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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) 1895-11-01 Volume 6 Issue 6 Pages Page range in volume 121–148 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18951101 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DUCTED BY WALTER BESAN T. Wol. VI.-No. 6.] NOVEMBER 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. JFor the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are "esponsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *-* → HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances show.ld be crossed Union iBank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *~~ 2–% e- * *-*. WARNINGS AND ADWICE. 1. TYRAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £1 o must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. Yow cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERs.-Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any accownt whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. I2. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS. — Reep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with: business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *~ * ~ * g- > --> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. WERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. - 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the O 2  ## p. (#476) ################################################ I 22 THE AUTHOR. experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. - 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. - 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *-- * ~ * e- * *-*. THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. - 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations proxmptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence : does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray zoostage. -. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department * for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. ~s-A -* ~ *-*. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. Subscription for the year. - The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Awthor should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest. or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P 4. Those who possess the “Cost of Production * are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at.  ## p. (#477) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 23 Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, 'by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- r- - - FROM THE COMMITTEE. HE Secretary has in hand the preparation of clauses to meet the various points necessary for an agreement in any of the ordinary methods of publishing. Dr. Jurisconsult Ernst Lange, of Zurich, has prepared and presented to the Committee a paper on the “Contracts of Publishing ” in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzer- land. It has been resolved to print this pamphlet uniform with the “Cost of Production.” The best thanks of the Committee were passed to Dr. Lange for this gift. A somewhat interesting case has been before the Com- mittee. It would have been more interesting had it been settled in a court of law by a friendly action. The case is one in which an author’s MS. was accidentally burned while in charge of a publishing firm. Of course this accident entails upon the author a great deal of labour. IHow far are the publishers liable in such a case ? Did they take reasonable precautions in the matter P The case has been settled, one hopes to the satisfaction of both parties. But still the question of what constitutes reasonable precau- tions remains open. An analysis of the “autumn announce- ments,” classified into authors, subjects, and publishers, is presented to readers with this number of the Awthor. The lists used are those of the “Announcement Number’ of the Publishers’ Circular. The omission of four or five firms is due to the fact that they did not appear in the circular.— G. H. THRING, Secretary. LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. WHE visit of Mr. Hall Caine to Canada promises to produce the fruits of concilia- tion and peace. So long as Canada. On her side stuck out stiffly for the right to make her own copyright, even if it brought the whole of Fnglish literature to ruin, and so long as we on our's protested against the iniquity of these claims and the extreme unpleasantness of being ruined in order to bring a temporary flow of dollars into the pockets of a few Canadian printers, nothing could be done. Now that Mr. Hall Caine has gone over as our representative, the matter has a chance of being talked over amicably. He has been very favour- ably received so far, both in the States and in Canada. The following is the latest intelligence : OTTAWA, Oct. 20. The importance of the Canadian copyright question is clearly shown by the fact that the Governments of France, Belgium, and the United States have caused their repre- sentatives in this country to report upon the probable effect of Canadian copyright legislation. Mr. Hall Caine has concluded for the present his business with the Privy Council of the Dominion and has left for Toronto. He will return here about the middle of November. The opinion prevails in official circles that new legislation on the subject of copyright will be introduced into the Dominion Parliament in the coming session. The Premier says that Mr. Hall Caine has presented the case of the British authors in a moderate and diplomatic manner. The serious test, however, will come when he returns to Ottawa to discuss details. Meantime, Mr. Hall Caine is over- whelmed with offers of hospitality. He has accepted an invitation from Canadian publishers at Toronto this week, and from American publishers in New York on Nov. I.-- Times. An important contribution to the subject has been made by Mr. Herbert Spencer in the Times of Oct. 22. After demolishing Sir Charles Tupper's contention about the expressed opinion of certain British authors, he says: And now let me point out an important issue which is entirely ignored. The requirement that, to obtain copy- right in the United States, a book must be manufactured there prevents the writing of many books which would otherwise be written. On works of amusement it does not weigh heavily, but on works of instruction it often weighs with fatal effect—it does not kill them, but it prevents them from being born. Many valuable treatises which men of science wish to write are never written because the losses entailed would be too great. But could writers of grave books have both the English and American markets, while bearing only one cost of production instead of two, many who are now silent would be enabled, without ruining themselves, to give the public such benefits as might result from their knowledge and ideas. That the existing system discourages literature of the kind which most needs encouraging I am able to give conclusive proof. When in 1860, after issuing the prospectus of the series of works which has since occupied me, I had to decide whether or not I might with prudence commence, the prospect of some sale in America finally determined me. Certain arrange- ments were made under which a portion of the edition printed here was sent over, and under which the small circulation to be obtained there, added to the circu- lation to be obtained here, made possible a return sufficient to pay expenses and leave a small surplus. But the possibility of this arrangement depended wholly upon the ability to make the setting up of type here serve for the American market as well as for the English. Notwith- standing this economy, it resulted that inadequate returns obliged me so continually to trench upon what little pro- perty I possessed that, in 1866, I had to issue a notice of discontinuance—a notice which was withdrawn only because certain incidents increased my private resources. Thus it is manifest that had I not obtained a sale in America with- out reprinting there the works which have occupied me since 1860 would never have been written. “So much the better,” many people will say, That may  ## p. (#478) ################################################ I 24 THE AUTHOIR. be. I cite this experience not as illustrative of a special result, but as illustrative of a general result. There needs, I think, no further proof that the interdicting clause of the American Copyright Act prevents the publication of many books of the graver kinds which would otherwise be pub- lished. And on the same day the Times thus summed up the case in a leading article: The discussion has not been altogether without effect. The Canadian Government sent a representative, the Deputy Minister of Justice, to this country, who was made acquainted with the claims and wishes of British authors and publishers. In consequence of this mission, it is believed, the Colonial Government have allowed it to be understood that they are not unwilling to introduce certain modifications into the law passed by the Dominion Parlia- ment. In order to follow up this suggestion of compromise, Mr. Hall Caine was deputed by the Incorporated Society of Authors to visit Canada and to place before the politicians of the Dominion the views of his comrades in the world of letters. His reception by the Canadians has been most gratifying, as the telegrams we have published from time to time have shown, and he is himself of opinion that the people of Canada in general do not care for, or at least do not clamour for, the Copyright Bill demanded by half-a- dozen printing firms. But whether any real impression has been produced upon those who hold the strings of legislation is still a matter of doubt. Mr. Hall Caine and others have laid stress on the fact that what is asked for is only that Canada may be deterred from legislating in a manner unfairly affecting the interests of what may be surely called a not unimportant section of the community at home. In Mr. Hall Caine's opinion the case is not hopeless. If the interests of British authors can be protected against piracy, and if the international agreement into which the United States have been brought with so much difficulty is not imperilled, there can be no desire in this country to restrict in the smallest degree the legislative independence of the Canadians in regard to copyright. At the same time it is fair to ask Canada whether it is either wise or just to push her pretensions in this matter to the utmost. If Canada is to have a separate copyright law of her own, every British colony may claim the same power, and this literary par- ticularism, however it may benefit local publishers and printers, can only be injurious—indeed, as Mr. Spencer contends, quite ruinous—to the real producers of books. It would be lamentable if, after a considerable advance had been made towards international copyright, such a check should be given to progress. We trust that the new legislation on this subject, which, it is said, is likely to be brought forward in the coming session at Ottawa, will be governed by larger views than those of a small body of local traders. The following important telegram appeared in the Times of Oct. 26: OTTAwa, Oct. 25. Mr. Hall Caine has been busy this week with the Toronto publishers. He has submitted to them his promised amend- ments to the Canadian Act of 1889, and, although the interested class find it hard to accept them as a whole and have deferred their decision for a few days, they admit that the proposals are much the best of any which have reached them from the outside. Mr. Hall Caine's proposals admit the manufacturing clause, but on terms much more favour- able to the author than the manufacturing clause of the |United States. The Toronto publishers and booksellers entertained Mr. Hall Caine at a banquet at the National Club to-night. Mr. Hall Caine delivered a speech, in the course of which he admitted that the facts of Canada’s geographical position. in relation to the United States, the non-acceptance by the latter Power of the Berne Convention, and the presence in the United States of a manufacturing clause in favour of American printers justified Canada to a certain extent in her demand for a measure of self-control and for a limited right to produce books intended for the Canadian market. He said this guardedly, after reflection, and always with the reservation that all manufacturing clauses were objectionable to authors and that limitation of the principle of copyright was only to be allowed under peculiar and trying conditions. Mr. Hall Caine went on. to say:- As long as the United States keep out of the Berne Con- vention, and as long as they insist on manufacturing their own books, just so long, but not one hour longer, I would, speaking for myself alone, be willing to grant to Canada— divided as she is from the United States only by an imagi- nary border which is easily passed—the right to make her own books under some measure of control on the part of the authors. Given this authors’ control I do not think your Canadian copyright should be any cause of offence to America or should disturb the understanding on which the President made his proclamation. I do not think it ought to be in opposition to the spirit of the Berne Convention, the second article of which seems to provide for just such cases as yours. But everything depends on the measure of . control which you leave to the author, and I must tell you at once that unlimited licensing under the direction of your Government would be entirely inconsistent with the idea of authors’ rights entertained by the signatories of the Berne. Convention. Some form of licensing I, personally, advo- cate for Canada, who is under peculiar difficulties in her present relations to the United States with its right to. manufacture, but it must be single licensing, and must take cognisance of authors’ control. That will not only be best, for us but also best for you—best for you as authors, as readers, and as printers and publishers. It is not for me. now to say more precisely what system of licensing under authors’ control I should urge my brother authors to accept. I have formulated a scheme, which, as you know, I am sub- mitting to your Government, and which I shall propose to my fellow-authors without prejudice. I believe they will consider it fully and fairly, and I have every confidence that your Government will use as much of it as seems sound and wise. II.-CANADIAN WRITERs AND THE COPYRIGHT ACT. A “Canadian Author’’ writes to the Times as follows: In coupling the authors with the publishers of Canada Sir Charles Tupper implies that the interests of the two classes are identical. This shows that one member of the Dominion Cabinet at least is in the dark as to the real bearings of his own Act. The interest of the Canadian author, instead of being, in this matter, identical with that of the printers, whom Sir Charles Tupper honours with the name of publishers, is diametrically opposed to it. Canadian writers would suffer from competition with pirated Works, English or American, just as American authors suffered from competition with pirated  ## p. (#479) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 25 English works in the days before international copyright. Publishing, as the Canadian author of any important work other than local must, not in Canada but in England or the Tſnited States, he could not afford to reprint in Canada, a country which has but a limited reading public, for the sake of obtaining Canadian copyright. Canadian writers were not consulted about the Act, nor had they anything to do with it. It was carried by the influence of a few interested individuals or firms through a Parliament not highly qualified to legislate on questions of this kind. Now that the attention of writers in Canada has been called to the matter, all with whom I have had an opportunity of speaking are opposed to the Act. Let there be one copyright for the whole Empire. This is the only satisfactory settlement of the question. Is each colonial dependency to have its own copyright, and Australia six, with practical liberty of piracy all round P In the Canadian Monthly Professor Goldwin Smith deals with the Canadian copyright question as follows: It is time that Canadian writers should pay attention in their own interests to the Canadian Copyright Bill. Hitherto the matter has been in the hands of the publishers or printers, while the writers, who were equally concerned, were not being consulted, and appear hardly to have known what was going on till the controversy about the ratification of the Bill by the Imperial Government arose. The Minister of Justice, speaking at Toronto against Imperial interference with Canadian legislation, coupled Canadian authors with Canadian publishers in a way show- ing that he supposed the interests of the two classes to be identical, and alike opposed to those of their British rivals. This proves that the Minister is himself ill-informed as to the effects of the Bill. It might have occurred to him that the interest of the native producer of literary Wares could not, any more than that of the native producer of any other wares, be identical with that of the importer of the same wares unpaid for, or paid for under their proper price. That the Bill is injurious to British authors and publishers is not denied. The Minister of Justice himself compares it to the protective tariff, which, he admits, is adverse to the British producer. To say nothing of justice or regard for the rights of our fellow-subjects of the Empire, the literary interest of Great Britain is powerful, and largely controls. British opinion through the Press. The same may be said with regard to the same interest in the United States, which is equally threatened by the Bill. It seems hardly worth the while of Canada to provoke two such enmities for the sake of furthering the commercial objects of a few individuals or firms.