https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/501/1905-01-01-The-Author-15-4.pdf e37116b4d099545aab354384071506eb 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 The Author Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, The Author, 1890–1914, made available together for the first time. Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&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) 1905-01-01 Volume 15 Issue 4 Pages Page range in volume 93–120 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 19050101 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Che Huthor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT. Vou. XV.—No. 4. TELEPHONE NuMBER : 374 VICTORIA. TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS : AUTORIDAD, LONDON. ——S—_ -—>—_2 —_____ NOTICES. ——>— signed or initialled the authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion of the Committee unless such is especially stated to be the case. : ee the opinions expressed in papers that are Tux Editor begs to inform members of the Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author that the cases which are from time to time quoted in The Author are cases that have come before the notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the Society, and that those members of the Society who desire to have the names of the publishers concerned can obtain them on application. ——>—+—__ List of Members. THE List of Members of the Society of Authors published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be obtained at the offices of the Society. They will be sold to members or associates of the Society only. —_*+—>—+—_ The Pension Fund of the Society. Tux Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and having gone carefully into the accounts of the fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North Vou, XV. JANUARY IsT, 1905. ——e ee [Prick SIxpEncr. Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the investments of the Pension Fund at present standing in the names of the Trustees are ag follows. This is a statement of the actual stock ; the money value can be easily worked out at the current price of the market :— ee £1000 0 0 FaCn) COANE 200 500 0 0 Victorian Government 3 % Consoli- dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11 Wea ie 201 9 8 London and North Western 3 % Deben- EEG DUOC es 250 0 0 Wotal 22... £2,243 9 2 ee Subscriptions from April, 1904. ooo £8. a: April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . : 7 0. 5 0 April18, Bashford, Harry H. ; » O10 6 April19, Bosanquet, Eustace F. . O10 6 April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain 0 b 0 May 6, Shepherd, G. H. .. : 0 3 0 June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart., G.C.B. : . ol A July 27, Barnett, P. A. : : - 0:10 Nov. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles . 0 10 Donations from April, 1904. May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth 5 0. 0 June 28, Kirmse, R. . : : : : June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. July 21, The Blackmore Memorial Committee é 20 0 0 Aug. 5, Walker, William 8, 200 Oct. 6, Hare, F. W. E., M.D. 1 1.0 Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold 010 0 Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0 Noy. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida. 1 1 0 Nov. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig : 2 , 5 Noy. 24, Egbert, Henry : 94 FROM THE COMMITTEE. ———+ — rTVHE last Committee meeting of the year was held on Monday, the 5th of December, when Mr. Douglas Freshfield was in the chair. There was a further election of members, bringing the total for the past year up to 233. This is the largest election which the Society has had in any one year during the past ten years. It is satisfac- tory to the Managing Committee to obtain this evidence of the appreciation of the advantages obtained from the Society’s work by writers engaged in the various branches of literature. One or two matters of importance were con- sidered by the Committee, concerning which it would be impolitic at the present stage to give detailed information. One matter, unfortunately, is likely to involve from twenty to thirty members of the Society. It is desirable to state only that the Committee, with the help of the secretary and the Society’s solicitors, are watching the issues with great care on behalf of the members... Some time ago, it may be remembered, the Committee decided to take counsel’s opinion on the question of the payment of Income Tax by authors. The opinion has now been obtained and was laid before the Committee. It is printed in this number of The Author. During the month of November the Chairman sanctioned the placing in the hands of the Society’s solicitors three County Court cases and two High Court cases. This was reported to and confirmed by the Committee. In the three County Court cases the amounts due have heen paid and the costs recovered. In one case, how- ever, there is a question of account which may need some further settlement. In the two High Court cases writs have been issued, and in one judgment under Order 14 has been obtained. It is hoped that the Society’s solicitors will be able to obtain judgment in the other by the same process. The negotiations carried on by the Committee for the purpose of obtaining a fresh agent in the United States are being pushed forward. The recommendation of Mr. James Bryce, who has just returned from the United States, was laid before the Committee, and the secretary was instructed to write to the gentleman, whose name was submitted, and enquire whether he would be willing to take up the duties involved. —— + — Cases. Since the last publication of The Author only six matters have been placed in the Seerctary’s hands for settlement, three for money due to members and three for the return of MSS. Intwo of the cases in which the Secretary has applied for the return of MSS. he has obtained the return for THE AUTHOR. the authors concerned. Sufficient time has not yet passed to enable the third case to be settled. The cases for money due are still in course of negotiation, but the editor of one of the papers has promised to send a cheque on the next pay day. In another case against a foreign publisher, the author had been unable to obtain any reply for overayear. ‘The Secretary, however, has obtained an answer and a promise to look into the matter, and there is every reason to hope that the Society will be able to bring the matter to an issue. 2 It may be necessary to take number three into Court, as the principal from whom the money is due denies liability, although from the letters and information in the Secretary’s hands his indebted- ness seems to be quite clear. — oa December Elections. 37, Egerton ‘Terrace, Knightsbridge, 8.W. 8, Fairholm Road, West. Kensington, W. 10, Gilston Road, S.W. 10, Idmiston Gardens, West Norwood, 8.E. 17, Kensington Gore, Coffin, Mrs. Frere, Latham Irving, Laurence . Kentish - Rankin, M.A. ; F.R.G.S. Knowles, Miss Margaret 1, S.W. MacLiesh, Mrs. Wiston Lodge, Leaming- ton, N.B. Martin, Miss Eva M. St. Kilda, Carrington, (“Sydney Hessel- Nottingham. rigge ”) Miller, Mrs. Mary . 11, Woburn Place, W.C. Roberts, Miss Ethel Oak Hill Lodge, Frog- Adair . nal, N.W. Robinson, Major Gen. C. W., C.B. Scouller, John Snushall, Miss E. . Turton, Mrs. Williams, Archibald Beverley House, Katon Rise, Ealing, W. 774, Grove Lane, Den- mark Hill, S.E. ~ Emneth, Wisbech, Cambs. The Nook, 138, Bruns- wick Hill, Reading. Uplands, Stoke Poges, Bucks. $$$ —__— BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY. ——_-—— + (In the following list we do not propose to give more than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may serve to explain the scope ‘ Members are requested to forward information which will enable the Editor to supply such particulars.) \ ART. THE RATIONALE OF ART. Published by the Author at Kames- 5s. n. . 7k x 5, 148 pp. burgh, Beckenham, Kent. and purpose of the work. By NorRMAN ALLISTON THE AUTHOR. 95 THE HIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLISH CARICATURE, By SELWYN BRINTON. 63 x 5, 96 pp. Siegle. Is. 6d. n. BIOGRAPHY. MEMOIRS OF THE MARTYR KING. Beinga Detailed Record of the Last Two Years of the Reign of His Most Sacred Majesty King CharlesI, 1646-48-49, By ALLAN Fra. 134 X 104, 278 pp. Lane. £5 5s. n. RUPERT, PRINCE PALATINE. By Eva Scort, 8} x 54, 384 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d. n. MEMORIES. By Constancy F. GorDoN CumMMING. 83 X 53, 487 pp. Blackwoods. 20s. n. tHE LIFE OF EDWARD LorD HAWKE. By MonTaGur Burrows. (rd. and Revised Edition), ik G45, 333 pp. Keliher. 6s. BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. NEW TREASURE SEEKERS. By E. NESBIT. 8 x 43. 328 pp. Unwin. 6s. THE DESIRE OF THE NATIONS. By M. A. Mocarra, 10 X 7, 246pp. Mowbray. 3s. 6d. A FAMILY GRIEVANCE. By RAYMOND JACBERNS. 14X65, 182 pp. Wells Gardner. 1s. 6d. ELSIE’s MAGICIAN. By FRED WHISHAW. 7} xX 5,191 pp. Chambers. 1s. 6d. ENGLAND'S SEA SrorIEs. A Popular Record of the Doings of the English Navy from the Earliest Days. By ALBERT LEE. 8 x 5,336 pp. Melrose. 5s, A SUMMERFUL OF CHILDREN. By ELLA and AGNES TOMLINSON. With 65 pictures of some Sussex Children. 82 X 6%, 87 pp. Dent, 10s. 6d. n. THE DREAM GARDEN. A CHILDREN’S ANNUAL, 1905. Edited by Nerra SyrerT. 10} x 7}, 237 pp. Baillie. 5s. D. Puss IN Boots. By Louis WAIN. 1} X 6. Treherne. 1s. 6d. BOYS’ BOOKS. OUT OF THE RUNNING. A School Story. By HARroLp AVERY. 74 X 5,279 pp. Collins. 2s. 6d. CHILDREN’S BOOKS. A CHAPLET OF VERSE FOR CHILDREN, By Mrs. ALFRED BALDWIN. 74 X 5,110 pp. Mathews. 3s. 6d. Fairy STORIES FROM THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN. By JOHN FINNEMORE. 74 X 5,111 pp. Sunday School Union. 1s. THe TALE oF SQuEAKY Mouvsz, 54 X 43,135 pp. 3y A. 8S. GIBSON, Grant Richards. 2s. CHRONOLOGY. A PRACTICAL DAILY CALENDAR FOR ALL YEARS—Past, PRESENT, AND FUTURE—FRoM SATURDAY, JANUARY Ist, A.D. 1, By Rev. J. J. GRaTrex. 33 x 24, (celluloid card), The Author, Brandiscorner, R.S.O% 6d. DRAMA. Wm. SHAKESPEARE. PEDAGOGUE AND POACHER. By RiCHARD GARNETT. 74 x 5, 111 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d. n. A LEsson IN Harmony. By ALFRED AUSTIN, Poet Laureate. 7 x 42, 35 pp. French. 1s. Lerry. By A. W. PIneEro, 62 X 5, 247 pp. Heine- mann. Ils, 6d. EDUCATIONAL. ERasmus’s PRAISE or Fouzy. English School Texts, Edited by W. H. D. Roussg, Litt. D. 63 X 64. 126 pp. Blackie. 8d. FICTION, A SPOILED PRIEST AND OTHER STORIES. By P. A, S4EEHAN, D.D, 7% X 5,213 pp. Burns & Oates. 5s, THE LAND oF BonDAGn. A Romance. By Joun BLOUNDELLE BuRTON. 7} x 5, 318 pp. — White. 6s. THE QUEEN’s KNIGHT ERRANT, A Story of the Days of Sin WALTER RALEIGH. By BEATRICE MARSHALL, 72 X 54, 322 pp. Seeley. 5s. THE FALKNERS OF GREENHURsT. By JEAN MIDDLEMAss. 73 X 5,308 pp. Digby Long & Co. 6s. THE MINISTER’s GUEST. By Mrs. IsaBen SMITH. 73 X 5,400 pp. T. Fisher Unwin. 6s. THE Book OF ANGELUS DRAYTON. By Mrs. Frep REYNOLDS. 7% x 44, 400 pp. J. Long. 6s. JULIA. By KATHERINE TYNAN. 7% X 5, 322 pp. Smith Elder. 6s. THE EDGE or CIRCUMSTANCE, By E.NoBir. 72 x 5, 348 pp. Blackwood. 6s. SIEGFRIED. By S. BARING GouLD. 8 x 54, 351 pp. Dean. 6s. THE OTHER Worzp. By F. FRANK¥oRT Moorr, 1? x_6, 274 pp. Nash. 6s, A FALLEN IDoL, By F. ANSTEY, 83 xX 53, 204 pp. Newnes. 6d. A PRINCE OF THE PEOPLE, A Romance of modern Royalty. By Mason Puri TREVOR. 7% x 43, 299 pp. Isbister. 6s. HISTORY. THE VicERoy’s Post Bac. Correspondence hitherto un- published of the Earn or HARDWICKE, First Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after the Union. By MIcHAEL MACDONAGH. 8 xX 534, 466 pp. Murray. 12s. n. THE Hoty RomMAN Empire. By JAMES BRYCE. 7? x 54, 571 pp. Macmillan. 7s, 6d. HisToricaL Mysterizs. By ANDREW LANG. 8 x 53, 304 pp. Smith Elder. 9s. n. (Paper-bound reprint). LITERARY, THE ENCHANTED WooD AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE GENIUS OF PLACES, By VERNON LEE, le. x 8, 321 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d. n, MEDICAL. CASSELL’S PHYSICAL Epucator. By EusTAcE MILES, 94 X 64. 756 pp. Cassell. 9s. MILITARY. STRATEGY ILLUSTRATED BY BRITISH CAMPAIGNS. By Capt. C. H, K. Macquorp. 9} x 64, 252 pp. Cassell. 10s. 6d. PAMPHLETS. A PLEA FOR THE HISTORICAL TEACHING orf HIsToRy, By C. H. FirruH. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1s. n. POETRY. Musa VERTICORDIA. By FRANcIS Courts. 72 X 5 Lane, 3s. 6d. n. Porms. By Giacomo LEopaRpI. Translated by SIR THEODORE MARTIN, 7} X 5, 123 pp. Blackwood, 5s. n. SOUNDS AND SWEET AIRS. By JOHN ToODHUNTER. 64 x 5, 96 pp. Mathews. Is. n, 2 THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL. Translated into English Verse by the Right Hon. tHp LorD BURGHCLERE, 8% x 74, 195 pp. Murray. 10s. 6d. n. REPRINTS. THE PRiogESS’s TALE AND OTHER TALES. By GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Done into Modern English by Prof. SKEAT. 158 pp. (Introductory matter and notes at the end). Morinvg. 1s. 6d, n. each, 96 SOCIOLOGY. Tian PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED. An Enquiry and Economic Policy. By J. A. HoBson. 2nd Edition Methuen. 2s. 6d. Revised. 74 X 42, 160 + 40, pp. TECHNOLOGY. Printing. A Practical Handbook on the Art of Typo- graphy. Third (revised and enlarged) Edition. By C.F. Jacosi. 74 x 44, 409 pp. Bell. 7s. 6d, THEOLOGY. How To USE THE PRAYER BOOK. (Guides to Religious Knowledge Series). Longmans. 2s. CHRISTUS IN ECCLESIA. By Mrs. E. ROMANES, 159 pp. SERMONS ON THE CHURCH By Hastines RAsHALL, AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. D.Litt., D.C.L. 8} X 53, 364 pp. Edinburgh : Clark. 4s. 6d. n. Tue CHRIst HAS Come. THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE past. By B. HAMPDEN COOK. 8rd Edition, with important additions and changes. 8} x 54, 195 pp. Simpkin, Marshall. 2s. 6d. n. ‘HE CANONS OF ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. The ‘Arabic and Coptic Versions Edited and Translated by W. RiepeL and W. E. Crum. 9 X 5%, 153 pp. (issued by the Text and ‘Translation Society). Williams and Norgate. TOPOGRAPHY. SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING PLACES. Fea. 82 x 53,317 pp. Bousfield. 5s, n. TRAVEL. Op FLORENCE AND MoperN Tuscany, By JANET Ross. 7k x 5,229 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n. THe ALPS FRoM END To END. By Sir W. MARTIN Conway. 84 X 53,300 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d, CITIES AND SIGHTS OF SPAIN. A Handbook for Tourists. By ALLAN By Mrs. AUBREY LE Buonp. 7 x 5, 214 pp. Bell. Sunny SrciILy. Irs RusTICS AND ITS RUINS. By Mrs. ALEC TWEEDIE. 9 X 54, 392 pp. Hutchinson. 18s, n. —_—_——_+—__+—___—__ LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL NOTES. oo at HE Incorrigible Twins,” is a story of two children. The scene is laid in South Africa and in England. The subject is dealt with sympathetically by D’Esterre, author of “Gerald and Dolly.” The book is published by Messrs. H. G. Skinner & Co., of Camberwell. “The Compact,” by May Evans (“A Welsh Spinster”’) is issned by the Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., with five illustrations, at the price of 6s. The author, in her Preface, states that ‘‘ The Com- pact” is not primarily intended as a story, nor a mere medium for a moral truth. It is a mental study of the following idea: “ Would any woman give her soul to save the soul of the man she loved ? . An edition, limited to 400 copies, of Mr. Allan Fea’s work, “ Memoirs of the Martyr King,” has been issued by Mr. John Lane at the price of £5 5s. net. he book is printed on hand-made paper, is bound in leather, and contains upwards of one THE AUTHOR. hundred photogravure portraits and other illus- trations. Mr. Douglas Sladen’s new work, “ More Queer Things about Japan,” which is described as a sequel to the same author’s former book, “ Queer things about Japan,” has been published by Messrs. Treherne & Co. at the price of 21s. net. A second edition of “ Marie-Eve,” by Miss Marian Bower, author of “The Guests of Mine Host ” and “The Puppet-Show,” has just been issued. K. L. Montgomery, the author of the romances, «The Cardinal’s Pawn” and “ Major Weir,” has completed a new story entitled ‘ Stringer the Unconventional,” which the author hopes to serialise before publication. The scene is laid in Chateau d’Oex. No. 5 of Messrs. Egerton & Co.’s series of “Little Plays for Little Players’ is an acting ver- sion of “Little Red Riding Hood.” The book is by Gladys Davidson, the lyrics by Louise Egerton, and the music by Stephen R. Philpot. The libretto is published at the price of 3d., and the music at the price of 1s. Mr. John Long is about to publish on behalf of Miss Jean Middlemass, a novel entitled ‘Count Reming.” Messrs. Macmillan announce the second edition of Sir Frederick Pollock’s First Book of Jurispru- dence for Students of the Common Law, containing amplifications and new references. His Majesty the King has been pleased to accept a copy of a new historical work entitled, “‘ Eng- land’s Sea Story,” by the Rev. Albert Lee. The work, which claims to be a Popular Record of the Doings of the English Navy from the Earliest Days, is published by Mr. Andrew Melrose at the rice of 5s. “Dolly’s Governess” is the title of a humorous story written by Mr. George Somers Layard and published by Messrs. Isbister & Co. at the price of 1s. net. We have received from Messrs. A. & CO. Black (4, Soho Square, W.C.) “ Who’s Who,” for 1905 (7s. 6d.), “ Who's Who” Year Book (1s.), and “The Englishwoman’s Year Book ” for 1905. “ Who's Who,” the first issue of which appeared in 1849, increases in bulk year by year, the present issue containing 1,796 pages. It is undoubtedly a useful annual. “ Who’s Who” Year Book, which was first pub- lished last year as a supplement to “ Who’s Who,” contains a fairly exhaustive list of periodicals, magazines, and newspapers. It also contains a list of civil servants, together with a list of clubs, societies, &c., &c. “The Englishwoman’s Year Book” for 1905, edited by Miss Emily Janes, contains a number of articles dealing with the different professions open THE AUTHOR. 