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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) 1891-03-16 Volume 1 Issue 11 Pages Page range in volume 281–308 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18910316 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. 1.- No. 11] MARCH 16, 1891. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS :: .. (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER. BESANT. Published for the Society Bë ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1891. ## p. 280 (#336) ############################################ ii. ADVERTISEMENTS. Messrs. METHUEN'S NEW BOOKS. | METHUEN'S NOYEL SERIES. 55. English Leaders of Religion. Side By S. BARING GOULD. URITH : A Story of Dartmoor, By S. BARING GOULD, Author of "Mehalah," "Arminell," &c. 3 vols. (Ready. Three Shillings and Sixpence. By HANNAH LYNCH. Messrs. METHUEN will issue from time to time a Series PRINCE OF THE GLADES. By HANNAH LYNCH, of copyright Novels, by well-known Authors, handsomely 2 vols. (Ready. bound, at the above popular price. The first voluntes (now GEORGE MEREDITH. A Study. Crown 8vo. (May. ready) are : By W. CLARK RUSSELL. F. MABEL ROBINSON. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, 1. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. Author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor," &c. 2 vols. (Ready, S. BARING GOULD. Author of “Mehalah,” Soc. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. . 2. JACQUETTA. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, Author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor." Mrs. LEITH ADAMS (MRS. DE COURCY LAFFAN). With Ilustrations by F. BRANGWYN. 8vo. (Ready. 3. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By W. H. POLLOCK.. G. MANVILLE FENN. - FERDINAND'S DEVICE. By WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK. Post 8vo. 1S. 4. ELI'S CHILDREN. - (April By R. PRYCE. . S. BARING GOULD. Author of " Mehalah," GoC. THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By RICHARD PRYCE. 5. ARMINELL: A Social Romance. Crown 8vo. 3. 6d. . (Ready. EDNA LYALL. Author of " Donovan," Sr. By J. B, BURNE, M.A.. 6. DERRICK VAUGHÁN, NOVELIST. PARSON AND PEASANT : Chapters of their Natural With portrait of Author. History. By J. B. BURNE, M.A., Rector of Wasing. Crown 8vo. F. MABEL ROBINSON. . [Ready. By E. LYNN LINTON. 7. DISENCHANTMENT. THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON, Other Volumes will be announced in due course. Christian and Communist. By E. Lynn LINTON. Tenth and Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo. 15. (Ready. Works by S. BARING GOULD, Author of “Mehalah," &c. Edited by A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A. OLD COUNTRY LIFE. By S. BARING GOULD. With Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. Sixty-seven Illustrations by W. PARKINSON, F. D. BEDFORD, and . F. MASEY. Large Crown 8vo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt, A series of short biographies, free from party bias, of the 1os. 6d. Second Edition. most prominent leaders of religious life and thought in this "Old Country Life, as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy and the last century. life and movement, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book to be published throughout the year. Sound, CARDINAL NEWMAN. R. H. Hutton. (Reair. hearty and English to the core."-World. JOHN WESLEY. J. H. Overion, (Ready HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. By S. BARING Govlp. FIRST SEries. Demy Svo, ios, 6d. Second Edition. "A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful reading." -Times. Crown 8vo. 28. 6d. SECOND SERIES. Under the above title Messrs. METHU EN have commenced HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. the publication of a series of books on historical, literary, SECOND SERIES. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of “Mehalah." ] and economic subjects, suitable for extension students and Demy 8vo. Tos, 6d. (Ready. “A fascinating book."- Leeds Mercury. home-reading circles. SONGS OF THE WEST : Traditional Ballads and Songs THE INDÚSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.' By of the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. Collected H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden Prizeman. With Maps and Plans. (Ready. by S. BARING GOULD, M.A., and H. FLEETWOOD SHEPPARD, M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. in 4 Parts (containing 25 Songs LA HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY. each), 3s, each nett. Part I., Third Edition Part II., Second By L. L. PRICE, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon., Extension Edition. Part III., ready. Part IV., in preparation. • Lecturer in Political Econoiny. (Ready. "A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic | VICTORIAN POETS. By A. SHARP. (Nearly Keady. fancy."-Satunlay Review. PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. Industrial Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A., late By S. BARING GOULD. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. Scholar of Lincoln College, Oxon., U. E. Lecturer in Economies. [Now Ready. (Ready. | THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. Symes, M.A., TWO BOUK'S FOR BOYS. Cr. 8vo. Principal of University College, Nottingham. (Nearly Ready. MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By W. Clark Russell, Author of “The Wreck of the Grosvenor," &c. Tilustrated by GORDON BROWNE. SYD BELTON; or, The Boy who would not go to Sea. 1. A series of volumes upon the most important topics of social, · By G. MANVILLE FENN, Author of “In the King's Namne," &c. economic, and industrial interest-written by the highest Illustrated by GORDON BROWNE. . TWO BOOKS FOR GIRLS. authorities on the various subjects. The first two volumes Cr. 8vo. 35. 6d. will be DUMPS. By Mrs. Parr, Author of "Adam and Eve," TRADES UNIONISM-New and Old. By G. Howell., “ Dorothy Fox," &c. Illustrated by W. PARKINSON. M.P. (Ready. A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. MEADE, Author POVERTY AND PAUPERISM. By Rev. L. R. PHELPS. of “Scamp and I," &c. Illustrated by R. BARNES. M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon. (4 pril. UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES. SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY. METHUEN & Co., 18, Bury Street, W.C. ## p. 280 (#337) ############################################ AD VER TISEMENTS. Zhc Society of Butbors (Jncorporateb). PRESIDENT. The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. COUNCIL. Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C1.E. II. Rider Haggard. Alfred Austin. Thomas Hardy. A. W. k Beckett. Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. Robert Bateman. J. M. Lely. Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G. Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A. Walter Besant. F. Max-Mullbr, LL.D. Augustine Birrell, M.P. George Meredith. R. D. Blackmore. Herman C. Merivale. Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S. Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.LS. Lord Brabourne. J. C. Parkinson. James Bryce, M.P. The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. P. W. Clayden. Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D. Edward Clodd. Walter Herries Pollock. W. Martin Conway. A. G. Ross. Marion Crawford. George Augustus Sala. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G. W. Baptiste Scoones. The Earl of Desart. G. R. Sims. A. W. Dubourg. J. J. Stevenson. John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S. Jas. Sully. Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S. William Moy Thomas. Herbert Gardner, M.P. H. D. Traill, D.C.L. Richard Garnett, LL.D. Edmund Yates. Edmund Gosse. Hon. Counsel—E. M. Underdown, Q.C. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman—Walter Besant. Robert Bateman. i W. Martin Conway. I H. Rider Haggard. I Sir Frederick Pollock. A. W. a Beckett. | Edmund Gosse. | J. M. Lely. I A. G. Ross. Solicitors. Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge. VOL. I. OFFICES. 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. 2 A ## p. 280 (#338) ############################################ AD VER TISEMENTS. The "Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which it supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant work, or a week's ordinary writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for another without charge, or his money returned if wanted. There are various points to select from, broad, medium, and fine, every handwriting can be suited, and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10/6. The Gold Pens in the " Swan " are Mabie, Todd & Co.'s famous make; they are 14-carat tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with selected polished iridium. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" says—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be gained upon it." They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens; one will outwear a gross of steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing about Gold Pens. Dr. Olives Wbsdell Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd k Co.'s Gold Pens since 1857, and is using the same one (his " old friend ") to-day. Sydney Grundy, Esq., says—" It is a vast improvement on every Stylograph." Moberly Bell, Esq., Manager, The Times, says—" One pen lasted me for six years." S. D. Waddy, Esq., Q.C., M.P., says—" I have used them constantly for some years, and, as far as I can remember, have never failed me." Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the best people, who have used them for years) to MABIE, TODD I BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON. ## p. 281 (#339) ############################################ %\it JCtttljar. (The Organ oj the Incorporated Society of Authors, Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. ii.] MARCH 16, 1891. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. Conditions of Membership Warnings Notes and News A Note on the New Act In the I.ast Ditch Do English People Buy Books 1... Un Debut Dans La Vie The Signed Article In Grub Street ... t The Parnassus Publishing Company Correspondence and Cases The Production of Vouchers On Advertisements fAGE . 281 . 281 .. 38a . 286 . 287 . 288 . 391 • 293 • 294 .. 298 • =99 ■ 399 . 300 Correspondence and Cases—continued— Authors and Reviewers Accepted... Literary Godchildren Gratuitous Contributions A Coincidence? The Authors' Club The Author's Book Stall New Books The Reading of MSS Publications of the Society Advertisements 300 301 301 301 303 303 303 304 3°6 306 307 CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP. The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the 1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for life memljership entitles the subscriber to full membership of the Society. Authors of published works alone are eligible for member- ship. Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors are admitted as Associates, on the same subscription, but have no voice in the government of the Society. Cheques and Postal Oiders should be crossed "The Im- perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch." Those who wish to be proposed as members may send their names at any lime to the Secretary at the Society's Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration of their works. Subscriptions entered after the 1st of October will cover the next year. The Secretary may be personally consulted between the hours of 1 p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable that an appointment should be made by letter. The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square, K.C. A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped, however, that most members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d., including postage, which may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.C. With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers, the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read and reported upon for others than members, but members cannot have their works read for nothing. In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript, the author should send with it a table of contents. A type- written scenario is also of very great assistance. It must be understood that such a reader's report, however favourable, does not assist the author towards publication. WARNINGS. Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to make the following warnings as widely known as possible. They are based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers to which liteiary property is exposed :— (1) Never to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them. (2) Never to enter into any correspondence with publishers, especially with advertising publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends, or by this Society. (3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down for future work to any one firm of publishers. (4) Never to accept any proposal of royalty without con- sultation with the Society, or, at least, ascertaining exactly what the agreement gives to the author and what to the publisher. (5) Never to accept any offer of money for MSS., with- out previously taking advice of the Society. (6) Never to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice. (7) Never, when a MS. has been refused by respectable houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. (8) Never to sign away American or foreign rights. Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to another. (9) Never forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Society's Offices:— 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. vol. 1. 2 a 2 ## p. 282 (#340) ############################################ 282 THE AUTHOR. NOTES AND NEWS. —4 THE American Copyright Bill has passed, and unexpectedly. Thus ends, we hope, happily for all concerned, the long and bitter reproach of English authors and the hard battle of American authors. We shall no longer pirate and plunder and prey upon each other as the law permits. Now we begin to look round and to ask—what next? First, let us carefully consider the following question and answer found in the Parliamentary Debates on Saturday, March 7th. "Mr. Vincent asked the following question :— Bearing in mind the renewed declaration of the Prime Minister, on March 4th, to the Associated Chambers of Commerce, that English remonstrance on foreign commercial policy prejudicial to British trade at home or abroad is wholly futile under the present fiscal system, as we have no means of sup- porting the remonstrance, or giving any advantage in return for favourable concessions, what definite domestic action, asdistinguished from remonstrance, with a foreign power Her Majesty's Government proposes to take to prevent injury being done to industry and labour in the United Kingdom, and the probable disemployment of many workpeople concerned in the book trade, to restrain the transfer to America of the productions of the works of British authors desirous of securing American copy- tight by the use in the United States of American type or plates, and simultaneously enjoying copy- right in Great Britain and Ireland. "Mr. W. H. Smith.