOIR.
made it difficult to find a decisively fit place for
a memorial in his own country. But he thought
it would be agreed that none better could have
been chosen than Hampstead, where between
1816 and 1820, many of his brightest and also
his saddest days were spent, where in early youth
he met Hunt and Haydon, and Shelley, where
afterwards, when just seemingly in sight of home
and happiness the fatal signals of consumption
constrained him to confess the terrible Lasciate
ogni speranza, and bid farewell to her who was
never to be his bride. In Hampstead also were
partly written the poems published (1817) in the
first of his three precious volumes, full of un-
tutored fresh delight in nature and friendship
and art, and here, but three years later, some of
those splendid lyrical tales and odes which, as
Alfred Tennyson more than once said to him
(Mr. Palgrave), gave a secure promise that had
life been spared Keats would have proved
our greatest in poetry since Milton. “ By
nothing,” said Matthew Arnold, “is England
so glorious as by her poetry.” The place of
Keats in that sphere was now established,
and needed no words from him. They could
read how this “half-schooled ” youth, the
stablekeeper's son, the surgeon’s apprentice,
not only by native force and inspiration, but by
most careful devotion to his art, in some four
years' work made himself worthy of the praise
bestowed on him by Tennyson, while he also
gave clear proof that human life in its deepest
and highest sense, yet always under the law of
beauty, would have been the subject of his
maturer verse. Even more than is the usual fate
of high genius, Keats, from his own day onwards,
had been misunderstood. He was held sensuous in
his life and in his poetry, a second Agathon,
wanting in manliness and spirit, a feeble being
in all ways. Yet, on the strength of his own
Writings, his verse and his letters, and also of all
trustworthy records, he ventured to call Keats
not only one of the most profoundly interesting,
but one of the most attractive and most lovable
figures in literature. Manliness, magnanimity,
unselfish devotedness, deep love of friends and
family, chivalry to woman, sensitiveness too
intense for peace of mind, were the dominant
notes of his nature. Whilst wholly free from
Vanity, Keats was personally self-respecting, and,
in that laudable sense, proud, but as to his
abilities and his own work almost pathetically
humble-minded. Young as he was, he bore what
Charles Lamb so truly defined as the surest sign
of the highest genius—sanity. In all that there
was even more promise of life than in his poetry
itself. Thus “lovable and considerate to the last,”
humbly after his wont, not (as misinterpreted)
bitterly, he spoke of his work and name as “writ
in water.” This was a noble soul, strangely and
sorely tried, and let them only add there, Re-
quiescat in pace.
Mr. J. Willis Clark, Registrar of the University
of Cambridge, observed that we were apt to
accept our historic past too passively, and needed
from time to time a gentle awakening by friendly
hands to the duties which it entailed. The bust
they had received that day would not only remind
them of the past, but of those who remembered
that Keats had been left without visible memorial
in his own country. “A thing of beauty is a joy
for ever,” and they rejoiced not only over their
beautiful new possession, but over the graceful
Kindness of those who had given it to them.
Mr. F. H. Day then conducted Mr. Gosse to the
bust, and the latter unveiled it. The “bust '' is
placed on a square base or bracket, like the bust
itself of white marble, against the right-hand
side of the chancel, facing the congregation. A
portrait of the poet, wrought fortunately in his
life-time, has served and, perhaps, inspired the
sculptor. On the bracket is inscribed, in gilt
letters, “To the ever-living memory of John
Reats this monument is erected by Americans,
MDCCCXCIV.”
Mendelssohn’s anthem, “Then shall the
righteous shine forth in their heavenly Father's
home,” was then sung, with the chorus, “He
that shall endure to the end,” by the choir. A
shortened form of evening prayer concluded the
ceremony.
*- ~ 2-’
,-- * ~ *
NOTES AND NEWS.
S the three volume novel really ended ? I
think not. A large number of popular
novelists will in future publish in the single
volume first ; a certain number of novels which
have hitherto brought the authors a small sum
will cease to appear, because it will not be worth
the publisher’s trouble to go on producing them
for his share, nor for the author to write them for
his share, which we may be quite certain will in
many cases be made to bear the whole loss.
There will remain a remnant; it will consist
chiefly of those books which, if 200 or so are taken
by the libraries at I Is. a copy, will pay th ir
expenses and something over for the publisher.
The author will receive the glory which awaits
the writer of such a work. One or two writers of
repute will perhaps remain, but not many; the
three volume novel will not be ended all at once,
but it is doomed; it will die, but perhaps more
slowly than we think.
## p. 75 (#89) ##############################################
TIIE
A UTIIOR. 75
Should the three-volume novel perish without
its farewell hymn P Should there be found no
bard in all this land who would be moved to
say a word of praise and lamentation ? Not so,
The Saturday Review has produced its poet.
The old Three-Decker will not vanish without its
funeral hymn. He is a worthy poet; his numbers
are worthy of the subject. Every writer of three-
volume novels should cut out the poem and frame
it and hang it up. Anonymous (P) singer, we
thank thee! For those who have not read that
dirge here is a sample of its quality.
Rair held the Trade behind us; ’twas warm with lovers'
prayers ;
We’d stolen wills for ballast and a crew of missing heirs.
They shipped as Able Bastards till the Wicked Nurse con-
fessed.
And they worked the old Three-Decker to the Islands of
the Blest.
We asked no social questions, we pumped no hidden
shame; -
We never talked obstetrics when the Little Stranger came ;
We left the Lord in Heaven ; we left the fiends in Hell;
We weren't exactly Yusufs but—Zuleika didn’t tell!
And through the maddest welter and 'neath the wildest
skies,
We'd pipe all hands to listen to the skipper's homilies;
For oft he’d back his topsle or moor in open Sea.
To draw a just reflextion from a pirate on the lee.
No moral doubt assailed us, so when the port we neared
The Villain took his flogging at the gangway, and we
cheered.
'Twas fiddle on the foc'sle—’twas garlands at the mast,
For every one got married, and I went ashore at last.
I left 'em all in couples a-kissing on the decks;
I left the lovers loving and the parents signing cheques—
In endless English comfort, by county-folk caressed,
I left the old Three-Decker at the Islands of the Blest.
IN our notice on the Three Volume Nove]
of last number it was assumed that the Cost of
Production of a small edition was about £I2O.
It is, however, well to consider that there are
cheaper methods. Those novels which are issued
with a view to a short run in the circulating
libraries only, and are not, practically, offered to
the public at all, require little or no advertising.
Agreat saving is therefore effected under that head.
But they are also printed at a much cheaper rate
than that contemplated in the Society’s pamphlet.
The page is smaller, to begin with ; it contains,
as a general rule, about twenty-two lines and
17O words to a page. There are generally 900
pages in the three volumes, or fifty-six sheets,
as in our estimate. The work is given out to a
cheap printer, who does not employ union men,
and pays his compositors less than 9s. a sheet
for setting up. It will be understood that with
such wages our estimate of 19s. 6d. a sheet for com-
position may be very considerably reduced. If the
work is also given out by a yearly contract, still
further reductions may be made on every item.
In fact such a novel can be produced in this
manner for something like 38o, or even less.
If, therefore, only 250 copies are taken by the
libraries—it is a very common thing for a novel
not to exceed this circulation—we have at I4S., a
return of £175 on an expenditure of £80. It is
clearly therefore in the interests of those who have
hitherto produced these three volume novels to
continue them as long as they possibly cun.
Even with the reduction to IIs. a copy will yield a
return of £1 17 against an expenditure of £80.
The bistory of the novel, when it comes to be
written, will show how it has been issued, at
different times, in three volumes, four volumes,
and even more, for the convenience of the reader,
and to avoid holding a heavy volume; the price
varied in amount, but was always high ; the
people who read them were a small minority,
but they bought books. There was no cheap
edition thought of, because there was no public
outside this small circle of readers. Gradually
the circle widened ; there grew up in many
places, such as Norwich, Lichfield, and other
cathedral towns, circles of readers who wanted
to read more than they could afford to buy.
Already in London the circulating library had
been started. In the country towns book clubs
were established—in many respects much more
convenient than the circulating library. There
were so many book clubs in the country sixty
years ago that any publisher of repute could
place at once a thousand copies of a new work.
This fact explains the great output of nove's
about that time; it was s) easy to place them
that publishers very naturally thought little
of the quality, and sent out so much rubbish
that the book clubs refused to take them, and
preferred extinction. The English novel during
the Thirties and Forties fell into profound dis-
repute except for one or two writers—Dickens,
Lytton, Ainsworth, for example—who kept the
lamp from extinguishing. The cheap edition
was introduced about thirty years ago. It was
not customary until twenty-five years ago to
reprint a serial novel from a magazine. The
critics in those days used to be very angry with
one who did not acknowledge that his book
had appeared in a serial form ; they spoke of
it as a deception played upon the public. The
appearance of the cheap form began with the two
shilling or railway novel; it was at first called
contemptuously the “sensation ” novel; people
were a little ashamed of liking a good story:
the rest we know. Knight, Chambers, Bohn,
## p. 76 (#90) ##############################################
76 THE AUTHOR.
began and carried on the issue of cheap literature;
but I believe the only form which proved very
successful was that of the novel. The form and
price of the novel, as it has varied during the
last century, could easily be learned by following
the advertisements in the Gentleman’s Magazine,
Blackwood’s, the Quarterly, the Edinburgh, and
the Athenæum. The last named paper did not
begin till, I believe, 1834, but sixty years carries
one back a long way in the history of a novel.
The advertisement sheets in books would also be
of some use.
Here is a difficulty not uncommon with us.
The young aspirant sends a MS. to the Society
to be read. He receives a critical opinion, in
which the faults of construction, of style, and
everything else are pointed out and explained.
His manner of receiving this opinion varies;
in many cases he acknowledges the justice of
the opinion and the value of the advice; in
other cases he falls into wrath. Sometimes he
returns his MS. after an interval, saying
that he has now altered everything in obedi-
ence to his critic, and asks where his work
can be placed. Altered the MS. has been,
and yet it will not do. How can one make the
young aspirant understand that a mere alteration
here and there is not enough; that he must change
himself so that such defects are impossible P
How, again, can one make a young man learn
that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he
who succeeds has to work his way upwards P
Here and there a Keats blazes out in poetry;
here and there a Kipling strikes the right note in
early manhood; here and there a Dickens; more
often it is the slow growth and the continued
work which produced a Fielding, a Thackeray, a
Balzac.
The mention in Mr. Gosse's address of Henry
Kirke White was doubtless suggested by Byron's
exaggerated praise and regret for that now
neglected and forgotten poet. His early promise,
his untimely death, his gallant struggle with
adverse fortune, his sincere piety, his simple and
beautiful letters procured for him a far greater
name than his poetical achievement deserved.
He wrote verses with ease, sometimes with grace,
and never with any real power or originality. He
was born in the greatest poverty, he taught
himself, he published a volume of verse in his
eighteenth year, he was sent to Cambridge by
the Rev. Dr. Simeon, he showed great mathe-
matical ability, and would certainly have dis-
tinguished himself very highly in mathematical
honours; he published another volume of verse
—or was it posthumous P-and he died of con-
sumption at the age of twenty-one. Had he
lived he would have been, probably, Senior
Wrangler, First Smith's Prizeman, Fellow of St.
John's, lecturer, tutor, leader in the evangelical
world, and successor in that position to Dr.
Simeon ; Master of his college, and, in due course,
perhaps a Bishop. He would also, most certainly,
have indited many hymns, some of which we
should now be singing out of “Hymns Ancient and
Modern,” and there would have been portraits of
Him in steel engravings, with a light not of this
world in his eyes, sleek and wavy hair, straight
whiskers, a silk gown, and Geneva bands. Forty
or fifty years ago it was the custom to present
boys with an edition of Henry Kirke White, con-
taining his poems, a memoir, and selections from
his letters. There is a tablet to his memory in
one of the Cambridge churches, placed there by
an American, like that of Keats at Hampstead,
with some memorial lines by Professor Smyth.
The Professor meant well, and, indeed, in such
verse one cannot very well explain that “un-
conquered powers” must be taken poetically.
Warm with fond hope and learning's sacred fame,
To Granta's bowers the youthful poet came,
TJnconquered powers th’ immortal mind displayed;
But, worn with anxious thought, the frame decayed.
Bale o'er his lamp, and in his cell retired,
The martyr student faded and expired—
Oh! genius, taste, and piety sincere,
Too early lost, 'midst studies too severe !
A letter from Dr. C. J. Wills, on p. 81, calls
attention to the use of books in the compilation
of articles for the press. In an article to which
he refers there were, in all, 759 words, of which
577, or by far the greater part, were, word for
word, taken from his book. The writer of the
article, it appears—though he denied having seen
the book—acknowledged his indebtedness to the
“Encyclopædia Britannica,” in which Dr. Wills's
book had been quoted, and properly acknowledged.
To quote without acknowledgment is, however, a
very different thing.
Such a case as this is one which may happen to
any editor. A contributor, believed to have special
knowledge on a certain subject, is invited, or offers,
to write upon that subject. Who can suppose that
the man of special knowledge is going to consult
the “Encyclopædia Britannica?” Why employ
the specialist if the Encyclopædia will answer the
purpose? An intelligent boy, to select and to
copy, would do perfectly well, and be a good deal
cheaper. One thing is quite certain, that when a
man submits an article, it is understood that it
is an original article, wholly written by him
from knowledge specially obtained and possessed
by him. Any one, for instance, with the aid of
## p. 77 (#91) ##############################################
TILE AUTIOR.
.77
“Cook's Voyages,” could write on the manners
and customs of the natives of Terra Del Fuego.
But only one who has been among this interesting
people can write an account containing the results
of personal observation.
The custom of journalism is that he who com-
ments on things—atticles, books, arguments
speeches—that is, the leader writer—may use
freely whatever he finds in the book or the speech
which may assist or advance his own contention.
Thus a leader writer on “Fashion among Persian
Women’’ would naturally turn to Dr. Wills for
the facts; he would freely use the book; but even
then he would probably acknowledge his autho-
rity. On the other hand, one who communicates
a paper on “Fashion among Persian Women” is
expected at least to write an original paper. It
may be taken for granted that such was the
expectation of the editor in this case when he
accepted and published the paper on “Persian
Women.”
Dr. Wills asks how much of an article tendered
and accepted as original can be copied, borrowed,
or extracted from books or papers on the subject.
The answer, of course, is plain—without acknow-
ledgment, nothing. How much with acknow-
ledgment P That depends upon the editor. It
does seem, however, as if a special tariff might
with advantage be adopted for such cases.
Borrowed work Imight be paid for at the rate of,
say, a penny a folio—the price given to a law
st itioner for copying documents.
The Westminster Budget has called attention
to the great age often attained by literary men of
distinction. Crébillon died at 88; Voltaire, at
83, superintended the arrangements for the per-
formance of “Irene”; Madame d’Arblay died at
88; Herrick at 83; Izaak Walton at 90; John
Evelyn at 83; Charles Macklin at 107; Colley
Cibber at 86; Wordsworth and Tennyson at over
80; Browning close on 8o; Victor Hugo over 80;
Walter Savage Landor at 90. Activity of brain
clearly does not hurt the body ; is it not
generally attended with physical strength P. On
the other hand, Shakespeare died comparatively
oung; so did Spenser, Ben Jonson, Pope,
Addison, Chatterton, Keats, Byron, and Shelley;
a consumptive frame, a weakly constitution, a
malarious fever, an accident, account for these
early deaths. If we consider, again, the long lives
of theologians, lawyers, and men of science, it
certainly seems as if long life, as well as honour,
success, and all the other things desired by men,
was given with intellectual activity. Many years
ago I made a table of comparative longevity,
using Hole's little Biographical Dictionary, I
forget how many names it contained, but there
were many hundreds. The result was that
divines live longest, then lawyers, then men of
letters.
The pensions of the year under the Civil List
show a greater amount of conscience in the appoint-
ment and the distributions than has ever before,
any previous year, been exhibited. There is only
one appointment which ought not to appear in the
list. It is a national disgrace that there is no
place for the widow of a distinguished officer
except in a list devoted to literature, science, and
art. One is far from grudging the meagre pen-
sion granted to such a lady, but it is shameful to
take it from the slender provision made to litera-
ture, science, and art. Elsewhere will be found a
question or two asked, and answered, in the
House. Mr. Bartley was quite right, and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer was quite wrong.
The Resolution on which the grant is made,
loosely worded as it is, has always been inter-
preted to mean that the pensions shall be given
to literature, science, and art; unfortunately,
personal service to the Crown was included, and
meant provision for Her Majesty's teachers and
tutors, while “performance of duties to the
public ’’ never did mean naval, military, or civil
services. Further, though the resolution did not
say that persons were to be in necessitous circum-
stances, it implied that condition, because no one
in affluent circumstances would accept a pension
of £75 a year. Tennyson, when he received his
pension, was certainly not in affluence. Lastly,
the Resolution has been of late interpreted to in-
clude widows and daughters of distinguished men
which it did not at first contemplate. Thus, in
the list before us, eight persons out of sixteen
who are on the list, are widows, sisters, or
daughters of distinguished men. It is greatly to
be wished that Mr. Bartley will continue to watch
over the distribution of this grant. But is it not
time to alter the wording of the Resolution, and
to restrict the grant expressly to persons, or to
the widows, children, or sisters of persons, distin-
guished in literature, science, and art, who are in
distressed circumstances P
The book of the month is Lord Dufferin's filial
tribute to the memory of his mother. Is not the
Sheridan family the only family on record which
has continued to hand down its best charac-
teristics from one generation to another P Wit,
beauty, charm, grace, genius—all these gifts seem
born with the descendants of Richard Brinsley
Sheridan and Elizabeth Linley. Genius, at
least, not to speak of the other qualities, has
## p. 78 (#92) ##############################################
78 TIII)
A UTHOR.
never before shown itself to be hereditary.
Which of the numerous descendants—nephews
and cousins—of Milton, Shakespeare, Dryden,
Addison, Swift—what other member of the family
of Shelley, Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Lamb,
has shown in his own case that poetical genius
may belong to a family P I know not one case at
all resembling this of the continuance ºf genius in
the children and grandchildren of Sheridan.