97 Also a mass of information of use to It appears to be a very handy to women. women generally. book of reference. The Statutes of Practical Utility passed in 1904, with a Selection of Statutory Rules, made during the same period (Sweet & Maxwell, Stevens & Sons, 7s. 6d.), have just been brought out in the tenth annual continuation of “Chitty’s Statutes.” The 19 Statutes annotated include the Licensing Act, the Shop Hours Act, the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, the Savings Banks Act, and the Weights and Measures Act. The new Education Code, with its striking introduction as to moral training, is printed in its entirety, and so is the Religious Instructions Circular, known as “Circular 512.” The reader will also find the Motor-Cars (Use and Construction) Order, and the Poor Prisoners’ Defence Regulations and Rules, which are subsidiary to the two Acts of 1903 on those subjects. The Witchcraft Act of 1735, and the Manufactured Tobacco Act of 1863 are added in an appendix. The preface contains various sugges- tions for the improvement of the legislative machine by the substitution of adjournments for prorogations and other methods. ‘‘ How to Use the Prayer Book,” by Mrs. G. T. Romanes, is not intended to be a history of the Prayer Book, but rather as an aid to understanding the ideal of faith and conduct contained in the English Prayer Book. The book is published by Messrs. Longmans at the price of 2s. net. Messrs. Macmillan & Co. published at the end of December a work on “Shakespearean Tragedy,” by Prof. A. C. Bradley, of Oxford. In it the author takes the four principal tragedies — “ Hamlet,” “Othello,” “King Lear,’ and “Macbeth ’’—and considers them from a single point of view. Pro- fessor Bradley endeavours, in short, to excite a more intense apprehension of the action and the per- sonages of each play, in order that his readers may be brought into closer imaginative association with the genius of their creator, and for the attainment of this object it has been no part of his plan to discuss such questions as Shakespeare’s place in English literature, the development of his genius, or questions regarding his life and character. Mr. Austin Dobson has written an interesting introduction to the new edition of Locker-Lamp- son’s “ London Lyrics,” which will shortly come out in “ The Golden Treasury Series.” Mr, Dobson has also written many new notes for this edition which throw light on the sources of the poems. “Torn Lace,” by Miss Charlotte Mansfield, published by the Walter Scott Publishing Co., at the price of 8s. 6d., is the simple story of an Italian peasant girl, who, passing through many tempta- tions, in the final scene sacrifices her life for another. Mr. John Long will shortly publish Mrs. Aylmer Gowing’s new novel, “Lord of Himself,” which describes how the heir to a peerage, an under- graduate at Oxford, wins the Newdigate Prize, is cast upon the world, and fights his Way against all odds. A young Princess is his guardian angel. The pictures of Oxford life will make the story interesting to many. “A Boy’s Control and Self-expression ” (pub- lished at the price of 6s.), is the title of a new work from the pen of Mr. Eustace Miles. In his preface, the author states that his object is to make a boy more independent, and to enable him to learn the habit of self-control, self-expression, and self- respect by apparently alien things, including physical exercises. Copies of the book may be obtained from the author at 10, St. Paul’s Road, Cambridge. ‘ Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s book, “Sunny Sicily,” is now on the market, published by Messrs. Hutchin- son & Co. The author says that Sicily teems with interest for the historian, the archeologist, the builder, for the painter, and for the lover of folk- lore, that probably no spot on earth of equal size holds such varied or such ceaseless charm. The book (published at the price of 18s.), is a descrip- tion of those features of the island which will appeal to the classes mentioned, as well as to the general body of readers. Messrs. Newnes have included in their sixpenny copyright novels, Mr. Eden Phillpott’s amusing story, “‘ A Deal with the Devil,” which some ofour readers may remember. The story, which describes the career of a modern Faust, has been illustrated by Mr. H. M. Brock. Messrs. Williams & Norgate will issue shortly a third part of Dr. A. H. Church’s work, “On the Relation of Phyllotaxis to Mechanical Laws,” which will be devoted to “Secondary Growth Phenomena,” and will also contain mathematical notes by Mr. EK. H. Hayes and the author. It will be illustrated with a number of figures. ‘‘A Summerful of Children,” by Ella and Agnes Tomlinson, has been published by Messrs. J. M. Dent & Co. at the price of 10s. 6d. net. The old nursery rhymes have been illustrated by photo- graphs from life, and the result has been amply justified, owing to the skill and judgment of the photographers. Mr. Frederick Winbolt’s new book, “Philip of Macedon, a Tragedy,” has recently been issued by the De la More Press. A full description of the play will be found in the “ Era” of November 26th. “On Life’s Journey” is the title of a collection of poems, by Mary Gorges, which has been published by Messrs. Walter G. Wheeler & Co. The poems, which are of a varied character, deal with homely incident, scripture type and symbol, the songs of birds and the scent of flowers. 98 An informative article on the remarkable railway bridge across the Zambesi River below the Victoria Falls, illustrated from original photographs, appears in this month’s “ World’s Work and Play ” from the pen of Mr. Eustace Reynolds-Ball. Messrs. A. & C. Black published early last month the 4th edition of ‘Cairo of To-Day,” by the same author. The work, which has been revised and brought up to date, and in part rewritten, is intended to meet the demand among English and American visitors for a cheap and practical guide, Whilst mainly appealing to -tourists who are only able to spend a few weeks in Egypt, it does not neglect the interests of winter residents and invalids. The price of the work is 2s. 6d. “ Rita’s” successful novel, ‘‘ The Jesters,” is being translated into Swedish through the “ Bureau Scandinavian ”’ agency. Mr. Brimley Johnson announces for publication in the spring a small book of light verse, entitled “Tea Table Rhymes,” by M. P. Guimaraens. A successful copyright performance of “The Cowslip Ball” (cantata-playette), by Ellen Collett, to music by George S. Aspinall, took place at the West Hampstead Town Hall on December 17th, before a crowded audience. The performance was ably given by the pupils of the Misses Barnett, sisters of Mr. John Francis Barnett, who presented prizes afterwards. —\_\_o——_e—__——_ PARIS NOTES. — HE annual prizes of the Société des Gens de Lettres were awarded in December. The Chauchard prize of 3,000 francs fell to Madame Séverine, the Balzac prize of 1,500 francs to M. Maurice Montegut, and the President’s prize to M. Albert Boissiere. The Petit Bourg prize was awarded to M. de Braisne ; two Chau- chard prizes of 1,000 francs each were given to M. Allais and M. Pierre Giffard. M. Guillanmin and M. Quentin-Bauchart both received a medal. The annual prize of 5,000 francs of the de Gon- court Academy has been awarded to M. Léon Frapié for his book entitled “a Maternelle.” It is a novel written with a purpose, and is the story of a young girl who has studied hard and taken her degrees, but who finds it difficult to obtain a good post and so enters a “ maternal school ” in a very poor part of Paris. She is at first impressed by the organisation of this institution, but as time goes on she is struck by the fact that the education given to the children is on an entirely wrong system. She comes to the conclusion that the education they receive is not what they will need in the hard struggle for life which will undoubtedly THE AUTHOR. be their fate. The author has succeeded in writing an interesting novel, and at the same time treating one of the most important social questions of the day. The Nobel Prize for poetry is to be divided this year between Frédéric Mistral and the Spanish poet, Echegaray. Mistral intends using his share of the prize in buying an old palace at Arles for the famous ethnological museum, the “ Muséon Arlaten.” He will restore the palace, and some literary fétes will probably be given there. In “Vies Intimes” M. Henry Bordeaux gives us a series of studies from life of romances that have been lived. ‘The titles of the various chapters will serve to show that the subjects chosen are some of the most interesting of the kind of the last three centuries :—* Petites méditations sur des Correspondances Amoureuses,” “ Mme. de Warens @apres de nouveaux documents,” “ Le roman d’une princesse,”” ‘ L’amour dans les ruines,” ‘“ Adélaide de Bellegarde,” “La Tour du Lépreux,” “ Rosalie de Constant,’ “ Uneamiede Chateaubriand,” “ Balzac at Mme. de Hanska,” “ Victor Hugo fiancé,” “ Miche- let amoureux,” “La Vie de Georges Sand,” “ Le premier amour de George Sand,” “ Le premier et le dernier amour de Berlioz,” “ La correspondance de Beethoven,” ‘La correspondance de Wagner,” “ Elizabeth d’Autriche et Louis de Baviére,” “ Une amie du poéte Aubanel,” “ Vie singuliére d’une Sainte moderne.” With the clearness and sincerity which are the characteristics of this author’s work, M. Bordeaux draws for us some admirable sketches of the women he has selected to illustrate his subject. His reflections und observations, which are most per- tinent and just, add greatly to the value of the book. “ Ay-dessus de |’Abime,’? by Madame Blanc Bentzon, is an extremely up-to-date sketch of a certain phase of social life in modern France. It shows the difficulties of the transition stage through which the country is now passing. The idea of separation between Church and State has divided the people more or less into various camps—those who adhere to their faith in ecclesiastical authority, those who approve of the separation between Church and State, those who would shake off all possible fetters, and those who are indifferent and only ask to be left in peace. In this story, Francoise Desprez, the most in- teresting character in the volume, is a girl who has received an education superior to her true rank in life. Her troubles begin when she has passed her examinations, taken her degrees, and has to earn — her own living. She has been educated at the secular college, and is consequently looked upon with disdain by the fervent Roman Catholics. She — is by birth a country girl, and feels imprisoned in a city. college life are distasteful to her. « En. cing ans,” she writes, “ jai traversé tous — The routine, monotony, and strict rules of THE AUTHOR. 99 les cercles de l’enfer pédagogique ; j’ai aidé a attiser ces abominables fours ou l’on chanffe les examens a grand renfort de manuels, sans dévelop- per chez les éléves l’initiative ni la réflexion.” She has arrived at an age when she longs to see something of life outside the walls of a schoolroom, and she applies to a wealthy woman who has taken great interest in her to find her a situation in a private family. By following Francoise in her travels we are introduced to various typical mem- bers of present day society in France. We have the well-to-do family, consisting of husband and wife, with a daughter married suitably according to the old way of thinking, and an unmarried daughter, Colette, who is being educated according to the new system. She goes in for all kinds of sport, and is for a French girl decidedly emanci- pated. Then there is a financier, greatly respected on account of his vast wealth, until the tide of speculation turns for him, and he escapes reproach by suicide. His son has lived the life of a mil. lionaire, and is engaged to Colette at the time of his father’s ruin. With great tact and worldly wisdom Colette’s parents, while expressing their sympathy with the young man, break off their daughter’s engagement. ‘There is also the inevit- able American woman who has climbed, by means of her dollars, into a certain position in French society. She has bartered her money fora husband ten years her junior, with some kind of a title, and she gathers around her in her new home all kinds of antiquities more or less authentic, Frangoise and the son of the ruined speculator are the most interesting personages of the story. The great charm of this novelette consists in the faithful portrait it gives of this transition period in French life. The new woman problem is by no means solved yet in France. Several novelists have attempted to deal with it, but the attempts so far have not been very satisfactory. In this apparently slight story by Madame Blane Bentzon there is much more depth than one at first realises. The authoress is a keen observer and has handled her subject. most delicately. She gives us several types of women of this transition period, and one of the most true to life is Marthe Granger, a daughter of the people, who devotes her whole existence to caring for the children of one of the poorest districts of Paris. Within the last ten years she has rescued over three thousand children. Such work is going on quietly and surely in Paris, and it is very evident that the authoress of « Au- dessus de l’Abime,” when drawing her pictures of the new woman in France, has studied her subject more thoroughly than most of her confreres. A curious book has just been published by M. Emile Dard. It is a volume compiled from hitherto unknown documents giving an account of General Choderlos de Laclos, the author of that famous book ** Liaisons Dangereuses,” which Paul Bourget mentions as “ the masterpiece perhaps of analytical novels.” Laclos was a captain in the army under Louis XVI. He wasa most ambitious man, and when he found he did not advance in his career he wrote his celebrated book as a pamphlet against the Court. M. Dard describes Laclos as “un auteur caché du Drame revolutionnaire.” Hig influence was certainly felt in many different spheres, and his career was a most adventurous one. Among the new books are “Les Chevaliers de PAu-delai,” by Jean Rameau, a novel which treats of the trickery practised on a very wealthy widow by charlatans, who traded on her superstitions ; “a Cruche cassée,” by Gabrielle Réval, a some- what dramatic novel, in which we have an excellent picture of provincial life in France ; “ La Seconde Faute,” by Henri d’Hennezel; “La Nef,” by Eléimir Bourges, a kind of epic poem in prose, in which the author evokes the tortures and the visions of Prometheus. The style is admirable, and the whole book in every way worthy of the author of “ Le Orépuscule des Dieux.” “Roman. ciers et viveurs du XIXe. Siecle,” by Philibert Audebrand, is a book of memoirs in which the author evokes for us many of the well-known personages of the last century. “Un Homme libre,”’ by Maurice Barrés ; “ L’Ombre de la Maison,” by Ivan Strannik; “L’Aventure d’Huguette,” by Guy de Chantepleure ; “Le Tumulte,” by Georges d’Esparbés. The literary rights of French authors in Canada appear to be proved now satisfactorily. It appears that as Great Britain has accepted the terms of the Berne Convention, Canada through Grea Britain has also accepted them. The publication of French works which are unauthorised by the author is therefore illicit, and the question of authors’ rights is to be brought into the Canadian law courts, so that’ French authors may be legally protected in future. The Council of the Cercle de la Lnbrairie in Paris is of opinion that steps should be taken at once in this matter. In the first place the French Société des Gens de Lettres should bring an action against the Canadian papers which are publishing French literature unauthorised by the author. Then a French publisher should make a claim on any Canadian publisher who has brought out French books that are not authorised by the author, and a law suit should be brought in cases where a French book that has been printed in New York is introduced into Canada. It is hoped that the Society of Dramatic Authors will also take up this matter, so that there should bea general protest against the present state of things. In the Revue des Dewa-Mondes there is an article 100 by M. Henry Houssaye on “Ta Retourdu Roi en 1815.” M. Schuré gives some interesting details with regard to Wagner's correspondenve with Mathilde Wesendonk. M. Filon writes an article on H. G. Wells as novelist, prophet, and reformer. In La Revue Stéfane Pol discusses the question «“ Gomment combattre VYalcolisme.” M. Claude Anet writes on “Les chevaliers du vol aux Etats Unis,” and M. Garofolo on “Ta Orimonologie Moderne.” In La Quinzaine the Vicomte @ Adhémar writes on ‘Science eb Philosophie ” (a propos du radium), and M. de Contenson an interesting article on “ Le Devoir social de Vacheteur.” In the Jercure de France there is an article by Alexandra Myrial on “ Le Pouvoir religieux au Thibet,” and some hitherto unpublished letters of Chateaubriand. The great theatrical event of the month has been the staging of “ King Lear” at the Théatre Antoine. The translation is by MM. Pierre Loti and Vedel. The play is admirably put on and seems likely to prove a great success. “Notre Jeunesse,” by Alfred Capus, is a most brilliant play, in which the working out of the thesis and the dialogue are excellent. It is dis- tinctly a piece a these. Lucien Briant, who is very happily married, has an illegitimate daughter whom he has never seen. He is a good-natured, kind- hearted man, but with no will of his own. His old father is a veritable tyrant and a cynic. He lives with his son and his daughter-in-law, and in the first act it is very evident that Madame Briant has come to the end of her patience as regards submission to the caprices of her husband’s father, Her husband is absorbed in business affairs ; she finds her country life dull and monotonous, and in desperation commences a flirtation with a man whose love adventures have made him famous in social circles. Just at this dangerous moment in Madame Briant’s life the sister of one of her husband’s oldest friends tells her the story of Lucien’s daughter. Madame Briant sees the young girl, and, longing as she does, for some serious object in life, she determines to adopt her. The two women arrange the whole affair, and Lucien, to his horror, is confronted by his daughter. To explain everything to his old father is no easy task, and he is finally in despair at the turn matters are taking. His father will not hear of the adoption of the new found daughter and his wife treats him as a coward for not listen- ing to the voice of his own conscience. Inthe end the women prevail and Lucien, for the first time in his life opposes his father, who remains obdurate. The whole play is a brilliant satire on many phases of social life, but it is the satire of an optimist, and not that of a cynic. THE AUTHOR. M. Jules Lemaitre has read his new comedy, “Ta Massiére” at the Renaissance Theatre. M. Antoine has accepted a piece by M. Antoine Bibesco, entitled “ Guet Apens.” Atys HALLARD. ——_—_——_1— > —__———_ UNITED STATES NOTES. ee: OLITICAL distractions seem to have produced little or no effect upon the literary world of America; and though exact statistics are not as yet to hand, it may- be stated without fear of contradiction that 1904 has been by no means a bad year for those interested in book-production, Some signs of a tendency to redress the balance between fiction and other literature have shown themselv4s, apart from such temporary influences as the war in the Far East and the Presidential election. An anonymous publisher, who has been printing his “ Confessions ” in the “ Boston Transcript,” has much to say on the subject of the commercialisa- tion of literature. He admits the fact, but denies the degradation which has been considered a necessary corollary to it. “There is much less reason to fear the commercial degradation of many other callings than the publishers,” he concludes cheerfully. But the most piquant part of the “ Confessions ” is supplied by certain admissions which constitute a considerable deduction from this conclusion. While admitting that ‘the very best traditions of publishing are yet a part of the practice of the best American publishing houses,” we are told that there are others who keep “ Literary drummers 4 to look up popular authors and solicit books, instead of respecting each other’s clientéle. ‘* There are two men in the United States who have gone about making commercial calls on practically every man and woman who has ever written a successful book ”—says our authority. This, he concedes, is “demoralisation and commercialisation with a vengeance.” But, it seems, “ it is the sin of the authors.” Here we must interpose a word. Whilst far from standing forth as a partisan of the afore- said “ Literary drummer,” or any such person, the contention urged in favour of the old system of each house respecting the other’s authors seems to us to be pressed unduly when it is argued that the relation between author and able to that between patient and physician. And even if the analogy holds, it may sometimes be expedient for an author to change his publisher, as it is for a patient to have fresh advice. In connection with the abuses of fiction adver- tising, our anonymous publisher lets himself go in publisher is compar-— THE AUTHOR. a healthy way and is justly severe upon “ Sapon- aceous publishers,” “Soap - novelists,” and the “ Wabash method.” But he assures us that these things are not so successfulas they seem. “ There is, I think, not a single soap-novelist who has put forth a subsequent novel of as great popularity as his “record breaker,” and he has even sometimes brought ultimate ruin upon his publisher. Good books to begin with, and personal sincerity on the part of the publisher, these are laid down, and we think rightly, as the prime requisites of good publishing. Whether the retailing of “personal and com- mercial gossip” by magazines and literary journals is So serious an evil as is represented we take leave to doubt ; and we are not so sure as the anonymous censor that “the one thing that is certain is that the critical crew and the academic faculty ” are sure not to recognise good literature when they see it. One has heard this before, but is loth to believe it. And now to take a survey of the crop. The list of fall announcements totalled some twelve hundred books, but these include a fair proportion of works by British writers. Poetry is as scant in bulk and import as usual, but history and biography are proportionately well represented. Literary criti- cism shows some vitality, whilst fiction displays its perennial luxuriance, and writers on politics and economics have something substantial to offer. Theology and ethics will, of course, always flourish in a nation the basis of whose civilisation is Teutonic. Once more we have to confess that there is no single volume which can claim the attribute “great,” though there are not a few of considerable interest and some of abiding merit. No new writer of anything like first rank has arisen, and no one of the old favourites has to any great extent advanced his position. A good average level has been maintained in original work, and there has been a noticeably increasing demand for reprints of English classics. Thackeray in particular seems to be called for at present : an editorial in the Dial speaks of four yards of him standing on the writer’s desk! This must, we think, be noted as a sign of literary health, though some might deem it a symptom of decay. The late Mr. Lafcadio Hearn’s “Japan: an attempt at Interpretation,” is possibly the most remarkable work emanating from an American- trained author. It has a literary quality which scarcely distinguishes such scholarly excursions into the same subject as Professor George W. Knox’s “ Japanese Life in Town and Country ” or Mr. Alfred Stead’s compilation, “ Japan by the Japanese.”’ Two biographical works which call for special comment are Captain Robert E. Lee’s “ Recollec- 101 tions and Letters” of his father, the Confederate General, and Moncure D. Conway’s “ Autobio- graphy.” The memoir of General Lee is founded upon his letters to his wife, a descendant of Martha Washington, and upon his son’s reminiscences which begin with the father’s return from the Mexican war, in which he won his spurs as a soldier. Lee comes ont well, both as man and general, in his son’s book, and shines little less in peace than in war. The mutual appreciation of himself and Stonewall Jackson is especially touching, and his conduct towards the future biographer, who served some time under him as a private, has quite a Roman touch, Mr. Conway’s book will be more familiar to English readers, but the part of his life anterior to 1864, when he settled in London, describes a notable phase of American development which will appeal chiefly to those who live in the land of his birth. The influence of Emerson is very marked. Another book has been written upon the Con- cord sage. It comes from the pen of Elizabeth Luther Cary, who is an experienced hand in literary biography. It is a well-balanced and capable study, erring only in an undue appreciation of the philosopher’s poetic gifts. Another autobiography, that of Rear-Admiral Schley, treats of quite another world and breathes a very different air. It is interesting to hear that it was Captain Marryat who first sent Schley to the sea, and also that Farragut used the expression, “JT want none of this Nelson business in my squadron about not seeing signals,” when Lieutenant Schley in an action with the Con- federates misinterpreted a signal to withdraw from action. The story of the Greely relief expedition is also highly interesting reading; the later and more contemporary parts of the book are im- portant but, of course, controversial. General James Grant Wilson’s “Thackeray in the United States” will be too well known already to readers of these Notes to call for further com- ment. Its publication may be partially responsible for the present large American demand for the works of the author it treats of. Other biographies which can only be named here are Augustus C. Buell’s “ History of Andrew Jackson,” Joseph M. Roger’s “The True Henry Clay,” and “The Life, Letters, and Travels of Father De Smet,” four volumes compiled by Captain Hiram M. Chittenden and A. T. Richard- gon. In_ historical literature Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites has been indefatigable as ever; Messrs. William Estabrook Chancellor and Fletcher Willis Hewes have brought out the first two parts of their “History of the United States ;” and the initial 102 volumes of Rufus Rockwell Wilson’s ‘Source Books of American History” have been issued. “The Evolution of the U.S. Constitution and History of the Monroe Doctrine,” by Dr. John A. Kasson, is an important item in Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.’s list ; and Cyrus Townsend Brady’s ten years’ story of “ Indian Fights and Fighters,” is worthy of mention. “The Historian’s History of the World,” a little work in 25 vols. is now reported as ‘ complete.” Charles Eliot Norton’s publication of the letters written to him by John Ruskin is a matter of moment to both continents, as also perhaps are Thackeray’s letters to the Baxter family. In fiction there have been new works by Henry James, W. D. Howells, and Marion Crawford. The first and third scarcely rank nowadays as American authors; but Mr. Howells will always be a true American. His latest novel, “ The Son of Royal Langbrith,” is one of his very best New England problem stories, the problem in this case being concerned with the treatment, of an unworthy father’s memory. Among younger masters of the craft, Mr. Stewart White has followed up “The Blazed Trail”? and “The Forest,” by a worthy successor, “The Mountains”; George Barr McCutcheon, has written a sequel to “ Graustark ” (‘ Beverley of Graustark”) which has recently been at the top of the “best sellers” ; and the author of the celebrated Self-made Merchant’s Letters has pro- duced in “Old Gorgon Graham” a new series which do not show the usual falling-off of a sequel. Another “best seller,” “The Affair at the Inn,” was inspired and directed by Kate Douglas Wiggin, but, as readers of the AUTHOR _will be aware, was written in England in collabo- ration with two English ladies and a gentleman. Mr. Robert Grant has written in “The Under- current” a novel which discusses the divorce ques- tion in a candid and interesting manner. The authorship of the clever “ Jessica Letters” has been revealed. It belongs to Mrs. Lundy Howard Harris and Mr. Paul Elmer. Mr. Jack London has again delighted his admirers with “The Sea Wolf,” and Messrs. H. L. Wilson and E. Phillips Oppenheim have satisfied theirs with “The Seeker” and ‘ The Betrayal.” A promising first appearance has been made by Miss Edith Rickert with her story of the Shetland Isles, called “The Reaper.” ‘ Wanted, a Cook,” by Alan Dale, has reached a large public. We should not conclude this imperfect survey without a passing allusion to two widely different works. Dr. William J. Rolfe’s valuable “ Life of Shakespeare,” and Miss Ida M. Tarbell’s meri- torious “ History of the Standard Oil Trust.” THE AUTHOR. Life is not long enough for us to enter into the merits of the dispute between those who claim and those who deny the exclusive right to use the title of Webster’s Dictionary. Our obituary list contains few important names. There is Lafcadio Hearn, the American journalist, who ended a romantic career by becoming a Japanese subject and professor, and left a legacy of many charming books upon his adopted country. Mrs. Euphemia Vale Blake, who reached the advanced age of eighty-eight, was the author of “Arctic Experiences” and “A History of Tammany Hall,” amongst other works. Prof. Charles Woodruff Shields, of Princeton, was a well-known writer on the science of religion, who abandoned Presbyterianism to become an Episcopalian. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop’s name will endure in her books of travel in Asia and North America. It is more doubtful whether Jol. Prentiss Ingraham will find a place among the Immortals, in spite of the thousand novels which he left behind him. —_———_+—_>—_+__—_ HINTS ON PRODUCTION. + Il. Mov.LpING, STEREOTYPING OR ELECTROTYPING. TT keep type standing for any period without a rental is not fair to the printer; therefore if the work is likely to be reprinted later on, it should be either stereotyped or electrotyped. If the probability of a reprint being required is small, moulding is a tentative process which does not cost very much. This is the preliminary stage of stereotyping by the papier-maché method. The moulds are readily stored, and if required later on may be easily cast from, the two methods of moulding and casting, done at two different periods, costing very little more in the aggregate than if stereotyped direct in the first place. But if there is acertainty that plates will be required, either stereo- type or electrotype plates may be made at the outset. The first is the cheaper kind, but the second, although dearer, is more serviceable if several editions are likely to be required. Here again it may be assumed roughly that the charges for these respective methods are— Moulding ... 4d. per sq. in. Stereotyping (at some Sd. in future date) from all. moulds oe ads. i Stereotyping direct ... 34. 5 5 Electrotyping ... ald THE AUTHOR. 103 PAPERS. Paper isthe next important thing to be dealt with, and of this necessary material there is a very large selection to choose from. Naturally that made by hand is the best kind, and roughly three or four times dearer than an average paper made by machine. For bookwork the very cheap kinds are not recommended. Another class to be avoided as far as possible is shiny paper; in fact, smooth or glossy papers are always objectionable, although, in these days of graphic literature, process blocks absolutely demand a smooth surface for the satis- factory printing of illustrations. Papers which are extremely light in bulk and those which are very heavy are also to be avoided—the first are generally too poor in substance to stand handling, and the second are objectionable from the fact that they are usually clay-loaded. A medium weight should be selected, for one can obtain a fairly light-hand- ling paper, considering the bulk, without sacrific- ing the quality in order to obtain a minimum weight. It may be taken for granted that some- thing is wrong in its manufacture when either of the extremes is manifest and the bulk of the volume is considered. A paper made with a rough antique finish naturally bulks more than one which has been calendered, but judgment must be exercised in considering the two classes of paper— both of which are necessary for the production of either plain or illustrated volumes. Papers are made as a rule to definite sizes, but in the case of those produced by machine these sizes can be varied. Sheets for printing purposes are frequently made in double and quadruple sizes, in order to facilitate and cheapen production, but we need only give the single or more ordinary sizes with the publishers’ or booksellers’ equivalents in 4to and 8vo: Printers’ Size of Publishers’ Sizes. Sheet. Quarto. Octavo. mppetial .., 30 x 22) .. Ib xl 3. 1 x 7% Super Royal 274 x 203 ... 133 x 10} ... 10} x 6% Royal soe 20 Le x 0 LO x 6 moon 3. 24 % 19°. 12° =< OF 298 x 6 Demy po eee te LE xe Be. SEK OF Post oe 20 16) a IO ee 8 Crown ey 20 «16 10 x 1 1d Kb Foolseap ... 17 x 13} SA xX 6 ... 6) x 4 Pat -.. 164 x 12} We x 642 6k x OE Books in quarto or octavo if with cut edges would measure slightly less, especially in height. The bulk of books as regards thickness cannot be foretold to a nicety, nor can the weight be quite determined, without a size or pattern copy being made up out of the exact paper, for, as before explained, the material used in making and the precise finish of the sheets does very considerably affect the exact bulking proportions of the paper. A ream consists of 500 sheets nominally, and papers are made to certain weights—so many pounds to a ream of a given size. An average weight of an ordinary paper in double crown size (30 x 20 in.) such as is used for a novel, if the paper is ofan antique character, may be 36 lb., and the equivalent weight in demy (224 x 174 in.) and double foolscap (27 x 17 in.) would be 24]b. and 27 lb. respectively. The cost prices of average papers may be taken for the purposes of calculation at 3d. per lb. per machine and about 1s. per lb. for those made by hand, but, of course, there are many qualities of each kind, both cheaper and dearer. ILLUSTRATIONS. The question of method to be adopted for illus- trating a work is an important matter and requires careful consideration. The old books were nearly all made beautiful with engravings on copper or on wood—the latter mostly. Although these methods were the most artistic, the expenses of production were great and at the same time very slow. Reproductive processes are so numerous now-a- days, so cheap, and at the same time so expeditious, that the choice is somewhat bewildering to many. By means of photography almost anything can be reproduced by these mechanical processes, and the methods mostly employed for illustrating books are those of photogravure, collotype, half-tone and line blocks. The first two are adapted for the separate plates of any volume, and are the more expensive kinds, especially the first. The other two methods are best for textual illustrations, although unfortunately it is a sime qua non that for all half-tone blocks very smooth paper must be used in order to bring out the full effects of tone. To avoid the use of this paper it is best to adopt the line method of reproduction as far as possible, for all drawings or pictures in wash or photo- graphs can only be made by the half-tone process. With regard to prices for all these processes it is somewhat difficult to give instances, for in the first place there is always a minimum charge for each subject, because any single reproduction is not worth handling below acertain price. In forming an idea of cost the making of photogravure plates costs about 2s. per inch; half-tone blocks range any- where between 9. and 1s., and line blocks half the price of half-tone. In all these cases the original plates or blocks can be held for future use, but with collotype plates it is a different matter, for. the method consists of printing from a gelatine film which has to be made from the negative and renewed from time to time in course of printing off. It may be taken for granted that for full page or separate plates, when only short numbers are volumes of Rufus Rockwell Wilson’s ‘ Source Books of American History’? have been issued. “The Evolution of the U.S. Constitution and History of the Monroe Doctrine,” by Dr. John A. Kasson, is an important item in Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.’s list ; and Cyrus Townsend Brady’s ten years’ story of “ Indian Fights and Fighters,” is worthy of mention. “The Historian’s History of the World,” a little work in 25 vols. is now reported as “ complete.” Charles Eliot Norton’s publication of the letters written to him by John Ruskin is a matter of moment to both continents, as also perhaps are Thackeray’s letters to the Baxter family. In fiction there have been new works by Henry James, W. D. Howells, and Marion Crawford. The first and third scarcely rank nowadays as American authors; but Mr. Howells will always be a true American. His latest novel, ‘“ The Son of Royal Langbrith,” is one of his very best New England problem stories, the problem in this case being concerned with the treatment of an unworthy father’s memory. Among younger masters of the craft, Mr. Stewart White has followed up “The Blazed Trail? and “The Forest,” by a worthy successor, “The Mountains”; George Barr McCutcheon, has written a sequel to “ Graustark” (“ Beverley of Graustark”) which has recently been at the top of the “ best sellers” ; and the author of the celebrated Self-made Merchant’s Letters has pro- duced in “Old Gorgon Graham” a new series which do not show the usual falling-off of a sequel. Another “best seller,” “ The Affair at the Inn,” was inspired and directed by Kate Douglas Wiggin, but, as readers of the AUTHOR _will be aware, was written in England in collabo- ration with two English ladies and a gentleman. Mr. Robert Grant has written in “The Under- current” a novel which discusses the divorce ques- tion in a candid and interesting manner. The authorship of the clever “ Jessica Letters” has been revealed. It belongs to Mrs. Lundy Howard Harris and Mr. Paul Elmer. Mr, Jack London has again delighted his admirers with “The Sea Wolf,” and Messrs. H. L. Wilson and E. Phillips Oppenheim have satisfied theirs with “The Seeker” and “ The Betrayal.” A promising first appearance has been made by Miss Edith Rickert with her story of the Shetland Isles, called “The Reaper.” « Wanted, a Cook,” by Alan Dale, has reached a large public. We should not conclude this imperfect survey without a passing allusion to two widely different works. Dr. William J. Rolfe’s valuable “ Life of Shakespeare,” and Miss Ida M. Tarbell’s meri- torious “ History of the Standard Oil Trust.” THE AUTHOR. Life is not long enough for us to enter into the merits of the dispute between those who claim and those who deny the exclusive right to use the title of Webster’s Dictionary. Our obituary list contains few important names. There is Lafcadio Hearn, the American journalist, who ended a romantic career by becoming a Japanese subject and professor, and left a legacy of many charming books upon his adopted country. Mrs. Euphemia Vale Blake, who reached the advanced age of eighty-eight, was the author of “Arctic Experiences” and “ A History of Tammany Hall,” amongst other works. Prof. Charles Woodruff Shields, of Princeton, was a well-known writer on the science of religion, who abandoned Presbyterianism to become an Episcopalian. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop’s name will endure in her books of travel in Asia and North America. It is more doubtful whether Col. Prentiss Ingraham will find a place among the Immortals, in spite of the thousand novels which he left behind him. —___—_+ <> —__—_ HINTS ON PRODUCTION. — Il. MovuLpine, STEREOTYPING OR ELECTROTYPING. O keep type standing for any period without a rental is not fair to the printer; therefore if the work is likely to be reprinted later on, it should be either stereotyped or electrotyped. If the probability of a reprint being required is small, moulding is a tentative process which does not cost very much. This is the preliminary stage of stereotyping by the papier-maché method. The moulds are readily stored, and if required later on may be easily cast from, the two methods of moulding and casting, done at two different periods, costing very little more in the aggregate than if stereotyped direct in the first place. But if there is acertainty that plates will be required, either stereo- type or electrotype plates may be made at the outset. The first is the cheaper kind, but the second, although dearer, is more serviceable if several editions are likely to be required. Here again it may be assumed roughly that the charges for these respective methods are— Moulding a ... $d. per sq. in. Stereotyping (at som Sd. in future date) from all. moulds s oo ide, os Stereotyping direct ... 