—We have no official know- ledge of the measure, and only know from the newspapers that it has been passed. It is quite impossible for me to express any opinion respecting its provisions until we see them. I do not know what changes may have been made in the Bill during its passage through Congress, and I am therefore quite unable to indicate what would be the policy or action of the Government with respect to it." 1 Quite so. We do hot know exactly what changes have been made in the Bill during its passage through Congress. Therefore we must wait until we do know. Meantime we have telegraphed for a copy of the Act. A meeting of the Council was called on March 12th, to consider the situation as changed by the passing of the International Copyright Act. The chair was taken by Sir Frederick Pollock. The following Resolutions were proposed and adopted:— (1.) That at this stage of the long struggle for International Copyright carried on in America by the Copyright League and other citizens of the United States, to secure copyright to foreign authors in the States and td remove the long existing hindrance to the natural growth of American literature, the congratulations of the Society be, and hereby are, expressed by the Council now assembled. (2.) That the Secretary be instructed on the arrival of the Act, to have it printed and to send a copy to every member of the Society, inviting their advice, suggestions, or criticisms on the probable working of the Act. (3.) That the Copyright Committee be re- quested to receive these criticisms and to draw up a report on the subject. (4.) That authors be warned meanwhile not to sign any agreements giving up their American rights , and not to accept any offers whatever that may be made until the Act shall be in working order. (5.) That the Society without delay draw up a Petition to the House of Lords, urging the immediate consideration of Lord Monkswell's Bill. —* Here are a few points which may be of use to u& They certainly will not be affected by any amend- ments that may have been carried. It will be news to many, as it was to me, to hear that in many cases it will be unnecessary to take out copyright, and that the practice will still con- tinue of sending over a whole edition in sheets and paying the duty, twenty-five per cent, on the cost of production. Take, for instance, a book which appeals to the scholarly and cultured class only, and therefore cannot possibly have a large sale. An edition of a thousand copies in sheets might Cost, say ;£ioo. The American publisher would pay .£125 for it. He would then produce it just as he does now, on the chance that no one else will pirate it. Why should they? It is too small a market to be interfered with. Or take a book with dainty and beautiful plates. This cannot be pirated because the plates cannot be cheaply and successfully imitated. It must be remembered that in considering whether it would pay to take out copyright, the cost of production in America is a much larger factor than it is in this country— wages are much higher, materials are higher. ♦— To those who expect a magnificent harvest immediately—a warning. Last month there was ## p. 283 (#341) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 283 an attempt in the Author to show that America is taking rapid strides to the production of nearly all her own literature. Hitherto the great mass of her books have been of English origin. This is now true only of the ten cent novels. These, it is true, are English. But who can believe that the American will prefer to read of English manners and modes depicted in fiction, when he can get his own equally well presented and at the same price? At the same time, should there be any capable of really striking the popular imagination, he will do so in all the English-speaking countries alike. For him—- unless he gives himself away to the first offer— there is indeed hope. How many are there among the living who possess this power? In a few months we shall see. There is another point to be borne in mind. On this a word was said last month. The cheap libraries, even if they are not enlarged, will have another twenty years' run at least. To compete with them is like competing with the works of the dead, which can be issued by anybody and at any price. But they will continue to be enlarged. They will say to the English writers who are not so much in demand in America as to call for a copyrighted edition, "You will get nothing here except from us—we will give you twenty dollars for your rights." That offer will be accepted, and so the ten cent library will be continued. Again, even if a writer is popular, people will ask why they should give a dollar and a half for his new book when they can get all his old books at sixpence. The Anti-Jacobin suggests the danger that English writers may try to pander to American prejudices, manners, and custpms. I do not think this is a real danger, first, because no living English authors have ever remained long enough in the States to learn these prejudices. We know the American who travels on the Continent. We meet the American gentleman in society. But neither the rich American who can travel nor the American gentleman represents the great mass of the American people, who, again, differ widely among each other. There can be little resemblance between the prairie farmer and the New England lawyer—nor between the white folk of North Carolina and the trader of Chicago. Wp cannot pander to ordinary American prejudice, because we do not know anything about it. Lower down will be found a few notes on the practical working of the Bill which will not be affected by any amendments that may have been added. To these notes we add a very serious warning. Let the author be more than commonly careful in his agreements. He must reserve American rights by a special clause. He must take care not to accept the first offer that is made —men are already in the field trying to "rush" the British author, and, if he is wise, he will refuse to treat at all until he has seen how the new Act works. On the evening of the day when President Harrison signed the Bill, he received quite a little shower of letters and telegrams. They were lying on the Presidental pillow when, at midnight, he was about to climb into the gilded tour-poster assigned to the Chosen of the Caucus. One of them, from the shade of John Milton, began as follows: "Grandson of my friend the Regicide," it said, "I have witnessed with joy thine action of this day. Thy Republic at length proves itself a des- cendant of my own. Thou hast shaken off" the Iniquity of a hundred years. Thou hast set free thine own people in doing justice to another nation. Lo! I see in my mind a noble and a puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks; a nation npt slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit; acute to invent, subtile and sinewy to dis- course. I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the ful) mid-day beam." The rest need riot be quoted. Another was from Charles Dickens. "Fifty years ago," he said, "I beat the air with my fists, fondly thinking that I was fighting an easy battle against ignorance and greed. 'For fifty years the best of your own people have been vainly, until now, fighting that easy battle. You have shared with us our noble inheritance, the literature of the past; but the baser sort among you have stolen the literature of the present. It was unworthy of a nation desirous to be thought great. The loss you have inflicted upon us is that of dollars only. Upon yourselves you have inflicted the starvation of your own literature. Henceforth, however, what is yours is ours, and what is ours is yours. Farewell." There were also telegrams from Charles Reade, Wilkie Collins, Thackeray, George Eliot, and others. They were the same in effect, though the words differed. "We complain no longer," said Charles Reade. "Earthly injustice affects us not. Its memory has no longer any sting. Yet we rejoice that we stood up for honour and equity while we lived. And for those who have followed us, we are glad that your people have at last chosen the better way." These are noticeable communi- cations, and I hear that they are to be preserved in the Washington Library. ## p. 284 (#342) ############################################ 284 THE AUTHOR. I am very pleased to publish the following com- munication from Professor Middleton, of King's College, Cambridge :— "After the many instructive warnings to authors which you have printed, with regard to what might politely be called the conventional morality of certain publishers, it may be a pleasure to turn to the other side of the picture, and receive a state- ment which will show that there are publishers in Britain whose practice is not only just in the highest sense of the word, but even goes beyond that, and amounts to real generosity. "I had an agreement with a well-known firm that they would publish a book of mine, and pay me for it a certain sum of money down, as soon as the book was printed. "This sum I received, expecting nothing further. "Some time after, without any suggestion of mine, I was informed by my publishers that they proposed to give me half-profits in addition to the lump sum they had paid me for the copyright of my book—a quite voluntary piece of generosity cn their part. Since then I have received, as half- profits, a sum about equal to the original payment for which I had bargained. "That is to say, that in consideration of my book being a success, the publishers have paid me nearly double of what they were bound to do. "Though I have no authority to do so, it can, I hope, offend no one if I mention that the pub- lishers referred to are Messrs. A. and C. Black, of Edinburgh and Soho Square, London." This document should be read prayerfully by certain reverend and revered friends of ours. Religion, we know, is not a thing of works, which are rags. Yet the carnal man remarks with surprise that a thing like this is done by the secular, not the sacred, publisher. Messrs. A. and C. Black were influenced by that spirit of justice which goes beyond the letter of the agreement. Professor Middleton, having signed his agreement, had no further claim, made none, expected nothing more, and entertained no other feeling towards his publishers than that of friendly content. Yet they went beyond their agreement. One is willing to believe that other cases of the kind are not un- known, though they are certainly infrequent. Personally, I would prefer such a system of publishing as would allow both publisher and author to know beforehand in what proportion results would be apportioned, and such a system I hope that we shall arrive at Then indeed will come the Golden Age, and we may all crown ourselves with garlands, take down our harps and sing madrigals by purling brooks, authors and publishers together, while the world looks on envious and admiring. ♦ There was held a dinner, the other day, of Pub- lishers and Booksellers. I hope that, before long, the other branch, perhaps the lower branch, of the Literary Profession—that of the Authors— may be admitted, as a branch, to this gathering. The chair was taken by Mr. John Murray, Junior. A person, whom I once believed to be a friend, brought me, the day after the dinner, a paper containing what purported to be an extract from his speech. I am a credulous creature, and I sent it to press. I have since discovered that I was the victim of a hoax. These words, in fact, did not form part of the speech. Nevertheless, as they seem to me brave and honest words, and such as one would expect from the heir apparent of the House of Murray, I prefer to believe that they were spoken. The following, then, is the forged docu- ment in question:— The Chairman then alluded—it does not appear from the reports that he so much as mentioned the Society—to the Society of Authors. "This associa- tion of writers "—really, he said nothing of the kind—" has of late proved that it aims at becoming a great power in the world of living literature. It has detected and exposed many of the cheats and robberies practised by the dishonest members of our trade: it has caused restitution to be made to many victims; it has diverted a great amount of business into the hands of honourable houses. For these reasons, gentlemen, we have every cause to congratulate ourselves upon its prosperity and activity. We ought to welcome any step which helps to purify the moral atmosphere and maintain the honour of the calling by which we live. Recently the Society has issued two books which are, I venture to say, the most noteworthy things ever done for the higher interests of publisher and author. The first of these, called the ' Methods of Publication,' shows exactly what is meant by every kind of agreement—what the publisher offers the author and the author cedes to the publisher. It also shows the frauds which are commonly practised. This exposure will be new to most of us here present. But it cannot fail to do great good. The next book is called the 'Cost of Production.' By these two books the author is, for the first time, placed in the position of knowing what his agreement means, namely, what risks his publisher runs, if any, what are his reasonable expectations, and how the joint venture is shared. Gentlemen, an honourable man has nothing—he can have nothing—to conceal. We therefore rejoice at the publication of these books, and we congratulate the Society upon the steps it has taken." ## p. 285 (#343) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 285 The enclosed is a sign of the times. It has been sent to me by one of the promoters of the movement We shall rejoice to learn that the new Association is flourishing. Meantime, why women alone? Why not men and women? "We the undersigned, pledge ourselves as authors who believe in pure literature and high standards of literary work, to co-operate as members of a Society to be known as— "The Authors' Guild of American Women. "We are convinced that union is strength and consultation a source of education; and we hereby pledge ourselves to aid each other in all legitimate channels of work; to exercise our utmost diligence to purify publications; and to insist that literary work performed by women, if worthy of publication, is also worthy of just remuneration." ♦ The following communication needs no com- ment. One might, however, point out to the people concerned, that these things get talked about and do not improve the name of the House concerned. Also, that authors are getting more shy and suspicious every day, and more inclined to inquiry. "In December last, induced by a friend, I sent a MS. to a certain firm of publishers. Hearing nothing about it I wrote in January two letters to them, pointing out that delay would destroy my chance of publication for the season, and requesting their answer or the MS. They did not vouchsafe a word of reply for some weeks, when I received a curt note informing me that my MS. would be returned if I sent stamps for the purpose. I sent stamps, and after two or three days I got back the MS., all crushed, dirtied, and disordered. On putting it to rights I found one section missing, I wrote again, and after another delay of some days, the missing part was sent to me without one word of apology." The preceding case of discourtesy on the part of a publisher is capped by a case of equal dis- courtesy on the part of an editor—a religious paper this. Religion, we know, forgives every kind of sin, which is why sweaters flourish in religious societies and editors of religious papers behave like the gentleman mentioned below, "In September an author sent to this editor an article for his magazine. He was careful to enclose a stamped and addressed envelope in accordance with the directions to contributors. "He waited five months in patience. He then wrote, politely pointing out that he had heard nothing about it. "No reply at all. "He waited nine days and then wrote again, say- ing that if he obtained no reply he should lay the matter before this Society. "The MS. was promptly returned, but without a single word of explanation or commentary." An editor has, no doubt, to wade through a vast quantity of rubbish, but that is no excuse for absolute discourtesy. The preliminary Committee of the Authors' Club