https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/506/1905-06-01-The-Author-15-9.pdf 2310a2bd6bc138b90a9ba908490b3b3c 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) 1905-06-01 Volume 15 Issue 9 Pages Page range in volume 249–280 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 19050601 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Che Euthor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT. JUNE 1st, 1905. [Prick SIXPENCE. Vou. XV.—No. 9. TELEPHONE NuMBER : 374 VICTORIA. TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS : AUTORIDAD, LONDON. —_§_-—<—_e NOTICES. — OR the opinions expressed in papers that are signed or initialled the authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion of the Committee unless such is especially stated to be the case. Tue Editor begs to inform members of the Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he 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. Tue 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. —1—~ The Pension Fund of the Society. Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the Society’s Offices in April, 1905, and having gone carefully into the accounts of the fund, decided to invest a further sum of £230. When the purchase Vou. XV. is complete the amount will be added to the investments at present standing in the names of the Trustees, which are as follows. This is a statement of the actual stock; the money value can be easily worked out at the current price of the market :— ON ae £1000 0 0 teal boeken 500 0 0 Victorian Government 3 % Consoli- dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11 War Doan 201 9 3 London and North Western 3 % Deben- bare Siecle 250 0 0 Motels. £2,243 9. 2 Subscriptions, 1905. £8. d. Jan. 12, Anonymous . : : 70 276 Donations, 1905. Jan. Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 0 Jan. Bolton, Miss Anna 0 5 0 Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny . 0 5 0 Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert 0.5.0 Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. 010 0 Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. 010 O Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C. 1 0 9 Mar. 28, Kirmse, Mrs. 010 0 April19, Hornung, H. W. . . 25.0 0 May 7, Wynne, C. Whitworth . 5 0.0 May 16, Alsing, Mrs. J. E. : ? Y May 17, Anonymous . — se COMMITTEE NOTES. + HE committee of the society met at 389, Old Queen Street, on Monday, the 8th day of May, with heavy agenda for their consideration. After the minutes had been signed, the first matter dealt with was the election of members and 250 associates. ‘Twenty-five new members and asso- ciates were elected, making the total for the current year ninety-nine. The list is printed below. Then followed the discussion of a difficult question between a member of the society and a publisher. The secretary read a long report of the case which had been received from the solicitors, who had gone very carefully into all the papers and details. After full and serious consideration the committee decided they were unable to take the matter up, put were willing to accept, subject to the member's consent, the suggestion put forward by the pub- lisher, to appoint an arbitrator to settle the division of profits. The question of the general lien which the binders claimed on stock in their possession, brought forward at the last meeting, was further considered. A dispute arising out of Mr. Grant Richards’ bankruptcy, between a member of the society and the trustee, was also discussed. The secretary read the documents and the solicitors’ opinion upon the point, but as the questions in- volved were difficult and complicated the com- mittee decided to obtain counsel’s opinion, and to reconsider the case when this opinion came to hand. Another curious matter dealing with the right of an author to the publication of his name was carefully considered, and a long report of the solicitors was read to the committee, who decided from the information before them that it would be impossible for them to take action, but that if the member was willing to take counsel’s opinion, they would then reconsider the case. It has been the habit for the chairman for the current year to take the chair at the general meetings, although it often occurred that the questions dealt with in the report had arisen during the chairmanship of his predecessor. It was decided, therefore, that although the election of the chairman should be made at the customary time, that is, during the first month of the year, it should not take effect till after the general meeting. The appointment of correspondents in Canada and Sweden was discussed. ‘The secretary was instructed to make full inquiries with a view to appointing suitable representatives. The committee decided that the chairman of the committee should, on behalf of the society, sign the petition of the Music Defence League, in the hope of inducing the Government to pass an Act to stop the present musical piracy. There were various other matters of minor importance before the committee, but no further contentious work. The meeting lasted for two hours. THE AUTHOR. Cases. Five new cases have been in the secretary’s hands during the past month. The number is very small. ‘This should be taken as a good omen. Three were for money due, one for the return of a MS., and one related to a question of infringement of copyright. The money has been paid in one case. In the other two cases it turned out, on demand being made, that one paper was in bankruptcy, and that for the other a receiver for the debenture holders had been appointed. It will be impossible, therefore, to bring these cases to any satisfactory conclusion at present until the liabilities have been clearly set forth. In the matter dealing with MS., the MS. has been returned and forwarded to the author. The question of infringement of copyright is still in course of negotiation. ‘All the cases open from former months have been closed with the exception of a question of contract, where the member resides in Australia. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining information, this matter must necessarily be delayed. Mr. Grant Richards’ bankruptcy is still moving forward, but the progress is slow. The trustee at one time expected to be able to sell the business as a whole, but it would appear that the negotia- tions have fallen through, and there is considerable difficulty in arranging for the transfer of each book separately. “he society, through its secretary and solicitors, is doing everything it can on behalf of its members. —-——+— May Elections. Alsing, Mrs. J. E. The Cottage, Kopling, Sweden. 45, West End Avenue, Harrogate. c/o E. Marlay Carolin, Esq., Assistant Loco. Superintendent, 0.8. A. Railway, Volks- rust, Transvaal, 81, Westbourne Ter-. race, W. 6, Boundary Road, Hampstead, N.W. Heberton Hall, Leiston, Suffolk. Braithwaite, Miss Alice Carolin, Mrs. De la Rue, E. A. . Donaldson, 8. H. (Sid- ney Hunter) Doughty, Miss Gertrude Essex, John Ridgwell . Gordon, Major Evans, M.P. Gibson, Miss L. V. 4, Chelsea Embank- ment, S.W. 9, Gray’s Inn W.C oe Square, Griffith, Miss Lucy G. Grylls, A. C. Glynn Inglefield, H. B. . Latham, Edward . Lobley, Prof. J. Logan, F.R.G.S. Masefield, J. E. (J. M.) Mosely, Miss Ettie I. Peacey, Howard Russell, Lady . Synge, Miss M. B. Tanner, James T. : Taylor, The Rev. R. H., D.D. Underwood, F. J. . THE AUTHOR. 117, Elgin Avenue, W. 24, Cadogan Place, S.W. 61, Friends Road, Croydon. 36, Palace Street, Buckingham Gate, S.W. 1, Diamond Terrace, Greenwich. Gloucester House, Kew. Rydal Mount, Meads, Eastbourne. South Woodfield Park, Reading. 15, St. Loo Mansions, Chelsea, 8.W. Savoy Mansions, W.C. Goddington _ Rectory, Bicester. Three of the members elected in May do not desire either their names or their addresses to be printed. —+-—<>— + —__ WE regret that in the last issue of The Author Mrs. Christobel Hulbert Sewell’s pseudonym, “ Chris Sewell,” was, in error, attached to Mrs. Charles Scheu’s name, also published in that issue. ——_—?+———___ 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 and purpose of the work. Members are requested to forward information which will enable the Editor to supply such particulars.) ARCH AOLOGY. EHNASYA. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE. With Chapter, By C. T. CUNELLY, M.A. Twenth-sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Roman EHNASYA (Herakleo- polis Magna). Ehnasya. Plates and Text. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE. Supplementary to 12 x 10, 41 + 15 pp. Plates. Offices of the Egypt Exploration BIOGRAPHY. Fund. JoHN KNox AND THE REFORMATION. Longmans. Lane. 93 x 6. 281 pp. By ANDREW 10s. 6d. n. DIARY AND LETTERS OF MADAME D’ ARBLAY (1778—1840), as Edited by her niece, CHARLOTTE BARRETT. a Preface and Notes by AUSTIN DoBsoNn. 524 pp. Macmillan. VOL V. 9 x bE. A Lire of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 8 x 54. 495 pp. Smith, Elder. 7s. 6d. Fifth Edition. NApoLeon: THE First PHASE, With In Six Vols. 10s. 6d. n. By SIDNEY LEE. Some Chapters on the Boyhood and Youth of Bonaparte, 1769—1793. By OscaR BROWNING. 8% 10s. 6d. n. x BS; Lane. 315 pp. 251 CLASSICAL, HARVARD LECTURES ON THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. By JoHN EpwIn Sanpys, Litt.D. 7 x 5, 212 pp. Cambridge University Press. 4s. 6d. n. DRAMA, Mrs. DANE’S DEFENCE. By HENRY ARTHUR JONES. 63 x 48. 127 pp. Macmillan. 2s. 6d. INDISCRETIONS. By Cosmo HAMILTON. 7% x 5. 268 pp. Treherne. 1s. THE GREEK KALENDS: a Comedy in Verse. By ARTHUR DILLON. 64 x 5. 123 pp. Mathews. 3s. 6d. n. EDUCATIONAL. STORIES FROM THE NORTHERN SaAGAs. Selected from various translations, and Edited by A. F, MAgor and K. E, SpercHr, With a Preface by the late Pror. YorK POWELL. Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged. 73 x 5. 282 pp. Marshall. 2s. 6d. GIPsy STORIES (112 pp.) THE STORIES OF ANTONIO AND BENEDICT MOL (120 pp.). FRom Borrow’s BIBLES IN SPAIN; HAWTHORNE’S TANGLEWOOD TALES; THE GOLDEN FLEECE, &¢. (English School Texts), Edited by W. H. D. Roose, Litt.D. 63 x 4}. Blackie. 8d. each. FICTION. THE REDDING STRAIK. By RoBERT AITKEN. 7} x 5. 324 pp. Edinburgh: Morton ; London: Simpkin, Marshall. 6s. Dorset Dear. By M. E. FRANcts (Mrs. Francis Blundell). 8 x 5}. 332 pp. Longmans. 6s. GrorRGE EASTMONT: WANDERER. By JoHN LAW. 73 x 5. 243 pp. Burns & Oates. 3s. 6d. THE ErRRoR oF Her Ways. By FRANK BARRETT. 7% x 5. 321 pp. Chatto & Windus. 6s. RosE OF THE WORLD. By AGNES AND EGERTON CASTLE. 7% x 5. 379 pp. Smith, Elder. 6s. THE PHANTOM ToRPEDO Boats. By ALLEN UPWARD. 7} x 5. 326 pp. Chatto & Windus. 6s. MIXED RELATIONSHIPS. By RENNIE RENNISON. 7} x 5. 381 pp. Simpkin, Marshall. 6s. THE Hint. A Romance of Friendship. By H. A. VACHELL. 8 x 5. 319pp. Murray. 6s. MARIAN SAx. By E. MARIA ALBENESI. 72 x 5, 370 pp. Hurst & Blackett. 6s. WAVES OF Fate, By E. NoBLE. 72 Blackwood. 6s. MARJORIE’s MistaAKE. By BertTHA M. M. MINIKEN. 74 x 4%. 424 pp. Edinburgh: Morton; London: Simpkin, Marshall. 6s. STINGAREE. By HE. W, HORNUNG. Chatto & Windus. 6s, THE FRIENDSHIPS OF VERONICA. 7% x 5. 296 pp. Rivers. 6s. THE PRIDE OF Mrs. BRUNELLE, By ARTHUR H. HOLMES, 74 x 5, 312 pp. Burleigh. 6s. LITERARY. Freely Expressed on certain phases of By MARIE CORELLI. x 6, 3846 pp. Te x 43. 324 pp. By THOMAS COBB. FREE OPINIONS. Modern Social Life and Conduct. 7% x 5. 353 pp. Constable. 6s. AUCASSIN AND NICOLETE. Done into English, By ANDREW LANG. 8 x 54. 91 pp. Routledge. 3s. 6d. n. MISCELLANEOUS, A HANpDBOOK of FREE STANDING GYMNASTICS. By E. ADAIR ROBERTS. 10 X 7}. 138 pp. Sherratt & Hughes. 3s. 6d. n. THE STAMP FrEenp’s Kalb. 28 pen and ink sketches by the Author, 2s, 6d. By W. E. Imeson. With Horace Cox. 252 PHILOSOPHY. THE PRINCIPLES OF Hprepiry. By G. ARCHDALL REID, ‘M.B. 9 x 53. 359pp. Chapman & Hall. 12s. 6d. n. POEMS. ‘+ PEACE AND OTHER Poems. By A. C. BENSON, 7 x 44. Lane. 5%. n. THE DANCE OF OLIVES. By ARTHUR MAQUARIE. 63 x 4. Dent. 4s. n. POLITICAL. Russia IN REVOLUTION. By G. H. Perris. 9 x 53. 359 pp. Chapman & Hall. 10s. 6d. n. REPRINTS. Kine RicHarp III. (The Red Letter Shakespeare). 6} x 38. 173 pp. Blackie. 1s. 6d, n. SPORT. FIsHING IN DERBYSHIRE AND AROUND. By W. M. GALLICHAN (Geoffrey Mortimer). 74 x 5. 184 pp. Robinson. 3s, 6d. n. THEOLOGY, St. JoHNn: The Revised Version. Edited with Notes for the Use of Schools. By the Ruv. A. CARR, M.A. 8vo. Sv. MATTHEW : The Revised Version. Edited with Notes for the Use of Schools. By the Rev. A. CARR, M.A. With three maps. Cambridge University Press. ls. 6d. n. TOPOGRAPHY. Lonpon Town. By EprIc VREDENBURG. Illustrated with 40 views in colour and black and white (photo- graphs). 9} x 7}. 29 pp. Raphael Tuck. 1s. n. A GARDEN OF EDEN: Kempton Park once upon a time. By EpirH A. BARNETT. 7$ x 5. 147 pp. Constable, 5s, 0. TRAVEL. By JOHN FosTER FRASER. 8 x 53. 6s. CANADA AS IT IS. 303 pp. Cassell. —__—_———_e—>__—__—_ LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL NOTES. \ | R. MURRAY is publishing “The British hs Trade Year Book,” edited by Mr. J. Holt Schooling. The aim of the work is to show in a thorough and lucid fashion the course of British trade in each important section, and more broadly the average yearly results during each successive decade. Mr. G. W. Forrest, O.I.E., is engaged on the Life of Field-Marshall Sir Neville Chamberlain, who was one of the “Illustrious Brotherhood of the Punjaub,” and who, at the time of the mutiny, kept a personal diary and wrote home very full and interesting letters. The work will be published by Messrs. Blackwood. Mr. Richard Bagot has now finished a new novel entitled “The Passport,” which will. be THE AUTHOR. eden in book form in Great Britain and the nited States in the early autumn of this year. Mr. Justin Huntley McCarthy is engaged on a novel which will be ready for publication in the autumn of this year or in the spring of 1906. “The Conflict of Owen Prytherch” is the title of a novel dealing with modern Welsh life, which Mr. Walter M. Gallichan is publishing shortly through Mr. George Morton. The story, which deals with the experiences of a Welsh Noncon- formist minister who is too “advanced” for his flock, contains a reference to the religious revival in Wales. A new novel by Sydney C. Grier will appear in The Graphic as a serial, prior to its publication in book form. A third edition of “How the Steam Engine Works,” by Randal McDonnell, has been issued at the price of 2s. 6d. Copies can be obtained from Messrs. Sealy, Bryers and Walker, and Messrs. M. H. Gill & Son, of Middle Abbey Street, Dublin, and O’Connell Street, Dublin, respectively. In a preface to the work, the author states that his aim has been to give a clear and concise account of the steam engine, and one free from all unnecessary detail. “ Qccasional Verses ” is the title of a collection of poems by E. Urwick reprinted from London and provincial journals. They are mainly of a humorous character, though one referring to the death of President McKinley reveals the serious side of the writer’s art. Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. have recently published in 2 vols. a work by Dr. F. E. Hare, entitled ‘Common Humoral Factor of Disease.” The work is described as a deductive investi- gation into the primary causation, meaning, mechanism and rational treatment, preventive and curative, of the paroxysmal neuroses (migraine, asthma, epilepsy, etc.), gout, high blood pressure, circulatory, venal and other degenerations. The same publishers have also published poems by E. Nesbit, under the title of “ The Rainbow and the Rose.” Messrs. Constable’s list of forthcoming books includes “Extinct Animals,” by Prof. E. Ray Lankester. The work is the substance of a course of lectures which Prof. Lankester delivered at the Royal Institution to a juvenile audience during the Christmas season. Messrs. Methuen published last month, at the price of 2s. 6d. net, “ An English Church History for Children,” by Miss Mary E. Shipley, with a preface by the Bishop of Gloucester. | They have also published a re-issue of Mr. Baring Gould’s “Strange Survivals and Super- stitions,” at the same price. : Miss Netta Syrett’s novel, “‘ The Day’s Journey, . THE AUTHOR. recently published by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, is a story of temperament, revealing the effect of disillusionment after marriage, and the gradual working towards reconciliation which ultimately is effected. _ We are informed that Mr. Poultney Bigelow has been appointed by the Boston University to ‘act as their delegate at the International Congress called by the King of the Belgians to discuss matters of Colonial expansion. The Congress meets on September 25th, 1905. ‘““A Child of the Shore,” which some of the papers have erroneously described as the first work of a new writer, is, in fact, by the author of the play “The Waters of Bitterness ” (produced by the Stage Society two years ago), and of “Verses for Granny,” ete. The frontispiece to the work is from a statuette of the author’s. Mr. Egerton Castle’s new book, “Rose of the World,” which was published in England early last month,has already gone through two editions in America, where it was published on April 10th. “Zelia” is the title of a story by Miss Etta Buchanan Bennett, author of “A Scottish Blue Bell.” The price is 3s. 6d., and the publishers Messrs. Jarrold & Sons. It is a straightforward story of an old-fashioned kind, with a plain record of loves and hates. The scene is laid first in the Southern States of America and then in England. Mr. Anthony Hope, lecturing at the Queen’s Square Club on May 9th, compared the classic with the modern novel, and stated that what struck him most in the latter was the tendency towards . working philosophy into the story. Whilst the great writers of former days gave expression to their philosophy in explanations and asides, the modern method was to use the characters of the story in order to achieve this object. Hitherto, the main question had been what happened. In the new-style story, however, that point was of secondary importance, the real question being why did it happen ? or ought it to have happened at all ? Mrs. Craigie (‘John Oliver Hobbes”) will deliver a lecture on “Plato and Dante,” under the auspices of the Dante Society, on June 7th, at 3.30. Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B., president of the society, will take the chair. “The Stamp Fiend’s Raid,” by W. E. Imeson, has been published by Messrs. Horace Cox at the price of 2s. 6d. The work—which contains 28 pen and ink sketches by the author—is an inoffensive skit on many of the hobbies of the day, chiefly philately. It is written on popular lines, with a view to interest equally the general reader and those collectors whose pursuits are introduced. Messrs. Blackwood have published “ Elizabeth Grey,” by E. M. Green, which is the journal of an author written in a Somerset farmhouse. 253 Mr. Thomas Burleigh has recently publishe novel by Mr. Arthur H. Holmes, ander tik ne “The Pride of Mrs. Brunelle.” : Messrs. Chapman & Hall have recently pub- lished, atthe price of 12s. 6d. net, Dr. G. Archdall Reid’s new work, “The Principles of Heredity.” Whilst the work ig designed to supply the want of a text-book on the subject, the author expresses the hope that it may not be found lacking in general interest to the professional biologist and general reader. Mr. John Jackson has published, through Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co., a work dealing with “ Ambi- dexterity.” Specimens of ambidextral writing and drawings are given in the book, which contains an introduction by Major-General Baden-Powell. The price is 6s. net. Mrs. Katherine 8. Macquoid’s novel, “A Village Chronicle,” recently published by Messrs. Digby, Long & Co., is a record of joys and sorrows, comedies and tragedies of the inhabitants in a well-cared-for English village. The volume con- tains four full-page illustrations by Forestier. Mr. Oscar Browning’s work, «“N apoleon, the First Phase,” published by Mr. John Lane, deals with the youth and upbringing of the Emperor. | “The Friendships of Veronica” is the title of Mr. Thomas Cobb’s latest. novel, published by Mr, Alston Rivers. The story, whilst not entirely political, relies for its plot on an election campaign. In her new book, entitled “ It’s a Way They have in the Army,” Lady Helen Forbes has drawn a picture of regimental social life in India, which, though not always pleasing, may provide the public with food for thought. Messrs. Duckworth & Co. are the publishers. The sixth and concluding volume of Macmillan’s Madame D’Arblay’s “Diary and Letters, 1778— 1840,” will shortly be issued. It contains a lengthy postscript to Mr. Dobson’s preface in Volume [. explaining the principle of the edition. It also includes a Bibliography of the previous issues, a long Appendix on Rear-Admiral James Burney, and an Appendix on the recently published letters regarding “ Kvelina.” The volume is illustrated by photogravure portraits of Mrs. Crewe, Chateau- briand, Mme. de Staél, and Dr. Burney, and has also photographs of Madame D’Arblay’s house in Bolton Street, Piccadilly ; of Rogers’s house in St. James’s Place ; of Walcot Church, Bath, where Madame D’Arblay is buried, and of the memorial tablet to her in that church. A full general index terminates the volume. Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. are projecting a new series, the “ Dryden Library,” in eighteen-penny cloth volumes and two shillings leather. The first issue will be a selection of fifty pieces from the “Collected Poems” of Austin 254 Dobson, and it will include a photogravure frontis- piece reproducing a pen-and-ink drawing by the late George H. Boughton, R.A. The Rev. G. W. Allen, Vicar of St. James’s, Bradford, and author of “The Mission of Evil,” “Wonderful Words and Works” (Skeffington), is editing a new quarterly magazine, called 7'he Seeker, devoted to the search for God and the true self, The magazine will deal with the deeper spiritual apprehension of religion, and will include piblical interpretation, the relation of doctrine to life, the influence of thought on health and power, and why it is that Christianity has so little effect on the world. The first number has just been issued. It contains 28 pages, which will in future numbers be increased to 32. The subscription is Qs. 6d. a year, post free. The publisher is Mr. Philip Wellby. Mr. Sydney Grundy’s play, “ Business is Business” (adapted from M. Octave Mirbeau’s “ Les Affaires sont les Affaires”), was produced at His Majesty’s Theatre on May 13th. The main character in the piece is a modern financier, whose success in business has been achieved by methods which cause him to be loathed by his children. After driving his daughter from home for having frustrated his attempt to arrange a marriage between her and the son of a poverty-stricken earl, the financier learns of the death of his son, whom he adored. This last blow shatters all his ambitions and causes him to break down completely. The caste includes Mr. Beerbohm Tree and Miss Viola Tree. Mr. Louis N. Parker’s one-act play, entitled “The Creole,” was produced on the afternoon of May 6th., at the Haymarket Theatre, in front of Capt. Marshall’s play, “ Everybody’s Secret.” Mr. Parker’s piece deals with the domestic life of Napoleon Bonaparte, and shows how an estrange- ment between Napoleon and his wife, Joséphine, was terminated through the instrumentality of the daughter. Mr. Cyril Maude appeared as Napoleon, and Miss Alice Crawford as Jos¢phine. “Daniel Dibsey.” A farcical comedy. By George Blagrove. Was produced at the Royal Albert Hall Theatre on May 1st, before a crowded audience. 9 PARIS NOTES. —— 9 — HE third volume of “ 1815 : La Seconde Abdi- cation: La Terreur Blanche,” by Henry Houssaye, is one of the most interesting of recent books. The author has the great gift of knowing exactly what to omit, the art of selection. The subject he has taken is a huge one, and the amount of historical documents which must have THE AUTHOR. been studied for such a work must certainly have been enormous, and yet there is not a word too much in this volume. After reading it carefully from the first chapter to the last, a book of nearly six hundred pages, one has a remarkably clear idea of the period of history depicted, of the questions of the day, of the motives which actuated other European nations and of the terrible struggles, the individual ambitions and jealousies, and finally the heroic reaction of the French nation. It would be difficult to find any book giving in so few words so faithful an account of all that the whole nation endured during the period between the second abdication of Napoleon and the treaty of peace when “kings crept out again to feel the sun.” The whole story is given of Napoleon’s return to Paris after Waterloo, of the opinion in France, the intrigues of Fouché, of La Fayette’s speech to the Chamber, of Napoleon’s various messages and final abdication. ‘Then comes the departure of Napoleon to La Malmaison and the return of King Louis XVIII., the occupation of Paris by the Allied Armies and Napoleon’s decision to leave for America, the treachery of Fouché, the confidence of Napoleon in the English, and the ignoble story of the Bellerophon, St. Helena, and Hudson Lowe. The final chapters of the book are styled by the author “Crucified France.” In one part he treats of the exigencies of the Allies, and we have @ picture of France occupied by the English, Prus- sians, Austrians, Russians, Dutch, Belgians, Bavarians, and Spanish, so that in fifty-eight departments the French were supplying the enemy with money and provisions. Lord Castlereagh esti- mated that this occupation cost France 1,750,000 francs a day. For the English army alone the city of Paris had to provide 114,000 lbs. of bread a day, 76,000 lbs. of meat, about 30,000 pints of wine, etc. Wellington was finally indignant at the abuses of the Allies, and he wrote to Castlereagh to request that the sovereigns should be told that the oppression must cease and that the troops must not be allowed to pillage and destroy for the pure pleasure of it. Finally, after the treaty of peace was signed and the enormous indemnity agreed upon, France was in the most pitiable condition. With justifiable pride the author concludes : “ When a country can resist so many times similar © catastrophies, when it can triumph over such @ crisis, it must be that it possesses miraculous — vitality and inconceivable reserves of strength and energy. How can one have any doubts with regard to the destinies of a nation which for tea centuries has gone from one resurrection 0 another resurrection ?” After reading this book one is not surprised that the author should lay down his pen with “a stronger and more ardent faith in the fortunes of France.” THE AUTHOR. The Napoleonic era is always a favourite period, and M. Gilbert Stenger’s series of books has had great success. The whole work is entitled “Histoire de la Société francaise pendant le Consulat.” The first volume was “ La Renaissance de la France,” the second “ Aristocrates et républi- cains ; les emigrés et les complots ; les hommes du Consulat.” The volume just recently published is entitled “ Bonaparte. Sa Famille. Le Monde et les Salons.” It is, perhaps, the most interesting of the three, and shows Napoleon in a light which will surprise many readers. The first chapter treats of his childhood, his early education and his life until the age of seventeen. We read of his studious habits, his poverty and pride, his devotion to his family, and his great ambition. We have, too, the story of Joséphine, and of her marriage with Napoleon. The next part of the book is taken up with an account of each member of the Bonaparte family, and the third part is devoted to an account of the society of that period, each chapter treating of the various sdlons, including those of Madame Récamier, Madame de Stael, Madame de Genlis, Madame de Houdetot, the Marquise deCondorcet, the Duchesse de Luynes, and the Marquise de Custine. It is a book which gives an excellent idea of the social life of the times, serving as a key to much that seems complex in modern French society. One sees the difference between the old salons and the new ones, and one learns to understand better the line of demarcation which Napoleon was so anxious to efface. There are two more volumes yet to appear before M. Stenger will have accom- plished his task. Another book by Pierre Loti, dedicated to his companions on the Redoutable, and entitled “La Troisieme Jeunesse de Madame Prune.” It was written three years ago, before the Russo- Japanese war had commenced. It describes another journey to Japan, to the city of Madame Chrysanthéme. Fifteen years in the history of most nations do not count in the same way as that period has counted in Japan. It is one long series of surprises and regrets for the poet who had formerly sung of the mystery and charm of the extreme Orient. Instead of the picturesque junks there were now boats of all kinds, such as one might see at the Havre, or at Portsmouth. Instead of the “mantle of verdure covering the rocks and giving to the bay the charm of Eden, a road bordered with manufactories and coal stores.” High up on the mountain, letters ten yards long, an American system of advertisement for some alimentary pro- duct! Fifteen years ago, the author tells us, there were no drunkards in Japan except the European At present the Japanese sailors have Sailors. 255 adopted Western customs and—alcoholic beverages. The tea-rooms are dirty and smell of absinthe 5 one may enter without taking off one’s shoes, and instead of cushions to sit upon there are chairs placed around tables, and there are rows of bottles containing whisky, brandy, and pale ale. The whole book has the charm of description, the melancholy poetry peculiar to Pierre Loti, but the things described now seem to have lost much of their charm. The practical West has invaded the East and sweptaway much of the mystery and poetry. Yokohama, with its electric wires everywhere, is, we are told, like an immense spider’s web, a mascarade a faire pitieé. Everything is changed, ‘‘ Kuropeanised,” and in despair when a yellow- faced journalist with a black coat and tall hat attempts to interview Loti he escapes to his ship, ne voulant plus rien savoir de ce Japon-la. He managed to find some spots, however, which were still charming, and he lingers over these. Itisa volume of impressions, a series of word-pictures given in the style that makes all Pierre Loti’s works so fascinating. “La Beauté d’Alcias,” by Jean Bertheroy, a book which takes us away from all that is prosaic and gives us a picture of life in an antique setting. The secret of the success of this author is the way in which he can give us warmth and life in these stories of the past instead of merely cold, colourless sketches. Doris, the daughter of the perfumer, Alexandre, loves a Grecian youth named Alcias. He is an athlete and the most handsome of young men. The whole story turns on the girl’s deep love for him. After one of his great athletic victories he returns blind. The anguish of Doris is terrible, for, with her intense love of beauty, she is heart-broken that Alcias should lose his eyesight. She persuades him to allow her to take him to Epidaure and to beseech Péan, the son of Apollo, to have mercy on him. They join the procession of pilgrims and climb the holy mountain where so many miracles have been performed. The terrible part for the young girl is to feel that the grace of their gods has not touched her lover; he has no faith, and has only consented to the pilgrimage in order to please her. Her attempts to convince him are most touching. The miracle finally is accom- plished, and Alcias, while asleep in the temple, is roused by the glory of the sunrise, opens his eyes, and to the joy and amazement of himself and of Doris his sight immediately returns. The great charm of the book is its life. Such colouring and atmosphere arerarely obtained in stories of this kind. Among other new books are the following : — “Hommes nouveaux,” by G. Fanton; “ Les Revenantes,” by Champol ; “ La Grande Aventure,” by Georges Labruycre; “ Fatale Méprise,” by Henri Barande. 256 THE AUTHOR. “Les Derniéres Années de Chateaubriand,” by M. Edmond Biré ; “ Victor Hugo & Guernsey,” by M. Paul Stapfer. “Age d’aimer,” by M. Pierre Wolff, has been a great success for Mme. Réjane at the Gymnase Theatre, and at the Thédtre Antoine; “Le Meilleur Parti,” by M. Maurice Maindron. Auys HALLARD. ——-——_—_ THE DON QUIXOTE FETES IN MADRID, —_-—<— + T has been worth while coming to Spain to see how the whole country has been permeated with the desire to do honour to Cervantes and his ‘*Don Quixote.” In the capital itself the tri-centenary of the publication of the great Spanish classic has been celebrated with so much enthusiasm by the chief centres of art, science, education, music, literature, the army, and the church and the stage, that could Cervantes himself have returned to the city where he died in want and neglect three hundred years ago, he would have thought it was one of those dreams of his imagina- tion which so often played him false. For the past week the Puerta del Sol has resounded with the cries of the vendors of programmes of the fétes, ~ with flaring coloured pictures of “The Knight of the Sad Countenance ” and some of his adventures ; special stamps bearing the portrait of Cervantes and the “‘ windmill scene’ of “ Don Quixote” have been issued for use in Spain for the fourteen days of the centenary celebration. ‘The fétes were pre- faced by ten lectures from the leading literary Spaniards of the day on the origin and the different aspects of ‘‘ Don Quixote” and its relation to science, politics, art, poetry, music and metaphysics. It is difficult to do justice to the flood of eloquence which emanated from the Chair of the Atheneeum on each of these occasions. The attention accorded to Sefior Navarro Ledesma, the well-known writer on Cer- vantes, was very marked, and impatient signs of displeasure met any cough or sound which threatened to impede the hearing of the sonorous voice of the speaker, which, with the regularity and rapidity of an express train, gave unintermittent expression for an hour and a half to the rush of ideas on the subject ; and every evening saw the same large attendance to the other lectures of equal celebrity. Art added her tribute to the inaugura- tion of the fétes by an exhibition in the Crystal Palace of the Park of Madrid of the pictures painted for the “Don Quixote” competition; and the Marquesa de Villahermosa celebrated the occasion by presenting the Society of Artists with a mag- nificent silver trophy. The exhibition of literary objects of interest relating to Cervantes and his works was opened by King Alfonzo and Queen Maria Christina on Saturday, the 6th of May, at the Biblioteca Nacional. As he grows to manhood, the young King’s resemblance to the well-known Velasquez portrait of his ancestor, Philip IV., is so marked that it almost seems as if he had walked out of the frame of the picture at the museum in the Prado. When the Wednesday preceding the commence- ment of the fétes brought no sign of help from my co-delegate of the Authors’ Society, who lives in Madrid, it seemed time to commence opera- tions on my own behalf. So, armed with an article which had appeared in a Spanish newspaper of that morning publishing my qualifications, I repaired to the Ministry of Public Education and the Fine Arts. There I saw the minister himself, and through his influence and that of the celebrated Spanish authoress, Sefiora Pardo Bazan, to whom the Marquis de Villobabar in London had written on my behalf, tickets soon arrived for every one of the fétes ; and as my countryman’s promise of a ticket for the function at the Royal Academy came to naught, I was glad to receive three for the same occasion. On Sunday, May 7th, military bands paraded the city from early morning, and in the afternoon the battle of flowers took place in the beautiful Boulevard of the Castellana. The bitter east wind did not prevent crowds of people filling every available space under the trees, whilst ticket- ] holders had seats in the gaily decorated boxes erected down the centre of the drive which formed — the course. ‘he Royal Pavilion, gracefully fes- tooned with flowers, was the chief seat of warfure during the afternoon, for from thence the King — launched his floral missiles with unintermittent — energy for an hour and a half; and it was here that the shouts of laughter were loudest as the — carriages filed by. Scenes from ‘Don Quixote” were, of course, the prevailing features of the festive — cars—“ The Watch of the Arms,” ‘‘ The Marriage of Camacho,” “‘ The Lepanto Prison,” being among — the most successful of the realistic representations ; — and the “Crowning of Cervantes” by a flying figure of Fate met with loud acclamations of delight. The military torchlight procession commenced at ten o’clock that night, and to give more force to the lights borne by the troops the street lamps were extinguished. The view from the War Office of the glittering bands of soldiers, passing from the Prado into the street of the Alcali, was very striking ; and the regiments formed a wide, moving line of light as they marched down the Alcalé on their way to the Royal Palace. The place of honour in the procession was occupied by a white effigy of Cervantes, backed with an illuminated presentment of his book, “Don Quixote,” and topped with a large lamp of varying hues, which cast weird shadows on the rich tapestries hung from the windows of grandees’ houses on the route. Monday was the day of the state function at the Royal Academy, and that of the coronation of the Cervantes statue by the deputations and delegates _ of all the literary and educational societies inte- * rested in the centenary. It was only then that I sd heard my co-delegate had retired from action. For “ij the moment I shrank from publicly presenting the _ wreath which I had that morning purchased as the tribute of the Authors’ Society. But it seemed a pity that its glistening laurel wreaths and red, blue and white streamers, bearing the inscription in gold letters, “To Cervantes, from the Society of oO ai English Authors,” should be wasted. So when the ml) time came! left my friends in the carriage, whichtook ‘g@ up its position as near as possible to the course of the procession,and tacked myselfon tosome young people. wo) = For as the Spaniards still mostly class women ,* “with children and idiots,” I thought I could thus, without exciting any resentment, meekly make my way to the statue facing the Houses of Parliament, » decked with the gorgeous canopy of state occasions, is, and the boxes filled with the Royal Family, grandees, diplomats, &c., and there I deposited the tribute of the Society of English Authors. This 62 coronation of the Cervantes statue function followed of) the Royal Academy festival, when the discourse on J* “Don Quixote,” written for the occasion by Juan s¥ Valera, was read aloud by Sefior Pidal, as the author died a month ago when he had not quite finished the task to which he had been deputed by the learned society. The reading of the posthumous | pamphlet was followed by the King signing a decree for the erection of a monument to the memory of Cervantes. The Cervantes tri-centenary week was theoccasion * ‘cof a great gathering - from Catalonia, Galicia, me? Valencia, &c., of the Orfeones (Societies of Orpheus), + ae and therespective bright-coloured capsofthe musical ‘mh unions and the sweet strains of their music added “b@ much to the cheerfulness of the city during the “9)> fétes. But their great festival in the bull ring of ‘elf Madrid was not a great success. The vast arena, ‘which reminds one so much of pictures of the ose ancient Amphitheatre of Rome, was lighted for the / ‘| first time with electric lights, which failed to reveal | of the beauty of the decorations, as they did not act ' ley well, and there was such a want of organisation in of the proceedings that it was midnight before half of «| od the programme was over. However, the “ Gloriaa ‘n@@t Espafia ” and the “ Gloria d Cervantes ” were worth ‘so hearing in their perfect rendering by the well- ‘"bet modulated voices of the massed choirs under their THE AUTHOR. 257 respective banners beneath the countless pennons strung from side to side of the creat cireus open to the deep blue sky ; and the King waved his cap in enthusiastic appreciation of the performance. The commemorative funeral service to Cervantes was certainly a triumph in realism. The dim-lighted church of San Jeronimo was draped with purple, and the catafalque was surmounted with the author’s books and surrounded by candles. Ministers, officers, diplomats and grandees assembled in full uniform in honour to the obsequies, and the King came in state to the service. The funeral oration was preached by the Bishop of San Luis de Potosi in Mexico, who came over especially for the occasion. a The final function of the gala performance at ~ the Royal Theatre was a splendid exhibition of the gorgeous uniforms and the jewels and _toilettes which grace society in Spain; and the well- rendered scenes from “Don Quixote” of “The Watch of the Arms,” “The Convicts,” and “ The Knight of the Mirrors” were followed by an apotheosis to the great author to the music of Sefores Fernandez, Shaw and Maestro Caballero ; and the King and all the brilliant assembly were loud in their applause of this spectacular expres- sion of “Gloria to Cervantes.” Space forbids more than these notes of the “ Don Quixote” fétes this month, but I hope next time to give a short account of the glimpse I had into the literary life of Madrid, and to tell of the kindness I received from such Spanish celebrities as Silvela, Moret, Pando y Valle, Blasco Ibafiez, Palacio Valdés, &c., and I must not conclude without say- ing that I was much pleased at being presented by the Minister of Instruction and the Fine Arts with the official bronze medal of the Cervantes Centenary with a kind address of appreciation. RacHEL CHALLICE. i AN AUTHOR’S RIGHT TO HIS WORK. ee (Statement of the case reprinted from the United States Publisher's Weekly.) UDGE McCALL, of the Supreme Court Special Term, handed down a decision in the suit brought by Basil Jones against the American Law Book Company, to restrain the defendants from publishing an article entitled “Army and Navy,” in the second volume of their “ Cyclopsedia of Law and Procedure,” except under the plaintiff’s name. It appears that the American Law Book Company of New York City, in order to attract attention to its cyclopedia, caused articles written by young law writers to be 256 «Tes Derniéres Années de Chateaubriand,” by M. Edmond Biré ; “ Victor Hugo & Guernsey,” by M. Paul Stapfer. “L’Age d’aimer,” by M. Pierre Wolff, has been a great success for Mme. Réjane at the Gymnase Theatre, and at the Thédtre Antoine; “ Le Meilleur Parti,’ by M. Maurice Maindron. Atys HALLARD. ———1-——_o_—_—__- THE DON QUIXOTE FETES IN MADRID. ——> + T has been worth while coming to Spain to see I how the whole country has been permeated with the desire to do honour to Cervantes and his ‘‘Don Quixote.” In the capital itself the tri-centenary of the publication of the great Spanish classic has been celebrated with so much enthusiasm by the chief centres of art, science, education, music, literature, the army, and the church and the stage, that could Cervantes himself have returned to the city where he died in want and neglect three hundred years ago, he would have thought it was one of those dreams of his imagina- tion which so often played him false. For the past week the Puerta del Sol has resounded with the cries of the vendors of programmes of the fétes, * with flaring coloured pictures of “The Knight of the Sad Countenance ”’ and some of his adventures ; special stamps bearing the portrait of Cervantes and the ‘‘ windmill scene ” of “ Don Quixote” have been issued for use in Spain for the fourteen days of the centenary celebration. The fétes were pre- faced by ten lectures from the leading literary Spaniards of the day on the origin and the different aspects of ‘‘ Don Quixote” and its relation to science, politics, art, poetry, music and metaphysics. It is difficult to do justice to the flood of eloquence which emanated from the Chair of the Athenzeum on each of these occasions. The attention accorded to Sefior Navarro Ledesma, the well-known writer on Cer- vantes, was very marked, and impatient signs of displeasure met any cough or sound which threatened to impede the hearing of the sonorous voice of the speaker, which, with the regularity and rapidity of an express train, gave unintermittent expression for an hour and a half to the rush of ideas on the subject; and every evening saw the same large attendance to the other lectures of equal celebrity. Art added her tribute to the inaugura- tion of the fétes by an exhibition in the Crystal Palace of the Park of Madrid of the pictures painted for the “Don Quixote” competition; and the Marquesa de Villahermosa celebrated the occasion THE AUTHOR. by presenting the Society of Artists with a mag- nificent silver trophy. The exhibition of literary objects of interest relating to Cervantes and his works was opened by King Alfonzo and Queen Maria Christina on Saturday, the 6th of May, at the Biblioteca Nacional. As he grows to manhood, the young King’s resemblance to the well-known Velasquez portrait of his ancestor, Philip IV., is so marked that it almost seems as if he had walked out of the frame of the picture at the museum in the Prado. When the Wednesday preceding the commence- ment of the fétes brought no sign of help from my co-delegate of the Authors’ Society, who lives in Madrid, it seemed time to commence opera- tions on my own behalf. So, armed with an article which had appeared in a Spanish newspaper of that morning publishing my qualifications, I repaired to the Ministry of Public Education and the Fine Arts. There I saw the minister himself, and through his influence and that of the celebrated Spanish authoress, Sefiora Pardo Bazan, to whom the Marquis de Villobabar in London had written on my behalf, tickets soon arrived for every one of the fétes ; and as my countryman’s promise of a ticket for the function at the Royal Academy came to naught, I was glad to receive three for the same occasion. On Sunday, May 7th, military bands — paraded the city from early morning, and in the afternoon the battle of flowers took place in the beautiful Boulevard of the Castellana. The bitter east wind did not prevent crowds of people filling every available space under the trees, whilst ticket- holders had seats in the gaily decorated boxes erected down the centre of the drive which formed the course. The Royal Pavilion, gracefully fes- tooned with flowers, was the chief seat of warfare _ during the afternoon, for from thence the King — launched his floral missiles with unintermittent energy for an hour and a half; and it was here that the shouts of langhter were loudest as the carriages filed by. Scenes from “Don Quixote” were, of course, the prevailing features of the festive cars—“ The Watch of the Arms,” “‘ The Marriage of Camacho,” ‘The Lepanto Prison,” being among the most successful of the realistic representations ; and the “Crowning of Cervantes” by a flying figure of Fate met with loud acclamations of delight. The military torchlight procession commenced at ten o’clock that night, and to give more force to the lights borne by the troops the street lamps were extinguished. he view from the War Office of the glittering bands of soldiers, passing from the: Prado into the street of the Alcald, was very striking ; and the regiments formed a wide, moving line of light as they marched down the Alcalé om their way to the Royal Palace. The place of honour in the procession was occupied by a white effigy of Cervantes, backed with an illuminated presentment of his book, “Don Quixote,” and topped with a large lamp of varying hues, which cast weird shadows on the rich tapestries hung from the windows of grandees’ houses on the route. Monday was the day of the state function at the q Royal Academy, and that of the coronation of the ne) Cervantes statue by the deputations and delegates +0 of all the literary and educational societies inte- = rested in the centenary. It was only then that I 1 —sciheard my co-delegate had retired from action. For 1) the moment I shrank from publicly presenting the wreath which I had that morning purchased as the tribute of the Authors’ Society. But it seemed a pity that its glistening laurel wreaths and red, blue and white streamers, bearing the inscription in gold letters, “To Cervantes, from the Society of English Authors,” should be wasted. So when the ai time came] left my friends in the carriage, which took up its position as near as possible to the course of the procession,and tacked myselfon tosome young people. oo For as the Spaniards. still mostly class women 7 “with children and idiots,” [ thought I could thus, without exciting any resentment, meekly make my way to the statue facing the Houses of Parliament, decked with the gorgeous canopy of state occasions, _ and the boxes filled with the Royal Family, grandees, diplomats, &c., and there I deposited the tribute of the Society of English Authors. This coronation of the Cervantes statue function followed the Royal Academy festival, when the discourse on “ Don Quixote,” written for the occasion by Juan Valera, was read aloud, by Sefior Pidal, as the author died a month ago when he had not quite finished the task to which he had been deputed by the learned society. The reading of the posthumous ‘185 pamphlet was followed by the King signing a woe decree for the erection of a monument to the "6 memory of Cervantes. iT The Cervantes tri-centenary week was the occasion ' 4 of a great gathering from Catalonia, Galicia, ole” Valencia, &c., of the Orfeones (Societies of Orpheus), ba and therespective bright-coloured capsof the musical ia) unions and the sweet strains of their music added ‘se much to the cheerfulness of the city during the / fétes. But their great festival in the bull ring of ' Madrid was not a great success. The vast arena, which reminds one so much of pictures of the S ncient Amphitheatre of Rome, was lighted for the ' '*« first time with electric lights, which failed to reveal Jd of the beauty of the decorations, as they did not act Je. well, and there was such a want of organisation in _ 90 the proceedings that it was midnight before half of oc the programme was over. However, the “ Gloriaa Espafia ” and the “ Gloriad Cervantes ” were worth earing in their perfect rendering by the well- odulated voices of the massed choirs under their 1698 THE AUTHOR. 257 respective banners beneath the countless pennons strung from side to side of the great circus open to the deep blue sky ; and the King waved his cap in enthusiastic appreciation of the performance. ‘The commemorative funeral service to Cervantes was certainly a triumph in realism. The dim-lighted church of San Jeronimo was draped with purple, and the catafalque was surmounted with the author’s books and surrounded by candles, Ministers, officers, diplomats and grandees assembled in full uniform in honour to the obsequies, and the King came in state to the service. The funeral oration was preached by the Bishop of San Luis de Potosi in Mexico, who came over especially for the occasion. The final function of the gala performance at the Royal Theatre was a splendid exhibition of the gorgeous uniforms and the jewels and _ toilettes which grace society in Spain; and the well- rendered scenes from “ Don Quixote” of “The Watch of the Arms,” “The Convicts,” and “ The Knight of the Mirrors” were followed by an apotheosis to the great author to the music of Sefores Fernandez, Shaw and Maestro Caballero ; and the King and all the brilliant assembly were loud in their applause of this spectacular expres- sion of “Gloria to Cervantes.” Space forbids more than these notes of the “ Don Quixote” fétes this month, but I hope next time to give a short account of the glimpse I had into the literary life of Madrid, and to tell of the kindness I received from such Spanish celebrities as Silvela, Moret, Pando y Valle, Blasco Ibafiez, Palacio Valdés, &c., and I must not conclude without say- ing that I was much pleased at being presented by the Minister of Instruction and the Fine Arts with the official bronze medal of the Cervantes Centenary with a kind address of appreciation. RacHEL CHALLICE. Or AN AUTHOR’S RIGHT TO HIS WORK. a (Statement of the case reprinted from the United States Publisher's Weekly.) UDGE MoCALL, of the Supreme Court Special Term, handed down a decision in the suit brought by Basil Jones against the American Law Book Company, to restrain the defendants from publishing an article entitled “Army and Navy,” in the second volume of their “ Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure,” except under the plaintiff's name. It appears that the American Law Book Company of New York City, in order to attract attention to its cyclopadia, caused articles written by young law writers to be 258 nominally “edited” by famous judges and jurists, and then published such articles without giving credit to the real author, but under the name of the distinguished gentleman who looked over the proofs. Judge McCall in effect holds that both usage and inherent right gave an author the right to have his literary production published under no name other than his own. The court’s opinion is as follows: “This is an action on the equity side of the court in which the relief sought is an injunc- tion against the defendant, restraining it from publishing an article entitled ‘Army and Navy,’ found in yol. II. of defendant’s publication entitled ‘Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure,’ except under the plaintiffs name. The said article, it is claimed, was prepared and written by the plaintiff while under contract with the defendant to do work of this precise nature, and the grounds upon which the plaintiff asserts he is entitled to the relief prayed for are: First. That a custom or usage in the publication of law encyclopedias was a part of the contract entered into as between the parties herein, and as such gave plaintiff a contractual right to have his article published under his name. Second. That irrespective of any custom or usage, the right of an author to the public credit of his work and to the publication of his name in con- nection therewith is inherent and resides in him until waived or surrendered. It may be accepted that the right to literary property is as sacred as that of any other species of property, and as has been forcibly said : ‘The rights of authors in respect to their unpublished works have been so frequently and elaborately considered and carefully adjudi- cated by the courts of this country and England, and are now so well understood, that in considering first publications there can be no doubt. The author of a literary work or composition has by law a right to the first publication of it. He has a right to determine whether it shall be published or not, and if published, when, where, by whom and in what form.’ These rights were vouchsafed to authors at common law and statute has in nowise impaired them. What is true as general proposi- tions is not at all altered by the fact that the crea- tion of a man’s genius or mind may have developed while he was in the general employ of another. ‘For a man’s intellectual productions are peculiarly his own, and he will not be deemed to have parted with his right and transferred it to his employer unless a valid agreement to that effect is adduced’ (Boucicault v. Fox, 5 Blatchford, U.S., p. 95). There is nothing in the contract before the court out of which can be spelled any such waiver, It is true that he stipulated that whatever he pro- duced should be submitted to a process of editing, but it would be a wide stretch of the imagination THE AUTHOR. that would work out of that proposition a sale or waiver of his rights to ownership to or credit for the results of his labour. The case is replete with evidence of a custom developed almost into usage of the right of this particular class of writers to have their productions published under their names. This defendant’s published volumes teem with such instances, and this particular author, plaintiff herein, has his first article published under his name. ‘That he wrote a letter of thanks to the representative of the publisher for so doing is rather a proof of his understanding of proprieties, and it would be absurd to treat it as an expression of any views that he was treated in any other manner than he had a perfect right to expect. Some proof has been offered that this particular article is not solely the work of the plaintiff. That may or may not be true, but to protect a person under such circumstances the law does not require thatit = should be his exclusive work. The work maybe ©. the result of the labours of one or many actingin = co-operation. Whatever may be the case, the right = is substantially the same and equally entitled to protection of the court (Z'rench v. Maguire, vol. LY. ei How Pr., p. 479). Upon all the facts I believe the — pat plaintiff has made a complete case and is entitled =~ o to the relief he prays for. Decree and findingst0 © be submitted accordingly.” CoMMENTS. The case quoted has been reprinted from the United States Publisher’s Weekly. It is of com siderable interest to authors on both sides of th water; but we regret to say that the evidence out in the report of the case is meagre and unsatis factory, first, because the actual terms of the con- tract have not been printed, and, secondly, because the evidence adduced in support of the alleged custom has not been quoted. ‘The report, however if we understand it correctly, is of a decisio delivered in a court of first instance, and is pre- sumably subject to review upon appeal, in whicl case we may have the opportunity of reading further discussion of the subject. With regard to the custom, Judge McCall m have had a question of fact only to decide, and may take it that if there was evidence upon wh he could reasonably found his decision as to the court of appeal will not be able to inter with it. The judges in such a case would exp their views upon it, and possibly might hint t their finding would not be the same, but t would not disturb it. The wording of his judgm is rather peculiar. The claim of the plaintiff, he quotes it, is based upon a “ custom or usage the publication of law cyclopwdias.” If by this are to understand that law cyclopzdias stand u a different footing from that of other cyclope literature in the United States, they must be very much more numerous there than they are in this country, or it would hardly be possible to establish the existence of a custom with regard to the signing of the articles in them. In England it would be difficult to assert that a custom existed regulating the publication of law cyclopedias although customs relating to cyclopzedias generally or to the publi- cation of articles with names appended to them might conceivably be proved. Perhaps the most curious “ custom” however, if it can be called one, which the case shows, consists in the publisher employing a lawyer, learned pre- sumably but not famous, to write an article, and then having it read over and edited by a legal luminary, famous, but possibly not learned, and signed by the latter who apparently acquiesces in the arrangement. Whatever effect American cyclopedic enterprise may have had in this country, it has hardly yet, as far as we are aware, arrived at this point. We can imagine an excellent article on Marine Insurance, for example, being written by a young practitioner in the Admiralty Court, but we can hardly picture the President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, or one of the gentlemen who practice within the bar before him, appending his name to it. Honesty, 9%, we hope, would not need the fear of exposure and ridicule to support it in prompting a refusal. That an editor publishing an article with a name attached to it should use the name of the true author of the work is a custom which has nothing _ Surprising about it. We could prove such a usage =) in this country, but it would not be one peculiar to | law cyclopedias. Judge McCall, by the way, talks * of “a custom almost developed into usage,” a distinction of terms which, as far as we are aware, ‘om @ is not recognised in England either in law courts 1 © or in ordinary “usage.” — “s —_-‘ Turning to the portions of the judgment which | 199 seem to deal more exclusively with the legal aspect oi) 1 of the case, the absence of information as to the “09% precise terms in which Mr. Basil Jones contracted With the American Law Book Company leaves us ‘ila little perplexed as to what the finding really is. 200 Does it amount to this, that the author, even if he #/@ sells his copyright, has the absolute right to have | his name appended to his article whether the editor ishes it or not. Apparently Judge McCall so olds, on the strength of the custom which he nds to exist, so that if the editor wished to publish cyclopzedia entirely composed of unsigned articles, € could not do so without the consent of all their authors. This goes along way beyond the right of the author to have no other name but his own am employed. i With regard to the use of another name than hat of the author, should such a case arise in THE AUTHOR. 259 England, we have little doubt that the remedy could be found. Such a deception would be a fraud upon the public; it might be a source of damage to the real author, and it might be a source of damage to the author whose name was used. It certainly would give rise to so much scandal that no publisher could afford to risk the possible discredit and loss attaching to methods such as those described, and no self-respecting editor would condescend to such an artifice in order to attain the doubtless desirable use of a well-known name for advertising purposes. The feelings of the well- known personage, whether lawyer or not, who discovered that his editing of an article entailed his being made known to the world as its author would probably in the first instance be expressed in private, but in plain terms, to the editor. What his feelings would be when he learnt that the transaction was coming into court for review (in the case of a lawyer) before his brother lawyers we can hardly imagine, but certainly the publisher and editor of the cyclopedia would get but scant support from the scandalised celebrity. Many legal writers receive considerable assistance from friends, generally junior to themselves collabo- rating withthem. This, however, is quite a different matter, and in legal text books, as in medical and other professional works, whatever indebtedness there may be to others is always frankly and cordially acknowledged in the preface or otherwise. In conclusion we would warmly congratulate Mr. 3asil Jones upon his success, and recommend the study of the case to the readers of the American Law Book Company’s publications. i 9 LITERARY AGENTS, —t-——+- —- N opinion often expressed, but only in part true, is that a literary agent is invaluable to the man who has made his name, but of very little use to the beginner. Now, asa beginner —one of some years standing, yet still a beginner so far as the English Press is concerned—I am convinced that a literary agent of the proper sort would be of immense assistance both to the writer and to editors. ‘There are many men and women, whose duties take them to the uttermost parts of the world, who, if they keep their eyes and ears open and possess some little skill in the scribbler’s craft, could furnish matter which editors would be glad to take. They are, however, prevented from disposing of their literary wares by their ignorance of the proper market. : The writer who lives in England may acquire, 260 by the judicious expendittire of a few pence weekly at the railway bookstall, a wide and very thorough knowledge of the style of work required by the various monthly and weekly periodicals ; but those whose lives are spent in distant lands may have never heard of the papers most anxious to get the very thing which they are able to produce. Time and money are other and vital considera- tions. A man in China or Peru may write an article on some topic which is of pressing interest at the moment, but if it has to travel to and fro— when each journey means a month’s delay—until it has found its proper goal, the opportunity will have passed and the article be valueless. Now what is required by such a man is an agent who is an expert in the requirements of the monthly and weekly Press, and who for a matter of a couple of shillings, to cover postage, etc., would dispose of short stories and articles short and long, reserving to himself the right to return such as he considers unsaleable (but making no charge beyond actual expenses for doing so), and making his profit out of a percentage on all money received by him from publishers. There may be such agents, but one does not hear much about them, and the little one does sometimes hear is not, to their credit. Yet it appears to me that such a business could be run honestly and yet profitably. Some years ago, at the close of a short visit to England and before returning to my duties many thousand miles away, I applied to several literary agents whose advertisements I had noticed in various literary papers, for I had a small collection of articles and stories which I had written in exile, and I hoped by disposing of them to add materially to an utterly inadequate income. One