WALTER BESANT.
*- a -º
4- ºr -º
LONDON FREE LIBRARIES,
E have already (June, 1894) referred to
the Report on the Free Libraries of
London contained in London, of April 19,
1894. The subject is so important that I have
made a more careful analysis of the report, and
present here more detailed notes upon the books
read and the people who read them. We cannot
give too much information to our readers, who
should be more interested than any other
class in the success and the spread of the free
library movement, upon the literary tastes of
the people, their standards, the prospects of
future advance. For my own part I see nothing
to change the opinion I had already formed from
independent research on a much more limited
scale than that of London ; it is that the taste of
the people in literature is sound ; that they do
not willingly choose what is called by some
“slush,” and by others “truck"—meaning low
and worthless works. I am, indeed, persuaded
that if a book becomes popular there must be in
it some quality of strength, “grip,” or interest
out of the common to account for its popularity.
This does not mean that a book admirable for its
style or for its matter will, on that account,
become popular; but that style does not, as some
would pretend, make popularity impossible. Thus,
among the writers who are most frequently called
for are—in history, Green, Froude, Macaulay,
Carlyle, and Gardner; in addition to these are
mentioned, as in continual demand, Gibbon’s
“Decline and Fall,” McCarthy’s “History of our
own Times,” Grant’s “British Battles,” Cassell’s
“Franco-German War,” Kinglake, Hallam,
Malleson, Thornbury, and Strickland. In theo-
logy, Farrar, Drummond, Gore, Stanley, Liddon,
Newman, Geikie, Milman, Martineau, and Stop-
ford Brooke, are most in demand. In art, John
Ruskin is easily first, and Miss Jane Harrison
and Walter Crane are also wanted. In poetry,
Shakespeare, Tennyson, Byron, Goethe, Long-
fellow, Kipling, Browning, and Matthew Arnold
are the favourites. In science, Darwin, Ball,
demand.
Huxley, Spencer, and Sir John Lubbock are in
In sociology, Ruskin, again, Charles
Booth, Thorold Rogers, Karl Marx, are favourites.
To these must be added the current and contem-
porary books on socialism. In biography, the
favourites seem to be the reminiscences and
autobiographies so much in vogue at the present.
In travel, it is always the newest book that is in
demand. We come next to fiction, which presents
such an enormous demand as compared with other
branches. And here let us consider the warning
of the writer in London. He says:
Reading the above tables one might come to the conclu-
sion that the public libraries are mainly used for the dis-
semination of fiction. But without some explanation, tables
of percentages prove misleading, and deductions drawn
from them entirely erroneous. The percentages of fiction
read is artificially raised to the disadvantage of other
works. The student of reading in public libraries should
bear in mind the following points :—
I. That libraries possess more novels than other works,
quite as much because they are cheap as that they
are often asked for.
2. Novels take a much shorter time to read than serious
works.
3. Many novels borrowed and recorded in the percent-
ages are not read at all. They are only dipped into
—tasted—and returned unread as unsatisfactory.
4. Juvenile literature which does not consist entirely of
fiction is often included in that department, and in
some cases other non-fictional works.
5. Reading in reference libraries—where there is little or
no fiction—is never included in the percentages.
. A large number of new readers cultivate a taste for
reading fiction, and graduate to more solid fare.
N.B.-As only four of the London public libraries
have been in full working order for more than two or
three years, there has not yet been much time to
elevate the taste of the readers.
Bearing these guiding facts in mind, it will be seen that
the high percentage of fiction is fallacious. In the private
subscription libraries—Mudie’s, W. H. Smith and Sons, and
the Grosvenor Library—patronised by the middle and upper
classes, about 90 per cent. of fiction is read. They read tho
latest topical favourite, follow the craze of Society, must
be up to date with the latest neurotic story, simply because
it is the fashion to read such books in such circles. The
reading in the popular public libraries is not regulated
by fashion. They are a much better test of the permanent
literary qualities of a book.
We must never forget that most readers,
whether at the free libraries or at home, read for
amusement; they therefore read fiction. And
one would add that the great mass of people,
leading dull and monotonous lives, and not parti-
cularly anxious to advance their knowledge or
cultivate their intellect, cannot do better than
read fiction. It fills their minds with new
thoughts; it introduces them to a society which
they are not likely to enter; it widens their
minds; it teaches them manners, ideas, history,
everything. Let the majority read fiction by all
IIlêa, Il S.
Who are the most popular of novelists P
6
## p. 79 (#93) ##############################################
TIII. A UTIIOIP. 79
Dickens, Scott, Thackeray, Marryatt—among
dead authors; and among living authors all
those whom we recognise at Mudie's or Smith's
as being the most popular. Since the taste of
the masses at the free libraries exactly agrees as
to fiction with that of the classes at Mudie’s and
Smith's, the less we listen to talk about “slush ’’
the better.
Who are the people who use these libraries?
Clerks head the list; then come governesses and
teachers; then every kind of trade that can be
enumerated. There are also representatives of
every profession; but, of course, trades far out-
number professions, and the readers, with the
exception of clerks and teachers, are practically
of the working class.
In short, what is clearly demonstrated by this
investigation are the broad facts that the popular
taste in literature is sound and wholesome ; that
the books read by the crafts are the same as
those read by their “betters,” to use the old
word, and that from 60 to 90 per cent., that is to
say a proportion about the same for the free
libraries as for Mudie’s, read for amusement, and
therefore read fiction.
For whom, then, are there printed the thou-
sands upon thousands of penny novelettes, stories
of highwaymen and bold defiers of the man in
blue, the hero schoolboy, the romantic adventures
of the young lady depicted outside P These
things are not bought or read by those who
frequent the libraries; they are read and bought
by school-bows, school-girls, rough lads, who do
the lowest kind of work, and servant girls, who
have a good deal of time for reading. We do
not think of these when we speak of the public
or of the popular taste. Must we think of them P
Then our conclusions must be taken with ex-
ceptions and deductions.
Meantime, there are not half enough libraries
in London. Outside the city there are only
thirty-one which have adopted the Act. Those
who desire to know what the Act is, how it should
be set in force, what arguments may be used to
persuade the unwilling and the prejudiced voter,
may consult Thomas Greenwood’s admirable
work on “Public Libraries” (Cassell and Co.).
There are those who think that the working man
should be left to buy his own books, and to
advance himself, teach himself, cultivate himself,
if he likes. But, left to himself, the working
man will not like.
only because necessity, self-interest, prudence,
self-preservation, desire for greater comfort,
longer life, and other reasons of the kind, lead
him, pull him, drag him, shove him, and flog him.
Give the working man his library, by all means,
Nothing is more certain than
that the man achieves these fine things for himself
but you must lead him into it. He acquires the
taste for reading ; he returns; if he is intellectu-
ally active he is stimulated to learn; if not he
reads fiction, and finds what the world is like
outside his own. Leave him quite alone and he
will become—what the working man of London
was a hundred years ago, when he had been left
alone for two hundred years. You will find in
the pages of the late Mr. Patrick Colquhoun,
Magistrate, what was the consequence of leaving
him alone. W. B.
>
ºr:
WANTED TO PUBLISH.
T is suggested by a correspondent, that under
this heading might be advertised MSS.
ready for publication, or subjects on which
it is proposed to write articles. It would be a
new departure. Editors and publishers are
accustomed to receive MSS., not to answer
advertisements offering them. It might happen,
however, that the subject or the name of the
author, if that is advertised as well, might cause
a desire to see the MS. We are quite ready to
act upon the suggestion and to advertise for our
members or others such particulars of their
works as they may think enough to make known
the scope and general contents. Our correspon-
dent points out that if this plan were taken up it
might save a great deal of worry and needless
trouble in sending MSS. around. The secretary is
constantly asked to suggest the most likely maga-
zines for papers. He can only advise on this point
in general terms, e.g., an anecdotal paper on some
well-known literary person, especially if the stories
are derived from letters unpublished, is welcome
in most magazines. A popular paper on travel is
also generally welcome. But each case stands by
itself. It seems possible that a man who has
written a paper of special interest might get an
answer to his advertisement. However that may
be, we are willing at least to try the experiment.
For terms address the advertisement agent of
the Author, 4, Portugal-street. Members of the
Society will pay half the price charged to those,
who are not members. - -
* - a 2-º
r = w -s
CORRESPONDENCE
T.—ENGLISII AND AMERICAN MAGAZINEs.
HAVE long been thinking over the causes
of the apparent decay of the English maga-
zine and the undoubted prosperity of the
American magazine. It is quite true, as was
said in the article on the subject in last month's
## p. 80 (#94) ##############################################
8O T/IE
A UTII () [".
Author, that one never sees English magazines
in America, and that one does everywhere see
American magazines in England. I believe the
reasons of the decay of the one and the popu-
larity of the other to be chiefly those pointed out
in the article, viz., that the American magazine
is carefully thought out and planned beforehand,
while its English rival depends mainly on the
casual contributor ; that the American editor
gives to his journal all his time, all his thoughts,
all his energies, while the English editor sits in
his room, receives casual contributions, selects
from them, and does his editing, say, while he
takes his lunch. Again, there are four or five
highly priced magazines which desire to be
the recognised exponents of the best wisdom and
experience of the time. Their high price keeps
down their circulation, while the subjects of their
papers are generally those of which people have
been reading every day in the newspapers for the
last month. Is it impossible for our magazines to
learn a lesson from the Americans? Are we too
proud to be taught that if we would lead the
people, we must write on lines that please the
people P This truth is understood by the daily
papers: why not by the magazines P. One would
not exclude the casual contributor, who is most
useful in his way; but we must not absolutely
depend upon him. Fiction is all very well, but
we must not have too much of it. Laboured
essays are all very well, but we do not want
many of them. Literary papers, estimates of
dead men, “slatings ’’ of living men, we do not
want in any large quantities—“slatings,” not at
all. Nothing damages a magazine or a journal
more effectively than the bludgeon. Papers on
art we want, if they are by artists; poetry we
want, if it is good. I venture to submit a pro-
gramme for the year 1895, which, I think, would
raise even the decaying Cheapside, or the fallen
Bungay’s, to a level with Harper, the Century,
or the Cosmopolitan.
(1) Recent British Conquest in Africa. By
H. C. Selous.
(2) Fleet Street Idylls.
John Davidson.
(3) Short Stories by various writers.
two in each number.
(4) Manners, Customs, and Religions in South
India. By * * * * late judge in Muckampore.
(5) A New and Original Play. By one of the
half dozen who can write plays.
(6) Proverbes. By Anthony Hope.
(7) Acts unrepealed. By a Barrister.
(8) Twelve Old Books. By Edmund Gosse. .
(9) A new Novel. By any good writer.
(10) The History of the Isle of Man. By
Hall Caine.
One or
Second series. By
(II) The Highlands as they are. By William
Black.
(I.2) Art of the Day, from month to month.
By * * * (painter and writer).
(13) The House of Commons : Its procedure,
laws, and customs. By * * * M.P.
This is a programme which I imagine would
“catch on.” The magazine must be illustrated.
Nearly all these things would be serials, running
for six months or more, to be published by the
house which owns the magazine after its run.
I am not a philanthropist, nor do I desire very
much to put money into the pockets of any
London publisher. But I do desire to see our
English magazines rise out of the slough into
which they seem rapidly sinking, and take their
place once more in the front, and this can only be
effected by doing exactly what the American
magazines are doing. I am quite convinced that
the reign of the casual contributor is long since
over and done, and that editing cannot be done
while one eats his lunch, nor even over a cup of
afternoon tea. CoNTRIBUTOR.
II.-GRAMMATICAL USE OF “NOR.”
Mr. Skeat's sentiments about grammar seem
to me somewhat anarchical. No doubt grammar
has grown up out of usage; but it has rules,
which cannot be infringed with impunity. Good
writers often permit themselves to fall into slip-
shod English, but that does not make slipshod
writing good style. I should like to know why
it is logically correct to say, “It did not rain nor
blow.” It seems to me to involve a double nega-
tive. And the length of a sentence cannot,
surely, make any difference. In the sentence
given by Mr. Skeat as a lengthened one, there is
another verb, which does make a difference. It
would, I think, be quite correct to say, “It did
not rain nor did it biow,” but it seems to me
both more correct and more elegant to say, “It
did not rain or blow,” than “It did not rain nor
blow.” The sentence is equivalent to “It did.
not either rain or blow.” If “Mätzner shows
that even good authors occasionally use neither—
or instead of neither—nor,” he shows, I think,
simply that good authors are sometimes careless;
no good author could intentionally write such
abominable grammar. H. A. FEILDEN.
Surely Professor Skeat's lengthened sentence
has nothing to do with the first. He has
lengthened “It did not rain nor did it blow,”
where “or,” would be obviously wrong. The
repetition of “did it’ disjoins rain and blow,
connected in “It did not rain or blow.” If
“did '' relates to “blow,” “nor’’ is a double
negative. Every one who wishes to “appreciate’”
## p. 81 (#95) ##############################################
TILE AUTIIOR. 8 I
mistakes should study the rather hypercritical,
but invaluable, “Hodgson's Errors in the Use of
English.” G.
III–WHAT is PERMIssible?
On reading an article in the Pall Mall
Gazette, “The Wares of Autolycus,” on Persian
Women, July 3, 1894, the language seemed
strangely familiar to me. On comparing the
article with my book, “The Land of the Lion and
Sun” (Macmillan's 1883, p. 322), I discovered that
out of 759 words of which the article was com-
posed, 577 were mine, and 182 those of the inge-
nious author.
I saw the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, who
expressed his surprise, and promised that I should
hear from the author. I did so, and was some-
what astonished to learn that the author had
never read my book, though he had heard it
quoted. But on turning to the “Encyclopædia
Britannica,” article Persia, I find my description
of costume given (and acknowledged), which
might account for this statement.
But what I want to know from you, Mr.
Editor, is, what is the exact amount that can be
“extracted” without acknowledgment, and how
little can be added to constitute an original article?
What must be the ratio of sack to the half-penny-
worth of bread P Is it, as in the present case—
sack, one part ; extract, three-fourth parts.
C. J. WILLs, Author “Land of the
Lion and Sun.”
P.S.—Since writing the above I have again
seen the editor P. M. G., who handed me a letter
from the writer of the article, in which he acknow-
ledges his indebtedness to the “Encyclopædia
Britannica,” a foot-note in which would have told
him that the information as to Persian costume was
obtained from me. I inclose the article, and with
the editor's P. M. G. consent I write you.
IV.-CorrecTIONs.
A correspondent writes: “In Professor Skeat's
interesting grammatical note on the use of ‘nor,”
in the last number of The Author, the name of
the translator of Mätzner's ‘English Grammar’
is given as Grice ; this is a misprint, it should be
Grece. The learned work, published in 1874
by Murray, has long been out of print, I believe,
and a new revised edition, undertaken by Dr.
Grece—who now practises as a lawyer—in conjunc-
tion with a professed English philologist, would
be of great advantage to students of English.
“The second correction refers to the name of the
editor of Halm’s ‘Griseldis,’ published at the
Oxford University Press, which should read:
Buchheim.” -
W.—REMAINDERs. º
With regard to par. 4, on pp. 429-30, concern-
ing publishers' agreements and remainder sales,
the following suggestion may be useful:
A printed agreement form sent me by a pub-
lishing firm contained this clause :
“As to copies sold in the United Kingdom or
elsewhere by auction or privately to a dealer at
reduced prices, or by way of “remainder,” at the
amounts actually received in respect thereof.”
This clause I naturally objected to, since it left
my affairs entirely to the publishers’ discretion,
and abrogated entirely any claim of mine to have
a voice in such sales at reduced prices. I there-
fore struck out the whole clause, and inserted the
following:} -
“That no sale shall be made at reduced prices
in any way unless by the author's written con-
sent.”
This alteration, which was at once accepted by
the publishers without any demur or difficulty,
appears to me to safeguard the author very
effectually. - A FREE LANCE.
*-* -º
r- - -
B00K TALK.
M [* ULICK R. BURRE has written a life
of Benito Juarez, which necessarily
brings before us once more the modern
history of Mexico and its relations with European
policy. Juarez, it will be remembered, was the
Constitutional President of the Mexican Republic,
an office to which he properly passed from the post
of Vice-President. This is a point which Mr.
Burke considers of great importance, because it
shows the strength of Juarez's position, and
also the illegality of the attempts to remove
him made by monarchical and other pretenders.
Mr. Burke persists in calling Juarez an Indian,
though he is careful to say that he was of
the “pure blood of the Zapotecs; ” that is, he
was not a Toltec, or a Chichinec, or even an
Aztec. But when one has been at some pains
carefully to distinguish these tribes, surely it
is lost labour to put them altogether again and
call one’s hero an Indian. Benito Juarez then,
was a Zapotec, for his father and mother were
of the pure blood of the Zapotecs; he was born
in 1806, entered the Mexican Congress in 1832,
and became President in 1857. The leading
features of the new constitution chiefly due to
him, and which was promulgated in that year,
were, Mr. Burke says:
A free press, freedom of meeting, equal civil rights, com-
plete religious toleration, the abolition of special tribunals,
of heriditary honours, of monopolies of all unjust privileges.
## p. 82 (#96) ##############################################
82 TIII)
A UTIIOIR.
By which it will appear that Juarez deserved to
succeed—he represented the cause of freedom
just as much as his opponents represented the
cause of slavery. Mr. Burke retells the story of
the ill-fated Maximilian—a prince who was never
able to distinguish the regulation of a court and
the duties of courtiers from the governing of a
country and the duties of citizenship—and shows
how he was the tool of the clerical and absolutist
faction, and that between the schemes of the
Jesuits and the schemes of Napoleon III., it is no
wonder a weak man became a criminal. So that,
apart from the interesting story Mr. Burke has to
tell, his volume becomes one of general utility as a
warning against the kind of Government or want
of government which is sure to obtain where
ministers of religion are permitted to influence
ministers of State.