has been formed, It will begin to meet at once in order to draw up a working scheme for the foun- dation of the Club on a stable basis. The Authors' House will not be forgotten, should there be found room for it after the establishment of the Club. I beg to announce that I am not a member of this Committee, a statement which will perhaps make it unnecessary henceforth for the irresponsible paragraph writer to call it my club. But I hope they will elect me a member. The little exhibition of bindings of which mention was made last month is at Tregaskis', Holborn. It is now open to the public. All those who care for binding should visit the place before the books are dispersed. I once more invite members of the Society to consider the Author the natural home for all kinds of questions, cases, points, difficulties, anecdotes, &c, connected with literature. I do so because there is a danger that the paper should be regarded as nothing more than the organ of counsel and advice as regards agreements. That—most cer- tainly. But we are not always signing agreements, and in the world of letters there are many interests. ♦ The lovers of the works of Richard Jefferies are rapidly increasing in numbers and in enthusiasm. I am sure that a great many of them are on the lists of the Society—among our 750. Be it known to these that a bust of this great interpreter of Nature has been executed, that the Eishop and Dean of Salisbury has granted permission to place it in the Cathedral—and that the subscriptions still fall short of the amount required. Will every reader of this note—that is, every reader who can appre- ciate the "Pageant of Summer "—send me some- thing towards the completion of this work? I do not beg in the name of Literature generally, of all authors, but only of those who belong with me to the company of those who feel that never did any man write of field and wood, of hillside and of ## p. 286 (#344) ############################################ 286 THE AUTHOR. hedge, as this man wrote. The treasurer of the fund is Mr. Arthur Kinglake, but I will receive subscriptions and send them on. On Friday last the first performance at the English Free Theatre took place. The piece was Ibsen's " Ghosts." The accounts of the play differ a good deal. If the critic is an ardent Ibsenite he says that it is a most beautiful play. If he is not, he says that it has all the faults which an acting play ought not to have. If he is a disciple he says it is a most wonderful sermon. If he is not, he says that sermons are things which can, and should, be delivered before the whole people with open doors, not with shut doors and in fear of the Lord Chamberlain. One thing is agreed upon by all, that the piece owed whatever success it ob- tained entirely to the acting of one lady. I suppose that Ibsen has some message to deliver or he would not have so many admirers. Meantime, let us for the present suspend our judgment on the new Free Theatre. Walter Besant. * A NOTE ON THE NEW ACT. ON and after July ist, authors, no matter what their nationality, will be able to acquire copyright in the United States, to add sixty millions to their "public." It is simply impossible to exaggerate the importance of such a change, not only to "popular" writers, but to the authors of all standard works. We hope in the next num- berof the Author to give the Revised Statute as it will pass into law. But, meanwhile, sundry considera- tions suggest themselves. The conditions attached to the acquisition of copyright are not a little onerous. Imprimis, it is necessary (i) that before the day of publication (in any country) the applicant should deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, &c, a printed copy of the title of the "book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description of the painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or a model or the design for a work of the finearts for which he de- sires a copyright"; and (2) "not later than the day of publication" (in any country), deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress two copies of such copyright " book," &c, or in the case of a painting, &c., a photograph of the same. But in the case of a "book" it is provided (3) that the said copies shall be "printed from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made therefrom." This provision was extended by the famous "chromo amendment," so as to require engravings, cuts, prints, photographs or chromo lithographs to be printed from engravings, cuts, negatives, or drawings on stone made within the limits of the United States, or from transfers made therefrom. But, according to Reuter's cablegram of the 2nd inst., this amend- ment was amended by the Conference Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives so as to confine its operation to "lithographs, chromos, and photographs," all of which, to be the subject of American copyright, must, we take it, have been "produced" within the States. A question at once arises as to the definition put by American law upon the term "book." Does it include, as in England, "every volume, part of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letterpress, sheet of music, map, chart, or plan separately published "? If so, obviously, the necessity of securing cony- right arises from the commencement of publication. It will be necessary, for instance, in order to obtain American copyright, to duly deliver each and every part of a serial story or work published in parts. But as against this it may surely be argued that the "day of publication" is the day of first publication in complete form. (4) The "person claiming" the copyright, may again, it appears, from Section 4952 of the Revised Statutes, be the "author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any book," &c.—a sufficiently wide definition. Is it intended that anyone, acquiring priority, should, by going through the necessary formalities, become the owner of the copyright? Or is it necessary that he must acquire rights from the author or his assigns? The effect of the Bill upon the English publishers, printers, compositors, bookbinders, and paper- makers cannot as yet be determined. But the fears which are openly expressed that New York will become the centre of the book trade, are, we believe, exaggerated. If English "stereo" is ex- cluded from the States, in the case of copyright works, it is practically certain that American "stereo" will prove useless in England. The differ- ence in typography alone would prove a fatal objection. The same remark applies to the im- portation of sheets or bound volumes from the States. It may, too, be remarked that in case it should be necessary, there exists a useful machinery under the Merchandize Marks Act. If there is any doubt as to the "country of origin," the Customs author- ities can require this to be declared on every copy. "Printed frpm type set within the limits of the United States " would pot, in England, be a popular line on a title-page, The "cost of production" will, too, thanks to the McKinley tariff, remain much higher in the States than in England, and English papermakers and bookbinders have not much to fear. ## p. 287 (#345) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 287 IN THE LAST DITCH. "/^VNE of the oddest and most unfortunate I I phenomena in the history of the copy- right discussion," says the New York Nation, "is the appearance every now and then, when the Pirates are ready to throw up their hands and ask for quarter, of some moralist or theologian to cheer them up and encourage them to make some further resistance, by proclaiming that the poor men have done nothing wrong, and that we musi not call them hard names or despitefully use them." The last appearance of the moralist or the- ologian, one is pleased to observe, is that of an Englishman. Not an American at all. An Englishman of letters. A very distinguished man of letters. His name is here suppressed because he does not appear to have sent his protest to any English organ. He has been protesting in an American paper against certain harsh language used towards the House of Representatives for failing to pass the Copyright Bill last session. As regards the bad language, it never did any good to call names, and it never will. Yet we shall always continue to call names because it relieves the feelings. Hear, however, the Nation further in the matter. "But what concerns us now is the reasons Mr. A. gives for deprecating vituperation. One of them is that all property, and especially literary property, is the creation of law, and that copyright is 'a purely artificial privilege,' and that, therefore, it is highly indecent to speak of persons who publish other men's works without paying for them, as 'thieves' or 'pirates.' That this man should offer the world, in such a cause, the plea that property is the creation of law is very curious, because there is hardly a step in the creation of the present English Constitution, from Magna Charta down, which was not a protest, in some shape, against the doctrine that a man's moral right to his goods and chattels is at all dependent on the provision made by law for his protection in the enjoyment of them. The great doctrine that taxation without representation is a thing to be resisted with the sword, if necessary, rests on the very proposition which Mr. A. denies. When Hampden refused to pay the ship-money because he had not voted it through his representatives, seven of the twelve judges decided against him, and his refusal was therefore illegal; but he per- sisted in it, nevertheless, to the death, and all Englishmen now hold his memory in reverence therefor. The amount was trifling, but, as has been finely said, if he had paid it he would have been a slave. "Property, in truth, in its moral aspect, is no more a creation of law than justice is. It was created, as justice was, by the appearance of a second man on the globe. On each of the two there then descended that great moral obligation which the friends of copyright now seek to have embodied in legislation—the obligation not to steal and not to covet his neighbour's goods, his ox or his ass, his man-servant or maid-servant, his wife, 'or any- thing that is his.' This obligation existed before either Parliaments or kings, before even the Ten Commandments. It arose out of the very nature of things. Mr. A. confounds, as do thousands of inferior men, the question of right with the question of security. Law cannot give a man a moral right to the product of his labour, nor can it take it away from him, a good illustration of which rule is to be found in the institution of slavery. The law deprived the negro of all legal rights, but it could not touch any of his moral or natural right.'. What the law does for property is to give it security. It can, by denying security, as in the case of literary property, make it worthless, but it cannot lessen the owner's right to it. It cannot diminish the moral guilt of stealing it from him. What the apologists of Pirates mean, therefore, when they talk of the law as a 'creator of property,' is simply that no man can, without the help of the law, get from property the sum of those pleasures which make it valuable. This may be true, but how can this fact excuse in the forum of morals the man who avails himself of this absence of legal defence to appropriate as much of his neighbour's goods as he takes a fancy to? Is it possible that when Arabs strip travellers in the desert, the offence is not robbery, but a failure of the law to create pro- perty in watches, guns, and camels in that particular region? "Mr. A., in like manner, when he comes to speak of copyright as 'a special privilege,' con- founds plagiarism and piracy. This is the most fertile source of misunderstanding in the whole discussion. What is a plagiarist? It is, says the dictionary, a man 1 who purloins the words, writ- ings, or ideas of another and passes them off as his own.' Now, it is no easy thing to convict a man of this offence unless he makes long textual extracts. The ownership of an idea, and even of forms of expression, is generally very difficult to trace. The same idea often occurs to hundreds of men at the same time, and often finds very similar expression at the hands of hundreds of different authors or writers. Therefore defenders of literary property have never attempted to set up the doctrine of 'property in ideas' which opponents of copyright are so fond of attacking. They have never maintained that it is or ought to ## p. 288 (#346) ############################################ 288 THE AUTHOR. be unlawful to use a thought uttered by one man for the moral or mental culture of another man, or of forbidding the reproduction, in one man's book or speech, of as many ideas of other men as he can collect or re-cast to suit his purpose. Authors or writers who do this a good deal, un- doubtedly incur discredit by it with their fellows and the general public. It greatly damages a writer's fame to be rightfully accused of want of originality, or of imitation, or of getting materials at second-hand. But no one has ever proposed to punish or restrain this sort of misappropriation by law. No one has ever contended for the infliction on the purloiners of other men's ideas of any penalty but ridicule or disgrace, although their name is legion and their depredations ruthless and notorious; and yet a very large proportion of the Pirates and their apologists expend all their strength in showing that one man may lawfully appropriate another man's ideas for his own use or behoof, or even present them to the world as the product of his own brain, "What the champions of copyright, both national and international, assail is, not the appropriation of one man's ideas for another man's use and behoof, but the sale of one man's ideas and forms of expression in open market by another man in com- petition with the author. This is 'piracy,' This is what we ask to have stopped and punished by law. We do not say to Pirates, You shall not take the Blacks' Encyclopaedia to your home and pre- pare articles and speeches or even books out of its rich stores of information, and, if you are dis- honest enough to do so, give them to the world as your own, or absorb as much of the facts and ideas as your mental powers will permit. What we say is, You shall not, while denying the right of property in it in the hands of the original author or compiler, tseat it as property in your own hands, and offer it for sale in competition with the man whom you are plundering." ■ * DO ENGLISH PEOPLE BUY BOOKS? THE theory that English people never buy books has long been a commonplace with writers of leading articles and press para- graphs. It is one of those fine old truths which are not to be questioned: it is taken as proved. The undoubted fact that novels are published at a price which prohibits their purchase, is held to establish the theory, which is irrefutable from a certain point of view—that naturally taken by one who buys books from him who creates them. Without doubt, while the prices of books were high, and when the book club provided all the new books, very few even of the richer households bought books at all. The book clubs, however, have nearly all vanished; their place has been only partly, not altogether, taken by the Circulating Libraries. The country has become very much richer than it was a half century since; it has also become much more populous: the education of the people has been enormously developed, and the taste for reading has grown with the education of the people. Therefore it would seem as if the circulating libraries alone would hardly suffice for the wants of the reading public, In addition, the last half century has witnessed the growth of the colonial empire from a few hundred thousands to something