https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/250/1891-04-15-The-Author-1-12.pdf de68232cbe0f53d712dc7bf1fc6179dd PDF Text Text �������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1891-04-15 Volume 1 Issue 12 Pages Page range in volume 309–334 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18910415 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.–No. 12.] APRIL 15, 1891 . [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Society by ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1891.  ## p. 308 (#370) ############################################ ii. : ADVERTISEMENTS. 1 I I I I IN ID I IN THE TEL IE Fl SI ILLER IL TU TA ILU LE VE PROGRES 2 SPIRIT OF THE AGU) PROGRESS IS THU C WE USE E The BAR-LOCK TYPE WRITER. INIMH Hill IP H Lilla be AZER LE V THE BAR-LOCK' TYPE-WRITER Is the ONLY Machine combining the following Advantages PERFECT AND PERMANENT ALIGNMENT. AUTOMATIC LINE SPACING. A DUPLICATE KEY-BOARD. ADJUSTABLE BALL BEARINGS TO THE TYPE-BAR JOINTS. And it is the ONLY Type Writer . HAVING ABSOLUTELY VISIBLE WRITING, Some Type-Writers may have one or two of these Advantages, but no other combines them all. SOLD FOR CASH; ALSO ON THE EASY PAYMENT SYSTEM. THE TYPE-WRITER CO., LTD. 12, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E.C. MANCHESTER: 25, Market Street. LIVERPOOL: 40, North John St. CARDIFF: Exchange Building. GLASGOW : 22, Renfield St. SHEFFIELD : 39, Norfolk St. MELBOURNE: 385, Little Collins St.  ## p. 308 (#371) ############################################ ADVERTISEMENTS. The Society of Authors (Jncorporated), PRESIDENT. The Right Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. Sir EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.I. E. ALFRED AUSTIN. A. W. À BECKETT. ROBERT BATEMAN. SIR HENRY BERGNE, K.C.M.G. WALTER BESANT. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P. R. D. BLACKMORE. Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S. LORD BRABOURNE. JAMES BRYCE, M.P. P. W. CLAYDEN. EDWARD CLODD. W. MARTIN CONWAY. MARION CRAWFORD. OSWALD CRAWFURD, C.M.G. The Earl OF DESART. A. W. DUBOURG. John Eric ERICHSEN, F.R.S. PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D. EDMUND GOSSE. COUNCIL. II. Rider HAGGARD. THOMAS HARDY, PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. J. M. LELY. Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A. F. MAX-MÜLLER, LL.D. GEORGE MEREDITH. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S. T. C. PARKINSON. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D. WALTER Herries POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. W. BAPTISTE SCOONES. G. R. Sims. J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. SULLY. William Moy THOMAS H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L. EDMUND YATES. Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman-WALTER BESANT. ROBERT BATEMAN. A. W. À BECKETT. W. MARTIN COSWAY. EDMUND Gosse. H. RIDER HAGGARD. ! J. M. LELY. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. | Solicitors. Messrs. FiELI', Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C. VOL. I. 2 D  ## p. 308 (#372) ############################################ A D VER Tl SEMEN TS. The "Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which it supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. Tt will hold enough ink for two days' constant work, or a week's ordina.-y writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser nny try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted. There are various points to select from, broad, medium, and fine, every handwriting can be suited, and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10/6. The Gold Pens in the " Swan " are Mabie, Told & Co.'s famous make; they are 14-carat tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with selected polished iridium. The " Encyclopedia Britannica" says—"Iridium is a nearly white metal of high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon it." They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens; one will outwear 90 gross of steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing about Gold Pens. Da. Olivkb \Vkndkll Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd & Co.'s Gold Pens since 1857, and is using the same one (his " old friend ") to-day. Sydney Gkuxdy, Esq., savs (referring to the Fountain Pen), " It ij a Yast improvement on every Stylograph." Mobekly Bell, Esq., Manager, The Times, s.iys (referring to the Fountain Pen)," One pen lasted me for six years.' S. D, Wadot, Esq., Q.C., M.P , says (referring to the Fountain Pen), " I have used them constantly for some years, ond, as far as I can remember, have never failed me." Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing: interesting Testimonials from the best people, who have used them for years) to MABIE, TODD I BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON,  ## p. 309 (#373) ############################################ {The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly!) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 12.] APRIL 15, 1891. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. Conditions of Membership Warnings Notes and News The American Copyright Bill— I. By E. L. Godkin II. ... A School for Novelists Author v. Editor "1 hey all lived happy ever afterwards M L'fcnfant Prodigue" Correspondence— I. Authors and Reviewers II. Baron 1 auchnitz I'AGE ■ 3°9 - 3°9 .. 310 • 3M . 316 • 3'7 • 3^0 .. 320 ■ 323 • 3»4 ■ 325 Correspondence—continued— III. F rom Chastclard ... IV. Gratuitous Contributions V. "The Last Dream of Julius Roy" VI. The Signed Article VII. Note on a Case VIII. The Cost of a Stamp In Grub Street A Bill to amend title sixty, chapter three, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to copyrights New Books Advertisements 3-5 3-*5 3-'5 326 3-7 3=7 3=9 332 333 CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP. The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the 1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for life membership entitles the subscriber to full membership of the S> ciety. Authors of published works alone are eligible for member- ship. Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors are admitted as Associates, on the same subscription, but have no voice in the government of the Society. Cheques and Postal Oiders should be crossed "The Im- perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch." Those who wish to be proposed as members may send their names at any lime to the Secretary at the Society's Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration of their works. Subscriptions entered alter the 1st of October will cover the next year. The Secretary may be personally consulted between the hours of I p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable that an appointment should be made by letter. The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square, E.G. A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped, however, that most members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is 6s. 61/., including postjge, which may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.C. With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers, the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read and reported upon for others than members, but members cannot have their works read for nothing. In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript, the author should send with it a table of contents. A type- written scenario is also of very great assistance. It must be understood that such a reader's report, however favourable, does not assist the author towards publication. vol. WARNINGS. Readers of the Author are earnestly desired to make the following warnings as widely known as possible. They are based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers to which literary property is exposed :— (1) Never to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them. (2) Never to enter into any correspondence with publishers, especially with advertising publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends, or by this Society. (3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down for future work to any one firm of publishers. (4) Never to accept any proposal of royalty without con- sultation with the Society, or, at least, ascertaining exactly what the agreement gives to the author ami what to the publisher. (5) Never to accept any offer of money for MSS., with- out previously taking advice of the Society. (6) Never to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice. (7) Never, when a MS. has l>een refused by respectable houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. (8) Never to sign away American or foreign rights. Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to another. (9) Never forget that publishing is a business, like any- other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Society's Offices:— 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. 2 l> 2 A  ## p. 310 (#374) ############################################ 3io THE AUTHOR. NOTES AND NEWS. THE President of the United States signed the International Copyright Bill, the papers say, with a quill taken from an American eagle—an eagle of the bald variety, caught for the occasion, and kindly persuaded to have the feather pulled out of the wing by the united pleadings of the British Lion and the Eagles of France, Germany, Austria and Russia. It was a beautiful quill, though the noble bird appeared to resent the loss of it and the pain caused by its extraction. The cutting of the quill was undertaken by the Secretary of the International Copyright League, Mr. R. Underwood Johnson. After the signature, he received the instrument as a reward for his services. On his return home Mr. Johnson found, we are happy to report, his desk ornamented with flowers and small United States flags—why not the flags of all the world ?—in honour of his success. A copy of the new American Copyright Bill has been sent to every member of the Society, with a request that he will read it and forward any remarks or suggestions on the subject. Some replies have already been sent in, but too late for this number. It would be well if most of us, who are not lawyers, would, before writing on the subject, read Sir Frederick Pollock's article in the current Contem- porary. His last words are a warning :— "Learned friends who may do me the honour to read this paper, will perhaps think that I have in- sisted too much on elementary legal conclusions. But there are amateur lawyers as well as learned and qualified lawyers, and the law of copyright is called a favourite hunting ground of amateurs. When an amateur lawyer once goes a" mare's- nesting among Acts of Parliament, there is no knowing what falls may ensue to him, or anyone who follows him ; and my only fear in this respect is that I may not have been elementary enough." Our members are therefore solemnly warned that we do not ask for the opinions of the amateur lawyer on points of law. M. Zola is the new President of the Soriite des Gens de Lcttres. The accumulated funds of this Society now amount to .£95,000, of which two- thirds are available for pension purposes. When shall we be able to boast of our accumulations? and protection of the material interests of literature, but will become a kind of Academy, admission to which will be a distinction only conferred on those of proved and marked ability. This proposed change, it is said, explains certain exclusions or blackballings which have recently taken place in the Society. One of the rejected candidates was a lady, and at first it was supposed that the Com- mittee wished to exclude women altogether—which, in the words of Euclid, is absurd. Therefore, that could not be the cause of rejection. But, the Debats asks, what power has the Society to change its constitution? It is not a question of titular membership. The Committee are trustees for a great Pension Fund, created for the benefit of all litterateurs. If it becomes an Academy, the Government would have the right of withdrawing this Trust and creating another Society. It is, in fact, as if the Chemical Society should try to make its membership as great a distinction as the Fellowship of the Royal Society, and should refuse to admit any but the most distinguished chemists; or it is as if the Institute of Civil Engineers would have none but the best and most famous engineers. We have ourselves learned so much from the practical common sense of the Socic'te that one is sorry to hear of such a change even in contemplation. As for ourselves, we are the servants of all writers of every degree. Membership is open to any who have published a book. We advance no other object than the pro- tection of our material interests. If this Society should happen to want in the course of the year assistance, unpaid, voluntary, and active, are thereanymembers—orfriendsof members—who would be ready to give it? If so, will they kindly give me their names and tell me what they could do for us? It is the strength of our Association that most of the work hitherto done for it has been done by unpaid members, who have nothing what- ever to gain out of it for themselves. As things look at present, I think that there will very soon be work enough for a good many more volunteers. The Societc des Gens de Let/res according to the Debats, is contemplating a new departure. It will no longer confine its operations to the maintenance Here is a satisfactory testimony to the good results of what seemed to some a barren contro- versy. The writer's name is suppressed for obvious reasons. For one thing he might incur ecclesias- tical censure, or even bell, book, and candle, which would be dreadful. "With regard to the S.P.C.K., against whom you took up the cudgels last year for those who are unable or afraid to do so them- selves, I have reaped the benefit in increased payment for work of mine. This has the, perhaps,  ## p. 311 (#375) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 311 intended effect of preventing my voice from being raised with others." Can the Literary Housemaid of the Church be cleaning and sweeping—it would be the spring cleaning—with the aid, one supposes, of the Literary Cook of the Church, and the Literary Charwoman of the Church? Mr. Edmund Gosse very wisely and opportunely calls attention, in his article in the April Contem- porary, to the distinction between literary merit and pecuniary reward. They are, as we have already insisted more than once in these columns, things which have no necessary relations to each other. The most popular of authors may be the most worthless, so far as regards many essentials of literary style and form. One or two qualities, and these certainly the rarest, the successful man must have. First of all, he must be able to catch and to rivet the attention. If he is a novelist or a dramatist, he must have "grip." Now I think it will be allowed that "grip" is a very valuable quality indeed. But we must altogether put out of our minds the idea that the author who makes a large income is therefore a good writer. I say, altogether, because there is not only no proportion, but there is no possible comparison. For instance —not to touch on living examples—the late Countess of Blessington made for some years a very large income indeed by her novels. Let anyone, now, try to read those terrible works. At the same time it is not in human nature for the popular author not to believe that his head also touches the skies. After all, this only means that persons of cultivation, education, and taste will desire the best literature, and the lower sort the lower literature. Now the lower sort will always be the larger sort. Mr. Gosse further says that he considers the Society of Authors as a firm of solicitors acting solely for literary clients. That seems to me on the whole a very fair definition. But there is this important difference. A firm of solicitors sends in its little bill. The Society of Authors does not. The solicitors interpret, explain, and employ the law for their clients only. The Society of Authors publishes information about law and the breaking of the law for all the world to read. On Friday, April 3rd, a letter appeared in the Times, signed "Ouida," on the justice and necessity of safe-guarding dramatic rights in fiction by Act of Parliament. This letter, a very able, lucid and eloquent exposition of the case, is the thousand and first protest of novelists against the cruel injustice with which their rights are treated. Pro- tests indignant, sarcastic, comic, wrathful, have been uttered by Dickens, by Wilkie Collins, by John Hollingshead, by Charles Reade and I know not by what others. Ouida's is only one more added to the list. They are all read to-day and for- gotten to-morrow. To protest, in fact, does no good at all. There is not, unhappily, in human nature such a passion