Burke's book has received praise from the
financial press, and those interested will find the
history of the Mexican debt carefully told. It is
not very long ago that an evening contemporary,
interviewing the editor of the Intransigeant, drew
from him the remark that la haute politique was
becoming nothing more than la haute finance. If
that be so, it is instructive to read in these pages
how the worn-out Statecraft of Europe over-
reached itself in its dreams of manipulating
the supposed wealth of a comparatively new
country. Indeed, there seems to have been no
end to the attempts made to exploit Mexico
for the benefit of the Emperor and the Church.
Of the three, Napoleon III., Pius IX., and Maxi-
milian, so far as Mexico is concerned, only one
got his deserts. As for Juarez, he remains
the “great President’’ in the memory of his
people. -
Mr. John Willis Clark, F.S.A., has published his
Rede Lecture of this year, on Libraries in the
Mediaeval and Renaissance Periods (Macmillan
and Co.). He traces the growth of the library,
especially, in churches and monasteries, from the
earliest beginnings to the Renaissance. It does
not appear that the custom of giving books to
churches, which began the Christian Library, was
long maintained. Augustine gave his books to
the church of Hippo to form a library. Althousand
years later Caxton bequeathed books to St. Mar-
garet's, but to be sold. An occasional king, an
occasional bishop, formed libraries, but the real
home of the Mediaeval library was the monastery.
his was not a stately room, but simply a wooden
press set up in a recess in the cloisters in which
the books were kept, vertical as well as horizontal
partitions being set up, so that the books should
not get damp or be packed close to each other.
At Christ Church, Canterbury, at the beginning
of the fourteenth century there were 698 volumes.
We may also note that Mr.
all kept in presses put up wherever room could be
found for them. As the books increased in
number, a room became necessary. The Canter-
bury library was built between 1414 and 1443;
that of Durham about the same time. The
monks were enjoined to spend a part of their
time in reading. Benedict's Rule orders that at
the beginning of Lent every monk was to have
a book given him, which he was to read through
before the end of Lent. The nature of the work, or
its length, seems to have been unconsidered. The
arrangement of desks, seats, and books, the chain-
ing of books, and the lending of books, are treated
in this little volume, which is a valuable con-
tribution to the history and the literature of
the library, whether regarded as a museum, i.e.,
the temple or haunt of the Muses, a place which
is haunted by the men of the past, or as a modern
workshop; a place where things are to be found
and learned, or “as a gigantic mincing machine,
into which the labours of the past are flung, to be
turned out again in a slightly altered form as the
literature of the present.”
Mr. Mackenzie Bell’s monograph on “Charles
Whitehead,” a forgotten genius, has been re-
issued as a new edition, if edition it can properly
be called. There is new matter in the volume
in the shape of an appreciation of Whitehead
by Mr. Hall Caine, and there is a new preface
in which the author recounts certain circumstances
which he writes “have rendered a re-issue of the
unbound * remainder “ of my volume desirable.”
Of the book itself it may be said that Mr. Bell
has executed his task with excellent taste, for he
has made it clear that the story of the author's
life must not be taken into account in judging
his literary merit. Note is taken of the high
opinion in which Whitehead was held by Rossetti,
Professor Wilson, Lord Lytton, and Douglas
Jerrold, chiefly as the author of “Richard
Savage.” -
Miss Eleanor Tee has written a book for young
women and girls entitled “This Everyday Life.”
It has a preface by the Rev. C. Pickering Clarke,
in which the object of the work is thus described:
“The book is designed to give working women
and girls a true insight into the meaning of that
life here, which seems so heavily weighted by the
obligation to work.” Miss Tee has set herself
the difficult task of bringing home the idea of
the “dignity of labour to some of the workers
whose duties are styled service.”
Mr. Thomas McCarthy, instructor in gymnas-
tics, has written for the “use of public elementary
schools,” in accordance with the new code, “An
Easy System of Physical Exercises and Drill.”
The directions given are intended for those other
## p. 83 (#97) ##############################################
TIIE. A UTIIOIR. 83
than drill serjeants who wish to learn how to
drill school boys and school girls. From the
great number of the directions and their complex
nature it is clear the new code must demand a
very comprehensive system of muscular training.
We are aware that many parents are not entirely
satisfied with the reasons given for the compulsory
drilling of their children, and, if they are at all in
ignorance of what that system is, Mr. McCarthy’s
book can teach them. English people other than
yeomanry cavalry and militia have been drilled
for years, but it is a common remark that if they
have to march in procession—unfortunately a
growing custom—they do it very badly. Perhaps
Mr. McCarthy’s book will help to change that.
It is published by W. H. Allen and Co.
Mr. Robert Bingley’s “Borderlands,” a volume
of poems, religious and secular, including some
translations, has passed into a second edition.
It is published by the Oxford University Press.
Every Saturday evening for a good many weeks
—or months—the readers of the JWestminster
Gazette were invited to read a most charming
little dialogue, full of cleverness, epigram.
The epigrams were not barbed, nor were they
intended to wound, nor was the cleverness
obtruded. These delicate and sprightly things
were signed A. H. They are now collected and
published at the office of the JWestminster Gazette.
And they are the work of Mr. Anthony Hope,
author of the “Prisoner of Zenda.”
Mr. Julian Sturgis has issued a volume of
poems (Longman and Co.), in which he proves
that his power as a writer of verse is equal to
that of a writer of prose.
Mr. R. E. Salwey has completed a new novel,
called “Ventured in Wain,” which will be pub-
lished in September by Messrs. Hurst and
Blackett in two-volume form.
Miss Frances Mary Peard's novel, “An
Interloper,” which has been running as a serial
in Temple Bar, will be published in two-volume
form by Messrs. Bentley and Son, and simul-
taneously by Messrs. Harpers in America.
Mr. Anthony C. Deane will publish, in the
early autumn, a volume of light verse, reprinted
from the magazines and journals in which it
first appeared. Among them are Punch, where
the larger part was first produced, the Cornhill,
Longman's, Temple Bar, St. James's Gazette, the
Globe, the Westminster Gazette, the Pall Mall
Gazette, the Granta, and Vanity Fair. The
publishers are Messrs. Henry and Co.
Mr. R. Thistlethwaite Casson, author of “Bonnie
Mary,” “A Modern Ishmael,” “The Doctor's
Doom,” and many other successful serials, has
been commissioned by Mr. George Newnes, M.P.,
to write a series of novelettes for the “Illustrated
Penny Tales,” now being published by George
Newnes Limited. - -
Mrs. Preston has translated some of the poems
of Friedrich von Bodenstedt, which will be pub-
lished by the Roxburghe Press early in August
under the title of “The Mountain Lake.”
Mrs. Stevenson, the author of “Mrs. Severn,”
published by Messrs. R. Bentley and Son, and
which the Guardian compared for power with
“Janet's Repentance,” has another story on
intemperance now in the press. It is appearing
first in the Temperance Chronicle, whose critic
judged “Mrs. Severn " as “the most powerful
temperance story that has ever been written,”
and later it will form one of the C.E.T.S.
Azalea series. Its title is “Helena Hadley.”
Last year Messrs. R. Bentley and Son published
“Mrs. Elphinstone of Drum ” for the same
writer.
A second edition of “A Girl’s Ride in Iceland,”
by Mrs. Alec Tweedie, will appear in a few days.
It will be published by Horace Cox.
Mrs. James Suisted sends us a lively little
volume, published at Dunedin (Otago Daily
Times Office), New Zealand. It is a record of
travel, and is called “From New Zealand to
Norway.” It is, perhaps, useless to wish for a
book published only in a colony success in the
English book market.
Mr. E. St. John Fairman, 66, Southampton-
row, W.C., publishes his new book himself. It
is called “An Electric Flash on the Egyptian
Question.”
A copy of Mrs. Dixon's book on “Columbia.”
has been graciously accepted by the Queen. It
was presented by Sir Henry Ponsonby.
By the publication of “A Seventh Child” (F.
W. White and Co.) in one volume instead of two,
John Strange Winter has been the first among
popular authors to adapt herself to the new state
of things brought about by the circulars issued
by Smith and Mudie on special library editions.
“A Seventh Child” deals with the subject of
clairvoyance, and derives its title from the super-
stition that “the seventh child of a seventh
child is gifted with the second sight.” The story,
which records the experiences of such child, has
been running as a serial in Mrs. Stannard's
magazine Winter’s Weekly.
Professor Raleigh has written a book for
Murray’s “University Extension Manuals” on
the history of the English novel, from its origin
to Sir Walter Scott. Could not the history be
## p. 84 (#98) ##############################################
84
TIIE AUTHOR.
extended, so as to include Thackeray, Dickens,
Reade, Collins, Kingsley, George Eliot, the
Brontës, and Mrs. Gaskell?
... The papers have been full of discussions, letters,
and leaders on the subject of the three-volume
novel. A collection of cuttings has been made
by Mr. Thring, on which we may find an
opportunity of speaking in the next number.
Some of the papers speak as if the novel must be
killed when the three-volume form is abandoned.
Will not the libraries, then, take any of the one-
volume form P. The following remarks are taken
from the St. James's Gazette. In the second
line, for the “Incorporated Society of Authors”
read “those who are novelists in the Society of
Authors,” the resolution of the council having
been adopted mainly in consequence of their
singular unanimity. The novelists on our list
form perhaps one-fourth of the whole number.
Nor have the “Authors”—meaning the society
—said a word in their resolution on the subject
of the libraries.
“The three-volume novel seems to be in the
painful position of Mr. Pickwick in the Pound—
of having no friends. The Incorporated Society
of Authors has, with only a single dissentient,
pronounced against it ; and that society has been
generally regarded as having especially at heart
the interests of young novelists, in whose favour
chiefly the three-volume system has been supposed
to operate. The Authors argue that the only
possible persons to profit by the plan were the
libraries, who under it became monopolist middle-
men between the producers and consumers of all
new novels for the most profitable period. Yet
the late M. Mudie protested that he hated it;
and it is the libraries whose present action has
threatened its continued existence. The three-
volume novel looks as if it were going to die
without any mourner to drop the sympathetic tear
—except, perhaps, the Bishop of London, who
will be unable henceforward to begin his fiction
with the third volume.
“When it is gone we shall all begin to regret
the easy print and ample margin; for, after all,
for the really long novel it is the most agreeable
form. ‘Middlemarch' and ‘Daniel Deronda,”
are disagreeable enough in the single volumes, and
without perseverance and good eyesight it needs
faith or fashion to get one through the new
‘Marcella.' But the price of the three volumes
was prohibitive, and the generality of the old
custom of a first appearance in this form not
easily defensible.”
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.
CERTAIN REMEDIES.
R. JOHNSTON'S remark that ‘ the books
& 4
M of certain novelists had had a more
potent effect on him than all the
quinine and drugs he had introduced into Africa’
suggests a new vein for publishers' advertise-
ments. Why not work the hygienic motive on
which so many other advertisements rely with
such success? As thus:—
BESANT's World-FAMED CURE.-Unrivalled for Head-
ache, Lassitude, and a Sluggish Liver. Worth a Guinea.
a Volume. A Circulating Librarian writes:– “I take
them regularly, and am now sensible of a marked
improvement in my whole system.’
BLACK's Soot HING SYRUP (Highland Blend).-Indis-
pensable when yachting. A sure preventive of mal de
mer. Should be taken (on subscription) in all Climates.
Put up in Uniform Doses; one quality throughout. An
Analyst writes:—‘I have examined Mr. William Black's
various Preparations. All the samples seem to be com-
pounded of the same well-tried ingredients in various pro-
portions, and can be warranted absolutely harmless, even
for the most delicate. A Sound Family Medicine. Have
you a nasty taste in your mouth on waking up in the
morning (after reading Latter-day Fiction overnight) P
Then TRY BLACK's Soo THING SYRUI”.
For ANZEMIA : TRY RIDER HAGGARD.—From an African
Recipe. Unrivalled for the Blood. The Young like it ;
Children take it readily.
PLAIN PILLS FROM THE HILLS.–(Registered Title.)
Put up in Small Doses. An Anglo-Indian writes: “Please
send me a fresh consignment.” Caution.—Insist on seeing
R. Kipling’s Name on Label.
DR. ConAN DOYLE's PRESCRIPTION.—A Certain Solu-
tion. Equal to the most Obscure Cases. Does not fool
about the place, but quickly finds out what is wrong, and
puts it right. No Holmes without it.”
JWestminster Gazette.
Our Paris correspondent telegraphs: “M.
Leconte de Lisle, Victor Hugo’s successor in the
Academy, and since his death the chief French
poet, died on Tuesday night from heart disease.
He had an attack of pneumonia on Friday, from
which he never rallied. He was born in 1820 in
the island of Réunion, whither his parent had
emigrated from Brittany. He was sent to Rennes
to be educated, and in 1853 published “Poèmes
Antiques.” A second volume, ‘Poèmes Bar-
bares,” appeared in 1862, and in 1882 he issued
* Poèmes Tragiques.’ These works made no bid
for general popularity, but were addressed to the
cultured few capable of appreciating artistic per-
fection. He was, as it were, a sculptor in poetry.
His love of the classics was shown by numerous
translations, sometimes rugged, but admirably
chiselled. In 1873 his tragedy “Les Erynnies’
was played at the Odéon, and in 1888 he published
a second tragedy, “L’Apollonide,” which was
## p. 85 (#99) ##############################################
TIIE AUTIIOI?. 85
never acted. M. Gaston Deschamps, in the
Temps, after dwelling on his superiority to all
vulgar ambitions and artifices, says:—" He closes,
or nearly so, the series of great poets who have
given a voice to our century. His verses will long
resound in our charmed and faithful memory.
But we also lose in him a consoling example, an
intellectual and moral authority, not easily re-
placed. Fate would almost seem bent on un-
crowning France. To lose in two years Taine,
Renan, Leconte de Lisle are too many bereave-
ments at once. Who will console us P Who will
guide us on the uncertain road to truth and
beauty P I see, indeed, in the throng of young
contemporaries, admirers, disciples, and especially
detractors of these illustrious men. I do not see
their successors.’”—Times, July 19.
*~ * ~ *
LITERATURE AT OXFORD,
D" LENTZNER will deliver five Free Public
Lectures in Comparative Literature at
Oxford, during the Michaelmas Term,
1894, viz., one in English, called “Some Aspects of
Literature,” on Monday, Oct. 22, at noon ; two in
English, on Björnstjerne Björnson, on Mondays,
Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, at noon ; and two in German,
on “Richard Wagner als Dichter,” on Mondays,
Nov. I 2 and 19, at noon.
>ec:
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS,
Theology.
BEECHING, REv. H. C. Seven Sermons to Schoolboys.
With a Preface by Canon Scott Holland. Methuen.
2s. 6d.
CANTERBURY, ARCHBISHOP OF. Echoes from the Choir
of Norwich Cathedral, being the sermons preached
when it was reopened after reparation. With an
Introduction by the Dean of Norwich. Jarrold. 2s. 6d.
CUST, ROBERT N., LL.D. Essay on the Prevailing Methods
of the Evangelisation of the non-Christian World.
Luzac and Co.
GRAY, REv. DR. H. B. Men of Like Passions. Being
sermons preached to Bradfield Boys. Longmans. 5s.
HARTE, RICHARD. The New Theology. E. W. Allen.
2s. 6d.
MACLAREN, A. Illustrations from Sermons of, edited and
selected by J. H. Martyn. 3s. 6d.
MALDONATUS, JoHN. A Commentary on the Holy Gospels
—St. Matthew’s Gospel. Translated and edited from
the original Latin by George J. Davie. Part II.
John Hodges. Is.
PRINCE, B. The World’s Malady: Its Root and Remedy.
To which is added the Basis of Religion presented to us
by the Parliament of Religions assembled at Chicago.
Simpkin, Marshall. 38, 6d. -
CAMPBELL, LORD ARCHIBAL.D.
ScHoDEER, L. W. A Chapter of Church's History from
South Germany. Translated by W. Wallis. Longmans.
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Title
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The Author
Subject
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<em>The Author</em>
Description
An account of the resource
A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1890–1914
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
The-Author-Issues
Publication
Date
The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format)
1894-11-01
Volume
5
Issue
6
Pages
Page range in volume
141–168
Ngram Date
Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin
18941101
Ngram Text
Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin
C be
u t b or,
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.
Monthly.)
CON DU CTED BY WA. L TER BES ANT.
VOL. V.-No. 6.]
NOVEMBER 1, 1894.
[PRICE SIXPENCE.
For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the Authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the
collective opinions of the committee unless
they are officially signed by G. Herbert
Thring, Sec.
HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and
requests that all members not receiving an answer to
important communications within two days will write to him
without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered
letter only.
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.
*-
r- - -,
WARNINGS AND ADVICE,
I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.—It is not generally
understood that the author, as the vendor, has the
absolute right of drafting the agreement upon
whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out.
Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In
every form of business, this among others, the right of
drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or
has the control of the property.
2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember
that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that
is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you
object to this, insert a clause to that effect.
3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most
URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements
immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected
for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree-
ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every
case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter
which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The
author may be assured that the other party to the agree-
ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society,
to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of
members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves
eaccept the cost of the stamp.
4. AsCERTAIN what A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO
BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an
WOL. W.
arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi-
ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party
refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he
reserved for himself.
5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. You cannot be
too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your
agent. Remember that you place your property almost un-
reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting
the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience
of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone.
6. CosT OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of
which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part,
until you have proved the figures.
7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor-
respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad-
vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced
friends or by this Society. -
8. FuTURE Work.-Never, on any accownt whatever,
bind yourself down for future work to anyone.
9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or
responsibility whatever without advice.
Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re-
fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises
they may put forward, for the production of the work.
II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American
rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any
agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the
publisher, unless for a substantial consideration.
I2. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper,
either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright,
without advice.
13. ADVERTISEMENTs. – Keep some control over the
advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in
the agreement.
I4. 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. Be yourself a business man.
Society’s Offices :-
4, Portugal, STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs.
