14 20 545 https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/286/1896-02-01-The-Author-6-9.pdf d22878855cb152e1387cb6477cacfb72 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) 1896-02-01 Volume 6 Issue 9 Pages Page range in volume 197–220 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18960201 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin O be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) C O N DU C T ED BY W. A. L T E R B E S A. N. T. VoI. VI.—No. 9.] FEBRUARY 1, 1896. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are Tesponsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee winless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *~ --> 4- ºr -e. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chamcery-lame, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- a 2–2 - * ~~ WARNINGS AND ADWICE. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTs.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at mo expense to themselves except the cost of the stamp. 4. AscERTAIN what A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO Both sides BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CosT OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. — Reep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices:– 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *-- -* e-- * ~ * HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the Y 2 ## p. (#552) ################################################ 198 TIE AUTHOR. experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- ſidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. er-- * ~ * THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, . . . EMBERS 8, re informed . 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. - - 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. - - 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. . without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted” is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. - The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P r Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under-. stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. - Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production * are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. - Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production' for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for ## p. (#553) ################################################ TIE AUTHOR. 199 inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- a r- * FROM THE COMMITTEE, HE Committee beg to remind members that the Sub- scription for the year is due on January the First. The most convenient form of payment is by order on a Bank. This method saves the trouble of remembering. The Secretary will in future send reminders to members who are in arrear in February. The Author will not be sent to members in arrear after the month of March. At the end of the year the three retiring members of the committee, Sir W. Martin Conway, Mr. Arthur àBeckett, and the Hon. John Collier submitted their names for re- election and were duly re-elected members of the committee. At the meeting of Jan. 27th the committee proceeded to elect a chairman in the room of Sir W. Martin Conway, whose year of office expired on Dec. 31st, 1895. Mr. H. Rider- Haggard was unanimously elected chairman. G. H. THRING, Secretary. > c: THE ADDRESS TO AMERICAN AUTHORS, HIS address was published in the January number of the Author. It appeared in a great many papers, both of this country and the United States, on the morning of Dec. 25. It was sent out for signature to a list of English men and women of letters, not neces- sarily members of the Society. At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held on Jan. Io, 1896, the following resolution was passed :— “The Committee of Management of the Society of Authors, having investigated the circumstances under which the address to American authors and its covering letter were issued from the Society’s offices, have unanimously found that the address expressly purports to proceed from its signatories alone; that it was neither printed nor circulated at the expense of the Society’s funds; and that the use of the Society's letter-paper in soliciting signatures was unauthorised by them. The Committee, while entertaining all friendly feelings possible towards their American brethren, are of opinion that action on international ques- tions does not fall within the scope of their cor- porate powers.” This resolution dissociated the Address from the Society. That is to say, it was within the powers of the Committee, had they chosen, to adopt the Chairman’s action, and to make it their own. Since they did not do so, the address was sent out by Sir Martin Conway. After this resolution was sent round there appeared several letters in the papers. To these letters Sir Martin Conway replied by a letter to the Times on the 21st. The following is that part of his letter which refers to the address:– “I was asked on Saturday, Tec. 21, whether I would permit the use of the Authors’ Society organisation for the purpose of procuring signa- tures to a friendly address to American authors. I replied affirmatively, with the reservation that the address must not be sent out as from the Society, nor at the Society’s expense. A draft address was sent to me that night. I returned it the same night, saying that it was too long and went into too many details. I added that all we wanted was something brief and friendly. Here ends my knowledge.” The statement in the Author that the address had been sent out by the Society was passed by inadvertence. . The introductory paragraph which appeared in some papers was not a part of the address. There was no such paragraph when it was given to the secretary. - The number of authors who responded to the invitation and signed the address is 500. W. B -* -*_ºr ºr º ar- LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—MR. HALL CAINE’s REPORT ON CANADA AND THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION. After his mission as delegate of the SOCIETY OF AUTHORS to the Dominion Government. Delivered at the rooms of the Royal Medical Society, 2c, Hanover-square, Monday, Jan. 27, at 4.30 p.m. COPYRIGHT AN IMPERIAL QUESTION. T a moment when the air is full of wars and rumours of wars, it may appear untimely and almost presumptuous that English authors should intrude upon each other and upon the public a subject so limited in its class interest as the Canadian copyright question. But, in truth, this subject which concerns ourselves so closely is very heavily charged with Imperial issues. There is nothing in the Venezuela trouble, and certainly nothing in the trouble in the Transvaal, which is more liable to breed serious international and colonial dispute. Tet me explain. The Canadian Constitution took shape in the British North America Act of 1867. By that Act Canada. ## p. (#554) ################################################ 2OO TIIE AUTHOR. secured legislative independence, subject to a veto to be exercised by the Imperial Government. During these thirty years the Imperial veto has been practically a nullity. Like the veto of the British Sovereign over British legislation, it is never exercised. Competent judges are heard to say that let Canada do what she will the colonial office will not interpose. Canadian statesmen appear to have regarded the Imperial veto as a thing not to be reckoned with. They think of it in that light in this instance, and demand legisla- tive freedom. If the veto were exercised it is probable that they would ask for the reconstruc- tion of the Act of 1867. If the Imperial sanction of their demands were merely withheld they might (after the proper lapse of tin:e) call upon their Governor-General to promulgate the legislation of Canada. The Governor-General would then be compelled either to obey his constitutional advisers, the Premier and Cabinet of Canada, or to go home. There is no instance on record, so far as I know, in which the Imperial Government has advised the Governor-General to resist the will of the Canadian ministry. The Imperial veto would be like the Crown veto, a force con- stitutionally divested of its power. But what would be the result P. We should begin to ask ourselves whether a dependency which never brings us any revenue, which involves us in military and naval responsibilities, gives us no commercial advantages, and disregards our will on Imperial questions, is a dependency worth having. Such is Canada's power, and such the power of this copyright question over our Colonial relations, but its power over our foreign relations is no less serious. In 1891 America passed a Copyright Act, giving copyright to the subjects of all nations which gave reciprocal advantages to Americans. The President asked our Foreign Secretary if the British Empire granted such reciprocal advan- tages, and our Secretary replied that it did. Thereupon the President made a proclamation that there was copyright in the United States for all subjects of the British Crown. But if Canada were to enact a copyright law which Americans, rightly or wrongly, thought injurious to American interests, is it not likely, is it not certain, that they would demand the taking down of that proclamation ? I know it is said that it is to the interests of America to preserve her copyright arrangement with Great Britain. It is to the interest of her good and true men to preserve that copyright arrangement ; but no traveller in America can fail to see that besides the legitimate publishing trade in copyright books there is a vast and most active illegitimate trade in non- Copyright books. The American Copyright Act was wrested after the most zealous effort, and by the narrowest majority, out of the American sense of fair-play, against the machinations of a powerful class of unfair traders. That class has not grown less since 1891. It consists of a multitude of printers who would eagerly clutch at any hopeful chance of tearing down the President's proclamation at any cost to honest trade. And if it were torn down, if we lost American copyright, as a result of Canadian legislation, the quarrel would be England's quarrel first and only Canada's quarrel after- wards. - This much by way of explaining why we who are authors have asked public opinion to help us to escape from a legislative deadlock. Every stitch we make now will save nine later on. If we can settle this dispute with Canada on terms which are anything like satisfactory—satisfactory to ourselves, to the signatories to the Berne Con- vention, and to America—we may fairly claim the sympathy of the English people in removing a probable and even imminent danger of colonial or international quarrel. THE CASE FOR, ENGLISH ALTHORS. You will see that I regard Canadian copyright as an Imperial question in its ultimate issues, but in its immediate bearings it is of course a domestic and even a trade question. Our chief objections to the Canadian Act of 1889 were, first, that it was opposed to the principle of copyright by allowing that the publication of a book might be outside its author's control; next, that it required the multiplication of places of manufacture and so limited literary activity; next, that it fostered a scheme of license which seemed to us to be little better than legalised piracy, and paved the way for the ruin of the trade of bookselling; and, finally, that it offered temptations to dishonest traders from all parts of the world to make Canada, the ground for invading the copyright territories of other countries. Such was our case against Canada, and you know what we did to support it. With the co-operation of the Copy- right Association and the London Chamber of Commerce we petitioned the Colonial Office to exercise its Imperial veto. The results were what we, as students of history, should, perhaps, have foreseen. Our Colonial Office tried to make peace between Canada and ourselves. It sent for a representative of the Canadian Government, and he came to London last summer. It sent for Mr. Daldy as the representative of English publishers, and when the Society of Authors authorised me to act for it, the Colonial Office also sent for your representative. After hearing the case for every party, it proceeded to frame a number of modifi- cations of the Canadian Act of 1889. It was a ## p. (#555) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2O I well-meant and indeed an able effort. There were three several documents, but I have not submitted any of them to the Society. I knew they would not do. They were ingenious but not very practical. Yet it was with these suggested modifications in my pocket that I went to Canada. T had got my own plan of compromise, which I had formulated in a letter to Mr. Chamberlain. He had given me a letter to the Governor-General, and the chiefs of the Colonial Office had told me in effect to convince Canada and then come back to them. THE CASE FOR, CANADA — THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION. You know, Sir, that time and again Canada. has told us that in this matter, as in nearly every other that concerns the relations of England to the Dominion, we have not understood Canada's case. On going to Canada. I made it my first duty to see this question from the Canadian point of view, and I must frankly tell you that I had not been many days there before I realised that there was much truth in Canada's complaint. I went to Montreal, searched Canadian newspapers for months and perhaps years, visited printers, book- sellers, authors, and men in other walks of life, and came face to face with many startling facts. The first of them was this, that notwithstanding reams of writing, both there and here, Canadian copyright was a subject of which the Canadian people knew next to nothing at all. More, Canadian copyright was a subject for which the Canadian people cared nothing at all. What Canada, did know of and care for was the consti- tutional question of whether Canada should enact what law she pleased, or whether England should interpose to prevent her. This, and not the disputes of English authors and Canadian pub- lishers, was what had made a five years' outcry in Canada; this, and not a desire to denounce the Derne Convention, had produoed that marvel- lous unanimity in which, as Sir Charles H. Tupper has truly said, both parties and every member of Parliament had voted for the Act of 1889, and had continued to that hour to support it. CAN AIDA 7)69?"S^{S AMERICA. Such was my first lesson in Canada's case. The second was a more severe but no less salu- tary lesson. It chanced that on my arrival at New York I had been the guest of my friend and American publisher, Mr. W. W. Appleton. It also chanced that Mr. Appleton was chairman of the Publishers’ Copyright League of America. Again it chanced that I became unwell, and went with Mr. Appleton to Buzzard's Bay to recruit, and once again it chanced that my host's neigh- bour was Mr. Cleveland, and that I sometimes met the President while out fishing on the bay or drinking tea indoors of an afternoon. Finally it was known that Mr. Goldwin Smith had done me the honour to invite me to make his house my home in Toronto. A result of this series of. circumstances was that immediately on setting foot in Canada. I was met by an alarming and certainly plausible charge of having dallied in the United States to hold conferences with American publishers, of having visited American Ministers to intimidate Canadian Ministers, and of having cast in my lot with the avowel cham- pions of annexation, thus insulting the Govern- ment I had been sent by my brother and sister authors to conciliate, and outraging the classes whose interests I had come to investigate. Although this accusation did not convict me of nondiplomatic conduct, it opened my eyes to a great secret of the Canadian copyright agitation, by showing me that the agitation, which seemed to be merely a class dispute, came out of the national spirit absolutely, that it was a clear legacy of the old trouble with America, which found expression long ago on Queenston Heights and more recently on the Behring Sea. It also showed me, what was very helpful, that no appreciation of the Canadian view could be satis- factory that did not take account of Canada's relation to the United States in the trade and industry of book publishing. Following that trace I found much to make me sympathise with the Canadians, and something to explain their policy where it did not justify it. During the period of general piracy in America before 1891 Canadian publishers, like some English publishers, had retaliated wrong for wrong. If American pub- lishers appropriated “David Copperfield,” English publishers appropriated “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” and Canadian publishers appropriated “Ben Hur.” But there was this difference, from the American point of view, between the appropria- tion by English and by Canadian publishers. The English appropriation being made from the other side of an ocean only affected the authors, and they were then (as they are now) an ineffectual if rather vocal race; but the Canadian appropria- tion, being made merely on the other side of a boundary not marked off by nature, affected the publishers as well, and they are a race less given to clamour and more capable of reprisals. It was a bad, mad game of grab on both sides, English copyright books pirated in the United States went into Canada, and American copyright books printed in Canada went into the United States. Canada made a show of taxing the stolen English books in the interests of English authors; America only taxed the stolen American books in ## p. (#556) ################################################ 2O2 THE AUTHOR. the Interests of American revenue. Then came the American Act of 1891, and Canada went out, as they say, at the thin edge of the wedge. American copyright books being easily copy- righted in England, became thereby copyright in Canada also. English non-copyright books might still be appropriated in America, but in Canada, they continued to be protected. The Act of 1891 had left half the game of grab to the American pirate, but not one scrimpy handful of it to his Canadian brother. Perhaps this does not command your sympathy for Canada, but there are other disqualifications which will do so. When the good and true publishers in America at length and with noble effort put to rout the unfair traders of their own country, they also stole a march on the good and true publishers of Canada. Partly from distrust of Canadian pub- lishers, partly from a settled conviction of the American publishing mind that New York is the natural centre of book distribution for the entire American continent, the American publishers began to ask English authors to give them the Dominion of Canada into their bargains. The authors gave it. When I was charged with this in Canada. I answered that neither were we to blame, nor were the American publishers. The American publishers came to our doors in London, the Canadian publishers were always three thousand miles away; the American pub- lishers were many, the Canadian publishers were few ; the American publishers had great con- stituences and could give us good terms; the Canadian publishers had small constituences and could promise us little or nothing. But all the same Canada suffered, and the Canadian publish- ing interest visibly declined, with the passing of the American Act of 1891. Therefore it is the truth when Canada tells us that its publishing trade, both legitimate and illegitimate, has for the past five years been the victim of a policy of extermination. It is the truth when Canada. says that whatever the justice of the Act of 1891, Canada as a book publishing country has paid heavily for the advantage to British authors. No doubt the ultimate truth is, as the American publishers say, that Canada suffers from the disadvantage of the smallness of its area as a reading country. Canada is not a literary but a political expression. From the point of the English author Canada is almost limited to the province of Ontario. When we speak of the five million readers of Canada, we include some two millions of French who do not read English. Of the remaining three millions a great part do not read new books. They read the American magazines, two or three good magazines of their own, and their own excellent newspapers. And taken as a whole Canada, as a book publish- ing country, has suffered by the accident that while living under the shadow of English Imperial Copyright she has at the same time been made the scapegoat (perhaps the inevitable scapegoat) of American copyright law. CANADA TOO MUCH GOVERNIED. I had to learn a third lesson, Sir, before I was long in Canada, and it was that Canada in this matter of copyright, as in some other matters, was ridiculously over-governed. Whether it is true or not that there is too much governing going on in Canada, it is the fact that there is too much copyright law in operation there. Every author knows that when a publisher in Ilondon makes a contract with him for a book he asks for the sole and exclusive right to publish it in the United Kingdom. That is as it should be, but although Canada has its own copyright law, the sole and exclusive right to publish in Canada is more than any Canadian publisher can demand. When I reached Canada I found three copyright editions of “Trilby’’ on the bookstalls and three of “Marcella,” the American edition, the ordinary English edition, and the special Colonial edition. What possible chance was there for a Canadian edition without these could be expelled ! Some- times a Canadian publisher makes an effort to live even under the shadow of English and American copyright. The Methodist Book Com- pany of Toronto bought the Canadian copyright of Mr. Crockett’s “Raiders,” and published an edition at a dollar and a half. But presently there came the colonial edition from England at fifty cents, and the Canadian book at a dollar and a half was ruined. The Canadian publisher had purchased a territory which he could not hold. Why? Because Canadian law was living under the shadow of British copyright. ATTITUT) E OF THE CAN AIDIAN MINISTERS. Such then were the lessons I learned in Canada, but they did not at all convince me that the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889 was a cure for the evils of the Canadian publishing trade, or the difficulties of Canada's position in relation to England and to America. The more I thought of that Act the more sure I became that while of incalculable danger to us it was no good at all to Canadians. Going up to Ottawa I saw first the Prime Minister, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and tackling him at once as an old printer, I urged that the Act was no good to the printing interest. He agreed, and he introduced me to the Minister of Justice, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper. Sir Charles is a stout and able upholder of Canada's right to ## p. (#557) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2O3 rule herself, and I told him at once that I was not come to question her right to do so, but only to urge that she should not legislate to our injury and her own. Then I called together the interest- ing group of men of letters at the Capital and showed them that the Act would put them into a position of isolation among the authors of the world. Finally, I did my best to con- vince the booksellers that a scheme of unlimited licensing would in ten years' time exterminate the trade in books. I found the Premier and Sir Charles H. Tupper entirely sympathetic, fair, and openminded. They promised that the Act of 1889 should not be brought for- ward again, and they urged me to go on to Toronto, make my peace with the interested classes there, and then return with a concerted scheme to Ottawa. THE INTERESTED CIASSES IN CANADA. When I got to Toronto the Canadian pub- lishers and Copyright Association were waiting to receive me. It was not altogether with pleasant feelings that I entered the room at the hotel which they had engaged for our meeting. I remembered that in this very house, not long before, I had christened them a gang of rogues and pirates. It did not remove my uneasiness when they began by telling me that, owing to my behaviour in the United States, they had passed a resolution that they should not consult with me. “Very well, gentlemen,” I said, “in that case I will go home, but I leave you to decide for yourselves if it is good policy to send me back unheard.” To tell you the truth, I found my so-called pirates and rogues very good fellows indeed; very companionable, with a good deal to say for themselves, and capable of saying it in a highly efficient way. Next day, they rescinded the resolution not to meet me, on the ground that an English author appeared to be a reasonable being after all. We had some long and trying discussions after that, and I wish to tell you that the interested classes in Canada met me as your representative in a temperate spirit. . . By this time I had developed thc scheme which I had given to Mr. Chamberlain, and I propounded it, not as a legislator for English authors, not pro- mising that you would agree to it, but only as your representative, delegated to do his best to enable Canada and England to escape from a legislative deadlock. You know what the scheme is. It was founded on a recognition of the geographical position of Canada along the edge of a vast nation which had passed a protective Copyright Act, and was not a party to the Berne Convention. . Therefore it was an approximation in principle to the WOL. VI, American Copyright Act of 1891. But the same law can only be just in different countries where the conditions are the same. Obviously the con- ditions of the United States with a population of sixty-five millions and a great publishing industry were not the same as those of Canada, with a population of five millions and a publishing industry almost annihilated. So the compromise gave authors more liberal terms, more time to publish, and an almost unbroken control. The Canadian publishers took some days to consider the plan, and finally they gave a general assent to the principle. - THE COMPEROMISE. I went on to New York, met Mr. Daldy on his arrival as the representative of the English Copy- right Association, obtained his amiable consent, sympathy, and co-operation, and then returned to Toronto to draft a bill embodying the principle of the compromise. The general operation of that draft bill may easily be stated. It would put Canada on fair terms of competition with the |United States, enable her to publish the books for which she could find a profitable market, and leave all other books whatsoever under the opera- tion of the Imperial Act. A few days later we submitted this draft bill to the Dominion Ministers at a conference held in Ottawa. The Government did not undertake to accept it, but we were led to believe that in drawing up the measure which they had now decided to substitute for the abandoned Act of 1889 they would gladly use as much of our draft as in the exercise of their larger responsibility to the Canadian public they thought good and wise. Thus on leaving Canada after my three months’ anxious work there I left it with a great send-off of hope and expectation. I could not disguise it from myself that I had gone on a hostile errand, but Canada had received me, as your delegate, in a spirit of fair-play and sympathy. Ministers, the Press, and the interested classes alike had shown plainly that they had no wish to injure English authors, and that if we could show them a way to be true to Canada in the fierce competi- tion with a powerful neighbour they would try to be not only just to us but generous. ATTITUIDE OF AMERICA. There was still America to reckon with. The gravity of the Canadian copyright claims lay not so much in what we were to lose in Canada, for the real Canadian book market is still a thing of the future; not so much in the possible injury to the Berne Convention, for much as we prize its principle as the ultimate charter of our craft, its practical value is not great; but in the effect on the American Copyright Act of 1891, which has Z ## p. (#558) ################################################ 2O4 THE AUTHOR. increased the earnings of many authors by 20 or 30 per cent, and of a few by 80 and a IOO. I felt that my work would not be complete until I was in a position to return to my brother and sister authors in England with the assurance that if Canada adopted the compromise which we had proposed their market in the United States would no longer be imperilled. Therefore on our way home through New York Mr. Daldy joined with me in asking the two Copyright Associations of America to say if the proposed measure removed the objections which they had urged so strongly against the Act of 1889. The answer was gene- rous, prompt, and satisfactory. Through Mr. Putnam, representing the Publishers' League, and Mr. Underwood Johnson, representing the Authors’ Association, we received resolutions of congratulations and general approval. MORE RECENT DEVELOPMENTs. We brought the Draft Act back to the Colonial Office, and Mr. Chamberlain expressed his gratifi- cation at the prospect of an amicable adjust- ment of what threatened to be an awkward question. Parliamentary counsel has revised it with great insight and wisdom, and it has been returned to Ottawa. Since our return to England, however, there has arisen in Canada, a ministerial crisis of some gravity, involving two changes of importance to our interests. Dr. Montague has become Minister of Agriculture (the official who has charge of copyright), and he is a man of much literary culture, in whose hands the interests of authors will, I trust, be safe. But Sir Charles H. Tupper, who has spent great energy on the copyright question, has resigned his position as Minister of Justice. He promises, however, that he will give all the help he can to authors' inte- rests consistent with the just claims of Canada. I might perhaps tell you more if this were a private meeting of the executive committee, but it may be enough to say that we can fairly wait for the new Copyright Bill that is now being drafted by Mr. Newcombe, the Canadian Deputy Minister of Justice, with the assurance that it will embody the substance of our claim. Meantime, after five years' fruitless agitation, I think we may congratulate ourselves on some results. We have secured the abandonment of the Act of 1889, we have shown Canada a way to protect herself and yet hold on to the Berne Convention, and enable us to retain the substantial advantages of American copyright, we have come to terms of peace and goodwill with the interested classes in the dominion, and above all we have held fast to the great principle that an author has an inalienable right to the property he creates in books, * † ENGLAND AND HER, COLONIES. I have a last word to my brother and sister authors, and it is a serious one. If this compro- mise makes certain concessions to Canada, and it does, let us remember that Canada has claims upon us. She is an important section of our empire, and will inevitably play a great part in our future. We who are men and women of letters in England are only a little handful of people, and it is a grievous responsibility to ask England to exercise on our behalf her Imperial veto against a colonial kingdom. If we had to do so again, and England listened to us, the speedy result would be a re-adjusting of the British North America Act of 1867. When I met Mr. Goldwin Smith in Toronto he said he was all for one copyright for the whole empire, and for appealing to the Privy Council. One copyright for the whole empire will be our watch- word, too, the morning after America abandons her manufacturing clause and joins the Berne Convention. But for the present I beg respect- fully to answer Mr. Goldwin Smith out of his own mouth that it is a fallacy to be shunned, especially when the horoscope of Canada is being cast to treat the empire in a lump, to take it for granted that the destiny of all its parts must be the same, and to forget that Canada is under the disadvan- tage alongside the United States of falling under British copyright law. After travelling in our colonies I am no believer in the Imperial veto, and it is no terror to me that the veto is fast becoming a nullity. If Canada were to do what she liked within herself, even if she chose to indulge in civil war, I am by no means sure that it would be necessary for us, three thousand miles away and without special knowledge of her difficulties, to interpose. In short, I am convinced that the strength of our dependencies, as well as England's strength in them, will be in the measure of their self-control. I think they should be encouraged in habits of self-reliance and in a sense of responsibility. And if you ask me what is to be the good of dependencies which do not undertake to obey us, I say it should consist in the bond of blood, in allegiance to our flag and in the hope (which Mr. Chamberlain's wise circular encourages) of calling into existence an inter- colonial trade. CANADA AND ENGLAND. But I have a word to Canadian legislators also, if they will permit me, and their fair reception of your representative leads me to believe that per- haps they may. If we have solved this copyright question solely as a Canada-American question (which it is in the main), we have recognised at the same time that it is only one of the dangers ## p. (#559) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2O5 that lie between two countries whose geographical relations may be the cause of many dangers. It is hard to conceive of a just war between England and the United States. But if anything will ever make a war between England and America, or encourage a war otherwise made, it will be the friction of our great Dominion and the States alongside of it. An Englishman cannot cross the Niagara river without realising to his great pain that the fire that burnt so fiercely on Queenston Heights smoulders still on both sides of that turbulent water. The United States will never annex Canada politically until she has annihilated the Canadians, and hence the connection of Canada with England lays on Great Britain a heavy responsibility. Nowhere else in our Dominions, so far as I can see, are the burdens and perils of our empire so great. The more reason, therefore, that the relations between England and Canada should always be of the closest. Canadian loyalty to England is deep and strong, but there should never be a moment when England's good feeling towards Canada ought to be strained; there should never be a moment when Englishmen ought to feel that the dependency which involves them in grave military and diplomatic responsibilities and exposes them to misunderstanding with a great and friendly family of the Anglo-Saxon race, is unmindful of the wish and welfare of the mother country; there should never be a moment when Canada any more than England should forget there ought to be a community of interests in “all our glorious empire round and round.” II.--THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT ACT. Mr. Moncure Conway said that, as a repre- sentative of the only purely literary guild in America—the American Authors’ Guild, founded four years ago, incorporated one year ago, numbering some 300 members—he desired to make a brief statement. While feeling admira- tion for the tact and ability with which Mr. Hall Caine had fulfilled his mission, he felt that in his narrative certain things were passed over, perhaps through feelings of delicacy towards America, and which might properly come from an American. And he (Mr. Conway) would take this opportunity of saying that, from long intimacy with this country, he knew that he was speaking in a land in which America had not one single enemy. The chief thing he had to say was, that the American Copyright Act of 1891, carried by aid of English authors, who were represented as hungering for it, carried with huzzas, was really the most disastrous blow to American literature ever passed into law; it for the first time legalised literary piracy in America. All books by new authors unable to secure simul- taneous publication in America, or unless for any pittance a publisher may throw them, and by authors who cannot afford to print and publish editions there entirely at their own expense, all such books are by the Act made lawful prey. American authors are thus brought into com- petition with an increasing mass of legally pirated literature. Some, though comparatively few, protested at the time against this wrong, but the heaviness of it has been increasingly felt since by authors. In this Canadian arrange- ment there will be compromises, and when they are being made he hoped it would be remembered that American authors ought to be consulted as well as the publishers. *- As. -->º = ~~ NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Jan. I I, 1896. HE American book trade has had an un- usually successful Christmas season, in spite of all the rumours of war with our kin across the sea, and in spite also of the sudden confusion wrought in the money market by these rumours. That the sober sense of the two great peoples who speak the English language would come to the rescue sooner or later and put an end to violent talk, everybody knew who under- stood the real feelings of the inhabitants of Great Britain and the United States. The address of certain British men of letters to the American people was telegraphed heré at once; and it has been well received. The Chicago Dial declares that this manly and brotherly appeal cannot “fail of being a great influence for good in any future emergency threatening the peaceful rela- tions of the two countries.” The New York Nation says that the letter is “but an echo of Tennyson's message, an expression of the real continuity of life that still binds this country to England, and a conviction that our best civil life and ideals are due to ‘that deep chord which Hampden smote.’” And yet for a while the crisis was serious; and even now no one can see just how a way out of the difficulty is to be found. It is well for the British people to understand that the feeling in the United States in regard to the increase.of the holding anywhere in America, North or South, of any European power, is quite as strong as the feeling in Great Britain in regard to the taking of Constantinople by Russia. Whether or not this was the original Monroe doctrine is a mere academic question of no real importance; it may ## p. (#560) ################################################ 2O6 THE AUTHOR. be called the Cleveland doctrine or anything else; it is none the less a fact to be reckoned with. Whether or not Great Britain is trying to extend her boundaries in South America is a question which only an impartial tribunal can decide; and that is why all the American friends of England regret so sincerely that Her Majesty’s Govern- ment has refused to leave the matter to arbitra- tlOll. It may seem to some that this is not a subject for discussion in the pages of the Author; but we who hold that literature is among the most powerful forces which mould the opinions of a free people, must avail ourselves of every opportunity to bring about a heartier understanding between the writers of the two great branches of the English- speaking race. And this is particularly a time for plain speaking. I offer no apology, therefore, for considering further two of the sentences in the appeal of the British authors to the American people. One of these declares that “there is no anti-American feeling among Englishmen.” I hope this sentence is true; but if it be true why was it necessary for Mr. William Archer to write his eloquent appeal to the British Press “not to embitter American feeling by untimely and unseemly taunts and gibes?” The second sentence I have to quote follows the first : “It is impossible that there can be any anti-English feeling among Americans.” I wish this sentence were true; but I know it is not. There is anti-English feeling among Americans, not among all, of course, but among most. It is proper that the English should know this and understand its causes, for it would do much toward the future peace of the world if this anti- English feeling of Americans could be changed by a removal of its causes. Some of these causes can be removed, and that is why I write this letter to the Author. “Why is it,” asked Colonel Higginson in a recent temperate essay on “Anglomania and Anglophobia,” “why is it that if no sane American could soberly contemplate the prospect of a war with any nation on earth, there is no question that a war with England would be more popular than any other in almost all parts of the United States?” Undoubtedly there are many causes. “There are the long traditions of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812; and the instinctive dislike toward England of Repub- lican protectionists and of Irish-American Demo- crats.” The long traditions of the Revolutionary War and of the War of 1812 have a weight few Englishmen suspect, for those wars were not fought on British soil but on American. They took shape, for example, in the training given to the late Townsend Harris, whose biography has just been issued in London by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co., and who opened Japan to the world: he was brought up by his grandmother to “fear God, tell the truth, and hate the British,” for her house had been burnt over her head by British soldiers. But these are hostile traditions, which will die away in time; and so also will the other causes Colonel Higginson mentions, although these latter will go very slowly, I am afraid. The fourth reason Colonel Higginson gives for this anti-English feeling in America is the keen recollection of the British attitude towards the United States all through the Civil War. What a broad-minded and patriotic American thought and felt at that time is preserved for all time in that most vigorous of the “Biglow Papers ” called “Jonathau to John.” “Add to this,” says Colonel IHigginson, “the long series of insults so in- genously brought by ”—certain newspapers—“all studiously working to detach, to destroy, all English sympathy in the minds of that literary class in America which should be in case of need most friendly to England. It is impossible to estimate how much this mean literary antagonism has done to furnish fuel for the so-called Jingo side in a world where the gospel of turning the other cheek to the smiter is yet imperfectly established.” Now here is a cause of American anti-English feeling which it is in the power of English men of letters to remove. Here is where Colonel Higginson is at one with Mr. Archer. Here is a way in which the writers of Great Britain can show the friendly feeling which they protested in their recent appeal to the American people. Here is a state of affairs which can be remedied at last, and which is in as great need of remedy now as it was in 1819 when Washington Irving—than whom no American was fonder of England— wrote in the very first number of the Sketch Book an appeal to “English Writers on America” that they refrain from their brutal abuse of the United States. I wish that the Author could find room in its columns to reprint the whole of this sensible and kindly essay of Irving's, an essay of which Mr. Archer's letter was an unconscious echo. Irving himself felt so sharply on the subject that he refused to write for the Quarterly Review because it had so abundantly vilified America, and he refused this proffered literary work when he was in great need of money. Manners have mended in both countries since Irving's day, when the Quarterly Review vied with Blackwood’s Magazine in blackguardly abuse of their opponents in politics and literature; and with the improvement in politeness the language used in British journals in discussing American ## p. (#561) ################################################ THE 2O7 A UTHOR. subjects is now more choice than it was then, yet it still leaves much to be desired. Of course there is not a little vulgar abuse of Great Britain in some of the inferior newspapers of the United States ; there is far too much of it. But the better the newspaper in America is, the higher its standard of taste, the more courteous it is in its treatment of England and of English authors. Not in the Nation, not in the Dial, not even in the Critic, has any British man of letters found himself held up to ridicule because he was an Englishman. On the other hand what has been the treatment of American authors by the English press P. How often have American writers been sneered at in London reviews of high standing, because they were guilty of the crime of being Americans ? Why, to take a personal example, I could name one of the most accomplished of London journalists who writes about Mr. Howells with a careless insolence he would be ashamed to show toward M. Bourget. No American journalist of a position at all equivalent to this writer's is guilty of gibes and taunts like his. Gibes and taunts there are enough in American newspapers, but they are not written by gentlemen and scholars. Perhaps another example will make my meaning plainer still. As it happens, two American authors of high rank have written books about England, and one British author of high rank has written a book about America. But compare the tone of Emerson’s “English Traits” and of Hawthorne’s “Our Old Home” with the tone of Dickens’ “American Notes.” No finer tribute to the best qualities of another people has ever been written than Emerson’s ; and the very title of Hawthorne's work reveals his feeling toward England. What a contrast between the delicacy and the distinction of these two books and the underbred manner of Dickens ! Probably the matter of his book is accurate enough ; very likely he was far nearer to the truth than we were willing to admit. But what of that P Con- sidering the welcome Dickens had received in the United States, “American Notes '' was a book no gentleman would have thought of publishing. Mr. Archer very sensibly pointed that the com- munity of language which exists between the United States and Great Britain, and which we rely on as “the strongest of bonds between us, is, from another point of view, a source of danger,” since it enables each people to understand what the other may say against it. And he suggests that we Americans are very sensitive. We were, no doubt ; and we are still, although in a far less degree; and our skin is toughening yearly. Whether or not we are not as sensitive as you WOL. VI. are is an open question, which need not be dis- cussed. It is best for both sides to remember always that the courtesy of the debate is binding, and that personalities do not help the public business. In the speech which Lowell made at the first dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors he said, you may remember, that “we Americans have sometimes been charged with being a little too sensitive ; but perhaps a little indulgence may be due to those who always have their faults told to them, and the reference to whose virtues perhaps is somewhat conveyed in a foot-note in small print. I think that both countries have a sufficiently good opinion of themselves to have a fairly good one of each Other.” X. Y. Z. *—- - --> e- NOTES FROM PARIS. & C HE man who lives without folly,” de la Rochefoucauld said it, “is not so wise as he imagines himself.” I wonder how much harm the mischievous old cynic did by printing this maxim. It must have served as an excuse and a palliation for folly, and worse than folly in thousands of cases. Possibly, probably, it consoled poor Paul Verlaine on many an occa- sion. Writers have an immense responsibility. How few of them realise it. I have written of Verlaine elsewhere. I cannot boast a great acquaintance with him, for I avoided his company rather than sought it. By the time when I first met him I had learned this wisdom of life, that it is a good thing always to avoid painful impressions. I believe that these leave on the mind cicatrices, if not bleeding wounds, the effect of which is felt all through life. I remember holding forth on this subject, by the side of the guillotine, one night in Paris, to a fresh young American who had come for the awful spectacle of a capital execution. He was very excited, and showed keen interest. I told him he would regret it. The memory of the hideous thing would haunt him, coming to him in happy quiet moments to disturb, to appal. He laughed at me then ; but since he has written to me. “You were quite right,” he said. “I wish I had never seen that horrid thing. It comes upon me at the strangest times and always makcs me miserable.” In the same way, I now always avoid painful books. One has a burden of sorrow ample enough to bear, without adding to it the woes of imaginary people. I do wish now that I had never made the acquaintance of little Dom- bey, or of the child in “Misunderstood,” or of the hundred and one pale pain-drawn phantoms A. A. ## p. (#562) ################################################ 208 THE AUTHOR. who haunt me. The other day—it was a glorious sunshine day—I was walking amidst most beautiful surroundings, and should have been happy if only to be living and moving then and there. A heavy feeling of oppression, however, weighed upon me. “What is it?” I at last asked myself, “that is so distressing me. Is it debt? No. Is it remorse for anything P Not at present. What then P” Suddenly I remem- bered. It was poor Tess. A dull feeling of sorrow, the ache of the old wound which Hardy had inflicted on me when I read his book, and was so sorry for la Durbeyfield. It was not till I had impressed upon myself that Tess, after all, had never really lived, that I was able to shake off the feeling of depression that haunted me. Léon Daudet is a most energetic young man. It seems but yesterday that he was telling me, over a dejeuner in Brown's Hotel in Piccadilly, of his intention of writing a book describing an imaginary journey by William Shakespeare in the North of Europe. The book has now been written and is out, and, like all Léon Daudet's books, is “bien €toffé.” Téon Daudet differs from most young French littérateurs in this respect; he does not only speak of his books, he writes them. There are so many “young masters ” who, in the words of Balzac, “spend their lives in talking themselves,” i.e., without working. Young Daudet seems to be taking after Zola, and to have adopted the latter's plan of doing so much work a day. It is a wonderful system, but unfortunately not one that agrees with the constitutions of most writers. Three of the most prominent contemporary Parisienne journalists are now in Mazas prison, under the infamous charge of blackmailing, their victim in this case having been the unfortunate young millionaire, Max Lebaudy. There seems to be little doubt that they did obtain money from the young man, but whether any jury will convict them, seeing that the party, alleged to have injured, is now dead, is an open question. The exposure will not greatly affect the reputa- tion of French journalism in France. Every Frenchman knows that a newspaper in France is regarded by its proprietor as a tool for money- making, in any and every way. Even some of the most prosperous papers accept subsidies, which an English journalist would consider dishonourable. Ut rea, ut grea. The working journalist in France is so miserably underpaid that he is often forced to do a bit of extortion on his own. His editor knows this, expects it, speculates upon it. Certain well-known papers live on blackmail and extortion in one form or another. There are subsidies from the railway companies, in return for which the paper keeps silence as to serious accidents on the lines, as to gross violation of duty towards the public. There is the annual cheque from Monte Carlo. But domestic scandal is the richest gold mine, and there is one paper in Paris which pays a large dividend extracted from this source alone. This is the paper which broke up the home of the late William Huntingdon and broke his heart. In operations of this kind the journalist works in con- junction with waiters at the supper-houses, with chamber-maids and so on. He has spies every- where. He has a tariff for all kinds of services. Information is worth so much ; a compromising letter so much. I remember a certain person who used to come to a café I frequented, who was pointed out to me as a very clever man, who made a thousand a year by directing black- mailing enterprises. One day he came into the café radiant but disfigured. He had a black eye, a swollen nose, and his lip was badly cut. But he exulted, and ordered champagne in gallons. I was afterwards told that he had that day received eighteen thousand francs from a husband for certain letters written by a foolish wife. The husband had paid the money, but had also given the man “what for,” and had helped him down stairs. Little did the blackmailer care. He was the hero of the evening. Eighteen thousand francs, you know, are not to be found in a mule's hoof, as the saying is in France. I subsequently learned a good deal about this man's methods. Not being fortunate enough to own an influential organ of his own, he was forced to share profits with such newspapers as would allow him to use their columns for his purposes. This is how he would proceed. Having heard from one of his spies, a waiter, say, at one of the restaurants which keep open all night, that some lady, in a foolish moment, had supped there with someone who was not her husband, he would begin operations by causing to be inserted in one of the newspapers a para- graph somewhat as follows: “A little bird whispers to me that two nights ago a fair lady, &c., &c. I understand that the initial of her Christian name is M. Who can she be P And what does her husband, poor fellow, think of it?” And so on. The lady would then be approached. As a rule, however innocent her freak might have been, she would pay what was demanded. If not, a second paragraph, giving a much closer descrip- tion, would be printed, with the threat that full particulars and details would shortly be forth- coming. This sort of thing is constantly being done. Even the demi-mondaines are laid under tribute. Everybody knows these things and nobody cares. De Lesseps entertained me one afternoon for a couple of hours with stories of ## p. (#563) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2O9 the attempts made to extract money from him and from his wife. The most infamous stories were printed about Madame de Lesseps, that model of womanly virtues. She has often told me of them, and we have laughed heartily. One gets indifferent in the end, and it is because of that feeling that these abuses flourish in France. I remember seeing a Parisian editor pocket 3OOO francs, payment for the insertion of a most scurrilous libel. It only struck me afterwards that the man deserved to be kicked. Still there is some excuse for the journalists. They are underpaid and poor, and yet are forced to mix in the best society, to dress well, to go everywhere, to entertain, to spend largely. I was amused the other day in reading the appendix to “The Wandering Heir" to find that most of what I recently said in reference to the blacklegs of our profession had already been said, and much more eloquently, by Charles Reade. The Rev. Stopford Brooke is still at Grasmere, confined to his room. He has been ailing since October, but is now much better, and is able to write for some hours every day. S. R. Crockett writes me that he expects to be in London towards the end of February, He will spend a week or two in town and will then go to Holland for a few weeks. He is working as hard a.S €Wel’. A young American artist, named Ralph Goddard, has settled down in Paris and is engaged in modelling the portraits of our leading writers, for casting in the form of bronze medallions. Mr. Goddard has already completed a set of twelve medallions of the best-known English and American authors. He is very enthusiastic over his work. Mr. Edward H. Cooper, a popular member of the Authors' Club, is now staying in Paris and is working hard at a novel on the turf, which promises to be a book of very great interest. Mr. Cooper spent several weeks at Newmarket studying his subject, and collected quantities of notes to work upon. I am afraid that our three friends of the Authors’ Club, who went out to Ashanti with the expedition as “special correspondents,” must have been rather disappointed with the course of events, or rather, want of events, out there. Still they have shown their pluck, and are a credit to our club. And peace is the preferable thing. ROBERT H. SHERARD. > º NOTES AND NEWS, R. HALL CAINE’S admirable address on his Canadian mission will be found in another place. Rumours of wars and the upsetting of Ministries have put the copyright question in the background, but it is hoped that, when the subject is taken up again, it will be at the point where Mr. Hall Caine left it. In answer to one or two recent objections that the Author might be made a paying property, the objectors must be reminded of the purpose for which the Author was started and is continued. It is not a review or a general magazine; it does not invite contributions of the ordinary kind; it is not in any sense a rival to the Athenæum or the Bookman ; it is a paper whose object is, like that of the Society, nothing but the maintenance and defence of literary property; it points out what is meant by royalties; what are the tricks sometimes practised in profit-sharing agreements; what clauses in agreements mean or may mean—for instance, two or three months ago it pointed out the danger of signing an agreement which gave a publisher the right of charging against a book as much as he pleased, by advertising it in his own Organs, for which, of course, he paid nothing. It opens its columns for suggestive experiences, for everything to do with the literary life. But these things can hardly be made interesting to the general public. Probably the paper has attained nearly as large a circulation as it will ever reach. Two thousand copies are printed; about 14OO are sent to members; about 500 more—I do not vouch for the exact figures—are subscribed by the public. And in the end not many copies I'êIYla,IIl OWeI’. There is one way in which the Author may be made to pay. It is sent to every member free. But the choice is left open to the member to remit to the secretary the yearly subscription of 6s. 6d. If only half the members did so the Author would more than pay its way. The formation of a Publishers’ Society should be hailed as a step which has long been wanted. There are many outstanding grievances which can only be amended by fair and open discussion. There are many cases brought to our notice which should be referred to the Society of Publishers. The knowledge that such cases would be referred to the committee of that body would make such of its members as have hitherto played tricks with impunity hesitate. It may ## p. (#564) ################################################ 2 IO THE AUTHOR. become possible at length to arrive at a plan of publishing which may be recognised by men of honour on both sides as fair and reasonable. I do not think that our side will be found backward in advancing an end so eminently desirable. One will, perhaps, be able to speak of the subject with greater fulness in following numbers. In another column will be found a statement of facts connected with the Address to American Authors. Speaking as one who strongly approved of the Chairman’s action, it is very satisfactory to learn that the response amounted to 500 signa- tures—that is to say, to more than one-third of those to whom it was sent. To persuade 500 authors to joint action is extremely creditable. That some writers would disapprove of any address at all was foreseen ; that some would disapprove of the form and style was also inevitable; and that the appearance or sugges- tion of any difference in opinion would be hailed as a chance of making an attack upon the Society was also inevitable. In point of fact those who received the address were simply invited to sign it if they approved; if they did not approve, then not to sign. That the invitation was sent out on the Society's paper against what now appear to have been the Chairman’s orders may perhaps be ex- plained by the circumstances of the time — being Christmas week—with the secretary absent for four days. Our New York correspondent, it will be seen, speaks highly of the effect which the address produced in the States. This was expected. Not one single word of adverse criticism to the style or the sentiments of the paper has come over, to my knowledge. I thought at the time, and I still think, that the address as amended from the first rough draft was admirably calculated for its purpose. My own name and that of another writer have been freely tossed about by our friends the critics. We have kept silence because there was nothing to say except that, whatever part we took in the matter, we should, under similar circumstances, act in exactly the same manner again; that we are both perfectly satisfied with that part; and that we think the action of the Chairman was wise, generous, and opportune. And so, I believe, think the five hundred who followed his lead. Private letters from America entirely confirm this view. Here, for instance, are some lines which came with a private letter, expressing the pleasure which the address gave the writer:— LET US HAVE PEACE. Flash the words under the wave, Let us have peace. What though the impotent rave * Let us have peace Leave it for barbarous hordes To brandish their sabres and swords, Ours but the weapons of words, Yet words way condemn or may save. Straight from the heart and the brain, Ring out the anthem of peace PENS of the island and main, Flash out the written word, PEACE Dipped in your heart's blood, still write, Till nations shall stand in their might, And brothers with brothers unite To banish this spectre of Pain Johnstown, N.Y., Jan. 8, 1896. J. OLIVER SMITH. The attacks upon the literary agent have been renewed in various magazines. I wonder if the writers think they can abolish the literary agent by abusing him. Here, for instance, are three reasons absolutely unanswerable to show why he will continue and flourish so long as his clients have confidence in his integrity and ability. (I.) He has been proved to be extremely useful to writers whose works mean literary property. (2.) It is to most of such writers the greatest relief to have the commercial side of their work taken off their hands. (3.) All writers will con- tinue, whatever the papers may say about the agents, to exercise their undoubted right of managing their own affairs in their own way. In other words, no one has the slightest right to interfere, whatever way a man chooses for the conduct of his own business. A free library has been started at Nuneaton, George Eliot's birthplace. It is proposed to set apart one room for the preservation of the MSS. and letters and relics of George Eliot. Should there not also be a collection of all her works, including the article which she wrote for the Westminster Review º' These could all be re- covered, I suppose, by the help of the editor's papers and accounts. WALTER BESANT. *- A -º * * * FEUILLETON. AN OBJECT LEsson. THINK it may become a man's duty to present himself as an object-lesson — an awful example. I am a peculiarly atrocious example, of fifteen years' standing. I append my balance-sheet in illustration of the statement. ## p. (#565) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I I I began to write in 1880. I was an under- graduate member of a venerable University at that time—Christminster, in fact. I wrote plays. Shortly afterwards I came into a little money and removed to London. My dramatic work was freely rejected. One acting manager, indeed, spoke of trying to get a lever de rideau put on for me; I went to see him—I was young, and I omitted to sketch out 1.is own share in the finan- cial dealings. That piece was not played. I thought the systematic rejection might be due to my handwriting ; so I had my three plays very beautifully printed and bound. Two of them were quite short, and the cost was about £36. They yet await representation. - Then I determined to give a matinée. I engaged a secretary, and we wrote to one or two leading actors, and drew up a form of invitation to the Press. One of the leading actors came to See me. He sat upon my play, and I in turn repressed the secretary and the matinée. Then I thought I, ought to qualify as a playwright by going on the stage. I did go round the provinces for about two years; and have come to the con- clusion that this sort of anxious qualifying is almost invariably a mistake. After this I went to Paris. Then I went to live in the country. Here that temptation assailed me which has completed me as an awful example. I felt that I could write a novel. I wrote it—it was a Cornish story—and I hit upon a capital title for it. It did not seem worth while to sit and wait for its recurrent rejection, so I sent it round as a novel that I would publish at my own cost. On these terms it was accepted. My own solicitors drew up the agreement, and I paid £60. The novel appeared in due course. The publishers went bankrupt in due course. I was out of pocket. But the Athenæum said a good word for the booklet, the Daily Telegraph gave it a little breeze aft, and the Morning Post —O unexpected friend —spoke of it with enthu- siasm. A thousand copies were sold—in five years. I bought the last shop-worn examples myself. Those Press notices (there were some nice Scotch and Irish ones as well; though I must admit one reviewer called me not only mad, but a woman), more than outweighed the cheque to debit. And I tried the drama again. I failed again. Not, however, from the aesthetic point of view, for I had the good fortune to meet Miss Alma Murray, and she allowed me to see and touch a lock of Shelley's hair. I concluded that I would write another novel. It cost me eighteen months' hard labour and an illness. Two publishers rejected it; the third accepted it. He offered me £30 for the copy- right, or a royalty of 2s. 6d. per copy. I chose the latter, and signed the publisher's form of agreement. After many months the book was published. Again many months and I received £8. Soon afterwards the publisher allowed his business entity to fail and be reconstituted. This time the Saturday Review complimented me; so did the Scotsman. I thought I had a start. Of course I got nothing more for the book. I believe it still has a small sale, but I have no claim on it. The publisher parted with it as a “remainder.” I wrote another novel, and nobody would have it at any price. I suppose that was just; for it did not clearly make for righteous- ness. Then came a morning when I awoke to find myself not famous, but ruined. The thing was not half done, it was rounded and complete. Of course everybody but myself saw that it was entirely my own fault. I could not see that, and do not; but then this only shows my density. Some men would have blown their brains out. But it is an uncanny manoeuvre at best—I did contem- plate it. And though I can understand a single man justifying it to himself, I do not see how a married man with a couple of lads could come at the justification. More especially if his wife is his best friend, and has even so failed in the obvious duty of woman as to refuse to stifle her regard for her husband with the baby, when invited to do so. I took the less easy course, and learned shorthand and typewriting, and furbished up the languages I had learned for pleasure for business weapons. England being the land of stanch relations, nearly all my ac- quaintances and the large majority of my friends dropped me at this time. When I had duly prepared myself to enter the writhing mass of those competing at the foot of the ladder, I found I was still a failure. I was thirty years of age, and I had no business references or experiences; so I could not get employment, and there really seemed nothing for it but a retreat to the quiet of the cemetery or the society of the workhouse. I was sitting one day in a cheap eating-house, contemplating this dismal alter- native, when a Spaniard of my acquaintance came in, hurried up to me, and, with tears in his eyes, told me he had found me work, and wrung my hand. The friends of my adversity have been a Spaniard and a Scotchman. It was hard work, and began at the rate of £96 per annum. I had not only to write shorthand and work the Remington, but translate French of all sorts, German of all sorts, Spanish and Portuguese of all, sorts; interpret French evidence in court; stumble through Danish, Swedish and Norwegian letters, and typewrite Italian. My hours were from nine in the morning to six nominal (this ## p. (#566) ################################################ 2 I 2 THE AUTHOR. means seven) in the evening. But it was not the workhouse, nor was it the cemetery. And I was earning my living at last. Besides, I was to have all the Bank holidays except one, I had very seldom to work on Sunday, and—after the first year—I was to have a fortnight in the autumn away from work. Soon I was “raised” to £120 a year; then I was actually offered £150, if I would sign a “stringent contract” for three years. For certain reasons not here to be dis- cussed, the life I then endured was so exactly like what I imagine the life in hell to be that I refused this opportunity, raised my shorthand to 140 words a minute, and strove to get a foothold in journalism. In this I failed again. Then, by a singular fluke, I became secretary to a well-known man of letters, since dead. He was alternately brusque and kindly; he had seen a great deal of life and plenty of fighting, and it seemed to me that he was far more interesting than the popular romances which he dictated to me. I got 35s. a week, plenteous leisure, and a number of wrinkles from him. Then I became a ghost. This subterranean passage in my life cannot be opened up to mortal eyes, for obvious reasons. I found that when I wrote a book, lock, stock, and barrel, and another man put his name on it, it was worth over £300 (this money was actually paid), and when difficulties arose, and it became known—long after the book's acceptance—that my ghostly name ought to figure on the title-page, this same book was returned by an important syndicate to the first purchaser as a thing worthless. And yet this very syndicate had read it and valued it as above—when the other name was there. I cannot help thinking that there is good material for reflection in this, if one could only get at the right point of view. Next I tried collaboration. I collaborated with a man who, I was told, “sold well.” I had seen more than a column of big type given to a work by him in a leading London daily. We wrote three stories together, and they satisfied my ex- perienced collaborator. But my particular Nemesis was not tired of following me—had not sat down to rest for a time even. Those three stories are still for sale. Balance-sheet of fifteen years’ literary work: T)R. 38 CR. 39 Printing three plays ... 36 | A story in Timsley's Cost of publishing one Magazine, Dec., 1888 o novel..................... 6O | From a 2-vol. novel...... 8 A “Ghost” story sold for £60 ; actually re- ceived .................. 25 96 33 Net result, 363 loss. You suppose I am cured P No. “As flies to wanton boys are * authors “to the gods.” I still have manuscript going the rounds. But may others profit by me ! “MR. BROOMIELAw.” *—s LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS. BookMAKING. L. Simons. To-Morrow for January. AN AUTHOR’s CoMPLAINT. George Redway. Athenæum. for Jan. 18. ADVERTISEMENT As A GENTLE ART. National Review for January. AUTHORS AND Politics. Speaker for Jan. 18. RELICS OF THE BRONTiš FAMILY. Herbert E. Wroot. Good Words for February. THE POETRY OF EMILY BRONTiš. Atalanta for February. ' THE YOUNG MAN WHO WANTS TO WIRITE. Kernahan. Young Man for January and February. THE Gosph.I. Accord ING TO THE NovKLISTS. I.- CHARLEs DICKENs. W. J. Dawson. Young Man for February. RoBERT Louis STEvºNson AND EDINBURGH. Francis Watt. Art Jowrmal for February. THE READING ROOM AND IRON LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. A. W. Jarvis. Pall Mall Magazine for February. PARALYZERS OF STYLE. cott's Magazine for February. THE ADVANTAGE OF FICTION. M. G. Tuttiett (Max- well Gray). Nineteenth Century for January. THE PARSON IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. Review of Reviews for January. An Editor. Florence Glover. Coulson Frederic M. Bird. Lippin- Religious LANCASHIRE NOVELISTs’ SERIES. III. — WILLIAM HARRISON AINsworth. Edmund Mercer. Manchester Quarterly for January. THE “CONCEIT * IN LITERATURE. Thomas New- bigging. Manchester Quarterly for January. ACCRETIONS TO THE TROY-MYTH AFTER HOMER. Wm. Crauston Lawton. Poet-Lore (Boston) for January. HAUNTS OF THE POETs. II.--THE SCOTTISH HIGH- LANDS AND SCOTT. Benjamin Taylor, F.R.G.S. Atalanta for January. LoRD DE TABLY : A PortRAIT. Edmund Gosse. Com- temporary Review for January. SHAKESPEARE AT ELSMORE. Jón Stefánson. Com- temporary Review for January. - RECoLLECTIONS OF THOMAS CARLYLE. Blackwood's Magazine for January. How AMERICAN HISTORY Is WRITTEN. Blackwood's Magazine for January. THE ANTI-MARRIAGE LEAGUE. wood’s Magazine for January. WoRDsworth’s “PARSON SYMPson.” January. HOW I BECAME A NOVELIST. for January. - ONE OF HAWTHORNE’s UNPRINTED NOTEBOOKS. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Atlantic Monthly for January. WAs GEORGE ELIOT A HyPoCRITE P Julien Gordon. Cosmopolitan for January. MATTHEw ARNOLD’s LETTERs. Herbert Woodfield Paul. Forwm for January. LIVING CRITICs. Hugh Walker. Mrs. Oliphant. Black- Temple Bar for Edna Lyall. Good Words IV.-MR. R. H. HuTTON. . Professor Bookman for January. ## p. (#567) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I 3 THE Book SALES OF 1895. J. H. Slater. Athenæum for Jan. 4 and II. THE OLD NURSE IN FICTION. Spectator for Jan. 4. PoETRY AND THE BARBARIANs. Satwrday Review for Jan. 4. CRITICISM AND IDEALs. JAMESON’s RIDE. Times for Jan. I I. THE POET LAUREATE’s RIDE. Andrew Lang. Morming for Jan. I5. ABOUT PAUL VERLAIN.E. Daily Chronicle for Jan. I4. Boys AND THEIR Books. Westminster Gazette for Jan. 17. THE ETHICS OF MR. Sw1NBURNE’s PoETRY. Satwrday Review for Jan. 25. CRITICISM AND THE CRITIC. January. Speaker for Jan. 4. First Poem by new Poet-Laureate. Selwyn Image. Savoy for NOTABLE REVIEWS. Of Professor Sully’s “Studies of Childhood. Athenæum. for Jan. 4. Of James Russell Lowell’s “Last Poems.” for Jan. 4. Of Purcell’s “Life of Cardinal Manning.” Athenæwm for Jan. 18, Times for Jan. Io and 13, Daily Chronicle for Jan. Io. Of Recent French Novels (Works by Jules Case, Georges Ohnet, Edouard Rod, and Alphonse Daudet.) Blackwood's Magazine for January. $ Athenæum. $: $ #: In the new little monthly review, To-morrow, Mr. L. Simons discusses the whole subject of bookmaking, and tries to point the way to a better state of things. He holds the balance between author and publisher. “The accusation of ‘greediness’ (he says) brought against some modern authors, as certainly holds good against some publishers.” The publisher may wish to give an author or an artist a push, but in the end he will have to look at financial results, and— The successful author has no doubt to pay for his still struggling colleague, and if he refuses to do so the end of the latter has come. If to-morrow the Society of Authors were to become a huge co-operative publishing establish- ment, would the case stand differently P Mr. Simons deplores the literary agent's func- tion—of dealing with literature as though he were selling bread and cheese ; and he instances the arrangement between M. Zola and his pub- lisher as a lucid example of an author taking his work as a profession in the best sense of the word. But if the publisher's share be largest at the beginning when he has full risk, and the author's largest when the public buy him in appreciable numbers — that system, roughly, thinks Mr. Simons, would meet the cases; and he concludes thus:— The moment to turn “bookmaking ” into a profession again, helping it out of the trade groove into which it has fallen, has never been more opportune. The English pub- lishers, who have been undermining each other by a compe- tition such as would have been thought entirely unworthy of their position by their foreign colleagues, are at last going to unite. It will probably be the task of this new union to come to an understanding with the Authors’ Society and fix the rate of royalties to be paid to authors for various class of works, according to the sales. Then the author will find his reward in the number sold and therefore in his popularity ; there will be no more bargaining or under- mining ; the author will simply choose the publisher in whose integrity, taste, and “push ’’ he will have most con- fidence, and the competition between publishers will once more become a matter of “fair sport.” A novelist—Miss King—stated recently in the Athenæum that her book, price 3 s. 6d., was being sold by the booksellers as if it were published at 6s., its outward appearance probably inducing them to ask the higher price. On this complaint is based Mr. Redway’s article, which is a plea for the abolition of the discount system. (Though Mr. Alfred Wilson writes, in the same journal on the 25th ult, doubting whether Miss King's novel, while being ticketed at 4s. 6d., was sold at that). “If it can be demonstrated that the public will as readily pay 4s. 6d., or 3s. 6d., or 2s. 8d. for a volume, it is clear,” says Mr. Redway, “that the 3s. 6d. ‘net’ book, for example, may as well be advertised at 6s. and retailed at 4s. 6d., since publisher and author will thus obtain an extra shilling per copy from the public.” He prefers the German system of book distribution: With us the bookseller, under the “net” system, is merely an agent; under the “discount " system, merely a speculator. Therefore— In England the chances of success of an unknown author become fainter every year : if he write a book of a popular character its fate must depend upon whether the handful of “discount' booksellers, and the largest libraries and rail- way bookstalls, have anything more important on hand, at . the moment than the launching of his book. On the multiplication of book shops depends the future of literature as a branch of commerce, and the discount system is “strangling English literature '’; so, asks the writer, Who will bell the cat P for the abolition of discounts and the bringing to pass of the following conditions: Booksellers might become as common as tobacconists if the old rates of profit on single copies were in vogue. The bookseller's shop might become an exhibition of the newest and best books, irrespective of their immediate popularity. An army of professional students of catalogues would arise, who could afford to make full use of parcel post and telegraph office, with the result that the bookbuying public, even in the remotest part of the kingdom, might be as well served with new books as with postage stamps. The National Review paper is an attack on the existence of the literary agent. What a delightful trade (exclaims the writer) and how charmingly inexpensive | The writer believes that to the literary agent we are indebted for the flood of rubbish in the reading world just now, and for many other things. “Individuality is the one interesting, real thing in the universe,” says Mr. Selwyn Image, who suggests a journal in which critics would have a free hand entirely, with the one proviso of ## p. (#568) ################################################ 214 THE AUTHOR. blanching the libel court. The critic would write in the first person and in the style his humour smiled upon at the moment; he would sign his article always, but would be free to change his signature as the occasion prompted him. For, says Mr. Image— If a man is worth listening to at all (and when one can get at him I expect there breathes not a soul but is), let us hear what he thinks and feels, what he likes and hates, and let us hear it his own way. For the attainment of this end the tyranny of the editorial “we” is fatal; but fatal, too, is the antithesis that on every occasion a man should write over his own signature, or over a signature known to be his. The literary tastes of schoolboys are strikingly illustrated in the Westminster Gazette article. Taking the lists from four public school libraries, here is our summary of the foremost results in the aggregate :- Henty, 307 times taken out in the course of several terms; Ainsworth, 276; Haggard, 259; Marryat, 221 ; Jules Werne, 220; Ballantyne, 217 ; “Q.,” 199; James Grant, 185. Scott gets only I Io, Stevenson, 84. Clarke Russell, Dickens, Kingston, Hume Nisbet, Blackmore, Manville Fenn, Whyte Melville, Conan Doyle, R. Boldre- wood, and Mr. Kipling have been taken over Ioo times. *— z-- ~~~ BOOK TALK. D" CONAN DOYLE'S series of stories of adventure which has been running in the Strand Magazine, entitled “The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard,” will be published in book form this month. He has recently finished a new story of the Regency period, called “Rodney's Stone,” which also will appear serially. A novel which is to contain lessons for women who try to live their own lives is “The Things That Matter,” by Mr. Francis Gribble, which Messrs. A. D. Innes and Co. will publish. Mr. R. D. Blackmore has written a romance of Surrey life entitled “Darill,” which will appear in Blackwood’s Magazine. Mr. Crockett’s “Cleg Kelly,” which appeared in Cornhill, will be published in book form soon, and his new work, which is a Galloway story called “The Grey Man,” will follow in the autumn. Mr. George Moore is getting near a finish with his new novel, but some months will elapse yet before it appears. The title is “Evelyn Innes,” and the theme of the book the struggle between the spiritual and the sensual life. After a long and dangerous illness, Miss Eleanor Studder has returned to literary work with an article running through Notes and out in book form soon. Queries on the Saxon Yule. A story from her pen is in the hands of Messrs. Nelson to be produced as soon as their arrangements permit. Mr. Frederic Breton has written a novel laid in the Western Highlands of Scotland, entitled “The Trespasses of Two.” It will be published by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. They also announce “A Provincial Lady,” by Mrs. Harcourt William- SOI). Mr. Clive Holland is the author of “A Lure of Fame,” a novel to be published by Mr. George Redway. - Mr. Quiller Couch is about to publish a volume of essays which he has named “Adventures in Criticism.” “Ia,” a Cornish story, which ap- peared in Yule Tide at Christmas, will also be Messrs. Cassell and Co. are his publishers. Mr. Frankfort Moore is so well up to date as to publish a short story about Ashanti. It is called “Dr. Kumahdi of Ashantee,” and will appear in Messrs. Constable’s Acme Series, for which also Sir Robert Peel has written a tale. “Rita" has written a story entitled “Joan and Mrs. Carr,” which Messrs. T. W. White and Co. have in the press. “A Riverside Romance,” by Mrs. Edward Kennard, and “A Fight with Fate,” by Mrs. Alexander, are also coming soon from Messrs. White. “A Foreigner : an Anglo-German Study,” is the title of a book by E. Gerard (Madame de Laszowska) which Messrs. Blackwood and Sons are about to publish. The first mountaineering book of the year is likely to be “The Japanese Alps,” by the Rev. Walter Weston. While residing at Kobe as British chaplain, Mr. Weston, who is a member of the Alpine Club, explored what he calls the “unfamiliar” mountain regions of Central Japan. This book is the result. It will be profusely illustrated from the author's photographs. Mr. Murray is the publisher. - The extraordinary title “The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington’ has been given to a biography of the famous Countess which Mr. J. Fitzgerald Molloy has prepared and Messrs. Downey will issue. There will be letters in it by Tom Moore, Lord Lytton, Disraeli, Dickens, Galt, and others. Messrs. Downey have also in hand a story by Colonel Davis, entitled “Three Men and a God.” The two-volume work “Democracy and Liberty,” by Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, M.P., is in the press of Messrs. Longmans, who have also in preparation the late Professor Froude's Lectures on the Council of Trent; “The Astronomy of Milton's ## p. (#569) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I 5 Paradise Lost,” by Thomas N. Orchard, M.D.; and “East and West: Reprinted Articles,” by Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E. Professor Brander Matthews contributes a volume on “Bookbindings Old and New '' to the well-known Ex-Libris Series published by Messrs. George Bell and Sons. The work is to be illus- trated with examples of the most skilful binding, and its letterpress will deal with the subject from the days of Grolier to those of Cobden Sanderson. At a book sale at Sotheby’s a few days ago Shakespeare’s “Poems,” 1640, the first collected edition, but with defective portrait and four leaves missing, brought 32 I ; a copy of the fourth folio edition of Shakespeare, 1685, want- ing a portrait, 345; and Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” 1667, first edition, with the first title-page, £90, The Duke of Argyll has been at work, off and on, for fifteen years upon his book “The Philo- sophy of Belief,” which Mr. Murray will have ready shortly. The same house expects to issue the first portion of Gibbon’s unpublished works —autobiographies, journals, and correspondence —edited by the Earl of Sheffield, about Easter. Mr. Percy Hemingway's book of verse, entitled “The Happy Wanderer, and other Poems,” will be issued by Mr. Elkin Mathews this month. This publisher has also a volume in preparation by Mr. Vincent Sullivan, which will have a frontispiece done by Mr. Selwyn Image. Mr. F. G. Edwards has written a “History of Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah'” (this year, by the way, is the jubilee of the first performance of the oratorio, which took place at Birmingham Festival) in which there will be new matter gathered from unpublished letters of the com- poser and his contemporaries. The work will be published at an early date by Messrs. Novello, Ewer, and Co. Penny standard works are not alone Mr. Stead's field now, for Messrs. George Newnes Limited have begun a series of which the first was Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield.” Messrs. Jarrold and Sons also publish good “ penny populars.” Mr. Swinburne's lyric, too, “A Word for the Navy,” published nine years ago at 5s, is now in slightly revised form appearing in an edition of Ic,OOO copies at one penny each. A cyclopædia of architecture in Italy, Greece, and the Levant is being edited by Mr. W. P. Longfellow, and will be published soon by Mr. |Fisher Unwin. The most important of January's moderate output of books were “The Life of Cardinal Manning,” by Edmund Sheridan Purcell (Mac- millan)—which has been received with extra- ordinarily diverse feelings; “The Life of William Carleton,” the Irish novelist, continued from the point where the autobiography breaks off, by David J. O'Donoghue (Downey and Co.); and “New Poems by Christina Rossetti,” edited by William Michael Rossetti (Macmillan). Mr. Gladstone's edition of Bishop Butler's works (Clarendon Press) should also be named. New light on Burns's career, particularly his residence in Irvine, his notion of migrating to America, and his relations with Elizabeth Paton and Mary Campbell, is to be supplied by Mr. Wm. Wallace in his edition of the biography by Dr. Chambers to be published soon by Messrs. W. and R. Chambers. The second edition of Mr. Ernest Hart's work, “Hypnotism, Mesmerism, and the New Witchcraft,” will have new chapters on “The Eternal Gullible,” and a note on “The Hypnotism of Trilby.” The works of the well-known American writer Mr. John Burroughs are about to appear in a Riverside Edition in nine volumes, illustrated with portraits. Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. are the English publishers. The same house announces an edition of Marryat, edited by Mr. R. B. Johnson, and illustrated with etchings, for publication in the early spring. Messrs. Rout- ledge are also publishing a complete edition of Marryat, in monthly volumes, edited by Mr. W. L. Courtney. What is said to be by far the largest Greek papyrus known—mamely, “The Revenue Laws of Ptolemy Philadelphus,” in the Bodleian Library— has been translated, with commentary and appen- dices, by Mr. B. P. Grenfell, and will be published shortly at the Clarendon Press. Professor Mahaffy writes an introduction, and the volume will be accompanied by a portfolio containing thirteen facsimiles. Mr. E. F. Knight, who acted for the Times in the recent Madagascar Campaign, is issuing a book about it through Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., entitled “Madagascar in War Time : The Experiences of a Special Correspondent with the Hovas during the French Invasion of 1895.” A new edition of the late Mr. Stevenson's “Picturesque Notes on Edinburgh” (originally published eighteen years ago, and now out of print) will be ready this month. The illustrations are entirely new, consisting of eight copper plates, four of which are etchings, and over fifty other engravings in tint and line. Mr. T. Hamilton Crawford, Royal Scottish Water Colour Society, ## p. (#570) ################################################ 2 16 TIIE AUTIIOIR. has done the work. Messrs. Seeley and Co. are the publishers. Stevenson’s “Songs of Travel” are being pre- pared for issue by Messrs. Chatto and Windus, apart from the volume in the Edinburgh Edition containing them. The supplementary series of the Edinburgh Editionwill number seven volumes. Mr. Edwin Lester Arnold’s recently published book, “The Story of Ulla,” has done something to prove collected short stories are not always unpopular. A second edition is already being prepared by Messrs. Longmans. Mr. Bloundelle-Burton’s new novel, “In the Day of Adversity,” having now finished its serial course in London and Australia, will be published immediately. It will be produced in volume form in London and New York simulta- neously—by Messrs. Methuen and Co. here, and by Messrs. Appleton and Co. in the latter city. The period is that of Louis Quatorze—which has been a special study of Mr. Bloundelle-Burton for many years—and the events connected with the burning of the French fleet at La Hogue form a portion of the incidents dealt with. l “A Sextet of Singers” (The Roxburghe Press). In this little volume of eighty-three pages we sample the graceful, sympathetic verse of half a dozen writers whom—one and all—we could profitably listen to oftener and at greater length. They are George Barlow, J. A. Blaikie, “Paganus.” (L. Cranmer-Byng), Vincent O'Sullivan, Walter Herries Pollock, and Sidney R. Thompson. As illustrating the spirit of poetic feeling that may be said to animate the whole sextet, the following stanzas from “Once More,” by Mr. Barlow, will Serve : . Once more, with skies above her Of endless perfect air, With sunlit leaves to love her And whisper, “Thou art fair;” Once more—and statelier, surer, When summer's hymn was done— From woman’s mouth came purer The anthems of the sun : Once more, in honeyed metre That charmed grief to repose, From woman’s lips came sweeter The lyrics of the rose. Each says: “Though hearts preceding Were broken one by one, Yet follow we Love's leading As hope pursues the sun. A thousand shipwrecks follow The North wind’s course, maybe : Does one fierce shipwreck hollow One slight gulf in the sea P Nay! all the sea is smiling, As if no ship were slain; The blue waves are beguiling The white sails forth again.” A new novel, entitled “In Oban Town,” by Mr. C. McKellar, author of “Greece: her Hopes and Troubles,” “A Jersey Witch,” &c., will shortly be issued by Mr. Alexander Gardner, Paisley. H.R.? [.. the Duke of Sparta, Crown Prince of Greece, has accepted a copy of Mr. McKellar's work on Greece in very gracious terms. “Thoughts for Book Lovers,” compiled by Harry S. Lumsden. (Aberdeen : Lewis Smith and Son. Is. 6d.) A virtuous-looking brochure, in which a useful collection is made of what well- known writers have said upon the value of books, and how they should be read. As an assistant in a public library, Mr. Lumsden has had oppor- tunity of noticing the diverse ideas among readers as to which way most pleasure and profit lie, and he thus seeks to guide them. “Goethe's Faust.” The First Part. With a Literal Translation and Notes for Students. By Beta. (David Nutt. 3s. 6d.) The translator justifies the publication of another translation of Faust be:ause much indispensable light has been thrown on many passages since Hayward's admirable work was written. In this well- executed crib for beginners, therefore, Beta supplies the latest interpretations, following Sabatier's text generally, and giving new notes to aid students. The lengthy record of errata which prefaces the book will doubtless be removed in a second edition, which must come quickly. “The Commandment with Promise.” By the Hon. Gertrude Boscawen. (Elliot Stock.) This is a handsome book with a gracefully written story for children; its lesson—obedience. “Drifting through Dreamland.” By T. E. Ruston. (Elliot Stock.) There is great flexibility in the choice of the subjects treated in this volume of verse. They range from “The Worst Boy in the School” and “The Fighting Parson’’ to “Via Vitae" and “The Gate of Heaven.” The author's insight appears well in “Via Vitae '’ among the longer poems; but for simplicity and direct feeling, this, from “A Love Song,” the last piece in these 154 pages, is best : There are many finer ladies, But they ’re not so fine to me; You are all that I could wish for—- You are all you ought to be. Just a woman, brave and tender, Quick to aid and quick to love : Made for earth, yet nearest heaven— One who works, yet points above. “Divers Ditties.” By Alec. McMillan, M.A., Bengal Civil Service (Retired). (Archd. Con- stable and Co.) Anglo-Indians will be most interested in this book, as nearly all the verses in it deal with that life. But there are some adap- ## p. (#571) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 217 tations of English poems, and, moreover, Mr. McMillan has a largely human touch, so home readers can enjoy his verse as well. There is a pleasant swing in “Anundorum Borooah” and “The Road to Pepityapore”; and sometimes the writer takes to homely Scots—presumably, like Mr. Crockett, for his stomach’s sake. Here is an example of Mr. McMillan's song: In the stately repose of a ripe womanhood, With the grace of a goddess of Hellas she stood, And the glory of summers a score, Fronting the sun that to setting was nigh, All under the shade of a tamarind high, On the road to Pepityapore. “Spring's Immortality, and Other Poems.” By Mackenzie Bell. (Ward, Lock, and Bowden. 3.s. 6d.) This is a second edition of Mr. Bell's volume, so warmly received when it first came out for its delicate feeling and thoughtful workman- ship. The author has made some revisions, and prefixed a poem addressed to Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman. “The Story of an Old Oak Tree.” By C. Thorpe Fancourt. (London: Elliot Stock.) The tree relates its own experiences with a little boy and some birds and squirrels. Tried on a little girl, the result showed that the little book is able to please. - “Tales told by the Fireside.” By the Rev. Charles D. Bell, D.D., Canon of Carlisle. (Elliot Stock.) Canon Bell, whose poems are well known, appears in a new line—that of a story- teller. The book contains seven stories. They are all stories concerning one family. The author's new departure will be welcomed by many friends. “Sung by Six.” (R. Aickin and Co. Limited, Belfast.) This is a pretty little volume of verse, nicely printed and bound, with a very dainty frontispiece. The Six are Messieurs—or Mesdames —S. K. Cowan, J. H. Cousins, W. M. Knox, L. J. McQuilland, W. T. Anderson, and J. J. Pender. This is presumably the first appearance of these poets in public. Now, on the mere possibility that only one of them arrives at worldly fame, how valuable will this work become in after years! Have we not, by the way, already heard this tune : It occurs in the first page we open. Half the light and the love and the laughter, Half the fruit and the fulness of earth, Have sunk in the gloom that hereafter Will make mute all life's music and mirth. “Our Household Insects,” by E. A. Butler. This is a volume of Longman's Silver Library. It is rather a gruesome book, with its pictures of fleas and parasites, and bloodsuckers, but it } as the great merit of doing well what it pro- fesses to do. Astronomy, Prehistoric Man, Another addition to the Silver Library is the book of “Leisure Readings,” by Edward Clodd, Andrew Wilson, Thomas Foster, A. C. Ranyard, and Richard Proctor. The book first appeared in 1882. It contains a collection of papers on Illusions, and Ethnology. The last paper — that on “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”—hath a belated air. Not many people now care much about “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” Rider Haggard’s “Montezuma's Daughter" and Mr. Andrew Lang's “Cock Lane and Common Sense” have also been added to the Silver Library. “Suggestions for the Promotion of Unity in Christendom,” by George Edward Turner (Elliot Stock), is a book which recommends itself, by its title, to those who believe that such unity is possible. *– ~ * - - - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS, S an Associate of the Authors’ Society for the past three years, I have followed with attention and admiration your un- swerving insistence on the rights of authors vis-à-vis publishers. I do not presume to suppose that any point of view in the contro- versy should occur to one with little expe- rience in literature and agreements which has not for years been fully weighed by you, nor to offer suggestions for publication. When there is a definite and philanthropic object to attain, every- one agrees that it is necessary to adopt a definite strategy of attack, and to remain silent perhaps on those points of view which do not tell directly in favour of the contention. I jot down some thoughts suggested by this first month's number of the new year, rather as a silent indorsement of an unknown member in recognition of the immense patience and persistence of the Society in the struggling authors’ behalf. The January number, as do most numbers, raises passim most of the grounds which rouse the Society's indignation. They are, cursorily, secret or unwarranted charges (office expenses, cost of advertisements, &c.); “publishers' services,” exaggerated importance of ; “remunera- tion,” impropriety and misleading use of the word for the earnings which “belong to the creator; ” binding oneself for a term of years; the literary agent; unjust percentage of profits taken by publisher in return for “risk,” &c. The basis of discussion, and the fighting tone tactically adopted by the Society, may be gathered from ## p. (#572) ################################################ 2:18 THE AUTHOR. such sentences as these : “We speak of agree- ments between two honourable men, both of whom desire nothing more than is fair, and both of whom would scorn the dirty tricks of secret profits and lying returns.” “Let us set forth the conditions as dispassionately as possible" (recognition of the animosity that has long formed part of the controversy on one side at least). “What are the publishers’ services? What does he actually do for the book P. The requisite knowledge is equally possessed by his clerks.” “Literary property belongs to the creator, not to the middleman” (the word “re- muneration ” therefore inapplicable—almost an insult). “The following magnificent offer was recently made by a publisher of no small note. If he relied on the ignorance of the author, he was within his wrongs.” This insistance, indignation, exposure, must be viewed by authors, with gratitude; it is a battle stubbornly fought for them on astute and recog- mised controversial principles. And the basis of operations, the fortress on which the attack rests, is one, the only one, which must exact, and obtains, the sympathy and support of civilised society. The recognition of this basis is the groundwork of these remarks. What is it, then P The basis of the authors’ claims is nothing Tmore or less than morality—Christian morality; it insists that both parties should be actuated by fairness, honesty, and honour. It insists on the rights of the author to the profits on his own work. This is a distinct assertion of the modern social doctrine; in barbarous times the greater portion of humanity were slaves, and had no other rights, either in law or morality, than those they could claim by force. In this century, and this country, it seems ridiculous even to go down to this. What other principle is ever employed in anything than the fundamental doctrine of individual liberty P Well, it seems a flagrant paradox to express, but the common experience of life points to the fact that in business, might, and might alone, is still, as it always has been, the only individual right. The only difference to barbarism is that sword and targe are replaced by fraud and cunning, or tact, patience, self-reliance, and the strong will. In business a man's only practical Tight is the profit that he can get; and literature, from the point of view of the Society, is a |business. To exemplify this, before making deductions, let us look round. Authors are not the only creators; there are altists, mechanical inventors, business men. Every man who aspires to rise is a creator; a speculator, a shopkeeper, can only grow rich by the ideas of his brain, which are creations. Let us take inventors. How does the world treat them in the matter of rights? They sell their patents for what they can get, and there is no morality yet discovered which can adjust their claims on the principle of even half profits in the result. Stevenson's invention was worth, roughly, a hundred millions. Would anyone think of giving it him if he came to life again P. The highest justice that civilisation has yet conceived is a lump of bronze, and that posthumous. There is therefore no practical existent morality which can justify, by precedent, a claim to a given share in the profits of a man's work. It is an accepted worldly maxim that the capitalist takes the lion's share, and the inventor just what he can get, with no reference to the value of his patent. A new tie-clip, as a rule, brings more profit than a steam-engine; a gaudy design on a tin plate than the invention of porcelain ; a bread pill than the discovery of the circulation of the blood. From a business point of view, then, the author has no ground to consider himself exceptionally ill-used, or immorally treated; no right to brand the publisher with extortion, or complain of his fraud. To be honourably treated is the excep- tion; to be cheated, the universal rule. The point of view that you have seemed, very properly, to hold in the background is that the publisher does not really stand to the author in the relation of agent, middleman, but simply of capitalist to patentee. I invent a pill—call it a book. Who asked me to—who wants it P. If I choose that line of aspiration, or livelihood, instead of opening a pin-shop, it is my misfortune, or my choice; I have got to work it on exactly the same moral prin- ciples as obtain in any other line of speculation. I have either got to swallow my pill myself, or to sell it to the capitalist for what he will give, in order that he can make an innocent and long- suffering world swallow it for my benefit; and I get the additional unearned increment of kudos, by having my name stamped on every bolus. But, if we have not the right to appeal to practical morality, we most certainly retain the inalienable prerogative of members of an en- lightened civilisation to put in the foreground with all the clamour of the world a sentimental morality which forms the theory of Christian ethics. It is hypocritical, it is true; but it is the universal custom in politics, advertisement, finance. When did we ever prosecute a filibuster- ing war without flaunting this moral indignation in the van P. These controversial tactics are there- fore just as much justified as our wrongs are the natural outcome of business “morality.” Let us, then, by all means continue to appeal ## p. (#573) ################################################ THE AUTHOIR. 2 IQ to a sense of moral equity as the basis of our claims for the pecuniary recognition of our work; but let us at the same time acknowledge clearly to ourselves that we are not adjusting some cruel and exceptional wrong, but simply “striking for higher wages” like any other trades union. In practical fairness, based on the moral fairness of our ideal, let us wage the war with no fictitious resentment against the publisher, but simply with a doggedly good-humoured determination to sweat him as much as we can, just as until we formed our union he used to sweat us. In practice, we can no more regard him as our mere agent or middleman than the labourer can regard the capitalist as existing only to put his labour on the market. It is a trite maxim, but none the less true, that if there were fewer publishers there would be fewer authors; for the rank and file, he provides labour and keeps in work many of us who without him would find our calling gone. And it is difficult to assert that the world would be much the worse off for our loss, any more than it would if the patent-pill works were closed. We can therefore only expect the market wages. As for actual cheating, it is disgusting; but are not many handicraftsmen cheated by con- cealing the true value of their work? Despite the superior dignity of letters, if we carry out our social doctrine of equality to its conclusion we are bound to hold our trade, from a business point of view, on the same level with all other efforts of man; the majority of us are mechanical workers for money, and our sublimest flights of art for art’s sake may be paralleled by the bricklayer's dainty dalliance with the trowel. We must, then, adopt the mechanic's principle in fighting for higher wages, and that is simply trades unions and the strike. We have formed the union : the logical outcome must be a strike. Can we strike? Even here we are in just the same position as tea-shop maids, labourers, shipbuilders, engineers ——perhaps a trifle better, since, after all, ours is almost the smallest trade in point of numbers, and it is easy to identify each of the hands. In a lock-out there will always be many of us inclined to play blackleg for our bread and butter, and that, as elsewhere, can only be provided against by a strike fund to support us for a year. And if we require 381 a week to the labourers' IOS., we have many wealthy members. But if our union were ever really to come to pronounced action, it could do it with far less loss and suffering than that incurred by poorer guilds ; and we have two lines of action—separate or joint. Let us suppose that the Society has drawn up an instrument guaranteeing, as far as humanly possible, the minutest rights of authors, and abolishing every imaginable form of fraud, extortion, and slavery, and that it only remains to force it on all present and future publishers with every conceivable safeguard—-how are they to be compelled to accept it? It could be done by from twenty to fifty of our most popular writers alone, while the small fry went on picking up crumbs. If these twenty or fifty authors were to bind themselves to submit no works for five years to any publisher who refused the declaration of rights, making allow- ance for the large number of juniors who could easily be persuaded to follow the Society's advice under their example, in two years sufficient of the leading houses would have given way to provide work for all the genuine talent of the country; and the rest would follow suit or fail. Or, it could be done by the same twenty to fifty successful authors subscribing the funds to start an immense publishing concern of their own. With 32O,OOO capital guaranteed, and the scheme definitely set on foot, a thousand smaller authors would be found to support it with annual subscriptions or saleable manuscripts with pay temporarily deferred. - Or, as a combination of these two schemes, a smaller publishing house might be started which would find work for any “marketable ’’ author who would agree to boycott reprehensible firms. Even if there was no more to be gained than the comfort of dealing with honourable men, there is Surely sufficient esprit de corps to make such a business pay, and that means to make it a serious competitor in the publishing world. And the declared competition of a single reputable firm on the lines of fairness and audits against extortion and fraud is sufficient to set the ball rolling which will make literature the finest pro- fession in the world. One last word on this oft-made suggestion of authors uniting to publish their own works, and one that has probably struck many as at least most interesting. That is, that now or never is the time; and that the now means the establish- ment of one of the most flourishing and paying businesses that has ever sprung into being. The Society of Authors has, perhaps unpremeditatedly, worked up public opinion and literary esprit de corps to just that ripe pitch whose natural and permissible outcome is a great mercantile under- taking. The whole body of young authors, the literary world of the next generation, has been alarmed, disturbed, and perplexed by ideas of their wrongs which, by business morality, are simply the universal struggle for life, the common lot of all ambitions. They have been made to think that they are being defrauded by no matter how generous an agreement; they have been ## p. (#574) ################################################ 22O THE AUTHOR. taught to look to the Society as their sole refuge from starvation or sweating. And the majority of established writers are already, by the generous impulses of the art, committed to the support of the league. The union of half a dozen leaders of literature would probably find the capital to start a publishing house, already advertised as no other house has ever been, to which every young author, necessarily including the few geniuses of the next generation, would flock. Surely with the support of a few leaders, and the ick of new genius (which, even more than established names, makes the fortune of existing houses), the new firm would have excellent pro- spects of success. But only now—during the next few years. It has not taken the Society ten years to accomplish the splendid results already felt ; in another ten years it will, by its persistent and irresistible momentum, have completed the revolution — pacifically. That is its aim ; and it will have achieved it nobly and simply, by a theoretical appeal to the principles of human justice. But it will have lost the opportunity of making authors complete arbiters of their own success. C. W. MASON. 59, Oaklands-road, Cricklewood. II.-FREE FROM LIABILITY. I have been much interested in the report, on page 184 of the January number of the Author, of a case tried in the courts respecting the return of a MS., in which it was held that the editor's “notice” freed him from liability, even though he failed to show that he had “used his best endeavours” to return it. In this case the author got back his MS. But suppose it had been lost or destroyed—what then P Can any person divest himself of his legal obligations to his fellow-subjects merely by announcing that he does not intend to observe them P. It used to be held that he could ; but that view is not held now. Railway companies, by a bye-law, used to mulct a passenger who had lost his ticket by making him pay over again, merely to save the trouble of verifying his statement; but that bye-law has been upset. It used to be held lawful to shoot a dog, even though a valuable animal, if found trespassing, provided a notice to that effect was publicly exhibited; but that view, I believe, is no longer held. I have seen a printed notice, dating from last century, that “Any person found trespassing in this plantation will be shot /* That notice might have been held good in law then ; could it be pleaded in answer to an indictment for murder now P In 1891, I sent a short tale to the editor of a certain sporting paper, which prints every week a notice that MS. sent without invitation will not be returned. I was not aware of this notice when I sent the MS. It can be easily understood that the MSS. usually submitted to a paper of that class would possess only a passing interest; if not used at once, they would become worthless. But my MS. was a tale, suitable for other papers as well as this spºrting journal; it was neatly typed and bound in pamphlet form, and the typewriting cost me 6s. to 8s. Hearing nothing of the MS. after several months, and getting no reply to my letters inclosing stamps, I applied to Mr. Squire Sprigge, then secretary of the Authors’ Society; and he, after some correspondence with the sporting paper, informed me that the editor denied all liability, in consequence of his notice. I sustained, therefore, a pecuniary loss of 6s. to 8s. Had the editor the right to do this P I think not. He must have seen at a glance that the MS. had cost money to type it, and that its non-return meant a pecuniary loss to the author. Had he the right to destroy my property, according to an arbitrary rule which he had made himself? Seeing that the MS. was of some value (I mean in a pecuniary sense), he might have put it aside on a shelf and waited till it was called for. But he made away with it instead, apparently to save the trouble of posting it. I sent him stamps for that purpose. Now, the question is this: Does any person, no matter who, editor or not, with notice or without it, possess the legal right to make away with my property merely to suit his own convenience P I fancy not. Only that I was living at a distance from London at the time, I would have tested the matter by a summons, and demanded either the return of the MS. or compensation for the loss sustained. But I have yet a year or two for consideration of the matter before my claim is barred by lapse of time. Perhaps some of our legal friends will enlighten us on the subject. III.-LESS THE ExCHANGE. When a writer is living abroad, is it customary for the publisher when sending him a cheque from London to stop the difference in the exchange, or ought not the author to have the advantage of living in a country where the exchange is high P For years I have always received cheques with the sum agreed upon intact, but the other day I had one with the deduction of the exchange carefully made, accompanied by a form of receipt on which the full sum was written. I should like to hear what is con- sidered fair in this matter. A MEMBER. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 09 (February 1896) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 09 (February 1896) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1896-02-01-The-Author-6-9 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/285/1896-01-01-The-Author-6-8.pdf e6566919e3e3a9aae73e03da5751ec3d 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) 1896-01-01 Volume 6 Issue 8 Pages Page range in volume 173–196 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18960101 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) C O N DU C T E D BY W.A. L T E R B E S A. N. T. VoI. VI.-No. 8.] JANUARY 1, 1896. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *- ~ *-* ** HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *~ * * e-- * -—s WARNINGS AND ADVICE. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT. It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warmed not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £Io must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. . 4. AscERTAIN whAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO Both SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. * refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE Work.--Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. –- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *~ 2. ~" a- - - HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. WERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the T 2 ## p. (#528) ################################################ I 74 THE AUTHOR, experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. - 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *- a 2-seº ** * *—s THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE. EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors’ Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. & 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department' for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. -** NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. ## p. (#529) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 75 Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production ” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-ºs- a -º r-- - -—s FROM THE COMMITTEE, HE Committee beg to remind members that the Sub- scription for the year is due on January the First. The most convenient form of payment is by order on a Bank. This method saves the trouble of remembering. The Secretary will in future send reminders to members who are in arrear in February. The Author will not be sent to members in arrear after the month of March. G. H. THRING, Secretary. *... ak =s* Q- * * ADDRESS OF ENGLISH TO AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN OF LETTERS, WHE following Address has been sent out by the Society of Authors for signature. As soon as possible it will be forwarded to the United States. Its importance will rest entirely on the weight of the names appended: it is earnestly hoped that all those men and women of English blood who have made them- selves respected by their writings across the Atlantic will sign the paper:— “At this crisis in the history of the Anglo- Saxon race, when two paths lie before us, and on the choice between them depends the future of that race, it seems to be the plain duty of us who sign this paper, being followers of literature in Great Britain, to address upon the subject of that choice you who follow literature in the |United States. - “There are two paths before us. One leads us we know not whither, but in the end through war with all its accompaniments of carnage, un- speakable suffering, limitless destruction, and hideous desolation to the inevitable sequel of hatred and bitterness and the disruption of our race. It is this path which we ask you to join with us in an effort to make impossible. The present is neither the time nor the place, nor are we the persons to deal with the crisis on its technical issues, but it should not be difficult for any of us as men and women of reading and imagination, not liable to be carried away by political passion, to understand the general bear- ings of the case on both sides. We, on our part, are prepared to understand that the United States, as the greatest nation in America, looks with proper jealousy on the extension of Euro- pean powers of influence and territory on the American continent. And you, on your part, will not fail to realise that European Powers in general, and Great Britain in particular, have never made any effort to enlarge their dominions on your continent at any time within the past hundred years. e “But it is not on grounds of political equity that we now address you. We are united to you by many ties, and the first and closest of our ties is the bond of blood. We are proud of the United States. There is nothing in our history that has earned us more glory than the conquest of the vast American continent by the Anglo- Saxon race. When our pride is humbled by the report of some things which you do better than ourselves, it is also lifted up by the consciousness that you are our kith and kin. We see very much of you, and you see much of us. During the last quarter of a century the influx of American visitors to these shores has been very great, while every year sends more and yet more of our people across the Atlantic. There is hardly a household in this country without its American relations, its American friends, without its sons and daughters settled in America; and everywhere in England the American people are settled in our midst. Our public men go to you for the inspiration of your youthful nation, and you receive them with boundless hospitality. Your public men come to us for the interest of our ancient institutions, and we welcome them as our brethren. There is no anti-American feeling among Englishmen, and it is impossible that there can be any anti-English feeling among Americans. For two such nations, then, to take up arms against each other would be civil war, not differing from your calamitous struggle of thirty years ago, except that the cause would be immeasurably less human, less tragic, and less inevitable. “There is another tie that unites our nations, and more especially unites those of us who sign this paper and you who receive it—the tie of literature. Party problems may solve or exhaust themselves, burning questions may burn them- selves out, but the literature which a great race, divided into two nations, holds as a joint inheritance will live on after the fever of political strife has passed away. But though it will live it may also suffer, and from nothing can a people take such injury to its moral nature as from the wounds and scars of its literature; if war should occur between England and America, English ## p. (#530) ################################################ 176 THE AUTHOR. literature would be dishonoured and disfigured for a century to come. The patriotic songs, the histories of victory and defeat, the records of humiliation and disgrace, the stories of burning wrong and unavenged insult, these would be branded deep into the hearts of our peoples, they would so express themselves in poems and novels and plays as to make it impossible for any of us who had lived through such a fratricidal war to take up again the former love and friendship. “For the united Anglo-Saxon race that owns the great names of Cromwell and Washington; of Lincoln and Nelson; of Gordon and Grant ; of Shakespeare and Milton ; there is, we trust, such a future as no other race has yet had in the history of the world—a future that will be built on a confederation of Sovereign States, living in the strength of the same liberties. We ask you to join us in helping to protect that future. Poets and creators, scholars and philosophers, men and women of imagination and of vision, we call upon you in the exercise of your far-reaching influence to save our literature from dishonour and our race from lasting injury.” *... * * MR, HALL CAINE'S MISSION. I.—CANADIAN RECEPTION. T is gratifying to record that Canada has herself been the first to acknowledge the work of our ambassador. On the night before Mr. Hall Caine left Ottawa, he was enter- tained at a dinner, which was first conceived of as a tribute to him as a man of letters, and ended by being in all senses a ministerial farewell. Nearly all the Ministers of the Dominion Govern- ment were present, and the Minister of Justice, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, was in the chair. In proposing the toast of the evening he said that his presence side by side with the guest would be a sufficient answer to the reports so industriously circulated that the question of Canadian copy- right had made them public and personal enemies. All the world knew Mr. Hall Caine as a novelist, but since his arrival in Canada, he had established for himself another reputation—that of a great diplomatist. He used the word advisedly and with a proper sense of responsibility. Mr. Caine had conducted difficult and delicate negotiations with a tact which had awakened the admiration of his colleagues, and brought to what appeared to be a settlement, amid the applause of nearly all the parties concerned, a question which had for years been a cause of difference between the Dominion and the old country. Amongst the other speakers were Mr. Foster, Minister of Finance, and Mr. Daly, Minister of the Interior. II.-FROM MR. R.IDOUT. Toronto, Nov. 18, 1895. I now inclose a copy of a resolution passed by The Ontario Society of Artists which has been forwarded to the Minister of Justice, Ottawa. I also inclose you a copy of the resolution passed by the Canadian Institute, on Nov. 16 last, which has also been forwarded to the Minister of Justice, Ottawa. The Canadian Institute is an old and well- known institute, and representative of Canadian art, literature, and science. The resolution from this institute will no doubt have weight with the Government. As an old member of this Canadian Institute, I succeeded in getting the resolution passed. It would be well if a petition were also presented. Mr. Hall Caine mentioned to me that such a one was going to be passed round for signature. I have not seen it yet. JOHN G. RIDOUT. III.—THE ONTARIO SOCIETY OF ARTISTs. Toronto, November 14, 1895. At the monthly meeting of our Society held on Tuesday last the following resolution was adopted:— “That this Society is of opinion that the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889, now before the English Government for ratification, is detri- mental to the interests of artists in Canada, and would much regret the withdrawal of Canada from the International Copyright Convention.” ROBT. F. GAGEN. IV.--THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. At a meeting of this Association, held on Saturday, Nov. 16, 1895, a resolution was passed that the Canadian Government be memorialised to remain within the Berne Convention. W.—FROM MR. GoLDw1N SMITH. To the Editor of the Times. Sir, Thanks to the eloquence of Mr. Hall Caine, who spoke admirably well, and to his diplomacy combined with that of Mr. Daldy, it appears that we have arrived at a settlement of the copyright question; though I do not myself believe that any settlement will prove in the end satisfactory except that of a uniform copyright for the whole Empire. Our retail booksellers are still in arms against the article of the agreement interfering with the importation of editions ## p. (#531) ################################################ THE A UTHOIP. 177 printed in England. They have reason for their protest. The Canadian High Commissioner says that no nation except Great Britain treats her colonies as foreign countries. Can he name any colonies except those of Great Britain which treat their mother country as a commercial enemy and protect themselves against her products? A wider question, however, and one affecting the entire constitution of the Empire, has been raised by this dispute. The British North America Act reserves to the Imperial Govern- ment a veto to be exercised in the general inte- rests of the Empire on all Canadian legislation. The Act is barely thirty years old, so that its provisions can hardly have lost their force. Yet our Minister of Justice, Sir C. Hibbert Tupper, said the other evening at a public dinner in Toronto that “the advisers of Her Majesty would not now dare to disallow the Acts of the Federal Legislature (of Canada) as had been done before.” The Imperial veto, in other words, is to be treated as a practical nullity. Canada asserts her legislative independence; in insisting on her right of withdrawing from the Berne Convention she asserts her diplomatic independence also. If Sir C. Hibbert Tupper's reading of the Imperial Constitution is right, the Parliament and the Parliamentary Ministry of Great Britain are merely local, like those of Canada or any other colony; and nothing is Imperial but a Crown constitutionally divested of its power. To the Imperial country no distinction is left except that of her sole responsibility for Imperial defence. This theory of the Imperial Constitution has, in fact, been almost formally advanced in the course of the copyright discussion. Are you prepared to accept it? It is time that your minds should be made up, as this controversy, from which, perhaps, we have not yet wholly emerged, shows. —Yours faithfully, GOLDw1N SMITH. Toronto, Dec. 2. WI.-CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. A SHORT Account (from the point of the English author) of the DRAFT ACT agreed upon by the Canadian Copyright Association, the Canadian Publishers’ Association, the Cana- dian Press Association, on the One part, and Mr. Hall Caine, representing the English Society of Authors, on the other part, and submitted by them to the Dominion Ministers at the Copyright Conference held at Ottawa, Monday, Nov. 25, 1895. I. That when an English author is about to publish a book simultaneously in England and a foreign country he shall enter its name and deposit a copy of it at Ottawa, or (by payment of a higher fee) at the Canadian High Commis- sioner’s Office in London. 2. That by this registration he shall undertake to print and publish that book in Canada within sixty days, or, if he can show cause for delay, within ninety days, of its first publication. 3. That printing in Canada shall mean the printing from plates made elsewhere. 4. That if an author has not published simul- taneously in England and in a foreign country (that is to say, if he has lost his American copy- right) his copyright in Canada shall remain as at present (under English law) until his book has been published without copyright and authority in, say, America. Then it shall be within the right of a publisher in Canada to apply to the Minister for a licence to publish it in the Dominion. 5. Or if an author has not fulfilled his under- taking to publish in Canada within the time prescribed it shall be within the right of a publisher in Canada to apply for a licence. 6. But before the license can be granted by the Minister the author must be informed of the application and given his choice of accepting it or of publishing for himself within sixty days. 7. Publishing for himself means publishing in his own name, in the name of his agent, of his English publisher, or of his foreign publisher. 8. If he should elect to accept the application for a licence he must receive at least Io per cent. On a book published at not less than 25 cents, with not fewer than 500 copies to an edition, his royalty must be paid in advance, and there must be only one licence granted for one book. 9. An author who is about to publish a serial story in England and in a foreign country (say America) may protect it during the time of its publication in parts by entering its name, a general description of its length and character, and his own name, &c., at Ottawa or (by payment of a higher fee) at London. Io. That if he does not do this, or if he does not publish in a foreign country (say America) and his serial is stolen there, the proprietors of any number of Canadian newspapers may apply to Ministers for a licence to print it. II. The author may stop them from doing so by undertaking to arrange for the publication in Canada within sixty days. I2. Or he may accept the applications, and in that case they must bring him small payments of twenty-five dollars from newspapers published in towns of under one hundred thousand inhabi- tants, and fifty dollars from newspapers published in towns of over one hundred thousand. 13. There are various penalties for violation of copyright, &c. ## p. (#532) ################################################ 178 THE AUTHOR. 14. The rights enjoyed by English authors are to be enjoyed by American authors and by the authors of every country having a copyright treaty with England. WII.-LETTER FROM MR. HALL CAINE TO THE -- TIMEs. Sir, With the knowledge and goodwill of Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, the Minister of Justice at Ottawa, and with the consent and sympathy of the Canadian Copyright Association and the Publishers’ Association of Toronto, I wish to make a general explanation of the draft Bill which authors and publishers recommended to the Dominion Government yesterday as a basis for any fresh legislation on Canadian copyright which in the exercise of their judgment they may, perhaps, submit to the Canadian Parliament. The object of making this draft Bill public at the present moment is to afford to English authors, publishers, and owners of copyrights a proper and timely opportunity, before the Dominion ministers have attempted to give shape to new legislation, of saying if they foresee any serious disadvantages in the operation of a Canadian Copyright Act which should be founded on these lines:— SYNOPSIS OF DEAFT ACT. I. Any citizen of any country which grants copyright to British subjects may secure copyright in Canada for forty- two years. 2. The Act is not retroactive. 3. Any work hereafter issued that may have copyright under this Act shall have copyright in Canada without printing in Canada, subject to certain restrictions in the case of a book. 4. Any such work, and any work first produced in Canada, may secure exclusive copyright in Canada. 5. Every book published in a foreign country, simultane- ously with its publication in the British Dominions, must be registered simultaneously at Ottawa. If the book is pub- lished in the country of origin only, the owner may register at Ottawa at any time until a licence has been applied for. If a book is to be or is first published in Canada, it must be registered on or before day of publication. 6. Three copies of every copyrighted book or work, printed or produced in Canada, must be delivered at Ottawa. 7. From the day of registration importation must cease, except as to two copies which any person may import, and except as to copies of the book printed and published for circulation in the United Kingdom, which may be imported for sixty days, when the Canadian edition is to be ready.” 8. Application to print a book under licence, stating the proposed retail price, may be made to the Department : (a) When the book is registered at Ottawa and is not produced in Canada, within sixty days; or, (b) When the book is published in the country of origin only, and is published or announced for publication, with- out, copyright, in a foreign country. (c) When the book is published simultaneously in the * See P.S. to this letter. British Dominions and in a foreign country, or vice versa, but not registered or published simultaneously in Canada. 9. The registration mentioned above may be made at Ottawa ; or, for the convenience of authors abroad, it may be made at the office of the High Commissioner of Canada at London, provided the author pays the cost of cabling the fact of registration to Ottawa. I9. This registration involves an undertaking to print and publish an edition of the book in Canada within the sixty days following. THE AUTHOR GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE TO SECURE; COPYRIGHT. II. It will be seen that the author has already been given one opportunity to secure exclusive copyright in Canada. He is now given a second opportunity as follows: I2. On receipt of the application for a licence, the Minister is to telegraph or cable particulars to the publisher of the book in the country of origin, offering the choice of two plans, as follows:— (a) The copyright owner may accept the application, in which case the licence will issue forthwith ; or, (b) He may refuse the application and decide to retain the copyright himself, in which case he must register within seven days of the notice from the Minister, and must produce the book in Canada within the sixty days following. - 13. Should no answer be received by the Minister within seven days, the licence is to issue. All licences are to be given on certain conditions, as follows: I4. The applicant to agree to publish without alteration or abridgment, to pay the author a royalty of Io per cent. on the retail price, which royalty is in no case to be less than 23 cents, on each copy, and to pay the royalty on editions of 500 copies at a time, each copy of each edition to be stamped by the Department of Inland Revenue before being in any way disposed of. I5. The licence may be cancelled should a new edition with material alterations or additions be produced in the country of origin. The author is entitled to copyright on the new edition as though it were a new book. Should the author not register the new edition, the licence shall revert to the original licensee. I6. Importation ceases in the case of application for licence, the same as in the case of registration for copyright. 17. A copyright book going out of print must be reprinted within sixty days, otherwise a licence may be issued. 18. Books to be published under licence are to be printed within thirty days after issue of licence. 19. The Minister may, for cause, allow an extension of thirty days beyond any term specified as that in which a book must be printed in Canada. SERIAL COPYRIGHT. 2O. The author has the right to arrange for exclusive serial publication in Canada. Also by registration at Ottawa, he may protect his serial while it is in course of publication in any country. 21. Should he fail to do so, application for a licence to publish serially under licence may be made. Here, again, the author is given a second opportunity to retain exclusive eopyright, as follows:— 22. On receipt of the application for a serial licence the Minister is to telegraph or cable particulars to the publisher of the paper publishing the work in the country of issue, offering the choice of two plans, as follows:— (1) He may accept the application, in which case the licence issues forthwith ; or, (2) He may refuse the application, and decide to arrange for serial publication himself, in which case he must register within seven days of the notice from the Minister, ## p. (#533) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 79 and arrange for serial publication of the work within sixty days. 23. Should no answer be received by the Minister within seven days the licence issues forthwith, on conditions as follows: 24. The publisher agrees to publish the work in full. 25. The licence conveys exclusive right for the city, town, or village for which issued. 26. The licensee is to pay fifty dollars for papers in cities of Ioo,ooo population or over, and twenty-five dollars for cities, &c., of less than IOO,OOO. 27. Thereafter, a licence is to be issued to all applicants on above conditions without further cabling. 28. Every registration for copyright or serial copyright and for every application for licence is to be published once in Canada Gazetle. 