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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) 1896-03-02 Volume 6 Issue 10 Pages Page range in volume 221–244 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18960302 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. Vol. VI.-No. 10.] MARCH 2, 1896. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eacpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. * - a .sº e- > -s; HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-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. *- ~ * WARNINGS AND ADVICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.—It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R 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 £Io 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 except the cost of the stamp. 4. AscERTAIN WEEAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SLDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. WI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FuTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. IO. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. *. - 13. ADVERTISEMENTS. —- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *- - --º •- * ~s HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY, I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the B B 2  ## p. (#576) ################################################ 222 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 Yafe. 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. *- 2 =º 4- ºr *. THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. 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 eaclusively 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 promptly. 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 postage. 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. *... a 2-sº 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 Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production’ for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for  ## p. (#577) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 223 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. *– sº- FROM THE COMMITTEE. HE Committee beg to remind members that the Sub- scription for the year is due on January the First. The most convenient form of payment is by order on a Bank. This method saves the trouble of remembering. The Secretary will in future send reminders to members who are in arrear in February. The Awthor will not be sent to members in arrear after the month of March. At the end of the year the three retiring members of the committee, Sir W. Martin Conway, Mr. Arthur àBeckett, and the Hon. John Collier submitted their names for re- election and were duly re-elected members of the committee. At the meeting of Jan. 27th the committee proceeded to elect a chairman in the room of Sir W. Martin Conway, whose year of office expired on Dec. 31st, 1895. Mr. H. Rider- Haggard was unanimously elected chairman. G. H. THRING, Secretary. s: - FROM THE COMMITTEE, TVHE following are the resolutions proposed and carried at the General Meeting of the Society:— RESOLUTION I. — “That a special committee of three members of the Society be elected in the manner here- after described to confer with a sub-committee of three members and the chairman of the committee of manage- ment as to changes to be introduced into the constitution of the Society, with the object of making the managing committee more representative of the members, and as to other matters connected with the welfare and development of the Society generally.” REsolution II.-“That there be sent out with the April number of the Awthor a list of names of members of the Society, not being members of the managing committee, who have been duly proposed and seconded by members, and have signified their willingness to serve on the special committee, and that this list be accompanied by a balloting paper, to be signed by the member voting and filled up by him with the names of the three persons selected by him from the aforementioned list who he desires to serve on the special committee, and that the special committee be con- stituted of the three members who shall respectively receive the largest number of votes.” The intention is that all the members through the circulation of the Author should have the resolutions before them. That those who desire to do so should obtain the names of suitable men and women of letters to stand on the sub- committee. That they should get these names seconded by another member and should forward them to me in the course of the month of March. That all the names should then be inserted in a list in the April number of the Author, and a voting slip should be sent round with that number for three members to sit on the com- mittee. Those who obtain the greatest number of votes should then be considered elected. G. HERBERT THRING. > s: SOCIETY OF AUTHORS, º WHE annual general meeting of the Incorpo- rated Society of Authors was held yester- day afternoon at the rooms of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, 20, Hanover- square, W. Mr. Rider Haggard presided, and there was a numerous attendance. The CHAIRMAN presented the report, and, in doing so, referred to the losses which the Society had sustained by death during the year. Among many others who had died were Professor Huxley, the Earl of Pembroke, Mr. Henry Reeve, Major-General Sir Henry Rawlinson, and Mr. George Augustus Sala. The question of Canadian copyright was the one which had attracted, perhaps, most attention in connection with the Society during the year. They had elected 214 members to the Society, and had lost sixty, some by death and some by resignation. The Society now numbered 1300 members, and its finances were in a satisfactory state. He thought they would admit that the year's work had been of a useful character. About IOO cases had been settled through the Society, and the secretary had written letters of advice to about half of the members; many manuscripts had been read by skilled readers for members of the Society, and also in a large number of instances money which was due to members, and which they were unable to recover for themselves, had been re- covered through the action of the Society or its solicitors. The Society proposed to go into the question of watching the interests of educational writers and musical composers, which was a branch quite by itself. It should be understood that the Society did not exist for the purpose of attacking publishers, but for the purpose of defending authors. He hoped to see in the future the establishment of an esprit de corps among authors, a feeling of fellowship in which, up to the present time, they had been greatly wanting. Complaints had been made that the Society did not do everything it ought to do. The committee especially wished to make it as  ## p. (#578) ################################################ 224 THE AUTHOR. useful as it could be to the general interests of authors, and if any of them had any doubt of it he would ask them to read the resolution which was to be moved by Sir Martin Conway, and seconded by Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins. Mr. W. H. Wilkins had a motion on the paper which ran :-‘‘That this meeting repudiates the address headed, “The Authors of England to the Authors of America,’ and regrets that the Society was in any way connected with it.” They would under- stand that he himself felt diffidence in ap- proaching and some difficulty in dealing with that subject, because anything he said might be made more of on the other side of the water than it deserved. Perhaps he could not do better than read the resolution which the committee of management came to : “The committee of management of the Society of Authors, having investigated the circumstances under which the address to American authors and its covering letter were issued from the Society's offices, have unanimously found that the address expressly purports to proceed from its signatories alone; that it was neither printed or circulated at the expense of the Society's funds; and that the use of the Society's letter-paper in soliciting signatures was unauthorised by them. The com- mittee, while entertaining all friendly feelings possible towards their American brethren, are of opinion that action on international questions does not fall within the scope of their corporate powers.” He thought that resolution explained everything that it was necessary to explain, and that the responsibility for that address had not been accepted by the Society or its committee. Perhaps under those circumstances Mr. Wilkins might on consideration see fit not to press his motion for obvious reasons. (“No, no.”) He would point out that really for political reasons it was rather a difficult matter to be violently discussed in public. (Hear, hear.) Sir MARTIN CONWAY moved—“That a special committee of three members of the Society be elected in the manner hereafter described to confer with a sub-committee of three members and a chairman of the committee of manage- ment as to changes to be introduced into the constitution of the Society, with the object of making the managing committee more representa- tive of the members, and as to other matters connected with the welfare and development of the Society generally.” He said that the resolu- tion was substantially the same as one of which notice was originally given by Mr. Wilkins. He was very glad indeed that Mr. Wilkins withdrew it, and he was also very glad to be able to adopt it and move it and have Mr. Wilkins's support in doing so, as he thought that a motion of that kind would better come from the managing com- mittee than from the body of the members. The Society owed most in its initiation and building up to Sir Walter Besant, and but for him would not exist to-day. There had been many letters in the papers, some of which seemed to cast reflections on Sir Walter Besant, and he was very glad to be able to state that Mr. Wilkins, at all events, had publicly disavowed any desire to cast any reflection on Sir Walter Besant or to disavow him as the member of the Society to whom the Society owed most. If Sir Walter Besant had been able to be present that day he would have supported the resolution. Mr. ANTHONY HoPE HAwkINs seconded the resolution in a few words. Mr. W. H. WILKINs supported the resolution. He was glad that the council had abandoned their non possumus attitude of former years. The only desire he, and those who thought as he did, had was to do good to the Society. They had no wish to make a personal attack on any prominent member of the Society. They all admitted the great sacrifices made by those who originally formed the Society, and more especially by Sir Walter Besant. The younger generation was, however, knocking at the door and wanted to come in, and although an oligarchy might be an admirable way of governing a society when it was young, yet when it had arrived at man’s estate he thought it was high time that those who kept the Society going with their own money should be admitted to have a voice in its manage- ment. He thought the committee might consider the question of admitting women to some share of responsibility on the council. There was a great deal of dissatisfaction existing in the Society. He had taken no share in agitating for reforms until a few weeks ago, and when he did so and wrote a létter to the papers he was inun- dated with letters from all sorts of people, and his chambers became for a week or two a positive Cave of Adullam. Mrs. STANNARD (“John Strange Winter”) supported the suggestion that women should be allowed to have representatives on the council. Mr. C. H. Cook (“John Bickerdyke”) strongly objected to attacks being made in the papers until the Society had heard, in their ordinary meeting, what was brought against them, and had had an opportunity of answering the charges. They were the most intelligent people in England —(laughter)—and if any member came to the general meeting and said that there were griev- ances, no doubt those grievances would be dis- cussed in a fair and proper way. He strongly supported the suggestion that women should have a place on the council, and also on the com-  ## p. (#579) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 225 mittee. He thought that only the most eminent men of letters should be allowed a place on the council. He supported the motion, which was carried. Sir MARTIN ConwAY moved:—“That there be sent out with the April number of the Author a list of names of such members of the Society, not being members of the managing committee, as have been duly proposed and seconded by members and have signified their willingness to serve on the special committee, and that this list be accompanied by a balloting paper to be signed by the member voting and filled up by him with the names of the three persons selected by him from the aforementioned list whom he desires to serve on the special committee, and that the special committee be constituted of the three members who shall respectively receive the largest number of votes.” Mr. ANTHONY HoPE HAwkINs seconded the resolution, and it was carried. Mr. W. H. WILKINs thought that after the remarks which had fallen from the chairman, and the expressions of opinion of different members of the Society, there was no course open to him but to withdraw his motion. (Cheers.) From the Times, Feb. 18, 1896. *- a .msº *—s THE APPEAL OF THE BRITISE AUTHORS, HE regular monthly meeting of the American Authors’ Guild, at the Windsor Hotel, on Jan. 8, was enlivened by an animated dis- cussion of the following resolution introduced by Mr. Charles Burr Todd : “Resolved, that the American Authors’ Guild heartily endorses the appeal of the authors of Great Britain for peace between the two countries. “A war would dismember the Anglo-Saxon race, destroy international literature, and put back the progress of the world a hundred years. “By common consent nations have established in arbitration a tribunal for the settlement of those questions formerly submitted to the arbitra- ment of the sword, and at this crisis the wise and patriotic citizens of both countries should use their influence with their governments to bring about a settlement of the questions at issue by such a tribunal, to the end that peace, with honor and self-respect, may still remain the inestimable boon of both England and America.” Col. Richard Henry Savage, Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, and others opposed the resolution, chiefly on the ground of want of authority and inexpediency; it was favoured by Secretary Hard- wicke, Rev. Dr. Flagg, Messrs. Todd, MacCulloch, and Betts, but after a sharp debate of over an hour, was laid on the table.