https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/317/1898-06-01-The-Author-9-1.pdf 915932377792781f2656659a189d2b20 PDF Text Text ���������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1898-06-01 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages Page range in volume 1–28 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18980601 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin ^Tbe Butbor, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. IX.—No. i.] JUNE i, 1898. [Price Sixpence. For the Opinions expressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as expressing the collective opinions of the Committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. THE Seoretary 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. GENERAL MEMORANDA. FOB some years it has been the practice to insert, in every number of The Author, certain "General Con- siderations," Warnings, Notices, Ac, for the guidance of the reader. It has been objected as regards these warnings that the tricks or frauds against which they are directed cannot all be guarded against, for obvious reasons. It is, however, well that they should be borne in mind, and if any publisher refuses a olause of precaution he simply reveals his true character, and should be left to carry on his business in his own way. Let us, however, draw up a few of the rules to be observed in an agreement. There are three methods of dealing with literary property:— I. That of selling it outright. This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper price can be obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a competent agent. II. A profit-sharing agreement. In this case the following rules should be attended to: (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro- duction forms a part. (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements VOL. IX. in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise- ments. (3.) Not to allow a special charge for " office expenses," unless the samo allowance is made to the author. (4.) Not to give np American, Colonial, or Continental rights. (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher. As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or doctor! (7.) To stamp the agreement. III. The royalty system. In this system, which has opened the door to a most amazing amount of overreaching and trading on the author's ignorance, it is above all things necessary to know what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible for an anthor to ascertain approximately and very nearly the truth. From time to time the very important figures connected with royalties are published in The Author. Headers can also work out the figures themselves from the "Cost of Production." Let no one, not even the youngest writer, sign a royalty agreement without finding out what it gives the publisher as well as himself. It has been objected that these precautions presuppose a great success for the book, and that very few books indeed attain to this great success. That is quite true: but there is always this uncertainty of literary property that, although the works of a great many authors carry with them no risk at all, and although of a great many it is known within a few copies what will be their minimum circulation, it is not known what will be their maximum. Therefore every author, for every book, should arrange on the chance of a success which will not, probably, come at all; but which may come. The four points which the Society has always demanded from the outset are:— (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement means. (2.) The inspection of those aaoount books which belong to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or withheld. (3.) That there shall be no secret profits. (4.) That nothing shall be charged which has not been actually paid—for instance, that there shall be no charge for advertisements in the publisher's own organs and none for exchanged advertisements and that all disaounta shall be duly entered. If these points are carefully looked after, the author may rest pretty well assured that he is in right hands. At the same time he will do well to send his agreement to th secretary before he signs it. B 2  ## p. 2 (#14) ############################################### 2 THE AUTHOR. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. Ij^VEEY member has a right to ask for and to receive ■ "J 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 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, yon 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 every- thing important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The Committee have now arranged for the reception of members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. NOTICES. E 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. 6i2. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make The Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write? Communications for Tlie 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 whicb 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 present location of the Authors' Club is at 3, White- hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, Ac. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year? 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 following warning. 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? "Those who possess the 'Cost of Production' requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 1 per cent." This clause was inserted three or four years ago. Estimates have, however, recently been obtained which show that the figures in the book may be relied on as nearly correct: as near as is possible. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the " Cost of Production" for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pooket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. LITERARY PROPERTY. I. — The Position of British Authors in Germany. WITH reference to the statements that appeared in the newspapers in the Spring with regard to the International copyright question with Germany, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has transmitted to the secretary of the Society of Authors the accompanying note, to be laid before the Society, which has been received from the German Ambassador relative to the position of British authors in Germany. rjxa  ## p. 3 (#15) ############################################### THE AUTHOR. 3 [Copy. Translation.] German Embassy, London, April 28, 1898. My Lord,—In your note of the 23rd ult., Your Excellency asked for information -on certain doubtful points in connection with the legal posi- tion of English authors as regards their right to protection against the reprinting or reproduction of their works, under the laws now in force in Germany. Your Excellency observed, in particular, that when the old Conventions ceased to have force in England, the same protection was continued there to German works as they had enjoyed while those conventions were in force. Similarly, in Germany properly acquired rights are protected quite as effectively, although in a different manner. For English works which, until Dec. 16 last, were protected in Germany under the old Conventions, have since enjoyed the protection given by the Agreement of Berne and the Supplementary Act of Paris. As the provisions of the new Conven- tions referred to are in some respects much more favourable, English interests are not in any way injured by this arrangement. Germany does not ask English authors or their heirs to go through any formalities in order to have the pro- tection of their works continued. The Imperial Decree of Nov. 29, 1897, and the notice in the Central-Blatt of 1898, page 85, only contain transitional provisions intended to protect the legitimate interests of German tradesmen against the retrospective force of the Agreement of Berne; they are based on the same principle as the reservation made in sect. 6 of the Inter- national Copyright Act, 1886: (" Provided that, where any person has before the date of the publication of an Order in Council lawfully pro- duce any work in the United Kingdom," &c.) I have the honour to communicate these explanations to Your Excellency in accordance with instructions received, and I beg to refer you, for information in detail, to the enclosed paper of replies to the questions contained in the enclosure to your note of the 23rd ult. My Government trust that these explanations will completely remove all the doubts which, as Your Excellency states, have arisen from the form of our withdrawal from the Copyright Conven- tions between Germany and England. I have, &c. (Signed) P. Hatzfeldt. The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., &c. [Copy. Translation.] Replies to the Questions of Her Majesty's Government. 1. In Germany English authors who have hitherto been protected in accordance with the Conventions no longer in force are now protected in accordance with the Agreement of Berne. For, according to Article 14 and No. 4 of the Final Protocol, that Agreement is applicable to all works which have not yet become common property in their country of origin. The pro- tection of English works is not in any way diminished by the circumstance that the Agree- ment of Berne has taken the place of the old Conventions; on the contrary, the Agreement of Berne is in some respects more favourable to English works. In particular, the authors of the older English works also will in future be pro- tected against translations under Article 1, sect. 3, of the Paris Supplementary Act of May 4, 1896. It follows from what is stated above that, in consequence of the termination of the Conven- tions, English works have in some respects obtained a protection in Germany which they did not enjoy before. This circumstance made transition regulations necessary, for which No. 4, paragraph 3 of the Final Protocol of the Agree- ment of Berne was taken as a basis. It is possible that some one in Germany may, while the old Conventions were in force, have made use of, or been about to make use of, an English work for purposes of gain, quite legally, because, as the law then stood, there was no prohibition. One case is of practical importance. A certain English work which was not protected, or was no longer protected, against translation in Germany, was translated without the sanction of the author or his representative. According to general prin- ciples, which are followed in Great Britain as well as in other countries, a change in the law, that is in this case the newly introduced protection of English works against translation, must not have the effect of preventing interested parties in Germany from benefiting by arrangements law- fully made by them. Steps have, therefore, been taken to make it lawful within certain limits for the parties concerned to do certain things which it was lawful for them to do until the termination of the Conventions, but which, if special regula- tions had not been made, would have been an in- fringement of the rights of English authors. In particular, it was necessary, in view of the exten- sion of the protection against translations, to give permission for the distribution of translations of old English works which were lawfully made to continue. The sole object of the Imperial Decree of November 29,1897 {Imperial Gazette, No. 787) and the Notice of February3,1898 {Central-Blatt, No. 85) was to meet these cases. 2. According to the regulations referred to above, the distribution and sale of impressions of an English work lawfully made are allowed, although the work now enjoys in Germany the  ## p. 4 (#16) ############################################### 4 THE AUTHOR. protection of the Agreement of Berne, in conse- quence of the termination of the Conventions. The copies must, however, have been stamped before March 31 of this year. If this condition has not been complied with the distribution of the copies is illegal; if the rule is infringed the copies are confiscated, and the persons responsible are punished if the infraction is wilful or the result of carelessness. Similarly, the employment of moulds, plates,. &c., which were in existence before the termination of the Conventions will be considered to be a reprinting or illegal reproduc- tion of the protected English work, unless such moulds, plates, &c., have been stamped before March 31 of this year. The authors of works which have already obtained protection in Germany under the Con- ventions which are no longer in force enjoy the rights conferred by the Agreement of Berne. The date (Dec. 31, 1901) mentioned in section 3 of the notice of Feb. 3, 1898, has nothing to do with such cases; that date cannot affect any works except such as were not protected at all in Germany by the old Conventions. In cases in which works of this kind have now obtained pro- tection the protection is limited, under section 1, No. 1, of the Imperial Decree of Nov. 29, 1897, but this limitation comes to an end on Dec. 31, 1901. 3. So far as English works have already been protected in Germany under the Agreement of Berne, no change has taken place. The new Regulations only deal with the application of the Agreement of Berne to English works which have obtained the protection of the Agreement only in consequence of the termination of the old Conven- tions. 4. As stated under 1, the Agreement of Berne is now applied automatically in the case of all English works which were protected in Germany under the late treaties; its retrospective force is only limited by the transition provisions referred to above. 5. As appears from what has gone before, stamping is not a condition on which the protec- tion of English works in Germany is made to depend. On the contrary, it is only prescribed for cases where, in accordance with the transition provisions, persons wish to continue to make use of old copies or plates, Ac., without the sanction of those who possess the authors' rights over the English works concerned. Accordingly, the stamping was not to be carried out by the English authors or their heirs, but by the Germans inte- rested. Under these circumstances it does not appear how the English parties would benefit by an extension of the period allowed for stamping. 6. Stamping is provided for in the case of copies and plates, &c., which are in the possession of Germans, and it was therefore laid down that it was to be carried out in Germany. The measure does not extend to copies and plates, &c., which have been produced in Great Britain by persons who have authors' rights over English works. There could therefore be no question of sending the objects from England to Germany and back. ^ II.—The Cost of Production. The book in question contains 24 sheets at 16 pages the sheet, or 384 pages in all, including 8 pages of preliminary matter and about 40 illus- trations in text. The type is pica—320 words to a page. The binding is quite plain cloth. The estimates obtained were from three town houses and one country house. The variations were very great. Thus the composition was estimated at 42*., 39*., 24.?., and 19*. respectively. The printing for 2000 copies was estimated at 17s. 6d., 30*. 0ff/., and 18*. respectively, and by the fourth house, for 1000 copies, at 10*. The paper for 2000 copies, 174'., 12s. 6d., 7*. yd., and 8*. 6d. a sheet. The binding—crown 8vo.