29. This serial licence gives no other right to print aud publish the work in any other form whatever. I now submit this draft Bill, with respectful homage, for the consideration of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, of Sir William Martin Conway and the Society of Authors, and of English publishers. It is a Bill to which the Canadian Copyright Association and other interested classes in Canada pledge themselves, and it is a basis on which, I have the best reason to think, fresh legislation might, perhaps, be framed, agreeably to the wish of the Canadian Government. I shall not traverse the points at which it seems to me better for English authors than the proposed Act of 1889, or attempt to show the particulars in which the interested parties in Canada have made concessions to our claims. Neither shall I discuss the constitutional question of Canada's rights to legislate so as to cover the interests of English authors, or yet touch the vexed problem of manufacture as a limitation of the principle of copyright. But I will try to indicate the operation of an Act which, in the wisdom of the Dominion Government, might, perhaps, be based on these general lines:— I. Such an Act would be limited in its opera- tion to the works of the popular authors. This would meet one of the objections of Mr. Goldwin Smith to the clause requiring that a book should be printed in the Dominion. 2. If a book would not pay to print and pub- lish in Canada, it would not therefore fail of copy- right there. The original edition could go into the Dominion, as at present, during the whole term of its copyright in the country of its origin. This would meet the case described in the valu- able letter of Mr. Herbert Spencer. 3. Though a new writer might lose his copy- right in America by failing to comply with the American Copyright Act, he would not therefore lose his copyright in Canada, where he would hold it absolutely until the end of his term. This would meet the painful case of such young writers as Miss Beatrice Harraden. WOL. VI. 4. Such an Act would not exclude from Canada the English book which had been copyrighted in the United States, but never registered or licensed in the Dominion, but it would exclude the American reprint of a book which had been registered or licensed, and it would also exclude the English colonial reprint, which was meant to meet a condition that is gone—the condition of general piracy in the United States—and would then be useless and mischievous; and it would also exclude the English edition after the pub- lication of the Canadian edition. 5. Our understanding with the United States would not be endangered, because American authors would enjoy the same privileges and be under the same obligations as English authors. 6. Such an Act would not imperil the great advantages to English authors of American copy- right, because it would put it within the author's control (both under the condition of registration and under the condition of license) to see that his American market could not be injured in Canada. 7. Such an Act should not be inconsistent with the spirit of the Berne Convention. As the excellent report of the departmental representa- tives (1892) very properly says: “The Conven- tion merely stipulates that foreign copyright owners are to be entitled to the same rights and privileges as British copyright owners, and if the rights of British copyright owners are cut down by such licences, foreign copyright owners are not entitled to complain of their rights being cut down to a similar extent. 8. Such an Act ought to enable the Dominion Government to withdraw its application to denounce the Berne Convention, and so to remove the danger under which Canadian authors now stand of being put into a position of isolation. 9. The interposition of a Government depart- ment (the Department of Agriculture) in the pub- lishing industry of Canada—now perplexed by the uncertainties of the Foreign Reprints Act, and threatened with the intricacies of the pro- posed legislation of 1889—would be confined to a single and simple transaction, which would probably be the less frequent form of arrange- ment. In conclusion I venture to counsel my brother authors not to inquire too curiously into the constitutional question involved in Canada's demand to legislate for herself, and I promise them, after yesterday's public conference with the Premier, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and the Minister of Justice, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, as well as with the representatives of the publishing, printing, and bookselling industries throughout the Dominion, that Canada is at this moment in TJ ## p. (#534) ################################################ 18O THE AUTHOR. the mood to deal with us, if we are conciliatory and reasonable, not only justly, but generously. In the last word I desire to make acknowledg- ment of the valuable assistance of Mr. F. R. Daldy. I must not charge him with any re- sponsibility for the principle of this Bill, which must be laid to my own account entirely; but I should be very wanting in gratitude if I did not say how much I owe to his special knowledge of copyright law and to his warm sympathy and untiring help. Mr. Daldy is to remain some days longer in Ottawa, and he will, I am sure, obtain some further concessions on points of detail.— Yours very truly, HALL CAINE. Ottawa, Nov. 26. P.S.—Since writing the foregoing Mr. Daldy and I have heard from the Dominion Ministers that they cannot propose to exclude any English book except the colonial edition after publication of the Canadian edition. The exclusion of the English edition was a concession made by me to secure certain of the authors’ rights. To-night (Tuesday) the Canadian Copyright Association writes asking me if I would agree to the with- drawal of the prohibition on English editions. I have answered that I would agree. Therefore, this clause of the foregoing draft may, I think, be read as abandoned. HALL CAINE. Dec. 5, 1895. VIII.-CANADIAN COPYRIGHT IIEGISLATION. Canadian copyright legislation has been ad- vanced by another not unimportant stage. The draft Act which Mr. Hall Caine brought back to England as the basis of compromise which had been submitted to the Dominion Government has been reported upon by the home authorities and revised by Parliamentary counsel, and will pro- bably be returned to Ottawa at an early date. It is understood that the revision consists in the main of technical changes which are intended to bring the Act into harmony with the terms of Imperial legislation, and that it removes the prohibition on books lawfully printed and pub- lished for general circulation in countries of the Berne Copyright Union. This change will no doubt meet the only objec- tion urged against the Bill in Canada on behalf of Canadian readers and retail booksellers, and it is therefore not unlikely that the Minister of Justice will put the Act in hand before the dissolution of the Dominion Parliament in the spring. In that event it seems probable that there will be no further opposition in this country. — Times, Dec. 23, 1895. changes. EDUCATIONAL BOOKS. T a meeting of the committee of manage- ment held on Monday, Dec. 9, a sub-com- mittee was appointed to investigate and to report upon the question of the publishing of educational works. The sub-committee will be extremely obliged if members of the Society will interest themselves in this important work and forward to the secretary their own experience, or that of their friends, with the accounts and the agreements. It is understood that no cases will be published with names unless by permission of the authors concerned. The following, for instance, is the experience of one writer of educational books:— “For my first book I agreed with my publisher to receive a royalty of Io per cent., to begin after the first thousand were sold. This book has done extremely well—so well that I think the publishers ought to have gone beyond the agreement and paid me royalties as from the beginning. I have done two other books for the same publishers on Io per cent. from the beginning; the work was of a kind which necessitated considerable sums of umoney spent in copying books and other pay- ments, amounting to about £50 in all. This money has been paid by me, not by the publishers. I do not know what proportion of profit has been taken by the publishers and what has gone to me. “I next made arrangements with a general editor of a certain firm to edit a book for which I was to receive a certain sum—quite a small sum. I worked at this for nearly a year, and had done about half the work, when the general editor resigned, and his place was taken by another man who refused to accept the work on which his pre- decessor had engaged me, and which I had already. half finished. I have done another book for an educational series for which I am receiving a . royalty of 7% per cent. on the published price. With regard to this book, I made it a condition when I contributed it to the series that it should be planned in a certain manner. “Thris was agreed to, and I spent a year's hard work upon it. This summer, however, without any warning to me, the publishers have issued in the same series an “alternative’ book to my own. It is a work closely modelled on mine with certain I should like to ask whether there ought not to be some protection for contributors to an educational series against the introduction of ‘alternative' volumes embodying, as far as may be convenient, the fruits of their labour.” This case illustrates the need for the inquiry of ## p. (#535) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 181 the newly appointed sub-committee. The royal- ties are simply sweating. As for the introduction of an “alternative” volume, this extraordinary statement demands further investigation. * * ==s* r----, OFFICE EXPENSES. HE question whether a publisher is entitled to charge for office expenses is growing larger and more important. In fact, the relations between author and publisher cannot be discussed, to say nothing of being settled, until this question has been thoroughly thrashed out. Every honest man is agreed that there must be no secret charge of any kind; that to spend £80 and to tell the author in the accounts that £IOO has been spent is—but it is quite unnecessary to say here what that is. We wish to speak of agreements and terms of partnership between two honourable men, both of whom desire nothing more than is fair, and both of whom would scorn the dirty tricks of Secret profits and lying returns. Let us set forth the conditions of the question as fairly and as dispassionately as possible. We will here consider only that kind of book which carries with it no risk. By this we mean a book which is certain to pay for the actual cost of production with some margin, great or small; a book of which the publisher knows that he can dispose of a certain minimum which will at least clear his liability, and which he hopes will greatly exceed that sum. In every branch of literature there are a great many authors whose books fall under this head—books without risk. Of course we cannot admit that kind of risk incurred when a publisher, for the sake of saving a little on the cost of production, issues a much larger edition than he can depend upon selling. Thus, if a writer has recently written a book which has gone through an edition of 2000, the publisher would not be justified in complaining of the risk he had undertaken if he were to begin with an edition of 4OOO. Let us, as usual, deal with our customary example, the 6s. book; not necessarily a novel. There are three methods of publishing : that of purchase, which is perhaps the best of all if the author obtains the proper price : of profit- sharing, also very good if the author gets his proper share : of royalties, which is very good if the author gets a proper royalty. Now, when any one of these methods is dis- cussed, the publisher, too often, objects, generally putting the two together, the cost of advertise- ment, and his enormous office expenses. As regards the former, that forms part of the cost of production, and is only mentioned here because it is sometimes lumped together with office expenses in the desire to pass the latter because the former cannot well be disputed. One word re- garding the cost of advertising. It is as well to remind the reader what it means. Thus the expenditure of £10 on advertising means: On the first thousand copies an addi- tion of .................................... 2#d. On the first two thousand ............... Iłd. On the first three thousand ............ #d. Of the first ten thousand 9-d. to the cost of every volume. . So that if £30 is spent on advertising a book which has a sale of Io,000, the cost of production is increased by #d. for every volume. Of course this does not include advertising in a publisher's own newspapers or exchanges, either open or concealed. Let us return to the clause for charging office expenses. It is a new thing. Formerly a publisher agreed, if he thought a book likely to succeed, to take the risk and give his services in considera- tion of half, or one-third, of the profits. The word “profits” was understood to mean the difference between the gross receipts and the money spent on production. This point is estab- lished by Charles Knight, who gives the accounts of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall,” on a profit-sharing agreement (see p. 183). Knight wrote fifty years ago, but he calls attention to the tampering with accounts which had then become too common a practice. The point, however, is this: that a hundred years ago a profit-sharing agreement in which the publisher gave his risk and his services in return for an agreed share of profits did not allow him, nor was it ever thought of, to deduct his office expenses, and then begin to share. The bargain was that in return for his share he should take the risk and give his services. Now his services meant then, and they mean now, the use of the whole of his machinery. We have here eliminated the question of risk. That is to say, we are considering only that class of books, now become very large, in the produc- tion of which there is no risk, The services of the publisher remain; and for these services he must be remunerated on such a scale as will pay him a fair margin over and above his office expenses. What are these services P. That is the question on which depends the adjustment of the relations between author and publisher. What does the publisher actually do for the book? His own ## p. (#536) ################################################ 182 THE AUTHOR. personal work lies first in giving the machinery of his office and clerks whereby the book can get printed, and bound, and distributed, and the accounts collected. All this is pure routine, and is the daily work of clerks, accountants and travellers. There is not the least mystery or difficulty about it. Knowledge there must be, viz., as to the proper charges for printing, binding and paper; but knowledge that the clerks and accountants may possess as much as the principal. There is, next, the decision as to the best number to start with, a difficulty easily met in the case of the book we are considering—a book that carries no risk. Then comes the amount of expense that the book will “bear” in advertising—a point as to which all publishers differ in practice. One does not desire in the least to undervalue the personal work done for the book by the publisher; but can anyone find any other contribution to the success of the book P. In other words, what does a publisher do for a book whose production carries no risk, more than has been stated above P - Yet for doing this simple routine work by the hands of his clerks some publishers claim the right of charging first for office expenses, and then actually going halves—if not worse—with the owner and creator of the property On what grounds can this claim be allowed P Do other people—agents — stewards — trades- men—ever make such a claim P What would be thought of a rent collector—a solicitor—a land agent—a house agent--demanding first a deduc- tion for the Office expenses, and, next, half what is left for himself? The thing would be monstrous. In all work done for other people, of whatever kind, the office expenses must be met by the man who does the work. It is his affair. He has got to make his own machinery; to buy his own tools. The doctor does not charge for the carriage in which he drives about: the solicitor does not charge for the clerks who do his writing: the barrister does not charge for his rent and his clerks; on the contrary, the charges of all these men are uniform, and on the same scale, whether there are few clerks or many. There cannot, in fact, be named any kind of trade or profession, except that of publishing, in which it is pretended that the shop or the office is charged for separately. That there must be a first charge on the shop- keeper's returns for rent and servants is obvious; and there must be a margin, otherwise the shop- keeper could not live. Some time ago an interesting interview with a publisher, already referred to in these columns, appeared in the New Budget. This publisher, speaking of a popular six shilling novel, lamented bitterly that the author got eighteenpence a copy, but that he himself, after deducting the cost of production, the advertisements, and his office eapenses, only made sevenpence a copy. Only sevenpence Poor man. It was a very popular book. It sold a great many thousands. If it sold 40,000 copies this publisher received, there- fore, no more than £1 166 in three months for doing—what? We have seen above all that he did. His figures, besides, require auditing. Since, however, it is desired to decide upon a fair adjustment with the publisher, one which shall include office expenses and leave a proper margin, there are two or three other things necessary to be considered. Thus, we must ascertain what are office expenses, and what proportion they bear to each book. In order to do this it would be necessary to have access to the publisher's books —all his books—a thing not easy to get. Yet without these books it is impossible to arrive at any answer. The expenses include rent, taxes, readers, clerks, servants, fire and lighting, travellers, stationery, and all the ordinary expenses of an office. In the case of the new publisher, with his two rooms and his two boys and no traveller, these expenses are not, of course, considerable; a few hundreds a year would cover them. In the case of a great house they are, naturally, very large indeed. One is quite willing to admit the fact. The question is, first, how much are they, year by year, on an average as shown by the books P. Next, what are the average sales, year by year, of all the firm’s publications, as shown by the books? For instance, the publisher above referred to calculated the office expenses on each volume at something like 50l., i.e., the share of office expenses on that one successful book would be—putting the circulation at 40,000—3833 for three months If one book out of all those in his list cost £833 for three months to distribute, how terrible must be his office expenses taken as a whole and divided among all the books The figures are the pub- lisher's own—not ours. But does this include the advertising P Yes: but the sum of £100, which is enormous, spent in advertising would not mean so much as three farthings a volume. However, let us take a more reasonable view of things. We will suppose that the sum of £3000 covers all office expenses. There are houses where, no doubt, this sum would not nearly cover expenses; there are also smaller ones where this sum is not nearly reached. We may fairly con- sider that one volume may be taken with another. That is to say, there is as much trouble and work over the distribution of a half-crown volume as over a half-guinea, volume. So that if, for in- stance, the whole sales of the year amount to 24O,OOO volumes, we have to divide the office ## p. (#537) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 183 expenses by this number of volumes in order to arrive at the share of each. Now £3000 divided by 240,000 gives the sum of 3d. for each volume, i.e. if 3 s. 6d. be the trade price of the volume, 7 per cent. On the gross receipts will be wanted for office copies. But these figures are purely imaginary. Nor can any general percentage be arrived at, because the pro- portion must vary with the business done by any house. The next consideration is very important. It is this. If the office expenses of the publisher are to be charged, those of the author must also be charged as well. Now, the office expenses of the author are sometimes very heavy indeed. A case was recorded in these pages some time ago in which an author who wrote a small book for a sum of £1oo found it necessary to make three journeys at a cost of £35 in order to verify certain points. Were not these office expenses? Then there is the rent of his study; the payment of the typewriter; that of the occasional or regular shorthand writer; the cost of fire and lights; the share of servant’s work; paper; books bought —often an extremely heavy outlay; sometimes research and copying to be done and paid for. Are not those things as much office expenses as the publisher's office P Of course they are. Think what they mean. The rent of the study can hardly be placed at less than £30; the type- writer takes perhaps & IO; the shorthand writer may perhaps be had for part of the time at, say, IOS. a week, or say only £20 a year; books, paper, and other things easily rise into another £2O a year. His office expenses, therefore, amount to £8o a year, say £80 for the one book. We are sometimes told that office expenses mean Io per cent. of the gross receipts: we are not informed how that figure has been arrived at. Let it pass, however. Now, IO per cent. On a 6s. book means Io per cent. On 3.s. 6d., or 4+d. If a writer of whose book 3000 copies are sold received the same allowance he would still be a loser, because he would only receive £52 IOS. for his office expenses. In other words, if a writer is to receive Io per cent. on the returns for his office expenses, he must have a sale of 4600 before his office expenses for one year are paid. To sum up. First of all, a claim for office expenses is a new thing invented of late years. (2) The publisher's services, for which alone, in a book without risk, he can claim anything, mean the use of his office, which can no more be considered separately, in such a book as we are considering, than it is when dealing with a solicitor, a doctor, a barrister, a printer, a carrier, a rent collector, an agent, or one who does any kind of work for any other man. The WOL. VI. publisher and his office are one. (3) If the pub- lisher's office expenses are to be charged to his account separately, so must the author's. (4) The real office expenses, together with the average number of volumes sold, cannot be arrived at without examination of the books, and no charge can be allowed in any kind of account or bill which cannot be audited and verified. Two methods are possible. The first is for both author and publisher to take a percentage—the same—on the receipts, or on the cost of production, for office expenses, and then to proceed with the division. Of course this is the same thing as taking no notice of them—the old plan. The other method is for the author to have nothing to do with the publisher's office expenses at all, but to give him a royalty as remuneration for his services which shall include office expenses with a fair margin for himself. *-- ~ --" e- * *—s A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, HE following extract, taken from Knight's “Shadow of the Old Bookseller,” shows what was meant a hundred years ago by a profit-sharing agreement — two-thirds of the profits to go to the author and one-third to the publisher; the actual cost of production to be taken from the gross returns; the publisher's remuneration or share to include his services, i.e., his office, clerks, and general machinery. What else, indeed, could the publisher of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall ” do for the book P “State of the account of Mr. Gibbon’s “Roman Empire.” Third edition. Ist vol. No. IOOO. April 3°,1777. S. Printing 80 sheets at £1 6s. with notes at the bottom of the paper ...... ........... ........ I 17 o o 180 reams of paper at 19s. ........................ I7 I O O Paid the corrector extra care ..................... 5 5 O Advertisements and incidental expenses ......... I6 I5 o 3IO O O 3 S. d. IOOO books at 16s. .................. 8OO o o Deduct as above ..................... 3IO O O Profits on the edition......... 490 O O Mr. Gibbon's two-thirds is ........................ 326 I3 4 Messrs. Strahan and Cadell's........... * . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 6 8 490 O O I should be unwilling to raise any invidious comparisons between the publishers of the eighteenth and those of the nineteenth century; but, if I am not mistaken, the ordinary profits would—say twenty-five years ago — have been taken upon a different principle, and the account X ## p. (#538) ################################################ 184 THE AUTHOR. would have assumed something like the follow- ing shape: Hypothetical account, wbom the half profit system, of a book which cost £31o. 3 s. d. 1000 at 16s. ............................................. 8oo o o Less IO per cent. for publisher ..................... 8o o o 720 o o Deduct as above ............... 3IO O O 4IO O O Half share to author ............... 2O5 O O Half share to publisher, with £80 commission .................. 205 o o' By “five and twenty years ago.” Knight clearly means his own time of writing, which was about thirty years ago, when cookery applied to publishers' accounts was already one of the Fine Arts. Let us give another hypothetical case showing a modern account not worse than has been found in certain cases brought to the Society within the last ten years. Of course the pro- cess of Cookery was not shown in the account rendered. True Cost. Charge. 48 S. d. 48 S. d. Printing.............................. II 7 O O I28 I 4 O Paper................................. I71 o o 188 2 O Corrections ..................... ... .5 S O IO IO O Advertisements..................... 16 15 O Y Do. in publisher's own organ ... 33 5 o y so O O Postage, &c. ........................ 5 O O 382 6 o Profit on editions .................. 3IQ 4 IO 701 Io Io Receipts. IOOO books at 16s., 13 as 12 ... 738 9 o Less 5 per cent, for bad debts... 36 18 5 7OI IO Io Half profit to author ................................. I59 I2 5 39 to publisher.............................. } each. True profit to publisher, 22.41 18s. 5d. So that in a “half-profit” system the publisher would get by these figures 382 6s. more than his partner. THE RETURN OF MISS. CASE was tried before one of the City Courts last month, which presents a point of some interest. It has not been reported, so far as we know, in any paper, and the statement of the case as presented here is that of the plaintiff only. In the absence of documentary proofs, or a Press report, let it stand as a hypothetical case only. - – t The plaintiff stated that a certain editor of a weekly paper—not the proprietor—invited him to send in contributions, adding that he could not give him the order unconditionally, as he was not the proprietor, but stating that he would arrange for their acceptance. - The plaintiff thereupon sent in three separate contributions. The papers were sent in on July 8, Aug. 13, and Aug. 24. Then nothing more was heard about the contributions. The plaintiff called and wrote repeatedly. Nobody was ever at home, and no reply came to the letters. He sent in an account and asked for payment. No reply. He then brought an action for the amount. The defence was that the customary paragraph concerning MSS., which appears weekly in the paper, released the defendants from any liability. This was the paragraph: NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS. The editor will not guarantee the return of any MSS. sent in on approval, but he will use his best endeavours where stamps are forwarded for the purpose. The judge agreed with this view, but asked why the MS. was not returned in accordance with this paragraph. The defendants said that they had the MS. in the court. The judge ordered the MS. to be handed over and dismissed the Ca,Sé. The plaintiff, therefore, got his M.S. at the cost of IOS. and a wasted morning. The point to observe is that the editor, or proprietor, who inserts such a notice is clearly within his right, even when the MS. has been invited to be sent in on approval. The contri- butor who accepts such an invitation must protect himself, therefore, beforehand, by getting an assurance from the editor, in writing, that his MS. will be returned if it is not acceepted. Of course, the conduct of an editor who invites a contribution and then spitefully refuses to return it, under cover of such a “notice,” needs no comment. *– ~ -º g- - - NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Dec. 14, 1895. R. HALL CAINE will have reached your shores long before this letter leaves New York, and he will be able to report in person the success of his mission to Canada. The most of the authors and the publishers with whom I have chanced to talk about the new Canadian bill do not approve of it. They are in favour of leaving things as things are now. The authors for the most part care very little about the matter, for the Canadian market is not large, and it seems to prefer British books to American. The publishers feel very keenly on the subject, as ## p. (#539) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 185 they have reason to fear that the Canadian re-printer is already making arrangements to pour into the Western States, through the post- office, a mass of books copyright in the United States. One would think that the Canadians who do most of their trading with us would not be in favour of anything likely to tighten the restric- tions which already interfere with the liberty of commerce between the two countries. It must be remembered always that Canada, although the nearest neighbour of the United States, is not very friendly to us. This unfriendliness is due in part to an inheritance of hate brought into the Dominion by the exiled loyalists who had to leave the United States after the Revolutionary War. And the element in the Canadian people free from this unfriendliness, the element most in sympathy with the life and the ideals of the people of the United States, is not large, and is never likely to be, since the Canadian who likes the United States is prone to immigrate here. I heard the other day that there are now more native Canadians residing in the United States than there are native Canadians residing in Canada. The temptation must always be very great to the strong and the energetic to go to the place where they can better themselves, and there- fore to abandon a native land which is bleak, and infertile, and heavily in debt. But this has nothing to do with Mr. Hall Caine's experiences here, or with the pleasant im- pressions he left behind him. The Aldine Club, composed chiefly of members of the publishing trade, gave him a dinner. He spoke one evening last month before the Nineteenth Century Club on the “Moral Responsibility in the Novel and the Drama,” having a manuscript before him but using it only occasionally. He illuminated his discourse with two or three Manx anecdotes, capitally told; and he illustrated his assertion that this present century is far and away the most romantic and interesting of any yet known to mankind, by an American anecdote of a telegraph operator, narrated with knowledge and sympathy and point. Another British author, Mr. Gilbert Parker—if he is to be called a British author, in spite of the fact that he was born in Quebec, I believe—has been spending the autumn months in New York. He was married last week to a young lady of this city, Miss Wantine; and the happy couple propose settling in London next month, I understand. Yet a third British author is here, “John Oliver Hobbes,” and here I am even more in doubt as to the nationality since Mrs. Craigie was born in the United States, but brought up and married in England. Mrs. Craigie is being much entertained and frequently interviewed by all sorts of newspapers. She has arrived here in time to be present at the first performance of her little play, “Journeys End in Lovers Meeting,” by Miss Ellen Terry at Abbey's Theatre this week. The performances of Miss Terry and of Sir Henry Irving and of the London Lyceum Com- pany have been attended as faithfully as they always are here in New York. At the request of the Shakespeare Society of Columbia College, Sir Henry delivered a lecture on the “Character of Macbeth,” before some thousand or so of the officers and students of the University. It was a brilliant gathering which Sir Henry addressed in the lofty and beautiful library of Columbia, from which the tables had been removed, and on the bookcases of which many of the younger students had perched themselves picturesquely. And Sir Henry’s lecture was worthy of the occasion. Of course it was to some extent an explanation of that reading of the character which the actor follows in his own performances of Macbeth. The address was beautifully delivered and it was most cordially received. As I have seen more than one reference in the pages of the Author to the New York society called the “Uncut Leaves,” at the meetings of which authors read their imprinted writings to appreciative audiences, it may be of interest to record here that Mr. L. J. B. Lincoln, the origi- nator of the scheme, has issued his circular for the winter of 1895-6. Readings for the fifth season will be held at Sherry's Rooms on Satur- day evenings, Nov, 23, Dec. 2 I, Jan. 25, Feb. 29, March 28, and April 25. In response to many requests, an afternoon series will be held at Sherry's on Tuesdays, Dec. 17, Jan. 7, Feb. I I, March IO, April 7 and 28, at 3.30. At these meetings prominent actors, whose presence would be impossible at the evening meetings, will take part, as well as authors. The subscription for either the evening or afternoon course will be ten dollars, admitting two persons to each reading. For both courses the subscription will be seven- teen dollars for two persons. An initiation fee of five dollars will be required from new members for the evening readings. It is to be recorded that the authors who read are always well paid for this labour. The London Spectator not long ago, in noticing the fact that Macmillan and Co. had become the British agents of the Century Magazine, expressed the hope that they would soon abandon the so- called American spelling. Of course this was written in ignorance of the fact that the London agents of the Century, of Harper's Magazine, and of Scribner's Magazine have nothing what- ever to do with the management of authose ## p. (#540) ################################################ I86 THE AUTHOI8. magazines; their sole function is to sell a certain number of copies consigned to them. These three magazines are edited here in New York and for American readers with but little thought for the British reader, since the circulation in Great Britain of any one of the three is probably not one-fifth of its total circulation. And the habit of advertising in magazines is not so far developed in Great Britain as it is in the United States; the Century and Harper's appear here frequently with more than one hundred pages of advertise- ments all carefully classified. Obviously it is on the American reader and on the American advertiser that the American magazine must rely; the circulation it may gain in England it is glad to have, for these sales in Tondon are so arranged as to be almost clear profit with little or no risk in most cases. So far from their being any probability that the American people as a whole will give up their simplifications of English orthography, any keen observer can see that the simplifying movement is steadily advancing. The latest symptom of this is the organisation of the “Orthografic Union,” the object of which is to secure the simplification of English orthography. The president of this new society is Mr. Benjamin E. Smith, the managing editor of the “Century Dictionary;” and among the vice-presidents are Francis J. Child, Professor of English in Harvard University; Thomas R. Tounsbury, Professor of English in Yale Univer- sity; Francis A. March, Professor of English in Lafayette College; Brander Matthews, Professor of Literature in Columbia College; William R. Harper, President of the University of Chicago; Alexander Melville Bell, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, William Dean Howells, Edward Eggleston, Andrew D. White, formerly President of Cornell University. The Orthografic Union has issued a circular calling for further advance in spelling reform. As this is a subject in which all authors are interested I append the modifications the society suggest : The Orthografic Union aims to organise effort for the adoption and persistent use of uniform improvements in English spelling. In the first series of improvements, con- sisting of the three classes given below, are introduced only such changes as there is reason to believe a considerable number of eminent authors, editors, and publishers are ready to unite in using. The first and second classes of improvements selected, and most of the words in the third class, have been recom- mended by the Philological Society of England, the American Philological Association, and the Modern Lan- guage Association of America, and are recognised in the columns of “A Standard Dictionary,” and in lists given in “The Century” and “Webster's International * dic- tionaries. The Orthografic Union recommends the following improve- ments for immediate use in books, journals, commercial and private correspondence, &c. : Class I. Final ed pronounced as t : after a short vowel or diphthong, spell simply t, and simplify preceding double consonants, as : blest, exprest, past, backt, lookt, wisht, slipt, patcht, toucht. Class 2. Silent final e : in words ending in -íde, -íle, -íne, -īte, mme, -tte, and -gue, omit the e and preceding silent letters, when the change will not suggest another quality for a preceding letter, as : chlorid, fertil, glycerin, definit, definitly, gram, program, quartet, catalog, dialog. Class 3. Special cases: (a) Miscellaneous words: spell according to the simpler forms given in the columns of “Webster's International,” “The Century,” “A Stan- dard,” or other good dictionary, as: ax, theater, mold, rime, maneuver, hemorrhage, esophagus; (b) Chemical terms: as recommended by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and “A Standard Dic- tionary,” and as largely used in the text of “The Century Dictionary,” as : bromin, bromid, sulfur ; (c) Names of places and peoples: as recommended by the Royal Geo- graphical Society, or the United States Board of Geographic Names, and given in “The Century Cyclopedia of Names’ and “A Standard Dictionary,” as: Bering, Korea, Fiji. X. Y. Z. *- - -º * w - NOTES FROM PARIS. TV.HE election of an Academician to fill the fauteuil vacated by the death of Alexandre Dumas will take place at the French Academy in May, when Pasteur's fauteuil will also be filled. At the next elections, which will be held directly after the reception of M. Jules Le- maître, the fauteuils of MM. de Lesseps and Camille Doucet will be balloted for. For the de Lesseps fauteuil there are now five candidates (not including Zola, the perpetual candidate). These are Francis Charmes, Desjardins, Barboux, Jean Aicard, and Anatole France. The fauteuil will go to one of the two last named. My opinion is that Anatole France will be elected. Camille Doucet's fauteuil will be filled either by Emile Deschanel or the Marquis Costa de Beauregard, One is inclined to think that the latter will be the successful candidate, as the Dukes (le parti des Ducs) will probably give the preference and their votes to the grand seigneur. The Marquis has also substantial claims as a man of letters, his “Un Homme d’Autrefois” having been “crowned.” by the French Academy. Deschanel, however, has a large following, and it is possible that the election will have to be postponed for want of an absolute majority. The most interesting election will be the one to fill the fauteuil Dumas, the candidates being Henri Becque, Jean Richepin, and, of course, Emile Zola. I should back Henri Becque, for his “Les Blasphèmes’ are against Richepin, and Zola has not, I think, any chance, in spite of the campaign in his favour in the ## p. (#541) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 187 principal papers. I see that Daudet is mentioned as a candidate also. He has told me that he is no candidate, and that he never will be one, and I believe him. Whenever I am asked, as I often am, in Paris about les jeunes in English literature, I invari- ably tell my questioner that the author who, in my opinion, is most worthy of attention amongst the newer men is Morley Roberts. Roberts, I explain, has not so far attained the great popular success which should certainly be his, in consideration of his wide—almost universal —knowledge of the world and life, of men and places, his fine unique style, and a profundity of human sympathy which puts him on a level with men who on this score alone are eminently suc- cessful in the commercial sense of the word. I have recommended his “Question of Instinct” to the translators. It is a book which would be better understood—and therefore more appre- ciated—in Paris than in London, and I shall be curious to watch its reception. There are also many of his short stories which would be very popular in France. I do not think his “Western Avernus" would meet with much sympathy in Paris. “Qu'allait-il faire dans cette galère.” would be the general remark. The French do not travel, and do not believe in travelling stories. “A beau mentir,” &c. They do not sympathise with travellers' woes. “Let us have no meander- ing,” they say with the old lady in “David Copper- field.” I hear on very good authority that since the death of Victor Hugo the receipts from his works have totalled up to close upon seven and a half millions of francs (£30,000). I agree with the editor of La Plume that under these circum- stances it is rather strange that the £2OOO necessary to complete the sum required for his statue are not forthcoming. required, only £6000 have been collected during the ten years which have elapsed since his death. At a recent sitting of the Académie de Médecine, two doctors, MM. Cazal and Catrin, declared very emphatically that the risk of con- tagion by the use of books which have been in the hands of persons suffering from infectious diseases is a very great one, and they described a number of experiments by which they had estab- lished the truth of this statement. One is glad to hear that the risk is greatly enhanced in the case of those objectionable persons who moisten their fingers in order to turn over the leaves. They recommend that any book which may be suspected should be baked for disinfection in an oven. The best advice, Ithink, to give under these circumstances is never to borrow books, but for Of the £8000 each man and woman to buy his or her own copy. Authors can only benefit by MM. Cazal and Catrin's communiqué to the Academy of Medicine. I heard a French man of letters express the opinion that much of the Anglophobia which has recently manifested itself in America may be the effect of the mass of Napoleonic literature, almost entirely of a pronounced Anglophobic nature, which has recently been circulated in the States. I should not be surprised to find that this opinion could be largely corroborated. The Figaro has resumed its weekly column of literary gossip, which is now published in the Wednesday issue. It is, however, no longer edited by M. Jules Huret, who has taken over the daily column of theatrical gossip, known as “Courrier des Théâtres.” The famous Journal des Débats no longer appears as a morning paper, the recently founded evening edition alone appearing. It is to be hoped that it may fill a real want in Paris—that of a good evening paper containing news. Such a paper does not exist in Paris at present. My opinion is that in the future it will be the evening paper which will have the largest chance of great success. In Paris most people get up late—at an hour when the morning papers are already out of date. The Débats continues to be the One paper to which one looks for sound and useful literary criticism. M. Jean Aicard’s translation of “Othello” has been received a l'unanimité by the Comité de Lecture of the Comédie Française, and the play will be eventually staged there. It has never been performed in its entirety, though portions of it have been played, with Mounet-Sully as Othello and Sarah Bernhardt as Desdemona. Sarah Bernhardt is making good progress with her Memoirs. She is said to be receiving the most brilliant offers from syndicates for their publication in serial form. Emile Zola's libretto for M. Bruneau's new opera “Messidor” is not, as has been stated, based on the author's novel “La Terre,” but is an entirely original work. M. Bruneau hopes to finish his music in time for the production of the opera, next autumn. M. Jean Ajalbert has discovered a new poet, a new Mistral—the Mistral of Auvergne. This is interesting, as Auvergne of all countries is the least likely nurse of any poetic child. The new Mistral, whose personality and work are attract- ing great attention in literary Paris at present, is a wine-seller, Arsène Vermenouze by name, who lives at Aurillac. His volume of poems, written in the ugly Auvergnat patois, which is familiar to Parisians as the language of the coal-men and ## p. (#542) ################################################ I 88 THE AUTHOR, hawkers of roasted chestnuts in the capital, is called “Flour de Brousso’ (Gallicé, “Fleur de Bruyère”). Says Jean Ajalbert: “Lamartine wrote of Mistral that he had made of Provence a book. Toutes proportions gardées, Vermenouze has made of Auvergne a book also.” The question is, Was Auvergne worth making into a book P. It is a terribly ugly, uninteresting country. Apropos of the publication of a very interesting “History of the French Novel during the 19th Century " (“Le Roman en France pendant le XIX' Siècle,” par Eug. Gilbert) by Plon, it is to be noted that, with the exception of a few writers like Zola and Daudet, literary men in France are generally expressing the opinion that as a vehicle of thought the novel is quite “played out ’” — archiusé is the expression generally used. Quite so; and high time it is (pace Zola) that the novel with a purpose should be played out. Mr. Gilbert's book, by the way, merits attention by students of French literature. I should like to see it translated into French. I receive quite a number of letters with refer- ence to my remarks on the blackleg genus. I am glad to find that in more senses than one these remarks seemed to have touched the spot. I do not want, however, to say anything more on the subject. A country has only the literary blacklegs which it deserves, and, if English people like to tolerate these farceurs, tant pis pour eua. It is always interesting to hear what an author considers the best scene in his book, and accord- ingly I was interested to hear from Nordau that in his opinion the best touch in his “Comedy of Sentiment” was where the hero finds out that Paula, who has come to Dresden “to be sepa- rated from him again only by death,” as she says, had supplied herself with a return ticket, for use in case her blandishments proved unavailing. By the way, speaking of return tickets, I never take one without a shiver as I remember how Mme. Fenayron, conducting Aubert to the house at Pecq, took for herself a return ticket, but for the intended victim a single only. He was not to return, nor did he. This horrible detail was proved at the trial, and went far to establish the premeditation of the crime. R. H. SHERARD. - - - Fºx's rºse— NOTES AND NEWS, R. HALL CAINE has returned. It is premature to congratulate ourselves upon the success of his mission until the question has been brought before the Canadian Parliament and decided. But it is not premature to congratulate ourselves upon the masterly ability displayed by Mr. Hall Caine in the whole conduct of his negotiations. Any blunder might have been followed by consequences the most disastrous to literature. The Canadian susceptibilities have been respected: their claims have not been dis- puted: a way has been found: and the goodwill of Canada has been apparently secured. These are the services of Mr. Hall Caine. Let us hope that the welcome with which he is to be received will be worthy of the occasion. I wrote the above from the communications and letters which have appeared in the papers during the last three months. Since this paragraph was set up in type, I have had no opportunity of hearing from Mr. Hall Caine's own lips an account of the whole mission. It is a story which must be told by himself at his own time and in his own way. Meantime it may be per- mitted to say in this place that the words used above are not strong enough to express my own sense of his work. The difficulties which existed have not been understood here; the conflicting interests have not been studied. Not only the goodwill of the Canadians has been secured, but that of the Americans. Especially admirable has been the manner in which Mr. Hall Caine was received by the Canadians. Last, but not least, Mr. Chamberlain has addressed a letter to Mr. Caine, recognising amply the value of his services and the skill of his diplomacy. It is proposed that Mr. Hall Caine will address a general meeting of this Society some time this month. He remains in town for some weeks on business connected with his mission. It ought I think to be generally known that Mr. Hall Caine has most generously given to the Society three months and more of very hard and trying work; he has also given to the Society the whole of the expenses incurred in this long journey. With these munificent gifts in our mind we shall not be so ready to accuse men of letters as selfishly pursuing their own interests alone. Two objects were in view : the first was to save the American Copyright Act of 1891; the second was to show the world that men and ## p. (#543) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 189 women of letters have seriously united for the defence of their own affairs, and are competent to defend them. From my own point of view I do not know which is the more important of these two objects. It is now two or three months since I cut a paragraph out of a certain newspaper for com- ment in these pages. I put it aside, however, so that my remarks might not be taken either as an attack upon any publisher, or as an attack upon any author. Now that the subject has been partly forgotten, one may speak. Let us put the case in general terms. The paragraph made the following assertions: (I.) That should a successful author offer the administration of his property on the terms of a royalty of 2s. On a six-shilling book, it would be necessary for the publisher to sell 30,000 copies before getting any profit at all for himself. Now, the cost of such a book, including adver- tisements, does not, under ordinary circum- stances, amount to more than Is. The average price paid by the trade may be taken as 3s. 6d.- though it is really more. The profit to the pub- lisher therefore would be 6d. a volume; or, on 3O,OOO copies, the profit would amount to £750. Does anybody in his senses believe that it would cost £750 to distribute, by the ordinary machinery, 3O,OOO volumes and to collect the accounts P But just observe what a very simple little sum in arithmetic it requires to knock over this loose and misleading assertion. (2.) The paragraph says, further, that at all events the novelist in question “has not much to complain of in regard to the remuneration of novelists.” How much longer will it take to make people understand that literary property belongs to the creator, not to the middleman? A successful writer creates a property; it is his own property; he may sell it or do what he likes with it ; but it is his own property. In the case before us the writer says, “If you like to ad- minister my property for me on the terms of paying me 2s. for every volume you sell, you shall have it. If not, somebody else shall have it. But understand that it is my property. When I take that royalty I am taking my own property; I am not remunerated. I am receiving my rents, of which you are the steward.” Some day, I suppose, we shall get these simple and elementary facts recognised and acted upon. I am informed, by one who knows of one case at least, that an attempt is still being made to induce an author to sign contracts to publish with one firm only for a term of years. It is difficult to believe that anyone can be so incredibly foolish. What? In the face of all the dangers and the tricks exposed—of secret profits, of charges for advertisements got for nothing, of one-sided agreements, of broken agreements—a miserable author is to bind himself to the man who has the power to commit these acts P He is to give that man a free hand to do what he likes with his victim for a term of years. Was anything ever proposed more monstrous P Consider a parallel case: does the medical man dare to bind his patient to remain with him, whether he treats him skilfully or not ? Does the solicitor P Does any professional man P Nay—does any employer of labour make his hands bind themselves for a term of years ? But it is difficult to believe that any author can be so incredibly foolish after all the light that we have poured upon the methods of publishing. Perhaps, however, one way might be found out of such a contract. A second paper on the Literary Hack and his work has appeared in the Forum. It is extremely interesting, but I fail to see where the Literary Hack comes in. Does he exist in this country P If so, I do not know him. A Literary Hack—as I understand it—is a person who executes literary jobs of any kind without regard to his own convictions, if he has any ; or to his own fitness; or to his own special knowledge. He is a man who, being a Conservative, writes leaders for a Radical paper; or, being a Radical, writes leaders for a Conservative paper. He is a man who makes and compiles books to order on any subject, being equally ready to produce a dictionary of the English language, or an account of Polynesia. The bookmaker to order at so much the job is very nearly extinct. One hears of him from time to time, but he has grown very scarce. The old-fashioned hack, who wrote up a party to order, simply no longer exists. He is as dead as a door nail. The Conservatives can find plenty of Conservative papers; the Liberals can find plenty of Liberal papers; while there are hundreds of men who write for the newspapers on topics not connected with politics, so that they need not concern, themselves as to the opinions of the journals for which they write. A cutting from the British and Colonial Printer has been sent me. It contains an appeal based on practical figures for a shilling edition of a popular book. The writer argues that a shilling, not a sixpenny, edition is wanted at the present time. For sixpence we cannot get such a book as we should like to put upon our shelves; but a book can now be produced by the new pro- ## p. (#544) ################################################ 190 THE AUTHOR. cesses, well printed and well bound, at so small a price as to render a shilling quite a practicable price to put upon a volume. The writer supposes a book of 240 pages printed upon a “think- handling twopenny” paper. The cost would be, he says, as follows: Ioo,000 Edition. £ Linotype composition at 2% per IOOO—say– 20 Paper Ilb. per copy at 2d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850 Machining and folding... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Pulp corrugated cases ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I IO Making up and casing ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22O Incidentals...’................... 50 31325 Which comes to less than 3}d. a copy. In other words, if the retail price of the book be 8d. and the booksellers allow no discount, the value of the author's estate as represented in this book may be taken at 4:#d. a copy, out of which he will have to remunerate his publisher, if he have one. Or, to look at it another way, he must sell 40,000 copies before he clears his expenses. The remain- ing 60,000 would be clear profit. But how to get at the people who are to buy books in this wholesale manner? How to persuade them, if they can be persuaded, to take a hundred thousand P. The present machinery is, as everybody can understand, antiquated and unequal to the task. The booksellers’ shops must add to their machinery the house-to-house retail vendor. This, in fact, is the only way of bringing books within the reach of the people. Shops cannot do it; advertisements cannot do it; the last thing in the paper read by the common people is the column of book adver- tisements; books must be brought to the very door. That this method will be adopted by the trade before very long it is not difficult to prophecy. The book-selling of the future will be largely carried on by the house-to-house vendor. One only hopes that those who take up this method will provide really good literature, such as our public libraries are now teaching the people to demand. The following magnificent offer was recently made by a firm of publishers of no small note. It illustrates the necessity of knowing above all things the cost of production. They offered to bring out the book at 3s. 6d. The first 500 copies were to go to the publisher. The author would then receive 5 per cent. royalty." After the first IOOO copies the author was to receive Io per cent. ; after that I 2% per cent. How does this work out P The first edition would be probably of 2000 at a cost of (say) 3IOO. of the Forties and the Fifties. Results of first edition of 2000 copies:— Sale of 2000 at Say 2s. ............... £2OO Cost IOO Profit ............ 3 Ioo Of which the author receives... 322 7s. 6d. And the publisher . . . . . . . . . . . 377 12s. 6d. If another edition of 2000 goes off the whole profit will be about £130, of which the publisher will take £86 5s. and the author £43 158. Did the publisher explain what proportion of profit he proposed to take P If so, he was within his rights. If he relied on the ignorance of the author, he was within his wrongs. The risk actually incurred was the difference between the first six months’ subscription and the cost of production, which would have to be paid six months after publication. In order to meet this bill there must be sold about a thousand copies. How great was that risk P Probably not much, since the book had been so well re- ported on by the reader as to be taken without hesitation. The death of George Augustus Sala has called forth a notice in every newspaper in this and perhaps in all other English-speaking countries. He had come to be regarded as the representative journalist. Certainly there was no one like him as a correspondent, or as a writer of those social articles in which he showed so marvellous a grasp of facts and such an endless command of anecdote. He was a member of the Society from the begin- ning, one of the honorary members who were elected at the outset as vice-presidents. He took no active part in our proceedings, but was present at one or two of our dinners. He delighted in the gathering together of men and women engaged in the literary life, but I think he never understood the serious side of the Society. He belonged to the old Bohemian school, with whom a publisher was regarded as the natural enemy, who would certainly screw the most work out of an author for the least pay, and whom it was laudable to scathe with epigrams. That there was any practical way of having one's property administered with equity, or that a writer's work was his property, never occurred to the Bohemian The school of which Sala was the last surviving representative has been well described by Vizetelly in his Recollec- tions. - The literary contest invented by the New Pork Herald has been decided. Prizes were offered for the best novels, the best “novelette,” the best short story, and the best epic poem. ## p. (#545) ################################################ THE I9 I A UTH () I. There were sent in eleven hundred novels, a thousand novelettes, between two and three thousand short stories, and nearly a thou- sand poems—all epic P Imagine a thousand new epic poems all sprung upon a bewildered world at the same moment—a thousand Miltons, inglorious as yet, but not mute It is pleasing to note that the prizes, with one exception, were carried off by professional writers. The first prize for novels of £2000 fell to Julian Haw- thorn : the second, of £400, to the Rev. W. C. Blakeman, before this event unknown : the third, of £200, to Edith Carpenter, said to be known in America. For the novelette the only prize of £600 was awarded to Miss Molly Seawell, already well known : for the short story, the only prize of £4OO was given to Mr. Edgar Fawcett, also well known. The epic, or “Abraham Lincoln,” fell to an unknown pseudonym. WALTER BEs ANT. a-sº - * *- THE AUTHORS' JOURNAL, HE December number of the New York Authors’ Journal lies before me. The number contains two or three papers of advice to literary candidates—advice for the most part of the obvious kind—but then there are plenty of people who always want directions of the most obvious kind, so that it is not pro- bably advice thrown away. There is a full account of the literary competition invited and carried out by the New York Herald. A meet- ing of the Authors’ Guild is reported. They elected twenty-three members; they received a letter setting forth a “case” against certain publishers; and they ended the meeting with recitations and speeches. There is a paper on “Public, Taste in Literature,” and another by Mr. Hall Caine, probably the paper referred to in our New York Letter, on the “Moral Responsi- bility of Novelists.” There is a paper on the “Editor's Point of View”—very good; there is the complaint of the contributor that the editor will not explain why a paper is rejected. The Contributor never can understand that an editor simply has not the time to become a critic; he can only Say Yes or No. We have the same com- plaints here. There is an article on writing advertisements which in America has become one of the fine arts. There are notes and replies, and paragraphs and poetry. Altogether it is a pleasant and agreeable journal, useful to its readers. We might with advantage borrow some of its features. Its advertisement columns present one feature, at least, which is absent from ours. It is this: while it is everywhere and well known and notorious that the American editor is more pelted with MSS. than even the London editor, it seems to pay the American writer to advertise himself and to offer his work for sale. Here, it is true, we see occasionally an advertisement offering a novel for sale, but no one ever heard that any response was received. For instance, here are two or three advertisements cut out of two columns : EGIN 1896 with bright, confidential “Ed. Copy.” It pays. Politics to suit. Booklet and “points' sent editors and publishers only. G. T. HAMMOND, Newport, R. I. WRITE one act Curtain Raisers, between two thousand and three thousand words. Also short stories for children. Glad to receive orders. AMY D’ARCY WET- MORE, 859, Park Ave., Baltimore, Md. WRITE verse, humorous and sentimental. Would do Valentines or adv’g verse. Nothing makes so effective an ad. Also write short stories, sketches, &c. Would conduct a column of book and magazine reviews. Editors send me copies of papers containing your prize competition offers. BYRON HOWARD, Esperance, N. Y. TORIES for Little Boys and Girls. I write good stories for children. MSS. submitted on application. A. D. B., Box 25, care AUTHORS’ Journ AL. These are practical and to the point. Yet one would rather not advertise one's own work or one’s own literary powers in a newspaper. The third advertisement, that of Mr. Byron Howard, makes one long to see more of his work, his sentimental verse, for example. sº- * * LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS, FREEDOM IN SPELLING. Leading article in Times for Dec. 17. MATTHEw ARNOLD. Right Hon. John Morley. Nine- teenth Centwry for December. THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS. teenth Centwry for December. THE LITERARY AGENT. Sir Walter Besant. Nineteenth, Centwry for December. Sir W. M. Conway. Nine- TJNTO THIS LAST. Frederic Harrison. Nineteenth Centwry for December. * GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. Ernest Newman. Fortnightly Review for December. LIVING CRITICS. III. : MR. LESLIE STEPHEN. J. Ash- croft Noble. Bookman for December. OLD EDINBURGH AND THE “EVERGREEN.” W. Brant- ford. Bookman for December. MR. WILLIAM MORRIS. December. PUBLISHERS AND THE ASSOCIATED BOOKSELLERS. Bookseller for December. MR. HALL CAINE. Interview on return from America. Daily Chronicle for Dec. 12. CoPYRIGHT IN CANADA AND MR. GOLDw IN SMITH. Letter by Sir Charles Tupper. Satwrday Review for Dec. 7. Interview. Bookselling for ## p. (#546) ################################################ I 92 THE AUTII O/º. CoPYRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL Constitution. Letter by Mr. Goldwin Smith. Times for Dec. 13. CANADA AND THE CoPYRIGHT. Draft of Bill. Letter by Mr. Hall Caine in Times for Dec. 7. THE CARLYLE CENTENARY. Frederic Harrison. Daily Chronicle for Dec. 7. A REMINISCENCE OF CARLYLE. (Interview in 1873). J. C. C. Saturday Review for Nov. 30. - HILL TOPPERY. Speaker for Nov. 30. p.": LATEST SCOTCH For AY. New York Nation for ec. 5. PRESENT-DAY SCOTTISH NovKLISTs. Weekly Swn for Dec. I. William Wallace. NOTABLE REVIEWs. Of “Matthew Arnold’s Letters.” Saturday Review for Dec. 7. Of Björnson's New Play, “Over AEvne.” Daily Chronicle for Dec. I I. - Professor Dowden. #: #: §: 3% Replies to Mr. Laurie's paper of the previous month are made separately in the December Nineteenth Century by Sir W. M. Conway and Sir Walter Besant. The Society of Authors exists and prospers because it supplies a demand and does work that needs to be done, says Sir Wm. Conway. The charge of its destroying the old friendship between authors and publishers he denies, because once the publication of a book is agreed upon author and publisher become part- ners. “The Society has merely enabled the author to negotiate this partnership with a full knowledge of what it is that is bargained for.” As to newly successful authors binding them- selves ahead to over production, they bind them- selves not with the Society, not with agents, but with publishers. The question of prices paid by publishers is one of ordinary bargain and economy. The other reply defends the literary agent. The Society, he says, found the facts and figures of publishing, but literary men have not the time and in few cases the business faculty for treating personally with publishers. Therefore the agent, with special knowledge, acts for them; and the ill-advised publisher who dares to protest against meeting him stands self-condemned, because his only reason must be the desire to overreach the author when the agent is not present to defend him. Further, the agent is required for looking after publication rights in the various countries, translation rights, and the rights of dramatisa- tion. Some interesting correspondence has been appearing in the Times on the subject of Spelling. Professor Earle and Dr. Abbott argue for greater freedom in the matter. Mr. Horace Hart, printer to the University of Oxford, and Mr. Randall, of the Association of Correctors of the Press, plead for uniformity, the former remarking upon the innumerable applications from printers at home and abroad for his set of rules recently drawn up for the spelling of doubtful words. “Language is a product of life,” writes Professor Earle, “and if not exactly a living thing it certainly shares the incidents of life. Of these incidents none is more pervading than abhorrence of fixity.” In its articles on the letters the Times says most people will be convinced of the reason- ableness of what may be called constitutional freedom in spelling, while in a private letter latitude is permissible without inconvenience. An author must be consistent in spelling if his pages are not to be unsightly and perplexing. The article thus concludes:— Woltaire, who derided the orthography of the French books of his time as ridiculous—adding that English orthography was still more absurd—described the ideal system when he said: “Writing is the painting of the voice ; the closer the resemblance the better the picture.” Unfortunately the perfect likeness is not attainable; and it is found more convenient to agree upon a conventional representation than to circulate a multitude of bad copies unlike each other. The Bookseller agrees that there can be no two opinions about the desirability of forming a Publishers’ Association, but is not satisfied with the non possumus attitude taken up at the publishers’ meeting towards the booksellers. Our contemporary thinks the “paramount neces- sity in these matters of a combined and consistent policy, such as exists in Germany, was not sufficiently recognised.” The Nation article deals with the “sudden and great popularity" of the Scotch story writers, finding the explanation merely in the love of constant change in the novel-consuming public. “We observe,” it says, “that the canniest of them are themselves persuaded that their day of grace may soon be written away, and are thriftily gathering together every available bit of plunder before being compelled to retire to their fast- nesses beyond the border.” Mr. Wallace's article, comparing Scotch novelists of the day, places Mrs. Oliphant first, though he would have done so more outright had she written but a fifth of what she has written and made that fifth perfect. Even as things are, he gives “Firsteen" first place among recent Scottish novels. - A statement made by the way in Mr. Morley's paper is worth noting in these days of biographies of everybody. “There are probably not six Englishmen over fifty now living,” he said, “whose lives need to be written, or should be written.” This relative to the prohibition of a biography by Arnold, who was not, says Mr. Morley, a great correspondent beyond his own family. He was one of the most occupied men of his time. “He was not the least of an egotist, in the common, ugly, and odious sense of that ## p. (#547) ################################################ THE I 93 A UTHOI8. terrible word”; unselfish, he had not a spark of envy or jealousy, and he took the deepest and most active interest in the well-being of his country and countrymen. In a comprehensive paper on Flaubert, Mr. Ernest Newman says that with the knowledge of the nervous malady from which he suffered we have the key to his life and art. His philosophy was not pessimism or cynicism ; he keeps his characters and their motives in the ideal atmo- sphere of art, and never allows that personal note of contempt and bitterness to be heard that sounds so frequently in the work of Maupassant. As to his method:— Where a novelist keeps himself so sedulously in the back- ground as Flaubert does, it requires all the more assiduity on the part of the reader to combine the multiform portions of the picture. An imartistic novelist like George Eliot, who is continually obtruding herself among her characters, may annoy us by the obvious clumsiness of her method, but she at least saves every man the trouble of being his own artist. *- - * ~ BOOK TALK. HE name of Mr. F. Marion Crawford’s latest novelty is “Taquisira.” It will appear serially in the Queen, beginning this month. The Hon. Frederick Moncrieff has written a Scottish romance of the time of James VI., entitled “The X Jewel,” which Messrs. Black- wood and Sons will issue immediately. Mr. G. W. Appleton, author of “The Co- respondent,” has written another novel entitled “A Philanthropist at Bay,” which Messrs. Downey and Co. will publish. Miss Beatrice Harraden has gone back to California, and in the course of the year she will write a series of short stories of Califor- nian life. A novel from her on English topics will, however, appear earlier—probably in the Spring. Mr. A. H. Norway has written a “History of the Post-Office Packet Service, 1793-1815,” which Messrs. Macmillan will issue in a few days—a somewhat romantic subject, and one not much remembered about in these days. The post-office kept a fleet of fifty to sixty armed ships for a century and a half, the principal station being at Falmouth, where, from 1688 to 1823 there were packets solely under post-office control. Much stiff fighting was done by them too—in the three years 1812-15 no fewer than thirty-two actions with American privateers were engaged in by the Falmouth packets. Mr. Norway has had access to official records in preparing the work. A volume of reminiscences by Mr. Charles Bertram, prestidigitateur, will be published at an early date by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., with illustrations by Mr. Phil May, Mr. Cour rold, and others. The title will be “Isn’t it Wonderful ? A History of Magic and Mystery.” Mr. Robert W. Chambers has written another story of Paris life, this time selecting the period a quarter of a century ago, when the city was in the hands of the Communists. The title is “The Red Republic,” and Messrs. Putnam's Sons will issue the work very soon. Mr. Egerton Clairmonte, husband of “George Egerton,” is the author of a volume which Mr. Fisher Unwin is about to publish, entitled “The Africander: a Plain Story of South Africa.” Louis Stevenson’s work “Fables' will be published on an early day by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. A dictionary of the musical artists, authors, and composers of Great Britain and the Colonies is being prepared for issue to subscribers by Mr. J. D. Brown (Librarian, Clerkenwell Public Library) and Mr. Stephen S. Stratton, under the title “British Musical Biography.” Mr. Brown invites information as to any of the above professions likely to have escaped his notice, so that the work may be as complete as possible. The “Life and Letters of George John Romanes, M.A., LL.D.,” is in preparation by Mrs. Romanes for issue by Messrs. Longmans, , but will not be ready for some time. There will be a portrait and other illustrations. Mr. T. L. Southgate read a paper before the Musical Association on the Ioth ult., on “The Treatment of Music by Novelists.” He gave instances from the works of many leading authors to show the ignorance they displayed of IllllS1C. - In a paragraph report of the lecture the Times said it lost much of the weight which might have been attached to it because nearly the whole of Mr. Southgate's examples were those in which ignorance played the chief part, while “there exist very many instances of equally great blunders perpetrated by professed musicians;” and, furthermore, “after all is said and and done, the errors of novelists in regard to music are perhaps not greater than those of musicians as a class with regard to other arts.” ## p. (#548) ################################################ 194 THE AUTHOR. Mr. Ernest A. Gardner, formerly Director of the British School of Archæology at Athens, is engaged on a two-volume “Handbook of Greek Sculpture,” in which he distinguishes the diffe- rent schools and periods, and selects typical examples to show the development of each. The first volume will appear this month, and the second some time later. Mr. Thomas March is writing a “History of the Paris Commune of 1871,” which Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein will issue this month, with two maps of the city at that period. Mr. Thomas MacKnight, an Irish editor, has prepared two volumes of reminiscences and ex- periences, which will be published under the title “Ulster As It Is,” by Messrs. Macmillan. Miss Kingsley, who made a daring and remark- able journey through West Africa, some months ago, has submitted her diaries to a London pub- lisher, and the work will probably be ready in the spring. It will be illustrated with the author's sketches and photographs. Mr. Standish O'Grady has written an Irish romance of the reign of Elizabeth, which is to be issued by Messrs. Downey, probably under the title “Ulrick Ready.” He will present the last stand of the Irish chieftans from the Irish point of view, in contradistinction to Froude's “Chiefs of Dunboy” from the British. Mr. Stead is launching a series of “Penny Novelists” on the same lines as his “Penny Poets,” which has proved a very popular enterprise. The idea of the novel series is to counteract or abolish the “penny dreadful” type of boys’ literature. A better beginning could not be made than with Mr. Rider Haggard’s * She.” The Commonwealth is a new monthly maga- zine, at threepence, edited by Canon Scott Holland. Messrs. Innes and Co. have transferred the Minster magazine to the Artistic Publishing Company, who are going to introduce new features into it. An adaptation of Mr. Anthony Hope's “Prisoner of Zenda,” which has successfully appeared in New York, will be produced at the St. James's Theatre early this year. Another dramatised adaptation to be given in London soon will be by Mr. Joseph Hatton, of his recent novel “When Greek Meets Greek.” The members of the Savage Club, men of letters and artists, are contributing to a volume of “Savage Club Papers,” to be issued in the spring, under the editorship of Mr. J. E. Muddock. Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. are the publishers. A Burns Exhibition of MS., pictures, and other relics, and also portraits and pictures of the people and places who figure in his works, will be held in Glasgow in celebration of the centenary of the poet's death. Lord Rosebery is hon. president of the Exhibition, and Sir James Bell (Lord Provost) president, while the other office-bearers and patrons include many of the foremost literary people of the day. Mr. James Baker will lecture at the Imperial Institute, on Feb. 3, on “Egypt of to-day; Her People and their Country.” He was up the Nile as special correspondent last winter, and will illustrate his lecture with over sixty photographs, taken by himself, of the natives and their religious ceremonies, &c. He takes the chair at the Author's Club, at the first dinner of the New Year, on Jan. 6. Mr. Horace Cox will publish early in January a new novel, in one volume, entitled “Hather- sage: A Tale of North Derbyshire,” by Charles Edmund Hall, author of “An Ancient Ances- tor,” &c. Two new volumes of verse are announced for immediate publication by Mr. Elliot Stock, viz., “Urania, and other Astronomical Poems,” by Samuel Jefferson,” and “Meetings and Partings,” by E. C. Ricketts. Mr. Gladstone is writing a series of articles for the North American Review on “The Future State and the Condition of Man In It,” the first appearing this month, also a series on Bishop Butler for Good Words, beginning in February. A Library Edition of Mr. George Meredith’s novels is being arranged for, its issue to begin, probably, in the summer. At a sale of rare books held by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, the “Album ” of Giacomo Lauri at Rome, 1608-29, continued and extended by Anne Le Febvre in 1687-88, and com- prising letters and signatures from many of the most eminent persons of the time, brought ten guineas; “Rime di Antichi Autori Toscani,” Venice, 1532, Lord Byron's copy, with his autography on the title and the date 1820, £6 Ios.; and a fine copy of the first edition of Chapman’s translation of Homer's Odyssey, 1614, 3II IOS. - Mr. W. M. Noble has investigated the material concerning how the county of Huntingdon pre- pared to meet the 1588 invasion, and a volume by him on the subject will shortly be published by Mr. Elliot Stock under the title “Huntingdon- shire and the Spanish Armada.” ## p. (#549) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I95 The most important books of December were the first volume of “Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century,” edited by Dr. Robertson Nicoll and Mr. Thomas J. Wise (Hodder and Stoughton); Mr. John Davidson’s second series of “Fleet-street Eclogues '' (John Lane); Dean Stanley’s “Letters and Verses,” edited by Mr. R. E. Prothero (John Murray); and “Ironclads In Action,” by H. W. Wilson (Sampson Low). In one of his letters Dean Stanley gives this impression of Renan, whom he met at Paris with Turgeniev : “He showed a curious mix- ture of interest and want of interest ; had not been to Damascus because there were no monuments there ; was disappointed in Jerusalem, because there were so few monu- ments; had made every effort, with special recommendations, to enter the mosque, but found it totally impracticable unless by storming the town.” In the list of articles quoted in “Literature and the Periodicals” of last month’s Author, a valuable paper by Miss Alice M. Christie on Sir Philip Sidney’s “Defence of Poetry” was omitted. It appeared in the October and the November numbers of the Monthly JPacket. Mrs. Marshall’s last historical story The Master of the Musicians, was published by Messrs. Seeley in November. The White King’s Daughter, by the same author, published by Messrs. Seeley in May, has reached its 30OO, and is included in the Tauchnitz edition, making the twentieth volume of Mrs. Marshall’s works which have appeared in that series. Many of Mrs. Marshall’s books are translated into German and French. Mrs. Rentoul Esler's new book, just issued by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., is entitled “Mid Green Pastures.” In an exhaus- tive and literary review of this book The National Observer says: “Of all living writers Mrs. Esler is probably the nearest we now have to the author of “Cranford.” Whatever else may go out of fashion, detective literature does not seem on the wane. According to a recent return of the output of vernacular literature in India several of the well-known Dick Donovan's volumes have been translated for the benefit of “Tamil-speaking Christians.” The detective story seems to be as popular in India as it is in this country; but we believe that Mr. Donovan is the first author of this class of litera- ture who has ever had the honour of being trans- lated into Tamil. Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. have just issued Dick Donovan's entertaining romance of “Eugene Vidocq.” The story deals with the life and adven- tures of that extraordinary character, who was in turn soldier, thief, spy, detective, and lecturer. Reviewing the book the other day the Glasgow Herald said: “None of Dick Donovan’s rivals in this class of literature have yet outstripped him.” Early in January Chatto and Windus will issue yet another Dick Donovan volume entitled “The Mystery of Jamaica Terrace.” * * * CORRESPONDENCE. I.—NOTES AND Common-PLACE Books. & & O One except students ever did make notes or keep common-place books, and these do so still.” True, yet your paragraph shows that your own “common-place book” is not a book at all, and how can it be in these days P. To get the book and turn the pages requires too much time. And then the A pages, the M’s, the S's get filled up too soon, while O and K are still nearly empty. Besides there are so many newspaper cuttings in these days. So for notes we catch up the nearest half-sheet of paper, and for the disposal of notes and cuttings we devise a suitable recep- tacle. Your own plan is a good one, loose sheets of paper put into brown paper envelopes. Mine is different and may be useful as an alternative. At a shopfitter's I bought a frame of boxes such as is used by grocers for their teas or iron- mongers for brass nails and tin tacks. * With five rows and six in a row, it is convenient to make the vowels lead the files, and then everything is easily found. Four boxes are still available for special notes. The compositor's arrangement would not do for the student, and I think the plan below is even better that that of the poste Testante. |A | p q ºd E | F | g | H TT I || | | K-Ti, TM Nº O | P | Q || R. S T U | V | W X | Y Z GEO. ST. CLAIR. Cardiff, Dec. 11, 1895. • - - - -º-º-º-º- . ## p. (#550) ################################################ 196 THE AUTHOR. II.-PROVISIONAL CoPYRIGHT REGISTRATION. The idea contained in this letter is due to the suggestion of Mr. George Haven Putnam, men- tioned in the article “The Working of the Copy- right Law,” on p. 6 of the Author of June, 1894. Mr. Putnam's suggestion is to the effect that the title of a work may be registered, and copyright in it be thereby acquired for a period of six months from the date of registration ; and that, if by or before the expiration of that period, the work be completed, copyright for it shall date from the day on which the title was regis- tered. This is an excellent suggestion, and one with which I entirely agree. It is the equivalent in the literary sphere to provisional protection for an invention or discovery under the patent law. In that, by filing a provisional specification describing the invention in general terms, and then, within a limited time thereafter, filing a complete specification describing it in detail, the patent is obtained from the date of the provisional specification. My proposal is to draw this parallel still closer, and to extend this proposed provisional protection to something more than the title. However useful and valuable a title may be, it is useless without the work, and one may protect the former by the simple process of not communicating it to any one. My proposal deals with a more practical question of publishing, where, besides the title, the style and arrangement of the work is fixed upon; where, by the mature of the case, one is bound to disclose them; and where, therefore, one cannot protect them by the simple process of silence. In the case of the proposed publication of some periodical which, though printed matter, cannot truly be classed as literature, a work in which composition does not enter into the question—as, for instance, a time-table or other work of refer- ence, in which the arrangement is the most im- portant point, more important even than the title. In such a case, where the outlay of capital has to be considered, it may be desired to ascertain, before going to much expense, what prospect there is of the venture’s meeting with success ; and, therefore, it may be necessary to issue, Con- siderably in advance of the first serial number of the proposed publication, a specimen number thereof, with a view to ascertaining what support can be obtained for it. The arrangement and design of such a work cannot be protected under the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act, and, though one might register it under the existing Copyright Law, one would have secured copyright only for the speci- men number, and not either for the title or arrangement of the actual publication at all. That comes because, under the existing law, registration at the Copyright Office affords no protection until the actual work is published. In such a case as this, the contents of the specimen would be bound to be old or fictitious, as it would be impossible to insert the matter that number one of the proposed publication would contain, for the simple reason that it would not be ascertainable so long in advance, besides which there is no copy- right in it. This, then, is what might happen under the existing law, that, as copyrighting the specimen afforded no protection to the actual work, anyone else (perhaps more favourably placed) having seen the specimen, might arrange to issue No. 1 of such a publication before the date announced by the person issuing the former ; and there would be nothing whatever to prevent his adopt- ing the title and arrangement, and securing copyright for them both to the exclusion of the person with whom they originated. What I propose is, that there should be pro- visional protection for such a specimen number, Securing copyright in the title and arrangement, for a period of, say six or twelve months from the date of registration ; and that, if No. 1 of the actual publication be not issued before or by the expiration of that time anyone else should be at liberty to make use of either or both of the ideas, but no one be able to obtain copyright in either of them. It would not be necessary, as with provisionally protected inventions, to demand a. second fee, as no second description would be filed. It is suggested in Lord Monkswell's Bill that the Copyright Registration Office might be com- bined with the Registry of Designs and Trade Marks; as designs and trade marks are under the same administration as patents for inventions, perhaps they may all, eventually, come under the same control, and, as each deals but with a different way of expressing ideas, there is nothing unreasonable in this. It is stated at the end of the article above re- ferred to that provisional protection of a title is provided for in this Bill. I have read it through carefully, and, having failed to find any reference to it, shall be glad to be informed which clause covers that point. This seems to me to be the the only omission from an otherwise perfect Bill. HUBERT HAEs. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 08 (January 1896) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 08 (January 1896) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1896-01-01-The-Author-6-8 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/284/1895-12-02-The-Author-6-7.pdf a6529b8e47233d4c6a3393ec0283a575 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) 1895-12-02 Volume 6 Issue 7 Pages Page range in volume 149–172 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18951202 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) C O N DU C T E D BY W.A. L T E R B E S.A. N. T. VoI. VI.-No. 7.] DECEMBER. 2, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are Tesponsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *-- * ~ * º- ºr *-*. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *~ * ~ * WARNINGS AND ADWICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP. YoUR, AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £1 o must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. - - 4. AscERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL, WI. rights. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alome. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American Reep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. — Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :— 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *—- - -* •- * ~ HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice Sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the Q 2 ## p. (#504) ################################################ I 50 THE AUTHOR. experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- ſidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. == * *-sº THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That overy attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department' for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. sº- a 2-4° r-- - --a NOTICES. HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production * are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. ## p. (#505) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I5 I Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. > c; FROM THE COMMITTEE, HE Secretary has in hand the preparation of clauses to meet the various points necessary for an agreement in any of the ordinary methods of publishing. He will be obliged for any suggestions on the subject from members of the Society. Dr. Jurisconsult Ernst Lange, of Zurich, has prepared and presented to the Committee a paper on the “Contracts of Publishing ” in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzer- land. It has been resolved to print this pamphlet uniform with the “Cost of Production.” The best thanks of the Committee have been passed to Dr. Lange for this gift. A somewhat interesting case has been before the Com- mittee. It would have been more interesting had it been settled in a court of law by a friendly action. The case is one in which an author’s MS. was accidentally burned while in charge of a publishing firm. Of course this accident entails upon the author a great deal of labour. How far are the publishers liable in such a case ? Did they take reasonable precautions in the matter P The case has been settled, one hopes to the satisfaction of both parties. Dut still the question of what constitutes reasonable precau- tions remains open. G. H. THRING, Secretary. => 0 erº LITERARY PROPERTY. T.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. Ottawa, Nov. 25. HE long-pending controversy on the copy- T right question was brought a long way on the road to a conclusion to-day by the adoption of a basis of agreement which was accepted by Mr. Hall Caine and Mr. Daldy for the British authors and publishers, by the Canadian Copyright Association, and by the Dominion Government. This satisfactory result is due almost entirely to the efforts of Mr. Hall Caine, who, in the face of the strongest opposition on this side, has largely succeeded, since he arrived in the Dominion, in removing the objec- tions of the Canadian publishers to any inter- ference with the Act of 1889, and has more or less secured their assent to an amended Bill. Mr. Hall Caine and Mr. Daldy, together with the representatives of the Canadian publishing houses, the Copyright Association, and the Press Association, held a conference to-day with Sir C. H. Tupper, Mr. Ouimet, and the sub-com- mittee of the Privy Council appointed to meet them. Mr. Hall Caine recited the negotiations which have taken place during the past few weeks and submitted a draft Bill for the consideration of the Government. It was, he said, in the nature of a compromise, and, like most com- promises, did not covereverything that both parties might desire, but it was the best that could be arrived at in the circumstances, and he thought he could say that they would all be well satisfied to see its general principles carried into effect. Speaking for the body which he represented, he fully believed that an Act framed on the lines of this measure would be acceptable to British authors. Mr. Hall Caine continued: “By this Bill the time within which a copyright holder can publish in Canada and so secure an absolute and untrammelled copyright is extended from thirty to sixty days, with a possible exten- sion of thirty days more at the discretion of the authorities. Also, by this agreement, the licence to be granted for the production of a book that has not fulfilled the conditions of Canadian copyright law is limited to one licence, and this single licence is only to be issued with the copy- right holder’s knowledge or sanction. Further, the copyright holder who has an independent chance of securing copyright for himself within a period of sixty days is to be allowed a second chance of securing it after it has been challenged and before it can be disposed of by licence ; and, finally, the royalties of the author are to be secured to him by a regulation of the revenue to stamp an edition of a book on the issue of a licence. “This is the ground of the draft Bill which the Canadian Copyright Association has joined with Mr. Daldy and myself in recommending to your Ministers, and on its general principle I have to say, first, about Canadian authors, that a Bill framed on these lines will not put them into a position of isolation among the authors of the world, and next, about the authors of Englan 1 and America and of all the countries having a copyright treaty with England, that it will secure to authors the control of their property, and put them all alike on an equal footing, and therefore it will not, I think, disturb the operation of the Berne Convention, so far as Canada is concerned, ## p. (#506) ################################################ I 52 THE AUTHOR. authors. or the understanding between Great Britain and the United States. The Bill is recommended to the Government with all modesty of intention, and with the certainty that they will use so much of it as they consider wise and good.” In conclusion, Mr. Hall Caine bore testimony to the spirit of conciliation and fair dealing with which Mr. Daldy and himself had been received in Canada, both by the Government and by the classes interested in the law of copyright. Mr. Ross Robertson, president of the Copy- right Association, followed. He said he believed that the conclusions reached dealt fairly and honourably with all parties interested, whether British, Canadian, or foreign, whether author or publisher. There had been concessions on both sides. He did not claim that the Canadian Copy- right Association had got all that they wanted, or that they were entitled to. The body which he represented could not be accused of being unreasonable, and in saying that he did not pre- tend that Mr. Hall Caine had not shown every inclination to meet their views so far as he could without endangering the interests of British The draft Bill would not be satisfac- tory to the extremists on both sides, but that might be regarded as a proof of its fairness. Mr. L. W. Shannon, president of the Canadian Press Association, spoke in support of the Illea,SUll’é. Mr. Daldy expressed himself satisfied with the general principles of the proposed measures. Considerable discussion followed regarding the details of the amended Bill, and the question of the importation of colonial editions of British copyright works was raised and was discussed at length by a number of the booksellers present. The conference lasted two hours, and at its close the Ministers announced that they would lay the representations of the delegates before the Govern- ment, and that a decision would be reached at an early date. * . Mr. Daldy, in the course of conversation with me to-night, said that the principal objection which he sees in the copyright measure as at present arranged is the proposal to prevent the importation into Canada of copyright books law- fully printed in British dominions. He thinks, however, that this can be arranged. — Times, Nov. 26. - II.-ADDREss BY MIR. HALL CAINE. The following verbatim report of Mr. Hall Caine's speech at the dinner given to him by the publishers and booksellers of Toronto has been forwarded to us by a Canadian friend : “The thing that has struck me most since I came to this continent is the loyalty of Canada. Your loyalty may not be deeper, but it is more vocal than ours in England. If I had to find a reason for your devotion to the Crown, I think I should ask myself if it did not come largely of your independent position as a self-governing Dominion. Some light is thrown on this matter for me by my knowledge of my own little island home, the Isle of Man. We are a passionately loyal people there, and we are a little self- governing nation. If we were to be merged into a county of England, I should not like to answer for the life of our loyalty. So, perhaps, with Canada. The best way to preserve her loyalty is to preserve her independent rights. Long may her independence last ! Long may it be before there can be any serious talk of another con- dition I. But though you are independent of the old country, you have your ties and obligations to her. You are in the position of the son of a father who has many sons. There was no room for them and for their children under the parent roof. There was neither chance of life nor like- lihood of peace. So the son goes out and marries himself, perhaps, to the strange woman. But because he lives under another roof he does not cease to be his father's son. He bears his father's name. He carries his father's blood. If he does wrong, the shame will be his father's no less than his. If right, the glory will be his father's too. He cannot dissociate himself from his father. And though he is fully able to look after his own affairs, there are things in which he looks to his father. He allows his father to give pledges for him, always reserving the power of withdrawing from them where they seem to him unwise. He does not withdraw from them if he can avoid doing so, even when they are not altogether to his taste. So Canada. She has her relations with England, and through England with the rest of the world. England enters into treaties or arrangements in her name and on her behalf. She will keep these treaties if she can. They are intended for the benefit of the whole family, and if they press a little hard here or there, she will still try to observe them, because of the bond of blood and of name, and because of the deep call of patriotism. 2. The bonds between Canada and England are many. There is the bond of the finest navy in the world, which you share with England; the finest army in the world, the finest diplomatic service in the world, the purest and justest jurisprudence in the world, building up the most free freedom in the world. But there is another bond between Canada and England, a less palp- able but no less less real bond—may, a bond more real, more constantly present at your ## p. (#507) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 53 nearths and homes, the bond of intellectual brotherhood. Our literature is your literature. It does not come to you through a veil as the literature of France does, as the literature of Germany does. It comes to you in your mother tongue, in the words you learned from your cradle. And the great masters of our literature are your brethren. You are bound to remember that Shakespeare was an Englishman, tha', Milton was an Englishman, and that the lesset masters of later days, who come even closer than these, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Charles Reade —that these were your kith and kin. This is your inheritance—a great inheritance. You are not going tobarter it away for any advantage of pounds, shillings, and pence. And just as you are proud of the literary giants of the past, so you want to be proud of the good men of the present. You want to hold on to them, to help them, to encourage them to increase in numbers and in strength, and to build up the conditions of life that will foster their growth and prosperity. 3. Now, gentlemen, the first condition of growth and prosperity to the man of letters is security in the exercise of his calling, and in the right he holds to the results of his labours. He must sit in his own house at ease ; he must be in no fear of bombardment; he must know that for his own good and the good of all who set store by his skill, he can work at his own anvil, with the assurance that the laws of his country will keep the peace around him. The man of letters has not always been able to do this. The history of legislation on copyright is a miserable story of the struggle of the man who writes a book, to hold and protect it after it has been written. It is not so very long ago that the laws of modern nations (whatever may have been the case with ancient nations) recognised no rights of the author in the book he had produced. And when those rights were at length recognised, the period in which the writer of a book could control it was no more than seven years. It has taken nearly two hundred years to increase that term in England, from seven to forty-two, and only one country in the world (so far as I know) has yet made the author's right perpetual. It is only within recent times that literature has come to be regarded from the pecuniary view. For many ages the author was the one labourer in the world who was not considered worthy of his hire. And, meanwhile, the progress of legislation from the first nebulous condition has been clogged at every step—clogged in Parliaments, clogged even in the courts of law—by many interests that have had nothing to do with literature, or were at best, but accidental to its existence. - 4. Gentlemen, it is not for me to say too precisely what those interests have been. Still less may I in this hospitable presence condemn them as wholly selfish and of retrogade tendency. I am willing to believe that they have sometimes been forced upon the classes who have been parties to them by a sense of duty to their own, in relation to other classes, and to their own nation in relation to other nations. But all the same they have impeded the rights of authors. You will allow me to tell you, gentlemen, that those rights are natural rights, that they are not primarily created by the State, that however necessary it may be to call in the help of the law for the protection of the rights of literary property, the author's right in the book he produces is a right of creation, and that by its nature it should never cease, and should never be divided with another. That it is so divided, divided with the reader, divided with the pub- lisher, is a concession which the author makes in order that a greater force than his personal force shall protect what he has made. I am not pretending that this is the bearing of copyright from the point of history or of the law of nations. But it is the principle of copyright put down on the bed rock of natural law. Dr. Johnson put it down on this bed rock, and no man has ever been Imore sound on the rights of literary property. 5. Gentlemen, the progress of legislation in England, and throughout the civilised world, has been towards the recognition of this natural right. It has been a hard and long battle. Many a good man has fought for it. Since Johnson there have been Scott, Carlyle, Thack- eray, Dickens, Charles Reade, Lytton, and Wilkie Collins. And among living men, who are doing their best to establish the principle that the author has a right to control his writings, there are Mr. Lecky, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Sir Walter Besant, and your renowned fellow-townsman, whom all Canadians agree to honour, Mr. Goldwin Smith. The crowning glory of that struggle has been the international agreement which we call the Berne Convention. This agreement recognises that the book is the absolute property of the author, and that this property is to be respected in every country that is party to the union. Briefly expressed, Copy- right under the Berne Convention is like marriage in all civilised states, and just as the marriage that is good in the country where it is contracted is good in the rest of the world, so the copyright that is secured in the country of origin is secured over all the countries of the Convention. We consider this agreement a great triumph for. literature, and many of the nations of Europe have entered in it. We should deplore anything that would imperil it or limit its operation. Now, ## p. (#508) ################################################ I 54 THE AUTHOR. I will venture to say that no Canadian desires to endanger the Berne Convention if he can see his way to preserve it without injury to the industries of his country. 6. And here, gentlemen, we come to the ques- tion at issue between us. There is one great country which has not yet entered into the Berne Convention, and that country is your neigh- bour, the United States. In the United States the recognition of the rights of literary property was for a long time limited to the recognition of their own rights. The universal rights of lite- rary property were unrecognised in the States down to four years ago. The result was the practice of a form of piracy which demoralised trade, degraded literature, and nearly extermi- nated the profession of letters. When the good and true men in the United States at length prevailed over the dishonest traders the legis- lation they made had to be of the nature of a compromise. They desired to go down to the bed rock of natural right, but class interests were too strong for them. They were not fools, and did not attempt to run their heads against stone walls. They wisely remembered that half a loaf was better than no bread, and they accepted a limited copyright which allowed the United States printer to deny copyright to anybody who did not print on American soil. This limited legislation was only to be granted to foreign countries in exchange for reciprocal rights. England was asked for herself and her colonies could she grant those reciprocal rights. She answered that she could. On that understanding the President issued a proclamation asserting the rights of British subjects to copyright in the United States subject to the conditions of the laws of the States. 7. Gentlemen, here lay the crux of your own difficulty. This great country is by the accident of its geographical position, the rival, the peace- ful but dangerous rival of Canada. It was a large and powerful rival. It had sixty-five millions of readers against your five millions. It could afford to outbid you in the market for books. Your territory was soon flooded with literature which was no longer pirated as before, but authorised. Also it was still flooded with other books, which, not being copyright in the States, continued to be stolen. You could not compete and you could not steal—let us say you would not if you could. So you demanded the right to legislate for yourselves, and you based your claim to do so on a clause in the British North America Act of 1867. By this Act you wished to control every book that came into your dominion, just as you control every piece of merchandise that comes here. And your legis- lation was intended to say that before a book should have copyright in Canada it should be manufactured here. The manufacturing should be for a short period under the author's control, but after that period it should be under the control of the officers of the Dominion Parlia- ment. Obviously this was legislation that did not agree with the spirit of the Berne Conven- tion. Your own statesman, Sir John Thompson, found the Berne Convention opposed to the legis- lation you desired, and so he asked for an order in council giving Canada relief from the Union. Canada had a right to ask for such relief after an interval of twelve months. 8. Now, I am not here, sir, to discuss the con- stitutional aspects of the question. We have been doing that with more or less temper since 1889, and we might go on to the end of the century and “get no forrader.” Whether the Act of 1867 gives you the right to legislate for yourselves on One aspect of international copy- right, and whether the British Government are bound to grant you, at your request, exemption from the advantages and obligations of the Berne convention, can very well be left to the decision of the law officers in London and in Ottawa. My presence here in Toronto as your guest, tacitly implies that we recognise that, rightly or wrongly, Canada has certain powers in this matter, and is likely to be allowed to exercise them. Don’t let us drift away from copyright into a question of constitutional right. Don’t let us obscure our true problem in the clouds of party politics. Don't let us encourage any able, vigorous, and patriotic young Minister to say that Canada has a right to misgovern herself if she likes. Let us keep this dispute down to the question of whether an author has a right to control his books abso- lutely, and if he has not, what measure of his control must he hand over to the State. 9. Gentlemen, the attitude of authors towards your Act of 1889 is very easily stated—we object to your claim to manufacture our books, whether We will or not, because the right of the author which ought to be shared with the reader only would be divided with the printer also, who ought to be no party to the copyright contract. On grounds of natural law there is only one party to copyright, the author. The laws of nations have agreed to allow a second party to come in, the reader, who is granted limited rights on stringent terms. You are now claiming, as the United States claimed, the admission of a third party, and if the first party does not like three to the contract, you are asking that there shall be only two, with the discontented party, the first party, the party of the author, left out. That is our objection to your Act of 1889 on abstract prin- ## p. (#509) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 55 ciples. On grounds of material fact we object to it because (I) it multiplies the places of manu- facture, and so prevents the production of all but very popular books, and that will be a grievous injury to works of scholarship and research; (2) it puts a book into the position of merchandise coming to your shores, whereas no book will ever come here and ask you to manu- facture it unless you first go deliberately over the water and fetch it across; (3) it allows of a period when a book is no longer under its author's control, and that strikes a blow at the absolute spirit of copyright and demands a freer name, and finally (4) it requires that you should with- draw from the Berne Convention, which is the sheet-anchor of the hope of all who have fought for the security and dignity of literature. Io. Gentlemen, I have tried to state the case fairly, and without questioning your right to legis- late for yourselves, I want to ask you a single ques- tion—What's the good? What's the good of the Act of 1889 to any party among the people for whom you legislate? What's the good to your author P What's the good to your reader? What's the good to your printer? What's the good to your publisher and bookseller P I say the Act of 1889, as it stands, is no good to any of these. It is no good to your author because it deprives him of copyright in all the countries of the copyright union, and reduces him to the isolation of his right of copyright in Canada. It is no good to your reader, because he gets his popular books at fifty cents, seventy-five cents and a dollar at present, and if he expects them any cheaper he expects what our readers in England never get and what he has no right to ask if he has any desire to leave bread and butter to the men who make his literature. It is no good to your printer (by that, I mean not the owner of your steam machines but your compositor) because your Act does not require that you should find labour for your poor operatives in composing your books (a claim that would have had our sympathy) but only that your publishers should import the plates that have been made by the labour of English operatives, and this, which has been claimed as a concession to England is really an injury to English authors because it will help you to produce books at less than the natural price, and that is an unsound commercial basis. And finally it is no good, and much less than no good, to your publishers and booksellers, because the unlimited licenses which it allows will cut the throat of the book trade, by reducing the prices of popular books from fifty cents to twenty-five and to fifteen and ten, until at length from the plates of a newspaper serial a novel will as formerly in the United States be produced by the WOL. VI. soap merchant to wrap round bars of kitchen soap, and bookselling as a separate industry will in ten years' time be gone from the face of Canada altogether. In short, sir, to use the idiomatic language of one of your own rude but wise and far-seeing legislators of the past, “There ain't nothing to it no-how.” II. But, gentlemen, do not suppose that I am blind to the difficulties of your position. While I have been in Canada. I have learned a good deal. I have met some of your publishers in person; I no longer believe that their first and only purpose is any form of shameful confiscation, any invasion of the market of the United States, and however much I may think they are pursuing a mistaken and dangerous policy, I am entirely willing to believe that they wish to remain upright, honest, and high - principled men. Since I came to Canada. I have seen some things which, while they do not excuse your Act of 1889 to an author, go far to explain its existence. On your bookstalls, for instance, I have found three different copy- right editions of “Trilby,” the English copyright edition, the Colonial copyright edition, and the Canadian copyright edition. The anomaly and absurdity of the position of this book needs no comment, and neither does that of my own copy- right book, the “Manxman,” which comes to Canada from England on payment of its six cents duty and from the United States subject (until lately), to the author's royalty of I2; per cent. thus paying me (nominally if not really) twice for the piece of work. Since I came to Canada. I have seen the necessity for the reform or the rescinding of Acts (like the Foreign Reprints Acts) made to meet a condition that is gone— the condition of general piracy in the United States down to 1891. And though I do not think tho anomalies of your present copyright arrangements call for legislation of so radical a nature as you propose, I recognise the fact that your geographical position in relation to the United States, the absence there of an agreement with the Berne Convention, and the presence there of a manufacturing clause in favour of American printers, gives you a certain justifica- tion which no other English colony (such as Australia), could possibly have for a measure of self-control and for a limited right to make the books intended for your own market. I say this guardedly and after reflection, and always with the reservation that all your manufacturing clauses are objectionable to authors and a limita- tion of the principle of copyright, only to be allowed under peculiar and trying conditions. But as long as the United States keeps out of the Berne Convention, and as long as they insist on manufacturing their own books, just so long, R. ## p. (#510) ################################################ 156 THE AUTHOR. but not one hour longer, I would (speaking for myself alone), be willing to grant to Canada (divided as it is from the States only by an imaginary border which is easily passed), the right to make her own books under some measure of authors’ control. Given this authors’ control, I do not think your Cana- dian copyright should be any cause of offence to America or disturb the understanding on which the President made his proclamation. And I do not think it ought to be in opposition to the spirit of the Berne Convention, whose second article seems to provide for just such cases as your own. But everything depends on the measure of control which you leave to the author, and I must tell you at once that unlimited licens- ing under the direction of your Government would be entirely inconsistent with the idea of authors’ rights entertained by the signatories to the Berne Convention. Some form of licensing I should personally advocate for Canada under the peculiar difficulties of her present relation to the United States with its right to manufacture, but it must be single licensing, and it must take cognizance of authors’ control, and that will not only be best for us, but also best for you—best for you as authors, best for you as readers, and as printers and as publishers. It is not for me now to say more precisely what system of licens- ing under the author's control I should urge my brother authors to accept. I have formulated a scheme which, as you know, I am submitting to your Government, and shall propose to my fellow authors without prejudice. I believe they will consider it fully and fairly, and I have every con- fidence that your Government will use as much of it as seems sound and wise. 12. Gentlemen, only one word more. What- ever law you make in Canada. I personally mean to obey it, and the best of the authors in Eng- land, as far as they are able, will obey it also. Though it bear heavily on us we will submit. But I beg of you not to put us to too hard a test. Do not let us feel that foreign countries—France and Germany—can be more fair to us than our own colony. We are very proud of Canada. It is the youngest of the nations, and we think there is room enough for two great nations on this great continent. Canada has all the future before her. It would have been a joy and a source of pride if she could have led the way in this matter. We want to see her lead the way. We realise that in the time to come the greater Eng- land must be here beyond the sea—here among your great forests, your mighty waters, your now trackless wastes, that are waiting to spring up into yellow harvests. And we want to remember always that the men who are building up this newer England are our own kith and kin, our brothers who are far from home, our fathers’ sons.” * ---, NEW YORK LETTER, - New York, Nov. 15. EVERAL months ago the editor of the S Author took occasion to praise the brisk and lively literary weekly called the Critic; and this paragraph suggested to me that some account of the various literary journals of America might be of interest to the readers of the Author. The best and the best known weekly review in America is the Nation, which was founded some thirty years ago by Mr. E. L. Godkin, under whose control it still continues. The Nation is not a literary paper pure and simple; it was modelled probably upon the Spectator, and its first interest is, and has always been, in politics. But its book- reviewing has always been extraordinarily well done, better done on the whole than in any other journal in the English language, I think. From the beginning the literary portion of the Nation has been in charge of Mr. W. P. Garrison, a son of the anti-slavery leader. Mr. Garrison and Mr. Godkin were able to enlist as occasional reviewers the leading American authorities in science and in art, and in literature. Very little of the reviewing is done in the office, as nearly every book is sent at once to the special expert who is in the habit of reviewing every volume on the same topic. Twenty or thirty of the leading professors at Harvard, at Columbia, at Johns Hopkins, and at Yale, are on the list of the Nation’s contributors, and can be called upon each for his special knowledge. This gives great weight to the Nation's opinion on all subjects where knowledge is of primeimportance; in history, for example, and in every department of science. In its criticism of pure literature, of fiction, and of poetry in particular, the Nation is neces- sarily less authoritative ; and, despite its best endeavour, it has not always been able to find reviewers able to do justice to contemporary fiction. But the AVation is not alone in this, for in no department of literature are their fewer open-minded experts than in fiction; and the average review of a modern novel in the Nation is likely to be as intelligent and careful as in any other journal, From the beginning the Nation was fortunate in its friends. Lowell was for years an abundant contributor; and so was Mr. Henry James. Mr. Howells has recently told us in Harper’s Magazine how he served on its staff, until he ## p. (#511) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I57 was tempted away to the Atlantic Monthly. Among Mr. Howells' successors were Mr. W. C. Brownell and Professor George E. Woodberry. For a long while Mr. James Bryce was the London correspondent of the Nation, and its Paris correspondent is still M. Auguste Laugel. Some ten or fifteen years ago the owners of the Nation bought the chief afternoon paper of New York, the Evening Post, edited for half a century by the poet Bryant ; and since then the most of the literary notes and of the book reviews of the Nation appear also in the Evening Post. Some- times the Nation contains a scientific or a philosophical review so solid that it is felt to be Out of place in the evening paper; and sometimes, especially in the holiday season, the pressure of the advertisements in the columns of the Evening Post is so great that room cannot be found for all the Nation’s book notices. The Critic is now about fifteen years old, half the age of the Nation. As the nearest British analogue to the Nation is the Spectator, so the nearest British analogue to the Critic is the Academy, although the Critic has always given far more space to news than the Academy ever did. The Critic was founded by Miss J. L. Gilder, who had long been the New York corre- spondent of the Academy. She was aided by a younger brother, Mr. J. B. Gilder. The Critic has always paid special attention to the topics of the time, to the book of the hour, to the author of the day. It celebrated the centenary of Washington Irving's birth with a special number containing contributions from many of the leaders of American literature. Its London correspondent was for a while Mr. W. E. Henley, who could not keep his political prejudices out of his letters, and who was succeeded by Mrs. L. B. Walford. The London correspondent is now Mr. Arthur Waugh, who has been very happy in taking the tone of the paper and in supplying it with the latest news of literary London. Although the literary centre of the United States is now in New York, it was once in Boston, and it may be some day in Chicago; so the Critic has correspondents in both cities, thus retaining a hold on the past and keeping in touch with the future. Mr. Charles Wingate writes the weekly letter from Boston, and Miss Lucy Monroe supplies that from Chicago, not finding it easy sometimes to make bricks without straw. The Critic has always opened its columns freely to discussion of music and drama and the fine arts. I believe that Mr. Charlesde Kay was once the writer on the fine arts; and that Mr. W. J. Henderson is now responsible for the musical criticism. Mr. Paul M. Potter, the dramatiser of “Trilby,” was the first dramatic critic of Miss Gilder's paper, Of late this important department has been in less expert and in less intelligent hands. It is pleasant to be able to record the fact that the columns of the Critic and of the Nation are absolutely free from the sickening self-puffery of their own contributors which disgraces certain of the Tondon reviews. The Nation never criticises the books written by members of its office staff, and it is noted for the freedom with which it handles the writings of its occasional con- tributors. An American man of letters told me the other day that for twenty years he had written almost every review in the Nation on a certain important topic, besides contributing occasional articles on other subjects, and that he had seen more than once, in parallel columns to a con- tribution of his own, an adverse criticism of some book of his or of one of his magazine articles. No review has ever appeared in the Critic of any books of Mr. Richard Watson Gilder—solely because he is the brother of the editors of the Critic. The Critic was at first a fortnightly, although it became a weekly more than ten years ago. A fortnightly still is the Literary World of Boston, a journal modelled on its namesake in London. Until recently it was edited by the Rev. N. P. Gilman, who was an authority on profit-sharing, and who was more interested in ethics than in aesthetics. Its New York correspondent was Mr. John D. Barry, for a while assistant editor of the Forum. The London correspondent of the Literary World is now Mrs. Hinkson (Katherine Tynan). The Dial of Chicago is not a fortnightly; it is a semi-monthly, appearing on the Ist and 15th of . every month. It is now a little more than ten years old, and it is still conducted by its founder, Mr. Francis F. Browne, who is assisted by Mr. William Morton Payne. Its New York correspon- dent is Mr. Arthur Stedman, the son of Mr. E. C. Stedman. The Dial is a serious and a dignified review; it is representative of all that is best in the intellectual life of Chicago, and its existence is evidence that there is an increasing appreciation of literature in that city of strenuous endeavour. All its more important reviews are warranted by the signatures of the writers. Many years ago the importing house of Scribner and Welford (now merged in Charles Scribners Sons) started a little trade monthly modelled on the Quarterly Notes of Longmans, Greene, and Co. It was called the Book-Buyer, and at first it served simply to announce the books of the house which published it. In time it added illustrations, and invited articles from writers of repute. It printed, for example, Mr. Laurence Hutton's interesting series of articles on American ## p. (#512) ################################################ I58 THE AUTHOR. book-plates. Its Christmas number always con- tains half a dozen signed and illustrated reviews of the chief holiday books of the year. Its editor is now Mr. Moody. Its London correspondent was Mr. Ashby Sterry, and he was succeeded by Dr. Robertson Nicoll. It may be fanciful, but it has always seemed to me probable, that it was the Book- Buyer which suggested to Dr. Nicoll the starting of the Book- man—just as his Woman at Home was obviously modelled on the American Ladies Home Journal. Still this did not prevent Dodd, Mead, and Co. from arranging to publish an American edition of Dr. Nicoll's literary monthly. They engaged as editor Professor Harry Thurston Peck, of Columbia Cellege, who very soon found that if the American Bookman was to be a success, it could borrow but little from its British namesake, since the literary interests of New York at d London are often widely different. So it is that Professor Peck’s Bookman contains a scant portion of the matter that appears in Dr. Nicoll’s Bookman—little more than the letter from Paris and a review or two every month. Dr. Nicoll sends a monthly letter from London to the New York journal. Professor Peck has succeeded in making the American Bookman a brisk and lively review, abounding in gossip and trenchant in criticism, and he has altogether too much sense of proportion and too wide a knowledge of books to give up to the infusoria of contemporary literature the space they are allowed to fill in the Bookman’s London namesake. Space fails to consider here at length the Literary News, which issues monthly from the office of the Publisher's Weekly or Book News, which is published by Wanaker, the universal provider of Philadelphia. Nor can I do more than note the clever and unconventional little semi- monthly Chap-Book, issued by the young firm of Stone and Kimball in Chicago. H. R. *- a 2-º r- - -, NOTES FROM PARIS, HAVE been consulted on more than one Occasion, recently, by authors who wish to produce their works, or rather transla- tions of their works, in Paris. I may as well resume here what I have invariably answered when questioned on these points. The work must be produced at the author's entire risk. The cost of translation may be calculated at about IOS. a thousand words. This is very fair pay, consider- ing the prices paid for literary work in Paris. (A Parisian publisher once offered me 312 for translating a 150,000 - word story by Paul Marguerite. But no member of our society would, I hope, care to sweat a brother-littérateur.) The cost of production of Say IOOO copies of the ordinary 3 francs 50 cent. volume would be about 340. At least that is what a good publisher would demand. The cost of advertising the book would be enormous. There is little or no review- ing done in the French papers, so that the Eng- lish author would have to make up his mind to do without this gratuitous publicity. The net receipt from each copy sold would be about two francs. (I am supposing the book to be issued at 3 francs 50 cents.) The sale of the book would probably be a very small one. I always dissuade authors from engaging in any speculation of this kind. The preceding remarks will explain why I do so. The Parisian Society of Authors, who publish their own works, which I described in an article which was reproduced in last month's Author, has sent methe first book issued by theassociation. This is a collection of short stories, republished from various periodicals, entitled “La Grande Nuit.” I cannot speak very enthusiastically about this first production. I do not refer to the literary or the commercial value of the tales, but to the book as a book. Its “get-up " is amateurish, the cover is a singularly unattractive one, a pale grey in colour, and the printing is not up to the mark. The importance of “get-up,” cover-paper, printing, and general symmetry, never impressed them- selves more vividly on me than in examining this book. In these matters experience, such as is possessed by publishers who know their business, appears indispensable. Isuppose that the managers of the Societé Libre will acquire it in time. In the meanwhile the lack of it seems likely to jeopardise the success of the undertaking. What I wrote in recent numbers of the Author anent certain black sheep in our midst has brought me a quantity of abuse — all anony- mous, of course—and what I wrote has been entirely misrepresented. One editor, who com- mended me to the attention of the mad doctors, represented me as having described as blacklegs “reviewers and people who read for publishers.” Reference was made to some of the most revered names in English letters, and I was described as having levelled my attack against gentlemen for whom I have as much reverence and loyalty as I have contempt and loathing for the persons whom I had in mind. I never attacked the re- viewers. It would be as basely ungrateful as it would be foolishly unjust for me to do so. My remarks were addressed to the prosperous writer of books who does not scruple to attack anony- mously, for hire, the books of brother authors. I know persons of this description, and, as I ## p. (#513) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 59 wrote, they would be tolerated in no other country but England. My remarks were also addressed to the prosperous writers who retail literary advice at a guinea, the dollop to publishers, anonymously. The prosperity and the anony- mity of the person constitute his claim to the title of literary blackleg. It is a painful subject, and one that I am most loth to pursue, for the further one penetrates into the bas-fonds of literary society in England the sadder at heart he must be at the degradation of a noble profession. Here one finds false brothers of every variety, and a mass of malice, injustice, extortion, and oppression, which would surprise one amongst King Prempeh's merry men at Rumassi. The number of literary impostors at present before the public in England is no in- considerable one, and a banquet of literary ghosts holden in London would bring together a large and unhappy attendance. There is So-and-so—I am speaking of an actual person—who has not written a single line of any of the books published under his name. And there are many like him. In fact anyone who takes the trouble to investi- gate the matter will find more people in the lite- rary profession who are flourishing on absolutely false pretences than in any other profession in England. In France these Tartuffes are pointed out and at ; in England they pass high in the public esteem. A writer in The Critic of New York qualified as “colossal nonsense” a remark of mine in a recent number of the Author, in which I expressed disapproval of the conduct of a successful literary man, who, on behalf of a firm of publishers, was offering to well-known albeit unprosperous brother-writers terms very far below what in literary circles are considered fair rates. Another instance of the same kind has quite recently been brought to my notice. In this case a well-known novelist, whose work is acknowledged to be of the highest literary value, was asked to write an essay on a subject, involving great special know- ledge, at the rate of twelve shillings the page of six hundred words. This offer was made in the name of a well-known literary man. I must be guilty of still more colossal nonsense, and repeat that I do not think it befits a man of letters to act as taskmaster in the interests of a commercial house to the prejudice of his fellow-authors, It is not often that a novel written on a play achieves any very great success, and it is therefore worthy of notice that M. Edmond Lepelletier's version of Sardou’s “Madame Sans-Gêne” is now in its eighty-seventh thousand. The great popu- larity of the play no doubt largely helped the sale of M. Lepelletier's novel. Paul Deroulède's patriotic, Anglophobic drama, WOL. VI. - “Messire du Guesclin,” which is being performed at the Porte-Saint-Martin Theatre, is a very great success. It tickles the French Chauvin in the right spot. One result of this success has been to create a demand for M. Deroulède's volume of poems, and a collection of his most patriotic pieces has just been issued under the title “Poesies Militaires,” illustrated by Jeanniot. It is selling extremely well. Though one does not altogether approve of M. Deroulède's extreme patriotism, bordering as it does on aggressiveness, one is very glad that success—and success of a financial nature—has at last come to him. His is a very noble character. He sacrificed everything in his loyal devotion to Boulanger, and was brought by his fidelity into sore straits. “Messire du Guesclin” is, I fancy, his first play; though as a nephew of Emile Augier he had from youth up every encouragement to try his hand at dramatic writing. It is symptomatic of the popularity of the short story or nouvelle in France that a Society of Short- Story Writers, formed for convivial purposes, has drawn together a large number of members. The society held its first monthly dinner last week at a fashionable restaurant on the boulevard. Mr. A. P. Watt was telling me the other day of an experiment he had tried on behalf of one of his clients. He sold a right of serializing a very successful novel to a provincial paper some months after the book had appeared as a volume. At the beginning both the author and Mr. Watt were rather anxious lest this serialization might Inot diminish the sale of the book as a volume. FIowever the experiment was quite successful. That the serialization did not interfere with the sale of the volume was shown by the fact that subsequently a new edition of IO,OOO copies was called for. In France, books are serialized over and over again, and in no case has this been found to affect the sale of the book as a book otherwise than favourably. At the time of writ- ing, the “Count of Monte Cristo’’ is running as a serial in more than a dozen papers in France, and the book still sells as well as ever. It has been serialized hundreds of times. The same might be said of scores of other popular French books. A translation of a book by a member of the Authors’ Club, “An Original Wager, by a Vagabond,” is about to appear in serial form in 'L' Echo du Nord. It is sure to be very popular. The book describes how, for a wager, the author supported himself in France for six weeks entirely by utilising his sporting capacities. He boated, he swam, he bicycled, he taught billiards and tennis, he ran, rode, and walked, and won his bet in the end. The story is most entertainingly S ## p. (#514) ################################################ 16o THE AUTHOR. told and the book 1s fresh and novel. It is dedicated to the “sportsmen of France,” from whom it is sure to have a warm welcome. RoBERT H. SHERARD. ** = --> * * * POPE AND GRUB STREET. T was Pope, and Swift to aid him, who esta- blished among us the Grub-street tradition. He revels in base descriptions of poor men's wants; he gloats over poor Dennis's garret, and flannel nightcap, and red stockings; he gives instructions how to find Curl’s authors, the historian at the tallow chandler's under the blind arch in Petty France, the two translators in bed together, the poet in the cock-loft in Budge-row, whose landlady keeps the ladder. It was Pope, I fear, who contributed, more than any man who ever lived, to depreciate the literary calling. It was not an unprosperous one before that time, as we have seen; at least, there were great prizes in the profession which had made Addison a minister, Prior an ambassador, and Steele a commissioner; and, Swift almost a bishop. The profession of letters was ruined by that libel of “The Dunciad.” If authors were wretched and oor before, if some of them lived in haylofts of which their landladies kept the ladders, at least nobody came to disturb them in their straw; if three of them had but one coat between them, the two remained invisible in the garret, the third, at any rate, appeared decently at the coffee-house, and paid his two-pence like a gentleman. It was Pope who dragged into light all this poverty and meanness, and held up those wretched shifts and rags to ridicule. It was Pope that has made generations of the reading world (delighted with the mischief, as who would not be who reads it P) believe that author and wretch, author and rags, author and dirt, author and drink, gin, cow-heel, tripe, poverty, duns, bailiffs, squalling children and clamorous landladies, were always associated together. The condition of authorship began to fall from the days of “The Dunciad;” and I believe in my heart that much of that obloquy which has since pursued our calling was occasioned by Pope's libels and wicked wit. THACKERAY. ** ,-- - -, WHY NOT GIVE THE NAMES: T is sometimes asked why the Society does I not publish the names in the cases detailed in these columns. It is sometimes even suggested that the cases are invented. Very early easy to understand it. in the existence of the Society the method of publishing cases without names was adopted, advisably, in the reports and papers of the Society. And in the very useful book issued by the Society, called “Methods of Publishing,” the agreements, &c., commented on were published. without names. What are the advantages and what are the reasons of this line P One has not the authority of the committee to explain or defend their action in this place; but it is very The case is brought to the secretary ; it is very often an agreement. carefully drawn up so as to impose upon the ignorance, not only of the author, but of the ordinary solicitor—see some of the agreements in. “Methods of Publishing; ” it is above all things necessary that the clauses should be explained to the author first, and to the public next, with full comment showing where there are traps laid and where the author is made to give away rights which he should have kept. But full comment is impossible when the names of both parties are given; one cannot call the author an ass for signing such a contract, nor the other side a sharp for asking him to do so. But, one can point out anonymously with fulness. the credulity of the one, and the sharp practice of the other; one can explain the meaning of things quite clearly and plainly without names. In the “Methods of Publishing,” a book which our younger members do not seem to study so much as they should, no one can complain that freedom. of exposition—and exposure—is wanted. Every one of the agreements given there is a real agreement, just as every one of the cases quoted in the Author is a real case. Now, the case having been set forth with the exact facts neither heightened nor suppressed, and with our comments, it remains for the person criticised or exposed to put the cap on his own head if he pleases. When Mr. Sprigge's book, the “Methods of Publishing,” appeared, one was in great hopes that somebody would come forward and put the cap on his own head. Nobody did. That was four years ago. The book has been widely circulated and warmly praised. Nobody has stepped forward to say, “This is my abomin- able agreement.” On the contrary, the book has checked a vast number of abuses, and prevented many cruel swindles. Surely to check an abuse is a far more useful thing than to attack one out of many guilty persons. But, in order to meet everybody’s views, the secretary makes through these columns the follow- ing proposal: Whenever a case is exposed in the Author, he is quite prepared to communicate to any member of the Society the name of the pub- lisher concerned. That member may make any ## p. (#515) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I6 I use of his information that he pleases. It is, of course, understood that no case is published in this paper unless the secretary has in his hands all the documents—letters, agreements, accounts, &c.