—From the Authors’ Journal (New York). := e <3 LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—A NEW INVENTION. HE following is noteworthy. The letter explains itself. It is from the editor of a montbly magazine : Dear Sir, I am obliged to you for your short story which you sent to this magazine. The magazine is now published by this company, and as we have a department for literary agency, it is necessary to pass all magazine matter through its books. If you will allow me to do this and to charge the usual commission of Io per cent., I shall be very glad to accept the story at the price you name.—I remain, &c. This is ingenious. The spirited directors of the company apparently propose to knock off Io per cent. from the price paid for articles and papers sent to the magazine. To be your own literary agent; to pass on things to your own magazine ; and then to take off IO per cent. from everybody—observe that “all magazine matter must pass through its books”—“must " –is surely as meat, as easy, and as pretty a way of making money as ever was invented. II.-RELIGION IN DAILY LIFE. A young novelist, beginning to be successful, recently received an invitation from the S.P.C.K. to let them have a story. He had one ready, and asked them what terms they were prepared to offer. He was told that they would give him £120. He asked what rights this sum covered; if it meant anything, for instance, beyond serial rights. They said that it covered everything, serial right, American right, book right, colonial right, everything. It was a most amazing offer: it covered the face of the whole earth. The author withdrew his MS., with a few remarks on religion in daily life. Now, what has been the future of that novel? The writer, who, one repeats, has only recently made a mark, has made arrangements with that novel which will produce for him in the end more than four times the sum offered in the name of Religion The point to notice is that this excellent insti- tution, which really makes every clergyman glow with honest pride and joy in it, endeavoured to get the whole rights of a good novel—everything—for the sum of £120. They may say that they could not tell that it would be worth so much. To this there are two answers. (I.) The writer had  ## p. (#580) ################################################ 226 THE AUTHOR. already done so well that £120 was an absurd price to offer for all rights of a book by him. (2.) That no provision was made for im- proving the author's position in case of the work proving a success. What is thought of this transaction ? - There are two ways of dealing with a book, which is a property. One way is to take it over on terms which recognises the proprietor's interest in it and his just rights in it. The other way is to grab at it ; to give for it the smallest sum that the exigencies of the author force him to accept, without the least heed to the possible value of the book or the real rights of the author. Which of these two ways does the Committee of the S.P.C.K. prefer in the conduct of their business? III.--THE AMERICAN AUTHORs' PUBLISHING CoMPANY. A circular has been issued in New York pro- posing the creation of an Associated Authors’ Publishing Company. The capital is 50,000 dollars, i.e., 38 Io,000 in 25oo shares of 20 dollars, or £4 each. The incorporators, who are, appa- rently, the first ten shareholders, include the President of the American Authors’ Guild, the President of the Lotos Club, and the Vice-Presi- dent of the American Surety Company. According to the prospectus, the company will buy a publishing business as a going concern and run it for a moderate dividend, the surplus, if any, to be divided among the authors whose books they produce. The first point to be considered is, that it is intended to be a perfectly straightforward, honourable company. It may be objected that there are already honourable publishers in New York. No doubt—what advantage, then, will the author obtain P First, one takes it, the right of inspecting his own books whenever he pleases; that is to say, such of the books as his agreement allows; next, his books will be managed for him, and not for the publisher. Consider the differ- ence by examining the figures. This association wants, first of all, to pay its working expenses, which with a modest business would amount to, say, 32OOO ; and next 6 per cent. On capital, say, £600; perhaps 2 per cent. On the book. If the proportion of expenses due to one successful book were Io per cent. we might have these figures: Sale of 8000 copies at 3s. 6d. ......... 3I400 Less Io per cent. for publisher £140 ,, 2 per cent, for dividend 28 , cost of production at Is. 400 568 Beturn to author... 38832 selves. Suppose the same author had taken a royalty of one-sixth he would have received £400. So that, by this arrangement, he would just double his returns. There are certain dangers which present them- The directors must not allow the shares to be sold except to persons of their own know- ledge, otherwise the shares would be eagerly bought up by persons interested in wrecking the Company. The company must be run on purely “busi- mess” lines. We are always saying, what is perfectly true, that publishers are business men, first and foremost. This company must not only be run for its 6 per cent. dividend, but it must actually make that 6 per cent., otherwise authors will not place confidence in it. The question naturally arises whether it would be wise and expedient to imitate this action over here. The council of the Society could hardly enter upon the business of publishing. Nor would authors place confidence in a publishing company unless it began with a business already established, and was ruled by a managing director of known experience and capacity. Given a sufficient capital : an established busi- mess: a manager of experience and probity ; and methods of publishing based upon the points always advocated by the Society—viz.: I. No secret profits. 2. No charge made for unpaid advertisements. 3. A full understanding of what the agreement means to both sides. 4. The right of access to the author's own books. And given, further, the confidence of authors that these professions are honourably carried out, there can be no doubt whatever that an immense business would await that company. Confidence is, however, the one thing absolutely necessary. We await with considerable interest the pro- gress and the development of this company. The address, in case any reader would like to take up shares, or at least to send for the papers, is— Mr. C. L. Betts, Secretary, Associated Authors’ Publishing Company, 65, Fifth Avenue, New York. *- - - w- w - NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Feb. 14, 1896. HE appearance to-morrow of the fortnightly Chap-Book at double its former size and double its former price marks the success of a periodical which represents so important a phase of contemporary American taste that in the two years of its existence it has had an unpara-  ## p. (#581) ################################################ THE AUTHOR, 227 lelled number of imitators, many of which are still struggling for existence with small hope of success. Only yesterday I noticed the latest born of the flock, a small thing called by the name of Whims, according to the same principles, no doubt, that inspired the names of Moods, Clips, and otners of the kind. It is an exact parody of the Chap-Book in appearance and contents. It was intended by Stone and Kimball, the Chicago publishing house which gets out the Chap-Book, at the same time that they put up the price to IO cents. a copy and 2 dollars a year, to establish a London agency. The negotiations with the International News Company, however, never resulted in an agreement, and, although it is probable that before long the magazine will be re- published in England, no definite announcement can be made at this writing. The history of this venture, which has not been told before even in America with any ful- ness, is comforting to the observer of fads on this side of the water and the part they play in our literary world. In the month of April, 1894, IHerbert Stuart Stone, of Chicago, a member of the class of 1893 at Harvard, and a son of one of the wealthy business men of Chicago, with a class-mate from the South, H. Ingalls Kimball, decided that the publishing business which they had already started during their college course, with headquarters in Cambridge, needed some regular means of sending information about their books to the Press. They spoke of it to Bliss Carman, a young romantic American poet and critic, who had just become their reader. He suggested that they should issue some sort of a periodical, possibly with an occasional original contribution to make it sufficiently interesting to attract attention. This idea appealed to them, and they set to work to develop some definite scheme. As there was no necessity for a large paper, and as Stone was particularly fond of small books, magazines and newspapers—things that could be handled conveniently—the Chap-Book size was selected. For three weeks they hunted for a name, all sorts of things being suggested and discussed. It was not until innumerable titles had come up and been discarded that Stone hit one night on The New Chap-Book and Literary Review. It was suggested by some old Chap- Books which he was reading at the time, and as the size was precisely the same, the title did not seem inappropriate. It was, however, modified before the first number was made up, as both Carman and Kimball seemed to think it too long. It appealed to Stone on account of its old-time flavour. He would rather have enjoyed calling it as a sub-title A Miscellany of Polite Literature. They then had no idea of charging anything for WOL. VI. hand in the editing of the paper. the paper, and in order to give it a fair start, and to do away with the appearance of an advertise- ment, they purposely left out reviews of their own books. They expected, however, to outgrow this righteous idea very shortly. On May 15, rather less than a month after the plan first occurred, the first number appeared. They put on the outside, “price five cents a year,” but merely for form's sake, for they gave away about three thousand copies. The affair, how- ever, attracted some little attention as the latest literary Cambridge toy, as a contributor called it, and they found that by taking subscriptions they could pay at least part of the expenses. The Chap-Book thus became what it has since been called, “A Miniature Magazine and Review.” Some friends of the publishers, Charles G. D. Roberts, Marie Louise Pool, Bliss Carman, and Louise Imogen Guiney sent things for the initial number. Miss Guiney wrote the unsigned essay entitled “A Bitter Complaint of the Ungentle Reader.” The “Notes” were written by Carmen and Stone, and it was recklessly announced that prospective numbers would contain contributions from fifteen or twenty prominent young writers, from no one of whom had the publishers any assurance. This, however, was a minor considera- tion which did not worry them. The editorial duties were divided almost equally between Carman and Stone, who, with much help from Miss Guiney and occasionally from Louise Chandler Moulton, prepared all the “Notes,” and not a little part of the body of the magazine for many months. When Stone and Kimball moved to Chicago in 1894, Carmen practically ceased his connection with the firm. The idea of living in the West did not appeal to him, and, although he sent articles and notes for some time thereafter, he had no real Since that time Stone has had complete charge and, with regular assistance from Harrison Rhodes, has done all the work. The Chap-Book has grown steadily, and with speed, the circulation now averaging about fifteen thousand. The change in the price is now made to enable the publishers to pay better prices for contributions, to publish more matter, and to enlarge the department of “Notes,” which from the very start has been the chief source of interest in the magazine. Just what the effect of this advance of price will be it is impossible now to tell, but the way in which subscriptions are coming in before the new terms go into effect, makes the publishers feel easy about the change. The Chap-Book was started with absolutely no models and no inspiration this side of 1790. The whole plan has been to make a periodical of C C  ## p. (#582) ################################################ 228 THE AUTHOR. IY),621). taste and judgment, which should be distinctly literary, and which, while recognising traditions and the experience of the past, should at the same time appreciate contemporary work, and record the more important of the movements in literature and art. It has been frankly faddish; it has dwelt largely on the tendencies which were shown in the Yellow-Book in its earlier days, and yet it has a conservatism which acts somewhat as a wise restraint. It is the attention paid to new things, the general look of novelty, and the typographical appearance of the Chap-Book that have inspired the hosts of imitators. There have been at least twenty-six different ones, beginning with the Biblot, the Philistine and Chips, and ending with the Fly - Leaf and Miss Blue Stocking. Many are dead, and none have any circulation. They have varied in aim, in form, and in ability, and the reasons for their failure are many; but all of them lack the backing of a successful pub- lishing house and the editorship of men who know the actual book-market, and in their search after originality are limited by common sense and a foresight of results. Some of the imitations (which word is used with some elasticity to describe all the small magazines with an aim at literary and artistic character whose existence is due to the success of the Chap-Book) have made the mistake of laying emphasis on certain things which cannot receive the sanction of any large body of American readers. This, of course, is an error similar to that made in England by the Yellow Book at its start. One of the late creations in New York is a thin Fortnightly of this order, the small sale of which must cease as soon as the small capital of its