—was put at 6d. and 6\d. The cost finally arrived at was 6d. There were certain notes and preliminary matter in different type, and there were many illustra- tions in the text, which ran up the price of the book. Without the illustrations the 2000 copies were bound to cost as nearly as possible .£150, or is. 6d. a copy—without advertising. In this case there are circumstances which, required that the expense of advertising should be very little: in other words, the announcement of the book could be made by other channels than those of the journals and newspapers. The "Cost of Production" (seep. 47) gives the following figures:— £. s. d. Composition, 24 sheets at £1 ge 34 16 o Printing, 24 sheets, (per 1000 copies), say 15* 18 o o Paper, at £2 16s. a sheet 67 4 o Binding at gd 75 o o 195 o o The following table presents the figures for 2000 copies :— Society's First Second Third Fourth Account House. House. House. House. £. s. d. £. b. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. S. b. d. 34 16 0 50 12 0 32 8 0 28 16 0 54 12 0 18 0 0 ,20 17 0 38 8 0 21 12 0 • «7 4 0 ",!) 12 0 36 0 0 40 18 0 44 4 0 75 0 0 54 0 0 57 4 0 50 0 0 * Estimate for 1000 copirs, £13; for 2000, would be about £20.  ## p. 5 (#17) ############################################### THE , AUTHOR. 5 III.—-West of England Booksellers. At a meeting of booksellers which took place at Exeter on May 5, when it was decided to amalgamate the trade in the West, the following resolution was adopted:— That this meeting of West of England Booksellers, while regretting that the scheme submitted last year by the Publishers' Association to the Authors' Society has not been adopted, hereby approves of the principles contained in the new scheme recently submitted to the Council of the Publifhers' Association. ANNUAL DINNER. THE annual dinner of the Society of Authors took place at the Holborn Restaurant, on Monday, May 2, and was altogether a very successful function. The Bishop of London took the chair, and was supported by two hundred members of the Society and their distinguished guests. The toasts of the evening were limited to four:—"The Queen," "The Society," "The Guests," and " The Chairman." After the Bishop had proposed the health of the Queen he proposed the prosperity of the Society of Authors in a very apt and amusing speech. He stated that he thought that the use of after-dinner speeches was merely to give the people in the room something to talk about. He stated that authors, in spite of all that had been said about them, were a very harmless class of the community. To show that that truth was permeating the youthful mind his lordship told a little story of a boy who wished to enter the Navy. When the lad heard his father speak of the risks of the present war he assumed a pen- sive air and said he did not think he would go into the Navy after all. He would be a poet—it was less dangerous. There was a little moral in all this, as you would expect. In nothing had the harmlessness of authors been more displayed, until recent times, than in their very slight efforts towards unity for their own interests. They had long been content to accept what might be offered them. They had, however, found defen- ders, and authors owed a debt of gratitude to Sir Martin Conway and Sir Walter Besant for their efforts on behalf of the craft. (Cheers.) A society which had for its object the securing of due remuneration for labour was one which would command the sympathy of all Englishmen. The Society had done good in this direction, and also in the giving of good advice to literary aspirants. It was this function of the Society which was specially valuable to the community. The business of the Society had been con- ducted with a practical spirit which would; do credit to the Stock Exchange. (Hear, hear.) The time might come when publishers would compete for the productions of authors and be willing to pay any price for them, but until that happy period arrived all literary aspirants would do well to avail themselves of the services of the! Society. (Cheers.) Sir Martin Conway, Chairman of the Society for the current year, then made a speech in reply* He regretted that Lord Roberts was not discharg-, ing the duty which fell to his lot. He made an official statement with regard to the business that the Society had been carrying on through the current year, and mentioned the fact that two Copyright Bills were at present before Parlia- ment. He, however, remarked that neither of them, he was afraid, would be likely to pass at present, but the justice which they were designed to work would, he hoped, be before long realised! Mr. Sidney Lee, the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, in a very apt speech then proposed the health of the guests, mentioning them in turn, especially referring to the American Ambassador, who was present that evening not only as representing seventy millions of English readers, but as also representing the literature of a great country. The toast was coupled with the name of Lord Welby, who made an appropriate reply. Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins proposed the health of the Chairman, and, after the Bishop's reply, the company . adjourned to another room, where a conversazione was held until a late hour. ME. BRYCE ON THE BOOK TRADE. MR. JAMES BRYCE, M.P., presided at the annual dinner in connection with the BookselL rs' Provident Institution, held in the Holborn Pestaurant on May 7, and pro- posed the toast of "Literature." Many ways, he said, were suggested by which the booksellers might be saved, and one was that the number of books should be curtailed, as there were many which the country did not consume. The litera- ture of a country was the best proof of the posi- tion and learning in that country; and the test of the intellectual level of a town was to be found in the number and contents of the shelves of the booksel'ers' shops. No persons could form - so good an idea of what the intellectual condition of the people was as those who distributed the books. Booksellers could thus form a lively and more direct idea of what the people thought and what kind of taste should be addressed to them.  ## p. 6 (#18) ############################################### 6 THE AUTHOR. He had found no persons who were such capable critics as those who sold books. Booksellers could often influence the taste of tbeir customers by advising what to buy, and selling good books. They were always in a position to impart valuable instruction to those who bought books. The plethora of books was becoming a serious difficulty to booksellers. They did not know what to put in stock, or how to select the books they could recommend. It had been suggested that a penal law should be enacted against the multiplication of books. A difficulty would probably then arise with regard to the respective liability of author and publisher—perhaps only the author should be punished. They must have all remarked how very mild the criticisms had become in our day; perhaps that in a way accounted for the number of books issued. With all this plethora of books they must remember that the publication of newspapers and magazines was going on with increasing vehemence. But people read newspapers in a totally different spirit to what they read books. When they read a newspaper, they picked the thing up and threw it away when it was done with; but they read a book with a view of assimilating the subject with which it dealt, while they gave up the habit of bringing the mind to bear upon what they read in newspapers. This habit reacted upon the way they now regarded a thoughtful book. Was it possible to do anything to stem the tide, and enable books to hold their ground better as against newspapers and maga- zines? He thought their friends, the publishers, should try publishing books somewhat cheaper. That might be a revolutionary proposition; and they might be told that there was a lion in the path, namely, the circulating library. In his opinion, the circulating library was an enemy to all; and they must try to fight it. The issue of cheap books could not be fairly said to have been tried until some work by a well-known and popular author was taken, and the first edition published in a cheap form. The first generation of authors might be losers, but let the heroic suffer. He ventured to believe that the experi- ment would succeed, and there would be consola- tion to the author in knowing that he had more readers than at present. A large proportion of the best books were produced without any idea of profit being derived from them. If they took the best thousand books, very few of them would not have been written, even if the author had known beforehand that he was not going to get more than he actually did. If publishers made books cheaper, they would be bought to be read and kept, and would serve the next generation. This, he believed, would do a great deal for the inextinguishable well-being and the literary level of our country. They would be able to develope and build up the taste of the people. There was, perhaps, too great a tendency in the present day to look after material great- ness, and men's minds were led away from literature. They might become proud of their gold, but their was nothing which gold could produce which could furnish them with so much reason for pride as the literature of England. He believed that, in the long run, a nation would be judged by her literature; that alone could pro- duce a strong nation, a high-souled nation, and it was only such a nation that could produce and read a splendid literature. THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND. THE Duke of Devonshire was the chairman of this year's anniversary dinner (the 108th) of the Royal Literary Fund, which took place on the 17th ult., at the Hotel Métropole, and was attended by a distinguished company. The Chairman, in giving "Prosperity to the Royal Literary Fund," with which he coupled the name of Lord Crewe, the president of the corpo- ration, made at the outset of his remarks a refer- ence to Mr. Gladstone's connection with the fund: that great man, he said, eminent as an author and still more so as a statesman, whose career they all regretted to know was now rapidly approaching its end. They could only express their admiration, respect, and sympathy for that illustrious Englishman, and it would be a melan- choly satisfaction if those sentiments could be made known to the dying statesman. Proceeding, the Duke of Devonshire said he could only attribute his being called upon to preside over that dinner to his position as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and as President of the Council. From that point of view he was tempted to ask the elementary question, Why should the writing of books be encouraged and the demand for modern literature be stimulated ¥ But a clear and broad distinction might be drawn between science on the one hand and art and literature on the other. It might be that modern brains were better than those of old times, but science at least was progressive, and new methods and in- creased certitude and accuracy had assuredly been obtained. The knowledge* of the forces of nature was ever increasing, and the limits of the science of the future could by no forecast be determined. The same thing probably could not be said of literature and art, and it might be  ## p. 7 (#19) ############################################### THE AUTHOR. 7 that we were no further than the men of 2000 years ago. In charm of style it might be that we were not superior to the writers of antiquity, or even to our immediate predecessors. It might then be asked why we should seek to divert men to a comparatively barren field instead of the more productive one of science. The answer might, perhaps, be found in the sentence that man does not live by bread alone or by knowledge alone. The speculation as to the destinies and life of nations was more interesting, it might be, than any scientific research. We should try to realise what would be the condition of things if men should desist from writing and depend on the mental nutriment supplied by the past. If modern literature did not produce the highest masterpieces, it at least spoke to us in our own language and expressed our own ideas. The age or nation which should cease to produce books would soon lose the faculty of admiration of the past; and the training which enabled us to appreciate would urge to the effort of emula- tion. It was not in the direction of the extinction of authorship, then, that intellectual ,excellence was to be obtained. The object of the Society was to secure to authors as a class the benefits which under the old system of private patronage were enjoyed by the few favoured ones of the great. Publishers now to some extent took the place of patrons, and to neither, perhaps, was Byron's gibe applicable that either of them was a Barabbas. Hobbes and Locke might never have been what they were had it not been for the patron. The relation of Lord Shaftes- bury and Locke must have led to the increase of political tolerance and liberality of thought. Patronage, however, had gone. It had unques- tionably done good work to an author here and there, but it had never given strength and dignity to a profession. This Society, which had to some extent succeeded to that office, might claim to have perpetuated the advantages, and to have avoided the evils of private patronage. THE HISTORY OP THE BLACKWOOD PUBLISHING HOUSE * WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, the founder of the publishing house, learned book- selling in his native city of Edinburgh, picked up experience in Glasgow and then in London, and returning to the Scottish capital in * " William Blackwood and Hia Sons: Their Magazine and Friends." By Mrs. Oliphant. (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Sons.) VOL. IX. 1804 (being then twenty-eight years of age), started business on his own account. He speedily won a reputation " as a safe and steady man of business, not given to flights of fancy, but full of enthusiasm for literature." The first book he published was his own catalogue—the compiling of catalogues was an important part of book- selling in those days, when old books were kept for sale as well as new ones issued. This notice of Mrs. Oliphant's last book has been in type for some time, but pressure upon our limited space has kept it out. The book is remarkable in the first place as showing how a writer, even of the present day, when writers are by no means so dependent on the publisher as they were, may be dominated by a publishing house as by the hand of fate. The distinguished author who wrote this history did so with a certain breathless admiration which is to us inconceivable. Mrs. Oliphant says that the first Blackwood was an enthusiast for literature. Very likely. Most successful publishers are. The more successful, the more enthusiastic. The few who have become bankrupt are not so enthu- siastic. The book, however, is also remarkable for certain side lights upon men of letters during the first half of the century. Murray and Blackwood.