—connected with it. It should be explained, in common justice, that the number of cases is much smaller than it was ; in other words, those persons who thought they could go on “besting” the author with impunity find that it will not do. It should also be recog- mised that the persons who are still loud in their abuse of the Society are chiefly those who still practise the falsification of accounts, and the charging of advertisements for which they pay nothing. r- * ~s NOTES AND NEWS, HE telegram published in the Times of Nov. 26, which is reproduced on p. 15I seems to show that the Canadian copyright question is solved by a compromise. It would not be reasonable to discuss the terms of the compromise until fuller information has been received. Let it, however, be noted here that whatever good has been attempted or achieved in this business is due solely to the action of Mr. Hall Caine; at great expense of time and trouble. Mr. Hall Caine has converted the Canadian people to a reasonable frame of mind; and he has saved, it is hoped, inter- national copyright, which was threatened by the Canadians. For these services he deserves, and will receive, the best thanks of all who are con- nected with literature; and he has accomplished a work which will bring lasting honour to his name. It remains for us, whom he has repre- sented, to arrange a becoming welcome for Mr. Hall Caine on his return. Another thing of great importance must be noted. For the first time in history, matters con- nected with literary property have been intrusted to a man who creates literary property. When, until this year, have English authors ever been con- sulted on questions of copyright, i.e., on questions connected with literary property P Now Mr. Hall Caine goes out to Canada, the representative of the Society of Authors, i.e., of fifteen hundred men and women of letters, the only English literary associa- tion of any importance. He is also recognised as the representative of the Society, and is received as such, by Mr. Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies; and he is received and recognised as our representative by the authors of the United States and by the Copyright Association of Canada, and by the Government of Canada. Ten years ago whatever question of literary property might arise would have been handed over to some publisher; it would have been assumed that literary property belonged altogether to pub- lishers; that literary men were their employés, their clerks, as necessary for the conduct of their business as the boys who put up the parcels. As regards the conduct of this paper, I have to announce that “ H. R.,” who has acted as its New York correspondent for two years, is com- pelled to retire: a successor will be found. Mr. Sherard will continue as Paris correspondent: it is proposed to engage a Canadian and an Australian correspondent. Arrangements have been made for as complete an enumeration of new books and announcements as possible: there will be a monthly paper on the “literature" of the maga- zines; there will be an occasional feuilleton ; and we shall repeat from time to time, for fear it should be forgotten, the true meaning of royalties, deferred royalties, and half profits. It would greatly tend to the usefulness of the Author if members of the Society would lend it about, see that it is placed on club tables, and, should they not care to keep it, if they would give it to any person engaged in literary pursuits. Mr. John Morley is reported by Mr. Stead to have recently estimated the number of readers among the forty millions of inhabitants of the country at one million. I cannot understand this estimate. There are, in these islands, nearly 300 public free libraries: most of them are lending libraries: at many of them there are visitors every day by the thousand. If only IO,OOO readers frequent each library, there are 3,OOO,OOO readers at once: but in reality there are many more than 10,000. Probably 2O,OOO would be nearer the average, which would give us 6,000,000 for the number of readers taken from the lower middle class or the upper working class alone, and not counting the very large class of wealthier people who use Smith and Mudie and other libraries, and buy books. I reckon these at 2,OOO,OOO, or 400,000 families. And my total of readers is 8,000,ooo, or one-fifth of the whole. If we allow for children under twelve the propor- tion is very much higher. I cannot think that Mr. John Morley has been following the enormous advance of reading during the last few years: of reading, I mean, as an habitual recreation: nor can he have observed the significance of the facts connected with the development of the cheap magazine; the turning out every year of readers from the Board Schools by their hundreds of ## p. (#516) ################################################ I62 THE AUTHOR. thousands; and the opening of new public libraries. Professor Saintsbury, on the other hand, is re- ported to lament that we read too much and too fast; that we no longer take notes; and that common- place books have gone out. There is published in a daily newspaper, he says, the matter of an ordinary 8vo. volume. There is more ; in a certain number of the Times I reckoned there was the matter of three old-fashioned three-volume novels. The Professor assumes that the ordinary reader goes through the whole paper. There is his mistake; ino reader goes through the whole paper. It is impossible. Different things interest different readers; some things are to some readers im- possible. I am, myself, a person of very limited tastes. Political speeches I seldom read; nor debates in any of the many Parliaments. In their stead I read the leading articles upon them. Sporting news; financial news; the column from the London Gazette ; ecclesiastical news; meet- ings of companies; stock and share lists; all these I pass over. I also pass over all the advertisements. So that, really, my daily Times does me very little harm, as I read no more than a sixth part of it. As for notes and common- place books, no one except students ever did make notes or keep common-place books; and these do still. I have piles of notes on subjects concerning which I work most ; they are not kept in a com- mon-place book, but in brown paper envelopes on loose sheets of paper. In fact this kind of talk ignores the real truth. that for ninety-nine out of a hundred, reading is for recreation, not for study. It is a recreation that permits and encourages the reading of serious and grave books as well as works of imagination. But it is recreation and not study. How should it be otherwise? Most people are not ambitious: they do not seek to rise; they are contented with a humble lot : they ask of life nothing but work not too hard ; pay, not too low ; rest, not too short. And books help them to rest better than any form of recreation ever invented. Certainly they are not going to make notes or to keep common-place books any more than they are going to swallow the whole of their newspaper every day. Alexandre Dumas is dead. His last imarticu- late words, according to the doctor standing at his bedside, were “like the closing of a book.” What more fitting conclusion to his life? An incident of which all literary Paris has been talking lias again brought prominently to the front a question that has long been a sore point with French authors. The question is a quarrel of ancient date between writers and publishers, and the incident is the rupture that occurred a few weeks back between one of the most prominent Parisian publishers and a French author of world-wide renown, who is an Academician. The nature of the quarrel is the utter absence of any sort of control over the sale figures of their works, which the authors assert is the result of the pub- lishing conditions at present in vogue in Paris. If the authors’ tales are to be believed, there are publishers who print editions of which the profits never find their way into the writers' pockets, and of which the authors, indeed, are entirely ignorant of the printing. Another practice said to be common is the misrepresentation of the number of volumes comprised in an edition. The very celebrated author already alluded to fancied he had a grievance of this kind, and separated himself from his publisher. How- ever, after negotiations that have lasted several weeks, he has been convinced that he was mistaken, and his books will continue to appear with the old imprint. The above paragraph is reproduced from the Daily Chronicle. So far there has been no accusation—no suspiciou, even—of such frauds brought against English publishers. Is it worse, however, than overcharging the cost of produc- tion—or than charging for advertisements which have cost nothing P These practices are all allied: they are tricks: they degrade the trade. There is only one course possible for honest men : it is for one side to demand, and for the other to offer, an audit when the accounts are sent in : and that as a regular thing, confessedly adopted on account of the tricks and cheateries of the dishonest. An article appeared in last month’s Nineteenth Century abusing the Society and the Literary Agent. It was, in fact, over due. Such an article used to appear once a month : then once in three months: now once in six months. This article is written by a person who signs himself “One of the Trade ’’ at the head of the paper, and “T. Werner Laurie” at the end. There is no “T. Werner Laurie ’’ in the list of the trade. It has been ascertained, however, that a “T. Werner Laurie” is an employé of Mr. Fisher Unwin. Here are some of the things in this paper: I. “ Unlimited accusations * are now being hurled at publishers, presumably by the Society. What are these accusations? Publishers are going to “take up the matter seriously.” Very good. Nothing could be better. 2. The Society, it appears, became a success because amateurs wanted to put letters after their name. No one has ever put any initials after his name that would connect him with the Society. 3. The promoters formed a Council, some of whom have “actually had MSS. published.” The list of our Council is published with every number of the Author. Look at the names who have “actually had MSS. published.” ## p. (#517) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I63 4. The “Cost of Production” is a “pleasant romance.” We thought this kind of impudence was finished. We once offered to take over on our own figures all the printing of a certain publisher who ventured to attack them. Then he sat down. 5. Publishers, it appears, who give royalties of 20 or 25 per cent, lose on these books. Do they? A publisher who was interviewed on this subject in the New Budget complained and wept over the fact that with such a royalty he could only get 7d. for himself on each copy—this after deducting all the office and advertisingexpenses. That is loss, isit? 6. Writers not so fortunate must suffer by the publishers' losses on the big royalties. Fudge | 7. The author is to be especially pitied for this rise in royalties. Poor author | He will doubtless go back joyfully to the sweet old terus. 8. The Society has destroyed the old friendship between author and publisher. Well: one looks round: one finds as many friendships between honourable publishers and their authors as ever. 9. The Society has not succeeded in “forcing ” up royalties to this or that height. The Society does not try to force royalties. It shows what they mean: it throws light on the actual cost of producing and on the actual returns of a book. This, however, is enough to show the stuff of which the article is composed. The rest of the article chiefly consists of abuse of the Literary Agent. The one short answer to this is-We must either meet the publisher as One man of business with another, or we must appoint an attorney to meet him for us. All the railing with which this person fills his page about the literary agent's malpractices is rubbish and beside the mark. If it were true, it concerns the author, who has not yet, I believe, invited any publisher's clerk to protect him from his own man of business. Now it simply stands to reason that any publisher who refuses to treat with an author's man of business--agent—i.e., solicitor— can only do so because he declines to discuss business affairs with one who knows as much as he knows himself. And why? Why should he be unwilling to play an open game P The answer is quite obvious. One is always rejoiced to welcome such a production as this article. It gives ourselves the opportunity of stating once more our raison d'être and our performances. It shows the world the foolish misrepresentations by which the Society can alone be attacked: and it disposes of all the silly stuff which is invented for the purpose of attacking the Literary Agent. An answer to the article appears in the December number of the Nineteenth Century. That part of it which concerns the Society is by our chairman. That which concerns the agent is by myself. WALTER BESANT, THE THREE-WOLUME, NOWEL AGAIN. WHE question of the three-volume novel is not, it appears, closed. Miss Braddon has pro- duced her latest novel in the old form, and Mudie’s Library has refused to take it. Miss Braddon's views on the subject have been com- municated to the Westminster Gazette, and were published in that paper. She defends the old form with the following arguments—not always novel—but, from a novelist of Miss Braddon's standing, commanding respectful hearing: I. The old form was light to hold, of large and clear type; the one-volume novel is too often thick and heavy in the hand, with small and closely printed type, tiring to the eyes. 2. She would like a plebiscite on the subject from English novel readers. 3. Under the old system the new writer had a better chance. The last seems at first a strong argument in favour of the three-volume form. Certain firms could command a subscription of any novel they issued—a subscription large enough to cover the cost of production. This cannot be done with a six- shilling book. On the other hand, however, is it necessary that the new writer should find the way so very plain and smooth for him? Is it not better that there should be some difficulty in obtaining an entrance? It must be confessed that many persons are now unable to produce novels who were admitted as novelists under the old system. A new writer will now find greater difficulty about acceptance. So much the better for literature. And it is not possible that, with so many publishers all wanting good work, any new writer who is good should be passed over. 4. The danger of encouraging slight and ephemeral stories. There is always that danger; but did it not exist before, when it was so easy to get a three-volume story published? And will the public buy the slight and flashy stories that Miss Braddon fears P - 5. The danger of trying to attract attention by “ sailing near the wind.” But it has always existed—this danger. Besides, Mudie's Library professes to refuse admission to such books. 6. The weakening of the power of the libraries That is, surely, a danger for the libraries them- selves, not for authors, to consider. 7. A possible change to book borrowing from book buying. No. There cannot be any such change. Book buying depends upon income. It is entirely a matter of income. A great many people read at home at least a hundred books a year. That means, at 4s. 6d. each, 3822 IOS. a year. How many people are there who can afford to spend £22 Ios. a year on the purchase of books? ## p. (#518) ################################################ I64 THE AUTHOR. 8. The danger that the libraries will refuse to buy any expensive work. I do not think there is i. * danger to be apprehended under this €a,Ol. 9. The absurdity of the old “Procrustean length º argument. Here Miss Braddon speaks common sense. There never has been any “Procrusteam ” length for the three-volume form of novel. Its length varied from IOO,Ooo to 300,000 words. The six- shilling novel has just about the same limitations as to length. On the whole, the one strong argument in favour of the three-volume form is that it is light to hold and easy to read. The loss of it may mean a great deal to invalids and old people. The strongest argument against it is, in my mind, the fact that it locked up the work and kept it out of the hands of the general public for nearly a year. Was it not a strange anomaly that we used to publish a book twice—once for those who sub- scribed to the libraries, and then for the general public P. For my own part, it has always seemed to me that the libraries resigned certain advan- tages in changing the system; but one is nºt obliged to inquire how the libraries conduct their business. Our concern is with our own business. W. B. *~ * * THE NEW ZEALAND AUTHOR, By EDITH SEARLE GROSSMAN. (From the Canterbury Times, N.Z., Aug. 29, 1895.) Y subject, I am afraid, is a negative; authors, indeed, we have in plenty, but none of them have “prospects,” or, at least their prospects are chateaux, like the Baron's “in Spain, or enjoy the most airy of situations.” The matter might not be worth pen and ink but for the extraordinary illusions prevalent. It is really surprising that no small proportion of people should still imagine literature an easy path to wealth and fame. Almost every girl or young man who takes a high place in English during her or his school or university years dreams of a splendid career in authorship. No doubt this is true of England as well as of her colonies; but our delusion is fostered much longer, and we find it much harder to face actual facts. In the first place, the English novels of the day reach us only when they have made a great “hit” at home, and the new novelists we hear of are those favoured few who have happened to catch the fancy of the hour. - When we read of the rapid success of some colonial writer, like Rolf Boldrewood, our vague aspirations are fanned to a flame, and we do not It is not with us as with English people. reflect on the hundreds who have tried in vain. We have no struggling or moderately-successful literary class; no “new Grub Street’’ in our sight to warn us. There is no such thing as a literary class in the colonies. We know little of the mediocre writers of the day. But university students have at their fingers' ends the literary history of the first half of this century. Now this period was marked by the rise of the novel. If there were many failures then they are forgotten now ; what impressed the young ambitious student was the brilliant success of a few. The fact is that nowadays nothing is commoner than literary talent ; nothing more uncommon than pecuniary success. Perhaps the proportion of talented people is greater in this colony than in England, because we have no really illiterate class; a few remnants there are of the old peasant immigrants; a few born colonials on whom education is thrown away ; but every New Zealander of this second generation has a chance of cultivating his abilities. We have all the best books here, even the best of each year as it comes out; it is only the bad books that stay “at home; ” most New Zealanders are educated “beyond their sphere *—as old-fashioned people would say—and the hard details of our business world, our restless struggle for our daily bread, or for pleasure or for show, fail to satisfy those reared among the abstract passions, the reverence, the enthusiasm of a university life. It is to escape from a meaner lot that we return with hope and courage to a literary career. What is the end of it all? A return, sooner or later, to the old struggle to satisfy material wants. Unless some change takes place, there is no hope of literary success for a colonial. The sooner this is stamped upon the minds of all, the better. Courage, intellect, time, health, and temper are wasted in struggling against overwhelming odds. Sooner or later we must return to that practical life which the colony demands from us. It is in the world of action, not of thought, that the prizes lie. Doctor, lawyer, teacher, tradesman, all and each have prospects of brilliant success, and a certainty of avoiding absolute failure. Titerature alone offers no field at all. I shall not waste time over the efforts of that rapidly increasing throng who, each year, pay heavy sums to local publishers and get back nothing at all. We maturally consider ourselves superior to the inglorious crowd. But untried writers do not understand what are the difficulties in their way. Every difficulty that an English author encounters is doubled for a colonial, because the great distance between us and London, and the impossibility of finding out ## p. (#519) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 165 exactly how our own affairs stand, place us com- pletely at the mercy of a publisher. But I think we can only get some glimpse of our troubles by considering the ordinary circumstances of publica- tion. Suppose a novel ready after some months of work; we imagine all we have to do is to sell it for some price, large or small, to a publisher. Very likely the merest novice in London has got beyond this stage of ignorance; but certainly most colonials suppose, when they have given time, talent, and toil to a book, they have earned some return. Not at all; we find we are to pay a large sum down to the publisher, and may be very thankful if we ever get any of it back again. In short, we require an outlay of capital, and there is only the barest chance of any profit. In the first place there is the printer to pay, and then the publisher runs up sundries in a manner which would put any dressmaker to the blush. It is almost necessary to have manuscript type-written nowadays, and this is a preliminary trifle in the total expense. It will cost, say, between £5 and 3IO. Then, if we want to do the thing cheaply, the manuscript is offered to a local publisher. This is how we nearly all begin. Now, this is sheer suicide to any chance of success. It may be of service to repeat here the advice given—of course, too late—by the head of one of our leading publishing' firms: “Do not try to publish any book in the colonies. If you cannot get it accepted by a well-known firm, do not publish it at all.” Booksellers pay more attention to the name of the publisher than to that of the author, especially when the latter is quite unknown. A novel published in New Zealand has no chance of circulation beyond New Zealand. The proportion of book buyers in each colony is so small that such a book is certain to be a failure. Book-buying is almost universally regarded as an extravagance. Suppose, then, that we have learnt this much wisdom from the first book; it has probably cost some £40 or £50 if the venture was a small one, and the agent tolerably honest. Next we apply to the best English houses, who, however, will seldom accept books by unknown people. After a year of wasted hopes and vain suspense, we hear of some new or less important firm, and get our manuscript at last accepted. |But these small houses compensate themselves for extra risks by taking extra profits. The author pays the entire cost of production. The Authors’ Society's journal estimates this at a little over £100 for one thousand copies; a fair average sum paid by colonial writers for the printing would be 360 for five hundred copies. A common selling price for the modern novel is 3s. 6d., so that if every copy sold the profit would be about £27. But, of course, the author could not expect to get this; the publisher, besides all manner of extra charges secures his own profits, say two-thirds, so that, if the whole edition sold, the author would not be able to get a single penny (profit) in return ; indeed, he might not be able to cover the Original outlay. A sale of five hundred copies represents, say, ten times the number of readers; and it is not one colonial author in a hundred who will get a larger circulation than this, indeed, very few will get as many as five thousand readers. Of course, it is a consolation to reflect that one's thoughts and ideas have become the property of so many people; still, from a business point of view, it is unprofitable. In the case considered, the author who has paid £60 is not at all likely to receive back more than £20, so that his book will be a dead loss of £40. I will take one case which did occur. The cost of printing a novel was £60; it was sold at 3s. 6d. a copy, and, when about three hundred copies were sold, the author's cheque amounted to £7 13s. ; the rest was taken up by mysterious trade discounts and charges for advertising. The account sent looked desperately accurate, though the author did not quite under- stand why trade discount figured twice. Still, there was clearly nothing to be done. One reason why so few copies are sold is that circulating libraries supply the reading public with all they want. The only book-buyers in the colonies are country people, a few students, and a very few personal friends of the author. Most of the friends are in the habit of asking the author for the loan of his book, a custom on whose astonishing meanness no one has yet reflected. All are free to read or buy as they please, or to borrow from the library, but to ask woman or man for their own book is just as much begging for charity as to ask a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher for his services gratuitously. It is plain enough that literature, if persisted in, is more likely to lead to ruin than to prosperity. I wonder if the English authors, to whom we address our despair- ing appeals, feel anything more than astonishment at our ignorance of the world. Perhaps after all they would not pity us if they knew that we are in no danger of starving. There is some sort of active career open to all, at least to men, so we turn at last to manual labour, or to some uncon- genial profession; it is our minds that are starving and wasting away. There are some who will write for their own pleasure, regardless of others. These have the true gift; and they will have the best, the purest joy of creation, but their creation and their joy will perish with them. If there be among colonials those who have so deep a passion, and who have also the leisure to satisfy it, let them write; and if they really believe they have some- ## p. (#520) ################################################ I66 THE AUTHOR. thing to their fellows, let them pay for a hearing. But let us cease dreaming of literature as a path to wealth and honour. It is worth our while to remember the witty story of a man who gave up his carriage in order to publish his poems. z- - - DINNER TO DR, BRANDES, WHE Authors’ Club gave a dinner on Monday, Nov. 18th, to Dr. Brandes. The chair was taken by Mr. Douglas Sladen. The following report of the speech made by the illus- trious guest appeared in the Daily Chronicle of the 19th. “Personally I am in debt to England for other more valuable impressions. I came as a young man to London. I got an impression of the strength of the English race. I saw in Hyde Park old men of seventy years ride on horseback with as jaunty an air as the youngest, with cheeks as red and fresh as the cheeks of a child. I began early in life to study English literature. I have written a big book in six volumes, on the European literature of the first fifty years of our century, and the kernel of this work is the poetry of England, the hinge on which it turns. Though, as you perceive, I speak English very badly, still I assure you I can read it very easily. I know thoroughly Wordsworth and Coleridge, Walter Scott and Moore, Keats, Landor, Shelley, and Byron. Of all the poets of the century nobody has impressed me more deeply than Shelley. I read the “Ode to the West Wind' with ecstasy and delight, I know the shorter poems line for line. There never was a lyrical poet greater than Shelley. I do not know his peer. In West- minster Abbey there is a bust of Southey, but I miss the images of Keats, of Shelley, of Byron. It has surprised me to find that this English people, which can certainly not be called an essentially military people, has honoured in its public places many of its generals, a few of its statesmen, but—except William Shakespeare in Leicester-square—very few of all those who have produced the great and glorious English litera- ture. Yet foreigners return again and again to the study of this literature, and above all others Shakespeare commands the attention of every civilised being. Everyone tries to understand him better and more fully than his predecessors. And I must plead guilty to a continuous six years' course of him. . In old times a critic was little esteemed of poets and authors. They believed him full of envy and malice, they believed he wore an abdominal belt of serpents. In our time people know that a critic is simply a man who can read and who teaches others to read—an art that is rarer than would be supposed. A critic is a man who is as pliant and supple when the question is to understand, as he is inflexible and firm when it is his task to speak out. He understands men and people who do not understand one another. He builds up bridges over the gulf that separates people from people, he is the true engineer of spiritual life. As he builds, so he clears away, and plants hedges and torches on the way. And as he builds up so he pulls down. 'Tis not faith that moves mountains, it is criticism that moves them—all the mountains of antiquated faith, of superstitions, and dead tradition. You do not know how fortunate you are to own a language that is understood all over the earth, so that you can appeal in your own words to your hearer. We, who have a language that is only understood by very few millions, are only known in translations. You are fortunate to have copyright in your work. Scandinavians have no literary agreement with other countries. Foreign publishers seldom send us anything for our copyrights, and often a copy of their piracies is even denied. And we are little translated. Of thirty volumes I have written, not a dozen are translated into German, and most of them in pirated editions made from texts that are twenty years old, and have in the meantime been entirely revised. These books bear my name, and have even been retranslated in many other languages, but I never have acknowledged them as mine. As I am on the threshold of an intro- duction to the English public, I am glad to be able to tell you that I have every reason to believe that it will be in a translation which for once I can be proud of. But it is not of my good fortune that I wish to talk. I want to repeat what I have said of yours. You are, indeed, fortunate in the possession of a literature such as yours is. I saw last Saturday in the Natural History Museum an enormous disk of a giant tree, many hundred years old. The tree was so old that its centre was marked as contemporary with the battle of Agincourt, and the different rings as contemporary with Shakespeare's birth, Newton’s death, the acces- sion of Queen Victoria, and so on. In spite of its age the stem had remained fresh and living until it was felled by human hand. Such a venerable tree is English literature, and it lives and flourishes to-day as of old. May never its woodman pass, and may it live and thrive and bear fruits ſ” ## p. (#521) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 167 MR, STANLEY J. W.EYMAN AS DRAMATIC AUTHOR, LIFTON has had the honour of producing Mr. Stanley Weyman’s first dramatic piece, which was copyrighted on Nov. the 22nd by a company of amateurs playing under Mr. Forster Alleyne. The piece is “ For the Cause,” played very nearly as it appeared in Chapman’s Magazine in May, but on the stage the quick terse conversation and epigrammatic dialogue have their full weight ; and the intensely dramatic situations prove Mr. Wey- man's power as a dramatic author. The piece is but of one act, but in the short time, about an hour, required to play it, the audience is moved by pathos, dread, and horror, and swayed to laughter. Legitimate situations excite a tension of feeling for the principal, in fact only, woman in the little play, Marie, the daughter of an old Huguenot who loves a Leaguer, who would have the Pope the only sovereign of Paris. The Huguenot is hiding the king in his stables, and Henri Quatre finds his way into the house as the stables are cold; and nearly surprises the young lovers. Marie has hidden Phillip, and to her anguish she learns this intruder is the King; and his friends join him, and in the room where the Leaguer who would hang them all is hidden, they unfold their plans to take Paris. Here the strength of the play gives grand scope to the actors, especially to Marie : she would die for her King Henri of Navarre; but she would save her lover: but he, if he escapes, will slay the King, her own father, and even destroy all hope for her faith. The King's plan is bared; a dumb stable boy comes in and points to where he saw Phillip hide, but is not understood; all are leaving; Marie in agony will give her heart for the King; he returns to say a word to her he has trusted, and she blurts out her secret, but immediately to passionately deny her words; but her lover is dragged from his hiding place. The King was played forcibly by Mr. Alleyne, and Miss Bryant did well as Marie, and Mr. K. Bryant also played with force and feeling as Phillip; especially when confronted with the sounds of the King's friend. The King rushes between them, and demands their sparing him almost in vain, until in passion he cries, “He does not die. France speaks.” For the girl who sacrificed her lover, and her life for the King, as she now lies senseless at their feet, he shall be spared. In a short, powerful speech he tells Phillip to go. “The girl you love has ransomed you; go to leave a name that shall live for centuries and stand for infamy.” The play should end where Phillip lifts up his Marie's body and bears her off; or he might be kneeling beside her as she half revives, as the curtain descends. What follows is de trop, and spoils the “Curtain”; but it is certain “For the Cause” will not be played for the last time at Clifton, and it may be the first, but can hardly be the last, acting piece by Mr. Stanley Weyman. JAMES BAKER. * * *-*. BOOK TALK, HIS very day are published the “Family Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti,” edited, with a memoir, by Mr. William Michael Rossetti, brother of the poet. Mr. Rossetti was assisted in the work by suggestions from his sister, the late Christina Rossetti. Messrs Ellis and Elvey are the publishers. Mr. Julian Sturgis has written a story entitled “The Master of Fortune,” for Messrs. Hutchin- son and Co.'s Zeit-Geist series. - Mr. Rider Haggard has written an African tale for the New Year number of the African Review. A volume of short stories, by Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin, entitled “The Village Watch- Tower,” will be issued soon by Messrs. Gay and Bird. Miss Edith Sichel is the author of “The Story of Two Salons,” which is concerned with French social life in the last century, and will be published by Mr. Arnold. A new story from the pen of Mr. W. E. Norris, called “Clarissa Furiosa,” will begin in the January number of the Cornhill Magazine. Sir Edwin Arnold has signed one thousand portraits for the frontispiece of the autograph edition of “The Book of Good Counsels,” which Messrs. W. H. Allen and Co. will publish soon, with drawings by Mr. Gordon Browne. Mr. Locker-Lampson's Memoirs, which Mr. Augustine Birrell is editing, will be entitled “My Confidences,” and the work is expected to be ready at Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.'s early in the coming year. NIr, R. Barry O’Brien, who wrote the notice of Mr. Parnell in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” is now preparing a life of the late Irish leader, and asks those who can to send recollections or documents pertaining to his Caréel". A world tour recently made by the Rev. H. R. Haweis is to result in a two-volume book of “Talk and Travel,” which Messrs. Chatto and Windus will publish. Previously, also, the writer journeyed twice in America, and his impressions ## p. (#522) ################################################ 168 - THE AUTHOR. and experiences then will of course be included in the record. Mr. Oswald Crawfurd has a volume in the press for Chapman's Story Series entitled “The White Feather.” An adventure tale by Mr. Clark Russell will also appear in this series. Mr. Crawfurd has edited a collection of “Lyrical Verse from Elizabeth to Victoria,” a volume of 400 pages, which, like the others, will be pub- lished by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. Dr. Riccardo Stephens, of Edinburgh, has written a novel called “The Cruciform Mark,” which Messrs. Chatto and Windus will publish SOOI] . The Carlyle Centenary, on the 4th inst., will be marked by the opening, for about a month, of an exhibition of pictures, MSS., portraits, &c., at the house, Cheyne-row. Mr. John Morley (whose leisure for literature will be curtailed should his candidature for Montrose be successful) is to preside at a meeting in Chelsea Town Hall on the same day, when the title-deeds of the Carlyle House will be handed over to the fund. A full bibliography of Tennyson was prepared by the late Mr. Richard Herne Shepherd. It is now shortly to be issued to subscribers by Mr. Frank Hollings, 7, Great Turnstile, Holborn, W.C. It is likely that another work of travel by Mr. Henry Norman will be published soon. This will consist of a reprint, with additions, of the long series of letters written to the Daily Chronicle by Mr. Norman during a tour of over two months through the countries (so deeply interesting at the moment) of the Balkan Peninsula. The letters were entitled “Round the Near East,” and discussed alike the rulers and rule of Turkey, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and the rest, and the social characteristics of their peoples and cities. Mr. Sidney Colvin writes to the Athenaeum explaining that “The Great North Road,” the story by Stevenson which appears in the Christ- mas number of the Illustrated London News, was not one of the last undertakings of its author, but belongs rightly to the year 1884. The tale “Weir of Hermiston,” upon which Stevenson was engaged at the time of his death, will appear in the new political review Cosmopolis. An important collection of letters has been brought to light, according to the Glasgow Evening News, in an old Caithness castle. They number several hundreds, including letters by Burns, Scott, Byron, Moore, and Dickens, all addressed to Mr. George Thomson, the distin- guished musical amateur, in connection with his “Miscellany of Scottish Song,” which he was engaged upon at the end of last century. Some of those more closely relating to Burns will be published in the Centenary edition of his Life and Letters, which Mr. Henley and Mr. Henderson are preparing. The publication of the letters as a whole has been allowed exclusively to the Glasgow Evening News. Mr. Elbert Hubbard’s book on “Little Journeys,” to the homes of famous people, will be issued very soon by Messrs. Putnam. The author disclaims giving biographies of the characters or guides to the places, and merely calls the articles outline sketches and impres- sions. Victor Hugo, Shakespeare, Dickens, Carlyle, Dean Swift, Mr. Ruskin, and Mr. Glad- stone are among the subjects of the volume. For the Jowett Memorial at St. Paul’s School over £800 has been subscribed, and a committee is taking tenders for erecting an organ in the Great Hall. “Excursions in Libraria : Retrospective Reviews and Bibliographical Notes,” is the title of a volume by G. H. Powell, which Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen will shortly issue. Some of the chapter headings are: “The Philosophy of Rarity,” “A Shelf of Old Story Books,” “With Rabelais in Rome,” and “The Wit of History.” Mrs. Oliphant's new work, “The Makers of Modern Rome,” will be published by Messrs. Macmillan as a sister volume to her “Makers of Florence.” It is divided into four books— “Honourable Women not a Few,” “The Popes who made the Papacy,” “Lo Popolo and the Tribune of the People,” and “The Popes who made the City.” There will be illustrations by Mr. Joseph Pennell and others. Mr. F. G. Kenyon, of the Department of MSS. at the British Museum, has written a popular textual history of the Bible down to its latest translation in English, with illustrations showing in facsimile the characteristics of the MSS. and the errors of the scribes. Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode are the publishers. In his book on “The Dover Road,” to be pub- lished immediately by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Mr. Charles Harper says that this stretch of seventy-six miles is the most ancient and historic highway in England. This is one of a series of similar volumes by Mr. Harper. Several interesting developments in periodicals fall to be recorded. The Savoy, the new art and literary quarterly, with Mr. Arthur Symons and Mr. Aubrey Beardsley as editors, will appear this month ; and in disclaiming any school its pro- spectus says: “For us all art is good which is good art.” M. F. Ortmans is to be editor of the new monthly international review Cosmopolis. The Arena reduces its price from five to three ## p. (#523) ################################################ THE 169 A UTHOI8. dollars per annum; and the New Budget becomes a monthly instead of a weekly. A new political review, the Progressive, is announced for early in 1896, whose editor will be Mr. William Clarke, M.A. Secondary and higher education will be the field of Cap and Gown, a new weekly journal. Mr. A. D. McCormick, whose spirited drawings were a feature of Sir W. M. Conway's book on his expedition to the Karakorum Himalayas, has himself written and illustrated a narrative of the journey, striking, of course, more a personal than a geographical note. Mr. Unwin will issue the book, which is to be called “An Artist in the Himalayas.” Many old book - plates, including that of Henrietta Louisa Jefferys, Countess of Pomfret, are to be reproduced in “Ladies' Book-Plates,” by Miss Norna Labouchere, the forthcoming volume in the Ex-Libris Series of Messrs. Bell and Sons. Two other works in this series will be “The Decorative Illustration of Books,” by Walter Crane, and “Decorative Heraldry,” by G. W. Eve. Among art volumes announced is one of draw- ings by the well-known American artist, Mr. Charles Dana Gibson, which Mr. Lane will publish. Mr. Paton will follow the subject of Mr. Wedmore's recent book, “Etching in England,” with a volume to be published by the De Montfort Press. Overshadowing all else in the rush of new books during November were the volumes of Matthew Arnold’s “Letters, 1848-1888 ° (Macmillan), and that of Stevenson’s “Wailima Letters” (Methuen). Much of the domestic kindliness of Arnold’s character is brought out ; apart, we glean his opinion of Thackeray as “not a great writer; ” of Carlyle, that Johnson stood “a great deal better;” and of Tennyson, that he was “deficient in intel- lectual power.” Stevenson's letters to his friend, Mr. Sidney Colvin, are charming and very self- revealing. Much of his life may perhaps be interpreted through these two of his sentences: “The world must return some day to the word duty, and be done with the word reward. There are no rewards, and plenty of duties.” A series of open-air books is a new departure which Mr. John Lane is making. It is called the Arcady Library, and the first volume, “Round About a Brighton Coach Office,” by Maude Egerton King, with title-page by Lucy K. Welch, is already due. “Life in Arcady,” by Mr. J. S. Fletcher, will be the second ; then “Scholar Gypsies,” by John Buchan. A German translation of Mrs. Edmonds' “History of a Church Mouse” has been pub- lished in Berlin. The translator is Fräulein Helene Lobedan. “The Romance of Rahere, and other Poems,” by E. Hardingham, and “Drifting through Dreamland,” by T. E. Ruston, are among the new volumes of Verse to be published by Mr. Eliot Stock. Miss Cholmondeley, whose health has never recovered from the severe strain put upon it in writing “Diana Tempest,” will shortly leave England for Madeira, where she is advised to pass the winter, and where it is confidently expected that she will regain complete health. “Diana Tempest” has reached its fifth edition in England and its tenth thousand in America. “A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts,” being a re- issue of the three series of aphoristic poems, cont ibuted by the Rev. Frederick Langbridge to the Sunday at Home, will be published shortly by the Religious Tract Society. Three new volumes of stories are announced for publication by Mr. Elliot Stock. “The Story of the Old Oak Tree, told by himself,” by Thorpe Fancourt ; “The Commandment with Promise,” by Hon. Gertrude Boscawen; and “Tales Told by the Fireside,” by a well-known living poet. “Joseph the Dreamer,” by Robert Bird, author of “Jesus the Carpenter of Nazareth,” has just been published by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. It is a plain Bible story of the life of Joseph paraphrased in such a way that it will appeal without doubt to the children for whom it is intended. “England's Greatest Problem,” by the author of “A Colony of Mercy,” will be published by |Messrs. Bentley and Co., at the price of 58., in the course of next month. Mrs. Katharine S. Macquoid's new novel, “His Last Card,” will be published in a six-shilling volume, by Messrs. Ward and Downey, at the end of this month. •- = -s. LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS. AUTHOR, AGENT, AND PUBLISHER. T. Werner Laurie. Nineteenth Century for November. (See p. 162.) GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. Ernest Newman. Fortnightly Review for December. “EOTHEN '’ AND THE ATHENAEUM CLUB. Blackwood’s Magazine for December. OXFORD IN FACT AND FICTION. zine for December. OxFORD IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Macmillan's Magazine for December. THE HOMES OF THOMAS CARLYLE. II. Young Man for December. TOLSTOI : THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE. Young Man for December. THOMAS CARLYLE. II. Mrs. J. Fyvie Mayo. Leisu, re Howr for December. - Lady Gregory. Blackwood's Maga- Marion Leslie. W. J. Dawson. ## p. (#524) ################################################ I 7o THE AUTHOR. LIVING CRITICS. II. : THEODORE WATTS. Frances Hindes Groome. Bookman for November. A BIT OF GEORGE ELIOT’s Country. John Foster Fraser. Bookman for November. HALL CAINE. R. H. Sherard. Windsor Magazine for November. |FAMOUs POETS. VII. : PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. Charlotte A. Price. CHARLES READE. December. NEW FIGURES IN LITERATURE AND ART. III. : HAMLIN GARLAND. Atlantic Monthty for December. THE PRACTICAL USEs OF POETRY. R. F. Horton, D.D. Swnday Magazine for December. PORTRAITS OF KEATS FROM THE LIFE. Nov. I6. THE CIVIL LIST PENSIONs. Saturday Review for Nov. 9. Belgravia for December. Elsie Rhodes. London Society for Athenaewm for A WORD ON THREE VOLUMEs. Miss Braddon. West- minster Gazette for Nov. 6. Do PUBLIC LIBRARIES SPREAD IDISEASE. Scrutator. Westminster Gazette for Nov. 27. HALL CAINE’s PLEA : THE CASE FOR THE BRITISH AUTHORs. Report of Banquet to Mr. Hall Caine by Toronto Publishers. Toronto Daily Mail and Empire for Oct. 26. (See p. 152.) MEMORIES OF STEVENSON : A Talk with Mr. Charles Baxter. Daily Chronicle for Nov. 20. “HILL-Top Now ELs” AND THE MORALITY OF ART. Spectator for Nov. 23. NOTABLE REVIEWS. Of Stevenson’s “Wailima. Letters.” for Nov. 2. Of Matthew Arnold's Letters, 1848-1888. Nov. 19. Of Mr. William Watson’s “The Father of the Forest and other Poems.” Spectator for Nov. 16. Of Mr. Meredith’s “The Amazing Marriage.” Courtney. Daily Telegraph for Nov. 22. Of Mr. Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure.” Nov. 23. A.T.Q.C. Speaker Times for W. L. Athenoew’m for $ $3. $ # The Spectator article adopts Mr. Grant Allen's term “Hill-Top” as a name for a class of fiction, and is surprised that nobody has had the presence of mind to point out that these books, with their perverse didacticism, are quite as great sinners against the non-moral standard of literature as the old-fashioned goody tale. It sees, however, that the new school, though it will not admit itself wrong, is putting itself in the wrong. The writer discusses pointedly Mr. Hardy and Mr. Allen. But the really interesting question, he says, is whether a novel can be a work of art and not have a sound moral at the heart of it. As to which our contemporary proceeds: Because the moral tale done to order has often succeeded in being dismally inartistic, the idea got abroad—even among religious people—that there is some deep-seated and ineradical hostility between the beauty and truth of art and the beauty and truth of morality; and that to hold and confess the opposite opinion is to announce oneself a fubsy Philistine. Whereas the truth of the matter really is that these inartistic moral tales are inartistic only because the writers of them lack some or all of the gifts that make an artist. It is possible to be very zealous for morality and yet have no imagination, no insight, and no style. This is a truth that no one is ashamed to utter. Why, then, should we be ashamed to say also that it is quite impossible to write a great poem or a great novel without a clear and true perception of the moral and spiritual laws of God, as manifested in the life of the world he has created P If the article on Tolstoi, by Mr. Dawson in the Young Man, were also to cross the reader's eye, he might wonder vaguely if the Russian novelist is pleasing in the sight of the Spectator critic. Mr. Dawson's definition of the true realist is “an artist who sees life steadily, and sees it whole,” whereas most of our so-called realists, he says, do pick and choose:— They choose the vile and abominable, and are as men whose one passion is to pick over a tray of diamonds in order to discover the one flawed stone. They have lost the sense of proportion, and see life out of perspective. But with Tolstoi this rarely or never happens. Being an absolutely sincere man, bent upon depicting life as it really is, he sees life in its true proportion. He does not hesitate to paint evil if it comes in his way, and he paints it with tragic force; but he is always sensible of the widespread goodness, sweetness, and sanity of general life. The Saturday Review on “Civil Pensions” is a protest against the lack of principle in the distribution of the fund. In her article on “Eothen * in Blackwood’s, Lady Gregory recalls the Athenaeum Club of “the days—or nights—of the round table, of which Hayward, Kinglake, Chenery, were the ruling spirits.” *- e- - - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—HISTORICAL FICTION. HERE are probably not many authors in this country who see the Quarterly Bulletin of the Boston Public Library, and it is on this account that I venture to draw the attention of your readers to the interesting chronological index to historical fiction which is being published in the columns of this journal. This index, which includes prose fiction, plays, and poems, catalogues in chronological order all fiction relating to different countries. So far we have been given indexes to the historical fiction of America, England, Scot- land, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. This index would doubtless prove valuable to British novelists, and those portions of it which relate to the British Isles might, if the editor per- mitted, be printed as a supplement to the Author. The publication of this index has suggested to me another which might be of general interest, viz., an “Index of Geographical Fiction.” The com- piler of such a catalogue would take each country ## p. (#525) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I7 I separately, and would classify, under, appropriate divisions, those works of fiction which centre round some particular district, or which deal with life in certain countries. I should be glad to hear opinions as to the worth of such an index. While upon this subject, perhaps you will allow me to refer to another bibliographical subject—the need for some “Encyclopædia of Bibliography ’’ which would give the most important books on all subjects, including perhaps a few of the longest magazine articles. I am aware that there have been published compilations dealing with “the best books,” &c., but these are but tentative attempts to deal with a vast subject. In Chambers’s “Encyclopædia " an attempt has been made in some cases to give a guide to the litera- ture of the subject, but this is very far from supplying the needs of the author, the librarian, the journalist, the professional man, and that mythical person—the general reader. With co- operation an “Encyclopædia of Bibliography ’’ might be compiled, and a publisher found willing to undertake its publication. HERBERT C. FYFE. Albemarle-street, W., Nov. 9. II.-MY INITIALs. Is it allowable to use the Author as a medium for growling P. If so, I ask to be allowed to state my grievance. It was only a few days ago that I found out I had any grievance. My eyes were opened by reading an article in the Nineteenth Century by Mr. T. Werner Laurie, in which it is stated with regard to the foundation of the Society of Authors, that : “The idea of being able for a Small sum per annum to put a few initials after their names, and obtain a sort of license to call themselves authors, tickled many hundreds of amateurs.” I ask then, Where are my initials? Of course everybody likes to have initials and to use them. Mr. Yawkins, the banker in “Little Pedlington,” who could write after his name P.U.K.S., P.Z., and A.L.S.F.O., has always seemed to me much to be envied. Now Mr. Laurie would never have made the above state- ment unless he had certainly known of cases where letters signifying membership of the Society of Authors were used. This consideration makes it but too probable that there is some inner clique, connected with the management of the Society, who revel in secret in alphabetical ornaments. This ought not to be. What is fair for some is fair for all. Let obscure members have their privileges. What are they to put after their names P Should it be the English full-length M.I.S.O.A., or more briefly, the initials of the Latin title, Auctorum Societatis Socius. Anxiously awaiting a reply. ILLITERATUS. III.—AUTHORS AND EDITORs. An author is in the habit of receiving from various editors a payment at the rate of, let us say, 30s. a thousand words. From a second-rate paper he receives a request to write an article at a very much lower rate, say about half. Is he acting fairly by the editors who pay him the higher scale if he does work for another editor at a very much lower rate P Is it not very much like a man who sells brooms, offering one broom to Jones for 6d. and another broom of the same character to Brown for 3; d.? Or may we say that the custom of being paid various rates so largely prevails in journalism that the author would be justified in charging the different fees for his work to different editors? I should very much like to have your editorial opinion upon this point, and perhaps some of the readers of the Author would also favour us with their views on the subject. X. X. X. IV.-Co-operaTION. Might it not be advisable to invite propositions from your readers with a view to co-operation and mutual protection. Someone must commence this, and, however impracticable they may be, I beg to offer some of my own ideas upon the subject, leaving you to publish them or not as you see fit : I. That a central depôt or storehouse should be created for the purpose of keeping and dis- tributing literary work entrusted to it, its methods and appliances being similar to those common to all publishers. The manner of raising the capital necessary is detailed later on. 2. That the manager of the same should be appointed by the directors for the time being, who would exercise a general control, and would pass the periodical balance-sheets, subject to proper audit. 3. That a certain proportion of the directors should be elected by the subscribers of capital in the first instance, and, subsequently—that is to say, after repayment of the capital—that the whole body should be chosen by the literary clients of the said depôt. 4. That the profits of the said depôt should arise from (a) the sale of publications to the trade, (b) the rent of space occupied by the clients storing publications; less (a) expenses of management, &c., (b) the price paid to authors for publications sold, (c) the expense of issuing a ## p. (#526) ################################################ 172 THE A UTHOR. proper trade circular, (d) interest on capital until paid off. g 5. That the profits on publications sold should consist of the difference between a fixed propor- tion of the price of publication payable to the author, and a higher fixed proportion to be claimed from the bookseller, the said fixed pro- portions being common to all the publications placed in the hands of the depôt. 6. That as books are sometimes sold singly at somewhat higher rates than when a quantity are aken, and as the depôt, when applied to directly, would be compelled to demand the full price from private customers, such a profit be called ea traneous, and after payment of interest on capital and management expenses, be divided pro ratd amongst those whose books had been sold during the period in question. Authors would thus receive their proper share of an amount which no publisher now accounts for. In the first instance this extraneous profit might be used to pay off the capital. 7. That if, after repayment of the capital and division of extraneous profits, as above, a system of book-keeping be adopted whereby a further profit is apparent, that this profit be used for repayment of rent for space occupied. If the necessary system of book-keeping were found to be too complicated this rule need not be insisted on. 8. That if, after repayment of rents, there is still a remainder, that this shall be distributed pro ratá to the authors whose books have been sold during the term in question, or shall be carried forward or otherwise used at the discre- tion of the directors. This would account for the whole of the proceeds, all of which would go to the benefit of the authors, but would be sub- ject to the same proviso as paragraph 7. 9. That every author be debited for the cost of advertisements inserted at his request, but not for notices in circulars issued by the depôt. That he also be charged for the actual expenses incurred in the distribution of gratis copies to the Press, &c., and for shipping expenses to foreign countries. Io. That the capital should be raised by subscription amongst those willing to use the depôt, and should in no case bear more than 5 per cent. interest. 11. That the capital should be repaid to the subscribers as soon as possible. The security offered to the finders of capital would lie in the list of names promising work to the company. 12. That after repayment of the capital, the whole profit should be divided amongst the clients. 13. That if more capital were afterwards required to work the business, such capital should be raised by fresh subscriptions, also repayable at the earliest opportunity. Such capital could easily be found, as it would constitute a first charge on a going concern. 14. That as the business would, if wound up after the repayment of its capital, still possess the amount of its original capital intact, the said amount should, after liquidation, be invested as a fund for the benefit of destitute authors, or should be otherwise disposed of as the directors or clients thought fit, or as might be beforehand determined upon. I5. That some of our most successful and best known authors be urged to encourage the formation of such a co-operative company by entrusting it with distribution of some of their work, and, when possible, by providing a portion of the capital. I6. That an experienced manager be secured at a fair and proper remuneration, who would be liable to instant dismissal were he shown to have appropriated printers' discounts to his own use, or to have acted in any other way than as a bona fide agent. By the above scheme it appears to me that all fhe profits must go to the authors, who are themselves able to regulate the price to be paid to them for copies, and the price at which copies are to be sold to the trade. It would not prevent private agreements with publishers, but would give every author a free hand in dictating the terms of such agreements. The expenses of the depôt can be approximately determined beforehand, also the amount of capital required. Except rent and expenses of manage- ment no risks are run by the depôt, which would act merely as an agent. The subscribers of capital would be prevented from subsequently turning the company into a mere money-making machine. If advisable, the depôt might act as the intermediary between the author and printer, charging a fixed percentage for its services. If not thought advisable, the depôt might supply authors with a printed form giving details as to cost of production. Information on this subject might be gleaned from the pages of the Author. Where authors wished for independent opinion before undertaking the risk of publication, the depôt or the Society of Authors might recom- mend a reader to them for this purpose. The Society of Authors provides the required nucleus for some such scheme as the above, and, should its readers formulate something practical, could easily constitute a competent committee to thresh out the preliminary details. In the event of this being done, I beg to sign myself A FUTURE SUBSCRIBER. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 07 (December 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 07 (December 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-12-02-The-Author-6-7 Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/283/1895-11-01-The-Author-6-6.pdf 6765d70b53f0a2fecd0a7e2a09d74878 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) 1895-11-01 Volume 6 Issue 6 Pages Page range in volume 121–148 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18951101 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DUCTED BY WALTER BESAN T. Wol. VI.-No. 6.] NOVEMBER 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. JFor the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are "esponsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *-* → HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances show.ld be crossed Union iBank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *~~ 2–% e- * *-*. WARNINGS AND ADWICE. 1. TYRAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £1 o must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. Yow cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERs.-Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any accownt whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. I2. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS. — Reep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with: business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *~ * ~ * g- > --> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. WERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. - 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the O 2 ## p. (#476) ################################################ I 22 THE AUTHOR. experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. - 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. - 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *-- * ~ * e- * *-*. THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. - 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations proxmptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence : does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray zoostage. -. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department * for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. ~s-A -* ~ *-*. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. Subscription for the year. - The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Awthor should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest. or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P 4. Those who possess the “Cost of Production * are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. ## p. (#477) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 23 Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, 'by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- r- - - FROM THE COMMITTEE. HE Secretary has in hand the preparation of clauses to meet the various points necessary for an agreement in any of the ordinary methods of publishing. Dr. Jurisconsult Ernst Lange, of Zurich, has prepared and presented to the Committee a paper on the “Contracts of Publishing ” in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzer- land. It has been resolved to print this pamphlet uniform with the “Cost of Production.” The best thanks of the Committee were passed to Dr. Lange for this gift. A somewhat interesting case has been before the Com- mittee. It would have been more interesting had it been settled in a court of law by a friendly action. The case is one in which an author’s MS. was accidentally burned while in charge of a publishing firm. Of course this accident entails upon the author a great deal of labour. IHow far are the publishers liable in such a case ? Did they take reasonable precautions in the matter P The case has been settled, one hopes to the satisfaction of both parties. But still the question of what constitutes reasonable precau- tions remains open. An analysis of the “autumn announce- ments,” classified into authors, subjects, and publishers, is presented to readers with this number of the Awthor. The lists used are those of the “Announcement Number’ of the Publishers’ Circular. The omission of four or five firms is due to the fact that they did not appear in the circular.— G. H. THRING, Secretary. LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. WHE visit of Mr. Hall Caine to Canada promises to produce the fruits of concilia- tion and peace. So long as Canada. On her side stuck out stiffly for the right to make her own copyright, even if it brought the whole of Fnglish literature to ruin, and so long as we on our's protested against the iniquity of these claims and the extreme unpleasantness of being ruined in order to bring a temporary flow of dollars into the pockets of a few Canadian printers, nothing could be done. Now that Mr. Hall Caine has gone over as our representative, the matter has a chance of being talked over amicably. He has been very favour- ably received so far, both in the States and in Canada. The following is the latest intelligence : OTTAWA, Oct. 20. The importance of the Canadian copyright question is clearly shown by the fact that the Governments of France, Belgium, and the United States have caused their repre- sentatives in this country to report upon the probable effect of Canadian copyright legislation. Mr. Hall Caine has concluded for the present his business with the Privy Council of the Dominion and has left for Toronto. He will return here about the middle of November. The opinion prevails in official circles that new legislation on the subject of copyright will be introduced into the Dominion Parliament in the coming session. The Premier says that Mr. Hall Caine has presented the case of the British authors in a moderate and diplomatic manner. The serious test, however, will come when he returns to Ottawa to discuss details. Meantime, Mr. Hall Caine is over- whelmed with offers of hospitality. He has accepted an invitation from Canadian publishers at Toronto this week, and from American publishers in New York on Nov. I.-- Times. An important contribution to the subject has been made by Mr. Herbert Spencer in the Times of Oct. 22. After demolishing Sir Charles Tupper's contention about the expressed opinion of certain British authors, he says: And now let me point out an important issue which is entirely ignored. The requirement that, to obtain copy- right in the United States, a book must be manufactured there prevents the writing of many books which would otherwise be written. On works of amusement it does not weigh heavily, but on works of instruction it often weighs with fatal effect—it does not kill them, but it prevents them from being born. Many valuable treatises which men of science wish to write are never written because the losses entailed would be too great. But could writers of grave books have both the English and American markets, while bearing only one cost of production instead of two, many who are now silent would be enabled, without ruining themselves, to give the public such benefits as might result from their knowledge and ideas. That the existing system discourages literature of the kind which most needs encouraging I am able to give conclusive proof. When in 1860, after issuing the prospectus of the series of works which has since occupied me, I had to decide whether or not I might with prudence commence, the prospect of some sale in America finally determined me. Certain arrange- ments were made under which a portion of the edition printed here was sent over, and under which the small circulation to be obtained there, added to the circu- lation to be obtained here, made possible a return sufficient to pay expenses and leave a small surplus. But the possibility of this arrangement depended wholly upon the ability to make the setting up of type here serve for the American market as well as for the English. Notwith- standing this economy, it resulted that inadequate returns obliged me so continually to trench upon what little pro- perty I possessed that, in 1866, I had to issue a notice of discontinuance—a notice which was withdrawn only because certain incidents increased my private resources. Thus it is manifest that had I not obtained a sale in America with- out reprinting there the works which have occupied me since 1860 would never have been written. “So much the better,” many people will say, That may ## p. (#478) ################################################ I 24 THE AUTHOIR. be. I cite this experience not as illustrative of a special result, but as illustrative of a general result. There needs, I think, no further proof that the interdicting clause of the American Copyright Act prevents the publication of many books of the graver kinds which would otherwise be pub- lished. And on the same day the Times thus summed up the case in a leading article: The discussion has not been altogether without effect. The Canadian Government sent a representative, the Deputy Minister of Justice, to this country, who was made acquainted with the claims and wishes of British authors and publishers. In consequence of this mission, it is believed, the Colonial Government have allowed it to be understood that they are not unwilling to introduce certain modifications into the law passed by the Dominion Parlia- ment. In order to follow up this suggestion of compromise, Mr. Hall Caine was deputed by the Incorporated Society of Authors to visit Canada and to place before the politicians of the Dominion the views of his comrades in the world of letters. His reception by the Canadians has been most gratifying, as the telegrams we have published from time to time have shown, and he is himself of opinion that the people of Canada in general do not care for, or at least do not clamour for, the Copyright Bill demanded by half-a- dozen printing firms. But whether any real impression has been produced upon those who hold the strings of legislation is still a matter of doubt. Mr. Hall Caine and others have laid stress on the fact that what is asked for is only that Canada may be deterred from legislating in a manner unfairly affecting the interests of what may be surely called a not unimportant section of the community at home. In Mr. Hall Caine's opinion the case is not hopeless. If the interests of British authors can be protected against piracy, and if the international agreement into which the United States have been brought with so much difficulty is not imperilled, there can be no desire in this country to restrict in the smallest degree the legislative independence of the Canadians in regard to copyright. At the same time it is fair to ask Canada whether it is either wise or just to push her pretensions in this matter to the utmost. If Canada is to have a separate copyright law of her own, every British colony may claim the same power, and this literary par- ticularism, however it may benefit local publishers and printers, can only be injurious—indeed, as Mr. Spencer contends, quite ruinous—to the real producers of books. It would be lamentable if, after a considerable advance had been made towards international copyright, such a check should be given to progress. We trust that the new legislation on this subject, which, it is said, is likely to be brought forward in the coming session at Ottawa, will be governed by larger views than those of a small body of local traders. The following important telegram appeared in the Times of Oct. 26: OTTAwa, Oct. 25. Mr. Hall Caine has been busy this week with the Toronto publishers. He has submitted to them his promised amend- ments to the Canadian Act of 1889, and, although the interested class find it hard to accept them as a whole and have deferred their decision for a few days, they admit that the proposals are much the best of any which have reached them from the outside. Mr. Hall Caine's proposals admit the manufacturing clause, but on terms much more favour- able to the author than the manufacturing clause of the |United States. The Toronto publishers and booksellers entertained Mr. Hall Caine at a banquet at the National Club to-night. Mr. Hall Caine delivered a speech, in the course of which he admitted that the facts of Canada’s geographical position. in relation to the United States, the non-acceptance by the latter Power of the Berne Convention, and the presence in the United States of a manufacturing clause in favour of American printers justified Canada to a certain extent in her demand for a measure of self-control and for a limited right to produce books intended for the Canadian market. He said this guardedly, after reflection, and always with the reservation that all manufacturing clauses were objectionable to authors and that limitation of the principle of copyright was only to be allowed under peculiar and trying conditions. Mr. Hall Caine went on. to say:- As long as the United States keep out of the Berne Con- vention, and as long as they insist on manufacturing their own books, just so long, but not one hour longer, I would, speaking for myself alone, be willing to grant to Canada— divided as she is from the United States only by an imagi- nary border which is easily passed—the right to make her own books under some measure of control on the part of the authors. Given this authors’ control I do not think your Canadian copyright should be any cause of offence to America or should disturb the understanding on which the President made his proclamation. I do not think it ought to be in opposition to the spirit of the Berne Convention, the second article of which seems to provide for just such cases as yours. But everything depends on the measure of . control which you leave to the author, and I must tell you at once that unlimited licensing under the direction of your Government would be entirely inconsistent with the idea of authors’ rights entertained by the signatories of the Berne. Convention. Some form of licensing I, personally, advo- cate for Canada, who is under peculiar difficulties in her present relations to the United States with its right to. manufacture, but it must be single licensing, and must take cognisance of authors’ control. That will not only be best, for us but also best for you—best for you as authors, as readers, and as printers and publishers. It is not for me. now to say more precisely what system of licensing under authors’ control I should urge my brother authors to accept. I have formulated a scheme, which, as you know, I am sub- mitting to your Government, and which I shall propose to my fellow-authors without prejudice. I believe they will consider it fully and fairly, and I have every confidence that your Government will use as much of it as seems sound and wise. II.-CANADIAN WRITERs AND THE COPYRIGHT ACT. A “Canadian Author’’ writes to the Times as follows: In coupling the authors with the publishers of Canada Sir Charles Tupper implies that the interests of the two classes are identical. This shows that one member of the Dominion Cabinet at least is in the dark as to the real bearings of his own Act. The interest of the Canadian author, instead of being, in this matter, identical with that of the printers, whom Sir Charles Tupper honours with the name of publishers, is diametrically opposed to it. Canadian writers would suffer from competition with pirated Works, English or American, just as American authors suffered from competition with pirated ## p. (#479) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 25 English works in the days before international copyright. Publishing, as the Canadian author of any important work other than local must, not in Canada but in England or the Tſnited States, he could not afford to reprint in Canada, a country which has but a limited reading public, for the sake of obtaining Canadian copyright. Canadian writers were not consulted about the Act, nor had they anything to do with it. It was carried by the influence of a few interested individuals or firms through a Parliament not highly qualified to legislate on questions of this kind. Now that the attention of writers in Canada has been called to the matter, all with whom I have had an opportunity of speaking are opposed to the Act. Let there be one copyright for the whole Empire. This is the only satisfactory settlement of the question. Is each colonial dependency to have its own copyright, and Australia six, with practical liberty of piracy all round P In the Canadian Monthly Professor Goldwin Smith deals with the Canadian copyright question as follows: It is time that Canadian writers should pay attention in their own interests to the Canadian Copyright Bill. Hitherto the matter has been in the hands of the publishers or printers, while the writers, who were equally concerned, were not being consulted, and appear hardly to have known what was going on till the controversy about the ratification of the Bill by the Imperial Government arose. The Minister of Justice, speaking at Toronto against Imperial interference with Canadian legislation, coupled Canadian authors with Canadian publishers in a way show- ing that he supposed the interests of the two classes to be identical, and alike opposed to those of their British rivals. This proves that the Minister is himself ill-informed as to the effects of the Bill. It might have occurred to him that the interest of the native producer of literary Wares could not, any more than that of the native producer of any other wares, be identical with that of the importer of the same wares unpaid for, or paid for under their proper price. That the Bill is injurious to British authors and publishers is not denied. The Minister of Justice himself compares it to the protective tariff, which, he admits, is adverse to the British producer. To say nothing of justice or regard for the rights of our fellow-subjects of the Empire, the literary interest of Great Britain is powerful, and largely controls. British opinion through the Press. The same may be said with regard to the same interest in the United States, which is equally threatened by the Bill. It seems hardly worth the while of Canada to provoke two such enmities for the sake of furthering the commercial objects of a few individuals or firms.-The Evening Telegraph, Sept. 30. III.-COI/ONIAI, CoPYRIGHT. By WALTER BESANT. (Reprinted from the Melbowtime Argus.) In dealing with the subject of Colonial Copy- right I must be understood to speak as a man of letters only, and not as a lawyer. I admit, of course, that the law, as it concerns every possible subject, must underlie all other considerations. At the same time I hope to show that there are special considerations, conditions, and facts con- nected with copyright which require it to be treated as a subject for legislation, quite apart from all other branches of trade and industry. At this present moment Canada is endeavouring to effect a change in her copyright law, which fills with dismay everybody concerned with the literature of the English-speaking races. This change is advocated by a small knot of Canadian printers who have succeeded somehow in pulling the political strings. Protests of all kinds have been showered upon the Canadians; deputations of authors and publishers have most vehemently set forth their views, partly to Lord Ripon, from whom little can be expected; partly in the daily papers; papers have been written in the maga. zines; and the case, which includes the whole British Empire, with the United States, against Canada, has been formally drawn up for the Society of Authors by their counsel. By the existing Copyright Acts—those of 1842 and of 1846—the colonies now stand on exactly the same footing as the mother country; that is to say, a book published in Melbourne is pro- tected from piracy as much as a book published in London. Further, by the Berne Convention, which is now joined by all civilised countries in the world, except one, the rights of authors are respected in whatever country he produces his book. Lastly, the United States of America have been induced, after infinite trouble, to grant pro- tection from piracy on the condition of separate printing, within a certain time, in their country. It is not a gracious, but a grudging condition. However, it serves, and it produces much less in- convenience than was anticipated. What this international copyright means, then, is this. A French writer publishing in Paris cannot be re- published or translated, in whole or in part, in London or in New York, without his own consent. Of course, this may mean a very considerable privilege. It would give, for instance, to such great writers as Renan and Victor Hugo, the control over translations which are too often ## p. (#480) ################################################ I 26 THE AUTHOR. slovenly and sometimes misrepresenting ; it would prevent the publication of garbled and imperfect editions; and it would insure them the English, German, and Italian markets, whatever may be their value, in addition to the French market. But the French rights in English-speaking coun- tries are a small matter. Let us consider rather the present position of our own people, the authors of the British Empire, and those gene- rally of the English-speaking race, whether belong- ing to our empire or to the United States of America. First of all, our authors have before them a possible audience which already far surpasses any audience that the world of letters has ever yet commanded. A great poet such as Tennyson, a great novelist such as Dickens, now addresses nearly forty millions in these islands, sixty millions in the States, in Canada five millions, in Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, the Islands, and in India—where the educated Hindoo reads English literature with avidity—another twenty millions at least. This immense audience of a hundred and twenty millions is increasing by leaps and bounds; the child now in the cradle will, if it lives out the natural span, see it increased threefold. To this unprecedented congregation — this boundless audience—the author of the present moment speaks. Compare this audience with that enjoyed by Virgil, who spoke to that very small part of the Roman Empire where Latin was the language of the people; with that of a mediaeval poet such as Chaucer, who spoke to an England of four millions, and those divided up into dialects which were not understood by each other; with that of Shakespeare, when England had no more than five or six millions; with that of Wordsworth, who wrote when America, con- tained three or four millions and when Australia. was not. Or compare this audience with that possessed by the modern Frenchman with thirty- five millions, by the German with his forty millions, by the Dane, the Dutchman, the Italian, or the Swede. There is no comparison. At the present the man with a message to the English-speaking peoples has this wonderful power, never before possessed in anything like the same fulness and the same strength. He prints his book in London and it goes over all the British possessions; he prints it at the same time in New York and it goes over the whole of America. A novel lies before me whose circula- tion in our own country and colonies has already reached the number of 55,000, the sale still going on. If it sells only 30,000 in the States we have a circulation of 85,000. And if we allow only IOO readers to each volume we have an audience for this one writer of eight millions and a half. Do you think an estimate of IOO readers too many P I do not, considering the way in which the book is passed from hand to hand, and is called for at all libraries, free and circulating, and the way in which it is lent from house to house. By the present arrangement, then, the success- ful author may, if he pleases, control the publi- cation of his book, the price, and its appearance. He commands the immense market over the British Empire and the American Republic. He derives from his works an income which places him on a level almost with the successful barrister, and he has stepped out from his previous condi- tion of degrading dependence upon the so-called “generosity' of publishers to that of the master of a considerable estate. In this world we honour —and we rightly honour—the strong, the success- ful, and the rich. We despise the weak, the dependent, and the poor. Therefore literature, which is only now beginning to be wealthy as a profession, has within the last few years stepped forth out of contempt into honour. Understand me. I know that the individual poet, novelist, essayist has always been held in honour. But his profession has always been held in contempt. All this change has been the result of the Imperial Copyright Act, the Berne Convention, and the American International Copyright Act. These measures have thrown open to all of us, whether we belong to Melbourne or New Zealand or Tobago or London, a profession more noble than any other, daily growing more and more in honour, daily growing richer, more envied, and more powerful. So much for the author. What about those who were not authors P What will this common possession of a common literature do for us? First of all, when we honour the profession we honour him who belongs to it. With honour goes authority. The voice of the author begins to assume the tone of authority. We all of us help to make him heard; we look about us to find, if we can, the man with a voice. Already it makes to the reader no difference whether his author speaks from Chicago or from London; to the author, however, it makes all the difference whether he is speaking to a now half-populated state of America or to the world. In the former case he is local and provincial, marrow and limited; in the latter case he is compelled, by the vastness of his audience, to become broad and human. There are already, in fact, two literatures with us—the one, narrow and local, ephemeral and provincial, unknown outside its own limits; the other, boundless as humanity itself. To the latter, for instance, belong, of our own time, ## p. (#481) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 27 Tennyson and Longfellow, Carlyle and Emerson, Thackeray and Dickens. To the other belong most of those who rain down upon us the shower of new books published every month, destined for the greater part to die in the year of their birth; the little poets with their dainty little editions of 250 copies; the little novelists of whoun the libraries take 500 or Iooo; the little essayists, and all the little people whose only merit—but this is considerable—is that they love letters and the literary life, and would fain, if kind heaven permitted, lead that life. Then one objects, “But before the Inter- national and Imperial Copyright Acts, English books got into America, and American books into England.” They did; and now I will show you what is going to happen if the Canadian printers have their unholy way. That is, I will show you what will happen by pointing out what did happen before the passing of these Acts. The true “inwardness '' of the Canadians is that they intend this legalised piracy for the sake of a few printers. Their intention is not to pro- vide their own people with good literature, because that is done already, but to issue cheap reprints of English authors, and to flood the American markets with vilely-printed books at 6d. each. Experience shows that over the long frontier of Canada and America, it is absolutely impossible to keep out pirated books. In the old days, before the International Copyright Act was passed, American pirated editions were openly sold in Canada, nobody interfering. In this country, though to a much less degree, Tauch- nitz editions are imported and sold. The Society of Authors has twice memoralised the Colonial Office to prevent the sale of American pirated reprints in Jamaica, at the Cape, at Singapore, and other places. It requires an amount of watchfulness on the part of Customs and police, which, I suppose, we can hardly expect. At the present moment, however, there are no American pirates and no American pirated editions. The danger is from ourselves, and we are actually memoralising the Colonial Office against acts of piracy threatened by our own fellow subjects. The effects of the old American piracy were these, among others. The pirates brought out their books in the commonest and vilest form at the cheapest possible price. The people bought them in the railway trains, read them, and threw them out of window. Nobody wanted to keep the abominable things. But the abominable things were modern English literature. There- fore, literature came to be considered by the whole American people, except the cultured classes, as a thing of no account or value. Who would wish to keep the works of the greatest WOL, WI. poet, the greatest dramatist, the greatest preacher, in a dirty edition on the vilest paper and in the vilest type P Those who love literature aright like to have their books daintily printed, beauti- fully bound, as becomes a thing which is our most valued and most precious possession. For my own part I hate and detest that kind of cheap literature which dares to present great works in unworthy form. I would rather not have a book at all than have it in such a form. A good book is like a lovely woman—it must be well and tastefully dressed. Literature itself, therefore, was degraded by these detestable editions. People, again, were taught to expect books for nothing. Now, since no other kind of work can be got for nothing, since none of those Americans who bought the dirt cheap books ever thought of working for nothing, it followed, as a matter of course, that the makers of these books became of no more account in the eyes of the mass than the wretched slaves of the sweater—pitied because they are so sweated, despised because they are so helpless. Is this good for literature ? Another of the pernicious effects of piracy—a matural recoil—was the practical starving of American authors. It is not too much to say that until the passing of the Act of 1891 native American literature was, by the very acts of the Americans themselves, starved and stunted. Only those engaged in literature alone—made of it their livelihood—who could not help it. I mean, because the promptings of natural aptitude, or genius, if you like, forced literature upon them, because they could do nothing else. Hardly anyone, therefore, tried to liveby literature. That, it was recognised, was a thing ridiculous and impossible. Journalism helped along some American writers, lecturing some, a professorial chair a good many. Lowell was a professor; Oliver Wendell Holmes was a lecturer; Nathaniel Hawthorne was American Consul in England. What hope was there for the American author when the whole of the English literature could be bought for 6d. a volume * That is now changed; the American author, like his English rival, is assuming independence; he can now meet that English rival face to face on equal terms. “We are both,” he says, “published in the same form and at the same price. Let critics and the public choose between us or take us both.” If both are good let us take both ; there is always room for good work; if one is better than the other let us take the better man without asking whether he is American or English. ! Let us return to the Canadian experiment. I tell you what happened speaking from the year I 995, a distance of time which conveys certain P ## p. (#482) ################################################ I 28 THE AUTHOR. advantages. It enables us, you understand, to speak outside the heat and prejudice of the moment and with due regard to the proportion of things. - “In the year 1895 the Canadians, being still nominally a colony of Great Britain, though in reality independent, passed an Act in favour of a few printers which had very far reaching conse- quences. These consequences, it is necessary to explain, were pointed out at the time as perfectly certain to follow. It was, indeed, easy to pro- phesy that they would follow. By this Act Canadian printers were empowered to reprint any books that were not printed and published in Canada within one month of their appearance elsewhere. There was also a clause granting a royalty of Io per cent.—an iniquitous and paltry royalty—to the author. As Canada was already engaged to pay a royalty of 12% per cent. to the author, and as she had never made any serious attempt to discharge this duty, the new offer was treated with contempt. Indeed, there was never the least attempt to carry out this part of the Act. When it was passed, owing to the miserable weakness of the Colonial Minister, the Canadians made haste to show what had been their intention all along. They published rapidly, at the rate of one volume a week, all the popular writers of the day. These books were on bad paper, with bad type, put together anyhow for cheapness; they were sold at the price of sixpence, and presently they began to appear in all the American towns, on all the American bookstalls, and in all the American trains. Once more, the American people, who for four years had been learning that the acquisition of a good book is like the acqui- sition of any other precious thing—that it wants money—were again taught that the cheapest thing in the world, and therefore the most value- less, was literature. The Canadian printers at first did very well; presently, of course, others rushed into the trade, and competition speedily devoured the profits. But the other colonies now took up the subject. There are printers every- where: and there are people everywhere who would like to get books for nothing, re- gardless of consequences. “Why, it was asked in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, New Zealand, Cape Town, Calcutta, Bombay, ‘should not our printers share in this great busi- ness? Let us have our own Copyright Act. Det us do what we like with foreign authors. We need not pretend to give royalties. We are not obliged to give anything; we will not give. anything.’ So they, too, joined in. And then the Americans saw that there was nothing to be done but to repeal their Copyright Act, and this they did. The first thing, of course, was to crush the Canadian printers, who had done all the mischief. This they effected very easily in a few months by underselling at a loss. So the Canadian printer went bankrupt, and all that Canada got for herself out of her iniquity was the bankruptcy of these printers, a general deter- mination on the part of her people to get books for nothing, and a general contempt for letters. In America the authors saw with dismay the return to the old condition of things; they were once more face to face with a cut throat competi- tion ; the English author could be had for nothing; who would pay the American author anything P In the colonies, each had its own Copyright Act; they were united in one point only—that they would pirate everything. Litera- ture among themselves, therefore, was absolutely killed; the market of the Melbourne publisher, for instance, was bounded by the narrow borders of the State of Victoria. One is not surprised to hear, for instance, that in a very short time the only Melbourne publisher left conducted his business from a hand-barrow. In Great Britain, partly owing to the contempt into which litera- ture fell, and partly causing this contempt, the colonial and American reprints were introduced wholesale and sold without let or hindrance. And so for a whole generation literature fell, being cultivated only by an enthusiast here and there, or by a rich amateur. With the decay of letters set in that other period of decay and decline which belongs to the following chapter of our history.” IV.-ADVERTISEMENTs. Everything that is unknown is enormous. That is why the cost of advertisements generally looms before the imagination as so stupendous. The following table will explain what advertising a book really means. It shows, that is, how much is added to the cost of a book by advertising to the extent of £5, £2O, &c., up to £100 for nooo, 2000, up to 40,000 copies. The figures mean pence : Edition. £5 31 O | 32O || 4:30 350 38o 31 oo d d. d d. d. d. d. IOOO I 1. 2# 4; 7% I 2 | IQ# 24 2OOO 3. I} | .2% 3% 6 9; I 2 3OOO # # I # 2} | 4 || 6% | 8 5000 # ## | # I # 2} | 3}} | 4; IO,OOO #; #; ## ## I} | I }} | .2% 2O,OOO #; #; # #; # ## I} - 3 - ! s t 40,000 Tàu #5 | #: #; | #; ## | # It will be seen from this table that, while the cost of advertising is very large per copy for Small editions, for large editions it may be ## p. (#483) ################################################ TIIE AUTHOR. I 29 almost neglected as for single copies. Thus to spend £100 in advertising a book of which no more than IOOO copies are printed or can be sold, adds 2s. to the cost of every volume; so that (see Cost of Production, p. 3i) if a book of 2O sheets of 34 lines and 339 words to a page in long primer, without moulding or stereotyping, and allowing 4; d. a copy for binding, cost £79, or with corrections about £80, i.e., Is. 7#d. to each copy, an additional 2s. On the production makes such a book published at a loss. Sometimes this price is raised to 7s. 6d., or even more in order to allow for advertising. Sometimes, again, pub- lishers seem perfectly reckless about the money spent in advertising. Thus an account was some time ago sent to the Society showing that about £230 had been spent in advertising a book pub- lished at 7s. 6d., of which some 5000 copies had been sold. A detailed account was demanded and furnished. The account appeared to be quite correct, being examined and tested here and there. It seemed as if the publisher had been ransacking the country to find the least eligible of country papers. This, however, was an extreme case. On the other hand, when a book reaches, say, 10,000 copies, 38 IOO can be spent upon it without adding any more than 23d. to the cost of produc- tion, while with a very large circulation of 40,000 copies 3200 can be spent, if necessary– but it would not be necessary—without adding more than I d. to the cost. It is needless to say that these figures do not include advertisements which cost nothing, i.e., those of the publishers' circulars, magazines, &c., nor those which are simple exchanges. There are, however, several ways in which a loook is advertised. 1. By paying, as considered above, for an adver- tisement in the papers. 2. By the advertisements which cost nothing in the publishers' own organs—these, however, wery often have no circulation to speak of— or by exchange, which, if charged, is a kind of theft. 3. By reviews in the papers. Their influence depends partly on the circulation of the paper and partly on the authority which it commands. From which it is manifest that the daily morning papers are, and must be, the best possible friends that the author can find. 4. By the circulating library lists. 5. By the name and reputation of the author. 6. By the talk of those who read the books and their recommendation of it to each other. There are, of course, other ways. One is sorry to see, for instance, that books are creeping into the big advertisements on railway stations; they have not yet begun in the fields beside the rail- VOL. VI, ways along with the pills; but that will probably come soon when some more enterprising publisher appears. But the best advertisement of a book, the only one which really makes it go, is not the daily paper, nor the weekly paper, nor anything at all, but the talk about it among the people. When therefore an indignant publisher, as has happened once or twice lately, holds up his hands over the awful cost of advertising a book, ask him for a detailed account. And when he speaks of the terrible expense of advertising a book which has really succeeded, say 56,opo copies, make him prove, by audited account, how much the adver- tising cost for every volume sold. W.—A CLAUSE ON ADVERTISEMENTs. The Secretary has received an agreement con- taining a clause to the effect that advertisements of the books in the publisher's own organs shall be charged at half the usual tariff. In the Author for June, 1893, appearel two papers on publishing, written originally for the Pall Mall Gazette by Sir Frederick Pollock, then chairman of committee. The following paragraph formed part of the second paper : I turn to the specific question of payment for advertise- ments. Under a profit-sharing agreement, for half profits, or two-thirds, or as the case may be, this, like other out- goings, is a matter of quasi-partnership account. Only the actual cost, whatever it is, ought to be debited. Therefore, if P. publishes A.’s book on the terms of dividing profits, and the book is advertised in P.'s own magazine, only the cost of paper and print should be charged in respect of that advertisement, and, possibly, some fractional addition for any increased cost of distributing the magazine which may be due to the bulk of advertisements. The same prin- ciple seems to apply to what are called exchange advertise- ments. If Q. advertises P.'s books in return for P. adver- tising Q.'s there is no real outgoing except for the paper . and print. I do not see on what ground any further charge against the book can be justified. In Dec. 1893, ihe committee submitted to counsel certain questions on the practices and rights (ºf publishers. Among them was the following: . - Has the publisher the right under a share-profit agree- ment to charge for advertisements (a) inserted in his own magazines or trade-lists, and (b) inserted in other publishers' magazines by exchange without payment P To this question the following reply was given : . The publisher is, in our opinion, only entitled under such an agreement to charge the actual cost of advertise- ments, whether inserted in his own magazines or trade lists, or those of other publishers. He cannot charge against the author the sum which a stranger would have paid for the insertion of such an advertisement. The actual cost in case (b) would in effect appear to be the actual obst to him of inserting in his own magazine an advertisement in exchange for the advertisement of the work in question in another publisher's magazine. * - * * * * P 2 ## p. (#484) ################################################ I 3O THE AUTHOR. This opinion was signed by Mr. Herbert H. Cozens-Hardy, Q.C., and Mr. James Rolt. It is very much to be desired that we should take a case into court, and try this very important question. It is important for this special reason, that, if a publisher can charge for advertising in his own organs, or for exchanges for which he pays nothing, he has the absolute right to swamp the whole proceeds of the book in such advertise- 7ments. If, therefore, an author signs such a clause as conveys this right, he actually gives the pub- lisher the power of advertising as much as he pleases, as often as he pleases, in his own organs, or, by exchange, in other organs. He may be in his rights, even though he destroys for the author the whole of the profits by advertisements which cost him no more than the price of printing and paper in his own organs. This permission, observe, may be demanded of the author without any clause as to the circulation and influence of his papers. The publisher may, for instance, possess a magazine with a miserable circulation of three or fourthousand at the outside, advertisement in which is practically valueless, and, by means of that little worthless organ, he may take whatever part of the profits that he may please. If the author is willing to grant such a clause let him do so, at least, with his eyes open. Of course, the answer will be that one must trust his publisher. He could not do anything dishonourable. Very likely not. In that case, why ask for the power P - It will, perhaps, be asked how a publisher could possibly swamp the profits by such advertise- ments P In this way. An inside page of advertisements in an ordinary magazine may be put down as worth £5. What is to prevent the publisher from taking up two pages or more with advertisements and press notices of the book? Thus he may charge £Io a number against the book. If he carries this on for twelve numbers, there is £120 taken from profits and put in the publisher's pocket. Very few, indeed, are the books which are worth so much. He will pretend that the advertisements were for the good of the book. In that case, why did he not advertise in a great morning daily which has readers by the hundred thousand P - WI.-A Noble OFFER. A correspondent sends us the following case:– He sent a MS. to a publisher who offered to produce it at the author's cost, and sent an agreement and estimate, as follows: I. The book, which contained I3O,OOO words, would make a volume of 416 pages, demy 8vo. 2. He said that the book would cost—composing, printing, paper, and binding—397 for an edition of 500 copies. 3. He proposed to spend £20 in advertising the book. - 4. He would account to the author for sales at two-thirds of the published price, thirteen as twelve, less his own commission of 20 per cent. And he proposed 16s. as the nominal price. In other words the book would cost the author 29.125 allowing £8.for corrections and extras, i.e., 5s. a volume. But as forty were to be given to the press, and the author would have probably ten, there were only 450 to be sold, and each volume would cost the author 5s. 6;d. He would receive for each copy sold under the proposed arrangement 7s. Io; d. Or, he would have to get rid of 318 copies before he cleared his expenses. Let us see what on his own showing the pub- lisher would get. The reduction of one-third with the thirteen as twelve he would say was for the trade. - For himself there remained the 20 per cent. commission. This, on the most favourable terms, if the whole 450 were sold, would amount to about £35. So far, the terms appear fair enough. But, to look into the agreement a little closer, what about the thirteen as twelve? A book of which a bookseller orders by the dozen, is a popular book. This was not. It is quite certain that very few such orders would be given. The publisher, therefore, puts into his pocket the odd volume; that is to say, he receives Ios. 8d. as a rule for every volume and accounts for as if he had received 9s. Iošd., pretending that they were all gone at thirteen as twelve. This means nearly IOd. a volume added to his gains, or, on the 450 copies, £18 15s. ; bringing up his profits in this secret manner to £53 odd. Again, he wants to spend £20 in advertising the book. Where? In his own organs? He does not say. Supposing that he possesses an organ, and that he can exchange, he may not spend a single penny in honest advertising; or, suppose that he spends 35 in legitimate advertis- ing, he may thus pocket 315. His gains now amount to £68. But there is a grimmer side to this instructive case. The author sent his MS. to a London printer—a large printer of very good standing and repute. His estimate was £67 for composi- tion, printing, paper, and binding. This was a London printer, understand, with a country branch. The publisher's reply was, of course, that he was a very inferior printer. But he was one of the first printers in London. Now, it is simply impossible to believe that the pub- ## p. (#485) ################################################ THE AUTHOIR. I 3 I lisher's estimate was actually £30, or nearly 50 per cent. above the estimate procured by the author. We therefore have the following possible result: 3 s. d. 3 s. d. Profits as set forth in the agreement 35 O O Secret Profits: I. By the “13 as 12 º’claims ...... 18 15 O 2. By the advertisements ......... I5 O O 3. By overcharge of printing ...... 3O O O Total by secret and underhand profits ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 I5 O Total profits............ 398 I5 O It may be said that the whole edition might Inot be sold off. That is true. What, however, is to be said of the system by which the author is hoodwinked into signing agreements by which the results can be made to come out as above P AUTHORS THEIR OWN PUBLISHERS. A PARISIAN ExPERIMENT. Reproduced from the Westminster Gazette with the Editor's permission. in Paris, at 11, Rue d’Ulm, under the title of La Société Libre d’Edition des Gens de Lettres (Authors’ Free Association of Publishing), a society of men of letters, with the object of publishing, without the intermediation of a publisher, approved works of the members. Amongst distinguished members of the Comité de Patronage who have already adhered to this association may be mentioned Alexandre Dumas, Benry Becque, Jules Barbier, Stéphane Mallarmé, Henry Bauêr, and Paul Alexis. The probability of the success of such an association of authors has been often discussed in English literary circles, and many members of the English Society of Authors have proposed to the Committee of that Society that it should undertake the publication at cost price of the works of its members. It accordingly appeared to me that some information as to the organisa- tion and working of this French Association and its prospects of success would be interesting to many readers of the Westminster. This informa- tion has been supplied to me by M. Henri Rainaldy, the emergetic secretary general of the association. It appears that, although the Association has only been in existence two months, already more than one hundred French authors, known and unknown, not including the members of the \ BOUT two months ago there was founded Comité de Patronage, have joined it. The associa- tion is composed of honorary members, subscrib- ing members, and titulary members. The hono- rary members are selected amongst distinguished persons in French society, preference being given to leading lights in the literary world. These form the Committee of Patronage. Subscribing members are those persons who, not being authors themselves, are sufficiently interested in the association and its objects to subscribe a minimum of Io francs per annum to the funds of the society. They do not participate in the privileges of the association, but have their share of such honour and fame as may accrue to it. M. Rainaldy does not mention how many persons in French society —of the Philistines the most Philistine—have shown themselves sufficiently interested in the commercial aspects of literary production to sub- scribe even the minimum to this association. For my part, I should imagine their number to be but a small one. The titulary members, who must justify their claims to be considered men or women of letters, pay an entrance fee of 2 francs and a monthly subscription of 2 francs—that is to say, about 19s. per annum. Every member is entitled to have one book, plaquette, or pamphlet, published by the association and at its cost each year, but not more than one book, plaquette, or pamphlet. The manuscripts of members are sub- mitted to the committee of management, and are read by a Bureau de Lecture formed of members of this committee. It may be noted that no member of the committee of management can publish his works at the expense of the associa- tion. The readers have, consequently, no personal interest to ensue in rejecting the manuscripts of members. The Bureau de Lecture reports once a month on the manuscripts submitted, and such as have appeared to the readers to have a com- mercial value are published by the association, as funds allow and in order of reception. Members whose manuscripts have been rejected by the bureau, or who do not care to submit them to the bureau, can have them published at cost price, The profits on each work, less 25 per cent.— which goes to the funds of the association—are paid over to the author quarterly. “Parisian publishers,” says M. Rainaldy, “pocket from 40 per cent. to 60 per cent. of the profits. That is a state of things that we wish to alter.” The society will not have printing-works of its own. For the production of each work tenders are invited from the French printers. In no case can a sum exceeding one-half of the funds of the association be spent on the production and publication of any one book. On the other hand, the association will not capitalise, and 50 per cent, of its funds will always be available for the ## p. (#486) ################################################ I 32 THE AUTHOR. production of the works of members. “Our funds will keep increasing in proportion to the number of books we publish,” says the enthusi- astic M. Raimaldy, who does not appear to take into consideration the possibility of an error Cn the part of the Bureau de Lecture as to the com- mercial value of a manuscript, and a consequent loss to the association. “Our funds will increase,” he says, “like a snowball. C'est la boule de neige.” He adds, what should interest Sir Walter Besant, who has always contested the publishers' claims for general expenses, or rather the extent of these claims: “Our general expenses are practically nil.” Another of the endeavours of the Société Libre d’Edition will be to force down the price at which novels are published in France. “We intend to reduce the price of books gradually, till we get it down to the acceptable price of two francs.” At present French novels are published at 3 francs 50 cents, that is to say, when the usual discount has been deducted, at 2 francs 75 cents. Of this sum the bookseller gets 25 cents per copy, the remaining 2 francs 50 cents being divided between the publisher and the author. The author's royalty in France varies between 30 cents and I franc a copy. The average royalty paid to men of the standing of Mirbeau, J. K. Rosny, the younger Daudet, Margueritte, Paul Hervieu, and others, is 50 cents. De Goncourt is said to receive 60 cents and Zola I franc per volume. The arrangement seems to suit all parties, and, with all deference to M. Rainaldy and the members of his society, I must say that I have never heard amongst reputable men of letters in Paris any complaints about the system, or about their treatment at the hands Cf the reputable publishers. What complaints there are come from the booksellers, who say, not with- out some justice, that 2%d. is hardly sufficient remuneration to them for their trouble in selling a 3 franc 50 cent book. It is true that, almost without exception, books are delivered to the booksellers in France on the sale or return principle, and that 2; d. is 2}d. One fails to see what margin of profit will remain to be divided amongst authors and publishers in France—the booksellers can be left out of the question, as they will certainly not content themselves with anything less than the 2#d.—if the Société Libre succeeds in forcing the price of books at present published at 3 francs 50 cents down to 2 francs. How could, for instance, a book like Zola's “Debâcle,” a work of over 200,000 words, be produced to be published at 2 francs P , Mr. Hall Caine, in England, is certainly with M. Rainaldy, and hopes to see his books published at the lowest possible prices, relying on immense sales for his adequate remuneration. “I have broken the back of the three-volume novels,” he said to me when I was staying with him in Peel last month, “and now I hope to break the back of the six-shilling volume.” But quod Jovi's est, non bovis est, and authors of the popularity of Hall Caine need not be looked for almongst the members of the Société Libre d’Edition des Gens de Lettres. In connection with this association will be pub- lished a “Revue,” or monthly magazine. “It is not founded yet,” says M. Rainaldy, “and its organisation will take a long time, all the more so because we are up to our necks in work.” This, “Revue” will publish short short stories and other aeuvres de courte haleine by members of the society, and should serve a useful purpose. It is at present almost impossible for an unknown writer in France to find a newspaper or a maga- zine which will publish a nouvelle, or short story, great as is the public appreciation of this form of literary work, even if he abandons all claim for remuneration. The “ring ” of successful writers does exist in Paris; .the same men contribute constantly to such papers as Gil Blas, Le Journal, and L'Echo de Paris; the outsiders have no. chance of obtaining a hearing. The Société Libre d’Edition has already com- menced to work. M. Rainaldy says: “We shall publish two books next month, “La Grande Nuit,” by Henry l’Huissier, and “Quand le tour est joué, a humorous novel by Michel Jicé. Our third and fourth volumes will be the work of one of our best-known living writers—I am not allowed to mention his name at present— and, after that, that is to say, in November and in December, we shall publish some remarkable. works by new writers.” Neither M. l’Huissier nor M. Jicé, the two. members who have benefited first by the organisa- tion of the society, have as yet been able to secure a hearing under the old order of things, nor had they been heard of before. This is proof that, at its outset at least, the Sociéte Libre d’Edition is, working, without fear or favour, on the principles enunciated by its secretary. The experiment will. be watched with interest on both sides of the Channel, both by publishers and men of letters. It may be remarked, in conclusion, that such a society is likely to be of more service to authors, in France than a similar organisation would be. in England, because in France a publisher never publishes the work of unknown men at any risk whatever to himself. Our English publishers, have far more courage and enterprise. ROBERT H. SHERARD. *... a 2-sº r- - - ## p. (#487) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 33 NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Oct. I 5. HAVE already quoted from the interesting series of letters which appeared in the London Times a few weeks ago on literature in America. I do not know who the writer of these letters may be, but I can declare that he displayed a knowledge of the conditions of authorship in America, and of the publishing trade here, quite extraordinary in a foreigner, and rare enough even in a native. To say this is not to say that I agree with all his opinions, of course; but I can say that the British reader may rely on all his statements of facts. Obviously the Times correspondent had taken the trouble to inform himself thoroughly about the American makers of books, in both senses of the words; and he discussed the manufacture of books in the United States quite as sensibly as he considered the writing of books here. It is this solid foundation of knowledge which is wanting in most British criticism of American affairs. In a recent number of a London monthly called the Bookman, for example, there was a paragraph which was a masterpiece of complacent ignorance. It declared that the American publishing trade had been “slow to feel the modern movement for better type and comelier binding, but of late the De Winne Press and the University Press have been turning out very handsome text; and in the last year a new firm, Messrs. Copeland and Day, have been getting up their works with a kind of binding and ornament we are more accustomed to in England. Their artists are as yet a little timid and imitative, and one wonders what Mr. Morris thinks of their edition of ‘The House of Life,” which gives us for some two dollars a very charming imitation of a * Kelmscott Press' work, with the same rich elaborate borders and initial letters, and the same heavy black type. It may be said that the mediaeval workmen copied their masters in much the same fashion, and that a part of the merit of conventional design is that its forms and sug- gestions are passed on from epoch to epoch, work- man to workman. The same publishers' edition of Father Tabb's poems takes a suggestion from the cover design of Mr. John Gray’s “Silver- points,’ and their ‘Robert Louis Stevenson: ’ a study, follows more closely the title-page of Mr. Horner’s “Diversi Colores,’ and for so much of “American piracy’ one can be grateful without turning Socialist and having all things in common, for it has given us two charming books the more.” This mention of the University Press, which is a printing house only and not a bindery, with no mention of the Riverside Press, where every indeed. process of book manufacture is carried on with the widest resources and the utmost skill, reveals how very slight indeed is the Bookman's ac- quaintance with the facts. The Times corre- spondent showed his knowledge of the situation when he declared that “the art of embellishing books receives more attention in the United States than it does here. More care is taken with the outward appearance, and questions of paper, print, binding, and illustration are more studied.” So true is this that the New York representative of a very important London pub- lishing house confessed to me not long ago that he was not a little ashamed of the make-up of many of the books sent him by the home firm, as they were so inferior in appearance to works of the same high class manufactured in America. The Times correspondent was quite right in saying that “the comparative excellence of British and American printing is a subject upon which very various opinions are held. Examples of the very finest work could probably be selected from offices on both sides of the Atlantic, of which it could only be said that they could not be improved upon.” For example, different as they are in many respects, there is very little to choose between the new complete edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's works printed in Edinburgh and published in London, and the new complete edition of Edgar Allen Poe's works printed in Boston and published in Chicago. In both of these sumptuous sets of seemly tomes there is the most tasteful harmony of paper and type and ink. Both of them do the highest credit to their producers. I agree with the Times correspondent in thinking that perhaps the average of book-printing is higher in Great Britain than in the United States, and for the reason he suggests, that as labour is cheaper in England than in America more time can be spent in the delicate task of “making ready.” Probably the most exquisite printing yet accomplished in America is that of the De Winne Press, due to the loving care and profound tech- nical skill of Mr. Thomas I. De Winne, a devoted student of the history of his craft. To Mr. De Winne is to be ascribed the marvellous printing of the woodcuts and process blocks used in the Century Magazine, which other magazines may envy and imitate, but which none have yet been able to equal. To Mr. De Winne's taste in great measure is due the very beautiful page of the “Century Dictionary,” and as we all know, the page of the ordinary dictionary is very ugly Mr. De Winne has always loyally seconded every effort of the artistic staff of the Century Company whether the thing under dis- cussion was a magazine, a dictionary, or an ## p. (#488) ################################################ I 34 THE AUTHOIR. ordinary book. The Century Company is solici- tous rot only about its printing, but also about its binding; and its secretary, Mr. Chichester, takes endless pains with the cover designs. It would greatly surprise the old-fashioned publish- ing-houses of Paternoster-row if they knew the large annual sum which this single American firm paid out to decorative artists for cover stamps. And this outlay is greater than it seems, for I have more than once been told that a cover-design accepted and paid for has been discarded in favour of another which seemed more appropriate. Only a writer having very slight knowledge of American publishing houses would single out for special praise the new, and unimportant, firm of Copeland and Day, who have so far done little more than imitate certain of the freakish fashions, and doubtful fantasticalities, of recent London bookmaking. The house which holds a position of undisputed preeminence in America as manu- facturers of books is Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., who do their own printing and binding at the River- side Press. The firm of Houghton, Mifflin and Co. is the successor of Houghton, Osgood, and Co., which was the result of a union between Burd and Houghton, on the one hand, and J. R. Osgood and Co. on the other. J. R. Osgood and Co. was the successor of Fields, Osgood, and Co., and of Ticknor and Fields, which had absorbed the business of Phillips, Sampson, and Co. The books published a quarter of a century ago by James R. Osgood were no better in appearance than the average; but the books now published by Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. have unfailing dis- tinction and grace, to be ascribed, I believe, mainly to the delicate taste and the tireless atten- tion of Mr. George H. Mifflin. It is due, I think, largely to the elevating influence of the Riverside Press that the standard of bookmaking is so high in the United States. Equally potent was the founding of the Grolier Club in New York ten years ago, to afford a centre of communication between book-lovers and book-makers, between bibliophiles and collectors on the one hand, and, on the other, printers, engravers, decorators, paper-makers, and type-founders. The old house of Little, Brown, and Co. always succeeded in giving solidity and dignity to the volumes bearing their imprint. Of late not a few of the books sent forth by Dod, Mead and Co., have been worthy of praise. Mr. Marvin is responsible for the manufacture of the volumes issued by Charles Scribner's Sons, and he has been often very happy in the cover-designs he has employed. Harper and Brothers now give far greater attention to the decoration of their books than was formerly the case, and often with conspicuous success; among the volumes the have sent forth to delight fastidious book-lovers may be mentioned the series of books illustrated by Mr. E. A. Abbey and Mr. Alfred Parsons, the elaborately adorned edition of the “Cloister and the Hearth” of two or three years ago, and the delicately decorated “Wignettes of Mahattan” of last year, with Mr. W. T. Smedley's satisfying illustrations. The new house of Stone and Rimball in Chicago is also doing its best to make books beautiful, Mr. Herbert L. Stone taking this department under his own care. His chief triumph so far is the edition of Poe, which I have already mentioned. - The correspondent of the Times singled out for praise a complete edition of Charles Lever’s tales issued by Little, Brown, and Co., but this is only one of many similar series published within the past ten or fifteen years by different houses in New York and Boston. Little, Brown, and Co. are also responsible for complete editions, in English, of Victor Hugo's romances, and for editions (not complete, of course, but containing a score or more of volumes) of the romances of the elder Dumas. These were all illustrated adequately. In like manner Dodd, Mead, and Co. made sets of Anthony Trollope’s “Chronicles of Barset ’’ (published in London by different firms and in different forms) and of his Parlia- mentary novels—the “Phineas Finn " series. These books are well made, and they are intended for the private libraries of the well-to-do, who like to own full sets of standard authors. As a rule they are sold only in sets, and the usual price is about two dollars a volume, say 8s. I need not say that Hugo and Dumas, Lever and Trollope were thus honoured only after the market had been supplied by Thackeray and Dickens, by George Eliot and Hawthorne. By the sudden death of H. H. Boyesen, Columbia College loses one of its best known professors, and New York one of its most inter- esting figures. Professor Boyesen was a Norse- man who wrote most vigorous English, and who translated American life and character into novels of vehement realism. He had the courage of his convictions, and he broke many a lance with Mr. Andrew Lang, who still defends literary forms that seemed to Boyesen hopelessly out of date. H. R. $n e: ## p. (#489) ################################################ THE AUTHIOIR. I 35 THE GERMAN AUTHORS’ SOCIETY. HE Association of German Authors (Die Deutsche Schriftsteller-Genossenschaft) is a limited liability association, i.e., each member's liability amounts to £2 10s. at the most. It was founded in Berlin in October, 1891, and so well has it prospered that in June, 1895, it numbered already 650 members. The great object they propose to themselves, and which they keep steadily in view, is to elevate German authors and journalists to a better social and financial position. To attain this purpose several depart- ments have been established, each designed to help literary men in one particular kind of trouble; pecuniary and judicial aid can be obtained here by the members of the association, and not only these, but all members of the pro- fession are assisted in their dealings with editors, publishers, or managers of theatres. First there is the banking department. It receives payments for the members, attends to the drawing in of money due, and makes advances on such, or grants credit on sufficient security. At another department judicial advice and information is obtained relating to all affairs of the profession, cases of dispute are settled by arbitration, and, if necessary, lawsuits are insti- tuted. Then there is the literary bureau, where novels and novelettes in manuscript or in print can be handed in, and help is given towards their publication or their appearance in a daily paper or magazine. The dramatic agency represents dramatic authors, and maintains their rights in all their relations with the theatres. A further department acquaints journalists in want of employment with the vacancies that occur. Besides, the association undertakes the publica- tion and sale of literary works, and effects the purchase of all publications that are desired, so that it carries on the functions of a publisher as well as those of a bookseller. A fortnightly magazine, The Right of the Pen, most ably edited by Herr Martin Hildebrandt, is published by the association to uphold its interests and those of all German authors and journalists. It is forwarded gratis to the members. Only persons engaged in literary or journalistic work are admitted as members. A person desiring to become one has to send in a declaration on a given form to the presidents (Martin Hildebrandt and M. von Reymond), expressing his unqualified concurrence in all the statutes of the association. This is published in the organ of the society, and four weeks later he is received a member, after payment of a fee of admission of 5s. The share of every member amounts to £2 Ios., of which, if the whole sum is not paid in, at least one-tenth must be paid at once, whilst the rest can be paid in monthly instalments of at least 2s. To this amount, as I have said before, every member is liable for the association. For mem- bers who have obtained more than one share, the liability rises in proportion to the number of shares they have taken, i.e., a member's liability increases to £5 if he owns two shares, and so on. If a person wishes to cease being a member, he must give notice to the presidents of the association one year before the resignation takes place. For members living in Berlin or visiting there, and also for persons not members of the society, a club was founded by the association, which is open from Io a.m. to about 2 a.m. It was founded to promote unconstrained social intercourse among authors, journalists, artists, men of science, and other men in public life. The club is managed by a committee of five, of whom three are elected every year in the general meeting of the associa- tion from those club-members who are also members of the association. These three, within a week, have to call the yearly general meeting of the club, and in that the two other members of the committee are elected. Then a chairman is chosen, and notice is given to the presidents of the association of the fact. The committee has to maintain order in the club-rooms; it has to receive and to exclude members, to keep up the business communication with the presidents of the association, and to set down the regulations for the use of the arrangements of the club. To become a member of the club one has to send in a notice to the presidents of the associa- tion on a given form, expressing one's wish, and promising to strictly follow club rules and regu- lations; and this must be supported by two members of the club. Then the committee makes the names of the candidate and his two supporters known by hanging up a notice giving their names for four weeks in the club, and, besides, they are published in the The Right of the Pen, the organ of the association. The candidate can be admitted only in the presence of at least three of the members of the committee, and the admis- sion must at once be notified to the association. In case of admission being refused the candidate can appeal to the committee for a resumption of the proceedings, but this must be done within a fortnight. - The fees, which can be paid annually or quarterly, are very moderate. For members of the association, of the Union of German Authors (Der Deutsche Schriftstellerverban), of the Berlin Press Union (Verein Berliner Presse), and of the Literary Society (die Litterarische Geseltschorft), ## p. (#490) ################################################ 136 TIIE AUTHOIR. they amount to I 2s. a year; for persons that are not members of any one of the societies men- tioned, they are now £1 4s. annually. These latter also have to pay an extra fee of admission of IOS. The membership runs one year, and, unless notice to the contrary is given, is silently regarded as continued for another year every 30th of June. If anyone wishes to resign, he must give notice to that effect to the presidents of the association, in a registered letter, at least three months' before the 30th of June, on which day the business season of the association closes. Exclusion takes place if a member acts in a manner unbecoming a gentleman, and is made known to the person in question by a vote from the presidents. An eventual appeal must be lodged with the committee within a fortnight, and, till the final decision, the membership is regarded as suspended. At present the club occupies five pretty, taste- fully-decorated rooms on the first fioor of Kronen- strasse 61, in the best quarter of Berlin, in which house are also the offices of the association. The library and reading-room contains about 5oo papers and magazines of all descriptions and from all countries. Refreshments can be had at any time between Io a.m. and 2 a.m., but are not served in the reading-room, where also smoking is not permitted. Neither is it allowed to make cuttings from the papers, or to take magazines and books away. Only members in possession of members' cards are admitted. They are allowed to introduce guests three times, but if a guest comes oftener he is regarded as having become a candidate for the club. The ladies of members are also allowed to visit the rooms. Dinners are given now and then, and every year a great feast is held under the auspices of the association for some benevo- lent fund ; in the winter a ball is given. The principal object, however, is to provide a place of meeting free from social restraint, where men can stroll in and out just as they please, and that this has been successfully attained, no one can doubt that has even been in the rooms. The most interesting evenings are those after a “first night,” when the critics congregate, and one can hear the sharpest tongues of Berlin give judg- ment for or against the new piece. Among the members of the association are a good many ladies, but lady visitors are not so pro- minent in Germany as in England, nor are they so numerous, and though, e.g., Olga Wohlbrück and Elsa von Schabelsky are well known enough here, I doubt that English readers have ever heard of them. Some of the best names, how- ever, of present German literature are to be found in the members’ list. For instance, Ernest von Wildenbruch, the poet, dramatist, and novelist; Hermann Sudermann, whose novels and dramas are acknowledged to be among the best our time has produced; and the veteran novelist, Friedrich Speilhen. Among others I may men- tion Oscar Blumenthal, owner and manager of the Lessing Theatre, the adapter of many English. plays; Max Halbe, whose drama “Youth " (Die Jugend) had a run of over a hundred nights. here; Maximilian Harden, founder and editor of the Future (Die Zukunft), a weekly publicaions, the best German journalist of the day; Gutavet, Kadelburg, the successful actor and playright; Carl Bleihtren, John Henry Mackay, Alexander von Roberts, Georg von Ompteda, Wilhelm von Polenz, and many others. Most of these are members of the club as well as of the association. Among the members of the club only I may mention C. A. Raida, the conductor and com- poser, some of whose compositions are well. known in England; R. Alexander, the great comic actor; and G. Tielscher, who created the part of “Charlie's Aunt” here. I could name a good many others who have made their mark in the world, but the names given show sufficiently that the association and its club are a great success. Berlin. CLARENCE SHERWOOD. *- ~ *-*. NOTES AND NEWS. HE death of Mr. Henry Reeve, C.B., which took place on Monday, October 21st, at the ripe age of eighty-two, removes from our lists one of our oldest and one of our most distin- guished members. Mr. Reeve joined the Society as a vice-president at its foundation eleven years. ago, and has remained a subscribing member down to the present year. He was not able to assist the Society by taking the chair at any of our meetings, but he always took an interest in our proceedings and sympathised with our methods and policy. At the outset of the Society it was a great thing for us to receive the adhesion of so distinguished a member of the world of letters as the editor of the Edinburgh Review. He is principally known by his “Greville Memoirs.” He also published a translation of Guizot's “Life of Washington” and a series of essays on “Royal and Republican France,” and in 1869 he received from the University of Oxford the degree of D.C.L. He was a companion of the Bath and commander of the Royal Military Order of Portugal. *-- sº-º-º- ºr noticed the Authors’ It has advanced so far We have not yet Journal of New York. ## p. (#491) ################################################ TIIB A UTIIOIR. I 37 as the third number of the second volume. The number for October, 1895, contains a paper by Mr. Charles Burr Todd on “Authors’ Societies and their Work; ” another on the Syndicate System ; a “white list” of editors, i.e. a list of journals in which the contributor is always paid : a good Quantity of ‘l’ersonal’ papers and experiences: Questions and answers; and more personal notes.” There is also a list of current literary articles. It is a practical and useful paper: it lacks, how- ever, the element which is always found in the fore-front in these pages—the figures and the meaning of the figures. There is also a delightful column of Authors’ own advertisements: “An observer upon the manners of the school girl would like to contribute to something.” “A joke-carpenter and all-round funny man offers his devices.” Another “would do valentines or adv'ing verse. Nothing makes so effective an ad.” “Publishers should send for the crisp, fetching, irresistible things that I write.” “Short, crisp, breezy sketches of life in wealthy, wonderful, wicked New York.” “Entirely new and original plots furnished by a well-known author who has not time to work them up.” With many more equally pleasant and suggestive. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in the Times of Sept. 2 I, paid a tribute of recognition to the services of the late Professor E. L. Youmans, which should be copied in these columns. The New York correspondent of the Times, in speaking of the publishing house of Appleton and Co., a house which has done a great deal for literature in the United States, mentioned the fact that they were the first to introduce authorised editions of Herbert Spencer, Tyndall, Huxley, and Darwin to the American public, and that also originated the well known International Scientific series. Mr. Herbert Spencer thus writes: - While recognising the indebtedness of English men of science to the house of Messrs. Appleton, justice requires me to say that the “debt of gratitude ’’ is in chief measure owed to my late friend Professor E. L. Youmans. The soundness of his judgment having been proved to them by experience, the Messrs. Appleton adopted to a large extent the suggestions made by him respecting English works to be republished. It was at his instigation that they under- took the publication of my works, the works of Tyndall, Huxley, and Darwin, and the works of various other scientific men. He was deeply desirous of obtaining for English authors a due share of the profits resulting from the sales of their books in America, and his desire met with a proper response from the Messrs. Appleton. How far the remunerative terms given to English authors must be ascribed to his negotiations and how far to the equitable feeling of Messrs. Appleton, it is of course impossible to Say; but my own correspondence with him enables me to testify that his unceasing effort was to maintain authors’ interests. For a period of thirty years, during which wounded vanity. English works had no copyright in America, arrangements initiated about 1860 gave to English authors who published with the Messrs. Appleton profits comparable to, if not identical with, those of American authors. To the Messrs. Appleton great credit must be accorded for having loyally carried out these arrangements in my own case and in the cases of various of my friends, and I believe, in all other cases; but I cannot permit the part taken by Professor Youmans in the matter to be ignored. To him, more than to any other American, the gratitude of English authors is due. Let me also correct the statement of your correspondent respecting the International Scientific series. This was not. “originated ” by the Messrs. Appleton, but by Professor Youmans. Further, he was the originator of the Popwlan" Science Monthly, for many years edited by him and now edited by his younger brother. We have published one or two letters on privately publishing a book. I do not suppose that many will try this plan, but it is certainly far better and more economical than paying a publisher for producing it. For instance, there is the person who replies to the author of a MS. that “his reader has reported so favourably on the work that he is disposed to offer the follow- ing exceptional terms: The author to pay £IOO ; if he will not, then 38o; if not 380, then 360 ; and so on.” That person must make his profit out of the transaction; it is not for doing so that one blames him. The author, however, can save that profit by printing the book himself. One correspondent has recently asked how an author is to introduce the book to the public. Well, there is but one way. He must send the book round to the Press; he must advertise it; he must offer it to the trade. The publisher can do no more. Probably the author would not make much of a success with his book; but if it is a good book, and one wanted by the public, he would, perhaps, do quite as well with it in this. way as in any other. If it is a bad book, he would do no better with a publisher than without. The best advice we can offer to an aspiring author is the old advice: If publisher after publisher refuses your MS. put it away for a while ; after a year or two read it again, and you will probably understand why it was refused. Never, never, never, pay for producing what publishers refuse. This advice is quite useless, and wasted, and thrown away. No candidate for the honours of authorship can be made to believe that his MS. is worthless. All I want, he says, is a chance. Produce me, give me to the public, on any terms. I will pay anything—only produce me. He is. produced, and the wounds of that bleeding purse can no more be healed than the agonies of I have before me a little collection of stories. published on the method indicated above. It is ## p. (#492) ################################################ 138 TIIL. A UTHOIR. a very little book in large print : the stories are wretched: the writer has no knowledge at all of the art : not the least: she is too young to have any experience of the world: she is not dramatic : she has neither imagination nor style—not one single thing to qualify her for writing fiction. She paid £40 in advance: she was told that she would not be liable for any further payment “in respect of the paper and materials for producing the book.” The book would probably cost about £20, for of course very few copies would be bound. There was a further clause stating that the money expended in advertising would be taken from the sales of the book. Well: the first thing that this honourable publisher did was to send a demand for £5 for advertising the book ; this was sent ; as an afterthought, a demand for money for corrections; this was sent; then a second demand for another £5 for adver- tisements; this was refused. Nothing more has been heard about the book at all. Of course, if people are so foolish as to accept such offers they only have themselves to blame. It is an old, old Story. The acumen of the country solicitor in such business as ours is very remarkable. A case was brought to me privately; one of the very common type, like that quoted above, in which an unfortunate aspirant agrees to pay a sum of money which he is led to believe will constitute his sole liability for the production of what is humorously called a Work. The said Work did not possess the smallest chance of any kind of success—a thing which the publisher's reader, if it was read, ought to have known perfectly well. However, the book was printed, and then more claims came in. And equally, of course, no sales. I told the victim that if he would send me all the papers I would give them to the secretary of the Society of Authors, who is a solicitor, and would obtain from him an opinion at least ; perhaps, also, such action on the part of the Society as would make the creature disgorge. Meantime the victim had referred the matter to his solicitor, who wrote to me that, if any action were taken, this publisher “would have sufficient influence with the newspaper critics to get any future book issued by other publishers damned.” That is the exalted opinion of our critics by a country solicitor On a previous occasion a certain country solicitor asked a man of letters in London for his advice con- cerning a certain little technical book he had recently published on his own account. The man of letters advised him to send copies to all the papers, and to advertise it in certain papers which would be most likely to bring his book before the people for whom it was intended. It appeared, however, that what this writer wished for was advice as to some secret and underhand way of squaring the Press, as with a “four” of gin—a thing which he assumed to be constantly done and easily managed. Therefore he went about showing the letter of advice to his friends. “There !” he cried, “I’ve known this man for forty years and this is all he will do for me!” In the first of these two cases there was another point. The victim was charged about double the actual cost of production. The country solicitor states, as from his own wide experience and know- ledge, that the cost of production was certainly quite equal to that charged. The number of magazines and journals of which the contents are almost altogether, or wholly, devoted to fiction, is bewildering. A new venture is promised to begin this month with the opening chapters of eight new novels. Heavens ! Imagine the simultaneous swallowing of eight opening chapters, and then waiting for a week for the next eight second chapters It seems like taking eight dinners in so many weeks— the eight soups first week, the eight fish the next week, and so on. One would like statistics, if they could be obtained, showing the number of novels actually running at any moment. Thus, there are the monthly magazines, the great illustrated weeklies, the weekly news- papers, the weekly journals, such as Chambers's, and so forth—those that appeal to a large audience; those that are nothing but a weekly story. If we could only obtain these statistics we should understand for the first time how enormous is the mass of those who read stories as their principal form of recreation. One is not talking here of critical readers, but simply of readers—boys and girls, working lads and factory girls, domestic servants, clerks, shop girls, and so on upwards, all reading, all buying their weekly pennyworth, all revelling in the woes, and the joys, and the anxieties of other people which make them forget their own. Bere is a curious illustration of the decline and fall of a great name, and of its subsequent revival. I have the story from the publishers of the novelist in question. For the last ten years this novelist has been suffering from eclipse partial to eclipse almost complete. Year after year the demand for his books went down, down, down—it seemed at last as if it was a matter of only a year or two before he would be quite for- gotten. Then a new edition of two of his books ## p. (#493) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 39 was produced. Suddenly, his name revived; the demand increased daily. Within three months more than 15O,OOO copieg of each of these two new editions have gone off. If we may measure by numbers, the popularity of this writer is still far greater than that of any living man or woman— not counting Du Maurier, with his “Trilby,” in the States. The name of the novelist is Charles Reade; the two books are “The Cloister and the BHearth’’ and “It’s Never Too Late to Mend.” Why is Charles Reade so popular? Because he is dramatic ; because he is full of humanity, and heart, and sympathy. Produce a book, my hero of half-a-dozen failures, with these qualities, and you, too, shall win the love of the world. A correspondent (p. 147) points out that Mr. Rudyard Kipling in his earlier Indian stories adopted the dialogue or dramatic form of telling his story. This is quite true, and I ought to have remembered the fact; and I owe every apology to Mr. Rudyard Kipling for not remembering that fact. There is no living person who has a greater respect than myself for the genius of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, many of whose stories are, Ithink, simply unequalled by anything in our language, so that I am all the more vexed that I should be suspected of doing him an injustice. It appears to me, however, that the adoption of the dramatic form by Miss Violet Hunt and Mr. Anthony Hope is due rather to French influence than to imitation of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, whose methods and treatment neither of these writers appears to me to follow. However, where we find attractive or charming work it makes very little difference where the form in which it is cast was originally invented or by whom it was suggested. The dialogue story has, I believe, “come to stay.” WALTER BESANT. *~ * –e - -, ON SENDING OUT BOOKS FOR REVIEW. T is stated in the Daily Chronicle that a novelist—Miss Marie Correlli—is about to discontinue the practice of sending out her books for review. This statement leads one to consider the utility of the present custom. First of all, it is notorious that, while authors of all kinds are continually grumbling against their reviewers, neither authors nor publishers cease to send their books for review. Obviously, there- fore, the advantages of the present system out- weigh the disadvantages, otherwise the books would no longer be sent. The press copies, if one considers what they mean, amount to a pretty heavy tax; they amount to about forty copies of every new book. Taking our usual unit of a six-shilling volume, this means a tax of about £7 on every work, if we suppose that these press copies would otherwise be taken by the trade. In addition, of course, all the principal papers receive advertisements of the book. There seems. a tacit understanding that the books shall be advertised in the papers which receive the copies —a thing which seems only fair. For publicity is. absolutely necessary for a book on its first appearance. The papers give it a certain pub- licity in their advertising columns; but an adver- tisement, unless the writer is very well-known, is of very little help compared with a favourable review. In the hope of obtaining such a favourable review the book is always sent, and literature has this enormous advantage over every other marketable production—that it can look to receive, as nothing else can, what purports to be an open and un- biassed opinion from a competent person who honestly reads the book before he reviews it. Again, the lift that a favourable review can give a book depends very much on the circulation of the paper, and on the weight and authority of its judgments. Everybody knows that a favourable opinion appearing in any one of the great morn- ing papers is simply invaluable to a book. There- fore, unless these papers—which is not likely— lose their weight, or are allowed to become, like some existing organs, the channels for personal venom or incompetence, they will certainly con- tinue to receive books for review. And, just as, at present, those writers who are neglected, or treated with harshness, will continue to grumble. But when authors take over the advertising of their books into their own hands, which will certainly be one of the reforms of the future, a change will take place as to indiscriminate adver- tising in papers which pay no regard to the character of the reviews. A journal which allows blackguard reviews, venomous reviews, and the introduction of personal enmities, will certainly cease to receive either advertisements of books or books to review. We consent to the heavy tax on the understanding of fair play : that is to say, there is an unwritten compact that every book. reviewed shall be honestly read—not that every book sent shall be reviewed ; and that the reviewer shall be a competent and large-minded person. Where this is not the case there can be no earthly use in sending the volumes, and there can be no desire to do what is possible in main- taining the paper by way of advertisements. On several occasions in these columns attention has been drawn to the reviews of books in batches, in paragraphs of eight or ten lines each. This practice, as carried out in some papers, seems little. ## p. (#494) ################################################ I4O TIIE AUTHOIR. short of a breach of faith. For it is impossible to pass a judgment, that is, a critical judgment, with reasons, in a short paragraph. Further, if one considers what is paid for such a batch of notices, it is manifestly impossible for the reviewer to read all, or, indeed, any of the books. For instance, there are, or have been, cases in which a column of so-called reviews, despatching a dozen novels, is paid for at one guinea, the column. To read and to pronounce a competent judgment on twelve novels would require at the very least six days. Can the reviewer live and pay his rent and dress his wife and family on a guinea for six days’ work—this is, fifty-two guineas a year? The thing is absurd. There are, then, to repeat, four things that authors and publishers have a right to demand in exchange for the book and the advertisement: (1) that the reviewer shall honestly read the book which he under- takes to review; (2) that the reviewer shall 'be competent for the task he undertakes; (3) that the reviewer shall not be allowed to introduce personal animosities; and (4) that the book shall not be jumbled up in a batch. If there is no reasonable security that these four points are not safeguarded by the editor, why should we give a journal either advertisements or books? Further, there is another consideration which must be taken into account. Every paper which shovels its books together, by doing so, loses the whole of its literary authority. No notice of a book carries with it either weight or authority where the book appears as one of a batch. This treatment simply destroys the critical character of the paper. For, to the outside world it appears self-evident that the books of a batch must be all of slight importance; and by the critical world it is perfectly well understood that books so noticed cannot possibly be read, because there is no time for reading them. The author, for his part, humbly feels that if he is worth noticing at all he is worth noticing as a separate individual. Should it not—one ventures with submission to ask—be a g, eat distinction for a book to be noticed by a great paper—a distinction which every author would desire? Would it not be the graceful part of a great paper to confer this distinction on the few books that deserve it? Such a paper has the power of “making” a book, and, therefore, the author. But it can only exercise this power by suppressing a great quantity of “notices” of less important books. There is—one knows— only room for a certain amount of critical matter; the question to consider is how to use that room for the advancement of the best interests of literature. Surely a half dozen slight and hasty opinions on books good, bad, and indifferent cannot advance any interests of literature. THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS CONGRESS AT BORDEAUX. HE most marked points in the first Inter- national Press Congress at Antwerp were the polyglottic nature of the speaking and the amiable cordiality with which knotty or con- troversial matters were settled. At Bordeaux, at the second congress, it was very noticeable that on the first day French was the only language used, with a small modicum of English ; and although on the succeeding days more English was heard, yet no other tongue, save French, intruded itself upon the congress, in spite of the fact that Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Austrian, Hungarian, &c., delegates were present; the Germans one and all excusing themselves on the ground of the Titerary Congress about to be held at Dresden. The chief object of the Congress was to con- sider the establishing of a “Central Bureau for the United Associations of the Press.” A bureau that generally is to elevate the profession, and raise the status of its members, and espe- cially to deal with all international points of journalism; to assist journalists travelling in foreign countries, to settle international disputes, and arrange international copyright, international telegraph charges, and all matters that touch upon the advancement and well being of the press of all countries, and its professional members. The nation that must be dominant in all journalistic matters by sheer force of its numbers and organisation is England, but to retain this international dominance it is necessary that capable men be sent as delegates to the Inter- national Congress, and that men of influence and personality be elected on the committee of the Central Bureau. This last goes sans die, and with Mr. Crosbie as president this year, and Sir Hugh G. Reid, Mr. Clayden, and Mr. Fisher as hon. Secretary, the English press has been most capably represented on the committee. Amongst the delegates at Bordeaux were place away dames, the Misses Drew, Stuart, Armstrong, Mrs. Visger; and Mr. Crosbie, Sir A. Rollit, Sir H. G. Reid, Messrs. Byrne, Gatwicke, Pullan, Wollak, Baker, Warden, Askell, Crauford, Twobey, Campion, &c. Mr. F, sher acting as hon. secretary and Mr. Cornish secretary. The principal of the debates were upon the constitution of the Bureau and Congress, and upon statutes to regulate the Bureau. At the first session the chair was taken by Mr. Boissevain, of Holland, owing to a little mis- understanding amongst the French ; and Sir Hugh Reid read a paper which was given in French by M. de Keyser, detailing the efforts ## p. (#495) ################################################ THE I4 I A UTHOI’. made in England for organising journalism and their outcome—the Institute of Journalists, with 4OOO members. M. de Berazza, of Spain, in a most lengthy speech, then argued that the central bureau ishould be an association of individuals, and not of associations; but, after a long discussion, this was out-voted. How the bureau could deal with every individual seemed an impossibility. Upon the two questions of the number of votes each association should have, and the amount of levy to be made per member, a heated argument arose. England, with 40OO members, would have forty votes if one per IOO was accorded; but she would also have to pay an enormous sum above other countries if Is. per member was the levy. Ultimately it was agreed that votes be allowed one in a hundred, Mr. Crosbie, with agreement of his confréres, agreeing that twenty votes should be the maximum allowed to any country, and 25 centimes was adopted as the levy per head. Another subject that raised many voices was the composition of the committee of direction. One representative for 3OO members was sug- gested, but this cut out all small States, even if several grouped together. The suggestion that reach State should send one would not work, as three States in an Empire could then out-vote the Empire. Finally, it was settled—one representa- tive for every IOO members, small States group- ing together; and, upon this, there followed a discussion upon how these representatives be elected—at home or at the congress. Fierce and almost wild were the cries of Je demande la parole, and the debate was adjourned for each country to consult amongst themselves; and, on resuming, the compromise arrived at was, the delegates at the congress agree to elect the representatives on the central committee, according to mandate from their associations, for One or three years. When the various statutes were passed for confirmation by the home associations, two warm debates arose on International telegraph tariffs and copyright in news and in literary style. A perfect babel being aroused, when Mr. Albert Batville, of the Figaro, asked if it was just for a provincial paper to copy in a few hours a costly telegram of a Paris paper. Oui ou Won 2 The writer hereof spoke for the protection of literary style in news relation, and Messrs. Askell and Crauford, of Paris, and Mr. Hebaer all spoke, the latter most eloquently on this knotty question of news copy- right. . The general opinion upon the Educational test for journalists was brought out by a paper by Mr. Heinzman-Tavino, but the discussion proved how sadly needed was a set of rules for debate; and a suggestion of such rules was given in by Capt. Gratwicke, to be discussed at the next Congress. On re-electing the Central Committee, Mr. Crosbie and Sir H. G. Reid were chosen for England, with Mr. Fisher as honorary-secretary. The social side of the Congress was full of agreeable entertainment and charming surprises, and if our president, Mr. Crosbie, had distinguished himself by his calm Suavity and pacifying speeches when presiding or assisting at the sessions of the Congress, he added to the impression created by his witty well-timed impromptu remarks at the breakfasts and banquets that were showered upon the Congressites. Two excursions were arranged, one to Arcachon and one in the Medoc. At Arcachon carriages were in waiting for drives in the forests; yachts for excursions in the Bay after the sumptuous déjeuner; and in the Medoc at each chateau every kindness was shown the calvacade, that was headed by two huntsmen in red, sounding fanfares on their horses. At Boulac a déjeuner was spread, with a little wine list of 146 brands and vintages; and at the lovely Chateau Larose Pergauson Count Lakens received the Congress, a “lunch " of a very choice description, although it was 8 p.m., being spread on the lawn with the finest crus. The drive through the vineyards was the more charming, as the vintage had just com- menced, and some picturesque groups of vintages were met en route. The Tnternational Congress next year is at Buda-Pesth. It will probably be more poly- glottic than this French one. The English members will do well to prepare their papers, decide upon their speakers, and arrange matters of precedent for all important matters; and also appoint a translator; as so often the very gist of an English speech is omitted or mistranslated. Continental rules of debate so differ from, and Continental customs at functions are so unlike our own, that preparation should be made for these differences, that our English journalists may take their proper position both in debate and socially. JAMES BAKER. *~ * ~ * * * LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS. L. M. THE BURNS AND DUNLOP CORRESPONDENCE. Roberts. Fortnightly Review for November. BOOK COLLECTING As A FINE ART. Fortnightly Review for November. HOW TO COUNTERACT THE “PENNY DREADFUL.” Hugh Chisholm. Fortnightly Review for November. Julian Moore. A LATTER DAY CRITIC AND GEORGE ELIOT. Mrs Mark H. Judge. Humanitarian for November. SoME PortRAITs of SIR WALTER Scott. F. G. Kitton. Magazine of Art for November. ## p. (#496) ################################################ I 42 THE AUTHOR. CHRISTOPHER NORTH : The Scottish Walton. Alex. Cargill. Pall Mall Magazine for November. THOMAS CARLYLE. Mrs. Mayo. Leisure Hour for November. THE HOMEs OF THOMAS CARLYLE. Marion Leslie. Young Man for November. HISTORIAN, PoliticiaN, NOVELIST : An Interview with Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P. Sarah A. Tooley. Young Man for November. CHRISTABEL ROSE COLERIDGE. November. THE ADVANCE OF ADVERTISEMENT. for November. LITERARY BOSTON THIRTY YEARS AGO. Swnday Magazine for Cornhill Magazine William Dean Howells. Harpers’ Magazine for November. THE ART OF TRANSLATING. Quarterly Review for October. FREEMAN, FROUDE, AND SEELEY. Qwarterly Review for October. THE NovKLS OF MARIA EDGEworth. Quarterly Review for October. . THE NEW DRAMA. Quarterly Review for October. SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN. Edinburgh Review for October. THE FUTURE OF THE QUARTERLIES. Oct. 26. THE POET's FUNCTION As INTERPRETER. Oct. 19. “BLUGGINEss.” Spectator for Oct. 12. Book PLATEs. Builder for Oct. 19. AUTHORS THEIR Own PUBLISHERS : A Parisian Experi- ment. Robert H. Sherard. Westminster Gazette for Oct. 14. . NOTABLE REVIEWS OF OCTOBER. Of Professor Walker’s “The Greater Victorian Poets.” Speaker for Oct. 12. Of Henry Arthur Jones’s “The Renascence of the English Drama.” Spectator for Oct. 12. Of George Eliot. Daily Chronicle for Oct. 23. Of S. R. Crockett’s “The Men of the Moss Haggs.” Daily Chronicle for Oct. 24. Of Walter Peter’s “Miscellaneous Chronicle for Oct. 23. :k: Spectator for Spectator for Studies.” Daily 3% $ $: To counteract the “penny dreadful,” Mr. Hugh Chisholm urges, in the new number of the Fort- nightly, that the Board School curriculum be remedied to train boys thoroughly how to behave themselves, and that Board School teachers should have just as much control over their charges as public school masters have over theirs. He looks also, however, to some means of supply- ing good fiction as cheaply as bad—penny popu- lars of Dickens, Thackeray, Scott, the Kingsleys, Marryat, Stevenson, and others: Popular authors of ephemeral fiction now (he says) make a great deal more money than their labours are really worth, compared with the equal or greater efforts of workers and artists in other lines. But when the inevitable reaction comes they will be glad to reduce their prices, and make their profit by means of an enormous cheap circulation. Besides, as copyrights run out, the dead hand will compete with the living, and an enormous mass of readable fiction published in the last fifty years will of necessity bring the new authors into a proper perspective. *. Extracts from some hitherto unpublished letters of the poet Burns to Mrs. Dunlop are given in the paper on the subject in the Fortnightly, by L. M. Roberts, who remarks that “we cannot help feeling that the letters he had received from Mrs. Dunlop were among the papers which the dying man would fain have “put in a state of arrangement’ or buried in oblivion”; and that, Burns's complaints to her “ of the persistent. presence of his ‘old attendant, poverty,’ are so fre- quent and so bitter as to lay him open to the impu- tation of covert begging.” Mrs. Judge, in her article in the Humanitarian, defends the memory of George Eliot against the criticism by Mrs. Lynn Linton in a recent number of the JWoman at Home. The importance of the work of translation is: upheld by a writer in the Quarterly, as it was in. a much briefer article in Macmillan's last month. The following words of the Quarterly reviewer really represent the general view taken by both : Much translation doubtless is produced by hacks, and it is obviously poor enough. But such production is in reality only like the other hack or journeyman work which, fringes true and living literature. Translation worthy of the name has its proper place, and that no mean one, in the hierarchy of letters. And “the aim of a translation should be to produce an impression similar, or as nearly as may be similar, to that produced by the original.” While, as to poetry, the last word is Dryden's, “To be a thorough translator of poetry a man must be a thorough poet.” Maria Edgeworth’s novels occupy the con- sideration of a Quarterly reviewer, who finds that the novelist’s faults arose from the “cardinal defect” of moral teaching being her first object, and literature, or the interest of her tale, only second. But “in depicting scenes and characters, of Irish life Miss Edgeworth struck a new vein of material for fiction; ” and, thus interpreted, what Sir Walter Scott called her “admirable Irish portraits,” were in truth the inspiration of the Waverley novels; as they also were, on his own admission, of Tourgenieff’s pictures of the Russian peasantry.” Also in the Quarterly there is a comparison of “Freeman, Froude, and Seeley,” who, says the writer, were agreed only on one. point, i.e., in acknowledging the didactic view of history. “None of them would be content with mere literary brilliancy, nor with mere antiquarian correctness. Each of them accepts for the his- torian the duties and responsibilities of a political teacher,” though their method in carrying these out was widely different. Another article in the Quarterly is “The New Drama,” in which the writer says that psychology has been during the last twenty years upsetting our conventional ideas, but that the New Drama, is, as was the Elizabethan, a cosmopolite drama, ## p. (#497) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 43 “with the distinction, however, of self-conscious- mess.” As to Mr. Jones's plea for literature in drama, the writer concludes: Put into connection with all that is vital and preserva- tive of English life,” where is his “atmosphere’’ of literary plays P. If we have proved anything it is that we must no longer hope for a school of national dramatists; there is no point of union for a “school”; the “national” recedes before the peep show of the soul. But this peep show has, as we have seen, its limits. By respecting them we may Secure good plays; and occasionally great dramas like “Heimat” and “The Second Mrs. Tanqueray.” . . But honest workmanship and healthy purposes are much more vital than showy pretensions to literary immortality. *- a -º BOOK TALK. S" EDWIN ARNOLD is having a number of his articles reprinted in volume form under the title “East and West.” The book, with illustrations by Mr. R. T. Pritchett, will be issued by Messrs. Longmans. Mr. George Meredith’s new novel, “The Amazing Marriage” is to appear this month, in two volumes, published by Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co. Mr. Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure,” due to-day (Nov. 1) from Messrs. Osgood McIlvaine, was “for various reasons” “abridged and modified in some degree" when appearing serially, but will now be seen in its full form. Other principal works of fiction will include Mr. Grant Allen’s “British Barbarians,” to be published by Mr. Lame; “The Adventurer of the North,” by Mr. Gilbert Parker (Methuen); “The Little Pilgrim’s Progress,” by Mrs. Hodgson Burnett (Warne); Mr. Clark Russell’s volume of sea stories entitled “The Tale of the Ten ‘’ (Chatto and Windus); a volume of stories by Mr. Quiller Couch (Cassell); “The Herb Moon,” by John Oliver Hobbes (Unwin); and Mr. Kipling's book of jungle stories (Macmillan). A psycho-physiological story entitled “An Evil Motherhood,” heralded as being “extremely original in its treatment,” is to be issued by Mr. |Elkin Matthews, the author of which is a new writer named Walter Ruding. “Chapman's Story Series” is another new issue, of course, from the old firm of Chapman and Hall. It began a few days ago with a volume containing “The Long Arm,” the detective story by Miss Mary E. Wilkins, which gained the Batcheller Syndicate prize, and other stories. The second volume will be “In a Hollow of the Hills,” by Bret Hart; Mr. Charles James is the author of the third, and Mr. Oswald Crawfurd of the fourth. The “Pierrot Library,” which comes from the Bodley Head, is one of the latest series of novels to be projected. The volumes will be 2s. 6d. net cash, and Mr. Lane has engaged Mr. Aubrey Beardsley to design title pages and covers. “Pierrot,” the first volume of the series, will be by Mr. de Vere Stackpoole; Mr. Egerton Castle and Mr. A. T. G. Price will contribute the next two. The “Fleur de Lys Series" of novels emanates from Messrs. Jarrold and Sons, the first story being by Mr. R. D. Chetwode, entitled “The Lord of Lowedale.” Mr. Stanley Weyman's historical romance, “The Red Cockade,” will be published at the beginning of December by Messrs. Longmans. “Sweetheart Travellers” is the engaging title of Mr. Crockett's forthcoming book, which will be illustrated by Mr. Gordon Browne. Messrs. Wells and Gardner will publish it. Short stories by various writers, intended to show each at his best, is the plan of a volume entitled “XX. Stories,” which Mr. Fisher Unwin is about to bring out. The contributors to the book will include Mr. Justin M'Carthy, Mr. Manville Fenn, Mr. Barry Pain, Mr. Brandon Thomas, and others. “Robert Louis Stevenson,” by Annie Mac- donell, is the forthcoming volume in the Contemporary Writers Series, published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The important “Wailima Letters”—the correspondence during several years of the late Mr. Stevenson to Mr. Sidney Colvin—is published to-day (Nov. 1) by Messrs. Methuen. Mr. Colvin is preparing to write the biography of Stevenson, though a year or two will elapse before the work can be ready. “Weir of Hermiston,” the novelist’s unfinished work, will be published this season by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Miss Marie Corelli has during the month issued, through Messrs. Methuen, a new novel called “The Sorrows of Satan,” to which she prefixes a notice stating that “no copies of this book are sent out for review.” - Two new novels by Mrs. L. T. Meade will appear immediately, “The Voice of the Charmer,” which Messrs. Chatto and Windus will publish; and “A Princess of the Gutter,” a story of Christian Socialists’ work in East London, to be issued by Messrs. Wells, Gardner, and Co. Life in Paris during the French Revolution is the subject of a novel by Mr. Harold Spender, entitled “At the Sign of the Guillotine,” which Mr. Unwin will publish in a few days. It is woven round the love-romance of one of the great revolutionists, ## p. (#498) ################################################ I44 THE A UTHOR. The biography of Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Henry Keppel, which Messrs. Bentley are to publish, will have illustrations by the late Sir Oswald Brierley, marine painter to the Queen. This firm will also publish a new work by Miss Julie Sutter, entitled “England's Greatest Problem.” This problem is poverty, and the author concludes that ours is pre-eminently the land of vagrants. Among coming biographies is one of the well- known actor Mr. John Hare, written by Mr. Edgar Pemberton. The Rev. C. H. Simpkinson, rector of Farnham, is the biographer of the late Dr. Thorold, Bishop of Winchester, who left a mass of material to work upon. , Messrs. Isbister are the publishers. “Comrades,” by Annabel Gray, is now pub- lished by Mr. Henry J. Drane, Salisbury House, Salisbury-square. Price 6s. I vol. Mrs. Edmonds desires to state that the “Pappas Narkissos" of her friend Demetrius Bikelas was translated by her and published in a magazine four years ago, but not, as in the present case, “adapted'’ to meet the views of the S.P.C.K. The “Tife and Letters of Admiral Sir B. J. Sullivan ’’ is in preparation by his son, Mr. H. N. Sullivan, and the book will be published by Mr. Murray. Canon Rawnsley has written the bio- graphy of Dr. Harvey Goodwin, the late Bishop of Carlisle, which will come from the same firm. Mr. H. D. Traill has written “The Life of Sir John Franklin” from documents hitherto unpub- lished, and the work will be published by Mr. Murray. A new volume by Vernon Lee, entitled “Re- naissance Fancies and Studies,” is to be published by Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. Mr. William Watson will be represented this season by a volume of verse, which, as yet, how- ever, remains untitled. A volume of poems by Mr. C. W. Dalmon, entitled “Song Favours,” will be issued shortly also by Mr. Lane. Mr. H. C. Beeching has edited, and Mr. Walter Crane illustrated, “A Book of Christmas Verse,” which will appear immediately from Messrs. Methuen. “Songs for Silverwig,” by Mr. Norman Gale, with illustrations by Miss Helen Stratton, will be published by Messrs. Constable. Before long the volume by the late Christina Rossetti may be expected from Messrs. Macmillan; while Miss Helen Fowler will issue a second book, “Verses Wise and Otherwise,” through Messrs. Cassell. Mr. Reginald Blunt has written a book on “The Carlyles' Chelsea Home,” which is to appear from Messrs. Bell in time for the centenary of the birth of Carlyle a month hence. The frontispiece is an unpublished photograph, of which the sage wrote, “The best likeness. known to me.” - Five books of equal importance within the last. four weeks were: “The Biography of Professor John Stuart Blackie,” by Anna M. Stoddart (Blackwood), and that of “Hans Christian Andersen,” by R. Nisbet Bain (Lawrence and Bullen); “Reminiscences of Thirty-five years of My Life,” by Sir Joseph Crowe (Murray); “Anima Poetae,” from Coleridge's notebooks, edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge (Heinemann); and Dr. Skelton’s reminiscences of Froude, Disraeli, Thackeray, and others, in his volume, “The Table Talk of Shirley” (Blackwood). In the last is this glimpse of how, in 1870, Froude regarded his critics: “Some day, I think, I shall take my reviewers all round, and give them a piece of my mind. I acknowledge to five real mistakes in the whole book—twelve volumes— about twenty trifling slips equivalent to “i's" not dotted and “t’s ” not crossed; and that is all that the utmost malignity has discovered. Every One of the rascals has made a dozen blunders of his own, too, while detecting one of mine.” The literature of the Victoria Cross and of its recipients is to have an addition in a volume by Mr. D. H. Parry, which Messrs. Cassell will issue. Besides interviewing many of the heroes whose valour he tells of, the author has had resort to War Office documents in order to ensure accuracy. The fruits of the past month in periodical literature were the Country House (J. T. Brown, publisher) and the Cycle Magazine (Cycle Press Dimited) both illustrated sixpenny monthlies on generally accepted lines. A new international review, the Cosmopolis, devoted to politics, litera- ture, science, and art, will be begun in January, the publisher to be Mr. Fisher Unwin, and the price 2s. 6d. monthly. The leading writers of England, France, and Germany are to contribute to it, and in each case the original English, French, and German will be printed. The short story is to be an “interesting feature,” and that in the first number will be from the pen of M. Paul Bourget. What will doubtless prove a popular collection. in these days of the exaltation of sport is “The Songs and Ballads of Sport and Pastime,” which IMr. W. W. Tomlinson has compiled for a volume in the Canterbury series published by Messrs. Walter Scott Limited. Present-day singers are represented by Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Norman. Gale, Mr. William Sharp, Mr. Coulson Kernahan, and others; while there are also selections from Fielding, Ramsay, Scott, and Charles Kingsley. ## p. (#499) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I45" Dr. Isaac Taylor has just completed the work “Names and their Histories: Elements of His- torical Geography and Topography,” on which he has been engaged for four years. It will be pub- lished by Messrs. Rivington, Percival, and Co. Mr. Alfred H. Miles is the editor of a book of “Anecdotes of Natural History,” which will be published shortly by Messrs. Hutchinson. It is to be a study, in a popular form, of the habits and customs of animals, and suitable as a manual for teachers. Among other works announced are: “British Birds' Nests,” by Mr. R. Kearton, with an introduction by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe (Cassell); “The Great Rift Valley,” being an account of a journey to Baringo and Mount Kenia by Mr. J. W. Gregory (Murray); and a volume of hunting sketches in Africa by Mr. Frederick W. Kirby, entitled “From Kahlamba to Libombo” (Blackwood). Mr. Joseph Hatton's new novel “When Greek meets Greek: A Tale of Love and War: ” will be published or was published in London and Phila- delphia on Nov. 14, by Messrs. Hutchinson and Messrs. Lippincott. It is running serially in the People on this side of the Atlantic, and in Leslie's Weekly on the other, and by arrangement with the author in Melbourne, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Transvaal. Mr. Hatton appears to be satisfied with his “three-volumes-in-one" experi- ence, his first experiment in that direction being with “The Banishment of Jessop Blythe.” His new book appears in similar form, but he drops his yellow cover for something more conventional. It was “By Order of the Czar” that started the yellow craze, and Mr. Hatton hoped he had made it his trade mark, as if an author could rely upon any other individuality than that which belongs to the work itself. - The new volume of the “Dictionary of National Biography” devotes eight and a half columns to the life of the forgotten great Englishman, who was lately reintroduced to English history by Mr. James Baker in his volume upon the life of this hero. Peter Payne for four centuries has been forgotten and ignored by his countrymen. Płow singular a circumstance is it that this life of the great link between Wyclif and Luther should appear in the very year when such an onslaught is made upon Wyclif's teaching, and when Eng- land is again asked to step back under Rome's thrall. Justice is now done to Payne's self- sacrificing noble life. He says (one writer in the Dictionary) Peter Payne was the man who induced Sir J. Oldcastle to follow Wyclif. Mr. Sydney Hodge's serial story, “When Leaves were Green,” now running in the Argosy, will be republished in 3 vol. form by Messrs. Chatto and Windus in January, Mr. William Addison will have ready, early in: November, to be published by Mr. Horace Cox, a new volume entitled “Crimean and other Short Stories.” Mrs. Alfred Baldwin’s new book, “The Shadow on the Blind,” will be published immediately by Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. It is a collection of . modern ghost stories. “One Woman's Wisdom,” the Australian story which Messrs. Routledge and Sons bought from. Miss A. G. Murphy, and published last month, is. that lady’s very first attempt at story writing of any description. She wrote it in one hour weekly from March to December, the actual time devoted to the work being thus only about forty hours. A special colonial edition is about to be published. Mr. Daniel Chamier has written a handy volume entitled “Law relating to Literary Copy- right and to Authorship and Publication of Books,” which has been published by Mr. Effingham Wilson. Within the compass of 150. pages, Mr. Chamier has collected the law relating to copyright in literature as distinguished from artistic, musical, and dramatic copyright. The volume will be found to be useful and convenient to all concerned with literary property. It is intelligibly compiled, and deals succinctly with the mass of statutes, common law rules and prece- dents which make up the Cumbrous code by which literary ownership is governed. Mr. Chamier has dealt usefully with a large number of recent decisions, but it is inevitable that the effect of his labours should be to once more demonstrate the urgent need for the consolidating statute on the lines of Lord Monkswell's Bill which was drafted by the Society. “The National Portrait Gallery of British Musicians,” edited by John Warriner, Mus. Doc., of Trinity College, Dublin, will shortly be issued by Messrs, Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. This ought to prove a very interesting volume to those interested in music and musicians. “The Dowager Lady Tremaine” is the title of a story by Mr. J. B. Alliott (Elliot Stock). “A Handbook of Theology,” by the Rev. John Harries (Elliot Stock), is, as its name denotes, a volume of lectures or chapters on various points of doctrine. The writer apparently belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Work-a-day Poems, by Fanchon (Reveirs Brothers, Greystoke-place), is a little volume of simple verse. They should be confined to private circulation among the friends of the writer. “Shiloh” and other Poems, by Reginald Tavey (Elliot Stock), are verses of a religious or meditative kind. They may be accepted as an early effort. ## p. (#500) ################################################ I46 THE AUTHOR. “Spring's Immortality,” by Mackenzie Bell (Ward, Lock, and Bowden). We have learned to look for good work from Mr. Mackenzie Bell. The new volume is full of fine verse. The follow- ing sonnet belongs to the season: OLD YEAR LEAVES. Tossed by the storms of Autumn chill and drear, The leaves fall auburn-tinted, and the trees - Stand reft and bare, yet on the silent leas The leaves lie drifted still—while cold, austere, Stern Winter waits—while early snowdrops cheer The woodland shadows—while the happy bees Are wakened by the balmy western breeze, And birds and boughs proclaim that Spring is here. So lost hopes severed by the stress of life Lie all unburied yet before our eyes, Though none but we regard their mute decay; And ever amid this stir and moil and strife Fresh aims and growing purposes arise Above the faded hopes of yesterday. “Translated * is the third edition of a touching little memorial of the life and death of a boy. This little book, too, is religious (Marshall Brothers). The author of “Somnia, Medici,” Mr. J. A. Goodchild, appears with another volume of verse. Let us be permitted to quote one poem to show the “quality” of the poet: WIOLIN SONG. Gentle music murmurs low In mine ear. I am where the roses blow Upon bushes set arow, And anear. Thrills and throbs a violin At that casement, where within Sits my dear. Pirst an old-world song she played, Sweet in tone ; Then a little pause she made Ere in fairyland she strayed On alone; And aerial minstrelsy Mazed my soul with melody All her own. From the chamber where she lay - Rose aloft Such a music as a fay Carols in the buds of May, Sinking oft To brief silence, whence again Fluttered forth some newborn strain Sweet and soft. Ah, again that longdrawn note Which prevails. From the pairing throstle's throat Never sweeter sound might float. Nightingales, Ye might never thus prolong Such finale to your song. | Hush . It fails. Mrs. Sitwell has just produced a children's story called “In Far Japan.” The scene is laid in Japan as it was ninety years ago. CORRESPONDENCE. I.—DELAYS IN PAYMENT. MONGST the many benefits which the Society of Authors confers on writers not the least is the indirect help of publicity, the fear of which probably rights many wrongs without further ado. Some months ago, a correspondence was carried on in this paper concerning the long delays in paying for published articles, in which some of the minor firms indulged, to the serious inconve- nience (if not worse) of those who wrote for them from dire necessity. Since that time (when a firm attitude on the subject of regular payments was advocated espe- cially as desirable on the part of those who had little to fear, being well-known and popular writers), it has come under our notice that there is a marked improvement in respect of this diffi- culty, no doubt largely brought about by the fear of doubtful transactions being brought to the light of day by this Society. This improvement is likely to continue if writers are clear and explicit in requiring to know the terms, times of payment, &c., of any periodical for which they may be intending to write, before undertaking to do so. R. II.-LITERARY BLACKLEGs. “An Author,” writing on Mr. Sherard's obser- vations about “literary blacklegs,” points out, at too great length for publication in these columns, the mischief which such a person may do. He is an author to begin with, but not one whose books bring in much solid proofs of popularity; he makes it his business, therefore, to become a reviewer for as many papers as he can ; he hangs about publishers in the hope of getting appointed an adviser; in both capacities he exercises the envy and malice which belong to the unsuccessful. The name of such a man should not, our corre- spondent suggests, be “privately ’’ printed but publicly. Is the “Author’’ speaking of an imaginary or of a real person P Does he really know any man who possesses, and exercises, this kind of power P Can he prove that such a man is able to review the same book in half a dozen papers; does really review the same book for half a dozen papers, and with the rancour which the writer attributes ? If he does know such a man he might be doing good service by for- warding to the secretary (I) his name; (2) the list of papers for which he writes; (3) all the reviews of one book written by him. As for the whispering depreciation in a publisher's ears, that may be omitted, because the only kind of ## p. (#501) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 47 depreciation to which the publisher would listen is that of which the critic would know nothing— the demand for his rival’s books. III.-MoRE ON DELAYs. J. S. M. adds another to the many complaints concerning certain London journals which invite contributions, and then neither return them nor answer any letters. He complains, further, of delays in sending proof; of delays in publishing; and of delays in sending the cheque. He also complains of the autocratic conduct of the editors, who place their own price upon a contribution. Well; but the editor must put his own price upon the work. He knows what his paper can afford to give and is accustomed to give. It is hard— very hard—upon the author to keep him in suspense; it is doubly hard to accept the work and then not to publish it; but the author has him- self to blame. He has only to say, “I offer you this work on the condition that you pay me so much for it, and that you pay me at once.” Then the editor can accept or not as he pleases. But the author says he cannot afford to take this inde- pendent line. Then he must make the best of what he cannot mend. IV.—THE DIALOGUE STORY. I keep reading in the Author and other journals that the new vogue in fiction—tales told by dialogue—has been started by Miss Violet Hunt, Mr. Anthony Hope, and Black and JWhite. Surely Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in his earlier Indian stories, was the first to set the fashion in this respect. “The Gadsbys,” “Under the Deodars,” &c., appeared long before those other writers had commenced to publish their “Stories in Scenes,” and who were doubtless inspired to follow in his wake. As many other authors are likely to follow suit, it seems only right that Mr. Kipling should be recognised as the leader of this new school of fiction. CHARLEs E. HALL. W.--THE SOCIETY As PUBLISHERs. So much has been written and said lately con- cerning publishers and their profits in proportion to risks that one wonders why the Society of Authors do not take up publishing as a business. Practically every English author of note is a member of the Society. Why should they not issue their books through the Society, and why should not the Society offer to young authors an amelioration of the advantages (?) held out to them by publishers generally P Surely the cream of the literary clientèle would be secured at once, the finest advice is to be had on the premises, so to speak, and a fair profit, after expenses, secured. I am merely a hard-working magazine writer, and no novelist, if one is judged by the published- book standard, but, with an eye to the future, I am quite willing to increase my subscription to £5 a year for four years in order to give the thing a fair trial. Doubtless there are hundreds. more who would do the same thing, but it seems. to me that if a few popular novelists like to put their heads together success would be assured without pecuniary assistance at all. If the “new” publisher with his solitary office and the boy can do so well, what a future should be before the English Authors’ Guild ! F. VI.-WHY NOT A CoMPETITION. I see that the Author invites suggestions; and it has struck me that a competition, once a year, of a literary kind, might do much to increase the attractiveness of a magazine that cannot be too well known. Would it be possible for the society to offer a prize for the best short prose idyll and the best short poem by young authors who have published not less than one book, or one set of magazine. articles, not at their own expense P and, also, in the event of the MSS. reaching the required standard of merit, might the two successful papers be printed in the Christmas number of the Author P A nominal fee of Is. for the reading of every paper sent in (the proceeds, after paying the reader, to be devoted to a pension fund or some other literary work) would be but a small expense to contributors, and the prospect of having one’s name acknowledged by the best authors would be of incalculable value to any little known or struggling writer. I have myself written two stories of about 300. pages. With the copyright of the first I un- fortunately parted for the sum of £60; and fresh editions of the book are still selling at the end of eight years. For my second story I received £60 on the first edition, and I retained the copyright. I have also been fairly successful with short articles and a dramatic study. I wrote a short story once for a very well known. magazine, and for a month's work received £2 IOs. I have seldom been paid according to the quality of my work, I do not mean that it. is better than other peoples'; but that, being independent of my pen, I need never grudge time. or trouble; and that I often rewrite and revise a MS. from five to seven times before sending it out. I have a story coming out in a popular juvenile paper this Christmas, and a promise from another publisher to read another MS.; but I am an unknown author, in the sense that I can command no certain market for what I write, and that I often send an article to half a dozen, ## p. (#502) ################################################ 148 THE AUTHOR. publishers before it is accepted. Speaking for myself, one year's numbers of the Author free would be a much valued prize, and I believe if the competition that I have suggested could be held once a year, that the pleasure and stimulus given would be very great, provided the trouble of reading the papers sent in were not beyond the time of the society, which I know must necessarily be limited. A LITTLE KNowN AUTHOR. (Oct. 5, 1895. VII.-MUSIC AND POETRY. Tn reply to Mr. Sherard, I would say that I think there need be no more mystery in the inability of so many musicians to be poets, or poets to be musicians, than of most musicians to be capable mathematicians, although the principles of melodious sound have a mathe- matical basis. It seems to me that superexcellence is rarely to be found together in the spheres of both emotion and of reason. Hence we find the scientific insight of Darwin to be unaccompanied by much musical or poetic taste; the rhythmic talent of ;Sir Walter Scott or Mr. Gilbert to be remarkably destitute of a knowledge of musical melody, and the most subtle races of the East or of old to be deficient in musical harmony; while the encyclo- paedic information possessed by the late Professor Robertson Smith was unaccompanied by even average musical taste. Music, in its present state, being the youngest of the fine arts, as well as the most artificial if not most original, it is natural to expect to find side by side in some of its exponents the emotional faculties peculiar to the “heir of all the ages,” associated with the rational capacity characteristic of more primitive man, so long as evolution remains so one-sided. It may be that, in time, the man of genius will exhibit the loftiest qualities of the whole; but as yet this is generally unobserv- able. I very much doubt the commonly received dictum as to Darwin having once possessed and afterwards lost, in the pursuit of science, even an average taste for music and poetry; as he pre- sumably followed his bent, along the line of least resistance, for the One quality need no more interfere with the other, than love with genius. The one would rather supplement the other, and thus both prove mutually recreative—assuming both to be genuine. It is, of course, different in the case of a practising artist, whose manipulative skill would suffer by devotion to science alone; but, as regards mere passive appreciation, the culture of the more rational side of our complex nature need in no way interfere with the other. Similarly, while science may modify man-made theology, it cannot destroy Divine religion. As music and poetry somewhat resemble each other in their qualities of rhythm, melody, harmony, and form, it would seem as if excellence in the one would imply success in the other; but, seeing how often philosophic poetry is popularly unpalatable if not unintelligible, while the more popular is comparatively superficial, we need not wonder if even the most popular music and the most popular poetry are so rarely producible by the same person. Both require a natural gift to be developed by an artificial culture; and life is generally too short, while art is usually too wide, or nature is mostly too chary of her best, to secure the highest qualities of head, heart, and will, or of science, music, poetry, and wisdom, as well as popular appreciation, in even the highest genius yet evolved. The how seems simple enough, but the why is still sufficiently mysterious to rank among the pro- found problems awaiting solution by the coming science of the soul. PHINLAY GLENELG VIII.-MIsquotATIONs. Mrs. Henry George Corbett writes to complain of misquotations in criticism. Her recently published novel, “Deb o' Mally's,” has been noticed in a certain paper. A quotation from her book was printed in the notice. The passage as it stands in the book and as it was presented in the paper is as follows: The girl was working in front of one of the many windows which lighted the huge room, and the westering sun was frolicking daintily among the wonderful luxuriance of her red-gold hair, enhancing its brightness till it became dazzling to look upon. Perhaps she had become aware that she was being regarded with unusual interest, for her heavily-fringed violet eyes had a look in them which would have been considered haughty, had her position been less humble, and the pearly purity of her complexion was suffused by a brighter tint than usual. The following is the passage as it appears in the paper: The western sun is frolicking daintily among the wonderful luxuriance of her red-gold hair, enhancing its brightness till it beams dazzling to look upon. Her heavily- fringed, violet eyes had a look in them which would have been haughty had her position been less humble, and the pearly purity of her complexion was suffused by a brighter tint than usual. It will be seen that the verb westering has been changed into the adjective western, and that the rules of grammar have been painfully violated by putting the auxiliary verb first in the present and then in the past tense. By substituting the word beams for the word became, my critic has managed to make the sentence unintelligible, and by omitting, firstly, two whole lines and, secondly, the verb “considered,” he has produced a “quotation ” which possesses neither sense nor cohesion. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 06 (November 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 06 (November 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-11-01-The-Author-6-6 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/282/1895-10-01-The-Author-6-5.pdf e291476691b2a0962893a5cfeebf31fa 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) 1895-10-01 Volume 6 Issue 5 Pages Page range in volume 101–120 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18951001 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be Elu t bor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) con DUCTED BY wal. TER BES ANT. Wol. VI.-No. 5.] OCTOBER 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. - HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances show.ld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *—- 2--" ,-- we ---, WARNINGS AND ADWICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £IO must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no eaſpense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any accownt whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. I2. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. – Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do. with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society's Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *—- ~" - * ~ HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice Sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion, is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the M 2 ## p. (#456) ################################################ I O2 THE AUTHOR. experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society mow offers:–(I) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *- - -º THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations prºmptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted ” is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. _** *-* * *-*. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Awthor should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. - Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P. If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest P Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. ## p. (#457) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I O3 Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, \by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- a 2- * * * LITERARY PROPERTY, THE CANADIAN CopyRIGHT QUESTION. I. Ottawa, Sept. IO. IR. C. H. TUPPER, speaking at Toronto yesterday, referred to the Canadian copy- right question. He said that, in his opinion, the time had come when the country must know whether the unanimous will of the Commons of Canada was to be respected by the advisers of Her Majesty in London. “I believe,” he continued, “that Mr. Chamberlain, with his great ability and knowledge of our affairs, will prove equal to the occasion, and insist, no matter how the authors and publishers of Canada and London may disagree, no matter whether the right of the argument be in favour of the authors and publishers of Canada or of the authors and publishers of England, that what was intended by the British Parliament in 1867 must be observed in 1895. We have a right to misgovern ourselves, if we choose, in the matter of copyright as we have in tariffs and everything else. In the course of a conversation which I had with him to-day, the Minister of Justice said that he would be glad to receive Mr. Hall Caine personally and listen to him, but as the Dominion Government simply represented the unanimous voice of Parliament, it would he improper for him to discuss with the representative of the Society of Authors the wisdom or unwisdom of the action of the Canadian Legislature.—Correspondent of the Times. II. Mr. Lancefield loses sight altogether of the real interests of the great body of authors and pub- lishers outside Canada, and very conveniently ignores England’s international copyright obliga- tions. The United Kingdom and the colonies have joined the Berne Literary Convention, which remedied, for the first time, a longstanding grievance, and has given protection to authors and publishers where formerly there was none. Is it then possible that the British Government will be so shortsighted as to weaken this important agreement on the simple plea that it does not suit specially the Canadian printers and pub- lishers? Concessions once made in favour of Canada could not be withheld from Australia and other British colonies, and any attempts to exclude the colonies from the Copyright Act would inevitably lead to dissensions. The conditions of the Berne Conventions are essentially based upon the mutual recipoclity of nations; France, Germany, and other contracting parties would, therefore, certainly have cause for complaint— and very justly so—if any such partial and one- sided exceptions were introduced. In what position would British authors be if, for instance, such important book-manufacturing centres of Germany as the kingdoms of Saxony, Bavaria, and Würtenberg determined, on the same plea, to free themselves from the restrictions imposed upon the whole of Germany by the Berne Con- vention ? These restrictions must have told very hardly in certain localities, considering that the people engaged in the production of books in any one of these kingdoms exceed by far those similarly occupied in Canada. If such exceptions were to be tolerated, I am afraid that piracy would soon be again the order of the day. HENRY KLEINAU. 18, King William-street, Charing Cross, Sept. 9. —Times, Sept. 13. III. Considerable interest has been aroused among British authors and publishers by reason of the attempt to obtain proclamation of the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889. This act was “assented to” May 2, 1889, to “come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Governor- General.” At the request of the Imperial Govern- ment a Canadian representative has been sent to England to discuss the copyright question with the imperial authorities, and in the meantime proclamation is withheld The particular provision of this Act which is most objectionable to the British author and publisher is the one which requires, as a condition of obtaining copyright in Canada, that a book, &c., shall be printed and published or reproduced in Canada within thirty days after publication elsewhere, in default of which any Canadian printer may lawfully print and publish the same, being obliged, however, to give security to pay to the author a royalty of IO per cent. upon the retail price of such publication. If a law containing such a provision is estab- lished in one of the British colonies, copyright throughout the imperial domain may be burdened ## p. (#458) ################################################ IO4 THE AUTHOR. with the requirement of separate publication in each of the colonies, which would be especially embarrassing to the British author. A question of more general importance, if the right of colonial legislation upon copyright be admitted, will be the effect of such legislation upon international copyright. The Act of 1889, above referred to, contains this provision, limiting the persons who may obtain copright : Any person domiciled in Canada, or in any part of the British possessions, or any citizen of any country which has an international copyright treaty with the United Kingdom, in which Canada is included, who is the author, &c. This raises the question whether citizens of the United States could obtain copyright in Canada even by printing and publishing there, for there is no international copyright treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom. There can be little doubt that if the absolute right of Canada to legislate upon copyright is admitted by the Imperial Government, the United States international copyright law cannot long endure, and British authors will suffer in conse- quence. The Canadian market, considered as a market for Canadian readers, is of very little importance, but the Canadian market considered as a vantage-ground from which to send unautho- rised reprints into the United States is of very serious consequence. This presents practical questions which have already been forced upon our authors by a late ruling of the Treasury Department of the United States. Heretofore the proprietors of United States copyrights have had the aid of our Treasury Department in preventing the importation into the United States of unauthorised reprints of their works coming from abroad, so that careful authors, aided by the customs officers, have succeeded in fairly maintaining their copyright property. Of course this has not been done absolutely, for the long frontier gives special facilities for the passing into the United States of the garbled and trashy reprints coming from the Canadian presses. But the author has had his market fairly free from them. The importation of such copies being unlawful, and involving forfeitures and damages, the authors, when aided by the Treasury Department, have had practical facilities for protecting their rights, and seldom had occasion to resort to legal proceedings. By this new ruling, however, the Treasury Department has taken the position, in effect, that authors shall no longer have its aid in cases where not more than two copies of a work are imported, and that in such cases, if the copies imported are unauthorised reprints, the owner of the copyright must resort for relief to the courts, and bring his action for the forfeiture of the copies and for damages. As these reprints are generally of the very poorest quality, and sell for about twenty-five cents each, the duty upon them is also remitted under Article Io96, Customs Regulations of 1892. The effect of this ruling, which was promulgated last spring, has already been felt in the market, and the unauthorised reprints can now be readily obtained. Indeed, under such circumstances this could not be otherwise. It is well known that the Tauchnitz reprints find their way through English custom-houses in great numbers, not- withstanding the earnest efforts of the customs officers to prevent it, aided by the publishers who honestly desire that the importation into England of such reprints should not take place. |Unless our Treasury Department recedes from its present position, and co-operates with the authors as heretofore, the unauthorised Canadian reprints will seriously endanger the market value of all domestic copyrights, and materially reduce the profits of our authors. This extraordinary ruling of Secretary Carlisle could, we think, be reversed on a proper presenta- tion, and we are surprised at the indifference so far shown by American authors to the injurious significance of this ruling.—Harper's Weekly, Aug. 24. IV. A correspondent writes:—“The much-vexed question of Canadian Copyright has at length made some steps towards a settlement. Mr. E. L. Newcombe, Q.C., Deputy Minister of Justice, who came to this country as the representative of the Canadian Government, is on the point of returning to Canada. He will carry with him certain modifications of Canada's demand in the still inoperative Act of 1889. These modifications have been suggested by the Colonial Office after close and careful intercourse with Mr. Newcombe, as well as with the representatives of English authors and publishers, Mr. Hall Caine and Mr. F. R. Daldy. It would be inadvisable and prema- ture to make any statement of their scope further than to say that they are understood to recognise the right of copyright in Canada to every person who has any right of copyright in the United Ringdom. Beyond this general principle certain concessions are suggested which it is believed will meet all that is fair and just in Canada's expectations. It now remains to the Canadian Government to frame an amended Act that will be likely to obtain the approval of both Parlia- ments, and it is hoped that Canadian printers on ## p. (#459) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. IO5. the one hand, and British authors on the other, will be able to accept the compromise which the Colonial Office suggests. As Mr. Newcombe's instructions forbade him to meet anybody except the Government, it has been thought right that Mr. Hall Caine should carry out the wish of the Authors’ Society and go to Ottawa as the delegate of English authors to confer with the Canadians on the terms of their reconstructed Bill. What he will be allowed to do, whether to appear before a committee of the Canadian Parliament or, perhaps, speak at the Bar of the House, will be, of course, at the discretion of the Premier ; but it is probable that the Colonial Office, and certainly the English people, would hear with satisfaction of any favourable mark of the disposition of the Canadians to arrive at a settlement which, while doing justice to Canadian demands, would not be unacceptable to the authors and publishers of this country. Mr. Caine is to sail on Sept. 18, by the White Star steamship Teutonic.”—Times. V The point we put is that it is a question of equity and honesty, and not, as Sir Charles Tupper puts it, a question of the right of Canadians to mis- govern themselves. Canadians get full protection in the Mother Country for all their rights, includ- ing copyrights and patents, by virtue of a common citizenship ; yet they now propose to deprive their fellow-citizens at home of the corresponding rights in Canada. That is no question of misgovernment, it is a question of honesty and right feeling. The average tone and spirit of politics in Canada is perhaps as low as it is in any part of the Queen's dominions, but we might reasonably expect that public opinion in Canada would not be favourable to the perpetration of an act of sheer confiscation. The Canadians might at all events be reached by considerations of self- interest. They are now proposing to wrong a class which exercises a most powerful influence On English Opinion. The question is often asked in this country, what possible advantage we gain by the association with Canada. The Dominion claims practically an absolute independence in its domestic, and almost absolute freedom in regard to its foreign, policy. She is a fruitful source of embarrassment in our relations with the United States. It would be difficult to point out where any compensating benefit to the Mother Country accrues. Money is borrowed in this country, and drawn from this country by millions, to promote the expansion of the Dominion, and in return our manufacturers are taxed to protect her struggling industries, and enrich her local manufacturers. We have to keep our fleet and army ready to protect her in her differences with the powerful Government at Washington, and every Canadian citizen has as freely at his disposal the aid of our diplomatic and consular service as any English- man. Except for the costly conceit of counting Canada as a dominion under the British flag, there is little we gain by the connection which could not as readily, and perhaps more cheaply, be secured from a foreign State. The Canadians would do well to ask themselves whether it is worth while, for the sake of benefiting a few pirates, to set against them the most powerful influence in the Mother Country. The least they can expect to pay for naval, military, and diplomatic protection is an equitable consideration for the rights of their fellow-citizens throughout the Empire.—Overland Mail, Sept. 13. VI. The following letter from Mr. John G. Ridout in further reply to Mr. Lancefield appeared in the Toronto Mail of Aug. 24. “SIR,--In the Mail of the 17th Aug. Mr. Lancefield is again as illogical and full of error as ever; he makes the mistakes of one who has only an imperfect smattering. He still thinks the manufacturing clause in the Patent Act is im- perative and unavoidable, and that, therefore, books (like inventions) should also be subject to manufacture in Canada to obtain copyright, whereas it is settled law here that if there is no demand for the invention in Canada, there is no obligation to manufacture within two years or other extended period. (See 2 Ex. Ct. Rep. Can —Barter v. Smith.) As a solicitor of patents, I am engaged every week in obtaining certificates of extension of time, and it is possible for a valid patent to exist for eighteen years without any manufacture whatever under it. How does this compare with the miserable one month allowed to manufacture under this piratical Copyright Act of 1889, which Mr. L. is so anxious to have passed in the interest of a few publishers? “Mr. L. is also grossly in error in supposing that Canada has the “undoubted constitutional right to legislate as to copyright,’ and that Lord Salisbury was given an unwarranted pledge to the United States authorities in 1891, when he told them that a U.S. citizen, by obtaining copy- right in Great Britain, secured it also in all British possessions. This Mr. L. designates ‘startling intelligence,’ ‘a thunderbolt out of a clear sky,’ whereas it has always been the case since the Imperial Act of 1842, before Mr. L. was born, and is likely to continue so. The B. N. A. Act did not affect this Act one iota. In Smiles v. Belford, 23 Grant, 590 (Sept., 1876), Proudfoot, J., ## p. (#460) ################################################ IO6 THE AUTHOR. finds that the Imperial Act of 1842 was still applicable to Canada, and states: ‘I have not been able to discovery anthing in the statute (B. N. A. Act, sect 91-129), re copyright con- ferring any greater powers in this respect on the Dominion and province, than was previously enjoyed by the Province of Canada. There is nothing indicating any intention of the Imperial Parliament to abdicate its power of legislating on matters of this kind. It was never contended that the Provincial Legislature could make laws at variance with those which the Imperial Parlia- ment might choose to pass, and declare to have effect throughout the British dominion, &c.’ “This was unanimously upheld in the Court of Appeal (Ont. S. C. I App. Rep. Ont. 436, March, 1877); it was also considered that the ‘Colonial Laws Walidity Act' was paramount, and all that was done by the B. N. A. Act was to transfer from each of the Provincial Legislatures to the House of Commons the right to legislate as to copyright. “On Dec. 31, 1889, the Law Officers of the Crown decided that the power of legislating as to copyright under the B. N. A. Act did not autho- rise the Parliament of Canada to amend or repeal any imperial Act conferring privileges in Canada, and that the Colonial Laws Walidity Act (1865) rendered such legislation void where repugnant to the provisions of this latter Act. “Notwithstanding all the sophistries and special pleading of the late Sir John Thompson, made doubtless to appease the Copyright Associa- tion of Canada, who have the cheek to hold them- selves forward as representing Canada, although with a membership of only some twenty-six, this question has been settled absolutely years ago, and yet Mr. Edgar, M.P., and some others, do not appear to be aware of this fact, and still harp on the B. N. A. Act. “Copyright is an imperial question and not a colonial question. Canada is part of a world- wide empire, and a member of the great inter- national brotherhood of authors and artists from which a few unpatriotic and selfish Canadian publishers wish to sever us. We have extradition treaties and Merchant Shipping Acts imposed on us without a murmur. As we are not permitted to make Canada the dumping ground and place of refuge for the criminals of the world, so we should not be permitted to make her a nuisance in the literary and artistic world by breaking up the international convention as to copyright, and destroying the rights and privileges of Canadian authors, artists, musicians, &c. (to say nothing of the rights of Britishers and others), throughout the empire and the most civilised countries of the world. This would be the effect of withdrawing Canada from the Berne Convention, in order to appease the greed of half a dozen Canadian publishing houses, members of this paltry Copy- right Association, who have been dictating the policy of the Government as to copyright. Our statesmen for years past have been pursuing a policy of isolation for Canada, both as to copy- right as well as patents, trade marks, and designs. What sense is there in belittling, dis- couraging, and destroying the privileges of over five hundred copyrighters each year in Canada, to appease the specious “home manufacture” cry of half a dozen Canadian publishers ? “Outside of the provisions of the Berne con- vention the International Copyright Act of 1886 (Imp.) gives a Canadian copyrighter copyright throughout all the Queen's dominions merely by obtaining copyright at Ottawa. What, then, have we to complain of P. We have reciprocal rights. - “Yours, &c., “JoBIN G. RIDOUT. “Toronto, Aug. 2 I.” NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Sept. 15. N the very Interesting series of letters on “Literature in America ’’ which has been appearing in the London Times, perhaps the most interesting paragraph was the one in which the correspondent declared that “No part of their British inheritance is more prized by Americans than our literature. Few of them cross the Atlantic without visiting Stratford-on-Avon—a pious pilgrimage seldom undertaken by ourselves. . In most departments of life national distinc- tions and improvements upon British example are emphasised ; in literature a disposition exists to claim a common heritage with us in the great masters of language; to assert an even firmer loyalty to the old models than we can. In American schools and universities the study of English literature receives undoubtedly more attention than in ours; and, even in purity of pronunciation and correct use of words, they are in many respects more conservative. Societies, clubs, and reading circles founded for the study of the works of a single author, or a particular period, are far more abundant ; and the average young American men and maidens have probably read and studied more standard English litera- ture than their contemporaries in the old country.” Here, if I may open a parenthesis, the corre- spondent of the Times fails to observe the dis- ## p. (#461) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. Io'7 tinction between the words British and English, which is beginning to obtain among American writers on English literature. As I heard this distinction put by a professor of literature at a leading American university not long ago, it is to this effect, “English literature is co-extensive with the English language. Whatever is written in English, no matter whether in London or Edinburgh, or New York or Calcutta, or Mel- bourne, in so far as it may be literature at all, is a part of English literature. That portion of this great English literature of ours which is written in America is American literature, that portion which may be written hereafter in Canada or in Australia will be Canadian literature and Austra- lian literature. And thus, to distinguish that portion of English literature now being written in Great Britain, we are forced to call it British literature.” In a word, since both sets of writers are using the English language, the proper antithesis is not between English authors and American authors, but between American authors and British authors. But the correspondent of the Times is alto- gether right in his assertion that English literature as a whole is more elaborately studied in the United States than in Great Britain. Nothing is more surprising to the undergraduate at an American university who wishes to pursue still further his studies in his own language than to discover that he can get no instruction in English literature at either of the great English universities. Perhaps I am wrong in saying that nothing is more surprising than this, for there is one thing even more astonishing, and this is to find an accomplished journalist like Mr. Andrew Lang seriously contending that English literature cannot be taught. Apparently Mr. Lang con- founds teaching with examining. Titerature, whether English or French or Latin or Greek, is a bad subject to examine on, no doubt; probably but little of any Greek examination is based on Greek literature, as literature pure and simple. But it is only in Great Britain, I think, that teaching is subordinated absolutely to examining. The Germans teach German literature with their usual thoroughness; the French teach French literature with their usual tact and skill; the Americans teach English literature. Just how they do it can be seen by a perusal of a volume called the “Teaching of English,” recently published by D. C. Heath and Co., and containing a score of papers reprinted from the Dial of Chicago, where they appeared nearly two years ago. Each of these papers was written by a professor at an important American university, and each gives an account of the method employed at that institution, noting the number of instruc- WOL, WI. tors and providing a list of the courses given. In the department of English at Harvard there must be nearly half a score of instructors, and in the same department at Columbia there are more than half a dozen. I cite these two institutions because no other of the American universities give as much attention to English as do Harvard and Columbia. The writer of the article on Yale in this volume complains of the fatal inadequacy of the instruction there, for example. As the writer of the article on Columbia points out, the English department has three distinct divisions; it is expected to teach first, English composition, in other words, rhetoric ; and second, the history of the English language; and third, the history of English literature. At Oxford and at Cam- bridge there is formal instruction only in the second of these three divisions, the history of the English language, although a certain amount of instruction in the first of the three, rhetoric, is undoubtedly given to the tutors in their criticism of the frequent essays. In every important American university the effort is made to supply proper instruction in all three departments. It is perhaps in the teaching of rhetoric that the greatest advance has been made, under the leadership of Harvard. Professor Barrett Wendell there, acting perhaps on suggestions of Professor A. S. Hill, developed a new method of practical instruc- tion in English composition. The substance of Professor Wendell’s teaching is to be found in his volume of lectures published two or three years ago by Charles Scribner and Sons. Pro- fessor George R. Carpenter, a Harvard man, brought this method to Columbia, where it was still further improved. Now Yale has called a Columbian man, Dr. Charles S. Baldwin, to introduce it to the undergraduates at New Haven. Professor Carpenter's book on “Rhetoric * is now published by Macmillan and Co. Four little volumes recently issued by Henry Holt and Co. are also to be mentioned here, as they are the outcome of this new movement. They are “Specimens of Argumentation,” edited by Mr. G. P. Baker, of Harvard; “Specimens of Exposition,” edited by Mr. Lamont, also of Harvard; “Specimens of Narration,” edited by Mr. Brewster, of Columbia; and “Specimens of Prose Description,” edited by Dr. Baldwin, formerly of Columbia and now of Yale. These specimens have in each case been carefully chosen to reveal the principles of the art, and they are adroitly contrasted one with another; and the notes and introductions of the editors afford a body of doctrine which the student can afterward apply for himself. The literary activity of the faculty and advanced students at Columbia is probably second only to N ## p. (#462) ################################################ IO3 THE AUTHOR. that at Harvard. The total number of instructors at Harvard is over three hundred, and the total number at Columbia is over two hundred and fifty; no other American university has two hundred—Chicago, Yale, and Princeton coming next to Columbia. Certain of the doctorate dis- Sertations are issued in a series of “Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law,” and others in a series of “Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education,” both of which now bear the imprint of Macmillan and Co. There is talk of a third series shortly to be begun of “Studies in Literature and Philology.” The next volume of the Columbia University Bio- logical series will be Dr. Bashford Dean’s “Fishes, Living, and Fossil; ” and the next three publi- cations of the Columbia University Press will be Professor Mayo-Smith’s “Statistics and Sociology,” Professor Munroe-Smith’s “Roman Cases on Obligation,” and Professor E. B. Wilson’s “Atlas of Fertilization.” Other new books by Columbia professors published by Macmillan and Co. are Professor Giddings' “Theory of Sociology” and Professor E. R. A. Seligman’s “Essays in Taxation.” I hear that Mr. Taurence Hutton, before his arrival in London, was busy in Paris with Dr. B. E. Martin, preparing a book upon the “Home and Haunts of French Men of Letters in the French Metropolis.” Dr. Martin, who has been a diligent and enthusiastic student of that side of Paris for upwards of a quarter of a century, had gathered a great mass of valuable and interesting material, which Mr. Hutton was helping him to verify and identify on the spot, and in a local way, with the aid of old maps and plans of the city. The book is to be uniform with Mr. Hutton’s “Literary Landmarks of London; ” and in view of Dr. Martin's knowledge of the French capital, the French language and French litera- ture, coupled with Mr. Hutton’s experience in digging out such things and putting such things together, the work should be one that will appeal to many readers. There is no book, in French or in English, especially devoted to this subject, and the allusions to it in the literature of Paris are scant and scattering Year by year the number increases of the books which have first seen the light piecemeal in the magazines; and just now an unusually large pro- portion of the volumes recently published or about to appear are made up of contributions to periodicals. Mr. Frederic Remington has found a particularly happy name for the collection of the breezy papers he has written to accompany his own vigorous pictures; he has called it “Pony Tracks,” and it is published by Harper and Brothers. From Harper's Magazine also has Mr. R. H. Davis gathered the papers which recorded the experience of a tenderfoot in Paris. To be expected soon is the volume containing the bold and striking stories of Western life with which Mr. Owen Wistar has strengthened the pages of Harper's during the past two years. From the Century have been taken the admirable woodcuts of the great Dutch paintings, engraved directly from the originals by Mr. Timothy Cole, and to be accompanied by letterpress from the pen of Mr. John C. Wan Dyke. In the Century also appeared the articles by Mr. Brander Matthews, which will be published in London by George Bell and Sons in the Ex-Libris Series, and here in New York by Macmillan and Co., under the title of “Bookbindings, Old and New ; Notes of a Booklover.” From St. Nicholas and from Harper's Young People comes a volume to be published by the Century Company; it is called “Hero Tales of American History,” and it has been prepared by Mr. Theodore Roosevelt and Mr. Henry Cabat Lodge, who have picked out of the very eventful and picturesque history of the United States certain of the most characteristic episodes—the Battle of New Orleans, for example, the Fight of the Constitution and the Guerrière, Cushing's Attack on the Albermarle, &c. Mr. Lodge is a senator of the United States, and Mr. Roosevelt is now President of the Police Com- mission of New York City; they are both men of letters, and they are both practical politicians. For the Freeman and Hunt series of “ Historic Towns,” published by Longmans, Green, and Co., Mr. Roosevelt wrote the volume on New York, and Mr. Lodge that on Boston. The welcome announcement has been made by Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., that enough of Lowell’s hitherto uncollected verse has been found to warrant the publication of another volume of his poetry this autumn. It is to be hoped that more than one volume of his prose will follow in due season, for there is abundant material for half a dozen volumes of essays scattered here and there in the Nation, and in the Atlantic Monthly, and in the North American Review. . R. *= ~ -º ar- - - NOTES FROM PARIS S a consequence of my last “ Notes from Paris” in the Author, I have received several letters in which I am asked several ques- tions. Of these the only one which I have time to answer this month is the question : “Who reads for publishers in Paris P” The answer is: The publisher himself, and that very rarely. French publishers rarely,if ever, take any riskin connection ## p. (#463) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. Io9 with a book. An unknown author having an MS. to publish, must pay for its publication. A suc- cessful author's work is sent to the printers without any previous perusal. Few, if any, Parisian publishers have “literary advisers;” their “literary advisers” are their ledgers. What literary advisers there may be—I never heard of any—are certainly not successful authors. In conversation the other day, at the National Club, in a group in which, inter alios, Hall Caine and Harold Frederic were present, the talk turned on the literary blackleg, and the case of one was cited. It is worth repeating. This is a certain well-known literary person, who, according to reports which he has never contra- dicted, is making a very large income with his pen. Amongst other literary functions he is the editor of a publication issued in monthly parts. In this capacity he has recently been inviting various well known but financially unprosperous confrères to contribute papers on the special sub- jects dealt with in these monthly parts at the rate of 2 Is... the page of I IOO words, to include the whole copyright. I wonder, when this successful novelist looks in the glass, how he likes the look of himself. * Alphonse Daudet writes me that he has been très souffrant, but is now much better, and is hard at work again. He is enjoying the autumn down at Champrosay. I hear various accounts of Emile Zola's new novel “Rome” from various people who have discussed it with the master, or have heard him read passages from his manuscript. Some say it is far and away the best thing he has ever written, others that it is very fine, but that they do not see the novel in it. My own impression is that it will be very documentary and rather dull, and that there will be rather too much of it. Zola himself told me that it will exceed “La Debäcle” in length. The forthcoming publishing season in Paris promises works of great interest. To begin with there will be Alphonse Daudet's “Soutien de Famille,” some scenes in which are laid in Eng- land, and will afford an insight into the impres- sions received by the writer during his short stay in London this spring. Then there is Paul Bourget’s “L'Idylle Tragique,” Jean Richepin’s new novel “Flamboche,” and Maurice Barrès's “Leurs Figures,” a series of articles origi- nally published in Le Figaro. Apropos of Barrès's book, I must say, little as I like Barrès and his work, that the article which gives its name to the book is one of the best pieces of journalism that I have ever read. It was written just after the memorable sitting in the Chamber of Deputies when it was made public that the list of the IO4 deputies who had received bribes from the Panama Company was in the hands of the Government, and that a general prosecution would probably be commenced. Barrès in his article depicts “Their Faces.” It was published on the morrow, and by noon was the talk of the town. Daudet was enthusiastic about its literary quality. The gentle poet François Coppée is back in his native Paris from a cure at Eaux-Bonnes, and, I am glad to hear, at work again on a new novel which, begun in the spring, had been laid aside at the time of his illness. We shall await this novel with interest, for Coppée has not yet succeeded in producing a good novel, though he has produced good poetry and excellent plays. Few men can write hoth excellent plays and excellent novels. Will Coppèe be one of the few P I hope so, for he is such an excellent man. François Coppèe never refuses to be inter- viewed, though he is a nervous, reserved man, very fond of seclusion. I once saw him being interviewed by an American journalist who hardly spoke any French at all—Coppée speaks no English—and I could not help admiring his patience and his benevolence. “Why should I refuse to help the good young fellows—who, after all, are my confrères—to earn a little money P” he says. Of interest to English readers will be “Nouvelles études Anglaises,” by the late M. Darmesteter, which is to be published shortly by Messrs. Calman-Lévy. Of similar interest to the Americans will be Les Américaines Chez Elles, by Th. Bentzon, which will also be published by Messrs. Calman-Lévy. Amongst further contributions to the mass of literature on the Napoleonic period, which are shortly to be published in Paris, I note “Le Journal de la Campagne de Prusse, 1806-1807,” by Maréchal Davent, “Lettres de la Duchesse de Broglie,” “La Campagne de 1812,” by Major Faber du Faure, with a preface by Armand Dayot, Georges Barral’s “Epopée de Waterloo,” Ida Saint-Elme's “Memoires d’une Contem- poraine,” vol. 2 of the “Journal du Maréchal de Castellane, 1804-1862,” the “Memoires du Duc de Persigny,” the “Memoires du Lieutenant- Général Comte de Saint-Chamans, 1801-1830,” and the fifth and last volume of General Baron Thiebault's memoirs. And I have only mentioned the more important. Hall Caine used to tell me of some great writer who told him that it is the first sign of decay in a man when he begins to persistently look back on his past. If this be true, and if it holds good with nations also, I am afraid that our dear France must be in a bad way. Indeed, I know she is. ## p. (#464) ################################################ UIQ. THE AUTHOR. A question which is agitating literary Paris is this: Inasmuch as the French Academy was only created by Richelieu for the purpose of writing a dictionary of the French language, will the Academy, ipso facto, be dissolved when it has finished its labours on the French dictionary P Academicians are being consulted on this ques- tion. In the meanwhile, M. Zola need not be anxious. The labour of the Academy appears to be as immortal as the Academicians themselves claim to be. The dictionary has not progressed during all these years beyond the letter A. Léon Daudet is bringing out a volume of “Critiques,” I am rather sorry to hear. Léon Daudet has far too much originality to need to write “critiques” about other writer's works. We had been hoping for his new novel, “Le Voyage de Shakespeare dans le Nord.” Considerable interest is being taken in France in contemporary English literature, and of late quite a number of translations of modern English novels have appeared en feuilleton in the best French news, apers. This is as it should be, though the prices paid for droits de traduction are lower than they should be under the circum- stances. In Arthur Benham we, of the Authors’ Club, have lost an excellent companion, a downright good fellow, and the world at large an excep- tionally gifted writer. If Benham had lived, the English stage would have been endowed with plays which would have been able to bear com- parison with the best French work. Those who knew his work, and could foresee of what he was capable, will agree with me in this statement. The tendency of French authors, with the notable exception of M. Emile Zola, is to give less and less matter in their 3ſr. 50c. volumes. This is less because the French author is lazy than because the French reader prefers a short book. In England, whose commercialism infects everything and everybody, the reader wants as much “reading-matter’’ for his money as he can get. Other things being equal, the 6s. volume, which contains 120,000 words, will sell far better than the 6s. volume of only 80,000 words, and so on. Many booksellers have told me this on both sides of the water. ROBERT H. SHERARD. NOTES AND NEWS, WHE utterances of Sir C. H. Tupper on the copyright question, as reported in the Times, do not appear conciliatory, but quite the contrary. He seems to have no under- standing of the real interests at stake which are not at all connected with the paltry gains of a few Toronto printers. Nor do they really concern, so far as Canada is concerned, the material interests of authors. Under the old arrangement Canada is bound to collect and to send over 12% per cent. royalty. This she has never done, except on a very small scale. Under the new arrangement she will be bound to collect and to send over a Io per cent. royalty. There is not the least reason to believe that she intends to discharge this, any more than she has hitherto discharged the other obligations. No one would object to the action of Canada in this matter but for the danger to international copyright. Nothing can be more important than that all the English speaking races should be governed by the same laws of copyright, and that these laws should protect literature alike in every one of the countries concerned. If Sir C. H. Tupper is unable to see the importance of binding all these countries together by the bond of a common literature, so much the worse for Sir C. H. Tupper; and still the fact remains that, although , the proposed action will endanger this great measure, now happily obtained after fifty years of struggle for it, these Canadians are pressing on a measure with no excuse but (1) the alleged right to make their own copyright laws, and (2) the undoubted intention of the Toronto printers—there are no publishers to speak of—to pour their cheap and pirated stuff into the American market. Is there to be a new form of novel? If so, it will be a novel told in dialogue, with scenes, acts, and tableaux. The French have for some time used this method with short stories. A story called “A Hard Woman,” by Miss Violet Hunt, now running in Chapman’s Magazine, is destined, I think, to be followed by many others told in the same way. Miss Hunt relates her story almost entirely by dialogue. Not quite. In her next novel of this kind she will probably still more largely use the dialogue form. In the bright and clever pages of “A Hard Woman” there are many little bits of description which might be turned into dialogue, and there are other bits which might be omitted altogether, as, for instance, the words which describe the action. Of course, it is quite possible to write a long novel wholly as a play. Since a ## p. (#465) ################################################ THE AUTHOR, I I I play tells a story, a story can be told by a play. That is elementary. But there are certain rules to be observed in an acting play which do not apply to a novel: romance is not limited to two hours in reading: nor to five acts: nor to any set scenes; nor is it bound to observe the Conventional exits and entrances; nor has the novelist to “write up" parts for this or that actor. . In all these points he is quite free. Yet a novel in dialogue has to be dramatic. In other words the characters must stand out, every one clear and distinct and unmistakable: there can be no woolliness. The story must be clear and plain from the outset : everything must be indicated briefly : the situations must be effective: there must be no waste of talk: the scenes must not be too long : every chapter, i.e., every situation, must have its own scene: and there must be no waste of scenes, but every one must carrv on the story. Everybody must have observed the growing tendency to use dialogue instead of description. The old-fashioned description—word-painting it used to be called—is going out fast. Perhaps we are too impatient to read it any longer. If, for instance, you take up one of the old-forgotten novels of the last century—I have scores of these, and have had to read them all—you will find description employed for everything. No emotion, no passion, is suggested or left to the imagina- tion; there is very little dialogue. The result is, generally, the most deadly dulness conceivable. I think that Black and White was the earliest paper to publish those dialogues, and monologues, and scenes in dialogue which, in the hands of Anthony Hope and Miss Violet Hunt, and others, have been found so delightful and so fresh. With the “Hard Woman’ before us, it seems quite safe to prophecy a great development of the dialogue. Meantime, it must be remembered, that to read a play requires a certain amount of imaginative power. The larger part of mankind have not enough imagination to read plays with pleasure; therefore, this new branch of fiction can never supersede the other. Yet it will cause the old style to brighten itself, to become more dramatic—-that is to say, it will make the art of fiction more exacting and more difficult. This is as it should be; for, since the art has been found to offer a profession at once delightful and capable of offering great prizes in fame and fortune, it has begun to attract more and more the better sort. =sºººº- I have received several letters of complaints concerning contributors and their grievances. They have mostly been already treated, and at some length, in these columns. We are glad to believe that the publication of these complaints has resulted in some good, especially in those Quarters where the editor is anxious to treat his contributors with respect and courtesy. The com- plaints, which do not affect respectable journals, are as follows: I. A journal advertises for contributions, offer- ing so much per column. The contributor sends in something with stamps for return ; does not get it returned, and receives no answer to his letter. My contributor thinks that the editor thus acquires a valuable mass of literature. I rather incline to the belief that he acquires a valuable mass of postage stamps. 2. Long waiting. A MS. accepted; in seven months, a proof; in another month, appearance; three weeks after- wards, a cheque. My sympathies are, I confess, partly with the editor. Our English custom of paying on publi- cation is bad, because it tempts an editor to pile up more than he wants. Having all this matter, however, what can he do but take it as it comes? 3. Delay of readers. One writer has been kept: in suspense for two months. But perhaps the reader was on holiday. 4. Some editors announce, beforehand, that publication and not the sending of a proof is a guarantee of acceptance. Well, a public announcement of this limitation is like a clause in an agreement. “You can take it,” says the editor, who has a perfect right to make such conditions as he thinks fit, “ or you may leave it.” 5. My correspondent argues that all work should be paid for when bought. I think so too. But, On the other hand, there is this to be said. If the editor can wait, and use an otherwise doubtful article when it seems convenient; to fill a gap; to meet the topic of the day: there is many an article from unknown writers which he is able to take and to use—which he would not take and use had he to pay for it on the spot. I think, however, that it would be quite possible for an editor to say, “I may be able to use this article if you leave it with me? Perhaps I may not. Will you take your chance?” Great news for poets' An editor, a London editor, the editor of a London magazine is advertising for poems | Actually, a London editor, who is generally believed to live in an active shower bath of poems, is advertising for more | He says that he wants them for immediate printing. Well, this seems a chance, but still we must not be precipitate. First, we must find out ## p. (#466) ################################################ II 2 THE AUTHOR. something about the special circumstances of the case. The address is not that of the Pall Mall Magazine, nor that of Longman's, nor that of the English Illustrated—what magazine can it be? For “immediate printing,” too. Is there to be any payment for these immortal poems ? Is the editor to have them for nothing? Once there was an editor who advertised for articles—prose or poetry. When anybody sent him an article he replied courteously—he was a very polite editor— that the article was magnificent—epochmaking— and that he should be delighted to publish it in his magazine. The author, of course, would at once become an annual subscriber—prepaid—and would take 500 copies of the number containing his article at sixpence a-piece. These copies he could easily sell among his friends for a shilling each, and so before long grow not only famous, but also rich beyond the dreams of avarice. I do not think, however, that the magazine had a long life. A correspondent writes as follows: “It is pro- bable that a little story, a gem of its kind, called “A Page of Philosophy,’ which appears in this (last) month's Macmillan's Magazine, may fail to receive the recognition due to its merit. I hope you will allow me to recommend to the attention of critics the simplicity and delicacy of portraiture achieved in a few lines; the subtlety of wit and the graceful polished style that characterises this story. One critic, at least, ventures to think that the story belongs both to literature and art. The author is a practised craftsman as well as an artist; the vividness with which this pessimist reveals himself no less through his letters than by the comments of his little group of friends, might well be envied by the master of short story- tellers.” I wish there were more correspondents so ready and eager to proclaim aloud the discovery of good work by a new, or an anonymous, writer. It is always easy—alas! so very easy—to decry and to depreciate and to “slate.” It requires only a bitter tongue and a malevolent heart; one need not read a work in order to revile it ; but to praise it intelligently and critically wants actual reading and the generosity of heart that can recognise work better than the critic can himself produce. As for this story, I have not yet read it, but I will make haste to follow my correspon- dent’s advice, and I recommend all readers of the Author to do likewise. - The following letter is stated by the Writer (Boston, Mass.) to have been received by an American publisher. It is so modest, so shrink- ing and diffident that one is amazed to learn that it was refused. Why does he not send it over here P A Boom—that enviable fortune—a Boom, would be certain : Messrs : Having just completed a novel, entitled “Doomed to Destruction: or, a Coquette's Punishment,” I take the liberty to write you, with a view, of course, of selling you the same. This is truly a most remarkable work throughout. Its style is pleasing, the plot is profound, and the characters play their parts in the drama to perfection. This is no blood-and-thunder story, but rather an intensely interesting love story, and is one of the few novels before the public which are able to hold the reader’s attention from the first page of the book to the last. Expecting an early reply, I am, yours most respectfully, A. B. From the same paper I learn that Mary Cowden Clarke, the compiler of the Shakespeare Concordance, is still living. Her home is at Genoa, and she is now eighty-six years of age. She therefore belongs to the Annus Mirabilis, 1809, which produced Darwin, Bismarck, Glad- stone, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and so many more illustrious men and women. The Writer is a paper devoted to the guidance and instruction of those who aspire to literary honours. There is generally some good and practical advice in its pages, together with a great deal of personal matter. Thus a long article is “made up" out of one in the Forum on the gains of a man who lives by writing. There is a paper on plot-making for stories by a writer whose name is not known on this side of the Atlantic. He has, however, little to say except to tell what is, or was, the practice of certain well-known novelists. There is talk about the methods of illustration; there are queries; there are grammatical notes; there are lists of books and literary articles; and there are personal notes—these in great abundance. There is also advertised a “Literary Bureau,” which reads MSS. and tries to place them, and advises on them. We observe that the “Bureau” charges exactly twice as much for reading and advising on an MS. book as is charged by our Society for the same work. Would it, I wonder, be a useful thing for the Society to offer advice on articles for magazines P. The Literary Bureau charges for reading and advising about one shilling for every thousand words. This seems to include typewriting, but the advertisement is not plain On this point. The charge, if it does not include typewriting, seems too much for a magazine article, which should run from six thousand to ten thousand words. Now, there are thousands of articles submitted to editors every year. Would it be possible for us to help the writers by giving them the opinion of a judicious coach, ## p. (#467) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. II 3 and to relieve editors of some of their labours by reading magazine articles and advising on them for a small fee of five shillings each P Our present system of reading MSS. has proved very helpful to many. Perhaps some of our readers will give their opinion upon this point. Of course it must be understood that the Society cannot, at all events, at present, offer MSS. to editors, nor undertake the work of literary agency in any form. WALTER BESANT. *~ * ~ * - * --- JOHN KEATS, (Born 29th Oct., 1795.) Lyrist, who—nursed not by Aonian flow, But rush and roar of London's wilderness, Ere scathed by scorn Tartarean—felt the stress That fired the Greek, the pearl’d Spenserean glow, And garden-glamour of Boccaccio, Roams he thro' happier regions of redress P Whom the Gods loved—by some divine caress Dower'd with Song a hundred years ago. He has survived the Critic's venom'd fang, The Day-star of his fame has cleft the gloom, Pale o'er him no elusive Phantoms loom, Nor knows he fruitless Passion’s arrowy pang ; Still peer the Roman violets round his tomb, Whose chant was sweeter than the Bird’s he sang. C. A. KELLY. *- A -º- z- - - MR, AUSTIN DOBSON'S POEMS, HY is it that while poets of the more serious kind, poets who deal in ambi- tious tragedies and pessimistic odes, are as plentiful as gooseberries among us, those who sing leviore plectro have always been few, and threaten to become still fewer? Perhaps it is owing to the seriousness of the British tempera- ment, or perhaps to the playfulness of the critics, who conceive that the highest compliment possible to the writer of light verse is a statement that “this verse shows that the writer may some day accomplish work of a different and far more valuable kind,” meaning, presumably, an addition to those lugubrious works of which we have more than an abundance already. Why, again—to ask one more futile question—is there some species of deadly blight which afflicts the few who are really capable of giving us light verse of the first order, and which leads them to desert this form of composition so early P. Thus had Mr. Locker Lampson ceased to sing long years before his death, thus has Mr. Lang jilted the gayer muse, thus, worst far, is it possible for us to regard Mr. Dobson’s two small volumes as the sum of his work in rhyme. Small they are, the two together contain but some 500 minute pages. But how gladly would some of us forego many of his prose sketches of the eighteenth century, delighted as they are, for a third volume of verse, to stand on our book- shelves beside “At the Sign of the Lyre,” and “Old World Idylls 1” For, indeed, I do not think it overbold to claim that Mr. Dobson is absolutely the best writer of English light verse that has ever lived. There are the rollicking rhymes, which represented poetical humour in the earlier part of the century, bristling with puns, overflowing with animal spirits—the work of Thomas Hood in his more boisterous mood, of Theodore Hook, Barham, and others. There is the more subdued but deftly polished work of Praed, Henry Leigh, and Mortimer Collins, the irresistible parodies of Calverley and J. K. Stephen. But nowhere save in Mr. Dobson's poems do we find that exquisite perfection of form joined with the brilliancy of a finished wit and the tender insight of a true poet. Perhaps the late Mr. Locker Lampson approached him most nearly, but alike in structure and beauty of thought Mr. Dobson’s best verses seem to me to beat all rivals with the utmost ease. And, while no poet is perfectly equal to his best at all times, surely few are so little unequal as is Mr. Dobson. Of the two volumes into which his work has been gathered, perhaps “At the Sign of the Lyre " is slightly the better. From cover to cover, from “The Ladies of St. James’s ”: The ladies of St. James’s You scarce can understand The half of all their speeches Their phrases are so grand : But Phyllida, my Phyllida | Her shy and simple words Are clear as after rain-drops The music of the birds— (Could any but a poet have written these last four lines P) down to the graceful rondeau at the end the book is a pure delight. One does not know what quality in it to admire most. The humour of “A Legacy” and “Dora versus Rose,” the laughing satire of “The Poet and the Critics,” the charming tenderness of such pieces as “Little Blue-Ribbons” or “Daisy’s Walentines”: But wait. Your time will come. Obliging Fates, please send her The bravest thing you have in men, Sound-hearted, strong, and tender;-- The kind of man, dear Fates, you know, That feels how shyly Daisies grow, And what soft things they are, and so Will spare to spoil or mend her. And then, Mr. Dobson’s reverence for the poets forbids ## p. (#468) ################################################ I4 THE AUTHOR. him to write mere parodies. But, however mechanical Pope's style may be, could ever imita- tion come closer than this passage written in his best manner: Pope was, like them, the Censor of his Age An Age more suited to Repose than Rage; When Rhyming turn’d from Freedom to the Schools, And, shock’d with Licence, shudder'd into Rules. Surely Alexander the little would have claimed the last couplet as his own. Indeed one is tempted to quote for ever, to write down extracts from the two green volumes long enough to fill many articles. But if any know not their charm, we envy them the pleasure yet to become their own. How playful is “An Autumn Idyll!” IIow keen the satire of “A Virtuoso | ?” How delicate the “Proverbs in Porcelain ” In these, and elsewhere too, the poet makes us feel the very atmosphere of the 18th century. Of his skill in the old French metres—Vallade, Triolet, Villa- nesse Chant Royal—it is needless to speak. His is the art that conceals artifice, that makes the metrical tours-de-force seem so easy to write. Let us quote only one triolet. O, Love's but a dance Where Time plays the fiddle ! See the couples advance— O, Love's but a dance A whisper, a glance— Shall we twist down the middle ! O, Love's but a dance Where Time plays the fiddle ! What a pity—what a thousand pities, we cry, that such a poet as this should resolutely put his verse aside for “the pains of prose.” In Temple Bar for March, 1895, Mr. Dobson bids his verse a last farewell: Not ill-content to stand aside To yield to minstrels fitter His singing robes, his singing pride, His fancies sweet and bitter. Ah, but he wrote long ago a prophetic answer to his own excuse. Indeed! You really fancy so P You think for one white streak we grow At once satiric P A fiddlestick | Each hair's a string To which our ancient Muse shall sing A younger lyric. And so, having sat down to attempt some sort of critical estimate of Mr. Dobson's poems, I have penned nothing but a frankly uncritical eulogy of it. him to give us more of his inimitable verse—only those who have humbly followed him at a distance know how inimitable. As for that which he already has done, surely it will live, for it is the work not merely of a humorist, but of a poet, in the truest sense of that weighty word. To Let me conclude by beseeching Mr. Dobson's verse we may fitly apply some words of his own. - It will last till men weary of pleasure In measure It will last till men weary of laughter And after ANTHONY C. DEANE. Barcombe, Lewes. *— — —” * * * FROM THE MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS, OLERIDGE looms large in the literary view at the present time, by reason of the volumes of his Letters which appeared lately. Mr. Nowell C. Smith (Fortnightly Review, “Coleridge and His Critics”) sighs over man- kind, preferring to be more interested in authors than their books, and takes the view that though otherwise it would have been well to wait sixty years, as we have done, for a Life of Coleridge, yet, as so much had been written and suggested about his character, “it was a thousand pities someone could not give to the world what the late Mr. Dykes Campbell has so lately given,” a plain, and so far as possible accurate, narrative. Mr. Smith appears satisfied with the poet's explanation in “Biographia,” how his life was “one long floundering in ‘a sea of trouble.’” He longed to take the world into his confidence, but had never learned that “the sympathetic ear of the world only exists in metaphor. He was an egotist, like all of us; but a guileless one, like—how many ?” Another writer (Atlantic Monthly) likens Coleridge to a nineteenth- century Dr. Johnson, “but living in an ampler ether and breathing a diviner air;” and regards the source of his thought as those ancient writers of the Neoplatonist school, Jamblichus and Plotinus. “The world did not lose when he turned from poetry to prose”; but the mis- fortune of his intellectual life was that his best found vent in conversation rather than in letters, perhaps because he needed the stimulus of a visibly present audience, “ or it may have been that in conversation he found a pathway which offered least resistance to his powers, hampered as they were by indolence and weakness of the will.” According to Mrs. Dynn Linton (National Review, “The Philistine's Coming Triumph,”) “our Philistine,” who “ has had enough to do to keep alive in him a glimmer of hope for better days on his political side, as on his literary and artistic,” now “sees the end of his travail and the beginning of his triumph.” We are to have, inter alia, “our sweet and strong and pure and domestic women back again.” But the Philistine ## p. (#469) ################################################ THE II 5 A UTHOR. “must not stifle Art and clip the wings of Poetry, save where these are self-degraded by hiring themselves out to the service of filth and abomination. He may banish the Pandemos, but the Anadyomene is sacred; and when he attempts to drive out Nature with a pitchfork his hands must be tied behind his back.” Mrs. Linton first met George Eliot–Marian Evans of that day—at John Chapman's, and the effect was to put up her “mental bristles " (JWoman at Home, “A First Meeting with George Eliot ”). “She was essentially underbred and provincial; and I, in the swaddling-clothes of early education and prepossession as I was, saw more of the provincial than the genius. She held her hands and arms kangaroo fashion; was badly dressed; had an unwashed, unbrushed, unkempt look altogether; and she assumed a tone of superiority over me which I was not then aware was warranted by her undoubted leader- ship.” George Eliot's later self-consciousness Mrs. Linton is down upon, and her second marriage is described as “a blunder, if not worse, that will always cloud her memory and vitiate her first choice.” “Vernon Lee' offers a kind of mathematical plan to young writers learning their métier (Contemporary Review, “On Lite- rary Construction ”), taking the line that “in literature all depends on what you can set the reader to do ; if you confuse his ideas or waste his energy, you can no longer do anything.” A pen-stroke is to represent the first train of thought or group of facts. Another for the second, long or short, according to the number of words or pages occupied, and which, connected with the first stroke, “will deflect to the right or the left according as it contains more or less new matter; so that, if it grow insensibly from stroke number one, it will have to be almost straight, and if it contain something entirely disconnected, will be at right angles.” And so on, adding pen strokes of proportionate length for every new train of thought or group of facts, and writing the name along each. If the reader's mind is to run easily along the whole story or essay, the resulting map will approximate most likely to a perfect circle or ellipse.” The alleged failure of the Free Library is attributed by Mr. W. Roberts, in a paper on the subject (New Review), chiefly to lack of judg- mert in the selection of books. As showing the “absurd preponderance of fiction,” he quotes Mr. Charles Welch’s statistics that, in the twenty-seven districts of London which have adopted the Act, the issue of fiction averages 75 per cent. in seventeen, and reaches over 80 per cent. in the other nine. He recommends, to put the movement on a proper basis, (I) a central organisation, under the supervision, more or less, of the Home Secretary; (2) every reader to have direct access to the books, as a catalogue title is not, as a rule, a clear indication of the contents of a book; and (3) a monthly or quarterly list of acquisitions, arranged according to subject. Speaking for graduates of five-and-twenty years' standing, a writer on “Oxford Then and Now’ (Blackwood's Magazine), while not entirely appreciating Somerville Hall and “the invasion of our old University by a tribe of ‘revolted daughters,’” hails with pleasure “the presence of intellectual womanhood as represented by the wives of the married Fellows.” “Of one thing we may be sure, that ingenitae Artes and literae Humaniores will be more truly learned and prac- tised under the new than under the old régime, and that many of the more objectionable features of undergraduate life will of necessity be eradi- cated.” The Rev. T. E. Brown, in a causerie on Bobert Burton (New Review), characterises that Melancholist as a virtual Proteus, a will-o'-the- wisp. “‘What’s a sovereign P. No, it isn't,' was the question with which the late Professor of Political Economy at Oxford used to delight to pose an audience of young ladies. Well that is Burton : he does not want you to know ; your knowledge would be to him an impertinence.” *– A – CRICKET MATCH. PRESS CLUB v. AUTHORs’ CLUB. T Lord's, yesterday, representatives of these A clubs met in friendly rivalry for the first time. Although the Press Club had its strongest eleven in the field, the Authors' Club was not fully represented. The Authors lacked the services of Dr. Conan Doyle, who is on the Continent, and Mr. J. M. Barrie. The match proved a most Cxciting one, and the interest in it was well sustained to the finish. Although they won the toss, the Press Club put their opponents in first. At the outset this policy was not attended with very happy results, as, thanks to some vigorous cricket on the part of Lindsey and Grimwood-Mears, the Authors had at lunch-time put together 97 for the loss of only two wickets. After the interval, however, a complete change came over the game. Southerton and Preston each performed the “hat trick,” with the result that the Authors were eventually disposed of for 152. When they got out only an hour and three- quarters remained for play. Jones and Groves hit in brilliant style, and, as they registered 99 in less than an hour for the first wicket, the Press Club passed their opponents' total within fifteen minutes of the hour originally fixed upon for the ## p. (#470) ################################################ I 16 THE AUTHOR. drawing of stumps, for the loss of only five of their men. The game was continued until six o'clock, with the result that the Press Club won by 49 runs. Scores: AUTHORs' CLUB. T. Lindsay, b Preston ... 56 G. C. Ives, not out H. A. Gwynne, b Graves I | A. Gomme, jun., b Pres- H. A. Holt, b Jones ...... O ton E. Grimwood-Mears, c T. Macfadyon, b Preston o Cowan, b Southerton... 61 | F. Beeton, b Southerton 6 J. Gilmer, b Southerton o Byes I7, 1-b I, n.-b I IQ N. Balfour, b Southerton o L. Gomme, b Preston ... 6 Total............ I52 PRESS CLUB. - ‘G. J. Groves, c Lindsey, A. Cowan, b Holt ......... 7 b Macfadyon ........ ... 69 H. Jacobson, b Ives ... ... I H. W. Jones, b Holt ... ... 25 | E. R. Ward, run out ...... O H. Preston, st Gwynne, b J. Barr, b Ives ... . . . . . . . . . 2 Ives ................. ...... I4 E. A. O’Keefe, b Holt ... 2 H. B. Smith, not out...... 55 B 7, 1-b 2, w 3 ... ... I 2 F. Catling, st Gwynne, b Holt........................ 7 --- S. J. Southerton, b Ives 7 Total ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 —Daily Chronicle, Sept. 18. *— — —” * BOOK TALK, R. EGERTON CASTTLE'S romance “The Light of Scarthey,” the publication of which as a serial in The Times' Weekly Edition has just come to an end, will be issued in one volume form by Messrs. Osgood McIlvaine and Co. during the first week of October. This book will be the second of The Times Novels; the first to appear in this new and important series was, as many may remember, Mrs. Francis's admirable story “A Daughter of the Soil.” Mr. Joseph Conrad is engaged upon a new romance to succeed his successful “Almayer's Folly.” The local setting and some of the characters will be the same. Mr. Fisher Unwin will publish the volume, which will be called “An Outcast of the Island.” * “The Wooing of Doris’’ is the title of a novel by the late Mrs. J. K. Spender, which Messrs. Innes are to publish very soon. Miss Mary Angela Dickens is the author of a novel called “Prisoners of Silence,” which Messrs. Osgood McIlvaine are about to publish. The Latin Quarter of Paris is the subject of a novel by Mr. Robert W. Chambers, called “In the Quarter.” Messrs. Chatto and Windus are the publishers. “Miss Grace of All Souls” is the striking title chosen by Mr. W. E. Tirebuck for his novel on the great coal strike. Miss Grace, a vicar's daughter, represents the modern woman of the story, and three other types are a grandfather whose faith is in the past, a son with unbounded belief in the present, and a grandson who is understood to hold the balance between labour and capital. The work attempts to represent the position of the man and woman of to-day towards the labour question. Mr. Heinemann will issue it. Another novel by Katharine Tynan is in the hands of Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen for publi- cation. The title is “The Way of a Maid.” Mr. Henry Craik's series of selections from English prose, which began with a volume from Sir John Mandeville and the early English writers, will be concluded this autumn. A new book by Mr. Grant Allen, “The Desire of the Eyes, and Other Stories,” is announced for publication by Messrs. Digby, Long, and Co. The author was, it seems, altogether unaware of this intention until he read the announcement, and, indeed, he would not have desired to re- publish the title-story. Writing the particulars to the Athenæum of the 21st ult., he states that, to prevent recurrence of such “unpleasant expe- riences,” he proposes to send the following printed notice with every manuscript he forwards to editors: “This article or story is offered or sold on the distinct understanding that I part with British serial rights only for a single periodical; the copyright, together with all other serial rights, foreign or colonial, remaining my own property, unless a written agreement to the contrary is signed by me.” A new series of tales of adventure will be com- menced by Messrs. Innes on an early day. The first volume is to be “A Set of Rogues,” by Mr. Frank Barrett ; the second, by Mr. James Chal- mers, entitled “The Renegade’’; and a historical tale of the seventeenth century, written by Mr. J. C. Snaith, and called “Mistress Dorothy Marvin,” will be the third. The same firm will also publish “Lost Chords,” a novel by Mr. Arthur Rickett ; and “For Love of Price,” by Mr. Leslie Keith. - Mr. James Hogg, the associate of De Quincey, has prepared a volume on “De Quincey and His Friends,” which will be issued this month by Messrs. Sampson Low. Besides his own remi- miscences and material Mr. Hogg has secured the recollections of others who also had admission to De Quincey’s circle. Dr. A. H. Japp writes an account of De Quincey’s career for the work. Mr. Edwin Hodder is to write the biography of the late Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, who was chiefly known for his work on behalf of children employed in canal boats and gipsy vans. A biography of the late Lord Clarence Paget, consisting of diaries and memoirs, edited by Sir ## p. (#471) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 17 Arthur Otway, will be published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall early in the autumn. Edinburgh is moving to celebrate the cen- tenary of the birth of Thomas Carlyle. The assistance of Professor Masson and Principal Muir has been secured amongst others, and various literary and other societies will take part. Mr. Thomas Usher, secretary of the Border Counties Association, Edinburgh, invites suggestions on the subject. A popular illustrated biography of Carlyle is announced for publication by Messrs. Chambers. Besides the “Centenary Burns,” which Mr. Henley and Mr. T. F. Henderson are editing, there is to be an edition of the Scottish poet by Mr. Andrew Lang. The latter is to be published by Messrs. Methuen ; the former hails from Messrs. Jack, of Edinburgh. Mr. William Wallace is revising for a new edition, the “Life and Works of Robert Burns,” by the late Dr. Robert Chambers, which will be in four or five volumes. It will have illustrations from original drawings by Mr. C. Martin Hardie, R.S.A., Mr. W. D. Mackay, R.S.A., Mr. G. O. Reid, A.R.S.A., and Mr. G. Pirie. Mr. William Archer has translated from the Norwegian Dr. Georg Brandes's work, “William Shakespeare: A Critical Study.” It will be in two volumes, and published by Mr. Heinemann. Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge is at work on a life of the poet, whose grandson he is. Quite recently the “Letters of Samuel Taylor Cole- ridge ’’ was published, and warmly welcomed under Mr. Coleridge’s editorship. He now invites those who may possess letters still un- published to forward them to him for use in the biography. Mr. Heinemann is publisher. A distinguished band of contributors has been got for “The Book of Beauty (late Victorian Era),” a work which Messrs. Hutchison and Co. are preparing. The writers include, for instance, Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Mr. Hall Caine, Mr. George Moore, Mr. Frankfort Moore, Mr. George Curzon, M.P., the Marchioness of Granby, Wis- countess Hood, Princess Henry of Pless, Lady Ileene Campbell, Lady Charlotte Stopford, and others; while there will be portraits by Sir Frederic Leighton, Sir John Millais, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Mr. Luke Fildes, Mr. J. S. Sargent, Mr. Whistler, and other painters. A volume on Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, and Persia has been edited by Sir Charles Wilson for Mr. Murray's Handbook series. Messrs. A. and C. Black have just published a new novel entitled “Dr. Quantrill's Experiment: the Chronicle of a Second Marriage,” by T. Inglis. (Price 3s. 6d.) A history of the most celebrated songs of the world will begin serially in Lloyd’s News this week. It is entitled “Stories of Famous Songs,” and the author, Mr. S. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald, has spent ten years over it. The work will appear later in book form. A new illustrated quarterly will make its appearance towards the close of the year, pub- lished by Leonard C. Smithers of Effingham House, Arundel-street, Strand. The name of this publication has not yet been decided on, but a rather strong band of contributors has been got together, including Mr. Aubrey Beardsley (Art Editor), Mr. Charles Conder, Mr. F. Norreys Connell, Mr. Ernest Dowson, Mr. Havelock Ellis, Mr. Herbert P. Horne, Mr. Lionel Johnson, Mr. George Moore, Mr. Will Rothenstein, Mr. Arthur Symons (Literary Editor), and many others. Mr. Smithers intends to attempt something quite unique in the reproduction of the artistic contributions. Mr. Smithers will also publish about the same time a new novel from the pen of Mr. F. Norreys Connell, whose “House of the Strange Woman,” in spite of much hostile criticism, is reported to be rapidly “catching on,” and further editions may be looked for in due course. Mr. Connell, too, has joined the staff of the Unicorn. The Roxburghe Press will issue almost imme- diately “Furs and Fur Garments,” a history of fur garments and fur animals. It is written by Mr. Richard Davey. The statistics as to the modern fur trade have been supplied by Mr. T. S. Jay, F. Z.S., whose practical knowledge and experience of the subject should render the work particularly interesting. It will be copiously illustrated and daintily produced. An edition of 5000 copies has already been called for. The first prize of 2000 dollars offered by the Bacheller Syndicate for the best detective story of 2000 words has been awarded to Miss Mary E. Wilkins, of Randolph, Mass., and Joseph Edgar Chamberlin, of the Youth's Companion, who submitted “The Long Arm,” written in collabo- ration. Brander Matthews took the second prize with “The Twinkling of an Eye.” Both stories have appeared in Chapman's Magazine. Among the well-known writers who submitted stories in competition for the prizes were : Anna Katherine Green, Florence Marryatt, Duffield Osborne, and Robert W. Chambers. There were 3000 stories sent in. Stories worthy of honourable mention were written by John Seymour Wood, of the University Club, New York city; H. Lynde, of Richmond, Ind. ; Edgar Thormet Roy, of New York city; and David Skeets Foster, of Utica, N. Y. ## p. (#472) ################################################ I 18 THE AUTHOR. “Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire,” by H, Thornhill Timmins, F.R.G.S., will shortly make its appearance. Mr. Timmins’ “Herefordshire,” which was very favourably noticed by the Press. “Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire * describes, in a narra- tive way, the most interesting localities of that little known county, and is very fully illustrated by over Ioo sketches of its more picturesque features, drawn upon the spot by the author. A new edition of “The Steam Navy of Eng- land,” will shortly be issued by Mr. Harry Williams, R.N., the author. The publishers are W. H. Allen and Co., 13, Waterloo-place, S.W. This work is dedicated, by special permission, to Admiral of the Fleet, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. The author has taken advantage of the issue of this edition of his book to add an essay on the Personnel of the Steam Branch of the Navy, but notwithstanding this enlargement of the original work, the publishing price (12s. 6d.) will be the same as before. The fifth volume of the “Annual Index to Periodicals '' issued at the Review of Reviews office is now ready. It deals with 1894, as the pre- vious issues have dealt with 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893, and thus it forms an exhaustive classified record of the contents of the English and American periodicals of last year. It is, in fact, an attempt to present, as nearly as possible, com- plete bibliographies of every subject discussed in the magazines and reviews of the year, as opposed to a mere alphabetical arrangement of the titles of articles, which are rarely, if ever, remembered with accuracy. The price is 5s. nett. A volume of stories by Rev. W. B. Wallace, B.A. (ex-Scholar, Senior Classical Moderator, and Fellowship Prizeman) of Dublin University, is to be issued in October by the Roxbourghe Press, under the title of the first story, “The Clue of Ariadne.” The other stories are entitled, “Princess Asenath ; a Metaphysical Romance; ” and “Thrusyllus: a Legend of Capri.” Sir Henry Irving has accepted the dedication of Mr. Farquhar Palliser's new work—a mytho- logical play in blank verse, entitled “Ermelyn,” the first portion of which had been previously sub- mitted for perusal. Mr. Farquhar Palliser, whose concluding lines to “Christopher Marlowe” were quoted by Sir Henry Irving at the unveiling of the Marlowe Memorial in Canterbury, is the author (under the nom de plume of “ Heber K. Daniels’) of the “Tales of a Terrace ’’ series, “Me and Jim,” and many other short stories and sketches. The work is similar to A little volume entitled “The Outcast ’’ will be published by the S.P.C.K. on 1st Oct. It will contain two short but very characteristic tales from the modern Greek of M. D. Kikela and M. Rarkavitsa, translated and adapted by F. Bayford Harrison. Mr. A. W. Gillman, grandson of “Coleridge's Gillman,” is about to produce a book called “The Gillmans of Highgate,” in which will be found much fresh information concerning Coleridge's residence with the Gillmans. There are also portraits, letters, &c., never before published. The publisher will be Mr. Elliot Stock, and the work will be in small quarto. New Zealand is waking up to her literary possi- bilities and duties. It is, indeed, almost time that she should contribute something to the literature of the day. A novel by Mrs. Suisted, of Westport, New Zealand, has been purchased by Messrs. Tillotson and Sons, of Bolton. In their hands Mrs. Suisted may rest assured that she will have a very good chance of making a name over the whole of the English-speaking world. The work will probably appear at Christmas or early mext Wear. “Doctor Johnson and the Fair Sex: a Study of Contrasts,” is the title of a work by Mr. W. H. Craig, of Lincoln's Inn, to be published by Messrs. Sampson Low. It will contain portraits of the Doctor and of ladies whose names happen in the volume—Miss Hannah Moore, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs Abington, Miss Burney, Mrs. Carter, and others. To drive briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman who understood him was, it will be remembered, the ideal existence the “old lion ” pictured on One occasion. - Mrs. W. K. Clifford has enlarged and rewritten her “A Flash of Summer,” which appeared in the Illustrated London News, and it will be issued soon in book form by Messrs. Methuen. Mr, Elkin Matthews is to issue at intervals, beginning in November, a series of shilling volumes of poetry. The first will be “London Poems,” by Mr. Lawrence Binyon, and the second by Mr. Robert Bridges. A book by Madame Belloc, called “In a Walled Garden,” which has a place in Messrs. Ward and Downey's list of forthcoming publications, is to contain personal recollections of, amongst others, George Eliot, “Barry Cornwall,” Mary Hewitt, Basil Montagu, Mrs. Procter, and Cardinal Manning. The same publishers will also send out “A Comedy of Contrasts,” by W. J. Locke, author of “At the Gate of Samaria.” Dr. Robertson Nicoll and Mr. Thomas Wise are associated in editing a work entitled “Literary ## p. (#473) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I I 9 Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century: Contri- butions towards a Literary History of the Period,” the first volume of which will be issued shortly by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. A portrait of William Black (which has not previously been published), etched upon steel by the late William Bell Scott, is to be the frontispiece; and the contents will include the trial of Blake for sedition; Mrs. Browning on Tennyson; A. H. Hallam and the Tennysons; biographies of Thomas Wade, Richard Henry Horne, and Charles Wells, each with new material; a biblio- graphy of Browning; and letters from Shelley to Leigh Hunt. The edition is limited to Iooo copies. The September output of books was fairly large, but no work of outstanding importance appeared. That which was of most siguificance was of political rather than literary interest, namely, “ The Chitral Campaign : a Narrative of Events in Chitral, Swat, and Bajour,” the writer of which is Mr. H. C. Thomson, a press correspondent who accompanied the relief force. Mr. Crockett’s “The Man of the Moss Hags” (Ibister); George Macdonald's new romance, “Lilith ” (Chatto and Windus); “Clarence,” by Bret Harte (Chatto and Windus); “A Woman in It,” by Rita (Hutchinson); and “Four Years of Novel Reading,” by R. G. Moulton (Isbister), were some of the more distinctive of the books of the month. The last named work, whose author is a Professor of English Literature in the University of Chicago, tells of the experiment of establishing in a Northumberland village a novel- reading union on the lines that fiction is not intended solely for amusement, but should fill the reader's soul “with a sense of artistic beauty, and make him long to be good.” A volume of up-to-date poems entitled “Arrows of Song,” the author of which, though said to have achieved distinction as a writer, does not meantime wish his identity unveiled, is to be published by Messrs. Hutchinson about a month hence. Guy de Maupassant is the model chosen by the author of a little volume to be published by Mr. George Redway, entitled “How to Write Fiction, especially the Art of Short Story Writing: A Study in Technique.” A new birth in the periodical press during September is the Unicorn, a threepenny illus- trated weekly, edited by Mr. L. Raven-Hill, the well-known artist. The short story is to be made a feature. Other events of note in this depart- ment of literature are the change in the proprie- torship of Judy, from Mr. Gilbert Dalziel to Miss Gillian Debenham, Mr. C. H. Abbot, formerly sub-editor, getting the editor's chair; the resig- nation of Mr. Stanhope Sprigg from the editor- ship of the Windsor Magazine, which, however, does not come about until February next; and the alteration by which the American magazines, the Century and the St. Nicholas, will henceforth be published in this country by Messrs. Mac- millan and Co. in place of Mr. Unwin. Mr. J. F. Hogan's work, “The Sister Domi- nions,” the result of a tour of Canada and Australia during the last Parliamentary recess, will appear from Messrs. Ward and Downey in a few days. Mr. Edward Abbot Parry will immediately produce a fairy story, “Katawampus and its Treatment and Cure,” a moral story without morality. The book will be illustrated by Archie McGregor, and will be published by David Nutt, 270, Strand. At a meeting of the International League of Press Clubs, recently held at Philadelphia, one of Our members, Miss Amelia Josephine Cook, addressed a meeting on the subject of the Society of Authors and its work and aims in this country. She especially advocated the establishment of a Pension Fund in connection with the American Society or with the League of Press Clubs. The idea appears to have commanded the sympathy and interest of her hearers, and there is some hope that the interest thus created may be followed up. *-* - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—LECTURING IN AMERICA. OBSERVE that my recent letter to the Author, in which I warned lecturers going to America not to be misled by sensational rumours as to the profits to be earned, has been generally misquoted as being an acknowledgment upon my part that my own tour was unsuccessful. This would be immaterial if it were not that it places my manager, Major J. B. Pond, in a false position, since he has publicly stated that my tour was successful far beyond all possible expecta- tions. It is only fair to him to say that, during ten weeks, I hardly ever spoke to a house which was not full, and that I had to refuse more engagements than I accepted. I had certainly considerably more to do than I desired. I was able, however, when I was over there, to see something of the conditions of lecturing, and when I observed a very large sum mentioned in your columns as being obtained per night, I thought it right to warn brother authors or lecturers to be sure of their ground before cross- ing the Atlantic. My Calculation was based upon ## p. (#474) ################################################ I 2G) THE AUTHOR. their giving four lectures a week. I have given as many as ten, but the physical strain was con- siderable. Far from being disappointed at the results of Major Pond's arrangements, I was amazed at their success. I repeat, however, that the making of money should be a secondary object, and there will then be no risk of disap- pointment. A. CONAN Doy L.E. II.-EVERY MAN HIS OWN PUBLISHER. There is no practical difficulty in now ascertain- ing the approximate cost of producing any ordi- nary mew book; but, having published his book, how is an unknown author to introduce it to the bookselling trade, and to give it on its own merits a fair chance of sale through the usual trade channels P The publisher, we know, has effective means to promote the sale of the books that he produces, by means of advertisement, the bookselling trade, circulating libraries, &c.; but the unknown author who may wish to publish his own book has usually no trade connection, and has in fact at present no available machinery for offering his book for sale, however intrinsically good or well written it may be. If the Society of Authors can show how, under the circumstances, would-be authors can dispense with the publisher's services, and what alterna- tive machinery exists to enable such persons when desirous of publishing their own books to carry out their object in a sound and business- like way, I cannot but think that many persons might be tempted to use that machinery. M. A. [There is but one way, and that is to do exactly what the publisher does—send round the book to the trade, advertise it, and send out copies for review. John Ruskin has shown the world how to do without the publisher. Everybody, however, would not find it pay so well as John Ruskin, Where a book is published for a special purpose, and to meet a limited demand, why should not the author advertise that it is to be had from his own residence P-ED.] III.—HIs Own BOOK PRODUCER. I too have an experience to record as to new ways of book-producing. A child’s book was on hand. Christmas before last small parcels of type were coming in, and the evenings saw us propping up the aggravating little letters. Meanwhile wood blocks were being cut in a fishing loft by the Sea. Having mastered the elements of printing, we engaged a capable printer to work with us. We found our knowledge sufficient to enable us to market for some time. get our own way when tradition was against us. Paper had to be found, and we searched London with a fat Jesuit schoolbook in our hands for sample. A coarse handmade paper at 19s. a ream, almost identical with that of our exemplar, was at length discovered. Finally we printed off two sheets of eight pages a week, the edition consisting of 300 copies of I2O pages. As the sheets left the press they again passed through our hands in order that certain initial letters might receive a wash of colour. We did not sell the book. A well-known firm kindly undertook to publish it at a moderate percentage, but though there would have been a good profit if the edition had been sold, either the price (IOS.) was too high, or we did not advertise enough, or the matter and shape did not interest any public. The cost was small compared with any recognised means of production. A. S. *- - -º New interest is being awakened in the writings of Sidney Lanier, whose books, previous to his death, had a limited circulation. A new edition of his “Select Poems ” has appeared, and atten- tion is being frequently called to his “Science of English Verse.” W. H. Ward found enough of material in the busy life of Lanier to make a captivating biography, which has been on the Sidney Lanier was a Southern man, and served in the Confederate army through the war. He enlisted as a private, and refused promotion three times, that he might be near a younger brother, who was in the same regiment. He was a prisoner in the Union army, and wrote “Tiger Lilies” to describe this period in his experience. After he came out of the Con- federate army Lanier studied law, presided over an academy, and lectured at Johns Hopkins University on “The English Novel.” His lecture appeared afterwards in book form. In 1873 he made his home in Baltimore, accepting an engage- ment as first flute for the Peabody's symphony concerts. His father desired that he should return to Macon, Ga., and engage in the practice of law, but, being in feeble health (for he was afflicted with consumption), he believed that his chances for life were better in Baltimore than in Macon, and he said that he could not consent to be a third-rate, struggling lawyer for the rest of his life, since he had been assured by good judges that he was the greatest flute player in the world. Besides, he had high hopes of a successful career in literature. He died at Baltimore of consump- tion, September 7, 1881, at the age of thirty-nine. —Chautauquan. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 05 (October 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 05 (October 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-10-01-The-Author-6-5 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/281/1895-09-02-The-Author-6-4.pdf 459ae4b1fb982cc5082c249a6955e1ff 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) 1895-09-02 Volume 6 Issue 4 Pages Page range in volume 85–100 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950902 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) C O N DU C T ED BY WA. L TER BES ANT. VoI. VI.-No. 4.] SEPTEMBER. 2, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *- : * ~ * e- * ~s HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- - --> a- - -- WARNINGS AND ADWICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AscERTAIN whAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To Both SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. - 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. Yow cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FuTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. – Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. - 14. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, Portugal, STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *-- - -* HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion, is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel's opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple K 2 ## p. (#440) ################################################ 86 THE AUTHOR. to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *- -” - * -- THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE. of Wants and Wanted ” is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. - -* or - - - - NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department” for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer’s, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production’ for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, ## p. (#441) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. - 87 or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *~ * = a- * -sa LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—ON REMUNERATION. REMUNERATION. Reward; recompense : The act of paying an equivalent for services, loss, or sacrifices. 2. The equivalent given for services, loss, or sacrifices. |HIS is the definition of the word in Webster’s T English Dictionary. It is not supposed that anyone will dispute this authority. How, then, does it apply to the case of the author P Of late years—or even months—there has been a remarkable and very suggestive persistence, when certain disinterested persons are writing on the commercial aspect of literature, in calling the author's side of the business his “remuneration.” The suggestion implied is, of course, that he is the servant of the publisher. It is against the use of the word in this sense, that we must protest continually. The author is remunerated where he executes piece or paid work—is in plain words a servant—prepares a new edition with a bio- graphy, or a critical notice, notes, index, &c.; or contributes a volume to a series for a stated sum of money; or writes a paper forming part of a volume ; in short, whenever an author performs service for pay he is rightly said to be remunerated. Many persons engaged in literary pursuits are always in this kind of service, and are therefore remunerated. The cases in which the author is not remunerated are those in which he creates for himself, without being paid, an estate, large or small, which he either sells or hands over to a middleman to administer. Take the case of a great historian, who would dare to speak of remunerating Macaulay P Or what services have Ruskin, Herbert Spenser, Lecky, Seeley, Froude, Freeman, and other great writers rendered to their publishers that they should be “remunerated ” by them P The word is an insult. We must always bear in mind that there are now writers in every conceivable branch of literature—except a few scientific branches— writers by the hundred, whose works represent in every case an estate, large or small—generally small; of enduring or of ephemeral kind— generally the latter. This is quite a new thing in literature; it belongs to the literary revolution which is going on all round us; a revolution which has enlarged our readers by millions and spread our literature over the whole globe. Never before has there been seen in any country or in any age so great a number of writers in all branches whom the world receives with welcome. Every writer, therefore, who belongs to this com- pany, thus made free of the world, should say, when he brings a MS. to a publisher, “This is my property, my own; I wish it administered. Let us agree, if we can, on the remuneration you shall receive for administering it. If we cannot agree I will take it elsewhere.” In all such cases, the situation is reversed. The publisher is in the service of the author. He must be remunerated for his services. II.-AN AGREEMENT. Here is another agreement. In this case it was the first published volume of a writer who had already had a certain amount of success in magazines. We will assume that it was of the character called risky. Now where was the risk P. The difference between the first six months’ returns and the cost of production. If two thousand copies were printed, of which only 500 were bound at first, the cost would be, for an average 6s. book of about 8o,ooo words, about £IOO. But, of course, none of this money would be paid till after the first returns came in, except a little for advertising, and that a very little unless the book showed signs of moving. What were the terms P I. For the author. First 500 copies. Nothing. Second 500. Five per cent. Five He would, therefore, receive for the sale of IOOO copies the magnificent sum of 37 IOs. For the second Iooo. 33O. For following thousands, say three, at the rate of I2; per cent., & II 2 Ios. II. For the publisher. On the first 500 copies. Nothing. The returns would about balance the cost. We must remember that with a new writer there would be very few large orders, and single volumes are sold at about 3s. Io; d. instead of 3s. 6d. On the next 500 the assumed average of 3s. 6d. a volume is much below the mark for the above reason. But it may stand. Ten per cent., or 5OO at 3s. 6d. ................. 387 IO Less the author's dole ......... 7 Io 298o o So that on the first thousand the publisher nets 380 and the author £7 Ios. The ## p. (#442) ################################################ 88 THE AUTHOR. old and much despised arrangement used to be half the profits, by which each would take 343 I5s. On the next thousand at 3s.6d., the returns are 3175 less the author's dole of £30. The publisher therefore gets 3145. But the book is successful. Another edition is called for of 3000 copies. It costs about 31 20. The returns at 3s. 6d. a volume are 3525. The publisher therefore stands as follows: Returns ............ 48.525 O Cost of production 312o o Author at I2; per cent. II 2 IO 232 IO 3292 Io Therefore, on the whole book, the pub- lisher receives 3517 Ios. ; the author 3157 Ios. What does the world think of the publishing business P Let us all crowd in. III. The bookseller. His case is simple. He pays an average of (say) 38. 9d. mostly in single copies, and receives 4s. 6d. He gets 9d. a copy for his profit. We therefore stand as follows: I. Author on the first IOOO copies .................. “t tº e I#d. a copy. Publisher on the first Iooo copies ..................... Is. 7#d. a copy. Bookseller on the first IOOO copies ......... s & e 9d. a copy. 2. On the second IOOO copies. Author per copy ......... 7#d. a copy. Publisher per copy ... ... 2s. IOd. a copy. Bookseller per copy...... 9d. a copy. 3. On the following thousands. Author receives ......... 9d. a copy. Publisher receives ...... 2s. a COpy. Bookseller receives ...... 9d. a copy. These figures we commend to the very careful consideration of our friends the booksellers, especially to those who believe the pretty story about the authors’ unbridled greed. - III.-AN UNFORTUNATE PUBLISHER. A certain publisher was reported a few weeks ago to have made the following statement about the new agreements with the successful author. He said, weeping, that he could only make, for himself, sixpence or sevenpence a copy out of the work, while the author, who had done nothing in the world except write the book, made eighteen- pence. Poor man He counted all his own office expenses, and would allow none of the author's ; nor would he allow anything for the booksellers' expenses. He then went on to say that things had come to such a pass that a successful author would no longer be able to find anyone to publish for him. Really What if this person had, at the very time of speaking, actually made in two or three months over £1400 out of a single successful novel by his own showing, that is, at 7d. a volume on a successful book—figures not to be blindly accepted P. Sevenpence a volume for doing nothing, because he had included every possible “office expense”! For doing nothing at all ! And yet the successful author would find it impossible to find a publisher! And yet the poor, downtrodden publisher was making over £1400 out of this greedy author—all for doing nothing ! Is it possible that such things should be actually believed and accepted P. Is it possible that readers should be found to believe them? Is it hº that editors should be found to admit them P IV.-CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT. There can be little doubt that if the absolute right of Canada to legislate upon copyright is admitted by the Imperial Government, the United States International Copyright Law cannot long endure, and British authors will suffer in con- Sequence. The Canadian market considered as a market for Canadian readers is of very little importance, but the Canadian market considered as a vantage ground from which to send unautho- rised reprints into the United States is of very Serious consequence.—Harper's. *- Am. …mº 4- * *-*. NOTES FROM PARIS, Tº letter from Paris is being written from Peel in the Isle of Man. I think it is as well to confess this at once, as last night I was reading “Literary Impostures” in D'Israeli’s “Curiosities of Literature,” and fear is upon me. I will also admit, however, that this fear is mixed with amusement at the severity of the indictment of these “impostures,” for times have moved since then, and with the new journalism and the introduction of American journalistic habits, this kind of imposture has become almost universal. At any rate it is looked upon by American editors, at least, as inevitable in many cases. I remember meeting in Paris an American corres- pondent who made his living by contributing St. Petersburg letters and Russian news generally to a syndicate of American papers, and these letters always appeared as coming from St. ## p. (#443) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 89 Petersburg. He would have been highly in- dignant if I had called him an impostor, and yet no doubt D'Israeli would have included him in his series. One would like to write Paris letters for ever from Peel for the rest of one’s life. Such at least is one’s first impression of the place. No doubt, after a fortnight, or say a month, monotony would make itself felt, and there would be hankering after the boulevard and the café, and the rush and whirl of metropolitan life. In the meanwhile it is delightful to look up from one's paper and admire the bay, the ruined castle beyond, the fishing-boats, and, above all, the marvellous lights on sea and land. This Isle of Man is a wonderfully reposeful spot, and there are times when one longs for repose. But the bustle of the great world . . . . I am very much obliged to various distinguished correspondents to the Author for assisting to enlighten me on the question of the truthfulness of writers of fiction. The question was suggested to me by a confession by Daudet that fibbing entranced him. The novelist must, I think, have a difficulty in steering clear of embellishment, and there is really no reason why he should endeavour to do so. Ilying under such circum- stances is indeed a complimentary effort on the part of the speaker to interest his audience. Another question on which I very greatly desire enlightenment is this: Why is it that, as a rule, poets, who speak about their music and are described as “singers” and so on, knew absolutely nothing about music? I know a very distinguished singer who cannot distinguish between “God save the Queen’’ and “La Marseillaise,” and who one day asked me if “Tommy, make room for your uncle,” played on a barrel-organ, was not an aria—he said aria—from La Traviata. I have many poets amongst my acquaintances, and Ithink that the best musician amongst them is a gentle- man who can play “Home, sweet home” on the piano with his index finger. Yet they are all “sweetest singers.” There is Rollinat, of course, a “sweetest singer,” who composes beautiful tunes, but since he occupies himself with composition of music, he has practically abandoned the other kind of music. Was Shakespeare a musician, or Shelley, or Keats? Baudelaire was not, Poe was not, Victor Hugo was not. And, vice versa, most musicians whom I know have no idea of poetical composition. How very few writers of operas compose their own librettos, or writers of songs their own words. One can explain that this is so in England, that land of literary sweating, by the fact that as poets can be had cheap, to-day, to-morrow, and the day after, the composer does not care to take the trouble to write his words. He can get a nice poem as low as five shillings. In France, however, the writer of the libretto, or of the words for a song, is entitled to one half the royalties paid by the opera or the song, so that it would really be worth the composer's while to dispense with a collaborator. Massenet told me that the royalty on One of his operas or songs is six per cent. of the takings, and that of this he gets half and the librettist the other half. I asked Massenet why he did not write his own words, and he said that he was no poet and had no ear for music of that sort. Gounod and Bizet would have said the same. Beethoven wrote his songs without words. Verdi goes to Boito, and Sullivan to Gilbert. I knew that a great many people object to what they call “talking shop,” and that many authors affect the same objection. For my part, I care for nothing else but shop (of a literary kind). I live in it, I hope to die in it, and shop I must talk whilst my tongue can wag in its socket. So here is a story of literary earnings, told me by a writer who lives in Paris. “I am thirty-four,” he said, “and have been writing twelve years. The other day in looking over my ledger I found that the sum total of my earnings during these twelve years had been a little over £6000. In my first year, I earned £92; in a fat year, I earned £1 IOO. My work has been in every field of literary activity. I have written sonnets, and I have translated into the French and the German languages the caialogues of ironmongers and of export chemists. I have written a life of Napoleon, and I have composed cookery recipes for the Gastronomical Press. I have contributed variously to the Athenæum, the Bottlers' Gazette, the Saturday Review, Tit-Bits, the Wood - Pulp Gazette and Papermakers' Journal, Truth, the World, the Lancet, and the Boot and Shoe Trade Review. I have written short stories, reviews, novels, biographies, para- graphs, trade notes, words for songs, translations; in fact, in every department of the trade I have been active and zealous. I have done special correspondence in peace and war, have en- countered dangers, was brick-batted by Belgian miners, and shot in the arm by rioters in Naples. And it all amounts to £6000 in twelve years. In actual production these 36OOO represent the actual writing of about 9,000,000 words—for I have worked at a rate as low as 4s. the IOOO words, and as high as 35. So that altogether since I started writing for a living I have written what, allowing eighty words to the inch of closely- printed newspaper matter, would make a galley slip of I, I 25,OOO inches in length—that is to say, considerably over a mile and a half in length; a slip of printed matter more than nine times the ## p. (#444) ################################################ 90 THE AUTHOR, height of the EiffelTower, a length which would be an eighteenpenny cab fare, or half an hour's walk from the Alpha of my literary production to its Omega. I have written what, cut up into lengths of the length of a popular novel, would make a library of nearly seventy-five volumes.” Since I have been in the Isle of Man, I have seen a great deal of Hall Caine, and I may say that if this admirable artist and great genius had done no other services to humanity, all authors owe him great respect for the manner in which he has maintained and imposed the dignity of the profession of literature. The Manx people are Conservative of Conservatives; the Conservative notion about writers is what we know; yet in the Isle of Man Hall Caine holds, qud writer, the position that a feudal lord held in the old days amongst his vassals. I shall not soon forget with what enthusiam he was received by a crowded house of Manx people, at the Grand Theatre, when after the performance of Wilson Barrett's version of “The Manxman,” he came before the curtain and made a short speech. Whenever he walks abroad, his whole time is occupied in answering bows and curtseys. It is a pretty sight for a penman. A swordsman never had such honours paid him. He deserves it all, for his sense of the dignity of authorship exceeds that of any captain of the dignity of swordsmanship. And the people recognise it. There is some excitement in Communist circles in Paris in consequence of the announcement that a novel dealing with the Commune is shortly to appear in London, as announced in various Parisian papers. This is Mr. Francis Gribble's “The Red Spell,” which is being published by Constable and Co. One will read this book with interest. It is said, and in de Maupassant’s case this was perhaps proved, that the writer of short stories rarely succeeds as a writer of novels. Mr. Francis Gribble has written some admirable short stories—some quite equal to de Maupassant’s work—and “The Red Spell” is, I believe, his first novel. However, as it had a very good reception in serial form, no doubt the saying will in his case he disproved. Mr. Rider Haggard, I read, complains of the people who write paragraphs about authors, and asks, “Why should paragraphs be written about authors P” He calculates that the writers of paragraphs about authors make larger incomes than the authors themselves. I wonder if his calculation is a correct one. I wonder if Mr. E. Curtice or Mr. Durrant knew of authors’ objec- tions to this same paragraphing. Indeed, I Can- not help but wonder. I notice, in a recent report of the Societé de l'Hospitalité de Nuit, in Paris that, during the last year, seven homeless authors sought the hospitality of their shelters. There were 400 terrassiers, or earth-workers, entertained during the same period. But, then, I suppose that there are more bricklayers than authors in Paris. I wonder who the seven hommes de lettres were ! Naturalists, possibly. For my part, if ever I come to stand in the dock in France, may there be an author or twain among the jury ! I should feel easier then as to liberty or life. I remember Zola's views on the criminal code, as he expounded them during the period in which he sat as a juryman in the Paris Court of Assizes; and, quite recently, I met in Madame Adam's office a large-eyed and largely- known man of letters, who kept saying, “I shall acquit him ; oh, I shall certainly acquit him.” In the end, as he repeated this statement with tedious frequency, I asked him what was the matter, who it was whom he intended certainly to acquit, and for general information on a subject which seemed to be affording him some perplexity. I then learned that I was talking to M. Jules Bois, that he was sitting on a jury at the Paris Court of Assizes, and that he could not find it in him to send the prisoner (who, it appears, had rather a fine head) to penal servitude. The man was subsequently acquitted. Zola voted for the acquittal of every prisoner brought before him. Thus we are in Bohemia. The great difference between the literary world of Paris and the literary world of London is this, that in London the literary blackleg stalks un- tarred and unfeathered at the coat-tails of the newspaper proprietor and publisher. The news- paper proprietor gives him so much a line for writing down “innovators,” the publisher gives him an occasional guinea for rejecting occasional manuscripts. In Paris such literary blacklegs as try to crawl betwixt heaven and earth would be rapier or pistol targets if they did not, by nature, prefer to be public spittoons. In London we elbow them in our clubs, in Paris they dare not show their faces. These literary blacklegs— I could name many, but would rather spare my pen—-are so-called men of letters and should be with us, but prefer to be Ishmaels with one hand turned against the authors and the other hand extended for the coppers of those who are not the friends of men of letters. As long as we authors tolerate in our midst, at our fingers' ends, at Our tables, in our salons or garrets these persons, we shall look for solidarity in vain. In Paris no successful author would read the manu- script of another author for a publisher; in Paris no successful author would write, otherwise than under his own signature, a criticism on another author's book; in Paris no author would ## p. (#445) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 91. espouse the cause of the publisher who, quá publisher, is the author's antagonist. In London a number of blacklegs—Do you know them P Yes, I do—are doing this daily, hourly, minutely, and, like sheep before their shearers, we are dumb. We even invite them, some to a drink, some to a week at our country-houses. Let us, for our protection form a Wehmgericht, or, since in this age we must be practical, let us have a black book, privately printed and privately circu- lated, in which the blacklegs or black sheep in our midst are denotated and set down ; a waist- coat pocket booklet with their names and addresses; so that when we meet the literary blackleg we may show him the fall of our coats, velvet or shoddy, over the shoulders, and waist, and—beyond. I have spoken strongly in these pages, but I have always spoken in my own name, and for the further guidance of those who are not content I have given the date of my utterance and the address at which it was uttered. And I can only repeat what Cluny said in Cluny’s Cage, in the finest story that was ever written, that if any gentleman is not “preceesely satisfied” . . . . Well, you know the rest. RoBERT H. SHERARD. Author's Club, 3 Whitehall Court, S.W. Aug. 20th. *- a -º z-sº NEW YORK LETTER, New York, August 15. iſ T is curious to note how the taste of the American public differs from that of the British public. If the American and the British tastes were exactly alike, the New York branches of Macmillan and Co. and of Longmans, Green, and Co. would be still what they were probably intended to be when they were founded— merely distributing offices for the books produced by the London houses. As a matter of fact, both of these houses publish books in London which they do not publish in New York, and they also publish books in New York which they do not publish in London; and both houses are anxious to get the works of leading American authors for publication in New York. In other words, the American houses of Longmans, Green and Co. and of Macmillan and Co. are no longer merely branches of the London houses of the same name, but they are also American publishers on their own account. Both of them act also as American agents of other English publishers. Messrs. Macmillan WOL. VI. and Co., besides their own list of authors, are the American representatives of Messrs. George Bell and Sons (and therefore of the Bohn Libraries), of Messrs. A. and C. Black, and of the Clarendon Press. They also have taken most of the volumes published in London by Messrs. Seeley and Co., and by Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co., as well as many of those issued by Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. In America they have undertaken the publication of the books issued and to be issued by the new Columbia University Press, which has been founded to do for Columbia College what the Clarendon Press does for Oxford. And this last alliance of theirs is only one of many which are rapidly making the American house of Macmillan and Co., the publishers having almost the closest relations with the professors of the American Universities. Within the past five years they have issued a great many treatises and text-books by instructors in American colleges. As a result of all this activity, the list of books advertised last year in New York by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. very greatly exceeded that of any other house. Pro- bably the sales of not a few of the books of British authorship were very small; but even the humblest of the volumes was actually published in America ; it was offered to the American public ; it had its chance of popularity. The course of Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. in America has been more conservative perhaps; but they also have been steadily seeking for American authors, and in two departments at least they have been eminently successful—ir. theology and in text-books for college use. Their first venture in the latter department was the excellent series of “Epochs of American History,” edited by Professor A. B. Hart. Their second was the “College Series of Histories of Art,” edited by Professor J. C. Van Dyke, who wrote the volume on painting himself, and who secured Professor Hamlin, of Columbia, for the volume on architecture, and Professor Marquand, of Prince- ton, for that on sculpture. Both Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., and Messrs. Macmillan and Co. publish in Great Britain text-books of every variety for school use; I think I am under- stating the case when I say that not one in a dozen of these British school-books has any chance of selling in the United States, where the educational conditions are wholly different. And when a sale in America is possible it is due generally to a very careful revision of the text by an American teacher to adapt it to American habits of speech and to American methods of teaching. Thus both the excellent grammar prepared by Mr. Salmon and the excellent geography also issued by Messrs. Longmans, L ## p. (#446) ################################################ 92. THE AUTHOR. Green, and Co. have won their way into certain American schools. The latest American series to be undertaken by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., is, perhaps, the most important of any yet announced by them. It is the result of the strong and wide- spread interest in the study of literature as litera- ture, which is one of the most characteristic of the recent developments of American education. It is a series of those English classics (both by American authors and by British) which are re- quired in the uniform entrance examinations in English at the majority of American universities. Certain of these works are used in the English local examinations, and have been edited more than once in England. But to American educa- tors these texts (and especially the most of those issued by the Clarendon Press) are unsatisfactory, because their editors neglected to bring out the literary side of the works they annotated, pre- ferring to dwell almost exclusively on the lin- guistic peculiarities of the authors. In the new series now in preparation by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., special attention is paid to the literary merit of each work, to the position of its author in the history of literature, to the influences which moulded him, to the influence this work in turn exerted on other books; in other words, these English classics are to be edited as if they were primarily literature to be read and enjoyed first of all, and then, secondarily, to be explained and expounded. They are not to be edited as though they were dead matter to be dissected— merely as material to be examined on. The series will appear under the general editor- ship of Professor G. R. Carpenter, of Columbia College, and will, for the school year 1895-6, consist of the following works, which include the books prescribed for the college entrance exami- nations in 1896: Irving’s “Tales of a Traveller,” with an introduction by Professor Brander Matthews, of Columbia College; George Eliot's “Silas Marner,” edited by Mr. Robert W. Herrick, of the University of Chicago; Scott's “Woodstock,” edited by Professor Bliss Perry, of Princeton; Defoe's “History of the Plague in London,” edited by Professor Carpenter him- self; Daniel Webster’s “First Bunker Hill Oration,” edited by Professor F. N. Scott, of the University of Michigan; Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” with an introduction by Professor F. H. Stoddard, of the University of the City of New York; Macaulay’s “Essay on Milton,” edited by Mr. J. G. Crosswell, Head Master of the Brearley School; Shakespeare’s “A Mid- summer Night's Dream,” with an introduction by Mr. G. P. Baker, of Harvard ; and Milton’s “L’Allegro,” “Il Penseroso,” “Comus,” and “Lycidas,” edited by Professor W. P. Trent, of the University of the South. Subsequent volumes in the series, uniform with the above, will con- sist of the works prescribed for reading and study under the uniform entrance requirements of 1897 and 1898, and will be edited by various scholars. and experienced teachers from the leading American colleges and secondary schools. Twenty years ago, and for fifty years before that, the American publishing house which had the closest connection with British authors, and which more especially issued the most British fiction, was the firm of Harper and Brothers. When the “Seaside Library’ began the era of piracy, and the old “courtesy of the trade ’’ broke down, the publishing of the latest fiction by foreign authors was only doubtfully profitable to an honourable house forced to compete with dealers in stolen goods. So for twenty years now Messrs. Harper and Brothers have been giving their attention more and more to American authors, with the result that in a recent list of their “Latest Books” advertised in a literary weekly there were only four volumes of British authorship to nine of American, and to one translated from a foreign language. It may be noted also that of the nine books of American authorship, four have already been published in London—Mr. Smalley’s “Studies of Men,” Mr. Henry James’s “Terminations,” Mr. R. H. Davis’ “Princess Aline,” and Mr. J. W. Moore’s “His- tory of the American Congress.” And two others are certain to be issued in London sooner or later, although I have not yet seen them announced : one of these is the very vigorous and striking story of Chicago life, Mr. Fuller's “With the Procession,” and the other is Mr. Howells' literary autobiography, “My Literary Passions,” the story of Mr. Howells' early likes and dis- likes in literature, and of the changes time has wrought in them of late. Within the past three or four years the house of D. Appleton and Co. has come forward as the chief purveyor of British fiction to the American public. In a recent advertisement of theirs, headed “Some Standard Fiction,” I counted twenty-four works by British authors, four by American, and four translated ; and from this count I omit three volumes by Maarten Maartens, not knowing whether or not to classify them also as British. Probably the size of this list is due to the energy of Mr. G. W. Sheldon, who has been the London agent of Messrs. Appleton for several years now. Although most of the other leading publishers seem to have found the paper- covered series at 50 cents, a volume unprofitable of late, and have given it up, Messrs. Appleton continue to issue, twice a month, the neat little ## p. (#447) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 93 brown books which they call the “Town and Country Library,” and in which they print most of the less important British novels which they arrange for. The more important British novels are issued in cloth covers at a dollar and a dollar and a half each. A dollar and a half is six shillings English money, and this seems just now to be the normal price for a work of fiction both in Great Britain and in the United States. Yet there is no lack of series at a dollar a volume and less. A dollar is the price of every number of Messrs. Harper and Brothers’ new series called “Harper's Little Novels,” of which the first five numbers were by American authors. The sixth was Mr. Benson’s “Judgment Books,” and the seventh is American again—Mr. Howells' “A Beginning and an Ending.” Seventy-five cents. is the price of the volumes in the “Buck- ram Series” of Messrs. Henry Holt and Co., in which are included six books by Mr. “Anthony Elope” (including the “Prisoner of Zenda,” announced as in its seventeenth edition). More than half of the volumes in this Buckram series are by British authors, including Mr. Wells's “Time Machine” and Mr. Morrison’s “Neigh- bours of Ours.” This last has been re-named for the American market “Slum Stories of London,” and is thus a companion to another volume of the same series, Mr. J. W. Sullivan's strikingly realistic “Tenement Tales of New York.” Also in this buckram uniform is a volume of “Quaker Idyls,” by Mrs. S. M. H. Gardner. - Next year two British novelists will contribute Serial stories to important American magazines circulating widely in England. Mrs. Humphry Ward's new story will appear in the Century, and Mr. J. M. Barrie's “Sentimental Tommy’ will appear in Scribner's. And, oddly enough, short Serials by the foremost of American novelists, Mr. Howells, will also be published in both of these magazines at the same time. A recent paragraph informs us that “two- cent. literature, a Zulu Chief,” was asked for in a book-store the other day. It turned out that the asker really wanted a life of the martyred Haytian general, Toussaint L’Ouverture, although why he thought him a Zulu is not easily ex- plained. But “Toussaint L’Ouverture * does sound a little like “two-cent. literature,” curiously enough. Another book-store oddity was the memorandum from a student, who wanted “an ad valorem Shakespeare.” H. R. NOTES AND NEWS, HE death of Baron Tauchnitz, at Leipsig, on Aug. 14 last, removes a personality of great interest, not only to many living but also to the history of literature. Long before the Baron began the reprinting of English works there were reprints published in Paris and elsewhere in which the publishers exercised their legal rights of using literary property not their own for their own purposes without consideration for the pro- prietors. Baron Tauchnitz was the first to accompany the publication of English books abroad with a cheque to the author. Action so disinterested could not but call forth expressions of the most lively gratitude. No one, either then or after- wards, ventured to ask whether the cheque sent bore any proportion to the sale of the work; and under the circumstances, perhaps, no one ever will ask that question. It was enough that a man who might legally use a thing for nothing actually paid for it; and there can be little doubt that the growth of public opinion in favour of an international copyright and protection of literary property throughout the world has been largely due to this remarkable—even unique— honesty of Baron Tauchnitz. We have once or twice in these columns spoken of the injury which is done to all persons con- nected with literary property in this country by the practically free importation and sale of the Tauchnitz edition in this country. When we remember the hundreds and thousands of English and American travellers who every year return to England from the Continent, everyone of them bearing with him some two or three, some many copies of Tauchnitz books, everyone of which represents a corresponding loss to the trade, it is to be hoped that the matter will be taken up sooner or later seriously, and the importation stopped. This laxity on the part of the Customs House has, of course, nothing whatever to do with the Baron or his business. We hope it may be continued and carried on, for many genera- tions, in the same spirit of confidence, and even of gratitude, which has hitherto marked the history of the Tauchnitz series. In another column will be found a list of those members of the new House of Commons who have written books. There are fifty-four in number—about one in twelve. An analysis of their works shows that many have written in more than one branch of literature, while the des- cription of others is imperfect. Thus, the ## p. (#448) ################################################ 94 THE AUTHOR. Marquis of Lorne, who has written poems, and, I believe, one tale at least, is set down as author of a “Guide to Windsor Castle.” Thus allowing for this overlapping, so that one man may occur in more than one class, it is found that social and political economy takes twenty; travel, six; history, eight; philosophy and essays, nine ; education, four ; law, four; the army and navy, three ; colonies, three; trade, three ; fiction, six; literature, one; medicine, one; poetry, two. It has not been thought beneath the dignity of the St. James's Gazette to inquire into the Fiction of the Kitchen. Why should it be beneath the dignity of any paper to inquire into any branch of literature? “But the penny novel- ette is not literature.” do we draw the line P The writer in the St. James's Gazette has made, to begin with, a dis- covery of very considerable interest. He has found a literary manufactory; more than one; he suggests the existence of several. So far as the outsider can be initiated into the mysteries of the literary trade, it appears to be carried on in this way. There are a couple of dozen well-known literary emporiums where several practised hands—mostly women—are kept regularly at work at fairly remunerative wages. To these hands are distributed week by week a certain number of stock plots, situations, incidents, characters, and phrases, out of which they must manufacture a readable story for the parlour-maid class of readers. No doubt the master spirit of the establishment adds little graceful finishing touches, in the shape of mildly amorous poetry, before the production is finally placed upon the market; and these slight differences—imperceptible to a novice reader—will convey to the experienced customer the particular firm from which this or that literary ware emanates. Of what kind are the works which emanate from these firms ? A striking feature of this school of fiction is its well- intentioned, if peculiar, morality. Unlike the criminal literature so largely read by boys of the lower class, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find a single chapter or passage which is directly subversive to morality or virtue. Furthermore, a reviewer who is accustomed to the circula- ting-library novels written by progressive ladies for the delectation of their own sex, will be compelled to admit that they compare unfavourably with the fiction produced for Mary Ann in point of decency, propriety, and good taste. You may search the dull and decorous pages of these novelettes in vain for a single suggestive or coarse sentence or double entendre or vicious sentiment. Virtue is always triumphant—not, of course, in the first chapter, or what would become of the story ; and vice is as uniformly punished in the last chapter. It is in this false morality— a morality that is not answerable to the facts of life—that we discern its immoral influence upon the minds of imma- ture and ignorant persons. The stories purport, almost without exception, to treat of real life, and it is conse- quently a dangerous and fatal defect that the writers should be not only completely ignorant of the literary art which would enable them to present life artistically, but, what is of more significance, in a state of virgin innocence in Why not ? And where everything concerning the causes, nature, and consequence of men’s passions, the complex consequences of human action, and the laws of nature’s retribution. After all, the thing might be worse. A story which is always moral, which deals not with their own class but an imaginary class above their social station, may give the girl who reads it a momentary yearning after the impossible, or a transient discontent with what cannot be helped. I doubt whether any real or permanent harm is done to the self-respect or the principles of a girl by reading of the handsome guardsman and the girl whom he loves, but cannot marry. The housemaid knows very well that she is reading about a world that does not exist; very likely she waits upon the very class depicted, and she knows how different they are. And, if the characters do belong to an existing world, she cannot attain to it—a thing which she knows perfectly well. A great novelist, according to the Times, has appeared in the City of Chicago. I am glad to hear it, because, two years ago, I pointed out— without being believed—that there exists in Chicago a society of literary students who are working seriously and earnestly with the ambi- tion of producing something real. There is also at Chicago a rich and flourishing university, with a great many professors on a great many subjects, and a great many students. There are good schools in Chicago; there is a good literary paper in Chicago. There are libraries, museums, art collections, concerts, theatres, and, in fact, all the necessary aids to culture. When, in so great a city, we find a number of people steadily cultivating every form of art, it is pretty certain that, before long, one or more will come to the front. The man who has come is one Henry B. Fuller, and the name of his book is “With the Procession.” My prophecy was held up to scorn at the time, especially by those who still think that Chicago is a small collection of log huts, with a saloon or two, populated by gaunt men with revolvers and bowie knives. I can only hope that the book is as good as the Times correspondent thinks. The name of Mr. Needell, author of “Julia Karslake's Secret,” “The Wengeance of James Vansittart,” &c., was accidentally omitted from the list of those present at the dinner given to the editor of this paper. WALTER BESANT. ## p. (#449) ################################################ THE 95 A UTHOR. JOHN KEATS, BoFN 29th OCTOBER, 1795. Lyrist, who—nursed not by Aonian flow, But rush and roar of London's wilderness, Ere scathed by scorn Tartarean—felt the stress That fired the Greek, the pearl’d Spenserean glow, And garden-glamour of Boccaccio, Roams he thro' happier regions of redress P Whom the gods loved—by some divine caress Dower'd with high song a hundred years ago. He has survived the critic’s venom'd fang, The day-star of his fame has cleft the gloom, Around him no elusive phantoms loom, Nor knows he fruitless passion’s arrowy pang : Still peer the Roman violets round his tomb, Whose chant was sweeter than the bird’s he sang. C. A. KELLY. *-- ~ -* - * *- WHAT BOYS READ, Tº following is a list of the actual number of times which various books have been taken out of a house library at one of the great public schools during the past eight terms. Books taken out by sixth-form boys are not included. The figures are of interest as some clue to what boys read:— Henty ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2O2 i Mary Rowsell ............ I8 Ainsworth ............... I44 || R. L. Stevenson Rider Haggard ......... 58 Q. '''''' 17 Captain Marryat......... 56 | Whyte-Melville ......... I6 Jules Verme............... 49 || Kingston R Dickens .................. 43 || Philips-Wolley “” “4 Edna Lyall ............... 41 Rev. A. J. Church } 2 Hume Nisbet 2 Charles Kingsley e I Sir W. Scott } * * * * * * * * * 5 | F. Cooper J. Grant l 2 Charles Lever y “"“” II R. Boldrewood y ‘’’ ‘’’ 4 Sponge's Sporting Tour O R. M. Ballantyne } 2 R. D. Blackmore } I Lytton y ‘’’ ‘’’ 3 Farrar } 2I J. Corbett, 5 ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' No other author reaches double figures—not even Rudyard Kipling, though his books, it should be explained, have only been recently added to the library.—Westminster Gazette. * - - -* * * *- WHY THERE ARE FEW AMERICAN AUTHORS, HERE is probably no country in the world T where literature is held in greater esteem than in America. Many circumstances contribute to this result; leisure and opportunity for reading and study are secured by the climatic conditions, which enforce a period of comparative idleness in the cities during summer heat, and in the country during the rigours of winter. The isolated life of the well-to-do farmers, the limited social amenities in the villages and small towns, tend equally to a recognition of books as the best of company; while the natural intelligence and alertness of the whole people find an agreeable stimulus in the lighter forms of literature, and promote an easy perception of the material advan- tages to be derived from more serious application. Thus the soil is well prepared for the American author; he can appeal to a population of more than sixty millions, increasing annually by leaps and bounds, almost all able to read, eager to learn, anxious to be amused, and possessing to an unusual degree the means of gratifying their tastes. At a first glance it might be supposed that, with so fair a field to work in, the profession of authorship must be crowded to excess. But this is not the case, and the reasons are not hard to find. The immense size of the country and the high prices of labour and materials make the production and circulation of books a much more expensive affair than in England, so that the publishers are more chary about undertaking risks unless a large sale can be anticipated. Many a work which would readily find a publisher in England, if it were thought that a thousand or even a few hundred copies could be sold, would be declined without hesitation in America, and thus a young author finds it extremely difficult to get a chance of distinguishing himself. Nor do the magazines and periodicals, which play so important a part in American literature, afford an easier introduction to the public, for the vast scale of their operations necessitates the utmost vigilance on the part of the editors to maintain an enormous circulation, and with this object the safest course is to give the public their favourite authors at any cost. The young American author, then, finds his career blocked in every direction, whether he aspires to be a novelist, an essayist, or a writer on politics or science; if he can leap into fame it will be well with him, but the ring fence he has to surmount is stiff and forbidding ; probably Only under stress of circumstances will he face it, in default of an opening elsewhere. And this brings us to the principal cause of emptiness in the ranks of literature. It is notoriously hard to recruit an army in prosperous times, when better paid work is to be had for the asking; in the United States, in spite of bad years, there has been no such pressure of competition, no Such overcrowding in more remunerative occupa- tions as drives men and women in this country to accept the hard labour and small rewards of łiterary work. There is still an El Dorado across the Atlantic for the man of brains who chooses to employ them in commerce, manufactures, or ## p. (#450) ################################################ 96 THE AUTHOR. ** finance; every day witnesses some fresh develop- ment of industrial resources, involving boundless possibilities of wealth and work; what wonder if literature is less attractive as a profession than avocations which breed millionnaires P-(From “The Profession of Literature in America.”— Times). *- ~ 2-9 * * * LITERARY MEN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, HE following is a list of the men of letters in the new House of Commons. The list is compiled from the Times’ “New House of Commons °:— Acland, Right Hon. Arthur Herbert Dyke (R.). — Joint author of “Studies in Secondary Education,” of “Handbook in Outline of the Political History of England,” and of “Working Men Co-operators.” Arnold-Forster, Hugh Oakley (L.U.). — Author of “In a Conning Tower,” “The Citizen Reader,” and many school books. Contributed many letters to the Times on military and other subjects. Brookfield, Arthur Montagu (C.). — Author of Mortem,” “The Speaker’s A. B. C.,” and other psycho- logical and political works. Bowsfield, William Robert, Q.C. (C.).-Author of a work on the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act. Broadhwrst, Henry (R.). — Author of Leasehold Enfran- chisement Bill, and the Sites for Chapels Bill, and Deceased Wife's Sister Bill 1884-5. Baden-Powell, Sir George Smyth, K.C.M.G. (C.).-Author of “New Homes for the Old Country,” “Protection and Bad Times,” “State Aid and State Interference,” and numerous articles on economic, financial, and colonial affairs. Bowles, Thomas Gibson (C.). — Author of “The Defence of Paris,” “Maritime Warfare,” “Flotsam and Jetsam,” &c. Balfowr, Right Hon. Arthur James (C.).-Author of “A Defence of Philosophic Doubt,” “Essays and Ad- dresses,” 1893, and “Foundations of Belief, being Notes Introductory to the Study of Theology,” 1894. Bartley, George Christopher Trout (C.).-Author of “A Handy Book for Guardians of the Poor,” of “The Parish . Net,” “The Seven Ages of a Village Pauper,” “Schools for the People,” “One Square Mile in the East of London,” “The Provident Knowledge Papers,” &c. Bwaton, Sydney Charles (R.).—Author of “ Handbook to Political Questions,” “Political Manual,” “Finance and Politics : an Historical Study,” “Handbook to the Death Duties,” &c. Birrell, Augustine, Q.C. (R.).—Author of “Obiter Dicta,” of “Charlotte Bronte,” and of “Res Judicatae.” Bryce, Right Hon. James, P.C. (R.).-Author of “The Holy Roman Empire,” “Transcaucasia and Ararat,” “The Americall Commonwealth,” articles on subjects political, legal, and economical, in various magazines. Cameron, Robert (R.).—Writer and lecturer on literature, science, &c. - Curzon, Right Hon. George Nathaniel (C.).-Author of “Russia, in Central Asia,” “Persia and the Persian Question.” Clarke, Sir Edward, Q.C. (C.).-Author of a Treatise on the Law of Extradition. “Post, Cooke, Charles Wallwyn Radcliffe (C.). — Author of a Work on Agricultural Holdings, and of “Four Years in Parliament with Hard Labour.” Colomb, Captain Sir John Charles Ready, K.C.M.G. (C.).- Author of “The Protection of Commerce,” “Naval and Military Resources of the Colonies,” “The Defence of Great and Greater Britain,” “Imperial Federation, Naval and Military,” &c.; and has contributed to Blackwood, Fraser, and Nineteenth Century, &c. Crombie, John William (R.).—Author of “Some Poets of the People in Foreign Lands.” Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth (R.).—Author of “Greater Britain,” “The Fall of Prince Florestan,” “Position of European Politics.” Darling, Charles John, Q.C. (C.).-Author of “Scintillae Juris,” “Meditations in the Tea Room,” &c. Drage, Geoffrey (C.).-Author of “German Criminal Code,” a translation with commentary of “Cyril,” a novel passed through seven editions, “Eton and the Empire,” “Eton and the Labour Question,” “The Unemployed,” and “The Problem of the Aged Poor.” De Worms, Right Hon. Baron Henry (C.).-Has published “Memoirs of Count Beust,” “The Austro-Hungarian Empire,” &c. Farquharson, Dr. Robert (R.).—Author of medical works, including “A Guide to Therapeutics.” Green, Walford Davis (C.).-Author of “The Political Career of George Canning.” Hobhouse, Henry (L.U.).—Joint author with Mr. Justice Wright of “An Outline of Local Government and Local Taxation,” and works on the Local Government and Corrupt Practices Acts. Howorth, Sir Henry Hoyle (C.).-Author of “A History of the Mongols,” “A History of Chinghiz Khan and his Ancestors,” “The Mammoths and the Flood,” “The Glacial Nightmare and the Flood : a second appeal to common sense from the extravagance of some recent Geology,” &c., editor of “The History of the Vicars of Rochdale,” of a large number of scientific memoirs, and numerous letters on political and other matters in the Times. Healy, Timothy Michael (A.-P.).-Author of “Why is there an Irish Question and an Irish Land League P” “A Word for Ireland,” &c. Hogan, James Francis (A.-P.).-Various articles in Mel- bowrme Review, the Victoria Review, the Contemporary, Westminster Review, Chambers’s Jowrmal, and has published “An Australian Christmas Collection,” “History of the Irish in Australia,” “The Australian in London,” “The Lost Explorer,” “The Convict King,” and “Robert Lowe, Wiscount Sherbrooke.” Writes extensively to London Press on Colonial subjects. Hamson, Alderman Sir Reginald (C.).—Author of “A History of the Tea Trade.” Harwood, George (R.).—Author of “Disestablishment,” “The Coming Democracy,” and “From Within ’’ and “A Candidate's Speeches.” Heaton, John Henniker (C.).-Author of “The Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time.” Haldane, Richard Burdon, Q.C. (R.).—Author of “Adam Smith,” joint author and editor of “Essays in Philoso- phical Criticism,” and joint translator of “World as Will and Idea.” - - Hwmter, William Alexander, L.L.D. (R.).—Author of “Roman Law in the Order of a Code,” and of an “Introduction to Roman Law.” Johnston, William (C.).—Author of “Night Shade,” “Under which King,” &c. ## p. (#451) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 97 Jebb, Richard Claverhouse (C.).-Author of “The Attic Orators,” “Translations into Latin and Greek Verse,” “Bentley’ (in the “English Men of Letters ” series), an edition of the “Characters of Theophrastus,” an addition of “Sophocles,” and translation and “Lectures on Greek Poetry,” &c. Lorne, Right Hon. Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, Marquis of (L.U.).—Author of “Guide to Windsor Castle.” Labouchere, Henry (R.).—Editor and proprietor of Truth. Lubbock, Right Hon. Sir John, Bart. (I.U.).—Author of numerous works. Leng, Sir John (R.).-Author of “America in 1876,” and numerous pamphlets. McCarthy, Justin (A.-P.).-Author of “A History of Our Own Times,” “A History of the Four Georges,” and numerous novels. Macdona, John Cumming (C.).-Author of “Across the Andes,” &c. Marks, Harry Hanamel (C.).-Author of “Small Change, or Leaves from a Reporter's Note-Book.” Maclean, James Mackenzie (C.).-Author of “Maclean’s Guide to Bombay.” Macneill, John Gordon Swift (A.-P.).-Author of “The Irish Parliament, What it was, and What it did,” “How the Union was Carried,” and a work on Irish peerages. C’Connor, Thomas Power (A.-P.).-A journalist, formerly editor of the Star, and now of the Swn and Weekly Swn, and author of “Tife of Lord Beaconsfield,” “ Gladstone’s House of Commons,” “The Parnell Movement,” “Charles Stewart Parnell: Memory,” &c. Rickett, J. Compton (R.).-Author of “The Christ that is to be,” and “The Quickening of Caliban.” - Rwssell, Colonel Francis Shirley (L.U.). — Author of “Russian Wars with Turkey,” “Memoirs of the Earl of Peterborough,” &c. Stanley, Henry Morton (L.U.).—Author of “How I Found Livingstone,” “Through the Dark Continent,” “The Congo and the Foundling of its Free State,” “In Darkest Africa.” Stuart, James (R.).—Published numerous works, articles, speeches, and pamphlets on educational, scientific, and Social questions. Sullivan, Timothy Daniel (A.-P.) — Author of “Poems,” “Green Leaves,” &c. Trevelyan, Right Hon. Sir George Otto, Bart. (R.).— Author of “The Competition Wallah,” “A Life of Lord Macaulay,” “The Early Life of Charles James Fox,” &c. Whittaker, Thomas Palmer (R.).-A Journalist, and con- tributed articles to Nineteenth Century, Dublin Review, Westminster Review, Macmillan’s Magazine, &c. Webster, Robert Grant (C.).-Author of the “The Trade of the World,” “Shoulder to Shoulder,” &c. Wylie, Alexander (C.).-Author of “Labour, Leisure, and Luxury,” &c. - —” --- - *- ,-- B00K TALK, UBLISHING houses are issuing their pros- pectuses for the autumn season, which gives an all-round promise of an output as useful as numerous, though, perhaps, some- what lacking in books of verse. Mr. Clark Russell will be represented by two three-volume novels—“Heart of Oak : a Three Stranded Yarn,” and “The Tale of the Ten ‘’; and Mr. Grant Allen by a volume of “Moorland Idylls,” all to be published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. - John Oliver Hobbes's next novel, “The Herb- Moon,” will come shortly from Mr. Fisher Unwin; also a volume of stories by Mr. Clark Russell, called “For Honour and the Flag.” Perhaps one of the most interesting books of its kind to appear in the coming season will be the “Memoirs of Lady Eastlake,” edited by her nephew, Mr. Charles Eastlake Smith. The work will consist principally of extracts from the letters and journals of this talented lady, who, in her various capacities as author, artist, and art critic, kept a minute record of the events she took part in, and of the famous people she met. Fac- similes of Lady Eastlake's drawings will adorn the volume, which Mr. Murray is to publish. Miss Alice Balfour, sister of Mr. Arthur Balfour, has written a book describing a tour she made in South Africa. It is to be named “Twelve Hundred Miles in an Ox-Wagon,” and there will be illustrations from the author's own drawings. Mr. Edward Arnold is to publish the book in the autumn. - Another work which will come from the same publishing house about this time is Slatin Pasha's record of his experiences in Mahdiland. The illustrations will be by Mr. R. Talbot Kelly. The title is “Fire and Sword in the Sudan.” Among autobiographies of the forthcoming season will be that of Mr. Henry Russell, of “Cheer Boys, Cheer,” fame, which probably will be the title. The fact of his wide travels aud the many interesting acquaintanceships he enjoyed— Dickens and Charles Mackay, for instance—will ensure for Mr. Russell’s volume a keen expectancy in a very large circle. The volume of reminiscences by Mr. Frederick Locker-Lampson, which the poet had completed a short time before he died, will be published on an early date, edited by Mr. Augustine Birrell, Q.C., M.P. Miss Beatrice Harraden is returning to England to arrange for the publication of the new Califor- nian story she has just finished. Short stories by Mr. R. D. Blackmore, Mr. Crockett, Mr. Clark Russell, M. Jules Lemaître, and M. Jules Claretie, are to appear in a new illustrated annual which Messrs. Sampson Low will inaugurate this autumn. “Slain by the Doones’’ is the title of Mr. Blackmore's, which will have some affinity to “Lorna Doone.” Mr. J. M. Barrie's new book, “Sentimental Tommy,” will not appear until the autumn of 1896, as it is first to run serially in Scribner's Magazine, beginning in the January number. ## p. (#452) ################################################ 98 THE AUTHOR. Another study of childhood will be Mrs. Hodgson Burnett's new story entitled “Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress,” to be illustrated by Mr. R. W. Macbeth, A.R.A., and published by Messrs. Warne. - The life of the Irish novelist, William Carleton, which is being prepared by Mr. David J. O'Donoghue, will be published by Messrs. Downey probably this month. It is founded on an un- finished autobiography, which will now be made public for the first time, and it will have photo- graphs. A romance by Mrs. Egerton Castle, entitled “My Little Lady Annie,” will be published in the early autumn by Mr. Lane. Mr. Robert Barr's new works, to appear in the autumn, are “A Woman Intervenes,” and a volume of short stories entitled “Revenge.” Messrs. Chatto and Windus are the publishers. • ‘ The autumn will probably see the publication of a volume of essays by Professor Huxley, representing his later activities, one article having been finished very shortly before he died. Mr. Henley is to edit a new library edition of the works of Byron, which Mr. Heinemann will publish. Mr. W. E. Gladstone's notes to authors upon their works have been by no means rare, and have sometimes made the fortune of the books referred to ; but the author of “A Forgotten Great Englishman’” must have been somewhat astounded at receiving a note written by Mr. Gladstone on the Monday when all the rest of England was wondering over the remarkable election returns. The note proves also a careful and even minute study of this fifteenth century book, for it refers to a statement in a quotation, thus, “The Life, combined with the fact you state, that Huss and Jerome both studied at Oxford, completely explains a very curious puzzle.” The book has already received very marked atten- tion from the reviewers, and this note will again. draw attention to a work that puts a great Englishman back into a niche in English history, after being lost sight of for four centuries. The “Dictionary of National Biography” is to have an article on his life, and Mr. James Baker's work has thus been thoroughly successful. “Sword and Song,” by R. Mounteney-Jephson, author of “Tom Bullkley of Lissington,” &c., will be issued by Messrs. Simpkin Marshall and Co. early in October, price 6s., I vol. Mr. Joseph Pennell is publishing in book form the course of lectures he delivered at University College last winter on the art of illustration. A volume on Christina Rossetti and her work, by Mr. Mackenzie Bell, will be published soon by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden. B. Yeats figuring as leaders. Mr. George R. Sims has written of “Dagonet Abroad,” and the volume will appear immediately from Messrs. Chatto and Windus. The same publishers have in preparation a volume of “The Impressions of Aureole,” the diary, it is said, of a well-known society lady. An anonymous writer is publishing, through Messrs. Archd. Constable & Co., an account of an imaginary excursion of the minor English poets to Parnassus, with W. Le Gallienne and Mr. W. Should the humour of the author of “All Expenses Paid” overstep tolerance he will be prepared to apologise. Dr. Conan Doyle’s “Stark-Munro Letters” will appear in bound form in a day or two. The Christmas number of the Illustrated London News will contain the only short story that Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson left at his death. It is entitled “On the Great North Road,” and the action takes place at the end of last century. Dr. George Macdonald's new romantic story, “Lilith,” will be published immediately. Mr. W. J. Hardy, F.S.A., is the author of “Lighthouses, their History and Romance,” which the Religious Tract Society will publish in a few days. - Mr. Gladstone, in addition to a lengthy intro- duction to the “People's Bible History” (Sampson Low), has written an introduction to the “Life of Sir Andrew Clark,” by Malcolm MacColl and W. H. Allchin, which is being prepared for publication by Messrs. Longmans. Besides “The Life and Times of Cardinal Wise- man,” the latter firm has also in preparation “The Life of Ford Madox Brown,” written by Ford Madox Hueffer. A monograph on Frances Mary Buss and her work in the cause of education, written by Annie E. Ridley, is to appear from Messrs. Longmans Green in the autumn. Colonel Olcott, president of the Theosophical Society, is writing a book of Reminiscences. “The Gurneys of Earlham,” by Mr. Augustus Hare, is definitely announced by Mr. George Allen for publication next month. Scarcely any books appeared in the earlier part of the month, but towards the end the activity suspended during the General Election period begins to return to the publishing world. These, however, may be noted in the August produc- tion: “Joan Haste,” by Rider Haggard (Long- mans Green); “Jacob Niemand,” by Robert H. Sherard (Ward and Downey); “A Comedy in Spasms,” by “Iota ?? (Hutchinson and Co.); “Nelson,” by John Knox Laughton, in English Men of Action Series (Macmillan); and “The Greater Victorian Poets,” by Professor Hugh Walker (Swan Sonnenschein). ## p. (#453) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 99 The book which attracted most interest, how- ever, was “M. Stambuloff,” by Mr. A. Hulme Beaman, in the Public Men of To-Day Series (Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster). A recent contributor to the Saturday Review told how the slain Bulgarian statesman was sitting one night with his friends at a variety theatre; the revelry had reached its highest when he signalled to an official to bring him a document, which he promptly signed, exclaiming “I like contrasts' " It was a death warrant. To partly the same effect is the summary of the minister's character which Mr. Beaman, who was an intimate friend, gives thus:—“Taught in the hard school of want and adversity his nature was rugged as the mountains which were his youthful home and refuge. . In Stambuloff we see the strong man defending his house.” The Badminton Magazine is the title of a new shilling sporting monthly of a high class, which began with August. It is edited by Mr. A. E. T. Watson, and the contributors secured include distinguished people who are also noted in some line of sport and pastime. The magazine is pub- lished by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. Besides starting a quarterly review devoted entirely to history, America has just added to its monthlies in the Philastine, issued from New York, its raison d’etre being “to lay the dust of convention, and drive out the miasma of degene- racy.” But why periodical ? is what the West- minster Gazette, boasting conquest at almost a single stroke on this side, cannot understand. “Phil May's Sketch Book” is the title of a volume of full-page cartoons by that artist, which Messrs, Chatto and Windus will publish soon. Mr. Clement Shorter is to edit a work about the Bronté Papers, which were bought in Ireland by Mr. Thomas J. Wise, the well-known London book-collector, from the aged husband of Char- lotte Brontë. They purport to be a “second series” of the Young Men's Magazine for various months of 1830 and 1831, and are penned in a handwriting too delicate for reading by the naked eye. Mr. Wise has lately edited, for private cir- culation, a complete collection, in two little volumes, of Shelley’s letters to Leigh Hunt, many of which are now published for the first time. Mr. H. G. Wells, whose highly imaginative work, “The Time Machine,” recently secured an encouraging meed of praise, has written a second book. It is entitled “The Wonderful Visit,” being satirically the life and impressions of a visitor from an unknown world. Mr. Morley's reverse in political fortune will afford him time to complete the Chatham bio- graphy for the “Twelve English Statesmen’’ series. Whether he will add to the “English Men of Letters ” volumes meantime is doubtful, for politicians count upon his return to Parliament early next year; but he has in view an Irish historical work, dealing with the period of the Union, and based upon a large and important collection of State papers (1795-1805) which he examined while at Dublin Castle. Here it may be remarked that Mr. Tim Healy, M.P., is preparing a volume of his Reminiscences. Professor Ferri, a member of the Italian Parliament, has written a book on “Criminal Sociology,” which will appear in the autumn in the Criminology Series published by Mr. Fisher Unwin. Individual and social amelioration of the lot of the people he advances as the great cure for crime, A new edition of Wordsworth, by Professor William Knight, will form one of Messrs. Mac- millan's Eversley series. Eight volumes are to be devoted to the poems, three to the prose, three to the journals, and two to biography. Messrs. Reeves and Turner are employing Mr. Buxton Forman’s text in the new edition of Keats, which they are about to issue. The first edition of Mr. Mackenzie Bell’s “Spring's Immortality and Other Poems ” being exhausted, Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden will publish shortly a second edition, prefixed to which will be a new poem addressed to Edmund Clarence Stedman. During Michaelmas Term, 1895, Dr. K. Lentzner will deliver in English five public lectures: one on Titerary Ethics, and four on The Danish Nursery-Story as an Art-Form. A new serial story by “John Strange Winter,” entitled “I Married a Wife . * begins in The Golden Penny on Sept. 7th, in which the popular author of “Bootles' Baby” amusingly describes the possible results of matrimony on a regiment. This novel—which has been written at Birching- ton-on-Sea, where Mrs. Stannard has passed the Summer—is said to be the most vivacious its author has yet penned. Her last novel, “A Magnificent Young Man,” published a few weeks ago by Messrs. F. W. White and Co., has proved unusually successful, the second large edition being already nearly exhausted; and a similar success has attended its American issue by the J. B. Lippincott Company. The Queen has been graciously pleased to accept a copy of Sir William Charley’s new work in vindication of the House of Lords, entitled “The Crusade against the Constitution,” which was favourably criticised in the February number of the Author. The Prime Minister has written to congratulate Sir William Charley on “the distinguished honour” thus conferred upon the work. “I am sure,” he adds, “that it has been ## p. (#454) ################################################ IOO THE AUTHOR. very valuable in influencing opinion, and correcting current misconceptions.” - Headon Hill's new volume, entitled “The Divi- nations of Kala Persad, and Other Stories,” re- printed from the magazines, will be published early this month by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden. The same author's serial, “Guilty Gold,” just commenced in Pearson’s Weekly, is appearing simultaneously in the Melbourne Argus. * -- ~ -º r- - -, CORRESPONDENCE, I.—Re EVERY MAN HIs Own PUBLISHER. I. N the August number of The Author you ask, after printing my letter to the Westminster Gazette, “Are not the figures wrong? How could a publisher give 4s. for a 5s. book?” The figures, sir, are right enough. My trade- agents—I did not say publishers—pay me 4S. for each 5s. book (the public pay me 5s.). And there is no nonsense between us of either baker's or devil's dozens; they take and get no more than twelve copies to the dozen, and each quarter-day their cheque appears sharp to time with never a blessed halfpenny deducted on any plea. Were I in a publisher's hands, the outlook I’m thinking would scarcely be so cheerful. It does seem odd that an unadvertised and altogether unlog-rolled book, by an obscure author, should sell well pertinaciously year after year, since it is emphatically not a work of fiction, nor can it come under the designation either of a cookery book, or a volume of SerD10IlS. I can only state the facts; I cannot pretend to explain them. THE SAME OLD CANNY SCOT. II. “A Canny Scot’s” letter interested me very much, and if she would give a few more par- ticulars of her mode of action it might be of value to others beside myself. How did she get her book on to the booksellers' counters? That is the difficulty in the case, as I apprehend. I often wonder why young authors do not try her plan. My first book was published so. It was a modest bit of local history, about 16,000 words in length. A printer in our nearest town printed 500 copies in good type, and bound them neatly in paper for £8. I paid £I I Is. for adver- tisements in local papers and One London journal. Two or three local booksellers undertook to sell the book for me at a profit to them of twopence in the shilling. I kept account for some time of the copies sold, but then discontinued. About 200 copies had been disposed of when I last calculated the number. The price was 9d. each, of which 7; d. came to me. This gave me 36 5s. where with to meet 39 IIs. spent for printing and advertisements. A loss, of course, but not so great as if I had not been my own publisher; and, small as the book was, it paved my way to more profitable ventures. But in this case I knew my booksellers; should I have succeeded as well with strangers? NINGUNA. II.-A GERMAN AUTHORs' CLUB. The “Club of the German Society of Authors” was founded a few years ago by that society to promote social intercourse among authors, artists, and men of science. The great majority of the members consist of Berlin writers, for instance, Herr von Wildenbruch, Herr Otto Eric Hartleben, and others; a goodly number are musicians, amongst them. Herr Capellmeister, C. A. Raida, who is not unknown in this country, and actors, as Herr Alexander, Herr Tiebscher, Herr Krauss- neck, &c. At present the club occupies four pretty rooms on a first floor of the Kronen- Strasse, in the best quarter of Berlin. The rooms are open from IO a.m. till 2 a.m. Refreshments can be had at any time within these limits. Here it is that critics congregate after a first night, and one can hear the sharpest tongues of Berlin give judgment for or against the new piece. Smoking is not allowed in the library and reading room, nor is it permitted to take books from the former, or to make cuttings from the papers and maga- zines. Only members in possession of members’ cards are admitted. They are allowed to intro- duce guests three times, writing their names in the strangers' book before entering the rooms. The club fees amount to 5s. a quarter, on payment of which one receives the member’s card above mentioned. If anyone wishes to cease being a member, he must give notice in a registered letter three months before June 30. Dinners are given now and then, and every year a “feast ’’ is held under the auspices of the society for some benevo- lent fund; in the winter a ball is given. The principal object, however, is to provide a pleasant place of meeting free from every social restraint, where men can stroll in and out just as they please, and that this has been sucessfully attained no one can doubt that has ever been in the rooms. On the same floor is the bureau of the society, where manuscripts of all descriptions are handed in, for which the society endeavours to find a publisher or an opening in a paper or magazine. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 04 (September 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 04 (September 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-09-02-The-Author-6-4 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/280/1895-08-01-The-Author-6-3.pdf 037a01a3a6264a379c9d924dd1652dec 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) 1895-08-01 Volume 6 Issue 3 Pages Page range in volume 53–84 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950801 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El ut b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) C O N DU C T ED BY WA. L TER BES ANT. VoI. VI.-No. 3..] For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *- - -4° HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *-- ~ +-º a- - - WARNINGS AND ADVICE. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea'pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN whAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO Both SIDEs BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL, WI. AUGUST 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. Yow cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERs.-Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. --Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. 14. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, . charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society's Offices :- 4, PoETUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *- - -* HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple G 2 ## p. (#408) ################################################ 54 THE AUTHOR. to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *-- ~ *-* a- - -s. THE AUTHORS SYNDICATE. EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed eaclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department ’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted * is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. -* zºº' - *-*. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. Subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer’s, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, ## p. (#409) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 55 dr in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. T a meeting of the Committee, held on Monday, July 8, the following resolution was passed:—“Resolved that the Com- mittee of Management of the Incorporated Society of Authors taking advantage of Mr. George Haven Putnam’s presence in this country, hereby convey to him their recognition and appreciation of the services that he has rendered to the cause of international copyright in conjunction with Mr. R. Underwood Johnson and the American Committee.” To this Resolution Mr. Pritnam has sent the following reply:-‘‘I am writing to acknowledge your courteous favour of the 9th inst., with the report of the Resolution passed by the committee of the Society of Authors in recognition of the services rendered by myself in furthering the completion of an international copyright arrange- ment between the United States and Great Britain. I can only express my full sense of the compliment that has been conferred upon me by so representa- tive and honourable a body as the Society of Authors, and the pleasure that it gives to me to understand that the work I was in a position to do in behalf of a recognition of literary property that should be independent of political boun- daries has been appreciatively understood by the members of your Society.—G. H. PUTNAM.” II.-CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. Mr. Hall Caine, who sails on a visit to America in September, has been invited by the Committee to act as the representative of the Society in Canada. He will confer with certain Canadian statesmen, and will lay before them the actual facts of the case and the unanimous opinion of all the persons in this country as to the vital importance of preserving an International Copy- right for all English-speaking countries. A Parliamentary return has been published giving the amounts received from Canada since 1877 as duties collected on foreign reprints of British copyright works. The total, less charges for collection expenses, since that year, i.e., in eighteen years is 35278 98., or an average of 3293 4s. 54d. per annum. Anybody may have the shillings—who has got the pounds? Of late years the collectors seem to have been more active. Thus, in the year ending June 30, 1890, they collected £970 7s. ; in 1891, 2919 8s. ; in 1892, 3533 13s. I Id, ; in 1893, however, they dropped to £364 7s. 2d.; in 1894, 29276 1s. 4d. Taking the average of £293 4s. 54a, per annum —call it £300—this represents, at 12# per cent. a trade amounting to £24OO per annum. Is it really worth while after all to imperil international copyright for so paltry a sum as 32400 per annum ? III.-CANADIAN PUBLISHERs. A communication has been received from the Rev. William Briggs, D.D., Book Steward of the “Methodist Book Publishing House,” Toronto, calling attention to their current list of new books, and mentioning that their complete list numbers nearly 200 works. Dr. Briggs says that he credits the Society with ignorance rather than with a desire to conceal the facts when it speaks of “Canadian booksellers who may call them- selves publishers.” Very good. It is, indeed, far from the intention of the Society to con- ceal the facts. But one may point out, first, that a list of 200 books of all kinds is not a very long list; and, next, that Dr. Briggs has not told us of any other Canadian publisher who has so respectable a list. One does not suggest that there are no other such publishers; but one would like to know. The current list forwarded contains a varied assortment of works. There are five books of history; four books of verse, one on Art; one upon medical science; seven of fiction— two by an English writer; three of natural history; four of travel; and the rest on religious subjects. - IV.-CONTRIBUTORS AND SERIAL RIGHTs. Contributors to magazines and papers are reminded that they sell serial rights only, where no special stipulation is made. A correspon- dent sends a printed form of receipt, headed “Purchase of Entire Copyright.” He must substitute for the last two words before signing it, unless, of course, he has already agreed to sell the whole copyright, the words “First Serial Right.” In most cases, of course, the serial right is all that the MS. is worth ; but provision must be made for possibilities, and in no case should the author be led to believe that while he offers the serial right, the publisher can claim the whole copyright after publication, and without previous agreement. - Eº º: ## p. (#410) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. THE SPIRIT OF DR, JOHNSON. R. H. D. TRAILL’S paper in the Fortnightly Review is amusing, but un- fortunately he has been led astray by a spirit of deception. The voice is the voice of Dr. Johnson, but the sentiments are undoubtedly those of Mr. Cave, sometime publisher. For, whereas the question which now concerns authors is that of their own independence, which can never be achieved until the production of a book means a recognised system, on such lines as leave no room, either for secret profits, or for the over- reaching of an author, or for the suspicion of such practices; until it means an agreement based upon figures understood by both sides, and giving the property over to be administered also on terms which are understood by both sides. So long as the author has to go to a publisher and humbly ask him for an agreement, the meaning of which he is not to understand, so long will literature be dependent and held—so far—in the contempt which belongs to dependence. The spirit of the late Mr. Cave, however, plainly perceiving the real point, goes off on a quite different point. He pretends that it is proposed to abolish publishers altogether, and in this way diverts attention from the real point. I do not know whether anyone has proposed such a measure. Certainly no one in this society has done such a silly thing. It is, for instance, quite conceivable that any successful author might become his own publisher—Ruskin showed the way—by the simple method of keeping a clerk or secretary. As for talk about the trouble of sending backwards and forwards to printers, binders, &c., that is rubbish. Besides, every ăuthor has got to send proofs backwards and forwards as it is. The production of the ordi- nary book is a matter of the merest routine; there is no trouble at all about it. I have myself produced a great many, and I know what I am talking about. Five minutes' talk with printer and another with binder—that is nearly all. It is a question of the merest routine. It is also quite concervable that half-a-dozen successful authors might unite to keep a common clerk for the distribution of their books. Nothing would be easier, and of course it will be done before long. But the publisher will still remain, however many authors so unite, until, or unless, the booksellers themselves unite and provide a mind to think and act for them. To the publisher will belong, for instance, the great literary enterprises; the encyclopædias, atlases, dictionaries of all kinds, works which require the services of many men of letters and the advance of large capital; to them also will belong the whole literature of the past; to them will belong the magazines and journals; to them, perhaps—but this is not certain—will belong the whole of the educational books. I say “perhaps,” because it is quite conceivable that the educational books will be removed into other channels altogether, and will be published by other hands on a very different plan, which is already under discussion. On this point we shall probably hear more. There will also remain to publishers that very large and lucrative branch which provides prize books, story books, &c., for children. Other branches will remain, because, although the soi disant Johnson, otherwise the Spirit of Cave, pretends that it would be possible yet wicked to destroy the publisher, nobody has ever yet thought it either possible or even desirable to attempt such a step. I certainly think that a writer of Mr. Traill's experience and scholarship might have detected the imposture. Thus, it is pointed out to me by one also of some knowledge in English literature I. That Dr. Johnson was the most earnest champion of the rights of authors, and the most passionate enemy of the injustices of booksellers, and of an imperfect copyright law, that ever lived in England. 2. That he was familiar with every detail of the book- making and bookselling businesses. 3. That the booksellers he dealt with stood on an entirely different footing to that occupied by the publisher of to-day; that he wrote his “Poets” for a co-operative society of booksellers who sold their own books over their own counters, and that the only exception to this rule of business ever mentioned by him (so far as I know) relates to the publications of the Clarendon Press—and there his endeavours appear to have been used to reduce the earnings of the middleman. - 4. That all this (the portrait of the flesh and blood Johnson) may be found in twenty places in Boswell. 5. That the Dr. Johnson of the Fortnightly article is a bogey in both senses; that he is another man, with other leanings and other opinions; that he has forgotten all his special knowledge, and talks the dangerous nonsense of one who is only half informed. To this I must add that, as usual, Mr. Traill’s spirits go hopelessly wrong over the figures. What, for instance, does this mean? It is the so called Spirit of Johnson who speaks: “They will always need the services of some trader with capital enough to undertake the venture and to lie out of his money till its slow returns come back to him.” As for capital, how much is possessed by the new publisher P. How much is required to pro- duce a book P. For the greater part nothing. Dr. Johnson would know, probably well, that under the present conditions of trade, no capital is expended, not a farthing, on most of the books published. Or, if any, then, the small difference between the first returns and the actual cost. But as to “lying out of his money,” and the slow returns; publishers could not exist by books demanding large capital and bringing in slow ## p. (#411) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. - - 57 returns. These books are only brought out by great firms; they may be admirable books. It is in the issue of such works that some pub- lishers do good service to literature; but they do not live by them, nor do they in general reckon them as profit-making ventures. The figures themselves are quite simple and cannot be repeated too often. The real Dr. John- son would have known them at once. Again, we take an ordinary 6s. book, not because, as the Spirit of Cave calling himself Johnson says, “as if a 6s. novel was the whole of literature,” but because the 6s. book is a very common form for essays, biographies, and belles lettres of all kinds as well as for fiction. If any One will find us a more convenient unit than the Ordinary 6s. book we shall be glad to take it. Now the figures that follow were obtained by the Secretary of the Society and others working in the same direction four or five years ago; they have been published ; they have never been seriously disputed. Quite recently they have been obtained by Mr. Hall Caine from six publishers, all of whom agreed in the main with each other and with us. Very well; the ordinary 6s. book—meaning from seventeen to twenty sheets—i.e., from 70,000 to IOO,OOO words in small pica type, of about 260 words to a page, without illustrations, on good paper and in good plain binding, costs for an edition of 30OO copies no more than a shilling a copy with advertising, unless there is reason for knowing that the demand will increase, when the increased amount spent in advertising must be spread over. Of this cardinal fact there can be no doubt or dispute whatever. The sale of the book to the trade is at 4s. 2d., less 5 per cent. “for the account,” and thirteen to the dozen on ordering so many. This means 3s. 7+}d. for every copy. We generally reckon this as an average of 3s. 6d., which gives some allow- ance for press copies and for bad debts. It is, however, too low, because the booksellers, after the first run, chiefly order single copies. However, take it as 3s. 6d., with this understanding. We now have this simple sum : Cost of the book, Is. Price of the book to the trade, 3s. 6d. Profit on the book, 2s. 6d. This has to be divided between author and publisher. I. At a royalty of IO per cent. (quite a common royalty formerly), we have : Author receives 74d. a copy; Publisher receives 22#d. a copy. 2. At a royalty of 15 per cent. : Author receives Io; d. a copy ; Publisher receives 194d. a copy. 3. At a royalty of 20 per cent : Author receives 144d. a copy; Publisher receives 153d. a copy. 4. At a royalty of 30 per cent. : Author receives 21; d. a copy. Publisher receives 83d. a copy. But, says the publisher, there are all my office expenses. Quite so. There are also the author's office expenses. And there are the bookseller's office expenses. Is it not colossal impudence that the middleman should demand to have his office expenses paid, and should refuse to consider those of the other two—the real workers? Now, to return to a case noted in last month's Author. A certain publisher is reported to have said (1) that he could not make more than 7d. a copy for himsel/, after all office eaſpenses were paid, out of a book; and (2) that things had got to such a pass that a publisher would soon refuse a successful author altogether. At this time, this very man, on his own showing of 7d. a. copy—a figure which cannot be accepted—ha just made a good deal more than £10oo in three or four months by producing one successful book. Yet he wanted more But the respect- able and the honourable publisher says that he does not say or pretend such things, or do such things. Very likely. Why does he not write to the papers, then, and disclaim such men P The question of office expenses, if it is to be considered at all, must be considered fairly. The author has expenses of all kinds, so has the bookseller, so has the publisher. As regards the last he can only prove his claim by showing his books. Thus, we have, in general terms, apart from each book: I. His rent. With the new publisher, the rent of two little rooms. 2. His accountants, clerks, and travellers. With the new publisher, two office boys and one traveller, or a share of one traveller. 3. His office expenses—as light, fire, servants, postage, &c. If his expenses under these items amount to so much, these expenses divided among all his books in proportion to the price will give the actual “office expenses " of each copy. In a great house this must be a very minute fraction. Our friend who wept and wailed over the seven- pence which he got for doing nothing at all, estimated his office expenses at 5a, a copy. This means that, on the book referred to which sold, say, to take an extreme case, 50,000 copies, its own share of office expenses of distribution amounted to over £1 OOO. Credat Judaeus / In ## p. (#412) ################################################ 58 THE AUTHOR. these absurdities, however, we are landed when- ever we accept from such publishers figures without understanding what they mean, and which are advanced by them in the full knowledge that they will not be understood. *m- a. º. a- - -, NEW YORK LETTER. New York, July 15, 1895. HERE have been not a few discussions in the columns of the Author of points of etiquette, editorial and journalistic; but there is one question which I have never seen raised in your pages. It is this: What should a correspondent do when he reads in the journal to which he contributes a paragraph against which he feels that he ought to protest ? The immediate cause of my making this query here is that I found in the June number of the Author a word—only a single word, it is true—against which I am moved to protest. A letter from Mr. John Bloundelle Burton (addressed to the editor of a New York paper, not of the highest rank) is reprinted, and to it is prefixed a note in which somebody says that the person to whom the letter was addressed “appears to have indulged in an outbreak of abuse that is not common even on the other side of the Atlantic.” Is not this a slur unworthy the pages of a journal like the Author, which is constantly trying to cultivate the good- will of America. P I know nothing of the attack which the writer of the letter complained of; but along acquaintance with the literary papers of Great Britain and of the United States has led me to the conclusion that there is little to choose between them—so far as courtesy to authors is concerned. Most of them are courteous on both sides of the water. Few of them are abusive. Of these few, I think, more are to be found in London than in New York; and I have detected, I fancied, more rancour and more venom in the British abuse than in the American. Of course, this may be due to my point of view; and it is quite possible that an Englishman as familiar with the American papers as I am with the British might not agree with me. And, as I said before, abuse is not common in either country. Of all the American writers of fiction who have made themselves known to British readers in the past half-dozen years, no one has been more heartily welcomed than Miss Mary E. Wilkins. It may be interesting, therefore, to note that Miss Wilkins has recently made a new departure, and has achieved an unexpected success. She has just won the prize of £400 offered by the Bacheller Syndicate for the best detective story not exceeding 12,OOO words in length. Her story is called “The Long Arm.” A second prize of £1oo was awarded to a tale called “The Twinkling of an Eye,” by Mr. Brander Matthews. Both stories are to be published by a leading newspaper in every one of the chief American cities. In New York they will appear in the Herald, which has given an interesting account of the particulars of the competition. The circular sent out to competitors thus characterised the class of fiction desired: “We are seeking clean stories which will interest the average newspaper reader, and which can be pub- lished to advantage in instalments of about 2000 words each. We hold that a very high quality of art is consistent with these requirements. The novelty and ingenuity of the plot, and the literary and constructive art developed in its treatment, are considerations which will probably most influence the minds of the judges in reaching a decision. The judges will be gentlemen of un- questionable fairness and competency. The date fixed for the close of the competition was May 1, 1895.” About the beginning of April the manu- scripts in Mr. Irving Bacheller's private office were as thick as the leaves of Wallombrosa. They came in from all parts of the globe. Three thousand stories in all were received. All were sent in anonymously. Then came the work of sorting and selection. All the stories were read in the first instance by Mr. Bacheller and a staff of experienced coadjutors. Fifty, which were con- sidered the best, were handed to Mr. John H. Boner, of the Literary Digest. Out of these he choose thirteen, which were then turned over to Mr. Hamilton W. Mable, of the Outlook, for final adjudication. When the sealed envelopes were opened the authors of the successful stories were for the first time made known. There was no possible chance of favouritism. Every manu- script, in accordance with the conditions, was typewritten, and was sent without the author's name. The accompanying sealed envelope con- tained the sole clew to the authorship. So high was the merit of the best of the selected stories (after the two prize winners) that a very large proportion of them have been purchased by the Bacheller Syndicate for use after “The Long Arm" and “The Twinkling of an Eye” have been published. - Mark Twain is about to start on a lecturing tour around the world. Sailing from the Pacific Coast in August, Mr. Clemens will read and lecture in the Sandwich Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Ceylon, Madras, Calcutta, Lahore, Bombay, Mauritius, South Africa, England, Scotland, and Ireland, finishing his . ## p. (#413) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 59 little excursion by a few readings from his own works in the chief cities of the United States. It is an open secret that Mr. Clemens lost most of his own fortune—and some also of his wife's— in the disastrous failure of Charles L. Webster and Co. He had also sunk many thousands of dollars in an invention from which he is not likely to get a cent back. His tour is certain to be enormously profitable, for Mark Twain is one of the wonders of the platform. No one living tells a story better than he, or has a more engaging personality before an audience. He is a master of the art of delivery, of diction, as the French call it. I hear a rumour also that a complete library edition of all his works is in contemplation. That he is the author of the Joan of Arc serial now running in Harper's Magazine seems to be generally admitted. It is pleasant to record that the dramatisation of “Pudd’nhead Wilson’’ made by Mr. Frank Mayo has also been successful on the stage. The American copyright law allows a novelist to reserve the right to dramatise his story. The British copyright law does not give the novelist this right, although the decision in the “Little Lord Fanntleroy" case will hereafter make the path of the pirate thorny and doubtful. Whenever any British author feels like de- nouncing the necessity of manufacture in the United States, which is a condition of American copyright, he should first recall the fact that in One respect at least the American copyright law is more favourable to the Englishman than the British law is to the American. In Great Britain the American novelist cannot legally reserve the right to dramatise his story; and in Great Britain the American dramatist has no rights at all, unless he sees to it that his play is performed in England before it is performed in America, which forces him to spend anywhere from £20 to 350 in an absurd special performance. Now the British dramatist has full protection in the United States, and the British novelist has sole right to dramatise his own story or to authorise a dramatisation of it. That this is the case is fortunate for Mr. Du Maurier, who is in receipt of the weekly royalties from the three or four companies recently per- forming Mr. Paul M. Potter's adaptation of “Trilby.” author, and if there were the rage for “Trilby’’ in Great Britain which there is in the United States, I doubt very much whether he would be in receipt of several hundred pounds a month for the authorisation to perform a stage version of his tale. The interest in “Trilby’’ seems to be unabated. Two parodies of the novel have been published—both of them beneath contempt ; and two burlesques of the play have been acted. The WOL. WI. If Mr. Du Maurier were an American music publishing house of Dibson and Co. has just issued an album of “Trilby Songs, Words, and Music.” The author of “Ben Bolt” has been called again to mind; he is still alive—and a member of congress. His name is Thomas Dunn English; and if there are any British admirers of Poe who are really familiar with the facts of Poe's career, the name will recall to them the long quarrel of Poe and English—and also the interesting circumstance that Poe once brought a libel suit against English and recovered damages. But this is a digression from “Trilby.” The editors of the Critic of New York have prepared and published a pretty little pamphlet of forty-eight pages called “Trilbyana : The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel,” being a review of Mr. Du Maurier's “Trilby,” a criticism of the drawings, a notice of the play, and an account of the various entertainments founded upon the book. The songs “Ben Bolt,” “Mal- brouck,” “Au Clair de la Lune,” &c.; a review of Charles Nodier's “Trilby, le Lutin d’Argyle,” and many other items of interest, mostly reprinted from the Critic; portraits of Du Maurier, a view of his house on Hampstead Heath, and a repro- duction of his first contribution to Punch, con- taining likenesses of himself and Mr. Whistler. It is announced that Mr. Du Maurier’s new novel will be the chief serial for Harper's Monthly during the year 1897, but it is still doubtful whether or not the author-artist will be his own illustrator. One of the books announced for early publica- tion by Macmillan and Co. in New York (and probably also in London) is a volume containing the very interesting lectures on art which Mr. John Lafarge delivered at the Metropolitan Museum a year or two ago. Mr. Lafarge is one of the most Original of American painters, and his work is so highly esteemed in France that he was requested to make a special collection of his pictures for exhibition at the Champ de Mars this year. He is also one of the inventors of the very beautiful stained glass, now one of the most characteristic developments of recent American art. That he is a delightful writer all will admit who remember his letters from Japan, published in the Century three or four years ago; and that he can lecture as well as write this forthcoming volume will show. Mr. Laurence Hutton has spent part of the spring in Florence and part of the summer in Venice. His three articles on the “Literary Landmarks of Florence, of Rome, and of Venice,” will appear in Harper's Monthly during the autumn. They will be greatly enlarged before they are reprinted, each in a little book by itself, uniform with the “Literary Landmarks of H ## p. (#414) ################################################ 6o THE AUTHOR. Edinburgh.” They will all be illustrated by Mr. Frank W. Du Mond, whom Harper and Brothers sent to Europe specially for this purpose. Mr. Hutton expects to arrive in London before the end of the summer; and early in the autumn a little book of his on “Other Times and Other Seasons” will be published in the pretty little series called “Harper's American Essayists,” now extending to more than a dozen volumes, of which only Mr. Howells’ “Criticism and Fiction” and Dr. Waldstein’s “Ruskin.” have yet been pub- lished in England. H. R. [The writer of the paragraph containing the word “even,” to which objection is taken by “H. R.,” begs to state that he was not speaking of the literary papers, which are perhaps more courteous in America than in this country, but of the ordinary Press. If “H. R.” will, for instance, read a few numbers of a certain Irish-American paper published in Boston, he will find that the word “even '' is fully justified.] * * ** – º- NOTES FROM PARIS, M* ARTHUR MEYER, of Le Gaulois, has suggested that at the next Universal Exhibition in Paris, to be held in 1900, a special section should be reserved for literary men, and that a special building, to be called “Le Pavillon des Lettres,” should be erected for their convenience. I understand—for I never read Le Gaulois—-that various prominent men of letters have been interviewed on their opinion as to the feasibility of this scheme, and that for the most part they are favourable to the idea of making “exhibitions of themselves.” I do not quite under- stand how this exhibition will be managed, Sup- posing that the idea be carried out, as seems probable. Will the various literary men of cele- brity be on view to the visitors to the exhibition at certain fixed hours in the day? Shall we see them at work or at play, or, it may be, as they take their meals? Since the curiosity of the public as to the persons and personalities of celebrated authors is to be gratified, let it be gratified in full. I, for my part, will be a constant visitor to the Pavillon des Lettres. I should like to see Alexandre Dumas at breakfast, and to find out, de visu, whether he eats his eggs hard-boiled or soft. I should like to see Jean Richepin at work, and to assure myself whether it is true—as I read in an American journal the other day—that when he writes he dresses in Scarlet, and con- stantly rolls his eyes and smites his forehead. I should like to see whether George Ohnet uses a steel-mib or a quill, and how often Alphonse Daudet lights his cigar whilst writing, say, a thousand words. As the exhibition is to be an international one, I suppose foreign men of letters would also be invited to take up their residence during its duration in the Pavillon des Lettres. Each country would have its section. I am sure that the English section would be visited with great interest. The lady novelists who analyse with such minuteness of observation the sex question, would enjoy as great a success of curiosity as did the Tunisean dancers at the last exhibition. The prolific producer who can work two typewriters simultaneously (one with his hands and the other with his toes), and at the same time dictate to a shorthand writer, so that at once he can turn out, say, a short story, an analytical critique, and an incisive political leader, would greatly enhance our credit as an industrial nation. The critics, I presume, would be placed in separate rooms in each section; this as much for the purposes of classification as for the mutual safety of themselves and the authors proper. Personally, I should oppose any suggestion tending to have them secured in cages, but that will be a matter for the committee to decide. If anything of a spectacular nature were to be arranged in connection with the Pavillon des Lettres, one might have a series of very effective tableaua vivants, as, for instance, “The Authors thrown to the Critics,” which would remind one of Rome at its worst. The English section would be particularly interesting by its critics' depart- ment, especially the English authors. The veil of anonymity would at last be raised, the British man of letters would at last see his—(well, what P) —face to face. Some rather startling discoveries would, I fancy, be made; for instance, in the way of authors, who, not objecting to turn an honest penny and by way of clearing the field of possible competitors, would be found, not amongst their confrères, but among the critics. Mme. Sarah Bernhardt has been offered a sum of £32,000 to write her memoirs. The offer emanates from a syndicate of American publishers. Two editions of the book would be prepared. One, luxuriously illustrated by the best French artists, would be issued to subscribers at £8 the copy, and the syndicate calculates that at least 5000 amateurs would subscribe. This edition would be followed by a cheaper one for the general public. Mme. Bernhardt has not definitely accepted this offer, and in any case—so she at present declares —she will publish nothing until she retires from the stage. As one cannot imagine her retiring from the stage, it will be a long time—if she abide by her declaration—before these memoirs willcome ## p. (#415) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 6 I to light. In the meanwhile two newspapers have offered very large sums for serial rights. One is a French and the other an American news- paper. Mme. Bernhardt is said to be spending her holiday at Belle Isle, sorting papers, with the help of two secretaries, with a view to a selection of materials for this work. The offer must be of very recent date, because, as I related in last month's Author, I was assured by Mme. Bernhardt, about two months ago, that she had no present intention of writing her memoirs, as had been stated in an interview with her. No doubt the announcement that a biography of this lady was in preparation sug- gested the idea of the deal to the syndicate, and I can answer for the fact that the biographer in question, far from feeling any mortification at this annexation of his idea, is delighted to have been indirectly the cause of this flight of double- eagles in the direction of the little house on the Boulevard Pereire, where to his knowledge, owing to disastrous seasons, hostile critics, and so on, they will be doubly welcome. I certainly did not attend the inauguration of the monument to Henri Murger, and I am very much surprised that anybody can have been foolish enough to subscribe a penny towards the perpetuation of the memory of an author whose teachings were simply detestable. Murger's glorification of “La Vie de Bohème,” his glorifica- tion of laziness, disorder, and physical and moral dirtiness, has done more harm amongst foolish young men and women than any book that, I know of. Murger was himself an example of its pestilent influences, and died, bald, blear-eyed, and brainless at the age of thirty-eight. Daudet has given a description of him and of some of his foolish acolytes, as he saw them, a year or two before Murger's death at the Café des Martyrs. Most of Murger's admirers, who tried to live according to the idiotic modus vivendi which he had expounded, died premature deaths, sapped in every limb, or went mad, or com- mitted suicide. And thousands of girls, who might have lived to become happy mothers and respected wives, were lured to follow Mimi in her foolish career and ended as sadly, owing to the fashion set in that most mischievous “Vie de Bohème.” It is a regrettable fact that its evil influence still exercises itself, and it is to be feared that this monument to its author may increase and extend this evil influence. I am delighted, on the other hand, to hear that at last a monument is to be raised to Florian, in his native town. When shall we have in Paris monuments to Maupassant, to Balzac, or to Victor Hugo P The statute to Florian will be executed by M. Adrien Gaudez. A large com- VOL. VI. some such remark as this : President. mittee, composed of littérateurs and artists, mainly of Southern extraction, have the matter in hand, and are organising performances of one of Florian's works at the Comedie Française to raise part of the necessary funds. The monument will be raised near Alais, on the banks of the Gardon river. I had written “on the banks of the Gardon river” when it struck me that a monument can only stand on one bank of a river; and now that I come to think of it, I ought to have written “On one of the banks of the Gardon river,” for, of course, the Gardon has two banks. Yet it is a locution, is it not, this “on the banks,” where only one bank is meant? “The little cottage on the banks of the Thames,” “the ruined chapel on the banks of the Arno,” and so on. But those of us who write for the Author must be nothing if not grammatical. An eye is upon us, and nearly every month I receive from a press-cutting agency extracts from a society paper, containing “The italics are ours, the grammar is Mr. Sherard’s.” My anonymous critic never points out where my grammar differs from that of the professors of the art, but the stigma is there all the same. All things considered, I think that I will amend the last sentence in the preceding paragraph to “The monument will be raised near Alais, on one of the two banks of the Gardon river.” A number of booksellers’ clerks were sentenced the other day to long sentences of imprisonment, by the Eighth Chamber of Correctional Police, for wholesale larcenies to the prejudice of their employers. Some stole the books out of their masters’ shops, others resold these same books to those who had been robbed of them. One of the prisoners endeavoured to justify himself in a rambling statement about the special ethics of the bookselling trade, and muttered something about authors, royalties, manuscripts, and other irrele- vancies. He was very properly silenced by the What possible comparison can there be between a manuscript and a printed book, or, for the matter of that, between an author and a publisher ? I wish most strongly to advise journalists and literary men who may be offered positions on English papers published on the Continent to make full inquiries as to the nature of their duties, the amount of work that will be required of them, the relative value of money in the town where their salaries are to be paid, and finally as to the financial standing of the paper, before accepting any such offer and expatriating them- selves. Neglect of such precaution may involve a man in very serious difficulties. I have on my table a letter from a young journalist who recently H 2 ## p. (#416) ################################################ 62 THE AUTHOR. came from England to occupy the position of sub-editor on an English paper published on the Continent. He was engaged on a salary of £Io a month, which, as prices go in the town where he is living, is about equal to £6 a month in England, He has to work from ten o’clock at night till seven o'clock in the morning, and this in a stuffy, badly ventilated room. He is allowed one night off every week. He writes to tell me that his health is breaking down under the continual strain and from the unhealthy conditions under which he lives. This salary is not paid regularly. This month he had to apply for it six times, and it was only paid—six days after it was due—when he had commenced legal proceedings for its recovery. In the meanwhile he was without money, and the last day he was without food, and his landlord, whose rent was overdue, had begun to threaten to expel him. I believe that all requisite information as to the points on which a journalist, who is offered a position abroad, ought to satisfy himself, can be obtained from the secretary of the Institute of Journalists. Young French writers have every reason to congratulate themselves on the presence of M. Poincaré at the head of the Ministry which specially concerns itself with literature and art. His recent creation of knighthoods in the Legion of Honour show him to be guided less by routine than by discrimination. He appears to be in- clined to reward literary talent in all its forms, and to be specially actuated by the desire to en- courage young authors. His latest nomination is that of Paul Margueritte, a son of the gallant general of that name who fell at Sedan, who distinguished himself at first by certain novels of a moral order, and is looked on as the Theuriet of the future. M. Poincaré can now no longer be accused of exclusive patronage of the naturalists and symbolists. Amongst other promotions and nominations in M. Poincaré's list for July 14th, one notices that Sardou has been raised to a commandership, whilst Paul Bourget and André Theuriet have been made officers of the Legion of Honour. Sardou's titles to literary distinctions are not quite clear in my mind, but both Bourget's and Theuriet's promotion are well deserved and right; Bourget's on the principle that to him that hath shall be given, Theuriet’s because Adhemar Theuriet, commonly known as André Theuriet, is the very type and model of a hard-working man of letters. I sometimes think of Anthony Trollope in connection with him ; they had characteristics in common, though Theuriet is an artist, which Trollope was not. Besides Paul Margueritte, M. Poincaré has bestowed the coveted red ribbon on Maurice Rollinat, Gustave Guiches, and Catulle Mendés, Most people were surprised to hear that Mendés was not a legionary. I hope that his red ribbon may make him happy. He is certainly a very great artist, and as a producer, indefatigable. Some of his mere newspaper articles are little literary gems. I can remember a prose elegy on the young poet Ephraim Mikhaël, written by Mendés, which was better than anything that Bossuet ever wrote. On the other hand, Mendés has largely made a bad use of his genius. I know nobody who more deliberately and per- sistently has glorified what is ugly and vile in woman and in man, and there can be no doubt that he has done a great amount of harm by his writings. In England we should probably have seen him at the Old Bailey, here we see him in the Legion of Honour. Maurice Rollinat’s nomination delights me. I made his acquaintance fourteen years ago, just after he had been “created ” by Madame Bern- hardt, and “produced” at a Figaro soirée by Albert Wolff. At that time he was a realist amongst realists—the Zola of poetry. Indeed, Zola afterwards borrowed the subject of one of his poems for prose treatment in “La Terre.” He had a special hankering after the morbid and the horrible, as displayed in his ode entitled “Tropmann,” which is supposed to be a confession by that murderer of the exquisite delights which he experienced in preparing and executing his abominable crimes. The first night on which I met Rollinat, we dined together as the guests of a dear and an unhappy friend of mine, and after dinner the poet recited his “Tropmann,” and made our blood run cold. At that time he looked very ill. I fancied him bordering on con- sumption and insanity. He told us he could eat nothing, and that he was killing himself with abuse of tobacco. He said that his pipe never left his lips. I felt sorry, as anyone could see that there was excellent work left in him. Some weeks later, I heard that Maurice Rollinat had turned his back for good on Paris, and had decided to live in the country—a life that I have always longed to lead myself. The excellent effects of this change were not long in mani- festing themselves. The taste for the morbid evaporated in the fresh air; sanity returned hand-in-hand with health. I never saw a case of more complete literary reformation. Some delicious prose sketches were its first manifestation; since there has been but a march forward. In the meanwhile, Rollinat has also made himself famous as a musical composer, a gift which is rare amongst poets, who, singers indeed, have not often any ear for the grosser musics. ## p. (#417) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 63 I am sorry to say that I know little about Gustave Guiches, though his name is familiar to me. I have read next to nothing of his writings. His prose is always a serried mass, without lights, and like Alice, in “Alice in Wonderland.” I don’t care for story-books in which there is no conversation. He is an analyst and a psycho- logist, and now he is of the Legion of Honour, and that—except that all his confrères appear very pleased at the distinction conferred upon him—is about the sum of my knowledge in the matter of Mr. Gustave Guiches. I am not certain which of the two, author or publisher, had a right to complain of the other in the following case, which has just been brought to my knowledge. The author is a well-known writer, and like many well-known writers is often without a coin to toss with. The publisher is a successful man of business, with plenty of capital. Some time ago, the author got the idea of a book which was sure to have a very large sale, the sort of book at which any publisher would jump. Indeed, when it was afterwards announced that this book was in preparation, the publishers, both in London and New York, did jump, and assailed the author with offers for the manuscript, when completed. In the meanwhile, however, the author had asked the publisher referred to if he would care for the book, and the publisher had assented, and though no contract was signed, it was arranged by letter that after the expenses of production had been paid, the author should receive a royalty of 16% per cent., half any American rights, and on handing in the manuscript a sum of £50 on account of royalties. Should the manuscript be unsatisfactory the publisher was to pay the author a solatium of 29.1o. The author set to work to collect his materials, spending money in out-of-pocket expenses and devoting time which might have been more wisely spent in filling the domestic pot- au-feu. A consequence was, as bad luck pur- sued the author, that one day not only was the said pot empty, but the bailiffs were in the house, and there was every prospect that the author would lose every stick, every book, which he possessed. In this stress he wrote to the pub- lisher, explained his circumstances, and what had brought them about, and asked for an advance of half the sum which was to be paid on delivery of the manuscript, engaging to finish the work within a month. The publisher refused any advance. The author then wrote to him to ask him to release him from his agreement, as he had received many other offers for the same book, and knew that on signing an agreement for its publication with one or another of these pub- lishers, he could receive much more than the small sum which was necessary to save his home from the huissiers. The publisher wrote back that he would certainly not release the author from his Agreement (which he spelt with a capital A), that should he take the “astonishing step ’’ of offering the book to any other publisher, he (the writer) would “most reluctantly be compelled to put the matter in the hands of his Solicitor.” The author, not in fear of the Solicitor (with a capital S), but in ignorance of his own rights, and anxious to act “on the square,” accordingly aban- doned his plan for realising what was necessary to save his home, and was promptly sold up and turned out into the street, without a bed to lie on or a book to console himself with. Furthermore, during the sale various of his manuscripts, including all his notes for the book in question, were lost. They were probably included in a “lot * of waste paper, and fetched perhaps two- pence. As I said at the outset, I do not know which of the two, author or publisher, has a right to complain of the other. I hear, however, that the publisher feels very sore against the author. RoBERT H. SHERARD. 123, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. July 18. *- AUSTRALIAN NOTES, & 4 OLF BOLDERWOOD " (T. B. Browne) the Australian novelist, has finally relinquished his duties as a police magistrate, and has left—or is leaving—Albany for Melbourne, where he will devote himself entirely to literature. The native Australian is credited with the possession of a good deal of astuteness in affairs relating to his own well-being, and probably for that reason he avoids literature as a pursuit. Kendall, the New South Wales poet, was a native of the colony; Fergus Hume is a Victorian—or New Zealander; Mrs. Campbell Praedis (I think) a Queenslander; and Mrs. Bliss (who has pub- lished one or two novels) is also a native of the Northern colony. There are a large number of Australian poets, as Mr. Douglas Sladen, who prepared “A Century of Australian Song” can certify; but few or none of these depend upon verse writing for a liveli- hood. $º º ## p. (#418) ################################################ 64 THE AUTHOR. NOTES AND NEWS. ERE are two questions very pertinent to the present moment when the “office expenses” of author and bookseller are for the first time introduced into the subject of agreements. I give them special prominence, and beg readers to consider the subject and to give me their opinions. “Is an author's house ‘a place of business” on which an author can demand reduced rates as a shopman can in a shop P” “An author spends £2OO on travel, on books, on type-writing, on copying, on work put out, &c. He sells his book outright say, for £500 ; or he draws an income for three years of say £300 upon it. Need he pay income tax on more than £300 in the first case or on more than £220 a year in the second case ?” Of course, it stands to reason that if a pub- lisher's office expenses, which used to be roughly calculated—one knows not why—at 10 per cent. on the returns, are to be taken into account, so must an author's, and so must a bookseller's. For my own part I think that the office expenses of neither Ought to be considered, for the simple reason that the publisher undertakes to produce and to distribute and to collect on certain terms. For his services he is paid; he performs his services with his machinery. He has nothing else to do with the book. So the bookseller, and so the author. The last of the three creates the book by his own knowledge, his own industry, his own genius. Very likely he does not live by writing books. One hopes that he does not. It would be therefore difficult to estimate the share of “office expenses * belonging to the book. What solicitors call “out of pocket expenses” which are often very heavy, should of course all he charged upon the book for the author if “office expenses” are to be admitted at all. But with what face publishers demand “office expenses " which they deny to booksellers cannot be understood. Here is a point of morals. We are not expected to know persons in any class of life whose trans- actions have been proved to be dishonest. It is considered incumbent on every honourable man to cease from knowing or dealing with such persons. It is admitted that our self-respect is concerned in the matter. Very well. Now let me relate a simple anecdote. It is not an anec- dote of a living man but of a dead man, who was a man of letters. I told this man of what was certainly a very disgraceful trick played upon an author by a certain person. There were the papers: there was no doubt possible. I asked my friend what he thought of the man who could do such things. “Why,” he replied, “the fellow is nothing better than a common rogue.” Well,” I told him, “that fellow is your own personal friend.” The next day I met them walking together arm-in-arm—my friend, who always considered himself a strictly honourable person, and the man he had called, and thought, a common rogue. There had been no explanation, and there was no defence. I asked myself then if that was right. I ask myself again now, if that was right. Now, unless we bring into literary affairs the same standards of morals and honour as are demanded in every other honourable profession, I do not know how we shall ever succeed in raising our own pro- fession to the same rank and level, say, of the Bar. The first thing demanded of an honourable profession, whether the church, the army, the law, medicine, or literature, is a standard of honour among its members; and here was my friend walking about arm-in-arm, in familiarity and friendship, with a man whom he had him- self, the day before, stigmatised as a “common rogue.” Perhaps the most delightful of all books is a well written book of new travels in new countries. There are not many new countries left in the world: we must be contented with finding new corners. Then it is always pleasant to read of human and other creatures in the last-found new corner. We must not read the day before yesterday's book of travels: it becomes for the most part insipid after a single season; it must be to-day’s travel, or a book of travels at least two hundred years old. The present day’s book of travel is, I suppose, Mr. Trevor Battye's “Icebound in Kolguev,” at least it is so to me, for I have just laid it down with a sigh of regret that there was no more of it. The Author is not a review, but it has always been my privilege as editor, if I light upon a delightful book, to say so. I light upon very few, because, as one who has a great deal to do, I have very little time for reading new books. Mostly, at the present, my spare time is occupied with looking up odd prints about London Town. I beg to call attention to the best list of pensions on the Civil List that has ever been published. It is the best because, first, it repre- sents many branches of Literature, Science, and Art; and next because there is only one name which has no business on there. When the grant was first made it was intended solely as a reward for distinction in Literature, Science, and Art. Most unfortunately, a clause was added to include those persons whom the Sovereign might desire to distinguish, or words to that effect. But this ## p. (#419) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 65 clause operates in two ways. It enables the Prime Minister to give pensions to persons wholly unconnected with Literature, Science, and Art ; and it enables him to grant pensions to the sons and daughters of persons distinguished in Literature, Science, and Art. This year while there is only one name unconnected with the purposes of the grant, there are six ladies, widows or sisters of very eminent literary persons. Could not the wording of the resolution be slightly altered in effect as follows: “That this Grant is to be bestowed upon persons who have attained distinction in such literary, scientific, or artistic work as is not in itself remunerative, or upon the wives, sisters, or daughters of persons of distinction in Literature, Science and Art, and upon no other persons?” A correspondent sends me a note on his own case. It is this; and it is not uncommon. He is educating himself; he is devoted to the study of literature; and he wants instruction. He says there is no institution where literature and Com- position are taught. He suggests that such an institution might be very useful. I think it would. In order to make people love good literature we must teach them what to look for ; that can only be done by making them study good models and teaching them how to write. We shall be swelling the ranks of bad writers ? Not at all. The reading public will take care of that for us. We shall only create disappointment P On the contrary. Our evening class would teach people what are the qualifications necessary for success. I am not in the least afraid of what is called “flooding the market.” You can only flood the market by producing too much good work; and of that there will never be any danger —not the least danger. An American asks why our New York corre- spondent, in speaking of literary papers, ignores the Critic. * H. R.” says (July 1st), that the “only American representative of the weekly review is the Nation, for the admirable Dial of Chicago is a semi-monthly.” I think that “H. R.” had in his mind such papers as the Spectator and the National Observer, which are political and social first and literary next. The Nation is the only American paper which corresponds to these. I suppose that this was also in my own mind or I should have added a note about the Critic. I said some time ago, and I repeat it, that it is impossible to get a day-by-day know- ledge of American literature without taking in the Critic. I read it regularly; I find it more appreciative than many of our own papers; I do not discern in it the scurrilous abuse of writers which marks personal animosity, a thing too common in our own organs ; on the contrary, I have always found in the Critic the desire to be fair; and—one may, however, be mistaken on this perfectly unimportant point—the writers in the Critic do seem to me to read the books which they review. I am glad that “H. R.” has given me this opportunity of recommending English readers, who want to know what goes on in American literature and what Americans think about our books, to send for the New York Critic. Mr. Jerome's case is important to all literary men. He had established himself in a quiet house at St. John's Wood, where there are many such houses, with a garden, and a study looking out upon the garden, and situated in a cul de sac, removed from organs, street noise, and traffic. In a word, he had found a quiet spot where he could work undisturbed. He has now been turned out of this by the new railway excavations. He has to look about and to find, if possible, some other place as quiet and as suitable for literary work. This is a very serious business; it may take a long time; it will certainly involve much loss of time and worry. They offered him the usual compensation of rent. He claimed, very properly, such compensation as would represent to some extent the real nature of the loss. He invited several well-known men of letters to testify to the substantial character of this loss. And he has recovered an award which is at least substantial, whether it fully compensates or not. The case is interesting to us, if only because it helps to make the world understand what we have been maintaining so long, that literature is a serious profession, not only recognised by the income tax assessors, who discovered the fact long ago, but also by arbitrators when compensation is considered for interruption and vexatious loss of time; and so, gradually, and in course of time, coming to be recognised by the world at large. The verbatim report of the dinner given to the editor of this paper by the members of the Society is published in this number of the paper. I am pleased to give a more permanent setting to certain facts and opinions expressed in the speeches than they could obtain in the daily papers, and I trust that they will produce good fruit. I am also relieved from a certain natural modesty in the matter, because the Chairman orders the publication. - WALTER BESANT. es: ## p. (#420) ################################################ 66 THE AUTHOR. CIVIL LIST PIENSIONS, PARLIAMENTARY paper has been issued giving the following list of pensions granted during the year ended June 20, 1895, and charged upon the Civil List:— Dr. Christian Ginsburg, in recognition of the value of his researches into Biblical and Hebrew literature, 31.5o. Miss Hester Pater and Miss Clara Pater, in consideration of the literary merits of their late brother, Mr. Walter Pater, 250 each. Mrs. Mary Eugénie Hamerton, in consideration of the literary merits of her late husband, Mr. P. G. Hamerton, 29 IOO. Mr. William Watson, in consideration of the merit of his poetical works, 31OO. Teresa, Lady Hamilton, in consideration of the public services of her late husband, Sir R. G. C. Hamilton, K.C.B., 3150. Mary Agnes, Lady Seeley, in consideration of the literary merits of her late husband, Sir J. R. Seeley, K.C.M.G., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge, 2100. Mrs. Edith L. Pearson, in consideration of the literary merits of her late husband, Mr. Charles Henry Pearson, £IOO. Marie, Lady Stewart, in consideration of the services of her late husband, Sir Robert Stewart, in the cultivation of music in Ireland, £50. Mr. George Augustus Sala, in consideration of his services to literature and journalism, 38 Ioo. Mr. Alexander Bain, in consideration of his services in the promotion of mental and moral science, 38 IOO. Dr. Jabez Hogg, in consideration of his scientific and medical services, 375. Mr. George Frederick Nicholl, in consideration of his merits as an Oriental scholar, £75.—Total, £1,200. *— - --> BANQUET TO SIR WALTER BESANT, EARLY three hundred ladies and gentle- men representing literature in all its branches foregathered in the King's Hall of the Holborn Restaurant, on June 26, to con- gratulate Sir Walter upon the distinction of knighthood conferred upon him by Lord Rose- bery. Sir W. Martin Conway presided. The following is the list of those present at the dinner:— Herbert Allingham, John R. Adamson, Herbert J. Allingham, Sir Edwin Arnold, Mrs. Alhusen, A. W. a Beckett, Professor Edmund Atkinson, A. St. John Adcock, E. A. Armstrong, the Hon. Mr. Justice Ali, Lady Besant, C. F. Clifford Borrers, Philip Eustace Besant, A. Digby Besant, Robert Bateman, J. Bloundelle-Burton, Mackenzie Bell, Herbert Bentwinch, M. Powis Bale, Madame Belloe, Miss Marie Belloe, F. E. Beddard, E. A. Reynolds Ball, Sir Henry Bergne, J. M. Barrie, Mrs. Oscar Beringer, Bret Harte, Lewis Brock- man, Rev. Professor Bonney, Mrs. Hodgson Burnett, William Black, Robert Barr, Mrs. Barr, A. Trevor Battye, C. Black, Oswald Crawfurd, Sir W. T. Charley, Mrs. Connor Leighton, C. H. Cook, Moncure D. Conway, Miss Ella Curtis, Miss E. Charlton, Hall Caine, Mrs. and Miss Roalfe Cox, Miss R. Challice, A. C. Catmour, W. Morris Colles, Mrs. Colles, F. Norreys Connell, Miss May Crommelin, Rev. A. Church, Rev. Henry Cresswell, Ralph Hall Caine, Miss Margaret Cross, C. J. Cross, Horace Cox, PIerbert Cornish, John Coleman, Miss Cusins, A. W. Dubourg, C. F. Dowsett, George du Maurier, Miss Owsey, Austin Dobson, Mrs. Ruston C. Esher, Ruston C. Esher, T. Mullet Ellis, J. N. Ford, Harold Frederic, A. Eleming, Rev. Richard Free, R. E. Forrest, Miss Isabel Fitzroy, Mrs. Gerard Ford, John Foster Fraser, Basil Field, Miss Hain Fris- well, G. H. Fortescue, Rev. A. J. Foster, B. C. Farjeon, G. Manville Fenn, Charles Grant, Horace G. Grover, Mrs. E. A. Gordon, Mrs. J. E. Gordon, Mrs. Aylmer Gowing, Upcott Gill, Gen. F. Goldsmid, Dr. Goodchild, Sir H. Gilzean-Reid, Annabel Gray, Sarah Grand, F. Gribble, W. Oliver Hodges, Reginald Hansell, R. C. Hobbes, Sydney Hodges, E. Grant Hooper, E. W. Hornung, Anthony Hope, Rev. E. C. Hawkins, Miss Eleanor Holmes, H. Rider Haggard, Miss Mabel Hawtrey, A. W. Horner, Miss Mary Hughes, Charles Heneage, James Hill, T. R. F. Holmes, Col. A. Harcourt, Miss S. E. Hall, Dr. Harley, J. W. Houghton, Jerome EC. Jerome, C. T. C. James, R. B. S. Knowles, Paul King, Rev. S. Kinns, C. F. Keary, C. A. Kelly, E. A. Leaf, John M. Lely, Frederick Les- singham, Miss Lessingham, A. H. W. Lewers, F. Legge, Mrs. Lefroy, H. F. Lester, Charles Lowe, Rev. Dr. Lansdell, Robert Leighton, Mrs. Line- ham, W. J. Lineham, J. E. Muddock, Miss K. Macdonald, W. H. Maas, S. B. C. McKinney, Charles Merrick, Surgeon-Major McGregor, H. C. Moore, Hugh R. Mill, Mrs. Millie, Frank- fort Moore, Cyril Mullett, Mowbray Marras, George Moore, Mrs. Newell, Rev. M. Marshall, Helen Mathers, J. C. M'Cartie, Miss N. North- croft, J. J. Nunn, Mrs. Newell, Henry Norman, Mrs. Osprey, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Miss M. A. Pool, Mrs. A. Phillips, Mrs. N. Parker, J. N. Pyke Nott, Captain H. L. Pilkington, W. H. Pollock, D. H. Parry, Miss E. Pitcairn, C. F. Rideal, Dr. Phil Reeves, John Rae, ## p. (#421) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 67. Miss Mabel Robinson, Mrs. Harcourt Roe, W. H. Rideing, Mrs. Rideing, Miss E. C. Rickards, Douglas Sladen, Sydney C. Scott, Col. Sutherland, Mark Sale, J. Ashby Sterry, Reginald Wynne Simpson, G. W. Shelden, W. Baptiste Scoones, A. A. Sykes, J. F. Sullivan, Mrs Sedgwick, A. T. Story, Miss Myra Swan, J. A. Stewart, Annie S. Swan, S. Squire Sprigge, W. G. Thorpe, Mrs. Alec. Tweedie, H. R. Tedder, A. W. Tuer, Miss Trevor, Basil Thomson, Basil Tozer, G. Herbert Thring, E. M. Underdown, Rev. Charles Voysey, Mrs. Owen Visger, A. P. Watt, A. S. Watt, Rev. C. H. Middleton Watts, J. Warriner, Mus.D., Dr. Leon Williams, Sydney F. Walker, Humphrey Ward, C. J. Wills, Mrs. Wallace, D . Wallace, Mrs. Woolaston White, Mrs. M. Woods, Arnold White, W. William Williams, Walter Wren, Percy White, I. Zangwill. In addition there were the representatives of the leading papers, and the guests brought by the above. The dinner committee report that they had received letters expressing sympathy with the object of the dinner and regret on account of unavoidable absence from the following—two or three sent in at the last moment whose names are in the foregoing list:-Sir Robert Ball, Sir Henry Bergne, Rev. Canon Bell, Rev. Dr. William Bright, Professor Church, P. W. Clayden, F. Howard Collins, Christabel Coleridge, Mrs. Clifford, the Hon. John Collier, Lily Croft, Violet Greville, Dr. Richard Garnett, Thomas Hardy, Rev. Prebendary Harry Jones, Professor Hales, Isaac Henderson, E. H. Lecky, H. W. Lucy, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Florence Marryatt, Gilbert Parker, T. P. O'Connor, Arthur Pinero, Mrs. Parr, Sir Frederick Pollock, Herr Poorten- Schwartz, A. R. Roper, Charlotte Riddell, Sir Benjamin Richardson, Gabriel Setoun, W. M. Maxwell Scott, Rev. Professor Skeat, Sir Herbert Stephen, Henry M. Stanley, J. L. Veitch, and Theodore Watts. The CHAIRMAN read a letter from the Presi- dent of the Society, Mr. George Meredith, in which, after expressing regret at his inability through ill-health to be present, he said: “I dare not put the strain upon myself, in spite of my desire to testify personally, as written words can but poorly do, to my great esteem for your ante-penultimate chairman, considering both his unexampled services to the profession of letters, and his literary quality. A title is more than a thing of air when it stands for the nation’s acknowledged debt to the man consenting to bear it, the distinction of whom, in the present case, will be a perpetual reminder of his labours on behalf of young authors, and his devotion to the interests of his fellow craftsmen. Most heartily VOI. VI. do I applaud him, with envy of his admirable persistency, his constant good temper and spirit of fairness to opponents in the struggle. If any further elements go to the making of a champion, he possesses them, for he has won the gratitude which breathes of its cause of existence, and the honour which only a common national accord can give.” (Cheers.) - Mr. HALL CAINE then rose to propose the toast of the evening. He said: Before I attempt to dis- charge the duty which has been so kindly la d upon me, permit me to supplement the admirable letters which you, Sir, have just read by a message that I have received since coming into this hall from a venerable man of letters whose name must com- mand reverence and affection in any company of English authors—Imean John Ruskin. From his home at Coniston Mr. Ruskin telegraphs: “I am in true sympathy with you to-night. Convey my respectful greetings to all present, who are doing well - deserved honour to Sir Walter Besant, to whom please give my heartfelt congratula- tions.” He then said: Sir Martin Conway, ladies and gentlemen, -In your name, and in the name of the Society of Authors, I have the honour and privilege to propose a toast which needs no words to awaken our warmest feeling, no eloquence to fire our enthusiasm—the health of Sir Walter Besant. In drinking the health of Sir Walter Besant we drink to a novelist of old and assured renown, of high aims and noble achievements—a novelist who has given the world of his best, and never yet written a line which modesty or morality could wish him to blot. In drinking the health of Sir Walter Besant we drink to a social reformer who has brought solace and cheer through so many years to so many thousands; who has kindled good impulses of benevolence and charity, and thrift and self-help; and has been so happy as to see, while he is still in the meridian of life, a practical realisation of one of his imaginary pictures in the People's Palace of London. But there is a claim which comes closer than these, and, in drinking the health of Sir Walter Besant, we drink to the father of the profession of literature in our time as a profession, and to the first cause and founder of the Society of Authors. Ladies and gentlemen, during the quarter of an hour in which with your permission I stand here to try to give expression to the feelings which have brought us together, I will confine myself to this aspect of Sir Walter's claim upon our gratitude. Only those who have been at the pains to inquire can know how recently it is that writing came to be considered in a pecuniary view. Men wrote in the old days and sometimes they were paid for writing, but apart from the drama, in which the labourer has always been thought I ## p. (#422) ################################################ 68 THE AUTHOR. worthy of his hire, the world took the view that the man who wrote anything was paid by the act of writing, and that the earnings thence ensuing were the pay of the bookseller for the act of selling. It was not until the time of Dr. Johnson that there was any real recognition of the rights of literary property, or any reasonable laws for their protection. From that time onward to our own day the rights of literary property have had to be wrested step by step and inch by inch both from the public, who have clung to the false idea that the only property which an author holds in his writing is the satisfaction of its fame, and from the book- sellers, who have more naturally but not more justly maintained that they are the patrons of literature and the masters of the men who write their books. In that long struggle of more than a hundred years, a struggle which has never ceased for one moment, however friendly the relations of author and publisher may happily have been, no labours on our side have been so strenuous, so continuous, or one-tenth part so successful as those of the distinguished comrade in whose honour we are gathered here to-night. It is, Sir, as you know better than we do, a familiar pleasantry, that the Society of Authors is only an agreeable synonym for the Society for the Protection of the Distressed Literary Person. We are by no means concerned to repudiate that benevolent character. The distressed literary persons are the only spirits in prison about whom it is necessary for such a society to concern itself. The literary persons who are not dis- tressed usually find themselves in the more enviable position of Paul and Silas, whose gaolers are on their knees to them as often as there is the slightest danger of their going out. But we are bold to claim for Sir Walter Besant that in founding the Society of Authors, and in directing the line of its conduct, he has done a great service to literary people of every class and country by carrying forward the rights of literary property one long step farther towards just and equitable international law. The right of an author, Sir, in the book he writes is surely a stronger right than that of the man who pays money for the house he occupies; it is a right of creation, and by its nature it should never cease. But an author has never yet been much hetter than the life tenant of his own property When copyright was established the machinery of book production was primitive and unwieldy, and it was held (and, I think, properly held), that to make an author's right perpetual was to pre- vent books from becoming cheap and being uni- versally diffused. But times have changed since then, Sir, and that argument is not now of much avail; it is no longer necessary that printers should turn themselves into literary Robin Boods. and rob the rich to give to the poor; books can be printed at very low prices, and with very great. rapidity, the reading public has enormously in- creased and is constantly increasing, and by help- ing to break down unnatural forms of literature, such as the three volume novel, by showing that an author's account lies as much in great sales of cheap books as in limited sales of dear ones, by constant insistence on the principle that an author has a right all over the world to the property he creates in his writings, Sir Walter Besant has paved the way for that perpetuity of copyright which is the natural and inevitable, and I will sa, the near, end of all legislation about books. It may, perhaps, be said that these, after all, are services which touch only the meaner side of the literary life. It is true that the part of an author's life which is concerned with his rights, his gettings, and his spendings is not so noble as that which is concerned with his duties, his efforts, and his aims; but only the most childish affectation or the most foolish otherworldliness will prompt an author to say that it is not a necessary and an honourable part. Johnson used to say of Millar, the bookseller, “I respect Millar, sir; he has raised the price of literature.” And in like manner we may say of our guest, that we honour Besant, for he has increased our pay. If he has done that he has done more than increase our material comforts; he has, in the best sense, enlarged the possibilities of the literary calling, and made it the one profession in the world which is not limited either as to the condition or the sex of its members—a profession in which neither money nor influence is essential to success, and wherein high talents and absolute genius can afford to rise from the lowest class to the highest distinction. Ladies and gentlemen, if our guest has done all this, he has paid the penalty. Tor eight years the prevailing weather of his daily life must have been good fisherman's weather—that is to say, a bit of a breeze. He has walked on steep headlands where his foot might slip, and where he has had to breathe pretty hard. He has been made the target for many shots. His arithmetic has been questioned, and his knowledge of the rule of three has been entirely denied. All this was fairly to be ex- pected from the class that was fighting against him. But it was also fair to expect that the other class, the class for which he fought, the authors, would have seen that it was cruel and inhuman to withhold the sympathy and encou- ragement, and commendation which were the rightful reward of such long unceasing labour, such sacrifice of personal comfort and even per- ## p. (#423) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 69 sonal profit, and (good as his work has always been) such willing deduction from the vigour of mind which might have gone into his books. I am afraid it must be admitted that this has not always been the case. Though the Society of Authors is a standing assurance of the progress of Sir Walter Besant's ideas on literary property, and though this dinner to-night and this dis- tinguished company are proof of the loyalty with which the greater body of literary people have supported him, the fact remains that at every step he has had to encounter both the apathy of many in whose interest he has laboured, and occasionally their active and most powerful oppo- sition. There have been the lusty literary pugi- lists who have told our guest that his Society for the Protection of the Distressed Literary Person would only have the effect of maintaining a race of literary invalids, and preventing the survival of the fittest. Then there have been the pampered literary aristocrats, who having become eminent and prosperous by literature, and having no other reason for their existence, have told the public with every accent of woe that authorship is the worst paid of all callings, that a man had better be a bricklayer than an author, that he had better buy a porter's knot, and hang around the docks, or borrow 4d. and set up a besom in the hope of being allowed to sweep a crossing. Against such malcontents our guest has never failed to show that even in pounds, shillings, and pence literature is a profession which pays most of us as much as we deserve, and a few of us more than we have a right to expect, that it is a profession of which in no company, and in no country, we have cause to feel ashamed, and that it is only hypocrisy and cant and shallow pride that can prompt anybody to make a show of kicking down the ladder by which he has risen to his place With such opposition no wonder if our guest had sometimes lost heart, and therefore we all rejoice the more at that splendid recognition of his services to the profession of letters which is the first cause of our gathering to-night. The Queen has knighted Walter Besant, but his nature and life were already knightly. The Minister who recommended his knighthood has the distinction among others with which he now lays down office of being the first to honour an actor since Sir William Davenant, and perhaps the first to honour an author, solely for author- ship, without suspicion of political leaning or yet private friendship (if we except the exceptional case of the late Poet Laureate), since Disraeli offered a peerage to Carlyle. Itrust I am betray- ing no confidence when I tell you that Lord Rose- bery in his letter to our guest, with that graceful courtesy which never fails him, assigned as a chief reason for the title he recommended that such services to the honour and dignity of literature called loudly for the recognition of the State. It is well known that Sir Walter Besant himself has often claimed for literary people that State recog- nition which has been freely given to distinguished men in every other walk of life. As we all remember, his claims have gone far. When he was one day charged with thinking that all literary men ought . to be made knights, he answered: “Not at all; I think some of them ought to be made dukes.” And now his own decoration, though it has been so gratefully accepted by the public, has awakened in certain quarters all the usual objections to the decoration of literary people. As this is a matter which concerns us very closely, I will ask you to let me touch upon it briefly if you can bear with me for about two minutes more. We have heard Once more that to decorate men and women of letters would be to tempt them to take sides in politics, to curry favour with ministers and so to forget the claims of their own true calling. It is a sufficient answer to this, that there is no reason on earth why we may not be politicians as well as authors, and that in another profession, the pro- fession of the law, the way to the position of a judge or yet of a Lord Chancellor is often the channel of political partisanship, but that, except On one notorious occasion, nobody ever dreamt of thinking that the high duties of the English bench or the Woolsack had been for a moment obscured by thoughts of party politics. We have also heard again that as men and women of great genius do not find their audience quickly or perhaps at all during their lifetime, it must usually occur that the distinctions conferred by the State, under the guidance of a semi-demo- cratic minister, must be those of the second-rate people only, the temporarily popular novelist, the fashionable and flashy thinker. This is the com- mon argument of the people who have not been at the most ordinary pains to inquire into the facts, and the answer is that though it is true that the greatest man is never more than a stone's throw from his contemporaries, and (as Landor says) they generally throw it; though it is true that no great man has ever reached the utmost standard of his greatness in the crowd of his own age, it is not true, in this country, at all events, that any entirely great man has been mistaken for a little one by the generation in which he lived, or yet failed (though his life was as short as Keats's or as long as Wordsworth's) of some sort of substantial recognition while he was still alive. Authors, sir, are not pearls which ripen only in the obscurity of their shells. Shakspeare was probably the most popular writer of the seventeenth century, as Scott has been the most ## p. (#424) ################################################ 70 THE AUTHOR. popular writer of the nineteenth century, and only an autocrat premier could have gone far astray in distributing his favours in England at any time during the past three hundred years. We have also been told that, as the State will never reward unacknowledged greatness and can do no more than ratify the greatness that is already acknowledged by the world, it can only give its titles as misers leave their legacies—just where they are not wanted; that a title adds nothing to the distinction of a really great author; that an author, unlike a judge or a governor, requires no title to lift him above the people, but is happiest and best when left in his natural posi- tion of the familiar friend of his readers, coming closer to them than a sister, closer than a brother, and that anything which separates him from them, anything that takes him from the hearths and homes of the people, is not an honour but an injury; not a distinction, but as an evidence of vanity, even something of a disgrace. This is probably the strongest objection to the decora- tion of the author, for it applies to the author alone, and no doubt it was this that chiefly influenced Charles Dickens when he determined to remain Charles Dickens to the end. But while it is true that the might, majesty, and dominion of an author are not conferred by any title, while it is true that nothing and nobody, neither the Queen nor any of her ministers, can add to the wealth of a writer who holds the rich reversion of the love of the people, and while it is also true that there would be something incongruous in talking of Thomas Carlyle as Lord Ecclefechan, and something absolutely offensive in thinking of Robbie Burns as Sir Robert Burns, and perhaps something silly in the idea of Wiscount Oliver Goldsmith and Lord Charles Lamb, it is no less true that titles are good or bad in relation to the men who bear them and the public who accept them, and that Walter Scott did not moult a feather when he became Sir Walter Scott, and now our distinguished guest of this evening, our second Sir Walter, has not lost an ounce of our affection and admiration by becom- ing Sir Walter Besant. And so, ladies and gentlemen, with one consent we rejoice at the distinction that has been conferred upon our guest, first, for his own sake, because he has worked long and loyally for the honour and dignity of our calling; next, for the sake of authorship, because it has thereby publicly proved in the face of mankind and of all other professions that a man of literary genius may properly be a man of rank; and, finally, for the sake of our society, which has at length asserted its right to recogni- tion in obtaining the recognition of the State and triumphed in the triumph of its founder and chief. Sir WALTER BESANT, in responding, said: Sir Martin Conway, ladies, and gentlemen, I have to thank you all for the great honour of this even- ing. You will believe me when I say that I have not words at command adequate to my sense of this honour. Especially, however, I have to thank Mr. Hall Caine for making it quite clear to you all that it is not for my writings that Lord Rosebery has conferred upon me the honour of a knighthood. I should be very proud indeed— nothing could make me more proud—by being thought worthy of a knighthood in letters. But if I were made a knight in recognition of any writings of mine, then I should have to look round and ask where are the men and women of the higher ranks. Where, one would ask, should we find the Baronets, the Barons, the Earls of letters ? Where, for instance, is His Grace the Duke of Boxhill? Where is the Earl of Wessex P. Where, the Lord of the Hebrides P Where, the Lady of the Beleagured City ? Where, the Countess of Otterbourne? Where, my Lady Fauntleroy P. Where, my Lady Elsmere? Where, the Earl of Man P. Where, my Lord Thrums? Where, the Baron of Sker P Where, my Lord of the Quartier Latin P Where, Lord Conan Doyle? Where, the Earl of Brattleboro’, Vermont ? Where was the Marquis of Samoa while he lived P I have spoken, you see, of novelists alone. We might ask similar questions as to the poets, the historians, the dramatists, the essayists. The honour, Sir, I must beg to insist upon in the strongest terms is, in fact, conferred upon this Society itself; it is a recognition of this Society; it is, to use Lord Rosebery’s own words, offered for services rendered to the dignity of literature. And these services would be foolish and futile—a mere beating of the air with useless hands—were it not for our own organisation. Sir, we may be Radical or Tory, or what we will; but let us remember—what Mr. Hall Caine invited us to consider—that Lord Rosebery is the first Prime Minister who has ever givenathought to the dignity of literature; the first who has ever recognised that literature is a profession at all. We may not vote for him at the next General Election—the thing has, happily, no connection with politics— but let us not forget this service—the recogni- tion by the foremost Englishman of the moment, the Prime Minister, of the fact that to literature belongs dignity, and that those who aim at pre- Serving and increasing that dignity are trying at least to do good and honourable work, and work Worthy of recognition. Since this is so, I will ask you to bear with me for a little, while I try to speak of what we have attempted and what we hope to achieve. The first thing, and the second thing, and the ## p. (#425) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 7 I main thing, is to achieve the independence of the author. Now, I do not wish to make this an occasion for any attack upon any persons what- ever, or for any kind of bitterness. If I men- tion plain truths it is not in accusation; we may remember that a very bad condition of things may gradually grow up without any blame being attached to any person. There- fore, let us refrain this evening from that censure or that indignation which is sometimes necessary. And further, in order to remove any thought of attack or censure, I will ask you to consider the position of the author—the man who lived by literature—not at present, but— say—sixty years ago. It was a very bad time for literature; England’s great men were either beginning or ending; the general standard of work was miserably low; the general run of writers were miserably poor; part of their misery—the worse because they were unconscious of it—was that they were not ashamed to write begging letters of the most abject kind. I had in my hands the other day a whole sheaf of such letters written by one whose work is still read and quoted, and his language was that of a simple unshamed mendicant. It is not a question whether this man was honestly treated—he may have been ; the point is that he could without shame and degradation assume such an attitude and write such letters as make one sick and sorry and ashamed to read. And since these things were not done in secret, but were talked about with scorn, the effect on public opinion was to bring the calling of literature into profound contempt. It was called, as it literally was, a beggarly profession; young men were exhorted to break stones in the road rather than take it up. Everyone had stories of Grub-street: mone too abject to throw stones and contempt at men of letters; nay, in Fleet-street itself the disreputable wits would be seen over their cups and in their poverty. They were—sixty years ago —horribly poor and most horribly dependent. When they were not cursing their masters with fierce and biting epigrams, they were shedding tears over the unbounded generosity that tossed them an unexpected guinea. Consider next, if you please, how this dependence was brought about. Barristers have never lived in such contempt and dependence: why should men of letters ? Well, this condition of things was mainly brought about by the remarkable fact that of the three persons con- cerned in the production of literature—the author —the man in the middle—and the bookseller — the man in the middle had got the whole of the business into his own hands, and he kept all the information to himself: he would not tell what a book cost to produce ; nor what he got from the bookseller; nor what the author was able to get for himself. He wrapped up the business in profound secrecy. Both to bookseller and to author he talked only in vague terms of his enormous risks and the certainty of losing by every book which he produced. No one knew ; the author was absolutely ignorant of his own affairs, and if he ventured to ask a question, or to inquire into the meaning of his accounts, the man in the middle first indignantly asked whether he meant to say that he was cheated, and, next, threatened to take no more of his work. How then could the independence of the author be achieved? First, and above all, by getting at a knowledge of the facts, and, in order to arrive at those, by clearing our minds of prejudice and misinformation. On the one hand, for instance, we had to begin by teaching people that a book is really not an inexhaustible mine ; nor is it, on the other hand, like a dynamite shell, charged with deadly risk. Its production, in a word, seldom entails more than a very small risk; its circulation seldom produces more than a small return. This we had to learn for ourselves first and to teach afterwards. We had then to begin our work by ascertaining exactly what is meant by production, by risk, by return, by circulation, and by trade price. We have now discovered those figures; we have put them into the hands of our members and the general public. They were at first vehemently, and if I may just for this once use a strong adverb, they were most impudently, denied. They have now been most clearly proved to be as correct as such figures can be. We have therefore broken down the barriers of ignorance which have been so carefully erected; we have shown what is really meant by every method of production; we have enabled authors to under- stand that it is the public—the world at large— and not a publisher, whose servants they are ; we have made it possible to take the patronage of the author entirely out of the hands of the middleman, and to place it entirely in the hands of the public; we have made it possible to take the whole command and the whole control of current literature out of the hands of the middle- man and to place it in the hands of the author, who is the creator, the producer, and the sole Owner. I do not say that this glorious revolution has actually been effected, but it has been begun —it has been begun, and it will go on; it will go on : we have opened the eyes of literary men and Women, and no one can shut them again : the end, though it may be retarded for a while, is certain—it is, I say, as certain as the rising of to- morrow's sun. ## p. (#426) ################################################ 72 THE AUTHOR. This is not, mind, and never has been, a question of guineas : we have been accused, over and over again, of sordid aims, of encouraging greed, and other pretty things—chiefly by the failures in literature : it is not, I repeat, a ques- tion of guineas : it is simply a question of independence. The man of letters has always been believed by the world to be a bookseller's hack. When the world sees, as it can already see, not one here, and one there, standing erect in independence, but a whole class, we shall hear no more talk about booksellers’ hacks, or about the contempt of literature. I say again that it is not a question of guineas, though guineas may be concerned with it. Whether an author makes much or little is not our concern; it is our concern that he should feel first that he is not a bookseller's hack, nor anybody's servant; next, that he can have the estate which he creates administered for himself, and not for the man in the middle, with honesty and justice; that he shall no longer be degraded by having to accept whatever crumbs are thrown him ; that he shall no longer have to accept with meekness whatever accounts are tendered him; that he shall no longer have to sign away the whole of his property for a song. It is our concern that the owner of the property should offer, not submit, his literary estate to a paid manager ; that he should know exactly what he is prepared to give his agent for his work; that he should know exactly what work the agent does for his money. There are somethings, remember, that hopelessly degrade a class or a man. Among these things are help- lessness under injustice; dependence on the caprice of an employer; and inability to obtain redress of wrongs. For the sake of that dignity of literature, which Lord Rosebery recognises, we will sweep these disabilities away. In a word, we mean to reverse the position entirely. The bending back and out-stretched hand of—- shall we say, sixty years ago?—never seen now, is it P−shall be transferred from the author to the middleman ; henceforth, it shall be the middleman who will be found weeping on the kerb over the generosity of the author. Now all these things are possible when we understand the facts and the figures, and none of these things are possible so long as the facts and the figures are concealed from us. Another thing. The acquisition of this know- ledge arrives at a most opportune moment. T mean that the recent changes in the conditions of literature made this knowledge more than ever necessary. The vast extension of our Empire and of the United States, the growth of our Colonies, the passing of this International Copy- right Act, have opened out to literature a field far wider, and an influence far more extensive, than anything ever known in history. Not only is population increasing, but readers are increas- ing far more rapidly. Books, which are still too dear for most people to buy, pass from hand to hand; books break the monotony of the dullest station; books cheer the sick bed; reading is the universal recreation; everywhere we must have books—books—books. There are, again, spring- ing up everywhere free libraries. What do the people read P Who are their favourites ? Well, I have made this subject one of some personal investigation, and I think we shall all be agreed that when we find the people choosing as their favourite authors such writers as Scott, Marryat, Macaulay, and Dickens, which is literally the case—I cannot speak of living writers in this goodly presence—the popular taste is not so very bad after all. Have you ever, let me ask, tried to realise the meaning of such an audience as a writer now popular commands P. Have you ever tried to under- stand how many readers a man now living may command? If figures mean anything you may try to realise the meaning of millions. But you cannot—nobody can—it is impossible to realise a very large number. But try to think of the faces rather—try to realise the faces of those who sit listening while the author speaks. His theatre is the round world itself; at his feet sit nearly all who speak the English language—all those who read—say, a half of the whole number—say, only sixty millions. See them sitting there ! Ilook at the white faces upturned to catch the words ! If the author only whispers he shall be heard in every corner of this immense theatre, See, Isay, the upturned faces; mark how the light falls upon them, and how the waves of laughter, and of pity, and of terror, pass across that boundless ocean of human faces. Look farther—as far as your eye reaches there are faces—faces—faces ! Millions and millions and millions of faces ! No end to them. Good Heavens ! What can a writer ask for more than to give his message, if he has one, to so great an audience, with his single voice so to move the world P Well! But we cannot all speak to the whole world. That is true. So the young fellow who enters the army will not probably end by commanding that army. And the young fellow who was called this morning to the Bar will not probably end as Lord Chancellor. Yet it is good to think that these possibilities exist. It glorifies a profession that one may become in it a Field Marshal or a Dord Chancellor. In like manner it glorifies our profession to feel that it contains such a magnificent prize as the possibility of speaking to all the world. It is a prize far, far ## p. (#427) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 73 greater—far, far more desirable—than any other profession can offer. For not only will the future writer so speak to the whole world, but he will live in the love and honour of the whole world. And shall—I ask you most earnestly—shall this glorious and splendid profession continue to lie in servitude and dependence P Shall the conqueror of the whole world’s love continue to live in a shameful dependence upon his own servant P A third reason why the acquisition of this know- ledge is necessary at this time is—that there has arisen during the last quarter of a century, a large and still increasing class of writers about whose works not the most daring audacity can pretend that there is any risk. Such writers belong to every branch of literature. If, for instance, we think of historians we are reminded of Freeman, Froude, Seeley, and J. R. Green. I say every branch, because one of the charges brought against us is that we think all literature is fiction. There cannot be the least, not the slightest, risk in producing the books of these men. They are essayists, poets, novelists, theologians, educational writers; specialists, professional, and technical writers. This army of writers whose books mean a certainty of success now numbers in this country alone many hundreds. These authors, if they knew the truth, which many of them do not know, would understand that they have only to choose an agent, not to submit their MSS. and to ask humbly for terms. Others— beginners—may wait to receive proposals as to their works; these writers have the administration of their estates entirely in their own hands. They are, in fact, complete masters of the situation. It remains with them to offer terms, not to accept terms; to send in an agreement, not to wait for OL162. This increase of writers, whose books are certain to succeed more or less, is partly, of course, another of the results of the free library. Of these there are now almost enough in the country to guarantee against risk every book of any importance. This is a new and hitherto unconsidered fact, which, like all the other older facts connected with literary property, has somehow been overlooked, if not studiously concealed. I say, then, that this independence of ours is within our reach ; we have only to hold out our hands and take it ; if we do not our successors will. The publication of these simple figures is nothing short of a death blow to the old system of darkness and concealment. Let us turn for a few minutes to the future. What will happen next in the profession of literature? First of all we are gradually developing the sense of community and the necessity of union. In this direction we have already advanced very creditably, but the necessity of union—the absolute necessity—wants to be impressed upon us, and felt by us, more and more. By union, remember, we do not forfeit any individual work or rights. As at the Bar, where union has been long complete, we shall go on working every man for himself; but we shall be jealous for the honour of our profession; we shall understand that if we are again separated into individuals the old danger will return ; the old servitude will be again imposed. By our union we shall control in the immediate future the whole of the material side of current literature—i.e., we shall control our own property—is that too much to demand P−the price of books; the placing of books—already we keep quantities of books out of dishonest hands; the form of agreements; the advertisement of books. I want to see this material side of current literature completely in our own control—in our own hands. I, myself, do not expect to live long enough to see the fulness of this glorious revolution, but many in this room will—for it will come—it is a part of that end which I have said already is as certain as to-morrow’s sun. Where, then, have we left our friend the pub- lisher P. We agreed that to-night we would have nothing said in bitterness. I am very glad to say, therefore, that we shall put the publisher into a far better position than he holds at present. For we shall remove the old reproach of secrecy: the old inevitable jealousy : the old suspicion of over-reaching : which came from the practice of secrecy. We shall make it thereby possible for a publisher to take his place in the estimation of the world, not as a rich man only, always with this atmosphere of jealousy and suspicion, but as a great merchant prince. The large houses, which have capital, will carry on the work of issuing the great and costly enterprises of literature : the encyclopaedic dictionaries, the special histories, and the rest. They will also have the whole of the past literature in their own hands. Nor will it be any shame, but rather the reverse, for the best intellect of the day to work for them. and in their pay. Most of the current literature, however, will be conducted for the authors by agents who will not publish on their own account. The publisher, like the author, with the increased dignity of letters, will rise far higher in the estimation of the world. What dignity, what reputation, can belong to a calling at which is perpetually hurled the reproach, whether deserved or not, in many cases most undeserved, but still inseparable from the calling under peresent conditions, of secrecy for the purpose of over- reaching P The next thing is—if you will suffer me to ## p. (#428) ################################################ 74 THE AUTHOR. preach for five minutes—that while we have shown authors how they may act together for the common good without any injury to themselves, we have to make them feel that they should, in their utter- ances concerning each other, obey the same rules of courtesy as belong to the Bar. One of the evil results of the former darkness was the absurd and suicidal hatred of poet towards poet; of nove- list towards novelist; nay, of histºrian for histo- ian—witness the life-long hatred of Freeman for Froude. It arose partly from ignorance of the vast fields open to writers: everyone thought of London—of the West End—of clubland—as if the world of thought, and learning, and reading, was all concentrated there. We are now beginning— only just beginning—to understand that there is no reason for any hatred or jealousy at all. There is room in this great world of ours for every author of power, whether he is poet, novelist, historian, philosopher or artist, or scientific professor. Rudyard Kipling does not kill Barrie, and Hall Caine is not injured by Conan Doyle; Austin Dobson is none the worse for William Watson. Quite the contrary; the more good writers there are the better it is for each. The demand for good work is maintained; a thirst for reading is increased. The recognition of this great fact ought to lead to the discontinu- ance of the bad old practice, once common among authors, and by no means yet extinct, of criti- cising, i.e., slashing each other. Let us agree in future, if we cannot speak well of another author, to hold our tongues about him. Silence is some- times the very wisest form of criticism. And our enemies, you may be very certain, desire nothing better than to see us like so many cats, spitting at each other. Let us, in fact, make a stand for professional courtesy. Let me next, if I may be allowed, say a few words as to the future of the Society itself. First, it is not enough to ascertain and to publish the facts of our position — we must continue on guard over that position with un- ceasing watchfulness. The price we must pay for independence is the continual watch and guard over it. We must never relax in that watch and guard; we must always have a centre —an office—an outward and visible sign of organisation ; a place whither cases can be brought and treated. For the same reason, we must continue to cultivate the spirit of common action for a common cause. Now, your Chairman has, I know, many useful plans in his head for the advancement of the Society. I desire to advance three things which seem to me very pressing and urgent. They are these. First, it is very much to be desired that we should be able to bring certain cases into court. For instance, there are still firms—believed by those who do not know them to be honourable firms—which falsify every account they issue —charging large sums of money which they have not paid, and overcharging the amounts which they have paid. We have already submitted a case of this kind to counsel for opinion, and have obtained a very clear and decided opinion to the effect that there is no judge on the bench who would tolerate such falsification on any grounds possible to conceive. We desire, therefore, to bring such a case of falsified accounts into the courts of law. This is very difficult, because, of course, we must be able to furnish proofs, by evi- dence of printers and others. We have had in our hands cases by the dozen in which there was no doubt possible as to the falsification of every item —to anybody who knew the meaning of figures; but there was wanting either the evidence of printers or the consent of the author to proceed. Still we may hope for such a case, sometime or other, complete in all its parts. When we do get it, the question will arise whether it should be treated as a civil or a criminal charge. The moral effect of placing a highly respectable firm in the dock, charged with falsifying accounts, would be really most beneficial. . The second point that presses is the preparation of model agreements. The time has come when we might prepare agreements which would give the agent or distributor such payment as shall be thought perfectly fair. In this work I think we may fairly expect the co-operation of those publishers who do not falsify accounts, and do not try to cover up and conceal things. The third point—one most urgently needed— one to which I invite your very earnest attention— is the establishment of a Pension Fund. Nothing of the kind exists in literature. It is horribly needed. The rank and file among us cannot, from the nature of the case—even if we had what we ought to have—we cannot save much money. There falls upon us in the fulness of time an old age with infirmities, but without means, with failing powers, and without resources. The instances which have come under my own know- ledge, partly when I sat upon the Council of the Royal Literary Fund, and partly from the cases brought before the Society, which does not pretend to relieve distress, have been most painful—most terrible. Of course, what we are doing in the extension of knowledge has already led to great improvement in the material position of the writer. But progress is necessarily slow. People have gone on so long believing that literary property was either common property or something could be—conveyed—by anyone who wished. There are societies like that for the Promotion of ## p. (#429) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 75 Christian Knowledge, which have, in the past, at least, acted as if the author had no rights what- ever over his own property. Some years ago we exposed the sweating of these good Christian people. We sent copies of this exposure to all the bishops. With one exception, not one of the bishops seemed so much as to understand that the author had any right at all except to take what was offered him, Well, this kind of ignorance is slowly disappearing before the more general recognition of literary property which we never cease to demand. Until, however, Arch- bishops and Bishops will be ashamed to tolerate the sweating of the author, and even after, there will continue to be oppression, and there will con- tinue to be failing powers, and there will con- tinue to be poverty. Many a poor gentlewoman have I heard of in these late years; many a writer who has done good and faithful work all her life for her employers—always, alas ! “employers,” and never “agents”—who has found herself at the end unable to work and with no money saved. She has to eat the bread—the bitter bread—of dependence, and to drink the water —the bitter water—of charity. We would, if we could, relieve that lady; we would give her, when the time for stopping work arrived, such a pension as would make her independent of charity. The plans for raising such a fund have long been drawn up; they only wait for workers. It is, lastly, my highest hope that in such work as this—and in everything else that belongs to the Dignity and Honour—and Glory—of Litera- ture—I, a humble Craftsman, whose only real distinction is that I am, like you, a Craftsman in Letters, a Brother in the Craft, a Member of the Guild, a Worker in the Fraternity, may live to take a larger part in that cause, and to do more work for that cause than in the past. In proposing the toast of “The Chairman,” Mr. HENRY NORMAN said: You will believe that I feel myself honoured by the pleasant duty that lies before me. Apart from the pleasure I have felt in taking part in this dinner — given in honour of Royal recognition of the profession of letters—I should at any time be delighted to propose the health of my friend Sir Martin Conway. It is customary, I have been told, in this country at any rate, when called upon in such a capacity, to deprecate one's fitness for the task, and to wish modestly that it had fallen upon a better, a gifted man, and the practice of opening one's mouth with something in the nature of a confession of his personal short- comings, his physical disabilities, and his mental limitations, is almost the inevitable prelude of the English speaker. Ladies and gentlemen, I shall venture to lay aside this custom on the present occasion. In my case all these painful facts will be abundantly plain before I sit down, and though I naturally wish that I were a better man—as who would not ?—I should be very loth indeed to lose this opportunity of expressing my gratification at the honour which has alighted, most auspiciously, most aptly, upon the head of Sir Martin Conway. His claim to recognition— if I may use the word “claim " in connection with a man who has certainly never made one— is undoubted upon several grounds, but I shall allude to only two of them to-night. He is a young man still ; many more honours may be expected to fall upon him—political, literary, social, and atheletic—and it would be unfriendly if at so early a stage I were to exhaust his blushes. There is first—I rank it first to- night—his work for the Society of Authors. I have the privilege of serving with him upon the Committee of Management, and I am sure my fellow-members will bear me out in saying that a better chairman it would be impossible to have. Ladies and gentlemen, some of you here present, I venture to think, have good reasons to be grateful to that committee. Whether because of a peculiar vice of yours which has recently been ruthlessly exposed—reference to which leads me to express the hope that those of you who, like myself, have sat next to a great author, have at least managed to secure your own share of a good dinner—or whether, as I prefer to think, because of the inevitable friction in all human affairs, the entente cordiale between author and publisher is Occasionally — in the words of an American humourist—spilt. When that catastrophe happens you fly for help to your Society, and the members of the committee receive a private communication from the secretary requesting them to assemble at an early date to discuss the case of Mr., Mrs., or Miss Author against Messrs. Publisher and Co. Then, in a dark room, in a dingy street, which has nothing suggestive of the laurels of literature except its name, a Star Chamber, a Vehmgericht, council of ten sits upon your woes. When these are genuine—when you have had the consummate Sagacity to read your agreements before signing them—it proceeds next to sit upon the publisher, and, in almost every case it has taken up, with success. But publishers—I am sorry there are none of them present to receive my humble homage—are not invariably in the wrong. We British authors are happy in having at our doors a group of publishers of the highest in- tegrity, judgment, and business ability — men to whom the best interests of literature are every bit as sacred as they are to ourselves. Now, Sir Martin Conway, in his capacity of chairman of ## p. (#430) ################################################ 76 THE AUTHOR. that Star Chamber of which I have spoken, holds his scales of justice absolutely level. The weights that he handles are never plugged with putty; he never sticks a piece of tallow upon the bottom of the scoop; in the expressive language of the street, “there ain’t a bit of bogey in him.” I submit with absolute confidence, ladies and gentle- men, that Sir Martin Conway's connection with this committee is an adequate first ground for our respect and regard, and for any external honour he may receive. I pass to our chairman's second claim. It is one entirely personal to himself. Speaking as a man who has travelled somewhat himself—just enough, I trust, to justify Shakespeare's remark that “a good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner,” I do not hesitate to say that Conway has a unique record. He has been quite original. It has been given to other men to remove mountains, but this momentous feat seems to pale before the seven- leagued walks from peak to peak, across a whole chain, of my friend Conway. Only one man has ever done it before—and that was Fingal, who stepped from mountain to mountain in the Western Islands of Scotland, accompanied by his two hounds, and reaching the mainland, flung their leash over an enormous rock. Sir Martin Conway's hounds have been his faithful Gurkhas, and this Himalyan Fingal has ex- plored the great Indian range in its most snowy fastnesses. The result has been one of the most beautiful and valuable books of recent years; full of the careful observation of the born geographer, the splendid enthusiasm of the climber, the trained appreciation of the mind of one who combines the man of action with the artist and the thinker. Only recently has been placed before us yet another example of these talents in “The Alps from End to End.” Having reviewed this book, you, who know so well the habits of reviewers, will not be surprised to learn that I am keeping it to read on my holiday, and I am certain that, I shall find in it the most charming and the most invigorating literature. For literature it is ; with his special intellectual equipment Sir Martin Conway could never write the mere book of travel or of mountaineering. Personally our chairman is known to you all. In friendship I have found him as firm as the rocks he scales. His future is certain to be even more distinguished than his past. A once famous poem, not so well known now-a-days as it should be, begins with these words:— “Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar Sir Martin Conway is a living contradiction of that sentiment. It is not hard for him to climb, and those who know him best look forward con- | >> fidently to see him scale peak after peak, “till life’s last sun tips his last hill with gold.” Ladies and gentlemen, I have done. I dare say no more lest he threaten me with the ice-axe, which I feel sure is in his pocket at this moment, and without which he is too scientific to attempt to mount even an omnibus, and lest, anxious to escape from an atmosphere of admiration too warm for his ice-hardened constitution, he decide to leave this room and flee, not by the door, not by the windows, but by the roof, and produce his axe to chip a foothold among the mural decora- tions. Let us fill our glasses, and be thankful that it is not Alpine goat’s milk with which we fill them. I give you the health of Sir William Martin Conway, chairman of the committee of the Society of Authors, explorer of the Himalayas, Fingal of the Alps, first Knight of the Order of the Edelweiss. And I beg to be allowed to couple with it the health of that charming and gracious lady, who plays so large a part in his success at home, and suffers so courageously and patiently his adventurous absence abroad, Lady Conway. June 26, 1895. * - a --> TRUTH IN FICTION. I N the July number of the Author Mr. Sherard, in his letter from Paris—which is always entertaining—says: “A man who tells stories professionally must, it seems to me, lose, to a certain extent, the perception of truth.” And he adds, “I should like to have other opinions on the subject.” The opinions of three great authors, of very different dates, at once suggest themselves. Perhaps Mr. Sherard will hold that they support his view. But it is evident that these writers did not agree with him in thinking that the tales related by professional story tellers are not true, which Mr. Sherard implies. ARISTOTLE. It is evident, from what has been said, that it is not the place of a poet to relate the things that have taken place, but what might have taken place in accordance with probability or necessity. For the historian and the poet do not differ only in writing in verse or in prose ; but in this, that one relates what has taken place, and the other what might have taken place. For which reason poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history. For poetry relates rather what is universal, but history what is personal. (De Arte Poetica X.) ## p. (#431) ################################################ T/IE AUTHO/8. 77 RABELAIS. I, your humble servant, desiring still more to increase your entertainment, now offer you another book of the same stamp; only even more just and worthy of your credence than the former. For I have never told a lie, nor asserted a thing that was not true. I speak of these things as Saint John in the Apocalypse, “Quod vidimus testamur.” (Pantagruel, Livre II. Prologe de l'Autheur.) FIELDING. Notwithstanding the preference which may be vulgarly given to the authority of those romance writers who entitle their books, “The History of England, the History of France, of Spain, &c.” it is most certain that truth is to be found only in the works of those who celebrate the lives of great men, and are called biographers. With us biographers the facts we deliver may be relied on, though we often mistake the age and country wherein they happened; for, though it may be worth the examination of critics, whether the shepherd Chrysostom, who, as Cervantes informs us, died for the love of the fair Marcella, was ever in Spain, will anyone doubt but that such a silly fellow hath really existed P. Is not such a book as that which records the achievements of the renowned Don Quixote more worthy of the name Qf a history than even Mariana’s P for, whereas the latter is confined to a particular period or time, and to a particular nation, the former is the his- tory of the world in general, at least that part which is polished by laws, arts, and sciences; and of that from the time it was first polished to this day ; nay, and forwards as long as it shall so remain. (Joseph Andrews, Book III., I.) HENRY CREssWELL. II In response to Mr. Sherard’s invitation, 1 would say :— I. It is well to distinguish between the moral untruthfulness due to bluntness of sensitiveness or callowness of sympathy, and the mental un- trustworthiness characteristic of blindness of insight, obtuseness of judgment, or blurredness of memory. But, it seems to me, in proportion to the sanity or genius of the writer, whether of “fiction ” or of fact, will result the truthfulness of his perception and the trustworthiness of his conception. - 2. An inherently untruthful character or un- trustworthy mind may be previously responsible for the writing of untrue fiction; and this would be alike in its unreliability, whether it took the popular form of novel-writing, play-making, or so-called history, biography, and so on. 3. In such a case the writing may serve as an expedient safety-valve, as it were, leaving the inherent nature more reliable in ordinary life; though its extraordinary expresssion may tend to render the reading public less reliable ac- cordingly. - & 4. But of course, even when the veracity may be above dispute, the verity may prove beneath respect; being born of the author's honest though unreliable fancy, begotten of fallacy, and fostered by unwise popularity. 5. If, however, the fiction be born of just observation or of true imagination, in due con- ception, it is merely another name for the higher or inner truth of extraordinary life; and its creator is a true apostle of truth, even when his disciples happen to be too few, too indifferent, or too poor to repay his publishing expenses PHINLAY GLENELG. III. Is there any means by which further opinions on this subject can be obtained ; not, of course, from authors, who are hardly in a position to judge impartially of their merits or demerits, but from that large and often long-suffering class the relatives of authors? It would be exceedingly interesting if a con- siderable number of those persons could be induced to give their testimony, adding, of course, to which of the two rival schools their particular author belonged—namely, whether to that founded on observation and imagination, or to that far more popular one founded on an inventive fancy. Imagination I take to mean the power of imaging in the mind, as in a mirror, how certain characters will think and act in certain circum- stances—in other words, the power of drawing the complete circle from the arc. There is no guessing in such a matter, and there is no inven- tion. All depends on perception of truth. On this perception, coupled with keen observation, it appears to me that writers of the first class of fiction, headed by George Eliot, depend entirely. If the exercise of the faculty of perception of truth tends to the wearing of it out—like a watch —most miserable is the man whose work is based upon it, for he will suffer degradation first, and his work will show degradation in due course. The second large class of fiction founded on an inventive fancy has none of the restrictions of the first. The writer, bound by no iron laws of life, no constraining bias and limitation of character, exercises a fairy-like gift of conjuring up a world in which we do not live, peopled with beings not of like passions with ourselves, who can be made ## p. (#432) ################################################ 78 THE AUTHOR. to act according to the writer's will, and even to point morals approved by him. Of these books the admiring reader says, not “How true!” but “EIoW beautiful | * It would be of great interest to learn which class of authors is the more truthful or untruth- ful in ordinary life. MARY CHOLMONDELEY. IV. The question asked by Mr. R. H. Sherard as to the “writing of fiction disposing an author to untruthfulness in ordinary life,” is one of which I have often thought. My opinion is, that it does not. I think truth-speaking in ordinary life depends upon personal character wholly apart from the romantic and imaginative bent of the mind. Is it possible to suppose that Scott or Ringsley sacrificed the truth of their lips to their “pen of the ready writer.” What were the personal characters of Cervantes or of Coleridge, whose “Ancient Mariner” and “Christabel” were fiction in verse, or of Disraeli the younger, the most flowery of writers ? True, a romancist may throw a halo around ordinary things. He may dilate upon facts in a style of fluency and illumination which makes his hearers say, “He is romancing !” But the truth germ is there. His enlargement of it shows only the difference between the man who can think, or write, or talk on a certain subject, and the man who cannot. If the novelist be naturally truthful the line between fact and fiction in his own mind will be strong as a cable, though fine as a hair, and all the stronger, because he realises that facts are his foundation, and that he must sift and mould them to his use. A clear head is demanded for writing fiction. This clear head helps to keep clean the lips of the naturally truthful man. The natu- rally untruthful man will be untruthful still. The brilliant talker may throw into his eloquence gesture or inflexion which guides the branching off from fact to fancy. I hold that the motto “Truth before Life " may be that of a novelist in the private and ordinary life of business, duty and humdrum routine which fall more or less to the share of all, whether theologian or novelist, to whom God and his mother have given the gift of truth and the love of it. Such will delight the more keenly in the pictures of his brain, the fairyland where he meets his own congenial acquaintances, and throws over them “the light that never was on sea or land” to gain his own purpose in using his gift without abusing it. MARY ELIZ. STEVENSON. CORRESPONDENCE, I.—Co-OPERATION. NLY to-day for the first time has your Author come into my hands. After read- ing Mr. Hall Caine's clear exposition of the relationship existing between authors, pub- lishers, and booksellers, the thought occurs to me, might not the producers of literature do, with advantage to themselves and the public, what Government servants have done for themselves —break the back of monopoly by setting up business, like co-operative stores, and, working with their own employés, manage the publication in its various branches P. Thus freed from the greed of those who prey upon authors, literary men would reap the full harvest their seed might yield, according to its quality, times, and seasons. Yet I cannot doubt that this view of the subject has already received a full share of atten- tion from lights so brilliant as those which illu- minate the Author. E. W. HEWARD. II.—PAPER CovKRs. Permit me to submit to the “Society of Authors” a suggestion as to a mode of pub- lishing which I think ought to have a trial in this country. My remarks apply of course more to books of science, travel, biographies, &c., than to fiction. My suggestion is to issue such works in two forms, viz., paper cover and cloth. Of an edition of 500 I should, for instance, issue 350 in paper and 150 in cloth. The copies in paper cover I should offer to the bookseller on sale or return for three months at a certain discount, a larger discount being offered for outright orders. It is not advisable to send cloth copies on sale, as in most instances the cloth case would be somewhat damaged and the loss considerable, while if a paper copy is returned somewhat the worse in outer appearance the cover can be re- placed at a nominal cost. From a business point of view the “on sale" system seems at first sight unhealthy, but I think its disadvantages will be outweighed by obvious advantages, as I shall endeavour to show. By the proposed system the cost of production will be considerably reduced, the saving being effected on the items for binding and advertising. The saving on the binding is indisputable. By enabling the bookseller to show the book to every possible purchaser among his clientéle the publisher brings it more effectively under the notice of the book-buying public than by far the more expensive method of advertising, and I venture to predict that many a copy of a new ## p. (#433) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 79 book will be sold in this way, which would remain on the publishers’ hands under the present system of book distribution. The two questions: Will the bookseller consent to receive the books on sale, and the necessary trouble with them 2 and, Do English- men not object to books in paper covers ? deserve consideration. As to the first, I have no doubt that any book- seller who takes an interest in his work, and does not altogether trust to the publishers' adver- tisements and underselling his colleagues for the sale of his books, will be glad to receive and endeavour to sell these books, his risk being confined to the carriage of them. As to the second, cloth cases can easily be obtained from the publisher, and the books can be bound in them at a very small price for buyers who object to paper copies, and do not bind their books according to their own taste. It is not generally known that the above- mentioned system is the recognised system in Germany, and has no small share in the educa- tional success of that country. I have myself, as a bookseller, obtained on sale and sold a good many expensive German books which I could not have risked buying outright. In conclusion, I should like to say that I shall be glad to give more details to any member of your Society who might think the experiment, if experiment it can be called, worth trying. TH. WołILLEBEN. III.-AN AFTER-DINNER GROWL. May I enter a protest—a vigorous one—against the systematic begging at dinners of the Society of Authors P. To be pestered for tips when one's soul is elevated by words of wisdom is distinctly aggravating, and should be quite unnecessary. If a fee for attendance must be paid—and apparently it must, for if one hesitates the waiter plaintively whispers, “This is all I get, Sir "- it would add to one's comfort if it were included in the price of the dinner ticket. Maybe the big guns at the top table are not thus beset, but you should have heard the anathematising last night amongst the multitude ANDREW W. TUER. Leadenhall Press, E.C., June 27, 1895. IV.-AT HIs own ExPENSE. Why should he not, if he is a new writer and has his name to make P I would not give eighteenpence for the opinion of any publisher or publisher's reader in England on the chances of a book by a new writer finding favour with the public. I say this with no intention of disparaging their powers of judgment, for I would not give sixpence for my own opinion, and I have been a journalist and tale-writer, in a small way, for many years, and an insatiable devourer of general literature from a very early age. I hold that a new writer is justified in getting to his public by any means at his command, and that only to the verdict of that public should he pay the slightest attention. A fig–indeed, a fig- seed—for individual opinions whether they be those of publishers, editors, or critics, and I hope a time is coming when every author will have to justify his faith in his own works by bearing the expense of obtaining a public verdict. A. B. – rºcº- W.—EveRY AUTHOR HIs Own PUBLISHER. As I myself have for six years been publishing and selling the only book 1 ever had it in me to write, my experience may interest your readers. In 1889 a publisher (and sinner) gave me £9 15s. (ostensibly £IO) for right to publish several thousand copies, which in less than two months were sold. He then renewed his magni- ficent offer, which I rejected. • In 1889 I printed and bound the fourth edition, which a London publisher sold for me at (to him) a fair profit. Two thousand copies went fast, and then came the fifth edition, for which this same publisher offered me “375 down on the day of publication.” I warmly thanked him for nothing, and then and there resolved to print, bind, publish, and sell my own book. Every author I know warned me against this “risk,” saying the producer of a book couldn't possibly be the seller as well. To my anxious inquiry, “Why not P’’ I only got for answer the rather ladylike reply, “Because he can’t.” I treated it as a sum in arithmetic, and set to work to “prove’’ it. I published the fifth edition at great expense. It had never dawned upon me to have stereos made. The sale was a grand success, and I am now going to publish the twelfth edition. I may say that at the sixth or seventh edition a firm of publishers offered kindly to be my trade agents, and to give me 4s. On a 5s. book; their cheques are exact to the day, and their accounts accurate to a penny piece; and my trade agents accept twelve to the dozen, squarely and honestly, and have no nonsense about baker's or devil's dozens of thirteen. Nothing could be more lovely or businesslike. I have had no money to spend on advertisements; each book has adver- tised itself. No one has “ log-rolled ” me (I wish to goodness they would !) and all newspapers have boycotted me. Mr. Ian Maclaren should read this if you are kind enough to insert it—for at the recent authors' dinner he said, “An amateur author is one who publishes at his own expense—a thing ## p. (#434) ################################################ 8O THE AUTHOR. which the most inexperienced Scot would not do.” I, Sir, am a most inexperienced Scot—of the feminine gender, too!—and yet for six years have boiled the pot with something in it, by having faith enough in my own work to take all the risk, worry, and labour of producing and selling my own book. It has been an undoubted, and is a growing, success; so much so, that this twelfth edition is to be of 5000 copies. A CANNY SCOT. From the Westminster Gazette (June 7). [Are not the figures wrong How could a publisher give 4s. for a 5s. book P. But the moral is plain.—ED.] VI.-CopyRIGHT PROPRIEToRS AND ILLUSTRATED Journ ALISM. I have observed with some satisfaction the prominence which you have given to the impor- tant copyright decision in the case of “Gambier Bolton v. Cecil Aldin and others,” tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench on the IIth ult. Having acted for Mr. Gambier Bolton in this action, and also for Mr. Franz Hanfstaeng1 in the litigation with the papers, arising out of the “Living Picture * representations at the Empire Theatre, I think it right to point out that the great importance of Mr. Bolton's victory arises from its having clearly distinguished the decision in the House of Lords with reference to sketches of the Living Pictures which appeared in the Daily Graphic, from the more common cases of direct copying, whether from a picture or photo- graph, which are now declared to be in no sense permitted piracies, notwithstanding that they may not reproduce all the features of the original work. This is a matter of vital importance to all who are concerned in securing the rights of copyright owners ; and it deserves to be emphasised at the present time, because from the interested views put forward by some of the papers as to the effect of the House of Lords decision, there was some danger of a licence to pirate generally being claimed in the sacred name of illustrated jour- nalism, and this could not have failed to affect the protection given to authors, as well as artists, against mischievous piracies in various other forms. As there has been so much misunderstanding about the net results of the Hanfstaeng1 copyright litigation, you will perhaps allow me to put these shortly for the benefit of those of your readers who are interested in international copyrights. The points established may be summarised from an article in the Art Journal as follows: I. Extinction of the necessity of registration in England in the case of works first published abroad, and vice versa. 2. Establishment of the Berne Convention as the real guide in international matters, in lieu of any local laws. 3. Declaration that the rights of publishers depend on place of publication, and not on “making” of the protected work. 4. Assertion of the principle, in cases of in- fringement, that “competition is no test.” 5. Declaration that the lawfulness of part of an unauthorised representation of a protected work will not excuse the incorporation in such representation of that which is clearly unlawful. HERBERT BENTWITCH. Corporation Chambers, Guildhall Yard, E.C., 20th June, 1895. *- a -º e- BOOK TALK. R.S. AYLMER GOWINGPS book of poems, called “Sita, and Other Poems,” mostly adapted for recitation, contains a small collection of verses on contemporary events. Many of them are highly spirited and effective. Let, however, the author speak for herself. The following lines are entitled “Tennyson”: ALL glorious with the mystery sublime Thy eyes shall fathom soon, Night’s bosom pillows thee, O son of Time ! In splendours of the moon. Cometh thy daybreak—there shall be no night In that far heaven, untrod By course of quenching suns or stars, whose light Shall be the face of God. True seer, from thy heart the lamp of faith Glowed clear through storm and shine, And clothed the fearful majesty of Death In robes of grace divine. And thine the hand of might, the tender touch That makes our pulse thine own IBy love’s enchantments, for thou hast loved much. And grief’s excess hast known. Sweet singer, by thy voice of human love And sorrow, pure and strong, Teach us to find our God, while thou, above, Art singing a new song, Mr William Alfred Gibbs has produced a thing rare in these days—a tale in verse, “Arlon Grange.” His book (Provost and Co., Henrietta- street) is beautifully printed, bound, and illus- trated. These pages are not critical, because criticism is impossible in our brief limits, and the hastily pronounced brief judgment of half a dozen lines on a work not read by the judge, which has cost the author months or years of ## p. (#435) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 8 I work, is generally futile when it applauds and impudent when it assails. We can always, how- ever, find room for the poet to speak for himself. The following lines are detached from the text: “When Love doth pace The lustrous floor of Heaven, He casts no shadow in that radiant place. “But when on Earth He stands beneath the sun, His mortal form to shadow giveth birth. “Thus shadow lives Wherever love doth dwell; Thus passing Love to grief its semblance gives. “With wings unfurled, Love soars again to Heaven— His mortal shadow scares him from the world. “Say, shall we slight His presence whilst he stays, Or blame the sunshine for its partial light P “Ah no he flies, To take our thoughts to Heaven, And spread its radiant floor before our eyes. “Then welcome Love, Tho' shadow follows thee; - Parted on earth, we meet again above.” “Paganus,” another name as the title page informs us, has published “Poems of Paganism” or Songs of Ilife and Love. (London: The Rox- burghe Press.) The remarks made above in the Poem of “Arlon Grange” apply to this little volume of short poems. There is no room for a criticism, and a brief judgment would be futile. They are mostly love songs. We shall hear more of the poet of whom it may at least be said that he possesses a musical ear and a great command of rhyme and metre. Shall we quote the verses called “Linus to Lyterses?” What of the past, Lyterses P What of the gathered years P Time, with his tender mercies, Leaves not a stain of tears. Where are the joys that bound us P Where are the songs we sung P Where the warm hands that crowned us Kings, when the world was young P Weary of life immortal Linus in languor nods, Dreaming of death’s dream-portal, Panting to sleep with gods. Go, little gush of verses, Over Time's barren bars Whisper to lone Lyterses, “Linus still seeks the stars.” “Lyra Piscatoria.”—This little book deserves to be noticed in conjunction with that which follows—Mr. Bickerdyke's—the one in the prose of fishing, the other in its poetry. The poet who chooses to call himself Cotswold Isys says on the title page that this volume contains “Original Lyrics on Fish, Flies, Fishing, Fishermen, and all the British Freshwater Fish.” of the Tench : O LADY of the lake whereon The water lilies blow, Or oozy deeps bay out the banks Of rivers soft and slow ! No gay coquette e'er looked so fair Clad in her satin green; No nun behind her nunnery walls So shy or seldom seen . Let him sing: No lady finger's ruby gem Can match thy glowing eyes; Thy satin robe of emerald sheen, Her vesture far outvies; Yet while she loves her grace to show And all her charms display, Thou, shy and modest water nymph Dost shrink from light of day. Mr. John Bickerdyke's new book, “The Boat. Cruise on the Broads,” is not a story, nor is it an essay. It is, on the other hand, a little handbook of information about that curious land-and-water country known as the Broads. It seems to con- tain every kind of guidance for those who are going to make a holiday on the Broads. Their numbers increase every year. Everyone who goes there will have to take this book with him. The publishers are Bliss, Sands, and Foster. Another of the many pleasant gossipy books. about various parts of London is “Soho and its Associations,” edited from the MSS. of Dr. Rimbault by Mr. George Clinch. Soho began to be built towards the end of the seventeenth century; it was for a long time a fashionable place of residence, and much frequented by lite- rary men and artists on account of its quiet, and its close proximity to the fields. The associations connected with Soho are both numerous and interesting. Thus in Gerard-street alone— whose name they are proposing to alter, with the usual reverence for things ancient—we find the names of Charles, Lord Gerard, first Earl of Macclesfield, after whom it was named by Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James the First, who had here a place of exercise; the Earl of Scar- borough, who had here his town house ; John Dryden, who lived here from 1687 to 1700, where he died—the house, as Dryden says, “is Gerard- street, the fifth door on the left hand, coming from Newport-street. James Boswell had lodgings here, so had Charles Kemble ; Edmund Burke lived here; and David Williams, the founder of the Royal Literary Fund, lived here. (Dulau and Co., Soho-square.) Mrs. B. M. Croker, whose works are steadily gaining ground, has two serials running in foreign papers, one in the Berlin Poste, the other in the Indépendence Belge. So far every one of her books has appeared in German, both in serial and ## p. (#436) ################################################ 82 THE AUTHOR. in book form. This is not a distinction granted to every novelist. A new and revised edition of Mrs. Alfred Bald- win’s “Story of a Marriage,” has just been pub- lished by Messrs. J. M. Dent & Co. Canon W. Sparrow-Simpson will issue imme- diately, through Mr. Elliot Stock, an English translation of the “Tragico-Comoedia de Santo Vedasto,” from the MS. in the library at Arras, with an extended introduction. The work will be uniform with “Carmina Vedastina,” recently published by the same editor. |Miss M. G. McKinloch has an article in the current number of The Month (Burns and Oates) on the “Revels and Pageants of Ancient Edin- burgh.” “The Nature and Origin of Man” is the ambi- tious title of a little work which Mr. Elliot Stock is publishing for S. B. G. M'Kinney. It is note- worthy that the standpoint of the writer enables him to regard Goethe and Rudyard Kipling as inspired teachers. Mr. Joseph Hatton has written a new novel, which is to appear in serial form exclusively in the People for Great Britain, and in Leslie's Weekly Illustrated for the United States. It will commence Aug. 4, and will appear simultaneously in America, New Zealand, the Transvaal, Tas- mania, and Melbourne. It is a story of the French Revolution, the title “When Greek meets Greek,” and the period between the taking of the Bastille and the fall of Robespierre. The volume edition will be published at the end of the year |by Hutchinson's in London, and Lippincott's in Philadelphia. “Tom Chester's Sweetheart : A Tale of the Press,” is one of the newest of the shilling novels, from the press of Messrs. Hutchinson. It appeared in the midst of the excitement of the General Election, but has sold two large editions notwithstanding. Mr. Hatton has utilised some of his journalistic experiences in the story, which deals with the adventures of an elderly gentleman, who thought any fool could edit a newspaper, and tried it. The book might be transferred almost without alteration, save for conversion into dialogue into a most admirable Comedy-farce. “Comrades,” by Annabel Grey, is now in the press and will be shortly published by Mr. Henry Drane, Salisbury House, Salisbury-square, E.C., at 68. It is a novel dealing with high and low life, politics, passion, society, secret societies, and Nihilism. Mrs. Alec Tweedie's article on a “Danish Butter Factory,” in the Fortnightly for May, met with such warm praise from the Press that she has enlarged it considerably with English information, useful to all who are interested in dairying, and Mr. Horace Cox has published the pamphlet at 6d. It bids fair to be as successful as “A Girl’s Ride in Iceland,” by the same author, which in its third edition is selling on the bookstalls at Is. At last the Gibbon cupboard is to be unlocked by Lord Sheffield. Mr. Murray announces that he will in the autumn issue the unpublished writings of the historian of the “Decline and Fall.” These include his journals, written mainly in French, and relating to his work and travels during 1762-4; his correspondence with members of his family, his friend Lord Sheffield, and other celebrities, political and social, of the time; and the seven different autobiographies. The Lord Sheffield of to-day will edit the work, and write a preface to this collection of un- doubtedly interesting material which his an- cestor received in trust from the great Gibbon. A volume of biographical studies of the great astronomers, by Sir Robert Ball, will be pub- lished by Messrs. Isbister in the autumn. It will be illustrated. Mr. Frederick Wedmore has written a work on “Etching in England,” which will come from Messrs. Bell, who will also publish in the autumn Dr. G. C. Williamson's book on Richard Cosway. Mr. E. W. Naylor is the author of “Shake- speare and Music,” which Messrs. Dent are to issue shortly. - A new volume of poems by Mr. Frederick Tennyson, brother of the late Poet-Laureate, is to appear in the autumn. The terrible death of Stambouloff will have caused greater interest to attach to his biography by Mr. A. Hulme Beaman, which is to be the next volume in Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster's “Public Men of the Day” series. Its appearance will now be delayed somewhat, as a closing chapter will be added, and as the author is abroad. Mr. Austin Dobson's poems are to be issued by Messrs. Kegan Paul in a limited edition in two volumes. The same publishers also announce for publication his “The Story of Rosina,” in a style uniform with “The Ballad of Bean Brocade,” and, like it, illustrated by Mr. Hugh Thomson. Mr. Dobson has written an introduction, and Mr. Berbert Railton drawn illustrations for a new edition of T. Hood’s “Haunted House,” which the publishing house of Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen is preparing. Mr. Rudyard Kipling is not now going to bring out his volume of ballads until next spring. His ## p. (#437) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 83 new lot of jungle stories will, however, appear this autumn. Mr. Kipling disowns the alleged existence of the original of Mulvaney at San Francisco, but says that if Private McManus is a real person and can telltales to back his claim, “we will allow that he is a good enough Mulvaney for the Pacific Slope, and wait developments.” A work on English gardening, by the Hon. Alicia Amherst, will be published immediately by Mr. Bernard Quaritch. Illustrations will be given of old English gardens, parterres, &c., and there will be a bibliography of works on the subject from 1516 up to the present. A volume of fables left by Stevenson will see the light in the autumn. His novel “ St. Ives,” of which only two chapters remained unfinished when death intervened, will follow. The “Wailima Letters,” which will practically be an autobiography of the Samoan Stevenson, is to have a preface and an epilogue by Mr. Sidney Colvin, and, as frontispiece, an etching of the novelist by Mr. William Strang from an Australian portrait. Next month will see the appearance of Ian Maclaren's new book, “The Days of Old [or is it o’Auld 2) Langsyne.” Miss Montresor has named her new work “The One Who Looks On,” which Messrs. Hutchinson will issue in the autumn, and her future plans include a serial for one of the monthlies, entitled “Monsieur Morezes.” Miss Adeline Sergeant's “Out of Due Season” will appear from Mr. Heinemann in a fortnight's time. “The Way of a Maid,” by Katherine Tynan, will be published soon by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen. Mrs. Hungerford’s new three-volume novel, “The Pro- fessor's Experiment,” will be issued next month by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Mrs. Hodgson Burnett will in all probability bave a new book out before the end of the year. As the result of requests made since the appear- ance of the Dean Stanley biography for more of his letters, a volume of these is in preparation, which will contain, by permission, many written to Her Majesty the Queen; also those to the late Master of Balliol, to Dr. Vaughan, Mrs. Arnold, Mrs. Drummond, and Sir George Grove. Selec- tions from the Dean’s poems, hymns, and occa- sional verses will also be given. Another volume of letters long-expected is announced by Messrs. Macmillan, namely, “The Letters of Matthew Arnold, 1848-1888,” collected and arranged by Mr. George W. E. Russell. In a prefatory note Mr. Russell remarks that, “for those who knew Matthew Arnold, the peculiar charm of his letters lies in this—that they are, in a word, himself.” Mr. W. Clark Russell has written for the Autonym Library a volume of stories styled “Cornered,” which will appear in the autumn. His twenty-years-old novel, “Is He the Man,” has been re-issued during the past month, with a preface modestly begging that it be regarded as a product of an immature stage. Hitherto Mr. Charles Lowe has been known chiefly as a first authority on things Prussian, in politics and war. He has now written a novel, laid in his special field; it is called “A Fallen Star,” and treats of the Scots in Prussia. Mr. Lowe, of course, is himself a Scotsman. The volume will be issued shortly by Messrs. Downey, T'or the edition of the works of Poe, which Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen are to issue in the autumn, the editors, Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman and Professor George Edward Wood- berry, have fortunately obtained the final correc- tions made by the author on the margins of an early edition. Much fresh matter is, it is said, included in this new collection, which will be fully illustrated. So tardily, by the way, is the appeal for subscriptions towards erecting a monu- ment over Poe's grave, at Baltimore, being answered, that the expedient of growing roses on the spot and charging fancy prices for them has been suggested as an aid to the fund. A volume of “Selected Papers on Browning ” is to be published by Mr. George Allen. Dr. Edward Berdoe will write the introduction. The contributors include Bishop Westcott, Professor Corson, Rev. H. J. Bulkeley, Rev. W. Robertson, Rev. J. J. Kirkman, Mrs. Ireland, Miss Beall, Miss Marx, and others. The history of the publishing house of Messrs. Blackwood is being written by Mrs. Oliphant in a form of so much detail that three volumes are necessary. The first will appear in the autumn. Mr. William Morris's new work “The Well at the World's End,” is to have four woodcuts, designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and will be published by Messrs. Reeves and Turner. Mr. Morris's prospectus at the Kelmscott Press includes a volume of verse by Mr. Theodore Watts; “The Cronycles of Syr John Froissart,” reprinted from Pynson’s edition, 1523, and edited by Mr. H. Sparling; an edition of Shakespeare by Dr. F. J. Furnivall: and “‘Christabel’ and Other Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,” edited by Mr. F. S. Ellis. - Some particulars of Mr. du Maurier's next book have been supplied by Mr. J. Henry Harper to a Tribune interviewer. The opening chapters will deal with French school life; English life, “both fashionable and rowdy,” will then be brought in; ## p. (#438) ################################################ 84 THE AUTHOR. and after exploiting the artistic world of Antwerp and Dusseldorf, the scene will recur to England in conclusion. It is to be illustrated, but whether by Mr. du Maurier himself will depend on his health. This story, with “plenty of liveliness and and some tragedy,” is to be ready for the pub- lishers about Dec. 1896, will be longer than “Trilby,” and will first appear in Harper's Magazine. To give “pen-pictures of life in our great universities '' is the object of an Anglo-American series which Messrs. Putnam’s Sons have in hand. The volumes will consist of college tales and fictions, after the fashion of Mr. W. K. Post's “Harvard Stories,” published some time ago. Mr. John Seymour Wood is responsible for “Yale Yarns,” which is to start the series. In his “History of Punch,” to be published in the autumn by Messrs. Cassell, Mr. M. H. Spiel- mann promises “for the first time an accurate recital of the origin of Punch.” Mr. Athol Mayhew claimed in his recently-issued similar work called “A Jorum of Punch,” that his father, Henry Mayhew, was projector, proprietor, and first editor of the paper. Mr. Spielmann, in a vigorous correspondence in the Daily Chronicle with Mr. Loxton Hunter, defines Mr. Mayhew’s position as simply that of “one of the three literary co-editors appointed at the beginning, until the sole editorship was vested in Mark Lemon.” Mr. W. H. Hudson, F.Z.S., is publishing ...through Messrs. Longmans Green a volume on “British Birds,” which, besides being elaborately illustrated, will have a chapter on structure and classification from the pen of Mr. Frank E. Bed- dard, F.R.S. An entertaining and informative volume on -bookhunting may be looked for from Mr. W. Roberts, editor of the Bookworm. It will be published in the autumn, liberally illustrated, and entitled “The Bookhunter in London,” as a com- spanion work to Octave Uzanne’s “The Book- hunter in Paris” (“Physiologie des Quais de Paris”). A work on the leading forms of literature represented in the Scriptures has been written by Mr. R. G. Moulton, Professor of English literature in the University of Chicago, entitled “The Literary Study of the Bible.” It will be published by Messrs. Isbister; also a volume which the same author has edited and written an introduction for—namely, “Four Years of Novel Reading: An Account of an Experiment in Popu- larising the Study of Fiction.” The past month had but a thin production of books. Mr. Trevor-Battye's “Icebound on Rolguev * (Archibald Constable and Co.), and Mr. Wandam’s book on “French Men and French Manners” (Chapman and Hall)—the real Parisian, he says, loves Paris as he would love his mis- tress—not his bride ; and Professor Dowden's “New Studies in Literature,” were the most important. In the last days of June the volume of “Dictionary of National Biography,” con- taining the Parnell notice, was published, and attracted considerable attention. The biographer of the Irish statesman is Mr. Barry O'Brien. Nordau’s “Conventional Lies,” an anterior work to “Degeneration,” but hitherto procurable only in a pirated American edition, was published in authorised form by Mr. Heinemann in the middle of last month. Captain Younghusband is giving precedence in publication to his work on “The Siege and Relief of Chitral,” which Messrs. Macmillan will publish as soon as possible. His book on his travels in Manchuria, the Desert of Gobi, Tur- kestan, the Himalayans, and the Pamirs, will, however, appear in the autumn from Mr. John Murray’s house, entitled “The Heart of a Con- tinent.” Mr. Murray will also publish a work of travel by Mr. F. St. J. Gore, of Magdalen College, Oxford, the title of which is “Lights and Shades of Indian Hill Life.” Messrs. Macmillan have projected a “Foreign Statesmen º’ series, to resemble in form their “Twelve English Statesmen.” Professor Bury, of Trinity College, Dublin, is editor. Mr. Irving B. Richman, Consul-General of the United States to Switzerland, is the writer of a Swiss study, which Messrs. Longmans Green are to publish soon, called “Appenzell: Pure Demo- cracy and Pastoral Life in Inner-Rhoden.” The publication of Sir Henry Colvile's Uganda book, “The Land of the Nile Springs,” is now announced by Mr. Edward Arnold for the early autumn. “Interviews with the Immortals” is an amus- ing little paper-bound volume by “Ananias Green.” Ananiasis a journalist and interviewer. He inter- views Mr. Micawber, Mr. Sam Weller, Mr. Mark Tapley, and “the Micawber Congress.” The little work is full of fun and go; it is political in its aims, and it is dedicated to the memory of Home Rule. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.) An excellent photograph of the dinner given to Sir Walter Besant has been taken by the Stereo- scopic Company. The likenesses of the great majority of the guests are very good indeed. Anyone desiring a copy can obtain same from the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, 54, Cheapside, E.C., for the price of 5s. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 03 (August 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 03 (August 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-08-01-The-Author-6-3 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/279/1895-07-01-The-Author-6-2.pdf a01d49a9ea078f75d654aed1e16d1340 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) 1895-07-01 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages Page range in volume 29–52 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950701 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) C O N DU CTED BY W.A. L TER BES A N T. VoI. VI.-No. 2.] JULY 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances show.ld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. e- “ - WARNINGS AND ADWICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.—It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTS. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £Io must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AscERTAIN what A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SLDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. VI. refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.—Be very careful. Yow cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alome. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. r 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. IO. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. —- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *- -** - * ~s HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple D 2 ## p. (#384) ################################################ 3O THE AUTHOR. to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *- - --> THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors’ Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed eaclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days’ notice should be given. . 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted * is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. *~ * ==* -*. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, ## p. (#385) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 31 or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-- ~~~ sº-sº" ºr *s LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—ADDRESS BY MIR. HALL CAINE. * OLLOWING the annual meeting of members F of the Retail Newsagents’ and Booksellers' Union, which was held yesterday morning at Stationers' Hall, Ludgate-hill, under the presidency of Mr. C. Roberts (Brompton), a mass meeting of the trade was held in the evening in the same hall, for the purpose of hearing an address by Mr. Hall Caine, “upon his experience of the present unfair conditions existing in the bookselling trade.” There was a large attendance, members being present from all parts of the country. Letters regretting inability to be present were read by the general secretary (Mr. E. Gowing Scopes) from Sir George Newnes, who was absent on a political mission on the Con- tinent ; from Mr. B. Quaritch, and Mr. Mudie. A telegram was also received to a similar effect from Mr. Zangwill on account of ill-health. Mr. Hall Caine, who was received with applause, stated that there was no better maxim than the old and trite one that union was strength, and there was no body of men who had more reason to remember it than the booksellers of the United Kingdom. Therefore he began by congratulating them on the organisation of book- sellers which they had met that night to inaugu- rate. Never in the history of English booksellers had there been more need for organisation, because the condition of the trade of the book- seller had hardly ever been so bad. It was not to be accounted for on any of the ordinary principles of commercial law. On the one hand they had an enormous increase of population during the past half-century, an enormous increase of wealth, and an enormous increase of the reading public ; and, on the other hand, they had an appalling decline in the number of booksellers throughout the kingdom. More than that, the past half century had witnessed a complete change in the character of the bookseller's business. Fifty years ago the bookseller was a seller of books only. His shop was lined with books, his counters were covered and his windows were filled with them. Bookselling was a lively industry in those days. It existed by itself, and was a profitable and an honourable, and even a dignified and distinguished business. That con- * dition was a thing of the past. There were hardly a score of such book shops remaining in the provinces. The other book shops were small- wares or fancy goods shops first, and book shops afterwards. No longer did books line the walls, cover the counters, and fill the windows. Children's dolls and air balls, ladies’ purses and hand-bags, inkstands and Japanese fans had usurped the places which knew the new books mo more. The bookseller was not to blame. He would rather sell books than nick-nacks if he were able to do so and to exist. It was not from choice that he had descended from the estate of bookseller to that of the keeper of a little Moorish bazaar. He would tell them that, as a dealer in new books, he could not exist, and that he was compelled to supplement his bookselling business with these humbler auxiliary aids. Yet more books were sold to-day than at any previous time. The sales of the classic literature in cheap editions were now very great indeed, and the sales of new books, of new novels for example, were beyond comparison larger than in the best days even of Dickens. Where lay the mischief that was crushing the local booksellers out of existence P CONCERNING THE DISCOUNT BOOKSELLER, Ten or more years ago a number of booksellers in the heart of London began to sell new books to the public at the great discount of 25 per cent. They had an enormous success, because they made large businesses with a rapid turn- over. But the heart of London was the only scene for such an enterprise. To the local book- seller such terms were impossible. He could not give 25 per cent. discount and keep a roof over his head. His customers demanded that discount on pain of leaving him. He gave it in some cases, and so died hard. Many of his class were thus crushed out of life, but not until they had inflicted a heavy blow on the great discount houses of London. These houses were not as a whole so prosperous now as they were a few years ago. They had suffered severely in exter- minating the local bookseller. (Hear, hear.) No system of bookselling that was centralised in London would ever work for the book trade as the old local bookselling system worked; large as the increase in the sales of books had been during the past half century, it was not at all Com- mensurate with the increase in population and in the taste for reading. The old bookseller with his local shop was the only agency yet found that seemed to be at all capable of making the |book trade of to-day what it ought to be. (Hear, hear.) With the whole book trade feeling the injury which was said by many to have been ## p. (#386) ################################################ 32 THE AUTHOR. inflicted by the discount business a remedy had been suggested. This was the net-book remedy. So far as he understood it, the proposal was that a new book should be sold met at the published price, and that the bookseller should be allowed 20 per cent. for selling it. But here, again, the local bookseller was at a disadvantage in Com- petition with his London fellow tradesman. The 20 per cent. which was enough for the London bookseller was not enough for the local bookseller, with his greater expenses of “laying down '' and his smaller sales. The net-book system had much to recommend it, but it needed the readjustment of its terms. (Applause.) “ UNBRIDIED GREED' contROVERSY. — REMAIRECABLE FIGURES. This first explanation of the decline of the book trade (that it had suffered from the big discount businesses) touched points with which he was not entirely competent to deal, but the other explana- tion of that decline, the popular explanation, the explanation which had been making so much noise of late, was one on which he might quite modestly but confidently claim to be as good an authority at this moment as any other man what- ever. Continuing, Mr. Hall Cane said: It is being circulated very industriously that the book- trade is declining because authors have been THE Squeezing the publishers, who in turn have had to squeeze the booksellers. The charge appears to have taken shape in the speech of my friend and comrade Edmund Gosse, but it has been backed up by the extraordinary letters of Mr. Fisher Unwin, Mr. Burleigh of the Associated Booksellers, and other wise and well-informed persons in the Times, Daily News, and else- where. May I be so bold as to say that during the past few months it has been my painful duty to forget more about the financial relations of author and publisher than it has yet fallen to Mr. Gosse's much happier lot to learn ? But I have remembered enough to give you to-night certain exact figures which neither Mr. Gosse, nor Mr. Fisher Unwin, nor any of their brother critics and publishers will be quite so courageous as to question, because they are the figures of pub- lishers themselves, the best publishers, supplied to me for my personal use in another connection, but honestly and properly available for the rebutting of a damaging and unfounded charge. We are told that the “unbridled greed” of the author is killing the book trade; but these are the exact facts. A 6s. novel costs to print and bind about Is. a copy; if produced in good numbers, it can be done for a penny less; it sometimes costs a penny more. To advertise a successful novel a publisher may spend two pence a copy, but where he knows his business, and where the sales are in twenties and thirties of thousands, he does not usually spend nearly so much. The author's royalties on a 6s. novel vary from 15 per cent. to 25 per cent., and in only two known instances have authors received more. This royalty is on the published price, but usually with the condition that thirteen copies count as twelve. Thus the payment of the most highly-paid of English novelist—two novelists excepted—is 1s. 4d. per copy. So the writing, printing, binding, and advertising of a popular 6s. novel has cost 2s. 6;d. That is the gross outlay. PUBLISHERs' PROFITs. Now, what is received for the book P I will quote from a paper in the handwriting of one of our great publishers. The full price paid for a 6s, book is 4s. 2d. less 5 per cent, thirteen copies as twelve, namely, 3s. 8d. The lowest wholesale price paid is 4s. less 7% per cent. or Io per cent., thirteen as twelve, namely, 3s. 4d. Therefore, the average earnings to the publisher who has distributing agencies of his own are 3s. 6d., or a fraction under. Thus the profit to the publisher on a successful 6s. book, which pays 25 per cent. to the author, is I Id. a copy. But the smaller local bookseller does not buy at even 3s. 8d. Being a purchaser of small numbers, and often requiring credit, he buys from one of the great distributing agencies, and pays from 4s. to 4s. 2d. for his 6s. book. Now, this book—upon which he must pay carriage from London—he is expected to sell, and often does sell, at 4s. 6d. in order to keep pace with his brother publisher in the heart of London. These are the figures, I believe the exact figures. I have not quoted them from one authority only, but from at least six excellent authorities, all publishers; and none of my authorities will question my right to use them, for they were supplied in the open spirit of men who had nothing to conceal or fear. But the figures show—first, that the local bookseller's profits are reduced to the miserably inadequate sum of 3; d. ; next, that the author's earnings reach the modest sum of Is. 4d. ; again, that the printing and binding of a book costs no more than Is. ; and finally, that the gross cost of pro- ducing a book is often as low as 2s. 6; d., and the expense of distributing it is often as high as Is. 7#d, After this we ought to hear no more of the “unbridled greediness” of authors, and of the accusation that authors are squeezing the booksellers. While Is. 7#d. is the cost of dis- tributing a 6s. book to the local booksellers, the public and the trade may know where the shoe pinches. (Loud applause.) ## p. (#387) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 33 SU GGESTED REMEDIES. For this ruinous condition, asked Mr. Hall Caine, what was the remedy ? The first and easiest remedy lay in the hands of the more suc- cessful author. He did not squeeze the retail bookseller, and neither was it to his interest that anybody else should squeeze him. In his agreements he ought to be assured that the book- seller should have his book at a living wage. (Loud applause.) This condition had been offered to him by more than one of the best publishers, and he should most certainly see that it formed a clause in any agreement he should make in the future, (Renewed applause.) That would mean, as far as it went, the reduction of the earnings of the middlemen. (Hear, hear.) The next remedy lay with the booksellers them- selves. By uniting their forces they might go in a body to the publishers, and say, “Give us a profit upon which we can exist.” That, he under- stood, was what they intended to do. The effect of this protest, if it succeeded, would be to reduce the number of the middlemen. Books would have to pass through fewer hands. Either the “new” publisher himself or his wholesale dis- tributing agency would eventually have to go. If they asked him which, he could not hesitate to reply the “new” publisher. (Applause.) The distributing agencies (agencies like Messrs. W. H., Smith and Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.) were often the only real publishers. They were the only people who were doing the useful and necessary work of distribution, except in the few instances of the active publishers who were distributing for themselves both at home and abroad. They were earning their wages, and neither the book trade nor the authors could have the slightest desire to disturb them. But cer- tainly their protest would exterminate certain of the “new” publishers, men who rented two rooms somewhere, and without machinery of any visible kind, and almost without visible capital, carried on noisy and apparently profitable businesses by the sole help of the great and powerful distri- buting agencies. A MODERN IN WIENTION. The third remedy lay deeper down, and might appear to be more dangerous to touch. It was a remedy which they would employ as a last resource, and with the consciousness of its risks and difficulties—he meant the remedy of doing without the publisher altogether. It was not for them to undervalue the real live publisher, though they thought his relations both with authors and with booksellers stood in need of reconsideration. (Cheers.) But there were just two parties neces- sary to the production of a book—the man who made it, and the man who sold it to the public. The publisher was a modern invention. He did. not exist, as such, in England as recently as the days of Dr. Johnson. Authors then talked of writing for the booksellers, not for the publishers, and they must not suppose that bookseller and publisher were equivalent terms. A bookseller in Johnson's time was what he still was—a man who sold books over his counter, not a publisher who distributed books which other people were to sell. There was no middleman in those days to stand between the man who wrote the book and the man who sold it to the public. And it was to this excellent condition that they might be com- pelled to return in part, if not altogether. (Loud cheers.) Bookselling was in a thriving state then, and, Grub-street notwithstanding, authors were not so often starved out of existence as they were now. (Hear, hear.) It had hardly ever been in a thriving state since. It was now in a more deplorable condition than at any time, per- haps, since the great failure which involved Scott in ruin. He had shown them where the money went which was made by books, and he urged them to reflect whether it might not be to the advan- tage of the only two parties essential to the pro- duction of books that they might sometimes come closer together. If they could do so—if they could dispense with the services of the interme- diaries, they must both be gainers by the change. The author could afford to give the bookseller a profit such as he has never had in the history of English bookselling, and yet keep a greater profit for himself than he had ever been paid in the history of English publishing. Booksellers and authors would be dividing the profits not of one middleman merely, but of two middlemen. Mr. Longman looked with amused indifference towards any attempt to dispense with the third estate in the republic of letters. But they, on their part, were disposed to believe that the publisher could occasionally be dispensed with ; and now that the booksellers of the kingdom were banding together in this Association, the means of touch with the trade (which hitherto was a scattered one only to be reached by the expensive machinery of travellers) was becoming simple and easy. And if an author might publish his book for himself, if by help of a business representative, a clerk, and a cashier, he might send it direct from the printer and bookbinder to the shop of the book- seller, he would not only put more into the book- seller's pocket and more into his own pocket on each copy sold, but he would enormously increase the chances of sale by vitalising the trade of book- selling, by restoring it to the condition of a living industry, and by insuring a wider distribution. (Loud cheers.) ## p. (#388) ################################################ 34 THE AUTHOR. MR. RUSKIN’s ExPERIENCE. Their friends outside, their publishing friends, would do their best to smile and say that these were revolutionary measures. But they were not so revolutionary as they might appear to be. A few weeks ago he had the pleasure of discussing them with Mr. Ruskin, who many years ago foresaw the crisis in which they were now placed, and made an effort of his own to escape from it. What the merits were of Mr. Ruskin’s remedy it was not for him to say. The only remark he would make was that in an endeavour to abolish the publishers Mr. Ruskin created another publisher. (Hear, hear.) That was an obvious and immi- nent danger of any reform on the lines he had indicated. The other middleman always lay in wait for the reformer who rose up to exterminate the middleman. No doubt Mr. Ruskin had reason to be entirely satisfied with the results of his own experiment, but the great reform of the bookselling trade, if it ever came about, would go deeper than that, deeper than any discussion of net prices and discounts, or any settlement of the vexed question of thirteens—it would go to the very root of the existence of the publisher himself, as publisher apart from bookseller. If this reform should be attempted in a large way, if any considerable body of popular English authors should try to follow Mr. Ruskin’s lead with more technical knowledge and experience, whatever success or failure attended them, the responsi- bility for the change would rest with the publishers themselves. The publishers would have provoked it by starving the local bookseller out of existence, and by throwing the blame of that act upon the authors, and loftily threatening to “send them back to Grub-street.” Both book- sellers and authors were finding out that the real earnings of books were stopped midway between the producer and consumer, and that the services of the publisher in the fortunes of books were often the meanest sort of bogey set up to frighten them. Far be it from them to say that the publisher had not done and was not still doing in some cases excellent service to literature and to the trade of bookselling. He had suggested and fostered many noble literary enterprises; he had helped many worthy authors to recognition and recompense; and he had, by wise and merciful methods of business promoted the growth of the bookselling industry in many places. Far be it from them to undervalue the work of the real publisher, who, through many years, perhaps many generations, had gathered about his house a vast machinery of book distribution, and was in touch with the public and with the Press. But they need show no quarter to certain other types of publishers, who had no visible reason for their existence except that they passed a book on from the printer and bookbinder to the agency that was to distribute it. At all events he con- gratulated them heartily on their efforts at organisation, and he assured them that where their interests lie as booksellers there lay their interests as authors. Booksellers and authors must stand shoulder to shoulder. If he might dare to speak in general terms for his own craft it was not for their good that the local bookseller was being starved out of existence. (Applause.) It was to their interest that the bookseller, both in the country and in London, should work for a living wage—(applause)—that he should be encouraged to buy books in order that he might sell them ; that he should be able to exist by selling books alone and not by selling gimcracks and nick-nacks, and that his shop should be nowadays what it was in the days of their fathers and grandfathers—the centre of the intellectual life of the locality in which it was placed. (Loud applause.) Mr. E. Gowing-Scopes, the general secretary, at the invitation of the Chairman, entered into an explanation of the proposed Booksellers' Union. He had, he declared with apparent modesty, been for some time an “agitator’’ in the trade, one of the greatest needs and desires of which was to remove the burden of discount, If they had strength of purpose enough to combine together, no publishing house could stand against them and rob them of the profits which honestly belong to them. At that meeting representatives were pre- sent from every great centre in Great Britain— from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, and of the great centres of the industry. That night they had made a step in the right direction, for they had found a great author like Mr. Hall Caine who was bold enough to stand up and say, if they could not induce those who stood between them to help them, that then they would stand shoulder to shoulder together as author and bookseller, and manage their own affairs. Under such circumstances a book might be produced at five shillings—at a fairer price to the public, for after all, six shillings was a big lump for the public to pay for a book which costs one shilling to produce—and at the lesser price bring a better profit to the author and to the seller. It seemed to him wrong that a publisher, who did merely mechanical work, should take as great a share of profit as the author who worked on a novel one or two years and took all the risks of success or failure. It appeared, indeed, as if there was an opening for an authors' union. (Laughter and applause.) He hoped to see the union for which they had long waited successfully established. He hoped also to induce Mr. Caine to help them to ## p. (#389) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 35 form an author's committee that should act in conjunction with the National Association of Booksellers, and he knew that at least four or five of the leading authors were willing to combine with Mr. Caine in the effort he was ready to undertake. Mr. C. Roberts moved, “That in the opinion of this meeting it is expedient to form a National Association of Booksellers for the purpose of of acting upon the scheme suggested for the aboli- tion of the discount system.” Mr. J. C. Mather seconded the resolution, which was carried with acclamation.—Daily News, June 5. II.-LECTURING IN AMERICA. I observed a passage in last month’s Author which speaks of the gains to be made by lecturing in America. It is a subject upon which there has been a great deal of exaggeration, and I think that a few words upon it may not be amiss— the more so as my name was coupled with the remarks. Anyone who goes to America with the intention of seeing the place and the people, and counts on no more from his lectures than the payment of his expenses, will have a most enjoyable experience. He will come back with enlarged ideas, with a pleasant remembrance of hospitality received and with new friendships, which he will hope to retain until they are old ones. But if he goes with the primary idea of making money he will be disappointed. Thackeray and Dickens made money, and when we have another Thackeray and Dickens they may do the same; but the British lecturer whose credentials are more modest will find that the margin left over, after his expenses are paid, is probably a less sum than he could have easily earned in his own study. In the extract to which I refer from your American correspondence, the sum of 500 dollars a lecture is mentioned. This is nonsense. Taking an average a fifth part of it would be nearer the mark, which is no more than could be obtained from the better class provincial societies in Great Britain. For argument’s sake, however, let us put the American average at 125 dollars. When the agent's commission of 15 per cent, and the high travelling and hotel expenses have been paid, the lecturer will probably have from 80 to 85 dollars clear. Allow him four lectures a week, and we have from 320 to 350 dollars as his gain Two months of this will leave him something under 3000 dollars. From this he has to sub- tract his double passage-money, and about a month extra spent in the journey and prepara- tions. If the balance will exceed what he would WOT. WI. earn in the same period by his pen, it is then worth his while to go to America for money. If any brother author should go, however, I strongly recommend him to put his affairs in the hands of my friend, Major J. B. Bond, in whom they will find a very sympathetic comrade as well as a keen business manager. My own trip to America was one of the most pleasant experiences of my life, but if it had been the wish to earn more than I could have done at home which had attracted me thither, I should certainly have been disappointed. This would be a merely personal and unimportant matter, were it not that the mention of exaggerated sums in your pages might mislead and cause disappointment to some of your readers. A. CONAN DOYLE, Grand Hotel Belvedere, Davos-Platz, Switzerland. III.