*— - -*
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. If the advice
sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member
O 2
## p. 142 (#156) ############################################
I 42
THE AUTHOR.
has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the
case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com-
mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually
engaged upon such questions for us.
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past
accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in
order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree-
ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively
so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any
agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor-
mation thus obtained may prove invaluable.
4. If the examination of your previous business trans-
actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should
take advice as to a change of publishers.
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-
posed document to the Society for examination.
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in
the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-
ing firm in the country.
7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-
dence of the writer.
8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.
*- ~ *
& -s
THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE,
EMBERS are informed :
I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of
the business of members of the Society. With, when
necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi-
cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines
and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the
trouble of managing business details.
2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are
defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights
placed through its intervention. Notice is, however,
hereby given that in all cases where there is no current
account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and
porterage.
3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those
members of the Society whose work possesses a market
value.
4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation
whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia-
tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all
communications relating thereto are referred to it.
5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by
appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days’
notice should be given.
6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre-
spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number
of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps
should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage.
7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS.
without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself
responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice.
8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for
lectures by some of the leading members of the Society ;
that it has a “Transfer Department' for the sale and
purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register
of Wants and Wanted * has been opened. Members anxious
to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com -
municate with the Manager.
There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services
will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It
is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the
Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in
the Syndicate.
--sº
e--- - -
NOTICES,
HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.
The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and
communications on all subjects connected with literature
from members and others. Nothing can do more good to
the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive,
and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this
work send their names and the special subjects on which
they are willing to write P
or dishonest ?
Communications for the Author should reach the Editor
not later than the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether
members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate
to the Editor any points connected with their work which
it would be advisable in the general interest to publish.
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 under-
stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances,
undertake the publication of MSS.
The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at
3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary
for information, rules of admission, &c.
Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they
have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do
this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s
order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the
trouble of sending out a reminder.
Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the
warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a
most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding
for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they
would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five
years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest
Of course they would not. Why then
hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them-
selves into literary bondage for three or five years P
Those who possess the “Cost of Production" are
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15
per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble
of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the
pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding
is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be
added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at
£948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth
## p. 143 (#157) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I 43
as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so
elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at.
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged
in the “Cost of Production’’ for advertising. Of course, we
have not included any sums which may be charged for
inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines,
or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too
often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from
sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket,
by inserting any number of advertisements in his own
magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are
who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.
* * =
ELECTION OF MEMBERS.
T the first meeting of committee after the
vacation on Oct. 8, twenty-eight new
members and associates were duly pro-
posed and elected. There have been 196 new
members elected since the beginning of the year.
Against these, however, must be placed the
number of those who are every year struck off
the list either by death, or by resignation, or by
neglecting to pay their subscription.
Cases have arisen in which authors have joined
for the purpose of obtaining aid and redress,
and have then retired when their case has been
won for them. In other words, they pay a guinea,
put the Society to the expense of many guineas,
and then retire.
Authors are earnestly entreated to remember
that the society exists for the common good;
that to regard it as solely a means of obtaining
individual advantage is contrary to the whole
spirit of the association; that to carry a single
case through often costs the subscriptions of a
great many members, and that were it not for the
subscriptions of those who are not likely to need
its services at all, the Society would not be able to
exist, or would be reduced to a powerless condition.
>
c:
LITERARY PROPERTY.
I.—PAYING FOR PUBLICATION.
HE advice of the Society with regard to
payment for publishing is that a MS.
which is refused by half a dozen good
houses is probably without commercial value.
The author, however, is too often persuaded that
it possesses sufficient literary merit to justify him
in paying for its production. He then receives
an estimate from the firm to which he applies.
In general this estimate is called Messrs. A. and
B.’s “charge” for producing the work. It used
to be called the “Cost of Production.” It is now
Messrs. A. and B.’s “charge.” The charge
includes a very liberal addition to the printer's
bill—for themselves. It is a secret profit, and
therefore absolutely indefensible. Of course a
charge for services may be advanced, and may be
granted, but it should be made openly. The
following are quite recent examples of this
method of giving estimates. They were brought
to the Society, and through the machinery at the
disposal of the Society the books were actually
produced at the price given below, after that of
the original estimate. It should be added that
the actual publisher, not the person who sent in
his “charges,” was in each case a fit and proper
person, and that the books were produced in the
best possible style of print and paper.
First case.—Estimate for printing, paper,
and binding ... ... ... 378
Actual sum paid for produc-
tion ... . . . . . . . ... 38
Second case.—Estimate for printing, paper,
and binding 39.18O
Actual sum paid ... ... ... 8O
Third case.—Estimate for printing, paper,
and binding e tº ſº £220
Actual sum paid I 50
In the first case an overcharge was made of
£40, in the second an overcharge of £IOO, and
in the third of £70.
In the first case the author was saved 50 per
cent. On the first charge, in the second 55 per cent.,
in the third 32 per cent.
It seems, therefore, as if it were worth the
consideration of authors about to pay for their
own books, whether they should bring their
estimates to the Society before signing their
agreements.
II.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT.
The following letters have appeared in the
Times. That by Mr. Lancefield may be fairly
assumed to represent the Canadian view : that
by Mr. Daldy the answer of one who has long
worked upon the question. The subject has
been referred by the London Chamber of Com-
merce to a committee upon which the Society of
Authors is properly represented. The letters are
given at length for obvious reasons.
I.—To the Editor of the Times.
SIR,--I have only recently seen a letter
which appeared in your valuable paper some
time ago (May 3, 1894) from Mr. F. R. Daldy
on the question of Canadian copyright. Some of
Mr. Daldy's statements certainly require correc-
tion, as the views he set forth in his letter (which
letter, I understand, was printed in full in various
literary journals in England) place Canadians in
## p. 144 (#158) ############################################
144
THE AUTHOIR.
a most misleading and unfair light before your
readers.
In the first place, Mr. Daldy writes, he has
“reason to believe that Canada has asked the
Imperial Government to repeal all British Copy-
right Acts so far as it is included under them
and also to denounce Canada's connection
with the Berne Convention.” This is correct.
And why not P
The B.N.A. Act of 1867 gives Canada the right
to legislate on copyright, the same as on tariffs,
patents, &c. The Imperial Government allows
us to pass such laws as we please with regard, for
instance, to patents. We assert the same right
with regard to copyright, and we maintain our
position strengthened by the knowledge that every
argument is in our favour.
Mr. Daldy's second count deserves serious con-
sideration. Not content with referring sneeringly
to a royalty which the Canadian Government will
collect for those who refuse or neglect to secure
copyright in Canada as a “visionary” royalty, he
says “no consideration whatever has been shown
to artists and musical composers.” A serious
indictment, if true. But what are the facts P
I have before me the Canadian Copyright Act of
1889, passed unanimously by sº the House of
Commons and Senate of the Dominion of Canada,
but to which the Imperial Government refuses
sanction. This Act enacts that “Any person
domiciled in Canada or in any part of the British
possessions who is the author of any
book, map, chart, or musical or literary composi-
tion, or of any original painting, drawing, statue,
sculpture, or photograph, or who invents, designs,
etches, engraves, or causes to be engraved, etched,
or made from his own design any print or engra-
ving, and the legal representatives of such person
or citizen,” may secure copyright in Canada for
twenty-eight years. It would appear from this
that Mr. Daldy is either grossly ignorant on this
question of Canadian copyright, or that he is
deliberately misrepresenting the action of the
Canadian Government, presumably in order to
create and foster ill-feeling in England.
Again, Mr. Daldy says “that it is no more
difficult for Canadian than for United States
publishers to enter into contracts with authors
and artists direct.” Very nice in theory, but
under present conditions practically impossible to
put into practice. Why? Because the United
States publisher, in nine cases out of ten, when
buying the market for a new book, insists on
Canada being included.
The Canadian people, therefore,
present the satisfaction (?) of seeing their market
quietly handed over by the British author or
publisher to alien United States publishers.
have at
Surely you cannot blame us for making an
earnest, decided, emphatic protest against such a
practice. Canadians are not surprised at the
alien United States publishers insisting on the
Canadian market being included. That is their
business—to get all they can, and more, too, if
possible. But we are surprised at the British
authors and publishers conceding to the demand
of the United States publishers. And we are doubly
surprised that the British authors and publishers
are our principal opponents when we ask the
Imperial Government for such legislation as will
enable us to say to the United States publishers,
“You cannot control the Canadian market except
on our own terms.”
We are proud of the fact that we are part and
parcel of the great British Empire. The recent
conference of Colonial delegates at Ottawa proves
that we are alive to our responsibilities to the
Empire. I submit that it is not an edifying
spectacle to witness many of our brethren in
England making desperate and, as I have shown,
unfair attempts to create prejudice against us in
our efforts to secure our book market from the
grasp of alien publishers.
In any case we intend to expose such attempts
and to persist in our agitation, as we are con-
vinced that the Imperial Government must soon
see the justness of our case and grant the relief
asked for. -
Mr. Daldy signs himself “Hon. Secretary of
the [British PJ Copyright Association.” Very
many are apt to look upon him as an authority
on copyright. I have already shown that his
statement as to no consideration whatever being
shown by the Canadian Government to artists
and musical composers is untrue. He is equally
unreliable when he tries to frighten British
authors and artists by the statement that if the
British Government yields to the Canadian
demand the English relations on copyright with
the United States would be upset. Mr. Daldy's
argument, then, is that justice must be denied
Canada because, if granted, English copyright
arrangements with the United Sta'es will suffer.
What utter nonsense !
But Mr. Daldy reaches the height of absurdity
when he gravely asserts that “the United States
Government made the consent of Canada that
American copyright should run in that Dominion
a leading condition of their conceding it to the
British nation.”
This is news to us in Canada. Our consent
was never asked to any such agreement. The
British Government could not give the consent of
Canada without first securing that consent.
Neither the British Government, Mr. Daldy, nor
the Copyright Association he represents need
## p. 145 (#159) ############################################
THE AUTHOR,
I 45
think that Canada will recognise any arrange-
ment without first consenting thereto.
Mr. Daldy knows, without being told, that the
day has gone by when the consent of Canada to a
question so important as this of copyright can be
taken for granted before formally securing said
consent through the usual diplomatic channels.
Thanking you for granting me space,
I remain, Sir, yours in the bonds of Imperial
Unity, RICHARD T. LANCEFIELD.
Public Library, Hamilton, Canada September.
II.—To the Editor of the Times.
SIR,--The charges brought against me in
Mr. Lancefield’s letter, published by you on
the 11th inst., require, I think, an answer so
far as the subject-matter of them is concerned,
though I must respectfully decline to take more
notice than is necessary of his personalities.
He says, “I have placed Canadians in a most
misleading and unfair light before your readers.”
I certainly had no desire to do this, and I hope
the following observations will satisfy your
readers that I have not done so.
He admits that Canada has asked the Imperial
Government to repeal all British Copyright Acts
so far as they include that Dominion, and says
Canada has the right to legislate on copyright
under the British North American Act of 1867.
If Canada has that right, why ask England's
help ? Lord Selborne and Lord Herschell, when
at the Bar, on Nov. 7, 1871, advised the Copy-
right Association that the above legislative
authority “ has reference only to the exclusive
jurisdiction in Canada of the Dominion Legisla-
ture, as distinguished from the Legislatures of
the provinces of which it is composed,” and they
further said that the “Imperial Act 5 & 6 Wict.
c. 45 (our principal Copyright Act), is still in
force in its integrity throughout the British
dominions.” This view is corroborated by the
decision in “Smiles v. Belford ” of the Supreme
Court of Upper Canada and the opinions of
recent law officers of the Crown.
Mr. Lancefield objects to my reference to the
way in which Canada collects, or neglects to
collect, the royalty due to British and Colonial
authors under the Imperial Act of 1847 and the
Canadian Act of Aug. 1850, approved by
Imperial Order in Council made Dec. 12, 1850.
Perhaps he will not be suprised to hear that this
royalty has only been spasmodically collected,
although the Act was passed for Canada's benefit,
and she undertook to make the collection. It is
notorious that many books were imported by
Canada without payment of this royalty, and I
have before me now a correspondence showing
that a copyright owner, who was entitled to
royalty since 1883, had to send an agent to
Canada, who traced one payment in 1885, but
the customs authorities in Canada could not
even then discover the collection of royalty on
any other occasion, although the work had been
largely circulated throughout the Dominion
before that time. The first payment of this
royalty, not in full, but “on account,” was not
received by the copyright owner till 1889. Can
Mr. Lancefield be surprised at the incredulity of
English authors as to her honestly carrying out
her engagements?
Mr. Lancefield quotes from the Canadian Act
of 1889 to prove that artists have received due
consideration. He quotes the 4th section of that
Act, but omits any reference to the 5th, which
says the condition of obtaining copyright under
the Act is that such artistic work shall be repro-
duced in Canada within one month of production
elsewhere. Hence, to obtain copyright under the
Canadian Act, Sir F. Leighton, or any artist,
must go to Canada and reproduce his picture
there within a month of publication here. A new
opera must be represented there within the same
time. Am I right in saying “no consideration
whatever has been shown to artists and musical
composers ?” Is it not a mockery to offer copy-
right on such terms?
Mr. Lancefield says Canadian publishers cannot
acquire copyright from British authors because
United States publishers buy the Canadian
market with the American market. Why does
not the Canadian purchaser come forward first
and buy the two markets P It is all a matter of
commercial competition. Mr. Lancefield seems
to think authors hand over their works to United
States publishers by preference. What they
prefer, and what they are entitled to, is the best
price for the two intermixed markets, because it
is against their interests to sell either separately.
This arises from American, not British, legisla-
tion. Mr. Lancefield cannot expect authors to
forego the value of their copyrights in America
merely to help Canadian reprinters to get the
printing of them. Let Canadian printers come
forward earlier, before American arrangements
are made, and buy both markets.
I regret to say American copyright for British
authors is jeopardised by the apprehension of
our allowing Canadian printers to reprint copy-
right books without the author's sanction, and
that on most trustworthy authority.
Perhaps my observation about the consent of
Canada as to American copyright running there
is rather unfortunately worded, as of course her
consent was not required. The facts are that
the United States Government asked if American
## p. 146 (#160) ############################################
I46
THE AUTHOR.
copyright ran in all British possessions, and, on
Lord Salisbury assuring the United States
Government that it did, the United States
Government issued its proclamation giving the
authors, &c., of “Great Britain and the British
possessions” copyright throughout the United
States. (See United States Papers, No. 3 (1891),
Correspondence on United States Copyright
Act.)
I am glad to find Mr. Lancefield proud of
Imperial unity. Will he, in obedience to its
requirements, advocate “copyright unity” as far
as we are able to promote it? The laws of copy-
right are too much mixed up with the commercial
handling of copyright property. The one gives
the title to the property; the other utilises it to
the best advantage.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
FREDERIC R. DALDY.
Aldine House, Belvedere.
III.-LITTLETON ET AL. v. OLIVER DITSON Co.
The inclosed judgment from one of the circuit
courts in Massachusetts, supporting the decision
recently published on musical copyright, may be
of interest to the readers of the Author :
LITTLETON ET AL. 27. OLIVER DITSON CO.
(Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts. Aug. 1, 1894.)
No. 3065.
Copyright—Musical compositions—Manufacture
in United States.
The proviso in sect. 3 of the Copyright Act of
March 3, 1891, that “ in the case of a book,
photograph, chromo, or lithograph,” the two
copies required to be delivered to the librarian
of Congress shall be manufactured in this country,
does not include musical compositions published
in book form, or made by lithographic process.
THIs was a suit by Alfred H. Littleton and
others against the Oliver Ditson Company for
infringement of copyrights.
Lauriston L. Scaife for complainants.
Chauncey Smith and Linus M. Child for
defendant.
CoLT, Circuit Judge.—This case raises a new
and important question under the Copyright Act
of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. I IO6). The plaintiffs,
subjects of Great Britain, and publishers of
music, have copyrighted three musical compo-
sitions, two of which are in the form of sheet
music, and one (a cantata) consists of some ninety
pages of music bound together in book form, and
with a paper cover. Two of these pieces were
printed from electrotype plates, and one from
stone, by the lithographic process. The inquiry
in this case is whether a musical composition is a
book or lithograph, within the meaning of the
proviso in sect. 3 of the Act, which declares that in
the case of a “book, photograph, chromo, or litho-
graph " the two copies required to be deposited
with the librarian of Congress shall be manufac-
tured in this country.
The Act of March 3, 1891, is an amendment of
the copyright law then existing. The principal
change made is the extension of the privilege of
copyright to foreigners by the removal of the
restriction of citizenship or residence contained
in the old law, and hence it is sometimes called
“The International Copyright Act. Section I
relates to the subject-matter of copyright, and
delares that:
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 shall, upon
complying with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole
liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, &c.
Section 3 recites the conditions which must be
complied with, and says:
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, 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 paint-
ing, drawing, statue, statuary, 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 • OT
deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to
the librarian, 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, 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.
From the language of these provisions it seems
clear that “book” was not intended to include
“musical composition.” In the section which
enumerates the things which may be copyrighted,
“musical composition ” is mentioned as something
different from “book,” and we find this same dis-
tinction twice observed in the preceding part of
the section which contains the proviso. It is as
reasonable to suppose that “book” and “musical
composition ” were as much intended to refer to
different subjects as “map, chart, engraving,”
and other enumerated articles.
If Congress, in the proviso, had intended to
include a musical composition among those copy-
righted things which must be manufactured in
this country, it should have incorporated it in the
## p. 147 (#161) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I 47
list of things subject to this restriction. The
omission in the proviso of “musical composition,”
as well as of “map, chart, engraving,” and other
things before enumerated, is very significant, as
intimating that Congress never intended to extend
this provision to any of these articles. And so,
with respect to “lithograph,” if Congress had
intended to cover by that word a musical compo-
sition made by the lithographic process, it should
have expressed its meaning in clear and unam-
biguous terms, in view of the language used in
other portions of the statute.