owner, editor, and principal writer is exhausted. A large part of these experiments have been made by men of no experience and no success in litera- ture, but much desire for publication, and naturally the results have been of little interest to the world. Curious observers read a copy or two and stop. - * Meantime the Chap-Book goes on alone success- ful. It appeals to the current taste for lightness, modernity, and anti-Philistinism, but it remains within the bounds of established decency always. The same practical sagacity is shown in its list of contributors. Several of the similar ventures have small success because they rely on prominent names alone, giving second-rate work of first-rate Others have made the opposite mistake of relying entirely on writers absolutely unknown. Stone and Kimball recognise the value of names, but only in rare cases is material admitted for the sake of its author, and never is suitable matter neglected because the writer is unknown. The following list of recent writers shows many known even in England. Robert Louis Stevenson Thomas Bailey Aldrich Stéphane Mallarmé Richard Henry Stoddard Gilbert Parker Bliss Carman Charles G. D. Roberts H. B. Marriott Watson Norman Dale Maria, Louise Pool William Sharp Archibald Lampman Richard Burton H. W. Mabie F. Wallotton J. F. Raffaelli H. H. Boyesen H. D. Wells Kenneth Grahame Paul Verlaine William Ernest Henley Eugene Field Hamlin Garland I. Zangwill Louise Imogen Guiney Gertrude Hall John Davidson Alice Brown Julian Hawthorne Clyde Fitch Edmund Gosse Maurice Thompson C. F. Bragdon Will H. Bradley Louise Chandler Moulton Max Beerbohm Almost as long a list, however, might be made of unknown contributors, and probably Stone and Kimball are doing more than any other of our publishing houses to bring to notice new writers, especially writers from the Western States. The same is true on the side of illus- tration. Another recent change in the magazine world is also suggestive of the interest taken in artistic things by the American reading public. With the January number Scribner's Magazine began two new departments. One is to be devoted to general subjects of present-day interest, the other to deal especially with art topics. The appeal is to a more serious interest than that reached by the department of notes and the essays in the body of the Chap-Book, but the fields overlap enough to make the two changes illustrate some of the same truths about the American reading public. We are very fond of literary talk about art. This new departure of Scribner's has dis- cussions of art subjects, all unsigned, written almost entirely by artists. A large number of our best critics of art and literature here in New York are painters and illustrators. Speaking of this fact the other day a man who is prominent in both ways said to me: “It is rather curious that although artists have become more and more specialists within the domain of art, they are becoming more and more writers.” Whatever the cause it is certainly true. A large part of our painters not only write, but write remarkably well. The little essays in Scribner's by the artists deal with their subjects in a way that the general reader can understand. Indeed, the idea is to have the subject-matter, the methods, and the ends of art explained to the public by men who have both the point of view of the expert and the point of view of the serious reader who is not a specialist. Papers which  ## p. (#583) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 229 point out the artistic aspect of some common thing near home, of some New York corner, for instance, or of some unnoticed little masterpie e to be found in the city, will often be seen in this department. There are also critical comments on movements in the art world and on particular artists. The department is in charge of August F. Jaccaci, the art editor of the magazine, who has charge of all the illustrations, perhaps the most important and most excellent feature of our three leading magazines. As Mr. Jaccaci is a literary man in taste and practice as well as a painter and illustrator, besides having the prac- tical editorial instinct which watches every ripple of popular opinion, this department is sure of success; and as his ideals are very high it is also sure to be a good influence in the struggle that is now going on here between good art and same thought and cheap chromo art and sensa- tionalism. 3. In connection with what has been said about the place at which our reading public draws the line, it may be remarked that, in spite of the popularity of Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure,” which has been roughly treated by the public, will have a much smaller sale than might have been expected for the successor of “Tess.” “Tess” succeeded in spite of its revolt from what the author deems Philistine ideals, not at all on account of it; and to-day the demand for the literature of revolt is decidedly smaller. This is shown in the failure of all of the so-called problem plays put on the New York stage this year as clearly as it is shown in the book and magazine world. One of the periodicals born this month, by the way, recognises this, in spite of its name. The Parisian, published by M. L. Dexter, at Carnegie Hall, as a quarterly until August, then as a monthly, promises to give in its translations from contemporaneousleuropean articles and its notes on European literature a selection made with an eye to permanent standards of this market. * N. H. * - a -º --- NOTES FROM PARIS. Y remarks on a certain side of French journalism, which were published in the Author last month, have attracted some attention both in England and France, and certain journalists in the latter country are vowing to execute all sorts of unpleasantness upon me when they meet me. Well, at least, they will find 4 qui parler. These menaces, indeed, only stimulate me to write further on the nauseous subject, and, alas ! I have superabundant materials, There was once in a French midland town a certain journalist who conducted a certain paper, which, for reasons into which it is not neces- sary to enter, systematically and regularly attacked a certain great lady. This lady was my friend, and One day she came to me and begged me, her peace of mind being at stake, to interfere on her behalf. “It is, I know,” she said, “only a question of terms. In fact, I have proof that this fellow only attacks me because he is paid to do so by Mr. X. If we offer him better terms he will be silent.” As it was impossible for her to appear in the matter, and T was anxious to oblige her, I undertook to see the man. I accordingly took train to the Midland town, and called on the able editor. I found a miserable, consumptive individual, living en fau,v ménage with an ex-circus lady “who forced me,” as he wrote to me after- wards, shortly before his death, “to do these wretched things.” I did not mince matters. I said that Madame X. and her friends were tired of his attacks, that we knew that these formed interesting reading, and had consequently, from a journalistic point of view, a cash value, and that what we wanted to know was what that cash value was. The wretched man coughed and flushed and spoke of his dignity. He said that it was in the interests of morality and public order that he attacked Madame X., that it was an insult to offer him money. I then produced my pocket book and began counting some hundred- franc notes with which I had provided myself. His words were indignant, but his eyes, which fixed themselves greedily on the blue notes, told a different tale, and I waited patiently for the quiver of irresolution. It was, however, the ex-equestrienne who spoke the truth. “Yes, we want money,” she said, “and you know it, Arthur. We are paid to print these articles. If you care to pay us not to print them we will not print them. And mind you, the dance has only just begun, so that it is really worth Madame X.’s while to put a stop to the music. That is how I understand journalism.” I began to feel nervous, lest my funds should not suffice to meet her demands, but was reassured to find what small fry of blackmailers these were, and was able after some discussion to arrange for silence for a cash payment of twelve pounds and a monthly subsidy of eight pounds to be paid in weekly instalments. I was to receive no receipt. I was not to send regis- tered letters, and the payments were to be made in fifty-franc notes. All this, of course, to prevent any proof of the transaction. Notes in France, although numbered, are not payable on demand and consequently cannot be traced. I paid the twelve pounds, and then asked the blackmailer and his good lady to dinner. I was  ## p. (#584) ################################################ 23O THE AUTHOR. anxious to study them. I found them ordinary people enough, not more corrupt than the ordinary, with average provincial French ideas on the functions and possibilities of journalism. Over the champagne the good lady told me that her husband only earned two pounds a week as editor and sole contributor to his paper, and that, of course, money had to be obtained in other ways. The blackmailer was a weak-headed man, and, after a glass or two of wine, became con- fidential and told me that he had been receiving two pounds a month from the person, whom Madame X. had named, to carry on this cam- paign. He kept his bargain with me, though now and again I received a visit from him, when he happened to be in Paris, and the call invari- ably ended in a request for a small “loan,” which I always gave. I was strictly kept, however, to my part of the bargain, and if ever by any chance the remittance was a day or two late I received a reminder. Not a letter, oh, no ! that is to say not a manuscript letter, but a message, something like this. “Friends much surprised,” in printed characters cut from a newspaper and gummed on to a sheet of paper. Once, when having been away for three days, I was three days behind hand with the remittance, the printed message ran : “The dance is about to recommence.” I subsidized these people in this way for over seven months, till Madame X. died and it was no longer necessary. The adventures of a special correspondent in a big city like Paris would afford materials for an interesting book. I was once representing at the same time a big American daily, and one of the most influential organs of the British colonies. It happened that at that time there were two rival prime donne (ought one to say prima donnas) in Paris, who hated each other with a holy hatred and were actuated by a rivalry more than pro- fessional. I knew them both and admired them both, but my position between them was as uncomfortable as that of a piece of iron between the hammer and the anvil. One day Madame A., the American, would come bouncing into my house, speechless with indignation, to show me a cutting from some miserable colonial paper in which she had been badly criticised, and to beg me, as I was her friend, to retaliate on the evident instigatrix of “the abominable calumny ” in my colonial paper. Another day it was the colonial songstress who telegraphed for me urgently and implored my good offices in combat- ing a rumour, reflecting on the genuineness of her chevelure, or on the pitch of her voice, which had been printed in some “scurrilous organ ” in Indiana or Oklohama. It was a troubled time, and I was heartily glad when it was all over. The correspondentship to a modern American daily of a certain type is extremely distasteful to any man of good breeding and some respect for the decencies of life. One American editor once explained to me that his paper was a democratic paper (democratic in the English sense of the word), and that consequently its line was “to tom hawk the uppers.” I gathered that his wish was that I should go out largely into the best French and American society in Paris, enjoy the hospitality of my hosts, and reward it by scarifying them in his paper. My connection with that particular paper ceased because I point- blank refused to execute an “assignment” given me in writing by the editor himself. He wrote me from London that he was informed that a certain well-known American actress was about to be confined clandestinely in Paris, that I was to investigate this rumour, to collect full particulars, and to “file three thousand words (i.e., to telegraph that number of words to New York) for his Sunday edition. On another occasion it was suggested to me that it would make “a good story '' if I would watch Mr. John Jacob Astor as he came out of the Hotel Bristol, follow him wherever he went, note carefully what he spent and what he spent it on, and then write an article to show how a millionaire used his money. I did not carry out the idea, but some days later I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Astor, and I told him what had been suggested, and he laughed and said that that would have been a very foolish way for a young man to spend his time. Then he added : “Well, Mr. Sherard, if you had followed me this morning you would have seen something that would have interested you. I was out two hours, and I spent one franc sixty centimes. Ten centimes I paid for this little bunch of violets, and thirty cents. for this little book of yours. I have been reading it, and it makes quite a nice tale.” It was a copy of a shilling book of mine, published by Chatto and Windus, which the dear old gentleman had bought in the Rue de Castigliome. But perhaps it is from the desire of the American editor for “personals " that comes to the special correspondent in Paris the greatest amount of humiliation. He is bound to know who has come to Paris, what he has come for, and what he is doing. He is forced to loaf about the hotels, and when anybody of any importance (i.e., rich) is in Paris to endeavour to see him. The hotel people naturally endeavour to protect their customers from importunities and send the correspondent away with scant courtesy. “Don’t come bothering here, he won't see you.” Then one insists, and an insolent message is returned. It is terrible. One has to accustom oneself to  ## p. (#585) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 23 I slights and snubs, to the contempt of servants, and to one’s own loss of self-respect. One is partly a detective, partly an eavesdropper, double- faced always. To get a “good story" is the only consideration. The American correspondent who iistened outside a hotel bedroom door whilst an Italian count was beating his rich American bride with one of the lathes of the bed, and sent over a vivid column and a half, was a hero amongst his fellow correspondents for weeks after. I remember along conversation with Mr. Blaine on the subject of this kind of American journalism, but he laughed and said nobody attached any impor- tance to the papers over there, and there were ample laws for the protection of individuals. He told me that he was quite certain that as we were talking there was a certain X. outside the door. “He is always there,” he said. “In fact, he took a room in this hotel in order to watch me, and whenever I have visitors he is out in the passage to try and hear what I am talking about.” As a matter of fact, as I left the ex- secretary’s apartment I came upon the person in question in the passage. ROBERT H. SHERA.R.D. P.S.