—The Magazine. In 1811 Blackwood became agent of John Murray. "You have the happiness of making publishing a liberal profession," he wrote to Murray, who was treating with Byron about this time, "and not a mere business of pence. This I consider one of the greatest privileges we have in our business." Again, in a letter the London publisher writes to his Edinburgh representative about the magazine, there is an interesting light upon what was the ideal for a magazine of that day:—" Let us take public estimation by assault, by the irresistible effect of talent employed on subjects that are interesting, and above all, I say to collect information on passing events. Our editors are totally mistaken in thinking that this consists in laborious essays. These are very good as accessories, but the flesh and blood and bones is information. That will make the public eager to get us at the end of every month." Blackwood was able, through the agency of James Ballantyne, to place Scott's "Tales of a Landlord" in the offer of the London publisher. A quarrel arose between the Great Unknown and Blackwood, partly owing to the latter's habit of suggest- ing improvements upon the later scenes in Scott's work. In 1817 the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine was begun under the joint editorship of Pringle and Cleghorn, but it did not realise Blackwood's expectations, and after No. 6 a c  ## p. 8 (#20) ############################################### 8 THE AUTHOR. new series was commenced, with Blackwood as his own editor. In the first number appeared the famous " Chaldee Manuscript," said to have been concocted by Wilson, Lockhart, and others, although Hogg in after years claimed the greater share in it. Blackwood was designated in the article "the man clothed in plain apparel," Lockhart was "the Scorpion which delighteth to sting the faces of men." "Don Juan" and the Scotch Editor. Blackwood stuck at "Don Juan," and broke with Murray over it. His reasons are given in a letter he wrote to Maginn:—" I do most cordially agree with you that I deserve quizzing for refusing to sell' Don Juan,' and should not be spared in the article. The only apology I have to offer to you is this, that it proceeded partly from pique and partly from principle. When the book was published by Murray, I was just on the point of breaking with him. I had not had a letter from him for some months. He sent me copies of the book per mail, without either letter or invoice, so that when I received them I was not disposed to read it with favourable eye. I did read it, and I declare solemnly to you, much as I admired the talent and genius displayed in it, I never in my life was so filled with utter disgust. It was not the grossness or black- guardism which struck me, but it was the vile, heartless, and cold-blooded way in which this fiend attempted to degrade every tender and sacred feeling of the human heart. I felt such a revolting at the whole book after I had finished it, that I was glad of the excuse I had from Mr. Murray not writing me, for refusing to sell it." Idolatry of Wilson. Wilson was almost a religion in Blackwood's. Mrs. Oliphant quotes the following letter from Landor to the publisher:—" Pray do me the favour to inform your compositor that if ever again he has the impudence and audacity to alter a let'er or a point of my writings he shall see no more of them! In the first page he has put the name of Wilson after those of Homer, Shake- speare, and Dante. Now, I never have spoken otherwise of Wilson than as a man of varied and great genius; but if I mentioned him with Dante and Shakespeare, I not only should compare dissimilars, but bring his just claims into ques- tion. I believe he himself would be the very first to blame my imprudence." De Quincey's Humour. De Quincey had not yet become a contributor to the magazine when he wrote the following letter to Blackwood :—" If Wilson and Lockhart do not put themselves forward for the magazine, I foresee that the entire weight of supporting it must rest on my shoulders. I see clearly that I must be its Atlas. For excepting our friend Gillies's translation (from a cursed dull thing though), and excepting that spirited political article at the end, a more dreary collection of dulness and royal stupidity never did this world see gathered together than the December number exhibits. Positively it would sink any work in the world. No, no! I see clearly that I must write it all myself—except one sheet which I will leave to Gillies, and a few pp. to the other man." The editor took this seriously, and replied that he could only excuse it "by supposing that you were hardly awake when you wrote it. When I apply to you to be the Atlas of my magazine, it will be time enough for you to undertake the burthen. And in the meantime, I must beg leave to say that if you cannot send me anything better than the ' English Lakes,' it will be quite unnecessary for you to give yourself any further trouble about the magazine." Thackeray on Himself. Thackeray was a "rejected contributor" of Blackwood's. The Rev. James White, of Bon- church, introduced him to the firm. "He is the cleverest man of all the London writers, I think—his name is Thackeray ; a gentleman, a Cambridge man." "He is shy, I suppose, for he said he wished you would invite him to contri- bute. He is also literary reviewer in the Times." The invitation was not forthcoming, and Thackeray at length made the following offer :— "Some years back you used to have pleasant papers in Blackwood called 'The World we Live in.' I should be glad to do something of a like nature, if you are disposed to accept my contri- butions. No politics, as much fun and satire as I can muster, literary lath (sie) and criticism of a spicy nature, and general gossip. I belong to a couple of clubs in this village, and can get together plenty of rambling stuff. For instance for next month Courvoisier's hanging (I'll go on purpose), strictures on C. Phillip's speech, the London Library, Tom Carlyle and the Times, Bunn's new book, of which great fun may be made, and an account of Willis that may be racy enough. H the project smiles upon you, as the French say, please write me word. I can't afford to begin and send the MSS. in advance, for if you shouldn't approve the design my labour would be wasted, as the article would be written for your special readers, and no good next month." "G. E. is such a Timid Fellow." "I am happy to say that I think your friend's reminiscences will do," wrote John Blackwood to  ## p. 9 (#21) ############################################### THE AUTHOR. 9 George Henry Lewes, with reference to "Scenes from Clerical Life." He proceeded to criticise some points in "Amos Barton," and wound up by saying that, if the author was a new writer, he begged to congratulate him on being worthy of the honours of print and pay. So well did George Eliot conceal her identity, that she actually met and entertained one of the brothers Blackwood without disclosing the secret. The following incident is not dated, but this is Major Black- wood's letter after a visit to the Lewes pair:—" I have just returned from Richmond. G. E. did not show; he is such a timid fellow, Lewes said. He was very pleasant, and talked in a very hand- some way of his connection with us, saying of all editors ever he had to do with—and he had to do with many—you and Lord Jeffrey were the most agreeable. I saw a Mrs. Lewes." Only when an impostor claimed the authorship of " Adam Bede" did George Eliot reveal her identity to the publisher. The meddling of the proof reader called for a protest from George Eliot:—" The printer's reader made a correction after I saw the proof, and, though he may sometimes do so with advantage (as I am very liable to overlook mistakes), I in this case particularly object to his alteration, and I mention it in order to request that it may not occur again. He has everywhere substituted the form 'the Misses So-and-So' for the 'Miss So- and So's,' a form which in England is confiued to public announcements, to the backs of letters, and to the conversation of school-mistresses. This is not the conversational English of good society, and causes the most disagreeable jolt in an easy style of narrative or description." William Blackwood, the founder, died in 1833, and his sons succeeded. Letters from Bramwell Bronte bear witness that Robert Blackwood was scant in his sympathy with the humours of authors, no notice being taken of Bronte's letters or poetry. On the death of Alexander, and Robert's health being delicate, Major William Blackwood was taken into the business to assist John. The history of the house is brought down to 1861 by Mrs. Oliphant's work. A third volume is to appear later from another hand. •:».<- THE NEW PATRON. (See page 7.) (HE Muse rose to welcome her visitor. "I fear," she said, "that I have not the honour—" "I am your new Patron," said her visitor, roughly. "Can't you read the papers? Didn't VOL. IX. you read that the Duke of Devonshire Baid I was your Patron?" "My new Patron? I have had so many. Princes and nobles and great ladies have been my Patrons in the past. Scholars and artists and persons of culture have been my Patrons in late times. But who are you?" "I say that I am your new Patron." "Are you a Prince or a great noble?" "No. I am a publisher." "What is a publisher?" She turned upan him eyes that compelled the truth. "It is a middleman," he replied, surlily, "who sells the Muse's b.oks to the bookseller, and puts most of the money in his own pocket." "But you said that you are my Patron." "So I am. And your master as well. What money have you? Hand it over. I will keep it for you. None? Then set to work. Come, there must be no idling. You must set to work and at once. I shall call to-morrow to know how you are getting on. I am your new Patron. Remember that." Next day he called again. "Well, where is the work? You've had time to write a dozen poems since yesterday." "I have done nothing." "Nothing? What? You've wasted all that time? Why, your time is my money. You've been wasting my money! Nothing?" "I have been walking in the meadows listening to the birds and watching the flight of the clouds." "Oh! This won't do, you know, at all. This will never do. I only became your Patron with the intention of making you work. This time I shall lock you in." He did so, and left her. The next day he called again. She had written nothing again. "I cannot work in prison," she said. "I must be free, or I cannot write." "Look here," he said. "This is getting serious. I've got to maintain you, because I'm your new Patron, but you've got to make money for me. They are clamouring for more work from your pen. Are you going to do it, or must I starve you into submission?" She sat down and wept silently. She made no appeal to this man with a face like a rock, and a voice like the siren of a steamship for harshness. He came next day. She handed him a poem. "Ah!" he said. "You can do it if you like. Now, this is worth—no, I shan't tell you how much. Very little indeed, if you reckon up the travellers' and the office expenses, and the adver- tisements, and the rent and the taxes, and the clerks. I don't think anything will be left at all, c 2  ## p. 10 (#22) ############################################## IO THE AUTHOR. except perhaps a shilling or two. You will have to do with that. As for me, I shall lose. But I am contented to lose. I always do lose. But so long as one is a Patron one cares about nothing else." She took the shilling humbly. "Now go to wort again," said the Patron. "Lord, what easy work is yours! You sit down and go to work with zeal. Let's have no more nonsense about walking in the meadows or on the mountains or listening to the birds. Just set to work." He left her again. Next day he called for more: every day he called for more: he did not observe that the Muse was growing pale and thin: he thought of nothing but the poem which he could take away and sell, putting the money in his own pocket. She was pale and thin because she was overworked and underfed, because she was kept away from the open air and the sunshine, and made to work all day long within the four walls. One day he came furious, bursting open the door. The Muse was seated with her head in her hands. She did not turn or notice him in any way. "Look here," he shouted, " What you gave me yesterday is rubbish: there is nothing in it but the rhyme and the sound. No one will buy it. Do you hear?" he shrieked. "No one—no one —no one will buy it—Do you hear that?" She made no reply. He seized her roughly by the shoulder. Her head dropped back. Her arm fell: the poor Muse was dead. Her new Patron had killed her. NOTES AND NEWS. LET me apologise to Mr. Punch for allowing it to be stated, in the list of magazines and journals published last month, that he does not return contributions. Two or three letters have been sent to me on this subject. Mr. Punch does return them, but only on the condition that they must be accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope, cover, or wrapper. This notice appears, and has for some time appeared, on the front page of every number. Readers will therefore take heart, and send their pro- ductions. I think, however, they will find it difficult to do better than Mr. Punch's staff. It is now some years since the last appearance of the Benefactor. He came then bringing blessings to the amateur and the beginner. It is well known that thousands of papers are every year rejected by editors, and' thousands of MSS. are every year refused by publishers. He promised, out of his benevolence, to bring a remedy for the unhappiness and the disappoint- ments caused by these rejections. His remedy, so far as the publication of books was concerned, consisted in offering to print—he called it "pub- lish"—the works at the author's expense. The amateur and the aspirant do not as a rule under- stand that printing is not publishing: some of them accepted the Benefactor's offer: what became of them afterwards is not known, but can be imagined. They hid away the " accounts" which ran much as follows: £ s. d. To printing, binding, &c. (as per agreement), i000 copies 120 0 0 To advertising (as per agreement) 45 o 0 165 00 To Press copies 50 ") Author's 20 > 0 0 0 Sales, none ) 165 0 0 But he was a great Benefactor, and gave his authors every chance. He also had an amateur magaziue to which his friends were allowed to contribute. It was a shilling magazine. The contributors were all paid for their articles. They were paid by a method of great benevolence. They received so many copies—say fifty—for which they paid sixpence each. These copies they could sell to their friends at a shilling each so that they cleared twenty-five shillings by the transaction. The magazine, however, languished. il I recall this little history, because I have before me the prospectuses of two new amateur maga- zines. Perhaps the Benefactor has returned. The first of these deals with a paper called the Pioneer, the first number of which was promised for May 7. I have not yet seen a copy. The following is its own announcement: One of the greatest necessities of those entering the Pro- fession of Letters, but one hitherto entirely unprovided for, is a Weekly Magazine devoted to the publication of the preliminary contributions of those amateur writers and literary aspirants who are as yet unconnected with the Professional Press. The Pioneer will be, as its name implies, the first magazine published to fill this vacancy in journalism, each of its subscribers having the privilege of contributing to its pages; but, in order that each con- tributor shall have the opportunity of frequent publication, the right of contributing will be strictly limited to the first 300 subscribers. All MSS. sent in by a registered contributor will be pub- lished and paid for; one-third of the profits of each issue,  ## p. 11 (#23) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 11 from sales and advertisements, being divided amongst those who contribute the matter appearing in snob, issue. In guaranteeing to publish all MSS., the conductor reserves the right to amend or correct any MSS. which does not attain the necessary standard of literary excellence. All contributions will bear the author's name or nom de plume, and all contributors will be included seriatim in the series of portraits and biographical notices of Our Contribu- tors, which will form an interesting feature of the maza- rine. The following description of matter is in immediate request for the first issue, and MSS. may be S9nt when for- warding subscriptions: SHOET STORIES (1000 to 1500 words), POEMS, INTERESTING ARTICLES, Ac. Should you desire to contribute, it will be necessary that your application (on form below) should be sent in without delay, as the privilege of contributing can, under no circum- stances, be extended beyond the first 300 subscribers regis- tered. The subscription is is. 6d. a quarter, which will not break anybody. As an enlargement of the original plan the conductor proposes to print a directory of his 300 contributors, and send it with a copy of the Pioneer to the editors of all the magazines in the country. They will naturally peruse the Pioneer with the keenest interest and will hasten to engage the services of its contributors at large salaries. . Let us, however, consider how the amateur magazine will work. It is to be written by 300 hands who will pay each is. 6d. a quarter or 6s. a year. This makes .