If there is any doubt as to the meaning of the
statute, it is proper to examine the history of
legislation on this subject, in order, if possible, to
discover the intent of Congress. As the bill
passed the House of Representatives, this proviso
was limited to “book,” but when it reached the
Senate an amendment was offered and passed
extending the proviso to various other subjects of
Copyright, as “map, dramatic or musical compo-
sition, engraving, cut, print,” &c. A conference
committee was appointed, and a compromise was
agreed to enlarging the house provision by the
addition of “photograph, chromo, or lithograph,”
and the bill was finally passed in this form. In
the debate in the Senate, reference was made to
the fact that musical compositions had been
eliminated from the proviso. The first and funda-
mental rule in the interpretation of statutes is to
carry out the intent of the Legislature if it can
be ascertained, and I think an examination of
the proceedings in Congress shows that it was
intended to exclude musical compositions from
the operation of this proviso: (22 Cong. Rec.
pt. I, p. 32 ; pt. 3, pp. 2378, 2836; pt. 4,
p. 3847.)
“Book” has been distinguished from “musical
composition ” in the statutes relating to copy-
right since 1831 : (4 Stat. 436.) The specific
designation of any article in an act or series of
acts of Congress requires that such article be
treated by itself, and excludes it from general
terms contained in the same act or in subsequent
acts: (Potter, Dwar. St. pp. 198, 272; Homer v.
The Collector, I Wall. 486; Arthur v. Lahey,
96 U.S. 112 ; Arthur v. Stephani, Id. 125; Vietor
v. Arthur, IO4 U.S. 498.) If, in a popular
sense, and speaking particularly in reference to
form, “book” may be said to include a musical
composition, the answer to this proposition is
that where two words of a statute are coupled
together, one of which generically includes the
other, the more general term is used in a mean-
ing exclusive of the specific one : (Endl. Interp,
St. sect. 396; Reiche v. Smythe, 13 Wall. 162.)
The reasoning upon which this rule of specific
designation is based is that such designation is
WOL. W.
tions to the Survey of the Literature of the Reign.
expressive of the legislative intention to exclude
the article specifically named from the general
term which might otherwise include it: (Smythe
v. Fiske, 23. Wall. 374, 38o ; Reiche v. Smythe,
13 Wall. 162, 164.) The English cases cited by
the defendant to the effect that “book” includes
“ musical composition '' are not material in the
present controversy, because the statute law of
the two countries is different. The early English
statute of 8 Anne, c. 19, says, in the preamble,
“books and other writings,” while, in the modern
English statute (5 & 6 Wict. c. 45, s. 2), “book’’
is defined to include various specific things, as
“map, chart, sheet of music,” &c Nor do the
American cases cited (Clayton v. Stone, 2 Paine,
382, Fed. Cas. No. 2872 ; Scoville v. Toland,
6 West. Law J. 84, Fed. Cas. No. 12,553; Drury
v. Ewing, I Bond, 540, Fed. Cas. No. 4095) help
the defendant. In none of these cases has the
question ever been determined whether a musical
composition is a book. It must also be
remembered that the question now presented is
not strictly whether a musical composition can
ever be regarded as a book, but whether Congress
meant in the Act of March 3, 1891, to include
musical composition within the terms of the
proviso referred to. Nor do I think the dictionary
definitions of “book” render us much assistance,
because the word is used in so many different
senses. It may refer to the subject-matter, as
literary composition ; or to form, as a number of
leaves of paper bound together; or a written
instrument or document; or a particular sub-
division of a literary composition; or the words
of an opera, &c.
Looking at the natural reading of the statute,
the intent of Congress, and the rules which
govern the construction of statute law, I am of
opinion that the plaintiffs have complied with the
provisions of the Act of March 3, 1891, respect-
ing the three musical compositions complained of,
and that the defendant should be enjoined from
reprinting, publishing, or exposing for sale these
compositions, or any essential part of them, as
prayed for in the Bill.
Injunction granted.
IV.-ContLNUATION BY ANOTHER HAND.
The following advertisement appeared in the
New York Critic : -
MASTERPIECES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.-Entirely
New and Finely Illustrated Editions.—A History of Our
Own Times, from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the
General Election of 1880. By Justin McCarthy, M.P.
With an Introduction, and Supplementary Chapters bring-
ing the work down to Mr. Gladstone's Resignation of the
Premiership (March, 1894); with a New Index, and Addi-
By G.
P
## p. 148 (#162) ############################################
I48
THE AUTHOR.
Mercer Adam, author of “A Précis of English History,” &c.
Profusely illustrated with new half-tone portraits of states-
men and littérateurs. 2 vols., 12mo, handsome cloth,
$3.oo; or, in three-quarter calf, $5.00. Popular edition,
2 vols., 12mo., without illustrations, cloth, $1.50.
This advertisement was forwarded on to the offices
of the Society by Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P.
Mr. McCarthy is indignant, and very naturally so,
at the course the American publishers have
thought fit to adopt, and all persons who are
interested in the maintenance of literary property
will no doubt support Mr. McCarthy's view as
strongly.
The work was published prior to the American
Copyright Act, and therefore fell a lawful prey to
the American reproducer.
It has been selling in America for some years
past in a cheap paper-bound edition.
The author may perhaps have felt hurt that a
work, the outcome of his brain, should be so
freely circulated without bringing him in any-
thing, but in those days, when books were pub-
lished in England, the author produced his work
with his eyes open to the possible consequences.
But here insult has been added to injury, and
Mr. McCarthy’s work has not only been appro-
priated, but has also received the honour of an intro-
duction, and several additional chapters to bring
it up to date, from the pen of G. Mercer Adam.
Surely it would have been an easy and
courteous matter for the publisher to have written
a line to the author or his English publisher to
ask whether he had any views as to the continua-
tion of the work. -
Neither Messrs. Chatto and Windus nor Mr.
McCarthy have had a line of notice, and the
advertisement of the book in its present American
form was the first intimation of what had taken
lace.
It is needless to say that there is no legal
remedy, as the pnblishers have in their adver-
tisement fully owned up to the additional chapters
and their authorship. If this had not been done,
but the work with added matter had been
published under Mr. McCarthy's name—a pro-
ceeding which has been known to take place with
the works of other English authors—he might,
perhaps, have had, some remedy under the
American case quoted in last month's Author,
p. 117, and the question might have been discussed
under the law of trade marks and misleading the
public.
It is not worth while going into this side of the
question, as even this point is doubtful. The
American publisher has avoided this difficulty by
openly avowing the facts. .
But the unfortunate author, who has for some
time been meditating the completion of his work,
has had the American market taken away from
him.
Since the above was written Mr. McCarthy’s
publishers, Messrs. Chatto and Windus, have
received a letter from the American publisher,
printed below. This letter bears out all the
points put forward above, and explains how little
regard is shown for the author and originator of
a work, and how little thought or care may be
bestowed upon the simple and familiar process
of using for a man’s own profit the work of
another man's brain—especially when there is
no fear of legal consequences.
Oct I I, 1894.—Dear Sirs, I am in receipt of your letter
of the 1st. Oct., and am somewhat surprised that your
remonstrance on behalf of the author of the “History of
Our Own Times” should be addressed to us for issuing a
continuation of the work. There are any number of editions
of this work, which is not copyrighted, published in this
country, and, therefore, it appears to me your remonstrance
for continuing a non-copyright work is extremely ill-founded.
Had I known that Mr. McCarthy intended to write a con-
tinuation of his work, I should, of course, have been much
pleased to have negotiated with him or his publishers for the
American copyright, but under all the circumstances I can-
not think that I have dome either him or you such an injury
as entitles you to write me in the way you have, and I remain,
—Yours very truly, CHARLEs W. Gould, Receiver.—
Messrs. Chatto and Windus.
-*--~~~~~
--------
LETTER FROM PARIS.
AM writing this on the eve of my return to
Paris, in a room full of the disorders of
departure. The weather is so fine that it
might be July rather than mid-October, and the
sea is still very tempting for long and hazardous
swims. But the vines are all leafless in my
garden, and in the fields around the Indian corn
has been harvested ; and, after all, as go one must,
it is better to leave the country with a good im-
pression and under smiling circumstances, than to
outstay Nature's welcome and see in the farewell
moment, a sullen face.
“It is two days since we returned to Paris, and
though my Parisienne is delighted to find her-
self in her town once more, my little Edmée
and I continue to regret the golden horizons of
our peaceful Champrozay.” So writes Alphonse
Daudet to me. In the same letter he says that he
wishes to converse with me about “la perfide
Albion,” which he has never seen, but wishes to
visit before he “passes his rifle to the left.” I
should not be surprised if, as a result of our con-
versation, he were to pay a visit to England ere
long.
In looking over Daudet’s “Lettres de Mon
Moulin’” the other day, I came across a quotation
from his favourite Montaigne, which he applies
## p. 149 (#163) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I49
to his friend the Provençal poet, Mistral. It
occurred to me that the advice is so good, that for
those of our readers who do not know, it may well
be here reproduced : “Souvienne-vous de celuy
à qui comme on demandoit à quoy faire il se
peinoit si fort, en un art qui me powvoit venir à la
cogmoissance de guére des gens. J'en ay assez de
peu, repondict-il. J'en ay assez d’un. J'em ay
assez de pas un.” No better consolation could be
found by the man of letters, who, doing his best,
does not secure a success of popularity. But he
must do his best. He must peiner fort.
A group of distinguished Frenchmen were the
other day discussing in my presence the young
littérateur of to-day, who, after setting forth
some great idea for a book, will add, with a sigh,
“If only some publisher would give me an order
for it.” It never occurs to him to write the book,
for the sake of writing it, with the conviction
that when written it will surely find both a pub-
lisher and a public.
We were all surprised to read Mallarmé's name
in connection with the proposal that the State
should inherit all lapsed copyrights and republish
books for the general profit. Surprised, because
of all living men of letters, Stephane Mallarmé is
perhaps the one who has ever least troubled
about the property side of literature. His own
magnificent writings he printed at his own
expense, in a most luxurious fashion, for himself
and a very few friends. He has probably never
received a sum of forty pounds, all reckoned,
from the publishers.
The proposal seems an ill-considered one.
Fancy what a bitter stepmother the State, moved
by odious political considerations, would be
towards the work of certain authors. The power
granted by this proposal, if it were carried into
effect, would be tantamount to one of life and
death, and the immortality, after which most
writers strive as their highest and best reward,
would be at the disposal of Government officials.
With what glee would these censors condemn
to obscurity the works of all those whose opinions
clashed with the opinions which the Government
desired to promulgate, and how lavishly would
the writings of Prudhomme and Company be
spread abroad
One power might, to my thinking, be granted
to the Government, namely, the right of levying
on the profits of those who publish an author's
works after the copyright in these has become
public property, a trifling sum, sufficient to keep
the grave of this author in decent and respectable
order. If out of all the money which the pub-
lishers have gained by publishing Oliver
Goldsmiths's works a few pounds had thus been
exacted, London would not to-day have the
WOL. W.
shame of Goldsmith’s abandoned and ruined
grave, which anyone may see in the Temple, and
blush at our English sordidness.
The De Maupassant memorial subscription,
which had never attained a figure in any way com-
mensurate to the very modest requirements of the
committee, was handsomely increased the other
day by a donation of £200, subscribed by a person
who expressed a wish to remain unknown. Poor
De Maupassant seems to have passed into
oblivion. His books are little asked for, and the
dealers in the photographs of celebrities have
ceased to keep his portrait in stock. One dies
fast in these days.
Poor Henry Hermann. He spent some years
in France, and was at one time the collaborator
of D. C. Murray. His forte was in the creation
of plots, but he was less successful in delineation
of character, description, and elaboration. Owing
to an infirmity of the eyes he was forced to
dictate to a secretary, and would grow quite
excited as he dictated. “That’s literature, my
boy,” he would exclaim, after composing some
passage which pleased him particularly. When
I knew him he had fallen on penurious days, and
it was mournful enough to see so old a man, who
had been so liberal in his days of fortune, often
worried for the wherewithal to pay his rent or to
buy his dinner. His courage, his industry, his
cheerfulness of spirits were unflagging, and an
excellent example.
. It occurs to me that we of the Society of
Authors might subscribe the trifling sum neces-
sary for restoring Goldsmith’s grave. The whole
expense would barely exceed £20, so that one
hundred admirers, at four shillings each, could put
the matter right. -
I was interested in Mr. Hill's suggestion for a
new form of paper for the typewriter, because a
few days before the Author for last month came
into my hands I had had exactly the same idea.
I admit that I had not thought of the double
roller for duplicating purposes. On reflection,
however, I had come to the conclusion that the
loss of time in cutting the length of paper, after
it had been written on, into suitable takes, would
be greater than the time lost at present in filling
the machine with the sheets as supplied by the
manufacturers. Certainly for the writer who
prides himself on great production it would be
pleasant, on rising from his machine, to see
coiled on the floor, say eight yards of copy, but
the coils might be cumbersome, and I can even
imagine a fin de siècle Laocoon writhing in the
embrace of a paper serpent. As it is, the type-
writer produces too fast for a man to use it for
his best work, and it is only by careful revision that
typewritten copy can be made fairly prºble
P
## p. 150 (#164) ############################################
150 THE
AUTHOR.
One would accordingly prefer to hear of the inven-
tion of a drag or break to check its speed. At
times, certainly, where speed is the requisite, the
machine renders excellent service. One remembers
T. P. O'Connor’s “Life of Parnell,” which was
produced so quickly; and I myself, on a day when
I was very hard pressed, achieved 25,000 words
of a translation in twelve hours.
Léon Daudet’s “Les Morticoles '' is now in its
seventeenth edition, of a thousand copies to the
edition. This mean £400 to the good already,
apart from royalties to come, both from further
editions and from republication in the provincial
papers. As Léon is only twenty-seven years of
age he may be said to have enjoyed exceptional
good fortune. I know of no French writer of
standing whose début can, in point of success, be
compared to his. We will not speak of Xavier de
Montépin, who from the age of twenty mever
made less than two thousand a year, because we
do not consider him a writer.
A circumstance of which we English may be
proud is that of all foreign novelists it is our
great George Meredith who is most esteemed by
the French. I don’t mean to say that his works
have a large sale in France, but I can vouchsafe
the fact that the cultured who know English have
his books, and that those who cannot read English
are always glad to hear him discussed. His name
is constantly referred to in the literary papers, and
he is very evidently an influence in France. Does
George Meredith know this P. There is also great
curiosity about Thomas Hardy, and at the
Authors’ Club dinner to M. Zola last year, Zola
told me that he should advise Charpentier to
arrange for a French translation of Hardy’s
works. I believe that a French publisher who
would produce a cheap edition of translations from
our best English authors would make money.
The French are sick of pornography, and are
hungering for more solid fare. Young Léon's
success is a proof of this. Unfortunately the
French writers who know English so perfectly as
to be able to give an adequate version of Meredith
say, or Hardy, are very few ; on the other hand,
French publishers do not care to pay anything
like a fair price for translation. Eight pounds,
or, in a liberal moment, ten, are considered a fair
price for translating an ordinary novel. Hachette
bought “David Copperfield” for twenty pounds,
and paid the translator a similar sum, and this
was a great event in hackdoms
Translating is good exercise for writers who
are afflicted with the knowledge of other
languages than their own. I use the word
“afflicted ” advisedly, for it is an established fact
that the linguist never writes his own language
as well as the writer who knows no other tongue
*-- -
He loses the sense of value of words, he falls into
curious constructions, and may even, unconsciously
be guilty of laches in grammar. In translating he
has to pull himself together, to strive after the
genius of his own tongue, to remember its charac-
teristics, forgotten in the Babel of his brain.
Amongst recent publications I notice a volume
of essays by Maurice Barrés, chez Charpentier.
It is entitled “Du Sang, de la Volupté et de la
Mort.” Well, well, well
RoBERT H. SHERARD.
*-- ~ *
“DISCOUNT PRICES.” IN 1852.
HE frugal book-buyer will have noticed that
for some time past attempts have been
made by publishers, not by any means of
the smaller sort, to abolish the system of “dis-
count prices.” This question is not to be re-
garded as a formal business detail, affecting “the
trade ’’ alone, it is closely connected with authors’
and readers’ rights, and it seems not unlikely
that a serious controversy may ensue upon this
movement in the book trade. As the whole
question was raised and discussed some forty
years ago, it may be profitable to follow in some
details the features of the older crisis. The
practice of booksellers giving discount off
publishers' prices was first commented on at
the beginning of this century, and increased with
the improvement in communications, till in 1848
a Booksellers’ Association was formed to counter-
act it. The prime movers in the scheme were
not retail booksellers but publishers, and they
were supported by nearly the whole body of book-
sellers and publishers in London. In July, 1851,
a stringent agreement was entered into ; the sub-
scribing publishers, bound themselves to supply
books at trade price to members of the Asso-
ciation only; the booksellers agreed not to give
more than IO per cent. discount to private
Customers, or 15 per cent. to book societies. The
trade discount being admittedly 33 per cent. on
an average, it is evident that a considerable pro-
fit was left for the booksellers. Anyone offending
systematically against the regulations was to be
expelled. The rule worked laxly from the first,
for on the one hand members put a loose inter-
pretation on the word systematically, and gave as
much as 20 per cent. discount to large purchasers,
without incurring the displeasure of the Associa-
tion. Occasionally, however, the severest
measures were taken against offending mem-
bers, and, finally, one case threw the whole
of the trade into a ferment. One member, an
importer of American books, thought it would be
## p. 151 (#165) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
151
*:
more profitable, instead of disposing of his wares
to “the trade” at the customary large discount,
to sell directly to the public, charging them cost
price, plus a percentage for profits. The matter
was taken up by the Association, and the member,
proving contumacious, was expelled (Jan. 1852).
In his fall, however, he had with him the
sympathies of the public and of part of the
trade. Hereupon a fierce newspaper war sprung
up, the Times and the Westminster Review
particularly taking up the cause of the rebellious
Associates in the public interest. Such was the
heat of the quarrel that the “trade” became
anxious, for their own sakes, to patch it up, and
: was resolved to submit the matter to arbitra-
1Oll.