—The anonymous paragraphist of the Pall Mall Gazette, who is responsible for the column of so-called Literary Notes, in a recent attack on the Author and its editor, favours me with the following notice: “And really the editor of the Author should revise his proofs. Thus he has allowed an egregious person to perpetrate the following egregiosity : ‘Three of the most promi- nent Parisienne journalists are now in Mazas prison.’ Parisienne !” To hang a personal attack on a misprint is hardly worthy of a paper of the standing of the P. M. G. It was all the more unworthy that this anonymous writer must know very well, perhaps too well, that the said egregious writer during the past ten years has given his best work to the P. M. G., that the quality of this work has often been most highly commended by the proprietors of that paper, and that it was mainly thanks to the quality of his work in that paper that he reached that pitch of egregiosity which so irritates his critic. Banter apart, it is only amongst English journalists that one finds such mauvais confréres, ready to vilify their colleague on a paper in that very paper. In France a person of that description would be scouted out of every salle de rédaction. But no French editor would allow one of his contributors to attack a man de la maison. VOL. VI. NOTES AND NEWS. THE return of MSS. smudged, scored with blue pencils, creased, and soiled, is a common cause of complaint. Here is an illustration of the practice which may be read with profit. It is extracted from the Authors’ Journal of New York. The author speaks : It is a property question, you see: just as if I should send. to some merchant for goods to examine. He sends them, but they prove unsuitable. Then I will wrinkle, deface, and mark them here and there, and return them with thanks, making him pay the postage. Or, suppose I want a tenement and go to an agent. He gives me access to his houses, and as I go through them and find one after the other unsatisfactory, I knock off the plastering here and there, or break a window. Thus emphasising my opinion. Well, I should be fined. But as for my MS. I put all my time and strength into it—it is my capital—and it comes back to me ruined, and I can do nothing ! There are three articles in the Authors' Journal (New York) for February, which deal with the great difficulties encountered by the American author. Somehow, he does not get on. “Most authors are groping ever in the dark, with now and then a ray of light in the shape of popular or personal approval, and in the meanwhile great stretches of dulness and paralysis, so to say, like icy plateaus, in which hope seems to have finally spread her wings and sailed to other skies.” Two or three magazines, it is said, are blocking - the way against American writers. Mr. William Chisholm, however, seems to think that the reason why British novelists are more popular in America than native novelists lies in the single fact that the British novelist produces a superior article: I think one cause of the trouble with American authors is that, although movels pay best, the genius of the people is essentially political and philosophical rather than dramatic. There are no better reviews anywhere than the American, but I am compelled to say, for one, that in the line of the specifically dramatic—in novels and the like, we are still in our earlier stages. Something is lacking. The average American novel seems to die still-born, and those which are most popular do not seem to take permanent lodgment in literature. In poetry I hold that we are superior to the English and are gaining every day. But the intense realism and practical drift of the American people keeps poetry from attaining its true place in the affections of the people. They still read to be amused and entertained, and for this purpose they must have novels—there is no alternative. He tells us, in addition, that “too many people are resorting to literature as a means of liveli- hood, and too many are taking it up from a desire to be famous. It seems, indeed, an almost universal craze in good society.” Miss Margaret D D  ## p. (#586) ################################################ 232 THE AUTHOR. Tee writes to the same effect, and to the same effect is the editorial article. American authors, who, before the International Copyright Act, were ruined by the production of books which cost nothing, have still to face the British author, who costs something to the publisher, but nothing like what he should cost. The sale of the book is necessarily “forced ” by the condition of simultaneous publishing; it is got for compara- tively little; the International Copyright Act came when Americans had become accustomed to books by British authors; the American position “in the opinion of a thinking world is that of a land without the world of letters.” Miss Margaret Lee says: “We can thank our short- sighted Government to-day for our wealthy publishers, enriched for generations by the fruit of English brains, and our despicable position in the opinion of the thinking world as a land without its men of letters. Americans have no sympathy with Genius in rags. Genius must wear fine raiment and be heralded in rich in order to secure attention. So our pilgrims to Parnassus, being unable to feed Genius in her poetical and literary flights, turn the gifts into channels that pro- duce an income.” The report of the Clerkenwell Public Library for 1895 is before me. These reports are always extremely interesting. They would be more valuable if they would offer us some insight into the works read. The following is the classifica- tion of 140,558 volumes issued during the year: Theology, Philosophy, Language and Litera- &c. .................. I565 ture .................. I 183 History, Travel, and Poetry and the Drama 1226 Biography ......... II,078|Fiction and Juvenile 90,381 Social Science ......... I325 Miscellaneous ......... 23,662 Science and Art ...... Io, 138 The whole number of books is 14,882. We should like to know under each head (I) the number of authors; (2) a list of those most often called for; also one would like to see “juvenile ” fiction by itself. Boys and girls read “grown-up " books; we grown-up people do not read boys' and girls’ books. For my own part I am never tired of admiring the change in our social system which places the whole of our literature in the hands of everybody for nothing. Formerly one read what one could get ; all the pocket-money was saved for books; the greatest joy in winning a prize at school was the acquisi- tion of another book; all the books in the family library—in the case I am recalling a very fair collection—were read and read over and over again. But to plunge into the ocean of literature; to reach out one's hands and take down everything —everything; not to desire any more to read the unattainable author and to get the book beyond one’s purse—this would have been a thing beyond the reach of dreams; no one could ever think it possible. Yet it is done. All the treasuries of literature are thrown open to all the world for nothing, to have and to use and to enjoy. There are, however, dangers. It may be, of course, an inestimable advantage that the treasures are there for anyone who values them and knows how to use them. The danger may be that those who use a library like this for nothing may cease to value the individual book and may not care to possess books. Perhaps; but it is the nature and one of the external signs of the true bookish boy that he will always desire to possess books; the possession of his treasure is dear to him. So that I do not think there is much danger under that head. As for the ordinary reader he could not afford to buy books if he wanted to. Now that he can read what he likes for nothing he will still less want to buy books. The enemies of the Free Library main- tain that the people only go there to read “slush.” I don’t think they do ; in the long run the taste of the people is not only wholesome but it is true. The real answer, however, to that objec- tion is much simpler; it is this: that the Library does not, or ought not, to contain any literature which can properly be described by that juicy word. WALTER BESANT. *~ 2. --> LONDON.—LATE NIGHT. Chimes multitudinous tell midnight's hour, The traffic falters in its rush and roar, The pavement's throng, unflagging heretofore, Less frequent grows; the stars have ceased to cower Amid the indefinite blue, but gaining power, Now that the vast smoke-canopy no more The city veils, keep clearer vigil o'er The dense domain of steeple, roof, and tower. With brimming flood the regal river flows Past swarthy banks freed from the fret and din Of craft and crane, a tide of tranced repose, Save for some spot where misery seeks to win Furtive emancipation from its throes, Or shame dissolves its vassaldom to sin. - WILLIAM TOYNBEE. *- - - MAGAZINES FOR THE BLIND. sºme \ | AGAZINES for the blind, printed in a raised type called Braille, are published by the British and Foreign Blind Asso- ciation, 33, Cambridge-square, Hyde Park, W.  ## p. (#587) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 233 Recreation, a magazine for blind adults, is published on the 15th of every month, its year beginning in January. The subscription is 9s. a year, postage free, for the United Kingdom, Ios. for abroad. JPlaytime, a magazine for blind children, is published on the first of every month, its year beginning in June. The subscription to Play- time is the same as that to Recreation. The subscriptions cover the cost of the printing and paper ; the metal plates being given. The publishers make no profit on the sale of the magazines. The serial running in Recreation for this year is “Cécile; a tale of the Kiffir War.” The maga- zine also contains a short tale by Mr. R. D. Blackmore. The serial tale in Playtime is “A Toy Tragedy,” by Mrs. Henry de la Pasture. The market is fortunately a small one. Recrea- tion has seventy-one subscribers, besides many numbers selling from month to month. Play- time has forty subscribers, with also many single numbers selling. The magazines are printed from metal plates. In order to get the raised effect the paper has to be made very damp; in fact reduced almost to a pulp. The plates are warehoused, and reprints taken as required. The two magazines are gradually forming a library of raised type books for the blind. I need hardly point out that the blind have few pleasures. To brighten their lives by cheerful reading is surely doing to others as we would be done by ; only, God save the mark, for I do not think any of us with good sight would wish to try the position of the blind even for a day. FLORENCE NEVILL, Editor of Recreation and Playtime. WAR (AND PEACE), AR is oftener due to moral cowardice than W W to physical courage. War is oftener born of (moral) weak- ness than bred by (mental) wisdom. War is more a matter of emotion than a matter of reason. . . Fear of ridicule oftener makes for war than love of justice. War is one of the common symptoms of the epidemic insanity of nations. “The Peace-at-any-price party’ died young, was still-born, or never conceived. Fools may make war for the sake of their reputation, while the wise must make peace for the sake of their character. History will disastrously repeat herself so long as we are unwise enough to let her. - War is oftener due to bad temper than to good judgment. - Misunderstanding is as much a friend of War as misinterpretation is a foe of religion. So long as poverty and war are assumed to be perpetual they will be perpetuated. It is well to beware of the fool in power who fancies himself a genius. So long as cowardice passes for peace, war will pass for wisdom. The imperious is as often mistaken for the imperial, as the womanish for the womanly. The virtues of warriors are often popularly credited to the evils of war. So long as hot-headedness is mistaken for warm-heartedness, the weak will wish War—to prove themselves wise. Warlike virtues are best utilised in warring with vice and with other waste. - Any fool may make eager war, but only the wise can make educative peace. So long as history remains a popular branch of mythology, war will beset human progress. It is generally far easier to make war from a private room than to make peace from a publi. platform. There are as many crimes committed in the name of honour as there are evils perpetrated in the name of freedom. - Our native planet has never been over-peopled, and never under-fed. No true moral force has ever yet failed, but its counterfeits often may. Were there a higher sense of humour in the world, there would be more wisdom, and therefore less war. Obstinacy is one of the odious offspring of obtuseness. In communities as in individuals, two chief characteristics of youth are an enviable zeal and an amiable ignorance. PHINLAY GLENELG. *— - 2–" g--- AN OLD WORLD OF LETTERS. HAVE before me a bundle of documents rescued, apparently, from the papers of the Dodsleys, father and son, publishers. They cover a period of about twenty years in the middle of the last century. They are fragmen- tary, but at the same time they throw a flood of light upon the material side of literature at that period. This was a time, Knight says, when the book market had become greatly extended; when  ## p. (#588) ################################################ 234 THE AUTHOR. publishers had ceased to carry books about to fairs or to hawk them at country sales; when authors were receiving 200 per cent. above the prices of the early years of the century; when the prices of books ranged from Ios. or 12s. for a quarto to 2s. 6d. or 38. for a duodecimo. It was