£90 a year as a beginning, towards the expenses. There will, however, be the circulation. But who is going to buy a magazine written by amateurs and beginners? Probably there will be no circulation. But there will be the advertisements. Advertisers want some cir- culation. So far the cost of the paper, which means not less, one would think, than .£20 a week apart from contributions, seems a long way from being provided for. However, leaving that consideration aside, I would ask young writers what good they will do to themselves by appearing in the pages of an amateur magazine. They may be quite certain that if their work is good enough it would be taken by a "pro- fessional" journal, while one fails to see what advantage they derive from seeing and letting others see their immature productions. As to editors perusing the Pioneer, or even looking at it, they may put that out of their thoughts altogether. I shall be glad to hear further about the new Benefactor. There is another prospector in the field. This time it is an Association of Amateur Authors. It has a secretary and an office near our own, viz., Portugal-street Buildings. The Association laments that there is always the " same difficulty experienced by each fresh writer, the same weary wait and delay before he can make a start. The Association offers— (1) To criticise MSS. for readers. This is exactly what our Society has been doing for years. (2) To publish the member's writings in the Association's monthly paper—again the Amateur Magazine—" if their merit warrant" the produc- tion. The Comhill and Longman's and the rest of them do just exactly the same thing: they will publish these papers "if their merit warrant." (3) They will tell their members where they are most likely to succeed. Our reading branch has done the same thing for years. (4) They will charge a guinea for subscription: if the subscriber wants the "Magazine Advan- tages " he must pay two guineas. (5) They expect members to take as many copies of the Magazine when they have papers in it as possible. . A letter in another column advocates the Amateur Magazine. The writer says that "at pre- sent a young writer has no means of obtaining that skilled revision of his work, which would make it acceptable to editors, and would show him his faults." Nowthis Society has for many yearsoffered to do this kind of work and does actually do it, with results quite satisfactory. If our friend would only send up his work we shall obtain exactly the revision and criticism that he requires. How would an Amateur Magazine help him? His papers in print would not show him his faults more plainly than his papers in MS. It is a mere dream to suppose that editors would turn to the magazine for authors. The papers would be for the most part weak and flabby, because writers worth considering would never think of appearing in its pages: it would, indeed, do a writer much damage if he were known to write for such a magazine, while it would be impossible to make such a magazine pay. The only way—there can be no other way—for a writer to succeed is to send good work to an editor. The best way, if he wants his work revised, is to get an opinion from the Society's reader. The following is a note from the Academy :— The best comment on Mr. Bryoe's speech concerning the need for cheap literature, at the booksellers' dinner, comes from a Birmingham firm. "Mr. Bryce," writes our corre- spondent, " spoke of a general lowering of prices; it is in- structive to note that his ' Holy Roman Empire' was first issued at 6s.; the second edition was gs.; the third, 78.6<i.; and this was followed by a library edition at 14s."  ## p. 12 (#24) ############################################## J.2 THE AUTHOR. Well, but is it a comment on Mr. Bryce at all? For, was Mr. Bryce ever consulted as to the price of his book? I very much doubt it. I imagine that the editions were 'changed about as to price without consulting him at all. If, how- ever, he was consulted, it would still not be a comment on his plea for cheap literature, because it is absurd to suppose that the mass of the people would wish to buy that scholarly work, the " Holy Roman Empire," even if they got it for sixpence. Cheap literature can only exist if the people for whom it is published buy it; but they will certainly not buy what they cannot understand. Therefore cheap literature must always be something that the people wish to read; down to their level, perhaps; in some respects, as witness the returns of the free libraries, by no means such a bad level. The hope of the future is that the free libraries will gradually improve the taste of the people. Thus the limitations which at present confine cheap literature within narrow limits will be enlarged. In other words, only a book which appeals to the people can be issued at a cheap price, because only with such a book will the lowering of the price extend the number of buyers. But the general run of new books published at 6s., i.e., 4*. 6d., do not circulate on an average more than 600 copies or so. These books would not gain a single additional purchaser if they were published at sixpence, and the lowering of the price would simply mean the impossibility of producing the work. Many hundreds of such books now pub- lished every year, arrive at a circulation of no more than six or seven hundred. They bring in to the publisher a small profit. If the price was lowered they would cease to appear. Their loss would not hurt the authors much, but it would hurt the publishers a great deal. On the other hand, when a book is by an old and established favourite the people buy it up by the hundred thousand if it is offered at sixpence. Then comes the question whether it is worth while to publish the former class of books at all. I have always maintained that it matters nothing how many books are pub- lished. The world may be trusted to make its own selection. The only persons to be considered are the booksellers who are so ill-advised as to buy them —sometimes. If out of a hundred books ninety- nine die in the same season as their birth, still the hundredth is left, and of the ninety-nine, which of us has bought a copy? For my own part I buy a great many books. I never buy a new book until I hear about it in conversation. Yet if the ninety-nine books had not been published, per- haps we should have missed the hundredth. These remarks apply not to novels only but to every kind of book. I said last month, quoting a writer in the Morning Post, that I could not understand how any novelist could produce three, four, or five novels in a year. Most novelists of my acquaint- ance are contented with the production of one a year, or with three in two years at the most. Certain names and facts have been sent to me, and I have caused an examination to be made into the rate of production of the writers owning these names. I find that, in two cases, six novels were produced by the author in a single year! In more than two, five; that the average of one writer is from four a year; of another one three; and of several writers two. These facts surprised me a great deal. I thought that I knew most of the working of the novelist's profession, but this rapidity of production is new to me. Also, the critic of the Morning Post was right, and I tender him my apologies for questioning his statement. As regards the works these parties produced, some of them, by one writer at least, are short shilling stories, which can hardly rank as novels. Of the rest one can only say of novelists, as of everything else, that one may outstay his welcome. I can conceive no better way of making a circle of readers tired of a writer than for him to bring out a new book three or four times a year. The Royal Literary Fund has had its annual dinner. The Duke of Devonshire spoke of the followers of literature as he understands them; namely, so many helpless paupers dependent chiefly on the doles of the fund, and on those of the publishers, whom His Grace most Graciously described as the patrons of the author. Now I want to protest against the whole business—the speech of the Duke, which was based on pure ignorance, and the conduct of the Fund. It is a most useful institution; it relieves a good many people; they are authors, it is true, but they are not, as a rule, authors of the slightest distinc- tion. A good writer, in these days, as easily gets a good living as a good doctor. He cannot, of course, make a colossal fortune like a man in business; but he is not a pauper, nor a depen- dent, and, except in very rare cases, he does not apply to the Royal Literary Fund for help. I want that point recognised in public. At present, year after year, men of letters are publicly spoken of as if they were all dependent for their liveli- hood upon the doles and alms of the Royal Literary Fund. Now, I repeat, and it cannot be repeated too strongly, that the great mass of the working men and women of letters have no more need of  ## p. 13 (#25) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 13 the grants made by the Fund than the great mass of barristers stand in need of their corre- sponding association. They do not live from hand to mouth. If they are seized with sudden illness there is money in the bank. I do not claim for them that many of them can make fortunes—even a moderate fortune; and I think that most of them die in harness. I do claim for the average writer who is generally more or less of a journalist—writes for the magazines; perhaps edits something; is perhaps a novelist or a specialist, or an educational writer—that he lives well and like a gentleman, that he also lives cleanly and soberly, that he has no more need of asking the charity of the Literary Fund than he has of going into the workhouse. Who are the people to whom the Fund is useful? There are —always with certain sad exceptions—people who have the slightest possible reason for calling themselves authors. They are necessitous; in many cases without any fault of their own. By all means let them be relieved; but do not take their cases as examples of the starving condition of the literary profession. Now, I speak from my own knowledge, because I sat on the council of the Fund for three or four years. The next point is that the administration of the Fund must be radically altered. At present it is administered, not by the literary profession, but for the literary profession. It is degrading to us that people should be sending round the hat for us, especially as we don't want it. If we must go round, hat in hand, to take up a collec- tion, let us at least do it ourselves, and not ask noble dukes and lords to do it for us. Imagine the pride and pleasure of Lincoln's Inn if a dinner were held once a year to collect money in order to give doles to necessitous barristers. You cannot imagine it. Then think of the pleasure and the pride with which literary men regard the annual collection made for necessitous writers. There are, and there must always be, certain unfortunate persons in the writing line, Let the Royal Literary Fund intervene to give them assistance; but let it be managed in secret, both the assistance and the need for it. The world need know nothing about it. The resig- nation of half a dozen members and their substitution by actual literary men, is all that is wanted. We should then, as a matter of course, put a stop to the degradation of the dinner, and wash our linen at home. The list of Birthday Honours has been given to the world as usual. This list is looked for by a large section of the world with great curiosity and interest. Those who are going to appear in it know the fact beforehand, and are not, there- fore, so anxious. As for the anxiety of people generally, it has been attributed to one's natural fear that friends may be in the list. Since we cannot ourselves expect to be in the list, we naturally do not desire to see our dear friends receiving Honours. Of course, the old ialk about distinctions and honours has quite gone out; twenty years ago people who had not been offered anything were loud in their contempt of those who received anything. It was too thin, even then; the talk is abandoned now; it is quite un- derstood that all Englishmen would very much like to receive a distinction of some kind. It is also quite certain that a great many Englishmen really believe that they deserve a distinction. If we examine the list before us, we find that it con- tains no more than forty-eight names out of the sixty millions in this island and the Colonies. Of these, political claims and services—they are not always the same—supply eight names; wealth, with probably some political reasons, four; special services, five; the Civil Service, ten; the Colonies, four; the Diplomatic Service, five; foreign service, eight; Science—one branch only —one; Law, one; and Music, one. The Army and the Navy will be provided for, I suppose, in another Gazette. Now, there are many—very many— branches of intellectual achievement that employ the energies of my countrymen; in some of them they constantly make discoveries, inventions, and achievements, whicn are of the greatest import- ance to the human race generally, and to this country in particular. Such, for instance, are engineering, science in all its branches, architec- ture, art, literature also in all its branches, educa- tion, scholarship, mechanics, philosophy. There are names in all these lines of work that are held, by those who know the subjects, in the highest honour. Where are these names in the Birthday List? They are conspicuous by their absence. But it is urged these things bring their own reward. Very true. Also that distinctions are not needed for the distinguished. Are, then, these forty-eight persons chosen for their obscurity? Certainly, outside the Civil Service, few know the names of those who are constantly raised to honour from that branch of the service. Dis- tinctions, it is true, cannot confer honour on the distinguished. They