firm replied that they did not undertake small matter of that description as it was not sufficiently profitable : another offered to buy outright any they approved of at one pound a thousand words, which, if my work was good, meant that they would give one- half of what it was worth, besides which I should never be able to discover my real value in the literary market. A third firm offered to try and dispose of my work for a payment in advance of five pounds for every half-dozen articles or stories, taking no percentage on receipts. This plan appeared to me to offer them no inducement to dispose of my work. Finally I left England without having effected anything and disposed of my manuscripts to papers abroad. The ideal agent for the beginner would be one who would make his profit by taking a percentage on sums received. He would have classified and tabulated the monthly and weekly — periodicals somewhat in this manner. The two main classes would be “illustrated” and “ unillustrated,” and these would be subdivided into sections according THE AUTHOR. to the class of work they require: topical, personal,. anecdotal, religious, philosophical, scientific, and: soon. Further sub-divisions as to style might be necessary, such as short and crisp, solid, humorous, literary, etc. The names of the papers would appear under the class-heads, and a paper might appear under various classes. The heads of the firm could decide in a few minutes, by skimming through the article, which class or classes it would suit, and they would mark it accordingly, say, ‘1 B. 3,” which might mean “ Not illustrated— personal—humorous.”” A clerk could then send it the round of the papers classed under that head. A quick reader could class from fifty to sixty manuscripts a day averaging two thousand words. and worth anything from fifty to a hundred and fifty pounds. Such an agency would supply “a_ long-felt want,” and if some firm of undoubted integrity were to take up such business there can be little- doubt that they would find it immensely profitable: once they became known. “sige range RE Henry FRANCIS. a AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX. += —— N one of the past issues of Zhe Author there = appeared an article under the above heading, —_ 1! containing a case put before counsel for his = opinion by the Committee of Management of the = Society (summarised in the five questions with, — which it concluded) and counsel’s opinion on the case, with a reference to the Act under which income tax is levied, and his answers to those questions. — It is not here the intention to dispute the correctness of counsel’s opinion, but, assuming that,. to show the absurdity and insufficiency of the law in so far as it relates to the levying of income tax. on payments made for literary work, to show what should be the underlying principle which would place the question whether any such. payment should be regarded as capital or income beyond all. doubt, and finally, to suggest that there be intro- duced into any new Copyright Act a definition 0 what constitutes capital and what income payments made for literary. work. ‘According to counsel, all payments, whether fo copyright or “minor” rights, are to be treated 1 exactly the same way; they are all to be lumped together as income from which the expens incurred for the earning thereof are to be deducted in calculating the amount.on which income tax 1 payable. Under “minor” rights. are specifie serial rights, rights of translation, right. of drama: tisation, There is “etc.” added, but it is difficult to conceive what. rights.are.included thereunder. — Taking this as correct, then, the Government regards all payments for literary work, whether for copyright, serial rights, rights of translation or right of dramatisation in one light ; it is all income: thence it follows that, from the Government point of view, there is no such thing as capital in pay- ment for literary work. Now, no one, I think, will dispute that the value of a land freehold is capital. A freehold is a property from which income can be derived from leasing or hiring it out, from letting someone else have the use of it to enjoy or to derive a profit from. Now a literary work, a musical work, a sculpture, a picture, an invention, or any other work of the imagination ig really an intellectual d freehold; and that it is this is acknowledged by the } copyright or patent granted for it as a matter of justice. Every such work is a portion of the domain of the intellect reclaimed for mankind, and, as such, the universal freehold of the person acquiring it (rightly of limited duration). That being the case, it follows that payments for the copyright of literary works are really payments made for the purchase of freeholds, of properties from which profit is expected to be derived from if letting others have the enjoyment of their contents; ij thus, then, the value of an intellectual freehold, a © _ Copyright, is capital as much as is the value of .@ a land freehold. A literary work being an intellectual product, and not immoveable like land, is the author’s freehold for the whole surface of the earth ; his one creation is capable of being dressed in the garb of every nation into which the inhabitants of the earth divide themselves ; but it is still one and the same production, in whatever national garb, #.¢., language, it may be clothed. Therefore, then, an author has, in justice, as many copyrights as there are nationalities. From this it follows that when he sells a right of translation into any language he sells the freehold in one of the other countries than the native one; he sells a copyright which exists because mankind is divided into different nationalities ; and, as he sells a copyright + when selling a right of translation, any payment 1) for a right of translation is also capital. A literary production, besides being capable of changing its dress, is also capable of altering its 6) form without altering its essence; it may be “ist transformed from some other form into a drama, o & or froma drama into some other form. In whatever ‘ig form the work may originally exist, the right of “oe% transforming his own production is as much the ilat right of the originator of the work as is that to it © in its original form ; and, when a literary work is transformed, it is not the original work that is »iialtered on the original site, as would be the case if “7 e8the work were standing on the earth, but the old THE AUTHOR. 261 form is left existing and the new one created without interfering with it. A new portion of Intellectual domain is reclaimed—a new copyright is created. The right of dramatisation, or vice versa, is thus the right to a freehold or copyright, a right from which a profit can be made in an entirely different way from the original form of the work. The right of dramatisation is, in justice, as extensive as the copyright of the work in its original form; it is universal, and carries with it the right of translating the drama into every language. When, therefore, a writer sells the right of dramatisation he sells the right to create a copyright in a new form of hig work, and, that being so, what is paid for the right of dramatisa- tion is also capital. When a writer sells serial rights, whether for one country, one language, or more, he sells the right to use his property in a specific manner or for a. specific period. When that purpose has been carried out, or when that time has elapsed, he has made a profit from having thus sold a limited use of his property, but the freehold or copyright is still his to sell. Having, thus, still in his own possession the copyright, by utilising which only can a profit be made, what he receives for the use of his copyright in the form of serial rights in one or more languages or countries is income and not capital. Tncome tax is a tax upon one’s income, As it is levied yearly, the inference is that it is a tax upon the income obtained during the year for which it is levied. But whether it is go or not, that is what it should be, as it is called income tax and is levied yearly ; and, therefore, the income obtained during any one year should not be taken into consideration in any other year when the assessment for income tax is being made, because one’s income may in- crease or decrease, and an annual income tax can take notice only of the income of the year for which it is levied. The object of an income tax is to be a tax proportional to one’s income, to take cognisance of any increase or decrease therein, so that it may remain proportional, and, therefore, to calculate an annual income tax on a three-year or any other than an annual basis, is not only to depart from the very purpose for which an income taxis levied, but also to make the term a misnomer and what is done under it an act of injustice. In accordance with what is stated above, the questions propounded to counsel should, then, be answered as follows :— : (1) The sum received by an author in respect of a work of which he retains the copyright should, in all cases, be considered as income. (2) The sum received on the sale of a copyright is always to be considered as capital. “A lump payment for such minor [?] rights as serial use, 262 right of translation, dramatisation ”” is income to the extent of that portion of it which is paid for serial rights, whether for one country or the whole world ; the balance, being that portion paid for the right of translation and or of dramatisation, is capital, whether the former includes the right of translation into one language or into more ; the right of dramatisation carries with it the right of translating the drama throughout the world. (3) It can make no difference in an author’s liability to pay income tax in what manner payment is received for the copyright, a right of translation, or the right of dramatisation, whether “ (a) by a lump sum in full discharge ; (6) by a share of the profits ; (c) by a royalty ; (d) by a sum in advance of royalty”; because payment for all these rights is capital. With regard to payment “(e) by a lump sum on sale of serial use to a magazine, periodical, or paper,” it must be divided, as stated above, into payment for serial use, which is income, and payment for any other right or rights, which is capital, income tax being leviable only on the former. (4) An author has (in justice) the right to make deductions for expenses incurred in his literary work “ (a) directly, as railway journeys, purchase of books, purchase of photographs, stationery, typewriting, etc.; (4) indirectly, for rental of portion of his house as office.” (5) The amount received in any one year by an author for his literary work has no right to be calculated on a three-year basis when the assess- ment for income tax is being made. The income tax, being levied yearly, is a tax upon the income obtained during each one year, and, therefore, each year’s income is quite independent, the object of an income tax being the levying of a tax propor- tional to the income. Husert Hazs. —_—_———_-—>——__—_ A NEW MARKET FOR ENGLISH BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS. ee oot ee HE introduction of a postal order service between Russia and England opens a new and a great market for the output of English literature. Till last October it was impossible to send small amounts of money from Russia to England; thus the Tsar’s subjects were obliged to buy books from local booksellers only. ‘There was scant attention paid to the wants of customers, and the vendor had no catalogues of English publications ; the only catalogues obtainable were published by German booksellers, such as Messrs. Brockhaus & Co., of London and Leipzig. Notwithstanding the slight difference in value THE AUTHOR. between a shilling and a German mark—the mark being counted at 50 kopecks (real value 46), and the shilling at 60 kopecks (real value 47)—the six- shilling book was usually sold at 7s. 114d., and it was necessary for the customer to wait a month to obtain his book or to pay an additional 2s. for postage. As for cheap editions, their existence was unknown to the general public on this account. English books being difficult and costly to buy, the Tauchnitz edition of English authors was generally sought for, unless the purchasers could afford to pay the higher price. For this reason” the sale was small. The introduction of the postal order system between Russia and the United States has brought American literature on the market, and such publications as Success, Frank Leslie’s Monthly, Harper's Weekly, Every- body’s, and scores of other magazines may be found everywhere, subscribed for directly by the public through various American agencies. But still much time is lost in transit, and all advertisers are not honest. Some people have given orders to unprincipled -traders, or there has been a difficulty where the Post Office has altered the name in the Postal Order Exchange Office, and after payment was made no books or magazines were sent to the purchaser. ‘This naturally deterred many from giving orders. The Polish and Russian booksellers publish regularly a list of various English magazines, which, notwithstanding the fact that it is issued from rival houses, is practically the same list. : The selection seems to have been compiled by Messrs. George Routledge or their “ Literary Year- Book” editor, and how fanciful is the arrangement | of prices the following extract will show :— Annual Subscription, Roubles. £ 6d. Weeklies— Black and White... ee Oe 2 Country Life on ut 2e 2 Graphic eee oe a. | 20 2 Queen... en os ve) 2 1d, Weeklies— Golden Penny 6°50 0 Tit-bits As ee 6°20 O41 Penny Illustrated ... eee 5:50 0 Good Wordsand Leisure Hour 6:0 0 6d. Magazines— Cassell’s Family | 10°50 1 Family Herald Bee ae 90 0 Pearson’s Mag. ne 6°40 0 Windsor Mag. ve ee 50 0 1s, Magazines— Cornhill a a 9°75 1 Macmillan ... ae oe 9-0 0 2s. 6d. Reviews and Mags.— Blackwood ... <e aed pee 2 Fortnightly ... tae ot ee 2 Nineteenth Century eal 48 2 THE AUTHOR. It is only natural that most people will prefer to pay to Grumiau, Hanson, or any other American agency, 15s. for Country Life than to a Warsaw or St. Petersburg bookseller £2 12s. 1d., or for Pearson’s Magazine 7s. 6d. instead of 19s. 64d. ; and to have the right to buy the best American dollar-and-a-half book post free for 2s. 6/., rather than to give a local bookseller for the same book 8s. to 10s. There are few people in Poland or Russia who can speak English, bus many can read English and understand what they read, and they will seize very gladly an opportunity of buying English books and publications at a reasonable price if they can be sure of receiving them quickly and in proper order, At present publications and books are ordered from London in the following manner :—The Polish or Russian bookseller sends the order to his agent in Leipzig ; he, through Messrs. Brockhaus or any other German house, sends it to London, whence, once a week, the parcel is sent to Leipzig ; but previous to this all the advertisements are torn out by the Germans to save the weight. From Leipzig the agent sends the publications to the bookseller, who receives them at the censor’s office and then posts them to the customer, who thus receives a copy which has already been spoiled by German hands. Should he protest against this destruction of his property, he is told that it was torn at the censor’s office, but this is untrue. Most of the magazines which the censor knows do not contain articles on Russia or of a socialistic or immoral description he will pass without look- ing at. Some years ago a novel by Mr. Max Pemberton, I think in the Pearson or some such magazine, treating of Nihilists, passed the censor’s office, as he did not suspect the magazine would publish a tale dealing with such matters. Of course, The Clarion, Free Russia, J ustice, can under no circumstances pass the censor’s office, and various reviews may often be cut in half by his scissors. Books of the type of “The Woman who Did ” have not always passed under his favour- able criticism, but there are thousands of books with which the censor would not interfere. Now, then, is the opportunity for the introduc- tion of English literature. The literature of France has an enormous sale, not only in book-form, but also as periodicals. It is mostly directly sub- scribed for by customers from Paris, notwithstand- ing the fact that the French books and publications are everywhere on sale, and the price is reasonable, owing tothe competition of a few French booksellers who in Warsaw, St. Petersburg, and other towns, opened shops, and have cut down the price of books. It only remains to state what kind of books are likely to command a sale. 263 First, owing to the large number of English governesses who live not only in Warsaw, but everywhere in the provinces, all kinds of children’s books and publications for the young people of both sexes will meet with a ready sale ; secondly, novels and magazines, especially cheap novels ; then illustrated high-class papers. There is no restaurant or café where you will not find Black and White, the Graphic, or the Illustrated London News, which, with the Cornhill Magazine and Family Herald, are now universally popular. These five publications most probably have a larger sale in Russia than all other publications put together, even including the Review of Reviews. It would be difficult to start an English book- seller’s shop in St. Petersburg or Warsaw, but if a reliable English bookseller would take the trouble to publish a catalogue of well-selected publications and a catalogue of cheap English half-crown and six- penny books, even including in the catalogue scientific or literary books at an expensive figure, and would advertise the list in a few Russian and Polish papers, as Novy Mir, Kraj, Petersburgskye Vedomosty, in St. Petersburg, and Kurjer Warszaw- ski, Slowo, Gazeta Polska, Tygodnik Llustrowany, in Warsaw, in a few weeks he would see a splendid result from his advertisement. Customers would come in large numbers, and notwithstanding that the local booksellers would expect to improve their own trade, he would make a profitable and ever- increasing business. Many French publishers spend a good deal of money in advertisements in Russia every December, and certainly they reap great profits thereby. Now it is a question whether the English booksellers will seize the opportunity or will leave it to the Americans. Before the introduction of the postal order system there was no practical use in advertising, but now the whole position is altered. If English publishers were only to send their catalogues regularly to the principal newspapers and booksellers, or even their publications on commission or approval, as the Germans do to booksellers of standing and repute like Gebethner and Wolf, Wende & Co., J. Fisher, M. Borkowski, and I. Hoesick, in Warsaw, or N. Kimmel in Riga, and M. O. Wolf, Ltd., in St. Petersburg, it would help to a certain extent to push forward the sale of books and publications ; but advertisements in local papers are more likely to serve the purpose, even though the booksellers, a very conservative class, seeing business escaping from their hands, would also try to push their sales for- ward. Austrian or German Poland has no market for French or English books. Few people know English or French, and English governesses are scarce. The introduction of cheap English books 264 on the market would prevent their being adapted, translated into Polish or Russian, and pirated, as is now so often the case. “ ALMAR.” ——_—_—__+—>—_+-—___—__ FOREIGN PRESS-CUTTING AGENCIES. — + USTRIA-HUNGARY. Vienna, Observer, Concordiaplaz. Bupaprst.—Fygielo, 8, Nyar Ut. BreLGrum.—Bruxelles, European Press, 3, Place Royale. DENMARK.—Copenhagen, On Dit, Hobrogade, 13. Francr.—Paris, Le Courrier de la Presse, 21, Boulevard, Montmartre. GrerMANy.—Berlin, Berliner Litterarische Bureau, 127, Wilhelmstrasse, 8.W., 48. Hoiuanp.—Amsterdam, Handels Bureau Marcurius, Steenmeyer et Cie. Iraty.—Milano, Eco della Stampa. Mex1co.— Mexico, Camacho David, 8, Apartado postal, 37. Norway.—Christiania, Norske Argus, 21, Pruss- engade. Russta.—St. Petersburg, Université Populaire, 17, Nadezhdinskaja. Sparn.—Madrid, Prensa de Madrid, 28, Calle de Serrano. Swepen.—Stockholm, Argus, Mille. A. L. Andreson Observator, 5, Hamngaten. SwITzERLAND.—Geneva, Agence de coupures de journeaux, case Stand 57, and Argus Suisse de la Presse, Rue de Mont Blanc. Unrrep States.—New York, American Press Information Bureau, World Building, 61, Park Row. Informatie ———__+—_+____—_- MAGAZINE CONTENTS. + — BOOKMAN. Frederick von Schiller. By Elizabeth Lee. More Wampum. By Y. Y. Book MONTHLY. “To Be Continued,” or The Gentle Art and Craft of Writing Serial Stories. By Ernest Treeton. CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL. Social Pioneers of Science. By T. H. 8. Escott. A Journey with Sir Walter Scott in 1815. By A. Francis Steuart. CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. Hans Christian Andersen. By George Brandes. Has the Clock Stopped in Bible Criticism. By the Rev. Canon Cheyne. THE AUTHOR. The New Trend of Russian Thought. By the Count S. C. de Soissons. . Church Reform in Russia: Witte versus Pabedonosteff. By Laicus. The Scientists and Common Sense. By Professor E, Armitage. The Interpretation of Nature. By Professor C. Lloyd Morgan. FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. The Real Chrysanthemum. By Ethel M. M. McKenna, The Calling of the Actor. By H. B. Irving. A Valuation of Mr. Stephen Phillips. Wodehouse. Journalism New and Old. By Edward Dicey, C.B. By E. A, Dramatic Thoughts —Retrospective—Anticipative. By Sir Squire Bancroft. A Causerie on Current Continental Literature. By S. W. The Irish University Question. By Stephen Gwynn. INDEPENDENT REVIEW. The So-called Science of Sociology. By H. G. Wells. The State and Secondary Education. By T. J. Mac- namara. “ Mere Technique”: An Answer by Simon Bussy. The Optimism of Browning and Meredith. By A. C, Pigou. Mr. Henry James and His Public. By Desmond MacCarthy. LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE. Sydney Smith. By the Rev. Canon Vaughan, The Demeter of Cnidos. By St. John Lucas. MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE, Western Influence on Japanese Character, Moyna. The Quest of the Dactyl. The Fellow Workers of Voltaire : I1I.