-The Evening Telegraph, Sept. 30. III.-COI/ONIAI, CoPYRIGHT. By WALTER BESANT. (Reprinted from the Melbowtime Argus.) In dealing with the subject of Colonial Copy- right I must be understood to speak as a man of letters only, and not as a lawyer. I admit, of course, that the law, as it concerns every possible subject, must underlie all other considerations. At the same time I hope to show that there are special considerations, conditions, and facts con- nected with copyright which require it to be treated as a subject for legislation, quite apart from all other branches of trade and industry. At this present moment Canada is endeavouring to effect a change in her copyright law, which fills with dismay everybody concerned with the literature of the English-speaking races. This change is advocated by a small knot of Canadian printers who have succeeded somehow in pulling the political strings. Protests of all kinds have been showered upon the Canadians; deputations of authors and publishers have most vehemently set forth their views, partly to Lord Ripon, from whom little can be expected; partly in the daily papers; papers have been written in the maga. zines; and the case, which includes the whole British Empire, with the United States, against Canada, has been formally drawn up for the Society of Authors by their counsel. By the existing Copyright Acts—those of 1842 and of 1846—the colonies now stand on exactly the same footing as the mother country; that is to say, a book published in Melbourne is pro- tected from piracy as much as a book published in London. Further, by the Berne Convention, which is now joined by all civilised countries in the world, except one, the rights of authors are respected in whatever country he produces his book. Lastly, the United States of America have been induced, after infinite trouble, to grant pro- tection from piracy on the condition of separate printing, within a certain time, in their country. It is not a gracious, but a grudging condition. However, it serves, and it produces much less in- convenience than was anticipated. What this international copyright means, then, is this. A French writer publishing in Paris cannot be re- published or translated, in whole or in part, in London or in New York, without his own consent. Of course, this may mean a very considerable privilege. It would give, for instance, to such great writers as Renan and Victor Hugo, the control over translations which are too often  ## p. (#480) ################################################ I 26 THE AUTHOR. slovenly and sometimes misrepresenting ; it would prevent the publication of garbled and imperfect editions; and it would insure them the English, German, and Italian markets, whatever may be their value, in addition to the French market. But the French rights in English-speaking coun- tries are a small matter. Let us consider rather the present position of our own people, the authors of the British Empire, and those gene- rally of the English-speaking race, whether belong- ing to our empire or to the United States of America. First of all, our authors have before them a possible audience which already far surpasses any audience that the world of letters has ever yet commanded. A great poet such as Tennyson, a great novelist such as Dickens, now addresses nearly forty millions in these islands, sixty millions in the States, in Canada five millions, in Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, the Islands, and in India—where the educated Hindoo reads English literature with avidity—another twenty millions at least. This immense audience of a hundred and twenty millions is increasing by leaps and bounds; the child now in the cradle will, if it lives out the natural span, see it increased threefold. To this unprecedented congregation — this boundless audience—the author of the present moment speaks. Compare this audience with that enjoyed by Virgil, who spoke to that very small part of the Roman Empire where Latin was the language of the people; with that of a mediaeval poet such as Chaucer, who spoke to an England of four millions, and those divided up into dialects which were not understood by each other; with that of Shakespeare, when England had no more than five or six millions; with that of Wordsworth, who wrote when America, con- tained three or four millions and when Australia. was not. Or compare this audience with that possessed by the modern Frenchman with thirty- five millions, by the German with his forty millions, by the Dane, the Dutchman, the Italian, or the Swede. There is no comparison. At the present the man with a message to the English-speaking peoples has this wonderful power, never before possessed in anything like the same fulness and the same strength. He prints his book in London and it goes over all the British possessions; he prints it at the same time in New York and it goes over the whole of America. A novel lies before me whose circula- tion in our own country and colonies has already reached the number of 55,000, the sale still going on. If it sells only 30,000 in the States we have a circulation of 85,000. And if we allow only IOO readers to each volume we have an audience for this one writer of eight millions and a half. Do you think an estimate of IOO readers too many P I do not, considering the way in which the book is passed from hand to hand, and is called for at all libraries, free and circulating, and the way in which it is lent from house to house. By the present arrangement, then, the success- ful author may, if he pleases, control the publi- cation of his book, the price, and its appearance. He commands the immense market over the British Empire and the American Republic. He derives from his works an income which places him on a level almost with the successful barrister, and he has stepped out from his previous condi- tion of degrading dependence upon the so-called “generosity' of publishers to that of the master of a considerable estate. In this world we honour —and we rightly honour—the strong, the success- ful, and the rich. We despise the weak, the dependent, and the poor. Therefore literature, which is only now beginning to be wealthy as a profession, has within the last few years stepped forth out of contempt into honour. Understand me. I know that the individual poet, novelist, essayist has always been held in honour. But his profession has always been held in contempt. All this change has been the result of the Imperial Copyright Act, the Berne Convention, and the American International Copyright Act. These measures have thrown open to all of us, whether we belong to Melbourne or New Zealand or Tobago or London, a profession more noble than any other, daily growing more and more in honour, daily growing richer, more envied, and more powerful. So much for the author. What about those who were not authors P What will this common possession of a common literature do for us? First of all, when we honour the profession we honour him who belongs to it. With honour goes authority. The voice of the author begins to assume the tone of authority. We all of us help to make him heard; we look about us to find, if we can, the man with a voice. Already it makes to the reader no difference whether his author speaks from Chicago or from London; to the author, however, it makes all the difference whether he is speaking to a now half-populated state of America or to the world. In the former case he is local and provincial, marrow and limited; in the latter case he is compelled, by the vastness of his audience, to become broad and human. There are already, in fact, two literatures with us—the one, narrow and local, ephemeral and provincial, unknown outside its own limits; the other, boundless as humanity itself. To the latter, for instance, belong, of our own time,  ## p. (#481) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 27 Tennyson and Longfellow, Carlyle and Emerson, Thackeray and Dickens. To the other belong most of those who rain down upon us the shower of new books published every month, destined for the greater part to die in the year of their birth; the little poets with their dainty little editions of 250 copies; the little novelists of whoun the libraries take 500 or Iooo; the little essayists, and all the little people whose only merit—but this is considerable—is that they love letters and the literary life, and would fain, if kind heaven permitted, lead that life. Then one objects, “But before the Inter- national and Imperial Copyright Acts, English books got into America, and American books into England.” They did; and now I will show you what is going to happen if the Canadian printers have their unholy way. That is, I will show you what will happen by pointing out what did happen before the passing of these Acts. The true “inwardness '' of the Canadians is that they intend this legalised piracy for the sake of a few printers. Their intention is not to pro- vide their own people with good literature, because that is done already, but to issue cheap reprints of English authors, and to flood the American markets with vilely-printed books at 6d. each. Experience shows that over the long frontier of Canada and America, it is absolutely impossible to keep out pirated books. In the old days, before the International Copyright Act was passed, American pirated editions were openly sold in Canada, nobody interfering. In this country, though to a much less degree, Tauch- nitz editions are imported and sold. The Society of Authors has twice memoralised the Colonial Office to prevent the sale of American pirated reprints in Jamaica, at the Cape, at Singapore, and other places. It requires an amount of watchfulness on the part of Customs and police, which, I suppose, we can hardly expect. At the present moment, however, there are no American pirates and no American pirated editions. The danger is from ourselves, and we are actually memoralising the Colonial Office against acts of piracy threatened by our own fellow subjects. The effects of the old American piracy were these, among others. The pirates brought out their books in the commonest and vilest form at the cheapest possible price. The people bought them in the railway trains, read them, and threw them out of window. Nobody wanted to keep the abominable things. But the abominable things were modern English literature. There- fore, literature came to be considered by the whole American people, except the cultured classes, as a thing of no account or value. Who would wish to keep the works of the greatest WOL, WI. poet, the greatest dramatist, the greatest preacher, in a dirty edition on the vilest paper and in the vilest type P Those who love literature aright like to have their books daintily printed, beauti- fully bound, as becomes a thing which is our most valued and most precious possession. For my own part I hate and detest that kind of cheap literature which dares to present great works in unworthy form. I would rather not have a book at all than have it in such a form. A good book is like a lovely woman—it must be well and tastefully dressed. Literature itself, therefore, was degraded by these detestable editions. People, again, were taught to expect books for nothing. Now, since no other kind of work can be got for nothing, since none of those Americans who bought the dirt cheap books ever thought of working for nothing, it followed, as a matter of course, that the makers of these books became of no more account in the eyes of the mass than the wretched slaves of the sweater—pitied because they are so sweated, despised because they are so helpless. Is this good for literature ? Another of the pernicious effects of piracy—a matural recoil—was the practical starving of American authors. It is not too much to say that until the passing of the Act of 1891 native American literature was, by the very acts of the Americans themselves, starved and stunted. Only those engaged in literature alone—made of it their livelihood—who could not help it. I mean, because the promptings of natural aptitude, or genius, if you like, forced literature upon them, because they could do nothing else. Hardly anyone, therefore, tried to liveby literature. That, it was recognised, was a thing ridiculous and impossible. Journalism helped along some American writers, lecturing some, a professorial chair a good many. Lowell was a professor; Oliver Wendell Holmes was a lecturer; Nathaniel Hawthorne was American Consul in England. What hope was there for the American author when the whole of the English literature could be bought for 6d. a volume * That is now changed; the American author, like his English rival, is assuming independence; he can now meet that English rival face to face on equal terms. “We are both,” he says, “published in the same form and at the same price. Let critics and the public choose between us or take us both.” If both are good let us take both ; there is always room for good work; if one is better than the other let us take the better man without asking whether he is American or English. ! Let us return to the Canadian experiment. I tell you what happened speaking from the year I 995, a distance of time which conveys certain P  ## p. (#482) ################################################ I 28 THE AUTHOR. advantages. It enables us, you understand, to speak outside the heat and prejudice of the moment and with due regard to the proportion of things. - “In the year 1895 the Canadians, being still nominally a colony of Great Britain, though in reality independent, passed an Act in favour of a few printers which had very far reaching conse- quences. These consequences, it is necessary to explain, were pointed out at the time as perfectly certain to follow. It was, indeed, easy to pro- phesy that they would follow. By this Act Canadian printers were empowered to reprint any books that were not printed and published in Canada within one month of their appearance elsewhere. There was also a clause granting a royalty of Io per cent.—an iniquitous and paltry royalty—to the author. As Canada was already engaged to pay a royalty of 12% per cent. to the author, and as she had never made any serious attempt to discharge this duty, the new offer was treated with contempt. Indeed, there was never the least attempt to carry out this part of the Act. When it was passed, owing to the miserable weakness of the Colonial Minister, the Canadians made haste to show what had been their intention all along. They published rapidly, at the rate of one volume a week, all the popular writers of the day. These books were on bad paper, with bad type, put together anyhow for cheapness; they were sold at the price of sixpence, and presently they began to appear in all the American towns, on all the American bookstalls, and in all the American trains. Once more, the American people, who for four years had been learning that the acquisition of a good book is like the acqui- sition of any other precious thing—that it wants money—were again taught that the cheapest thing in the world, and therefore the most value- less, was literature. The Canadian printers at first did very well; presently, of course, others rushed into the trade, and competition speedily devoured the profits. But the other colonies now took up the subject. There are printers every- where: and there are people everywhere who would like to get books for nothing, re- gardless of consequences. “Why, it was asked in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, New Zealand, Cape Town, Calcutta, Bombay, ‘should not our printers share in this great busi- ness? Let us have our own Copyright Act. Det us do what we like with foreign authors. We need not pretend to give royalties. We are not obliged to give anything; we will not give. anything.’ So they, too, joined in. And then the Americans saw that there was nothing to be done but to repeal their Copyright Act, and this they did. The first thing, of course, was to crush the Canadian printers, who had done all the mischief. This they effected very easily in a few months by underselling at a loss. So the Canadian printer went bankrupt, and all that Canada got for herself out of her iniquity was the bankruptcy of these printers, a general deter- mination on the part of her people to get books for nothing, and a general contempt for letters. In America the authors saw with dismay the return to the old condition of things; they were once more face to face with a cut throat competi- tion ; the English author could be had for nothing; who would pay the American author anything P In the colonies, each had its own Copyright Act; they were united in one point only—that they would pirate everything. Litera- ture among themselves, therefore, was absolutely killed; the market of the Melbourne publisher, for instance, was bounded by the narrow borders of the State of Victoria. One is not surprised to hear, for instance, that in a very short time the only Melbourne publisher left conducted his business from a hand-barrow. In Great Britain, partly owing to the contempt into which litera- ture fell, and partly causing this contempt, the colonial and American reprints were introduced wholesale and sold without let or hindrance. And so for a whole generation literature fell, being cultivated only by an enthusiast here and there, or by a rich amateur. With the decay of letters set in that other period of decay and decline which belongs to the following chapter of our history.” IV.