do not. They may teach the world, however, that certain forms of achieve- ment are worthy of honour. I suppose that the first place of honour in a nation is due to the statesman, and the second to the captain, but the third belongs to the man of literature, science, or art. And I maintain that it is the duty of a statesman to make the nation understand that  ## p. 14 (#26) ############################################## '4 THE AUTHOR. these branches of intellectual achievement do really confer honour upon the country. In another column will be found a precis of a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, with a commentary upon it from the Academy. I un- fortunately saw neither—but the remark quoted from the Telegraph certainly does not show knowledge up to date of the publisher's methods. The passage is thus reported: "Having paid a good deal more than he ought for one book, the publisher has to pay less than he ought for another. His successes, such as they are, have to make up for his losses." Now, there are but one or two publishers who buy their books, i.e., buy them at a proper price calculated on the sale of the author's books: the rest give royalties. In no case has it ever been known that the royalty given to a successful author was greater than, or equal to, the difference between the trade price and the cost of production: in other words, the publisher is certain, in even the largest royalties given to such an author, that he will get back the cost of production with a margin. It is not by large royalties to successful authors that the publisher loses. And in the case of unsuccessful authors it is difficult to understand how they can make up the publisher's losses—for they consti- tute his losses. _ _ The Publishers' Circular questions my opinion about war time and publishing. It was not, how- ever, my opinion: it was the experience of an old and experienced publisher; the experience of the war time of 1855-1857. As for the present slack- ness, the months of May and June are always slack: I should be of opinion also that the feverish rush to hurl new novels upon the market is producing its natural effect. The world will not buy an unlimited quantity of novels: booksellers are not so rich that they can afford to load their shelves with a mass of books which they cannot sell. A little slackness ought to make publishers reflect on the dangers of over-pro- duction. In the year 1832 the novel market was absolutely destroyed by the lavish production of bad work. I strongly recommend to the Book- sellers' Association the adoption, for their own protection, of the cheap, convenient, and effective method which I proposed to them some months ago. This method would save them a great many thousands a year, and it would be an effectual bar to the production of rubbish. The Morning Post returns to the subject of Sir Henry Craik's allegations concerning the Society. This after-dinner speaker, it will be remembered, said, among other things, that the Society of Authors called the publisher a needless inven- tion. Now, the Society of Authors has never said anything of the kind. The writer in the Morn- ing Post says that, " the opinion that an intelli- gent agent would do for the novelist all that the publisher can do, at far less cost to the author, has again and again been expressed." By the Society of Authors? Never once. In the pages of The Author a good many opinions are advanced and freely discussed: these are not the utterances of the Society. In every number, in a prominent place, the Committee announce that they are only responsible for the statements signed officially by the Secretary. They have never sent to the papers any opinion or theory to the effect of the words quoted above. Again, The Author does not, as the writer in the Morning Post thinks, "criticise publishers" generally: it publishes their agreements and explains what they mean: it exposes tricks: it does not treat the "average publisher as a knave," because it does not speak of the " average " publisher at all. At the same time the tricks and over-reachings, and trading on ignorance, exposed in the columns of The A uthor, prove that there are a good many knaves in the trade: some of them, as I know from per- sonal examination of documents, occupying high places in the trade. As for Sir Henry Craik, if he thinks it a worthy rule to "indulge in little conscious exaggerations," as the writer in the Morning Post kindly puts the case, it is his business. Take, for instance, this allegation about pub- lishers being needless. My own private opinion, which in no way expresses the collective opinion of the Society, is this : The trade of publishing is purely mechanical, especially in those cases where the author is "established." Now, in every branch of literature there are authors by the dozen who are " established ": that is to say, their works are certain of being taken in more than sufficient quantities to pay for the cost of produc- tion. There is absolutely nothing done for their books by the publisher which cannot be done by a distributing agent, whose commission must be paid and nothing more. And then he becomes a publisher, so that it is absurd to say that a publisher is needless. Some two or three years ago a publisher sent to a certain paper what he tendered as his figures. He spoke of a book which had had a very large sale: he asserted that after paying his expenses he was left with no more than Sd. a copy on the book. No more than Sd. a copy! What had he done for his 8d.? Nothing. His clerks' and office expenses had aJl been deducted. He was drawing Sd. a copy an  ## p. 15 (#27) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. many thousands for the mechanical work done by his clerks. What a splendid business! Now, a distributing agent would have done the whole business for a commission, including the clerks' work. The distributing ajent will be the general publisher of the new literature of the future. There will remain, of course, the great works undertaken by the great capitalists. Walter Besant. RECIPE FOR AJRJMMEB NOVEL. [In spite of the war excitement in New York, space is found in the newspapers for this kind of fun. It is to the World of that city that our readers must give their thanks if they find it amusing.] : By Harold R. Vynne, Who '. 'Is an Expert Plot Chef and ; Verbiage Salad-Maker. Incentives.—(i) The necessity of keeping one's mind occupied; (2) the prornise of cash on delivery of manuscript; (3) the desire to do somebody up. Ingredients.—One or more characters taken from real life—preferably bad characters, because they are much more readily portrayed than good ones and are always less tame. An American heiress with a record as a jilt and a predisposi- tion to heart failure. A foreign nobleman with fringe on his trousers and a mortgage on his ancestral real estate. A poor but honest lover, who refuses to commit forgery to wear crease3 in his trousers. A pert widow with a corking divorce record and a propensity for making trouble. A proud and vulgar parent of the heiress, who kicks the poor but honest lover in the neck and lends the foreign nobleman money. A summer home of the heiress. Horses and carriages. Whisky, wine, and beer. A yacht or two, golf links and a dog. Ginger ad lib. Method.—Get into your story with a startling event of some kind, a dog fight in the Broadway in which the losing pup is backed by the heiress's father, or a game of craps in which the foreign nobleman goes broke. Make it a rule to have something sensational happen in every thousand words, if it's only a birth or a thunderstorm. Never forget that the publisher won't come down with the check unless he sees his money coming back. A summer novel should be pitched in a summer scene. Pitch the parent's summer home in the mountains and the heiress into the lake. Then when the poor but honest lover rescues her, let the foreign nobleman rob him of his clothes while the lady is unconscious, chloroform him into insensibility and impersonate her saviour himself. Invite the nobleman to dinner and send the poor but honest lover to jail on a charge of going in swimming without a bathing suit. Engage the heiress and the nobleman to marry and let the lover gnash his teeth on the bars of the cell until the frisky widow helps him to break jail and tells him the heiress is his long-lost sister. Have the lover go crazy at this stage of the game, marry the widow and go up to see the old gentleman with a proposition that he recog- nise him legally as his son, divvy up the estate and give the foreign nobleman leave to go and blow himself full of air with a bicycle pump. The old gentleman might opportunely throw a fit here, and in his fall and clawings kick a hole in a piece of rock, disclosing a cave in which repose certain family documents showing that he is his own grandson, that the poor but honest lover never had any parents or sisters, and that the family fortune belongs to a millionaire. This will justify the foreign nobleman, who has no love for pauper women, in running violently down a steep hill and breaking his face on the rocks, while the disinherited heiress, certain at last that the poor but honest lover loves her for herself alone, may persuade him to divorce the widow and marry her instead. A fine point in morals may be drawn here by showing that the widow, with the divorcing habit strong upon her, hates to be divorced herself when it comes to a show-down. A thrilling if improbable anti-climax may be secured by having the millionaire give all the money back to the bride and bridegroom and act sufficiently astonish- ing to justify the old gentleman in celebrating his son-in-law's luck. The yacht mentioned in the list of ingredients is for no particular purpose except to prove that a summer novel cannot be written without one. The dog is to try the novel on before it goes to the publisher. If the dog dies the manuscript is sure of acceptance. Remarks.—If this is to be your first essay in novel-writing (and only amateurs write successful novels nowadays) remember that as an unknown writer you cannot possibly be over-advertised. Presuming, therefore, that you are writing your novel at a summer resort of some sort, it will pay you to roar on all occasions on the subject of your literary achievements and intentions. Lose- no opportunity of letting people know what you are doing. Write all your copy with a stylographic pen on the hotel piazza, and when your proof-sheets arrive spread them out on the lawn to dry and  ## p. 16 (#28) ############################################## i6 THE AUTHOR. throw croquet balls at the typographical errors until a crowd gathers to inquire into your occupa- tion. In this way you secure advance discussion for your book and possible profit besides. Most people who meet an author they believe to be crazy will buy one of his books when they strike it on a news-stand. Be careful in the matter of dress. Emile Zola writes all his novels attired in pyjamas and a skull cap, and Laura Jean Libbey hers in a gingham Mother Hubbard with leather ruching at the throat and wrists. The preparation of a summer novel demands some attention to appropriate clothes. Fit your costumes to the situation of which you write. If the chapter is to describe a storm at sea or a private hullabaloo in the cabin of a yacht, never touch your pen to paper until you've donned a silk shirt, white ducks, and a patent-leather belt; if it's a "hop" that needs touching up write in evening dress, no matter if it's broad daylight and the people around you are in bathing suits. This, of course, supposing that you are a man. If you are a lady summer novelist, this writer would not attempt to advise you in the matter of dress, because women at summer resorts always wear the nicest clothes they've got, anyhow, and an authoress of any talent ought to be able to write a passionate story equally well in a Worth creation or in a piece of calico. Such female novelists, however, judging by their work, discover increased dramatic intensity in the exercise of eccentric physical effects. In describing a tropical love scene the authoress may produce wonders of thought by coiling her ankles about her neck and fanning her face with her feet. Or she may secure inspiration for whole pages of witty dialogue between two or more of her female characters by hanging two cats over a fence rail and taking down their remarks in shorthand. Lastly, when your book is printed and on sale, be sure and buy a copy of it yourself. It is not fair that the publisher should go entirely without encouragement. MR. NUTT AQAIN. WE have had nearly six months of Mr. Nutt: six months trying to get out of him a direct and plain answer to a plain question. The question arose out of an assertion made by this gentleman. He said, writing in the Academy of Jan. i : (i) That it had been asserted in The Author that "publishers always recovered their outlay, and never made any losses "; and (2) that " the statement had since been repeated in The Author without one word of qualification." Observe, if you please, the exactness of the phrase, " without one word of qualification." The words were therefore offered as quotations. The reader was clearly invited to consider them as quotations. It is interesting to note that, before making these " quotations," Mr. Nutt says he has not seen more than two numbers of The Author in his life. Strange that one number should contain the first paragraph quoted, and the second its repetition, "without one word of qualification "! However, on Jan. 5, my solicitors, Messrs. Field, Roscoe, and Co. wrote to Mr. Nutt, asking for the exact references to the two passages quoted, and reserving the right of publishing the corre- spondence. Mr. Nutt replied that he was out of town, and must defer an answer till his return. No answer came. Such a little thing as the truth of an allegation is, of course, easily for- gotten. We allowed him five weeks, and then a reminder was sent by Messrs. Field, Roscoe, and Co. Mr. Nutt then wrote expressing the deepest indignation at receiving a letter from solicitors. Now, he did not express any indignation when the first letter came from the solicitors. He said, however, that he was ready to give information to the proper person. I therefore wrote to him myself, as the proper person, merely repeating the questions. That is, I repeated his alleged quotations, and asked him where they could be found in The Author. He replied (Feb. 25) that he could not give the references "off-hand " — he had only had five weeks to look for them! He also sent a quantity of remarks which had nothing to do with the question, I sent a repetition of my letter, again asking for those references. He replied, a week later, that he could not get at all the volumes of The Author. I informed him that Mr. Thring would lend him the volumes. And I wrote a third letter again asking where those references were. Meantime I had answered in The Author his general charges, and the various assertions he had made in the Academy. He now sent me a long letter, saying nothing about the references, and demanded publication of this letter in The Author. His demand as a right I would not allow. How- ever, I referred the matter to the Committee. The Committee informed him that when he had answered the first question, and had either produced the references to The Author for the  ## p. 17 (#29) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. n alleged quotations or had withdrawn the charge, they would be prepared to consider any remarks he might wish to make in The Author. The reader will be by this time prepared to hear that no answer has been forthcoming to the original question, and that those references have not yet appeared. Mr. Nutt made a complaint to the Committee about his letter to the Academy having been piinted in The Author without his permission, as if when a person is attacked he should ask permis- sion of his assailant before he quotes the words containing the charge! This correspondence explains itself. The alleged quotations from The Author I cannot find—no one else, so far, has been able to find them. Mr. Nutt alleges that they were in The Author: he has not yet receded from his position: he has now taken six months — his last letter was dated April 18 — to find the passages, and if he has been unable to find them, he is unaccountably shy about disclosing this fact. When a man advances positively that another man has publicly stated certain things, and that he has repeated these things " without a word of qualification," there are three courses open to him: either to prove that allegation by giving the exact references; or to withdraw it with an apology; or, failing both courses, to accept the conclusion which is natural. W. B. A SONG FOB A BOSS- Ro;e asks for a rhyme ?