-A HUMOROUS AGREEMENT. Here is a pleasing offer: “I will take the entire responsibility of the production, advertis- ing, &c., of the work if you will agree to be responsible for 375 copies at 3s. 6d., or whatever number is needed to bring the total sales up to this quantity, if it has not been reached within six months after the date of publication; the publishel price to be 6s.” This offer is supple- mented by an explanation to the effect that an edition of 500 or 750 copies will be printed, and that “the royalty”—he says “the ” royalty, but does not explain what—will not begin for the author until the second edition is reached. How would the publisher stand in case of 700 copies, or the whole of the first edition, going off P - 38 s. d. He would receive from the author ... 65 12 6 From the trade ........................... 56 17 6 38.122 Io o From which we must deduct the cost of produc- tion. Probably, therefore, he would receive from £40 to £50 against the author's nil. - .. But, if he chose to keep back the book for six months, and then offered it for sale, he might clear the whole of the guarantee money, together with the proceeds of the sale. - This is a very humorous method of publishing. As for the second edition one need say nothing, because the amount of royalty is not stated, and because it is so extremely problematical. There is nothing fraudulent in such an offer: nothing to prevent any man making such an offer. He may argue that he guards against loss of money paid, and that as the book is very unlikely, from his own experience of such books as he publishes, to go into a second edition, or to sell many copies, E ## p. (#390) ################################################ 36 THE AUTHOR. he means to pay himself for his personal trouble, which means a quarter of an hour's talk with the printer and for the use of his office, by laying his hand upon everything. Now and then he may light upon a prize; but very, very seldom. Do prizes come the way of this kind? IV.--THE OLD TRICK. Over and over again we have exposed the tricks of certain so-called publishers who live by making the unfortunate aspirant who falls into their hands pay for his book. The following is generally the order of events. 1. The writer sends up his MS. 2. He immediately receives back a letter in which the firm state that their reader has pro- nounced so favourably on the MS. that they are prepared to offer the “following exceptional terms.” The author is to pay £120, viz., 38o down, and £40 on receiving the last proof. For this they will produce an edition of 1250 copies; É. the author two thirds of the proceeds; and ring out future editions as they are demanded. The author to have half profits. The price to be 6s, 3. The author cannot afford £120. He says so. They reply instantly, that in consideration of the merit of the MS., they will knock off £30. Observe that all this is a mere form; the same reply is sent to everybody, the only alteration is in the figures. As for future editions they know very well that there will be, in all probability, no sale at all; their reader has not read it; and they are not going to print I 250 copies, or anything like it. In encouraging the author to believe that there will be this demand, they are deceiving him. Should there be anyone who has fallen into the pitfall and paid money on these representa- tions, perhaps he will send up the papers to the Secretary, who may be able to get some of hi money back for him. * W.—THE CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT QUESTION. When a person adopts false premises he is sure to arrive at absurd conclusions, and this has happened with Mr. Lancefield of the Copyright Association. He assumes as follows:– (1) That our copyright laws are for the benefit of printers and publishers, and not for the pro- tection of native authors, artists, and musicians, and the advancement of learning here, and that when a conflict arises between the interests of the instrumentalities employed and those of authors and artists themselves, the interests of the latter should be ignored and destroyed. (2) That where it may pay to print and publish books, music, &c., for a market of 2OO,OOO,OOO (the British Empire and foreign countries of the convention) or 65,000,000 (the |United States) it will also pay to print and publish for a market of 5,000,000 (Canada). (3) That because the civilised nations of the world have recognised the supreme right of an author to control the work of his own brain irrespective of all foreign printers and publishers, and because the terms of the international con- vention as to foreign printing and publishing do not suit half a dozen publishing houses and newspapers of Canada, the interests of Canadian art and literature must be sacrificed for all time by withdrawing Canada from the benefits of the convention and thus effect complete isolation of this country. (4) That if we had the Copyright Act demanded by the publishers, all of the 131 English and United States novels picked out by Mr. Lancefield as recently made, there would also have been made in Canada instead of the three, as actually the case. (5) That the Imperial Government, for selfish ends, tricked Canada, and forced the benefits derivable from the Berne Convention on our authors and artists against the earnest protests of the Canadian Government and the Minister of Justice. (6) That we have been unfairly deprived of our rights to legislate as to copyright, granted to us by the British North America Act of 1867. (7) That it is in the interests of the British author that cheap American reprints shall be excluded from Canada, so that he may be sure of getting IO per cent. on the higher prices to be extracted from the Canadian public by our pub- lishers. (8) That, as the United States are playing a game of “grab,” as Mr. Lancefield puts it Canada must pursue the same ignoble course, and that Canada must be isolated (although the United States, by foreign treaties, are not), until the Americans grant us reciprocity (as suggested by Mr. Lancefield) in their infinitely better book market. These are some of the assumptions we must swallow to adopt the platform of the Copyright Association of Canada. It must be distinctly understood that all the shouting has hitherto been done by half a dozen Canadian publishing houses and newspapers, and that this association comprises some twenty-six members, more than half of whom are inactive and indifferent; while there are 340 printing and publishing houses in the Dominion who do not care enough to pay 5 dollars to join the associa- tion. So much then for the labour cry and the deputations which besieged Sir John Macdonald ## p. (#391) ################################################ THE AUTHOR, 37 and Sir John Thompson in the interests of pub- lishers and the labour party. As to printing and binding in Canada, there are very few authors who make enough out of Canada alone to pay for printing, binding, and commissions, the market is so limited; many of us can speak feelingly on this subject; so it is absurd to suppose that under any circumstances our publishers would print and bind more than 15 per cent. of the 131 novels referred to as printed in England and the United States, only three of which, as Mr. Lancefield bitterly com- plains, were made in Canada, and not even that much would they make if they had to pay the author say 500 or IOOO dollars royalty. Our publishers will take no chances or make tenders, as United States publishers do; they desire only to select the most catchy of the British or foreign novels on their own conditions and at their own prices. We have yet to learn that a fair offer was ever made to a British author by a Canadian publisher and that such offer was refused. Nothing can be more untrue than that the mother country wronged Canada in the matter of the Berne Convention. On the contrary, a vast benefit was conferred on native art and literature, and, moreover, the assent of the Canadian Government was freely given. See Sir John Thompson’s “Despatch on Canadian Copyright,” May, 1894. In 1887, when Canada became a party to the convention, the benefits likely to accrue to native art and literature were clearly recognised, and it was not till half a dozen publishing houses and newspapers found that the interests of foreign printers were postponed by the conven- tion to those of authors and artists the world over that the shouting commenced and the Printers’ Copyright Act of 1889 was forced on the Govern- ment. It is also untrue that Canada has been deprived of any rights granted the in matter of copyright under the British North America Act of 1867. This Act was known to be subject to the Colonial Ilaws Walidity Act of 1865 (Imp.), whereby no Colonial Act can amend or repeal an Imperial Act conferring privileges within Canada, as was well understood. It must be kept in mind that the whole dispute is with reference to the printing of cheap novels and serial novels in newspapers, of the “Dodo" and “Trilby’’ class, and of European and American musical works. Were it not for the shouting of half a dozen publishing houses and newspapers and the falsely-alleged interests of trades and labour councils in the matter, even Mr. J. D. Edgar, M.P., would admit that the vast market opened up by the Berne Convention afforded such facilities for the growth and re- muneration of Canadian art and literature that we are under lasting obligations to the mother country. John G. RIDouT. Toronto. — Toronto Globe, June 12, 1895. *-* ~ * -- - -, NOTES FROM PARIS. F I may be allowed to say a few words pro I domo, I should like to contradict the report that I am writing “the story of Daudet's youth.” This I did to the best of my ability about a year ago. What I am writing, in collabo- ration with M. Alphonse Daudet, is a story of the great novelist's youth, the story of some adven- tures which he had on the Rhone when he was quite a lad, in company of his little cousin Léonce. As Mme. de Genlis would have called this book, had she been writing it, it is the story of “Alphonse and Léonce ; or, the Victims of Imagination.” This work was finished on Wednesday last, after a sitting of five hours, the day previous to Daudet's departure to Champrosay, where he means to set hard at work upon his new novel: “Ie Soutien de Famille.” M. Daudet has specially asked me to deny that he ever made the offensive statement, concerning English women, which was attributed to him by a Parisian reporter. It appears that this reporter was one of the many whom Daudet was unable to receive. He wrote his interview all the same, like a true new journalist, and put the offending words into Daudet's mouth. What Daudet really said, to another reporter, was that he preferred the way in which French ladies dressed. There is no doubt that the Parisian élégante does dress with better taste, especially in point of selection of colours, than her English sister, and that this is so is the just punishment of English snobbishness. Almost all our élégantes think it indispensable to dress in Paris, and are supplied with the leavings of the French ladies. Go with a Parisienne to some big dressmaker's in Paris, and ask to be shown the latest fashions, and it is ten to one that you will see some very ugly materials. “Oh, don’t look at that,” the dress- maker will say, “that is for our foreign customers.” So the unhappy foreigh customers get served with what no Parisienne would wear, and go about imagining themselves dressed in the height of Barisian fashion. It serves them right. Let the Englishwoman dress at home, and let the foolish French dressmaker be. Zola is working very hard at “Rome.” He is down at Médan, “cloistered in work,” as he ## p. (#392) ################################################ 38 THE AUTHOR. writes me in a note which I have just received from him. He has begged his friends not to come near him, “at least, not for another fortnight, until the fever has assuaged itself.” I suppose that we shall not see him again until the begin- ning of July, when he will preside over the monthly meeting of the Société des Gens de Lettres. - Monsieur de Goncourt is working at the third volume of his series on Japanese painters. This kind of work he considers rest, as compared to the effort required for the production of a novel. But he has by no means definitely abandoned the novel, and I believe has it in mind to write a book which shall be the confirmation of his theories. He is a wonderful old man, as energetic as most men thirty years his junior, and full of work. I sometimes doubt the sincerity of his unvarying apparent discontent. . The vegetarians must not ask M. Maxime JBouchor, the poet and dramatist, to speak well of their theories. Monsieur Boucher converted him- self to vegetarianism some months ago, and very nearly died in consequence. He is now making up for lost time with beefsteaks à la Tartare and other most carnal delights. Francisque Sarcey, on the other hand, has become a confirmed vegetarian, and, with the enthusiasm of the convert, tries to win others over to this régime, He says that since he gave up eating meat his capacity for work has doubled. At a literary re-union the other night, there being many leading novelists present, I asked whether the practice of writing fiction disposed an author to untruthfulness in ordinary life. The general opinion was that this was not the case, but this I am inclined to doubt. I should like to have other opinions on the subject. A man who tells stories professionally must, it seems to me, lose, to a certain extent, the percep- tion of truth. - Maurice Barrés has recently returned from Spain and the T3alearic Islands. He says that Daudet is most popular in Spain, and that at Majorca, his “La Derniére Classe” is familiar to everybody. It has been adapted to local condi- tions. It is a Balearic schoolmaster who gives the last lesson to his class in the Balearic patois before the law enforcing Spanish in these islands as the language in which the children are to be taught at the schools has been promulgated. Daudet was very happy when he heard this, for he has always been greatly attached to these islands, and has often told me that it was the dream and ambition of his life to end his days there. - Max Nordau, the author of “Degeneration,” is at present at work on a novel, “I shan’t write another philosophical work for some years,” he said to me. “I don’t want to be nailed down to any speciality.” When his novel is finished he will write a play, and then perhaps another novel. I should say that there is a great deal of work in Max Nordau yet. He is only forty-six; and as hale a man as one can wish to see. He began writing when he was twelve years old, and made money with his pen when he was fourteen. At the age of eighteen he was keeping all his family, and indeed was earning as much as a thousand francs a month, quite a fortune for Pesth Monsieur Jules Lémaître was yesterday elected to the French Academy by twenty-one votes, at the first ballot. Nine votes were given to Monsieur Jules Delafosse. We had expected that the latter would have ten votes, but the election of Monsieur Jules Lémaître was a fore- gone conclusion. I hear that the solitary academician who voted at both ballotings for Emile Zola was Monsieur Paul Bourget. De Lesseps's seat could not be filled, and this elec- tion has been put off till next December. Monsieur Charmes just missed his election by one vote, and, from what I hear, is likely to be elected in December. He has contributed but little to the literature of his country, and is known rather as a politician and student of history than as a man of letters. His great work has been a publication entitled “Le Comité des Travaux historiques et scintifiques.” Monsieur Jules Lémaitre is what the French call un heureua. He has succeeded in everything which he has attempted. Stay, I think that there is one ambition which he has as yet been unable to realise, and that is that though he has often tried to write a novel, he has never written one which has attracted any attention. But as a critic, as a poet, and as a dramatic author, he has achieved very great success. His criticisms of living writers are excellent, though perhaps he was rather too severe on George Ohnet. He was born in 1853, and went through the Ecole Normale without having his originality stamped out of him. His first book, a volume of poems entitled “Les Petites Orientales,” was published in 1883, and since then he has come to the front as a critic, a poet, and a dramatic author, although not as a writer of fiction. Besides “Tues Petites Orientales’’ he has written another volume of poems entitled “Médaillons.” His dramatic criticisms in the Journal des Débats are celebrated as masterpieces of their kind. His plays “Revoltée,” “Le Deputé Leveau,” “Les Rois,” “L’Age Difficile,” and “Pardon,” have all been great successes, and “Billets du Matin,” “Figurines,” “Les Rois,” “Serenus,” and “Dix Contes” are read, though not without disap- ## p. (#393) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 39 pointment, by those who want to find in this uni- versally successful man of letters a successful writer of fiction also. “Gyp,” otherwise Madame La Comtesse de Martel, sends me a delightful book of dialogues, entitled “Les Gens Chics,” full of biting satire on the cosmopolitan society which has of late years ousted the old French society from its place. The book, which forms the third volume of Charpentier's admirable “Collection Poly- chrome,” is illustrated with numerous coloured illustrations by the inimitable “Bob.” “Gyp” is the creator of the dialogue story, and far and away the best living writer of this form of fiction. The more she writes the more witty she seems to become, and a truer picture of certain phases of Parisian high life than those given in this book it would be difficult to imagine. Messrs. Char- pentier and Fasquelle must be complimented on this “Collection Polychrome” of theirs. The volumes are admirably produced at a price which leaves one wondering “how it can be done for the money.” The first volume of the series, illus- trated in colours, was “Un Siecle des Modes Féminines,” with pictures of four hundred toilettes. This was followed by Gautier’s “Emaux et Camées,” and now we have “Gyp’s” “Les Gens Chics.” The selection, as may be seen, is a wide one. I am very sorry to hear that that excellent publisher, M. Charpentier, is in great trouble. His son is reported to be at death's door. Every- body who has come into contact with this gentle- man will sympathise with him in his distress. A new poet has recently revealed himself to the Parisians. This is M. Lionel des Rieux, the author of the recently published volume of poems, “Les Amours de Lyristès,” admirably produced at the office of Le Mercure de France. This little book has attracted con- siderable attention in literary Paris, and at many houses recently I have heard it discussed, Personally M. des Rieux seems to be unknown to most literary people, and I believe that he leads a very retired life, entirely given up to his work. Under these circumstances one may expect great things of him in the future; indeed, I hear that he has an important work in pre- paration. I have always admired Victor Hugo's pro- ductivity. Since I have been working with Daudet on this new book my admiration has increased. Daudet supplied me with foolscap paper which came from the stock left behind by Victor Hugo. He never used any other. It is rough mediaeval paper, and paper on which it was almost impossible to write. I tried every variety of steel pen from the “J” downwards, but WOL, WI. had the greatest difficulty on making any pro- gress whatever. But for a kind of superstition which made me think it good policy to work on Victor Hugo's paper, I should have asked for cream-laid. I cannot imagine how the poet could remain serene and composed whilst his pen struggled with the fibrous jungle of the paper. Possibly he chose such paper on purpose, in order that his composition should be slow and delibe- rate, as a sort of Mexican curb on a too ready pen. Max Nordau uses very smooth paper, the kind called “foreign note,” I believe, and writes with a steel pen and violet ink. His manuscript is ex- ceedingly fine and small, so small as almost to need a magnifying glass. The whole MS. of “Degeneration ” consists of less than two hundred pages, whilst some of his longer novels are con- tained in sixty pages of manuscript. He keeps all his manuscripts bound up, as they return from the printers. Daudet, like Du Maurier, writes in copybooks, Zola on unruled sermon paper. The new writer writes with a type-writer on foolscap sheets. How the English reader does seem to delight in the sufferings of others I hardly pick up a popular paper without seeing some description of prison life or of punishment, whilst most of the short stories which I read end in somebody's con- viction or hanging. I really think that this form of Sadism is more immoral than the outspoken immorality of the French, and far more injurious. And I regret deeply to see the heroification of the detective which is so fashionable in English fiction. For the detective is ipso facto a con- temptible person, who ought to be allowed to slink, and peer, and listen in obscurity. There is no making of a hero in him. RoBERT H, SHERARD. I 23, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. June, 1895. *-* -º g- > - NEW YORK LETTER, New York, May 25. HE Editor of the Author recently quoted from Mr. Walter Blackburne Harte's “Meditations in Motley” a paragraph that it was “a most lamentable thing that, in spite of all the literary activity and the intel- lectual restlessness of our time, there are not probably more than half a dozen writers in the United States who follow literature, pure and simple, as a profession; and it is noteworthy that among these there are neither poets nor essayists.” In commenting on this, the editor Fº ## p. (#394) ################################################ 4O THE AUTHOR. declared that we in America had no quarterly reviews, and that such weekly reviews as the Spectator and the Saturday Review “simply do not exist in America.” There are, perhaps, half a dozen quarterly reviews published in the United States of one type or another. Most of them are dull, and few of them pay their contributors. The best of them is the Sewanee Review, edited by Prof. W. P. Trent, which is excellent. The only American representative of the weekly review is the Nation, for the admirable Dial of Chicago is a semi-monthly. If literature be taken to mean the actual writing of books and not the editing of magazines, or journalism of one sort or another, or teaching or lecturing, then I think Mr. W. B. Harte is not far out in his assertion. Mr. Howells, Mr. James, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Bret Harte, Mr. Aldrich, Mr. Stockton, Mr. Cable, Mr. Clemens (“Mark Twain’’) are authors pure and simple, not editors or lecturers or professors; and by literature pure and simple they support them- selves now. Mr. Howells, Mr. Aldrich, and Mr. Stockton were editors for years, and Mr. Clemens made money as a lecturer first, losing it after- wards as a publisher. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner and Mr. Laurence Hutton are connected with Harper’s Monthly, Mr. Gilder with the Century, Col. Higginson with Harper's Bazaar, Mr. Eugene Field with the Record of Chicago, Mr. A. S. Hardy with the Cosmopolitan, Mr. Harold Frederick with the New York Times, Mr. H. W. Mabie with the Outlook, Mr. H. C. Bunner with Puck, Mr. W. J. Stillman with the London Times, Mr. Henry Harland with the Pellow Book. Dr. Edward Eggleston besides writing novels writes short histories; Mr. John Fiske lectures and also writes school books; Mr. Whitcomb Riley lectures, or rather reads from his own writings; so does Mr. Hopkinson Smith, who is also a successful painter in water-colours. Mr. Stedman is a stockbroker, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page is a practising lawyer, Mr. Weir Mitchell is a practising physician, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt is in the Civil Service, Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge is in the United States Senate. Fourteen of the members of the Authors’ Club are attached to Columbia College here in New York, and a dozen other members belong to other universities here and there throughout the country. This brief list will not, of course, answer the question propounded by the editor of the Author, as to how an American man of letters, not being a popular novelist, manages to live. But it makes clear what is a fact, that the American man of letters, not being a teller of tales, cannot support himself by literature pure and simple. r—- * He may have inherited money as Motley had, and Prescott, and Parkman. He may be a college professor as Longfellow was, and Lowell. He may be an editor of a newspaper as Bryant was. He may be a lecturer as Emerson was. He may live with extreme frugality as Whittier did, and so support himself by the sale of his poems to the periodicals. He may be a stockbroker as Mr. Stedman is or a bank-examiner as Mr. John Burroughs is. But by literature pure and simple he will find it very difficult to support himself, unless he is a writer of popular novels or of popular plays. But is there anything in this state of affairs at all peculiar to the United States now P Has there ever been a time anywhere when literature pure and simple supported an author, who had no wealthy patron, no place under Government, no pension, no connection with a university ? I doubt if such a time has ever been ; and I doubt if it would be good for literature if it should come to pass now. Here in America, just now there are any number of openings for a quick- witted man of letters ; I think there are more in proportion here than there are in England. Journalism, as such, has of course nothing to do with literature as such ; the aims of the two callings are wholly distinct ; and the practice of the one sooner or later unfits a man for the practice of the other, yet the dividing line between them often seems almost invisible ; and many authors earn their living by newspaper work. Again, the line between the daily newspaper and the weekly journal is hard to draw ; and so is that between the weekly journal and the monthly magazines. Never have there been more periodicals in the United States than now ; and many of them are prosperous, and the best of them are very liberal paymasters—as every British author who has written for them can testify. If Poe were alive now his wares would never lack a market, and perhaps with prosperity his character would have stiffened into manliness. (This is a digression—but an excursus may be the most instructive passage of a sermon; I cannot resist the temptation to remark here that there is unending nonsense talked in England about Poe and his hard luck. The fact is that a study of Poe's career and of the conditions of literature in America at the time will convince any disinterested reader that Poe was his own only enemy. He impressed people favourably at first, and they were always willing to help him ; and then, before long, he threw away his chance.) Messrs. Macmillan and Co. have just begun a series of monthly novels in one volume in paper covers at fifty cents. These novels are all copy- ## p. (#395) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 4 I righted, and are many of them by American authors. Mr. Marion Crawford, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, and Mr. Kipling are among the novelists whose recent books will appear in this series. Some surprise is felt among other publishers here that the Macmillans should establish so cheap a series now, when there is no longer a need to compete with the pirates. The Scribners, it is understood, will not this summer make any additions to their fifty cent yellow-covered series, which contains the best of Mr. Stockton’s tales, and of Mrs. Burnett's. The Harpers seem to have also abandoned their fifty cent paper series of American novels, called “Harper's Quarterly Library,” at least the volume for February has not appeared yet. The paper- covered series of Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., and of Longmans, Green, and Co., are not pushed with vigour, probable because both these impor- tant publishing houses have discovered that the conditions of the book trade being what they are there is but little profit in trying to sell a copy- righted book at fifty cents. The conditions of the book trade are still very unsettled. The enormous stock of pirated books left on hand at the passage of the Copyright Act four years ago is apparently nearly all worked off; but the stereotype plates exist, and these are in use. Now the large “dry-goods stores,” some- times called “department stores,” which are “universal providers,” have been enlarging their book departments and cutting prices right and left. On a very popular book the price is some- times cut below cost. I saw “Trilby’’ the other day advertised at 97 cents, the regular price being I dollar 75 cents, This sort of thing is likely to hurt the regular bookseller. It is to be noted, however, that the book department of these department stores, at first a mere adjunct to the other departments, and serving only as a means of tempting purchasers inside the building, is now gaining in importance and is therefore in the hands of men who really understand the book trade. One department store here in New York has just engaged a new manager for its book department at a salary of two thousand pounds a year; and it gives up to books a space on the ground floor about a hundred feet square. It also spends large sums in advertising. It may interest to see how friendly the advertiser is with the newspaper reader (this firm pays the writer of its advertisements four thousand pounds a year !) Here is a recent advertisement of theirs: GETTING BETTER AND BETTER Good storekeeping means progress. Yesterday's best isn’t well enough for to-morrow. But it is easy to go from one height to a greater if the business has a springy, full- of-life step. Do you keep track of what is going on here? Interesting, surely; you can make it profitable if you care to. - WE’vE A NEW Book STORE, Not yet full grown, but far enough along so you can see what the intent is, and how great and good it is likely to be. We mean to keep the books any reader of healthy tastes will want—all of them. Easy to get at-easy to see— welcoming you to see them. And we mean to so choose and so price the books that they’ll tempt you to buy. Let this one lot—HANDY CLASSIC EDITIONs of the most noted works in English literature—give you a notion of our new way with books. These “classics " are all beautifully printed on good paper and bound in full embossed cloth with silver stamping. volume—we say I2 cents. inches. A Book of Golden Deeds. By C. M. Yonge. Black Beauty. By Anna Sewell. Coming Race, The. By Lord Lytton. Crown of Wild Olive. By John Ruskin. Dreams. By Olive Schreiner. Lady of the Lake. Scott. Light of Asia. By Arnold. Epictetus. Discourses of, and the Encheiridion. Ethics of the Dust. By John Ruskin. Greatest Thing in the World, and other Addresses. By Henry Drummond. Heroes and Hero Worship. By Carlyle. *House of Seven Gables, The. By Nathaniel Haw- thorne. Lamb’s Essays of Elia. *Scarlet Letter, Publisher's price 35 cents the This is a part list. Average thickness, # of an inch. Size 4 × 6 Lucile. dith. Mornings in Florence. By John Ruskin. IBy Owen Mere- *Mosses from an Old Manse. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Paul and Virginia. Pleasures of Life, The. By Sir John Lubbock. *Poe, Edgar Allan. Poems. Queen of the Air. By John Ruskin. Sartor Resartus. By Thomas Carlyle. The. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sesame and Lilies. By John Ruskin. Story of an African Farm. By Olive Schreiner. Thoughts from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Anto- ninus. Vicar of Wakefield. By Lamb's Last Essays of Elia. Oliver Goldsmith. *Longfellow, Henry W. *Whittier, John Greenleaf. Early Poems. Early Poems. *Lowell, James Russell, Early Poems. Of course there is no copyright on any of these books. I have marked with a star the volumes by American authors now out of copyright. Most of those by British authors are also out of copy- right in England. H. *— — —” •- AUSTRALIAN NOTES. \ | ARCUS CLARKE, the Australian novelist, whose work, “For the Term of His Natural Life,” is looked upon as the greatest Australian novel yet published, died in poor circumstances. He was for some years librarian of the public library, Melbourne. His wife, who survived him, holds a small Govern- ment appointment in Melbourne. She is said to have received little or nothing from “His Natural ## p. (#396) ################################################ 42 THE AUTHOR. Life,” which Clarke either sold outright, or allowed to pass away from him in some way. Literature in Australia has not been an encouraging occupation so far. Clarke died young and poor; Gordon, the poet, shot himself because he could not meet a £30 bill that was coming due ; Kendall, the poet, after a hard life, died very poor; Bracken, the New Zealand poet, has been a newspaper editor, canvassed for a life insurance company, and various other things. At the present time, with the exception of “Rolf Bolderwood,” Ada Cambridge, Hume Nisbett, and a few others, most Australian writers have evacuated the South, and are mostly to be found in London. a- * ~ * MAID MARIAN'S DEAD, Maid Marian's dead, you say. A sadder cheer Possesses all the pleasant wood of Shere, The cushat moans upon her elder-bush, The lavrock’s out o' tune to-day : the thrush He sings a new song to the woodmen’s ear. We trample underfoot dead leaves and sere, All unafraid skim by the fallow deer, Never a horn’s note wakes the woodland hush Maid Marian’s dead. Yet must I deem her merry ghost walks here, Fitly bedight in the green forest-gear, While shadows of wild deer before her rush, And Robin by her treads the grasses lush, While England loves these lovers who shall fear Maid Marian’s dead P NORA. HoPPER. *— — —” r- - - NOTES AND NEWS, E publish in another column, by permis- sion of the speaker, Mr. Hall Caine's address to the booksellers. Few things have ever created so much interest and excitement in the publishing world, and the reason is not far to seek. Hitherto the publisher has very carefully kept the secrets of his trade from both authors on the one hand, and booksellers on the other. Let us regard this secrecy merely as a good stroke of business, if you please. The author has found out, however, the whole of the Secrets, and has published them. Certain publishers made it their business, impudently, to deny the author's figures, The booksellers, especially, were led to believe that they were wrong. Now, Mr. Hall Caine has made a separate investigation for himself, and has obtained figures from publishers which agree with our own. After this it will be difficult to deny their accuracy. Now, the objections raised in the papers against Mr. Hall Caine's conclusion seem to be the following: I. That he spoke to retail newsagents and not to booksellers. Perhaps. But every bookseller in the country has now got his figures, so that it comes to the same thing. 2. That he was not strong enough against the discount houses, nor strong enough in favour of the net price. One thing at a time. Surely it was enough for one evening to give the figures which he pre- sented. Besides, there is not as yet unanimity against discount booksellers or in favour of a net price. 3. That he talked as if the only books were those which sell 20,000 each. The objection does not seem carried out by the text. But it must be remembered that there were six books in the year which sold between them 180,000 copies, a substantial slice of the year's trade. 4. That the estimate of production was too low for any book with a sale less than 20,000. Mr. Edward Marston, in the Daily Chronicle, raised this objection. Now, it is extremely unfair to take “The Manxman" as a model of the 6s. novel. It is a book of 27; sheets, 439 pp., and 5OO words to a page, and 219,500 words—a book much larger than the average one, or three volume uovel. I take at random three other 6s. novels. a. One contains 20 sheets, 320 pp., at 250 words to the page, viz., 80,000 words in all, rather over one-third of “The Manxman.” /3. The second contains 19 sheets, 300 pages, at 250 words to a page, viz., 75,000 words. y. The third contains 18; sheets, 293 pages, 250 words to a page, or 73,000 words. If now any one will refer to the “Cost of Pro- duction” he will find that a book of 17 sheets, or 272 pp., at about 258 words to a page, for a first edition of 30OO copies, would cost II+d., or say, one shilling without advertising. Following editions of 3000 copies can be produced at less than IOd, each. 5. That this talk about the cost of production is merely the outcry of a few novelists who think they are not getting enough. That is not so : it is the outcry of all the men and women who write books: it means that they want to know all the particulars in the manage- ment of their own property. It is not a question of what we get: it is a question of what the property is worth : it is also a question of what the distributor should be paid for his services. ## p. (#397) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. is 6. Idle talk about publishers’ “risks.” We are talking, here, of books which carry no risk with them. Since this is all that can be said against Mr. Hall Caine, we may read his address over again in confidence; and, in our own interests, we may learn it by heart and commit it to memory. Some eight years ago a certain literary paper reviewed a “Life of Richard Jefferies,” written by myself. The reviewer spoke kindly of the bio- graphy, for which reason I do not mention the name of the paper. But, it said, if anyone in ten years' time were to take up the “Life of Jefferies '' he would ask in astonishment, “Where are the documents or writings of this man P’” It was really one of the most unfortunate predictions ever offered. Nearly that time has now elapsed. What do we see P Fancy prices for all Jefferies' early editions, reprints of his books, a constant stream of quotations from them, and a growing and widening circle of readers; a second biography of him—that by Mr. H. S. Salt ; and now the most dainty little book in the world—just issued—a collection of “Thoughts” from his writings. The publishers are Longmans. I hope that every lover of the country, even if he is not already a lover of Jefferies, will make a note of this book. It is concentrated Jefferies. Oh! the wonderful writer | The eyes that saw through and through The soul open to the voices of the flowers, the trees, the grasses, the skies, the clouds ! There has never been any worshipper of Nature like unto Richard Jefferies since poets first began. A note has been received by me concerning a Certain person who owes an author a somewhat considerable sum of money, which he will not pay, taking no notice of letters sent to him. The infor- mation is sent with a request that the case may be published in the Author. But, it is said, the author refuses to take steps on religious grounds. Then what is the good of publishing the case in the Author 2 . The time has gone by when we published real cases under initials in order to prove to people the abuses which exist. If we publish such a case as this, it must be as part of the whole case, as taken up by our lawyer. Where religious scruples come in it is difficult to discover. A man owes money; he does not dispute the debt; he answers no letters; he takes no notice. Evidently the only sequel possible is the lawyer. If the author is not prepared for the intervention of the lawyer, why does he ask for the money at all? ... And should not religious scruples point out that to let a scoundrel rob with impunity is equivalent to encouraging him to rob others? and surely that would be a very irreligious thing to do. The Secretary of the Society has again asked me to call attention to the fact that a safe has been purchased for the storing of the agreements of members of the Society. All agreements will, of course, be kept absolutely private and confi- dential. There are, however, two advantages in placing the documents in the hands of the Secre- tary: First, the advantage accruing to the member in the knowledge of their secure preservation; and, secondly, the advantage accruing to the Secretary from the knowledge he obtains of the different methods and principles of the different publishers. Certain members of the Society who resigned at the end of last year have returned to their allegiance, stating that they have been unable to act without the advice of the Society. This is very satisfactory, and shows how necessary the Society must be to most of those who live by literature. One may be thought to be insisting too strongly on the enormous increase of readers during the last few years. Let us look back a little. In the year 1837 there were 20,984 committals in England and Wales. Of this number only I 91 could read and write well. Of the rest some could read a little; the rest could not read at all. This proportion represented the condition of the class from which these criminals came— the agricultural and lower class of working people. To put it roughly, 200 out of 20,000 (or I per cent. only) could read and write well. The popu- lation of England and Wales was then about 2O,OOO,OOO. Setting aside 4,OOO,OOO for the better educated, there were left in this country only I per cent. in 15,000,000 who could read and write —only, that is to say, 15,OOO persons. These I5,OOO,OOO have now grown to 3O,OOO,OOO and they can all read. What do they read P Most of them only a newspaper. But they are getting village libraries, and they will soon read a great deal, because village life is dull, and reading will become for a time—and as a stepping-stone—the principal recreation. The astonishing circulation of many novels of the day seems, but is not, without precedent. If, for instance, we find novels of the day going into their fiftieth, hundredth, even hundred and twentieth edition, let us compare what was done with “Waverley.” Lockhart tells us that the first edition of IOOO copies appeared on July 7, 1814; the second before the 3rd of August; the third in ## p. (#398) ################################################ 44 THE AUTHOR. October; the fourth in November ; the fifth in January, 1815; the sixth, of 1500 copies, in June, 1816; the seventh of 2000, in October, 1817; an eighth, of 2000, in April, 1822; that up to the edition of 1829, I I,000, at a guinea, were disposed of; and that up to the time of Lockhart's writing 40,000 copies of the edition of 1829 had gone. So that the circulation of “Waverley” up to the year 1836 or so was 51,000 copies. At that time the population of Great Britain and Ireland was about fifteen millions. It is now 40,000,000, and with its colonies it is about 60,000,000. A modern book therefore, to be in as great demand by 1895 as “Waverley” was by the year 1836, should have sold 200,000 copies. Well; but Scott's novels were priced at a guinea; those of the modern novelist at 6s. ; if price controls circulation, an equivalent to the popularity of Scott’s “Waverley” would in these days mean about 600,000 copies. And this total has not, so far as I know, been reached by any living man. WALTER BESANT. *- A --> º- ~~ FROM “GREEK SONNETS.” I.—THE THEATRE OF DIONYSUs, ATHENs. Here let me stand, where Sophocles has stood; Lo the blue sky, the mountains, and the main I hear the call of GEdipus again, Re-echoing thro’ this marble solitude : Chained to his rock I see Prometheus brood, Faint falls Alcestis' fugitive refrain, And the birds chant their unforgotten strain, Flashed from the Rhodian minstrel's “airier mood. O to have listened when the Argives’ song Orestes’ stately trilogy unrolled, And o'er the awe-struck crowd surged deep and strong, Their mighty rhythmic descant manifold, Or wailed the Persae, till the sunset-gold Sank the free waves of Salamis among. C. A. KELLY. II.—NAxos. What cry tempestuous thrilled the ecstatic air, And pierced false Theseus' bosom thro' and thro’, As fraught with doom, his black-sailed galley flew From her he spurned, the fairest of the fair? Catullus’ chant has deified despair : On Pluto's rock the faithless chief shall rue Those amorous lips, those eyes AEgean blue, And lucent gold of Ariadne’s hair. A glamour, o'er gray cliffs and valleys lone Breathed from a vanished presence, broods around : Lo the proud sea where Chabrias’ star outshone ! From those wild peaks what revelries resound ! Thro' yon green boskage glints Iacchus crowned, So dreams the minstrel, but the gods are gone. C. A. KELLY. * “Folk have called me Rhodian, do you know?” Aristophanes' Apology, OPENING OF THE BRONTÉ MUSEUM, (Saturday, May 18, 1895.) P the old perpendicular main street, paved with worse material than good intentions, past the queer little shops and the Black Bull of immortal memory, until we find ourselves in the midst of such a crowd as probably Haworth has never before seen. Brontë worshippers have been asked to bear witness to the faith that is in them, and they have responded in no uncertain voice. In front of an unassuming doorway, with the mystic No. 2 upon it in white letters, standing upon an unpretentious arm- chair, a gentleman is reading the speech which Sir Wemyss Reid should have delivered in person, had not ill-health compelled him to be absent. By dint of edging our way step by step into the heart of the crowd, we manage to catch the words “neighbourhood — forefront — literature— bleak moors,” but we are told afterwards that the speech will “look well in print.” We cheerfully await the continuity which those five words seem somewhat to lack. After the speech, the door is formally opened, and some few of those in front admitted to the museum. The museum is small, and the crowd is large; hence a considerable amount of waiting is necessary. An English crowd, surrounded on all sides by house-walls, and being slowly broiled, as in a crater, by the captive sunbeams, is not always good - tempered ; but this crowd is, singularly so. A diversion is created by the appearance of Dr. Wright, an invaluable con- tributor to Bronté lore, who finds it no easy task to gain the doorway, even under escort of a bland, white-ribboned official. We are glad to see him. After a time he who, august in blue, guards the door proclaims that strangers shall take prece- dence over inhabitants, as the latter can see the museum any day. We live exactly five miles away, across the hill, and are wont to haunt Haworth like a familiar spirit, but our conscience unhesitatingly proclaims us a stranger. We enlist the services of a policeman in our imme- diate rear on behalf of a pilgrim from a distant land, and together we manage to reach the door, The Haworth morality, we regret to say, is lax; not a few of the villagers enter with us, hoping to pose as strangers; they have forgotten, however, that the guardian constable knows every face in the neighbourhood, and they are ignominiously pushed into a little room on the right. We chuckle, and pass up the stairs, into the museum itself. An oft-repeated cry assails our ears, “Pass on quickly, please; we can't keep the people outside waiting too long,” so that our ## p. (#399) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 45 inspection of the relics is of necessity hasty and incomplete. Our impression, however, is that the collection is a distinctly good one, and we learn that shortly it will be added to considerably. There are many copies, and some originals, of the Bronté letters, a few striking portraits in oil by Branwell Brontë, numerous personal possessions of the family, and odds and ends of all kinds. Particularly do we wish to linger above a white lace collar that once belonged to Charlotte; but how can we, with the haste-cry ringing in our ears P. We shall come here on a quiet day and sentimentalise upon that bit of lace; there is about it an inexpressible pathos, which only these scraps of personal apparel seem able to attain. Out once more into the street, and across to the defaced parish church, rich in the gaudiness of modern windows, memorial only in respect of one small tablet, just without the chancel, recording the death of Charlotte Bronté. There is a window also to the glory of God and the Brontë family, presented by an American citizen ; we metaphorically shake hands with that American citizen, but we feel that there was earnest need for an emergetic Bronté Society in England here. Then to the Black Bull, thronged with thirsty and a-hungered worshippers. A Yorkshire tea spread in the big room upstairs, and everyone in the most delightful of hail-fellow-well-met humour. The local band enlivening the pro- ceedings by waltz tunes, and other harmonious frivolities. Cream is scarce and the bread and butter gives out ; but no one minds in the least. Afterwards, a well-filled pipe and a ramble among the ever-dear moors, harsh of aspect, but tender with a lover's tenderness when once you win inside their mystery. At six we adjourn to a packed meeting in the capacious schoolroom. Alderman John Brigg is in the chair, and sits it gracefully. The Established Clergy are conspicuous by their absence—both from the platform, and, so far as we can judge, from the audience—but Canon Clarke, of Dewsbury, does his best to atone for this by giving us an admirable speech. Other speeches follow, but candour compels us to admit that the meeting has suffered by the absence of many excellent people who were expected to be present. Dr. Wright, when he comes in at fifth wicket down is of course interesting, and gives us not a few reminiscences which might with advan- tage have appeared in his book; but, in our opinion, he rendered too much honour to Ireland, and too little to their true inspiration, when dealing with the origin of the Bronté works. Mr. Joe Normanton, a local celebrity, rises at a later stage, and the raciness of the soil is about his lips. He exposes a blot on the escutcheon of the Rev. Patrick Brontë ; this otherwise exem- plary pastor, it seems, “spliced ” Mr. Normanton and his spouse some thirty or forty years ago, and Mr. Normanton finds it hard to forgive, though he may excuse. But the speech par earcellence of the evening comes, like good wine, at the close of the banquet. It is Mrs. Scatcherd, of Morley, we believe, who rises to ask if no ladies are to be allowed to speak, and who is forthwith invited, with genial if tardy courtesy, to mount the platform. And it is good to have waited to the end. With exquisite sarcasm she points out that they are here to-night to honour three women, and that no woman has as yet lifted her voice. With exquisite pathos she dwells on that too little appreciated book, “Wuthering Heights.” And we who love “Wuthering Heights” detect in the speaker's voice that trembling and hint of inward tears which we know so well; and it is hard to deter- mine whether Mrs. Scatcherd's pluck, or the true ring of her sentiment, is more to be admired. Out again into the heart of the moors, with a half gale blowing into the teeth of a dying sunset. Tºp there on the brow a lone farmhouse, and over the moor that deathless cry of “Cathy | Cathy Cathy | * Yes, we know how to love, we people of the moors. Finally, back to the Bull, which is almost deserted now. A seat, for sentiment's sake, in the original Branwell armchair, whisky (Irish whisky, again for sentiment’s sake), and a pipe. And added thereto, perchance, a feeling that it is risky for a mere writer of books to undertake to “write up" a function. One last word. Two items in the day's pro- ceedings are much to be deplored. Firstly, some ill-timed allusions to politics were mingled with the nobler issue. Secondly, not a few of the visitors thought it necessary to appear “bedecked and bedraped” in the fashionable monstrosities of the hour, as though they were attending a regatta or a military tournament. Surely the Three Sisters would have welcomed quieter, and more careless, garb. But it has been a good day, and a good-tem- pered day, and even errors of taste must be con- doned. The grand upshot of it all is, that us who are Yorkshiremen, born of the moors, thank the gods for their mercies. HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE. *-* –” -* THE DINNER TO THE EDITOR, Tº: dinner was held on June 26. A report of part of the speeches will be presented in the August number. ## p. (#400) ################################################ 46 THE AUTHOR. THE “SPEAKER,” AND THE AUTHORS' SOCIETY. N June 15 there was permitted to appear in the columns of the Speaker an article directed against this Society, which for unmannerly insinuations—there is no other word —and ridiculous figures would be difficult to beat. The following are a few specimens of the spirit in which the paper is written : 1. The writer says that the secretary is not aware of the existence of any other book than the novel. He either conceals or is ignorant of the publica- tion of a book by the Society some years since, in which the cost of producing nearly every kind of book was considered. The cases which are individually brought to the secretary cover every possible branch of literature. But where he writes of a novel he confines his attention to a novel. 2. “The Society,” he says, “is a self-elected English Academy.” It is, of course, nothing of the kind. Its sole function is the defence of literary property. The writer does not know even what the French Academy attempts. That body has nothing whatever to do with literary property. 3. It is in defence of literary property that the Society have collected and published their figures. They were published five years ago, and were collected, and tested, and proved very carefully before publication. Those obtained by Mr. Hall Caine the other day were actually furnished to him by publishers. And they agree with ours. More- over, printers have declared themselves ready to work on the basis of these figures, not in “immense editions” only as this writer ignorantly affirms, but in moderate editions. Tenders for the work have been brought to the secretary on much lower terms. 6. The writer says that our figures apply only to editions of 20,000. This shows that he has not even opened the pages of our book, where editions of different numbers are separately estimated. 7. Now let us turn to his own figures. He says that if a publisher orders an edition of 15OO copies to begin with they will cost him 2s. 9}d. each. Observe that he is so ignorant of the sub- ject as to suppose that all books cost the same. He pays no attention to length, size, type, paper, or anything. No, they all cost the same: all 28.9%d. each. Next, if you turn to our figures, you will see that the estimates are drawn up each for a cer- tain book of so many pages, so many lines to a page, such and such type, and a certain sum assigned for paper and for advertising. There can be no mistake about our estimates. Now, look again at our figures. (See “Cost of Production,” p. 27.) The book quoted is one of 17 sheets, or 272 pages, at about 258 words to a page; i.e., an average six-shilling book. The cost of the first edition of 1500 copies, with advertising, is Is. 6d. per copy, against this writer's absurd estimate of 2s. 9}d. each. The cost of the second edition and following editions of 1500 copies is Io; d. per copy. His estimate, therefore, is actually double our own for the first edition. But this man, who is writing on figures which he does not understand, is himself unable to work out the simplest sum. He says that a royalty of I5 per cent. On a six-shilling book is Iod. It is not ; it is Io; d.-a very considerable difference in a large sale. He says further that a royalty of 25 per cent. is “rather more than 16d. per copy.” It is, indeed. It is 18d.—only a difference of a trifle of £50 in a sale of 6000 copies! - 8. Next consider his facts. He says that Mr. Hall Caine should remember that his publishers “found the capital for the production of his book, and risked that capital on the chance of success.” This is quite the old-fashioned way of talking—the loose and ignorant way. What are the plain facts of the case? (1.) The finding of the capital. The produc- tion of a book only moderately successful need not require the advance of any capital at all. The printers, paper makers, and binders are all paid after the first and largest returns of the book. This is a simple arrangement — one supposes the universal arrangement—of which the writer has never heard. (2.) The so-called risk. There are some hundreds of writers, historians, poets, essayists, novelists, concerning whose works the word “risk” cannot be used. It is an insult to speak of their writings as bearing any risk. Of course, if a publisher is such a fool as to print an edition of a million copies when only five thousand will sell there is risk, but we speak of publishers as men of sanity and common sense. The writer speaks of novel publishing as a “very risky’ business. “Not one in ten,” he says, “furnishes the publisher with more than a bare percentage on his capital.” What stuff is this Not one in ten ? Why, setting aside the things produced at the author's own expense, the new novels of the day produced by responsible firms are nearly all books which are certain to pay, not only their expenses, but, as well, to leave a comfortable margin. That they all pay large sums cannot, of course, be claimed. If they were not all nearly certain to pay something they would certainly not be published. ## p. (#401) ################################################ THE AUTHOR, 47 As we have said, over and over again, the business of the Society of Authors is not to attack publishers, although it has constantly been accused of doing so. Its business is simply to defend literary property. In order to do so it ascertains the facts and figures as to publication, and publishes these facts and figures. This exposure is, one understands, extremely disagree- able to certain publishers, because the Society converts into an open and honest business what was formerly kept cose and secret. But why does the Speaker object to openness and honesty P *- e- BOOK TALK, RS. KATHERINE MACQUOID will begin a new serial story, to run for six- teen or twenty weeks, at the beginning of this month. It will appear in the provincial newspapers which subscribe to Tillotson's syndi- Cate. The Consolidated Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library—the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations—have elected their officers. President, John Bigelow; first Vice- President, Bishop Potter; second Vice-President, John S. Kennedy; Treasurer, Edward King; Secretary, George L. Rives. No action has yet been taken as to the site of a library. The President, who was at one time United States Ambassador to France, is the author of the “Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin,” the “Life of Bryant’’ the poet, the “Life of Molinos,” the “Life of Tilden,” and many other historical and political works. He is now seventy-seven years of age. His son, Mr. Poultney Bigelow, is at this time a resident in London. - The “Following of Christ” is a collection of passages from modern writers, selected and arranged by Charles L. Marson, curate of St. Mary’s, Somers Town, N.W. The Rev. Canon Scott Holland supplies an introduction or preface. The note struck by the latter is that our times no longer produce “supreme individualities, robust, complete, severe.” Even the giants of the day, now fast vanishing, have been “feverish, excited, with a touch of extravagance.” What have we now P “A crowd of lesser men, obviously clever. Reen, alive, interesting, but all more or less on a level.” In other words, not the whole of a man’s work is at the man's highest, but only bits here and there. These bits, picked out and arranged, form the “Following of Christ.” (Elliot Stock.) º “The Furled Banner,” by Heather Gray, is a tender, pathethic little religious story. It does not take long to read it. Nor does it take long to touch the heart and bring the tears to the eyes. (Elliot Stock.) “Cromwell’s Soldier’s Bible.” This is a notable little reprint. It is a copy of the “Pocket Bible" supplied to every soldier in Cromwell’s army. Not a complete Bible, but a collection of passages selected as likely to be most useful to a soldier on a campaign. It is a book which any- one who has ever considered the history of that time should purchase. The “Teacher's Prayer,” by Zillah Dugdale (Elliot Stock and the Sunday School Union). This little book is written as much for Sunday school scholars as Sunday school teachers. It is, as might be expected, a deeply religious story. It is also well written, and shows a high level of thought and feeling. “Turquoise and Jade,” by D. M. B. (Maid- stone : Young and Cooper), is a collection of rondeaux, sonnets, triolets, &c. Let the poet Speak. MOTHER-HOOD. The mystery of dawning mother-hood Dwelt in her eyes and lingered in the air She hourly breathed, was painted in the fair Transparency of cheek and brow : she stood, Gazing upon the world, for her imbued With newer beauty, greater good than 'ere Her mind had compassed—sweet beyond compare Were life and love—at length she understood. Dreams of the future, fancies of the past, Held her in bondage, while they set her free, Though still herself, she also had to be The mother of her child—to hold so fast To faith and truth, that round it she might cast The shelter of her perfect purity. A novel by Sir Walter Besant has been pur- chased with all rights by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. The work will run serially in Chapman's Magazine before publication in volume form. It will probably appear in 1897. The same writer's other engagements, up to 1898 inclusive, are for the Pall Mall Magazine, the Tillotson's Syndi- cate, and for Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Mr. R. H. Sherard’s new novel, “Jacob Niemand,” will be published early in July by Messrs. Ward and Downey. Mr. Sherard is at present engaged on a story of the Napoleonic wars, entitled “With the Great Commander,” which will be published in the autumn. M. Daudet's new book, “Premier Voyage— Premier Mensonge,” written in collaboration with Mr. R. H. Sherard, will first appear in serial form in an English and American magazine. Arrangements have already been made for its subsequent publication in book form both in England and America. Mr. M. H. Spielman's History of “Punch" will appear in the autumn. It will contain about a hundred and twenty portraits, illustrations, and ## p. (#402) ################################################ 48 THE AUTHOR. facsimiles. There will be two editions, one of I6s., and the other an Edition de Luare at two guineas. The publishers are Cassell and Co. Mr Bloundelle-Burton’s new novel, “In the Day of Adversity,” will begin this month in The Family Circle, and will also appear simul- taneously in the Melbourne Argus. Another story by the same author will commence shortly in the People. - A new edition of Hall Caine’s “Recollections of Rossetti” is announced for publication shortly by Mr. Elliot Stock. We have to record the death of F. Percy Cotton, the husband of one of our members (known as Ellis Walton), and cousin of the late Mrs. Mortimer Collins. He had set Collins' chief lyrics to music, and edited a large collection of his poems, published by their friend, the late Mr. George Bentley. It is noticeable that Mrs. Collins and Mr. Cotton were about the first to confide a joint literary grievance to the management of the Society of Authors, and that the case—an impor- tant one—was carried through successfully. Some little time ago we had occasion to refer to a new novel, “The House of the Strange Woman,” which Messrs. Henry and Co. were publishing for Mr. Norreys Connell, the author of “In the Green Park.” Since then Mr. Connell has blossomed into playwright, and his first dramatic effort — a one-act piece — has been accepted by Mr. Arthur Bourchier for early production at the Royalty Theatre. Mr. Bour- chier will appear in Mr. Connell’s play himself, and speaks of bis part as one of the strongest he has ever come across. Mr. Connell is not altogether innocent of mumming himself, having appeared, amongst other plays, in Ibsen's “Ghosts '' and Zola’s “Rabourdin.” What with Mr. Jerome, Mr. Zangwill, Mr. Philpotts, and now Mr. Connell, it would seem that all the “new humourists” were going stage-struck. Mr. Barry Pain is the only one who has escaped. Admiral Sir Henry Keppel sits down at the venerable age of eighty-six to write his Reminis- cences. Mr. Bentley will publish the book in the winter. Colonel Kenney-Herbert, the author of “Fifty Breakfasts,” has written two new books to cor- respond with it, namely, “Fifty Lunches” and “Fifty Dinners.” They will be published shortly by Mr. Edward Arnold. Mr. Arnold, by the way, is opening an office in New York. Mr. Walter Cranston Larned is the author of a book on “The Churches and Castles of Mediaeval France,” which Messrs. Sampson Low announce for immediate issue. Mrs. Stevenson's last story, “ Woodrup's Dinah: a Tale of Nidderdale,” has been brought out by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. in their Homespun Series in an edition of Io,000 copies— cloth and paper covers. Mr. Rudyard Kipling will issue a new volume of poems in the autumn. At the annual meeting of the London Library, on the 13th ult., it was agreed to adopt the com- mittee’s recommendation for the reconstruction of the premises at a cost of about £17,000, pro- vided that £5000 be first obtained by subscrip- tions. A letter was read from the Prince of Wales, in which his Royal Highness entirely approved of the scheme for providing an adequate building for the books, he being “well aware of the deep interest the Prince Consort took in the library, and how invaluable it has proved itself to be to all who are in any way connected with histºry and literature.” Lady Sophia Palmer will be glad to receive at Blackmoor, Petersfield, on Sept. 1, or as soon after as possible, any letters of interest written by her father, the late Lord Selborne. This is for the preparation of the volumes of “Memorials of Lord Selborne,” which, as we announced last month, Messrs. Macmillan will publish. A book on “Politics in Russia,” by Mr. Herbert Thomson, of the Free Russia Society, will be published next autumn. Mr. Albert F. Calvert's work on “Exploration of Australia’’ will be published shortly by Messrs. George Philip and Son. It will be a companion volume to his “The Discovery of Australia.” A work on “The Greater Victorian Poets,” by Professor Hugh Walker, of St. David's College, Lampeter, is being published by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein. Also one called “Literary Types,” the author of which is Mr. E. Beresford Chan- cellor. The pronounced feature of the June output was the large number of biographical works. Most important of these—it is, indeed, the book of the month—was “The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen’” (Smith, Elder, and Co.), by his brother, Mr. Leslie Stephen. Beginning with articles in the Morning Chronicle in 1851, Stephen de- veloped, alongside his legal work, a prolific journalism. On the Saturday Review he wrote with Freeman, Maine, John Morley, Harcourt, Goldwin Smith, and the late Lord Justice Bowen as colleagues; for the Pall Mall Gazette he wrote I I2O articles in thirteen years, besides letters, &c.; and to the Cornhill Magazine and Fraser he also contributed. In Judge Stephen's eyes John Stuart Mill seemed “not so much cold- blooded as bloodless,” “too much of a calculating machine, and too little of a human being,” for “Fitzjames could only make a real friend of a man in whom he could recognise the capacity for ## p. (#403) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 49 masculine emotions as well as logical acuteness.” The other notable books in this line to appear were “The Life of General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,” by Alex. Innes Shand (Wm. Blackwood and Sons); “Sonya Kovalevsky,” by Anna Carlotta Leffler, Duchess of Cajanello (Fisher Unwin); “Colonel Sir Robert Sandeman,” by Mr. T. H. Thornton (John Murray); Mr. Stuart J. Reid’s “Lord John Russell’’ (Sampson Low); and “The Princess of Wales,” by Mary Spencer-Warren (Newnes). Bret Harte's new volume, entitled “Clarence,” which Messrs. Chatto and Windus will shortly publish, will complete the trilogy of which “A Waif of the Plains '' and “A Ward of the Golden Gate ’’ are the other parts. A new “Life of Hans Christian Andersen,” which will be illustrated by drawings from original sketches by himself, is being published by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen. Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson has stated to a San Francisco interviewer that her late husband’s manuscripts are awaiting examination by his cousin, Mr. Graham Balfour, who was in China when Stevenson died. They include the “Weir of Hermiston,” which the novelist had only begun, and also some poems. A translation of St. Juirs’s “The Tavern of the Three Virtues,” illustrated by Daniel Urrabieta Vierge, is in preparation for early publication by Mr. Fisher Unwin. Mr. Edmund Gosse writes au introduction, criticising the work of the famous artist. Mr. George Murray, F.L.S., the new keeper of botany in the Natural History Department of the British Museum, is publishing, through Messrs. Macmillan, an “Introduction to the Study of Sea Weeds.” The rarity of the books, and the fact that they were excellent types of binding, induced good prices at the sale, at Sotheby’s, of a selection from the library of the late Earl of Orford. The copy of the Second Folio” Shakespeare,” (1632), in the Original calf binding, which brought 2148 at George Daniel's sale thirty years ago, now sold for £540. “Ile Nouveau Testament,” translated by Huré (1712), a beautiful example of Le Mounier's binding, which realised £51 seventeen years ago, was here purchased for £345. The proof sheets of Scott’s “The Pirate” sold for £86; 384 I was got for Walpole's own copy of “Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides with Dr. John- son ''--the more valuable because of the states- man's autograph notes to it; while Walpole's “Hieroglyphic Tales’ (1785), one of six copies printed for the author's private amusement, realised £37. Catherine de Medici's copy of Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso.” (1556), was sold for 3130; “Le Pastissier François '' (Amsterdam, I655) for £IOO ; and Rousseau's own copy of “Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise ’’ (1761), 356. For Isaac Casaubon's copy of the first edition of Bacon’s “Twoo Books of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning ” (1605), in brown morocco, 349 was paid. Altogether the 340 lots in the sale realised £26 IO. |Mr. Eden Phillpotts is publishing in book form, at the price of 6s., his humorous study entitled “The Laughing Philosopher,” which has been appearing In Black and White for a con- siderable time. Mr. Stopford Brook is collaborating with another Irishman, namely, Mr. A. P. Graves, on a new Anthology of Irish Verse. The work will be published in the autumn by Messrs. Dent. Among more immediate publications from this house will be Mr. James Ashcroft Noble's “Impressions and Memories.” Two new Ruskinian books are announced by Mr. George Allen. The first to appear will be “Studies in Both Arts,” which will contain ten plates, some being in colour, from unpublished drawings by Ruskin, accompanied by selected passages from his writings. In the autumn will be published “The Principles of Art according to John Ruskin,” compiled by Mr. William White, of the Ruskin Museum. This book will also contain some hitherto unpublished writings of Mr. Ruskin on the pictures he got for the St. George's Guild. Mr. Gilbert Parker's works are to be issued in a uniform edition by Messrs. Methuen ; so are Miss Emily Lawless’s. The occasion of Sir Henry Irving's knighthood appears timeous for a popular edition of the biography of the great actor by Mr. Percy Fitzgerald. It is to be revised and brought up to date, and Messrs. Chatto and Windus will issue it shortly, price Is. A series of essays by Mr. Brander Matthews on “Books and Play Books,” is in the press of Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. M. Sarcey, R. L. Stevenson, Mark Twain, Zola, and Mr. Andrew Lang are among the personal subjects of the essayist, who also writes on the dramati- sation of novels, and “the whole duty of critics Messrs Osgood also publish at once a story by Miss Alma Tadema, called, “The Crucifix.” Mrs. F. A. Steel’s “Red Rowan,” the Queen serial, will be published this summer by Messrs. Macmillan. Her story of the Indian Mutiny, for which she has made a long visit to India and lived beside the native survivors, will occupy her for about two years. IMr. Whistler is putting together material for a second volume of “The Gentle Art of Making ## p. (#404) ################################################ 50 THE AUTHOR. Enemies.” Mr Heinemann will publish it in a style uniform with the first. “The Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman,” which Mr. Wilfrid Ward has written, and Messrs. Longmans will publish shortly, has reminiscences of its subject by Cardinal Vaughan, Mr. Glad- stone, and Lord Acton. It also contains letters from Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Döllinger, Cardinal Manning, Lord Houghton, Pugin, and other famous men. The Duchess of Cleveland is engaged in writing the Life of Lady Hester Stanhope, the niece and confidant of Pitt, whose career doubtless furnishes excellent material for an interesting book. Lady Hester had, it is said, a great affection for Sir John Moore, and after his death, and that, also at Corunna, of her favourite brother, society became odious to her, and England saw her no more after 1810. Four years later she went to reside permanently among the half-savage tribes of Mount Lebanon, living there for about a quarter of a century. Kinglake devotes a chapter to her in “Eothen,” and Dr. Meryon, her physician, published her “Memoirs and Travels'’ in six volumes, fifty years ago. Mr. Charles Hannan, author of the Chinese novel “A Swallow’s Wing,” has written a volume of stories, mostly laid in the far East. Messrs. Constable and Co. will publish it in the autumn. Mr. Laurence Hutton is writing upon “The Literary Landmarks of Venice, Florence, and Rome,” but the book will not appear for some months. Those of Paris will possibly have a volume devoted to them afterwards, in further continuation of the series Mr. Hutton began with his “Literary Landmarks of London.” Mr. Stead’s novel, “A Modern Maid in Modern Babylon,” is expected to appear on the 6th inst. Mr. William Morris’s “The Life and Death of Jason,” which will appear shortly from the Kelmscott Press in a style uniform with “Beourilf,” is to have two woodcuts by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The literature of the Burns Centenary, which occurs a year hence, is shadowed forth by the announcement of a four-volume “Centenary. Edition,” to be published by Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jack, Edinburgh. Volume I will be “Poems Bublished by Burns; ” the second, “Posthumous Poems; ” the third, “Songs; ” while the fourth will contain “Songs, Doubtful Pieces, Addenda, Glossarial Index, and General Index.” Mr. William Hole, R.S.A., will illustrate the work with about twenty-four etchings. The plan also includes a library édition de lua.e. The volumes will be issued at intervals of three months. Mrs. M. C. Leighton and Mr. Robert Leighton, the authors of “Convict 99,” “Michael Dred, Detective,” and other popular stories which have added to the success of Answers, are writing another serial for that publication. The first chapters are to appear on March 19, and the novel is to be entitled “In the Shadow of Guilt.” In “A Fisherman's Fancies,” by F. A. Doveton, is a book of tales and sketches. We have on more than one occasion published in these columns some of Mr. Doveton’s graceful verses. Be now comes before us in prose, and that of a very readable and entertaining kind. It is well known that the best introduction to a graceful style in prose is the acquisition of a graceful style in poetry. The book is published by Elliot Stock. *~ * → FRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS OF THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE SOCIETY. HE Elizabethan Stage Society is founded to T give practical effect to the principle that Shakspere should be accorded the build of stage for which he designed his plays. Furthermore, in Shakspere's day, and at no other period of English literature, the best work of the best men appeared upon the boards, showing that the conditions which then obtained at the theatre were peculiarly adapted to the greatest drama. An additional gain with this method of playing is that, though the costume may be costly, there is no occasion to renew it for every play, as archaeology in costume was little if at all studied at the period to be revived, so that, there being no scenery, the bill can be changed at no further cost than the rehearsals. A theatre specially built on the plan of the 16th century—not a very costly building—is much to be wished for. In 1893, “Measure for Measure" was revived in a way to illustrate this principle, under the direction of Mr. William Poel, by the Shakspere Reading Society. The Elizabethan Stage Society will commence its work with a revival of “Twelfth Night, or what you will,” given under Mr. Poel's direction, for one performance only, exclusively to members and guests. It is expected this performance will take place early in June. Time and place will be duly announced to members. The society’s revivals will have the use of the stage fittings of the 16th century stage, prepared for the revival of “Measure for Measure,” and of a valuable wardrobe mainly purchased at the sale of M. Barthe. Capt. Hutton, F.S.A., will kindly advise on matters of old swordsmanship: while for old music it is intended to obtain the services of Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch. ## p. (#405) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 5 I A subscription of £1 1s. constitutes member- ship for the year. And the year dates from the foundation of the society to Oct. 1, 1896, and then to each following Ist day of October. All interested in the work are invited to become members. Communications may be addressed to ARTHUR DILLON. 52, Talgarth-road, West Kensington, W. *— a 2-2 a- - -s. CORRESPONDENCE, I.—EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITY. T is not of a publisher that I have to complain. Whatever may be the sins of publishers, I have always found those with whom I have had to deal courteous gentlemen and excellent men of business. Nor is it of an editor: my relations with my brethren in the profession, however superior their status to my own, have invariably been pleased. I am a worm who has been crushed by a board of directors, and who seeks to turn against them. - In the year 1893 I was tempted by whatever demon may be responsible for the beguilement of those among us who take an interest in politics to construct a squib on the subject of Home Rule, which I labelled “Interviews with the Immortals. By Ananias Green.” While in search of the best means of firing it off, it occurred to me that an article of mine on “Ireland under Her Own Government’’ had appeared in the National Review of March, 1886, and that large portions thereof had been conveyed from the Review, with flattering comments, into the columns of a paper called England. I ventured to approach Mr. Cecil Walsh, who was then editor of England, on the subject of my “Interviews.” I told him that I did not propose to part with the copyright, as it was my intention to publish my work in book form as near as might be to the time of the next General Election; but that I would offer the “Interviews" for publication in England on very moderate terms. I asked Mr. Walsh whether he would like to see my manuscript, and whether he would promise to return it to me as early as possible, if not accepted. Mr. Walsh re- plied that he would be pleased to read my manu- script, and would take care of it. He also asked me to name a price for publication in England, I reserving the right of reproduction. I sent him my work, and named my price. Towards the end of 1893 I wrote to remind him that I was waiting an answer. Mr. Walsh replied that he was also waiting one—having sent on the work to his directors. He added that he was doing his best to get the matter settled forthwith, and would let me know the result as soon as he possibly could. When I wrote again to Mr. Walsh it was only to learn that these dilatory directors had not yet made up their minds. A year passed without any decision being arrived at by them, and last autumn there appeared to be a prospect (now lost) of disposing of my “Interviews” in another quarter. I wrote to Mr. Walsh to say so, and to request the return of my long-detained MS. Mr. Walsh was very sorry, but his directors were out of town, and he was still without knowledge of the course they had decided on. He remarked that he feared I must think him guilty of great discourtesy, but assured me it was not his fault. I have no reason to doubt his word, nor have I any com- plaint to make of Mr. Walsh’s behaviour, which was characterised throughout by the courtesy T might expect from a brother editor. Shortly before the meeting of Parliament in January, I wrote again to Mr. Walsh, when he replied that he was leaving England, and recom- mended me to apply to a person whom he described as the Secretary of the “English Publishing Company.” I wrote to this person, and received a somewhat cavalier reply to the effect that Mr. Walsh had left them and that my correspondent, the Secretary, would have “to begin de novo.” I wrote again and again, and received no answer at all. Then I addressed a letter formally to “the Editor of England,” in which I stated that I had received no reply to my former letters inquiring whether the manuscript of my work had been lost or not. I made a claim for compensation in the event of its loss, and added that, failing a reply in a week's time, I proposed to consult the Secretary of the Society of Authors, of which Society I am a member. Still no answer. I wrote at the end of a week to the Secretary, who took up my case with the promptness and courtesy to be expected from him. I need not enter into details of the subsequent proceedings, but will briefly state the result of them. I am advised by the Society that if I bring an action in the County Court (as I wished to do), against the people of England, I shall probably get small damages, and shall perhaps be dragged from one court to another by the elaborate machinery of appeals which our legal system provides. The Society was kind enough to offer me aid in prosecuting my case in the County Court. I declined it with thanks, ex- plaining that I could afford to fight my own battle in that court, but dreaded the risk of being put to heavy expense by means of appeals. I offered to bring a County Court action at my ## p. (#406) ################################################ 52 THE AUTHOR. own cost, if the Society would undertake the risk of subsequent appeals—the question of the responsibility of a journal for the loss of a work the editor had promised to take care of seeming to me an important one to authors generally, The Society did not accept my offer, wherefore I infer that it shares my dread of being subjected to the process of bleeding to death by appeal. I do not blame the Society; if I cannot get justice once and for all in the County Court, it is the law that is to blame. Charles Reade, in “Hard Cash,” made the Yankee inventor, Fullalove, describe our courts of law as shops where justice was sold “dear, but prime.” I have not enough hard cash at my command to warrant me in testing the truth of Fullalove's statement. Not having got my manuscript back (sent to England in September, 1893), I am now busy in reconstructing my work from the first rough draught. I have not even received from the England people an expression of regret for the loss of my property, the breach of their late editor's warranty, and the trouble they have put me to. It need hardly be added that from such persons I have not received the offer of a farthing of compensation. If I were a tailor or a bootmaker, and a possible customer had deprived me of a coat or a pair of |boots after promising to buy or return them, I suppose I should have a good claim for damages, and the case would not have gone beyond the County Court. But, as I live by my pen, I must either put up with the loss of my property or run the risks I have referred to. Of the two courses it seems the wiser to make the people of England a present of my lost labour and property, also of their unredeemed pledge to take care of the manuscript. - Whether their conduct has been either gentle- manly or business-like, I leave it to others to determine. But they might at least have repaid me the stamps I sent to cover the return postage of my MS. TIEITH DERWENT, Author of “A Daughter of the Pyramids,” - “Circe's Lovers,” &c. II.-PARALLELISM. Mr. Coulson Kernahan has sent me his beautiful little book, “God and the Ant.” The parallelism to which—rather too hastily, perhaps—I called attention in the April Author, proves, though in certain details, singular enough, to lie wholly on the surface. It may, however, be worth while to note that both Mr. Kernahan’s prose allegory— if I may call it an allegory—and my sonnet were the result of the suggestions of a dream, or, at least, of sleep. I fancy that the number of authors who turn their slumbers to literary account is already large, and is likely to become larger. My poor sonnet received rather unusually severe treatment from the printers and proof- reader. Skin for skein—in spite of rhyme—is decidedly unkind. Triumphs, of course, should be triumph. Only a goose could do justice to that line as it was made to stand—a posy of sibilants. FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE. III.-BYRONIC MISQUOTATION. I love my Byron, and do not like to see him misquoted, even by an American Ambassador at an Authors' dinner. This is what the poet wrote: Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, - Survey our Empire, and behold our home ! My criticism is aimed at the first line only ; the second, apart from the transposition of the verbs, was altered for topical reasons; and I am not, at present, concerned with the rights and Wrongs of such a procedure, though my opinion is strong on the point. I cannot, however, allow “bear the ocean's foam ” to pass without protest. The whole meaning, and most of the beauty, of the line is damaged by the alteration. In short, Such mangling is utterly inexcusable. I trust my warmth will be excused In other respects the Ambassador, judging by the printed report, spoke admirably. How Byron would have applauded this sentence : “I don’t think that the land can hold the mind of man; it must embark upon the sea, and it must be wafted as the gales may blow, freely, unhesitatingly.” - His Excellency is evidently no landlubber, no amateur yachtsman, more at home on the American equivalent of Ryde Pier than on the Atlantic, in fine no Luxurious slave Whose soul would sicken o'er the heaving wave ; he speaks fair words of the deep sea, and is clearly a man of large intellect and wide sympathies; but, to conclude, he really should endeavour to avoid misquoting the great poet who not only wrote incomparably in praise of the ocean, but was himself, from his earliest childhood, a genuine and unaffected Ocean lover. And I have loved thee, Ocean and my joy Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy I wanton’d with thy breakers—they to me Were a delight ; and if the freshening sea Made them a terror—’twas a pleasing fear, For I was as it were a child of thee, And trusted to thy billows far and near, And laid my hand upon thy mane—as I do here HUBERT GREENE. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 02 (July 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 02 (July 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-07-01-The-Author-6-2 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/278/1895-06-01-The-Author-6-1.pdf e81368930bf64a68822d249cb21b2723 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) 1895-06-01 Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages Page range in volume 1–28 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950601 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY SIR wal.TER BESANT. VoI. VI.-No. 1.] JUNE 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eacpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *- - --" - - - HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- A - •- w - WARNINGS AND ADVICE. I • RAWING THE AGREEMENT.--It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. WOL. VI. 4. ASCERTAIN WEIAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.—Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. - 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. --Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, You have to do with Be yourself a business man. charity, or pure love of literature. business men. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *- A --" HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice B 2 ## p. (#356) ################################################ 2 THE AUTHOR. Sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively So far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. . . 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. > THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed eaclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage, 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department' for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted” is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. - - -º NOTICES. HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate o the Editor any points connected with their work which t would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P. If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble ## p. (#357) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 3 of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-- * ~ * g- ºr -ºs. LITERARY PROPERTY, I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. HE following “case” has been drawn up for the committee by Mr. James Rolt, barrister- at law — “It is impossible to deal with the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889, or to estimate the effect it will produce if it is allowed to come into force, without in the first place, shortly referring to the present position of copyright (a) as an imperial question, and (b) as an international question. (I) International copyright. (i.) The principal countries of Europe, and, in fact, from a literary point of view, the principal countries of the world, with the exception of the United States, have at last, in the Berne Con- vention, recognised that the rights of an author in the fruits of his labour should be free from all conditions and restrictions whatever, except such as may be enforced by the laws of the country where it is first produced. (ii.) The United States unfortunately, owing to political and trade pressure, have not been able to allow authors their full and just rights. Foreign authors can, however, under the Act of 1891, obtain protection on the terms of printing their works in the States. The condition is unquestionably wrong and unfair in principle, but the recognition by the States of the rights of foreign authors is, even where subject to such a condition, of immense importance, especially to British authors. Acceptance of the terms imposed does not imply a recognition of their justice, and should not under any circumstances be allowed to be drawn into a precedent. On the other hand, we should be most careful to avoid doing anything which might imperil the recognition of the rights of British authors which has been so hardly won from the United States of America. The Canadian Act, if allowed to come into force, would, it is believed, lead to the with- drawal from British authors of the United States Act of 1891. (2) Imperial copyright. The foundation of imperial copyright as it at present exists is to be found in the Act of 1842, which gives protection throughout the British dominions to every work which is first published in the United Kingdom. The Colonies justly complained that under this Act a work which was published in a colony had no copyright in the United Kingdom or in any other colony, but this grievance has been removed by the Act of 1886; a work published in a colony now enjoys precisely the same protection as one first pub- lished in the United Kingdom, (3) Canadian copyright as it exists at present. It was a common complaint of the Colonies, especially of Canada, that owing to the operation of the Imperial Copyright Act they were unable to obtain a sufficient supply of English literature. In order to remove this ground of complaint the Foreign Reprints Act was passed, and under its provisions Canada has been allowed to import pirated copies of English works on the under- taking that a duty of 12% per cent. should be collected by the colony upon all such copies for the benefit of the author. As a matter of fact the duty has not been collected, nor has any serious attempt been made by Canada to comply with the undertaking. In 1875 an Act was passed in Canada giving copyright to foreign authors upon condition of their republishing in the colony either simul- taneously with or at any time after publication elsewhere. This Canadian Act was expressly authorised by an Act of the Imperial Legislature, and therefore the Canada printers and publishers contended that the Imperial Copyright Act was repealed so far as Canada was concerned, and that English authors could only obtain copyright in Canada upon complying with the conditions of the Canadian Act. This contention was, however, decisively negatived by the Canadian courts in the case of “Smiles v. Belford,” and the position therefore at present is that English authors are only obliged to republish in Canada if they wish to avoid the operation of the Foreign Reprints Act. (4) Canada’s present proposals. The Canadian Act, passed by Colonial Legisla- ture in 1889, but reserved for the sanction of the Imperial Government, provides that, in order to obtain copyright in Canada, works must be regis- tered with the Minister of Agriculture before ## p. (#358) ################################################ 4. THE AUTHOR, or simultaneously with their first publication, wherever such publication takes place, and must be reprinted and republished in Canada within one month of their publication elsewhere; and (2) that if the author does not comply with these conditions the minister may grant licences for the publication of the work, the licensees paying a royalty of Io per cent. for the benefit of the author. This Act is promoted solely by and in the interests of the Canadian printers and publishers, who claim to have the right to make a profit out of the works of English authors. The following are some of the reasons why the Act should not be allowed to come into force : (I) It is reactionary, and contrary to the prin- ciples adopted by this country after full con- sideration in acceding to the Berne Convention. It would, of course, deprive the Canadian author of the benefit of that Convention. (2) It is an attempt to deprive authors of their recognised rights for the benefit of the Canadian printers and publishers. (3) It is (except from the view of the printer and publisher) entirely unnecessary. The Cana- dian reader is amply provided for under the Foreign Reprints Act. (4) It will involve the repeal, so far as British authors are concerned, of the United States Copy- right Act of 1891, and the revival of legalised piracy in that country. (5) If it should by any chance accomplish its object, the action of the Canadians will thus recoil on their own heads. Canada will again be flooded by pirated copies printed in the United States, and the last condition of the Canadian printers and publishers will be far worse than the first. The short-sightedness of the Canadian policy is almost incredible. It will involve the flooding of English and other markets with cheap reprints, to the great detriment of publishers who have to pay a fair price for the work they publish. It has been proved over and over again that legislation is powerless to prevent the importation of these cheap reprints. (6) Having regard to the entire failure of Canada to collect the duties under the Foreign Reprints Act, there is no security whatever that authors will receive even the Io per cent. royalty provided by the Act. A manifesto has been issued by the Canadian Copyright Association in support of the Act. The reasons given may be stated as follows: (1) Canada has the right to legislate fully on copyright. Canada's right to legislate on copy- right is confined to the case of Canadian authors. She has no right whatever to take away from British authors their rights under the Imperial Acts. This was expressly decided by her own courts in “Smiles v. Belford,” and is the reason why she is now seeking the advice of the Imperial Legislature. (2) Copyright is analogous to patent right, and the Imperial Government did not disallow the Canadian Patent Act. But, in the first place, copyright is not analogous to patent right. Copy- right is given to the form only, not to the thought expressed. It does not prevent another author dealing, with the same subject or idea. Patent right deprives the second inventor, who has independently arrived at the same result, of the profits of his labours. Patent right is a monopoly in restraint of other original inventions. Copy- right is not. Secondly, the Canadian Copyright Act is not in the least on the same lines as the Canadian Patent Act. The Patent Act allows twelve months for obtaining a patent in Canada, after one has been obtained in England, and a further twelve months for commencing to manu- facture. This gives time to ascertain whether the market will warrant the outlay. (3) That under the present conditions the Canadian rights of English authors are included in the sale to United States publishers, to the injury of the Canadian printers and publishers. Here we have the true and only reason for the proposed legislation. It is based on a fallacy. It is no injustice what- ever to Canadian printers and publishers that British authors should be able to choose for them- selves where and through whom they will print and publish their works. To be consistent, the Canadians should demand that no artists should have protection for their works except such as used paints and canvas made in Canada. And the remedy is simple. English authors have to reprint in the United States. English publishers do not therefore demand protection or set up imaginary rights, but meet the difficulty in a business-like way. They set up branches in New York and Boston. Let the Canadians do the same. English authors, other things being equal, would rather deal with a Canadian publisher than an American. And let the Canadians join with us in endeavouring to obtain the removal of the unjust restrictions imposed by U.S.A. legislation instead of endeavouring to perpetuate and extend them. The real interests of English authors and Canadian publishers and printers in this matter are the same, and the latter are pursuing a most short sighted and suicidal policy. In any case the English authors submit with some confidence that the Canadian proposals are not such as ought to receive the sanction or assistance of the Imperial Legislature. May 13, 1895. J. ROLT.” ## p. (#359) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. s II.--THE LAW of CoPYRIGHT. Amongst the Bills proposed to be introduced during the ensuing session of Parliament is one to amend the law relating to the protection of copy- right against the importation of foreign reprints into this colony, and to the registration of books. The second clause provides that Act No. 4 of 1854, and so much of the seventh section of the Copyright Act, 1873, as entitles the proprietor of the copyright of any book to demand the delivery to him of all copies of foreign reprints of such books unlawfully imported under that Act, shall be repealed. Clause 3 will suspend the existing order prohibiting the importation of foreign reprints of British books, and give force and effect to every provision of Acts of the Imperial Parliament having regard to the prohibition against the importation of foreign reprints of British books into this colony. Clause 4 makes it illegal for any person not being the registered proprietor of the copyright, or some person authorised by him, to import into the colony any reprint of any book in which there shall be registered copyright under the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1873, as to which such proprietor shall have given to the Collector of Customs a notice, in writing, duly declared before a justice of the peace, that such copyright exists, such notice also stating when such copyright will expire. And if any unathorised person shall import or bring any such reprint into the colony, or shall knowingly sell, let, publish, or expose for sale or hire any such reprint, then every such reprint shall be forfeited, and shall be seized by any officer of customs, and shall be destroyed or disposed of in such manner as the Governor shall direct; and every person so offending, being duly convicted, shall also for every such offence forfeit the sum of £Io and double the value of every copy of such book which he shall so import into the colony, or shall knowingly sell, let, publish, or expose for sale or hire, or shall have in his possession for sale or hire; £5 of such penalty to the use of the officer of customs, and the remainder to the proprietor of the copyright. By clause 5 the proprietor of the copyright is reserved the right of action for damages for infringement of the Act. According to the seventh clause lists of all books in respect to which copyright shall be subsisting in the colony must be posted at the customs houses of Colonial ports.-Cape Times, April 6. III.-AMERICAN CoPYRIGHT LAw.—IMPORTANT DECISION. The Law Department of the United States gave an important decision yesterday bearing . upon the law of copyright. It says that the law in the United States as it at present stands does not prevent the sale in the States of American copyright books that have been printed in Canada. The point is one of such importance to United States authors that an agitation for their better protection will be started forthwith.-St. James’s Gazette, May 4. IV.-BoITON v. ALDIN AND OTHERs. (Queen's Bench Division.—Before Mr. Justice Grantham and a Common Jury). This was an action to recover damages for the infringement of copyright in a photograph by publishing it in the Sketch and in another publi- cation, and an injunction was asked for to restrain future publication. The representatives of the Illustrated London News, it was said, were ready to submit to an injunction going against them, and to pay costs up to a certain point; and they were therefore discharged from the action. Mr. Willes Chitty was for the plaintiff, and Mr. Kemp, Q.C., and Mr. Willis Bund for the remain- ing defendant. It was said that Mr. Gambier Bolton, the plaintiff, was a Fellow of the Zoological Society, and he had spent a large part of his life at the Zoological Gardens and in travelling in various parts of the world taking photographs of a great number of wild animals in various attitudes. He had a collection of 30OO of these photographs, which the authorities of the British Museum had framed and hung upon their walls for the benefit of future generations. This was very important, as many varieties of animals were fast becoming extinct, and, indeed, the plaintiff had in his possession photographs of two or three kinds of animals which were already extinct. The photo- graphs in the Museum would show to future generations the animals as they now exist. He had incurred great expense, and had run very great personal risk in getting the photographs. He had been in great danger on two or three occasions at the Zoological Gardens. Among others, he took at the Zoological Gardens a photo- graph of a tigress yawning. The difficulty in that particular case was that the tigress was asleep, and he had to wait for hours and hours until she should wake and yawn, and then there was great doubt as to whether the yawn could be caught at a proper attitude. He registered the photograph under the Copyright Act of 25 and 26 Vict. c. 68, in June, 1894, and it would be shown that the re- maining defendant made a sketch of this photo- graph and sold it for publication. It was pub- lished in the Sketch, and it was to stop a proceed- ing of that kind that the present action was brought. It was most important to the plaintiff ## p. (#360) ################################################ 6 THE AUTHOR. that this should be accomplished, because artists of high standing were in the habit of using his photographs for studying wild animals in various positions, and his source of profit would be endan- gered if people were allowed to publish sketches of them. Evidence was given that the tigress in question had a cancerous mouth, and the tigress in the sketch had the same complaint. Mr. J. P. Nettle- ship, artist and animal painter, expressed his opinion that the published sketch was taken from the plaintiff’s photograph. It was admitted that the defendant’s sketch was sold for £3. There was other evidence that the publication of the sketch would be likely to seriously affect the sale of the plaintiff's photographs. Mr. Kemp, upon the conclusion of the evidence, submitted that the plaintiff had made out no case, and he quoted various decided cases in sup- port of his contention that what had happened was no infringement of copyright within the mean- ing of the Act. Mr. Justice Grantham had no doubt that the sketch was taken from the photograph, and that there was an infringement of copyright. He therefore gave judgment for the plaintiff for an injunction, and he awarded him one penalty of £IO and 34o damages. Judgment for the Observer, May 17. plaintiff with costs.- W.—MUSICAL COPYRIGHT. A telegram from America has been received by the plaintiffs in the musical copyright test case of Novello v. Ditson to say that the Appellate Court last Friday upheld the decision of the court below, in favour of the British publishers. The question referred to the so-called “manufacturing ” clauses of the American Copyright Act of 1891 ; or, in other words, the point raised was whether music, like books, must be printed from plates engraved or type-set in the United States in order to secure copyright at Washington. Both courts have now decided that music is exempt from the “manu- facturing ” clauses, and although it would perhaps be somewhat rash to consider the matter quite settled until the full text of the judgment is received a week hence, it nevertheless seems to have been held that music, unlike books, need not be reprinted in the United States in order to secure American copyright. The action was so far a friendly one in that the facts were agreed to by both parties; but the case was regularly fought out, the costs as we understand being defrayed by the members of the Music Publishers' Association of England.—Daily News, April 30. *... a -º sº- w - THE PROBLEM OF PUBLISHING, I" has been remarked by many of our members that the Society has never put forward a model agreement, or a series of model agree- ments. The reasons for not doing so are obvious. At the outset, while the facts were as yet only partly known, and the whole question was obscure, it would have been absurd to attempt a model agreement. For instance, no one had then ventured to demand the audit of accounts; no one had dared claim the right of learning the real facts as to the administration of his own estate; no one had even begun to understand that there is no risk whatever in the publication of a very large number of writers' works; no one had as yet begun to understand that there ought to be any connection between the price paid when a work was bought and the sum it realised ; and, though the royalty system had been introduced, no one had even begun to ask what any royalty offered meant for the publisher as compared with the author. All this is now changed; we know what it actually costs to produce a book; we know what the publisher charges the retail bookseller; and we know what is meant by risk. The time may seem, therefore, convenient for some consideration of the problem from the author's point of view, with the increased light thrown upon it since the question first arose, now ten years ago. There are three methods of publishing: I. Those in which the author sells his work for what it will fetch ; or, which is another way of putting it, prefers to capitalise his royalties. In the case of a successful writer this method should only be adopted with the advice of an agent. 2. That in which a profit-sharing agreement is accepted. 3. That in which a royalty is accepted. There are sub-divisions in these three classes. As, for instance, when the profit-sharing agreement means a half or two-thirds to the author; and, in the third case, what amount of royalty is offered, and whether the royalty is deferred or to begin with the first copy. We will consider some of the relations of the publisher to the book he issues. I. He used to say that he took the risk. We do not hear so much about the risk of late. As regards successful writers, that is, two or three hundred writers at least, there is no risk, no risk at all. Not the least shadow of risk. The publisher knows very well beforehand that he is safe for a certain minimum of copies, and that this minimum will not only cover his expenditure but will leave a margin of profit. Outside this ## p. (#361) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 7 circle of successful writers there may be, no doubt, risk; most publishers, however, in such a case make the author pay for production, or, at least, guarantee such a number of copies as will repay themselves, with a margin. The number of books thus paid for by the author is enormous ; there are small firms which do nothing else. 2. When there is risk, what is it P Of course we are not considering the starting of a magazine, or the production of great works like an encyclopædia, a dictionary of natural biography, or the like ; or a book elaborately and expensively illustrated; or an edition de lua.e; or technical books in small demand. The author in such a case must generally be considered as the employé of the publisher; he contributes his work; he is paid for his work; he is not concerned with the rest. In this place we are talking only of ordinary books—travel books, history, memoirs, and biography, essays, poetry, plays, fiction, theology, sermons, educational books, &c. The risk is the difference between the number that the publisher can reckon on being taken by subscription, and the initial cost. Thus a book may cost £120 to produce and advertise, which the publisher will only subscribe at the outset for £1 12. The risk in that case is therefore 38. Most people talk as if the risk was the whole cost of production. On the other hand, those who pay for producing their own poetry and fiction will do well to remember that the risk will probably be represented to them as the whole cost of produc- tion. In some cases, where the book is worthless and ought not to be published, the risk really may be the whole cost of production. A case was brought to the Society the other day in which an author had paid for the production. The number of copies sold was nineteen 3. The use of money. Accounts are made up, as a rule, once a year, and payment is made three months afterwards. This means the use of all the money received, and since the first run of the book is by far the most important, the use for eight to twelve months. In the case of a highly suc- cessful book, say a 6s. book, of which 40,000 copies go off in the first three months, the pub- lisher retains in his own hands for nearly a year the difference between the returns and the cost of production ; that is, he has the use of all the author's royalties, amounting in such a case to about £3000. This would mean to the author about £IOO interest, but to the publisher, as money used in his business, a sum which may be estimated at from IO to 20 per cent., i.e., from £300 to £600. extreme case, and very unusual. Quite so ; but we must always take an extreme case in order to test an agreement in publishing, just as in a WOL. VI. But, it will be said, this is an theory of mathematics. Take, however, another case, in which only 2000 copies are sold. Here the publisher holds in hand for a year royalties at, say, one shilling a copy, amounting to £IOO. He therefore pockets from £10 to £20 in addition to what the royalty leaves him. This extra profit is, it will be seen, a serious factor in the accounts of a book, and one which must be taken into con- sideration. 4. The agency for American rights. An author should be careful to retain these rights. A literary agent will take care of them for him at IO per cent. Several publishers’ letters have been received lately in which, while denouncing vigorously the extreme wickedness of the literary agent who takes IO per cent., the writer has kindly offered to undertake the American rights at 30 per cent. or 50 per cent. 5. The cost of production. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon authors that cost of production must be taken to mean actual cost — money actually paid and nothing else. There are st'll some people left who systematically falsify their accounts. Readers of the Author will remember that a case was submitted to counsel, whose opinion, published in tº e Author, was that no judge would uphold such falsification on any pretence what- ever. Whether such a case could be brought into the criminal courts remains to be seen. Perhaps this may be ascertained by experiment before long. Nothing, to repeat, must be charged that is not actually paid, e.g., not advertisements in a publisher's own organ ; not advertisements that are actually, or practically, exchanges. Discounts, which are sometimes very heavy, must be entered in the joint account. 6. There must be no secret profit of any kind. 7. The accounts must be open to inspection 8. The author must be told the whole of the facts about the production and the sale of his own book. - 9. Then comes the question of the “establish- ment expenses.” A charge for these expenses is sometimes made in the agreement. Should it be allowed P There are three persons connected with every book. I. The author, who creates the property. Has he no “establishment expenses P” One does not reckon his household expenses; but there are many other things, He has to pay his agent; his study is his office; he has probably a shorthand clerk; he employs people to copy things; he has to buy many books; he has sometimes to go many journeys; he has to spend large sums in acquiring his knowledge—surely these are C ## p. (#362) ################################################ 8 THE AUTHOR. ‘' establishment expenses.” Hitherto, however, he has not charged them. 2. There is the bookseller. He has a heavy rent to pay; he has taxes, assistants, and all the charges of a shop to defray before he touches anything at all for himself. These are his “esta- blishment expenses.” Hitherto he has not asked them to be allowed first, before his “profit” begins. The simple man continues to call the difference between the price he gets and the price he pays, his profit. 3. The publisher, alone of the three, demands a first charge of “establishment expenses.” But he is careful not to recognise the same claim in the case of the other two. Io. Then follows the question of the proportion that should be paid to the publisher. What are the services which he renders He lends his office and his servants; his clerks give out the book, they also collect the money. The publisher arranges with printer and binder; he decides on the amount that may be spent in advertising the book. As a rule it is per- fectly simple routine work. What should he receive P There must be a margin, of course, over and above the establishment expenses, for the publisher as well as for the author and the bookseller. How large should that margin be P A publisher has been complaining lately in the New Budget that all he could get for himself out of a certain book which had a very wide circulation was a paltry 6d. a copy. Note that with a very successful book—it is only a very successful book for which so large a royalty can be claimed— namely, 25 per cent.—with a book selling 40,000 copies, the wretched 6d. over which this person whines means 29 Iood | This 6d. was reckoned after deducting sevenpence for alleged establish- ment expenses. Imagine the happiness of an agent who should be allowed to take £IOOO out of £5000 for himself, with his office expenses as well ! The case is highly instructive. II. The deferred royalty ought not to be, but too often is a trick of the very worst kind. It seems perfectly reasonable that the cost of production should be first defrayed before profits are declared. Thus, suppose an edition of 3OOO copies is printed —all that the publisher thinks will be sold. Suppose also that the publisher is nearly right. IIe sells 2500 copies. The book has cost him 216o. He sells it at 6s., i.e., 3s. 6d. It therefore takes him 920 copies to clear himself: every other copy is clear gain. What do we think then of publishers offering a miserable IO per cent. or 15 per cent. royalty to begin after a thousand copies? At the latter royalty, for instance, the author would receive about £70 and the publisher about £200. This can hardly be called a just share of profit for managing this little estate. What, then, ought the publisher to receive P Obviously, more in proportion for a book of small circulation than for one of wide circulation. With these facts before us let us endeavour to arrive at some kind of conclusion. A proportion actually based on principles of equity cannot be expected from the nature of the case. For who can decide what ought to be the pay- ment of an agent P One can only state the facts, and deduce from them some conclusion that will be accepted by honourable men on both sides. Sir Frederick Pollock, speaking at a public meeting of the society when he took over the chairmanship, said, very strongly, that it was simply impossible that honourable men should be unable to arrive at an agreement as to the rights of author and publisher respectively. It does seem impossible. Let us therefore make an attempt to arrive at a solution of the problem. The above are, roughly speaking, the data. If the members of the society will consider the problem, (I) for a book about which there can be no talk of risk, and (2) for a book which carries risk there may be found some way out of the difficulty. For my own part, I would suggest, as a small contribution towards clearing up this question, that we leave off talking about the author's royalty and begin to speak and think of the royalty granted by the author to the publisher. This will be a practical method of asserting the pro- prietor's rights in his own property. *~~ * -- NOTES FROM PARIS, \ LPHONSE DAUDET has no intention of writing his impressions about London. He emphatically said so this very morning. He said that he has se-n far too little of our great city to venture to express an opinion on it that it would be presumptuous, and so on. He will probably, however, use his experiences in some future novel. His stay on the whole has been a pleasant one, and he will leave England on Monday next, “not without regret.” He has been greatly interested in all he has seen, and has filled note-books with notes on the same. He says that the characte- ristic of the English race is pride, that the French have no such pride, and that it is a good thing. Our English habit of tea-drinking, on the other hand, he thinks a detestable thing. “Tea in the morning,” he says, “tea at noon, tea all day. I ## p. (#363) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 9 gave it up in time. It was ruining my nerves.” He still suffers a great deal. “I feel as if my legs were being stabbed with knives, and as though there was a harrow going over my body.” However, he keeps in good spirits, and may often be heard singing. His favourite tune just now is that of “Her Golden Hair,” which, he says, is the Leit-Motiv of London. I say that his stay has been a pleasant one “on the whole”; that is to say, in spite of various annoyances from which, it would appear, no celebrity on a visit to London is exempted. The interviewers, to begin with, who by indiscreet statements have involved him—as thanks to him for placing himself at their disposal—in inter- minable controversies. Then the Leo-Hunters. Various people—including one or two noble ladies —treating him like an actor or curiosity on show —have written—strangers to him a stranger—to bid him to their houses, without taking the trouble of showing the preliminary courtesy of calling on him or of leaving cards. These have received lessons in savoir vivre which one hopes may profit them. Anonymous letters, many con- taining insults, have reached him by every post. Inventors have asked him to further their inven- tions, and needy Frenchmen have demanded funds where with to repatsiate themselves. I was present the other day at an interview between M. Daudet and a person who described himself as a French musician, who wanted a “few words in private.” Daudet told him to speak up, and he began speaking offensively about the English. However, seeing that Daudet by no means agreed with him in his comments on “ces Anglais,” he deftly turned his insults into compliments, and went on to say that he wanted the money to pay his fare back to Paris. Daudet said he had no money with him, but asked Léon, who was present, for his purse. Léon said that there was very little in it, and Daudet then told the man that he should have all there was, and emptied the purse on the table. The destitute musician went away, radiant, with about two pounds in his pocket. That was a week ago. To-day I saw him in the bar of a public-house in the Strand. He has not left for Paris yet. Léon Daudet has just finished correcting the proofs of his satirical novel “Les Kamcatka,” which will be published at the beginning of June by Charpentier, who expressed himself to me at the Wernissage of the New Salon as very sanguine about it. He will then start upon a work of imagination, to be called “Le Voyage de Shakespeare.” He imagines Shakespeare travel- ling in the North of Europe collecting the impres- sions from which “Hamlet” eventually springs. WOL. VI. It will be a difficult task, but, if successfully worked out, should make a very interesting book. I understand that George Hugo, who has been staying in London with the Daudets, will illustrate the work. I hear that of late many of the most dis- tinguished men of letters in France—the Daudets, the Rosnys, Pierre Loti, and others—have placed the management of their entire English and American business interests in the hands of Mr. A. P. Watt. Crockett writes me a charming letter from Bellagio. “Since I came to Italy,” he says, “I have been full of work. My book of ‘Cleg Relly, Arab of the City,” begins in the Cornhill for July, and this in addition to ‘The Grey Man’ for the Graphic, and other things. Then there have been incidentals to do, short things, which are neither here nor there, but which take time.” I have often thought that for writing a book for children a child would be one's best col- laborator. S. R. Crockett seems to share my opinion, for he tells me that he is writing a Christmas book in collaboration with his little daughter Maisie, the bonniest little child that God ever sent to earth. “It is a Christmas book about our travels,” he writes. “It will make the superior person very sick; but will please all children, big and little, or so I think. And I care little what the person who can’t write himself, but tells you how you must write, will say of the matter.” He is exemplary in his remarks on criticism. “I heard that I had been annihilated in some review by a gentleman whose name was un- familiar ; but I did not see the article, which must, I think, have been blank cartridge, since nobody was a penny piece the worse.” He also tells me that he hopes to be back in July, “when we are going to St. Andrews for the seaside, to dig in the sand—all of us.” Amongst the late Leconte de Lisle's papers was found a set of notes, in which the great poet summed up, in a few words devoted to each, his opinion on his comrades in the Muse. Of Lama - time he says: “An abundant imagination, an intelligence endowed rather with a thousand noble and ambitious desires than with real capacities. A nature d’élite, an incomplete artist, a great poet by chance. He has left behind him—as it were in expiation—a multitude of stillborn beings, with liquified brains and hearts of stone, the Wretched family of an illustrious father.” Alfred de Musset, in Leconte de Lisle's opinion, was a “mediocre poet, nil as an artist, a very witty writer of prose.” Victor Hugo was “the greatest known lyrical poet. Exaggerated in all things, C 2 ## p. (#364) ################################################ IO THE AUTHOR. puerile and yet sublime, with an inexhaustible reservoir of splendid and incoherent images, a marvellous dreamer, with extraordinary blanks in his intellect.” About Baudelaire he wrote: “Very intelligent and original, but of limited imagination, lacking in breadth. His art is too often clumsy. About Théodore de Banville: “Witty, amiable, good- natured, a skilful, brilliant, but superficial artist.” Alfred de Vigny, according to the great Parmas- sian, was “a great and noble artist, in spite of frequent laches of expression, who has always lived in retirement, poor and dignified, faithful to the end to his one creed—the beautiful.” Theophile Gautier : “An excellent poet, an excellent writer. Very unjustly neglected.” As to Béranger, he is of opinion : “His chansons de circonstance and his God of a cabaret philanthro- pique have all had their vogue ; and having all had their vogue, are now and for evermore dust and ashes.” One would like now to be able to have the opinions of Béranger, Theophile Gautier, Baudelaire, and the others on Leconte de Lisle. I hear that arrangements have already been made in London for the publication in serial form of Mr. Vizetelly's translation of Emile Zola's new novel “Rome.” That is to say, arrangements in anticipation, as but little of the book has been written. The story, apart from descriptions of Rome and Roman life, deals with a tragic love affair. Zola is working himself to death over it. I met him at the Wernissage, and asked him why he was looking so pale. “Le travail,” he said, “Le travail!” Work ought not to make one pale. It is absurd if it does. Why are literary men, who usually lead a very healthy life, almost invariably “sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought " ? De Musset said their faces gave a reflection of the white paper which was always before them. But then the paper is not long white, and I, for my part, never saw an author turn negro from the reflec- tion of the written sheet. The doctors might explain the matter. I have seen it reported that Madame Sarah Bernhardt is engaged in writing her memoirs. This is not true, and the report was doubtless spread abroad with the kind intention of injuring a work which has been in preparation for some time. I saw the lady shortly before her depar- ture from Paris, and she said that she was in no wise so engaged. What leisure she enjoys is spent in her atelier on sculpture, in which art she has already achieved some success. A model attends her every day when she is at home in Paris. I do not know what she does when en voyage. I had a grotesque experience at her house in the Boulevard Pereire on the occasion referred to. We were talking about a very pathetic and tragic thing, and the great lady was wringing her hands and had tears in her eyes. She was sitting with her back to a cage in which was a large Senegalese monkey, and the whole time that she was speaking the ape was grimacing horribly, sticking out his tongue, blinking his eyes, and performing various gymnastic feats. The contrast was a striking one, and, heavy- hearted as I was, I could not master a laugh—a laugh of the Sardinian kind. I suppose that everybody is reading Mr. Roche’s masterly translation of the “Memoirs of Barras.” One wants to hear the other side about Napoleon, and Barras gives it, full and strong. Of course Barras, by reason of his jealousy about Josephine, was a prejudiced witness, but then most of the witnesses on the other side, from Ménéval downwards, were also prejudiced. Mr. Charles Roche is a very dis- tinguished journalist, of world-wide experience, of whom M. Daudet has expressed a very high opinion. He is connected by marriage with the family of Charles Dickens. May 23. ROBERT H. SHERARD. Authors’ Club, 3, Whitehall Court. * * ~ * a- - --e. NEW YORK LETTER, New York, May 18. ITH increasing experience of the diffi- W W culty of expression in black and white, I am coming more and more to be of the belief that it is absolutely impossible to say any- thing in print so that it cannot be misunder- stood. For example, there was a letter in the Author two or three months ago in which it was shown that a British series of books is pretty certain to find an American publisher, while an American series is very unlikely to find a British publisher ; and now comes Mr. Andrew Lang in the Illustrated London News and calls this plain statement of fact a complaint. Certainly it was not prompted by any feeling of grievance. It was prompted by a desire to fulfil the wishes of the editor of the Author, who requested me to explain any conditions in the American book market which the reader in England was not likely to know. Now, one of the conditions an English reader is not likely to suspect is that the American market is more freely opened to a British book of average merit than the British market is opened to an American book of average merit. This is a fact. To state it is not to make a complaint. - ## p. (#365) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I I To account for it is not easy, although the reason is probably to be found in the former colonial dependence of the United States toward Great Britain; the effect of which was to give the British a poor opinion of what came from America, and to give the Americans a high opinion of what came from England. Many American authors have noticed that there is still in the United States a lingering survival of colonial deference toward British authors. Curiously enough, this colonialism exists in America only in regard to literature. For example, British art, pictorial or plastic, is held in very low esteem, as the American painters and sculptors and architects look to France for their masters. In a recent essay on “Trade Winds in Literature,” Col. Higginson discussed the subject with his usual felicity of illustration. “The sailors of Columbus,” he began, “ in crossing the Atlantic were not alarmed by oppos- ing winds, but because the wind blew always in their favour. It was certain, they held, that such winds cut off all hope of return. In literature these same winds have blown ever since; the fame of an English author spreads rapidly to America, whereas that of an American, though it may ultimately reach Europe, goes far more slowly. Dr. Conan Doyle, who has thus far identified his name with but a single character in fiction, comes here and receives 500 dollars per lecture; whereas if Edgar Poe had gone to England, in his day, and had offered to lecture, he would have been fortunate if he had cleared a profit of 3s. 6d. Americans to whom the very names of Dr. Doyle and Mr. Christie Murray and Dean Hole were previously unknown, made haste to read some of their books in order to attend their lectures. It is impossible to see in this any- thing but a survival of that trade wind called Colonialism.” And after giving other instances, Col. Higgin- son declared that “The history of literature is, far more than we recognise, a series of vibrations of the pendulum for the two great branches of the English-speaking race; sometimes the one takes the lead, sometimes the other. Forty years ago no book produced in England compared in world-wide circulation with “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and even to this day it is said to be found in English farmhouses more frequently, with ‘The Wide, Wide World,’ than any other book. Twenty years ago the travelling American rarely met an Englishman who was not familiar with Mark Twain, or an English woman who was not eager to hear anything about Longfellow. It is probable that Emerson had, and still has, on the minds of thoughtful Englishmen more direct influence than Carlyle had among Americans. It is only a few years since American magazines conquered London, which they still hold; and since it was generally admitted that Americans excelled their transatlantic cousins in short stories. This year there is a swing of the pendu- lum. In spite of Mr. Howells—who doubtless prophesied somewhat rashly—there is a reaction in favour of tales of historical romance, in which English writers have taken the unquestioned lead.” The fact is that England is the older country, and that, therefore, there is a certain prejudice in England against an American author ; while America is the younger country, and therefore there is a certain prejudice in America in favour of an English author. That is why an American publisher was readily found to issue Mr. Lang's series of volumes on “English Worthies,” although that series proved to be a financial failure, and was abandoned before two of the most interesting of its books appeared—Mr. Lang's own “Izaak Walton’’ and R. L. Stevenson’s “Wellington,” both of which remained unwritten. That is why the “Great Educators’” series, which was planned here in New York by Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler (who assigned the separate volumes to writers in America, in England, and in France), and which is printed here by Charles Scribner's Sons (who sell sheets to Mr. Heine- mann), is published in London with a new title- page, from which Prof. Butler's name is omitted —this new title-page being the only part of the so-called “Heinemann’s Great Educators’ Series'’ which is printed in England. It is pleasant to be able to record that books of solid merit have sales sometimes as large as those of the mere book of the hour. I was told not long ago that two thousand sets of the new edition of Mr. James Bryce's book on the “American Commonwealth” were placed with the trade here in the city of New York alone in a single day. By the publisher's advertisements I see that Mr. John Fiske’s “Discovery of America” is in its thirteenth thousand, while most of his other historical and philosophical works have reached at least a tenth edition. Macmillan and Co. will commence in May the publication of their “Miniature Series,” one number of which will appear each month. The little books will be bound in paper, and will be sold at 25 cents each. In shape and in size, and in neatness of typography, they resemble the pretty little collection of books by American authors issued by Mr. David Douglas, of Edin- burgh. The volumes announced for the coming year are: “Shakespeare's England,” by William Winter; “The Friendship of Nature,” by Mabel Osgood Wright; “A Trip to England, by Gold- ## p. (#366) ################################################ I 2 THE AUTHOR. win Smith; “From a New England Hillside,” by William Potts; “The Pleasures of Life,” by Sir John Lubbock; “Old Shrines and Ivy,” by William Winter; “The Choice of Books,” by Frederick Harrison; “Gray Days and Gold,” by William Winter; “The Aims of Literary Study,” by Hiram Corson, LL.D. ; The Novel— What It Is,” by F. Marion Crawford; and “Amiel's Journal,” translated by Mrs. Humphry Ward. It is to be noticed that, although the publishers are a British house, only two of these eleven books are by residents of England. In the May number of the Book Buyer, the little monthly publication issued by Charles Scribner's Sons, appears the first instalment of a Bibliography of First Editions of John Greenleaf Whittier, compiled by Mr. Edward H. Bierstadt, of the Grolier Club. No detailed and descriptive bibliography of this writer has been published here- tofore, and the compiler has endeavoured to make his work complete, and as fully descriptive as is convenient in view of the undertaking. It is the purpose of the publishers of the Book Buyer in future to make contributions of literary study, which they believe will be found convenient standards of accurate information upon the subject. The Whittier Bibliography will be completed in four instalments. The publishers expect to follow it with bibliographies of James Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other authors whose works are of interest to collectors. The May number of the Book Buyer has for its frontispiece an engraving on wood of the latest portrait of Mr. Stedman. The editor of the new American edition of the Bookman—which now owes very little to its London namesake save the name—is one of the Columbia College Professors of Latin ; and it is therefore perhaps not unfair to credit him with the following adaptation, called “Titerary Log-rolling in Ancient Rome’’:— Hor. Epist. ii., 2, 87. Frater erat Romae consulti rhetor, ut alter Alterius sermone meros audiret honores, Gracchus ut hic illi, foret huic ut Mucius ille, Qui minus argutos vexat furor iste poétas P Carmina compono, hic elegos. “Mirabile visu Caelatumque movem Musis opus !” Adspice primum, Quanto cum fastu, quanto molimine circum- Spectemus vacuam Romanis vatibus aedem - Mox etiam, si forte vacas, sequere et procul audi, Quid ferat et quare sibi nectat utergue coronam. Caedimur et totidem plagis consumimus hostem Lento Samnites ad lumina prima duello. Discedo Alcaeus puncto illius ; ille meo quis P Quis nisi Callimachus P Si plus adposcere visus, Fit Mimnermus et optivo cognomine crescit. Multa ferout placem genus irritabile vatum, Cum scribo et supplex populi suffragia capto ; Idem, finitis studiis et mente recepta, Obturem patulas impune legentibus aures. [The same, Englished.] Two Romans, counsellor and pleader, went Through life on terms of mutual compliment; One called the other Gracchus, he supposed His brother Mucius ; so they praised and prosed. Our bards to-day the selfsame madness goads: My friend writes elegies, and I write odes. O how we puff each other “’Tis divine ! The Muses had a hand in every line.” Remark our swagger as we pass the dome Built to receive the future bards of Rome; Then follow us and see the fame we make, How each by turn awards and takes the cake. Like Samnite fencers with elaborate art, We hit in tierce to be hit back in quart. I’m dubbed Alcaeus, and retire in force : And who is he P Callimachus of course ! If this seem feeble, then I bid him rise Mimmermus, and he swells to twice his size. Writing myself, I’m tortured to appease Those wasp-like creatures, our poetic bees; But when my pen's laid down, my sense restored, I rest from boring and from being bored. The Paris correspondent of the Author voices M. Marcel Prevost’s protest against an unautho- rised American translation of his unspeakable Demi-Vierges.” The translation, it is true, is pub- lished in America, but the translator, Mr. Arthur Hornblow, is an Englishman. H. R. *– ~ --> sº- ~~ NOTES AND NEWS. THINK that I may very properly make this the place for a brief note concerning the distinction lately conferred upon me. It is, in fact, a national recognition of this Society and of its work in advancing the dignity and the inde- pendence of literature. The Earl of Rosebery in his letter to me expressly pointed out that this distinction was offered in recognition of services which, he kindly says, have been rendered by me to the dignity of literature. These humble services could only be effective through such an organisation as our own. It is, therefore, the Society itself which has, for the first time, received recognition. We have also to chronicle the same distinction conferred upon our chairman, Sir William Martin Conway. The fact that he is our chairman, in addition to the many achievements by which he has lifted himself above the heads of his fellows, may be taken as having had its weight. Last, but not least, is to be noted, as very suggestive of new departure, the same distinction bestowed upon a poet—Sir Lewis Morris. ## p. (#367) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I3 In the lamented death of Lord Pembroke the Society has lost one of its strongest friends. Lord Pembroke was a member of our council; he attended the meetings of council—which are few ; he was present at several of our public meetings; he took the chair for us at one of our dinners; and he always showed the greatest interest in our work and aims. In a recent “interview,” which appeared in the Daily Chronicle, Mr. Hall Caine gave public utterance, for the first time, to a suggestion which has been in the minds of many, and is now being talked of freely. “The authors,” he said, “who have the hearts of the public would’—under certain circumstances—“ have to do as Ruskin did—create new publishers—or else attempt the perhaps not impossible task of doing without publishers altogether, and going direct to the booksellers.” This is what is whispered or spoken outright. What is to prevent, if authors choose, the opening of an office, with a manager paid on Commission, and not allowed to publish on his own account P The thing is perfectly plain and perfectly simple. For my own part I hope— though my hope is not, I confess, so strong as formerly—that the old machinery will continue, but adjusted to altered conditions. All that we demand as a preliminary to any serious attempt to settle the question is the recognition of four points which no honest man can, for very shame, refuse, viz.: - I. No secret profits—i.e., no falsifying of a CCOUnts. 