-ADVERTISEMENTs. Everything that is unknown is enormous. That is why the cost of advertisements generally looms before the imagination as so stupendous. The following table will explain what advertising a book really means. It shows, that is, how much is added to the cost of a book by advertising to the extent of £5, £2O, &c., up to £100 for nooo, 2000, up to 40,000 copies. The figures mean pence : Edition. £5 31 O | 32O || 4:30 350 38o 31 oo d d. d d. d. d. d. IOOO I 1. 2# 4; 7% I 2 | IQ# 24 2OOO 3. I} | .2% 3% 6 9; I 2 3OOO # # I # 2} | 4 || 6% | 8 5000 # ## | # I # 2} | 3}} | 4; IO,OOO #; #; ## ## I} | I }} | .2% 2O,OOO #; #; # #; # ## I} - 3 - ! s t 40,000 Tàu #5 | #: #; | #; ## | # It will be seen from this table that, while the cost of advertising is very large per copy for Small editions, for large editions it may be  ## p. (#483) ################################################ TIIE AUTHOR. I 29 almost neglected as for single copies. Thus to spend £100 in advertising a book of which no more than IOOO copies are printed or can be sold, adds 2s. to the cost of every volume; so that (see Cost of Production, p. 3i) if a book of 2O sheets of 34 lines and 339 words to a page in long primer, without moulding or stereotyping, and allowing 4; d. a copy for binding, cost £79, or with corrections about £80, i.e., Is. 7#d. to each copy, an additional 2s. On the production makes such a book published at a loss. Sometimes this price is raised to 7s. 6d., or even more in order to allow for advertising. Sometimes, again, pub- lishers seem perfectly reckless about the money spent in advertising. Thus an account was some time ago sent to the Society showing that about £230 had been spent in advertising a book pub- lished at 7s. 6d., of which some 5000 copies had been sold. A detailed account was demanded and furnished. The account appeared to be quite correct, being examined and tested here and there. It seemed as if the publisher had been ransacking the country to find the least eligible of country papers. This, however, was an extreme case. On the other hand, when a book reaches, say, 10,000 copies, 38 IOO can be spent upon it without adding any more than 23d. to the cost of produc- tion, while with a very large circulation of 40,000 copies 3200 can be spent, if necessary– but it would not be necessary—without adding more than I d. to the cost. It is needless to say that these figures do not include advertisements which cost nothing, i.e., those of the publishers' circulars, magazines, &c., nor those which are simple exchanges. There are, however, several ways in which a loook is advertised. 1. By paying, as considered above, for an adver- tisement in the papers. 2. By the advertisements which cost nothing in the publishers' own organs—these, however, wery often have no circulation to speak of— or by exchange, which, if charged, is a kind of theft. 3. By reviews in the papers. Their influence depends partly on the circulation of the paper and partly on the authority which it commands. From which it is manifest that the daily morning papers are, and must be, the best possible friends that the author can find. 4. By the circulating library lists. 5. By the name and reputation of the author. 6. By the talk of those who read the books and their recommendation of it to each other. There are, of course, other ways. One is sorry to see, for instance, that books are creeping into the big advertisements on railway stations; they have not yet begun in the fields beside the rail- VOL. VI, ways along with the pills; but that will probably come soon when some more enterprising publisher appears. But the best advertisement of a book, the only one which really makes it go, is not the daily paper, nor the weekly paper, nor anything at all, but the talk about it among the people. When therefore an indignant publisher, as has happened once or twice lately, holds up his hands over the awful cost of advertising a book, ask him for a detailed account. And when he speaks of the terrible expense of advertising a book which has really succeeded, say 56,opo copies, make him prove, by audited account, how much the adver- tising cost for every volume sold. W.—A CLAUSE ON ADVERTISEMENTs. The Secretary has received an agreement con- taining a clause to the effect that advertisements of the books in the publisher's own organs shall be charged at half the usual tariff. In the Author for June, 1893, appearel two papers on publishing, written originally for the Pall Mall Gazette by Sir Frederick Pollock, then chairman of committee. The following paragraph formed part of the second paper : I turn to the specific question of payment for advertise- ments. Under a profit-sharing agreement, for half profits, or two-thirds, or as the case may be, this, like other out- goings, is a matter of quasi-partnership account. Only the actual cost, whatever it is, ought to be debited. Therefore, if P. publishes A.’s book on the terms of dividing profits, and the book is advertised in P.'s own magazine, only the cost of paper and print should be charged in respect of that advertisement, and, possibly, some fractional addition for any increased cost of distributing the magazine which may be due to the bulk of advertisements. The same prin- ciple seems to apply to what are called exchange advertise- ments. If Q. advertises P.'s books in return for P. adver- tising Q.'s there is no real outgoing except for the paper . and print. I do not see on what ground any further charge against the book can be justified. In Dec. 1893, ihe committee submitted to counsel certain questions on the practices and rights (ºf publishers. Among them was the following: . - Has the publisher the right under a share-profit agree- ment to charge for advertisements (a) inserted in his own magazines or trade-lists, and (b) inserted in other publishers' magazines by exchange without payment P To this question the following reply was given : . The publisher is, in our opinion, only entitled under such an agreement to charge the actual cost of advertise- ments, whether inserted in his own magazines or trade lists, or those of other publishers. He cannot charge against the author the sum which a stranger would have paid for the insertion of such an advertisement. The actual cost in case (b) would in effect appear to be the actual obst to him of inserting in his own magazine an advertisement in exchange for the advertisement of the work in question in another publisher's magazine. * - * * * * P 2  ## p. (#484) ################################################ I 3O THE AUTHOR. This opinion was signed by Mr. Herbert H. Cozens-Hardy, Q.C., and Mr. James Rolt. It is very much to be desired that we should take a case into court, and try this very important question. It is important for this special reason, that, if a publisher can charge for advertising in his own organs, or for exchanges for which he pays nothing, he has the absolute right to swamp the whole proceeds of the book in such advertise- 7ments. If, therefore, an author signs such a clause as conveys this right, he actually gives the pub- lisher the power of advertising as much as he pleases, as often as he pleases, in his own organs, or, by exchange, in other organs. He may be in his rights, even though he destroys for the author the whole of the profits by advertisements which cost him no more than the price of printing and paper in his own organs. This permission, observe, may be demanded of the author without any clause as to the circulation and influence of his papers. The publisher may, for instance, possess a magazine with a miserable circulation of three or fourthousand at the outside, advertisement in which is practically valueless, and, by means of that little worthless organ, he may take whatever part of the profits that he may please. If the author is willing to grant such a clause let him do so, at least, with his eyes open. Of course, the answer will be that one must trust his publisher. He could not do anything dishonourable. Very likely not. In that case, why ask for the power P - It will, perhaps, be asked how a publisher could possibly swamp the profits by such advertise- ments P In this way. An inside page of advertisements in an ordinary magazine may be put down as worth £5. What is to prevent the publisher from taking up two pages or more with advertisements and press notices of the book? Thus he may charge £Io a number against the book. If he carries this on for twelve numbers, there is £120 taken from profits and put in the publisher's pocket. Very few, indeed, are the books which are worth so much. He will pretend that the advertisements were for the good of the book. In that case, why did he not advertise in a great morning daily which has readers by the hundred thousand P - WI.-A Noble OFFER. A correspondent sends us the following case:– He sent a MS. to a publisher who offered to produce it at the author's cost, and sent an agreement and estimate, as follows: I. The book, which contained I3O,OOO words, would make a volume of 416 pages, demy 8vo. 2. He said that the book would cost—composing, printing, paper, and binding—397 for an edition of 500 copies. 3. He proposed to spend £20 in advertising the book. - 4. He would account to the author for sales at two-thirds of the published price, thirteen as twelve, less his own commission of 20 per cent. And he proposed 16s. as the nominal price. In other words the book would cost the author 29.125 allowing £8.for corrections and extras, i.e., 5s. a volume. But as forty were to be given to the press, and the author would have probably ten, there were only 450 to be sold, and each volume would cost the author 5s. 6;d. He would receive for each copy sold under the proposed arrangement 7s. Io; d. Or, he would have to get rid of 318 copies before he cleared his expenses. Let us see what on his own showing the pub- lisher would get. The reduction of one-third with the thirteen as twelve he would say was for the trade. - For himself there remained the 20 per cent. commission. This, on the most favourable terms, if the whole 450 were sold, would amount to about £35. So far, the terms appear fair enough. But, to look into the agreement a little closer, what about the thirteen as twelve? A book of which a bookseller orders by the dozen, is a popular book. This was not. It is quite certain that very few such orders would be given. The publisher, therefore, puts into his pocket the odd volume; that is to say, he receives Ios. 8d. as a rule for every volume and accounts for as if he had received 9s. Iošd., pretending that they were all gone at thirteen as twelve. This means nearly IOd. a volume added to his gains, or, on the 450 copies, £18 15s. ; bringing up his profits in this secret manner to £53 odd. Again, he wants to spend £20 in advertising the book. Where? In his own organs? He does not say. Supposing that he possesses an organ, and that he can exchange, he may not spend a single penny in honest advertising; or, suppose that he spends 35 in legitimate advertis- ing, he may thus pocket 315. His gains now amount to £68. But there is a grimmer side to this instructive case. The author sent his MS. to a London printer—a large printer of very good standing and repute. His estimate was £67 for composi- tion, printing, paper, and binding. This was a London printer, understand, with a country branch. The publisher's reply was, of course, that he was a very inferior printer. But he was one of the first printers in London. Now, it is simply impossible to believe that the pub-  ## p. (#485) ################################################ THE AUTHOIR. I 3 I lisher's estimate was actually £30, or nearly 50 per cent. above the estimate procured by the author. We therefore have the following possible result: 3 s. d. 3 s. d. Profits as set forth in the agreement 35 O O Secret Profits: I. By the “13 as 12 º’claims ...... 18 15 O 2. By the advertisements ......... I5 O O 3. By overcharge of printing ...... 3O O O Total by secret and underhand profits ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 I5 O Total profits............ 398 I5 O It may be said that the whole edition might Inot be sold off. That is true. What, however, is to be said of the system by which the author is hoodwinked into signing agreements by which the results can be made to come out as above P AUTHORS THEIR OWN PUBLISHERS. A PARISIAN ExPERIMENT. Reproduced from the Westminster Gazette with the Editor's permission. in Paris, at 11, Rue d’Ulm, under the title of La Société Libre d’Edition des Gens de Lettres (Authors’ Free Association of Publishing), a society of men of letters, with the object of publishing, without the intermediation of a publisher, approved works of the members. Amongst distinguished members of the Comité de Patronage who have already adhered to this association may be mentioned Alexandre Dumas, Benry Becque, Jules Barbier, Stéphane Mallarmé, Henry Bauêr, and Paul Alexis. The probability of the success of such an association of authors has been often discussed in English literary circles, and many members of the English Society of Authors have proposed to the Committee of that Society that it should undertake the publication at cost price of the works of its members. It accordingly appeared to me that some information as to the organisa- tion and working of this French Association and its prospects of success would be interesting to many readers of the Westminster. This informa- tion has been supplied to me by M. Henri Rainaldy, the emergetic secretary general of the association. It appears that, although the Association has only been in existence two months, already more than one hundred French authors, known and unknown, not including the members of the \ BOUT two months ago there was founded Comité de Patronage, have joined it. The associa- tion is composed of honorary members, subscrib- ing members, and titulary members. The hono- rary members are selected amongst distinguished persons in French society, preference being given to leading lights in the literary world. These form the Committee of Patronage. Subscribing members are those persons who, not being authors themselves, are sufficiently interested in the association and its objects to subscribe a minimum of Io francs per annum to the funds of the society. They do not participate in the privileges of the association, but have their share of such honour and fame as may accrue to it. M. Rainaldy does not mention how many persons in French society —of the Philistines the most Philistine—have shown themselves sufficiently interested in the commercial aspects of literary production to sub- scribe even the minimum to this association. For my part, I should imagine their number to be but a small one. The titulary members, who must justify their claims to be considered men or women of letters, pay an entrance fee of 2 francs and a monthly subscription of 2 francs—that is to say, about 19s. per annum. Every member is entitled to have one book, plaquette, or pamphlet, published by the association and at its cost each year, but not more than one book, plaquette, or pamphlet. The manuscripts of members are sub- mitted to the committee of management, and are read by a Bureau de Lecture formed of members of this committee. It may be noted that no member of the committee of management can publish his works at the expense of the associa- tion. The readers have, consequently, no personal interest to ensue in rejecting the manuscripts of members. The Bureau de Lecture reports once a month on the manuscripts submitted, and such as have appeared to the readers to have a com- mercial value are published by the association, as funds allow and in order of reception. Members whose manuscripts have been rejected by the bureau, or who do not care to submit them to the bureau, can have them published at cost price, The profits on each work, less 25 per cent.— which goes to the funds of the association—are paid over to the author quarterly. “Parisian publishers,” says M. Rainaldy, “pocket from 40 per cent. to 60 per cent. of the profits. That is a state of things that we wish to alter.” The society will not have printing-works of its own. For the production of each work tenders are invited from the French printers. In no case can a sum exceeding one-half of the funds of the association be spent on the production and publication of any one book. On the other hand, the association will not capitalise, and 50 per cent, of its funds will always be available for the  ## p. (#486) ################################################ I 32 THE AUTHOR. production of the works of members. “Our funds will keep increasing in proportion to the number of books we publish,” says the enthusi- astic M. Raimaldy, who does not appear to take into consideration the possibility of an error Cn the part of the Bureau de Lecture as to the com- mercial value of a manuscript, and a consequent loss to the association. “Our funds will increase,” he says, “like a snowball. C'est la boule de neige.” He adds, what should interest Sir Walter Besant, who has always contested the publishers' claims for general expenses, or rather the extent of these claims: “Our general expenses are practically nil.” Another of the endeavours of the Société Libre d’Edition will be to force down the price at which novels are published in France. “We intend to reduce the price of books gradually, till we get it down to the acceptable price of two francs.” At present French novels are published at 3 francs 50 cents, that is to say, when the usual discount has been deducted, at 2 francs 75 cents. Of this sum the bookseller gets 25 cents per copy, the remaining 2 francs 50 cents being divided between the publisher and the author. The author's royalty in France varies between 30 cents and I franc a copy. The average royalty paid to men of the standing of Mirbeau, J. K. Rosny, the younger Daudet, Margueritte, Paul Hervieu, and others, is 50 cents. De Goncourt is said to receive 60 cents and Zola I franc per volume. The arrangement seems to suit all parties, and, with all deference to M. Rainaldy and the members of his society, I must say that I have never heard amongst reputable men of letters in Paris any complaints about the system, or about their treatment at the hands Cf the reputable publishers. What complaints there are come from the booksellers, who say, not with- out some justice, that 2%d. is hardly sufficient remuneration to them for their trouble in selling a 3 franc 50 cent book. It is true that, almost without exception, books are delivered to the booksellers in France on the sale or return principle, and that 2; d. is 2}d. One fails to see what margin of profit will remain to be divided amongst authors and publishers in France—the booksellers can be left out of the question, as they will certainly not content themselves with anything less than the 2#d.