—Galiani. By 8, J. Tallentyre. By E. G. T. MONTHLY REVIEW. Music as a Factor in Everyday Life. Somervell. Walter Savage Landor. By Walter Sichell NINETEENTH CENTURY. The After Dinner Oratory of America. Crilly. What is the Raison D’Etre of Pictures. By H. Heath- cote Statham. Some Noticeable Books. By Walter Frewen Lord. Church and State in France. By Comte de Castellane. By Daniel PALL MALL MAGAZINE Real Conversations Recorded. By William Archer! J. Churton Collins. TEMPLE BAR. Nine Letters from Edward Fitzgerald to Mrs. Kemble. A God-Daughter of Warren Hastings. Grier. UNIVERSITY REVIEW. The University Movement: Introductory Note. Right Hon. James Bryce. | Shakespeare and Stoicism. By Professor Sonneschien. There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic oF musical subjects in the Cornhill Magazine or The World's Work. By the << By Arthur By Sydney G. — THE AUTHOR. WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS OF BOOKS. oe 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 a 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. II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of agreement). In this case the following rules should be attended to: (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro- duction forms a part 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,” unless the same allowance is made to the author, (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental rights. (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher. As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or doctor ! 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 Zhe 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 :— C1.) 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. —___+—_+—<>—e —___—_ WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. ge N | EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com- petent legal authority. 2. {t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for the production of a play with anyone except an established manager. 265 ; 3. There are three forms of dramatic contr: 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. ().) 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 in advance of percentages. A fixed date on or before which the play should be performed. (¢.) 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 ae? to be small or difficult to collect. The other safeguards set out under heading (8.) ¢ also in this case. aide 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. act for plays ——____ + WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS. eps ITYLE 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 266 should be especially careful therefore when entering into an agreement, and should take into particular consideration the warnings stated above. o> — HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. —_e I. 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) T'o 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. This The 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. must be done within fourteen days of first execution. 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 is £1 1s. per annum, or £10 10s for life membership. THE AUTHOR. TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS. > HE 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. o—~D> THE READING BRANCH. —e 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, ‘he 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. <> NOTICES. ge 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, S.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 crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent by registered letter only. OO LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY. a ENSIONS to commence at any selected age, 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, THE AUTHOR. AUTHORITIES. —— 4 HE Manchester Guardian has paid the society the compliment of writing a leader upon it on the occasion of its twenty-first birthday. The article is not merely laudatory, but shows an accurate grasp of the work that the society undertakes. It says: “The Society of Authors is more akin to a Trade Union. It aims at dealing with all questions affecting literary property, either as regards copyright or the commercial relation between authors and publishers.” This article has roused some remarks from a contributor to The Sphere, who writes over the initials “C. K.8.” With his expressed opinion on Mr. Kipling or Mr. Barrie’s work, however erroneous, we do not desire to deal, nor with his suggestion that literature is divorced from the drama ; but the following paragraph needs some explanation : ‘When Sir Walter Besant spoke of literature he really only thought of fiction, which is the least important factor of our literature to-day. Our best literature, our poetry— which the illiterate man in the street calls ‘‘ minor” because he thinks that Tennyson was the last of the poets—our history, our biography, and our criticism are none of them helped in the least by the Society of Authors or by the literary agent. The opening statement is entirely erroneous, as anyone who was an intimate friend of Sir Walter’s for many years could readily have informed the writer. But the latter part of the paragraph is altogether misleading, and, taking the mildest view, shows an absolute ignorance of the work of the Society. As a writer in The Academy phrases it when dealing with the matter : “Tt is no part of the functions of the Society of Authors to ‘help literature,’ whether good, bad, or indifferent. It exists to define and protect literary property, which is quite another matter. Does the writer mean that the Society refuses to admit poets, biographers, and critics to membership? Or that it takes the guineas of poets, biographers, and critics, but denies to them privileges which it accords to its other members? Or what does he mean? We have a strong suspicion that he has been : > é ; using at random words which mean nothing at all.’ But a further point: biographers, poets, essayists, critics, historians, all make contracts for the pub- lication of their works either with editors or publishers. It is of the utmost importance, since, according to the view of “0. K.8.,” they cannot make money by their work, that they should lose as little as possible. To attain thisend the Society can and does give most valuable assistance. But consider for a moment, is this statement of the commercial value true? Surely in a great many cases it is utterly untrue, although it may be for the benefit of both publishers and editors to persuade these biographers, poets, and critics that their labours must be financially unsuccessful. 267 Ir appears that a question has been raised in Italy concerning the reproduction of music by gramophones and phonographs. The information before us shows that such reproduction has been held not to be an infringement of copyright. France, we know—always the most forward country where copyright legislation is concerned — has held such reproductions to be an infringement of copyright. The English Courts have held that the stamped cylinder was not an infringement of copyright ; but, surely, the reproduction of music by this means, as we have pointed out in Zhe Author on former occasions, is an infringement of performing rights. Unfortunately, owing to the lax way in which music composers deal with their performing rights and owing to the control which publishers have obtained over musical property, these rights are seldom turned to account. Thereby much valuable property is lost. The matter is one of serious importance, when we take into consideration the fact that composers in England are unable, as a general rule, to live by the product of their compositions only, but are bound to teach or obtain some other appointment in order to gain a livelihood. Publishers have sneered at the French method of collecting royalties on performing rights. This is not surprising to those who have knowledge of the method by which they obtain control of the composer’s property in England and the means they use to market the same. We have received an interesting and amusing letter from the manager of one of the leading music-publishing houses in London, whose ire has been roused by the article that appeared in the last issue of Zhe Author. ‘The publisher sets out in glowing language what he and other publishers have done for composers in the matter of securing sound copyright legislation. It is very interesting to see the trade posing as the saviour of the com- poser. This will deceive no one who has any knowledge of music publishing. The composers at the present time are in a much worse way than the authors. As a matter of fact, there are very few in a position to make, and there is no combina- tion strong enough to insist on the making of agreements which will prevent the copyright and performing rights being transferred to the pub- lishers. In consequence, all these statements about the energetic and generous action of the publishers are not for the benefit of the composers, but for the benefit of the trade. Our correspondent concludes his letter by saying ‘‘ we have been fighting for the cause of copyright alone and unaided for five years, consequently we are unable to feel the respect and veneration for Mr. Algernon Sidney’s 268 Society of Authors which we might otherwise have oeen disposed to entertain.” As we have already pointed out, this struggle for reasonable copyright legislation is at present for the benefit of publishers only, to enable themselves to market and safeguard their own property. It is clear that our correspondent, though he may have some knowledge of his own business, is in woeful ignorance of the methods of the society, of what it has done and is willing to do for composers. Composers should strike at the root of the evil. At the present time it is not so much a matter of importance to them that these works, the outcome of their brains, in the possession of the publisher, should be protected for the benefit of the publisher, as that they should strive for better agreements and for more effective control and management of their own property. If they obtained this, then the copyright question would be to them one worth fighting for, and the society is anxious to show them what methods they should employ in order to obtain a more satisfactory position. We must take it as a compliment, therefore, that our correspondent is unable to feel respect and veneration for the Society or its work. This expression of opinion was frequently in the mouths of the book publishers when the Society was first started. Music publication has to pass through the same phase of evolution. A RATHER curious case of re-issue has come under our notice. Hight or nine years ago Sir Herbert Maxwell and Mr. F. G. Aflalo jointly edited half a dozen volumes for Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen, under the name of ‘ The Anglers’ Library.” After the reconstruction of that firm, Mr. Bullen, it appears, sold the rights in the library to Messrs. Routledge, who are reissuing it in a new binding and at a lower price than originally. Neither of the editors has in any way resented this, but the transaction is somewhat complicated by the fact that the Press has with one accord accepted these as entirely new books, apparently forgetting that they reviewed the originals (not a line having been altered) many years ago. ‘This, in the case of technical books, in which the very latest information is always desirable, might have two results equally distressing to the original editors and contributors. In the first place, the angling public might think itself hoodwinked into. buying old books as new. In the second, the angling writers who contributed to this library may justly deprecate their stale information of nine years ago being reviewed as if it had been written within the year. Such results would obviously be grossly unfair to the editors, who had no intimation of the proposed re-issue. THE AUTHOR. THE COMING OF AGE. —-— + Tue Soctety’s Work. a twenty-first anniversary of the incorpora- tion of the Society of Authors takes place on June 30th. It is not unfitting, therefore, that at its coming of age, a short retrospect of its aims and the work that it has done should be placed before the present members. The first meeting recorded in the books took place at a private house in Kensington on the 28th day of September, 1883, where the following gentlemen assembled with a view to making arrangements for its foundation. Sir Walter Besant (then Mr. Walter Besant), in the chair, Ulick Ralph Burke, A. Egmont Hake, Prof. Fleeming Jenkin, the Rev. W. J. Loftie, Wilfrid Meynell, 8S. G. C. Middlemore, J. Henry Middleton, Walter Herries Pollock, W. R. S. Ralston, W. Baptiste Scoones. Tristram Valentine acted as honorary secretary. The next recorded meeting occurred on the 18th day of February, 1884, in a room lent by Mr. Baptiste Scoones, and at that meeting, the first real meeting of the society, sixty-eight members were elected. In May of the same year Lord Tennyson accepted the presidency of the society, and Sir Walter Besant was elected chairman of the committee. In those days the society was composed of a president, vice-presidents, fellows and associates. This arrangement, under the present constitution, has been varied. There is a president and council, members and associates. The managing committee is elected from the members of the council, and in the hands of the managing committee the work of the society lies. The following is the first list of vice-presidents, which was afterwards much enlarged : R. D. Blackmore, Lord Crewe, R. G. Egerton- Warburton, F.S.A., Prof. Michael Foster, General Sir Frederick F. Goldsmid, His Eminence Cardinal Manning, Hon. Sir Henry Parkes, Sir William Frederick Pollock, Charles Reade, George Augustus Sala, Sir Henry Thompson, Canon Tristram, The Rev. Henry White and Miss Charlotte M. Yonge. — So that from the very first, with Lord Tennyson as president “and a representative list of the vice- presidents, the society reveived the substantial support of the literary profession. One of the first matters to engage the attention of the committee was the draft of a Memorandum and Articles of Association. When this was settled a Board of Trade licence under the Companies’ Acts was procured. The incorporation took place, as y THE AUTHOR. already stated, on the 30th of June, 1884. In the same year the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Robert Fowler) invited the infant society to dinner at the Mansion House. In the early days of the society, meetings were held every week in order to get the work into shape, but it was soon found that weekly meetings were unnecessary. Since then, the committee have been called together once a month except in cases demanding immediate action, when they have met more frequently. On the death of the first president, Lord Tennyson, Mr. George Meredith was elected to fill the position, which he still occupies. Sir Walter Besant as the first chairman of the com- mittee was succeeded by Sir Frederick Pollock, father of the present baronet. Sir Frederick Pollock resigned the position in January 1888, and Sir Walter Besant was re-elected and held the post till November 1892. At that date he resigned with the full idea that the society was then able to stand by itself, and in order that those who desired to detract from the society’s work, might not, as was constantly their custom, state that the society was Besant’s Society. On his retirement, and till his death, Sir Walter Besant continued to act as Editor of The Author, and was aconstant attendant at the committee meetings, giving in both capacities a great deal of his valuable time to the general welfare. Sir Frederick Pollock, the present baronet, succeeded Sir Walter Besant. Then followed Sir Martin Conway, H. Rider Haggard, Anthony Hope Hawkins, Douglas Freshfield, and lastly, Sir Henry Bergne. These are the names of those who have so unselfishly given both time and money to help their follow workers, and to protect the property of their fellow authors. No one can appreciate how heavy and laborious is the work of chairman of the com- mittee, except those who have gone through the mill. Members of the committee may find the work a serious call on their time, but the comparison is as the chastisement with whips to the chastisement inflicted with scorpions. Dramatic authors and writers of books on all subjects, technical as well as essentially literary, were included as the first members of the society. The Memorandum and Articles of Association, how- ever, were drafted on wider lines in order to give the society scope—in the event of its success—for the protection of other kinds of copyright property. Since those early days its field has been somewhat widened. Now it deals with the works of musical composers and musical copyright, also artistic copy- right so far as refers to the illustration of books, for the artistic copyright of book illustrators is very closely joined to literary copyright. At present, 269 therefore, the society embraces four distinct classes, dramatic authors, authors of books, musical com- posers, and book illustrators. In the early days of the society, according to the old records, it appears that the committee were immediately overwhelmed with work, for many complaints were forthcoming, and much discontent was abroad, the copyright laws also were in a dis- graceful condition. There were many claims on the resources of the society, which at that time were very limited. In fact, in order to fight one or two actions, a special subscription was pro- posed, to which the members willingly con- tributed. Once or twice the balance at the bank ran perilously low. But the founders never despaired of the society’s ultimate success. To relate the early struggles of the society is not the purport of the present article. The record of unselfish labour on its behalf undertaken by many men of letters, and especially by Sir Walter Besant, is long. Instances of financial support, in addition to valuable time, freely and generously given, were many. To show in what manner and with what success the society has exerted itself to carry into effect the purposes of its original programme is the more immediate purpose of this paper. And here it may be convenient to record first what has been done for the consolidation and amendment of the law of domestic copyright and for the promotion of international copyright. The question of American copyright was one of the first to occupy the attention of the society. From the moment of its foundation the society threw all its weight and influence (by no means so great then as now) into obtaining a friendly understanding with American authors, and those other Americans who were interested in the passing of an equitable copyright law. New copyright legislation was obtained in America in 1891. As everyone knows, this law leaves much to be desired. ‘The society is still in constant touch with the promoters of equitable legislation in the United States, and will avail itself of every oppor- tunity to obtain a more generous legislation. To proceed with caution is, however, necessary. A false move might prove fatal. In the direction of the consolidation of domestic copyright, the society has been able to act more directly, and with important results. There existed no difference of opinion as to the unsatis- factory state of the law, and no need for hesitation. A copyright committee was appointed ; numerous meetings were held; other bodies interested in copyright were consulted, and finally a new copy- right law was drafted under counsel’s care. This was a full consolidating and amending bill, dealing with copyright property, literary, dramatic, artistic 270 and musical. To bring it before Parliament ultimately proved impossible, but it was found useful to have such a bill ready. Subsequent events have, it is true, demonstrated this bill to have been cumbersome and inadequate. The action of the society was, however, at the time sound, and beneficial to authors. In 1891, after the passing of the new United States law, the society found itself in a position to take a further step. Lord Monkswell brought forward a bill that had been drafted by the society. This bill reached a second reading in the House of Lords, but was not taken further. In 1896, a new copyright law committee was formed. This com- mittee, persuaded that the time for a consolidating Act had not yet arrived, decided to draft a small amending Dilf. This bill was drafted by counsel, and was, after much expense and labour, agreed upon in its final shape. Of this bill Lord Monkswell, always indefatig- able in questions of copyright, and ever willing to assist the efforts of the society, took charge. The pill passed its third reading in the House of Lords on the 23rd of July, 1897. In the autumn of the same year a consolidating bill was brought forward by the Copyright Association. The latter bill and the bill of the society ran concurrently at the beginning of 1898. Finally, however, the whole question was taken up upon a new basis. A bill was drafted by Lord Thring separating literary from artistic copyright. This bill was carefully studied by the members of the Copyright and Dramatic Committees of the society, and a number of valuable suggestions regarding it were offered, and the bill passed through the House of Lords. It was also adopted by the Government, but