for justice as regards other people's property as makes them long to be up and acting when a protest against injustice is uttered. As regards their own property, of course, the passion for justice does exist in its most intense form. Every time a slave shrieked under the lash he protested against the injustice of his lot; but his protests did him little good. Nay, they did him harm, because there arises, in time, a contempt for those who can only shriek, but cannot help themselves. Ouida's protest, therefore, considered as a cry of the helpless, is much more likely to do harm than to do good. Meantime—a fact of which she is apparently quite ignorant—the Society, without making any protest at all, has been quietly engaged in taking the first steps towards removing this in- justice. It has drafted a Bill consolidating and amending the Copyright Law in which the dra- matic rights are reserved, defined and protected. This Bill, as our readers know, is in Lord Monks- well's hands, and has already been read once in the House of Lords. Now this is a very apt illustration of what may be done when authors combine. We have a Copyright Committee composed entirely of lawyers. They have done for us what we certainly could never do for ourselves, working separately and by means of protests and letters in the Times. The passing of this Bill, which is in no sense political and attacks no interests, we may regard as merely a matter of time. Another illustration of what may be done when people combine is to be found in the two books of the Society—the "Cost of Production" and the "Methods of Publishing." Hitherto, authors have been kept designedly in the dark as to the actual cost of printing and pro- ducing a book. They have been kept equally in the dark as to the retail prices and the actual pro- ceeds of their books. Therefore they cor.ld not possibly tell what any agreement submitted to them meant. By united action, that is to say, by supporting an office and a staff, whose duty it was to work and to collect information, this has now been done. Henceforth, no author need sign any agreement without understanding exactly what the publisher offers to give him and what he designs to keep for himself. No honourable man can possibly object to this understanding. It is there-  ## p. 312 (#376) ############################################ 312 THE AUTHOR. fore a step in which all honourable publishers as well as all authors must rejoice over. And it is the first fruit of combined action. A lady sends me, as a protest against the book- sellers' opinion that women buy few books except novels, a list of books purchased by herself and her sisters during a few years of residence in the country. The letter is not for publication, but I hope I do not violate confidence if I say that these ladies seem to have read—and bought—all the principal books of the last two or three years, together with a great number of standard books by authors now deceased. There are books of science, books of religion, histories, biographies, belles lettres, poetry, and fiction, the books of the last- named being in a very small minority. The large amount of poetry in the list seems to confirm my belief that we are going to have a return of the popularity of poetry, not of course among the baser sort who have never loved poetry, but among those of cultivation and education. But perhaps these ladies are exceptions even among the higher class. The list gives one a glimpse into a very pleasant and refined interior. Such ladies want no vindi- cation, and such statements as that against which my correspondent enters her protest do not apply to them. We have spoken in the Author of recent American verse, and it was suggested that since there are so many living poets in the States it would be well if some of their work was introduced to English readers who are thirsting for new poets. I am happy to say that something has been already- done in this direction. A dainty volume in brown paper (" Garde Joyeuse," Frank Murray, Derby and Nottingham) has been presented to me. It is a collection of Society verses. They suggest Praed and Austin Dobson, with a reminiscence here and there of Andrew Lang. Many of them are very pretty and dexterous. Perhaps some of our readers would like to make acquaintance with the volume. I am not able to state the price. Here is one little thing, as light as froth, but pretty. It is called " Private Theatricals." You were a haughty beaut)', Polly ( That was in the play), I was the lover melancholy (That was in the play); And when your fan and you receded, And all my passion lay unheeded, If still with tenderer words I pleaded, They were in the play. I met my rival in the gateway (That was in the play), And so we fought a duel straightway (That was in the play); But when Jack hurt my arm unduly, And you rushed over, softened newly, And kissed me, Polly! truly, truly, Was that in the play? The author of this little poem is Miss Louise Imogene Guiney. I should like also to quote Miss Eva L. Ogden's "The Sea," but I think it has already appeared in some English magazine. At least the lines seem familiar to me. I have had a good many communications from novelists on the subject of reviewing quite apart from the subject of the School of Novelists, considered later. It is natural that authors should feel strongly upon the subject. There never was a time when they liked the reviewer, either the one who wields the bludgeon, or the one who carries the rapier, or the man who employs the dissecting scalpel. There- fore one accepts the ordinary grumble as a grumble, and nothing more. Yet there seems a real grievance in the lumping of a dozen or twenty novels into a set to be reviewed in a single coluinn or two columns. This makes it not only impossible to give anything like a review—what may be called a serious review—to a work of art, but it degrades a most important branch of literature thus to treat it as if all the books of this branch are to be thrown together into a heap. Moreover, it is absolutely absurd to expect a man who works for pay to read books of which he has to furnish a dozen reviews every week. The thing is too ridiculous. There are, for instance, papers in which books receive a line and a half or two lines of notice. How much of these books can be read? Now, we cannot possibly make good reviewers out of bad, but we can reconsider the rights and uses of reviews. Certainly the contemptuous "batch" method of reviewing can do no good at all to either authors or publishers or the interests of literature. Perhaps editors only want to have their attention turned to the absurdity. The reviewing of novels in the batch was started at a time when novels were about at their lowest pointof commonplace and conventionality. Fiction is now the most vigorous branch of letters, the most useful, the most instructive, the most influential, in every civilized country throughout the world. It1S monstrous that novels should be still treated as if the best novel was a thing of less importance than the most trifling addition to the many series of  ## p. 313 (#377) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 1 o o 1 T 1 biographies, each of which gets its two columns of notice all to itself. We must not allow this question to rest. The following is a somewhat remarkable question: the Society, so far, has not been able, such is the ignorance of its staff, to furnish an answer. "Mr. A. B. presents his compliments to the Society of Authors, and would feel exceedingly obliged if they would kindly inform him what the cost of an international copyright would be, and also the price of one for Great Britain and the colonies; also how Mr. A. B. could succeed in procuring a copyright when required." It has been brought to the noticeof the Society that under theexistingconditionsof Registration of Copy- right, the following extraordinary position can be arrived at. The instructions for Registration under the Act are, among others, as follows:—No proprietor of copyright can take any proceedings in respect to infringement unless he has previously registered his book, and, secondly, under the head of Foreign Reprints, proprietors of books first composed, or written, or printed, in the United Kingdom, de- siring to prevent the importation of foreign reprints must give notice in writing to the Commissioners of Customs. If, in fact, an author has iiot regis- tered his book, a foreign reprint can be made of it, and introduced into England subject to the pay- ment of the ordinary duty, because the Custom House officials cannot take cognizance of any book that has not been registered. If the book has been registered, reprints are not admitted at all. They may be seized, but such seizure can only be made after registration has been notified at the Custom House. If, in short, the publisher forgets to enter the book at Stationers' Hall, it is possible to be undersold by the legal admission of foreign reprints. In other words, there is often nothing to prevent the ten cent. American edition actually being sold in this country beside the six shilling edition. For instance, a pirated edition of "King Solomon's Mines" would be received as such, but a kindly welcome was accorded to "Jess" at the Cape of Good Hope on account of this little formality being neglected. A certain man—one of letters Three—has been getting money out of kindly people in the city of Philadelphia, U.S.A., by representing himself to be a brother—down on his luck—of a certain man—of letters Many—a resident in the older country. He also said that he was himself a Novelist, a Poet, and an Actor. The first and the last he un- doubtedly is, and he seems to make his gifts of fiction and personation pay better than some of us here at home. The man of letters Many suffered himself to feel a certain annoyance at this incident, because he has no brother in America, nor any brother who is either Novelist, Poet, or Actor. He even went so far as to cable a message calling that man a Fraud, so that his little game is probably quite ruined so far as Philadelphia is concerned. When this was done, he reflected. Perhaps he had been hasty. He considered. The art of Persona- tion has become in the States almost a Fine Art. As in Mark Twain's well-known case of Faded Greatness, the American Fraud has always hitherto been a noble Lord. That he should now become a common Novelist speaks volumes for the increased respect paid to the craft. Professionally speaking, the thing is a compliment. It is, in fact, most grati- fying. Every one who lent a dollar to the Brother, Novelist, Poet, Actor, has taken off his hat and saluted the craft. A curious instance of resemblance so close is to suggest how plagiarism is found in the corres- pondence of last month and this of E. Fairfax Byrrne and Ernest Rhys. There can be no doubt as to the similarity of the two plots. There can be no doubt of the entire independence of their invention. These resemblances are very strange. For myself, I prefer, when I can get them, plots depending on events that really happened. But these are hard to find. Here is another anec- dote of resemblance. A few weeks ago a certain story went the round of some of the papers. It came straight from a far off country. Then the following discoveries were made:—(i) that the leading incident had been invented and used by a novelist quite recently; (2) that the leading in- cident was used in an American magazine ten years ago; (3) that the leading incident was used by Charles Reade fifteen years ago. Now I have not the least doubt that in each one of these cases the invention was entirely original. It is stated by a New York paper, an American correspondent informs us, that ceitain English authors have entered into arrangements for pub- lishing English books in America, and intend "either to lay down plant or to acquire control of an already established business." This is news to all the English authors with whom I have spoken on the matter. No such intention, so far as has yet been learned, exists among English authors.  ## p. 314 (#378) ############################################ 314 THE AUTHOR. The following suggestion is one which should be noted. I think we might very easily form such a branch and that we might carry it on usefully. "There are, as I have reason to know, many persons now engaged upon archaeological or historical work who are quite willing to pay for efficient help in such matters as translations, precis, verification of references, and correction of proofs. On the other hand, there are a great number of literaly men to whom such work would be a godsend. Do you not think that a register—through which the would-be employer could state his wants, and the would-be employed his qualifications—would help to bring the two classes together?" If such a register were to be kept at the Society's office, or published in the columns of the Author, a small charge for each advertisement (or, possibly, for those of employers only) ought to make it self-supporting. The expenses would be only the share of a clerk and the necessity of advertising. We ought not to take money from those who seek employment, but only from those who have employment to give, and from those who through our agency receive employment. And the money so obtained could be a very modest fee. Walter Besant. * THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT BILL. I. By E. L. Godkin. {Editor of the New York "Nation.") YOUR request that I should express an opinion in your columns on the possibilities of in- fluence on English and American literature, jointly and severally, of the recently passed American Copyright Bill, reminds me forcibly of the warning "not to prophecy unless you know." I think even those whoknow most about past relations of the pub- lishers on each side of the water with the authors on the other, generally feel most diffident about prescribing with any particularity the effects of the Bill. My own notion, which I offer with due modesty, is, that the necessities of the agitation in support of the Bill have led its advocates to over- estimate considerably what it will do in the near future, either for American or British authors as a class desiring pay for their work. It was only by putting the grievous wrongs of American authors prominently in the foreground, that the attention of a considerable portion both of the public and of Members of Congress could be secured. The amour propre, too, of a large body of American authors was flattered by the plea that they were kept out of wide sales and large profits in their own country by the cheap pirated editions of British books. I have myself thought much of this argu- ment, because I have never believed in the exis- tence of a purely mercantile competition between British and American authors, except perhaps in railway trains, or on steamboats. I have never believed that people took an English book of the same class, in preference to an American one, because it cost a little less. Other differences than differ- ence in price have been much more powerful as a general rule in determining the reader's choice. Even novel writers, who are now the largest class of writers in this country, do not compete with each other, as butchers or grocers do, by offering the same goods for less money. Consequently the Copyright Bill, by making British books dearer, will not have the effect on the domestic product which a good many enthusiastic authors think it will have, and this, mutatis mutandis, is true of American books in England. Moreover, if you go over the publishers' lists you will find that the actual injustice inflicted by piracy fell on a very small class in both countries. The number of authors whom it paid to pirate was after all limited, but the number of those who liked to think that the pirates were eager to get at them, or that they were themselves actually suffer- ing in purse or reputation from English or Ameri- can marauding, was large. There is a great deal of human nature in authors. I do not mean by this to underrate the wrong and injustice done by the absence of international copyright. I think the unpunished robbery of ten authors a year is just as great a national dis- grace as the unpunished robbery of one hundred, and the more distinguished and popular an author is, the greater shame it is to rob him. I am simply pointing out that the friends of the Copy- right Bill, naturally and quite justifiably, got all the help they could from every quarter, that is, from people's illusions and vanities, as well as from their sense of justice and right. They had to do so in order to succeed, and are not to be blamed. But the effect was to magnify the pe- cuniary importance of the Bill, that is, to use a slang phrase here, to produce the impression that there was "more money in it" than there really was. I submit these observations as applicable both to England and America. The great value of the Bill, in