like twenty millions. And they have no circulating libraries at all. Yet they read. Let us, however, for the moment disregard the colonial demand. What do we see at first sight? Take, first, our own houses. Everybody knows the house where the dining room contains a bookcase filled with books which are never changed and never taken down. Gibbon is there; Robertson is there; probablyBlair'ssermons; HumeandSmollett; a Gazetteer; an edition of the Spectator. Formerly, that is to say, twenty years ago, or so, this book- case contained all the books of the house. Now, however, there are other shelves—a case in the drawing room filled with poetry and pretty editions: a bookcase in the school room, or breakfast room, filled with modern and new books—there will you find Rider Haggard, Stevenson, Lang, Black, Hardy, Blackmore, the newest essayist, not to mention Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Collins, and Reade. There you will find evidence that somebody or other in the house not only knows contemporary literature but buys it, and that plentifully, and with no sparing hand, Again, watch the bookstall at a London railway station. The place is not a stall, it is a great shop filled with new books. Here are all the newest works, the biographies, the dozens of Series, the novels, the essays—everything, Stand beside the place for a quarter of an hour before the departure of the express. Look at the people. They crowd about the stall: they are all buying books. Con- sider that this goes on every hour from morning till night—for twelve hours, or thereabouts, the people flock to this stall and buy books. Consider, further, that there are a dozen such stations in London, and that the same thing goes on at every big town in the United Kingdom. Will you still consider us a nation which does not buy books? But—a point which seems to make against the extension of the book trade—the country book- sellers' shops have certainly decreased in import- ## p. 289 (#347) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 289 ance and in profits during the last half century. That is quite true. The bookseller of the old county town was a person of great weight and con- sideration. He had down all the new books, the clergy and the reading public of the place looked upon his shop as a place where literary news could be heard and the new books examined. But then there was no other way of getting the literary news. The country papers had none, the London literary papers went but little out of London, the people seldom went to town. They were therefore de- pendent upon the local bookseller, who, as one who studies his market, provided for his customers the things which he knew they would take. Also, a thing of the greatest importance, there was no dis- count of threepence in the shilling, and the published price was high. A bookseller who sold a book for 1 of. 6d. which he had purchased for 7*., managed to do very well. He was a substantial person: on the social ladder he ranked first among the trades- men: he stood next to the solicitor and the doctor. Now, he has to give a discount of three- pence in the shilling. His half-guinea volume is reduced to three and six, which he sells for two and eight, and for which he pays two shillings. Therefore, he is fain to sell, in addition to books, stationery, photographs, albums, fancy things, and perhaps toys. His customers are independent of him; they learn easily from the reviews all that goes on; they order their books from London, or from the railway stall, and they desert the local shop. The book trade, in fact, has increased a thousand- fold, and yet the bookseller has decayed. Consider, next, the publishers' lists. I have before me the Athenaum, which contains, I sup- pose, more book advertisements than any other paper. This single number represents fourteen firms of publishers, most, in fact, of what are called leading publishers. It is by no means the best publishing time of the year. Yet, leaving out the books which are announced only, no price being affixed, we find an astonishing activity. Of biographical works there are 28, ranging in price from 2s. 6d. to £5 55.; of essays there are 29, namely, 9 at 2s. 6d., 3 at 3f. 6d., 3 at 5s., 7 at 6s., 1 at 7*., 1 at 7f. 6d, 1 at 9f., and 4 at iof. 6d. Of fiction there are some 90 works, counting new books and new editions, viz., 17 at 3 if. 6d., 9 at 2 if., 1 at i7f., 24 at 6s., 1 at i2f., 3 at 7f. 6d., 29 at 3f. 6d., 1 at sf., 4 at 2f. 6d., and two or three at 2f. We may pass over art books, histories, and one or two books of travel. If we look at this advertisememt sheet in another three months, most of these books will be changed for others. Now, if you please, for whom are these books published? For the circulating libraries? They may take all the three volume novels. For whom are the other books issued? For the general public. These advertisements represent the sale of, at least, half a million volumes; and, to repeat, the lists will be all changed in three months' time. Is that, then, the whole life's duration of our modern literature? It is of the great majority of books that are published. We remark on the price of these books. The favourite prices are 6s. and 3f. 6d. The books most bought are novels either at that price, or those in the cheaper form at 2f., which are not generally advertised in the Athenaum. And the novels which become popular retain their vitality for many years. Not to speak of Scott, Dickens, or Marryat, any popular novel of the last forty years is popular still. But these, remember, are only the advertisements of a casual week. Consider, one after the other, the general list of a great publisher, that long and encyclopaedic document embracing all subjects, and all authors, dead and living; think of the lists of the religious publishing houses, which cater chiefly for the uncultivated class, and administer doctrine disguised as fiction; think of the immense lists of books by the so-called popular houses, which issue cheap literature. One would like to have an enumeration and an analysis of all the books at this moment offered to the British public by the publishers. Certain it is that no shop could contain a tenth portion. Yet they are in demand—else they would be withdrawn from the list. For whom are these thousands of books published, and year after year reprinted? For this folk who never buy books. In fact, a great change has come over us in this as in every other respect. Increased ease in cir cumstances with an increased taste for letters has caused us to buy books as we never bought them before. We are now buyers on a gigantic scale. Every good book is caught up eagerly. There is no longer the slightest foundation for the old bogie of risk; there is no risk about a good book except the risk of over-printing, which no prudent man will incur; there are novelists, not by ones or twos, but by the score, whose books are in demand unknown even to such admirable writers as, say, Mrs. Gaskell, of thirty years ago. The three volume novel has its run as of old; I have not heard that it is decreasing in demand; but when the cheap edition of it comes out, if it is a favourite, it is bought by the very people who have first read it from the library. Whether we devote as large a proportion of our expenditure to buying books as we should is another question. The mind must be nourished as well as the body; it requires continual reception of new facts, new thoughts, new theories, new lights, new arguments. It requires continually to be refreshed by the exhibition of the old things. In an ordi- nary middleclass household the wife spends ^400 a ## p. 290 (#348) ############################################ 290 THE AUTHOR. year on her house ; the husband, ,£75 a year on his wine ; the family, jQi 50 a year on clothes ; the same amount on travelling; there is also rent; there are the hundred and fifty little things in which money is wasted all day long. How much is spent on books? Formerly, three guineas a year. That was all. Only three guineas a year for the circu- lating library and for books, nothing, except a birthday present or two, and what the children bought out of their pocket money. But as for any idea that it is the duty of a man of culture to buy his mental food as he buys his meat and bread, that had not dawned upon their minds, nor has it yet, though, for convenience sake, people have begun to buy, and will, before long, buy yet more largely. It will be now understood from these considera- tions why we drew up certain questions and sub- mitted them to certain well-known booksellers in London; our best thanks are due for the courtesy with which these questions have been answered. They were not meant to be inquisitive or prying questions, but general, and directed mainly to finding an answer to the question at the head of this paper. Had not the views already expressed been confirmed, in the main, by these answers, they would not have been advanced. The following, therefore, is summarised from the replies received. Those received from different houses are put together so as to present a con- tinuous opinion. Every well-educated Englishman buys some books. In every house will be found shelves filled with books, chiefly new, and in most houses there is a library, or study, or school room. Students of all kinds have to buy their text books—a large trade ir| itself; most professional men have a taste for reading, and are frequently very good buyers. Schoolboys, besides having to buy school books, and young clerks, are great buyers of the cheap reprints of Lytton, Ainsworth, Dickens, Jules Verne, &c, which are sold at 4^1. a copy. Ladies are not, as a rule, good book buyers, except of books for children, and for household purposes; when they do buy, it is the two shilling novel. Country people and visitors buy a great many books. City men are often large and constant buyers. Some have their favourite authors, and buy everything that bears the name. The ordinary middle-class Englishman, he who lives by his shop, does not, as a rule, buy or read books at all. His daily paper is sufficient for him. Yet he will, on occasion, buy something that strikes his imagination, or that is much talked about. Opinions differ as to the best price for selling a novel. One, for instance, finds that the price of 6s. is paid as readily as that of 35. 6d. Another says that the best way to treat an author is to publish him in uniform binding at 3s. 6d. In the case of a really good and lasting work it seems best to have several editions at 6.?., at 3s. 6d., and at 2s. The 6d. books have an enormous sale. They are generally editions of books whose copy- right is lapsed. There is, therefore, no author to be considered. If 100,000 copies go off, the publisher gets id. a copy, and the bookseller id., and so a handsome profit is realised. There is always a great demand for old works of fiction. Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Scott, Marryat, Charles Kingsley, and Wilkie Collins, still continue in greater popularity than any living writers. The bookseller suffers the living writers to drop out of his shelves, but always keeps them well stocked with these dead writers. Books of travel very quickly die when the first curiosity is satisfied. Yet there are a few excep- tions. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle," the "Voyage of the Sunbeam," Waterton's Travels, Cook s Voyages, are always in steady demand. Very few people buy new poetry. Yet for Tennyson, Browning, Swinburne, Edwin Arnold, Mathew Arnold, and Longfellow there is always a steady demand. As regards essays: these vary with the subjects. For steady demand we may mention John Morley's Essays, Charles Lamb, Lubbock's "Pleasures of Life," Carlyle, &c, while for sudden popularity may be cited Augustine Birrell and Jerome. Books of biography possess either a wide interest soon satisfied, as in the life of a man recently dead, or an abiding interest as is shown in the steady demand for the many series now before the world. Books of history are always in demand. The most popular are Macaulay, Green, and Froude. The " Story of the Nations " series is very popular. The most popular American authors are, taking them in order of demand—Mark Twain, Bret Harte. Marion Crawford (if he is to be reckoned an American), and Howells, Henry James, Holmes, Emerson. Foreign books do not compare in popularity with native productions. Daudet, Georges Ohnet, Boisgobey, Gaboriau, Dumas, Eugene Sue, Jules Verne, are largely asked for. The discount of $d. in the is. has been much discussed by the trade. A Booksellers' Associa- tion has been formed to consider this among other matters. They have come to the conclusion that the discount must be retained, but that it must not be increased. As regards the extent of the colonial trade, no statistics have been furnished, and perhaps one cannot expect to arrive at any. But one book- seller pertinently points out that many houses are ## p. 291 (#349) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 291 engaged in nothing else but the export of books, a fact which proves that the trade is very great. Enough has been adduced to prove that it can no longer be charged against us that we do not buy books. On the contrary, we buy vast quan- tities. Whether we buy as many as we ought, considering the number we read, is another matter. In our next number we may perhaps, by some analysis of publishers' lists, arrive at a closer estimate of the vast national interest of what is familiarly called the Trade. UN DEBUT DANS LA VlE. "OU are now, Martha Londers," said the Matron of the Orphanage, "about to enter upon the duties and responsibilities of life. Your career begins to-day. It depends upon yourself where it ends. It may be that you will rise to be housekeeper in a mansion, or even —such things have happened—to be Matron of an Institution." Martha Londers blushed; that is to say, a naturally rosy face .became fiery red, or even, in spots, purple; then she smiled—with breadth; then her eyes became humid, and a big tear, not of sorrow, but of joyful, emotional hope, swam gently over the amplitude of her cheek; and her nose, naturally broad, widened and glistenedi The occasion was great; the emotion of Martha was natural; for the first time in her life she was going to leave the retreat of the Orphanage, and to enter upon the world. All was before her: she was seventeen years of age, and she was beginning her career as assistant housemaid. What then? Many a field marshal has begun as a common soldier: many an archbishop has risen from the plough. To have one foot upon the ladder, even it be the lowest rung, is something. Martha Londers had two—solid and substantial feet they were—and she felt as if she must rise. "You must be ambitious," continued the Matron. "Remember that your present wages— they will be ten pounds at first"—Martha gasped and choked—" are only a beginning to one who is ambitious. She who means to rise must show her ambition by her work. She must be active, early rising—I think I have detected in you, Martha, a tendency to an inclination to love your bed— thorough and zealous. Let all that you do be well done, thoroughly done—done in earnest—done as if you meant it to be so well done that not even the most scrupulous housewife could detect a fault With these maxims to guide you, Martha Londers, I may safely leave you. To some girls I should add a warning about beauty being only skin deep,"—where, as in Martha's case, it is deeper than that, it sinks below the surface and becomes invisible.