was finally put aside. In 1900, owing no doubt, in a great measure, to the persistent action of the society, the Government made a public declaration of an intention to take up the question of copy- right. It must be added with regret that since this declaration nothing in the shape of a draft bill has appeared from the Government offices, but the above record will suffice to show how perseveringly the society has laboured for the amelioration of domestic copyright. It need hardly be said that the expenses have been heavy, whilst the members of the committee and others have generously made ungrudging sacrifices in order to forward the interests of their fellows of the craft. Colonial copyright has, during the same period, presented serious difficulties. In this direction the importance of the society’s action can hardly be over-estimated. The committee of the society were the first body to perceive that the colonial position formed one of the chief impediments in the way of new copyright legislation on the part To put the matter on a more of the Government, THE AUTHOR. satisfactory basis became immediately one of the society's foremost aims. At one time Mr, Hall Caine was appointed delegate of the society during a visit which he paid to Canada. Subsequently, in 1899, the secretary of the society visited the Dominion. The persevering efforts of the society to solve the complex difficulties which existed were rewarded with some success when the Canadian Parliament in 1900 passed an Act embodying the ideas for which the society had been so long contending. Respecting international copyright, it may suffice to say that all its bearings, ramifications, and modifications have the society’s constant attention, and only last year the society endea- voured to obtain the accession of another country, Roumania, to the convention. The society is in touch with those interested in copyright property in France, Germany, Italy and other countries. All changes in the domestic or international copyright laws of different countries are carefully watched both from the domestic and international point of view. The information at the society’s disposal is kept strictly up to date, and everything of importance is duly chronicled in the pages of Zhe Author. To sum up, the society has done everything that it is possible to do in the way of procuring more liberal legislation in America. It has helped to bring about satisfactory legislation in Canada. Its perseverance has forced the question of the improvement of domestic legislation upon the English Government, and it is in constant touch with other countries on all questions relating to international copyright. On these grounds alone the society has a right to claim that such results merit the support of all members of the literary profession. The next point demanding consideration is what the society has done to maintain, define, and bela literary, dramatic, and musical property at 10me. It has, in the first place, published technical works on a number of questions of primary import- ance to authors. These works contain accurate information previously nowhere to be found. During the earlier years of the society’s existence, much time was devoted to the collection and due arrangement of a mass of statistics now embodied in these works. The publication of these books though a small undertaking when compared with the more important enterprises in which the society has been engaged, is one of serious moment to authors. Sir Walter Besant was the soul of this department of the society’s work. His time and labour were given without hesitation, and without prospect of return. His practical mind grasped and his mathematical talent enabled him to make THE AUTHOR. plain what particulars were to be investigated, and how the results of the investigations could be lucidly presented. In both he was ably seconded by Mr. Squire Sprigge, whose name is associated with “The Cost of Production” and “Methods of Publication.” As copyright law is one of the most intricate and difficult laws to elucidate, so copyright property is one of the most difficult proper- ties to market to the best advantage. In conse- quence, members of the society are constantly seeking advice and assistance. The record of the reports for the past ten or fifteen years will show the enormons amount of money the society has spent in legal advice year by year, its annual bill with its solicitors amounting to about £300. The assistance the society must have given by this expenditure is easily gauged. The excellence of its solicitors, owing to constant practice in the special subject, must also be of very great benefit to the members. We should like to point out as an obifer dictum that all writers, dramatists, composers who are not members of the society, should hasten to join when they see a statement of this kind, for every legal opinion taken, every case fought, must benefit them as a body and bring them, indirectly, assistance. It is not fair, therefore, that they should increase their income from the subscriptions of their more generous fellow-craftsmen. An ordinary opinion upon an agreement would cost a writer from one guinea to three guineas. To obtain such an opinion is one of the commonest ways by which members make use of the society. A member can obtain opinions on as many agree- ments as he likes during the year for the fee of £1 1s. only, in addition to any other legal advice he may require on copyright questions. The benefit that must accrue to the member is clear, therefore, from this most sordid point of view. It would have been unnecessary to touch upon this point had it not been so frequently overlooked. The society has also, on several occasions, obtained opinions from counsel at great expense, and the record of the cases taken in hand during the past four years is as follows :— I. EL IT. 1901. 102 cases: 4 County Court. 5 High Court, 1902. 146 cases: 10 County Court. 8 High Court. 1903. 127 cases: 9 County Court. 4 High Court. 1904. 112 cases: 8 High Court, 6 High Court. No. 1 refers to those cases and disputes, in which the Secretary acts as between a member and the editor, publisher, or other delinquent ; No. 2 to those cases taken through the County Court ; No. 3 to High Court cases. Besides this list, again, there are many matters which, placed in the hands of the society’s solicitors, 271 are settled without being brought into Court—in fact, it may be stated that out of three cases placed in the solicitors’ hands for settlement only one will go to trial. It is not to the advantage of a trade defendant to obtain the publicity of a court of law. : _This record then may, on the whole, be con- sidered an honourable record of the society in carrying on the work of its founders. The society has been accused of being a bitter enemy to pub- lishers, editors and others. This, as Sir Walter Besant so often repeated, is not really the case ; but the members of the society when they have got a case which should be fought must be prepared to fight it, as the very vitality of the society must lie in its fighting strength. The general knowledge of this fact is the surest means of obtaining satis- faction for the author and fair dealing from the publisher. It is possible that at no distant date the time may arrive when the society will have no need to put this quality into practice; but although the society numbers fully 1,600 members, it is still far from the ideal laid before it by Sir Walter Besant and those others interested. It should have a membership of at least 3,000, and in proportion as. the society becomes more and more the association of all British authors and copyright holders, the more rapidly will it be able to accomplish the objects which it has set before itself. oe gg ge THE ANNUAL DINNER. Oe ‘ PFVYE annual dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors took place on Tuesday, May 16th, at the Hotel Cecil, more than a hundred and fifty members and guests being present. The fact that the society was completing the twenty-first year since its incorporation, and was consequently celebrating its coming of age, added special interest to the occasion, and was a subject of frequent allusion in the speeches. These followed closely upon the conclusion of the last course, when the chairman, Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., proposed briefly the usual loyal toasts, followed by the permission to smoke, of which many of those present, not exclusively male members of the company, proceeded to avail themselves. In proposing the toast of the Incorporated Society of Authors, the chairman made reference to the twenty-one years which had elapsed since Sir Walter Besant had founded it, and inaugu- rated the policy afterwards followed during his lifetime and since his regretted death. In dealing with the objects of the society and indicating the 272 extent and manner in which these were being carried out, Sir Henry Bergne spoke first of the defence of literary property, conducted by the society throughout its existence. A defence which members were aware could be effected far better by combination and co-operation than by the isolated efforts of individuals. In carrying out this defence of literary property, the society had been taken in one of its actions to the House of Lords, with the result that at least a doubtful point of law had been settled. Secondly, in the Amendment and Consolidation of the Domestic Law of Copyright, the society had made and was continuing to make efforts on behalf of authors, and if not much had been actually achieved, a bill had been drafted, and the amendment of the existing law had been promised in a Speech from the Throne. Further progress, however, had been delayed by the difficulty of combining domestic with colonial law upon the subject. Possibly the best mode of dealing with that difficulty might lie in cordial consultation and co-operation with the great self-governing Colonies on the subject of Copyright, and he was not without hope that some progress in that direction might shortly be made. The first Government to succeed in passing a satisfactory Copyright Act would earn the lasting gratitude of authors. In the promotion of Inter- national Copyright, satisfactory advance had been made. Since the foundation of the society the International Copyright Convention of Berne and the additional Act of Paris had been signed, and a separate Convention concluded with Austria- Hungary. In speaking of this the chairman referred to the recent accession of Japan to the International Copyright Union. With regard to the recognition of the rights of British authors in America, good progress had also been made. This made a really good record in regard to International Copyright. Sir Henry Bergne expressed cordial appreciation of the co-operation and assistance of the Copyright Association, saying that wisdom, like water, took the form of the vessel into which it was poured, and that if, indeed, the wisdom of the Society of Authors differed sometimes in form from that of the Copyright Association it was at least certain that the endeavour of both societies had been directed to protect all the legal rights of intellectual property. He called attention, while upon this topic, to the presence of Mr. John Murray, who was seated near him on his right, and paid a ‘tribute of regret to the memory of Mr. John Daldy. In conclusion, he urged that the society had much left to do; and he specified three main objects for its efforts, namely : first, the securing of domestie copyright legislation ; second, the -obtaining of a more satisfactory position for authors with regard to their rights in the United States ; THE AUTHOR. and third, the obtaining of fresh accessions to the International Copyright Union. After the toast of the society had been duly honoured, Sir A. Conan Doyle, replying in a vigorous speech, expressed his regret that Sir Walter Besant had not survived to see the coming of age of the society, which in its younger days had had so much opposition to face and so few friends. It had ever fought the cause of the weaker brother against the oppressor, or still more so, that of the weaker sister. It had not, however, as some might think, to protect the fool from his folly, because the fool was so self-satisfied a person that he felt no desire to be enrolled as a member ; it was rather for the assistance of those handicapped by want of experience that the society existed. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle desired to say no word against publishers as a class, but referred to them as a profession, for which no qualification or licence was required before admission, and alluded humorously to the popularity due to Napoleon among authors for having once had a German publisher shot. In conclusion, he referred to the fact that all classes of writers were benefited by the society’s efforts, and appealed to members to support the pension fund. Mr. Egerton Castle next rose to propose the health of the “ Guests of the Society,” comparing them to the friends and neighbours assembled to do honour to a promising youth attaining his majority. He contrasted the position of author- ship in modern days with that which it once occupied, and referred to the man of intellect as recognising, in the words of Sheffield, that “Of all the arts in which the wise excel, Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.” Among the guests Mr. Castle first made reference to Sir Richard Henn Collins, the Master of the Rolls, whom he described as a ripe classical scholar, holder of every high university honour, chairman of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, arbitra- tor on the Venezuelan Boundary Commission, and the editor of “Smith’s Leading Cases,” with which he, Mr. Castle, confessed himself only acquainted in the metrical form known as “ Leading Cases done into English,” by Sir Frederick Pollock. Enumerating other distinguished men present, Mr. Egerton Castle named Mr. Fletcher Moul- ton, K.C., M.P., who, he said, had been defined as a rare example of the mathematical mind triumphant, and to whose connection with patent law, a kindred subject to copyright, he made special reference ; he also called attention to the presence of Mr. John Tweedy, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons ; of Sir Henry Howorth, K.C.1.E., whom he described as <P 5 THE AUTHOR. 273 an antiquary, a lawyer, a politician, and a dis- tinguished raconteur; of Mr. John Murray, the representative of the fourth generation of the great publishing house, a fifth generation of which, he mentioned, was now growing up. Mr. Castle referred to Mr. Murray as himself a scholar, a man of the highest culture, a past president of the Publisher’s Association, and a man of letters, and observed that no doubt many present would grate- fully acknowledge the invaluable intellectual help which he always so generously afforded to authors in the production of their books ; if all firms of publishers, he added, resembled that of John Murray in their methods, there would never have arisen any need for a Society of Authors. Among foreign guests by whose presence the society was honoured, Mr. Castle named Monsieur E. Pettileau, representing the Société des gens de Lettres, which suggested and formed the model upon which the Society of Authors was founded, and Mr. Hugenet, editor of La Chronique, the only French paper published in London, an instructor at Greenwich Naval College, an officer, a journalist, anda novelist. To the presence of these two gentle- men he referred as a contribution by the Society of Authors to the promotion of the entente cordiale destined to have such lasting and beneficent effect upon the peaceful progress of the world. Sir Richard Henn Collins, in replying on behalf of the guests, declared that he found it difficult not only to represent those whose distinguished names had been enumerated, but also to distinguish the large number of other guests unnamed among those present, and to do this without consultation and without hope of remuneration and reward, His real difficulty, however, lay, he said, not in voicing the thanks of his male guests, but of the ladies also. He humorously described himself as deeply impressed by the collective power of author- ship around him, which he averred inspired him with a sense of awe, and made him feel that the guests should have been provided at the door with slippers like worshippers entering a mosque. For the large output of printed matter for which judges were mainly responsible he disclaimed the title of “ literature,” but he was able to assert that judges and lawyers were much addicted to the study of novels. With regard to these he described the domain of fiction as having been conquered by lady novelists, who now no longer should be described, as they had been by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as the “ weaker sisters.” On the contrary he himself would predict that some day men would adopt feminine pseudonyms when publishing novels. He congratulated the society upon its attitude towards litigation and upon the satisfac- tion with which it viewed having obtained a binding decision in the House of Lords. Mr. A. W. A’Beckett, in conclusion, proposed the health of the chairman, and alluding to his own position as acting chairman of the committee of management, declared that with Sir Henry Bergne it had become a sinecure, as the chairman was never away. He also referred to the changed position of modern journalism in relation to litera- ture, making special allusion to distinguished literary men, members of the society, who were also journalists. The day was past when journalism could be described as the Cinderella of literature or as the grave of literary ambition. After the health ofthe chairman had been drunk with enthusiasm, and Sir Henry Bergne had briefly replied, an adjournment was made to another room, where the rest of the evening was spent. —_—_—t_—e— SOME REFLECTIONS ON CRITICISM. DES e VERY now and then—perhaps twice in the year—lI have noticed that the magazines and papers take it into their heads to dis- cuss the art and practice of reviewing. For some abstruse reason the public is supposed to enjoy these dissertations. Possibly, in the interests of fair play, they like to see the critics subjected to a taste of that discipline which they mete out to others : possibly, too, they enjoy getting a glimpse of the inner workings of journalism. I find, in most of these articles, a consensus of opinion as to the uselessness of Press notices (which 1s somewhat disturbing), and an equally strong conviction that the British public cannot do without its daily allotment of criticism (which is reassuring). For my own part, I like reading reviews. When I pick up a daily paper I generally turn to them as soon as I have satisfied myself that nothing very startling has happened in the world of politics or of sport. But then it must be admitted that I do not suffer myself to be influenced by what I read—to any great extent. [ have given up buying modern books: I do not even belong to a circulating library; but I probably read as many new novels in the course of the year as most people. The fact is—to be quite candid —I am myself one of the despised band of critics ; which may, or may not, make my opinion the more valuable on some disputed points. As a guide to purchasers, I dare say that reviews are useful enough. As a means of inducing the general public to buy, I believe them to be prac- tically useless. If we suppose that a man has already made up his mind to form a library of modern writers, it is conceivable that a good review might induce him to add a certain book to his collection ; but there are few indeed who are bitten with this mania. The mass of readers have to be 274 bullied, so to speak, into buying a book—they must run up against the name at every turn until it strikes them with an air of familiarity ; in most cases, even then, they will content themselves with borrowing the work from a more generous neigh- bour. Of course, I will allow that there may still be a considerable number who order books from their libraries on the strength of a flattering notice that happens to catch their eye, but these are chiefly ladies, exiled in the country, and the books they look for are lives of eminent men, reminis- cences (with plenty of anecdote), or, more rarely, a novel by some favourite author. It is very seldom indeed that they can be induced to venture upon a work by a new hand. Probably a series of favourable reviews (say even as many as twenty) scattered among what are generally considered the best papers, would not sell more than a very small edition of a new book by an unknown writer. The case of well-known authors is different. So long as the fact of their having produced a new work is given sufficient prominence, it matters little to their sales whether the reviews are good or bad. And as theirs are the only books (except in the rarest instances) that ever receive notices of a really useful length in any important paper, it must be admitted that reviewing does not exercise so great an influence, either for good or evil, upon an author’s career, as the world is apt to suppose. * I am speaking here of reviews properly so called —that is to say, reviews of a reasonable length, which may be defined as something over half a column in most papers. I suppose everyone is agreed that the short notices so liberally scattered about in many journals are almost entirely worth- less, except possibly for the purpose of quotation in publishers’ advertisements. Here, with the aid of judicious /acune, they often make a brave show enough. But in their original position they are not much regarded. In the eye of the public a short notice is evidence of mediocrity, at the best ; and, be it never so laudatory, it cannot hope to attract more than one or two casual purchasers. Not many people read these cursory comments