my own mind, certainly on this side of the water, lies in the aid it will render in elevating literature and authorship as a profession in the eyes of the mass of the J  ## p. 315 (#379) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3i5 people. Away from the Atlantic Sea Coast the great bulk of the population have never seen an author, or anybody except1 newspaper editors, who makes money by the sale of any species of litera- ture, and, as a rule, they are disposed to estimate a man's intellectual and social value by his capacity for making money. There prevails, therefore, in a large measure, also pity and contempt for the thinking class, the writers, professors, and so forth, who are unable or do not care to share in the great industrial successes of the day. This prejudice was undoubtedly strengthened and deepened by the spectacle of books made cheap by theft, and by finding that very good and prominent men in and out of Congress thought it no harm to steal them. Wares, which the law did not think wonh protection, could not, it seemed, be of very great account. International Copyright will undoubtedly help to elevate the popular mind into a higher ap- preciation of literature as a calling, by recognizing its value as property. The Copyright Bill, too, will probably stimulate authors on each side into seeking a market on the other, and they will thus make themselves better known. That is, they will expose their wares more, and you will in this way become acquainted with more American authors in the region of light literature than you are now, and some of those who are coming forward on this side are very promising. Whether there will ever be anything in either country in the nature of real competition between English and American novelists seems to me doubtful. Readers in every country most enjoy reading about social conditions differing widely from their own. Pictures of English and continental life will always have the charm of variety for Americans. Whether in the long run pictures of American life will held their own in Europe may be questioned. I have always thought society here either too homogeneous, or one might say monotonous, to make America a good place for a novelist to learn or follow his trade in, in com- petition with Europeans. There does not seem to be enough variety of motive, type, and manners here for his purpose, but I may be greatly mistaken in this. But in any case I do not think the Copy- right Bill will affect the result in any way, except, as I have said, by stimulating authors to greater activity in seeking a foreign publisher. The prospect seems to me much more encouraging for American authors in the fields of philosophy, science, law, and political economy. I do not think you know in England what excellent and vigorous work is being done by the younger generation in these fields in this country, and the prospect of a safe English market is certain to increase their industry. The hardship supposed to lie in the clause of the Bill which calls for simultaneous publication in both countries is, I think, greatly overrated. Of course it would be for the English and American author's advantage to be able to wait before taking out his copyright in the foreign country, until his book had made a success in his own. He could then make a better bargain with a foreign pub- lisher. But this is largely one of the hardships of the imagination. An obscure author who prints simultaneously in both countries will have in each the advantage of any subsequent success of his book in the other. If his book is taken up eagerly in England, the effect will at once be felt in his American edition, and vice versa. Moreover, the search for the foreign publisher will, for him, be no more serious than the search for the home pub- lisher. If an obscure Englishman has no friends here to offer his work to the publishers, he will find competent persons to do it, as a matter of business, for a small commission. Organizations for this special business are, I am told, already springing up, and I feel sure that a thirty days' search, conducted simultaneously in both countries, will be just as likely to succeed here as in England. The publisher who has no wish to take advantage of the foreigner's necessities can never hold the field against the publisher who is eager to get into the market with a good thing, when he thinks he has got hold of it, now when the law protects him in the possession of foreign goods. These views are a somewhat promiscuous assort ment. The best thing I can say for them is, that they are probably as good as anybody else's can be as yet, on this topic. I repeat that I think the Copyright Bill is mainly valuable as putting a stop to the demoralizing spectacle of unrestrained, shameless cheating of foreign authors and pub- lishers, practiced even by doctors of divinity and connived at, even encouraged, by the Government, and defended by all sorts of hypocrisy and sophistry. The demurrer in a recent suit over the piracy 01 the " Encyclopedia Britannica," that the plaintiffs were not entitled to protection by Courts of Equity, because they had cunningly and fraudulently inter- polated small quantities of American matter in the book, so as to make it difficult for Americans to exercise their ancient and undoubted right to steal foreign books, showed to what depths of degrada tion and absurdity we were hastening. New York, March $ist, 1891.  ## p. 316 (#380) ############################################ 3i6 THE AUTHOR. II. The enclosed letter unfortunately nrrived too late for last month's Author. It is addressed to Mr. Edmund Gosse by Mr. R. U. Johnson, Secretary of the American Copyright League, to whom it will be found that English authors in the future will owe an immense debt. "March j/n, 1891. "I have only time, in addition to sending the enclosed text of the Copyright Bill as printed in the Tribune, to say that I hope you will use your influence to allay the silly talk of some of the English papers in regard to the Copyright Bill being a 'fraud.' How can a Bill be a fraud which gives unconditional copyright to artistic property, and which gives copyright to literary property on conditions, after all, not onerous? "The abolition of the requirement of the consent of the author in the importation of two copies of the English edition of copyright works in each package, is a decided improvement. I myself voted against that clause when the Bill was framed, believing that the friction it would produce would react against the law. "I am compelled to close this letter abruptly to catch the mail, but I want to say that I believe that you and Mr. Bryce and our most intelligent English friends will not be misled by the clamour of your publishers and distributors of literary property, into forgetting the enormous moral progress, and the great material benefit to your countrymen, which this Bill effects." Mr. Johnson's own opinion upon the Bill is thus stated by a reporter to the New York Tribune:— "Those who think that anything is to be regretted in the changes that have been made in the Copyright Bill since its passage by the House, have probably not s| oken by the book, for in my opinion the friends of copyright have not only succeeded in defeating dangerous amendments which would have taken the heart out of the Bill, but the concessions that have been made have been of such a nature as to be a source of strength to the law in its practical working hereafter. It must first be understood that the non-importation clause was a necessary corollary of the typesetting clause. It was, indeed, the mandatory part of the Bill, and it would have been of no use to assert the 'condition precedent' of manufacture in this country for the purpose of giving the market to American workmen, if the market had been immediately taken away by permitting its invasion by books of English manufacture. Therefore, those who voted for the Sherman amendment and assumed to be in favour of the typesetting clause were in the position of the man who was in favour of the law, but 'agin ' its enforcement. "The chief point of objection on which it was necessary to make confession was in the clause which permitted the importation of only two copies of a foreign book, and required the consent of the owner of the American copyright to this importa- tion. It is likely that had this remained in the Bill there would have been a reaction against the copy- right movement, by reason of the annoyances to which the public might have considered that they were subject by having to obtain written permission to import. The substitute for this clause abolishes the requirement of the owner's permission, and the proposal of this substitute in the Conference Committee was due to a concession on the part of the typographical unions, and was done by them, although somewhat reluctantly, for the purpose of saving the Bill, a service which should not be for- gotten by the friends of the cause. "The Ingalls amendment, which permitted free importation of new.'papers and periodicals, would have simply transferred the piratical establishments from the American to the Canadian side of the border, and all sorts of American books, as well as foreign books, might thus have been freely im- ported in periodical form, either in the form adopted by the so-called 'cheap libraries,' or in magazine form, whole books being included in a magazine. This form of publication in copyright material is seen in Lippincott's Magazine, and there is no reason why under the Ingalls amendment as originally proposed it could not have been easily adopted for piratical works. The Ingalls amend- ment as modified in the present Bill, however, secures the American owner of copyright against such importations of works not authorized by the author. "The conditions of trade will, of course, have hereafter to adjust themselves, but one of the first things in connection with the Bill that seems never to have entered the minds of people, is that now the publishers under the workings of this law can afford to advertise English books more than they have ever clone before, because they can feel sure of the returns to them of the wider market." Among other opinions is that of Mr. Gilder :— "The general effect of the new law will be to impiove the conditions of authorship throughout the world. Its tendency will be to increase all literary values—that is, authors will have a wider market for their wares, and by the removal of the illegitimate side of publishing, the publishing busi- ness will be strengthened and improved, and this  ## p. 317 (#381) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3'7 will also be a good thing for the producers of literature. I confess, however, that the thing which gives me greatest pleasure is the removal of the stain of literary piracy from the American flag. It is, moreover, without exaggeration, a long step forward in the march of civilization. Would to God that it had come in time to help Scott and Dickens and all the great foreign authors of our century. But the present and the future are ours, and I sincerely believe that no other single device could be so sure of giving an impulse to the literary art. Foreign artists and musical composers, as well as American artists and composers, will also greatly profit from this great victory." The Post of New York last evening published a telegram from Washington, in which the cor- respondent gives an account of an interview with Mr. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, who has charge of the Copyright Department, as to the effect of the new copyright law upon periodical publications. Mr. Spofford said: "An American periodical will not be privileged to copy a story or essay from an English magazine if the magazine has been copyrighted in the United States. An English magazine will be compelled to be reprinted in the United States in order to be copyrighted, and the same rule will be applied to a magazine as a book—in fact, for copyright pur- poses a magazine is a book." Asked whether it would be necessary to copyright English magazines number by number, or whether a whole year's numbers would be included in one entry, Mr. Spofford replied: "Oh, number by number. Section 11 provides that each number of a periodical shall be considered as an independent publication. That suggests at once the question whether, since the term periodical is used in the section concerning independent publications, but omitted in that relating to reprints, the point may not be raised by some English periodical publisher against an application to reprint a clause of his work. It is not improbable that such a fight will be made, though I have my own opinion as to the result." The Americans have done their part of the work as well as they could. Have we done ours? The Society most certainly has, because our Bill, as soon as it has passed, will place Americans on exactly the same footing as Englishmen. But if the Bill does not pass, we shall probably have to wait—see the last section of the Bill (page 332)— for our Copyright until it does. This is very serious. We shall meantime do all we can to promote the passage of the Bill. A SCHOOL FOR NOVELISTS. IS Fiction one of the Fine Arts? In the current number of the New Review I have argued, on that assumption, that it has certain laws and rules and a technique, all of which might be reduced to writing in exactly the same manner as those for the Art of Painting. I then go on to show that these things may be taught, and I try to show that if they were taught our young writers would certainly be spared a good deal of trouble, disappointment, and vexation. Also, I point out that one must have the natural aptitude, or one cannot become a novelist. Such instruction would have to be very general and on broad lines only, or there would be the danger of turning out a tribe of soulless imitators. But the main point on which one insists is that Fiction is an Art. Now I see in a certain paper a letter, from one who says that he is a schoolmaster. He says, also, that boys learn the elements of English composition at school, and asks, "What more have they to learn?" Oh! Foolish and Ignorant per- son! They have to learn an Art—an Art—an Art! As well say that the drawing master's lesson once a week can make a Royal Academician! The writer, however, illustrates the general belief on the subject. Everything else, it is acknow- ledged, has to be learned and studied. The Art of Fiction alone is supposed to come by nature. An Art? They cannot understand how it can be called an Art. This little paper of mine, however, has called forth two papers, one in the Saturday Review and one in the Spectator, which deserve consideration. In support of these contentions of mine, I advanced certain facts—they are facts not to be denied, viz., that young novelists do not learn any- thing from their critics; that the ordinary critic knows nothing about the Art of Fiction ; that a great deal of so-called novel reviewing is scandalous and inadequate; and that there is no reason at all why writers should allow their books to be sent to papers which continue to review them in this scandalous and inadequate fashion. These facts I repeat, and am prepared to main- tain, if necessary, by quotation from the journals which review novels. The Saturday Revieic, which takes up the subject and becomes somewhat heated over it, as if it were itself attacked, treats it personally—which is not fair fighting—and plainly intimates that I am the last person to harbour animosity towards reviewers. First, I harbour none, as I have explained, any more than one harbours animosity towards a blind man in saying that he is blind. The ordinary reviewer of novels, I say, knows nothing of the Art of Fiction. Well,  ## p. 318 (#382) ############################################ 3i8 THE AUTHOR. it is not an answer to say, "A pretty fellow you are, to attack reviewers!" The thing is to con- sider whether the charge is true. And it is not enough to sny that you know this paper and that paper wheie it is not true. We must take all the journals together and consider whether it is true generally. Or the writer may mean that I, who have been'treated more kindly than my deserts perhaps— God knoweth—should feel myself bribed not to re- view reviewers. If not, what does the 3<7/«rrfiry mean? The writer goes on to say, "The really curious thing is that the author of this paper should first think that it is the critic's duty to teach their art to authors whose works he criticizes; and secondly, that he should fail to perceive that even the briefest judgment of a competent critic is based upon, and necessarily implies, the study and knowledge of the art which he denies to reviewers." These lines have no justification whatever. They are a distortion of my words. I nowhere said that such is the critic's duty. I nowhere implied any failure to perceive this simple truth. It is not, in