Lord Campbell, George Grote, and Dean
Milman were selected as arbitrators “for the
purpose of deciding whether the Booksellers'
Association should be carried on under its then
regulations or not, it being understood that the
decision of Lord Campbell and the other literary
gentlemen should be binding on the Committee,
who agreed, if the decision were adverse, to
convene the trade and resign their functions”
(April 8).
The arbitrators first met on the 15th of
the same month, but the Association had it all
its own way on that occasion, their opponents
absenting themselves on the ground that they
had been summoned only at the last moment;
or, in some cases, that compromise was out of the
Question. Lord Campbell refusing to sum up when
only one side had been heard, the meeting was
adjourned till May 17. Meanwhile, on May 8, a
meeting was held at the rebellious member's house,
with Charles Dickens in the chair, in opposition to
the Association, when Lord Campbell, George Grote,
and Dean Milman were selected as arbitrators
(April 8). The Times report of this meeting is
curious to read. The great novelist, in opening the
proceedings, said that at first he had been disin-
clined to associate himself with the agitation, as
it appeared to be purely a booksellers' question,
but that he had acceded, seeing that a
principle was at stake on which he felt very
strongly : “that every man should have free
exercise of his thrift and enterprise.”
Mr. Babbage (the “tabulator,”) appeared as the
champion of “Manchester Chum,” and wanted to
know why books should be excepted from the
beneficent operation of Free Trade, and moved a
resolution accordingly. Tom Taylor, “speaking as
a book-worm, a mere consumer of books, inclined
to think that the booksellers must follow the
farmers, and give in to Free Trade. Professor
Owen, seconded by Professor Lankester, put a
resolution, which was unanimously passed, that the
regulation of retail prices acted unfavourably by
adding to the already high prices of books on
science, which have a limited circulation. George
Cruikshank had no practical suggestion to make,
he merelv enjoined peace and goodwill.
Mr. Dickens' letter, conveying the resolutions,
was laid before the arbitrators, when proceedings
were resumed to listen to the case against the
Association.
The able summing-up of Lord Campbell on
behalf of the arbitrators affords a convenient
summary of the views prevalent on either side.
He thought the regulations enforced by the
Association to be primá facie unreasonable, since
to fix the price at which the retailer was to sell
was a derogation from the right of ownership
which he had acquired. Again, the regulations
were said to be voluntary, but he believed, and
had been assured by correspondents among the
retailers, that they were not effective without
coercion, which took the form of refusing to
supply to non-members, and thus preventing
them from earning a living. The advocates of
the existing system had admitted that in order
to prove the justice of the regulations, it would
have to be shown that bookselling was different
from other trades, and had attempted this by
saying that the authors were protected (by the
Copyright Acts) and so should the dealers be.
Lord Campbell pointed out that the only pro-
tection given to authors was that which the law.
gave to property of every description. What
weighed most with him, he said, was the peculiar
mode in which the wares in the book trade was
distributed. There was, no doubt, a great advan-
tage to literature in the existence of respectable
book shops all over the country, and, doubtless,
their practice of having books in stock for
inspection, which under a system of unlimited
competition they might not be able to keep up,
often produced purchases that would otherwise
not have been thought of. He hoped, however,
that the lessening of profits would be accom-
panied by enhanced sales, and so by greater
prosperity in the trade. It had also been asserted
that although the removal of the regulations
might not affect the sale of works by well-known
writers, “that the meritorious, but second-rate,
could not without a law against underselling, be
ushered into the world.” Even so, said Lord
Campbell, we should deny the justice of aiding
dull men at the expense of men of genuis. -
“For these reasons,” said the arbitrators, “we
think that the attempt to allege the alleged
exceptional nature of the commerce in books has
failed, and that it ought to be no longer carried on
under present regulations. We do not intend to
affirm, however, that excessive profits are received
## p. 152 (#166) ############################################
I 52
THE AUTHOIR.
in any branch of the bookselling trade. . . .
We likewise wish it to be distinctly understood
that our disapproval of the “regulations °
extends only to the pretension of the publisher
to dictate the terms on which the retail book-
seller shall deal in his own shop, and to the means
adopted for enforcing the prescribed minimum
price. They add further: “The publishers are
not bound to trust anyone whom they believe to
be sacrificing his wares by reckless underselling.”
Within ten days from this decision the associa-
tion was dissolved, and the practice of giving 2d.
in the shilling discount for cash became imme-
diately widespread. It seems not improbable that
the facility thus afforded was one of the prime
factors in the weakening of the credit system,
which up till then held nearly all retail transac-
tions in its enervating grasp.
*- - -
NOTES AND NEWS,
R. SHERARD in his Letter from Paris
suggests that the members of the Society
should themselves subscribe to repair the
tomb of Goldsmith. He estimates that £20 would
cover the expense. If members between them
will guarantee that sum an estimate shall be
made. Perhaps a single member would be willing
to pay the whole amount—it is not a great sum—
and it would be a service to the honour of
literature. Perhaps twenty would guarantee one
pound each. Anyhow, I hereby invite the readers
of the Author to send me a promise, not a cheque,
of so much if necessary; and then I will try to
ascertain what is wanted to be done and what it
would cost, and whether the new Master of the
Temple would give his consent to the thing
being done in this way.
It is late to speak of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
But it is impossible for the Author to appear,
even three weeks after his death, without a word.
Our words shall not be many. Holmes was one
of the very few authors who enjoyed the personal
love of all his readers. Greater writers there
are still living—greater poets, greater novelists,
greater essayists. There are none who live so
deeply in the affections of their readers. This
kind of influence is a gift; it cannot be acquired
or learned, or imitated. How many—how few—
living writers possess this gift P. In Holmes’s
Case it was accompanied, or caused, by a
singularly sunny and cheerful disposition. He
neither spoke ill, nor thought ill, of anybody.
The little spitefulnesses which so largely enter
into the literature of many writers, and effectually
deprive them of personal charm, were entirely
wanting in Holmes. He was the Goldsmith of
his age. -**-*-
The following is from the biography of Froude
in the Times of Oct. 22 : -
“Froude could not refrain from a
few incidental thrusts at the insincerity which,
according to him, is the besetting sin of the
clergy of all denominations. It so happened
that just about this time his friend and brother-
in-law, Charles Kingsley, was resigning the chair
of Modern History at Cambridge, and in his
farewell discourse denounced historians for their
partisanship, carelessness, and habitual mis-
representation. The opportunity was too good
to be lost, and an academical wit, said to be the
present Bishop of Oxford, circulated some lines
here which, though well remembered in University
circles, have not often been printed, and may
therefore be quoted here:—
While Froude assures the Scottish youth
That persons do not care for truth,
The Reverend Canon Kingsley cries
“All history's a pack of lies.”
What cause for judgment so malign f
A little thought may solve the mystery;
For Froude thinks Kingsley a divine,
And Kingsley goes to Froude for history.”
The following verses have also been recovered
by the writer of the paper in the Times. They
are by Froude, and appeared in Fraser's
Magazine for May, 1862. They were written
to his wife:—
Sweet hand that held in mine,
Seems the one thing I cannot live without,
The soul’s own anchorage in this storm and doubt,
I take them as the sign.
Of sweeter days in store,
For life and more than life when life is done,
And thy soft pressure leads me gently on
To Heaven’s own Evermore.
I have not much to say,
Nor any words that fit such fond request;
Let my blood speak to them, and hear the rest,
Some silent heartward way.
Thrice blest the sacred hand,
Which saves e'en while it blesses; hold me fast;
Let me not go beneath the floods at last,
So near the better land.
Sweet hand that stays in mine,
Seems the one thing I cannot live without,
My heart's one anchor in life’s storm and doubt,
Take this and make me thine.
I suppose that, if the modern school of history
is right, the whole of English history will have
to be re-written, thanks to the newly recovered or
newly studied documents. The re-writing of
## p. 153 (#167) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I 53
history will afford excellent occupation to a good
many scholars now in their cradles. When one
considers the immense accumulations of other
historical documents — cuneiform bricks and
tablets, inscriptions in all languages under the
sun, letters, legal instruments, diaries, memoirs,
and autobiographies, it is clear that all history
will have to be re-written. As the public
libraries will then be numbered by thousands,
and as every library will have to take a copy of
every new history, it is certain that the historian's
lot will not be an unhappy one. Froude may
cease, under these circumstances, to be an
historical authority: so also may Macaulay,
Freeman, and several others. But Froude will
not cease to be a model of fine, picturesque, and
vigorous English.
There was a very pretty paper in the Spectator
of Oct. 20th, called “The Literary Advantages of
Weak Health.” The title was clumsy. It should
have been called “The Bridle of Theages.” This
bridle—as those who have read Plato's Dialogues
ought to know—was the ill-health which kept
Theages, the friend of Socrates, out of politics,
and constrained him to follow philosophy. On this
peg the writer points out very carefully how this
same bridle has constrained others besides Theages
to lead the retired life of meditation and experi-
ment. Among those thus bridled he mentions
Darwin, Pusey, J. A. Symonds among writers of
our time; and of past time, Virgil, Horace, Pope,
Johnson, Schiller, Heine, Pascal.
hand, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Milton,
Scott, Tennyson were all men of healthy consti-
tutions, and even more than the average strength.
It is certain that a sickly frame does not make a
good writer: it is also certain that some minds
work better in the retirement which ill-health
forces upon one, and the excitement of society
and social engagements cannot be good either for
one who pursues philosophy or for one who
cultivates imagination. One would not desire the
Bridle of Theages; still, if it is laid upon our
shoulders, we may remember how it has been
used by some as a stimulus for work.
America has her monuments sacred to literary
associations, and America, like England, is fond of
pulling them down and destroying them. The
cottage in which Edgar Allan Poe lived and
worked, at Fordham, is for sale with its grounds.
It is laid out in “4% city lots”—eligible lots,
because they are “on one of the main thorough-
fares of the ‘Greater New York,' within three
minutes' walk of the railroad and the electric
line, less than half an hour from Grand Central
Depôt, and in the midst of a growing popula-
On the other
tion.” The whole has been offered to a certain
literary man for 3500 dollars cash and 30OO
dollars mortgage. The literary man unfortu-
nately does not see his way to buy it.
A suggestion has been made in the New York
Critic that it would be a graceful thing for
editors of magazines to bring out occasionally a
“ consolation’ number, containing only papers
which had been rejected. But unless the
“consolation’’ number was of colossal dimensions
there would be no consolation, except to a few
dozen—and what are they among so many ?
They are an experimental people in Chicago.
They have started a publishing firm, of which
the directors are called “Author-Publishers,” a
double-barrelled name, which may mean either
that they are authors as well as publishers, or
that they are publishers of authors. We wait
for information on this point; also on the special
merits and methods of these publishers. But
they have certainly improved on our methods,
because they announce themselves as their own
literary agents. They conduct a literary bureau,
in which they offer to read, correct, and criticise
MSS.; to select—i.e., we suppose, to invent—
plots and dramatic situations; to aid in securing
publishers—other than themselves?—to explain
the meaning of agreements, cost of production,
royalties, &c.; to look after copyright, and other
useful things. In these pages I have always
given my advice in favour of getting the business
arrangements done by competent and trustworthy
agents. Therefore one cannot but wish success
to this agency. But that such an agency should
form part of a publishing business is quite a new
departure.
The following from the Century Magazine is a
dream of Poe concerning the future of magazines.
He does not venture to dream of a circulation of
more than 20,000. Yet it was a fine dream:—
Before quitting the Messenger I saw, or fancied I saw,
through a long and dim vista, the brilliant field for ambition
which a magazine of bold and noble aims presented to him
who should successfully establish it in America. I perceived
that the country, from its very constitution, could not fail
of affording in a few years a larger proportionate amount of
readers than any upon the earth. I perceived that the
whole emergetic, busy spirit of the age tended wholly to
magazine literature—to the curt, the terse, the well-timed,
and the readily diffused, in preference to the old forms of
the verbose and ponderous and the inaccessible. I knew
from personal experience that lying perdu among the
innumerable plantations in our vast Southern and Western
countries were a host of well-educated men peculiarly devoid
of prejudice, who would gladly lend their influence to a
really vigorous journal, provided the right means were taken
of bringing it fairly within the very limited scope of their
## p. 154 (#168) ############################################
I 54
THE AUTHOR.
observation. Now, I knew, it is true, that some scores of
journals had failed (for, indeed, I looked upon the best
success of the best of them as failure), but then I easily
traced the causes of their failure in the impotency of their
conductors, who made no scruple of basing their rules of
action altogether upon what had been customarily done
instead of what was now before them to do, in the greatly
changed and constantly changing condition of things. In
short, I could see no real reason why a magazine, if worthy
the name, could not be made to circulate among 20,000
subscribers, embracing the best intellect and education of
the land. This was a thought which stimulated my fancy
and my ambition. The influence of such a journal would be
vast indeed, and I dreamed of honestly employing that
influence in the sacred cause of the beautiful, the just, and
the true. Even in a pecuniary view, the object was a
magnificent one. The journal I proposed would be a large
octavo of 128 pages, printed with bold type, single column,
on the finest paper; and disdaining everything of what is
termed “embellishment” with the exception of an occasional
portrait of a literary man, or some well-engraved wood
design in obvious illustration of the text. Of such a journal
I had cautiously estimated the expenses. Could I circulate
20,000 copies at $5, the cost would be about $30,000,
estimating all contingencies at the highest rate. There
would be a balance of $70,000 per annum.
-º-º-º-º-
Are we really returning to our old love—fair
Poesy P. It almost seems so. Edition after
edition comes out of certain young poets—Le
Gallienne, Norman Gale, John Davidson, and a
few others. A few years ago they would have
had to pay for the production of their verse. Now,
it is to be hoped, the payment is on the other
side. It may be that the editions are very
small—anything else “may be ;” one thing remains
certain—that there is a revival of interest in new
poetry; new poets are talked about ; as for the
standard of modern verse, that is certainly high ;
it is to the credit of poets born in a less happy
time that they have handed down the lamp
trimmed and burning bright. Is it necessary,
one would ask, always to speak of young poets as
“minor poets P” Surely a great poet is not neces-
sarily one who produces long poems. The young
men do seem to confine themselves almost entirely
to short poems; but if these short poems can be
placed beside those of a “great '' poet, without
suffering from the comparison, surely they them-
selves must also be great. Certainly I have read
poems by one young poet at least which seemed
to me worthy of being placed beside anything.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe, in her book of
recollections, speaks of the limitations of literary
influence. She was disappointed at the apparent
failure of her books and papers—all of which had
a purpose—to move the hearts of people. What
are the limitations, if any, of literary influence #
Carlyle, for instance, has had an amazing in-
fluence upon the thought of the last fifty years.
His only limitation was in himself. He had a
message; he proclaimed it; then proclaimed it
again and again in book after book. When he
went outside that message nobody heeded him.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe exercised an
enormous influence over the whole English-
speaking world. The reason was that her book
was opportune; it came at a moment when every-
body was thinking and talking of the slavery
question. Sir John Seeley has exercised an
enormous influence, first in placing old truths
in new language, and next in making people
realise the growth and the grandeur of the
empire. The only limitation to his influence is
himself. So long as he has a thing to teach, we
shall listen. He gained that influence solely by
showing in his books that he was a teacher. There
is, in fact, no limitation at all to literary influence.
It is only the first step that is troublesome. One
has to persuade the world to listen, and one has
to be provided with something to teach the world.
This done, the rest is easy, and there is no bound
whatever to the extent of the influence which
follows. Of course, there is another point. The
teaching must be adapted to the time and to the
people. He who would preach Carlyleism in the
eighteenth century would presently sit down with
the sadness of one who feels that it really is no
use going on. And if “Uncle Tom's Cabin’” had
appeared in 1750, nobody would have read a work
so low and grovelling. Then, if one is not a
prophet, what is the good of advocating, preach-
ing, or arguing P Because it is always useful to
keep on teaching, however poorly or unsuccess-
fully, the things that people should learn,
because many things can only be taught by
long and patient repetition, and by many teachers
in different ways. And, again, no writer can
estimate or learn the influence which his own
work has possessed. Therefore, one may harm-
lessly assume that it has been world-wide, and
go on happy in that belief.
=ººº-
Another literary association. It is called the
“Rose Club,” and it owns an organ called “The
Briar Rose,” which appears every three months.
Members are privileged to send in three papers
every year for the editor's inspection and criti-
cism. A critical notice of members’ papers will
be published with every issue of “The Briar
Rose.” Members lucky enough to be accepted
are paid at the rate of two guineas for a story,
and one guinea for an essay. The first number of
“The Briar Rose” contains eighteen pages; two
stories, two essays, and a poem. There are no
critical notices in this number. The club is for
women only.
## p. 155 (#169) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I 55
Whatever Mr. Welch, Librarian to the Cor-
poration of London, says on the subject of Free
Libraries must be received with attention.
Therefore, the whole subject of Free Libraries
being most important and most interesting, I
have printed in another column the report of .
his recent address as given in the Times. For
my own part, I think he fails to recognise the
enormous educational value of fiction. It is from
novels that a very large section of the com-
munity derives its ideas, its standards, its
manners, its respect for literature, art, and
science. The Free Libraries may have been
founded on the conventional theory that every
reader is a student. This is not so ; every tenth
reader—perhaps every hundredth reader—is a
student; the rest are reading for amusement.
If Mr. Welch will look round the circle of his
own acquaintance and friends, how many will he
find who follow a hard day's work with a hard
evening's study? Perhaps, none. Why, then, does
he expect or hope to find this phenomenon among
working people P. It is in the power of every
library—it is the duty of every library—to keep
out trash, whether in the shape of novels or any
other kind of literature. But the theory that public
libraries should be maintained for students alone
cannot for a moment be allowed. They are educa-
tional and they are recreative. It is quite as useful
a function for the libraries to provide a hundred
men of the working class with an evening's
recreation as it is for them to find books of
reference for half a dozen students.