—if the Société Libre succeeds in forcing the price of books at present published at 3 francs 50 cents down to 2 francs. How could, for instance, a book like Zola's “Debâcle,” a work of over 200,000 words, be produced to be published at 2 francs P , Mr. Hall Caine, in England, is certainly with M. Rainaldy, and hopes to see his books published at the lowest possible prices, relying on immense sales for his adequate remuneration. “I have broken the back of the three-volume novels,” he said to me when I was staying with him in Peel last month, “and now I hope to break the back of the six-shilling volume.” But quod Jovi's est, non bovis est, and authors of the popularity of Hall Caine need not be looked for almongst the members of the Société Libre d’Edition des Gens de Lettres. In connection with this association will be pub- lished a “Revue,” or monthly magazine. “It is not founded yet,” says M. Rainaldy, “and its organisation will take a long time, all the more so because we are up to our necks in work.” This, “Revue” will publish short short stories and other aeuvres de courte haleine by members of the society, and should serve a useful purpose. It is at present almost impossible for an unknown writer in France to find a newspaper or a maga- zine which will publish a nouvelle, or short story, great as is the public appreciation of this form of literary work, even if he abandons all claim for remuneration. The “ring ” of successful writers does exist in Paris; .the same men contribute constantly to such papers as Gil Blas, Le Journal, and L'Echo de Paris; the outsiders have no. chance of obtaining a hearing. The Société Libre d’Edition has already com- menced to work. M. Rainaldy says: “We shall publish two books next month, “La Grande Nuit,” by Henry l’Huissier, and “Quand le tour est joué, a humorous novel by Michel Jicé. Our third and fourth volumes will be the work of one of our best-known living writers—I am not allowed to mention his name at present— and, after that, that is to say, in November and in December, we shall publish some remarkable. works by new writers.” Neither M. l’Huissier nor M. Jicé, the two. members who have benefited first by the organisa- tion of the society, have as yet been able to secure a hearing under the old order of things, nor had they been heard of before. This is proof that, at its outset at least, the Sociéte Libre d’Edition is, working, without fear or favour, on the principles enunciated by its secretary. The experiment will. be watched with interest on both sides of the Channel, both by publishers and men of letters. It may be remarked, in conclusion, that such a society is likely to be of more service to authors, in France than a similar organisation would be. in England, because in France a publisher never publishes the work of unknown men at any risk whatever to himself. Our English publishers, have far more courage and enterprise. ROBERT H. SHERARD. *... a 2-sº r- - -  ## p. (#487) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 33 NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Oct. I 5. HAVE already quoted from the interesting series of letters which appeared in the London Times a few weeks ago on literature in America. I do not know who the writer of these letters may be, but I can declare that he displayed a knowledge of the conditions of authorship in America, and of the publishing trade here, quite extraordinary in a foreigner, and rare enough even in a native. To say this is not to say that I agree with all his opinions, of course; but I can say that the British reader may rely on all his statements of facts. Obviously the Times correspondent had taken the trouble to inform himself thoroughly about the American makers of books, in both senses of the words; and he discussed the manufacture of books in the United States quite as sensibly as he considered the writing of books here. It is this solid foundation of knowledge which is wanting in most British criticism of American affairs. In a recent number of a London monthly called the Bookman, for example, there was a paragraph which was a masterpiece of complacent ignorance. It declared that the American publishing trade had been “slow to feel the modern movement for better type and comelier binding, but of late the De Winne Press and the University Press have been turning out very handsome text; and in the last year a new firm, Messrs. Copeland and Day, have been getting up their works with a kind of binding and ornament we are more accustomed to in England. Their artists are as yet a little timid and imitative, and one wonders what Mr. Morris thinks of their edition of ‘The House of Life,” which gives us for some two dollars a very charming imitation of a * Kelmscott Press' work, with the same rich elaborate borders and initial letters, and the same heavy black type. It may be said that the mediaeval workmen copied their masters in much the same fashion, and that a part of the merit of conventional design is that its forms and sug- gestions are passed on from epoch to epoch, work- man to workman. The same publishers' edition of Father Tabb's poems takes a suggestion from the cover design of Mr. John Gray’s “Silver- points,’ and their ‘Robert Louis Stevenson: ’ a study, follows more closely the title-page of Mr. Horner’s “Diversi Colores,’ and for so much of “American piracy’ one can be grateful without turning Socialist and having all things in common, for it has given us two charming books the more.” This mention of the University Press, which is a printing house only and not a bindery, with no mention of the Riverside Press, where every indeed. process of book manufacture is carried on with the widest resources and the utmost skill, reveals how very slight indeed is the Bookman's ac- quaintance with the facts. The Times corre- spondent showed his knowledge of the situation when he declared that “the art of embellishing books receives more attention in the United States than it does here. More care is taken with the outward appearance, and questions of paper, print, binding, and illustration are more studied.” So true is this that the New York representative of a very important London pub- lishing house confessed to me not long ago that he was not a little ashamed of the make-up of many of the books sent him by the home firm, as they were so inferior in appearance to works of the same high class manufactured in America. The Times correspondent was quite right in saying that “the comparative excellence of British and American printing is a subject upon which very various opinions are held. Examples of the very finest work could probably be selected from offices on both sides of the Atlantic, of which it could only be said that they could not be improved upon.” For example, different as they are in many respects, there is very little to choose between the new complete edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's works printed in Edinburgh and published in London, and the new complete edition of Edgar Allen Poe's works printed in Boston and published in Chicago. In both of these sumptuous sets of seemly tomes there is the most tasteful harmony of paper and type and ink. Both of them do the highest credit to their producers. I agree with the Times correspondent in thinking that perhaps the average of book-printing is higher in Great Britain than in the United States, and for the reason he suggests, that as labour is cheaper in England than in America more time can be spent in the delicate task of “making ready.” Probably the most exquisite printing yet accomplished in America is that of the De Winne Press, due to the loving care and profound tech- nical skill of Mr. Thomas I. De Winne, a devoted student of the history of his craft. To Mr. De Winne is to be ascribed the marvellous printing of the woodcuts and process blocks used in the Century Magazine, which other magazines may envy and imitate, but which none have yet been able to equal. To Mr. De Winne's taste in great measure is due the very beautiful page of the “Century Dictionary,” and as we all know, the page of the ordinary dictionary is very ugly Mr. De Winne has always loyally seconded every effort of the artistic staff of the Century Company whether the thing under dis- cussion was a magazine, a dictionary, or an  ## p. (#488) ################################################ I 34 THE AUTHOIR. ordinary book. The Century Company is solici- tous rot only about its printing, but also about its binding; and its secretary, Mr. Chichester, takes endless pains with the cover designs. It would greatly surprise the old-fashioned publish- ing-houses of Paternoster-row if they knew the large annual sum which this single American firm paid out to decorative artists for cover stamps. And this outlay is greater than it seems, for I have more than once been told that a cover-design accepted and paid for has been discarded in favour of another which seemed more appropriate. Only a writer having very slight knowledge of American publishing houses would single out for special praise the new, and unimportant, firm of Copeland and Day, who have so far done little more than imitate certain of the freakish fashions, and doubtful fantasticalities, of recent London bookmaking. The house which holds a position of undisputed preeminence in America as manu- facturers of books is Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., who do their own printing and binding at the River- side Press. The firm of Houghton, Mifflin and Co. is the successor of Houghton, Osgood, and Co., which was the result of a union between Burd and Houghton, on the one hand, and J. R. Osgood and Co. on the other. J. R. Osgood and Co. was the successor of Fields, Osgood, and Co., and of Ticknor and Fields, which had absorbed the business of Phillips, Sampson, and Co. The books published a quarter of a century ago by James R. Osgood were no better in appearance than the average; but the books now published by Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. have unfailing dis- tinction and grace, to be ascribed, I believe, mainly to the delicate taste and the tireless atten- tion of Mr. George H. Mifflin. It is due, I think, largely to the elevating influence of the Riverside Press that the standard of bookmaking is so high in the United States. Equally potent was the founding of the Grolier Club in New York ten years ago, to afford a centre of communication between book-lovers and book-makers, between bibliophiles and collectors on the one hand, and, on the other, printers, engravers, decorators, paper-makers, and type-founders. The old house of Little, Brown, and Co. always succeeded in giving solidity and dignity to the volumes bearing their imprint. Of late not a few of the books sent forth by Dod, Mead and Co., have been worthy of praise. Mr. Marvin is responsible for the manufacture of the volumes issued by Charles Scribner's Sons, and he has been often very happy in the cover-designs he has employed. Harper and Brothers now give far greater attention to the decoration of their books than was formerly the case, and often with conspicuous success; among the volumes the have sent forth to delight fastidious book-lovers may be mentioned the series of books illustrated by Mr. E. A. Abbey and Mr. Alfred Parsons, the elaborately adorned edition of the “Cloister and the Hearth” of two or three years ago, and the delicately decorated “Wignettes of Mahattan” of last year, with Mr. W. T. Smedley's satisfying illustrations. The new house of Stone and Rimball in Chicago is also doing its best to make books beautiful, Mr. Herbert L. Stone taking this department under his own care. His chief triumph so far is the edition of Poe, which I have already mentioned. - The correspondent of the Times singled out for praise a complete edition of Charles Lever’s tales issued by Little, Brown, and Co., but this is only one of many similar series published within the past ten or fifteen years by different houses in New York and Boston. Little, Brown, and Co. are also responsible for complete editions, in English, of Victor Hugo's romances, and for editions (not complete, of course, but containing a score or more of volumes) of the romances of the elder Dumas. These were all illustrated adequately. In like manner Dodd, Mead, and Co. made sets of Anthony Trollope’s “Chronicles of Barset ’’ (published in London by different firms and in different forms) and of his Parlia- mentary novels—the “Phineas Finn " series. These books are well made, and they are intended for the private libraries of the well-to-do, who like to own full sets of standard authors. As a rule they are sold only in sets, and the usual price is about two dollars a volume, say 8s. I need not say that Hugo and Dumas, Lever and Trollope were thus honoured only after the market had been supplied by Thackeray and Dickens, by George Eliot and Hawthorne. By the sudden death of H. H. Boyesen, Columbia College loses one of its best known professors, and New York one of its most inter- esting figures. Professor Boyesen was a Norse- man who wrote most vigorous English, and who translated American life and character into novels of vehement realism. He had the courage of his convictions, and he broke many a lance with Mr. Andrew Lang, who still defends literary forms that seemed to Boyesen hopelessly out of date. H. R. $n e:  ## p. (#489) ################################################ THE AUTHIOIR. I 35 THE GERMAN AUTHORS’ SOCIETY. HE Association of German Authors (Die Deutsche Schriftsteller-Genossenschaft) is a limited liability association, i.e., each member's liability amounts to £2 10s. at the most. It was founded in Berlin in October, 1891, and so well has it prospered that in June, 1895, it numbered already 650 members. The great object they propose to themselves, and which they keep steadily in view, is to elevate German authors and journalists to a better social and financial position. To attain this purpose several depart- ments have been established, each designed to help literary men in one particular kind of trouble; pecuniary and judicial aid can be obtained here by the members of the association, and not only these, but all members of the pro- fession are assisted in their dealings with editors, publishers, or managers of theatres. First there is the banking department. It receives payments for the members, attends to the drawing in of money due, and makes advances on such, or grants credit on sufficient security. At another department judicial advice and information is obtained relating to all affairs of the profession, cases of dispute are settled by arbitration, and, if necessary, lawsuits are insti- tuted. Then there is the literary bureau, where novels and novelettes in manuscript or in print can be handed in, and help is given towards their publication or their appearance in a daily paper or magazine. The dramatic agency represents dramatic authors, and maintains their rights in all their relations with the theatres. A further department acquaints journalists in want of employment with the vacancies that occur. Besides, the association undertakes the publica- tion and sale of literary works, and effects the purchase of all publications that are desired, so that it carries on the functions of a publisher as well as those of a bookseller. A fortnightly magazine, The Right of the Pen, most ably edited by Herr Martin Hildebrandt, is published by the association to uphold its interests and those of all German authors and journalists. It is forwarded gratis to the members. Only persons engaged in literary or journalistic work are admitted as members. A person desiring to become one has to send in a declaration on a given form to the presidents (Martin Hildebrandt and M. von Reymond), expressing his unqualified concurrence in all the statutes of the association. This is published in the organ of the society, and four weeks later he is received a member, after payment of a fee of admission of 5s. The share of every member amounts to £2 Ios., of which, if the whole sum is not paid in, at least one-tenth must be paid at once, whilst the rest can be paid in monthly instalments of at least 2s. To this amount, as I have said before, every member is liable for the association. For mem- bers who have obtained more than one share, the liability