—"To you I would only say that temp- tation to all women, beautiful or otherwise, fre- quently assumes the shape of Man. Beware, therefore." "He will be home," said the housemaid, "to morrow morning. The Master's study has been left to the last. You can do it this morning, Martha. As he won't have it touched while he is at home, make a good job of it" It was eight o'clock in the morning. The day was all before her. Martha felt that her work— she had only been- in the house two days—was already appreciated. She had been kindly allowed to scrub the greater part of the house from garret to cellar, and she was now entrusted with the important mission of cleaning up the Master's study. Everybody in the collecting line knows the name of that Master. No man had a safer judg- ment about Aldines and Elzevirs; his collection of Elizabethan poets was almost complete; he knew the prices of books better than Mr. Bain himself; and he could talk by the hour of the prices which books had fetched. Then for bindings, he knew the work of everyone, Maioli, Grolier, Eve, Derome —all—and he possessed specimens which were the envy of all his brother collectors. Again, he had books which belonged to the library of Marie Antoinette, of Madame Du Barry, Madame de Pompadour, and others whose books are valuable for their bindings and their rarity. In fine, the chase of books was the chief occupation of his life. What sayeth "A. L" in his book of the Library? "Pour tout plaisir que Ton goute icy-bas La Grace a Dieu. Mieulx vaut, sans altercas, Chasser bouquin. Nul mat n'en peult s'eh suivre. Or sus au livre; il est le grand appas. Clair est le ciel. Amis, qui veult me suivre En bouquinant?" He was a man—say, rather, a collector—of catholic tastes, not bounded by books alone though his real strength lay in books. He had, for instance, on a great study table beside the catalogues which formed his library of reference, trays of valuable coins; he had Things—he called them Things—in bronze, Things in brass, Things in silver; panels lay about with wood carvings upon them—precious carvings picked up at sales, in brie h. brae shops, Things from city churches which they were pulling down, Things from Egypt, Things from Etruscan tombs, Things from Phoenicia, Things from Tunis, Things from Spain, Things ancient, Things mediaeval. The study, in short, a large and ## p. 292 (#350) ############################################ 292 THE AUTHOR. handsome room on the first floor of a big house in Fitzjohn's Avenue, was crammed and crowded with old and curious Things. And Martha Londers, bursting with impatience to show her zeal, was turned into this room to clean it up. It was the last day of the Master's summer holiday. He had spent it wholly among the Italian shops. It was never too hot for him, so long as he could sit among the Things. Rome in August was as pleasant as Rome in April, provided there were Things to look at. Where are there no Things in Italy—Land of Things? It was over, and he was on his way home. And Martha Londers was in his study. She had the house all to herself, because the other servants went out for a holiday and left her alone with her work. Alone? No, not alone. There sat on a corner of the highest shelf, invisible to Martha, a Creature which grinned and mocked and laughed, and held its sides and rolled about with laughing. But not aloud—so that Martha neither heard nor saw, but went on with her work. Thorough work; zealous work; work in which not the most scrupulous housewife could find the least fault or omission. Work methodical and complete. Observe that Martha had never before seen a study or a library. There were books for the girls at the Orphanage ; they were distributed for Sunday reading between the three services; but a library she had never before seen. First she surveyed the whole; then she took down a book and found that it was dusty on the top, and that the shelf behind was very dusty. Then she saw that many of the books presented a faded and careworn exterior which she thought she could improve; and she observed with concern that a great quantity of the Things wanted cleaning badly. She went out and returned bearing a mop, a bucket of warm water, some soap, a scrubbing- brush, a knife for scraping, some plate powder, and other ingredients, with the help of which she pur- posed to pass a useful and a pleasant time. As she was alone in the house she sang over her work. At the Orphanage the girls only sang hymns. Martha, therefore, in a contented mur- murous kind of croon, while she scrubbed with zeal, beguiled the time with "Lead, kindly Light." She first removed the books from the top shelf; then, mounted on a chair, she sluiced that shelf with water and scrubbed it with soap, wiping it dry with a towel. It was beautifully clean when she finished it. No one would blame her, of course, because the water dripped through upon the books below, lodged and lurked between their bindings, and splashed their backs. She took out those of the second row, wiped them dry with her towel— everybody knows how a book bound in Russia leather or Morocco is improved by a splash of water and a good rub with a damp towel—and proceeded to sluice and scrub the boards; and so on until the morning was spent—the shelves completely cleaned, and the books, one and all, beautified for ever with her towel. Martha, well content so far, now retired to the kitchen and made a hearty meal off the cold mutton and potatoes provided for her by the cook before she left the house. She then mounted the stairs once more and began the second part of her work, singing again; but she changed her tune and now encouraged herself with "Art thou weary? art thou languid?" All day long the Creature who sat on the highest shelf laughed and rolled about with laughing. But he was invisible to Martha. When, about seven in the evening, she com- pleted her job, she had scraped and polished the bronzes, the coins—for which she used a file—and the old silver; she had "restored" the old leather bindings with a material commonly used for saddles; she had cleaned and wiped the books; some, though very old, had never been cut—this omission she repaired; others, mostly pamphlets, which had ragged edges, she cut even and neat with a pair of scissors; the wood carvings she had scraped when that process seemed necessary, and in all cases had scrubbed so that the panels now looked really beautiful. No one would notice and, indeed, it could not matter, that a few bits had come off—a grape or two, a flower, a flourish, the round knob of a cherub's nose. Finally, the Things looked now so very, very much better for their thorough repair and so different from their former grimy condition that Martha's honest heart swelled with pride and pleasure. What would the Master say when he returned? He would look about him with surprised satisfaction; he would ask what new hand had done this: he would be told that it was the hand of the new under house- maid, Martha Londers; and he would nod his head, promising himself to keep his eye upon Martha. Perhaps he would send for her to express his satis- faction and his approbation. When Martha, on her knees that night, made the usual confession of her sins, she could not help—it was not in human nature—feeling that for once the good deeds outweighed the bad, and left a balance to carry forward. 'Twas a Papistical thought, but she knew not the errors of the Roman Church, and may be excused. The Master, who had been travelling all night, arrived about seven o'clock. Martha observed him with curiosity. He was an elderly mm, somewhere in the fifties or perhaps in the early ## p. 293 (#351) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 293 sixties; he was red-faced and of a full habit, but he moved with activity—a collector is always active; sometimes, to get before other collectors, he must even run. He entered the house. Martha was dusting the stairs and dropped a curtsey which he noticed with a nod. It will be a nod and a smile to-morrow, Martha thought. He went up stairs—but no—not yet—not into the study. He first had a change in his bed room, and then he descended to the dining room and took breakfast and the morning paper; he then, being fatigued with his night's travelling, fell asleep in his easy chair and so continued until noon or thereabouts. When he awoke he rose, yawned loudly, and walked to the door. Martha was dusting the hall clock. Now, at last, he was going into his own study. He was. As he went up the stairs Martha in her agitation nearly slipped off the chair on which she was standing. She stopped her dusting, and steadied herself to listen. Surely, surely he would notice— he would not fail to notice—the thoroughness of the cleaning, the zeal of the cleaner, the completeness of the job. He must notice it; he must ask who did it; he must be ready to-morrow with a smile of appreciation. What was that? The house trembled from rafter ridge to basement; the walls rocked to and fro; the glass on the side-board vibrated musically but strangely; the pictures rocked and swung; and Martha's heart stood quite still. A roar—a long prolonged roar j another roar; a third, louder and more terrifying. Martha's cheek turned white and her knees trembled beneath her as she stood upon the chair. Then a howl—a prolonged howl as of a wild beast in agony—and then the ringing of the bell—the study bell, as if all the bells in the whole house were ringing at once. Then a hasty footstep upon the landing, and the Master's head, purple, his eyes standing out, his arms outstretched, his fists clenched, showed over the balustrade, while he cursed and swore with such language as Martha had never before heard even from the lowest court, while the Orphans took their walks abroad. Her head reeled; she fell from the chair headlong and lay upon the floor. The housekeeper rushed up the stairs. "Good Lord !" she cried, "what's the matter?" The Master seized her by the arm and dragged her into the study. Now reduced to speechlessness, save for half articulate interjections which betrayed his emotion, he pointed to the trays of coins, to the bronzes, to the old silver, to the books— to the Things. The woman, who knew what Things meant, gazed in stupefaction. The Master roared again. He could now do nothing but roar. Downstairs, in the hall, Martha came to herself and sat up sick with fright. What was the matter? The other servants were gathered at the foot of the stairs listening. Presently, the roaring died away, and the voice of feminine weeping and lamentation, mixed with masculine thunderous rumblings, succeeded. Still the housekeeper came not down, and still they listened awestruck by the unknown disaster. No one took any notice of Martha, though she had got a lump as big as an egg at the back of her head by her fall, and though she was white with terror. For now she understood, somehow or other, that the trouble overhead was connected with herself. At last, the housekeeper came down, her eyes red with tears. "Martha," she said, with an attempt at calmness, "go upstairs and pack your box. Not another hour shall you stay. Go! You shall have your month's wages. Go back to your Orphanage. Tell them that sent you out that you're only fit to scrub the floors of your Asylum. Go! She's ruined," the housekeeper explained, "the whole of the Master's collections—the finest collections in London. Ruined and spoiled them all, she has. That's all. Nothing more. Books and coins, and old silver and all. Go, I say, for fear I take and slap you. Ruined them all. The work of the Master's life ruined, and in a single day by a . . by a . . by a Drab." Martha screamed and fled. "Oh! it's too much—it's too much! Poor dear gentleman! He's quite broken hearted. He can never, never get over it. He's quieted a bit, at last, and he's sittin' on the floor now, with his ruined collections round him." This was Martha Londers' entrance upon her Career. This was the lamentable fashion in which she returned to the Matron that same day, * THE SIGNED ARTICLE. THE proposal of Mr, Atkinson to compel the writers of editorial articles to sigh what they write has not led to the discussion one might have expected. But Mr. George Augustus Sala, in his "Echoes of the Week," had some very interesting remarks on the merits and demerits of the signed article. He says, "I have always been a strenuous advocate of the anony- ## p. 294 (#352) ############################################ 294 THE AUTHOR. mous in journalism so far as leading articles are concerned." Few people are better qualified to speak with the authority of so experienced a journalist as Mr. Sala. If anything should be anonymous surely it is the leading article, which is supposed to be the expression of the opinion of the whole staff of a paper or party rather than of an individual. Nevertheless there seems to be a tendency now in favour of signed articles, other than editorials in the weeklies, for instance; and the monthly reviews are certainly more read than the stale confections of the Quarterly and Edin- burgh, which, if people ever read at all, they pay little heed to. True, there is a pleasant antiquarian flavour about the notorious reviews on Keats, Byron, Thackeray, Tennyson, and the Brontes. They are relics of the haute ecole of scurrility— that scurrility which, though like everything else, as we are told, is in its decadence, is found not in the new journalism^ but in the newest, the brand-new journalism. While endorsing the opinions of Mr. Sala, it is impossible to agree with Mr. W. H. Smith, that " the liberty of the press," with rare exceptions, is far from being abused. The most disgusting personalities about eminent men are read every day with relish by thousands. We hear what an eminent poet eats for breakfast, what a politician drinks for dinner, the colour of the hair of the eldest daughter of an eminent painter, and the details of an internal disease that a well- known doctor is suffering from. If this is toler- ated would we be any better by knowing who the purveyor of such small talk was? What middle- man of journalism is responsible for jottings from the area, nursery, and servants' hall? No, far better to let him or her remain anonymous. Again, the question of reviewing books is an insurmountable objection to signed articles. Some books are bad, and some we do not like. A reviewer would be plunged into an impossible correspondence, and the editor would come in for his share if a review were signed. Why review books at all? is the question some people ask; but authors, especially young authors, like other human beings, are vain, and prefer to have their works attacked than not noticed at all. Anonymity in an article on some general question by an unknown writer, gives that article a value it might not otherwise possess. It is a distinct blow to learn that some fine piece of criticism is not by a Pater or Saintsbury, or an Andrew Lang, but the first effort of a Mr. Snook, who has just left the University. Then, too, there are many really important things a journalist might say (personality and scurrility barred) that he could not and would not care to say if the article were signed. That is why the Saturday Review contains so much the best reading in the whole of any of the weeklies. The signed article should be left to the monthly reviews, where we can find out what Mr. Gladstone has been reading, and what Mr. Parnell is thinking of. This, we believe, is the public point of view. Many eminent writers take the other side of the question; but in a daily morning paper, at any rate, the only signed contributions should be Reuter's telegrams and the advertisements, so that false news and false witness may be traced to their original source. Perhaps the most offensive type of the brand-new journalism which is always anonymous, is art criticism. Like science, art requires a thorough expert, and while anyone is at liberty to dislike this or that painting, no one should indulge in personal abuse and offensive invective of the painter himself. In all journalism, where some qualification as well as opinion is requisite, it