We must reserve until next month the autumn
announcements of American books. This list,
considered with care, will suggest many points of
interest. At present one only may be noted—
the proportion of English to American books. It is
impossible to escape the conclusion that the Copy-
right Act has given a great impetus to American
work. While English work could be had for
nothing, the American author in every branch
was fatally overweighted. This obstacle removed,
we begin to see what we expected—the great bulk
of the literature of the States written by their
own people, and only the exceptionally useful and
popular authors of this country being published
there. This proportion we may expect to find every
year greater in favour of American writers. At
the same time there will be found on both sides
of the Atlantic a great and always increasing
demand for the work of the first and best.
An analysis in advance of the list shows the
following numbers and comparative authorship :
History, thirty-three works; seven by English
writers, twenty-six by American.
Biographies and Memoirs, thirty-four works; ten
by English writers, twenty-four by American.
General Literature, forty-eight works; fourteen
by English writers, thirty-four by American.
Poetry, thirty-four works; seven by English
writers, twenty-seven by American.
Fiction, seventy-seven works; twenty-one by
English writers, fifty-six by American.
Art and Music, thirteen works; four by English
writers, nine by American.
Travel, Adventure, and Description, thirty-three
works; twelve by English writers, twenty-one
by American. -
Education and Text-book, eighty-five works; all
by American editors and writers.
Politics, Sociology, and Law, twenty-one works;
five by English writers, sixteen by American.
Theology and Religion, fifty-two works; sixteen
by English writers, thirty-six by American.
Science and Nature, thirty-six works; three by
English writers, thirty-three by American.
Mechanics and Engineering, twenty works; nine
by English writers, eleven by American.
Medicine and Hygiene, ten works; three by
English writers, seven by American.
Games and Sports, seven works;
English writers, four by American.
WALTER BESANT.
three by
SPRING TIME IN THE WIKING DAYS,
NORWAY.
SPRING and the sun are returning and winter is past; Aoi
The bonds he has flung round the earth are loosened at
last; Aoi
Soft blows the breeze o'er the mountain tops, melting the
Snow ;
Swoln are the rivers and, foaming and frothing, they flow
Seaward. Right weary are we of the land and it's, Oh
For the creak of the wind in the cordage aloft, and the
flap of the sale by the mast ! Aoi !
Seaward the breezes blow, bidding us idle no more, Aoi !
Curling and flecking with foam-flakes the wide ocean
floor. Aoi !
Earth was our sojourn awhile, but the sea is our
home.
Hark! how he calls us on viking-cruise over the foam,
As, surging and seething, he grinds at the beach. We
will roam,
And our longship no longer shall yearn for the waves,
as she frets high and dry on the shore. Aoi
Gather and run her down over the rollers of pine, Aoi !
Down to the foam-tossing breast of the welcoming brine. Aoi!
Upward to clasp her he flings his white arms in wild glee ;
Downward she plunges, till knee-deep we stand, with
the sea
Laughing and leaping and curling round ankle and knee.
Oh! sweeter the smell of the salt sea-waves than the scent
and the savour of wine ! Aoi !
From “Sagas and Songs of the Norsemen.”
- By ALBANY F. MAJOR
## p. 156 (#170) ############################################
I56
THE AUTHOR.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES,
N Thursday evening, Oct. 18th, a meeting
of the Library Association of the United
Kingdom was held at the Mansion-house,
when a paper was read by Mr. Charles Welch,
librarian to the Corporation of London, on “The
Public Library Movement in London; a review
of its progress, and suggestions for its consoli-
dation and extension.” Mr. Richard Garnett,
LL.D., presided, and delegates attended from
numerous public libraries in the metropolis.
Mr. Welch observed that it seemed at first that
London would vie with the great municipalities
in the kingdom in supporting free public libraries,
when, in 1857, only two years after the passing of
Ewart's principal Act, the parishes of St. Margaret
and St. John, Westminster, united to establish a
public library. Twenty-four years elapsed, how-
ever, before another library was started, this time
by the suburban parish of Richmond, to be
followed by Twickenham in 1882. The year of
her Majesty's jubilee gave a great impulse to
what had then become a popular movement, and
its subsequent progress inspired the hope that, in
spite of the remarkable obduracy of certain
parishes, the time was not far distant when every
district of our great metropolis would enjoy the
blessing of a well-stored library. Taking the
whole fifty-four divisions of the county of London,
they found that twenty-seven parishes, or divisions,
had established public libraries, while twenty-six
had hitherto declined to do so. In the remaining
district, Southwark, the divisions of St. Saviour
and Christ Church only had established libraries,
the remaining parishes having, up to the present,
held aloof from the movement. The City had
been provided by the Corporation of Londom with
an excellent reference library at Guildhall, and
had also been furnished, by endowment from
the City Parochial Charities Commission, with
three other admirable institutions in Bishops-
gate, Cripplegate, and St. Bride's, Fleet-
street, to which extensive lending libraries
were to be attached. With reference to the
prejudices in London against the movement,
beyond the question of any increase in
taxation there was a stronger and more deep-
seated objection, which was held very widely
among men of culture and lovers of good litera-
ture and loyal promoters of education. Their
opposition was based, not upon the principle under-
lying free library legislation, but upon its develop-
ments as seen in the present condition and manage-
ment of the public libraries throughout the
country. Having quoted from the debates during
the passage through Parliament of the measure
for establishing free public libraries, he said he
thought it would be clearly evident that the inten-
tion of Mr. Ewart himself, and of his supporters
in Parliament, was to provide for the education
and intellectual advancement of the people
and only in a subsidiary degree for their
“innocent recreation.” At the request, however,
of the editor of London, the librarians of seven-
teen free public libraries in the metropolis made
a return in April last, showing the classes of
books read in the homes of the people. From
this it appeared that the issue of fiction, as com-
pared with other classes of literature reached a
general average of 75 per cent., and in nine
districts over 80 per cent. of the total issues.
In connection with the management of the lending
libraries established under the Free Libraries
Acts in London, they were struck by the fact that
the student had been ousted from his rightful
place by the inordinate favour afforded to the
demands of the general reader and the devourer
of fiction. The principles of management which
had made possible the statistics which he had
brought under their notice had, he was convinced,
alienated from the free library cause in every
district the support of many friends of intel-
lectual progress, and were at present a serious
hindrance to the growth of the movement
in the metropolis. Would it be too much to
ask the novel reader to provide himself with the
current fiction of the day and resort to the library
for the masterpieces of fiction of the present and
bygone times P Should Parliament be approached
for permission to raise the limit of the library rate
to 2d. (a course which he thought seemed most
desirable), any such measures should undoubtedly
be accompanied by a compulsory proviso that a
definite proportion of the amount available for the
purchase of books should be devoted to the pur-
poses of a reference library. The present con-
dition of the free library movement in London,
and the erection of new libraries, which was
continually proceeding in every district, suggested
most strongly the need of some scheme for con-
verting this aggregation of institutions into a
systematic and harmonious system to provide for
the needs of the metropolis as a whole. The
popularity of the two existing free public libraries
—those of the British Museum and the Guildhall
—prove that similar institutions, placed in the
midst of the homes of the people, would prove a
boon of the highest kind. He felt most strongly
that the present haphazard system in which our
London libraries were growing up, owing to the
different extent and circumstances of the various
districts which maintained them, must end in
confusion, perhaps (in some cases) in partial or
complete failure; while, on the other hand, a
well-considered scheme of mutual help and effort,
## p. 157 (#171) ############################################
THE AUTHO/8.
I 57
the details of which might well be evolved from
a general conference of the metropolitan library
authorities, would result in placing London in a
position second to no city in the world in respect
of facilities for literary reference and research.
—The Times.
*— — —”
AUTUMN ANNOUNCEMENTS.
M*: SAMIPSON LOW AND CO.
announce twenty-five new books, to-
gether with several new volumesin Low’s
Half-Crown Series of Boy’s Books, and a half-a-
crown series of famous books of travel. Among
the new works are “The Life of J. Greenleaf
Whittier,” by S. T. Pickard ; “Lord John
Russell,” by S. J. Reid; “Strange Pages from
Family Papers,” by T. F. Thiselton Dyer; and
fourteen novels.
The Clarendon Press announce forty-seven
new works and editions. These are mostly works
of scholarship and education. Among them is
the final volume of “Realm of India,” “Russell
Colvin,” by Sir Auckland Colvin ; two more
volumes of Professor Skeat's edition of
Chaucer; two more letters of the New English
Dictionary; and Mr. Hastings Rashdall’s
“ Universities of the Middle Ages.”
Messrs. Rivington, Percival, and Co. announce
thirty-three works, nearly all are educational.
Among them is Canon Taylor's “Names and
their Histories.”
Messrs. Dent and Co. announce sixteen works,
chiefly reprints and new editions. Among the new
books are “Annals of a Quiet Valley in the
Wordsworth Country,” by Mr. William Watson;
“Overheard in Arcady,” by R. Bridges; and
“Studies in Literature,” by Mr. Wright
Mabie.
Messrs. T. and T. Clark announce ten new
works, all theological.
Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden announce
twelve new books, besides a reprint of Henry
Ringsley's novels, and a new volume of the
Waverley novels. Among the new books is Mr.
Douglas Sladen’s “On the Cars and Off”; Mr.
Bertram Mitford’s “Curse of Clement Wayn-
flete; ” and Mr. George Meredith’s “Tale of
Chloe.”
Mr. Elkin Mathews announces seventeen new
books, chiefly essays and poems. Among the
authors are Mr. Wedmore, Mr. Lionel Johnson,
Mr. Selwyn Image, Mr. Dowson, Mr. A.
Galton, Mr. S. Hemingway, Mr. Quilter, Mr. W.
B. Yeats, Mr. Rothenstein, Mrs. Radford, Mr.
Bliss Carmen, and Mr. R. Hovey. “Revolted
Woman: Past, Present, and to Come,” is by Mr.
C. G. Harper,
Messrs. Bemrose and Sons announce two
books.
Messrs. W. Blackwood and Sons announce
fifteen new books. Among them are three
biographies and five novels, including two by
Mrs. Oliphant, and the “Son of the Marshes.”
Messrs. Allen announce nine new works, inclu-
ding a book on the “Portuguese in India,” by
F. C. Danvers; on “Buddhism in Thibet,” by
Surgeon-Major Waddell; a Bengali Manual; new
volumes of the Naturalist's Library; and two
novels.
Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster announce mine
books. There are two novels by Mrs. Caird and
Miss Clementina Black; the continuation of the
“History of the United States Navy,” and a book
on Strikes.
Messrs. Nelson and Sons have eleven new
books, besides new prize books and atlases. The
most important are Dr. Wright's book on
Palmyra ; a new Concordance to the Bible, by
the Rev. J. B. R. Walker; the “Voyages and
Travels of Capt. Basil Hall,” and five stories.
Messrs. Luzac have four learned works.
Messrs. W. Andrews have seven works, mostly
antiquarian.
Messrs. Warne and Co. announce twenty-six
new editions or new works, without counting
many children’s books. Among the new editions
are the Waverley Novels, “Cameos of Litera-
ture,” which will be a reprint of Knight's famous
“Half Hours with the best Authors; ”a new library
edition of Wood’s “Dictionary of Quotations; ”
a revised edition of Lears “Nonsense Songs
and Stories; ” and four or five reprints of
novels.
Messrs. Jarrold and Sons announce eleven new
books; additions to certain series; the “Green-
back; ” “Elashes of Romance; ” and “Unknown
Authors; ” uniform editions of the novels of
Helen Mathers and Fergus Hume ; and their
novels outside the series.
Messrs. Skeffington and Co. announce fourteen
books, of which twelve are religious. There are
two novels.
Messrs. Browne and Browne, of Newcastle,
announce a “History of the Chartist Move-
ment.”
In the “Autumn Announcements” of our last
number we attributed to Messrs. Chapman and
Hall the production of fifteen new books. The
## p. 158 (#172) ############################################
I58
THE AUTHOR.
chairman of the company points out that they
are producing thirty-one instead of fifteen new
books. The mistake was caused by the
“announcements” of that firm being entered in
three different columns of the Athenaeum, of
which only one was seen by our compiler.
The complete list of thirty-one is exclusive of
new editions, nor does it include reprints of
“stock” books, such as Dickens, Carlyle, and
Meredith, of which an unusual number are this
year published.
In the October number of the Author it was
stated as remarkable that out of fifty-one books
announced by the Cambridge University Press
there should be not one mathematical or scientific
book among them all. The mathematical and
scientific books were in another list. There are
twenty-four of them. Among them are the
seventh volume of the collected Mathematical
Papers of Arthur Cayley ; the Scientific Papers
of John Couch Adams; a Treatise on Spherical
Astronomy, by Sir Robert Ball; on Electricity
and Magnetism, by Prof. Thomson ; on Hydro-
dynamics, by Prof. Lamb; the tenth volume of
a Catalogue of Scientific Papers, compiled by the
Royal Society of London; the Practical Phy-
siology of Plants, by F. Darwin and E. H. Acton;
on a Practical Morbid Anatomy, by H. O.
Rolleston and A. A. Kanthack ; on the Dis-
tribution of Animals, by F. E. Beddard; on
Physical Anthropology, by Alexander Mac-
alister; and the Elements of Botany, by F.
Darwin.
In this and in the last number of the
Author we have classified the announcements
made in the Athenæum by various publishers of
their autumn books. The list seems somewhat
smaller than that of last year, which was to be
expected from the general depression everywhere
reported. At the same time not so much
shrinkage in production as shrinkage in sales
would be the first result of such a depression.
Almost all the better known names are repre-
sented in the list. For instance, of historians,
Critics, travellers, philosophers, and antiquaries,
we find the names of Canon Atkinson, Rev. Robert
Burn, Justin McCarthy, T. F. Thiselton Dyer,
W. Cunningham, Archdeacon Farrar, J. T.
Jusserand, Dean Hole, Frederick Harrison, Pro-
fessor Freeman, Professor Froude, Professor
Gardiner, Canon Liddon, Max Müller, Professor
Maspero, Henry Norman, Sir Frederick Pollock,
Professor Flinders Petree, Bishop of Peter-
borough, J. Addington Symonds, Sir J. R.
Seeley, Leslie Stephen, Colonel Malleson, John
Westlake, Robertson Smith, Professor Skeat,
Canon Taylor, H. Traill. Among the novelists
and poets there are, among others, Sir Edwin.
Arnold, Mrs. Alexander, F. Barrett, Amelie Barr,
Robert Barr, Walter Besant, William Black,
Clementima Black, R. D. Blackmore, Marion
Crawford, S. R. Crockett, Mrs. Caird, R.
Bridges, Mrs. Charles, Sir H. Cunningham,
Egerton Castle, Sarah Doudney, George du
Maurier, Conan Doyle, G. M. Fenn, Baring
Gould, Edmund Gosse, Dorothea Gerard, R.
Lehmann, G. Meredith, G. MacDonald, Christie.
Murray, John Oliver Hobbes, Anthony Hope,
Mrs. Lynn Linton, Helen Mather, L. Pendered,
W. E. Norris, Gilbert Parker, Standish O'Grady,
“Rita,” Adeline Serjeant, G. A. Sala, Hesba.
Stretton, Sarah Tytler, Stanley Weyman, Douglas
Sladen, William Watson. -
BOOK TALK,
R. R. B. MARSTON'S new work on.
“Walton and the Earlier Fishing
Writers ” (Elliot Stock, The Book
Lover's Library) will certainly add to his repu-
tation as an authority on the literature of the
angler, and will form an instructive companion
to the magnificent edition of “The Compleat.
Angler,” published by him some years ago.
From A.D. 1420, when Piers, of Fulham, wrote a
curious tract on the subject, through the works
of Dame Juliana Berners, Leonard Mascall
(pioneer of fish culture in England), Blakey,
John Denny, Gervase Markham, William Lawson,
and Cotton, down to the ever-famous work of
“Old Izaak,” Mr. Marston takes his readers
in the pleasantest manner possible. He tells us
that the “Compleat Angler” was published
originally in 1653 at the price of Is. 6d.
What is a first edition worth nowadays P. It
would appear that 3235 is about a fair figure,
though as much as 33 IO has been paid. In 1816.
a “first" could be bought for four guineas As
Mr. Marston pointedly asks, “What will such a
one be worth, say, in 1993 P” Not the least
interesting feature of an extremely interesting
work is the modest preface in which our author
tells us something of his own early days as an
angler, and of his youthful acquaintance with
fishing writers. He also takes the opportunity of
warning would-be collectors against spurious first.
editions, of which he declares that there are many
in the market, mostly “made in Germany.”
Truly a charming work, and one deserving a place
in every fisherman’s library. It is got up with
great care on wide margined paper, and is a
credit to the publisher by whom it is issued.
## p. 159 (#173) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I 59
In another column will be found certain lines
taken from a new volume of verse by a new poet—
Mr. Albany F. Major. The whole volume is full
of strong and spirited verse. We have had
plenty of verse in the minor key, let us welcome
one who can sing of life in action and in battle,
and in enjoyment of both action and battle.
The little book is published by “David Nutt
in the Strand.”
A bard of a lighter kind is Mr. Anthony C.
Deane, who has just republished, under the title of
“Holiday Rhymes,” a collection of very sprightly
verses, which have already appeared in Punch
and many other papers and magazines. It is
as pleasant a collection as one could wish. Mr.
Deane can command laughter, which is a truly
admirable gift; he is always cheerful and always
genial; he can be sarcastic without the least
discoverable touch of bitterness. Greatly to be
envied is the man who can stand outside, look on,
and laugh, and make even the combatants laugh.
Even when Anthony Deane laughs at that sacred
institution, the Author, he can laugh with a
sympathetic light in his eye.
Mrs. Spender's new novel, “A Modern
Quixote,” has been published by Messrs. Hutch-
inson in three volumes. The same publishers
have issued a cheap edition, at 2s., of her last
novel, “A Strange Temptation.”
Mrs. Edith E. Cuthell’s one volume story—a
yachting story—called “The Wee Widow’s
Cruise,” will be issued by Messrs. Ward and
Downey. Mrs. Cuthell has also written a chil-
dren's story called “Only a Guardroom Dog.”
which is to be illustrated by Mr. W. Parkinson,
and published by Methuen and Co.