rises in proportion to the number of shares they have taken, i.e., a member's liability increases to £5 if he owns two shares, and so on. If a person wishes to cease being a member, he must give notice to the presidents of the association one year before the resignation takes place. For members living in Berlin or visiting there, and also for persons not members of the society, a club was founded by the association, which is open from Io a.m. to about 2 a.m. It was founded to promote unconstrained social intercourse among authors, journalists, artists, men of science, and other men in public life. The club is managed by a committee of five, of whom three are elected every year in the general meeting of the associa- tion from those club-members who are also members of the association. These three, within a week, have to call the yearly general meeting of the club, and in that the two other members of the committee are elected. Then a chairman is chosen, and notice is given to the presidents of the association of the fact. The committee has to maintain order in the club-rooms; it has to receive and to exclude members, to keep up the business communication with the presidents of the association, and to set down the regulations for the use of the arrangements of the club. To become a member of the club one has to send in a notice to the presidents of the associa- tion on a given form, expressing one's wish, and promising to strictly follow club rules and regu- lations; and this must be supported by two members of the club. Then the committee makes the names of the candidate and his two supporters known by hanging up a notice giving their names for four weeks in the club, and, besides, they are published in the The Right of the Pen, the organ of the association. The candidate can be admitted only in the presence of at least three of the members of the committee, and the admis- sion must at once be notified to the association. In case of admission being refused the candidate can appeal to the committee for a resumption of the proceedings, but this must be done within a fortnight. - The fees, which can be paid annually or quarterly, are very moderate. For members of the association, of the Union of German Authors (Der Deutsche Schriftstellerverban), of the Berlin Press Union (Verein Berliner Presse), and of the Literary Society (die Litterarische Geseltschorft),  ## p. (#490) ################################################ 136 TIIE AUTHOIR. they amount to I 2s. a year; for persons that are not members of any one of the societies men- tioned, they are now £1 4s. annually. These latter also have to pay an extra fee of admission of IOS. The membership runs one year, and, unless notice to the contrary is given, is silently regarded as continued for another year every 30th of June. If anyone wishes to resign, he must give notice to that effect to the presidents of the association, in a registered letter, at least three months' before the 30th of June, on which day the business season of the association closes. Exclusion takes place if a member acts in a manner unbecoming a gentleman, and is made known to the person in question by a vote from the presidents. An eventual appeal must be lodged with the committee within a fortnight, and, till the final decision, the membership is regarded as suspended. At present the club occupies five pretty, taste- fully-decorated rooms on the first fioor of Kronen- strasse 61, in the best quarter of Berlin, in which house are also the offices of the association. The library and reading-room contains about 5oo papers and magazines of all descriptions and from all countries. Refreshments can be had at any time between Io a.m. and 2 a.m., but are not served in the reading-room, where also smoking is not permitted. Neither is it allowed to make cuttings from the papers, or to take magazines and books away. Only members in possession of members' cards are admitted. They are allowed to introduce guests three times, but if a guest comes oftener he is regarded as having become a candidate for the club. The ladies of members are also allowed to visit the rooms. Dinners are given now and then, and every year a great feast is held under the auspices of the association for some benevo- lent fund ; in the winter a ball is given. The principal object, however, is to provide a place of meeting free from social restraint, where men can stroll in and out just as they please, and that this has been successfully attained, no one can doubt that has even been in the rooms. The most interesting evenings are those after a “first night,” when the critics congregate, and one can hear the sharpest tongues of Berlin give judg- ment for or against the new piece. Among the members of the association are a good many ladies, but lady visitors are not so pro- minent in Germany as in England, nor are they so numerous, and though, e.g., Olga Wohlbrück and Elsa von Schabelsky are well known enough here, I doubt that English readers have ever heard of them. Some of the best names, how- ever, of present German literature are to be found in the members’ list. For instance, Ernest von Wildenbruch, the poet, dramatist, and novelist; Hermann Sudermann, whose novels and dramas are acknowledged to be among the best our time has produced; and the veteran novelist, Friedrich Speilhen. Among others I may men- tion Oscar Blumenthal, owner and manager of the Lessing Theatre, the adapter of many English. plays; Max Halbe, whose drama “Youth " (Die Jugend) had a run of over a hundred nights. here; Maximilian Harden, founder and editor of the Future (Die Zukunft), a weekly publicaions, the best German journalist of the day; Gutavet, Kadelburg, the successful actor and playright; Carl Bleihtren, John Henry Mackay, Alexander von Roberts, Georg von Ompteda, Wilhelm von Polenz, and many others. Most of these are members of the club as well as of the association. Among the members of the club only I may mention C. A. Raida, the conductor and com- poser, some of whose compositions are well. known in England; R. Alexander, the great comic actor; and G. Tielscher, who created the part of “Charlie's Aunt” here. I could name a good many others who have made their mark in the world, but the names given show sufficiently that the association and its club are a great success. Berlin. CLARENCE SHERWOOD. *- ~ *-*. NOTES AND NEWS. HE death of Mr. Henry Reeve, C.B., which took place on Monday, October 21st, at the ripe age of eighty-two, removes from our lists one of our oldest and one of our most distin- guished members. Mr. Reeve joined the Society as a vice-president at its foundation eleven years. ago, and has remained a subscribing member down to the present year. He was not able to assist the Society by taking the chair at any of our meetings, but he always took an interest in our proceedings and sympathised with our methods and policy. At the outset of the Society it was a great thing for us to receive the adhesion of so distinguished a member of the world of letters as the editor of the Edinburgh Review. He is principally known by his “Greville Memoirs.” He also published a translation of Guizot's “Life of Washington” and a series of essays on “Royal and Republican France,” and in 1869 he received from the University of Oxford the degree of D.C.L. He was a companion of the Bath and commander of the Royal Military Order of Portugal. *-- sº-º-º- ºr noticed the Authors’ It has advanced so far We have not yet Journal of New York.  ## p. (#491) ################################################ TIIB A UTIIOIR. I 37 as the third number of the second volume. The number for October, 1895, contains a paper by Mr. Charles Burr Todd on “Authors’ Societies and their Work; ” another on the Syndicate System ; a “white list” of editors, i.e. a list of journals in which the contributor is always paid : a good Quantity of ‘l’ersonal’ papers and experiences: Questions and answers; and more personal notes.” There is also a list of current literary articles. It is a practical and useful paper: it lacks, how- ever, the element which is always found in the fore-front in these pages—the figures and the meaning of the figures. There is also a delightful column of Authors’ own advertisements: “An observer upon the manners of the school girl would like to contribute to something.” “A joke-carpenter and all-round funny man offers his devices.” Another “would do valentines or adv'ing verse. Nothing makes so effective an ad.” “Publishers should send for the crisp, fetching, irresistible things that I write.” “Short, crisp, breezy sketches of life in wealthy, wonderful, wicked New York.” “Entirely new and original plots furnished by a well-known author who has not time to work them up.” With many more equally pleasant and suggestive. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in the Times of Sept. 2 I, paid a tribute of recognition to the services of the late Professor E. L. Youmans, which should be copied in these columns. The New York correspondent of the Times, in speaking of the publishing house of Appleton and Co., a house which has done a great deal for literature in the United States, mentioned the fact that they were the first to introduce authorised editions of Herbert Spencer, Tyndall, Huxley, and Darwin to the American public, and that also originated the well known International Scientific series. Mr. Herbert Spencer thus writes: - While recognising the indebtedness of English men of science to the house of Messrs. Appleton, justice requires me to say that the “debt of gratitude ’’ is in chief measure owed to my late friend Professor E. L. Youmans. The soundness of his judgment having been proved to them by experience, the Messrs. Appleton adopted to a large extent the suggestions made by him respecting English works to be republished. It was at his instigation that they under- took the publication of my works, the works of Tyndall, Huxley, and Darwin, and the works of various other scientific men. He was deeply desirous of obtaining for English authors a due share of the profits resulting from the sales of their books in America, and his desire met with a proper response from the Messrs. Appleton. How far the remunerative terms given to English authors must be ascribed to his negotiations and how far to the equitable feeling of Messrs. Appleton, it is of course impossible to Say; but my own correspondence with him enables me to testify that his unceasing effort was to maintain authors’ interests. For a period of thirty years, during which wounded vanity. English works had no copyright in America, arrangements initiated about 1860 gave to English authors who published with the Messrs. Appleton profits comparable to, if not identical with, those of American authors. To the Messrs. Appleton great credit must be accorded for having loyally carried out these arrangements in my own case and in the cases of various of my friends, and I believe, in all other cases; but I cannot permit the part taken by Professor Youmans in the matter to be ignored. To him, more than to any other American, the gratitude of English authors is due. Let me also correct the statement of your correspondent respecting the International Scientific series. This was not. “originated ” by the Messrs. Appleton, but by Professor Youmans. Further, he was the originator of the Popwlan" Science Monthly, for many years edited by him and now edited by his younger brother. We have published one or two letters on privately publishing a book. I do not suppose that many will try this plan, but it is certainly far better and more economical than paying a publisher for producing it. For instance, there is the person who replies to the author of a MS. that “his reader has reported so favourably on the work that he is disposed to offer the follow- ing exceptional terms: The author to pay £IOO ; if he will not, then 38o; if not 380, then 360 ; and so on.” That person must make his profit out of the transaction; it is not for doing so that one blames him. The author, however, can save that profit by printing the book himself. One correspondent has recently asked how an author is to introduce the book to the public. Well, there is but one way. He must send the book round to the Press; he must advertise it; he must offer it to the trade. The publisher can do no more. Probably the author would not make much of a success with his book; but if it is a good book, and one wanted by the public, he would, perhaps, do quite as well with it in this. way as in any other. If it is a bad book, he would do no better with a publisher than without. The best advice we can offer to an aspiring author is the old advice: If publisher after publisher refuses your MS. put it away for a while ; after a year or two read it again, and you will probably understand why it was refused. Never, never, never, pay for producing what publishers refuse. This advice is quite useless, and wasted, and thrown away. No candidate for the honours of authorship can be made to believe that his MS. is worthless. All I want, he says, is a chance. Produce me, give me to the public, on any terms. I will pay anything—only produce me. He is. produced, and the wounds of that bleeding purse can no more be healed than the agonies of I have before me a little collection of stories. published on the method indicated above. It is  ## p. (#492) ################################################ 138 TIIL. A UTHOIR. a very little book in large print : the stories are wretched: the writer has no knowledge at all of the art : not the least: she is too young to have any experience of the world: she is not dramatic : she has neither imagination nor style—not one single thing to qualify her for writing fiction. She paid £40 in advance: she was told that she would not be liable for any further payment “in respect of the paper and materials for producing the book.” The book would probably cost about £20, for of course very few copies would be bound. There was a further clause stating that the money expended in advertising would be taken from the sales of the book. Well: the first thing that this honourable publisher did was to send a demand for £5 for advertising the book ; this was sent ; as an afterthought, a demand for money for corrections; this was sent; then a second demand for another £5 for adver- tisements; this was refused. Nothing more has been heard about the book at all. Of course, if people are so foolish as to accept such offers they only have themselves to blame. It is an old, old Story. The acumen of the country solicitor in such business as ours is very remarkable. A case was brought to me privately; one of the very common type, like that quoted above, in which an unfortunate aspirant agrees to pay a sum of money which he is led to believe will constitute his sole liability for the production of what is humorously called a Work. The said Work did not possess the smallest chance of any kind of success—a thing which the publisher's reader, if it was read, ought to have known perfectly well. However, the book was printed, and then more claims came in. And equally, of course, no sales. I told the victim that if he would send me all the papers I would give them to the secretary of the Society of Authors, who is a solicitor, and would obtain from him an opinion at least ; perhaps, also, such action on the part of the Society as would make the creature disgorge. Meantime the victim had referred the matter to his solicitor, who wrote to me that, if any action were taken, this publisher “would have sufficient influence with the newspaper critics to get any future book issued by other publishers damned.” That is the exalted opinion of our critics by a country solicitor On a previous occasion a certain country solicitor asked a man of letters in London for his advice con- cerning a certain little technical book he had recently published on his own account. The man of letters advised him to send copies to all the papers, and to advertise it in certain papers which would be most likely to bring his book before the people for whom it was intended. It appeared, however, that what this writer wished for was advice as to some secret and underhand way of squaring the Press, as with a “four” of gin—a thing which he assumed to be constantly done and easily managed. Therefore he went about showing the letter of advice to his friends. “There !” he cried, “I’ve known this man for forty years and this is all he will do for me!” In the first of these two cases there was another point. The victim was charged about double the actual cost of production. The country solicitor states, as from his own wide experience and know- ledge, that the cost of production was certainly quite equal to that charged. The number of magazines and journals of which the contents are almost altogether, or wholly, devoted to fiction, is bewildering. A new venture is promised to begin this month with the opening chapters of eight new novels. Heavens ! Imagine the simultaneous swallowing of eight opening chapters, and then waiting for a week for the next eight second chapters It seems like taking eight dinners in so many weeks— the eight soups first week, the eight fish the next week, and so on. One would like statistics, if they could be obtained, showing the number of novels actually running at any moment. Thus, there are the monthly magazines, the great illustrated weeklies, the weekly news- papers, the weekly journals, such as Chambers's, and so forth—those that appeal to a large audience; those that are nothing but a weekly story. If we could only obtain these statistics we should understand for the first time how enormous is the mass of those who