at all: the few who do (with the exception of the author himself and the friends to whom he proudly displays them) read them merely in the hope of finding a touch of smart sarcasm. They are not infrequently well repaid for their trouble. Some- times it is possible to put quite a lot of venom into a few lines ; and when a hard-worked reviewer takes up a volume towards the end of a long day’s work, and finds himself with very little space to spare, this method certainly gives a quick and satisfactory finish to his labours. Many worthy books suffer because of the sins of their forerunners. And it is always easier to blame than to praise— when space is at a premium. THE AUTHOR. If short notices were entirely abolished, it is possible that good reviews might be of some value to the struggling author. But that would mean, of course, immensely increased labour in the matter of selection. As things stand, even now, the process of weeding out unworthy books is an extremely difficult one : it would become formid- able indeed (to a conscientious man) if a second and a third revision had to be undertaken in addition to the first. And then, there is always the personal equation of the selector to be con- sidered. Who is to attempt the ungrateful task ? Is the editor to go through the vanloads of new volumes delivered at his office personally, in order to separate the tares from the wheat, or is he to delegate this work to the reviewers themselves ? It is certain that very few editors could find time for this extra labour, in itself sufficient to occupy an able-bodied man pretty thoroughly. In most cases, at present, some member of the editorial staff settles, approximately, the amount of space to be allotted to each volume; but his ruling is commonly determined by matters quite foreign to the merit of the book submitted to him. Probably he is very much pressed for time ; he has a thousand other things to occupy his attention, and a very cursory glance at a new book has to determine its fate. If by an unknown writer, there must generally be something out of the common in its scheme, or it must bear the imprint of a good publishing house, in order to gain admission to his list at all. Sometimes, however, the reviewer has to do his own weeding. A parcel is sent out to him, with instructions to notice only such books as are worthy of remark. This practice, I have always thought, is alittle bit rough upon the reviewer, who feels the weight of added responsibility, and, in addition, is only too well aware that he is paid by the column. If he reads a book carefully from start to finish, and reluctantly finds it unworthy of discussion, he has an unpleasant feeling that he has wasted his time. Besides, it is undeniably easier to review a thoroughly bad book than a moderately good one. Most men, I fancy, enjoy writing a really severe critique, when they can assure themselves of the justice of their cause. I make no doubt that Macaulay enjoyed composing his onslaught on ‘Satan’ Montgomery more than his other contri- butions to the Edinburgh Review. Similarly, there is a certain gusto in Lowell's attack on Pro- fessor Masson’s ‘“ Milton,” which differentiates it, pleasantly enough, from his essay on Keats. Most reviewers, if they got the chance, would take the brightest and the dullest of their batch, and leave those that do not seem particularly interesting at first sight. This would be well enough, no doubt, from the reader’s point of view, but hardly from the THER AUTHOR. 275 author’s. The brightest does not always mean the best. There is such a thing as solid worth, and it is not always very fascinating on a casual acquaintance. 1 apologise for uttering a commonplace when I say that the chief agent of the booksellers is the talkative lady who advises her friends to get the last book that has happened to catch her fancy. Conversation is the great factor in popularity, to an author; if he can get himself talked about at afternoon teas he is not far from success. It sounds degrading, but it is none the less true. And for that reason I take it that personal paragraphs are of more value to him than the best reviews. Somehow or other he must contrive to get his name known. When you come to consider it, sell- ing books is very much like selling mustard, or cocoa, or any other of the luxuries (or necessaries) of life. The public goes to the name it has heard of before ; and the oftener that name is repeated in the Press (in any connection or phrase) so much the better for its owner. It is true that authors do not, as yet, employ all the methods of advertise- ment used by manufacturers of soap and pickles. They say it would be beneath the dignity of a noble profession. But time will show. Methods of attracting attention have been used lately that would have astonished our fathers considerably ; it is not improbable that the hoardings of the future will be covered with pictorial recommendations to buy the immortal works of our descendants. <A few of the bolder spirits have inaugurated this new departure already. I am reluctant to enter into a debate here as to the competency, or the conscientiousness, of reviewers. Perhaps | am not altogether an unbiased critic of the tribe, and my opinion may not be worth much, but I will state my conviction that the common book-reviewer generally knows quite as much of his business as the musical and artistic critics do of theirs. This may not be a fulsome compliment, but it would not become me to say more. As to his conscientiousness, I believe him, in the main, to be sufficiently honest. “Log-rolling,” about which we used to hear so much some years since, is a moribund form of amusement, if not actually extinct. Frankly, I do not suppose that there were ever many reviewers who conspired together, of malice prepense, to puff each other’s wares. But, obviously, the per- sonal element must play its part in reviewing, as in other things. You may say that a critic should strenuously refuse to receive a book for review that chanced to be written by any personal friend—still more by an enemy—of his own. I can only reply that such a critic would have to live a very secluded life, or else to be content with very little work. Of course, most men will try to say something nice about a friend’s book—unless it is very bad : per- haps some of the less conscientious among us will even impart a trifle of personal animosity into a critique of an enemy’s book—especially if it be very good. But I fancy that there are not many critics who suffer their judgment to be warped to any great degree in this latter direction. We err, if at all, rather in the direction of undue kindliness. The critic is no longer the author’s natural enemy, as he was in the days of Pope, and Swift, and Sterne—who were never tired of having a fling at that “‘ most tormenting form of cant.” It is seldom now that you shall see an incompetent scribbler handled as he deserves. Perhaps we are afraid; perhaps we are more humane than our progenitors ; perhaps—and I fancy this is the most likely hypothesis—the critic is now almost invariably himself an author, and has a not unnatural sympathy with his victim. EK. H. Lacon Watson. ee se IF ONLY! aces By Onz wHo Dipn’t. ‘“ HAVE always said you were the coming man,” declared Ardale, with animation, “ and now you have come, my dear Lessing, no one rejoices in your good fortune more than I.” “Thank you,” said the man with a tired face who sat opposite to him, rolling a cigarette between thin, nervous fingers. “Only the other day,” pursued Ardale com- placently, “I was talking with Grantley about your stuff. He had just come across your first book and was effusing over it. Said he had never read such a first book. I told him that I had prognosticated your ultimate success from it, twenty-five years ago. You know I always boast that I discovered you.” “Yes,” said Lessing wearily. His face looked wan in the firelight, and his lips were strangely set. “One is always proud of having discovered genius before the great dunder-headed public realises it,” Ardale went on, warming with his subject. “Lord! what a time it takes to get anything into the common skull! I knew when I read your remarkable first book, that you’d get right there some day, sure enough; but it has taken the British public five-and-twenty years to recognise you.” He smiled in satisfaction at his own superior judgment, and flipped the ash from his cigarette as if it were vulgar opinion. 276 “You knew twenty-five years ago that I'd ‘ get there’ ; did you ?” said Lessing slowly. “JT did, by Jove!” declared the critic. “Then why the devil didn’t you say so, then?” demanded Lessing, with sudden fierceness. His friend gasped. “« My dear chap ’”’—he began. “Why didn’t you say so in print when I was fighting the uphill fight, longing and praying for the spark to set my name afire? What made you write columns about the men whose reputations were already established, who needed no aid to sell their thirty thousand copies? What?” “JT don’t remember ”—Ardale began to stammer. The content on his face had given way to a look of discomfiture. “No, you don’t; but I do. I remember well the time you were reviewing for the Daily Post, and I envied, with all my heart, your position on the staff of that important paper. I envied your power and those upon whom you bestowed it. I knew who wrote the notice of my first book in its columns. It was little more than a paragraph of commonplaces about ‘merit,’ ‘promise,’ and so forth, tucked away in a corner ignominiously as if to avoid the public eye. I knew, also, who wrote the two columns of pseudo-criticism and fulsome adulation that Sir Potter Patterson’s last novel received in the same issue. It was a silly, con- ventional pot-boiler, as you were well aware, but you treated it to an enthusiastic gush of applause that was read with an equally enthusiastic gush of acceptance from one end of England to another. Why did you do it? You knew the book was rot.” “My dear Lessing, how the deuce can I tell you now why I did idiotic things twenty-five years ago ! A boy like that—let me see—not more than six or seven and twenty—I s “You were no boy, Ardale. You held a responsible post as critic on a leading paper, and you were qualified for it. I’m not saying a word against your lack of ability. You had ability and knew your business. You knew then, as well as you know now, a good thing when you saw it. Why could you not say so then, as you say itnow ? Why could you not give me acolumn of support then, when I needed it a thousand times more than I need it now? You gave me two in the Pioneer last week. It was waste of time and space. Hveryone reads my books, they no longer need advertisement.” “But, my dear man, that has nothing to do with the case. What editor do you suppose would afford a column to a young and unknown writer, however great his merits ? Don’t you know better than that ? Pray, be reasonable.’’ “J am reasonable, and my common sense tells me that it is senseless to ‘ gild refined gold and THE AUTHOR. paint the lily’; that there is no earthly use in writing pages of gush about the work of an author whom everyone reads and judges for himself ; that it is worse than useless, it is degrading and abominable, to eulogise feeble work because the author of it has made a name; and that it is drivelling idiocy to write, as so many of you do, reams of abuse against some author you agree to despise. Your columns of vituperation against Ball Mayne’s last novel, a few weeks back, were as unnecessary and uncalled for as your adulation — of me.” “Upon my word, Lessing, you are in a strange mood to-day. What makes you so devilishly cornery ? Most men do not resent adulation, and as for Ball Mayne, he’s such a prig and self- advertising charlatan that a “You find it advisable to help advertise him by quoting yards of his stuff and exciting the curiosity of the public to know what has incurred your wrath! Really, Ardale, it surprises me that the absurdity of this does not strike any man with a sense of humour.” “Would you never, then, warn the public against rot?” demanded the critic testily. Lessing laughed. “Warn! Did you ever see a fence with ‘ Caution’ on it that you did not long to climb? Surely you, a man of the world, know the irresistible attraction of a warning. Every man Jack who read your savage onslaught the other day will have resolved, swr-le-champ, to read Mayne’s book, either to refute or agree with you. It’s human nature. ‘'There’s only one way to treat bad work—ignoreit. Or, better still, zive it the same kind of faint praise and patronage you gave my first book. That will help it to die comfortably !” “Tt is all very well,” said Ardale impatiently, “to talk in that strain, as if we poor servants of the Press had any voice in the matter. But you must be perfectly aware of the fact that we havn't, that we are the slaves of demand and of the men who employ us. The public like to read about its celebrities and notorieties. How can space be spared for new men whom nobody knows, or cares, anything about ?” “It is the manifest duty of the Press to make the public ‘know and care,’ to hail fresh talent when it appears. How else can it be discovered ? The critic’s function is to lead and guide opinion, not follow weakly in its train. Instead of that now-a-days, in England, at least, there’s a con- — spiracy against the new man, whatever his poten- tiality. He has to wrest his laurels from an unwilling Press, and if he has pluck and genius to succeed it isin the face of every obstacle the mind of man can devise. Whether this results most from ignorance, cowardice, jealousy or snobbery I can’t pretend to determine.” .and I can’t have it. orange. THE AUTHOR. ‘Your candour is refreshing,” said Ardale, with tight lips, “ but you forget vi “‘T forget nothing. I only know, and I convict you out of your own mouth, that when I was a youth and showed, as you admit, distinct talent, you gave me no encouragement whatever ; you slowed me down, crushed me back, wasted my best years—you and your damned crew—when half a column of good, strong arresting criticism would have called attention to my work and given me my chance. Shall I tell you what I thought then ; what I think now? It is that you are all cowards— shrinking pitiful cowards! You dare not give an independent verdict until the world has applauded ; you are afraid to let your voices be heard above the crowd. Can you deny it?” Ardale was silent a few minutes. Then he spoke, gently, as if arguing with an angry and unreasonable chiid. “T can’t understand you, Lessing ; for the life of me, I can’t. If you were some callow youth just starting on a literary career, full of bumption and resentful of criticism, your attitude would be natural enough. We all think, at that period, that the world is conspiring against our marvellous genius. But you—you who have ‘arrived,’ the man of the hour, the talk of Europe—I’ll be hanged if I can see what you have to complain of. A great name, a great fortune, a great future—what more can you want ?”’ “JT want,” said Lessing slowly, “life, faith, enthusiasm. I want youth.” Ardale smiled. “Oh well, we all want that, when we’ve lost it. But it isn’t in the market.” “No; it isn’t in the market. It’s all I want, What I have, I don’t eare about. Under this flap,” he laid his hand upon his writing desk, ‘I have proofs of a new novel -and the last chapters of a serial ; I have requests for stories from several editors, on my own terms ; I have letters from foreign translators begging for right to translate my works ; I have offers from ' publishers that would make a young author's blood dance. I am getting royalties on all the books I ever wrote, and my plays are bringing me in seventy pounds a week. My income is fifteen thousand a year, and if I had time, or power, to write more words a day, I could double it. But what is the use of it all tome? I want nothing, need nothing, but peace and quietness.” “Oh come now,” protested Ardale. “T take little or no interest in my work. Some- times I hate it, and I know it is not so good as it was. I am wrung out, in fact, dry as an old And when I think of the days when one- hundredth part of what the world lavishes upon ‘me now would have made me deliriously happy— 277 more than happy—would have opened heaven’s gates for me on earth—when I think of this, the horrible irony of it eats into my very sonl. I want to stand up before my fellows and curse this damnable ‘scheme of things entire’ that ‘either gives a stomach and no food,’ or food and no appetite. It enrages me!” “No good getting enraged,” counselled Ardale, with a fatuous smile; “console yourself with the reflection that all the younger men envy you your good fortune.’’ : “Console myself!” cried Lessing, “It is the thought of them that stings and lacerates me. Are you prepared to listen to a short story of real life, or will it bore you ?” “Go on,” said Ardale, watching him anxiously. “You are always interesting, even when you're serious and truthful. Most men aren’t. Go on.” Lessing rose and poured some brandy into a glass. Ardale had begun to notice that his face was ash-coloured. “Help yourself,’ he said, drinking the spirit raw. “I forget the duties of hospitality in the ardour of this discussion.” He seated himself again, paused a few moments, and then began his story. “Twenty-five years ago,” he began, “I was full of ambition and enthusiasm. Moreover, I was in love—in the way one loves at twenty-two. There wasn’t any other girl in the Cosmos. But her people were in a good position and they were kind to me, trusted me. It was impossible to requite that kindness and confidence by a cool request that they would endow me with their only daughter and a sufficient income to keep us both. And my income was nothing a year, with occasional accidental windfalls. So I kept quiet and the girl and I were—friends.” He drew a long breath. a little uneasily. “Tt was at that time,” Lessing continued, “I put all my hopes, longings, even prayers, into the novel which you said just now was a remarkable first book ; from which you deduced my future success. It was remarkable. Crudeand unfinished, it yet had something in it that will never be in my work again. I could write nothing so power- fal and convincing now, though I have learnt all the tricks—to make much out of little. Well, it came out. The girl was enchanted, excited. 1 was in a burning fever of anticipation. ‘The reviews were all flattering, in that little easy, careless, patronising way which the young writer knows so well and finds so hard to bear. They were all nice, in fact, but they didn’t matter. They impressed nobody, least of all the most important persons— the autocrats and rulers of the market, those gigantic middlemen, the distributors upon whose Ardale shifted his seat 278 will and whim we rise or sink. So my ‘promising’ first book sank, buried under the heap of others that came out with it, Sir Potter Patterson’s silly pot-boiler atop. You, and others like you, might have saved it, might have run me, at least, into a second edition upon a wave of enthusiasm. But you dared not. I was a new man, and you distrusted your own discrimination too much.” “You do us an injustice, Lessing; we spoke well of the book, you admit that,” declared Ardale in a wounded tone. “JT admit that you poured a little stream of tepid praise upon it, while you exhausted all the complimentary adjectives in the language upon the work ofa well-known writer. Don’t be a humbug, Ardale. You know as well as I do that a certain sort of feeble praise damns a book more than any slating can. But to return to mystory. I was to receive a royalty of 10 per cent. on copies sold and £25 onaccount. I got the £25—and that was all. Then I began to debate with myself whether rat poison or the Thames offered the best mode of escape from a world that had no use for me.” “ Surely, it didn’t go as far as that with you!” said Ardale, shocked. “Just as far as that—the thought—but no farther. 1 accepted a post as war correspondent to a moribund paper, on very low terms. Some months later the girl wrote me a sweet, friendly letter asking advice. A nice man she rather liked, and her parents liked very much, had proposed to her. She did not wish to marry him, but she respected him, and might love him in time. Would I counsel her what to do. She knew I would understand and not think her horrid for writing. She would never be happy again if I thought her horrid. It was a pathetic little note, and tore me all to pieces. Of course I knew what she meant. There was no help for me. I wrote back and advised her to marry the nice man.” “You were a fool!” said Ardale with pleasure. lt gave him great satisfaction to return his friend’s candour. “T was—a proud fool. I ought to have told her the truth and left the matter with her. But you must remember I saw no prospects whatever of being able to keep a wife. The choice did not seem to lie between being a fool ora sensible man, but between being a rogue or a man of honour. So she married her nice man.” “ And you?” “J married, three years later, a writer, as you know. She was a journalist when we met, and we were excellent friends. But our wedded life wasn’t bliss. We did not often agree; we earned very little between us, and she hadn’t the remotest notion of engineering a frugal menage. We faced the sordid struggle, however, with some courage THE AUTHOR. for awhile. My second and third books came out, and each time we hoped afresh for the spark to fire it, the advertising puff that would give us some hold on the future. We even dared to have a child. But the books died and the child died, My wife lost heart—and faith in me. She left me for a bachelor existence, and I was not sorry. Since then I have lived alone. Five years ago she died.” “And now you are going to marry the most charming womanin London. Everyone raves of the beauty and goodness of Lady Evelyn. The masculine _ half of society envies you like the devil!” “Tt is true,” said Lessing, “that Lady Evelyn is charming. I think her the most perfect woman I ey ever met. But I am not going to marry er.” “Not!” Ardale laid both hands on the arms of his chair, and looked as if about to spring up in surprise. *« You are not going to marry her, after having the engagement announced in all the society papers! In Heaven’s name, why not ?” “Because,” replied Lessing, with quiet emphasis, “Tam not going to marry at all.” He paused, then went on, with some apparent effort : “T am dying.” “Good God !” The two men stared into each other’s eyes speechlessly. In Ardale’s face a ghastly horror appeared, but Lessing’s bore no expression of dread or panic. His eyes were dark with feeling, his face pale, but he was quite calm. “You don’t mean it,”’ Ardale breathed. ‘‘T do. To-day I have had the third verdict on my case. All three specialists are in accord, They wrap up the death sentence with infinite tact and assure me, in the most genial and cheerful manner that, with care and luck, I may live quite a time—perhaps even a year ! “Jt is horrible! horrible!” exclaimed Ardale, in sharp agony. ‘“ Just when you have made your name—when you have everything at your feet—I can’t believe it—I won’t.” The man of the world was thrown off his © balance, tears stood in his eyes, and he trembled. ‘Tt is true, nevertheless.” “ T have known men under the same verdict go on gaily into old age. Specialists often err. They are cocksure of necessity to preserve their reputa- tion. You'll live, Lessing, you must.” “ Why should 1?” asked Lessing, ‘since 've no desire for life.” “‘ No desire!” echoed Ardale faintly. “Not the least. I’m too tired to enjoy it, to care about it. Pain has worn me out lately. Don’t look so tragic, Ardale. You must not frighten me, you know. A person with acute heart disease must be soothed, calmed, and told * THE AUTHOR. 