is as well that a name should appear; to use Mr. Atkinson's words, "so that the public may know in each case how much or how little attention is due to each article.'' F. [This is one side of the question. Perhaps some readers might like to add, briefly, their views. —Editor.] * IN GRUB STREET. —»— TH R proprietors of Answers are certainly the most generous patrons of literature. They have forwarded j£i,ooo, I am told, to the widow of a man who was killed on the railway, because he had in his possession a copy of their entertaining periodical when he met his death. The advertisement was certainly a splendid one. The widow of any gentleman found dead with a copy of the Author on his person, will receive either a thousand copies of the current number, or a free copy for life. This generosity should be encouraged in all grades of journalism and letters. The Author, though only costing sixpence, is worth quite a guinea a number. There are many authors who will not sympathise with Ouida's complaint in the Titnes, and who would have considered it rather a compliment than otherwise to have their nom de plume utilised in the interests of commerce. It was an act, however, of flagrant literary piracy, and let us hope that the company will be courteous enough to find some ## p. 295 (#353) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 295 no less musical and attractive sobriquet as that which at present belongs to a distinguished authoress. Shakespeare's creations have been used to advertise soap and pills, so that Ouida is certainly in excellent company. There is a "melancholy and altogether pathetic interest" attaching to the last story of Mr. Ignatius Donelly's Great Cryptogam, in which a Daniel indeed came to judgment. An American farmer, according to Black and White, had pur- chased his two volumes under the impression that Shakespeare would be exposed; when, how- ever, the tallyman came round for payment he professed himself unconvinced, and returned the books. A law suit followed, and the learned judge, who had something of an Arabian caliph in him, decided that the farmer would have to disprove the cryptogam before he would be exempt from pay- ment. Had it gone the other way, a very dangerous precedent would have been created. For, on the same principle, we might refuse to pay booksellers who supplied us with dull or disappointing works. The biography of John Wesley, by J. H. Overton (Methuen and Co.), is one of the very best of the many lives that have been written, and shows the great preacher in quite a new light. The compli- ments that are being paid by one sect of Christians to another now-a-days are very charming. At the same time it appears strange for the press, com- menting on the Wesley centenary, to say that Wesley " belongs as much to the English Church" as to the Nonconformists. The same thing has been said of Newman lately. Now these two eminent divines made themselves famous, either by leaving the English Church or causing others to leave it. I do not think, therefore, that the Anglican Church can lay much more claim to them than the Roman Communion can Dollinger or Renan. ♦ To return once more to Mr. Andrew Lang's "Essays in Little." The boldest of us may tremble before admitting that we disagree with him. There is no more appreciative writer living, unless it be Mr. Ruskin; then why cannot he see some- thing in the Russian novelists? He is always tilt- ing at them : whether he is speaking of Dumas, Thackeray, or Dickens. Perhaps it is the admirers of Tolstoi that Mr. I^ang objects to. There are three ways of taking Tolstoi: one of them is to read him, the second way is to admire him, and the third way is to abuse him. Mr. Lang has tried a vol. L combination of all three, but surely one may burn incense at the high altar of Shakespeare, let us say, and at the same time have a side chapel for Mr. Andrew Lang. Cannot the same argument be applied to Dumas and Dostoieffsky? In Tolstoi's short stories especially there are moments as good as any in English literature. Speaking of Dickens again, Mr. Andrew Lang is very angry with those people who say they cannot read Dickens, but it is much better to say so than to pretend to an admiration of the "darling of the English people." In one of Mr. James Payn's delightful essays on the sham admiration of literature, he tells several amusing stories thereon, one of a lady who confessed she could not see the fun of John Gilpin, and a gentle- man who preferred the "Earthly Paradise" to "Paradise Lost." Even at the expense of cutting a poor figure, surely it is better to be honest about what you like to read. I much prefer reading, for instance (I know many will, but in secret, agree with me), "Essays in Little" to Milton's reply to Salmasius. The death of Poet Close was a local rather than a national loss. No doubt some future Mr. Andrew Lang will be able to find something as amusing in his work, as Mr. Lang has found in that of Haynes Baily. Like Mr. Martin Tupper, he belonged to the good rather than to the great. The death of Fortune1 du Boisgobey, though hardly noticed in most of the English papers, received an eloquent obituary notice in the pages of the Saturday Revieiv. I confess that I envy those people who were amused by him. I think Hugh Conway told much better stories, and that several other English writers of sensational fiction are better than this French novelist on his own ground. All writers of sensational novels have at one time or another been hard pressed for an idea, and the mysterious disappearance of a lady from the Law Courts the other day is full of suggestion for a capital romance. Some enterprising journal might offer a prize for the best story founded on the incident. It would be very amusing to see how each person worked at the explanation of the mystery. Mr. Egerton Castle, having already distinguished himself as an author, has been winning further laurels at the Lyceum. "Consequences" has 2 13 ## p. 296 (#354) ############################################ 296 THE AUTHOR. reached its second edition, so let us hope it will soon appear in one~ volume. If poetry is in danger, fiction is certainly safe when Mr. Castle has won the public applause. Perhaps he will be generous enough to give us also ere long a second edition of his delightful lecture. The March number of the Fortnightly Revinv which, with the exception of the Author, is the best, I think, of all the monthly periodicals, is particularly interesting. Mr. Swinburne has some splendid stanzas for a statue of Marlowe, and Mr. Meredith continues "One of our Conquerors." Mr. Oscar Wilde gives a very original form of a preface for "Dorian Grey," in which he rebukes his critics in a series of pregnant aphorisms. "Dorian Grey," who shines like an evil thing in a very good story, will shortly appear with more harmonious surroundings than Lippincotfs Maga- zine. Among the many good articles in the Fortnightly, that on "Rossetti and the Moralists" is unfortunate. The writer seems to me to have entirely misconceived Rossetti's genius, and mis- understood the position he occupies in literature and art. Mr. George Moore has reprinted more than a dozen articles. They form a most interesting volume. It would be pleasant to notice many of them at some length. The articles on Balzac, Turgenieff, Verlaine, Rimbault, are highly suggestive, as is indeed all Mr. George Moore's work in this his special field of criticism. With regard to Turgenieff, I have never understood the disproportionate admiration felt for the least re- markable of the new Russian novelists. We have again studies on " Le Reve " and Ibsen's "Ghosts." The " Notes on Ghosts " has come very opportunely before the appearance of the play at the Royalty. If there is anything to be said against Mr. George Moore's book, it is that the egoism which he displays is to be regretted. ♦ Perhaps the article on the new pictures in the National Gallery is rather out of place in a volume on literary subjects, nor can I think that the pictures of Mr. Frith are otherwise than eminently in their place in the British School. Whether that school deserves a place in the Gallery is another matter. Verlaine is one of the most remarkable characters of the second half of the century, reminding us, as we are apt now to forget, that strong and sincere religious belief has always been found compatible with great disorder of life. A considera- tion of his life and works would be a wholesome occupation for " Moralitarians " of all kinds. They cannot do better than begin with Mr. George Moore's study. The "Balzac " is an article first printed in the Fortnightly, "increased to nearly three times its original length," and greatly improved. As a realistic critic of Balzac, Mr. George Moore is far superior in power and appreciation to any other Englishman. His notice of that little appreciated and most powerful etude, "La Vieille Fille," is masterly, and his remarks on "Le Cure" de Tours" entitle him to even higher praise; they are peculiarly terse and elucidating, a really fine example of appreciative criticism. I cannot wholly agree with Mr. George Moore's rubric, "that pro- bably the only way to convey a suggestion of the genius of the great novelist lies through the minor pieces." But certainly the minor pieces have never been sufficiently considered, and " La Vieille Fille" is one of the finest, superior in every respect to the better known" Femme de trente ans." Apropos of Balzac, compilers of anecdotes con- cerning him generally forget the characteristic note of Hans Christian Andersen in his "Mit Livs Eventyr." Describing his visit to Paris in 1843, ne says:—" Balzac, whose acquaintance I made at this time, I first saw in the salon of Madame laComtesse de Bocarmd, as a fashionable, well-dressed personage. His white teeth gleamed between his red lips. He seemed a jovial man, but he did not talk much, at any rate in that circle. A lady who wrote verses fastened herself on to him and me; she drew us aside to a sofa and sat herself down between us. While she was talking with modest hesitation about how small she felt between us, I turned my head and caught sight behind her back of Balzac's laughing, satirical face and half-open mouth, slyly turned towards me. This was our first meeting. One day I was going through the Louvre. There I met a man in face, figure, and gait exactly like Balzac. But the man was dressed in shabby, worn-out clothes—really dirty they were. His shoes were all burst out, his trousers bespattered with dry mud, and his hat all misshapen and cracked. I stopped short; the man smiled at me, then I went on, but he was so incredibly like—I turned back, ran after him, and said, 'It can't be Herr Balzac!' The man laughed, showing his white teeth, and said only, 'Monsieur Balzac started for St. Petersburg this morning.' He pressed my hand, his own was fine and soft, he nodded, and was gone. It must ## p. 297 (#355) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 297 have been Balzac; perhaps he had been on one of his exploring expeditions among the mysteries of Paris. Or was the man someone else, who, being extremely like Balzac, and having often been taken for him, was amusing himself by mystifying a foreigner? Two days afterwards, when I was talking to Madame Bocarml, she gave me a message of farewell from Balzac—he had gone to St. Petersburg." As we might have expected, a delicate, half- satiric sense of humour was the point of contact between the all-comprehensive Balzac and the charming, childlike Dane. How delighted Balzac would be with the exquisite blending of pathos and humour in the tale, " En Hjertesorg," the grief of a little child who had no trouser button to pay the toll the other children exacted to attend the funeral of a dead pug. Everyone knows the story which Byron told Medwin. Shortly before Shelley's death he had a horrible nightmare. "He thought that a figure wrapped in a mantle came to his bedside and beckoned him; he got up and followed it; when in the hall the phantom lifted up the hood of his cloak, showed Shelley the phantasm of himself, and saying ' Siete satisfatto ?'—vanished. Shelley had been reading a strange drama, which is supposed to have been written by Calderon, entitled, "El embozado, 6 el encapotado." It is so scarce that Washington Irving told me he had sought for it without success in several of the public libraries of Spain." Where did Shelley obtain this play? Was it a Spanish play at all which he had read? Were Byron or Medwin correct? Does Washington Irving throw any further light on the subject? The authorship of Calderon is immaterial; so many plays by other authors were printed as his in his lifetime that it was necessary for him to make a list of his works. This list is known to be incomplete, but the point for remark is that no play entitled "El embozado " or "El encapotado" is mentioned in any of the exhaustive editions of Calderon among plays erroneously attributed to him. The title, again, is not mentioned in the lists of anonymous Spanish dramas. On the other hand there is a play of Agustin Moreto which in certain details suggests that he may have known some such story. The subject is a fasci- nating one, suggesting, as it must have done, one of the finest tales of the greatest of English writers vol. 1. of short tales, and again brought to our memory by the wonderful pen and ink sketch of Rossetti called "How they met themselves." The well- known stories of Theophile Gautier and Robert Louis Stevenson represent a similar but not the same idea; at any rate the point of view from which they regard the idea is different. Can any of our readers give any information concerning the play? Miss E. S. G. Saunders is bringing out a volume entitled, " Thoughts for the present Lectionary; or, the New Christian Year." Mr. Stanley Little contributes an article entitled, "The Camera's Service to Art," to the April number of the Photographic Quarterly. Mr. Hume Nisbet is producing this month, (1) "A Colonial Tramp: Being Adventures through Australasia and New Guinea." 