read stories as their principal form of recreation. One is not talking here of critical readers, but simply of readers—boys and girls, working lads and factory girls, domestic servants, clerks, shop girls, and so on upwards, all reading, all buying their weekly pennyworth, all revelling in the woes, and the joys, and the anxieties of other people which make them forget their own. Bere is a curious illustration of the decline and fall of a great name, and of its subsequent revival. I have the story from the publishers of the novelist in question. For the last ten years this novelist has been suffering from eclipse partial to eclipse almost complete. Year after year the demand for his books went down, down, down—it seemed at last as if it was a matter of only a year or two before he would be quite for- gotten. Then a new edition of two of his books  ## p. (#493) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 39 was produced. Suddenly, his name revived; the demand increased daily. Within three months more than 15O,OOO copieg of each of these two new editions have gone off. If we may measure by numbers, the popularity of this writer is still far greater than that of any living man or woman— not counting Du Maurier, with his “Trilby,” in the States. The name of the novelist is Charles Reade; the two books are “The Cloister and the BHearth’’ and “It’s Never Too Late to Mend.” Why is Charles Reade so popular? Because he is dramatic ; because he is full of humanity, and heart, and sympathy. Produce a book, my hero of half-a-dozen failures, with these qualities, and you, too, shall win the love of the world. A correspondent (p. 147) points out that Mr. Rudyard Kipling in his earlier Indian stories adopted the dialogue or dramatic form of telling his story. This is quite true, and I ought to have remembered the fact; and I owe every apology to Mr. Rudyard Kipling for not remembering that fact. There is no living person who has a greater respect than myself for the genius of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, many of whose stories are, Ithink, simply unequalled by anything in our language, so that I am all the more vexed that I should be suspected of doing him an injustice. It appears to me, however, that the adoption of the dramatic form by Miss Violet Hunt and Mr. Anthony Hope is due rather to French influence than to imitation of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, whose methods and treatment neither of these writers appears to me to follow. However, where we find attractive or charming work it makes very little difference where the form in which it is cast was originally invented or by whom it was suggested. The dialogue story has, I believe, “come to stay.” WALTER BESANT. *~ * –e - -, ON SENDING OUT BOOKS FOR REVIEW. T is stated in the Daily Chronicle that a novelist—Miss Marie Correlli—is about to discontinue the practice of sending out her books for review. This statement leads one to consider the utility of the present custom. First of all, it is notorious that, while authors of all kinds are continually grumbling against their reviewers, neither authors nor publishers cease to send their books for review. Obviously, there- fore, the advantages of the present system out- weigh the disadvantages, otherwise the books would no longer be sent. The press copies, if one considers what they mean, amount to a pretty heavy tax; they amount to about forty copies of every new book. Taking our usual unit of a six-shilling volume, this means a tax of about £7 on every work, if we suppose that these press copies would otherwise be taken by the trade. In addition, of course, all the principal papers receive advertisements of the book. There seems. a tacit understanding that the books shall be advertised in the papers which receive the copies —a thing which seems only fair. For publicity is. absolutely necessary for a book on its first appearance. The papers give it a certain pub- licity in their advertising columns; but an adver- tisement, unless the writer is very well-known, is of very little help compared with a favourable review. In the hope of obtaining such a favourable review the book is always sent, and literature has this enormous advantage over every other marketable production—that it can look to receive, as nothing else can, what purports to be an open and un- biassed opinion from a competent person who honestly reads the book before he reviews it. Again, the lift that a favourable review can give a book depends very much on the circulation of the paper, and on the weight and authority of its judgments. Everybody knows that a favourable opinion appearing in any one of the great morn- ing papers is simply invaluable to a book. There- fore, unless these papers—which is not likely— lose their weight, or are allowed to become, like some existing organs, the channels for personal venom or incompetence, they will certainly con- tinue to receive books for review. And, just as, at present, those writers who are neglected, or treated with harshness, will continue to grumble. But when authors take over the advertising of their books into their own hands, which will certainly be one of the reforms of the future, a change will take place as to indiscriminate adver- tising in papers which pay no regard to the character of the reviews. A journal which allows blackguard reviews, venomous reviews, and the introduction of personal enmities, will certainly cease to receive either advertisements of books or books to review. We consent to the heavy tax on the understanding of fair play : that is to say, there is an unwritten compact that every book. reviewed shall be honestly read—not that every book sent shall be reviewed ; and that the reviewer shall be a competent and large-minded person. Where this is not the case there can be no earthly use in sending the volumes, and there can be no desire to do what is possible in main- taining the paper by way of advertisements. On several occasions in these columns attention has been drawn to the reviews of books in batches, in paragraphs of eight or ten lines each. This practice, as carried out in some papers, seems little.  ## p. (#494) ################################################ I4O TIIE AUTHOIR. short of a breach of faith. For it is impossible to pass a judgment, that is, a critical judgment, with reasons, in a short paragraph. Further, if one considers what is paid for such a batch of notices, it is manifestly impossible for the reviewer to read all, or, indeed, any of the books. For instance, there are, or have been, cases in which a column of so-called reviews, despatching a dozen novels, is paid for at one guinea, the column. To read and to pronounce a competent judgment on twelve novels would require at the very least six days. Can the reviewer live and pay his rent and dress his wife and family on a guinea for six days’ work—this is, fifty-two guineas a year? The thing is absurd. There are, then, to repeat, four things that authors and publishers have a right to demand in exchange for the book and the advertisement: (1) that the reviewer shall honestly read the book which he under- takes to review; (2) that the reviewer shall 'be competent for the task he undertakes; (3) that the reviewer shall not be allowed to introduce personal animosities; and (4) that the book shall not be jumbled up in a batch. If there is no reasonable security that these four points are not safeguarded by the editor, why should we give a journal either advertisements or books? Further, there is another consideration which must be taken into account. Every paper which shovels its books together, by doing so, loses the whole of its literary authority. No notice of a book carries with it either weight or authority where the book appears as one of a batch. This treatment simply destroys the critical character of the paper. For, to the outside world it appears self-evident that the books of a batch must be all of slight importance; and by the critical world it is perfectly well understood that books so noticed cannot possibly be read, because there is no time for reading them. The author, for his part, humbly feels that if he is worth noticing at all he is worth noticing as a separate individual. Should it not—one ventures with submission to ask—be a g, eat distinction for a book to be noticed by a great paper—a distinction which every author would desire? Would it not be the graceful part of a great paper to confer this distinction on the few books that deserve it? Such a paper has the power of “making” a book, and, therefore, the author. But it can only exercise this power by suppressing a great quantity of “notices” of less important books. There is—one knows— only room for a certain amount of critical matter; the question to consider is how to use that room for the advancement of the best interests of literature. Surely a half dozen slight and hasty opinions on books good, bad, and indifferent cannot advance any interests of literature. THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS CONGRESS AT BORDEAUX. HE most marked points in the first Inter- national Press Congress at Antwerp were the polyglottic nature of the speaking and the amiable cordiality with which knotty or con- troversial matters were settled. At Bordeaux, at the second congress, it was very noticeable that on the first day French was the only language used, with a small modicum of English ; and although on the succeeding days more English was heard, yet no other tongue, save French, intruded itself upon the congress, in spite of the fact that Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Austrian, Hungarian, &c., delegates were present; the Germans one and all excusing themselves on the ground of the Titerary Congress about to be held at Dresden. The chief object of the Congress was to con- sider the establishing of a “Central Bureau for the United Associations of the Press.” A bureau that generally is to elevate the profession, and raise the status of its members, and espe- cially to deal with all international points of journalism; to assist journalists travelling in foreign countries, to settle international disputes, and arrange international copyright, international telegraph charges, and all matters that touch upon the advancement and well being of the press of all countries, and its professional members. The nation that must be dominant in all journalistic matters by sheer force of its numbers and organisation is England, but to retain this international dominance it is necessary that capable men be sent as delegates to the Inter- national Congress, and that men of influence and personality be elected on the committee of the Central Bureau. This last goes sans die, and with Mr. Crosbie as president this year, and Sir Hugh G. Reid, Mr. Clayden, and Mr. Fisher as hon. Secretary, the English press has been most capably represented on the committee. Amongst the delegates at Bordeaux were place away dames, the Misses Drew, Stuart, Armstrong, Mrs. Visger; and Mr. Crosbie, Sir A. Rollit, Sir H. G. Reid, Messrs. Byrne, Gatwicke, Pullan, Wollak, Baker, Warden, Askell, Crauford, Twobey, Campion, &c. Mr. F, sher acting as hon. secretary and Mr. Cornish secretary. The principal of the debates were upon the constitution of the Bureau and Congress, and upon statutes to regulate the Bureau. At the first session the chair was taken by Mr. Boissevain, of Holland, owing to a little mis- understanding amongst the French ; and Sir Hugh Reid read a paper which was given in French by M. de Keyser, detailing the efforts  ## p. (#495) ################################################ THE I4 I A UTHOI’. made in England for organising journalism and their outcome—the Institute of Journalists, with 4OOO members. M. de Berazza, of Spain, in a most lengthy speech, then argued that the central bureau ishould be an association of individuals, and not of associations; but, after a long discussion, this was out-voted. How the bureau could deal with every individual seemed an impossibility. Upon the two questions of the number of votes each association should have, and the amount of levy to be made per member, a heated argument arose. England, with 40OO members, would have forty votes if one per IOO was accorded; but she would also have to pay an enormous sum above other countries if Is. per member was the levy. Ultimately it was agreed that votes be allowed one in a hundred, Mr. Crosbie, with agreement of his confréres, agreeing that twenty votes should be the maximum allowed to any country, and 25 centimes was adopted as the levy per head. Another subject that raised many voices was the composition of the committee of direction. One representative for 3OO members was sug- gested, but this cut out all small States, even if several grouped together. The suggestion that reach State should send one would not work, as three States in an Empire could then out-vote the Empire. Finally, it was settled—one representa- tive for every IOO members, small States group- ing together; and, upon this, there followed a discussion upon how these representatives be elected—at home or at the congress. Fierce and almost wild were the cries of Je demande la parole, and the debate was adjourned for each country to consult amongst themselves; and, on resuming, the compromise arrived at was, the delegates at the congress agree to elect the representatives on the central committee, according to mandate from their associations, for One or three years. When the various statutes were passed for confirmation by the home associations, two warm debates arose on International telegraph tariffs and copyright in news and in literary style. A perfect babel being aroused, when Mr. Albert Batville, of the Figaro, asked if it was just for a provincial paper to copy in a few hours a costly telegram of a Paris paper. Oui ou Won 2 The writer hereof spoke for the protection of literary style in news relation, and Messrs. Askell and Crauford, of Paris, and Mr. Hebaer all spoke, the latter most eloquently on this knotty question of news copy- right. . The general opinion upon the Educational test for journalists was brought out by a paper by Mr. Heinzman-Tavino, but the discussion proved how sadly needed was a set of rules for debate; and a suggestion of such rules was given in by Capt. Gratwicke, to be discussed at the next Congress. On re-electing the Central Committee, Mr. Crosbie and Sir H. G. Reid were chosen for England, with Mr. Fisher as honorary-secretary. The social side of the Congress was full of agreeable entertainment and charming surprises, and if our president, Mr. Crosbie, had distinguished himself by his calm Suavity and pacifying speeches when presiding or assisting at the sessions of the Congress, he added to the impression created by his witty well-timed impromptu remarks at the breakfasts and banquets that were showered upon the Congressites. Two excursions were arranged, one to Arcachon and one in the Medoc. At Arcachon carriages were in waiting for drives in the forests; yachts for excursions in the Bay after the sumptuous déjeuner; and in the Medoc at each chateau every kindness was shown the calvacade, that was headed by two huntsmen in red, sounding fanfares on their horses. At Boulac a déjeuner was spread, with a little wine list of 146 brands and vintages; and at the lovely Chateau Larose Pergauson Count Lakens received the Congress, a “lunch " of a very choice description, although it was 8 p.m., being spread on the lawn with the finest crus. The drive through the vineyards was the more charming, as the vintage had just com- menced, and some picturesque groups of vintages were met en route. The Tnternational Congress next year is at Buda-Pesth. It will probably be more poly- glottic than this French one. The English members will do well to prepare their papers, decide upon their speakers, and arrange matters of precedent for all important matters; and also appoint a translator; as so often the very gist of an English speech is omitted or mistranslated. Continental rules of debate so differ from, and Continental customs at functions are so unlike our own, that preparation should be made for these differences, that our English journalists may take their proper position both in debate and socially. JAMES BAKER. *~ * ~ * * * LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS. L. M. THE BURNS AND DUNLOP CORRESPONDENCE. Roberts. Fortnightly Review for November. BOOK COLLECTING As A FINE ART. Fortnightly Review for November. HOW TO COUNTERACT THE “PENNY DREADFUL.” Hugh Chisholm. Fortnightly Review for November. Julian Moore. A LATTER DAY CRITIC AND GEORGE ELIOT. Mrs Mark H. Judge. Humanitarian for November. SoME PortRAITs of SIR WALTER Scott. F. G. Kitton. Magazine of Art for November.  ## p. (#496) ################################################ I 42 THE AUTHOR. CHRISTOPHER NORTH : The Scottish Walton. Alex. Cargill. Pall Mall Magazine for November. THOMAS CARLYLE. Mrs. Mayo. Leisure Hour for November. THE HOMEs OF THOMAS CARLYLE. Marion Leslie. Young Man for November. HISTORIAN, PoliticiaN, NOVELIST : An Interview with Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P. Sarah A. Tooley. Young Man for November. CHRISTABEL ROSE COLERIDGE. November. THE ADVANCE OF ADVERTISEMENT. for November. LITERARY BOSTON THIRTY YEARS AGO. Swnday Magazine for Cornhill Magazine William Dean Howells. Harpers’ Magazine for November. THE ART OF TRANSLATING. Quarterly Review for October. FREEMAN, FROUDE, AND SEELEY. Qwarterly Review for October. THE NovKLS OF MARIA EDGEworth. Quarterly Review for October. . THE NEW DRAMA. Quarterly Review for October. SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN. Edinburgh Review for October. THE FUTURE OF THE QUARTERLIES. Oct. 26. THE POET's FUNCTION As INTERPRETER. Oct. 19. “BLUGGINEss.” Spectator for Oct. 12. Book PLATEs. Builder for Oct. 19. AUTHORS THEIR Own PUBLISHERS : A Parisian Experi- ment. Robert H. Sherard. Westminster Gazette for Oct. 14. . NOTABLE REVIEWS OF OCTOBER. Of Professor Walker’s “The Greater Victorian Poets.” Speaker for Oct. 12. Of Henry Arthur Jones’s “The Renascence of the English Drama.” Spectator for Oct. 12. Of George Eliot. Daily Chronicle for Oct. 23. Of S. R. Crockett’s “The Men of the Moss Haggs.” Daily Chronicle for Oct. 24. Of Walter Peter’s “Miscellaneous Chronicle for Oct. 23. :k: Spectator for Spectator for Studies.” Daily 3% $ $: To counteract the “penny dreadful,” Mr. Hugh Chisholm urges, in the new number of the Fort- nightly, that the Board School curriculum be remedied to train boys thoroughly how to behave themselves, and that Board School teachers should have just as much control over their charges as public school masters have over theirs. He looks also, however, to some means of supply- ing good fiction as cheaply as bad—penny popu- lars of Dickens, Thackeray, Scott, the Kingsleys, Marryat, Stevenson, and others: Popular authors of ephemeral fiction now (he says) make a great deal more money than their labours are really worth, compared with the equal or greater efforts of workers and artists in other lines. But when the inevitable reaction comes they will be glad to reduce their prices, and make their profit by means of an enormous cheap circulation. Besides, as copyrights run out, the dead hand will compete with the living, and an enormous mass of readable fiction published in the last fifty years will of necessity bring the new authors into a proper perspective. *. Extracts from some hitherto unpublished letters of the poet Burns to Mrs. Dunlop are given in the paper on the subject in the Fortnightly, by L. M. Roberts, who remarks that “we cannot help feeling that the letters he had received from Mrs. Dunlop were among the papers which the dying man would fain have “put in a state of arrangement’ or buried in oblivion”; and that, Burns's complaints to her “ of the persistent. presence of his ‘old attendant, poverty,’ are so fre- quent and so bitter as to lay him open to the impu- tation of covert begging.” Mrs. Judge, in her article in the Humanitarian, defends the memory of George Eliot against the criticism by Mrs. Lynn Linton in a recent number of the JWoman at Home. The importance of the work of translation is: upheld by a writer in the Quarterly, as it was in. a much briefer article in Macmillan's last month. The following words of the Quarterly reviewer really represent the general view taken by both : Much translation doubtless is produced by hacks, and it is obviously poor enough. But such production is in reality only like the other hack or journeyman work which, fringes true and living literature. Translation worthy of the name has its proper place, and that no mean one, in the hierarchy of letters. And “the aim of a translation should be to produce an impression similar, or as nearly as may be similar, to that produced by the original.” While, as to poetry, the last word is Dryden's, “To be a thorough translator of poetry a man must be a thorough poet.” Maria Edgeworth’s novels occupy the con- sideration of a Quarterly reviewer, who finds that the novelist’s faults arose from the “cardinal defect” of moral teaching being her first object, and literature, or the interest of her tale, only second. But “in depicting scenes and characters, of Irish life Miss Edgeworth struck a new vein of material for fiction; ” and, thus interpreted, what Sir Walter Scott called her “admirable Irish portraits,” were in truth the inspiration of the Waverley novels; as they also were, on his own admission, of Tourgenieff’s pictures of the Russian peasantry.” Also in the Quarterly there is a comparison of “Freeman, Froude, and Seeley,” who, says the writer, were agreed only on one. point, i.e., in acknowledging the didactic view of history. “None of them would be content with mere literary brilliancy, nor with mere antiquarian correctness. Each of them accepts for the his- torian the duties and responsibilities of a political teacher,” though their method in carrying these out was widely different. Another article in the Quarterly is “The New Drama,” in which the writer says that psychology has been during the last twenty years upsetting our conventional ideas, but that the New Drama, is, as was the Elizabethan, a cosmopolite drama,  ## p. (#497) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 43 “with the distinction, however, of self-conscious- mess.” As to Mr. Jones's plea for literature in drama, the writer concludes: Put into connection with all that is vital and preserva- tive of English life,” where is his “atmosphere’’ of literary plays P. If we have proved anything it is that we must no longer hope for a school of national dramatists; there is no point of union for a “school”; the “national” recedes before the peep show of the soul. But this peep show has, as we have seen, its limits. By respecting them we may Secure good plays; and occasionally great dramas like “Heimat” and “The Second Mrs. Tanqueray.” . . But honest workmanship and healthy purposes are much more vital than showy pretensions to literary immortality. *- a -º BOOK TALK. S" EDWIN ARNOLD is having a number of his articles reprinted in volume form under the title “East and West.” The book, with illustrations by Mr. R. T. Pritchett, will be issued by Messrs. Longmans. Mr. George Meredith’s new novel, “The Amazing Marriage” is to appear this month, in two volumes, published by Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co. Mr. Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure,” due to-day (Nov. 1) from Messrs. Osgood McIlvaine, was “for various reasons” “abridged and modified in some degree" when appearing serially, but will now be seen in its full form. Other principal works of fiction will include Mr. Grant Allen’s “British Barbarians,” to be published by Mr. Lame; “The Adventurer of the North,” by Mr. Gilbert Parker (Methuen); “The Little Pilgrim’s Progress,” by Mrs. Hodgson Burnett (Warne); Mr. Clark Russell’s volume of sea stories entitled “The Tale of the Ten ‘’ (Chatto and Windus); a volume of stories by Mr. Quiller Couch (Cassell); “The Herb Moon,” by John Oliver Hobbes (Unwin); and Mr. Kipling's book of jungle stories (Macmillan). A psycho-physiological story entitled “An Evil Motherhood,” heralded as being “extremely original in its treatment,” is to be issued by Mr. |Elkin Matthews, the author of which is a new writer named Walter Ruding. “Chapman's Story Series” is another new issue, of course, from the old firm of Chapman and Hall. It began a few days ago with a volume containing “The Long Arm,” the detective story by Miss Mary E. Wilkins, which gained the Batcheller Syndicate prize, and other stories. The second volume will be “In a Hollow of the Hills,” by Bret Hart; Mr. Charles James is the author of the third, and Mr. Oswald Crawfurd of the fourth. The “Pierrot Library,” which comes from the Bodley Head, is one of the latest series of novels to be projected. The volumes will be 2s. 6d. net cash, and Mr. Lane has engaged Mr. Aubrey Beardsley to design title pages and covers. “Pierrot,” the first volume of the series, will be by Mr. de Vere Stackpoole; Mr. Egerton Castle and Mr. A. T. G. Price will contribute the next two. The “Fleur de Lys Series" of novels emanates from Messrs. Jarrold and Sons, the first story being by Mr. R. D. Chetwode, entitled “The Lord of Lowedale.” Mr. Stanley Weyman's historical romance, “The Red Cockade,” will be published at the beginning of December by Messrs. Longmans. “Sweetheart Travellers” is the engaging title of Mr. Crockett's forthcoming book, which will be illustrated by Mr. Gordon Browne. Messrs. Wells and Gardner will publish it. Short stories by various writers, intended to show each at his best, is the plan of a volume entitled “XX. Stories,” which Mr. Fisher Unwin is about to bring out. The contributors to the book will include Mr. Justin M'Carthy, Mr. Manville Fenn, Mr. Barry Pain, Mr. Brandon Thomas, and others. “Robert Louis Stevenson,” by Annie Mac- donell, is the forthcoming volume in the Contemporary Writers Series, published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The important “Wailima Letters”—the correspondence during several years of the late Mr. Stevenson to Mr. Sidney Colvin—is published to-day (Nov. 1) by Messrs. Methuen. Mr. Colvin is preparing to write the biography of Stevenson, though a year or two will elapse before the work can be ready. “Weir of Hermiston,” the novelist’s unfinished work, will be published this season by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Miss Marie Corelli has during the month issued, through Messrs. Methuen, a new novel called “The Sorrows of Satan,” to which she prefixes a notice stating that “no copies of this book are sent out for review.” - Two new novels by Mrs. L. T. Meade will appear immediately, “The Voice of the Charmer,” which Messrs. Chatto and Windus will publish; and “A Princess of the Gutter,” a story of Christian Socialists’ work in East London, to be issued by Messrs. Wells, Gardner, and Co. Life in Paris during the French Revolution is the subject of a novel by Mr. Harold Spender, entitled “At the Sign of the Guillotine,” which Mr. Unwin will publish in a few days. It is woven round the love-romance of one of the great revolutionists,  ## p. (#498) ################################################ I44 THE A UTHOR. The biography of Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Henry Keppel, which Messrs. Bentley are to publish, will have illustrations by the late Sir Oswald Brierley, marine painter to the Queen. This firm will also publish a new work by Miss Julie Sutter, entitled “England's Greatest Problem.” This problem is poverty, and the author concludes that ours is pre-eminently the land of vagrants. Among coming biographies is one of the well- known actor Mr. John Hare, written by Mr. Edgar Pemberton. The Rev. C. H. Simpkinson, rector of Farnham, is the biographer of the late Dr. Thorold, Bishop of Winchester, who left a mass of material to work upon. , Messrs. Isbister are the publishers. “Comrades,” by Annabel Gray, is now pub- lished by Mr. Henry J. Drane, Salisbury House, Salisbury-square. Price 6s. I vol. Mrs. Edmonds desires to state that the “Pappas Narkissos" of her friend Demetrius Bikelas was translated by her and published in a magazine four years ago, but not, as in the present case, “adapted'’ to meet the views of the S.P.C.K. The “Tife and Letters of Admiral Sir B. J. Sullivan ’’ is in preparation by his son, Mr. H. N. Sullivan, and the book will be published by Mr. Murray. Canon Rawnsley has written the bio- graphy of Dr. Harvey Goodwin, the late Bishop of Carlisle, which will come from the same firm. Mr. H. D. Traill has written “The Life of Sir John Franklin” from documents hitherto unpub- lished, and the work will be published by Mr. Murray. A new volume by Vernon Lee, entitled “Re- naissance Fancies and Studies,” is to be published by Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. Mr. William Watson will be represented this season by a volume of verse, which, as yet, how- ever, remains untitled. A volume of poems by Mr. C. W. Dalmon, entitled “Song Favours,” will be issued shortly also by Mr. Lane. Mr. H. C. Beeching has edited, and Mr. Walter Crane illustrated, “A Book of Christmas Verse,” which will appear immediately from Messrs. Methuen. “Songs for Silverwig,” by Mr. Norman Gale, with illustrations by Miss Helen Stratton, will be published by Messrs. Constable. Before long the volume by the late Christina Rossetti may be expected from Messrs. Macmillan; while Miss Helen Fowler will issue a second book, “Verses Wise and Otherwise,” through Messrs. Cassell. Mr. Reginald Blunt has written a book on “The Carlyles' Chelsea Home,” which is to appear from Messrs. Bell in time for the centenary of the birth of Carlyle a month hence. The frontispiece is an unpublished photograph, of which the sage wrote, “The best likeness. known to me.” - Five books of equal importance within the last. four weeks were: “The Biography of Professor John Stuart Blackie,” by Anna M. Stoddart (Blackwood), and that of “Hans Christian Andersen,” by R. Nisbet Bain (Lawrence and Bullen); “Reminiscences of Thirty-five years of My Life,” by Sir Joseph Crowe (Murray); “Anima Poetae,” from Coleridge's notebooks, edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge (Heinemann); and Dr. Skelton’s reminiscences of Froude, Disraeli, Thackeray, and others, in his volume, “The Table Talk of Shirley” (Blackwood). In the last is this glimpse of how, in 1870, Froude regarded his critics: “Some day, I think, I shall take my reviewers all round, and give them a piece of my mind. I acknowledge to five real mistakes in the whole book—twelve volumes— about twenty trifling slips equivalent to “i's" not dotted and “t’s ” not crossed; and that is all that the utmost malignity has discovered. Every One of the rascals has made a dozen blunders of his own, too, while detecting one of mine.” The literature of the Victoria Cross and of its recipients is to have an addition in a volume by Mr. D. H. Parry, which Messrs. Cassell will issue. Besides interviewing many of the heroes whose valour he tells of, the author has had resort to War Office documents in order to ensure accuracy. The fruits of the past month in periodical literature were the Country House (J. T. Brown, publisher) and the Cycle Magazine (Cycle Press Dimited) both illustrated sixpenny monthlies on generally accepted lines. A new international review, the Cosmopolis, devoted to politics, litera- ture, science, and art, will be begun in January, the publisher to be Mr. Fisher Unwin, and the price 2s. 6d. monthly. The leading writers of England, France, and Germany are to contribute to it, and in each case the original English, French, and German will be printed. The short story is to be an “interesting feature,” and that in the first number will be from the pen of M. Paul Bourget. What will doubtless prove a popular collection. in these days of the exaltation of sport is “The Songs and Ballads of Sport and Pastime,” which IMr. W. W. Tomlinson has compiled for a volume in the Canterbury series published by Messrs. Walter Scott Limited. Present-day singers are represented by Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Norman. Gale, Mr. William Sharp, Mr. Coulson Kernahan, and others; while there are also selections from Fielding, Ramsay, Scott, and Charles Kingsley.  ## p. (#499) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I45" Dr. Isaac Taylor has just completed the work “Names and their Histories: Elements of His- torical Geography and Topography,” on which he has been engaged for four years. It will be pub- lished by Messrs. Rivington, Percival, and Co. Mr. Alfred H. Miles is the editor of a book of “Anecdotes of Natural History,” which will be published shortly by Messrs. Hutchinson. It is to be a study, in a popular form, of the habits and customs of animals, and suitable as a manual for teachers. Among other works announced are: “British Birds' Nests,” by Mr. R. Kearton, with an introduction by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe (Cassell); “The Great Rift Valley,” being an account of a journey to Baringo and Mount Kenia by Mr. J. W. Gregory (Murray); and a volume of hunting sketches in Africa by Mr. Frederick W. Kirby, entitled “From Kahlamba to Libombo” (Blackwood). Mr. Joseph Hatton's new novel “When Greek meets Greek: A Tale of Love and War: ” will be published or was published in London and Phila- delphia on Nov. 14, by Messrs. Hutchinson and Messrs. Lippincott. It is running serially in the People on this side of the Atlantic, and in Leslie's Weekly on the other, and by arrangement with the author in Melbourne, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Transvaal. Mr. Hatton appears to be satisfied with his “three-volumes-in-one" experi- ence, his first experiment in that direction being with “The Banishment of Jessop Blythe.” His new book appears in similar form, but he drops his yellow cover for something more conventional. It was “By Order of the Czar” that started the yellow craze, and Mr. Hatton hoped he had made it his trade mark, as if an author could rely upon any other individuality than that which belongs to the work itself. - The new volume of the “Dictionary of National Biography” devotes eight and a half columns to the life of the forgotten great Englishman, who was lately reintroduced to English history by Mr. James Baker in his volume upon the life of this hero. Peter Payne for four centuries has been forgotten and ignored by his countrymen. Płow singular a circumstance is it that this life of the great link between Wyclif and Luther should appear in the very year when such an onslaught is made upon Wyclif's teaching, and when Eng- land is again asked to step back under Rome's thrall. Justice is now done to Payne's self- sacrificing noble life. He says (one writer in the Dictionary) Peter Payne was the man who induced Sir J. Oldcastle to follow Wyclif. Mr. Sydney Hodge's serial story, “When Leaves were Green,” now running in the Argosy, will be republished in 3 vol. form by Messrs. Chatto and Windus in January, Mr. William Addison will have ready, early in: November, to be published by Mr. Horace Cox, a new volume entitled “Crimean and other Short Stories.” Mrs. Alfred Baldwin’s new book, “The Shadow on the Blind,” will be published immediately by Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. It is a collection of . modern ghost stories. “One Woman's Wisdom,” the Australian story which Messrs. Routledge and Sons bought from. Miss A. G. Murphy, and published last month, is. that lady’s very first attempt at story writing of any description. She wrote it in one hour weekly from March to December, the actual time devoted to the work being thus only about forty hours. A special colonial edition is about to be published. Mr. Daniel Chamier has written a handy volume entitled “Law relating to Literary Copy- right and to Authorship and Publication of Books,” which has been published by Mr. Effingham Wilson. Within the compass of 150. pages, Mr. Chamier has collected the law relating to copyright in literature as distinguished from artistic, musical, and dramatic copyright. The volume will be found to be useful and convenient to all concerned with literary property. It is intelligibly compiled, and deals succinctly with the mass of statutes, common law rules and prece- dents which make up the Cumbrous code by which literary ownership is governed. Mr. Chamier has dealt usefully with a large number of recent decisions, but it is inevitable that the effect of his labours should be to once more demonstrate the urgent need for the consolidating statute on the lines of Lord Monkswell's Bill which was drafted by the Society. “The National Portrait Gallery of British Musicians,” edited by John Warriner, Mus. Doc., of Trinity College, Dublin, will shortly be issued by Messrs, Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. This ought to prove a very interesting volume to those interested in music and musicians. “The Dowager Lady Tremaine” is the title of a story by Mr. J. B. Alliott (Elliot Stock). “A Handbook of Theology,” by the Rev. John Harries (Elliot Stock), is, as its name denotes, a volume of lectures or chapters on various points of doctrine. The writer apparently belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Work-a-day Poems, by Fanchon (Reveirs Brothers, Greystoke-place), is a little volume of simple verse. They should be confined to private circulation among the friends of the writer. “Shiloh” and other Poems, by Reginald Tavey (Elliot Stock), are verses of a religious or meditative kind. They may be accepted as an early effort.  ## p. (#500) ################################################ I46 THE AUTHOR. “Spring's Immortality,” by Mackenzie Bell (Ward, Lock, and Bowden). We have learned to look for good work from Mr. Mackenzie Bell. The new volume is full of fine verse. The follow- ing sonnet belongs to the season: OLD YEAR LEAVES. Tossed by the storms of Autumn chill and drear, The leaves fall auburn-tinted, and the trees - Stand reft and bare, yet on the silent leas The leaves lie drifted still—while cold, austere, Stern Winter waits—while early snowdrops cheer The woodland shadows—while the happy bees Are wakened by the balmy western breeze, And birds and boughs proclaim that Spring is here. So lost hopes severed by the stress of life Lie all unburied yet before our eyes, Though none but we regard their mute decay; And ever amid this stir and moil and strife Fresh aims and growing purposes arise Above the faded hopes of yesterday. “Translated * is the third edition of a touching little memorial of the life and death of a boy. This little book, too, is religious (Marshall Brothers). The author of “Somnia, Medici,” Mr. J. A. Goodchild, appears with another volume of verse. Let us be permitted to quote one poem to show the “quality” of the poet: WIOLIN SONG. Gentle music murmurs low In mine ear. I am where the roses blow Upon bushes set arow, And anear. Thrills and throbs a violin At that casement, where within Sits my dear. Pirst an old-world song she played, Sweet in tone ; Then a little pause she made Ere in fairyland she strayed On alone; And aerial minstrelsy Mazed my soul with melody All her own. From the chamber where she lay - Rose aloft Such a music as a fay Carols in the buds of May, Sinking oft To brief silence, whence again Fluttered forth some newborn strain Sweet and soft. Ah, again that longdrawn note Which prevails. From the pairing throstle's throat Never sweeter sound might float. Nightingales, Ye might never thus prolong Such finale to your song. | Hush . It fails. Mrs. Sitwell has just produced a children's story called “In Far Japan.” The scene is laid in Japan as it was ninety years ago. CORRESPONDENCE. I.—DELAYS IN PAYMENT. MONGST the many benefits which the Society of Authors confers on writers not the least is the indirect help of publicity, the fear of which probably rights many wrongs without further ado. Some months ago, a correspondence was carried on in this paper concerning the long delays in paying for published articles, in which some of the minor firms indulged, to the serious inconve- nience (if not worse) of those who wrote for them from dire necessity. Since that time (when a firm attitude on the subject of regular payments was advocated espe- cially as desirable on the part of those who had little to fear, being well-known and popular writers), it has come under our notice that there is a marked improvement in respect of this diffi- culty, no doubt largely brought about by the fear of doubtful transactions being brought to the light of day by this Society. This improvement is likely to continue if writers are clear and explicit in requiring to know the terms, times of payment, &c., of any periodical for which they may be intending to write, before undertaking to do so. R. II.-LITERARY BLACKLEGs. “An Author,” writing on Mr. Sherard's obser- vations about “literary blacklegs,” points out, at too great length for publication in these columns, the mischief which such a person may do. He is an author to begin with, but not one whose books bring in much solid proofs of popularity; he makes it his business, therefore, to become a reviewer for as many papers as he can ; he hangs about publishers in the hope of getting appointed an adviser; in both capacities he exercises the envy and malice which belong to the unsuccessful. The name of such a man should not, our corre- spondent suggests, be “privately ’’ printed but publicly. Is the “Author’’ speaking of an imaginary or of a real person P Does he really know any man who possesses, and exercises, this kind of power P Can he prove that such a man is able to review the same book in half a dozen papers; does really review the same book for half a dozen papers, and with the rancour which the writer attributes ? If he does know such a man he might be doing good service by for- warding to the secretary (I) his name; (2) the list of papers for which he writes; (3) all the reviews of one book written by him. As for the whispering depreciation in a publisher's ears, that may be omitted, because the only kind of  ## p. (#501) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 47 depreciation to which the publisher would listen is that of which the critic would know nothing— the demand for his rival’s books. III.-MoRE ON DELAYs. J. S. M. adds another to the many complaints concerning certain London journals which invite contributions, and then neither return them nor answer any letters. He complains, further, of delays in sending proof; of delays in publishing; and of delays in sending the cheque. He also complains of the autocratic conduct of the editors, who place their own price upon a contribution. Well; but the editor must put his own price upon the work. He knows what his paper can afford to give and is accustomed to give. It is hard— very hard—upon the author to keep him in suspense; it is doubly hard to accept the work and then not to publish it; but the author has him- self to blame. He has only to say, “I offer you this work on the condition that you pay me so much for it, and that you pay me at once.” Then the editor can accept or not as he pleases. But the author says he cannot afford to take this inde- pendent line. Then he must make the best of what he cannot mend. IV.—THE DIALOGUE STORY. I keep reading in the Author and other journals that the new vogue in fiction—tales told by dialogue—has been started by Miss Violet Hunt, Mr. Anthony Hope, and Black and JWhite. Surely Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in his earlier Indian stories, was the first to set the fashion in this respect. “The Gadsbys,” “Under the Deodars,” &c., appeared long before those other writers had commenced to publish their “Stories in Scenes,” and who were doubtless inspired to follow in his wake. As many other authors are likely to follow suit, it seems only right that Mr. Kipling should be recognised as the leader of this new school of fiction. CHARLEs E. HALL. W.--THE SOCIETY As PUBLISHERs. So much has been written and said lately con- cerning publishers and their profits in proportion to risks that one wonders why the Society of Authors do not take up publishing as a business. Practically every English author of note is a member of the Society. Why should they not issue their books through the Society, and why should not the Society offer to young authors an amelioration of the advantages (?) held out to them by publishers generally P Surely the cream of the literary clientèle would be secured at once, the finest advice is to be had on the premises, so to speak, and a fair profit, after expenses, secured. I am merely a hard-working magazine writer, and no novelist, if one is judged by the published- book standard, but, with an eye to the future, I am quite willing to increase my subscription to £5 a year for four years in order to give the thing a fair trial. Doubtless there are hundreds. more who would do the same thing, but it seems. to me that if a few popular novelists like to put their heads together success would be assured without pecuniary assistance at all. If the “new” publisher with his solitary office and the boy can do so well, what a future should be before the English Authors’ Guild ! F. VI.-WHY NOT A CoMPETITION. I see that the Author invites suggestions; and it has struck me that a competition, once a year, of a literary kind, might do much to increase the attractiveness of a magazine that cannot be too well known. Would it be possible for the society to offer a prize for the best short prose idyll and the best short poem by young authors who have published not less than one book, or one set of magazine. articles, not at their own expense P and, also, in the event of the MSS. reaching the required standard of merit, might the two successful papers be printed in the Christmas number of the Author P A nominal fee of Is. for the reading of every paper sent in (the proceeds, after paying the reader, to be devoted to a pension fund or some other literary work) would be but a small expense to contributors, and the prospect of having one’s name acknowledged by the best authors would be of incalculable value to any little known or struggling writer. I have myself written two stories of about 300. pages. With the copyright of the first I un- fortunately parted for the sum of £60; and fresh editions of the book are still selling at the end of eight years. For my second story I received £60 on the first edition, and I retained the copyright. I have also been fairly successful with short articles and a dramatic study. I wrote a short story once for a very well known. magazine, and for a month's work received £2 IOs. I have seldom been paid according to the quality of my work, I do not mean that it. is better than other peoples'; but that, being independent of my pen, I need never grudge time. or trouble; and that I often rewrite and revise a MS. from five to seven times before sending it out. I have a story coming out in a popular juvenile paper this Christmas, and a promise from another publisher to read another MS.; but I am an unknown author, in the sense that I can command no certain market for what I write, and that I often send an article to half a dozen,  ## p. (#502) ################################################ 148 THE AUTHOR. publishers before it is accepted. Speaking for myself, one year's numbers of the Author free would be a much valued prize, and I believe if the competition that I have suggested could be held once a year, that the pleasure and stimulus given would be very great, provided the trouble of reading the papers sent in were not beyond the time of the society, which I know must necessarily be limited. A LITTLE KNowN AUTHOR. (Oct. 5, 1895. VII.-MUSIC AND POETRY. Tn reply to Mr. Sherard, I would say that I think there need be no more mystery in the inability of so many musicians to be poets, or poets to be musicians, than of most musicians to be capable mathematicians, although the principles of melodious sound have a mathe- matical basis. It seems to me that superexcellence is rarely to be found together in the spheres of both emotion and of reason. Hence we find the scientific insight of Darwin to be unaccompanied by much musical or poetic taste; the rhythmic talent of ;Sir Walter Scott or Mr. Gilbert to be remarkably destitute of a knowledge of musical melody, and the most subtle races of the East or of old to be deficient in musical harmony; while the encyclo- paedic information possessed by the late Professor Robertson Smith was unaccompanied by even average musical taste. Music, in its present state, being the youngest of the fine arts, as well as the most artificial if not most original, it is natural to expect to find side by side in some of its exponents the emotional faculties peculiar to the “heir of all the ages,” associated with the rational capacity characteristic of more primitive man, so long as evolution remains so one-sided. It may be that, in time, the man of genius will exhibit the loftiest qualities of the whole; but as yet this is generally unobserv- able. I very much doubt the commonly received dictum as to Darwin having once possessed and afterwards lost, in the pursuit of science, even an average taste for music and poetry; as he pre- sumably followed his bent, along the line of least resistance, for the One quality need no more interfere with the other, than love with genius. The one would rather supplement the other, and thus both prove mutually recreative—assuming both to be genuine. It is, of course, different in the case of a practising artist, whose manipulative skill would suffer by devotion to science alone; but, as regards mere passive appreciation, the culture of the more rational side of our complex nature need in no way interfere with the other. Similarly, while science may modify man-made theology, it cannot destroy Divine religion. As music and poetry somewhat resemble each other in their qualities of rhythm, melody, harmony, and form, it would seem as if excellence in the one would imply success in the other; but, seeing how often philosophic poetry is popularly unpalatable if not unintelligible, while the more popular is comparatively superficial, we need not wonder if even the most popular music and the most popular poetry are so rarely producible by the same person. Both require a natural gift to be developed by an artificial culture; and life is generally too short, while art is usually too wide, or nature is mostly too chary of her best, to secure the highest qualities of head, heart, and will, or of science, music, poetry, and wisdom, as well as popular appreciation, in even the highest genius yet evolved. The how seems simple enough, but the why is still sufficiently mysterious to rank among the pro- found problems awaiting solution by the coming science of the soul. PHINLAY GLENELG VIII.-MIsquotATIONs. Mrs. Henry George Corbett writes to complain of misquotations in criticism. Her recently published novel, “Deb o' Mally's,” has been noticed in a certain paper. A quotation from her book was printed in the notice. The passage as it stands in the book and as it was presented in the paper is as follows: The girl was working in front of one of the many windows which lighted the huge room, and the westering sun was frolicking daintily among the wonderful luxuriance of her red-gold hair, enhancing its brightness till it became dazzling to look upon. Perhaps she had become aware that she was being regarded with unusual interest, for her heavily-fringed violet eyes had a look in them which would have been considered haughty, had her position been less humble, and the pearly purity of her complexion was suffused by a brighter tint than usual. The following is the passage as it appears in the paper: The western sun is frolicking daintily among the wonderful luxuriance of her red-gold hair, enhancing its brightness till it beams dazzling to look upon. Her heavily- fringed, violet eyes had a look in them which would have been haughty had her position been less humble, and the pearly purity of her complexion was suffused by a brighter tint than usual. It will be seen that the verb westering has been changed into the adjective western, and that the rules of grammar have been painfully violated by putting the auxiliary verb first in the present and then in the past tense. By substituting the word beams for the word became, my critic has managed to make the sentence unintelligible, and by omitting, firstly, two whole lines and, secondly, the verb “considered,” he has produced a “quotation ” which possesses neither sense nor cohesion. 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. 06 Issue 06 (November 1895) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 06 Issue 06 (November 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-11-01-The-Author-6-6 publications The Author