— Why, did she but know it, There is never a poet Bat sings her, some time! 2. Only mention her name: The sweetest of fancies, Ballades and romances, Are set to the same. 3- Only open and read: The daintiest pages, In bards of all ages, To Rose are decreed. 4- Moore, Shelley, and Keats, Austin Dobson—the darling! Thrnsh, linnet and starling, Kose-singing one meets. 5- Rose asks for a rhyme ?— There is never a poet, (Their rose-gardens show it), But sings her, some time! New Zealand. Mary Colbobne-Vekl. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. Qaem Deus vnlt perdere dementat prius. ON returning from abroad, I learn from The Author for May that the number for April included an inquiry as to the source of the above quotation. But for my absence, I should have written a month ago to state that " Querist" is undoubtedly right in supposing that the proper form of the line is Quern Jupiter vnlt perdere dementat prius. Something like this may be seen in the index to the edition of Euripides published by Professor Barnes in 1694, but the actual words (as just quoted) are to be found in the work of another Cambridge professor of Greek thirty-four years earlier. In Duport's "Gnomologia Homerica" (1660), p. 282, the words are added in paren- thesis immediately after the Greek quotation orav 8' 6 8a.tp.iov avSpi iropaivr) nana, tov vovv lf}Kaol/t irpinov. The Greek is preserved by Athenagoras, "Sup- plicatio pro Christianis" chap. 26, p. 138, and (with the addition of u f3ov\tvtTai) by the Scholiast on Sophocles, "Antigone," 620. It is entered among the Adespota in Nauck's "Tragicorum Grrecorum Fragmenta," No. 455. There is a close parallel to this fragment in another quoted by the Attic orator Lycurgus, contra Leocratem s. 92 :— orav yap opyil &aip.6vuiv j3\airrn riva, tovt avro irpSiTov, i£a<paipeiTai <j>p€vSiv tov vovv tov eV0A6V' £is Si Ttjv xeipw Tptirtt yv<Iip.rjv, iv tiSrj prjSev <m, aftapraytu This longer fragment is placed among the Ades- pota by Nauck (No. 296). Valckenaer, in his note on Euripides, " Hippolytus," 322, is inclined to ascribe it to Euripides, while Barnes (without any external authority) actually prints the shorter fragment among the remains of Euripides, and in his index (as already noticed by S. G.) has the heading "Deus quos vult perdere, dementat prius." The Latin, in the form" Quem Jupiter" &c., has never been traced to any earlier work than Duport's "Gnomologia" (1660). In the editions of Athenagoras earlier than that date, e.g., in the edition printed by H, Stephanus in 1557, I observe that the Greek is translated differently. I have little, if any, doubt that the Latin version in the "Gnomologia" is Duport's own. His work shows how familiar he was with the Vulgate, and he was probably aware that "demento" in the sense of "dementem facio," though not used by any classical author, was to be found in the Vulgate version of Acts viii, 11. Duport does not generally translate his Greek  ## p. 18 (#30) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. quotations into Latin, but he does so in the case of a fragment of Euripides on p. 28, and a frag- ment of iEschylus on p. 200. Thus it is highly probable that here, in the case of another tragic fragment, he is similarly offering a rendering of his own. In composing this rendering he pre- sumably had in mind a parallel passage from Publilius Syrus: Stnltnm facit Fortuna quern vult perdere. St. John's College, . E. Sandys. Cambridge, May 9. I looked up this topic for the May number, but thought my notes might be unnecessary. I find, however, that some points still require settling. The letter of " S. G." is good, though not complete, and the reference of Mr. Earle to Notes and Queries applies to the very first volumes of that serial. Being limited to my own library, I shall not quote what is elsewhere. But first, for the verb "dementat," which is either transitive or intransi- tive, and is very rare. It occurs in Lactantius of the early fourth (not tenth) century, and tells how the persecutor Diocletian "semper dementabat," or behaved like a madman; i.e., was demented. I discover only one other example of the verb "demento," and that is in the Latin Vulgate of Acts viii., 11, at which place we read that Simon Magus had for a long time stolen the wits of the Samaritans; "dementasset," had demented them. Here the verb is transitive, and certainly not classical, although it accords with the common Latin proverb, the varying forms of which are of equal value. As for the saying itself, its first representative seems to be in the "Legatio " of the learned Athenagoras, who wrote in Greek his plea for Christianity late in the second century. He maintains the goodness of God and His works, and, as I understand him, ascribes other works to Daemons who, in his opinion, are evil. Here it is that he introduces a Greek quotation, from an author he does not name, in this way: "For God does not incite to what is contrary to nature, 'But a Daemon when he devises any harm against a man first injures his mind.'" The Latin of Joshua Barnes may do for this, but my copy of Athenagoras sticks to the word "Daemon," and the annotators uphold it, rightly, as I think. (See the Oxford edition of Athenagoras, 1706). The fine edition of the Benedictines (Paris, 1742) also refers the dementing process to demons. Your wise readers will draw their own inferences. In conclusion I may mention the "Beautiful Thoughts from Latin Authors," by Dr. Ramage (p. 791. London, 1879), where a little critical acumen is needed. So "here I make an ending," and am, &c., B. H. C. LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS. Cheap Books—The Daily Telegraph's Bai> Opinion of Current Fiction—Modern Lan- guage Teaching—Letters of Charles Lamb —Parasitical Literature. MR. BRYCE'S suggestion for cheaper books is discussed in a leading article by the Daily Telegraph (May 11). So far from depreciating the statesman's view of the pre- ponderance of newspaper reading, this great organ goes the length of saying that it is "quite an arguable point whether the newspaper will not end by swallowing up the magazine, as it has already succeeded in establishing its popularity at the expense of books," Were it not for the great circulating libraries, says the writer, the produc- tion of books would be more perilous still. And then, in demonstrating why books are dear, he proceeds to support the theory so often advanced, that the successful book is the publisher's contra for the unsuccessful ones. "Having paid a good deal more than he ought for one book, the pub- lisher has to pay less than he ought for another; his successes, such as they are, have to make up for his losses; while in such an unhealthy state of things, the young writer of promise has a peculiar difficulty in getting even a hearing," Nor would publishers extend their own sales by lowering their prices. Books have their own clientile, and it is true of nearly every kind of book, that those who want it will pay the price, and that its issue at a "popular" price will not attract a larger circle. For the rest the Tele- graph has a really bad opinion of the origin and nature of novels. Oar bookstalls are flooded with works of fiction, mostly written by women—often mi grammatical, largely worth- less in character, and wholly devoid of any reasonable interest. They are produced because in nine cases out of ten the anthoress pays for the production. They are reviewed because critics are more generous to-day to the average novel than they have been in any other period of our literary history. They are sold because the assumption still continues to be held—and is, indeed, to some extent borne out by facts—that fiction written by women is read by women, in country houses, at the seaside, or in foreign places of fashionable resort, where no other form of literary work has a chance of entering. In the Academy (May 21), J. E. H. W. controverts the above statements almost entirely. True it is, he says, that the great mass of our half-instructed population are quite contented with magazines and newspapers, " but then the-  ## p. 19 (#31) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. great mass of our half-educated population never did buy books." Publishers do not depend upon the circulating libraries; the latter "do not buy books in large numbers; as a rule they have no need to; naturally they have no wish to." The standard of new fiction is above the " average "— "an average which is no longer correct." And even supposing that a publisher pays more than he ought for one book, "how does this affect the young author? Where the risk is so great it is almost a wonder that a new writer obtains any- thing at all for his first work. If he can find a publisher to take the chance he is indeed fortu- nate. If his book is a great success, he has his reward: he can dictate his own terms in future." The Daily News says that publishers have only themselves to thank if best books are not more in demand; and tells them that, when they have mastered the secret of the cheap newspaper, they will bring out the cheap book. "The novel at a guinea and a half died hard in this country; the novel at five or six shillings still cumbers the earth." Mrs. Lecky writes on "Modern Language Teaching in Longman's Magazine for June, and recommends all who are interested in the progress and education of our people, to take to heart these words from a recent speech of Sir William Har- court: "The present defect of English education, from the top of the scale to the bottom, is our neglect of the cultivation of the modern lan- guages of the nations of the world." Our method has been wrong. Mrs. Lecky praises the Gouin method of teaching, which proceeds by gradual development. It is based on the natural pro- cess by which every infant begins to speak— that is, by learning the sounds through the ear before it knows how to read and write—and it makes the verb the pivot of the teaching. Eegarding the Universities Mrs. Lecky says " it seems an anomaly that honours can be obtained in modern languages at Oxford without a viva race test, and that for the Cambridge tripos viva race also is optional, and that the results do not affect the class." Mr. E. V. Lucas has been publishing in the Cornhill Magazine (May and June) correspon- dence between Charles Lamb and his friend Robert Lloyd, the Quaker, and partner in the bookselling and printing business of Knott and Lloyd at Birmingham. The letters are full of good things. One of them shows Lamb's fondness for London to have been quite equal to that of Dr. Johnson. "Give me the old book- stalls of London," he exclaims, " a walk in the bright piazzas of Covent Garden. I defy a man to be dull in such places—perfect Mahometan paradises upon earth! I have lent out my heart with usury to such scenes from my childhood up, and have cried with fullness of joy at the multitudinous scenes of life in the crowded streets of ever dear London." In his last letter, dated January i, 1810, he gives an affecting picture of his home at 4, Inner Temple-lane. "The feeling of home, which has been slow to come, has come at last. May I never move again, but may my next lodging be my coffin." Among his literary criticisms is that he "seems to miss" in Pope's "Iliad" translation "a certain savage-like plain- ness of speaking in Achilles—a sort of indelicacy. The heroes in Homer are not half civilised: they utter all the cruel, all the selfish, all the mean thoughts even of their nature, which it is the fashion of our great men to keep in." A writer in Blackwood's for May casts the conscientious biographer into a very offensive light. He calls the literature "parasitical," and applies such terms as "questionable" and "destructive familiarity" to the kind of biography to which nothing is too insignificant to include. "It is good to know how any distinguished man looked and lived, and good to learn the conditions amid which his day's work was done. But it is enough to know him as friend knows friend; it is un- necessary, even undesirable, possibly offensive, to share the relationship and knowledge of his valet or his nurse." CORRESPONDENCE. I.—Editors and Contributors. 1. MAY I make a few remarks on the List of Rules of Editors, published in your issue of May 2, for the sake of the young beginners in literature whose lot and whose risks are becoming worse as their numbers multiply? I have myself very little to complain of with regard to editors, who seem far better than their laws. I have been almost invariably kindly and courteously treated. It has however happened once or twice that my MSS. have been lost letters unanswered, payments forgotten, &c. I notice that it is increasingly common for editors to repudiate all responsibility for MSS. Most of those in your List decline to return MSS. altogether; some, if stamps and envelopes are sent, endeavour to return them. Many insist on type-written copy. I know the worries of editors, and the rubbish they have to deal with, and the rules are made to save them trouble; all the same the worries to the author are greater and much more serious. Authors have a right to complain of these rules.  ## p. 20 (#32) ############################################## 20 THE AUTHOR. MSS. are the author's bread. They are perish- able goods; they are submitted on approval, and this seems the only way to bring author and public together. In the editor's office they may be lost, burnt, or, worse, gutted; and there are the risks by post also. It may be replied, authors must retain copies of their MSS. But, as many MSS. have to travel a good deal for various reasons (was it not Currer Bell whose first work had to be sent to a dozen successive publishers'{), I submit that this is a "sweating" system. An author may make a copy, or pay a typist to do it—and type-writing is certainly costly. He sends up his MS.; it is not returned—that is the rule—neither is it used. After a time, and after losing the return stamps, he sends off the other. Similar fate. How many copies is the poor young author to keep on the chance of rejection? Then there is the question of using the MS. elsewhere. How long is the author to wait till the editor or the publisher's reader has made up his mind? There is yet a worse risk, that, during the interval, the "guts" of the MS. are stolen, the material and the idea used up by the publisher's sister, or cousin, or aunt, and the original author has no redress. It is manifestly hard and contrary to the rules of business to send goods on approval without a guarantee, or to keep goods without paying for them, or to neglect to inform the owner whether his goods are marketable in that particular place or not. Especially in journalism both are fre- quently done and suffered; and often when the MS. >** returned, the "moment" is past, and the subject has no chance. Many authors are of opinion that since sending up MSS. on approval is the only way, editors ought to be bound to take responsibility; and compelled, after agreeing to examine a MS., to return it or to pay for it within a certain fixed time. I should say a fortnight ought to suffice for decision in the case of a book, and three days in that of a newspaper article. I also have to corroborate another correspon- dent's complaint—that MSS. are returned damaged. I have seen in publishers' rooms a MS. being read in company with a sandwich, for which it served as a plate. I have had MSS. returned to me marked with grease, and unfit to send elsewhere. It appears to me that, if a humble typewriter can afford to protect against loss, damage, or fire (and I hope cribbing), MSS. entrusted to her by a floating policy of insurance, the proprietor of a journal or a respectable publisher can do the same, and such insurance ought to be a sine qua non. M. E. Hawei?. ii. Mr. Herbert W. Smith sends a communication unfortunately too long for publication. He says, in answer to the question: "How would he compel the editor to do this or that ?"—that he would compel him by unanimous action on the part of authors. He thinks that the time has arrived for authors to take united action. I have long thought so, but I do not see many signs of such united action. One thing is hopeful, however: with men and women of letters action need not be universal. Everything that a trades- union can effect would be brought about by the union of fifty or sixty writers whose works are commercially valuable. On the score of unequal remuneration Mr. Smith claims that all trades are equal. But literature is not a trade. All professions are unequal: all works of art are unequal. Is a man who writes a play which runs a month to be paid as much as a man whose play ruus three years? Is the youngest artistwho exhibits in the Academy to be paid as much for his picture as the most distinguished R.A.? Dudley Warner once advocated the foundation of a literary union in which all the members should receive the same wages. A minimum scale of pay for magazine work would be a most desirable thing from many points of view, but it is im- possible to enforce it except for certain writers whose work is in vogue. Mr. Smith concludes as follows :— "At the present moment neither law, public opinion, nor etiquette affords relief against the small worries, humiliations, and peculations to which the rank and file of authors are often subjected by unscrupulous, lazy, careless, and grossly ignorant dealers in their goods. "Were the Society of Authors to determine in consultation with editors of repute upon a definite understanding with regard to delays in consider- ing MSS., delays in payment, and unequal remuneration, they would have achieved an end of very great importance. What respectable editors decreed, the tag-rag and bob-tail would find it expedient to obey. With growth and authority on its side, the Society of Authors might find itself capable of striking offenders ' off the Rolls' in due time." in. My only reason for troubling you again is that several points have occurred to me since I wrote to you, particularly in view of the valuable com- munications you print from "An Unofficial Receiver—of Editorial Regrets," and Mr. Herbert  ## p. 21 (#33) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 21 W. Smith. The first-named writer refers to a grievance of the highest importance—i.e., the work of native authors being excluded from columns which are used for the reproduction of articles stolen from American periodicals. Besides this the work of native authors is excluded from columns used, inter alia (I) for articles, tales, jokes, and pictures stolen—totally or in part as regards first-mentioned — from other English papers, and from all manner of foreign papers, the editor thinking, most erroneously, that if he acknowledges the source of such he is acting in an unexceptionable way; (2) for advertisements, even of the journal itself or of another publica- tion issued from the same office; (3) for the work of persons who are not genuine native authors, but belong to one of the following divi- sions—(a) individuals who have attained celebrity in some other walk, and are therefore exploited as writers by editors; (6) blacklegs, usually poetasters, who work, such as their work is, for nothing; (c) persons, usually poetasters again, who could not possibly have got their lucubra- tions accepted if they had not been relations or friends of the editor, or been able to bring some influence to bear on him—(4) for matter repro- duced from some back number of the paper itself or a sister periodical. In no other business in the world could this crambe repetita take place. In regard to what Mr. Smith says as to the pay- ment per column for articles, this should also be pointed out: A paper commences by paying, say, £1 is. a column. This is when its circulation is small, but it makes no addition no matter how large its circulation grows, and this though some of the contributors, whose payments it does not increase, have been the main creators of its prosperity. Another thing: the most tenth-rate actor can get free passes for himself and a friend to theatres, yet no editor thinks of putting even his best contributor on his free-list. In conclusion, I may say that before I die I hope to see some at least of the following reforms effected :—(1) Every line contributed to a paper paid for, including correspondence and matter contributed in competition; (2) every journalistic post put in the market, and not handed through backstairs influence to some played-out hack, some mere reporter, 'Varsity man or Scotsman; (3) no one but a qualified and registered journalist allowed to sell MSS. to a paper, just as only admitted solicitors can sell legal skill and know- ledge : these as a first instalment. Experto Ceede. P.S.—I should like to add that I think it should be made a penal offence for an editor to appropriate ideas from an article he does not accept, unless* before doing so lie had arranged to pay the author therefor. I could mention the editors of papers that make no scruple of doing this. IV. A correspondent, "J. C. G\," writes in reply to the letter of Mr. Herbert W. Smith, to the following effect: (1.) Unsolicited contributions are not amongst the requirements of journals. (2.) All journals have a regular staff engaged to do the work. (3.) Unsolicited contributions are of "the nature of an aggravation and an impertinence." (4.) Editors try sometimes out of courtesy to read the MSS. sent in, but have to desist out of regard to the interests of the journal. (5.) He suggests that it would be well to write and offer the editor first. [These points are put in the form of questions. Well, a simple reference to the table of contents for the last few months of any magazine would prove that there is no such thing as a regular staff to do the work. Out of every six months follow- ing, it would be extremely strange were the same name to occur twice. Contributions, as may be seen from the list published in our last number, are expected from writers uninvited. Editors practically undertake to read them all. To ask an editor if he will look at a MS., would be to give him double trouble, because he professes to read everything sent.—Ed.]. II.—Mr. Punch and his Contributors. I consider that the writer of the article in your last issue, treating of the ways in which various journals undertake to deal with the MSS. of their contributors should have taken the trouble to verify his statements. I invite him to refer to the cover of Punch, where he will find this notice :— "Communications or contributions, whether MS., printed matter, drawings, or pictures of any description, will not be returned unless accom- panied by a stamped and addressed envelope, cover, or wrapper." The writer of your article stated that they would not be returned under any conditions. I will ask you to be good enough to correct his inaccuracy by publishing this letter. A Member of the Staff of Punch. III.—The Roxburghe Press, Limited. In this month's issue of The Author a corre- spondent asks for advice as to how to proceed  ## p. 22 (#34) ############################################## 22 THE AUTHOR. with a view of recovering his MS., which he sent to the Roxburghe Press prior to that company's failure. I am informed by a member of the late staff of the Roxburghe Press that if " Provincial " and others in a like predicament apply to Messrs. Singleton and Co., of 4, Staples-inn, Holborn, the desired result will be obtained. May 18. Fred. J. May. IV.—"The Author" in the Libraries. I think you would receive many more com- plaints from struggling free lances as to the way they are treated if The Author was only read more extensively among them. As a matter of fact it ought to be in every public library in the Kingdom, whereas even in London, as far as my experience of a year back goes, it is only to be found in the Clerkenwell Free Library. In this town it is not taken by the authorities of the library but is presented to them, and naturally the donor pleases himself about when he brings it. E. C. Cheltenham. V.—Unmarketableness of Terse. The statement of Mr. Henley with regard to the sale of poetry urges me to air a long-felt grievance. Poetry does not sell for the simple reason that its price is prohibitive. Circulating libraries will not provide modern poetry, free libraries have very little, and the consequence is that, as wealth and a love of literature unfortu- nately seldom go together, modern poetry remains unread. I deeply deplore my own ignorance of our present poets, but I see no way of remedying it, as I cannot afford to buy their works at 5s. a volume. If they would but produce their poems at popular instead of prohibitive prices I am sure that they would find a public eager and willing to buy. One would have thought that the lesson had been learnt by now that a large circulation of cheap books pays better than the sale of a few expensive volumes, but the poets do not seem to realise it. F. M. K. VI.—The First Book. Although a loyal member of the Authors' Society I sometimes wonder whether a young and unknown writer is wise in abiding by the prin- ciples advocated by that society too rigidly. In the May number of The Author appears a short story telling how a young writer is offered .£15 158. for the copyright of his first book. Twelve years ago, before I left Cambridge, and before I was out of my teens, I wrote a story for a boys' paper. I was paid 30s. a number, but was careful to retain copyright. When the story was completed I sent it to a big publishing house. The reader's report was most eulogistic, but the house did not care for reprints, and I was requested to write a new story on the same lines. The pressure of journalistic work pre- vented this, but shortly afterwards another pub- lisher offered me £2 5 for the story. He wanted all rights. I believed in the story—I still believe in it. I rejected the offer. I have since sent my story to several publishers, but have not been able to get it read. The result is that it will probably never be published in book form. Now, had I accepted that offer of £25, and the book had succeeded, would not my position be better than it is to-day? I should probably now be living in Paris, writing fiction—the work I love—instead of toiling at mere journalistic hack work for £4 or .£5 a week. _i: H. J. A. VII.—Proposed Journal for Young Authors. I have forwarded you some circulars re the Pioneer paper, to which, I understand, you will refer elsewhere. May I be allowed to say, by way of comment, that a large number of young "literarv aspirants " are certain to eagerly accept the offer of " Mr. Leigh, M.P.A.B.A. "? For there is no doubt that a paper "run" on somewhat similar lines would be of immense benefit to the "ambitious unknown." It should be remembered that a young and able, but inexperienced, writer has at present no means of obtaining that skilled revision and alteration of his work which would not only make it acceptable to the editors, but would show him his faults, and how they might be avoided or corrected. These faults he has to find out for himself—if he can—often after years of failure, poverty, and bitterness of spirit. What hundreds of struggling writers will look, probably in vain, for "Mr. Leigh, M.P.A.P.A.," to accomplish, the Society of Authors could and should do, for those young authors whom it desires to help; that is, establish a journal in which their writings may appear, a journal, let us say, supplementary to The Author, to be called "The Young Author." A fee, to be made as low as possible, would be paid by the writer for the correction of his MS. and the cost of its insertion. The articles must, of course, be short, and the editor would have the option of returning such as were hopeless, or required too much alteration. The paper should be edited by a capable and sympathetic senior, and be regularly forwarded to the magazine editors, &c. The reading matter should be copyrighted, and the articles be eligible for republication by payment.  ## p. 23 (#35) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 23 The " Young Author " should be published at cost price, the profit from advertisements, writers' fees, and the sale of copies being arranged to balance the cost of production. I would suggest, as another feature of the paper, an "Answers to Contributors" page, where readers' opinions on short stories or articles, poems, <fcc., should be published on pay- ment by the writer of a small fee, thus adopting the present system of the Society in retail, instead of wholesale. I am aware that this sketch of the scheme is crude, and requires considerable working out. I have refrained from all argument in favour of my ideas, and from any elaboration of them, out of respect for your valuable space. H. A. Spurr. VIII.—Jane Austen. The following letter appeared recently in the Times -.—Among the distinguished natives of Hampshire who are buried in Winchester Cathe- dral there are few names more worthy of record than that of Jane Austen; yet the only memorial of her (beyond the stone slab which marks the site of her grave) is a brass tablet let into the wall, which was placed there by her nephew and biographer, the late Rev. J. E. Austen Leigh, in 1870. We feel that we shall be appealing to a large circle of warm admirers, who have been charmed and cheered by her work, if we ask for subscrip- tions to enable us to fill one of the windows in the Cathedral with painted glass in her memory. The selection of the window will depend upon the amount of support that we may receive. The cost of a window in the Lady Chapel is estimated at £600, one in the nave .