4d. , 5 Electrotyping ... 1d, o E 2 THE AUTHOR. PAPERS. Paper isthe next important thing to be dealt with, and of this necessary material there is a very large selection to choose from. Naturally that made by hand is the best kind, and roughly three or four times dearer than an average paper made by machine. For bookwork the very cheap kinds are not recommended. Another class to be avoided as far as possible is shiny paper; in fact, smooth or glossy papers are always objectionable, although, in these days of graphic literature, process blocks absolutely demand a smooth surface for the satis- factory printing of illustrations. Papers which are extremely light in bulk and those which are very heavy are also to be avoided—the first are generally too poor in substance to stand handling, and the second are objectionable from the fact that they are usually clay-loaded. A medium weight should be selected, for one can obtain a fairly light-hand- ling paper, considering the bulk, without sacrific- ing the quality in order to obtain a minimum weight. It may be taken for granted that some- thing is wrong in its manufacture when either of the extremes is manifest and the bulk of the volume is considered. A paper made with a rough antique finish naturally bulks more than one which has been calendered, but judgment must be exercised in considering the two classes of paper— both of which are necessary for the production of either plain or illustrated volumes. Papers are made as a rule to definite sizes, but in the case of those produced by machine these sizes can be varied. Sheets for printing purposes are frequently made in double and quadruple sizes, in order to facilitate and cheapen production, but we need only give the single or more ordinary sizes with the publishers’ or booksellers’ equivalents in 4to and 8vo: Printers’ Size of Publishers’ Sizes. Sheet. Quarto. Octavo. Imperial on ee ee Ib eT Tx Tk Super Royal 274 x 204 ... 13% x 104 ... 10} x 6% Royal mee oe 20 AE 10, 10 KGS Medium 22019 12 OR Oe 6 Demy sa coy X 1 ALE &K 8e We. 2 8S KX BS Post ee lO 6 10 oe) Be coe Bene Crown peel 15 10 ee TR a Foolscap ... 17 x 133 .- 83 x 62 ... 6% x 44 Pots pe Oe IDE eK 6). OF Xk 38 Books in quarto or octavo if with cut edges would measure slightly less, especially in height. The bulk of books as regards thickness cannot be foretold to a nicety, nor can the weight be quite determined, without a size or pattern copy being made up out of the exact paper, for, as before explained, the material used in making and the precise finish of the sheets does very considerably affect the exact bulking proportions of the paper. 108 A ream consists of 500 sheets nominally, and papers are made to certain weights—so many pounds to a ream of a given size. An average weight of an ordinary paper in double crown size (30 x 20 in.) such as is used for a novel, if the paper is ofan antique character, may be 36 Ib., and the equivalent weight in demy (224 x 17k in.) and double foolscap (27 x 17 in.) would be 241b. and 27 Ib. respectively. The cost prices of average papers may be taken for the purposes of calculation at 3d. per lb. per machine and about 1s. per lb. for those made by hand, but, of course, there are many qualities of each kind, both cheaper and dearer. ILLUSTRATIONS. The question of method to be adopted for illus- trating a work is an important matter and requires careful consideration. The old books were nearly all made beautiful with engravings on copper or on wood—the latter mostly. Although these methods were the most artistic, the expenses of production were great and at the same time very slow. teproductive processes are so numerous now-a- days, so cheap, and at the same time so expeditious, that the choice is somewhat bewildering to many. By means of photography almost anything can be reproduced by these mechanical processes, and the methods mostly employed for illustrating books are those of photogravure, collotype, half-tone and line blocks. The first two are adapted for the separate plates of any volume, and are the more expensive kinds, especially the first. The other two methods are best for textual illustrations, although unfortunately it is a sine qua non that for all half-tone blocks very smooth paper must be used in order to bring out the full effects of tone. To avoid the use of this paper it is best to adopt the line method of reproduction as far as possible, for all drawings or pictures in wash or photo- graphs can only be made by the half-tone process. With regard to prices for all these processes it is somewhat difficult to give instances, for in the first place there is always a minimum charge for each subject, because any single reproduction is not worth handling below acertain price. In forming an idea of cost the making of photogravure plates costs about 2s. per inch ; half-tone blocks range any- where between 9d. and 1s., and line blocks half the price of half-tone. In all these cases the original plates or blocks can be held for future use, but with collotype plates it is a different matter, for. the method consists of printing from a gelatine film which has to be made from the negative and renewed from time to time in course of printing off. It may be taken for granted that for full page or separate plates, when only short numbers are 104 required, collotype pictures sometimes cost less than half-tone illustrations because of the initial cost of the block ; but, on the other hand, should a long number of copies be required of these separate plates, the initial cost of making half-tone blocks or even photogravure plates is merged into the total cost of producing the illustration. Press WORK. This term embraces all printing off, whether by hand or by machine. As already explained, to cheapen the cost of production of books, printing machines are now made much larger in size and paper may be obtained to suit the requirements of those machines. For instance, a crown 8vo novel is generally printed on a sheet of quad crown, 40 x 30 in., which would contain 64 pages when printed both sides. This is a consideration when the number to be printed is fairly large. Prices for ordinary plain printing (that is, without illustra- tions) are charged as reams of 500 printed both sides, which means 1,000 impressions for each ream. These charges vary according to the size of sheet employed in printing, and depend also on the quality of the work. It should be noted that it is important that all printing should be firm, black, clean and even in “colour” throughout. A yolume which has been carefully designed in its format is sometimes spoiled by bad or careless press work, and possibly by the use of a common or poor ink, which gives off a weak or gray effect that is trying to the eyes in reading. BINDING. This is the final stage in the making of a book, which also requires some consideration. For most books a publisher’s (i.e, cloth) binding suffices. There are many varieties of cloths, linens, and other fabrics to be selected from, and if gold is to be employed on the cover for lettering or for a special design, do not let it be too prominent, for, as a rule, a mass of gold looks vulgar, especially if a common kind be used. A design blocked in ink is in better taste provided the ink harmonizes with the covering material of the case. Besides, ink is much cheaper than gold, and really looks more effective ifa good design has been prepared for it. The question of cutting or not cutting the edges of a volume should be determined by the character of the work. A book which is going to be read straight off, or a reference volume, should have the edges cut all round, but éditions de luxe and other dainty editions, or any work printed on handmade paper, should be left untouched. Cuas. T. JACOBI. Oe 9 THE AUTHOR. AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX. — S disputes have frequently arisen between authors and income tax collectors con- cerning the amount due to the Revenue on the sums that authors receive in payment for their literary work, the Committee decided to place a full statement of the case before counsel with a view of obtaining his opinion on the issues, The following case therefore, prepared by the secretary, and approved by the solicitors, with counsel’s opinion on the questions, is printed below. CASE, In order that the subject may be considered in its completeness, it is necessary to put forward in some detail the methods adopted between authors and publishers. The usual forms of agreement between author and publisher for the publication of books may, perhaps, be enumerated as follows :— (1) A sale out-right, in which the author transfers to the publisher his copyright and all other rights and receives alump sum. Sometimes in one payment and sometimes by instalments (say on delivery of MS.: passing of last proofs and publication). (2) A profit-sharing agreement, a form much less common now than some years ago. In some cases the.copyright is transferred to the publisher ; in others it is retained by the author. As a general rule the author provides the MS. and the publisher the cost of production, advertisement, etc, The whole monetary outlay is placed on the debit side of the account, with any commission that the publisher charges, and the return from the sales is placed on the other side of the account, and the proceeds are divided in the proportions agreed on, but the author is not liable to bear any portion of the loss in case the book, on the accounts, does not show a balance to thegood. This form of contract is varied in different ways : sometimes the author pays part of the cost of production and is credited with that amount, sometimes the publisher has the right to sell a certain number of copies before the profits are divided ; but the mode in which receipts and payments in respect of the joint venture in the book are dealt with remains the same. (3) An agreement based on the royalty system. It is very exceptional in the royalty agreements at present signed by authors and publishers for the author to convey his copyright to the publisher, though this does sometimes occur. generally transfers to the publisher a licence to publish, on certain terms and conditions set forth in the agreement, a fixed or unlimited number of editions or copies of the book, and receives in The author : return a payment of royalty on the published price: THE AUTHOR. (as distinct from the actual or discount price) on every copy sold. Of these forms of agreement there are also variations. Sometimes the author receives an advance lump sum in addition to royalties (dependent on sales), but this is certainly the exception ; sometimes, and more frequently, he receives a lump sum in advance of royalty. This amount has been held not to be repayable in case the royalty on the number of copies sold does not reach the figure advanced. Another variation is a contract for deferred royalty, where the author receives a royalty after the sale of a certain number of copies. (4) A commission agreement, where the author pays for the whole cost of production and receives in return the full amount which the publisher realises by sale of copies of the book, less his commission and any expenses incurred by him, such as advertisements. There is another class of cases to be considered, that is, authors’ receipts from contributions to magazines and other periodical literature. In some cases—contracts on this basis are most frequent nowadays—the author sells to a magazine, or periodical, or daily paper the use of his work for serial issue limited either to one paper or embracing entire serial rights. Again, it not infrequently occurs that an author sends his work up to a paper or periodical, and the work is printed without any contract. In this case, no doubt, the author does not confer the copyright on the proprietors of the publication. Lastly, there remains those cases in which the periodical purchases the copyright of the work and pays for it, the work coming under the 18th section of the Copyright Act (5 & 6 Vict. c. 45), to which counsel is referred. Very often under these circumstances the periodical makes no further use of the article, but allows the author to reprint in book form, making a formal acknowledgment or paying a small consideration. It will be best to consider the publication in a periodical or serial form as distinct from the publication of books. In the publication of books in the four examples put forward, it is submitted that as long as the author retains the copyright he has the property in his work, and therefore any royalty or profits that may be coming to him in any year should be reckoned as income of that vear on which he should be bound to pay the annual tax, either annually upon the amount he receives or by reckoning his income over a period of three years. He merely farms out or leases his work either by a licence to the publisher to publish, receiving returns by pay- ment of royalty or by a share of the profits, or again, by a licence to sell in the cases where he keeps the printing and publishing in his own hands, and makes the publisher a mere middleman 105 for the sale of his work. But when an author transfers his property, receiving in payment either a sum down or a share of the profits or payment by means of royalty, the question arises how far he ig to look upon the amount as income or capital, and this view seems to carry with it considerable doubt. If it is denied that moneys received for the sale of copyright are income, it will follow that an author, producing much work in a year, and selling all copyrights to his publisher, earns no taxable income, On the other hand, if such moneys be reckoned as income, the consequence can be set out in the following hypothetical case. A certain work produces in royalty £60 a year. It is sold for £600, which the author sinks in a terminable annuity of £40. The effect is to reduce his income from this source by £20 a year, but if the £600 a year is income, and a three years’ average is struck, the author makes his terminable income from this source, £240 for the first year, £220 for the second, and £200 for the third, and will also have to pay income tax on his annuity of £40. Accordingly over three years the author has to pay income tax on £780, when his actual income is only £120. Supposing an author sells his copy- right for £600 to a publisher, and it is decided that this amount is to be reckoned as income, the publisher proceeds to sell the property to another, does the publisher reckon the £600 as income ? It is submitted he would not do so. Again, it should be considered whether, if an author writes works and does not proceed to publish them, and if the amount received from the sale of the copyright is to be reckoned as income, he is to make a schedule of the value of his copyrights in the return of income tax, although he may not as yet have marketed the commodity. This position seems to be untenable, and seems again to point to the fact that the property is, in itself, capital rather than income. Farther, counsel is requested to consider whether a payment in advance of royalty (under a royalty agreement which provides for the sale of the copy- right) stands on the same footing as payment of a lump sum down for the copyright. Questions of a similar kind arise when the whole serial rights in a contribution (7.e., a distinct part of the copyright) are sold to a magazine or periodical. Counsel is therefore asked to advise on the following questions :— (1) Is the sum received by an author in respect of a work of which he retains the copyright in all cases to be considered as income ? (2) Is the sum received on the sale of a copy- right to be considered as capital or income? And if capital, can a lump payment for such minor rights.as serial use, right of translation, dramatisa- tion, etc., be put on the same footing ? 106 (3) If the sum received is capital, will the liability of an author to pay income tax be varied by the method in which he receives payment—(q) by a lump sum in full discharge ; (0) by a share of the profits; (c) by a royalty ; (d) by a sum in advance of royalty ; (e) by a lump sum on sale of serial use to a magazine, periodical, or paper. (4) So far as an author’s receipts are to be treated as income, how is his payment to be regulated? Has he the right to make deductions for expenses incurred in compiling a book or in writing an article—(a) directly, as railway journeys, purchase of books, purchase of photo- ‘graphs, stationery, typewriting, etc. 5 (0) indirectly, for rental of portion of his house as office ? (5) May he calculate the amounts he receives on the three-year basis ? CoUNSEL’S OPINION RE ASSESSMENT OF INcoME Tax ON Prorits FRoM LirERaRy, PrRo- DUCTIONS. By 5 & 6 Vict. c. 35, 8. 100, Sched. (D) :—The duties hereby granted, contained in the schedule marked (D) shall be assessed and charged under the following rules :— ScHEDULE (D). Rules for ascertaining the last-mentioned duties in the particular cases herein mentioned. First case... . Second case.—The duty to be charged in respect of professions, employments or vocations, not con- tained in any other schedule of this Act. RULES. Pirst, =... Second.—The duty to be charged shall be com- puted at a sum not less than the full amount of the balance of the profits, gains and emoluments of such professions, employments and vocations (after making such deductions, and no other, as by this Act are allowed), within the preceding year. Russ APPLYING To BoTH THE PRECEDING CASES. First.—In estimating the balance of the profits or gains to be charged according to either of the first or second cases, no sum shall be set against or deducted from such profits or gains for any disburse- ments or expenses whatever, not being wholly and exclusively laid out or expended for the purposes of such profession, employment or vocation ; nor for the rent or value of any dwelling-house or domestic offices, or any part of such dwelling-house or domestic offices, except such part thereof as may be used for the purposes of such trade or concern, not exceeding the proportion of the said rent herein- after mentioned, nor for any sum expended in any other domestic or private purposes, distinct from THB AUTHOR. the purposes of such trade, or of such profession, employment, or vocation. ; From the words “the amount of the balance of the profits and gains” it will be seen that income tax is intended to be a tax upon a per- son’s annual profits and gains, and such profits and gains must be ascertained on ordinary principles of commercial trading. “The rule contemplates the preparation of a balance-sheet in which proper trading disburse- ments and liabilities are to be set against trade assets, so that the surplus of the latter, if any, will represent the assessable profits or gains of the con- cern. All the other rules applicable to Schedule (D) are framed upon the same footing.” (Gresham Life Assurance Society v. Styles, (1892) A. C. per Lord Watson, p. 317.) Turning now to the questions which have been put: (1) and (2) The principle laid down in the above- mentioned judgment of Lord Watson, in my opinion, applies to the present case. Therefore, in ascertaining the amount of his profits or gains for the year an author must in all cases place upon the credit side of the balance- sheet the sum which he has received in respect of a work of which he retains the copyright. In the same manner he must account for any lump sum which he may receive on the sale of the copyright or any minor rights. Then, if after deducting any expenses which he may have incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of his profession or vocation a profit remains, he must pay income tax on the amount of such profit. ; There is really no mystery connected with the sales of copyright or minor rights, and they must be treated in any ordinary commercial way. I can see no difference in principle between the cases put and that of a coachbuilder who builds a carriage. 