979 lies about himself. You have no tact, man, or you would not look at me with such eyes.” j {His smile was whimsical; neither sad nor frightened, but a trifle nervous. For some time Ardale could not utter a word. Then he rose and held out his hand. “Tm sorry, Lessing,” he said in a voice that shook painfully. ‘‘ Forgive me for what I did not do, for the cowardice of which you so justly accuse me. But how should I know that you if only a “Tf only!” echoed Lessing. And the broken phrase, the most tragic in our language, melted like a twilight ghost into the silence of the room as Ardale went out with bowed head. se ee STORIES OF AUTHORS’ LOVES.* — 1 N writing “Stories of Authors’ Loves” Clara I E. Lauchlin has set herself no easy task. Perhaps such a subject is best treated lightly and sympathetically, without probing much below the surface, or “violating the fine reticences of life.” Even authors may be allowed some privacy, some plot of holy ground where'the public may not penetrate, where the intellectual man of science may not tear up the flowers with the questionable desire of seeing how they grow, or exhume long- buried bones of contention. The book contains much pleasant reading, though but little is added to the information already before the public to explain the motives or elucidate the mental development of those with whom the author deals. The style is easy and colloquial, almost too easy at times: for we are told tbat Byron was a “ preternaturally sensitive little chap,” and that his ancestors were a “ mixed lot.” By such phrases as these his subsequent lapses from virtue and general eccentricities are explained and condoned. Nowadays it is the fashion to whitewash every black sheep, but why should poor Lady Byron be dismissed with a few wordsof complacent ridicule for resenting his treatment of her; and Byron’s actions be gently alluded to as “very vexatious”? No early Victorian admirer could have said more for him. Shelley, on his side, might resent the playful raillery against his passions—such treatment re- minds us of a patronising Elder patting an excitable little boy on the head to calm him ;—with equal right he might object to the assumption that he was a child full of childishness up to the last hour of his life. But as the author states that “God only smiled * “Stories of Authors’ Loves,” by Clara E, Lauchlin. Published by Isbister & Co., London, patiently” on his blasphemy because he was so young: it is not for man—or woman—to take him seriously. Keats does not fare much better for another reason. His love was not ideal enough to save him from the tortures of jealousy, and, there- fore, loving in a low form, he was bound to be tormented where another would have found content. The tragedy of the Carlyles can hardly be dealt with adequately in a book which is intentionally superficial. ‘Therefore it is not surprising to find but a few pages devoted to their story. Love is the mainspring of the volume: it is natural, therefore, to find not only everything focussed on this point, but the character regarded as incomplete where that feeling is lacking or latent. Whilst acknowledging the truth of this view in the main, it does not quite reconcile us to the lofty pity extended to George Eliot’s earlier years any more than to the entire espousal of Byron’s cause on the plea that he had an early ideal in Thyrza, which led. him to find all other women who attracted him—and there were many—want- ing and unworthy of his fidelity. Surely the subjects under the author’s pen would infinitely prefer their original shortcomings left in all their bitterness and incompleteness : for they would then gain in strength what they Jost in sweetness. ‘The lack of strength is the principal fault in this book. The real success of the author lies in her de- scription of wedded bliss unmarred by storms or complications, though deferred by hard fate or obdurate fathers. The story of the Brownings affords an oppor- tunity for some charming writing and a real insight into a woman’s mind. ‘The Tennysons, too, have a graceful tribute to their love story, and a few lines at the close describing the wife who made his life so complete are worthy of quotation. “ Serene and sweet she walked by his side for more than forty years, quickening his insight, strengthening his faith, fulfiling his every heart’s desire : and when the eventide was come, “<«Pwilight and evening bell, And after that the dark.’ “She was still there, nor let go his hand until he put it in that of the pilot himself, when he had crossed the bar.” Other lives, not so fortunate, figure in these pages. Dickens, Thackeray, and poor Charles Lamb, who renounced so much for a different sort of love. The book has a wide range and aims high, but lacks the strength and breadth of a serious study for serious people. It would be an excellent book for girls if it were a little more bracing, but here also it fails. Whilst fall of high ideals and the praise of true love as distinct from 278 will and whim we rise or sink. So my ‘promising’ first book sank, buried under the heap of others that came out with it, Sir Potter Patterson’s silly pot-boiler atop. You, and others like you, might have saved it, might have run me, at least, into a second edition upon a wave of enthusiasm. But you dared not. I was a new man, and you distrusted your own discrimination too much.” “You do us an injustice, Lessing ; we spoke well of the book, you admit that,” declared Ardale in a wounded tone. “JT admit that you poured a little stream of tepid praise upon it, while you exhausted all the complimentary adjectives in the language upon the work ofa well-known writer. Don’t be a humbug, Ardale. You know as well as I do that a certain sort of feeble praise damns a book more than any slating can. But to return to mystory. I was to receive a royalty of 10 per cent. on copies sold and £25 onaccount. I got the £25—and that was all. Then I began to debate with myself whether rat poison or the Thames offered the best mode of escape from a world that had no use for me.” “ Surely, it didn’t go as far as that with you!” said Ardale, shocked. ' “Just as far as that—the thonght—but no farther. 1 accepted a post as war correspondent to a moribund paper, on very low terms. Some months later the girl wrote me a sweet, friendly letter asking advice. A nice man she rather liked, and her parents liked very much, had proposed to her. She did not wish to marry him, but she respected him, and might love him in time. Would I counsel her what to do. She knew I would understand and not think her horrid for writing. She would never be happy again if I thought her horrid. It was a pathetic little note, and tore me all to pieces. Of course I knew what she meant. There was no help for me. I wrote back and advised her to marry the nice man.” “You were a fool!” said Ardale with pleasure. lt gave him great satisfaction to return his friend’s candour. ““T was—a proud fool. I ought to have told her the truth and left the matter with her. But you must remember I saw no prospects whatever of being able to keep a wife. The choice did not seem to lie between being a fool ora sensible man, but between being a rogue or a man of honour. So she married her nice man.” “And you?” “TI married, three years later, a writer, as you know. She was a journalist when we met, and we were excellent friends. But our wedded life wasn’t bliss. We did not often agree; we earned very little between us, and she hadn’t the remotest notion of engineering a frugal menage. We faced the sordid struggle, however, with some courage THE AUTHOR. for awhile. My second and third books came out, and each time we hoped afresh for the spark to fire it, the advertising puff that would give us some hold on the future. We even dared to have a child. But the books died and the child died, My wife lost heart—and faith in me. She left me for a bachelor existence, and I was not sorry. Since then I have lived alone. Five years ago she died.” “And now you are going to marry the most charming womanin London. Everyone raves of the beauty and goodness of Lady Evelyn. The masculine half of society envies you like the devil!” “Tt is true,” said Lessing, “ that Lady Evelyn is charming. I think her the most perfect woman I have ever met. But I am not going to marry her.” “Not!” Ardale laid both hands on the arms of his chair, and looked as if about to spring up in surprise. «You are not going to marry her, after having the engagement announced in all the society papers! In Heaven’s name, why not?” “ Because,” replied Lessing, with quiet emphasis, “Tam not going to marry at all.” He paused, then went on, with some apparent effort : “T am dying.” “Good God!” The two men stared into each other’s eyes speechlessly. In Ardale’s face a ghastly horror appeared, but Lessing’s bore no expression of dread or panic. His eyes were dark with feeling, his face pale, but he was quite calm. “ You don’t mean it,” Ardale breathed. ‘‘T do. To-day I have had the third verdict on my case. All three specialists are in accord, They wrap up the death sentence with infinite tact and assure me, in the most genial and cheerful manner that, with care and luck, I may live quite a time—perhaps even a year ! “Tt is horrible! horrible!” exclaimed Ardale, in sharp agony. ‘Just when you have made your name—when you have everything at your feet—I can’t believe it—I won’t.” The man of the world was thrown off his ~ balance, tears stood in his eyes, and he trembled. ‘“‘ Tt is true, nevertheless.” «“ T have known men under the same verdict go on gaily into old age. Specialists often err. They are cocksure of necessity to preserve their reputa- tion. You'll live, Lessing, you must.” no desire for life.” “No desire!” echoed Ardale faintly. “Not the least. I’m too tired to enjoy it, to care about it. Pain has worn me out lately. Don’t look so tragic, Ardale. You must not frighten me, you know. A person with acute heart disease must be soothed, calmed, and told — * 4 ee ee eee “Why should 1?” asked Lessing, “since I've | | é THE AUTHOR. lies about himself. You have no tact, man, or you would not look at me with such eyes.” f tHis smile was whimsical; neither sad nor frightened, but a trifle nervous. For some time Ardale could not utter a word. Then he rose and held out his hand. “Tm sorry, Lessing,’ he said in a voice that shook painfully. ‘‘ Forgive me for what I did not do, for the cowardice of which you so justly accuse me. But how should I know that you if only u “Tf only!” echoed Lessing. And the broken phrase, the most tragic in our language, melted like a twilight ghost into the silence of the room as Ardale went out with bowed head. ————_—__—>—_+-—___—- STORIES OF AUTHORS’ ee N writing “Stories of Authors’ Loves” Clara E. Lauchlin has set herself no easy task. Perhaps such a subject is best treated lightly and sympathetically, without probing much below the surface, or “violating the fine reticences of life.” Even authors may be allowed some privacy, some plot of holy ground wherethe public may not penetrate, where the intellectual man of science may not tear up the flowers with the questionable desire of seeing how they grow, or exhume long- buried bones of contention. The book contains much pleasant reading, though but little is added to the information already before the public to explain the motives or elucidate the mental development of those with whom the author deals. The style is easy and colloquial, almost too easy at times: for we are told that Byron was a “ preternaturally sensitive little chap,” and that his ancestors were a “ mixed lot.” By such phrases as these his subsequent lapses from virtue and general eccentricities are explained and condoned. Nowadays it is the fashion to whitewash every black sheep, but why should poor Lady Byron be dismissed with a few words of complacent ridicule for resenting his treatment of her ; and Byron’s actions be gently alluded to as ‘‘very vexatious”? No early Victorian admirer could have said more for him. Shelley, on his side, might resent the playful raillery against his passions—such treatment re- minds us of a patronising Elder patting an excitable little boy on the head to calm him ;—with equal right he might object to the assumption that he was a child full of childishness up to the last hour of his life. But as the author states that “ God only smiled LOVES.* *“ Stories of Authors’ Loves,” by Clara E. Lauchlin, Published by Isbister & Co., London, 279 patiently” on his blasphemy because he was so young, it is not for man—or woman—to take him seriously. Keats does not fare much better for another reason. His love was not ideal enough to save him from the tortures of jealousy, and, there- fore, loving in a low form, he was bound to be tormented where another would have found content. The tragedy of the Carlyles can hardly be dealt with adequately in a book which is intentionally superficial, ‘Therefore it is not surprising to find but a few pages devoted to their story. Love is the mainspring of the volume: it is natural, therefore, to find not only everything focussed on this point, but the character regarded as incomplete where that feeling is lacking or latent. Whilst acknowledging the truth of this view in the main, it does not quite reconcile us to the lofty pity extended to George Eliot’s earlier years any more than to the entire espousal of Byron’s cause on the plea that he had an early ideal in Thyrza, which led. him to find all other women who attracted him—and there were many—want- ing and unworthy of his fidelity. Surely the subjects under the author’s pen would infinitely prefer their original shortcomings left in all their bitterness and incompleteness : for they would then gain in strength what they Jost in sweetness. ‘The lack of strength is the principal fault in this book. The real success of the author lies in her de- scription of wedded bliss unmarred by storms or complications, though deferred by hard fate or obdurate fathers. The story of the Brownings affords an oppor- tunity for some charming writing and a real insight into a woman’s mind. The Tennysons, too, have a graceful tribute to their love story, and a few lines at the close describing the wife who made his life so complete are worthy of quotation. “ Serene and sweet she walked by his side for more than forty years, quickening his insight, strengthening his faith, fulfiling his every heart’s desire : and when the eventide was come, “* Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark.’ “She was still there, nor let go his hand until he put it in that of the pilot himself, when he had crossed the bar.” Other lives, not so fortunate, figure in these pages. Dickens, Thackeray, and poor Charles Lamb, who renounced so much for a different sort of love. The book has a wide range and aims high, but lacks the strength and breadth of a serious study for serious people. It would be an excellent book for girls if it were a little more bracing, but here also it fails. Whilst full of high ideals and the praise of true love as distinct from 280 expediency, or the “second best,” it is uncon- vincing, and leaves an impression of sweet senti- ments wanting tone. The idea is there, but the vigour is lacking. ——— + CORRESPONDENCE. —t——+ —— Is “AuTHor” A PROPER DESCRIPTION ? Srr,— In signing some legal papers recently I was surprised to have it objected by the solicitor then present that the term author was no proper “description.” “Journalist” and “ editor” he allowed were admissible, but not “author.” In fine, faute de mieux, there I was, reduced to brand- ing myself as “of no occupation.” I wish to ask, sir, whether the being reduced to so extenuated a condition does not, in duly qualified opinion, literally constitute a reductio ad absurdum. As a class, it seems to me, authors must be up to something ; and, if so, that something should be describable. Indeed, have they not, like Cowley’s wise man, “all the works of God and Nature under consideration,” and so more business than a first minister:of State? Can it be, then, that there is no name for so comprehensive an occupation as this ; and that, contrary to the rule, a man may be veritably in the midst of the most important affairs, and yet nominally ‘of no occupation ” at all? Shakespeare in his will describes himself briefly asa “gent.” That is not bad ; but too general to serve as a precedent here. ‘Thoreau, to make a. skip, experienced more difficulty in the matter “T don’t know”—he wrote in answer to a circular —‘T don’t know whether mine is a profession or a trade, or what not. ... It is not one, but legion. . . . My steadiest employment, if such it can be called, is to keep myself at the top of my condition, and ready for whatever may turn up in heaven or earth.” Consulting ‘‘ Who’s Who,” I find much the same uncertainty. Some writers call themselves writers, some authors, some men of letters, some novelists, some critics, some poets ; and, of course, there is a heavy percentage of the legitimate “ journalist ” and “editor,” with possibly a stray essayist, philosopher, or publicist thrown in. But, apart from too fine a specialization, the question is, what should be the accredited and authentic designation of a person who writes, not for any paper or magazine, nor exclusively in any way, but, in general, publishing a book every now and again? Further, the mere publishing of a book only makes one half an author (which is worse than none). Unless the public ratifies the title, it has a savour of presumption to appropriate There seems something it without more ado. THE AUTHOR. spurious about the “author” who, for all the reading world knows of him, is none. Yet what is such a one to call himself meanwhile ?—author- prospective, author-presumptive ? Norman ALLISTON. —-—~<> + SatomE: A REMINISCENCE. Sir,—The belated performance of Oscar Wilde’s play must have recalled forcibly to the minds of many of us the events of a certain evening just thirteen years ago when the inaugural dinner of the Authors’ Club was held at its first home, 17, St. James’ Place. Unless I am much mistaken the ban of the censor had been issued against Salomé that very afternoon. still smarted under the prohibition when he joined us on that memorable night in June. Those who listened to his speech on that occasion can scarcely have doubted this, or have been deceived by the “J don’t care” with which the dramatist announced the fact, as he waved his cigarette in the air with seeming indifference to a decision which, you may depend upon it, was very keenly felt. To-day, as things have gone, one is tempted to reflect how it might have been more wise and kindly to have still accepted the examiner’s inter- dict and withheld Salomé from the boards altogether. OLD Brrp. — + REVIEWING EXTRAORDINARY. Dear Srr,—May I draw your attention to an innovation in the matter of reviewing which con- stitutes, I consider, a dangerous abuse? In a review: of my book, “The Child Slaves of Britain,” which appeared in the Daily News on the 8th of April, the following sentence occurs + “But in his summary he singularly enough announces that ‘the real root of slavery m England rests in the free ingress of aliens.’” The passage I have italicised was put im inverted commas as though a quotation from my book. The reviewer next proceeded to show its inanity. I at once wrote to the editor to say — that no such passage occurred anywhere in my book, that it was entirely opposed to my own — views on the question, that I considered it absurd and imbecile, and I asked him to be so good as to insert my disclaimer. To tell the public that my book was based on such a theory was to discredit the book and injure its chances. the Daily News took no notice of my letter and inserted no rectification. Yours faithfully, Ropert SHERARD. At any rate, the gifted writer thereof The editor of — Is this fair play ?— a 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 09 (June 1905) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 09 (June 1905) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1905-06-01-The-Author-15-9 publications The Author