2 vols. 32^. Ward and Downey. (2) "The Black Drop." 2s. 6d. Trischler and Co. (3) The third edition of " Bail Up!" Chatto and Windus. He has also an article on "The Papuan and his Master," in the Fortnightly Review. Under the pseudonym of Evelyn Ballantyne, Mr. Eustace R. Ball has contributed on Continental Music Halls to the March number of the Theatre. An article on " Weighing the Stars," by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., appears in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, and another on "Planetary Nebula;" in the February number of the Monthly Packet. ♦ A new and cheaper edition of Mr. James Sully's "Pessimism," with a review of pessimistic literature up to the present date, has just been issued by the publishers, Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. Mr. William Westall has written a one volume story, entitled "Back to Africa: A Confession." It will be published by Ward and Downey in the course of the present month. R. * 2 B 2 ## p. 298 (#356) ############################################ 298 THE AUTHOR. THE PARNASSUS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION. THE Association consists of one man, Mr. Joseph Haggerston Dalston. With him are associated as many literary aspirants as he can persuade to publish with him at their cost and risk. Here is my experience with Mr. Joseph Hag- gerston Dalston. Some time ago, while I was con- cluding a novel with which I intended to astonish the world, I received a letter from Mr. Dalston, stating that he was an author's agent, and as he enclosed what appeared to be bonA fide testimonials, I replied to his letter. This reply doubtless war- ranted him in assuming my inexperience of business. In subsequent letters he offered to read my story for a fee of one guinea. This, for what he called himself, "an editorial expert whose opinion should be at once authoritative and final," was not expensive. Before closing with his offer, however, I asked for proof that he had that influence with publishers which he claimed. By return came a letter enclosing one of recent date, from a publishing house of the highest standing, which was to the effect that they were very much obliged to him for having brought them the MS. of Mr. •, which they were prepared to publish immediately, paying the author a royalty. This proof seemed to me sufficient, especially when read in connection with the following wail of Mr. Dalston. "Unfortunately, however, even in large London publishing houses of assured authority and repute, few follow religiously the 'reading' of a new MS. by an unknown writer, while so many knmvn (yet not always repeatedly successful) authors are at the ' beck and call' of the majority of the large publishers to go on at any time mechanically writing 'to order'—too often a curse to the 'pot-boiling' reputation of the author, and ergo lesseningly attractive to these authors' favourite readers—a majority of the stupid reading public, too easily and too stupidly satisfied, to the oft-time exclusion of a new writer waiting with better work, but unable to pass with it through the barrier that too often bars the way to talent and genius in other directions than 1 literary land."' The "rough copy" of my manuscript I for- warded to his address for an opinion. Nearly a month elapsed before I obtained any reply, but repeated applications elicited the follow- ing: "Your MS. has really demanded from me more attention and deliberate care than I had at first anticipated. In the first place, I may say, that I did not like your introduction, but the con- cluding chapters minimise my first objection, which we may now let pass. The opening is clever and startling, and prepares the reader's mind with a powerful piquancy for the more attractive artistic 'actualities' so skilfully drawn throughout the book; and the successive chapters increasing, as they do in interest, will hold the reader in sensa- tional subjection—fascinated by that mental mes- merism which enthralls at every turn of your pages. "Splendidly subjective and appalling are Chaps, xxi and xxii. 'The Captain' also is interestingly introduced and cleverly conducted to his doom! "Other chapters teeming with touches of talent will gain 'good words' for your work from the Reading World and Critics, even as fine present- ments of human passion, the littleness of life, and the greatness of death pourtrayed by your pen, inter alia in , , , have never been formed in the one time ever-praised pages of Bulwer! Dickens!! and Wilkie Collins!!! "So swayed in this connexion, then, I hold to the belief that there are 'situations' in your nar- rative that will awaken attention from many who are now steeped in sluggish 'society' stupor, whilst the psychological problems still awaiting solution will invite keener study from the scientist, and 'set the mind thinking'! "The lurid light of English intellectuality, quick- ening in its intensity by recent remarkable revela- tions in the Press, now searchingly turns toward what little is known of lawless life in Africa, that mysterious and uncivilized clime—and in the near future, perhaps, when we can discern more truths —coming to us, though they may, through the thinly-veiled romanticism of another Hanwell— then your and other philanthropic warning words shall stir the public pulse into indignation or re- volt, until the lightning message of rnercy, release, and reform is flashed from England to Mashona!" I am still inclined to think that this gratifying opinion is worth the guinea it cost me, especially when it is compared with the trivial comments of friends who have begged my books, or of critics whom I have feasted, treated, and entertained at a much greater cost. The indefatigable Mr. Dalston did not, however, expect to rest with one guinea, for with the letter which accompanied his opinion, was one with "Suggestions for Publishing," in which I was reminded that, "Looking at the immediate interest that would probably result from bringing out the book at once, it may be considered ex- pedient to publish the book on the author's own account! Mr. Haggerston Dalston, trading as the Mongoose Publishing Co., and publisher of the Muses' Herald, will undertake the work. "The first cost would be ^ioo (the actual cost of producing ## p. 299 (#357) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 299 the first edition of a book in same form as pro- posed by Mr. Dalston is £23 17-r.), after sending 100 copies for reviews, &c, the sale of 900 books, 1 vol., at 6s. (less discount to trade, &c), would leave about £80 net profit. A smaller size type and vol. would cost £60, first edition, and leave about £40 net profit. The total editions of the first twelve months would probably leave a net profit (if published as suggested) of ,£1,000 to It would be interesting to know the figures upon which the estimated profits are based; there is a preciseness about the £1,575 greatly at variance with the round sum of £100, the estimated cost of production. I did not close with the offer, and directed my man to "place" the story with a good firm of publishers. A few days later he wrote making a further offer to publish on same terms as had been accepted by an author whose agreement (!) he forwarded to me. "You will forward me a cheque for £10, agreeing to pay a further £10 on receipt of proofs, and a final £10 when the book is in your hands, remaining risk and profits will be equally divided between publisher and author." Returning the stamped agreement of the author who had accepted these terms (his book has not yet appeared), 1 again asked Mr. Dalston to get my MS. accepted by a publisher. He wrote me that his offer was not "unworthy of acceptance," seeing that, for the gradual outlay of ^30, an edition of 1,000 copies would have expeditiously followed," then for six weeks failed to reply to any of my letters. "Respecting your MS.," he wrote in the last letter I received from him, "I am greatly dis- appointed at receiving it back from , whose manager I had seen before submitting yours and two other MSS.—all now returned. "When unaccepted, the daily consensus of suc- cessful scribblers seems to be—publish on your own account; but of course, this, as you know, is not an easy matter. However, I shall venture to publish the three MSS. (yours and the com- mercial's, and that written by a doctor's wife) under the following conditions, namely:—£10 in ad- vance, £10 further to be paid to me when proofs are in the hands of author, and £10 when the book is published and distributed, profits after publication to be equally divided between author and publisher." This being a similar offer to the one already proffered and refused, I determined to call upon the man and to secure my MS. The gentleman who is manager of the Mongoose Publishing Company, manager of the Muses' Pub- lishing Association, editor and publisher of the Muses' Herald, must surely be a busy man, yet I had to call many times at the room—it was on the second floor back—before I found the room occu- pied. Mr. Dalston is not a. young man, and he has a pleasing manner of address. He rarely speaks to the point, but abuses in general terms all the pub- lishing houses and their readers, and he never allows you to leave his presence without asking you for a money contribution to one or other of his ventures. As for the contents of his office there were two chairs, a table, a set of pigeon holes and MSS. In fact, the room was entirely furnished with MSS. It was simply full of "copy" piled from floor to ceiling, lying upon chairs and table, and floor, and fender. By a lucky chance my packet was upper- most of a newly made file, and was rescued without difficulty. Mr. Haggerston Dalston is now manager and everything else of a brand new association called the Parnassus Publishing Association. A clean sweep has been made of the MSS., and the name plate at the house and the Muses' Herald being defunct, with the Mongoose Publishing Company, a new plate is in preparation showing that here are the Central Offices (second floor back) of the "Parnassus Publishing Company" and of "Par- nassus Slopes," its magazine. Authors are now being invited by such papers as will take the ad- vertisements, to send their MSS. to the Company, and the old game has begun apain. The bait is the offer of "remunerative openings" and the promise that " suitable MSS.J' are promptly paid for. As for the magazine, every contributor must pay in advance for a whole year—it will probably collapse in a month or two, as happened with "Parnassus Slopes." Then the Company will disappear too. What becomes in the end of all the MSS., nobody knows. Perhaps not one in a thousand is worth anything. Yet that such an end—disappearance in this sink of low cunning—should be the fate of MSS. about which so many glowing hopes were formed, is melancholy indeed. * CORRESPONDENCE AND CASES. ( The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed or the statements made by correspondents.) The Production of Vouchers. ACASE has been lately brought before a London Court which promises to become interesting and useful. It was to this effect. A certain publisher transferred his business ## p. 300 (#358) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. to another firm. Two of the authors whose books he had published on the "half-profit" system, moved by Counsel that the second firm should be called upon to find vouchers for all the items of receipts and expenditure supplied to the authors. Their Counsel argued that the first firm only was responsible for any claims. The judge, however, granted the order asked for, reserving the question of costs. We hope to publish the further history of this case. » On Advertisements. I wish to draw the attention of your readers to two points which are generally lost sight of by an author when signing his contract. When disposing of a book upon the royalty system, one of the usual clauses is, "That all expenses of advertising shall be borne by the said publishers." It is by paying out monies for advertisements in addition to disbursing the cost of production that the publisher earns his right to his lion's share, i.e., the amount of cash that remains after paying the royalty to the author. Now let us suppose the case of an author who is pretty well known and whose three volume novels will be assuredly subscribed, we will say, to be well within the mark, to five hundred copies. If the publisher does not advertise at all he nets the entire difference between the trade price and the cost of production less the author's royalties—upon the five hundred copies. Therefore the less he advertises the better for it. But this is not all, the author who is absolutely in the hands of his publishers in the matter of advertising, often finds his book a sort of Christian thrown to the lions. The reason is not far to seek; somebody has to be "gibbeted," somebody has to be "guyed," and naturally the books that are not advertised go upon the black list, and the reviewer is given a free hand and told to work his wicked will upon them. The result of such "gibbeting" is probably not felt by the author till he comes to dispose of his next venture, say to some other publisher. "Your last book was very severely reviewed, Mr. Nibbs," says the publisher, " and we have sent over to our friends, Messrs. Barabbas, who tell us that only five hundred copies were subscribed." It is thus that an author may lose ground, all for the want of a ha'porth of tar in the shape of having a cut and dried clause as to hoto much is to be spent in advertisements, and where it is to be spent. For novels, at all events, a certain amount of advertisement is necessary; reviews even very favourable reviews, and the mere fact that the book is on Messrs. Smith's and Mudie's lists to be issued to first class subscribers only is not enough to keep the book before the public. Then where advertisements are to appear is m portant. The writer once published an eight and sixpenny book, on the half-profit system, which ran into a second edition. There were no profits, because the book was advertised not wisely, but too well. "If," thought the writer, "that mighty firm went on with a second edition, surely there must be profits, some profits, at all events, upon the first." Not a bit of it; the book was said to be swamped by advertise- ments. The writer went through the list of advertisements, and he found that his book had been advertised in the " Piscatorial Bulletin." He innocently wondered at this selection; when he found who the Bulletin belonged to, his wonder ceased. Perhaps after all the Fishing Fraternity are fond of oriental experiences. Who knows but that they may buy up the whole second edition? Not that the writer cares one brass button, because even if it were so, he feels certain that no half profits would ever accrue to him, because of course they'd be all mopped up by judicious advertise- ments in the " Piscatorial Bulletin," &c. Pachyderm. [The writer will find the subject of advertising treated in Mr. Sprigge's "Methods of Publishing." —Ed.] Authors and Reviewers. There are two questions I should like answered. First—Do reviewers conscientiously read the books with which they deal? Second—Do their criti- cisms honestly reflect the opinions that they have formed? Now any author worthy of the name must value and appreciate criticism which, however adverse, is nevertheless honest, discriminating, and intelli- gent. So far, at any rate, even if no farther, do I consider myself worthy to be called an author. I like being told what points in a work of mine are good, and what are bad. It is an intellectual satisfaction to me, and I feel precisely the same sort of gratitude to any reviewer that an intelligent student of painting or music unquestionably feels towards an able teacher, however severe his stric- tures occasionally may be. But my faith in critics, and consequently my good disposition towards them, have been considerably shaken of late. I find they contradict each other so wildly, that it is impossible for the most humble-minded writer ## p. 301 (#359) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 301 to learn anything from them; and they occasionally give grave grounds for the suspicion that they have never even read the book they are professing to review. Let me give an instance from my own experience. Two years ago or thereabouts, I published a novel. The book was widely reviewed, and I, a tyro in the art of fiction, felt very curious indeed to see how my first effort would be received by experts. Here are some of the verdicts. The Saturday said it was undeniably a clever book—satirical, humorous, and amusing; appa- rently the work of a man who had observed and thought; an original and readable novel. The AthetuBum said that it was the most com- pletely worthless novel the editor had seen for a long time. The Manchester Examiner said that were the critic compelled to characterise it by one epithet, that epithet would be "vivacious." Unflagging vivacity was its great charm. The Sunday Times, on the other hand, con- demned it as " always dull." The Manchester Examiner, again, praised my "constructive ability"; while— My publisher's reader informed me that a lack of constructive ability was my chief weakness. I might fill two columns of your paper with similar examples. But surely these are enough— enough to bewilder anybody. Am I dull, or am I vivacious? Am I clever, or am I a fool? Is my book original, satirical, humorous, &c, or is it the most completely worthless novel out? Surely I am not unreasonable in asking whom I am to believe. One word more. I