'If the coachbuilder either lends out the carriage for hire or sells it there can be no doubt that in making his yearly return of profits or gains for the purpose of income tax he must bring into account the amount he receives for the hire or upon the sale. * (3) In my opinion, for the reasons already given in (1) and (2), the liability of the author to pay income tax on the amounts received will not be varied by the method in which he receives payment; although, of course, the time of payment of the tax may be, because he will only have to bring into account the amounts which he receives in the parti- cular year for which he has to make his return. (4) Here, again, the matter must be treated upon - ordinary principles of commercial trading, having regard to the restrictions imposed by the Act. The author is entitled to deduct any disburse- ments or expenses which he may have laid out or expended wholly or exclusively for the purposes of his vocation. THE AUTHOR. Therefore, in my opinion, the expenses or cost of such items as photographs, stationery and typewriting may be deducted. Books stand upon rather a different footing, because after they have been read they are still of value, and I think the proper deduction to be made would be the difference between the cost price and the present value of the book. With regard to travelling expenses I think that if they were incurred exclusively for the purpose of getting some information for the purpose of his vocation—e.y., to enable him to write a description of a particular place or to inspect a particular document—they might be deducted. In making any of the above deductions it must be remembered that the expenses need not necessarily be appropriated to any particular book or work, so long as they are incurred in the period for which the return is made and were incurred wholly and exclusively by the author for the purpose of his vocation. With regard to the rental of a portion of his house as an office, I think that the author would be entitled to deduct it if it can be proved that such portion of the house is used exclusively for the purpose of his profession or vocation, and if it can be shown that he would not have taken so large a house but for the fact that he was going to devote apart of it to the exercise of his vocation. The amount of such deduction would of course be sub- ject to the limits mentioned in the Income Tax Act. (See 6 Vict. ¢. 35, s. 101.) (5) By sec. 48 of 16 & 17 Vict. c. 34, the duty to be charged under Schedule (D) in respect of pro- fessions or vocations shall be computed on a sum not less than the full amount of the balance of the profits and gains of such professions or vocations upon a fair and just average of three years. If the author should have set up and commenced his profession or vocation within the three years from the date when he makes his return I think that under the first rule of the first case in Schedule (D) the computation would have to be made for one year on the average of the balance of the profits and gains from the period of first setting up. W. Ottver Hopes. 7, Fig Tree Court, Temple. a MAGAZINE CONTENTS. -—<>— + — DECEMBER, 1904. THE ALBANY. A Shelley Letter. The Exile of Geo. Gissing. How I became an Author, The Drift of the Drama. On Giving People what they Want. By Richard Whiteing. By E. A. Morton. By Francis Gribble. 107 Bookman, Society in Recent Fiction. By Susan Countess of Malmes- bury, and Lady Violet Greville. Mark Rutherford’s Bunyan. By Ian Maclaren. The Feminine Note in Fiction. By Lucas Malet, CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL, Shakespeare in Scotland. By Alex. Cargill. The Romance of Old Book Collecting. By Clive Holland. CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. After the Reaction. By C. F. G. Masterman. The Relation between Ecclesiastical and General History. By Prof. Adolf Harnack. : Religion, Science and Miracle. 3y Sir Oliver Lodge. CORNHILL. Charles Lamb’s Commonplace Books. : By E. V. Lucas. Historical Mysteries. By Andrew Lang. THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. Adam Smith and Some Problems of To-day. Marriott. Artemis and Hippolytus. By J. G. Frazer. The Winged Destiny and Fiona Macleod. Goddard. The Crisis in the Book Market. Shore. The Sportsman’s Library, 1904. By Ethel By W. Teignmouth 3y F. G. Aflalo. THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW. Of Style. By C. F. Keary. The “ Trojan Women” of Kuripides. 3y Gilbert Murray. The Religions of Japan. By Baron Suyematsu. MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE. The Ludlow Masque. By G. A. Nicklin. The Vicar of Morwenstow. By G. 8S. Freeman. The Pleasures of a Book Lover. By Michael Barrington. NATIONAL REVIEW. The London University and the Study of History. By Prof. Pollard. NINETEENTH CENTURY. Free Thought in the Church. By W. H. Mallock. Hymns “ Ancient’ and “ Modern.” By M. E. Jersey. The Rhodes Bequest and University Federation. By J. Churton Collins. : Queen Christina’s Pictures. By Bildt. PALL MALL MAGAZINE, Lines Written in a Copy of Henley’s “ Lyra Heroica.” By R. Ellis Roberts. 8 Studies in Personality : Miss Marie Corelli. By Herbert Vivian. ee How Dr. Johnson wrote his Dictionary, Dobson. By Austin TEMPLE BAR. Richard Wagner in Zurich, By H. Alexander Clay. WorLbD’s WORK AND PBAY., The Fourth Estate in Africa, By Leo Weinthal. There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic, or : ; ; : 1s musical subjects in Blackwood’s Magazine, Longman’s Magazine, ov The Month, WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS OF BOOKS. —— ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an agreement. There are four methods of dealing with literary property :— I. Selling it Outright. This is sometimes satisfactory, if @ proper price can be obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of the Society. Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of agreement). In this case the following rules should be attended to: C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro- duction forms a part without the strictest investigation. (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise- ments. ‘Therefore keep control of the advertisements, (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,” uniess the same allowance is made to the author. (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental rights. “.) 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 ! III. The Royalty System. This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible for an author to ascertain approximately the truth. From time to time very important figures connected with royalties are published in The Author. IY. A Commission Agreement. The main points are :-— (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production. (2.) Keep control of the advertisements. (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book, General. All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four above mentioned. Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author. Never sign any agreement without competent advice from the Secretary of the Society. Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp. Avoid agreements by letter if possible. The main 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 account 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.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright. —_____——_+—___ WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. deme Oe EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com- petent legal authority. 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for the production of a play with anyone except an established manager, 108 THE AUTHOR. 8. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays in three or more acts :— (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into such a contract should stipulate in the contract for production of the piece by a certain date and for proper publication of his name on the play-bills. (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to perform on the basis of percentages on gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5 and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts in preference to the American system. Should obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed date on or before which the play should be performed. (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed nightly fees). ‘this method should be always avoided except in cases where the fees are likely to be small or difficult to collect. The other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply also in this case. 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should be reserved. 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and time. This is most important. 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is of great importance. 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot print the book of the words. 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed- ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English agreements without the author obtaining a substantial consideration. 9, Agreements for collaboration should be carefully drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced. 10, An author should remember that production of a play is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract. He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in the beginning. 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object is to obtain adequate publication. As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con- tracts, those authors desirous of further information are referred to the Secretary of the Society. —___—_+—>—+-—___ WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS. —— > ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the assistance of producers of books and dramatic authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan- cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic property. The musical composer has very often ‘the two rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He a ¥ THE AUTHOR, should be especially careful therefore when entering into an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration the warnings stated above. $< HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. 2 1, VERY member has a right toask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. The Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi- ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society. 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The information thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the document to the Society for examination, 5. 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 your calling in promoting the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer. 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire- proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as confidential 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 to give advice concerning 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. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work can be obtained in the Prospectus. 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society, Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary of the Society. 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements, This must be done within fourteen days of first execution, The Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members, 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so do some publishers. Members can make their own deductions and act accordingly. 10. The subscription to the Society iis £1 1s. per annum, or £10 10s for life membership. 109 TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS. —— 7 —— pe Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or _,. part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the Society's safe. The musical publishers communicate direct with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble, To THE READING BRANCH. Seg EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this branch of its work by informing young writers of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The Readers are writers of competence and experience, The fee is one guinea, ———_—o + ___ NOTICES. —— 1 HE Editor of Zhe 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 5s. 6d. subscription for the year. Communications for “The Author” should be addressed to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to return articles which cannot be accepted. — + The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and he requests members who do not receive an answer to important communications within two days to write to him without delay. All remittances should be y crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent by registered letter only. a ee ee LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY. —+—~>— + ENSIONS to commence at any selected age, pP either with or without Life Assurance, can be obtained from this society. Full particulars can be obtained from the City Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C. AUTHORITIES. —+— ! N article by Mr. W. Teignmouth Shore, A entitled “The Crisis in the Book Market,” appears in the December number of 7'he Fortnightly. : A subject of this kind must, of necessity, appeal to members of the Society of Authors, as the prosperity of the book market must affect the author’s income. Mr. Shore has brought forward many generalities but few facts for what he terms “The Crisis in the Book Market,” and takes a very pessimistic view of the position. The first consideration of the article induces one to think that the whole system—author, trade, and reader—was running in a vicious circle, but Mr. Shore appears finally to put his finger on what he considers the weak spot, and comes to the conclusion that publishers are to blame for over- production and the consequent glutting of the market. He also states as an obiter dictum, “ Woe betide our writers if they slay the golden goose by play- ing the game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’” It is rather difficult to understand how playing a game of pitch and toss can slay any goose, even if it is golden; but putting this aside, why should the publisher be thus stigmatised ? As a similar remark was put forward on a former occasion, it is necessary once again to show the absurdity of the statement. Those who write and those who read are the two chief factors in this dispute. If those who read want to obtain the thoughts of those who write, and those who write are anxious to place their works amongst those who read, then if Mr. Teignmouth Shore’s “golden goose” was cleared off the market with its Christmas throat cut there would still be other means of bringing the two parties together. The readjustment of the trade would, no doubt, take a little time, but where there is supply and demand it would be bound to come at last. Although the publisher may not be exactly the “ golden goose,” it is possible that he may stimulate authors in the keen competition of the publishing business, toa production beyond the demands of the readers. ‘This is what Mr. Teignmouth Shore is inclined to think has occurred. ‘Taking all things into consideration,” he says, “the bad condition of the book market can be made good only by efforts on the part of the publishers, and if these efforts are not made, the law of the survival of the fittest must take its course.” The law of the survival of the fittest must take its course in any event, and Mr. Shore, we are inclined to think, is too pessimistic. THE AUTHOR. We have received from the publishers, Messrs. Stevens and Haynes, the 4th Edition of Mr. W. A. Copinger’s well known work on copyright, re- edited by Mr. J. M. Easton, of the Inner Temple. As the work came to hand but a short time before the issue of Zhe Author, it has been found impossible to give such consideration and care to its perusal as would be essential for a formal review. We hope, however, in another number, after an exhaustive study, to deal with the work in a manner befitting the importance of the subject. Mr. Easton, in his preface, states that some slight alterations have been made in arrange- ment, and that the increase in International Copy- right and the Judicial decisions since the last edition in 1893 have necessitated a re-writing of portions of the book dealing with this branch of the Law of Copyright. He acknowledges his indebtedness in dealitg with foreign law to “Le Droit d’ Auteur,” the organ of the Copyright Union. We have frequently had to thank the secretary and the officials con- nected with the International Bureau at Berne, and to be grateful to ‘‘ Le Droit d’ Auteur” for the careful and comprehensive way in which they have done their duty in dealing with the subject of copyright, and we are pleased to notice Mr. Easton's corroborative appreciation. In another column is printed the case set before counsel by the committee referring to the payment of Income Tax by authors, followed by counsel’s opinion on the questions submitted to him. It is somewhat amusing, with counsel’s opinion so strongly stated against The Author, to read the following utterance made by Mr. Gladstone, and recorded in Sir J. B. Robinson’s “Fifty Years of Fleet Street.” “He (Mr. Gladstone) told a story of Macaulay receiving £8,000 for his history and escaping pay- ment of Income Tax, on the ground that it was principal and not interest.” We wonder whether this was a statement of fact within Mr. Gladstone’s knowledge, or a matter of report and hearsay. It is to be feared that the Income Tax collectors have learnt their business more thoroughly since then, otherwise there would have been no need for the Society to go to the expense of obtaining counsel’s opinion. Amona the reasons or excuses put forward by publishers for offering inadequate payment to authors has been the statement that they are crippled by the excessive sums they have to. pay to the popular celebrities of the day. ‘Two instances THE AUTHOR. in which this ground has been alleged, one in this country, one in the United States, have recently come under our notice. It can hardly be necessary to point out that the excuse is not a good one. If the publisher pays a heavy price to an author he does so in the expectation that the transactions will lead to a corresponding profit, either directly or indirectly, as an advertisement and asa lure. If he misealculates, the publisher only proves himself wanting in business judgment. Should he offer less than fair market terms for the work of young authors, they are free to go elsewhere. There is no lack of firms ready to deal. WE regret to notice the death of Miss Adeline Sergeant, who was a member of the Society from 1893 till 1898, when she resigned owing to ill- health. Miss Sergeant was the youngest daughter of the Rey. R. Sergeant, a rector in Derbyshire, and was born at Ashbourne in 1851. Her writing was, at all times, virile, strong, and engrossing. On one occasion, after she had made her name, she tried the daring experiment of publishing a book anonymously. The success of the book was remark- able, and was no doubt most satisfactory evidence to her of her continued powers. How many authors have made the experiment ? and, if they had, would obtain the same result ? We know of no similar instance. oe THE NOBEL PRIZES. — ++ HE Nobel Prize for Literature has been divided between M. Mistral, the Provencal poet, and Don Jose Echegaray, the Spanish dramatist. Great Britain has, so far, been unsuccessful under the Nobel Statutes in obtaining any recog- nition for its great writers. The prizes in former years have been awarded as follows :— 1901. M. Sully Prudhomme, the French poet. 1902. Prof. Theodor Mommsen. 