also a time according to the same authority when “large and certain fortunes’’ were made by publishers. - The following extracts from these papers will furnish unexpected illustrations to the condition of author and publisher in the middle of the last century : I. The position of the author. It is generally believed that at this period the author simply sold his MS. to the publisher for what he could get. According to Dr. Johnson, “A man goes to a bookseller and gets what he can. We have done with patronage. In the infancy of learning we find some great man raised for it. This diffused it among others. When it becomes general an author leaves the Great and applies to the multitude.” In another place, which I cannot for the moment find, he speaks of the public having become the author's patron. Yet, as the publisher who bought the copyright was not obliged to let the author know what it was worth, the public only con- cerned the former while the latter became the servant of the bookseller instead of the servant of the great. However, it was undoubtedly a step in advance. Literature had to pass through the purgatory of servitude and dependence out of which it is only now slowly emerging. In these papers, however, we have examples of other methods. I take them in order. There lies before me, first of all, an agreement between three firms—Andrew Millar, the two Dodsleys, and William Sandby. It is a very simple agreement. It just arranges for an equal division of risk and profit. But the interesting point is that we are still—Anno Domini 1755—in the time when a gentleman thought it derogatory to his dignity to take money for any kind of work, including authors’ work. The author in this case was Sir George Lyttelton, Baronet, and the book was his well known “Life of Henry the Second.” He “gave” the three firms the “benefit” of printing and publishing the book on “certain conditions,” which do not appear. They probably related to the form and date of publication. Now it is absurd to suppose that Sir George Lyttelton knew or cared anything about the business details of publication. He would not have gone to the three firms in question offering to the combined three the copyright of his work for nothing. What he did, most certainly, was to give his copyright to one—probably Robert Dodsley, who seems to have enjoyed the largest share of confidence. Dodsley, regarding the gift of doubt- ful value, risk being then a factor of very great importance, called in two others, with whose assist- ance he embarked on a venture which ought to have paid him well. Noble authors have long since left off presenting their copyrights to publishers, and now ask for agreements. That is because copy- rights now represent, in many cases, property of a very substantial kind. We do not find Byron, who would certainly have tossed a ten pound cheque into the fire, refusing one for £5000. The next papers show that there were cases in which the author did not sell his copyright out- right, but retained some share in it. Thus, on Dec. 25, 1775, Rev. J. Duncombe asks James. Dodsley to pay Mrs. Jane Vigors or order the sum of £2 I and to place the same to her account. And in February, 1789, Ann Smith, executrix to the late Mrs. Vigors, accepts ten guineas of Mr. John Ince, in “full demands on account of the late Mrs. Vigors’ Letters.” Therefore, Mr. J. Duncombe either had an interest in works of his own or he worked regularly for James Dodsley and could draw money on demand. The former is the more likely. In the case of the executrix it is clear that the widow must have had an interest in the book. John Duncombe was a highly respectable person, Vicar of Herne, in Kent, and Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral. He wrote a poem called the “Feminead and Occasional Poems,” some of which are in Nichols’ “Collection ; ” he also edited various books of Letters; his wife also wrote poems. There was a William Duncombe of the generation before John, who wrote transla- tions, and another John Duncombe who wrote an account of his country house in 1739. A family of singing birds ! The late John Duncombe's account of a cricket match written in imitation of Chevy Chase is a sprightly performance. Another case of the author or compiler retain- ing an interest in his copyright is that of Pearch. At the “Globe” on Dec. 21, 1775, there were put up for auction the “following shares' of “Pearch’s Poems ’’:—— A Collection of Poems, “4 vols. with 170 books at . Paper and Print,” 3 s. d. One Fourth ........................ 26 O O Do. One Fourth ........................ 34 IO O Do. One Fourth ........................ 34 O O Do. One Fourth ........................ 42 IO O 3.137 o o Who bought these shares? Why was there any difference between one fourth share and another fourth share P What is the meaning of “4 vols. with 170 books at Paper and Print’ P I do not know. But on Feb. I of the following  ## p. (#589) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 235 year Ann Pearch gives a receipt to Mr. Thomas Evans for the sum of £137 “in full satisfaction for the above-mentioned shares of a collection of poems in four volumes known by the name of “Pearch's Collection of Poems,’ the property of my late husband Mr. George Pearch.” Therefore, the copyright of the work had been the property of the compiler. . In July of the same year Dodsley buys the work of Thomas Evans for exactly the same sum, which is remarkable in the history of trade A letter from Robert Orme, author of the “History of Hindustan,” to Mr. Francis Wing- rave shows that some agreement in the nature of a share in profits had been entered into. He acknowledges the arrival of his account, and begs the publisher to pay “Mrs. Dixon’—a friend or relation—330. He goes on to invite Mr. Wingrave to dine with him at Ealing where he is living. The ordinary hour of dinner was then, among the better sort, about four. But Mr. Orme will arrange the dinner-hour so as to allow his visitor to get back before dark. Now at the end of February it is dark by six, and it would take an hour and a half to get from Ealing to the City, so that the dinner must have been at three. One little touch reveals a delightful wrong-headedness about Mr. Robert Orme. He wants the British Critic to be sent him, and no other magazine. Why? “Because I know one of the gentlemen concerned in the British Critic, and he is an excellent Greek scholar.” Because he knows a contributor to the magazine who is a good Greek scholar, therefore the British Critic is the best magazine out. One more case of retaining a share in the copy- right. When Mr. Adam Adamson wrote his “Dictionary of Commerce,” he retained one- sixteenth share for himself. Growing old—he was born in 1692, and this was in 1763—he sold his share to James Dodsley for £3 1 5s. The whole value of the copyright at that time was therefore estimated at £500, a very considerable sum. We must remember that in those days of a limited book market, although the law might impose a limit to copyright, there were some works which became standard, and could only be re- printed by those who had the plates, on account of the expense of composition. A very curious case is one in which the author or his representative was paid by a certain number of books. It was this. The Rev. Dr. Leland, an Irish divine of great reputation in his day, left behind him at his death a collection of sermons which were offered by his executors to James Dodsley and William Johnstone, book- sellers. They offered to publish the sermons on the following conditions: Four hundred copies of the book were to be given to the widow, with fifty more on a second edition—in full for the copyright. The accounts are preserved—I cannot understand every point in them, but it appears that some modification was made in the agree- ment. The author's rights were valued at £300, The widow received £200 in cash, and took 200 copies, valued at £1 each, in lieu of the remainder. This singular arrangement was probably entered into in order that the widow might dispose of the books to the trade of Dublin and Ireland. Perhaps she saw the way to some advantage to herself by this arrangement. My readers will perhaps remember a curious passage in “Boswell” which shows the view which Johnson took on profit sharing :— Johnson loquitar : “Old Gardener,” the bookseller, employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany called the Universal Visitor. There was a formal written contract which Allen, the printer, saw. They were bound to write nothing else. They were to have, I think, a third of the profits of this sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about literary property. What an excellent instance would it have been of the oppression of poor authors Boswell adds a note to the effect that this extraordinary contract was incredible. The only incredible part is the term of years. No man could possibly bind another for ninety-nine years. What Gardener offered, as we understand it, was a third share on the profits of a magazine on the condition that these two men gave their whole and undivided attention to its welfare. Who would not jump at the third share of, say, the Century magazine, on such conditions P But Johnson understood nothing beyond payment done for work done, the purchaser to make what he could out of it. Although the old con- ditions have changed, some of the old notions survive. A man of letters observed to me the other day that he thought an author ought to take what the publisher chose to give him, and not to trouble about the rest In some cases another payment is promised On the appearance of a second edition. Thus, on Dec. 5, 1761, Mr. Edward Powlett agrees to furnish Mr. James Dodsley with a Catalogue Raisonné of the British Museum for a sum of five guineas; but if a second edition shall be brought out a second sum of five guineas was to be paid. Such a clause in these days would probably appear in the illusory form that, when the second thousand should be sold, a second sum of five guineas should be paid; the second thousand, of course, would never be completed. In the same way there is an agreement between Robert Dodsley and Mr. Archibald Campbell, in which the former undertakes to pay the latter  ## p. (#590) ################################################ 236 THE AUTHOR. 150 guineas for a first edition of 500 copies of a poem. And if this poem went into a second edition he was to pay the author another fifty guineas. The agreement itself is very interesting and deserves to be reproduced. As for the poem, I can learn nothing about it. Memorandum. It is agreed this sixteenth day of March, 1754, betwixt Mr. Archibald Campbell, gent., on the one part, and Mr. Robert Dodsley, bookseller, on the other, as follows, viz.: The said Mr. Campbell doth agree to write an Epic Poem, in 24 books, entitled “Alcides,” the plan and near the quantity of 8 books of which he hath deposited in the hands of the said Mr. Dodsley. In consideration of which the said Mr. Dodsley hath advanced to the said Mr. Camp- bell fifteen pounds fifteen shillings. And the said Mr. Campbell doth further agree to produce to the said Mr. Dodsley once in three months at least one book of the said Poem compleat, till the whole remaining books are finisht, the said Mr. Dodsley agreeing to pay for every such book, when delivered, the sum of 5 guineas. And the said Mr. Dodsley doth further agree that when the said Poem in 24 books is finisint and delivered into his hands, he will make up the sum which the said Mr. Campbell shall then have received on this account one hundred and fifty guineas. And that he will immediately print an edition of 5oo of the said Poem, and if he sells the said edition and prints the work again he will give to the said Mr. Campbell the further sum of 50 guineas, and if he print a third edition 50 guineas more. Or if the said Mr. Dodsley should print 750 of the first edition he doth in that case agree to give the said Mr. Campbell IOO guineas more on printing a second edition, and 50 more on printing a third. Which the said Mr. Campbell doth hereby agree to accept as the full consideration for all his right and property in the copy of the said Poem, as witness our hands the day and year above written. ARCH : CAMPBELL. B. DODSLEY. Let us now consider the sums then paid to authors for their copyrights outright. On the 8th of April, 1749, William Cheselden, surgeon, agrees to concede all his rights in the MS. on the Anatomy of the Human Body, with all the plates, &c., to Robert Dodsley and Charles Hitch, for £2OO. The purchasers then apparently proceeded to shift some of this liability off their own shoulders by selling some of the copyright in sixteenth shares. When the book succeeded, they naturally tried to buy back the shares. Thus in 1771, the book having been then more than twenty years before the public, Dodsley gives six guineas for a sixteenth share. The copyright therefore he must have represented as worth £IOO. In 1778 Dodsley buys another sixteenth share; this time giving £4 7s. for it, so that he thus estimated the copyright as worth £69 12s. We shall consider, presently, the fluctuating value of copyrights. For a bundle of original letters, never before published, written by Alexander Pope to a lady, Dodsley gave in 1769 the sum of £52 12s. 6d.—I wonder what such a collection would be worth now. And for a collection of unpublished letters by Swift the possessor obtained £37 Ios.