£300. We may add that our proposal has the cordial approval of the Dean of Winchester. Contributions not exceeding five guineas may be paid to Messrs. Hoare, 37, Fleet-street, London, who have kindly consented to act as treasurers of the fund. northbrook. Selborne. W. W. B. Beach. Montagu G. Knight. BOOK TALE. THE DUKE of ARGYLL is bringing out, through Mr. Murray, a little book on "Organic Evolution," which is the result of a controversy he held with Mr. Herbert Spencer a short time ago. Mr. Barrie has written an introduction for the posthumous volume by Mrs. Oliphant, "A Widow's Tale and Other Stories." It takes the form of an appreciation of the author and her works. Mrs. Humphry Ward's new book is to be published on June 10. Its title is "Helbeck of Bannisdale." A story of Cornish life, by Mr. J. H. Pearce, will be published shortly by Mr. Heinemann. "Ezekiel's Sin " is the title. A translation of M. Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" is being brought out by Mr. Heine- mann. Owen Rhoscomyl has written a Welsh story, entitled "The Shrouded Face," which Messrs. Pearson will issue immediately. Maxwell Gray's new book, to be out imme- diately, is called "The House of Hidden Treasure." Mr. Joseph Hocking has been to Ireland col- lecting materials for a romance based upon certain aspects of monastic life. The story will be called "The Scarlet Woman," and will first run serially. Mr. Hocking regards it as the most important he has undertaken. Mr. Richard Davey has written a book on Cuba, entitled " Cuba, Past and Present," which will be issued by the firm of Chapman and Hall in a short time. The author has travelled in the island, and discusses its history from the begin- ning up to the present day of its difficulties. A work on the taking of Khartoum is already promised from the pen of Mr. G. W. Steevens, the special correspondent of the Daily Mail, and author of " The Land of the Dollar" and' Egypt in 1898." Mr. Henry James's new volume of fiction is to be called "The Two Magics." It will be pub- lished by Mr. Heinemann in the autumn. Mr. Henry Savage Landorhas in great measure recovered from the terrible injuries inflicted upon him by the Tibetans, and the experiences of the journey will be told in his book which Mr. Heine- mann will publish in the autumn. It will be translated for simultaneous publication in French, German, Hungarian, Bohemian, and probably Russian and Italian editions. Mr. Leslie Stephen's "Essays" will be pub- lished in the autumn. Mr. Stephen Gwynn has written a volume entitled "Tennyson: a Critical Study," which Messrs. Blackie will publish in their Victorian Era series. Other works in this series will be  ## p. 24 (#36) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. "Ireland during the Victorian Era," which will be written by Mr. J. A. R. Marriott: "Pruden- tial Societies and Industrial Welfare," by Mr. E. W. Brabrook; and "Gold Discoveries and their Influence on Commerce," by Mr. Moreton Frewen. New biographies are also in preparation by Messrs. James Nisbet and Co. They include, by Major Sharp Hume, " The Great Lord Burghley: a Study in Elizabethan Statecraft," which is based largely upon public records, and on family papers at Hatfield and Burghley; by Mr. Hillaire Belloc, "Danton"; and by Mr. J. A. Hobson, " Ruskin as a Social Reformer." A monograph of Mont Blanc has been written by Mr. Charles Edward Mathews, who has climbed the mountain eleven times and by five different routes. Mr. Mathews is a former presi- dent of the Alpine Club, and has made a special study of literature on the subject of his work. It will contain illustrations by Signor Sella and others, and be published by Mr. Unwin under the title "The Annals of Mont Blanc." Two volumes of the definitive edition of Byron have been published by Mr. Murray—the first of the Poetry, edited by Mr. Hartley Coleridge, and the first of the Letters and Journals, which Mr. Rowland Prothero has edited. The latter con- tains 168 letters down to Aug. 22, 1811; while for the same period Moore's edition contains sixty-one, Halleck's seventy-eight, and Mr. Hen- ley's of eighteen months ago, eighty-eight. A mass of material dealing more or less directly with Byron's life has for the first time been accessible to Mr. Prothero, it having been accumu- lated by Mr. Murray's father and grandfather. "Through the letters," says Mr. Prothero, "a truer conception of Byron can be formed than any impression which is derived from Dallas, Leigh Hunt, Medwin, or even Moore." In his preface the editor quotes the following letter of Byron's father, written to his sister Mrs. Leigh when the poet was but three years old. It is dated from Valenciennes, Feb. 16, i79i,andthe only reference to his son throughout a whole bundle of letters to the same correspondent is contained in it: Have you never received any letters from me by way of Bologne? I have sent two. For God's sake send me some, as I have a great deal to pay. With regard to Mrs. Byron, I am glad she writes to you. She is very amiable at a distance; but I defy you and all the Apostles to live with her two months, for, if anybody could live with her, it was me. Mais jeu de Mains, jeu de Vilains. For my son, I am happy to hear he is well; but for his walking, 'tis impos- sible, as he is club-footed. Jane Austen's works are being published, in a Winchester edition of ten volumes, by Mr. Grant Richards. A feature is to be made of the production, and the printers, Constable, of Edin- burgh, will use the same type as they did for the Edinburgh edition of Stevenson. Mr. Zangwill's separate volumes, "The Bachelors' Club" and "The Old Maids' Club," will be published in one by Mr. Heinemann under the title " The Celibates' Club." "George Egertou's" first long story is about ready. It deals with women's life and work, both in this country and in America, is called "The Wheel of God," and will be published by Mr. Grant Richards. Mr. Conan Doyle is publishing through Messrs. Smith Elder a volume of poems under the title "Songs of Action." Simultaneously with the opening of the Wagner cycle at Covent Garden this month, when so- many of the Bayreuth methods .and appliances will be in use, Mr. Edwin O. Sachs is issuing a large folio volume entitled " Stage Construction." It will contain two hundred drawings, photo- graphs, and diagrams of the great stages of Europe and London, and in his introduction the' author of the monumental "Modern Opera Houses and Theatres " will deal with scenic art and the various developments of stage equip- ment. The book will be published by Mr. Batsford. "Cycling for Everybody," by the well-known authority Mr. Lacy Hillier, is a new book which Messrs. Chapman and Hall are to issue imme- diately. Professor George Henslow has written a book, to which Professor Skeat contributes an introduc- tion and notes, on "Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century." This consists of tran- scripts from four manuscripts of the time of Wiclif and Chaucer, three of which are in the British Museum, and the fourth in the possession of Professor Henslow himself. They illustrate the crudeness of the mediaeval conceptions of the value of plants as drugs, and the recipes are remarkable for the general absence of any men- tion of the nauseous substances recommended by some apothecaries of a later day. The work will be published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. Mr. Lawrence Binyon is issuing a "Second Book of London Visions" soon in the Shilling Garland series published by Mr. Mathew. The "First Book " appeared two years ago. Mr. R. Lydekker is following his work on " The Deer of all Lands " with a companion sumptuous volume on " Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of all Lands." It will contain, like the earlier work, a  ## p. 25 (#37) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 25 number of photographs by the Duchess of Bed- ford, who possesses at Woburn a fine collection of deer and wild animals. Mr. Cunninghame Graham is writing a book on his recent adventures in the south of Morocco. Disguised as an Arab, he attempted to reach the "sacred city" of Tarudant, the capital of the Sua province; but, while crossing the Atlas mountains, he was recognised as a European and taken prisoner. His book will be called " Mogreb El Acksa." The first volume of the "English Dialect Dic- tionary," edited by Professor Joseph Wright, and published by Mr. Henry Frowde, is now com- pleted. It contains 17,519 simple and compound words and 2248 phrases, illustrated by 42,915 quotations, with the exact sources from which they have been obtained. Mrs. Richmond Ritchie gives some further interesting details of Thackeray in the second volume of the biographical edition of his works, namely, "Pendennis," which was published a fortnight ago. Thackeray wrote to his mother in the summer of 1848, proposing that they should take a house at Brighton, " or somewhere where I can work upon ' Pendennis,' which is to be the name of the new book." He suggested a house at .£60 a year: As for the dignity, I don't believe it mitterj a pinch of snuff. Tom Carlyle Uvea in perfect dignity in a little .£40 honse at Chelsea, with a snuffy Scotch maid to open the door, and the best company in England ringing at it. It is only the second or third chop great folks who care about show. "And why don't yon live with a maid yourself?" I think I hear somebody saying. Well, I can't; I want a man to be going my own messages, which ocoupy him pretty well. There must be a cook, and a woman about the children, and that horse is the best doctor I get iu London; in fine, there are a hundred good reasons for a lazy, liberal, not extravagant, but costly way of life. The third and final portion of the great Ash- burnham Library was sold at Sotheby's during the past month. The bidding was keen, and the prices remarkable. Among the notable lota sold were a good copy of the First Folio Shakespeare (1623), .£585, bought by Sir Arthur Hodgson for presentation to the Shakespeare Library at Stratford-on-Avon; a fine and perfect copy of the rare Third Folio Shakespeare (1664), ,£190; two books from the press of the first printer who set up in the City of London, William de Machlinia, namely, "Speculum Chiistiani" (about 1484), .£230, and a Book of Sentences from Terence in Latin and English, thirty-two leaves, £201; a very rare example of Caxton's press, "Speculum Vitse Christi," one of three perfect copies known (about 1488), .£510; an uncut copy of the first edition of Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley" (1814), .£78, a record price; a beautiful set of the first five editions of Walton's "Compleat Angler" (1653 to 1676), .£800; an imperfect copy of Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," from Caxton's press (1478) wanting seventy- seven leaves, .£230; a fine and perfect copy of a very rare Caxton, "The XII. Proflites of Tri- bulaeyon" (1490), a pamphlet of thirty-two pages, .£310; a fine copy of the first edition of "Valturius De Re Militari" (1472), remarkable as being the first book with woodcuts executed in Italy, .£219; an imperfect copy of Gower's "Confessio Amantis," printed by Caxton (1483), wanting forty-one leaves, £100; Voraigne's "La Legende Dorce les Saints et Saintes" (Paris, 1493), with 158 richly-painted and illumi- nated miniatures and figures of saints, .£165. The whole collection took twenty days to disperse, and the sale first began in June last year. There were 4075 lots, which realised .£62,712. Mr. Martin A. Buckmaster has written a text- book on "Elementary Architecture," which will certain thirty-eight full-page illustrations, and be published by the Clarendon Press. Mr. F. G. Kitton's work "Charles Dickens and His Illustrators," which is nearly ready, will contain a number of unpublished letters relating to the illustrations, by Dickens and the various artists engaged upon the novels. The principal contributors are of course Cruikshank and "Phiz," wh i between them illustrated seventeen of Dickens's books. About forty drawings in pen and ink, pencil, and wash by these artists are to be given for the first time in Mr. Kitton's work, which will be published by Mr. George Redway. Geoffrey Mortimer has sold serial rights of a tale, "The Misanthrope of Mor Ynys," to the Weekly Times and Echo. The story is one of adventure among the fisherfolk of an island off the coist of Carnarvonshire, and the opening chapter will appear at the end of this month or early in July. Mrs. Edith E. Cuthell's new children's story, "When I was a Little Girl," will be published in the autumn by the S.P.C.K. It is partly auto- biographical, the adventures of a naughty child. Mrs. Cuthell's soldier-children story, "Only a Guardroom Dog," is in a second edition. Mrs. Pennell is writing a volume on litho- graphy, the invention of Aloys Senefelder. Mr. .Topeph Pennell will contribute examp'.es of, as he prefers to call it, the art of "poly-autography." He has often declared that the effects producible by an artist in lithography amount to a thorough vindication of the choice of those who use it.  ## p. 26 (#38) ############################################## 26 THE AUTHOR. Professor Mahaffy responded for Literature at the Royal Academy banquet. In the course of his reply he said that when he tried to personify the literature of the present day, he seemed to behold a middle-aged dame who had grown so enormously stout with constant cramming that her extremities were becoming flabby and cold, and we began to fear a degeneration at the heart. If one was really solicitous for the health of this personage, it was obvious that one must seek to diminish the quantity and improve the quality of her tissues. He could, he thought, recommend some drastic treatment by which some improve- ment might be effected in her health, but that was not the place to discuss medical prescrip- tions, still less to describe to that august assembly the probable action of these remedies upon the human frame. Colonel Sir George Sydenham Clarke has written a short history on the very important subject of Russian Sea Power. It will be brought out by Mr. Murray in a few days. Mr. Sidney Colvin expects to have his biography of Robert Louis Stevenson ready for publication in the autumn. A new volume of poetry by Mr. Henry Rose, author of "Summer Dreams," &c., will be pub- lished by Messrs. Kegan Paul and Co., entitled "Willow Vale." Mr. William Black's new Highland novel "Wild Eelin," will be published early in the autumn by Messrs. Sampson Low. It is being dramatised in New York, where, and in Edin- burgh, it has been running serially. "The Pride of Jennico," the romance by Agnes and Egerton Castle, is also being adapted for a New York stage. THE BOOKS OF THE MONTH. [April 25 to May 23.—350 Books.] Abbott, T. K. Do this in Remembrance of Me." Should it iie '•Offer This"? 1/. Longman. Abney, W. de W. The Barnet Book of Photography. 1- Lund. Addis, W. E. (tr. and ed.). Documents of the Hexateuch. Vol.11. 10/6. Nutt. Adler, C, and Ramsay, A. Told In the Coffee-House: Turkish Tales. 3/- Macmilian. Aglcn, A. S. Lessons In Old Testament History. 4 6. Arnold. Agnew. P. L. A Bun Through "The Nibelung's Bing." 27- Bradbury. Alderson, E. A. H. With the Mounted Infantry and the Mashona- land Field Force, 1896. 10/6. Methuen. Allen, J. B. (ed.) Lives from Cornelius Nepos. 1'6 Frowde. Allen, W. O. B., and McOlure. E. History of the S.P.C.K., 1686-1896. 10,6 8.P.C.K. Andom, R. Side Slips: or Misadventures on a Bicycle. 1/6 Pearson. 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