Miss Clara Lemore's new novel—in three
volumes—called “Penhala, a Wayside Wizard,”
is now ready at all the libraries. It is published
by Hurst and Blackett.
Mr. Standish O'Grady’s Irish romance of the
Elizabethan period, entitled “Red Hugh's
Captivity,” will begin to run in the weekly Irish
Times in January, 1895.
“What is Education ?” Mr. Walter Wren
asks (Simpkin and Marshall) the question, and
answers it, giving his own ideas on the subject.
Education is, to begin with, a thing personal. No
man can be educated; he can be shown the way
to educate himself, it depends upon himself
whether he ever does become an educated man
For instance, the first law of education is to
notice things; things that you read, things that
you hear, things that you see ; not to pass over
things without understanding them. This then
is education of the body, the mind, and the spirit.
As regards the second. Education of the mind
must do two things—(1) bring out, develop, and
strengthen the powers of the mind, just as a
proper course of training in games and athletics
brings out and strengthens the powers of the
body; and (2) it should teach useful know-
ledge. These notes are worthy of expansion into
a book.
Before closing up his work on the old A.B.C.
Hornbook which is to contain something like two
hundred illustrations, Mr. Andrew Tuer, of the
Leadenhall Press, E.C., asks to be favoured with
notes from those who may remember the horn-
book in use, or who may have in their possession
examples which he has not yet seen Information
about spurious hornbooks, from the sale of which
certain persons are at present said to be reaping
a golden harvest, is also sought. -
John Gladwyn Jebb—Jack Jebb—was not born
in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and he did not
seek the Spanish Main with Drake. He was born
fifty years ago, and he died last year. During
his fifty years of life he had more adventures
than any novelist would dare to invent—not even
Rider Haggard, who writes an introduction to
the Life of Jack Jebb. Indeed, one is astonished
that the novelist did not lay hands on the MS.,
and bring it out with a few additions as a novel.
The hero is wasted and thrown away in a mere
biography. It is, indeed, an astonishing book,
astonishing that in these days so much adventure
and danger should be possible. There is still
hope for the boy who desires the life of danger.
Mexico lies open; and there is Central Africa.
In the former the boy can follow the footsteps
of Jebb ; in the latter, of Selous.
Coulson Kernahan’s “Sorrow and Song” is a
collection of essays originally written for the
Fortnightly Review and other papers, and recast
or re-written for this volume. They are papers
on Heine, Rosetti, Robertson of Brighton, Louise
Chandler Moultrie, and Philip Marston. Mr.
Kernahan is the first writer, so far as I know, to
draw attention to the beauty and purity of Mrs.
Moultrie's verse. She has the rare poetic touch ;
the thing that can never be imitated, or bor-
rowed, or learned, or stolen. Of living American
poets, Mrs. Moultrie stands in the first rank.
There are not many, indeed, who are worthy to
stand beside her. We neglect the American
poets. Will Mr. Coulson Kinnahan undertake the
pleasing task of presenting to English readers
some who desire to be known in this country as
well as their own P. Among these, for instance,
are R. W. Gilder and Professor Woodberry, both
of whom ought to be better known by us.
## p. 160 (#174) ############################################
I6O
THE AUTHOR.
I recommend “Baron Verdigris” as a topsy-
turvy book. The author describes it as a romance
of the reversed direction. He shows, in fact, a
new and hitherto undiscovered danger in applied
mathematics. The book is calculated to confirm
in their prejudice all that large class which does
not like “sums.” Speaking as one who does like
sums, especially when they are in “X” and “y,”
I found the book diverting and ingenious, but
was saddened by the reflection that I might my-
self have made similar discoveries.
It is said that the sale of “The Manxman” has
reached the number of 45,000 copies. This is
probably the highest number ever attained in
this country in so short a time by a six shilling
volume. It is, however, surpassed by the sale of
“Trilby’’ in the United States. The number
reached by “Trilby’’ is said to be 100,000. In
the three-volume form, in which it has been
judged expedient to produce it here, it is in great
demand.
The St. James's Gazette has discovered that
“Adam Bede,” which enjoyed a similar measure of
success, ran through 16,OOO copies in nine months.
The terms offered by Messrs. Blackwood to its
successor were: £2OOO for 4000 copies of three
volumes, 3150 for IOOO at 12s., and £60 for IOOO
at 6s. These terms, the St. James’s Gazette
points out, amount to royalties of 20 to 25 per
cent. To be exact, the royalties are 31%, 25, and
20 per cent. respectively.
From the same paper we learn that Miss Wills,
daughter of Dr. C. J. Wills, the author of
“Persia as it is,” has written, from personal
experience, a book on Eastern life called “Behind
an Eastern Weil.”
Mr. William Watson’s new volume will be
called “Odes, and other Poems” (John Lane).
William Westall, who is spending the winter
at St. Moritz, in Upper Engadine, and may
remain abroad for a year or two, has placed his
literary interests in the hands of Messrs. A. P.
Watt and Son, to whom all communications
should be addressed.
A short time ago a certain Swiss paper “ran’”
“Josef im Schnei,” an old story by Auerbach,
without making any preliminary arrangement
with the publishers, or intending to pay for
the serial use. But the publishers, getting wind
of the piracy, demanded an honorarium of 200
marks, to which the proprietors of the Swiss
paper demurred ; whereupon the publishers
brought an action against them and obtained
a verdict for 200 francs. The incident is note-
worthy, as showing the advantages to authors
and publishers of international copyright treaties.
Only a few years ago foreign authors had no
protection whatever in Switzerland, their works
could be reproduced without let or licence, and
Swiss newspaper proprietors were not slow to
take advantage of the fact. Some of them still
obtain their feuilleton matter surreptitiously from
foreign sources, and are not always, as in the
present instance, brought to book and made to
pay.
“In Furthest Ind,” by Sydney Grier (Black-
wood and Sons), is a remarkable tour de force by
a young writer, whose work has hitherto been
confined to short stories for the magazines. It is
a finely-conceived romance of travel and adventure
in the latter half of the seventeenth century, as
told by the hero himself in the very language, as
it were, of his own day. Edward Carlyon, whose
father fought and bled for Charles I., goes out to
Surat as a “writer’’ in the East India Company’s
service, and spends twenty years in India, during
which he meets with many strange adventures,
and has more than one hair's-breadth escape
from a cruel death. Every detail of the story
and its local surroundings seems to have been
studied with infinite care, and worked in with
due regard to the general effect. The interest
is well sustained on the whole, and some,
at least, of the characters—especially Dorothy
—are really alive. And, as one reads on, one
seems to discover in the author's style a certain
grace and harmony of its own which, as in
“Esmond,” count for much more than a clever
masquerade.
A story which ran as a serial through The
King's Own is now to be issued in book form
by Parlane and Co., Paisley, under the title of
“Covenanters of Annandale.” The book will be
beautifully illustrated with views of the haunts
of the Covenanters in the hills and glens of
Upper Annandale. A short story, by the same
author, will shortly be published by Hunter and
Co., Edinburgh, as a Christmas booklet. It is
entitled “A Swatch o' Hamespun.” The author,
Agnes Marchbank, has, at present, serials in the
Ladies’ Journal, Scottish Reformer, and the
Plough. A new serial from her pen will
shortly appear in Word and Work (Shaw
and Co., London).
Brig.
One of the most important of the illustrated
books which Mr. George Allen contemplates
issuing this autumn is the limited edition de
luate of Spenser's “Faerie Queene’’ in large
post quarto form, with illustrations by Mr.
Walter Crane. It is to be published in monthly
parts.
It is a tale of Bothwell
## p. 161 (#175) ############################################
THE AUTHOIR.
I6 I
CORRESPONDENCE.
I. – Nov ELS AT PopULAR PRICEs. – WILKIE
CoLLINs’ OPINION.
N the interesting compilation of novels issued
from the year 1750 to 1860—which appeared
in September's Author — during the first
forty-two years of this period the ruling price
was 3s. a volume. In those days, them—when, if I
mistake not, there was a heavy duty on paper,
now taken off—this price must actually have
compensated author and publisher. And as the
cost of production must have been more then
than now, with no monster circulating libraries
existing, it must be presumed that the novels in
those days had a large circulation, and were pur-
chased by their readers. At present novels are
borrowed and not bought, on account of their
high price. As readers now must be greatly
in excess of those in the eighteenth century,
it surely must follow, as “the night the
day,” that good fiction at 28., 2s. 6d., and 3s, a
volume would reach the masses, who are forced
to amuse themselves with penny dreadfuls. In
the year 1883 I had a long correspondence with
the late Wilkie Collins on the subject, and I
transcribe one of his letters, which will prove
interesting just now, when one-volume novels
threaten to supersede those in three volumes.
Your views on the question of publication have been my
views for years past. I have tried thus far in vain to
induce publishers to see the advantages (to themselves as
well as to literature) of effecting a reform already esta-
blished in all other civilised countries. I can do nothing by
myself. I should be powerless for this plain
reason, that my time and energies are wholly absorbed in
writing my books. I can only wait and hope for the coming
man who will give me my opportunity. The vicious
circulating library system is unquestionably beginning to
fail, and the recent issue of sixpenny magazines shows an
advance in the right direction. ' ' ' f
It is superogatory for me to comment on
the opinion of this great authority. To my mind
a popular book must always be a cheap book, in
spite of a prevailing prejudice that what is cheap
cannot be good. The circulation of a favourite
work of fiction would increase a hundredfold if it
could be bought at 2s. or 2s. 6d. Everyone does
not belong to Mudie's, and the purchasers
amongst the inhabitants of Greater Britain
number legion, and our novels would gain in
excellence and interest by being shorter and
crisper. In fact, one might actually look forward
to a time when the novelist will actually write a
story without having any need to garnish it with
interminable descriptions, dull moralisings, or
tedious conversations, when, instead of writing a
novel with a purpose, his only purpose will be to
write a novel. ISIDORE G. ASCHER.
II.--—“NEw.”
One of a coterie of “new” authors has lately
advanced the idea that the “incident’’ novel is
a product of to-day; that to our medical author
more than anyone else we owe the modern
“incident” novel. It seems, too, to be received
in the new school of critics that a certain quality
of dry wit now in vogue is “new” humour. Are
not both these crude ideas fallacies?
We might easily speak of a still living giant to
prove the error of these “new * ideas, but we
will be content with the dead. Between thirty
and forty years ago—about the time our “new”
author alludes to as that when “incident " was
bad art—a book burst on the public : a book
which is still read, and which is and will be con-
sidered one of the masterpieces of the century—
“The Cloister and the Hearth.” Will any
“new” writer be bold enough to advance the
statement that this is not a novel of “incident P”
It brims over with it; with that strong dramatic
incident which thrills the reader. Here also may
be found the “new” humour. You say “no P’
“Look else.” “He dearly loved maids of honour,
and indeed paintings generally.” “Est ce toi
qui l’a tu,” and what follows.
But why particularise, the book teems with
instances, of which the two mentioned happen to
cross my memory first. Then incident . The fight
upon the stairs with the Abbot and his gang, to
pick out one amongst many; who can read this
and his nerves not crawl?
Was “Hard Cash,” with its pirate encounter,
no book of incident P Or “It is Never too Late
to Mend?” and do we not find the “new”
humour flashing upon us from any one of these
books? Ay! humour and incident too, yet so
biended with scenes of touching pathos, and all
else that goes to the making up of a novel, that
each is a masterpiece.
Is it necessary to mention Charles Kingsley
and “Westward Ho; ” is “incident’’ wanting
here * Would not any living writer be proud to
have written that great chapter “How Amyas
threw his sword into the sea P’’ Need we go
further And yet we are to be told that because
Thackeray and Trollope followed other methods,
the “incident’’ novel is some new thing; the
“incidentalist”, a new genius. We might go
still further back towards the beginning of the
century, and instance “Ivanhoe.” But enough.
There is nothing, now, new under the sun any
more than there was in Solomon's day. As in
fiction so in music. Writers, even against their
volition, plagiarise.
So it is with the “incident’’ novel, and with
the “new” humour. ALAN OsCAR.
## p. 162 (#176) ############################################
I62
THE AUTHOR.
III.-ARE THEY LosTP
An acquaintance of mine sent some fifteen
papers to a learned society now nearly four years
ago, and from that day to this she has tried in
vain to learn their fate. They were translations,
and of their scientific value she was ignorant more
or less ; but they had involved considerable
labour, besides the writing of at least 20,000
words. It was not a question of money, as she
knew that the society was too poor to pay, even if
they thought the papers worth using.
It was something like two years before she
discovered the member in whose hands they had
been placed. He informed her that a selection
was to be made by himself and the editor of the
quarterly in which the selected papers were to
appear.
Another interval, and towards the close of the
third year two of the papers actually made their
appearance, prefaced by a long introduction,
from which it appeared that they were of some
value. --
More months, more inquiries. Then five or
six papers were returned without a word, and the
remainder are—where P Nobody deigns to say.
The publisher of the quarterly, who is in no way
responsible, has kindly inquired for them more
than once, but to no purpose.
And yet one little post-card would relieve an
anxious soul and settle the question of their fate.
Are they lost, or burnt by accident, or committed
to the waste-paper basket P Or—are they going
to be used at the rate of two every four years P
One would like to know, if only for curiosity’s
sake; and the worst, however heartrending,
would be better than prolonged uncertainty.
Meanwhile, it is melancholy to reflect that some
poor publisher might have been quite pleased to
loring them out. &
- IV.-SLIPSHOD ENGLISH.
A correspondent (F. H. P.) writes to point out
the following specimens of slipshod English in
one number of an English magazine:
“M. had succeeded to re-establish,” &c.
“He eagerly pursues the aim to abolish.”
“We advise to consult,” onitting the names
or persons advised.
“Have left definitely the country’ for “have
definitely left.” -
W.—ON CRITICAL AND EDITORIAL AMENITIES.
I commit to paper, without fear or prejudice,
my experience of the amenities of certain literary
men in our boasted Nineteenth Century !
Aw premier, a well-known critic, after praising
my poems, and including me in a list of the
poets of the day, suddenly showed his teeth and
refused to read my last volume of poems, or to
answer my letters. And this without the
shadow of a reason for his change of front; on the
contrary, I always wrote most warmly and giate-
fully to him for his kindness, as he must admit.
Again, I sent, not long ago, a poem to a
monthly magazine, and, not hearing of its fate,
about a month later I sent the editor a post card
inquiring about it. This post card was returned
to me with “Refused,” written across it. Why?
Once more, a ballad of mine was recently
inserted in a certain journal, which had appeared
in another periodical six years ago, and also in
one of my books, but was never paid for. As this
book had been recently reviewed in this journal, I
naturally thought they would have seen it there.
The acting editor, on finding that it had appeared
before, asked me to explain. On my doing so, he
not only refused my apology, but wrote very
rudely to me, as I considered. So much for the
gentlemanly feeling and courtesy of this acting
editor |
Yet, again, there is a certain gentleman quite
free from “prejudice ’’—we have his word for it
—who cut up a fairy tale of mine in a journal
now extinct. On my writing a line to him to say
that I had heard that certain persons were
enchanted with the same tale, and that I felt
sure he would be pleased to hear it, he simply
returned the printed extract I sent him without a
single word of any sort or kind. How manly and
generous, and how like a gentleman this was
Without prejudice, forsooth !
Again, the editor of a Radical evening country
paper, for whom I have written many articles
and poems gratuitously in days gone by, and
others which were paid for, and who professed to
value me as a contributor very highly, not only
gave me no review of my last book of poems, but
(though I wrote most courteously to him more
than once) never sent me a line in reply
These are only a few instances of the many
discourtesies I have received. What must the
shade of Thackeray (a true and courteous gentle-
man) think of some of our modern editors P
On the other hand, I would instance the
Westminster Gazette, the Minstrel, Public
Opinion, Fun, Vanity Fair, the Weekly Sun,
and others as being most fortunate in having
editors who are courteous and kind in the
extreme.
I may mention that the critic first referred to
does notice books in the columns of a weekly
journal, so he could have mentioned mine had he
chosen to AN AUTHOR.
[Our correspondent’s complaints, it seems to
us, unless the facts are not all stated, may be
## p. 163 (#177) ############################################
THE AUTHOR.
I63
answered offhand without reference to the
editors referred to. For instance, (I) a critic
may change his opinions and may not see the
necessity of explaining at length why he has
done so. (2) An editor must decline hundreds
of papers every year, but it would be absolutely
impossible for him to write his reasons to every
contributor. (3) No journal likes to publish
verses which have already appeared elsewhere.
The writer should have stated the fact in sending
the poem. (4) Next, a reviewer who has expressed
an opinion on a book would certainly not change
it because somebody else was said to hold an
opposite opinion. (5) An editor might resent
being asked for a review of a book. It is a pity
that politeness is not everywhere observed towards
contributors. But in the cases quoted our corre-
spondent apparently complains without good
reason. It is a common belief that an editor
will consider unfinished, or half finished, work;
that he will sit down and point out where a paper
is deficient; that he will act as a judicious coach;
that he will give his reviewer's written justifica-
tion for his review. Let it be remembered that
an editor can do none of these things. If our
correspondent would consider the position of the
editor, he would withdraw at once half the above
complaints.—ED.
*-- * ~ *
r- - -
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS,
History and Biography.
ATKINSON, REv. J. C. Memorials of Old Whitby, or
Historical Gleanings from Ancient Whitby Records.
Macmillan. 6s. met.
BAKER, JAMEs. A Forgotten Great Englishman, or the
Life and Work of Peter Payne, the Wycliffite. Illus-
trated. The Religious Tract Society. 5s.
BEAULIEU, A. LOREY. The Empire of the Tsars and the
Russians, translated from the third French edition by
Zénaïde A. Ragozin, Part II., The Institutions. G. P.
Putnam’s Sons. 12s. 6d.
CABINET PORTRAIT GALLERY. In five series, each con-
taining 36 Cabinet Portraits of Eminent Men and
Women of the day, from photographs by Messrs. W.
and D. Downey, with Biographical Sketches. Series W.
Cassell. 15s.
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