— which does not seem a large price to pay. For a comedy by Mr. W. Johnston called “The IPlatonic Wife,” the author received £26 5s. I wonder who would give him at the present day the odd 58. for it. Translation work is always poorly paid, so that when Mr. David Creagh undertook his translation of Winckelmann on Herculaneum for ten guineas he probably got as much as he would get now, perhaps more, for the same piece of work. The commercial value of poems and translations seems out of all proportion to what would be their present value. Thus in 1752 Joseph Warton, who had in his desk three Essays on Pastoral, Didactic, and Epic Poetry;. A Life of Virgil; a translation of the Eclogues and Georgics; and notes on the AEneid—in 1896 he would have then taken, on the strength of his reputation as a scholar, on a royalty of Is. a copy (if he was a level-headed man), and would be produced at 6s. Not more than 1500 copies probably would be sold, and his share wonld be £75, while the publisher would make about £90 by the job. Dodsley gave him £22 I for the copyright. Science was already worth something. Henry Baker, the naturalist, in 1753 sold his MS. work, called “Employment for the Microscope,” for the sum of £88 11s. 6d. Probably he was paid so much a sheet, which accounts for the odd SUIDOl. Educational books, also, had begun to possess great value. Thus, while we find, as above, a collection of unpublished letters by Swift going for £37 IOS., Dodsley gave for eight twentieth shares in Lowth's English Grammar, the sum of £315, the whole copyright being valued therefore at £777 Ios. The MSS. of a popular poet recently deceased, we should expect to be valuable. Dodsley gave £300 for those of Shenstone, two years after the poet’s decease. What did the ordinary novelist receive for his, or her, work P I can only give three illustrations from the papers before me. They all belong to lady novelists, who were very active—though the fact has now become rather misty—in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The first case is that of Miss S. Minifie. This lady, on April 22, 1765, parted with the MS. of her novel called “The Histories of Lady Frances and Caroline S.” for the sum of £59. I fear that this lady writing in the present age would have had to take 350 for her rights in the three-volume novel, which would have gone the round of the libraries for nine months—then to be forgotten,  ## p. (#591) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 237 On May 13, in the same year, Miss (or Mrs.) Ann Eliot, less fortunate, received £39 IOS. for her MS. novel called “Indiana Danby.” A lady of greater literary pretensions than either S. Minifie or Ann Eliot was Frances Brooke, née Moore. She was married to a clergyman who held the post of chaplain at Quebec, whither she accompanied her husband. On their return she became one of the earliest of the literary women— I know not if she lived by her pen, probably not; but she wrote continuously and was actually, if not nominally, a professional writer. She wrote two novels, at least. For one of these, “Tady Julia Mandeville,” she received a sum of £IOO. I have before me among these documents a letter from her, addressed to her publisher. It is exactly the kind of letter which one expects from the literary profession. She has been dis- appointed, in fact, of a remittance. Literary folk are always being disappointed of a remit- tance. N. Oakendon, 25th Aug. 1770. Dear Sir, I wrote to you a few days ago to tell you I might probably be obliged to draw on you for £2O. It has happened as I was afraid it would. I am disappointed of a remittance I expected from the country. I have therefore drawn in favour of the Rev. Mr. Parry or Order at thirty days after date, and you will oblige me by accepting the Bill, which I hereby acknowledge to be on account of the translation of the (Memoirs) of the Marquis de St. Forlaix. I expect to hear from you to-morrow in answer to the other particulars in my last. - I am, dear Sir, your most obedient servant, FR. BROOK.E. The rest of the 2nd volume will go to-morrow. The bill is inclosed among the papers. It is drawn on Mr. James Dodsley, who writes after Mrs. Brooke's signature “accepted, J. D.” It is indorsed by Roger Parry and by three other names, to whom it was passed before being taken up by Dodsley. The tone and wording of the letter; the lady's familiarity with the business of a thirty days' draft; indicate clearly the profession of letters, not the occasional indulgence in literary pursuits. Let us next turn to the relations of pub- lishers among themselves. We have seen that risks were divided and sub-divided. This led to a good deal of buying and selling among them- selves of copyrights and shares of copyrights. These sales were conducted by auctions at the Queen's Head Tavern and the Globe, the persons present, it is understood, being only those belong- ing to the trade. Sometimes the amounts realised were so small that one is astonished to find the things put up for sale at all. On Jan. 13, 1746-7, at an auction held at the Queen's Head Tavern, Robert Dodsley bought the following “copies” and “shares of copies.” One guinea was the sum he paid for the first lot; two guineas for the second :— “Life of the Black Prince.” The whole. “The Levee,” a farce. Two-thirds. “Levin's Reports.” Three parts in two volumes. An eighth. “Levin's Entries.” An eighth. “Law of Bastardy.” The whole. “Letters from a Country Whig.” author of “The Caveat.” The whole. “Letters of the Ancients.” A tenth. Machiavelli’s “Works.” Folio. Mrs. Ward’s share. Misson’s “Voyage to Italy.” 4 vols. octavo, 147 in IOOO. “Mechanism of Birds.” 4o. “Memoirs of Savoy.” “Mercurius Politicus.” Two parts. By the I47 in IOOO, I47 in IOOO. Octavo, one sixth. The second lot was as follows: Marshall’s “Penitential Discipline. One half. 3) “Defence of the Constitution.” Ditto. 22 “Sermons on the Queen.” Ditto. 32 “Sermons at Blandel’s Funeral.” Ditto. 22 “Letter to a Clergyman about Oaths.” Ditto. 2 3 “St Cyprian.” Ditto. 33 “Non Danger from Popery.” Two-thirds. Nelson’s “Abridgment.” 3 vols. folio. One-eighteenth. 22 “Rights of the Clergy.” Two-thirds. 22 “Reports in Chancery.” One-sixth. Sir Isaac Newton’s “Chronology.” A ninth. “Systema Mundi.” A ninth. 23 55 39 “Elogium.” A ninth. “Nicholl on the Pulse.” Two-thirds. “Newborough's Copies" (Mr. Osborne's share), consisting of thirty articles. The sum of three guineas purchased the copy- right, or a part of the copyright, of all these works It is amazing. At first I thought that the word “copies" meant single copies of the book; though it is difficnlt to understand book- selling when a single copy has half-a-dozen owners. That it was copyright is proved by the share being in two cases I 47 in a thousand. Now most of these books appear to have been old books: Nelson died in 1720; Marshall, pre- sumably the Dean of Windsor, in 1730; Misson was translated in 1698; Newton died in 1727. The sale then was something like the sale of remainder stock, the purchaser taking over his share of the remainder stock. The way in which these different shares wele worked is shown by an agreement between Jacob Tonson and Robert Dodsley It is dated Dec. 30, I752. The agreement is concerned with a translation of Caesar’s “Commentaries " and his “Discourse on the Art of War,” by one Mr. Duncan. The translator was to be paid by Dodsley, while Tonson for his share was to furnish the plates used for Clarke's edition of Caesar and to pay for the necessary alterations—a clause which makes one feel that the learned Duncan in his new and original translation would be made to stick pretty 32 25 32  ## p. (#592) ################################################ 238 THE AUTHOR. closely to the learned Clarke. Then the two parties to the agreement were to go halves in cost of printing and in receipts—each was to take 200 copies to begin with, and then forty more, and so on until all were gone. Sixteen years later, in 1765, Mr. Longman bought an eighteenth part of the copyright for £1 10s. And in 1771 another eighth was bought by James Dodsley for £2 2s. An instance of the fluctuating value of copy- rights is afforded by two or three entries concern- ing a book called “The Child's Plaything.” On Dec. 15, 1767, James Dodsley bought two twenty- fourth shares of this book, one share for £3 15s. and the other for £4 Ios., each being put up to auction separately. That is to say, the copyright of the book, which meant what remained of former issues and what might be expected to be made by future issues, at £99. twenty-fourth share was sold for £2 11s. The copyright was then worth £6 1 4s. In 1773, four guineas were paid for a twelfth share—the copy- right of the whole was therefore worth £50. On June 5, 1783, sixteen years later, one twenty- fourth share was sold for half a guinea; the value of the copyright having gone down to 312 12s. On May 25, 1784, one twelfth share was sold for £1 16s., so that the value of the copyright had gone up. At these auctions of copyrights there must have been a good deal of speculation. One remarks, however, that people were not so quick to forget a book as they have since become ; a book must be really remarkable to be remembered in these days after seventeen years or more. - The material before us is not sufficient to ascertain the cost of printing. Here are, however, two printed bills. I. Printed for Mr. John Nourse by William 3 s. d. Stenham “Gil Blas,” in French, 2 vols., 37% * sheets. No. IOOO, at £I IOS. .............. ..., 56 5 O March 3, 1770, Knight (“Shadows of the Booksellers”) is responsible for the following: 2. State of the account of “Gibbon's Roman Empire.” Third edition, 1st vol. No. IOOO. April 30, 1777. Printing 90 sheets at £1 6s. with notes at the £ s. d. - bottom of the page......... ........... ........ I 17 O O 18o reams of paper at 19s. ........................ 171 o o Paid the corrector extra care ..................... 5 5 O Advertisements and other incidental expenses 16 15 O *A 3IO O O 39 s. d IOOO books at 16s. .................. 8oo O O . Deduct as above ..................... 31 O O O Profits on this edition ...... 490 O O When sold. - - S Mr. Gibbon's two-thirds is ........................ 326 I3 § 6 Messrs. Stenhan and Cadell's................. • . . . . . 163 490 O O In February, 1771, a Newspapers were already worth something in the year 1747. In that year Mr. Robert Dodsley gave Mr. Richard Nutt the sum of £150 for a fifteenth share in “a newspaper called The London Evening Post”—the whole of which was therefore valued at £2250. It seems little, as newspapers go, nowadays. - Books were sent about the country by waggon. On Nov. 7, 1758, Mr. Sackville Parker—was it Professor Sackville Parker P-writes from Oxford to Mr. Nourse, bookseller, at the Sign of the Tamb, against St. Catherine-street, Strand, ask- ing for certain books; they were to be sent to him by Hibbits's waggon. If he writes for them on Monday, he might perhaps expect them on the Saturday. The following interesting document is a minute of the meeting held at the Chapter Coffee House on Jan. 22, 1745, when four publishers agreed to take upon themselves and to share the risk and the profit on the production of a new magazine: Chapter Coffee House, Jan. 22, 1745. Messrs. Longman, Hitch, Dodsley, and Rivington. Mr. Dodsley produced an agreement between him and Dr. Mark Akinside, signed by both parties, ye purport of which was that Dr. Akinside had engag’d to prepare & have ready for ye press once a fortnight, one Essay, when- ever necessary, for carrying on a Work to be called ye Musaeum, and also to prepare and have ready for ye Press Once a fortnight an account of ye most considerable books in English, Latin, French, or Italian which have been lately published, and which Mr. Dodsley shall furnish—& ye said account of books shall be so much in quantity as along with ye Essays above mentioned may fill a sheet & half in small pica whenever so much is necessary for ye carrying on ye said Design. Dr. Akinside engages to supervise ye whole, and to correct ye proofs ef his own part on con- dition that Mr. Dodsley shall pay to Dr. Akinside fifty pounds on or before ye 27th September. It is further agreed that so long as Mr. Dodsley thinks proper to continue ye paper, and so long as Dr. Akinside consents to manage it, the terms above mentioned shall remain in force, & not less than a Hundred pounds per annum be offer'd by Mr. Dodsley, nor more insisted on by Dr. Akinside. - Mr. Dodsley also reported that he had seen Mr. Camp- bell, who had agreed to write one sheet of historical occurrences for ye said work, but could not yet fix ye terms he should have for ye same. - - It was also agreed that Messrs. Longman, Hitch, and |Rivington should be partners with Mr. Dodsley in the said pamphlet, & that ye same be carried on at ye joint expense of ye said four persons, who shall be equal shares in profit and loss that may arise by ye sale thereof, & that no other partner be adımitted into ye said work. And it is further agreed that, as Mr. Dodsley has apply'd to several Gentlemen for Essays, poems & other pieces for this work, that ye Copyright of all such Essays, poems & other pieces shall remain to Mr. Dodsley excepting such as are wrote by Dr. Akinside, which are to be ye property of ye 4 Persons concern’d in this said Musaeum, as shall also ye Historical Occurrences. - - In witness whereof the parties above mentioned have sett their hands the day & date above mentioned. THO. LONGMAN & Co. R. DoDSLEY. w" CHARLES HITCH. JoHN RIVINGTON & Co.  ## p. (#593) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 239 We will conclude these extracts with a letter written by an author to his pmblisher on the pro- duction of a second edition—not that the letter illustrates anything, but because it has a pleasant old world flavour. The author, observe, points out that he ineans to have his say in the advertise- ment of the book. SIR,--I left the three sheets of the work at Mr. Hamilton’s. I did not see Mr. Hamilton himself, but I acquainted his overseer what the alterations are which are to be made in the plan of it. He told me Mr. H. would probably see you on Sunday in order to settle the plan, &c. The quantity of matter I observe, as far as I have gone, has been more than double what it was before ; which edition will, I calculate, fully supply the vacant columns and blank spaces, which there is now no occasion for, and the book will be about the same size as it now is, exclusive of the index, which will be about three sheets more I suppose. The size of the page I hope you will think with me will be best in octavo. The paper, you will excuse me if I just observe to you, was not in the last edition good enough. On looking over some letters I have, I find some complaints on that head, which I am sure you will put it out of their power to make in this edition. You mentioned that you should pay £30 at the time of my delivery of the first sheets; I should therefore be obliged to you for it if you will let it be sent to Mr. Symons’, merchant, Princes-street, Lothbury, who will give you a receipt for me. Before you advertise the book, I shall be glad if you will hear from me again—as I shall give you a few hints which will be necessary to be observed. I am Sir, your most humble servant, JELINGER SYMONs. I hope to receive a proof sheet in a few days, and that I shall be able to furnish two sheets a week. What do we learn from these papers? In the first we learn what a very small and uncertain thing the demand for books—especially new books—was a hundred and fifty years ago. We see the publishers venturing into the market by clinging together; they divide even a little book into eight, sixteen, twenty shares; they hold auctions constantly at which they put up for sale these shares, trying to get into their own hands those which are profitable and getting rid of those which look fall in value. Sometimes they have auctions of copyrights of which a round dozen are not worth more than a guinea. When a book of undoubted historical value is given to a publisher by its author, he calls in two or three of his fellows and they join together in the risk. They buy a collection of letters by Pope for £50, and one by Swift for £37. Everything is little ; everything connected with the business shows that the market was very limited; that it was uncertain; that the risk in producing almost any book was very real. A very narrow market. Yes: but then its narrow limits acted in an unexpected way; for if a book got into one house and was talked about likely to it got into all. “My book,” says Gibbon, “is on every table.” As for discounts: thirteen as twelve; or reduc- tions for a large subseription, we read nothing. When we consider the authors’ side we find that they regarded the commercial side of their pro- fession to mean simply that they were to sell their work to the bookseller for as much as they could get. Hence the use of the word “generosity’; hence, when men began to live by writing, the bending back and the outstretched hand which have done so much to ennoble and to dignify the profession of literature. The selling of books was regarded by the writer as a kind of gamble, or speculation. As for keeping a share in his own property, he did not know that it was property. Even in the case of Johnson with the Dictionary, it never so much as occurred to him that he was creating a noble property in which he ought to retain a share, and that a large share. It may be urged that it was a period in which, as we have seen, every new book was brought out as a risk to the venturer. Yet, what does Charles Enight, who knew the subject better than anyone before him, or since, say of this very period? “’Twas, in many respects, the golden age for publishers, when large and certain fortunes were made; when there was not a great deal of gambling spirit in the business.” “Large and certain fortunes ’’ Then what about these risks P. The word “large” is not to be accepted in its present sense, and the word “certain " means only that by dividing risk and so mini- mising possible loss, the publishers avoided dangers while they lost the chance of great coups. W. B. * LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS, WITHOUT PREJUDICE [about Authors and Publishers]. I. Zangwill. Pall Mall Magazine for March. THE NEw POET LAUREATE. John Dennis. Leisure How' for March. THE BRITISH MUSEUM : The Departments. Sir E. Maunde Thompson, K.C.B. Leisure Howr for March. THE TREATMENT OF MEDICINE IN FICTION. Caroline W. Latimer, M.D. New Science Review for January. IMAGINATION. Arthur Lovell. New Science Review for January. CRITICISM As THEFT. Professor William Knight. Nineteenth Century for February. PEREDA, THE SPANISH NovKLIST. Hannah Lynch. Con- temporary Review for February. THE EvoluTION OF EDITORs. Leslie Stephen. National Review for February. ENDURING CHARACTERISTICS OF MACAULAY. T. Brad- field. Westminster Review for February. AUTHORITY IN LITERARY TASTE. Speaker for Feb. 22. CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT. Speaker for Feb. I. THE BIOGRAPHER. Speaker for Feb. 8.  ## p. (#594) ################################################ 24O THE AUTHOR. POPULAR WRITERS AND PRESS CRITICS. Review for Feb. 8. AN EvKNING WITH MALLARME. for Feb. 22. AN AUTHOR's ComPLAINT. Letters from J. W. D. and George Redway. Athenaewm for Feb. I. DANGER SIGALS IN NovKLS. Nation for Jan. 23. AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF THOMAS PAINE. for Feb. 6. THE REAL PETER PARLBY. Bookseller for Feb. 7. THE PUBLISHERs' AssocIATION. Bookseller for Feb. 7. THE Associate:D BookSELLERs. Bookseller for Feb. 7. NOTABLE REVIEws. Satwrday Z. Z. Literary World Nation Of Walter Pater’s “Miscellaneous Studies.” Campbell Dodgson. Academy for Feb. 8. Of Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure.” Saturday Review for Feb. 8. - Of Professor Saintsbury’s “Literature of the Nineteenth Century.” Times for Feb. 14. Of J. M. Robertson’s “Buckle Athenæum for Feb. 22. Of Mr. Gladstone’s edition of Butler. Feb. 22. Of D. J. O’Donoghue's Life of William Carleton. Chronicle for Feb. 22. Of Miss Rossetti's “New Poems.” Feb. 22. Mr. Zangwill discourses at good length on the relation of author and publisher. The methods of the Trade Union are only partially applicable to the author, but even the possible has not yet been done. “There is nothing but a registered disorganisation. What the publishers are really afraid of is not a society but a man”—the agent. Publishers may rave as they will, but authors have every right to employ agents to save them from the unpleasant task of chaffering and of speaking highly of themselves. And it is the author who pays the agent, not the publishers, their whinings notwithstanding. The agent may indeed squeeze out larger sums than publishers like to disgorge— but how can he obtain more than the market value P Political economy is dead against the possibility. As for the right of the author to reckon his expenses of research, equally with the publisher reckoning his office expenses, in the cost of production, it is not only an ethical fallacy but a politico-economical one, “because the economical question is only concerned with the distribution of the work, and the money or the heart's blood that went to make it has nothing to do with the question, while the publisher's office expenses are of the essence of the question.” He excuses the publisher making successful books pay for un- successful; and allows him the right to capture the bulk of the profits of the author's first books, because they largely supply the author with his public—“but when a popular author brings a publisher a book it is he who improves the publisher's distributing agency.” Mr. Zangwill at the same time strikes at the root of the publisher's existence by prophecying that he will become more and more the mere distributor, if indeed he be not eliminated by a mechanical and His Critics.” Speaker for Daily Saturday Review for organisation. “The popular author needs only a central store to supply the trade with his printed writings, the cost of production of which is covered by the first day's sales.” Writing upon “An Author's Complaint” in the Athenæum, “J. W. D.” says that similar cases have come under his notice, and “in every instance where a bookseller has ticketed my books above the published price, it has immediately been rectified when his attention has been called it.” He thinks simple ignorance, therefore, the cause. Mr. Redway sends to the same journal opinions he has received upon his letter in favour of abolishing the net system of book-selling (summarised in this column last month). The Associated Booksellers have been conferring on this subject at their annual meeting, but with no definite end. One species of argument used was that the attainment of an adequate profit was the real matter, the precise method of reaching it being comparatively immaterial. At the Pub- lishers’ Association to frame rules, Mr. Frederick Macmillan said he entirely refused to believe in the hostility between authors and publishers often alluded to in the Press. The interests of the two, he continued, must always be inseparable. With regard to the booksellers, the saying was equally true, and the newly-formed Publishers’ Associa- tion would try to release them from the thraldom of excessive discounts. On the question of Canadian Copyright the Speaker is pleased that the position taken up by the Colonial Office, that legislation on copyright was beyond the province of the Dominion Parlia- ment, has now apparently been dropped. But it has never been able to see that the loss of what may be called automatic copyright in Canada is a very serious matter to British authors. “The English-speaking people of Canada number perhaps three millions, and are chiefly farmers with little time, money, or inclination for buying books.” Our contemporary thinks that :— If by using Canadian pirate publishers as a lever, we could force the United States into the league of civilised nations which have assented to the Berne Convention, the game might be worth playing. |Because, while the writers of established reputation draw rich revenues from the United States, the poorer man and the beginner are robbed as brazenly as ever. The article also impresses the necessity of careful consideration of the Canadian authors’ rights in other countries, because—French or English—he can never hope to make a large income out of his own people. Moreover— The only protection which is of any real use to the writer must be a world protection, and that world protection can only be secured by Canada assenting to the rule of inter- national equality, which was decreed at Berne.  ## p. (#595) ################################################ THE 24. I A UTHOR. Discussing Professor Courthope's inaugural lecture in the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, as to what tribunal society can create to pronounce effectively on questions of literary taste, the Speaker does not agree with the Professor's objections to an English Academy on the French model—“officialism ‘’ not being an English fail- ing, while “true originality” would be the strongest title to admission to the ranks of such Academy. Nevertheless, it concedes that, so long as the school of English literature runs on the lines of scholarship in its widest sense, it may at least form a genuine school of English culture, and help to educate the public mind as to the requirements of a literary style. The letter by Thomas Paine which Mr. Moncure D. Conway sends to the Nation, was written from Paris in January, 1797, to Colonel Fellows, book- seller in New York, with whom the writer dis- cussed arrangements about publishing his books. We extract this brief long-ago glimpse of Paine's view and experience in this way:- You ask me by your letter to Mr. Caritat for a list of several works in order to publish a collection of them. This is an undertaking I have always reserved for myself. It not only belongs to me of right, but nobody but myself can do it; and as every author is accountable (at least in reputation) for his works, he only is the person to do it. & tº I have sustained so much loss by disinterested- ness and inattention to money matters and by accidents, that I am obliged to look closer to my affairs than I have done. Lately Mr. Andrew Lang entered his protest against so-called “scissors-and-paste ’’ criticism ; now Professor Knight finds fault with modern methods. He is alarmed for the risk that the professional critic, undertaking too much work, may review many books without reading them, and that unless he is somehow discovered and just sentence passed upon him, he will often return a biassed verdict on the literature that passes through his hands. All injustice is theft, he says; and he makes the rather striking point that papers which publish extracts from a book or a magazine defraud the public—besides, of course, taking from the author and hurting the publisher—because the public is deprived of the liberty of knowing in its integrity what some of the ablest writers of the time have had to say. The assumption is that the public believes it is getting the “integrity” with the , extracts. Throughout the article runs a note of welcome to the just critic who can be severe, as we are suffering from a vast amount of trivial production —“we have a modern literary swarmery, as we have a modern social proletariat.” The Pro- fessor admits that the function of the modern critic is singularly ill-defined. He chiefly wants full knowledge, judicial impartiality, and readi- ness to appreciate what is new if it be a genuine development of latent tendencies. The article on “Medicine in Fiction ” is in the nature of a protest against the “vague, false, and impossible statements that are scattered broadcast by almost every novelist.” The sug- gestion—which may be ironieal—is made that the sources of correct information should be “occasionally consulted; ” also that good taste should be displayed. George Eliot's works are held up admiringly for their correct treatment of such cases. The writer, however, advises the avoidancee of medical subjects altogether as themes for novels. The Nation says that the “danger-signal—i.e., the indication of the subject treated in certain novels—should be placed on the cover instead of in the preface, to be truly effective; and that the change from the old custom under which English fiction might be left to free publishing and reading, may signify a gain for art, but certainly means “a loss to our comfort, to our traditions, to our manners.” *-*. BOOK TALK, appearance of a new magazine entitled Sisters,under the editorship of Mrs. Elizabeth Hooper, and published by S. W. Partridge and Co. Its first number appeared in December. It is devoted to the interests of women in their social rights, although it is not by any means in sympathy with the New Woman. It has for its main object the mutual help, com- fort, and advancement, and the founding of free homes for indigent and invalid gentlewomen. Among its popular features, a new and original recitation by Mrs. Albert S. Bradshaw appears every month, and an instructive page on the art of elocution. Messrs. Jarrold have just issued a new illus- trated edition of “Old Caleb’s Will,” by Frances Armstrong. Price 38. 