1903. Mr. Bjornstjerne Bjornson. Although Great Britain has failed in literature, she has been very successful in science, last year in medicine and this year in physics. Lord Rayleigh, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institute, and Sir William Ramsay, Pro- fessor of Chemistry at University College, have been awarded prizes this year, which are of the value of about £8,000. The Nobel Prize Committee of the Incorporated Society of Authors met at the offices of the society early last month, and passed the usual resolution for the dispatch of the circulars to those entitled to vote under the Swedish Statutes. iit As in former years, the votes will be collected before the Ist of January, and will be forwarded to Stockholm before the 1st of February. They are then laid before the Swedish Committee appointed for the purpose of selection for the award in 1905. ———_—_-~» — bee LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED STATES. a ‘[Seconp Arricnn.] I POINTED ont at some length, in the November issue of this magazine, the first important difference between our copyright law and that of the United States, as shown by recent decisions given by the American courts and now presented in the admirable compilation by Mr. Arthur 8. Hamlin.* That. first important difference, as I said, was registration. There is no copyright in America except by registration; and, even then, only if it is in the correct form prescribed by the American statute. In this respect, therefore, the very door- way to American copyright was shown to be a pitfall to the unwary ; whereas here at home we acquire copyright in books by the mere act of publication. Before proceeding to discover, from Mr. Hamlin’s instructive book, what, in America, constitutes publication, and what are the necessary consequences of it in the eyes of the American statute, whether a book be first published there, or first published elsewhere and afterwards there, let us pause for a moment to consider what may be the subject-matter of copyright in America. Subsect-MaTrer or CopyriGgur. This will not detain us long, for the examples given in this work show that America looks at this branch of copyright much as we do ourselves. I suggested in my previous article that America was still young in literature and the arts. It will scarcely be credited that she is so young as this :— A Mr. Cleland made and copyrighted a coloured photograph entitled “ Palisades Alpine Pass in Colorada.” A Mr, Thayer promptly infringed it. What was his defence? Simply that the scenery was “natural” scenery, and consequently public * Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and Canada. Compiled by Arthur S, Hamlin. Published for the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1904, $2. 112 property! More wonderful stil], he successfully defended himself on this plea at the first trial. On appeal, however, he was, of course, put out of court at once. So a photograph of natural scenery, however “natural ” and unreclaimed it may be, is a proper subject-matter for copyright protection in America. So, also, we should say. Let us now have another extreme case, only this time at the other end of the scale. One Young sent to the Librarian of Congress a blank book, demanding to have it copyrighted ! The Librarian refused. Young promptly sought a writ of man- damus to compel the Librarian to copyright his blank book. His argument was that the Librarian’s duty was a purely ministerial one—that he had no discretion in the matter. The judge, however, tripped him up. It was quite true, he said, that the Librarian had no discretion ; but before he, the judge, could issue the writ, Mr. Young would have to show that the writ would avail—namely, that a book containing not a single English sentence could be the subject of copyright. Mr. Young, of course, could not show this, and the court could not therefore “order a vain thing to be done.” Blank books cannot be the subject of copyright here or in America, Nor will a fitle of a book or play as such, and apart from its subject-matter, obtain protection. Du Maurier’s famous novel, ‘Trilby,” provided this decision. Messrs. Harper, its American pub- lishers, sought an injunction against one Renous, who produced a play entitled * Trilby ” (copying the plot and characters of the novel), to restrain him from using the title of the novel. This the judge refused. Fortunately the affidavits showed that the rest of the novel had also been pirated, and the judge therefore went out of his way to grant relief; but he let it be clearly understood that no action in copyright law could lie against the user of a mere title. But, this well-known ruling apart, note the dis- tinction between this and our own law. Here, it is free to anyone to dramatise a novel provided he does not let the printed or type-written copy of the drama get into the hands of the public. In that case an action will lie for the infringement of the copy right. A mere title, therefore, here or in America, gets no protection from the statute law. But in America the mere dramatiser of a novel may be proceeded against as an infringement. Not so here. “Ticker Tapes,” as they are called in America, provided another interesting case of equitable relief. One news company sued another for making use of readings from its tape machines. They could not be copyrighted, urged the wronged company, because they were published before there was time THE AUTHOR. to register them. The judges agreed, but held, in its equity jurisdiction, that the action of taking was unfair competition, and so granted an injunction restraining it. Readings of tape machines cannot, therefore, be copyrighted in America. Here they are, ipso facto, copyrighted the moment they emerge from the instrument. In answer to the well-known question: What constitutes literary value ? many interesting cases group themselves under this head of “ subject matter.” Has a bottle label, a letter file index, a racing chart, any literary value; has a circus poster artistic value—sufficient to entitle these produc- tions to copyright protection ? The bottle label in question was the property of Mr. Higgins, the famous ink and paste maker (with whose photo-mounting composition every amateur photographer ought to be acquaint2d), The only specific words on the label were: “ Water- proof Drawing Ink.” It was duly registered for copyright. The judge held that a mere descrip- tion of the contents of the bottle had no value for copyright purposes apart from the article described, and refused the injunction. Our courts would do the same. Similarly, a mere index to a letter file, however skilfully devised, was not within the protection of the Copyright Act, no literary explanation of its working being given. A book describing a short- hand system likewise failed to get protection against another book describing the same system, but written differently. There might be twenty books describing the same thing, provided they were different in treatment. But a racing chart, which formed part of a sporting paper, received protection; and it was no defence to say that it was disentitled to protection because designed for gaming pur- poses. A racing chart alone, however, could scarcely protect itself. A circus poster, showing performers on bicycles, and so forth, was not disentitled to protection on the ground of its being a mere advertisement. cx work of art,” said the judge, “is none the less a work of art because it is of little merit or humble degree.” Thus American Courts provide us with almost precisely similar rulings to the English Courts on © the question as to what may and may not be the | subject matter of copyright. PUBLICATION AND ITS EFFECTS. Let us now see whether there is any difference between English and American law as to what — constitutes publication, and what are some of the | consequences of publication. ; THE AUTHOR. i We know that, over here, before we give a book to the world by publishing it, we can prohibit its «© publication by any unauthorised person by means »>> of an action at common law. It is the same in oe America. Similarly, after we have published a book, the common law protection ceases as far as its infringement goes, and the work now comes under the protection of the statute. But what, our author frequently asks, 7s publication ? Let » us see what America says on the subject. The Jewellers’ Mercantile Agency printed a book » of what, in America, are called “credit ratings,” which I take to be, from the evidence, a list of jewellers’ customers, with an account of their finan- cial standing. This they leased to their subscribers © only, having first copyrighted it. As soon as the | book was infringed, the plaintiffs alleged that, though copyrighted, it had not really been pub- i lished, seeing that it was only leased to their own “private subscribers. The trial court took this view . and granted them an injunction. But the appeal court reversed the judgment, holding that to lease a book to an unlimited number of subscribers amounted to‘a publication. This would be held ‘' 5) to be good English law also.* qi Similarly, when Professor Loisette (the curer of ~~ weak memory) issued his book to subscribers under “= a contract of secrecy, this was construed as a ji's4 publication of it, and the pirate went free. And when one Rigney published a cut in a trade journal, allezing that there was no real publication because it only circulated within the limits of the trade—his contention was manifestly ill founded. Does the previous serial issue of a work consti- tute publication in America ? Or, when the work has not been copyrighted in this serial form, may it afterwards be copyrighted in volume form? No, unfortunately. So the author of the “ Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, lost his copyright in that famous book. But if the last instalments of a serial be duly copyrighted, does this secure copyright in the whole work? ‘The appeals court answered this question for another famous author, Mrs. Stowe, but also in the negative. Before we come to the subject of the ‘‘ conse- quence of publication,” a very important case, not included in Mr. Hamlin’s book, but recently decided, should be mentioned as coming between the two questions of “publication” and its “ con- sequences,’’ © 2 we * It is noticeable that in both trials the important question as to whether “ publication” was a prerequisite to complete a copyright in America was avoided, Here itis, No book acquires copyright here without it. The Jaw in America on this point is doubtful; but Mr. Hamlin is of the opinion that the depositing of title and copies perfects the copyright without any publication, 113 In this case the great American Tobacco Com- pany got beaten in their own country. They printed and published, as an advertisement, the painting called “Chorus,” ‘a meritorious work of art, by Sadler, a British subject,” who sold it to Emil Werckmeister, “a citizen of Germany,” who hung it in the Royal Academy, London. The question was: Did this exhibition of the picture amount to “ publication” so as to deprive Werckmeister of his right to obtain copyright in America? In other words: Was the picture published ? In deciding this important question, Judges Lacombe, Townsend, and Cox were under the necessity of reviewing all the important decisions previously given in the analogous cases of books, lectures, and dramatic compositions, since the question as regards paintings had not hitherto been directly decided. With this review (which occupies fifteen pages of the royal-octavo pamph- Jet before me) I shall not trouble readers of Zhe Author. Suffice it to say, the judges decided that the exhibition did not amount to a publica- tion, on the grounds that (1) admission was by payment, implying a limitation of the persons who were to view the painting ; and that (2) there was express prohibition by the rules of the Academy against making copies of pictures ex- hibited therein. Now this decision is one to be thankful for, although it runs counter to our own law, which regards public exhibition in a gallery as publica- tion; and for the best commentary on the American decision (written long before it was given) I must refer readers of Zhe Author to Mr. Macgillerray’s book on ‘ Copyright,” pages 263-4, CONSEQUENCES OF PUBLICATION. Under this section of Mr. Hamlin’s book we move among giants, and it becomes still more interesting when the “ publication” in question is a publication owlside the United States. Such cases are particularly instructive to all authors, English and Continental, having a sale in the United States. Richard Wagner transferred his music-book rights in “Parsifal” to B. Schotts & Sons, re- serving the acting rights to himself (which we know he liked to do—since no one else was, in his opinion, competent to deal with them). Schotts sent the book to America, but were many years too late for copyright. Oonfried put ‘‘ Persifal” on the boards, and Wagner brought an action to restrain him. Held that the book having once been published, the “reservation” notice was of no avail in America. ‘“ Parsifal”? could be “put on” by anyone. 114 The next case is interesting to all budding geniuses. When Mr. Kipling was yet in that enviable state, his books were naturally not copy- righted in America. So in the year 1900, when he had become world-famous, he tried to ‘‘ take it out of” America by bringing an action against publishers there to restrain them, not from pub- lishing and selling his stories, which he could not prevent, but from publishing and selling them except in such collections and under such totles as he himself should authorise. One finds it diffi- cult to refrain from a smile, and wonders what he said to his lawyers when the court told him there was nothing about that in the statute. Sudermann, Germany’s playwright, provides our last case under this head. He published the text of the play “Die Ehre” in Germany, and the celebrated Augustin Daly decided, with his per- mission, to put it on the boards in America. But one Walwrath got in before him and produced the play, and defended himself successfully against injunction, by pleading the previous German publication. The moral of all these cases for authors is: see that, if you hope for anything from America, your work is duly copyrighted there before you publish it elsewhere. If the courteous editor of The Author will allow me, I hope at a future date to deal with the remaining sections of Mr. Hamlin’s book: “ Literary Property and its Transfer,” “ Unfair Use,” and “Remedies and Penalties,” as America regards these matters. CHARLES WEEKES. 2 ge EDITORIAL CRITICISMS. Se st T is seldom that an editor in returning a MS. I of which he cannot avail himself will vouch- safe his precise reason for declining it. He has not the leisure, perhaps, or it may be that, as hé cannot honestly offer encouragement to the writer, he restricts himself to the stereotyped form of regret which commits him to nothing. It may even be that he dreads what so often happens ifhe give his contributor an opening—that the latter will proceed to question his decision at the expense of much ink and paper. Should he, however, depart from his rule and proffer a criticism, it is worth considering in cold blood, no matter how cutting, presumptuous, or brutal an aspect it wears, for probably a lifetime of experience has perfected him in the art of silhouetting the weak points of an article at a glance. If he devote five or ten of his precious THE AUTHOR. minutes to bestowing the benefit of that experience on a complete stranger he does it, undoubtedly, with the kindliest of motives, and by no means merits the vituperation which ofttimes requites him: English editors volunteer ‘‘remarks”’ -less fre- quently than American ones, but it is the authors’ fault. American writers (and not novices only) beg for a review of their work and profit by it, whereas their English brethren, hugging their amour propre, are apt to regard anything savouring of condemnation as insult added to injury. “Tt is impossible for us to criticise MSS., so many are submitted,” is a very usual notice in the Transatlantic magazines. It is rarely met with in an English periodical, for it is not needed. Yet “to see oursels as ithers see us” must be as salutary to authors as to other folk. «The reader foresees the dénouement almost from the beginning.” This comment was once sent vith a rejected story of my own, the “almost” just saving my self-esteem, for in a MS. of 2,000 words— a very acceptable length, by the way—there is not overmuch room for “ drawing a red herring across the trail.” I comforted myself with that reflection, but & propos of the criticism a problem presented itself—whether the majority of readers like to have the whole plot divulged, sprung upon them as it were, in the two last lines, or whether they have a secret predilection for the pleasant sense of their own perspicacity which the divination, from the very beginning, of the author’s intention inspires. Endeavouring to be quite honest with myself, I decided that I personally agreed with my friendly mentor, and had a distinct leaning towards ‘a measure of mystification. “The central ‘idea has done duty in scores of short stories.” This was, I remember, something of a blow, since I had fondly imagined my little tale quite original, but being well aware the editor saw more fiction in a day than I in a month, I sat down to think the matter out, and the more I reviewed his ultimatum the more grateful I was to him for having had the courage of his opinions, and the more willing to concede that some time, somewhere, I too had encountered. a not altogether alien argument. In this case—and to my mind it covered a multi- tude of sins—the regret was a written one, and put me in possession of an autograph I had long coveted. “Your story is too improbable.” Yet I had sent the MS. where “impossible” would have described the letterpress even better than “impro- — bable,” and I had spoken of what I knew to be true. Nevertheless the editor, with his finger on the pulse of the public, was right. I eliminated the “impossible” truth I hadthought so fascinating, and promptly disposed of my “ copy.” “Tf you care to change the convent into a Church hy - THE AUTHOR. of England boarding-school ’—O bathos !—“ we will reconsider the article.” Now the hours and the pains I had spent on “ getting up” that convent made the bare notion grievous. The walls were high and ivy-clad, the garden within them a place of peace, whilst the softened strains of the ‘“‘ Ave Maria” issuing from the little oratory were indispensable io my mise en scene. I felt I couldn’t part with a word, so I kept the MS. intact and sent it elsewhere. But I did not sell it for a very long time—not, indeed, until I had taken the editor’s advice. . L hold no brief for editors, nor do I claim infallibility for them—it is notorious that many a time and oft they decline excellent work, after- wards bitterly bewailing their short-sightedness— but I earnestly maintain that, since their intentions in advising are of the very best, it is crass folly to ignore their well-meant strictures or to lull oneself into the belief that one is superiur to ali such warnings. I have quoted adverse criticisms in every case, partly because they are more useful, but chiefly because favourable ones are few and far between. Literary wares bear a suspicious resemblance to all other saleable commodities, much as we like to flatter ourselves they are on an altogether higher plane. If good they are eagerly snapped up at the lowest price the author s poverty or love of fame will induce him to accept, and to praise them would be a quite superfluous indiscretion on the purchaser’s part, raising their market value immediately and possibly depriving him of a cheap monopoly. If they are faulty in the ways I have instanced the editor does himself no harm and the writer an in- estimable service by saying so, besides creating a bond of sympathy between himself and the more sensible of his contributors. If the ranks of the wise be ever so slightly swelled by the perusal of this article it has not been written in vain. : ANNIE Q. CARTER. oe gee LITERARY RESPONSIBILITY. 