fact, the duty of the critic to teach his authors. It is, however, his duty, before he undertakes to review novels, to learn what are the points of a good novel, and what goes to make a good novel. Further, it is impossible for a competent critic to write a review without teaching his author some- thing. It is equally impossible for an incompetent critic to teach his author anything. Now, then, is it, or is it not, true, that the ordinary review of a novel teaches the author nothing? I will quote presently a few words bear- ing on this subject from a writer who speaks with authority. Again, a competent critic may certainly dismiss a book in a few scornful words—such as those quoted by the Saturday Reviewer. And these, as the writer says, and I nowhere deny, may be just, true, well deserved, and based on sound criticism. The few words are the judgment of the critic. Without explanation they mean no more than what I said; that is, either they mean "I like the work," or, "I do not like the work." A judgment, however, is not a criticism or a review ; it is only a part of a criticism. It is the summary of the matter. Is the reviewer always, then, to give his reasons? That is a matter for him to consider. It may be that his name alone gives weight to his judgment. It may be that he thinks the paper in which it appears gives weight to his judgment. In any case, can he wonder if the author should say, "This man dismisses me with half a dozen scornful words: he gives no reason, argument, or example. This judgment does not advance me in my endeavour after better work: it does my publisher no good; it does literature no good. I will not ask him for another. Why should I ask an opinion of a man who only tells me that my work is worthless and refuses any reasons?" Can the Saturday Review object to the author taking that line? I will now recommend the Saturday Reviewer to read a page or two in Mr. George Salisbury's "Essays in English Literature" (page xxiii). He there says (the italics are ours) :— "That a very large amount of reviewing is determined by doubtless well-meaning incompe- tence, there is no doubt whatever. It is, on the whole, the most difficult kind of newspaper writing, and it is, on the whole, the most lightly assigned and the most irresponsibly performed. I have heard of newspapers where the reviews depended almost wholly on the accident of some of the staff taking a holiday, or being laid for a time on the shelf, or being considered not up to other work; of others, though this, I own, is scarcely credible, where the whole reviewing was farmed out to a manager, to be allotted to devils as good to him seemed; of many where the reviews ivere a sort of exercising ground on which novices were trained, broken down hacks turned out to grass, and invalids allowed a little gentle exercise." He goes on to say that he knows of not a few papers and not a fewreviewers in which and by whom the best work possible is given to one of the most important kinds of work. I do not remember that the Saturday Review expressed, at the time when these words appeared, any objection to this sweeping condemnation of the prevalent modes of reviewing. Yet my charge is a mere trifle compared with it. All I say is, that the ordinary reviewer of fiction—only one branch of literature—does not recognize that he has to do with a Fine Art, does not know that there is an Art of Fiction, and never by any remarks, criticisms, or judgments of his assists the writer. Would the Saturday Review blame the novelist who refused to give his books for review to Mr. Saintsbury's broken down hacks, novices, and invalids? Or to papers where the reviewing is put out to farm? Or to those whose reviewers are considered not fit for any other work? I say that, not only out of self-respect, but out of respect for literature, an author ought to refuse his books to such papers. This the Saturday Review very needlessly calls "boycotting" those papers. It is not a fair use of the word. You do not boy- cott a workman because he works badly. You leave him: you ask someone else to do the work. The Saturday sneers at the proposed School of Fiction. It will, however, come. Of that there is doubt. Let us turn again from the Saturday to  ## p. 319 (#383) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. Mr. Saintsbury. He says (p. xxiii of the same work), "I think that if I were dictator, one of the first non-political things that I should do, would be to make the order of reviewers as close a one, at least, as the Bench of Judges, or the staff of the Mint, or of any public establishment of a similar character." He, you see, would have a College of Reviewers. One of the things they must learn to qualify for the fellowship in that College would be the technique and the laws of the Art of Fiction. Will Mr. Saintsbury allow them, in order to facilitate their studies, to attend my School of Fiction? There is, however, an article in the Spectator which is much more useful for our purposes, be- cause it artlessly and ingenuously illustrates the common attitude of mind towards this Art of Fiction. It is written by a person, apparently a Lady—it might have been written in the Thirties—who believes that there is no Art of Fiction at all—" no such thing, my dear, I do assure you." Indeed, if you come to think of it, "What is there to teach? The most would be to tell a pupil whether he wrote good English, or whether he had a natural aptitude for conveying his ideas to other people. What Mr. Besant is pleased to call technique is not technical or teachable; it is the nice tact, the delicate faculty . . ." and so on—and so on; we know the prattling flow of the brook. "We should say that in writing a novel there was no more technical knowledge involved than that in the power of writing intelligibly "!!! The notes of ad- miration are not in the original. But what a noble sixpennyworth is that which contains such a sen- tence as this! This article ought to glorify and light up the Spectator for a twelvemonth at least. It ought to enlarge its circulation enormously. Not a tea-table in all Islington should be without it. This, you see, is the actual opinion, put more baldly and more plainly than one could have conceived possible, of smug, suburban, Philistinism, wholly ignorant of Art and all its methods. It is the opinion of the class who look at a picture for the story, and think it grew of itself. Construction, grouping, selection, dramatic effects, development of character, the weaving of a plot from a central idea, colour, atmosphere, and all the rest of the technique (not the "nice tact, delicate faculty," and um—um—urn) come by nature and instinct! Remember that what I claimed was that this technique can be taught—not that a novelist can be created. He is born, but I would clear his way for him, so far as teaching and direction can clear a way. This technique consists, according to my Lady Solomon, "in the power of reading and writing." Oh! most wise and learned Judge! Of course these things are acquired, even by the greatest genius, by study, observation, comparison, and practice. At this Society, I am happy to say, we have been enabled, without fuss or parade, to clear the way for a good many young writers who have come to us for help. We have not created novelists, we have not tried to do so, we have only taught them what it is to be a novelist, and we have given them a few elementary lessons. The Spectator asks plaintively what help or in- struction the reviewer can give? Why, since the reviewer denies that there is any Art in Fiction, none—none whatever, Madame. If that is also the belief of those who actually do the reviews for that paper, the sooner we stop sending it novels the better. But I have good reasons for believing that the writer does not represent the views of all the staff. Then it asks what I mean by the "base and ignominious" terms by which many writers are persuaded to publish their works. Oh! This good lady knows nothing—nothing at all! I call it base and ignominious when a writer has been refused by all the honourable Houses, because the work is worthless, to accept the offer of some wretched swindler who persuades him that there are going to be vast profits, makes him pay a lump more than enough to cover the whole cost of production on the pretence that it is a half, or a third; cheats him in advertisements, corrections, and everything, and gives him back nothing but a book ill-printed, on vile paper, ill- bound, sent out to be cut to pieces by the reviewers. These tricks are exposed month after month in the Author; but this writer has never heard of the Author. Is it, or is it not, ignominious to publish under such conditions? One more gem from this wonderful article. "Until now," the writer says, "we have happily believed that the tale of the story-teller and the song of the poet were the results of unpremeditated Art, even as the strains of the skylark." Have you really thought so, Madame? They used to think so sixty years ago in the sweet days of Felicia Hemans and L. E. L., and the bulbul and the gazelle. All spontaneous—all by the light of genius—all by instinct. The poet has no workshop. To him, rhythm, rhyme, metre, form, the rules of verse, the history of verse, the modern conditions of verse, come by nature—all—all—born with him, as the song with the skylark and the quack with the duck. Yes, indeed—indeed. How lovely—how beautiful—how tender—and how TRUE! W. B. *  ## p. 320 (#384) ############################################ 320 THE AUTHOR. AUTHOR V. EDITOR. MR. F. HARRISON'S article in the current number of the Fortnightly Rrciav on "Editorial Horseplay" is particularly entertaining reading. An attack on an editor by one who is at once a serious Radical and a brilliant litterateur will not fail to delight the somewhat bored world of review readers. Mr. Harrison is heated, moreover, and strikes hard, and a display of temper in a languid age is, some will think, exhilarating. We cannot greatly wonder that in most of the comments on the article which we have happened to see, Mr. Harrison should be treated a little jocosely. His proposal to restore the Elgin marbles to Greece looks a wee bit Quixotic, and his wily editor, Mr. James Knowles, has the indisputable advantage of representing British Philistinism shaken with side-splitting laughter at the idea of a preposterous bit of unpatriotism. Yet amusing as is the spectacle, it has a larger and more serious interest too. It raises questions of real moment to all men of letters. For the editor is a publisher, and the proper definition of the relation of the contributor to the editor is now-a-days, when most writers have to win their spurs in the pages of reviews, no less needed for the safeguarding of authors' rights than the settlement of the relation of the writer to the other kind of publisher. The facts seem to be simple enough. Mr. Har- rison, an old member of the Nineteenth Century staff, sent an article to Mr. Knowles advocating the restitution of the Elgin marbles to Greece. This article was duly published. Three months later there appeared in the same journal a reply to Mr. Harrison, having as signature, "The Editor." The article treats Mr. Harrison's project with boisterous ridicule. According to Mr. Harrison it as good as calls him a "platform Pharisee " and other pleasant names of the same kind, and des- cribes his article as "flat misstatement." Mr. Knowles appears to justify this guffaw-like ex- plosion of editorial dignity by saying that Mr. Harrison had consented to having his literary bantling tossed about in this merry fashion, a statement which Mr. Harrison stoutly denies, and which those who know this gentleman's predilec- tions and customary literary manner will probably find it hard to understand. With a charming appear- ance of fair-play Mr. Knowles invites his adversary in the sportive combat to rejoin. At the same time he shrewdly bethinks him of his editorship, and lays it down as a proviso that the rejoinder must meet with his own approval. Mr. Harrison refuses to dance to this editorial piping, and pre- fers to send his reply to the Fortnightly Review. Here he lays on his former editor some pretty hard blows, going so far as to hint pretty distinctly that he does not believe that Mr. Knowles himself penned the facetious periods to which he has sub- scribed his name. We should suppose that even Mr. Knowles will view this insinuation as passing a joke; but there is no knowing. It certainly strikes us, as it strikes Mr. Harrison, that Mr. Knowles is taking a new view of the editorial function. We cheerfully allow the auto cracy of the editor. It is his to accept and to reject as he will. He is at perfect liberty to con- tribute articles to his own journal. But then, "noblesse oblige," and the editor retains his autocracy on the condition that he does not jump down from his judicial bench and join in the fray of his literary litigants. To desiderate the excitement of the contest, and the power of the umpire at the same moment, is soaring too high for mortals. In the contest of the law court, of the political arena, of the field, this is well understood. How is it, one cannot help asking, that a code well recognized by gentlemen in other professions seems still ignored in the literary domain? We are not prepared to go with Mr. Harrison, when, as we understand him, he says that by publishing his article his editor made himself responsible for its general soundness. As we all know, Mr. Knowles has delighted in making his journal a forum for the presentation side by side of the most opposite views. Yet good feeling might well have hindered an editor, even when seized with the mighty impulse of laughter, from holding up his own contributor to the con- tempt of gods and men. Our editors are often men of high culture and courteous feeling, and the present writer owes them much. We must pray that the Society of Authors may succeed in educa- ting the rest up to the same level of excellence. J.S. * "THEY ALL LIVED HAPPY EVER AFTERWARDS." (Kairy Books, passim.) T AM glad to have had this little adven- I ture. It has grieved me much to think that while our literature has been growing so wise and so purpose-full, the fairy story has remained the same pleasant irresponsible thing that it has ever been. Physiology and psychology unroll their cheerful page for the adult, and we learn how a man's liver can be made answerable for the crimes in the first two volumes, and his grandmother's tendencies for  ## p. 321 (#385) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 321 the retribution which comes in the third. But in children's books this marked improvement has not yet taken place. The teachings of science here are still defied, and the results of heredity neglected. Now this should not be, and I see an opportunity to alter it all. My eyes have been opened. These impossible and immoral stories must be re-written from a rational point of view, and endued with something of the enlightened spirit of the age. But to my adventure. * * * * We were walking down the main thoroughfare of the stately city where the heroes of fairy-land go when they are out of print. I do not know how we got there. "Here," said my conductor, indicating a hand- some building, "is the club. Come in and have some coffee. It is rather exclusive, for we only admit genuine figments, as poor old Selkirk will tell you. Though between you and me he was pilled as much for his habit of saying he was monarch of all lie surveyed as for any truth in his career." These remarks made me look at the speaker closely, and I recognized him immediately. The ■high shapeless peaked cap, the short jacket, and open-kneed breeches and buskins, all of goat-skin, betrayed the hero to me. "Robinson !" I exclaimed, "this is indeed a proud moment for me." "It is very good of you to say so," he replied, handing to the porter two pouches of ammunition, a goat-skin umbrella, a fowling-piece, and a parrot—"very good and kind indeed, for I understand that I am not of much account in the world now. I hear, indeed, although I can hardly credit it, that I am not even in the best hundred books." We went upstairs into the smoking room, a magnificently furnished apartment, whose ceilings were covered with carpet, and whose floor was painted like a ceiling. Little brick-coloured engravings stood about the room on tables, and large purple-tinted plates were fastened to the walls, between panels of Lincrusta-Walton work. Also there was gilt about in places where one badly brought up would hardly have expected it. "Copied from your Junior International, I believe," said Crusoe, sniffing perceptibly, "and considered to be the acme of comfort. There are points, you know, about living insulated, with- out upholstery." We had not been seated long, when there entered two superlatively handsome young men, dressed in the extreme of fashion, who appeared to accept as their bare due the homage which was spontaneously tendered to them by all present. Crusoe, among others, rose from his seat and bowed as they came in. "Who are they?" I enquired. "The short one is Prince "(here he whis- pered the name into my ear, cautioning me not to repeat it, as the Prince's name had so far escaped print), "who married Cinderella; his companion is Prince Charming, the husband of the young lady so well-known, and so widely celebrated as the Sleeping Beauty. Shall I introduce you?" "Thank you," said I, "I shall be profoundly obliged for an opportunity of obtaining a personal knowledge of gentlemen whose lot I have envied so often." The demeanour of my new acquaintances, to whom I was immediately made known, surprised me greatly, for the face of each wore a look of permanent dissatisfaction. Yet I had the authority of much uncontradicted tradition for believing that all the future was to have been for them a sojourn in eternal happiness. Was it that as Princes they disdained to manifest any outward appearance of happiness? For I knew that in some circles a settled and serene sulk did duty for "the repose which stamps the caste." Was I face to face with a genuine or a spurious melancholy? I resolved to ask them, and I did. "Really," said Cinderella's husband, "my un- fortunate position is so well known that it were the veriest of affectations to disguise it. I have married in the scullery, and am repenting at leisure. Cinderella," he added, pityingly, "is a good little girl, but entirely without manner. You remember, of course, her bringing up—it is very hard on us, but everybody knows it—and you can scarcely, therefore, wonder at her lack of distinction. Ah! I ought to have married one of her sisters— fine girls, sir, with a style too! Either would have jumped at me." "But," said I, "your wife has the sweetest disposition, and surely that, combined with beauty, should bring happiness to a husband's home." "Maybe," said the Prince, "but she doesn't make me happy. You see, she has no adaptability and no malleability. She has never made any attempt to fill the position in which I have placed her. I grant you that her housekeeping is excellent, but then house-wif'ery is a talent which a princess would do well to go out and bury. It never would be missed." "I think," broke in Prince Charming, "that you are making the worst of your case. At least your wife is an intelligent girl, and you get your meals regularly. How would you like to be tied to such a wife as mine?"  ## p. 322 (#386) ############################################ 322 THE AUTHOR. "Yours, Prince?" I exclaimed, "why, the Sleep- ing Beauty is the loveliest and purest maid in the annals of fiction." "I only wish I had left her as I found her," returned Prince Charming, viciously. "Entre t/ous, my wife is next door to an idiot. She spends the day arranging herself on sofas. A photo- grapher attends to reproduce the results, and I am expected to pass judgment upon each picture, and say if she appears lovelier in this or in that pose, than when she lay asleep among the briars. She has no ideas, no powers of estimation or com- parison, no knowledge whatever of life. What, indeed, can be expected from a girl who has passed all her maiden life asleep? But if I had only thought for a moment, I should have foreseen all this ere I woke her—and I should have retreated on tip-toe." Just then a very pleasing young man came into the room, and looked ingratiatingly about him. He was apparently well-known and popular, for he was greeted with nods and smiles by most of those present. His clothes were magnificent, but his bearing was not aristocratic, and he was treated with none of the external deference which had been offered to the two Princes. "Oh !" said Prince Charming, " I'm off. I can- not stand that fellow." So saying, he rose, as did his companion, and they lounged with linked arms past the new-comer, ostentatiously taking no notice of him. "Who is he, Robinson?" I asked. "It's Aladdin," he replied, "the man who married the Princess Badroulbadour. She's the handsomest and cleverest woman in the place— quite the leader in our best set, and very fond of circus-girls, artists' models, and religious explorers. Would you care to know him?" I nodded, and Crusoe signed to Aladdin to come over and occupy Prince Charming's chair. "Pleased to meet you, sir," said Aladdin, with what may be described as lower middle-class affability. "Was not that Prince Charming who just left you? Horrid supercilious beast! I hope he's not a particular friend of yours." Aladdin's manner of speeding the parting guest was so very familiar to me from club experience in my world, that I was moved to smile, as I answered that I had only made the acquaintance of the two Princes some few minutes before, and that I thought them nice young men. "Well, I don't," he said. "I often wonder why Cinderella puts up with her husband's airs. She's a jolly little thing, and as beautiful as she is good; but he's ashamed to be seen about with her, and Prince Charming openly laments that he didn't leave his wife where he found her, and is always egging the poor girl on to take morphine. Is that your idea of being nice?" "Are you not a little hard upon him?" said I. "You have been so happy yourself in your choice of a consort that perhaps you hardly make due allowance for less fortunate men." "You must be a particular sort of an ass," he replied, bluntly. "Badroulbadour is handsome enough and as clever as paint, but she's not a pleasant wife; everybody knows that. She's a leader of society. That's what she is. We have not dined fete d-tUte for two years. She has political views and social views, and artistic views. She has all sorts of explorers and nigger-drivers about the place. (No offence to you, Crusoe.) She writes for the monthly magazines. Sometimes her grammar gets guyed, but her sentiments are all right, for she lifts them from Confucius. She speaks in public, and will blurt out to a collected crowd things which a man would get kicked for whispering; but she doesn't speak to me except before company and to keep up appearances." I murmured my sympathies as he rose to go. "Concerning marriages," said Crusoe, as he showed me downstairs. "What the wise ends of God's providence are in such a disposition of things I cannot say. There are those who rashly presume to judge by the experience of others. There are those who still more rashly arrive at general conclusions from the consideration of their own private affairs. I am pleased to have met you. If you ever write story books you might omit that tag. It annoys us here terribly." I was glad to leave for I remember that my companion was sometimes a tedious old gentleman. * # * * * Now after this I see before me a future for some- body. It is clear that the fairy story—-as she is wrote—is inconsequent and immoral. It has no message. It is untruthful. The characters them- selves feel it. Will this not be very generally found out? Do you think a fin de siecle Board School child will tolerate such void and formless attempts towards its amusement much longer? And this is the future for somebody :—Let him take these old stories and write them up to date. Let us know the psychological reasons for the failure of the elder two brothers and the unvarying success of the third. This is no accident: it happens too often. It is a mental problem worthy of Maudsley's consideration. Let him paint for us the animal qualities of the Beast cropping up in his descendants, in happy blend with the personal traits of Beauty their mother, and the unamiable characteristics of their aunts. In this way it seems that we might attain to a Literature of searching  ## p. 323 (#387) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3*3 character-insight, and the coldest scientific ac- curacy, with the extraordinary and pleasing addition of a readable story. Some "damned" English poet might be en- trusted to re-write snatches of nursery rhyme to be used as chapter headings. There is money in this idea. The Society has therefore patented it, and will be happy to entrust the commission to the author who passes first in a competitive examination for the post. Names will now be received by the secretary. The com- pulsory subjects will be :— The works of Zola, Kipling, Tolstoi, Wilde, and Paul Verlaine—in English. Carpenter's " Mental Physiology." Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations." Brewer's " Dictionaries of, &c." In addition the candidates will have to satisfy the examiners in one of the following books :— Hans Andersen's Stories. Grimm's Stories. The Arabian Nights Entertainments, un- bowdlerized. Cobbett's English Grammar. Any Standard French Dictionary. The books will be published by the Society on the half-profit system, and the author will be paid, upon repeated application, whatever sum the Com- mittee think will make him shut his mouth. This sum will be taken to represent his due share, and no further question can be allowed to arise about the matter, as the Committee are not as a body or individually in the habit of having their bare words doubted. * "L'ENFANT PRODIGUE." THERE could not have been a better way of keeping the Feast of Fools than by a visit to "Monsieur Pierrot," at home, at the Prince of Wales' Theatre. The most exquisite gourmet of folly could find no fault with a banquet so rich in rare and delicate food for laughter and unexpected flavouring of grateful bitter herbs. I was not alone in the audience; we went to laugh and criticise, and came away conquered and in tears. We have made the ac- quaintance of a great author. Monsieur Michel Carre" fils has written a most pathetic comedy without words. He has overcome not only a dramatic, but a literary difficulty. The phraseology of lives somewhat sordid, placed midway between poverty and affluence, between ignorance and high cultivation, is so antipathetic to either extreme as to deprive the class using it of their sympathy. In VOL. I. "L'Enfant Prodigue" we see before us mediocrity relieved of all its pettiness, in its dumb human agony. It is the story of the great sorrow of petty comedians, the little tragedy of a family of fools. Until we knew Monsieur Michel Carre, we should have said no one could have done it so well, not even Charles I amb, Gerard de Nerval, Hans An- dersen— only Balzac himself. Again, the play could scarcely be better represented. Monsieur Courtes as Pierrot pcre exhausts my praise. Madame Schmidt as Madame Pierrot is very nearly as powerful. Consider how perfectly they co-operate with the author. In the first act, we have the comely, smiling, indulgent French mother, slightly indifferent to a husband many years older, but utterly devoted to her son. The father is the typical middle-class Frenchman, getting old, narrow- minded, irascible, respectable, and a niggard. The family is prosperous in an unpretending middle-class way; the old man stints his son, and stints his wife and himself in order to save for him. The gay and indulgent mother keeps as a matter of course a cheap commonplace statue of the Virgin as an ornament in the corner of the room. A lamp hangs before it. The family is prosperous; she has let the lamp go out. Notice when the boy has been sent off to bed, how comfortably they settle themselves, how Monsieur Pierrot reads his newspaper; we can follow him through all the items of news. At last he finds a story "un peu piquant." His delight, her propriety and her smile, furtive without the least touch of prudery— how delicately this is acted! At length they fall asleep, gradually, peacefully, the sleep of body and conscience both untroubled by digestion. They wake to find,—what we know (for the moment Monsieur Courtes and Madame Schmidt are on an exact equality with speaking actors), for words here would be impossible. Nothing could be more masterly than the contrast between their simulated, agonizing sleep, and their natural, quiet dozing. Monsieur Courtes is particularly fine. The effect of their awakening we see in the fourth act. The sorrow has inspired their dull mediocrity, the bitter herbs have given a delicate flavour to the common meat, the woman's tears have served as oil to her holy lamp. The com- monplace ornament has become the Mother of Mercy. Both the parents are aged, the mother saddened, the father softened; but he is old Pierrot still. If he were not still a little irascible we should not be afraid to laugh at him without the least sarcasm, and this is the highest, rarest proof of good-will. There is the old hackneyed scene, the unused platter, and the vacant chair; but these respectable "bourgeois," retired clowns, make it heart-rending. The mother, of course, shows plainly 2 E  ## p. 324 (#388) ############################################ 324 THE AUTHOR. that she cannot restrain her tears, the old man affects indifference,—and fills the empty glass. By some strange prophetic instinct he leaves it to restore an unexpected guest. Every movement of Monsieur Courtes's face is a study as Pierrot scolds and comforts his wife. There is no tobacco in his jar; this is a good excuse. The hot atmosphere must be raising the lump in his throat. He feigns anger; he must himself go out in the snow to buy tobacco. When Madame Pierrot is left alone she breaks down utterly, but she has still hope ; she confides in the plaster image, which has attained to the highest eminence of the best art by becoming to her the greatest of realities. While her husband is away she can take out an ordinary cabinet-sized photo- graph and hug it to her breast and dandle it in her arms. All heroines of melodramas do this, but here it is terribly pathetic. We could swear it is blotched and stained with real tears. Then in comes the old man again, still the old Pierrot; he picks up a piece of bread which has fallen on the floor and looks angrily at his wife as he blows the dust off. He won't have waste in his house; then we remember, after all, he is not so well off now. Presently, when old Pierrot is out of the room, the prodigal returns, faint and weary. His mother, of course, has no thought of reproach. She holds him to her breast again, that is enough. She refreshes him with the wine his father could not taste. The father comes back; she nods to the Virgin, alive to her, standing there in the room, to remind her that she must help now, she must make the father forgive. The mother has no thought of any moral law concerning punishment and the fruit of faults. But old Pierrot is a fool, by profession only. He won't take back his son, to rob him and ruin himself a second time. He must make atonement. To the Frenchman whose neighbours have died on their own doorsteps, killed by a foreign invader, ser- vice in the army has a sacred character unintelligible to races only accustomed to aggressive wars. And sowe leave the family, wondering at the fool's wisdom. By dwelling so long on Monsieur and Madame Pierrot, I do not wish to imply dissatisfaction with the acting of the other parts. All are very good. In one gesture of the negro servant, Monsieur Jean Arcueil, as he pauses an instant before he leaves the room, is expressed the whole conversation of the servants' hall in a "bijou residence," whose mistress still retains the characteristics of a pretty washerwoman when she is dressed in silks and satins. Mdlle. Zanfretta makes a lively and clever "Phrynette"; the little touches showing she has after all some sort of fondness for her generous and devoted boy, are very pretty. Monsieur Louis Gouget also makes an excellent baron, once he is le baron Hulot of " La Cousine Bette," to the life. 1 have purposely avoided any special notice of the acting of Miss Jane May. She is so well known and her reputation is so well assured that it is unnecessary to do so. One point, however, she emphasises with peculiar skill, the remorse of little Pierrot even while he is robbing his parents, and his love for his mother. He cannot make up his mind to search his mother for the keys. Again she uses with effect a splendid opportunity. There is a corner of " Phrynette's" boudoir corresponding to the corner in the old home where hung the image and the lamp. Little "Pierrot" is in an agony, instinctively he turns to the image, to find a por- trait of himself. No woman could act the part better than Miss Jane May; most men would not act it half so well; but it is utterly impossible for a woman's figure in man's clothes to look other- wise than anomalous. Nature and the caprice of present custom, and not the fine artistic powers and personal feminine appearance of Miss Jane May, are responsible for the anomaly. Pierrot is not a "joli jeune garcon," but a "gamin maladie." This one fault in the "casting" of the piece is the "poisson d'avril " of the feast. W. W. * CORRESPONDENCE. I. Authors and Reviewers. THE remedy for the state of things com- plained of by "An Obscure Novelist" can only be found in the reform of the review- ing system. At the same time it may be pointed out that the exercise of a little discrimination by the "Obscure Novelist" would have saved him the troubled mind which a very common experience has occasioned. The opinion of the Little Ped- dlington Star is surely not so important to him as the criticism of the Saturday Review. Then he appears to suffer from the delusion that all re- viewers are critics. Let him distinguish. It were unreasonable to look for criticism in a journal where six, or eight, or more novels—good and bad, foreign and English—are "noticed," week after week, in a single brief article that occupies space which would be inadequate to the criticism of a single notable novel. Such a system may commend itself to publishers, and may be very suitable to a trade journal, but it is nothing less than scandalous in a newspaper that professes to review and to represent current English literature. As to those other papers of which "An Obscure Novelist" writes, whose reviews are determined by their advertisements, they can be, and should be, surely left bookless by all authors and publishers.  ## p. 325 (#389) ############################################ THE A UTHOR. 325 The needed reform can be best effected by editors. Unfortunately it appears that it would first be necessary to convince a large number of editors that reviewing is a subject of any im- portance at all. It is notorious that reviewing is regarded in many quarters as a field of experiment for testing the competency of the young hand, or for proving—for the 12th time—the inveterate dis- abilities of the ancient hack. In short, what is, as Mr. Saintsbury forcibly puts it, "on the whole the most difficult kind of newspaper writing" is also "on the whole the most lightly assigned and the most irresponsibly performed." Now if all editors would but devote a fair proportion of their time and energy to these matters, the evils discussed by "An Obscure Novelist" would be greatly diminished. B. II. Baron Tauchnitz. "Can you tell me by what right Tauchnitz pub- lishes cheap editions of English books for con- tinental circulation, and in what respect this differs from piracy? "I have heard or read that Tauchnitz always pays authors pretty liberally, but is he obliged to do so? And why is it that Tauchnitz alone seems to have the privilege of printing cheap editions?" The writer is under a misapprehension. Baron Tauchnitz has no such rights as he supposes. To reprint an English author without his permission would be an act of piracy. Baron Tauchnitz always purchases the right. The reason why he is alone as a publisher of English books for continental cities is simply that, though others have tried to set up in rivalry with him, they have not hitherto suc- ceeded. Messrs. Heinemann, Balestier and Co. are now making another attempt. They are said to have secured a good many leading English authors. It remains to be seen whether their venture will be crowned with success or not. III. From "Chastelard." I have been much puzzled by two allusions in Mr. Swinburne's dramas, and hope that some of the readers of the Author may be able and willing to lighten my darkness. One of these is to be found in Chastelard, Act iii, sc. 1; the hero speaks— "Have you read never in French books the song Called the 'Duke's Song,' some boy made ages back, A song of drag-nets hauled across thwart seas VOL. I. And plucked up with rent sides, and caught therein, A strange-haired woman with sad singing lips, Cold in the cheek like any stray of sea, And sweet to touch? So that men, seeing her face, And how she sighed out little Ahs of pain, And soft cries sobbing sideways from her mouth, Fell in hot love, and having lain with her, Died soon?" Is there any foundation for this? Does such a song as the "Duke's Song" exist? The other allusion is in Rosamond, sc. 3. King Henry says— "I am as he that saith In the great song sick words and sorrowful Of love's hard sweet and hunger of harsh hours." To what "great song" could our Second Henry thus refer? Ramsay Colles. IV. Gratuitous Contributions. Can the gratuitous contributions, complained of in the March number of the Author, explain the proceedings of the publisher with whom the writer of the paragraph, headed "Accepted," has had to do? The remuneration offered was certainly ex- tremely liberal, compared with what "No pay, no pen" speaks of as being "considered in such quarters something magnificent." Has the pub-' lisher in question discovered he can secure contri- butions gratuitously, or at least at half, or quarter, the rate agreed on, and so have broken his contract? Neither Pay nor Fen. IV. "The Last Dream of Julius Roy." Mr. Byrrne shows such a pretty faculty of paraphrase in his version, in last month's Author, of my story, "The Last Dream of Julius Roy," that I am sorry to have to discourage him in the ingenious art of manufacturing resemblances betwixt his own and other people's stories. Until his letter, I had supposed the "Newbery House Magazine " to be a theological review—a very good reason for not going to its pages for fiction. Indeed, I had never seen either the magazine or his story. But the suspicion of plagiarism, like that of heresy, is not easily upset; and, supposing my story to have been written after his had appeared, he would still probably make the most of that contingency. So I hasten to add that 2 K 2  ## p. 326 (#390) ############################################ 326 THE AUTHOR. "The Last Dream of Julius Roy" was written first, early in 1889, had some considerable circulation in MS. during that year, and was eventually sent to the Editor of Macmillan's Magazine before July, 1890, the date when, we are told, the story re- sembling it appeared. I hesitate to turn the tables upon Mr. Byrrne, as an avowed writer of fiction, by suggesting that he may have been among those who read my story in MS. Ernest Rhys. Llantysilio, April 6th, 1891. VI. The Signed Article. Sir,—In response to your invitation appended to the article of " F.," in your last issue, allow me, as an old journalist, who has been engaged in editorial work on daily papers for many years, to say a few words on the above subject. From the point of view taken by the Society of Authors with regard to all such matters there can be no doubt that the signature of newspaper articles would be greatly to the material advantage of the journalist, for it would enhance both his social status and his pecuniary value. Many an able leader writer now unknown would, if he signed his articles, become famous and obtain higher terms for his services. As it is, some few journalists, are well-known by name to the public independ- ently of their avowed literary work, and although their newspaper articles arc not identified as theirs it is a matter of notoriety that they write for certain papers. All these gentlemen are pre- sumably very highly paid, but they have many colleagues of great ability whose names are much less familiar to the public, but who, if they were equally celebrated, could command similar re- muneration. Now it is the special function of the Society to improve the author's position, and so far as the journalist is concerned nothing could be better calculated to effect that end than the removal of the veil which hides not his talent, but his personality from the public. I have in my mind many men, it would be invidious to mention names, who have been labouring for the public for years, turning out day after day brilliant or solid articles, representing an aggregate of brain work, which, if embodied in a book or books, must have rendered them famous and perhaps prosperous. Yet the public never heard of them, and they have remained content in their modest obscurity, sub- sisting on their moderate salaries, and their obituary one of these days will probably be con- tained in a six-line paragraph. Yet all journalists, obviously as a change in the present practice would be for their benefit, are by no means in favour of abolishing the anonymous system. In fact, I rather think that the majority are opposed to such an alteration. They are led to this conclusion by several different consider- ations, but there is one of a practical character, which they generally recognise as presenting an insuperable obstacle to the proposed "reform." All newspaper work must be edited, and it is edited habitually to an extent of which the public are hardly aware. In every well-regulated news- paper office a despotic discipline is exercised, almost as strict as that on board a man-of-war, and no contribution is sacred to the editor. He, or his assistant, alters, corrects, deletes, amplifies, and re-writes as he pleases, and his authority in this respect is never questioned. The contributor knows that his article is anonymous; the editor is responsible for it, not he. Now this editorial supervision would be rendered practically impos- sible if articles were signed. They would not be the work of the writer whose signature was attached to them, and no self-respecting journalist would allow writings to go forth to the world under his name which were not all his own. I have reason to know that there is a very strong feeling among both newspaper proprietors and newspaper writers against the abolition of the anonymous system, and I doubt very much whether, in our time at least, the directors of any great journal will be induced to make the proposed change. It is possible, however, that one of them may be bold enough to try the experiment at any rate to a limited extent, publishing, say, one signed article in the nature of a leader every day, instead of putting it into the form of a "letter to the editor," a practice frequently adopted. I think, in short, that it would be very desirable to effect some modification in the present anony- mous system. Certainly it would be to the advan- tage of the journalist in every way. But that which is desirable is not always practicable, and anything like a general signature of all articles in English journals is, I fear, quite out of the ques- tion. I am, yours, &c, Fleet Street, March 29th. E. J. G. VII. Note on a Case. At County Court recently a singular pub- lishing case came up for hearing. The plaintiffs, Messrs. A. B. and Co., sued Mr. C. D. for nonfulfil- ment of the terms of a contract entered into in February, 1890. It appears that the defendant signed an agreement with the plaintiffs, by which he bound himself to superintend the translation, editing, and general preparation for the press, of a certain well-known series of volumes. The first  ## p. 327 (#391) ############################################ THE A UTHOR. 327 volume of the series was to have been published, if possible, in September last year. Various reasons were brought forward by the defendant's counsel, accounting for the delay in the preparation of the volumes, notably the difficulty of adapting the work to suit English readers and the question of inter- national copyright. The terms of the agreement as stated in court are so peculiar that they are worthy of being recorded in these pages. For translating, editing, and preparing for the press, the defendant was to receive the sum of ^25, each volume to be pub- lished monthly, payable one month after publica- tion. Payment for the first volume, however, it appears, was made in advance. Out of this sum it was suggested by the plaintiffs that the defendant should pay £12 each for the rough translation of the volumes, and about ^5 or £6 for illustrations in each volume. All expenses for corrections (exclusive of printer's errors), exceeding \os. for every 32 pp., were to be borne by the defendant. None of the volumes have less than 250 pp. of over 270 words each. The claim of the plaintiffs was for the return of the volumes lent for the purpose of translation, the ^25 allowed in advance, and £,10 damages, also costs. Judgment for ^25 was given for the plaintiffs, his Honour at the same time expressing sympathy towards the defendant when considering the terms of the agreement. [Editor's Note.—This is a case in which the defendant signed an agreement without considering whether he could carry out the contract. For ^25 he was to arrange the purchase of copyright, pay a translator—say .£12 for sixteen sheets, or 155. a sheet of 4,320 words, that is, id. for every 24 words It is the wage of a road-sweeper. He was alno to spend £6 in illustrations, and to pay corrections. Naturally, hi could not carry out the contract. No doubt he ought to have thought of this before signing it. It seems to us, however, that equity ought to relieve persons from the burden of such contracts as these. It is well for us to know that such contracts as these are still submitted to literary men.] VIII. The Cost of a Stamp. An author accustomed to signing the agreements submitted to him by his publishers in the form which may be called "the ordinary royalty agree- ment," endeavours to embody similar terms in a letter to his publisher, and on sending it to Somerset House to be stamped, is surprised to receive it back with a 10s. stamp impressed on it instead of the 6d. stamp which he has been familiar with upon his usual agreement. His letter runs thus :— "Gentlemen, "In consideration of the prepayment of -—— pounds on account of royalties and of the further royalties hereinafter mentioned, I hereby transfer to you the international copyright and all other rights, if any, in a story written by me entitled ',' without any restrictions whatever as to methods, times, or places of publication or drama- tisation." Then follow the details of royalties to be paid, an undertaking to correct proofs, and the author's signature. There can hardly be any doubt that the reason why the document set out was not stamped with a sixpenny stamp, but at a higher rate, is that it was considered at Somerset House to be, as indeed it apparently is, a conveyance on sale, which is defined in Section 70 of the Stamp Act of 1870 (33 and 34 Vic, cap. 97), to include ' every instrument whereby any property upon the sale thereof is legally or equitably transferred to or vested in the purchaser.' It has therefore been charged with an 'ad valorem duty,' which appears to have been arrived at by a calculation which fixed the value of the property sold at between ^75 und^ioo. It must be recollected, by those who would im- mediately conclude that a document in the form of an agreement would be the better one for authors to use in dealing with their copyright, that it by no means follows that because a piece of paper is only headed, 'Memorandum of agree- ment between A. B. and C. D.,' that it is not an instrument whereby property is legally, or at all events, equitably transferred. That would depend on the construction of the words which treat par- ticularly of the contemplated assignment, and on the contents of the document as a whole. It can safely be presumed that if such a document were handed in at Somerset House with a request that a 6d. stamp might be affixed to it, it would be affixed without demur, while the question whether it was a transfer or not, and if so, whether it was sufficiently stamped, might arise at some future time to perplex and annoy a person claiming under it. "If any person wishes to ascertain beyond doubt the amount of duty with which any executed instrument is chargeable, he may (by Sections 18 and 19 of the above-mentioned Act) require the Commissioners of Inland Revenue to express an opinion as to whether it is chargeable with duty, and to what extent. If they consider that the instrument is chargeable they are bound to assess the duty, and any person who is dissatisfied with the assessment as made, may within twenty-one days after the date of it, and on payment of duty in conformity with it, appeal against it to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, and may for that purpose require the Commissioners to  ## p. 328 (#392) ############################################ 328 THE AUTHOR. state and sign a case, setting forth the question upon which their opinion was required and the assessment made by them. "The Commissioners arethen obliged to state and sign acase accordingly, which in due course is agreed before the proper Court, and the person whose instrument was to be stamped may end by taking the matter up to the House of Lords, and obtain- ing their decision upon it. If he succeeds he will get back the amount he has overpaid, and his costs; if he loses, he will have to pay the costs of the Commissioners as well as his own. It must be pointed out that it wou'.d be found impossible to recover money overpaid for duty unless the steps indicated above had been taken, and the Com- missioners formally asked to assess the duty; and it should be borne in mind that although the royalty agreements signed by authors and publishers may be habitually stamped with a sixpenny stamp, it by no means follows that they ought not to be charged with an ad valorem duty instead. An Act of Par- liament