spoke to my publishers about one of the notices—a notice which appeared to me gratuitously and unintelligently insolent. "Oh!" replied the worthy man I was addressing, "I think I can explain that. The gentleman who wrote that review of your book threatened to 'slate' whatever we might send him, unless we advertised in his paper. We did not give him an advertise- ment, and you, unfortunately, are made to suffer." Perhaps this may throw some light on my second question. An Obscure Novelist. —»~— Accepted. In January, 1889, a MS. was accepted for a certain periodical. In May the publisher was changed. In July, the new publisher accepted three other MSS. and "also the one sent to the late Editor," the price of the whole being stated by letter. My writing name was published among the other contributors, and I was urged in different ways to help to make the magazine known. None of the MSS. appearing, after eighteen months I wrote to ask the cause, and was coolly informed that the Editor had more MSS. on hand than he could use, and he would return them. I offered to wait, but positively declined to have them back, but by return of post they arrived in a very tattered condition. There was neither "smash " nor "crash " in this case—the periodical is said to be flourishing. M. J. D. S. Literary Godchildren. There is a literary Nemesis when a popular author suffers from the intrusion of the manuscripts of aspirants after fame. But when an unknown writer—who finds a difficulty in having an article accepted, and as great trouble to get paid for it— is troubled for advice and assistance in getting the work of others placed and remunerated—then the Furies are the old women one blames for the mis- management of affairs. Fifteen years ago a friend of mine wrote a play and demanded my opinion of it. I did not dare to give anyexpression of criticism of a tragedy thathe assured me was more tragical than Scott's "Bride of Lam- mermoor," and more impregnated with humour than Schiller's "Wallenstein." I was even able to refuse when I knew that one of the poet's friends said, "No such work of genius had been written since Shakespeare's plays first saw the light." For- tunately, I escaped without much censure in this case. My friend said that he regretted my decision, because he "had a certain amount of respect for my taste." He did not insist on submitting his proofs to me. The next experience was more amusing, if a little more costly. A schoolboy who had got into debt wrote to a member of my family asking for 7*., stating that he was about to write a three volume novel, that he had money owing for a short story, and enclosing some of his essays. The money was sent without any literary advice. And by the next post came a request for 1is. more " to save him from disgrace." Another manuscript was submitted to my judg- ment by a young woman who wished to make a profession of letters. It was clearly written, well paragraphed, and fairly interesting in matter. I had great pleasure in encouraging the writer, and urging her to perseverance. Now, I am glad to write, she is successfully supplementing her income by her pen. The last case is perhaps the most painful. In my desk at this moment there lies a morocco bound volume, in whose pages a beautiful, unfortu- nate girl has written part of her life experience. She ## p. 302 (#360) ############################################ 302 THE AUTHOR. asks my opinion of her confession. It has origin- ality and observation, but otherwise it is unreadable. The writer is sensitive, and so much spoiled by the flattery of her friends, that it will be puzzling for me to speak the truth without giving some pain. A. Gratuitous Contributions. I lately offered a short story to the editor of a popular magazine. It was accepted, but when I came to ask what was the scale of remuneration for such contributions I was blandly informed that ladies and gentlemen were usually willing to supply the magazine in question with " copy," without hope of any other remuneration than the pleasure and glory of seeing themselves in print! Now this is by no means a rare instance of a practice on the part of authors which I think cannot be better described than as the process of " cutting their own throats." The lamentable weakness with which writers consent to give away the work of such brains as they possess is one to be severely deprecated. It is to my thinking an act of arrant folly, injurious not only to those who indulge in it, but to others. I can, in fact, conceive nothing more mischievous, as lowering the price of literature in the market, than this habit, widely spread as it is, of gorging the pages of periodical publications with gratuitous con- tributions to the exclusion of matter that would otherwise be paid for. For is it to be expected that the proprietor of a magazine would pay for the stories, articles, &c, offered to him by some writers when he is able to get any quantity of such com- positions from others at no cost whatever? The scale of pay allowed by many magazines is poor enough as it is. It is not uncommon for certain very well-known periodicals to offer such miserable remuneration as 2s. and 2s. 6d. a page, while 5*. a page is considered in such quarters as something magnificent in its liberality. I have really been surprised to find how strictly moderate are the views on the subject of payment entertained by the conductors of magazines which might be expected to offer at any rate something like ade- quate compensation for one's time and trouble. The reason of this parsimony is of course "gratuit- ous contributions." It is poor stuff for the most part, no doubt, that is thus given away, but it seems to be good enough for the editor's purpose. But, I contend, everything, whether good, bad or indifferent, should have its price. It is not to be expected that the magazines should be filled in every page, every month, with first-class literature. Many of these periodicals are circulated among a class of readers who are not over particular as to the quality of the wares supplied to them, just as in other markets people are content with cheap and inferior articles. Yet everything is surely worth something, if it can be sold, and every story, or other lucubration, which is worth printing ought to be worth paying for. I am afraid it must be said that ladies are the worst offenders in this particular. I do not greatly blame them. They have, as a rule, little experience or knowledge of the business side of literature, and though some of them dream of making fortunes by their pens, too many, with an excess of diffidence, think they can hardly aspire so high as to be paid like what they call "a regular author." It is these amateurs who cheapen the literary market, and many of them are worth a price, even though it be a small one. Let them at any rate not be content with the mere acceptance of their stories and sketches, but ask for pay, and, when refused, with- draw their contributions and send them elsewhere. Many an article which would be eagerly taken by one of those editors who never pay when they can help it, would be found acceptable by others of more liberal habit. At the worst, failing to get their contributions into the paying magazines, they could fall back upon the non-paying ones. These last only deserve to have the very dregs of the scribbling art. I therefore raise my voice in earnest protest against this pernicious custom of offering contri- butions for nothing, or allowing them to be pub- lished without any remuneration whatever. The Society of Authors, I think, could do no greater service to the cause at least of periodical literature than by making it as widely known as possible that all contributors to magazines, &c, will be duly paid for if only the contributors are firm enough to refuse to write for nothing. If such an appeal did not put a stop to this practice it might at least diminish the mischief arising from it. Pray then advise all authors, amateur and otherwise, whenever it is proposed to print their contributions for noth- ing, to return the reply so often received by some of them—" declined with thanks." No Pay, No Pen. —*— A Coincidence? Will you allow me to draw attention to a case of curious similarity between two stories—the one by Mr. Ernest Rhys, entitled "The Last Drearn of Julius Roy," which appeared in Macmillan's Maga- zine last month, and the other signed by my name, which appeared in the Newbery House Magazine ## p. 303 (#361) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3°3 of July, 1890, and which was entitled, "A Great Success"? I sketch the outline of the two stories in parallel columns :— Mr. Ernest Rhys's story. My story. "A GREAT SUCCESS." THE LAST DREAM OF TULIUS ROY." July, 1890. An author after a long life of failure starts from Trafalgar Square in a condition of ab- normal excitement, and rushes down the .Strand, intent upon lunching at a Tavern, Fleet Street being suggested. He orders a lunch which for him is unusually sumptuous. He has been full of unreal inflated hope, but overhears a con- versation in which he realises for the first time the abject - ness of his own failure. He has had ale with his lunch. He throws his arms over the table, lays his head on them, falls asleep and dreams. The dream takes the form of his own troubled experience. Again he is "hurrying through the streets of the great city." He is on his way to the palace of Fame. There is a gate which has to be passed through; before he gets in he has to present a gift. This gift he holds in his hand, but it dwindles and vanishes. He falls before the door at last, defeated and in despair. Then the dream changes; the door is unexpectedly opened by an unseen hand, and he beholds a face known yet unknown, which smiles upon him. The poor author enters in to find the aspiration of his life satisfied in ways not looked for by him. When found by the people of the Tavern, he is dead. February, 1891. An author after ten years of failure, starts from Trafal- gar Square, goes to Pall Mall to put on a dress coat, and finally returns in an abnormal state of excitement on his way to a Tavern ("The Three Friars") in Fleet Street, to have supper there. He orders an unusually sumptuous me al He has been realising the abjectness of his own failure, but on his way he meets with his old love, who gives him a flower, and he i« now in a state of wild, unreal hope. He has wine with his supper, and he throws his arms over the table, falls asleep, and dreams. The dream takes the form of his own troubled experience. He is "being whirled rapidly through the streets of a dark and unknown city," in a car- riage with the beloved woman by his side. He gets to a place which is a Theatre, and sees a phantasm of himself on the stage struggling in vain to pass in at a Gate; the phantasm falls down at last before the Gate, baffled and defeated. He goes on to the Stage to look after his own Phantasm. He himself knocks at the Gate, and it is thrown open, and the beloved woman stands before him smiling. Then he receives in unex- pected ways the desire of his life. When the waiter comes to rouse him, he is dead. E. Fairfax Byrrne. The Authors' Club. I am in favour of an Authors' Club. I think it would be greatly to the advantage of authors to come together oftener than once a year at a big dinner, and to have more frequent opportunity of exchanging ideas and "comparing notes." Of this I can give an illustration. Two years ago at our annual dinner, I sat next to a brother novelist, whose acquaintance I then made for the first time. That morning I had received from the vol. 1. editor of a weekly magazine of whose financial position I knew nothing, a request to write a Christmas story for him. Thinking my neighbour might be better informed, I inquired whether he had ever done ought for the periodical in question. "Yes," says he, "I did a Christmas story for it last year but one, and I have not got paid for it yet." On this hint I acted; when I answered the editor's letter, I named my price, and made it a condition that I should be paid on his receipt of my MS. With this condition he did not see fit to comply, and I did not see fit to write the story. Again, the other day I chanced to meet a member of the Society of Authors at the office in Portugal Street, to whom I mentioned that I had been requested to write a story for a well known magazine. "Be sure you make a bargain before- hand," he observed, "or you will get a good deal less than you expect." On this hint also I acted. I named my price, and was offered half—which I did not accept. Observe that in neither of these cases did the editor make any mention of terms. That, presumably, was to be left an open question, and would have proved a troublesome one for me, a trouble from which I was saved by being a member of the Society of Authors. The chief difficulty in the formation of an Authors Club' seems to me to lie in the defini- tion of "author." Will every man and woman who has written a trashy novel or volume of poetry, and paid for its production, be eligible for admission? And if not, where will you draw the line? W. [The line must be drawn by the Committee or the managing body of the Club.—Editor.] THE AUTHOR'S BOOK STALL. [This column is open for lists of books wanted, books offered for exchange and books offered for sale. Initials must be given for reference, not for publication, and the editor will place correspondents in communication with each other. Books must not be sent to the office of the Society. Letters enclosing list may be addressed "X,"care of the Editor. It must be understood that no responsibility rests with the Editor or with the officers of the Society.] Books for Sale. Atalanta in Calydon. Original Edition. Leckie's Leader of Public Opinion in Ireland. Berzelin's Jahresbericht der Chemie. Complete set. vols. Address "E.A. 2 C 27 ## p. 304 (#362) ############################################ 3°4 THE AUTHOR. Henry Irving Shakspeare. 8 vols. Edition de luxe, un- cut, in original cases. 11 guineas. The Odyssey. Translated by William Morris. I edition. 2 vols. Viollet le Due. Dictionnaire. Mobilier Francais. 6 vols. Half calf gilt edges. Ionica I and II. The very rare first edition with author's corrections; handsomely bound. Aucassin and Nicollette. Translated by Andrew Lang. (Nutt.) Cupid and Psyche. With an Introduction by Andrew Lang. (Nutt.) La Morte D'Arthur. H.O.Sumner. (Nutt.) 2 vols. Musa Protova. A. H. Bullen. Privately printed; small paper. Lyrics of the Elizabethan Age. A. II. Bullen. Small paper. (Nimmo.) For Exchange. The English in Ireland. By J. A. Froude. Library Edition. 3 vols. Exchange for Cabinet Edition of Froude's History of England. Address1' E. A." Morris' Vision of Saints, for Epic of Hades. Kingsley's At Last. Trollope's Decade of Italian Women. Emerson's Representative Men. Lufcadic Hearn's Two Years in the French West Indies. M. Life and Letters of the Princess Alice. List for Sale or Exchange. Bell's Chaucer. 1782. Lord Lytton's Poems and Dramatic Works. 1853. Original Edition. Life of Conde\ By Lord Mahon. 1846. Massinger's Plays. Edited by W. Gifford. 1853. Schiller's Werke. 10 vols. Very handsomely half-bound. Stuttgart. 1844. Oeuvres de Moliere. 6 vols. With old engravings; au 13 de Republique. Paris. Chansons de Victor Hugo. 1865. Would Lend. Works of Peter Pinder. Vol. II. London. 1816. Stories of Apparitions (Duchess of Mazarine, Mrs. Veal &c. Title lost, old.) Pritchard's Heroines of Welsh I listory. Address G. M. Williams, Aberclydack, Nr. Brecon. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Theology. BELL, C. D. The Archbishop's Judgment on the Ritual Case. With some Thoughts on Public Worship: a Sermon Preached in St. Matthew's Church. Cosserts Cheltenham). Simpkin. yl. Brooke, Rev. Stopford A. 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