1 S an author responsible for the sayings and sentiments of his characters? ‘lhat—like “to be or not to be””—is the question : and a very burning question, too, upon occasions. The reading public apparently labours under an impression that the author of a novel has cast himself for every one of the parts ; that (after the manner of Bottom the Weaver) he is ready to play Pyramus and Thisbe, and the lion too—to excel in Ercles’ vein, to speak in a monstrous little -voice, to roar that it will do any man’s heart good 115 to hear him ; and yet all the time to be himself, bringing out of his mental treasure-house such stores of wisdom and knowledge as he has collected during the shining hours of his mundane career. We writers are constantly being hit full in the face with inquiries as to whether we “ really think ” the sundry and divers—often diverse—things that our characters see fit to enunciate ; and the horns of the dilemma whereon we then find ourselves are too sharp for us. If we say Yes, we are convicted of folly ; if we say No, we are convicted of untruth ; which is the severer condemnation it is not for us to decide. The sentiment thus quoted is probably the very last that one would choose to have fathered upon oneself : a sentiment which one has purposely put into the mouth either of a fool, to prove his want of wisdom, or of a knave, to prove his want of honesty. Yet the anxious inquirer pertinently asks whether it is, so to speak, one’s own confession of faith. If we say we agree with it, then we know ourselves for ever set down as fools or knaves as the case may be; if, on the other hand, we repudiate the doubtful sentiment, then we are con- fronted with the fact that we have said it in print, and that therefore we must have thought it, just as Mr. Winkle must have said that his name was Daniel as well as Nathaniel, or else it could never have been written on Mr. Justice Stareleigh’s notes. Next to being buried wholesale in Westminster Abbey, perhaps the most glorious thing that can happen to an author is to be preserved piecemeal, as it were, in a Birthday Book. The Birthday Book is the literary amber wherein our choicest epigrams are embalmed: and all of us to whom this honour has been accorded ought to be thankful that our jewr d’esprit have thus been rescued from the transitory state of ephemera to the immortality of flies in amber. But it is when we see ourselves first dissected and then mummified in a Birthday Book, that the terrible responsibility of authorship comes home to us! The speeches which we gave to our puppets to show, as we thought, the material whereof these puppets were made, now stand forth —with no background of atmosphere, no shadow of context—as our own confession of what life has taught us, and of what we are in turn longing to hand on to other people. It is ghastly ! But apart from the fierce light that beats upon the separate atoms of the Birthday Book, even the consumers of novels roasted whole seem to find difficulty in differentiating between the author and his characters. I remember a reviewer once saying of me, in sorrow rather than in anger, that “ Miss Fowler ought to have known that no lady would address a gentleman as *Captain.’” Miss Fowler did know it, and had made use of what she vainly considered a subtle device to convey to her readers 116 that the lady speaking was no lady. But I had apparently succeeded merely in conveying the im- pression that I was no lady myself; the reviewer evidently having fallen into the popular error of supposing that I was playing the parts of Pyramus and Thisbe and the lion as well. Now I maintain that a writer is not responsible for anything that appears in his books in the form of dialogue. His object is to make his characters speak according to their kind—to say what it would be natural for such people to say in such circumstances. He does not want to convey to the reader what sort of a person he is himself, but what sort of people are those about whom he is writing ; just as a painter has no wish to make a picture like himself, but like the person whose portrait he is painting. For the time being the writer must forget his own individuality and his own opinions, merging them in the personality of the creatures of his imagination. . He must be an actor, throwing himself heart and soul into the part which he has undertaken to play. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that in a really good piece of work the author is more apt to become like his hero, than the hero like the author : so that in drawing evil characters, and in writing about things and people which are distinctly not lovely nor of good report, the author is doing more harm to himself than to his readers, as the tendency of us all is to become the thing that we pretend to be. But alas! the better we act, the less is our audience pleased. When we play the lion’s part they expect that half our face shall be seen through the lion’s mane lest the ladies should be afeard: and instead of roaring as much like a lion as it lies in us to roar, they prefer that we should name our name, and tell them plainly that we are Snug the Joiner. Of a truth the hard- handed men that worked in Athens knew how to please the public better than some of us do after all. But, on the other hand, I do think that an author is responsible for what he says in narrative —that is to say, if he chooses to say anything at all which is not in the way of simple narration. Should he drop into philosophy, as Silas Wegg into poetry, he is bound to see that the philosophy is the best of its kind that he has in stock. He must stand or fall by whatever sentiments he then expresses. The greatest writers, with Shakespeare at their head, tell us nothing about themselves at all; we are absolutely ignorant as to what manner of men they were: their art is purely dramatic. But we have some good examples to follow, never- theless, if we choose to reveal our own thoughts and opinions to some extent in our writings ; but we owe it to our readers as well as to ourselves that this revelation should be, if not all the truth, THE AUTHOR. at least nothing but the truth. Itis as untruthful —and therefore as inartistic—to say in narrative what we do not really think, as it is to make our characters say what they would not really think if they were actual people. For my own part, I neither drop into poetry nor into philosophy, but into downright old-fashioned preaching. I own the soft impeachment and make no bones aboutit. But | admit that what I preach I ought, if not to practice, at any rate to believe, and to be prepared to stand or fall by: though I absolutely decline to be responsible for the senti- ments and opinions expressed by my characters, as They are not I—they are themselves; and in fact they are very often not even the sort of people ah that I like or approve of; but that is no excuse for = me to trifle with them, or to put words into their mouths which I very well know they would never have uttered. I have a duty towards them, as well as towards myself and my public. The conclusion of the whole matter, therefore, seems to be this. As long as the author is «— .« dealing in dialogue, he must play in the tyrant’s * vein, or speak in a monstrous little voice, or | roar loudly enough to hang usall, according asthe —_. « parts of Pyramus or Thisbe or the lion demand— ; he must lose himself in his characters. But when 2 wl once he makes up his mind to writea prologuewhich shall, for the more better assurance, tell the public —. that Pyramus is not killed indeed—in short, that Et Pyramus is not Pyramus at all but Bottom the ~~ Weaver—then let him take thonght to every word that he utters and to every opinion that he expresses; for surely he must one day give an account of these to all those readers who have believed what he said —if not before a Higher Tribunal. Whether he is drawing a fictitious character or describing his own, he must never cease in his endeavour ‘‘To paint the thing as he sees it For the God of things as they are.” ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER. ++ SHOULD AUTHORS HIDE THEMSELVES? —_t—— + — By Bastu Tozer. R. T. T. WRIGHT has been protesting lately in the Literary World against the publication of authors’ portraits in public _ periodicals, and adding support to his argument by — declaring that a friend of his, a lady, remarked to him recently that she used always to read Mr. So-and-So’s articles with interest, until one day she saw a portrait of the distinguished writer in one of the illustrated papers. ‘That disillusioned | * her. A man with a face like that, she thought— =| * THE AUTHOR. 117 well, she didn’t say then just what she did think. Probably she felt that in a way she had been duped. The editor of the publication in which she had been in the habit of reading the distin- guished writer’s contributions ought, she no doubt felt, at least to have hinted to his readers what the distinguished writer looked like ; whether his features were chiselled or the reverse, if he wore his hair long, or preferred the billiard-ball coiffure, who supplied him with his suits and with his “neck-wear.” “I wish I hadn’t seen it,” the fair critic—or rather, unfair sceptic—did end by admit- ting with reference to the offensive photograph ; “he looks so gross, and I think I shall never like his articles again.” This is regrettable, from the standpoint of writer and reader alike, and it opens up a rather important question, namely, whether authors ought or ought not to hide themselves ? I remember a crushing reply that I received about a year ago, when, in the lending library of a certain well- known watering-place, I suggested to an acquaint- ance, again a lady, that she should read a book that I named, a book by an author whose works are generally popular. “What!” she exclaimed, in a tone of great contempt, “J read _ that man’s books? Why, he lives here!” Now, I have every reason to believe that this lady was by no means singular in her views, but that, on the contrary, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of readers, men as well as women, who would scorn the bare idea of reading anything that is written by anyone they happen to be personally acquainted with, no matter how excellent the article or the story may be. It is merely the truth of the hackneyed saying, “ Familiarity breeds contempt,” making itself manifest in a rather different guise, and these two ingenuous assertions, dropped, as it were incidentally and at haphazard, by two members presumably of the ordinary read- ing public, leads to the belief that the more our authors, as a body, keep themselves to themselves, the better it will be, pecuniarily, for themselves as well as for their publishers and editors. All this tends to show, then, that the habit of creating, unconsciously no doubt, “ideals,” of building up in the imagination little idols to be gazed upon from afar with respect and probably admiration, is not yet extinct. The girl in her teens who is fond of reading, and who is of a romantic, imaginative nature, unconsciously comes to think that the various handsome and attractive leading male characters in the books written by the highly-popular author, John Jones, must reflect some of the personal charms of their creator, John Jones himself. This belief gradually grows _ upon her, and as it grows she unwittingly comes to cherish it. By degrees John Jones becomes in her mind a very real personage, a sort of blend of everything that is fascinating about the various men he has pourtrayed in his various successful novels. At times she thinks about him a good deal. In her lucid intervals she perhaps wonders what he really is like, and whether, after all, he is not quite different from the being she has so often in her imagination pictured him to be, but asa rule the “ideal” remains paramount. Then one ee a portrait is, so to speak, sprung upon ner. “Oh!” The exclamation escapes her with a little gulp as she sees this portrait for the first time. Even if good-looking he is not in the least like what Lottie Venn used to call the “angel man” she had conjured up in her imagination, and that single glance at the portrait has shattered for ever her little “idol.” If only the wretched photograph had been left out of sight she would have revelled in reading all that he had to say about himself, his views upon life in general, the details of his mode of existence, and so on. Her appetite for his novels would if anything have been whetted by the knowledge that he lived in a bijou residence “ in the confines of lesser Surbiton,” that he was fond of croquet, a good bridge player, and an excellent judge of a cigar; that he ate sparingly, shunned alcohol, and approved of Back- ache’s Breakfast Nuts. Indeed it interests many persons to know that the much-talked-about gilt- haired heroine of John Jones’s latest masterpiece was neither created with a fountain pen nor hammered out on a typewriter, but that she was dictated to a stenographer, or shouted into a phonograph, and subsequently manifolded and sent straight to the printers. Yet I think I am well within the mark when I say that eight authors out of twelve appear to greater advantage in their writings than they do in real life, and certainly over and over again I have heard members of the general public —the circulating library public—express disap- pointment after being, accidentally or otherwise, brought into contact with authors whose works they enjoyed reading. The serious writer, for instance, is somewhat flippant in general conversa- tion. The humorist on paper is often deadly dull at a social gathering. The writer of brilliant epigrams may be “ quite ordinary” when you meet him at a dinner party. The lady novelist, whose creations are adorable, herself is sometimes tire- some to talk toand plain-featured toa degree. All these discoveries are unpleasant, and help to dis- enchant. Therefore the assertion made lately that some authors nowadays adversely affect the sales of their books—I am speaking of course of novelists— by being themselves rubbed shoulders with here, there and everywhere, may not be devoid of truth. 118 THE ARCHDEACON’S PERSONALTY. —_+—~>+ A DIALOGUE. By M. R. ScenE—CHAMBERS IN STAPLES INN. Tom Smith (Barrister). Jack Robinson (Writer). Smith (alone, sitting in an armchair by the fire). Now what I want to know is why the devil is my name Smith if I wasn’t born to be something out of the common? And here I am _starving-in wretched chambers, without briefs, devilling for a barrister, which is like devilling a bone a hungry tyke has spent an hour with. Heigho! I suppose I must read something—at any rate it’s less de- eraded than writing novels. ((roes to his shelves and takes down Henley’s “Book of Verses.) Come now, where is the rondeau with the refrain “ Let us be drunk!” I only wish I could afford to be so with a decent regularity that would excite no remark. (Reads and puts the book down). I wish old Jack would come as he promised. (A knock at the door). Why, there he is! Robinson. Well, here I am, old chap. Why, why, what’s the matter with you? You look as melancholy as a stray cat on a rainy night. What is the matter ? A question of oof ? Smith (sententiously). My dear Jack, your similes are low and the word “oof ” is very vulgar, though what it signifies is supremely and splendidly rare. J have a shilling. Robinson. Cheer up, my dear fellow, I'll toss you for it. Did you get my telegram ? Smith. Telegram? No. Robinson. Then I suppose I beat the telegraph this time. I was to have met your wild young devil of a cousin at the “ Cri.” ; so I wired you I would look in about nine. However, he didn’t turn up, and I wouldn’t wait, and came here in a hansom. Smith. You fat rascal, so you can telegraph and ride in cabs; sit down in the light and let me look at you, you confounded millionaire. Or was it that you did it with your last half-crown. Yes ? Ah, you true Bohemian! (Double knock at outer door.) Ah! there’s your telegram. A wasted sixpence! Into the fire with it. Robinson (jumping vainly to rescue it). Here, I say, come, you should always open a telegram. But there it goes, my message is in the sky by now. How, in the name of a mismanaged behind-the-time post and telegraph office do you know that was my telegram ? Smith (sardonically). What in the name of penniless Bohemia do you think it was ? The offer of a judgeship, or a report of my uncle’s death ? ‘Robinson. How can I tell? But you certainly THE AUTHOR. should have opened it. How is the rich and venerable avuncular archdeacon ? How well he bears these magnificent adjectives ! Smith. The dear old boy is horribly well, eats and drinks well, stamps about like the Com- mandatore, usually keeps his temper, takes exer- cise and no medicine, though he has a doctor on the premises as a kind of prophylactic. And if he _lives till eighty that doctor is to have a big bonus over and above his fees. And those would keep me in luxury. Robinson. Do you know that tame medical man ? Smith. Of course I do. Robinson. And yet Smith. Ah! You see I’m on the equity side. You, being on the criminal side, evidently can do as you please with your uncles. Robinson. My dear Innocent, I am not related to those of my uncles who are ever of any use to me. And as for my mother’s brothers, they are as one man kept by my father! Their unanimity in refusing to work is wonderful. Smith. Poison them off, and your father may increase your allowance. Have some whiskey ! (Another knock at the door.) Smith (eacitedly). By Jove! another telegram ! Robinson (snatchiug it from Smith). By Jove, indeed ! and this, this one ismine! Now you have done it! Ofalithe hot-headed, addle-pated, reason- less literary nincompoops I ever Smith. Silence, silence, you adjectival incubus. What the deuce shall I do? Let me think. Robinson. Yes, yes, sit down and read up for precedents in Shelley or Browning. And I’ll be practical for you. I'll go to the telegraph office and get a copy. (He looks out of the window.) No, I’m hanged if I do! snowing like the very devil. You had better get your porter to take a note from you to explain. matters. Smith, Yes, that will be the best thing. (@oes out.) Robinson (picking up the book of verses) : What’s this ? “ What is the use of effort? Love and debt And disappointment have us in a net, Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime— Let us be drunk——” Truly a poetical sentiment ; good sooth, the brave rhymer isright. ‘ We cannot please the tragicaster. Time!” (Smith returns.) Ob, here you are? Well, don’t worry, and out with the whiskey. Smith. There you are, help yourself, and I'll help myself. It’s the last half-bottle of a dozen the Venerable gave me. What an ass I was with that telegram. Do you know, Jack, I feel quite excited? It might actually be goo: news of some. sort. I have had a grey monotony of bad for a long eternity. 