passed in 1889 (52, 53 Vic, cap. 42, sec. 15), enncts that 'Any contract or agreement made in England or Ireland under seal or under hand only or made in Scotland ... for the sale of any estate or interest in any property except lands, tenements (and certain other specified species of property which do not include copyrights), shall be charged with the same ad valorem duties to be paid by the purchaser as if it were an actual con- veyance on sale of the estate interest or property agreed or contracted to be sold.' It should be remembered that (under 5 and 6 Vic, cap. 45, sec. 43) the copyright of a book duly entered in the Book of Registry of Stationers' Hall may be assigned by its registered proprietor, by entry in that Book cf Registry, without being subjected to any stamp or duty. An agreement to assign the copyright in a book so entered, or which is intended to be so entered, would presumably require a six- penny stamp only, and one would think that this form of transfer would consequently in many cases be found the cheapest to adopt. E. A. A. * IN GRUB STREET. ALADY'S experience. "I wrote a little book for which I received the sum of £5. It ran up to 10,000 copies at least. It was sold for a few pence only. The publishers refused any further payment on account of its success." Technically, of course, they were quite right. The author had accepted the agreement, and there was nothing more to say. But—mark this—the publishers knew pretty well, beforehand, what the sale would be, because they had previously issued many other books of the same kind. Therefore they knew very nearly what the proceeds would be. I have calculated that the publishers made a profit of about ^70. Now, I repeat, when they gave the author this wretched ^5, they knew that they were going to make this profit. Are we right, in any definition of Sweating, to accord to this Firm the rank and title of Sweaters? And I wonder if anyone can guess the name of this Firm of Sweaters. The Authors' Syndicate is under the voluntary and unpaid management of Mr. W. Morris Colles. The Honorary Treasurer is Mr. Walter Besant. The principle of the Syndicate is quite simple. The author gets all that is received for his work, except a very small percentage to pay for clerking, printing, and postage. Mr. Colles begs all authors to understand that in arranging with the papers the name is the first thing; that until a writer has made himself a name, this form of publication is impossible for him: and that nothing can be done in a hurry, papers being generally engaged a year and more in advance. John Strange Winter is engaged upon a new serial story for Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. The appearance of her new venture, "Golden Gates," must be recorded as one of the literary events of the month. It is said that 100,000 copies of the first number went off. Mr. Henry Cresswell has in the press a new novel, in three volumes, entitled "The Hermits of Crizebeck," which will be published by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett early in May. At recent book sales, the first edition of Bunyan's Holy War (1682) sold for ^32; the original monthly parts of Vanity Fairfax £21 e,s. ; Walton's Compleat Angler in the original binding (1653) and Cotton's Compleat Angler (1676), first editions, fetched ^310; Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, first edition (1766), ^35 iar.; Charles Carib's Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret, £,20 \os.; the Poems by Two Brothers went for ;£i7- At Boston the MS. of Poe's Eulalie fetched $225 the other day. At the Women's Press Club at Boston Miss Louise Imogene Guiney showed a ring con- taining fourteen hairs from the head of Keats—the history of that Rape of the Lock is not tendered with the statement.  ## p. 329 (#393) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 329 The Critic of New York tells a tragic story of a lady who grew discontented at the prices she received for her work. It was all signed, but she thought that she ought to be paid more than she got, and she fancied that she was underpaid simply because she was a woman. She therefore tried the dodge of signing with a masculine name, and sent off her next MS. with a nam de plume. She received no answer. Presently, however, she found that her work had been used, and had appeared in the magazine to which she sent it. She wrote at once to the editor, reminding him that she did not work for nothing. He sent her, promptly, a cheque for $2! She had been accus- tomed to receive for her work in own name, and for papers of the same length, at least $35! This experience has made her resolve to remain a woman. An article on Professor Lockyer's "Meteoritic Hypothesis," by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., appears in the Gentleman's Magazine, for April. Some time last year a lady came to this Society with "a case." It was a pretty bad case. She was resident in a colony. She had written a book which she was anxious to publish. She made the acquaintance, in the colony, of a wandering pub- lisher, who undertook her work on conditions. She was to advance him ^100 down with the MS. The copyright was to be his. She was to receive some share—the author says, "as much as he might choose to give me "—of the profits. And—which shows a truly bold spirit—she was to bind herself down to publish whatever other books she might ■write, all her life, on the same terms. The hundred pounds was "towards the expense of publishing." and, of course, it would cover the whole expense. A solicitor pointed out to the lady how disastrous the agreement was, and she came to England and placed the matter in the hands of a London solicitor. .The Society, therefore, could not offer to do anything for her until her own solicitor had acted. It is pleasing to report that he succeeded in getting the agreement cancelled. She then, without consulting the Society, sent her MS. to another publisher, who undertook it on the beautifully simple condition that she should guarantee the sale of 500 copies to begin with. It is not stated what price he charged her. It is possible it was 4s. id. a copy, in which case she would have to pay over a hundred pounds. In other words, she was as badly off with her second publisher as with her first. After these copies she was to receive a royalty of tod. a copy on the remaining 500 copies. There was also an agreement about a cheap edition which does not concern us here. The second part of the case illustrates our reiterated statement about risk. Here we have the publisher guarding himself against risk or possible loss by making the author take as many copies as would pay the whole expense of production to begin with. If he sells the rest of the edition of 1,000 copies, he will realise about ^85, out of which he will have to pay the author £26 16s. 8d., so that on the first edition, unless she gets rid of her 500 copies, she loses about £&o, and he wins £66. Not bad business. But suppose the lady had known, when she signed it, what the agreement meant? And now we may understand one of the reasons why certain publishers so vehemently de- nounce and decry the action of the Society. It is because we do not allow our clients to sign any agreements, if we can prevent them, which they do not understand. * A BILL to amend title sixty, chapter three, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to copyrights. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: "Sec. 4952. xThe author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or photograph or negative thereof, or of a painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models or designs intended to be perfected as works of the fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or assigns of any such person shall, upon com- plying with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, and vending the same; and in the case of dramatic composition, of publicly performing or repre- senting it or causing it to be performed or repre- sented by others; and authors or their assigns shall have exclusive right to dramatize and tran- slate any of their works for which copyright shall have been obtained under the laws of the United States." Sec. 2. That section forty-nine hundred and 1 Omits: "Any citizen of the United States or resident therein, who shall be."  ## p. 330 (#394) ############################################ 33° THE AUTHOR. fifty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as fol- lows: "Sec. 4954. The author, inventor, or designer, if he be still living,1 or his widow or children, if he be dead, shall have the same exclusive right continued for the further term of fourteen years, upon recording the title of the work or description of the article so secured a second time, and com- plying with all other regulations in regard to original copyrights, within six months before the expiration of the first term; and such persons shall, within two months from the date of said renewal, cause a copy of the record thereof to be published in one or more newspapers printed in the United States for the space of four weeks." Sec. 3. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-six of the Revised Statutes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, amended so that it shall read as follows: "Sec. 4956. No person shall be entitled to a copyright unless he shall, on or before the day of publication in this or any foreign country, deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, a printed copy of the title of the book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composi- tion, engraving, cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description of the painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or a model or design for a work of the fine arts for which he desires a copyright, nor unless he shall also, not later than the day of the publication thereof in this or any foreign country, deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, or deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington Dis- trict of Columbia, two copies of such copy- right book,~ maps, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, chromo, cut, print or photo- graph* or in case of a painting, drawing, statue, statuary, model, or design for a work of the fine arts, a photograph of the same: Provided, That in the case of a book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph, the two copies of the same required to be delivered or deposited as above shall be printed from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives, or drawings on stone made within the limits of the United States, or from transfers made therefrom. During the existence of such copyright the impor- 1 Omits: "And a citizen of the United States or resident therein." 5 These words replace the words "or other article." tation into the United States, of any book, chromo, lithograph, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any edition or editions thereof, or any plates of the same not made from type set, negatives or drawings on stone, made within the limits of the United States, shall be, and it is hereby, prohibited, except in the cases specified in paragraphs 512 to 560 inclusive, in sec/ion 2 of the act entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize the duties on imports and fur other purposes," approved Oct. 1, 1890; and except in the case of persons purchasing for use and not for sale, who import, subject to the duty thereon, not more than two copies of such booh at any one time, and except in the case of newspapers and magazines not containing, in whole or in part, matter copy- righted under the provisions of this act, unautho- rized by the author, which are hereby exempted from prohibition of importation: Provided, never- theless, That in the case of foreign languages, of which only translations in English are copyrighted, the prohibition of importation shall apply only to the translations of the sarin; and the importation of the books in the original language shall be per- mitted." Sec. 4. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so that it will read as follows: "Sec. 4958. The Librarian of Congress shall receive from the persons to whom the services designated are rendered the following fees: "First. For recording the title or description of any copyright book or other article, fifty cents. "Second. For every copy under seal of such record actually given to the person claiming the copyright, or his assigns, fifty cents. "Third. For recording and certifying any in- strument of writing for the assignment of a copy- right, one dollar. "Fourth. For every copy of an assignment, one dollar. '' All fees so received shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States: Provided, That the charge for recording the title or description of any article entered for copyright, the production of a person not a citizen or resident of the United States, shall be one dollar, to be paid as above into the Treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses of lists of copyrighted articles as hereinafter provided for. "And if is hereby made the duty of the Librarian of Congress to furnish to the Secretary of the Treasury copies of the entries of titles of all looks and other articles wherein the copyright has been completed by the deposit of two copies of such book printed from type set within the limits of the United States, in accordance with the provisions of this act  ## p. 331 (#395) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. J J 1 and by the deposit of two copies of such other article made or produced in the United States: and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to pre- pare and print, at intervals of not more than a week, catalogues of such title-entries for distribution to the collectors of customs of the United States and to the postmasters of all post-offices receiving foreign mails, and such weekly lists, as they are issued, shall be furnished to all parties desiring them, at a sum not exceeding five dollars per annum; and the Secretary and the Poshnaster- General are hereby empowered and required to make and enforce such rules and regulations as shall prevent the importation into the United States, except upon the conditions above specified, of all articles prohibited by this act." Sec. 5. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-nine of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: Sec. 4959. The proprietor of every copy- right book or other article shall deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit in the mail, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia,1 a copy of every subsequent edition wherein any substantial changes shall be made: Provided, however, That the alterations, revisions, and additions made to books by foreign authors, heretofore published, of which new editions shall appear subsequently to the taking effect of this act, shall be held and deemed capable of being copyrighted as above provided for in this act, unless they form a part of the series in course of publication at the time this act shall fake effect." Sec. 6. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-three of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: "Sec 4963. Every person who shall insert or impress such notice, or words of the same purport, in or upon any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, or other article, for which he has not obtained a copyright, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars, recoverable one-half for the person who shall sue for such penalty, and one-half to the use of the United States." Sec 7. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: "Sec 4964. Every person who, after the re- cording of the title of any book and the depositing of two copies of such book, as provided by this Act, shall, contrary to the provisions of this Act, within the term limited, and without the consent of the 'Omils: "within ten days after its publication, two com- plete printed copies thereof, ot the best edition issued, or description or photograph of such article as hereinbefore required, and." proprietor of the copyright first obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more witnesses, print, publish, dramatize, translate, or import, or knowing the same to be so printed, published, dramatized, translated, or imported, sell or expose to sale any copy of such book shall forfeit every copy thereof to such proprietor, and shall also forfeit and pay such damages as may be recovered in a civil action by such proprietor in any court of competent juris- diction." Sec. 8. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-five of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, so amended as to read as follows: "Sec 4965. If any person, after the recording of the title of any map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, or chromo, or of the description of any painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or model or design in- tended to be perfected and executed as a work of the fine arts, as provided by this act, shall within the term limited, contrary to the provisions of this act, and without the consent of the proprietor of the copyright first obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more witnesses, engrave, etch, work, copy, print, publish, dramatize, translate, or import, either in whole, or in part, or by varying the main design with intent to evade the law, or, knowing the same to be so printed, published, dramatized, translated, or imported, should sell or expose to sale any copy of such map or other article as aforesaid, he shall forfeit to the pro- prietor all the plates on which the same shall be copied and every sheet thereof, either copied or printed, and shall further forfeit, one dollar for every sheet of the same found in his posses- sion, either printing, printed, copied, published, imported, or exposed for sale, and in case of a painting, statue, or statuary, he shall forfeit ten dollars for every copy of the same in his pos- session, or by him sold or exposed for sale; one- half thereof to the proprietor and the other half to the use of the United States." Sec 9. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-seven of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: "Sec 4967. Every person who shall print or publish any manuscript whatever without the con sent of the author or proprietor first obtained,1 shall be liable to the author or proprietor for all damages occasioned by such injury." Sec 10. That section forty-nine hundred and seventy-one of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, repealed.2 1 Omits: "if such author or proprietor is a citizen of the United States, or resident therein." a SEC. 4971 is as follows: "Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit the printing, publishing, importation,  ## p. 332 (#396) ############################################ 332 THE AUTHOR. Sec. ii. That for the purpose of this act each volume of a book in two or more volumes, when such volumes are published separately and the first one shall not have been issued before this act shall take effect, and each number of a periodical, shall be considered an independent publication, subject to the form of copyrighting as above. Sec. 12. That this act shall go into effect on the first day of July, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-one. Sec. 13. That this act shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation when such foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the United States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as its own citizens, or when such foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States of America may, at its pleasure, become a party to such agreement. The existence of either of the conditions aforesaid shall be determined by the President of the United States by proclamation made from time to time as the purposes of this act may require. or sale of any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical com- position, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, written, com- posed, or made by any person not a resident of the United States nor resident therein." NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Theology. Carpenter, Dr. W. B. The remanent Elements of Religion: Bampton Lectures. 18S7. 2nd Edition. Macmillan. 6s. Harper, H. A. The Bible and Modern Discoveries. With Map and Illustrations. 4th Edition. Revised, with Notes, Errata, and Appendix. A. P. Watt. Js. 6d. Lux Mundi. A Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation. By Various Writers. Edited by Rev. Charles Gore, M.A. nth Edition. Murray. 14s- Parker, Joseph. People's Bible. Vol. XIV. Ec- clesiastes, The Song of Solomon, Isaiah xxvi. Hazell. 8*. Welldon, Rev. J. E. C. The Fire upon the Altar. Second Series. Js. History and Biography. Anderson, J. H. History of George the Third's Reign. Longmans. 4s. 6d. Bancroft, Mr. and Mrs. On and Off the Stage. New Edition. Bentley. IX, Is. 6d. Claydrn, P. W. England under Lord Beaconsfield. 3rd and Popular Edition. Fisher Unwin. 6s. Freeman, E. A. The History »f Sicily, from the Earliest Times. With Maps. 2 vols. Clarendon Press. 42.C Ken von, Edith C. Centenary Life of John Wesley. W. Scott. 2s. 6d. Lano, Andrew. Northcote, Sir Stafford, first Earl of Iddesleigh. Life, Letters and Diaries. New Edition. With Portrait. Blackwood and Sons. Is. 6d. Le Gali.ienne, R. George Meredith: Some Character- istics. 2nd Edition. E. Mathews. 7*. 6d. Stephen, Leslie, and Lee, S. Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. XXVI. Smith and Elder. 15*. General Literature. Anstey, F. Tourmalin's Time Cheques : a Farcical Extra- vagance. Arrowsmith (Bristol). Simpkin. is. Baring-Gould, S. Urith : a Story of Dartmoor. 3 vols. Methuen. Bksant, Walter. For Faith and Freedom. New Edition. Chatto and Windus. 2s. Boyle, Fred. Her Evil Genius. 3 vols. Chapman and Hall. 31s. 6d. Croker, B. M. Two Masters: a Novel. F. V. White. 2s. 6d. Farjeon, B. L. The Nine of Hearts: a Detective Story. Ward, Lock and Co. 6d. Fenn, G. M. Sawn Off: a Tale of a F'amily Tree. With Portrait of the Author. (Whitefriars Library.) Henry. 2s. 6d. Grace, W. G., and Brownlee, Methven. Cricket. Fully Illustrated. 6s. Gissing, George. New Grub Street. 3 vols. Smith, Elder. Harland, Henry. Mea Culpa: a Woman's Last Word. 3 vols. IIarte, Bret. A Sappho of Green Springs, &c. With Frontispiece and Vignette by Hume Nisbet. Chatto and Windus. 6s. Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell. Over the Tea-cups: a Series of Papers of Reminiscences and Characteristic Reflections. 4th Edition. Sampson Low and Co. 6s. James, C. T. C. The Romantic Rigmarole of a Time out of Town. 2s. 6d. Jerome, Jerome K. Diary of a Pilgrimage. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations by G. C. Fraser. 3s. 6d. Kennard, Mr. E. Landing a Prize: a Novel. 5th Edition. F. V. White. 2s. Kipling, Rudyard. The Light that Failed. Macmillan. 6s. Lowell, T. Russell. Writings. Riverside Edition. (In 10 vois.) Vol. VI. Literary and Political Addresses. 6,-. McCarthy, J. H. Doom: an Atlantic Episode. 5th Edition. Chatto and Windus. is. MacDonald, G. There and Back. 3 vols. Paul, Triibner and Co. 31s. 6d. Macquoid, Katherine S. Cosette. New Edition. Ward and Downey. 3-r. 6d. Marshall, Emma. A Romance of the Isle of Wight. Seeley and Co. is., is. 6d. Martineau, James. Essays, Reviews, and Addresses. Vol. 2. Ecclesiastical History. Longmans, js. 6V. Mitford, Bertram. A Romance of the Cape Frontier. Popular Edition. 3;. 6d. MOORE, G. Impressions and Opinions. Nutt. $s.  ## p. 333 (#397) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. o oo 1 ^ *? Nisbet, Hume. A Colonial Tramp : Travels and Adven- tures in Australia and New Guinea. 2 vols. Ward and Downey, yis. The Black Drop. Trischler. 2s. 6d. OLIPHANT, Mrs. Kirsteen: the Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago. New Edition. Macmillan. 3-r. 6d. Pater, W. Imaginary Portraits. New Edition. Mac- millan. 6;. Pawn, James. Sunny Stones, and Some Shady Ones. With a Frontispiece by Fred. Barnard. Chatto and Windus. y. 6d. Traed, Mrs. C. Miss Jacobsen's Chance: a Story of Australian Life. New Edition. (Two Shilling Library of Fiction.) Ward and Downey. 2s. The Soul of Countess Adrian. 2s. 6d. Prescott, Rev. P. The Salvation Army: The Secret of Its Success. A Message to the Churches. "Christian The Seal of Fate. Commonwealth Office." is. Pollock, Lady, and Pollock, W. II. Longmans. 6s. Pryce, Richard. The Quiet Mrs. Fleming. Methuen. 3s. 6d. Rae, W. F. An American Duchess. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett. 3lr. 6d. "Rita." The Laird of Cockpen. 3 vols. F. V. White. 31s. 6d. Schopenhauer, A. Studies in Pessimism: A Series of Essays Selected and Edited by T. Bailey Saunders. 2nd Edition. Sonnenschein. 2s. 6d. The Art of Literature: A Series of Essays. Selected and Translated. With a Preface by T. Bailey Saunders. Sonnenschein. 2s. 6d. Sherard, R. H. The Type-written Letter. Trischler. is. Singleton, J. A Wild Blossom. Griffith, Farran and Co. is. Sully, James. Pessimism: a History and a Criticism. 2nd Edition. With New Preface. I or. 6<t. Warden, Florence. Pretty Miss Smith. Heinemann. 3'. 6d. Whitby, Beatrice. The Awakening of Mary Fenwick: a Novel. New Edition. Hurst and Blackett. 3s. 6J. Winter, John Strange. The Other Man's Wife. 2 vols. F. V. White. 21s. Yonge, Charlotte M. The Little Duke, Richard the Fearless. With Illustrations. New Edition. Mac- millan. y. 6d. Educational. Allcroft, A. H.,and Haydon, J. II. Latin Composition and Syntax. 2nd Edition. (Univ. Coll. Tutorial Series.) Clive. 2s. 6d. Co WHAM, J. II. School Organisation, Hygiene and Discip- line. Designed especially for the Guidance of Teachers in their Professional Training, and for use by Educa- tionists generally. (Cowham's Teacher's and Pupil Teacher's Course.) Westminster School Dtpdt. 3.5. 6J. Dixon, Edward T. The Foundations of Geometry. Deighton Bell and Co. 6s. Famous Golf Links. By Horace Hutchinson, Andrew Lang, H. S. C. Everard, T. Rutherford Clark, &c. With numerous Illustrations by F. P. Hopkins, T. Hodges, H. S. Ring, and from Photographs. Long- mans and Co. 6s. Lange, F. New Analytic Method of Learning Languages. I, Junior German. Hachette. 3s. 6d. Lock, Rkv. J. B. The Trigonometry of One Angle. Macmillan. 2s. 6d. NlXON, J. E. Latin Translations of Prose Extracts. From Authors only. King's Coll., Camb. 2nd Edition. 2s. 6d. net. Soames, L. An Introduction to Phonetics (English, French, and German), With Reading Lessons and Exercises. With a Preface by Dorothea Beale. (In- troductory Science Text Books.) Swan Sonnenschein. 6s. Todhunter, J. The Elements of Euclid: Books I and 2. For the use of Schools and Colleges. With Notes and Exercises. Macmillan. Is. Poetry and the Drama. Aldrich, T. B. The Sisters' Tragedy, and other Poems, Lyrical and Dramatic. Macmillan. y. 6d. Arnold, Sir Edwin. The Light of the World ; or, the Great Consummation. A Poem. 2nd Edition. Long- mans and Co. Js. 6d. Austin, Alfred. The Human Tragedy. 4th Edition. Macmillan. 5.?. Goldsmith, Oliver. Toems and Plays. Edited by Austin Dol*on. With Etchings by John Jellicoe and Her- bert Railton. 2 vols. (Temple Library.) Dent. IOJ. 6d. Music. Jenkins, David. David and Saul. An Oratorio for Soli, Chorus and Orchestra. The Words written by Dr. Brown. Novello. 3.1., 3*. &/. Mackenzie, A. C. Music to " Ravenswood " (Produced at the Lyceum Theatre, Sept., 1890). The Pianoforte Arrangement for Four Hands, by Battison Haynes. Novello. $s. Mundella, Emma. The Victory of Song. Chorus for Female Voices, Violins, Harp, and Pianoforte. The Poem written by Lewis Morris. Paper cover ir., 1st violin, 61/,; 2nd violin, fx/. ; 3rd violin, 6d.; harp, Novello. is. 1. WORK—Always in sight. 'i. SPEED—Highest Record, 1S1 words per minute. AEIttXMEJf T—Perfect and Permanent. 3. TYPE—Instantly interchangeable (21 kinds). mPHENNJOX—Uniform, being independent of touch, -4. PAPER—Takes any width, also 20 yards in length. THE HAMMOND TYPEWRITER CO., 50,QUEEN VICTORIA ST.,E,C.  ## p. 334 (#398) ############################################ 334 ADVERTISEMENTS. INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY AUTHOR. TYPE - WRITING. AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED. Writings by Post receive prompt attention. SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY. The Cost of Production. 2nd Edition. Price, 2s. 64. Methods of Publication. 2nd Edition. Price, 3s. H. GLAISHER, Strand, and all Booksellers. MRS. GILL, MISSES ERWIN, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, 13, DORSET STREET, Portman SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. Authors' MSS. carefully copied from CHARLES DICKENS. I/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon) supplied free of charge. References kindly permitted to many well-known Authors and The MSS. of Two Important Poems Publishers. Further particulars on application. for Sale. — Apply, TYPE - WRITING & SHORTHAND. A. P. WATT, JO, DARKE, M.T.S., 2, Paternoster Square. LION CHAMBERS, BROAD STREET, “The best of all Journals.” BRISTOL. Published every FRIDAY, price 2d. The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY, EDITED BY NEATNESS, Rapidity, and Ease of Manifolding. DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.s.e. AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the Now is the time to subscribe. A New Vol. commenced Publisher. 4th April, 1890. Companies* Reports and patent agents Specifications Britten up and Post-card for Specimen Copy. Manifolded. LITHOGRAPHY from TYPING done in the best To be had at all Railway Bookstalls and Style. Newsagents, or direct from the Publisher- MEMORY LESSONS IN TYPING GIVEN BY 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. POST. WRITE FOR TERMS. ESTABLISHED 1851. BIRKB E C K BANK, SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS CHANCERY LANE. TIIREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand. TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS, calculated on minimum monthly balances, when not drawn below £100. STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold. SAVINGS DEPARTMENT. For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows Interest, at the rate of THREE per CENT. per Annum, on each completed £1. Accounts are balanced and Interest added on the 31st March annually. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager. HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate possession. Apply at Office of the BIRKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY. THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars, post free on application. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, .Vanager. Send HE AL TH. A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SANITARY AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE.  ## p. (#399) ################################################ AD VER TISEMENTS. iii. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1891, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By VV. Morris Colles, Barrister-at- Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 35. 5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. 2s. 6d. 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society*s offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3s. (A new Edition in the Press.) 8. " Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parliament. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottis- woode. is. 6d. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. (#400) ################################################ iv. AD VER TISEMENTS. TO AUTHORS. IMPORTANT ADYANCE IN THE PRINTING ART. THE LINOTYPE COMPOSING MACHINE. "It is to the Printing Business of the present day what the inventions of Gutenberg and Caxton were to the primitive writing systems of the Fifteenth Century." "A Machine from which I cannot but anticipate effects equally extensive and beneficial to mankind."—The Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. IThe Siwrtgp G'ompni; (limited) OFFER FOR SUBSCRIPTION £50,000 OF PREFERENCE SHARES OF £5 EACH, BEARING INTEREST AT THE RATE OF SIX PER CENT. PER ANNUM, in addition to a BONUS OF 50 PER CENT, upon all amounts of Two Preference Shares and upwards applied for to be giuen in fully-paid Ordinary £5 Shares thus entitling the holder to a further and future share of contingent profit. The Six per Cent, interest on the Preference Shares is already amply covered by income from Royalties (on Machines now placed and satisfactorily working in various leading newspaper and printing offices) and the capital to be raised from this issue of Preference Shares is for building Machines for which actual signed orders have been obtained by the Company. The field for these Machines is practically unlimited. The Preference Shares are payable in five instalments of £1 each, at intervals of not less than two months between each instalment. Interest at 5 per cent, will be paid on instalments in advance. The Company already possess manufacturing works at Manchester. Forms of Application for Preference Shares (with Bonus), with Copies of Reports, Pamphlets, and other information of the fullest character, can be obtained from the undersigned.— By order of the Board, W. C. THOMASON, Secretary. 6, Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, London, E.C., April, 1891. N.B.—Orders to view Linotype Midlines at work will be sent upon application to the Company's Secretary. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON Jfc SON'S, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 12 (April 1891) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 12 (April 1891) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1891-04-15-The-Author-1-12 publications The Author