6d. Miss Jean Middlemass will shortly run a serial called “The Case of David Lisle,” through the National Press Agency Syndicate of News- papers. The second edition of Mr. Mackenzie Bell's “Spring's Immortality and other Poems ” being sold out, the publishers, Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden, are about to issue a third edition in which the author has made some revisions, parti- cularly in the poem entitled “The Taking of the Flag” \ W YE have hitherto neglected to notice an  ## p. (#596) ################################################ 242 THE AUTHOR. The lecture at the Imperial Institute, by Mr. James Baker, author of “John Westacott,” &c., was an undoubted success. The subject of the lecture, “Egypt of To-day,” is always interest- ing, and the lecturer's treatment elicited frequent applause. The views, of which over sixty were shown, were from snap shots taken by Mr. Baker; they represented the natives in religious cere- monies, groups around the temples and tombs, Scenes on the Nile and in the native houses, prisons and schools. Lord Monkswell has written a novel, which will be published by Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. under the title of “ Kate Grenville.” “The Romance of Rahere,” by Edward Hardingham. (Elliot Stock.) — The poems in this book are presumably by one who now makes his first appearance in public. The poem which gives its title to the volume is about 150 pages in length; the other twelve are nearly all of good length. In these days of tiny volumes it is pleasing to have one poet not afraid of a sustained flight. Let Mr. Hardingham speak for himself in the following: PERDIDI DIEM | Nigh a baker's shop A man stood wistful——in his arms a child Asleep of weariness. Alas! beguiled By pleasant converse with a friend, to stop I thought not, but passed by—Perdidi diem Perdidi diem After, at my meal, My pets about me jealous each of each, A weary face, more eloquent than speech, Rose up, Egyptian guest. I could but feel The sting of thoughtlessness—Perdidi diem Perdidi diem “Evermore the poor Ye shall have with you.” Thus the Lord of all. Ah, God, how oft they look, they sigh, they call! We pass them careless by, or close the door. Forgive me, Lord, for oft—Perdidi diem Perdidi diem : Down the village street A-dust with summer heat, and broader road, Self-judged and self-condemned, I eager strode ; A mile, then two, and three, yet could not greet Again the wanderer pair—Perdidi diem Perdidi diem | Sorrowful at heart Returning home, I vowed no more for shame Ill felt, or pride, or selfish ease, the claim Of outcast to repel, or hunger smart Of poverty to quicken, lest one day The God alike of rich and poor should say. Tu perdidisti diem, servant Mine. Non perdidisti diem, dost thou lift A wormling out the path of hurrying men; Dost save a moth from flame; the guiltless wren Release from snare, or straying beetle shift Back to its burrow ; but at close of day Canst peaceful sleep to dream thy Lord doth say, Non perdidisti diem, servant Mine ! “The Exiles: a Romance of Life.” By Marcus S. C. Rickards. (London: George Bell and Sons.) This is a single poem told in about a hundred and fifty pages with songs and lyrics interspersed. Read, for instance, the following:— GOLD at the peep of dawn, Waxing to noon, Then by slow stealth withdrawn; Gray afternoon, Weiling a watery sun, Herald of rain begun, Weeping till Night hath won Her silver moon. Gold in the soft spring-time, Deepening to splendour Of the gay summer-prime, Till autumn tender Lose her tints, tears, and sighs, In gray despairing skies, Ere in cold silvery guise Calm winter end her. Gold in the curls that tell Childhood’s bright story— Oft lovelier mid the spell Of Youth’s full glory— Fading with Hope's fair gleam, Gray as the wept-for dream, Till silvery quiet beam In locks all hoary. Silver at dawn of Love, Cold, clear, disdaining. Then gray around, above— Sigh, gust, and raining. Ere the sun stream in gold, Deepening till all behold Love, that ne'er waxes old, And knows no waning. Mrs. Hodgson Burnett has completed a new novel of the time of Queen Anne, called “A Lady of Quality,” and Messrs. Warne will publish it immediately. Mr. E. F. Benson is engaged upon a romance laid in Greece during the War of Independence. The author of “Dodo’’ was recently sojourning in Greece, in connection with the operations of the British School of Archaeology. Mr. Allen Upward calls his new novel “A Crown of Straw,” which will relate to the late king of Bavaria. It will be published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Some months ago we announced “The Herb Moon,” by “John Oliver Hobbes.” It is now stated that the heroine of this story, which is to be published shortly, is of “a noble type of womanhood;’ and, moreover, that the author has now abandoned stories of the type of her “The Gods,” “Some Mortals,” and “Lord Wickenham.” The third volume of Mr. Herbert Spencer's “Principles of Sociology” may be expected by the summer, and in it will be included his brief work on “Ecclesiastical Institutions.”  ## p. (#597) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 243 Mr. Lecky has written an introduction to “A Life Spent for Ireland: Leaves from the Diary of W. J. O’Neill Daunt.” Mr. Clark Russell’s novel, in three volumes, “The Tale of the Ten,” and Mr. Crockett's “Cleg Kelly,” will both be published immediately. Distinctive interest attaches to the forthcoming poem by Mr. Robert Buchanan (which will appear immediately), from the fact that the author is also the publisher. This attitude will be explained in a pamphlet by Mr. Buchanan, who calls the ordinary publisher “a barnacle on the bottom of the good ship Literature, yet pre- suming to criticise the quality of the cargo in the hold.” In the same way he will himself deal direct with the bookseller upon all other works he may publish in the future. The title of the poem is “TheDevil's Case: a Bank Holiday Interlude.” Mr. John Stafford is a new writer who will appear with a volume of stories, entitled “Doris and I,” to be published by Messrs. Chatto. For Mr. William Archer’s “Theatrical World of 1895,” to appear soon, Mr. Pinero has written a prefatory letter, mainly reminiscent of his early days at Edinburgh, while Mr. H. G. Hibbert supplies a synopsis of playbills. Mdme. Stepniak is preparing a biography of her late husband, the well-known Russian agitator. The Russian section of it will be edited by Prince Kropotkin. Chapters on Stepniak as a critic, Stepniak as a political writer, and Stepniak in Italy, will be contributed respectively by Professor York Powell, Mr. Edward Garnett, and Malatesta, the Italian anarchist. A Russian romance has, by the way, just been completed by Mr. William Le Queux, entitled “The Nihilist Spy: Being the Strange Adventures of Anton Prehzneff.” Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden will publish the story. The postman poet, Mr. James D. Hosken, has written a tragedy in three acts about “Christo- pher Marlowe,” which is its title; also a harle- uinade in doggerel called “Belphegor.” They will be published together in one volume by Messrs. Henry and Co. very soon. Should health attend him, Mr. Justin M*Carthy contemplates renewed literary activity now that he has given up the duties of leadership in the Irish Parliamentary Party. He has in prospect, for instance, the completion of his “History of Our Own Times” by bringing it down to the present day, a memoir of the Pope, a three- volume novel, and a collection of short stories. Add to these his own Reminiscences, and the list seems richly promising. The autobiography of Mary Anderson will be ready at Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine's, in a few days' time. Next month the same house will issue the second portion of the Barras memoirs. In the course of the spring season they will also publish a work by Professor Garner, of “the language of the monkey tribe’” fame, giving his experiences during his late visit to West Africa. The Professor spent four months in an iron cage in the forest of the French Congo, with only the companionship of his subjects of study, the wild beasts. Mr. Arthur Waugh supplies notes and an intro- duction to a new edition of Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets,” which Messrs. Kegan Paul have in the press. It will consist of six volumes, published monthly, and there will be thirty portraits in it of the chief poets. Mr. Le Gallienne has edited for Mr. Lane a reprint of “The Compleat Angler,” from the 1676 edition. Two hundred drawings by Mr. Edmund H. New will be given throughout the twelve parts, issue of which begins now. Another work to be published by Mr. Lane is “The Feasts of Autolycus: The Diary of a Greedy Woman,” being articles on cookery by Mrs. Pennell, which have been published in the Pall Mall Gazette. Mr. F. Marchmont, a London secondhand book- seller, is compiling a “Handbook of Anonymous Literature,” which, while not pretending to be comprehensive in scope, will index about 2000 works. 2 “Hans Breitmann’’ is about to issue, through Messrs. Chatto and Windus, a book on the some- what quaint topic of “mending and repairing.” He has gone conscientiously about it by experi- menting in particular cases and discussing the latest technological works, and he knows no book in any language which covers the same ground as it will. The new editor of the Edinburgh Review is the Hon. Arthur Elliot, brother to the Earl of Minto, and sometime Member of Parliament for the county of Roxburgh. February witnessed the sudden departure (owing to differences with the proprietor) from the editorial chair of the Pall Mall Gazette of Mr. Cust, M.P., who has been succeeded temporarily by Sir Douglas Straight until, as it is understood, an American editor appears. Mr. E. T. Cook has succeeded Sir John Robinson in the editorship of the Daily News; and his assistant, Mr. J. A. Spender, now follows him as editor of the Westminster Gazette. Mr. Murray has in his possession letters and other documents written by and relating to  ## p. (#598) ################################################ 244 THE AUTHOR. Byron, including the poet’s own continuation of “Don Juan,” and other fragments, with the aid of which he is about to prepare a final and com- plete edition. r - Miss Florence Marryat's new story is con- cerned with Spiritualism, and the title is “The Strange Transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs.” Messrs. Hutchinson, who will publish this book soon, have also in hand a novel by Miss Marie Corelli, entitled “The Mighty Atom.” New stories by Mr. Frankfort Moore, “In Our Hours of Ease;” Mr. Morley Roberts, “The Great Jester: being some Jests of Fate; ” and Mr. Percy Russell, “A Cumberland Tragedy,” are announced by Messrs. Mentz, Kenner, and Gelberg for early publication. Mr. Gabriel Setoun calls his next novel “Robert Urquhart.” It will come from Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster, who are also issuing “A Willage Drama,” a new story by “W. Schallen- berger,” the pseudonymic author of “Green Tea.” The most important publication during February was Slatin Pasha's book, “Fire and Sword in the Soudan: a Personal Narrative of Fighting and Serving the Dervishes, 1879-95 (Arnold). The iniquities and cruelties of the Mahdi's rule are graphically set forth in a work which, if ever one was, will be acknowledged to have been dearly bought by its writer. Of purely literary interest, Professor Saintsbury’s “History of Nineteenth Century Literature" (Macmillan) was notable. The period, says the writer, need fear no comparison in poetry. “In prose fiction it stands alone.” “In “making’—prose or verse —no time leaves record of performance more dis- tinguished or more various.” Mr. R. D. Blackmore has a volume of four short stories coming out presently, Messrs. Sampson Low being the publishers. His new long story, “Dariel: a Romance of Surrey,” will appear first in Blackwood’s Magazine. The biography of the late Frederick Engels, which his executor, Mr. E. Bernstein, is preparing, will be published under the title “Frederic Engels, the Founder of Scientific Socialism : His Work and his Associations.” From a list drawn up by the Publishers' Weekly of America, it appears that during 1895 there were published in America. 3396 books by American authors and 2073 by English authors. In fiction, however, the proportion was 827 English to 287 American; while in poetry, bio- graphy, and travel English books were also more numerous. In works of history, theology, law, and medicine, the balance is distinctly on the American side; while in books on sport and amusement the Transatlantic reading public evi- dently divide their favour equally. An uncommon kind of story, vide the pub- lishers' announcement, is shortly to be published by a lady writer through Messrs. Hutchinson. The heroine of “In a Silent World” is a deaf and dumb girl, and the tale, says the authoress in her preface, “seeks to depict the introspection of a soul pent up, prison-like, between the walls of a great affliction, whose only mode of express- ing the emotions is by the pen.” - Mr. H. D. Traill's biography of Sir John Franklin will be published during the spring by Mr. Murray. A catalogue of Mr. Whistler's lithographs is being compiled, with descriptive matter, by Mr. T. R. Way for the guidance of collectors and connoisseurs. The edition will consist of only 125 copies, at IOS. 6d. each, and there will be as frontispiece a portrait of Mr. Whistler by himself, in stump lithography. Messrs. Bell and Sons will publish the list. “English in American Universities.” (Boston, U.S.A.: D. C. Heath and Co.) Here are twenty accounts of the English courses in representative American colleges, each written by a professor and, with two exceptions, reprinted from the Dial. In an introduction to the book, Mr. W. M. Payne, of that journal, discusses the shortcomings of their higher instruction in English, but remarks that, however far it may be from the fulfilment of its whole ambition, it is eager in its outlook for higher things. Two new series of works of fiction are announced, namely, “The Leisure Library,” to be begun by Messrs. Hutchinson with a volume entitled “The Second Opportunity of Mr. Staple- hurst,” from the pen of Mr. W. Pett Ridge; and “The Yellow Library,” which follows on the wind-up of the “Pseudonym " series of Mr. Fisher Unwin, and will open with a volume from Canon Jessopp. At the Frere book-sale the famous Paston Letters were bought over for the British Museum. A copy of the rare Kilmarnock edition of Burns brought 3121—a record price for it—at Messrs. Sotheby's on the 21st ult.; and first editions of Dickens’s “Pickwick’’ and “Tale of Two Cities,” in the original numbers, sold for £13 5s. and £10 5s., respectively. Of Scott, “Guy Man- nering,” first edition, was bought for £7 7s., “The Antiquary" for £3 5s.; “Rob Roy,” 25, and the first and second series of “Tales of my Landlord,” 3916. 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 10 (March 1896) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 06 Issue 10 (March 1896) 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 1896-03-02-The-Author-6-10 publications The Author