2 I take it all back. It’s. THE AUTHOR. Robinson. Warm the grey with whiskey and forget publishers and editors and solicitors. What about the antique Venerable? What if he really has cheated the doctor of his bonus and left you your share ? Smith. Don’t talk rot. I don’t want the old boy to go and boom in the vast inane yet awhile. Let him live. He has helped me a good bit one way or another, and would have done so more if I hadn’t disgusted him by refusing the law and the prophets for—— Robinson. The law and no profits out of letters, not even half profits, or ten per cent. after a sale of two thousand. But you talk much too correctly. I am not an uncle and don’t want proper sentiments ; you said just now you were on the equity side. This is just a true equity case. Think what a rare and rosy time, what a port winey archidiaconal abbotlike time he has had. Now he might retire gracefully and let you come in. Think of all it would mean! Think, think how you would quit elegiacs for drinking songs, and law for love! Here’s to his promotion. Smith. In his own whiskey! Well, well, I own it would mean a good deal. Mean, yes (jumps up) by the eternal processes of everlasting litigation I would throw my case books out of the window and burn them in a bonfire. And as to writing, why, I would chuck rhyme for reason, and reason for the fatness of things. I would circumnavigate the globe of my unexplored desire in a hired whirl- wind, and take the moon on a lease. Robinson. And the fixed stars and the planets, including Venus ? Smith. What, get married do youmean ? Well, all things are possible, even marriage for a rhymer. But go to, you are a cynic and dwell with clever journalists, hearing them prate inverted platitude called paradox, and with critics who go about teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs. Robinson. Yes, their literary grandmothers, you benighted heathen. If that telegram only means oof, you shall be educated to construct hyperbole into a science and taught to see the preciousness of verse hard boiled in a religious stewpan of ancient measure. And I will inveigle you into taking or making a theatre in a big steamer anchored three miles beyond low-water mark, so as to be out of reach of the censor’s scissors. Oh, that would bea Theatre Libre ! Smith. And the critics and the audience would be even sicker than they are on shore. No, no, my pippy literary chicken, you shall come with me and leave the dusiy Fleet Street barnyard. If being born in a stable doesn’t make a horse of you, herding with asses may make an ass of you. You want grass, and the air and the sky. Robinson (shouting). Aye; and all, all the 119 planets. ‘‘ Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime.”’ Poor old Henley ! Smith. ‘Let us be drunk.” (Sits down.) And all this comes out of the ashes of a telegram floating on whiskey and water. What did you wire to me for? I have been up in the empyrean, beyond the ether, and the curses of law and labour lay blackly on our star. And now Robinson. And now, now comes the porter with the telegram. Believe me, you tragicaster, you dusty imp on a law book, you combination of all incompatibles of the modern, you shall be free and revel in the personalty of the Archdeacon. Read, read, what is it ? Smith. There will, I fear, be other claims on that property. It is from my cousin whom you did not meet. ‘Come and bail me out. I am at Vine Street Police Station.” M. R. i 9 LORD ALYERSTONE ON LITERATURE AND THE BAR. HE Lord Chief Justice was the guest of the evening at the Authors’ Club dinner on Monday, December 5th, with Sir Conan Doyle in the chair. In the course of an illumining and instructive speech Lord Alverstone drew an interesting parallel between the careers of law and authorship. He admitted that while speaking broadly the life of a successful lawyer had not much in common with that of a successful man of letters, yet in one respect they had much in common. For instance, success in advocacy calls into play the same qualities demanded of a skilful historian. He gave a striking instance of this in a criminal trial for murder in which he was once engaged.. The sole materials for the defence were three letters written a few weeks before his death by the victim. A night’s exhaustive study and analysis of these documents enabled him to piece together the story and build up a case which resulted in the triumphant acquittal of the accused. Dramatic authors, no doubt, had much in common with barristers, though the author certainly had the pull over counsel in that he could invent the replies as well as the questions of cross-examination (laughter). The cleverest and most convincing case of cross-examination on the stage was in that remarkable play ‘‘ Mrs. Dane’s Defence.” Coming to another department of literature—poetry, he feared there was little of the romance of poetry ab the Bar. Nor, indeed, was there much oratory now-a-days in the law courts. He remembered that Lord Coleridge had once observed to him that the days of set speeches of counsel with formal exordium and peroration were out of date. 118 THE ARCHDEACON’S PERSONALTY. —_1-—>—+ By M. R. SceNE—CHAMBERS IN STAPLES INN. A DIALOGUE. Tom Smith (Barrister). Jack Robinson (Writer). Smith (alone, sitting in an armchair by the fire). Now what I want to know is why the devil is my name Smith if I wasn’t born to be something out of the common? And here J am starving-in wretched chambers, without briefs, devilling for a barrister, which is like devilling a bone a hungry tyke has spent an hour with. Heigho! I suppose I must read something—at any rate it’s less de- graded than writing novels. (Goes to his shelves and takes down Henley’s “Book of Verses.) Come now, where is the rondeau with the refrain ‘“ Let us be drunk!” I only wish I could afford to be so with a decent regularity that would excite no remark. (Reads and puts the book down). I wish old Jack would come as he promised. (A knock at the door). Why, there he is! Robinson. Well, here I am, old chap. Why, why, what’s the matter with you? You look as melancholy as a stray cat on a rainy night. What is the matter ? A question of oof ? Smith (sententiously). My dear Jack, your similes are low and the word “oof ” is very vulgar, though what it signifies is supremely and splendidly rare. I have a shilling. Robinson. Cheer up, my dear fellow, I'll toss you for it. Did you get my telegram ? Smith. Telegram? No. Robinson. 'Then I suppose I beat the telegraph this time. I was to have met your wild young devil of a cousin at the “ Cri.” ; so I wired you I would look in about nine. However, he didn’t turn up, and I wouldn’t wait, and came here in a hansom. Smith. You fat rascal, so you can telegraph and ride in cabs; sit down in the light and let me look at you, you confounded millionaire. Or was it that you did it with your last half-crown. Yes ? Ah, you true Bohemian! (Double knock at outer door.) Ah! there’s your telegram. A wasted sixpence! Into the fire with it. Robinson (jumping vainly to rescue it). Here, I say, come, you should always open a telegram. But there it goes, my message is in the sky by now. How, in the name of a mismanaged behind-the-time post and telegraph office do you know that was my telegram ? Smith (sardonically). What in the name of penniless Bohemia do you think it was ? The offer of a judgeship, or a report of my uncle’s death ? ‘Robinson. How can I tell? But you certainly THE AUTHOR. should have opened it. How is the rich and venerable avuncular archdeacon ? How well he bears these magnificent adjectives ! Smith. The dear old boy is horribly well, eats and drinks well, stamps about like the Com- mandatore, usually keeps his temper, takes exer- cise and no medicine, though he has a doctor on the premises as a kind of prophylactic. And if he lives till eighty that doctor is to have a big bonus over and above his fees. And those would keep me in luxury. Robinson. Do you know that tame medical man ? Smith. Of course I do. Robinson. And yet Smith. Ah! You see I’m on the equity side. You, being on the criminal side, evidently can do as you please with your uncles. Robinson. My dear Innocent, I am not related to those of my uncles who are ever of any use to me. And as for my mother’s brothers, they are as one man kept by my father! Their unanimity in refusing to work is wonderful. Smith. Poison them off, and your father may increase your allowance. Have some whiskey ! (Another knock at the door.) Smith (excitedly). By Jove! another telegram ! Robinson (snatchiug it from Smith). By Jove, indeed ! and this, this one ismine! Now you have doneit! Ofali the hot-headed, addle-pated, reason- less literary nincompoops I ever Smith. Silence, silence, you adjectival incubus. What the deuce shall I do? Let me think. Robinson. Yes, yes, sit down and read up for precedents in Shelley or Browning. And I'll be practical for you. I'll go to the telegraph office and get a copy. (He looks out of the window.) No, I’m hanged if Ido! I take it all back. It’s. snowing like the very devil. You had better get your porter to take a note from you to explain, matters. Smith. Yes, that will be the best thing. (@oes out.) Robinson (picking up the book of verses) : What’s this ? “ What is the use of effort? Love and debt And disappointment have us in a net, Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime— Let us be drunk——” Truly a poetical sentiment ; good sooth, the brave rhymer isright. ‘“ We cannot please the tragicaster. Time!” (Smith returns.) Oh, here you are? Well, don’t worry, and out with the whiskey. Smith. There you are, help yourself, and I'll help myself. It’s the last half-bottle of a dozen the Venerable gave me. What an ass I was with that telegram. Do you know, Jack, I feel quite excited ? It might actually be gooil news of some, — sort. I have had a grey monotony of bad for a long eternity. i THE AUTHOR. Robinson. Warm the grey with whiskey and forget publishers and editors and solicitors. What about the antique Venerable? What if he really has cheated the doctor of his bonus and left you your share ? ” Smith. Don’t talk rot. I don’t want the old boy to go and boom in the vast inane yet awhile. Let him live. He has helped me a good bit one way or another, and would have done so more if I hadn’t disgusted him by refusing the law and the prophets for Robinson. The law and no profits out of letters, not even half profits, or ten per cent. after a sale of two thousand. But youtalk much too correctly. I am not an uncle and don’t want proper sentiments ; you said just now you were on the equity side. This is just a true equity case. Think what a rare and rosy time, what a port winey archidiaconal abbctlike time he has had. Now he micht retire gracefully and let you come in. Think of all it would mean! Think, think how you would quit elegiacs for drinking songs, and law for love! Here’s to his promotion. Smith. In his own whiskey! Well, well, I own it would mean a good deal. Mean, yes (jumps up) by the eternal processes of everlasting litigation I would throw my case books out of the window and burn them in a bonfire. And as to writing, why, I would chuck rhyme for reason, and reason for the fatness of things. I would circumnavigate the globe of my unexplored desire in a hired whirl- wind, and take the moon on a lease. Robinson. And the fixed stars and the planets, including Venus ? Smith. What, get married do you mean ? Well, all things are possible, even marriage for a rhymer. But go to, you are a cynic and dwell with clever journalists, hearing them prate inverted platitude called paradox, and with critics who go about teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs. Robinson. Yes, their literary grandmothers, you benighted heathen. If that telegram only means oof, you shall be educated to construct hyperbole into a science and taught to see the preciousness of verse hard boiled in a religious stewpan of ancient measure. And I will inveigle you into taking or making a theatre in a big steamer anchored three miles beyond low-water mark, so as to be out of reach of the censor’s scissors. Oh, that would bea Theatre Libre ! Smith. And the critics and the audience would be even sicker than they are on shore. No, no, my pippy literary chicken, you shall come with me and leave the dusty Fleet Street barnyard. If being born in a stable doesn’t make a horse of you, herding with asses may make an ass of you. You want grass, and the air and the sky. Robinson (shouting). Aye; and all, all the 419 planets. ‘Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime.’ Poor old Henley ! Smith. “Let us be drunk.” (Sits down.) And all this comes out of the ashes of a telegram floating on whiskey and water. What did you wire to me for? I have been up in the empyrean, beyond the ether, and the curses of law and labour lay blackly on our star. And now Robinson. And now, now comes the porter with the telegram. Believe me, you tragicaster, you dusty imp on a law book, you combination of all incompatibles of the modern, you shall be free and revel in the personalty of the Archdeacon. Read, read, what is it ? Smith. There will, I fear, be other claims on that property. It is from my cousin whom you did not meet. ‘Come and bail me out. I am at Vine Street Police Station.” M. R. ee LORD ALYERSTONE ON LITERATURE AND THE BAR. HE Lord Chief Justice was the guest of the evening at the Authors’ Club dinner on Monday, December 5th, with Sir Conan Doyle in the chair. In the course of an illumining and instructive speech Lord Alverstone drew an interesting parallel between the careers of law and authorship. He admitted that while speaking broadly the life of a successful lawyer had not much in common with that of a successful man of letters, yet in one respect they had much in common. For instance, success in advocacy calls into play the same qualities demanded of a skilful historian. He gave a striking instance of this in a criminal trial for murder in which he was once engaged., The sole materials for the defence were three letters written a few weeks before his death by the victim. A night’s exhaustive study and analysis of these documents enabled him to piece together the story and build up a case which resulted in the triumphant acquittal of the accused. Dramatic authors, no doubt, had much in common with barristers, though the author certainly had the pull over counsel in that he could invent the replies as well as the questions of cross-examination (laughter). The cleverest and most convincing case of cross-examination on the stage was in that remarkable play “‘ Mrs. Dane’s Defence.” Coming to another department of literature—poetry, he feared there was little of the romance of poetry ab the Bar. Nor, indeed, was there much oratory now-a-days in the law courts. He remembered that Lord Coleridge had once observed to him that the days of set speeches of counsel with formal exordium and peroration were out of date. 120 Later in the evening Lord Alverstone remarked that the story of one of the guests who told the tale of a man who, reading the epitaph on the tomb- stone of a well-known solicitor, ‘‘ Here lies a lawyer and an honest man,” innocently asked why they buried two men in one grave, reminded him of the legal conundrum, “‘ What is the difference between an attorney-at-law and an action-at-law?” “An action-at-law only lies sometimes.” (Iaughter.) Or CORRESPONDENCE. —-—— + —_ “Wuat’s In A Namn?” Sir,—I think the severest thing I said about Mr. Panter in my previous letter was that he was an ‘‘idealist.” Few idealists, in this prosy world, succeed in reforming it, chiefly because so many of them take little pains to understand it. Mr. Panter strikes me as one of the many. He will never reform the copyright law until he has given a little study to it. Not till then will he be entitled to treat it “‘more upon moral than upon legal grounds.” I tried to get Mr. Panter to understand that copyright would have no existence but for the copyright statutes; that the right was analogous to the right ina patent or trademark. He will not understand it. 1 tried to show him the reasonable- ness of those statutes in not giving protection to titles. Hewill have none of it. I tried to get him to distinguish between statute law and common law. It only makes him angry; and when the idealist is angry, he is very angry indeed. He calls me “cocksure,’”’ hints broadly that I should be in Colney Hatch, says that I write in a “raw” way, “in plenitude of words,’ ‘sophistically;” asks naive questions (leaving out in his haste his marks of interrogation), and makes hotch-pot of my simplest statements. Very well, then; if the idealist cannot come down to earth, the man of earth must perforce go up to the idealist. I shall not try any more to give Mr. Panter that instruction which he so badly needs, but just take him on his own ground. Mr. Panter wants the titles of books to be protected by statute just as the books themselves are now. For, in Mr. Panter’s belief, a title is “the first sentence” of a book, and, therefore, worthy of equal protection with it. That is to say, the title Hamlet is “ the first sentence” of Shake- speare’s play of that name; Vittoria is “the first sentence’ of Mr. Meredith’s novel; and Kim “the first sentence” of Mr. Kipling’s. “ Every sentence,” says Mr. Meiklejohn in his Grammar, “must consist of at least two parts : the thing we speak about and what we say about the thing.” Mr. Panter’s “sentences” only consist THE AUTHOR. of one word. Is Mr. Meiklejohn wrong then, or is Mr. Panter ? Assuming for the moment, and for the amuse- ment it will yield us, that Mr. Meiklejohn is wrong and Mr. Panter right, and that the title of a book is “the first sentence” of it, and consequently on that ground worthy of equal protection with a book, let us see how that will work out. In England alone we publish about five thousand books a year. ach of these books is protected for forty-two years of life and seven years. Five thousand times forty-two—it might be sixty-two if the author lived long enough—gives 210,000. According to Mr. Panter, the law should extend a protective monopoly for half a century or so, to 210,000 titles of books, the actual books themselves —most of them, say, all but a round hundred— having long ago decently departed into the limbo of past things, very many of them a year or two after their birth, many of them a week or two! And what of the titles of poems, essays, and stories ? These would run, in a short time, into millions ! The present condition of things under which titles of books fight with a fickle public for dear life, live as long as they can, and die when they needs must, yielding at length to their betters—may be a grievance. It may be a grievance that Mr. Panter and others find their pet titles indecently “jumped” by some horrid little scribbler, either before their books are ready for publication, or, being published, before (in their authors’ opinion) the life is half out of them—that, too, may be a grievance. But I entreat Mr. Panter once again to take consolation to himself ; these things are simply nothing to the position in which Mr. Panter and his friends would find themselves if the law gave the thousands of scribbling amateurs and literary sciolists the right to ring-fence their millions of titles against each other under a “Panter Act.” CHARLES WEEKES. Fly-Fishers’ Club, S.W. [This correspondence must now cease.—EDIToR.] —_+—< + —_. AMERICAN SPELLING IN ENGLISH Books. Sir,—Can nothing be done by the Society of Authors and other influential bodies to prevent English books being printed in American spelling ? Naturally authors wish to get an advantage of American copyright, but why cannot there be a separate American edition? The only wonder to me is that, under present circumstances, the American printer does not insist on altering the wording as well.as the spelling of our books. I suppose if they did claim to do this our authors and publishers would not protest—for fear they should be so many dollars out of pocket. REGINALD HAYNEs. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 04 (January 1905) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 04 (January 1905) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1905-01-01-The-Author-15-4 publications The Author