2. No charge unless of money actually paid—as no charge for advertisements except those paid for ; all discounts to be entered in the books, &c. 3. Open accounts—i.e., an author to see the account books which concern himself. 4. A clear understanding of what the agree- ment leaves to either party in the event of SUICCéSS. I have submitted these points to many business men. Their opinion has uniformly been the same. If anyone in the City, they say, should dare to object to any such conditions between himself and his partner or fellow venturer in any enterprise, he would be shown the door instantly. If, therefore, we find that a certain publisher is constantly vomiting charges of this and of that against the Society or any of its committee; if he further learns that this publisher is one of those who still falsify their accounts, keep the books dark, and persevere in the bad old ways of treating the author as their humble dependent, it is surely our plain and obvious duty at least to avoid that person; not to give him our books; and not to admit him to our society. Do we not owe so much—it is not much—to the cause of literature, as well as our own self-respect P. This is one of the points which we ought to cultivate— the absolute social boycotting of the dishonest and the tricky publisher. Here is a case, not of dishonesty, nor of tricki- ness, but one which exposes the way in which certain publishers have come to regard their own rights over a book. The man in question was interviewed by a certain paper, and he wept over the wickedness and the greediness of the un- speakable author. The case of wicked greed was this. He produced a book by a highly popular, though, perhaps, unspeakable, author. This author took a royalty of eighteenpence out of a nominal six shillings. How did the case stand P The figures are not to be denied. They are as follows: The average price of the book to the trade is s. 6d. 3 The cost, with advertising, is less than a shil- ling—say I I d. The author receives Is. 6d. for every copy sold. The publisher receives Is. Id. This man said that he must first subtract the “establishment expenses” and, these all deducted, he was left only sixpence. The “expenses” therefore amount to about as much—say 31250 for the one book, which had a sale of about 50,000 copies, and is still going on. Really, when one looks at the modest exterior of this publisher's establishment, one is surprised that one book can cost so much merely to manage, without counting the production. Therefore, the publisher having had no risk whatever—having simply used the machinery of a small office, and ordered the advertisements—gets 31250 for himself by his own showing. And he goes on to say that things are coming to such a pass—i.e., when a publisher can make no more than £1250 for himself out of one book—that “the successful author will find no publisher willing to undertake his books at the price he demands.” What? Not for twelve hundred and fifty pounds? Really Here is self sacrifice But is not this demanding almost too much of a credulous public P As for “establishment expenses,” the question will have to be argued out. For my own part, I should begin by arguing that the bookseller's and the author’s “establishment expenses” must be allowed as well as the publisher's. The former, clearly, has rent and assistants and taxes to pay : and he has also the very considerable risk of ## p. (#368) ################################################ 14 THE AUTHOR. unsold stock. The latter—the author—has at least the rent of his study, which is his office; his shorthand clerk; his agent; his typewriting; the books he must buy ; the journeys he must take. For instance, I once wrote a little book on Captain Cook. It was one of Macmillan's series, for which T received a hundred guineas. The price was, I dare say, quite as much as the book was worth, commercially. I do not complain at all about the price. I was very glad to write the book for other reasons apart from the small cheque. Now, this book took me down to York- shire twice; and once to a certain cathedral city to see a certain clergyman, who had information of a kind previously unpublished, and very useful for the book. I had to pay for the copying of a previously unpublished log. I had to get a good deal of typewriting done. All these were “esta- blishment expenses,” and they amounted, I reckoned up, to about £45. But it never entered my head to charge these expenses, although they swallowed up nearly half the little cheque. If, however, the practice of charging for “establish- ment expenses” is allowed to one of the three persons named, I shall argue that it must be allowed to all. It seems likely that we shall have a good deal of talk upon these subjects before long, perhaps with some results. The booksellers, whose case is really hard, seem waking up. One of them, Mr. Burleigh, wrote to the Times saying, with great bitterness, that authors and publishers between them are killing the bookseller. Sir William Conway pointed out in an able letter that authors, at least, are innocent of any such action or intention. As a matter of fact, the alleged Squeezing by agents, which has by no means as yet even reached the old half-profit system, is a thing of the last half dozen years, and no change whatever, as Mr. Burleigh must know very well, has been made of late in the relations of bookseller and publisher. The booksellers, in fact, if they only knew it, are the real masters of the situation. They should combine, but not to run up the prices of books. They should combine, leaving to each perfect freedom as to the price at which he would sell his books. upon me I will show him certain other objects for which booksellers could combine with very excellent results to themselves. But if he calls he must not begin by calling authors bad names: first, because I won’t allow it; next, because we don't deserve these bad names; and lastly, because calling names doesn’t advance matters. At the Authors’ Club on the 27th ult. Rider Haggard was the guest of the evening. If there And if Mr. Burleigh will call was wanted a proof that literary men are not, as a rule, devoured with jealousy and hatred towards each other, it was provided in the recep- tion which he met with at that dinner. A friend of many readers of this paper is dead. George Bentley died last week at the age of sixty- seven. He had long been suffering from asthma, which drove him every winter to take refuge at Tenby. Courtly, genial, kindly, he was the model of the old-fashioned publisher of the most honour- able kind. Nor was he without literary ability, as was shown by the occasional papers which he con- tributed to his own magazine, Temple Bar, of which he was for nearly thirty years the editor, These essays he collected into a little volume, which he published some years ago, with what success I know not. His magazine continues, I believe, to enjoy a wide and increasing circulation; and it has always been remarkable for its excel- lent novels, written chiefly by ladies, and for its biographical sketches. At this moment, that of going to press, it is impossible to do justice to the memory of George Bentley. In our next number I hope that one who knew him intimately will communicate to the Author a longer notice of this kindliest of publishers. I hear also at the same moment that James Dykes Campbell, the author of the “Life of Coleridge,” is dead. It was his one book, but it is the life of Coleridge. No other memoir of the philosopher-poet will be written, unless it is one based upon Campbell's. The author was for many years a partner in the house of Ireland, Fraser, and Co., in Mauritius; he was always, from boyhood. attracted towards literary pursuits; and when I first made his acquaintance, now thirty-two years ago, was already deeply interested in every- thing that concerned Coleridge and his friends. He was fortunate in being able to retire from business soon after forty with a moderate fortune, which enabled him to live as he pleased, and to take up in earnest the literary life without being shackled by the necessity of providing the daily bread. To this enviable independence we owe the “Life of Coleridge"—a book which contains the research, the travels, and the patient labour of years. He died at a comparatively early age, but his life was happy, fortunate, and successful. To have written that one book, which will remain long after the perishable work of more popular writers, to be inseparably associated with the name of Coleridge, is an achievement which by itself makes a successful career. WALTER BESANT. ## p. (#369) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 15 ANNUAL DINNER OF THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF AUTHORS, R. MOBERLY BELL presided last even- ing (May 23) at the Holborn Restaurant, over the annual dinner of this Society, at which about 180 ladies and gentlemen were present, including the American Ambassador, Sir F. and Lady Jeune, Mr. A. W. a Beckett, Mrs. Oscar Beringer, the Rev. Canon Bell, D.D., Mr. Mackenzie Bell, Mr. C. F. Clifford Borrer, Mr. J. Theodore Bent, Mrs. Brightwen, Mr. Walter Besant, Miss Marie Belloc, Mrs. Moberly Bell, Professor C. A. Buchheim, Mr. F. H. Balfour, yet I am not here to ask absolution, to plead Mrs. H. C. Black, Dr. Sutherland Black, Mr. Poulteney Bigelow, Miss Mathilde Blind, Mr. Henry Blackburn, Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, Sir W. T. Charley, Q.C., Mr. Edward Clodd, Mr. W. Martin Conway, Mrs. Conway, Mr. Moncure T). Conway, Miss E. R. Chapman, Mr. A. Chatto, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Cox, Miss Beatrice Chambers, Mr. and Mrs. Hall Caine, Mr. Ralph Hall Caine, Major Seton Churchill, the Earl of Desart, Mrs. Gerard Ford, Miss L. Friswell, Sir William Fraser, Mr. Harry Furniss, Mr. Edmund Gosse, Mrs. Aylmer Gowing, Dr. R. Garnett, Mr. Upcott Gill, Mme. Sarah Grand, Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins, Dr. G. Harley, F.R.S., Mr. Holman Hunt, Mr. Isaac Henderson, Pre- bendary Harry Jones, Mr. C. F. Keary, Miss Florence Marryatt, Lord Monkswell, Mrs. Millie, Mr. S. B. G. M'Kinney, the Rev. C. H. Middleton- Wake, Mr. Justin C. MacCartie, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Norman, Miss E. Pitcairn, Mr. W. H. Pollock, the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, the President of the Institute of Journalists, Lord Reay, Mr. W. Fraser Rae, Mr. John Rae, Mr. J. Morgan Richards, Mr. J. Ashby Sterry, Mr. A. M. M. Stedman, Mr. M. H. Spiel- mann, the Rev. Clementi-Smith, Mr. Douglas Sladen, Mrs. Burnett Smith, Dr. Burnett Smith, Miss Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Stanley, Miss L. Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Sheldon, Mr. Clement R. Shorter, Sir Henry Thompson, Mrs. Alec Tweedie, Mr. Andrew W. Tuer, Mr. G. Herbert Thring, Mrs. Thring, Miss Grace Toplis, Miss Tobin, Miss G. Traver, Mr. H. Townsend (New Pork Herald), Mr. Thomas Townend, Mr. William Tirebuck, Mr. P. Villars (Figaro), Mrs. Neville Walford, Mr. C. T. Hagberg Wright, Mr. Walter, Mr. Sydney F. Walker, Mr. Theodore Watts, and Mr. Wesselitsky. The following is a report of the speeches:— The CHAIRMAN.—Your Excellency, my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I ask you to drink to that toast which needs no words——“The Queen.” The CHAIRMAN.—Your Excellency, my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen : Before I propose the toast of the evening, I think it incumbent on me to offer some explanation of my apparent pre- sumption in venturing to address from this chair a Society of Authors. I am painfully conscious that I stand, as it were, in the footprints of men whose shoelatchets I am unworthy to unloose; that I address authors whose names are “household words,” and that to most of you to whom I am utterly unknown, except by name, if by that, I must seem to have rashly and unnecessarily placed myself amongst that vast majority of man- kind who “rush in where angels fear to tread.” guilty, nor even to urge extenuating circum- stances, for if on my own merits I have barely right to ask admission as a simple member of the Society of Authors—for I hold that the term “author’’ is not too lightly to be applied to every scribbler (hear, hear) — if I have still less the right to speak with the authority which befits your chairman, yet I ask you to see in this chair to-night not my own insignificant personality, but rather the representative, if an inadequate one, of that great author who, though anonymous, may yet in some respects claim to be the greatest author of all time, the Press. (Hear, hear.) I am deeply sensible that the Society of Authors, in asking me to take the chair to-night, have been anxious to pay a graceful and generous compliment not to myself, not to any section of the Press, but to the Press as a whole, to the Press in the widest acceptation of the term, to that power, great for good and evil—I trust greater for good than for evil—which owes its existence to a large extent to the co-operation of authors, and to which authors themselves some- times owe a little. (Hear, hear.) I speak of the Press as an author because I like to think of every portion in it as forming a part of one individual whole, animated by one common object, choosing, it must be, different ways of arriving at that object, quarrelling, it may be, within Our body corporate, but yet, if differing in our means, never differing in our end, and that end I take to be to voice without fear or favour, without bias or prejudice, above all without personal motive— (hear, hear)—that which we honestly believe to be the public intelligence and the public con- science. I call the Press a great author because to ninety-nine hundredths of readers authors are known not by their individuality, but by their Works, and I think that even in this distinguished assembly of authors it will hardly be denied that the Press, if not the greatest, is, at all events of all authors, the most prolific and the most voluminous. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) The ## p. (#370) ################################################ I6 THE AUTHOR. most popular amongst you count your readers by thousands—we count ours by tens and hundreds of thousands. The most industrious amongst you can only write—well, ten or a dozen volumes in the course of a year. (Laughter.) We publish that every day. (Laughter.) The most versatile amongst you cannot claim to be a profound authority on more than three or four subjects. The author I represent is omniscient. (Laughter.) . He speaks with profound authority on every subject and at the very shortest notice. We write tragedy in our police courts, we write comedy in our Parliamentary reports, and fiction in our advertisements (laughter); but the Press, though it uses the first personal plural, is never egotistic, and our business to-night is with the Society of Authors. There are two societies of authors. To the greater it is given to but few in a generation, or even in a century to belong; but the long list of immortals, which begins, perhaps, with Homer and will not finish, with the names of your two presidents, the late Lord Tennyson and Mr. George Meredith. If few can attain all can aspire, and you and the world will be better for the aspiration, and I think it fitting in proposing the toast of what must be an ephemeral society of authors not to altogether omit mention of that great immortal Society, of whose works it was said more than four hundred years ago “they are the masters who instruct us without rods or ferrules, without harsh words or anger, without money or clothes. If you approach them they are not asleep. If inves- tigating you interrogate them they conceal nothing, if you mistake them they never grumble, if you are foolish they never laugh at you.” The other society of authors is Our noble selves. If we cannot illuminate all time we shed a very brilliant light upon the pre- sent generation. We are a most virtuous society, the most virtuous that ever existed. Imake that assertion on the unimpeachable authority of a committee of the society itself, for we have been informed in the public press that no member of this society is greedy—(laughter)—inordinately greedy. That remark was not made in reference to this banquet. It referred to the greed of pecuniary profit. I do not know that it is a serious charge to bring against anyone that he should be greedy of the full remuneration which he can honestly claim for his work (hear, hear), but, however that may be, we are devoid of even that, and therefore I am sure I am justified in saying that we are a peculiarly virtuous Society, that we have a strong sense of virtue —whether we have an equal sense of humour, that, as one of our Society hath said, is quite another story (laughter)—but we have great claims upon your goodwill. We have led a respectable, useful, and not utterly obscure existence, for more than eleven years. Originally started, I believe, for the protection of the unfledged authors from the wiles of those animals. —ferae naturae—who prowl in the field of litera- ture in the guise of the Profession we all honour and respect, the publisher, you now number twelve hundred members, all authors more or less. distinguished, more than half of whom have sought the assistance of the committee : and we have another claim—we are co-operative and self supporting. We do not send round the hat. (Laughter.) We ask nothing of our visitors, except to dine with us, and that which is, perhaps, I admit, already a severe tax, to listen. to our speeches, but even that is not compulsory. (Laughter.) I have spoken of your past and present. Allow me a few words as to your future. As a member of your Society, as one whom you have peculiarly honoured to-night, I naturally wish you a long and prosperous career, but I fear that my hopes are stronger than my faith. I am credibly informed that many of you neglect the latest gospel of labour. Some of you work more than eight hours a day, many of you have other professions, and are therefore out- siders; others, I am told, are so devoted to literature that they work without exacting a living wage, and then, worst of all, you do not each of you insist upon exactly the same payment— pounds, shillings, and pence, per word, or per page, or per week. (Laughter). Well, if these horrible charges are true, it is my duty to tell you that you are blacklegs, and that you must expect in a very short time that either the House of Commons or the London County Council, or one of those numerous institutions which exist to restore to us the beneficent socialism of the sixteenth century, will come down upon you, and they will, perhaps, establish a ministry or a department for the protection of the authors, and thus will destroy the reason of your existence. The department will collect statistics, they will be able to say that two, or possibly three, men are studying at the same time the same period of history, that possibly half a dozen young ladies are writing novels, in each case the motif of which may be the gentle passion, and it would be very easy for them to point out that this is an enormous waste of labour, that it could be done much more cheaply and much more expeditiously by a ministry of literature, with the help of assistant secretaries for prose, poetry, and so forth. This is not utterly irrelevant, because in the past you have fought the pseudo publisher, otherwise the pirate. For the future your object is to combat pseudo philanthropy, otherwise Socialism ## p. (#371) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 17 —it is the only way by which you can keep the Society alive, and by which we in the Society can exist. I have to associate with this toast the name of your chairman, Mr. William Martin Conway, a gentleman who has climbed to dis- tinction on the Alps, the Apennines, and the Himalayas; who is equally prominent as an art lecturer, mountaineer, author, and who now desires to enter into that singular assembly con- sisting of commoners who desire to become peers, and peers who desire to become commoners. I am peculiarly unable to speak of Mr. Conway; luckily you know him better than I do. I am unable, because my opportunities have never led me much into the study of art, and my inclina- tions have never led me to mountaineering, except with the friendly help of a locomotive. But there is just one point for which Mr. Conway is very remarkable, and upon which I am able to speak with the highest authority. Mr. Conway is a man of a most extraordinarily good judgment, and ex- traordinary good taste. He has brought the proofs of that here to-night, and they sit on my left hand. (Laughter and hear, hear.) Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to drink to the toast of the Incorporated Society of Authors, associated with the name of Mr. W. M. Conway. M.R. W. M. ConwAY.—Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen : I have often thought that this annual dinner of the Society of Authors might be made a very much more amusing function than it is. We un- fortunately meet only to dine. We don’t meet, I am thankful to say, to collect money, neither do we meet to sell the products of our labour. I have sometimes thought that if on these occasions every member of the Society of Authors attended with his manuscripts, and if we invited the publishers of London to dine with us, and if, after duly baptising the whole show in champagne, we held an auction, that the frolic would be some- thing worth attending. (Laughter.) However, you have drunk the health of the Society of Authors, and it is for me to attempt to justify that some- what rash act. Sir, the Society of Authors is at all events an active society—when it has nothing else to do it falls upon Mr. Gosse (laughter), we fill up odd moments by quarrelling amongst our- selves, and when we get a chance we fall upon a common enemy. Squabbling is said to be a sign of life, and I am sure that the Authors’ Society, throughout the whole course of its not too long existence, has been engaged in one successive series of squabbles. It was once my pleasure—at least, my duty—to be the secretary, or, rather, to run, a thing called the Art Congress for the three years of its chequered existence. During that time I attained a somewhat minute and peculiar dinner. acquaintance with the attitude of the artistic mind in the face of business. Since I have been intimately associated with the Society of Authors I have had proofs—derived from this former experience—I have had proofs that the author is really an artist. I find that in many matters of business the author approaches the situation with that kind of attitude which is distinctly characteristic of the artist who abuses everyone all round, but more especially his own attorney (laughter), and we who have sat for some time on the committee of this Society are now thoroughly accustomed to the artistic attitude of authors—we have become so accustomed to it that unless we are abused by the members we don’t consider that we can be possibly doing our duty. (Taughter.) There is my friend Mr. Besant, who at intervals boils with indignation. I say that this boiling with indig- nation on the part of our founder, Mr. Besant, is the great source and origin, and, I hold, the moving force, that has created and maintained this Society. (Applause and laughter.) Unfor- tunately for myself, I am unable so to boil when I hear that an author has entered into a ridiculous agreement. Mr. Besant does the boiling with indignation, and it is for me to advise him to carry out his contract. It seems to me that the first thing that an author who has played the perfect fool in the matter of the making of his agreement has to do is to suffer the penalty of his folly for the time being, and to afterwards go to the Society of Authors to guard him in the future against similar blunders. (Hear, hear.) Another member of the Society wrote to us the other day and said he would like to become a member of the Society, not because he intended to make any use of it, but because he wanted to have a guinea's worth of fighting for his money. We elected that gentleman immediately (laughter), being, I hope, a sporting committee, and we have since been sitting around waiting for the fray. (Laughter.) Un- fortunately the only sport we have been able to have out of him has been a letter communicated to the public press in which he abused us for dining here to-night. (Loud laughter.) Well, we have heard something of late about book- sellers, and I had a sort of idea of talking about them myself, but it occurred to me that it would lead to a disquisition on political economy which 1 feared would be rather a heavy morsel after So we will pass by the booksellers, and come to our other friends the publishers. Gentle- men, our relations with publishers—the relations, that is to say, with the main body of authors with whom we come in contact—appear at the present time to be highly satisfactory, for the number of disputes—most of them small ones — that has been brought to our notice of late has been ex- ## p. (#372) ################################################ I 8 THE AUTHOR. tremely low, and I conclude that, through the medium of the Society of Authors, publishers and authors have come to understand each other a little better than before, and this common understanding has been brought about by the common recognition of each side of its own folly and its own interest, and I believe that hereafter we shall find that the Society, far from being a necessarily militant body, will be in friendly contact with that body of men who are really its partners, and should be its allies. I believe that in future we shall find that we are attaining more and more to a common understanding, and are able better and better to work to our common end. But at the present time we are united — we and the publishers are assuredly united in One common cause, for we are threatened by a common danger. I allude, of course, to the ques- tion of the Canadian copyright. (Hear, hear.) There, gentlemen, is a question which has arisen recently in an acute form, and which, if there had not been a Society of Authors to take it up, would assuredly have been settled in a manner that would have done the greatest possible injury to the interests of British authors. I trust that, owing to the vigorous ini iative that we have taken in this matter, no injurious decision will be come to; but there, at all events, is a matter which threatens authors and publishers alike, and in which both are equally and keenly interested. (Hear, hear.) Well, gentlemen, I think I have said enough, and more than enough, to justify in having drunk to the health of yourselves—to the Society of Authors —and I trust that in the coming year, until we meet here again, we shall go on along the lines we have adopted, and shall advance in the pro- motion of those just interests which the Society exists to promote. (Loud applause.) The RIGHT Hon. SIR FRANCIs H. JEUNE, P.C., in proposing the toast of “Literature,” said— Mr. Moberly Bell, Your Excellency, My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I have the honour to propose to you the toast of “Literature,” asso- ciated with the name of Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins. (Here a band, playing in a neigh- bouring room, opportunely interrupted with a startling burst of music, which, to the merriment of the company, seemed specially designed to pay honour to the toast and to the name of Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins.) I could hardly imagine, sir, a more inspiriting incident, under what must be admitted to be circumstances of some difficulty, then the sound of that distant, but, I hope, not distressing band. (Laughter.) But I admit I do acquire some comfort and some consolation in entering upon the task which has devolved upon me, for I presume that I have been selected to propose this toast because I never wrote a book, and because my contributions to ephemeral literature have been so few as to be a negligable quantity, and I am quite content to be ranked in that large class of meritorious persons whose only business with newspapers is to read them, and whose only additional duty with regard to books is to buy them. (Laughter.) But, sir, I think it is not unfitting that a man whose life has been spent in the pursuit of a laborious pro- fession should make his acknowledgments to the charms of literature, because it is he, and persons such as he, who owe to literature the happiest relaxation of their lives, with an occupation that never wearies, and with pleasures that never pall. (Applause.) But, Sir, a prudent lawyer never makes an admission except for the purpose of avoiding an inconvenient inquiry, and I am not prepared on this occasion, especially after the speech of the chairman, to admit a complete dis- severence between literature and law. It is quite true, sir, that in those legal treatises in which we delight, or are supposed to delight, you cannot find those charms of literature other than such as may be obtained by clearness of style and lucidity of arrangement. It was not, Sir, always so. We have, I am afraid, in later days changed for the worse. Old writers allowed themselves greater license. Lord Coke, in commenting on a mis- taken and earlier author, after his observations proceeded to a sort of obituary notice of it, and said: “He lived without love, and died without pity, save that of those who thought the pity was that he had lived so long.” (Loud laughter.) Sir, I regret to say characterise the personal qualifications of our predecessors, however erroneous we may think their notions to have been. But, Sir, the connection between Litera- ture and Law is, I venture to think, a close one. I don’t claim that many have found their place on the roll of fame, and I do not forget that England contributed Lord Bacon, or that Sir Walter Scott hailed at once from the land of lawyers and the land of Scotland, but I admit that the roll of fame is short. But when we come to that branch of literature which your chairman represents, there, I venture to say, a wholly different position may be taken up. Your chairman has told you that every day some twelve volumes—I think it was— of ephemeral literature are produced. Well, Sir, I think that we lawyers contribute our full share to that. I believe that public speakers attain a length in the columns of the daily papers propor- tionate to their eminence—that the first-class man is allowed to say all he has said at full length, that the second class are those who are allowed to say a part of what they have said, and that the third class consists of those who have to content themselves with reading what they ought to have ## p. (#373) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. IQ said. (Doud laughter.) Now, Sir, I think that we may claim the first of those places. I recollect a short time ago—well, a time ago— reading in the same day a judgment by a certain Lord Chancellor—whose name I decline to mention (laughter)—and a political speech by the same authority. The judgment, Sir, occupied two columns and a half — the speech occupied something less than half a column. I do not know whether the political and judicial utterances were of value in direct relation to their length, but I think it must be admitted that in his legal capacity the Chancellor made a larger contribution to journalism. than ever he could or did as a politician. (Laughter.) Well, your chairman has reminded you that there is another side where we may contribute largely, at least to daily literature. He has told you that the Courts produce at once tragedies and come- dies, that literature from the time of Shakespeare down to those of Molière, Trollope, and Dickens have been always ready to produce these scenes, and I am sorry to say they are chiefly charac- terised by a sense of humour rather at the ex- pense of the lawyers, or by some extremely bad law. (Laughter.) But, Sir, I am not altogether surprised, or at all surprised, that literature finds a field for its exertions in that direction. A trial combines many elements of interest. There is the continual display of gladiatorial skill. There is the constant revelation of incident, and there is the glorious uncertainty of result. A famous trial seems to combine the various attractions of an interesting cricket match with those of a suc- cessful drama. (Laughter.) I think, Sir, for these contributions journalism ought to be thank- ful. It may well be that there are some parts of these contributions which could be better spared, and I think this is no unfitting occasion, speaking as I do to an audience composed both of men and women, and to an audience highly capable of judging on such a subject, to express a respect for those journals which, exercising their independent judgment, have thought it right to refuse publication to matter which, in their opinion, ought to be suppressed. (Applause.) But, Sir, I am quite conscious that those journals who practise that abnegation do so at considerable loss to themselves, and they deserve respect because it may well be that they give advantages to less scrupulous rivals. I should be glad, Sir, if it were not so. I think it impossible that the proceedings in Courts of Justice should be held otherwise than in public, and from personal experience I have no reason whatever to complain of the proceedings of the public Press, but I am aware that there are some papers who cannot put a sufficient check upon themselves, and I confess I should be glad if it were possible to provide that some authority, responsible and cognisant in the matter, should be allowed to forbid the publication of that which ought not to be published. I think that would be for the interests of morality, and I believe it would be for the interests of journalism, because I think it would tend to raise the lower class of journals, perhaps against their will, but still to raise them to the standard of the highest (applause). Sir, I approach the task of saying something about literature—and it has fallen to my lot to do it more than once—with a somewhat uneasy feeling in one respect, and the presence of your chairman brings about that feeling. I was once in the chairman’s presence, and the presence of the American Minister reminds me of it, and I was once rash enough to say that journalism was “literature in a hurry,” and after I had said it I received so many remonstrances and read so much criticism in the papers that I almost began to think that my poor little obser- vation was original. (Laughter.) Mr. George Augustus Sala told me it was not true that all newspapers were produced in the small hours of the morning. An authority, Mr. Arthur Walter, in a judicious and even judicial spirit, said that a part of literature was so produced and part was not ; but, Sir, our chairman this evening has reinforced me because he has told me that it is the great merit of the Press to produce its matter at the smallest possible notice. There- fore I decline the white sheet, I am not prepared to do penance for the observation, and I still venture to maintain that journalism is literature in a hurry. (Taughter.) You attend the theatres on the first night, and you see the busy pencils all around you, and you read the criticism next morning. It is brilliant criticism, but is it not brilliant criticism in a hurry P (Laughter.) There is a story told of Mr. Delane, coming down late at night to his club full of the account he had heard of the illness of Mr. Disraeli. It was said that Mr. Disraeli was seriously ill—even danger- ously ill—and Mr. Delane's terror and regret were extreme. He said to everyone “Have you heard the terrible news, the awful news P” His friends heard him somewhat surprised, and someone said “No doubt it is very sad and very sudden, but I never knew you had such an admiration for Mr. Disraeli,” and Mr. Delane said “Oh no, it is not that at all, but here it is ten o’clock at night and I have not got a word written about him. (Laughter.) Now, sir, I daresay that if Mr. Disraeli had then died there would, after all, have appeared a brilliant and complete biography of him, but would it not have been biography in a hurry P ## p. (#374) ################################################ 2O THE AUTHOR. Sir, I have the greatest possible respect for the leading articles of the Times; I think they are very full of good sense, of profundity and wisdom— and I nearly always agree with them. (Laughter.) But, sir, I have never heard that it was given to many men in the world, to quote Mr. Russell Lowell, “lifelong convictions to extemporise,” and when I have read these articles I have sometimes thought it is wisdom in a hurry. Well, sir, I hope I have justified that phrase. it is—as I trust it is not—disparaging to journalism, it is certainly not disparaging to literature. (Applause). I say all honour ought to be paid to the laborious student by whom our great works have, with toil and labour, been pro- duced; and, sir, what is more, the whole history of the literature of this country is the history of a literature that has not been in a hurry. The remarkable feature about it is that century after century the tree has put forth flowers ever new, although of varied beauty, and has produced fruits ever new, although of varied value. Well, sir, I think that is a great comfort to which we look. I am sorry to hear from Mr. Conway that authors have their domestic and external difficulties. They apparently have difficulties both with their home and foreign policy. (Laughter.) They apparently have difficulties with the publisher and with the |bookseller; and the trio of publishers, booksellers, and authors form a combination which does not altogether appear to be a happy family. I can- not, Sir, offer them the consolation of a lawyer, because I am afraid that the instinct of a lawyer is that where three people are quarrelling there must be something very substantial to be quarrel- ling about. consolation of the distressed agriculturist. The relations between them appear to be very much the same as those of landlord and farmer and the labourer, and I think it is true that whatever else has happened in these unfortunate difficulties which have arisen in that sphere of life, whatever else has happened it is not the labourer who has suffered. Sir, there may be other difficulties and dangers which beset the labourer. It may be that at the present time some clouds rest upon his prospects. It may be that writers such as Mr. Max Nordau, in pointing out degeneracy, apart from matters of great exaggeration, put their fingers upon some points of truth; it may be, sir, that in an age which apparently is unable to elect a Poet Laureate, that there is something wrong with the poets or with the age ; but if some of these matters tend to a foreboding I think we may look at the past of our literature, and take comfort in the fact that literature is the best antidote to pessimism ; and if it be true that literature, high, and pure, and national, filled the At any rate, if Perhaps, sir, I may offer them the “spacious times of great Elizabeth,” it is equally true that the sounds of that literature have often echoed since and echo still. Sir, I have great pleasure in connecting with this toast the name of my friend, Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins. I had almost said my relative, because he is, I am glad to think, connected with my legal brother, the brilliant and distinguished Sir Henry Hawkins. At any rate, I am sure that in Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins, not even Max Nordau himself, in his most scientific moments, could discover the stigma of degeneracy. It was no decadent, I think, that produced the weird and startling fiction of the “Prisoner of Zenda,” or the raillery of the “Dolly Dialogues,” or the easy sarcasm and startling incident of his last effort “The Man of Mark.” Mr. Hawkins has, I hope, himself made a mark upon the literature of the day, and I hope that he will gain for himself a notable place in the literature of the country. (Applause.) r. ANTHONY HoPE HAWKINs, replying to the toast, said—Mr. Chairman, Sir Francis Jeune, Your Excellency, My Lords, Ladies, and Gentle- men : I regret for some reasons that one who pursues the branch of literature that I do should have been called upon to reply to this toast. Almost the first remark that I heard when I came into this room was the question of why I should be selected to reply to this toast. Gentle- men, I am unable to answer the question, but I am, after all, glad that it is so, because it has given me the opportunity and the pleasure of listening to the kindly and generous words which Sir Francis Jeune has spoken of me, but I was afraid that it would foster that vanity to which novelists, I understand, are prone. Gentlemen, that is an unjust charge. We are very conscious of one another's defects. (Laughter.) And if you were aware of the dispassionate consideration, in a very limited amount of time, we bring to bear upon One another’s writings, you would not consider that we unduly exalted our branch of literature. The fact is that we authors are somewhat in the position of ladies, who, believing themselves sus- pected of beauty, take refuge in an exaggerated appreciation of the charms of others, to which they have not paid much attention. (Laughter.) Mr. Conway, as became his position, did not speak in terms of extravagant eulogy of the Organisation of which he is the active chief, but we who occupy less responsible positions may speak more freely of what we consider our merits and our mission. For my part, I look forward to a great mission for this Society, and I am prepared to endure as many jokes as the wit of our opponents may suggest for the price of taking it seriously. Our primary object is to ## p. (#375) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I abolish Grub-street. (Hear, hear.) But I think there is another, and I think that the committee of this Society did well to think that there was another—and that is that in time, and as this Society justifies itself in the eyes of the world, it may establish not onlv a Court of Appeal for distressed authors, but also a court of honour for its own members. (Hear, hear.) If we look round at the other professions—I don’t need to say “learned professions,” for it needs no learning to write books (laughter)—you will See corporate bodies existing to which members of the profession willingly submit their disputes, and by whose decrees they willingly allow their conduct to be governed. Gentlemen, I believe that that reputation and position is not beyond the prospects of this Society. (Applause.) I think that the Society will live above criticism, and we shall see it come to occupy that position to which, in my opinion, it has a right to aspire. We don’t want this Society to be merely a society for the prevention of cruelty to children (laughter)—that is a very laudable and excellent function, and a function with which this Society is employed from day to day, but we also wish it to be a Society to which its own members and our friends the enemy—the publisher—can come with confidence, sure that a dispassionate judgment will be taken, and sure that the Society will be as Severe towards the faults of its own members as upon those with whom members come into con- tact in the course of business. (Hear, hear). I think there is one more word that I ought to say before I sit down, for I should not be doing my duty, having the honour to reply for literature, if I did not say one word about the great loss which literature has suffered in the year gone by in the death of Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson. The romantic school of English fiction was deprived by his death of its acknow- ledged king and chief, and a personality was lost of rare thought and distinction and sweetness. It is not possible for most of us—I may say safely without offence that it is not possible for any of us—to hope to emulate Mr. Stevenson’s achievements, or claim to share his gifts. (Hear, hear.) . But we are many of us able to remember the kindness which he invariably showed to younger and less distinguished Writers, and we are all able to learn some- thing from the example of his high ideal, and the untiring, unresting energy with which he pursued it. So, sir, although we cannot stand on his high level, we may feast our eyes upon the high mountains that it is not for our feet to tread, and, with a thousand un- satisfied aspirations, rest at least in the tranquility of the satisfaction of our own little piece of . work done as well as we could do it. (Loud applause.) Mr. WALTER BESANT then proposed the toast of “The Visitors” in the following terms: Mr. Chairman, your Excellency, my Lords, ladies and Gentlemen,_I have to propose the toast of “The Visitors.” I am sure that at this late hour of the evening you will not think it shows any disrespect to our visitors if I give you this toast in a very few words. We have always been particu- larly happy and fortunate at all our dinners in the visitors who have done us the honour to attend, and on this occasion I think we are more fortunate than usual. For, first of all, we have with us this evening the American Ambassador. Wherever English authors are gathered together, on the rare occasions that they do assemble, it is only fit and right that America should be represented in the most adequate form possible, because those of us here, or in America, who are able to contribute anything towards literature at all, are doing it not only for America, but for both countries, and for all that vast world which comprises the English-speaking race. We have next with us the President of the Institute of Journalists, and I am sure that no one is more fittingly here, because literature and journalism so closely overlap that no one knows where one begins and the other ends. We have also with us the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, whom I take to repre- sent the literature of surgery. Then we have next with us representatives of the chief London papers, and some of the provincial ones, and we also have representatives from France, Australia, America, Italy, and from Russia, all gathered together as Our guests on this occasion. Law is represented not only by our own members who are lawyers, of whom we have many, but also by one of our judges, to whom you have already had the pleasure of listening. India is repre- sented by one who has administered a province, and lastly Africa is represented by a most dist nguished traveller—perhaps the most dis- tinguished traveller of any time or any country. I have therefore the pleasure and the honour, in the name of the Society, to we'come the visitors On this occasion, and I ask you to do honour to the toast, with which I couple the name of the American Ambassador. (Applause.) His Excellency the AMERICAN AMBAssADoR, replying to the toast, said: Mr. Chairman, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am deeply sensi- tive to the cordiality of your welcome. I am asked to respond for the guests of the English authors. The paradise of politicians is supposed to lie in a majority, and were Ia politician I should find my- self in the largest majority that the most hopeful politician could expect, for if I speak for the ## p. (#376) ################################################ 22 THE AUTHOR. guests of the authors it is not for the little repre- sentative handful that have gathered round this charming board to-night, but it is for the count- less army of the vast majority of civilised men and women who have fed so well and so long at the tables of the authors, and have enjoyed the fine fruits of the authors’ wit and fancy. In order to enlarge the scope of Literature, the phrase was invented, “The Republic of Letters,” and yet I am inclined to take a leaf from the book of one of my countrymen, and let the American sailor, Captain Mahan (applause) show the superiority of sea power over land power, to call to your mind how Nelson, with the sea power of England, made the safety of England possible under Wellington at Waterloo. It is therefore upon the high seas of authorship and literature that I would ask you to embark : Far as the breeze can bear the ocean’s foam, Behold your empire, and survey your home. I don’t think that the land can hold the mind of man—it must embark upon the sea, and it must be wafted as the gales may blow—freely, unhesitatingly. Wherever genius shall direct the course, there the human mind must follow it. And so authors must become seafaring folk— they have been so, they must be so, and, coming from a country kindred in literature and in feeling to this—(loud applause)—I feel that literature forms the strongest bond between the two nations. (Applause.) You are free to freight your ship with what you will—with learning, with poesy, with prose, with wit, with fancy, with philosophy —you may freight your ship with what you will, and you may choose your course. You are not confined by hard dry land, but on the high seas of human feeling and human relations you steer your bark to what course you will, and whatever port you find open to the good things with which your vessel is freighted. There can be no such thing to-day as exclusion of the human mind— there can be no such thing as a pent-up author. If he is pent-up, depend upon it the bonds and shackles are found within his own mind. I am disposed to think of this empire of authorship and literature that there is no thing into which it does not enter, and over which it does not exert a potential control. In these islands, and everywhere else almost, there is great agricultural depression, and the question might be asked “What have authors to do with the tilling of ground, and what has literature to do with agri- culture ?” Now, I would put it to any clear- minded Scotchman, and I would put it also to his hard-headed English brother, what effect upon the principles of real estate in Scotland and in England has the literature of Sir Walter Scott had P Subtract that influence and let the calculation be made—how much poorer on the whole score of money value, of houses and lands, would the kingdom of Great Britain be without the mind and the soul of that magician. (Applause.) Why, Gentlemen, I would ask my friend Sir Francis Jeune whether there was not lately tried in the court over which he presides, a suit to avoid a contract for real estate upon the ground that a ghost inhabited the house that had been purchased, and whether Amy Robsart was not brought into court, and his purchase sought to be avoided, because the man found that Sir Walter had killed Amy Robsart in the wrong place P (Laughter.) Now, Gentlemen, if the ghosts of literature can be brought into court and have their money value essayed, what are we to say of the realities of literature, and of the power of authorship in our daily transactions? So that I think we can expand, by very easy efforts of logical and rational deduction, the touch of authorship and literature to everything that affects the happiness of men, women, and children the civilised world over. Thus you see that in attempting to answer for a small portion of your guests, I speak in the tongue of my own land—and, I suppose, with a certain inflection (“No, no,”) I may also say I speak yours—and I thank you most sincerely for the pleasure that we have derived from the Society of Authors to-night, and for the pleasure that all derive from the work of authors every- where. (Applause.) Mr. H. M. STANLEY then proposed the last toast of the evening, that of “The Chairman.” He said: Your Excellency, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,_-From what the American Minister has said just now, I gather that in behalf of the visitors here to-night he has expressed the feelings of pleasure of all your guests at being here this evening and I gather that they have enjoyed a great deal of pleasantness. To me this is a memorable evening, because it is the first time I have had the pleasure and honour of being at an Authors' dinner. From what Mr. Conway has stated it appears that there is a great deal of un- happiness sometimes within the circle of Authors, but I never expected to see any disturbance at an Authors' dinner; and if I were to express my own feelings I should describe them as being those of extreme felicity that I have the honour to sit at this table this evening. In fact, I am free to confess that, from what I have seen and heard of the party here present, a somewhat warmer feeling takes possession of me now than when I entered this hall, for you are all so modest and unassuming in manner—in fact this is the quietest public dinner I have ever been at ; but it seems to me that you do not carry in your bearing that ## p. (#377) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 23 pride which we might have expected from children spoiled by the world’s applause. (Laughter). I have to propose the last toast of this evening. The fluency with which speeches have been deli- vered made me almost despair of being able to interest you at all, but I gather some confidence and comfort from the nature of my subject. You have heard your chairman—you have seen him for yourselves. You have heard a speech, weighted with good sense and humour, and you will take him, as I take him, to be more than a mere ornament for a banquet, and you may gauge his worth each one for yourselves. I do not think Mr. Moberly Bell has distinguished himself in the fields of fiction—of which there are so many representatives here this even- ing, ladies and gentlemen—but he has dis- tinguished himself in other fields of litera- ture. He has been away for many years in a distant land, as a narrator of facts, as a student of history, as an observer of political strategy, as an analyst of human motives. Week after week his letters have appeared in this country, and by them we were able to diagnose public feeling in that land. I dare say that he will submit to your superior 'gifts of divine imagination. He may not be able to raise a mortal to the skies, or bring an angel down to earth, like some of you can, but he can at least write most veracious political letters, and in his book “ Pharaohs and Fellahs '’ you will be able to find the keen discrimination and varied talents of a Plutarch. (Laughter.) I have known Mr. Moberly Bell for many years. Those who may only have been able to claim a slight acquaintance with him may be able to say that they would like to cultivate his acquaintance more closely, but I am sure those who are already possessed of his friendship can boast of a thing of which they are, and may well be proud. This is the gentleman to whose health I ask you to drink heartily—to his health and long life—and it is with all affection and sincerity that I give you “Our Chairman, Mr. Moberly Bell.” (Applause.) The CHAIRMAN.—Mr. Stanley, Your Excellency, My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I thought I had forgotten how to blush, but Mr. Stanley is an artist of the renaissance, and he has dis- covered the lost art. I never before heard myself compared with Plutarch, and I never knew half the great things I had done, but I attribute a great deal of what Mr. Stanley has said to an acquaintance of twenty-eight years, and I beg that you will take Mr. Stanley's remarks about myself in a very different way to what you would take his remarks upon other matters with which he is even more acquainted—that you will take it with a grain of salt. (Laughter.) As I was coming into this room I was told by a lady that the speech of the chairman in reply to his health was expected to be extremely witty. That would have appalled me—did appal me, until I sud- denly remembered what is the soul of wit. I therefore approach my task with that consolation in mind, and I have nothing more to do than to thank you very heartily for the support you have given me, for the way in which you have welcomed me, for the warmth with which you have drunk my health, and on behalf of the Society of Authors I thank everyone here for their presence to-night. (Applause.) The company then rose. ** * * g- ºr -se BOOK TALK. UTOBIOGRAPHICAL memoranda, were left by the late Lord Selborne, and are now in course of preparation for issue. The work will be published by Messrs. Macmillan. Mr. George Barlow has written a story of artistic life, styled “Woman Regained,” which will appear shortly from the Roxburghe Press. Two art works of importance are announced by Messrs. Geo. Bell and Sons for publication in the autumn. One is on the paintings of Velasquez, and is being brought out by Mr. R. A. M. Steven- son, the eminent art critic, who is also cousin of the late Robert Louis Stevenson. The other con- cerns Sir Frederick Leighton, and among the hundred reproductions of his pictures which it will contain will be that of “Cimabue,” by per- mission of Her Majesty. Mr. Ernest Rhys has written a biography of the P.R.A. for the work, while an appreciation of him as artist is from the pen of Mr. F. S. Stephens. A technical dictionary of sea terms, phrases, and words used in the English and French languages has been compiled by Mr. William Pirrie, and will be issued shortly from the house of Messrs. Crosby Tockwood and Son. M. Alphonse Daudet, who has, of course, been the centre of attraction for literary London during May, is writing the story of his youth—or, rather, he is telling it to his intimate friend, Mr. Robert H. Sherard, who will put it into form and write it. For “Premier Voyage—Premier Mensonge ’’ is to be published in English, and the work of collaboration has been begun. Works relating to the Far East come just now not singly but in battalions. Another book on Rorea has just been published under the title of “Quaint Korea,” the writer being Mrs. Louise Jordan Miln, who is known for her larger work ## p. (#378) ################################################ 24 THE AUTHOR. “When We Were Strolling Players in the East;” Mr. Lafcadio Hearn will shortly make a further addition to the stock with “Out of the East : Reveries and Studies in New Japan,” with the same publishers, Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. Japan is also the subject of a volume of letters by Amy Wilson-Carmichael, which Messrs. Marshall Brothers are bringing out under the style “From Sunrise Land.” Then Mr. J. Morris, who was many years in Tokio, in the service of the Board of Works, has written a work called “Advance Japan: A Nation Thoroughly in Earnest,” a feature of which will be the Japanese national anthem done into English by Sir Edward Arnold. It is in the press of Messrs. W. H. Allen and Co. “Old- World Japan,” by Mr. Frank Rinder, is a volume which Mr. George Allen will issue shortly. Mr. Henry Norman’s important and already well- known work, too, “The Peoples and Politics of the Far East,” has during the month entered its third edition. Two other works on subjects of contemporary political interest are “Five Years in Madagascar,” by Colonel Francis C. Maude (Messrs. Chapman and Hall), and a book on Nicaragua by Mr. Archibald Colquhoun, special corresponeent of the Times. Mr. Charles G. Leland has gone in among the people of Florence, and sought to know their world of legend, and his book of record is announced for early publication by Mr. Nutt, entitled “Legends of Florence.” Mr. Aubyn Trevor-Battye's adventures in the Arctic regions are embodied in “Icebound on Rolguev,” which Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co. will publish for him very soon. Mr. Lionel Johnson and Mr. Le Gallienne have written the letterpress of “Bits of Old Chelsea,” which Messrs. Kegan Paul will issue in an artist’s proof edition, Mr. Walter Burgess having drawn for it about forty etchings. Few subjects could be more interesting, associated as Chelsea is with the great names of Carlyle, Turner, Rossetti, and Leigh Hunt — to mention only these. One notable sketch is of “A Corner in Sir Thomas More's Garden.” Only a hundred copies will make up the edition, and the price is Io guineas. An association has been formed among the prominent houses which do business in foreign books, with the object of keeping a look-out upon questions concerning the improvemant of their trade, and generally to live in harmony and defend their interests. The society is called “The Association of Foreign Booksellers in London.” Mr. H. Kleinan, of Messrs. Hatchette and Co., is president, and Mr. Kohn, of Messrs. Asher and Co., hon. Secretary. Mr. D. Christie Murray will publish, in the course of a week, through Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co., his new novel in one volume, “The Martyred Fool.” The story “Lochinvar,” which Mr. S. R. Crockett is writing, deals with the life of a High- lander exiled in Holland. Messrs. Methuen will publish it. A new romance by Mr. Gilbert Parker, entitled “When Walmond came to Pontiac; the Story of a Lost Napoleon’’ is due from Methuen's press to-day. The Hon. Denis Arthur Bingham will shortly issue, through Chapman and Hall, a volume of “Recollections of Paris.” He is the author of “A Journal of the Siege of Paris” and “The Marriages of the Buonapartes.” French life is also the subject of a book by Mr. Albert D. Vandam, which the same publishers have in hand, entitled “French Men and French Manners.” A new series of short novels by well-known writers will be commenced towards the end of the month by Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. The first volume is to be “The Story of Bessie Cottrell,” by Mrs. Humphry Ward, which is appearing serially in Cornhill and Scribner's. Messrs. Routledge and Sons also announce a new fiction series at 3s. 6d., of which the first will be “Two Women and a Fool,” by H. Chatfield Taylor.” Another is to be produced by Messrs. Archd. Constable and Co., who in it will make no distinction of names, but regard simply the merit of a story. Mr. Lang edits a new edition of “The Death Wake,” the poem by Thomas Tod Stoddart, which first appeared in 1831, and is now ex- tremely rare. It will be issued from the Bodley Head. Two works of history which are to appear shortly are “The Model Republic,” in which Mr. Grenfell Baker traces the evolution of Switzer- land; and a history of the Australasian Colonies, from their foundation to the ye, r 1893, by Pro- fessor E. Jenks, of University College, Liverpool. The latter will be the next volume in the Cam- bridge Historical Series, edited by Professor Prothero; while Mr. Baker's book will be pub- lished by Messrs. H. S. Nichols and Co. Mr. Grant Allen (who is dramatising his recent much-debated novel, “The Woman Who Did,” assisted by a theatrical collaborator in the person of Mr. Dyce Scott) is one of several leading authors who will contribute to a new series of complete stories to be published by Messrs. Tillot- son and Son, of Bolton. Mr. Crockett is of the ## p. (#379) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 25 number, with a tale called “The Enlistment of a Cameronian; ” and Miss Corelli contributes “The Withering of a Rose.” - Chief among the books published during May was “The Life and Letters of Edward A. Free- man, D.C.L., LL.D.,” by the Dean of Winchester (W. R. W. Stephens, B.D.), which Messrs. Macmillan issued in two volumes. It is interest- ing to note that the great historian had an “ insuperable repugnance to reading or writing in a public library.” “As if,” he said once, “to take the lowest ground, money were not better and more cheaply spent in buying one's own books, than in buying railway tickets to go read other men's books a long way off.” From the same publishing house early in the month came the first volume of a notable work, “A History of English Poetry,” by Mr. W. J. Courthope. The definition of English poetry given by Mr. Court- hope is metrical compositions in the language “from the period at which it becomes fairly intelligible to readers of the present day.” The author anticipates his work will be completed before the end of the century. The first two volumes of the “Memoirs of Barras, Member of the Directorate,” were published by Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. Mr. George Duruy edits the work, and in his introduction defends Napoleon from the attacks of Barras, and gene- rally exhibits the latter as a scoundrel. Mr. H. S. Hoole Waylen has compiled a selec- tion of “Thoughts from the Writings of Richard Jefferies,” which Messrs. Longmans will publish immediately. The same firm will send out Sir Edward Arnold’s new book of verse, called “The Tenth Muse, and Other Poems; ” and a volume of “Russian Rambles,” by Isabel F. Hapgood, who relates inter alia a visit to Count Tolstoy in his home. What is likely to be an excellent catalogue of the manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum has been prepared by the director, Dr. M. R. James, and will come from the Cambridge University Press on an early day. Twenty pages of photo- graphic reproductions of important manuscripts are given. The work is priced net at 25s. “The Rise and Growth of the English Nation, with special reference to Epochs and Crises,” by Dr. W. H. S. Aubrey, is announced for publication by Mr. Elliott Stock. It will be completed in three volumes, the first being published early in May and the rest at short intervals. The June number of the Antiquary will con- tain an interesting illustrated paper on “Some of the Round Towers of France;” also an article on the R. A. Exhibition under the title “The Anti- quary among the Pictures.” The London Library has added 40,000 volumes to its shelves since 1888, when the present catalogue was published, and the census of January showed that the stock has grown to a total of 167,000. While the accommodation is thus severely taxed, the income also increases steadily—there are 2279 members—and at the general meeting on the 13th inst, a proposal will come up for the appointment of a professional auditor. A new catalogue will be ready three or four years hence. Mr. J. F. Hogan, M.P. has written “The Sister Dominions,” in which he gives the impressions Canada and Australia made upon him during a recent tour. As he is secretary of the Colonial party in the House of Commons, the author had special means of receiving the opinions of public men in the colonies. The book will be published soon by Messrs. Ward and Downey. Australian life (along with that of Scotland) is also the concern of a novel called “By Adverse Winds,” which Mr. Oliphant Smeaton, editor of the Liberal, has written, and Messrs. Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier will publish. The produce of the past month in the depart- ment of periodicals includes a new monthly, on general lines, edited by Mr. William Graham, and called the Twentieth Century, devoted to articles on subjects of the day, but containing also fiction and verse; and a new quarterly of the same price as the Yellow Book and, like it, concerned with literature and art. This latter is the Evergreen, “a northern seasonal,” published in Edinburgh by Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, and in London by Mr. Fisher Unwin. The contents of each issue are to correspond with the season of the year it appears in. Mrs. Emma Marshall will shortly add to the series of her historical romances a story entitled “The White King's Daughter. Messrs. Seeley and Co. are the publishers of these stories, of which “Under Salisbury Spire’ and “Ken- sington Palace ’’ are amongst the most popular. “Roughly Told Stories,” is a book apparently by a new hand, named John Ingold. He aims at originality and epigram. He is also a cynic. One sketch in the volume at least is noticeable —that called “The Tramp.” (The Leadenhall Press.) The authorship of “A Superfluous Woman” has at length become public. That it was from a practised hand every one knew, but there was some doubt as to the sex of the writer. The book was quite one of the successes of 1894, and ran through several editions. Another novel by the same author, Miss Emma Brooke, entitled “Tran- sition,” has just been published. Let us wish it as large a success. ## p. (#380) ################################################ 26 THE AUTHOR. A prettily bound book, with its silver and grey, is Mathilde Blind’s “Birds of Passage.” It is a book of songs—“Songs of the Orient”— “Songs of the Occident’” — “Shakespeare Sonnets”—and miscellaneous poems. Let the poet speak for herself in one of her Shakesperian Sonnets, that called “Cleve Woods: ” Sweet Avon glides where clinging rushes seem To stay his course, and, in his flattering glass, Meadows and hills and mellow woodlands pass, A fairer world as imaged in a dream. And sometimes, in a visionary gleam, From out the secret covert's tangled mass, The fisher-bird starts from the rustling grass, A jewelled shuttle shot along the stream. Even here methinks where moon-lapped shallows smiled Eound isles no bigger than a baby cot, Titania found a glowworm-lighted child, Led far astray, and, with anointing hand Sprinkling clear dew from a forget-me-not, Hailed him the Laureate of her Fairyland. “A Life's Mistake” is a story told by Charles Garvice, and published in New York by “George Munro’s Son’s.” Mr. Garvice writes like one who has a future before him. But he should compress. A story ought to be very good indeed to be continued for 35o long pages of closely packed type. - “Creation’s Hope” (Baker and Son, Clifton) is a religious poem whose aim and scope are indi- cated by the title. It is by the Rev. Marcus S. C. Rickards, M.A. The following is an extract : In this fair life scene, over everything There hangs a chilling fear—as the bright Noon Is spoilt by haze, or as the smiling Spring Is marred by blight—a fear, that late or soon Tempers all bliss, and clouds each native boon. Close as an ever-brooding presence sits That fear of death, which now makes Nature swoon, Now braces her for what this clime befits, Which Ignorance alone for a brief spell outwits. The warbler flitting on from spray to spray Fears not the gun that compasses its doom : The schoolboy stealing up to cap his prey Starts not the shy moth settling on the bloom ; The sunny May-fly scorns eve's pending gloom : The feasting grub recks not that ampler size Yields the hid foe within more food and room : The gleaming trout darts at the summer flies, Nor shuns the murderous hook arrayed in kindred guise. But we know we must die, and can but wait: We lounge 'mid flowers and shine while distant claps From gathering thunder-clouds forebode our fate; Large rain-drops fall, and inky gloom enwraps, Tho' Sunbeams linger on awhile perhaps. We roam life’s strand, and eye the nearing tide, Which gains on each, and all at length entraps : We gather shells, we strut with childish pride, We play about while Death creeps on with fatal stride. The Rev. Atherton Knowles has produced a little book which ought to become widely popular, for its subject alone. Most of us are interested in Anglican Service Music, its history and de- velopment. It is a contribution not only to the history of religion but also to that of social manners and customs in which churchgoing occupies so large a place. (Elliot Stock.) “Poems,” by Louis H. Victory, is published by Elliot Stock. Here is one of them : * I walk the world in thought-engendered grief: I grieve for all the pain that taints the years; I grieve for wrongs that rend the soul of seers Who find no power to bring the world relief. I grieve for kings whose golden-sorrowed leaf Of life's brief book is filled with kingly fears; I grieve for beggars starving through their years, Whose consolation dwells in sweet Belief. If I could weep for all the wrongs I see I would be blest with some relief from woe, But my dim eyes will never yield the flow My wearied heart one moment to set free. And as I wander down the path of years, I pray to God for His good gift of tears. “A Japanese Marriage” (A. & C. Black), by Douglas Sladen. Here is a novel laid in that enchanted land of colour and sunshine which is now being talked about by everybody. The setting is strange, and the characters move about under new conditions among an Anglo-Japanese life which is new and delightful. It should be as popular as Loti’s “Chrysanthème.” - A new and cheaper edition of “A Prince of Como,” by Mrs. E. M. Davy has just been issued by the authoress’s publishers, Messrs. Jarrold and Sons. We are glad to see this solid recognition of the work of a young author. . It will be followed, we venture to hope, by many other editions. Miss Eleanor Holmes has completed a new novel entitled “To-day and To-morrow.” It will be issued shortly in 3 vols. by Messrs. Hurst and blackett. A completed edition of the “Works of the late Griffith Edwards,” consisting mainly of local histories in Wales, will be produced shortly (Elliot Stock). A number of the author's poems, both in Welsh and English, are added to the work, which is edited by Mr. Elias Owen, and is fully illustrated. Mrs. Stevenson has just had another story published. It is in Messrs. Hutchinson’s “Home- spun Series,” both in cloth and paper covers. It is called “Woodrup's Dinah,” and is a tale of Nidderdale, the beautiful Yorks Valley, lying between Great Whernside and Knaresbro' and Harrogate. One who knows the dale says: “It simply makes me live there again, and the dialect, customs, and habits come back with more vivid- ## p. (#381) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 27 ness than I could have believed possible after twenty years.” The author of “Ernest England,” mentioned in “Book Talk” of last month, is not “J. A. Tucker” but “J. A. Parker,” to whom an apology is due for the mistake. It was also in error that Mr. Harry Furniss was stated to “ have accepted control of the art section ” of the New Budget. He is the originator, chief proprietor, editor, and manager of the New Budget. The March edition of 2000 copies of “A Maid of the Manse,” by Mrs. E. Rentoul Esler, being exhausted, Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. are preparing a larger edition for immediate ISSUl€. Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster have just published a novel by Miss H. P. Redden, entitled “McClellan of McClellan.” The book is illus- trated by the author. Price 6s. *-- ~ -º CORRESPONDENCE, I.—MUSIC AND WoRDs. N reading Miss Helen Marion Burnside's reasonable letter regarding the lot of minor poets, I would take exception to one remark only. #he poet should certainly have a share in the performing rights of a larger musical work, but in a song these rights are practically worth nothing, they having completely lapsed from force of circumstances. Unless they were recog- nised universally insistence upon them would kill the song. I should suggest that the poet's initial remuneration should cover the sale of a certain number of hundreds of copies, and upon the sale exceeding this amount a royalty should be given by the publisher to the poet. MRs. MARY A. C. SALMond. 21, St. Leonard’s-terrace, Royal Chelsea Hospital, May 24. II.-DREAM POEMs. May I add to the number of dream-poems? Many a time I have wakened with metre and rhyme on my lips; but of only three such in- spirations have I kept a record. Once I dreamed that I was pouring out tea for a large party, and, growing tired, made the following remark: It is not fair To make poor little me, Who am small and spare, Pour out all the tea. The word spare must have been used for sake of the rhyme, as it does not at all describe my figure | Another night I dreamed a whole long poem, describing, as if for children, the career of a good little boy. I woke with the following couplet: To follow this goodly example he’s bound, And he’s sure to be happy wherever he's found. My third example is an excerpt from a serious poem, all of which is lost except these lines: Faces we have not seen for years, And some which last we saw in tears. They struck me as rather pathetic. F. BAYFor D HARRISON. TTI.-PERSONAL. The American journalist who, in the Mail and Eapress (New York), has seen fit, on what he terms “internal evidence,” to formulate the charges categorically denied by Mr. John Bloun- delle-Burton in the following letter, appears to have indulged in an outbreak of abuse that is not common even on the other side of the Atlantic. What that abuse and those charges are will be plainly seen by Mr. Bloundelle-Burton’s plain and convincing denial of them : Constitutional Club, London. May 13, 1895. The Editor, the New York Mail and Ea'press, New York. SIR,-A cutting from your paper, published last month, has been shown me, in which, under the heading “Mr. Safe,” you state that there is an edition of my novel “The Hispaniola Plate,” published in America by the Castle Pub- lishing Company,” and that in this edition there is a bio- graphy of me which “bears internal evidence of having been written by the author.” Permit me to show you, therefore, what such “internal evidence” is worth. |Until I read the column so headed in your paper, I was totally unaware that any arrangements had been made by the publishers of “The Hispaniola Plate ’’ (Cassell and Co., London) for reproduction by any firm in the United States, and, consequently, did not know that the edition from which you are undoubtedly quoting was in existence. Con- sequently, also, I know nothing of the biography to which you refer as “bearing internal evidence ’’ of having been written by me. And, “internal evidence ’’ notwithstand- ing, the statement that I wrote the biography is false. I have never seen it yet, since naturally it is not in the London edition; I repeat that I know nothing whatever about it, except that which I can glean from your article, and, moreover, no biography of me has ever been written or suggested by myself. I gather also, from what you say, that comparison favourable to me has been made in this production between myself and Mr. , a piece of vulgarity which—in this country at least !—would have been quite sufficient to prove to any critic (as I imagine the writer of your article considers himself to be) that it could not possibly emanate from any author claiming to possess the slightest feelings of self-respect. But, since the discussion of such a claim as this is, ## p. (#382) ################################################ 28 THE AUTHOR. perhaps, superfluous in my refutation of your writer's ideas and statements, I desire simply to inform you that this part of the so-called “biography” was no more written by me, or known by me, than was any other portion of it, and also that, until doing so at this present moment, I have never written Mr. — 's name. In conclusion, I ask you to give this denial as much pub- licity as you have given the statement, And I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, (Signed) JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON. IV.-DISCOUNT. Here is a case for the consideration of pub- lishers. A firm offers a 7s. 6d. book for 5s. 9d., and to encourage the publishers we order the work. It arrives by Carter, Paterson, and we have to pay 4d. carriage. If we order the book of Bickers, or Bumpus, we obtain it for 5s. 7#d. or 5s. 8d., and it is delivered free of charge. Does the arrangement profit the author more in case I than in case 2 P And if not, why should we pay 4d. to oblige the publisher, and put a few extra pence in his pocket P S. [The author has nothing at all to do with it.— ED.] W.—ENCOURAGEMENT v. DISCOURAGEMENT. My vicissitudes as an author may be of inte- rest as somewhat remarkable. My first novel, published anonymously, was accepted by a leading firm, had excellent reviews in first-class papers, was pirated in America most successfully. The second, in my maiden name, brought out in first- class style by the same firm, had still better reviews. However, it attracted no attention. I was asked by my publishers if I were not disap- pointed, They had expected much from it; but the subject was painful—that of a woman's intemperance, and its telling was “too graphic, too clever, to get the second reading it deserved,” so they said. A master in fiction has since said “It was a book for a second edition.” Then came my third. The same approbation from the reviews, but I verily believe it was killed by one that breathed the word “psychological.” Hard for it was not so. I would not insult the Spirit of the Times by crediting it with time or digestion for such subtlety. This hurrying age adds to its fever by demanding incident in fiction on a par with that which society and travel endeavour to secure for it. The terse and pungent are in favour, no longer the discursive which takes you by pleasant bye-paths off the high road of the story into touch with the writer's personal thoughts and opinions, out of broad sunshine into restful shade. What is there in the modern novel to make you close it with a careful thumb as your marker, and look out of the window and reflect with the writer? Nothing. Tife is hard facts, and so are latter- day books. I thing it is Mr. Hall Caine who says a writer has no right to digress to his own opinions and observations; one must be kept at full strain after the characters. But “The Golden Butterfly ’’ is in a sixpenny edition, and there are readers who hail digressions such as we find in it as milestones where one may pause and meditate. Well, my third novel died before its best reviews —Guardian, Athenæum, and Academy—were out; the former foretold great things for me. On the strength of my book the C.E.T.S asked me to write a story for them. I did so, in a fort- night. It come out in their Chronicle, and both paper and cloth editions—a stroke of success. My last story is just out, both in paper and cloth too, a large edition in a well-known series. I am venturing on another three-decker, and have another short one in the market. But my reviews warrant me in expecting far greater success. Is the reviewing system at fault some- where P A book is often reviewed when it is either everywhere or virtually dead. All my books have been called powerful and realistic. In my temper- ance story, it was almost suggested in the columns of a paper that my facts must be personal—I hope not from myself as an inebriate | These terms are fashionable praise, but I have not been the fashion. Shorter stories, however, seem to be “getting me forwarder.” But how tantalising is the buffeting between intensely appreciative reviews bearing out a publisher's confidence and public indifference I have been warranted in nourishing great expectations of a full tide, and found myself stranded high and dry on the beach. I have been likened, to my own astonishment, to Mr. Thos. Hardy and Mr. Geo. Meredith. But the public remain stolid. My “pathos, humour, picturesqueness and power” are not for their enthusiasms. Yet I must write. I believe as firmly as Mr. Crockett in the gift being God- given, to be used. I live greatly with imaginary people; when they live with me I must put pen to paper and oust one set to make room for another. But I am not now working up to my powers—deliberately. I have found it exhaust- ing to do so, realising my emotional and dramatic situations too strongly ; so am lowering my standard. Was I born under an unlucky star, and is it my fate to have to be most discouraged by encouragements P Where are the powers that will adjust the balance by making recognition consistent with reviewing P I don’t grudge labour, but I yearn for its just reward. Mean- while I hear my case is a rare one, so I chronicle it. M. E. S. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 01 (June 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 01 (June 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-06-01-The-Author-6-1 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/4/277/1896-The-Author-6-index.pdf c60ebb51365a2d2d2d110492c3447eea 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 Society of Authors Publications Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context publications Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1896 Volume 6 Publisher(s) When used for publications, publisher of the periodical or book. When used for people, list of publishers they worked with during their lifetime The Society of Authors Horace Cox Location The location of the event or organisation London 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 Index to The Author, Vol. 06 (1896) Subject The topic of the resource Index to The Author, Vol. 06 (1896) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Index Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1896-The-Author-6-index publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/276/1895-05-01-The-Author-5-12.pdf bea2b3650ca7e26dcf90ad3fc01e278f 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) 1895-05-01 Volume 5 Issue 12 Pages Page range in volume 305–332 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950501 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DUCTIED BY WALTER BES ANT. VoI. W.-No. 12.] MAY 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *-*. --> * = - HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances show.ld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *-* -º a- - - WARNINGS AND ADWICE. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea'pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. - WOL. W. 4. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. IO. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. —- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. 14. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society's Offices :— 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. * -- ~ *-* HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY, I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice F F 2 ## p. 306 (#320) ############################################ 306 THE AUTHOR. sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. - 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. > º: THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, TEMBERS are informed: I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. - 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed eaclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite. MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. º Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble ## p. 307 (#321) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3O7 of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-*. --> sº- ºr -ºss LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. Ottawa, April 14. HE collection by Customs officials of the 12% per cent. author's royalty on reprints of British copyright works brought into Canada will not cease until the present Parlia- ment is dissolved. The view is now held by departmental experts that, until England consents to a Canadian copyright law, the royalty must be collected, as an Imperial statute cannot be over- ridden by a mere Canadian enactment.—Times, April 15, 1895. In the House of Commons at Ottawa yesterday, the Hon. G. E. Foster, Minister of Finance, announced that at the request of the Imperial Government a Canadian representative would be sent to England to discuss the copyright question personally with the Imperial authorities for the purpose of coming to an understanding. In the meantime the proclamation of the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889 would be withheld.— Times, April 23, 1895. II.—THE CANADIAN CASE. “Certain erroneous statements,” it is stated, “having been circulated with regard to the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889, it has been deemed advisable by the Copyright Association of Canada to issue the following statement:” The Canadian Copyright Act of 1889 was unanimously passed by the Parliament of Canada, and assented to by the Governor- General. - The Act was to come into operation on pro- clamation of the Governor-General. The Governor-General has not yet proclaimed the Act. The Canadian Government contend that they have the right to legislate fully on copyright, it being one of the classes of subjects intrusted to º Parliament of Canada by the B.N.A. Act of 1867. The following are among the reasons why the Act should be proclaimed: A Copyright analogous to a Patent. A copyright is analogous to a patent. Canadian Copyright Act is analogous to the Canadian Patent Act. The Patent Act requires manufacture in Canada. The Imperial Government did not disallow the Patent Act. The Imperial Government would not propose that a United States patentee, on securing the British patent, should thereby secure the Canadian patent. Why should the Imperial Government assure the United States author, that on securing copyright in Great Britain, he thereby secures copyright in Canada? Canada exclusively legislates as to the terms on which patents may be secured in Canada. Canada should be permitted to exercise the same powers as to the terms on which copyrights may be secured in Canada. The Canadian Market must not be sold. The United States publisher when buying from a British author the copyright for the United States, stipulates that Canada shall be included. Canadians resent this sale of their market, and persist in their claim to adopt such legislation as will put a stop thereto. Canadian Reprints cannot flood other Markets. The fear that Canadian publishers would flood the British and United States markets with cheap editions, is utterly unfounded, as the Copyright Acts of those countries prohibit the importation and sale of unauthorised editions, and impose a heavy penalty for violation of the law. Canadian publishers, therefore, could not flood either market with cheap editions. It has happened that orders for books sent to London have been returned with “cannot supply.” marked thereon, thus forcing Canadians to buy those books from the United States publishers. On the other hand, the British publisher prints a cheap edition of a work by a United States author. This cheap edition is exported to Canada. An illustration on this point is furnished in the case of F. Marion Crawford's book, “The Ralstons.” This book was published in the United States at 2 dollars. It was published simultaneously in Great Britain at 12s. But the British publishers printed a cheap Colonial edition which sold in Canada for 75 cents. This cheap ## p. 308 (#322) ############################################ 308 THE AUTHOR. edition was on sale in Canada within a day or two after the publication of the United States 2 dollar edition. Here, then, is a British publisher issuing a cheap paper edition for sale in Canada—when one of the main objections of the opponents of the Canadian Act, which is made to do duty on every occasion, is that the Canadian publisher will issue cheap paper editions which will flood the United States market in competition with the more expensive United States editions ! . It must be distinctly understood, however, that this cheap paper edition, which is sold in Canada, does not flood the United States market, for the very excellent reason, already stated, that the United States Copyright Act prohibits its importation or sale in the United States. Imports allowed from Britain. The Canadian Act permits the importation of British editions of works, whether copyrighted here or published under the royalty clause of the Act; but excludes foreign editions. No Piracy in Canadian Act. Should the author (be he British or American) neglect to secure copyright in Great Britain, any publisher may reprint the work there without paying the author. Should the author neglect to secure copyright in the United States, any publisher may reprint the work there without paying the author. Should the author neglect to secure copyright in Canada, no Canadian publisher could reprint the work in Canada without paying the author Io per cent. royalty. It is therefore clearly seen that while the British and United States Acts permit the piracy of authors’ works, the Canadian Act does not. The Royalty Clause. The introduction of the royalty clause in the Canadian Act was not original with the promoters thereof. The idea was suggested by the Foreign Reprints Act, passed by the Imperial Parliament, which allows a United States publisher, or other foreign publisher, who has printed a copyright book without permission, to supply the Canadian market on payment of a royalty of I2; per cent. collected on the wholesale price of the book, which royalty goes to the British copyright owner. It was but natural for the Canadian to desire to be placed on an equal footing with the foreign publisher so far as his own market was concerned. Therefore a royalty of Io per cent. on the retail price of the book was suggested. Furthermore, many difficulties have been encountered in collecting the royalty on imports, it being almost impossible to keep a complete and accurate list at every Custom House, and to check every invoice therefrom. The collection of the royalty on reprints, on the other hand, is provided for by the Canadian Law in a perfectly safe manner, as the Inland Revenue Department is to stamp the title page of each copy of every book issued, and before this is done the royalty must be paid to the Government to the credit of the author. As a matter of fact, then, the author will exchange his royalty of I2; per cent. on imports, which is uncertain of collection, for a royalty on reprints of Io per cent. on the retail price, which is certain of collection. Geographical Position. In considering this question, the geographical position of Canada, side by side with the United States, ought not to be overlooked. This fact makes Canada's position very different indeed from that of any other British colony. Advantages given to Authors. Compare the United States Copyright Act, now in operation, with the Canadian Copyright Act, and it will be seen that many advantages are given to authors by the latter. To secure copyright in the United States, the British author must print his book there from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made from type set within the limits of the United States. The Canadian Act provides for no such restriction, but allows both British and United States authors to set the type in Canada, or print from plates, as they may think best. In anticipation of the Canadian Act coming into force, the Canadian Government passed a special enactment allowing plates for books to be imported into Canada free of duty. This concession was made, thinking that it would be appreciated, but those opposing the Act seem determined to ignore the concession. Yet the concession is there, and it proves that Canada. grants British authors copyright in Canada, on far more liberal terms than they can secure copy- right in the United States; and that Canada. grants United States authors copyright in Canada on far easier terms than Canadians are granted copyright in the United States. Injustice to important Canadian Interests. Canada has not only lost the printing of works by foreign authors, but is fast losing the printing of works by Canadian authors, not because the books can be printed cheaper or better abroad, but because they have to be manufactured in the |United States in order to secure copyright there. When that is done, there is no necessity for issu- ing a Canadian edition, as the Canadian market can be supplied by the United States edition. ## p. 309 (#323) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3O9 Reading Public inconvenienced. Under the present law, the Canadian readin public are ignored, and the works of both British and United States authors must be imported into Canada, and, moreover, these editions are, in many cases, published at such prices as to put them beyond the reach of the great majority of Canadian readers. British authors are now able to secure copy- right in the United States, and United States authors are now able to secure copyright in Great Britain (which covers Canada). Therefore the copyright owners now refuse to print in Canada. They supply this market with editions printed either in the United States or Great Britain. This is considered a great injury to the printing, paper, and allied industries in Canada. It is, moreover, a source of trouble and annoyance to the people of Canada, as the British market is so far away that, after the supply on hand of a book is exhausted, some weeks must elapse before a new supply can be procured. Objections refuted. A circular, containing objections to the Canadian Act, has been recently issued in England. These objections should not prevail. The circular states that Canada has asked the British Government to sanction arrangements to take copyright in Canada away from all British authors except such as are Canadians. Such is not the case. Canada does not propose to take away copyright in Canada from British authors. The British author and the United States author may, under the Canadian Act, secure copyright in Canada on exactly the same terms as the Canadian author. It is objected that the Canadian Act will injure the value of the British edition, because the Canadian edition could be imported into the United Kingdom and the other colonies, and compete with it. But from the report of Lord Knutsford’s Copyright Commission of 1892, it appears that, at the instance of the British copy- right owners, the law of Great Britain was framed so that the importation of Canadian reprints of British works into Great Britain is prohibited. It is objected that the Canadian Act is at variance with the Free Trade principles of the United Kingdom. That may be. The Canadian Tariff Act is also avowedly at variance with the Free Trade principles of the United Kingdom— yet the British Government would not propose to interfere with it. It is objected that the Canadian Act will destroy the British author's present means of securing copyright in the United States of America. That is only an opinion. Are not the British publishers themselves alone responsible for the agitation against allowing British authors to hold copyright in the United States ? The action of the British Music Publishers’ Associa- tion in contesting what is known as the “manu- facturing ” clause in the United States Act, has done British authors incalculable harm in the United States; and if the British music pub- lishers will not accept that manufacturing clause (as British book publishers have very wisely done), British authors may yet find themselves deprived of the benefit of copyright in the United States. As to the Berne Convention, it should be under- stood that the Canadian Parliament never adopted or agreed to the Berne Convention. On the con- trary, the Canadian Parliament has twice asked that notice be given of Canada's desire that the Convention be denounced. Most of the other objections are based on the supposition that the author loses control over his work under the Canadian Act. Nothing could be further from the fact, since, by complying with the terms of the Act, authors and copyright owners retain entire control of their works and may suppress old editions, or issue new ones as desired. Canadians stand by the Act of 1867. Canadians insist on the full right of the Parlia- ment of Canada to pass and enact legislation on copyright as desired from time to time; the same as they enjoy on the other subjects intrusted to that Parliament under the B.N.A. Act of 1867. The right of the Parliament of Canada to enact and enforce its own copyright legislation has been indorsed by the unanimous vote of the Parliament and Senate of Canada; by the News- paper Press of Canada; by the Board of Trade of the City of Toronto, and other cities; by the Employing Printers of Canada; by the Typo- graphical Unions and Printing Pressmen's Unions; by the Trades and Labour Councils (comprising representatives from the various trades), by the Booksellers’ and Paper Makers’ Association, and by many others. The above reasons, amongst others, for the enforcement of the Copyright Act of 1889, were laid before Sir Mackenzie Bowell, the Premier of the Dominion of Canada, and Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, the Minister of Justice, by an influential deputation of the Copyright Association of Canada, at Toronto, in February, 1895. Signed on behalf of the Copyright Association of Canada, J. Ross ROBERTSON, President. DAN. A. RosB, Vice-President. RICHARD T. LANCEFIELD, Hon. Secretary. ## p. 310 (#324) ############################################ 3 IO THE AUTHOR. - III.--THE OTHER SIDE. Hitherto we have had only expressions of opinion from publishers, and politicians in the hunt for votes, and the vital point at issue has been completely ignored. It is not a question whether a wrong has been done to Canada by not allowing her to legislate as to copyright, nor whether United States publishers are to be allowed to flood the Canadian market with British authors’ works printed in the United States, but the crucial question is whether the authors, engravers, printers, sculptors, and photo- graphers of the country are to be deprived of the vast benefits of the Berne Convention at the bidding of a few clamorous publishers. When a cause is bad, false issues are always raised. It does not matter one iota to the public where the books are printed and bound, provided they are cheap and good, and it must be conceded that we can get a cheaper and better class of work from Europe and the United States. Last year I had the privilege of paying Canadian publishers about 1100 dollars for a limited issue of a work on the Patent law of Canada, some of which have been sold in European countries as well as in the United States, and my attention has been drawn to copyright matters, both as a lawyer and in my daily practice as a solicitor of patents, and my firm is even now procuring Canadian and European copyrights for a client for a work of universal interest ; so I claim to be better posted generally than the public, who are ignorant of the rights which are being thrown away to obtain this mongrel Act of 1889, by the passing of which our membership in the Berne Convention is severed, and our privileges destroyed. By simply obtaining a Canadian copyright, the protection of the courts, without further registration, is obtained throughout the United Kingdom and all its colonies and posses- sions, also in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and other places. In the recent case of “ Harfstaengel v. Baines and Co. (1895), I. A. C., p. 20, “The Empire Theatre Living Picture Case,” the right of suit in British courts was conceded to a German copyrighter, although no registration had taken place under the British Copyright Act. The only condition precedent to obtaining copyright in the foregoing countries is that the formalities prescribed by law in the “country of origin” must be complied with. Ten years are allowed within which translation may be made, and authorised translations are protected the same as original works. By the British Act of 1842, copyright was obtainable covering all the colonies, &c., provided the work was first (or simultaneously) published in the United Kingdom, and it was immaterial whether it was printed in the United King- dom or whether it was written by a British subject or not. This has ever since been the policy of British statesmen, who aimed at the benefit of the masses and the encourage- ment of art and literature in the country; printers and publishers could not dictate the policy of the Government to suit themselves, as unfortunately has been the case both in the TInited States and Canada. Why should Canada at the bidding of publishers, printers, and a portion of a noisy press pursue a policy of isolation and make this country take a step backward of fifty years towards the Dark Ages to pander to a few who will never benefit much by the Act of 1889, if it ever should become law P. There have been International Copyright Acts in the United Kingdom—1844, 1852, 1875—with the principal countries of Europe; the Berne Convention was merely an enlargement and consolidation of these Acts. No literary man or artist who understands the matter and the privileges which are being thrown away has asked to have the foolish Act of 1889 become law; indeed it would be folly to suppose so. Canada and the United States are both far behind Europe in art, science, and literature; reputation and progress among the nations of the world do not count when the almighty dollar steps in. The United States, however, have separate international treaties with all the foreign countries named of the Berne Convention (except Spain and Luxembourg), and also with Denmark and Portugal, which are not members, while poor Canada with suicidal folly will by the passing of the Act of 1889 be completely isolated, and will not retain even the reciprocal advantages granted us by the Imperial Act of 1886. The Act of 1889 imposes impossible conditions on British authors, whose property is to be taken without their leave, and, besides that, is so badly drawn as to embody several glaring mistakes, so that lawyers will be able to drive the traditional coach and four through it in the usual manner. On a future occasion I may take this up. The official returns from the ad valorem duty of 12% per cent. on reprints of British works hitherto collected in the Camadian Customs since December, 1850, for British authors, and now happily ended, show what a farce the collection has been, and will arouse grave doubts whether much of the beggarly IO per cent, royalty provided for in the Agt of 1889 would find its way to the pockets of the British author.— Yours, &c., John G. RIDOUT. Toronto, April 4. Toronto Mail and Earpress, April 6. ## p. 311 (#325) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3 II IV.--THE “IIVING PICTUREs '’ LITIGATION. The following summary of this case was pub- lished (Friday, April 26th) by the Westminster Gazette : “What happened was this : the Empire Theatre, starting what has since become a very popular form of “show,” produced some living groups on the stage. These groups were arranged after some pictures by foreign artists, the copyright of which belonged to the fine art publisher, Herr Hanfstaengl. In due course of business, the Daily Graphic and the Westminster Budget published outline sketches, more or less rough, of the performances at the Empire. Herr Hanf- staeng1 thereupon proceeded at law for infringe- ment of copyright: 1. Against the Empire, in respect of the living groups; 2. Against the Empire, in respect of the painted backgrounds to the groups; 3. Against the Daily Graphic, in respect of its sketches of the performances at the Empire ; 4. Against the Westminster Budget, on the same ground. The fate of these proceedings was as follows: 1. Carried to the Court of Appeal, and dis- missed with costs; . Mr. Justice Stirling granted an injunction; the Court of Appeal overruled him, and were sustained by the House of Lords; 4. Mr. Justice Stirling, basing himself on the decision of the House of Lords, dismissed the case with costs; 2. This was the case decided on April 25th. Mr. Justice Stirling dismissed it so far as concerned most of the pictures, but decided that the back- grounds of two of them were an infringement of copyright. We need not trouble our readers with any more law than this—namely, that what the Copyright Acts forbid, as piracy, is “copies or colourable imitations of the painting [or photograph] or the design thereof.” What, therefore, the Courts have now decided in the group of cases in ques- tion is—(1) that living groups, posed after pictures, are not—apart from any question of painted backgrounds—infringements of copy- right; (2) nor are rough sketches of pictures such as are familiar to the public in the illus- trated papers.” W.—THE RETAIL PRICE. The following letter appeared in the Athenæum of April 8: Park-street, Bristol, April 1, 1895. It is, possibly, typical of the inertness of book retailers that the statement quoted in the Athenæum, March 23, as to 6s. novels “sold to the trade at 3s. 7#d.” is allowed to pass without comment. This is one of the misleading half- WOL. W. truths constantly appearing in the Awthor. Retailers would be glad to find someone who would supply them with the 6s. novels they want at 4s. There is evidently a good living going begging if the Author be correct. W. GEORGE’s SONS. As regards “misleading half-truths,” it is remarkable that those who speak about them never venture to correct them. The Author would like, above all things, to be correct. Why do not these booksellers state plainly what they have to pay ? How, then, was the sum of 38.7%d. arrived at as a fair average estimate of the general retail price of a 6s. book P. In this way. The general retail price of a 6s. book is nominally 4s. 2d. But 5 per cent. discount is allowed “for the account,” and thirteen are allowed as twelve. That works out at 3s. 7+}d. The fraction was reduced in favour of publishers from +} to #. It was thus intended to make some allowance for bad debts. The Society, in issuing these figures, was not considering the relations of booksellers to publishers, but of authors to publishers. Its first care, therefore, was not to overstate their own case. With this object it assumed that all books were bought at thirteen as twelve, which is very far from being the case, though, it must be remembered, in order to get at an average price, with some publishers the thirteen ordered are allowed to be of various books. If all the books were bought simply as single copies our royalty tables would have to be altered throughout, and authors’ royalties very much increased. We have, so far, received no complaints from pub- lishers as to the alleged understatement of the retail price. rº- + -º THE DEFERRED ROYALTY. HE proportion of proceeds that the author T should assign to the publisher can never be decided, once for all, on equitable prin- ciples, because no connection can be established between the author’s work and the publisher's. The former conceives and executes the book, bring- ing to his work all his knowledge, learning, skill, and ability. This is one kind of work. The pub- lisher performs the mechanical part: he sends the MS. to the printer, and he gives it the help of his own machinery in introducing the book to the world. This is another kind of work. The two kinds are incommensurable. Therefore some kind of recognised principle, adopted and agreed upon by all, is the nearest approach that we can expect to the settlement of the question. Thus, it has always been supposed, till lately, that a half profit system, in the case of any ordinary book, was as fair a method as could be devised. In the rare case of a very successful G. G. ## p. 312 (#326) ############################################ 3I 2 THE AUTHOIR. work, in one certain to be in great and extra- ordinary demand, this plan would be manifestly unjust. But the half, profit system has been discredited by those publishers who falsify their accounts; for £IOO writing £I IO or £I2O : and charging for advertisements for which they have not paid. “I like the half profit system,” said Douglas Jerrold, “for there is certain to be no division with the publisher.” Discredited as it has been, it still remains in practice, especially with those persons who continue—there are not many left—to falsify their accounts. There remains, however, in the minds of authors a feeling that more than one-half of the profits ought not to be taken by the publisher; and they fondly believe that any offer made to them is based upon that principle. Nor does the publisher ever openly demand more than one-half; in certain cases he asks for no more than one-third. We have already seen in these columns what is meant by a royalty of Io, I 5, 20, or 25 per cent. Our calculations were based upon a trade price which we assumed to be general, though it was really placed somewhat too low. We shall perhaps be able to revise this table of royalties. Meantime it must be observed that it is extremely difficult for an author to get a royalty which actually corresponds to a half profit return, a fact which would by itself suggest that in many cases the accounts were falsified, and the “half profits” returned were only a fourth, or even less. We have now to consider a system which has come in of late years, and must be exposed. It is that of the deferred royalty. Under the old half profit system the publisher said, “I will stand in with you—my risk of money against your risk of time.” Under the royalty system the publisher says, “If there is any risk I take it”—of course, in most cases, there is none, or, as a man of business, he would not take it—“ and from the outset, which increases the risk, I load the book with so much royalty.” A deferred royalty at first sight seems perfectly fair. What could be fairer than that profits should be reckoned after the cost of production has been defrayed P As usual, however, the cost of production is very carefully withheld, and the mere mention of such a thing is violently resented. And, again, the publisher who flourishes his deferred royalty is extremely shy of stating what the proposal means to himself. When will authors have the courage to say: “Make me an offer showing in exact details what you propose for yourself out of my property, and what you will give me P’’ or, failing this, why do they not always bring their agreements to the Society for explanation before they sign them P Here, for instance, are a few cases of actual proposals of a deferred royalty : 1. This was the case of a very distinguished man of letters. He was asked to write a book for a certain series. Terms: Royalty of so much per cent. — a very moderate percentage — to begin after two editions of a thousand copies each had been sold. In other words, the enterprising firm calmly proposed to take for themselves the whole proceeds of two editions before they gave the author anything ! 2. This was the case of an educational book. The author was offered a little cheque down with a royalty of so much—not much—to begin after many thousands (!!) of copies had been sold. Making a very rough calculation, it looked as if the generous and noble-hearted firm was proposing to make a profit of about six or seven times what it gave the author, before the moderate royalty began. This kind of business seems to be more common in educational books than in general literature. There is no reason why there should be any difference. Some educational books are costly to produce, but a book that is once established is a mine of gold. There is, doubtless, real risk attached to the publication of some educational books, though the name of the writers of books produced by reputable firms should be a guarantee of their value. In such cases, the old half profit system was designed to meet the difficulty. Let the author, when considering any proposed agreement, simply demand an estimate in writing of the cost of production and the comparative shares of profit. If he has any doubt about the document, let him refer it to the Society; of course, it must be a detailed estimate, showing the number of sheets, the size of the page, the character of the type, the style of binding, the price of stereos, and so forth. If the firm refuse that estimate let him go elsewhere The deferred royalty proposal has a much better chance of catching the ignorant and credulous author when a small cheque down is proposed than with nothing. The author thinks that he is certain to get something. This, with the fact that his book is going to appear, reconciles him. It was a publisher with a real knowledge of human nature who first invented the little cheque on account. The offer might be miserable and grasping, but there was at least something down, and the writer's vanity was flattered by the pro- duction of his book. - 3. The next is the case of a three-volume novel. The author was to receive a royalty— quite a large and handsome royalty—after the sale of 350 copies. He was at first greatly uplifted with admiration of the princely firm ## p. 313 (#327) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3 I 3 which had made him this magnificent offer—an admiration which suddenly vanished when he found out that no more than 350 copies had been printed and that the type had then been distri- buted. So that the generous publisher never meant him to have anything at all out of his book, and knew very well beforehand how many would be taken by the libraries. 4. The last is a case quoted in “Methods of Publishing,” in which the royalty was to begin “after the expenses are defrayed.” Nothing at all was said about any audit of accounts, and so the author was expected to take the publisher's word as to what the expenses were. The royalty system, since the Society exposed its early iniquities, has been greatly improved. Royalties are given now which would have been indignantly refused a few years ago, when ignorance of the figures enabled grasping dealers to deal with royalties as they pleased. But the deferred royalty still offers grand opportunities for grasping and greed. Now, it cannot be said that any of the cases above quoted, or any cases similar to them, are, strictly speaking, fraudulent, unless in the last case, where an opening was left for falsifying the accounts. How, then, can these cases be described P. If a man places himself in the hands of another, whom he believes to be honourable and upright; if the former, further, believes that in the manage- ment of his property he will receive a fair proportion, say half the proceeds, and if that man so trusted gets the other to sign an agree- ment by which two-thirds, or three-fourths, or five-sixths of the profits go secretly into his own pocket; if he does this, knowing ſhe other to be ignorant of the figures, how shall we describe that man P. He is, at least, one who trades on the ignorance of others, one who systematically “bests” his partners. If the royalty is to begin after the expenses are defrayed, these expenses must be laid down at the outset, and an audit of the books granted as a matter of course. This would not absolutely stop cheating, if that were attempted; but it would make it more difficult, because it would involve the assistance of accomplices. Then, as soon as the actual expenses of a whole edition are defrayed, the royalty should be 50 per cent. on the actual trade price of the book until that edition is exhausted. To repeat, it has never been argued or held that a publisher should for his share in the work be entitled to ask for more than one-half. Yet see, by the cases given above, what a monstrous share he may secretly seize by such an agreement as any one of those quoted above. WOL. W. LETTER FROM PARIS. UR young friend George Hugo, the grand- son of the poet, will in future be known as Comte George Hugo. He succeeds to the family title by the death of Comte Leopold Hugo, who was the eldest son of Victor Hugo's elder brother, Abel Hugo, the eldest son of the gallant general, Joseph Hugo, of whom M. de Ménéval, Napoleon's private secretary, writes that he was a young officer full of fire and activity, who rendered yeoman’s service to the Emperor and King Joseph in Spain, and wrote Some most interesting memoirs on the war in Spain, which were published with a preface by his eldest son, Abel. Leopold Hugo cannot be described as a literary man. He was rather a savant, with a speciality for geography, and was in high repute at the Academy of Sciences. Just before he died he asked that his little cousin, Charles Daudet, the son of Leon Daudet and Jeanne Hugo, should be brought to him. He will be much regretted by all who knew him. George Hugo, or rather Comte George Hugo, and his little son Jean are now the only representa- tives of the male branch of this distinguished family. George Hugo, by the way, is coming to London on May 6, in the company of the Daudets. Apropos of this visit, I may mention that M. de Goncourt told me on Thursday last that he did not intend to accompany his º to London. “I don’t like ovations,” he Sal Ol. Speaking of de Goncourt, one is glad to hear that next month Charpentier will publish the eighth volume of the “Journal des Goncourt,” of the strong interest of which to all those who are interested in contemporary French life, literary, social, and artistic, I have already spoken. I hear that the author has submitted the proofs to various persons of whom he has spoken in this volume, so as to avoid any such complaints about indiscretion as were made in reference to previous volumes of the same diary. Apropos of the “Journal des Goncourt,” which I may perhaps explain may be translated either as the “Goncourt's Newspaper’ or as the “Gon- court's Diary,” a barrister told me that once when defending a prisoner down in the South of France he made copious quotations from these books, with visible effect on the jury. His client was acquitted, and after the trial the foreman of the jury came to see him and asked him in the name of various members of the jury to inform them where the “Goncourt's Newspaper " was published, whether it was a daily or a weekly paper, and what were the terms for subscription. The name of the barrister who told me this is G G 2 ## p. 314 (#328) ############################################ 3I4 THE AUTHOR. Raymond Daly, himself a writer of no mean order. A volume of his short stories, to be entitled “The Gold and the Grey,” are being translated by Mr. Stewart Merrill, the American poet, and will be published in London next autumn. Admirers of Gustave Flaubert have long desired to possess an adequate life of the greatest master of prose that France has seen in this " century. One is therefore pleased to read that in a few days from now we shall possess such a book, written by M. Albert Collignon, & man well suited for the task. M. Albert Collignon was for many years editor of La Vie Littéraire, and is the author of numerous works of fiction and biography. Almost simultaneously with the Flaubert book he will publish a work on Diderot. But the Flaubert book will interest you and me the more, I think. A new French slang dictionary is in prepara- tion and will be welcomed by those who love to stray on the by-paths of philology. It is being put together by M. Dellesalle. It will be in two parts, French-Slang and Slang-French, just like any other dictionary of two languages. It should be useful to writers of realistic novels, and will save them the trouble of studying French slang in the unpleasant regions where it flourishes. I have another little anecdote about William Wordsworth which may interest those who are interested in this poet. A lady tells me that when she was a little girl—it is the same little girl who sent the epic and the half-crown to the destitute poet—she used to stay at Rydal Mount, and that William Wordsworth used to make her read aloud to him, not for his diversion, indeed, but in order to train her voice. “He used to con- stantly interrupt me to correct my enunciation whenever I raised my voice unduly, either in read- ing or speaking, and would quote Shakespeare's “sweet low voice, an excellent thing in woman’ till I conceived a strong dislike for Cordelia, which was only removed by Ellen Terry's splen- did acting of the part.” It was rather hard on a little girl, home for the holidays, to be exercised in this way—a way worthy rather of the Blimber establishment; but Wordsworth had particular views on many subjects. It is, however, quite certain that his views on hospitality were sadly traduced by Miss Martineau, who related that the poet had told her that he received so many visitors at Rydal Mount that he could not afford to entertain them all, and that he had instructed his wife to supply tea and bread and butter only to strangers, and to charge cost price for anything else in the way of refreshment. Why did Miss Martineau say this, I wonder P. It was, of course, an utter falsehood. According to M. Jules Huret, the victor in the Huret-Mendés duel, there is in preparation a “History of the Second French Empire,” with notes by the Empress Eugenie. This should be an interesting work. I often have regretted that Baron Haussmann never wrote a history of those Imperial days, and I remember suggesting to him. that he should do so. But he said that his memoirs ought to suffice, and that he would not betray the confidence which his master had put in him, even after his death, by betraying State secrets of which, by his position and owing to his friendship with Napoleon III., he had become cognisant. No man knew better what had gone on behind the scenes during that lurid period of French history than Baron Haussmann. ROBERT H. SHERARD. 123, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. * - - -* *- - -s. NEW YORK LETTER, New York, April 13. ERHAPS the most important literary news P of the past few weeks is the announcement just made that certain of the leading professors of history in the chief American Universities, in conjunction with other historical students, have determined to establish an American Historical Review. At present there is no periodical in the pages of which the his- torical investigator really feels at home, for the little monthly Magazine of American History tries to be “popular,” and is given over largely to the amateur and to the notes and queries collector. A meeting was held in New York last Saturday, attended by representatives of most of the colleges where history receives special attention, and an editorial board was elected consisting of Professor Adams (of Yale), Professor W. M. Sloane (the writer of the serial biography of Napoleon now appearing in the Century), Mr. J. B. McMaster (the author of the “History of the American People,” the fourth volume of which the Appletons have just published), Pro- fessor H. Morse Stephens (of Cornell), and Professor A. B. Hart (of Harvard). It is con- sidered probable that Professor Hart will be the managing editor, and that Longmans, Green, and Co. will be the publishers of the new periodical. It will be a quarterly not unlike the English Historical Review, also published by Longmans, Green, and Co. The first number of this American Historical Review will not appear before the autumn, but thereafter its appearance is assured for at least three years, a substantial ## p. 315 (#329) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3 I5 guarantee fund having been raised to make this a certainty. Probably few readers in England, except those who have had special occasion to consider the subject, have any conception of the very extra- ordinary work which the American Universities are now doing in history, and more particularly in the allied departments of political science, sociology, and economics. This is one of the points to which Mr. Bryce called attention in his speech introducing Lowell at the first dinner, the Society of Authors gave. At Columbia College alone in the School of Political Science there are three full professors of political economy, besides a professor of sociology, a professor of adminis- trative law, a professor of comparative juris- prudence, a professor of international law, a professor of constitutional law, and half a dozen professors and lecturers on history. At Harvard and at Yale, at Johns Hopkins, and at Chicago, there are faculties inferior only in numbers to that at Columbia. And nearly all these institutions issue periodicals, generally quarterlies. By a thoughtful arrangement the Harvard Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Columbia Political Science Quarterly, and the Yale Review are issued each a month later than the other, so that the three taken together appear every month in the year. All three of them give a certain amount of space to history, and will probably continue to do so. The Suwanee Review, edited by Professor Trents of the University of the South, is frankly devoted to literature and to history. Half a dozen years ago there was a New Princeton Review, edited by Professor Sloane, but dissensions arose among the owners, and it was finally absorbed by the Columbia Political Science Quarterly. In it. Pro- fessor Sloane tried to combine the solid merits of the old-fashioned quarterly reviews with the more alluring vivacity of the brisker monthly reviews. The venerable North American Review, to which Bryant contributed “Thanatopis,” and, which Lowell edited for years, was bought by a rich and foolish young man named Rice a dozen years ago. Under the advice of Mr. Laurence Olyphant, Rice made it a monthly, modelling it upon the Nine- teenth Century of Mr. Knowles, but going much farther in search of sensationalism—so far, indeed, that the present North American Review has been characterised as “a monthly edition of the New York Herald.” Its management is now in the hands of Mr. David Munro, a shrewd Scotch- man, and of Mr. William H. Rideing, an English- man with a very large acquaintance with the writers of England. Perhaps this is the reason why the North American Review gives up a large proportion of its space to articles by European writers on European topics. Its chief rival, the Forum, also a monthly, is edited by Mr. Walter H. Page; it is more digni- fied, less sensational, and far more American in its list of contributors and in its choice of subjects. A third monthly review called the Arena, is published in Boston; it is edited by Mr. B. O. Flower; it is rather the organ of the faddists of all sorts, the cranks and the freaks, than a vehicle for serious discussion of serious topics. The scholarly Atlantic Monthly, now edited by Mr. H. E. Scudder, is still the periodical that most steadily maintains a lofty standard. The Atlantic is half a magazine and half a review. It admits fiction and poetry, and it discusses politics now and again; but it devotes a very large proportion of its space to literature. Its book reviewing is generally done by experts, but it is mostly anonymous, and therefore lacks authority. Perhaps the best book reviewing in America is to be found in the pages of periodicals like the Political Science Quarterly and like the Educational Review of Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, in which every book worth consideration is sent to an expert, who vouches for his opinion with his name and address. In the United States, as in Great Britain, there is a tendency of the unsigned book review to be wanting in the weight—to be more careless, not to say more flippant, than the article can afford to be which the writer guarantees with his own name. The most exhilarating and stimulating criti- cism of belles lettres we have had here in America. for several years was that contributed monthly to Harper’s when Mr. Howells had charge of the “Editor's Study.” Whether one agreed with Mr. Howells's opinions or not—in fact, more especially when one did not agree with them—they were unfailing stimulants to thought. They tended to make every reader examine again the founda- tions of his own opinions. Mr. Howells has been missed from the Editor's Study of Harper's Monthly for several years now ; but he has just 'begun to contribute almost every week to Harper's Weekly a signed article on a new book, a group of new plays, or an exhibition of new pictures. His article this week is on the absurd “Degeneracy” of Dr. Nordan, in the course of which he not only exposes the pretensions of the German author, but he declared again what seem to him to be the real and abiding merits of Tolstoi, Ibsen, and Zola. “Stops of Various Quills” is the title of the volume of poems by Mr. Howells which Harper and Brothers will publish shortly. A novelette of his, which has just been concluded in the Cosmopolitan, will also be published by the Harpers during the spring. And another ## p. 316 (#330) ############################################ 316 THE AUTHOR. novel, “The Story of a Play,” will begin in Scribner's Magazine later in the year, to run through half a dozen numbers. Mr. Howells has also recently edited the recollections of his father, whose early wanderings through Ohio are fresh and characteristic and interesting. Mr. Stedman and Professor Woodberry con- tinue to work steadily on their complete edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Four volumes containing the prose tales are now published, the first of which opened with a brief, compact, authoritative biography by Professor Woodberry, and followed by a critical introduction to the stories by Mr. Stedman; while to the last of the four Professor Woodberry appended various bibliographical and explanatory notes. For the first time in any edition of Poe his text is here adequately revised, and his slovenly quotations are amended and traced to their sources. There are portraits of Poe in every volume, one of which has never before been engraved. There are illustrations by Mr. Albert E. Sterner. The making of the book, the taste of the typography, the harmony of the page and of the type and of the paper, reflect great credit on the publishers, a young and enterprising Chicago firm, Messrs. Stone and Kimball. The fifth volume, contain- ing “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym " and the “Journal of Julius Rodman,” will probably be ready next month. The other five volumes completing the edition are to be expected before the end of the year. Mr. Stedman has had an attack of the grippe which has delayed the appearance of his long-promised “Victorian Anthology,” intended to accompany his discussion of the “Victorian Poets.” Mr. Bryce, at that first dinner of the Society of Authors, said that the two things he had recently noticed in American literature were, first, the great variety of political and economic writing; and, second, the abundance of short stories having a strong local flavour, redolent of the soil. This local short story continues to be very popular in our magazines, until now there is hardly any part of the United States which someone has not taken as a field for fiction. Among the recent volumes of these tales are Mrs. Margaret C. Graham’s “Stories of the Foot Hills '’ of California and Miss Murfree’s “Phantoms of the Footbridge,” in which “Charles Egbert Craddock” sets up before us again the strange and uncouth mountaineers of Tennessee. Also to be noted are Mrs. S. M. H. Gardner’s “Quaker Idyls;” Mr. William Henry Shelton’s “Man with a Memory '' (chiefly war stories); Mrs. Mary Tappan Wright’s “A Truce’” (chiefly New England tales); while Mr. Louis Pendleton's story of “The Sons of Ham ” is a discussion of the duty of the nation toward the enfranchised negro clothed in the garb of fiction. At the Publishers' Night of the Authors’ Club —the first formal entertainment given by the club since it moved into its new and permanent home in Carnegie Hall—Mr. Charles J. Long- man was among the guests. Mr. Longman has been in America for a month or more, having had a fortnight of sunshine in Florida, and having spent two or three days in Washington among the relics of ancient man in the Smithsonian Institute. The importance of the American branch of Longmans, Green, and Co. is increasing year by year. The number of books by American authors published by this oldest of London houses is also steadily growing, Indeed, as the Long- mans and the Macmillans have both found, it is impossible for any British publishing house to hold a position of consequence in the United States without having on its list a great many books of American authorship. Mr. Longman expects to sail for England a week from to-day. Mr. John Lane was also among the guests of the Authors—and so was Mr. Richard Le Gallienne, who returns home to-day. A story told at this reception of the Authors' Club is said not to be new—but it is perhaps true. A very unfunny article was sent by an ambitious amateur to an American comic paper, and at the foot of it the aspiring author has written in pencil, “What will you give for this P” “Ten yards start” was what the unfeeling editor wrote under- neath when he returned the MS. FI. R. - *- ~ 2-sº * NOTES AND NEWS. HE Canadian Copyright business still con- tinues to trouble the world. We publish in another part of this paper the Canadian case drawn out by themselves. It amounts, appa- rently, to this ; that while every civilised country in the world has acknowledged literary property to be as real and as worthy of being guarded as any other kind of property, Canada alone desires to secede from this honourable convention, and to appropriate and “convey ’’ literary property to her own supposed advantage—that is, the advan- tage of a few printers for whose sake this great iniquity is to be perpetrated. It has been found impossible to keep American books out of Canada, or Canadian books out of America. It is ridiculous to keep repeating that the laws forbid the importation of such books. Who regards the law P Who enforces it? ## p. 317 (#331) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 31 7 Canada used to be overrun by American cheap piracies. Distant colonies, such as Jamaica and the Cape, used to be overrun by American cheap piracies, notwithstanding the law. With a frontier unprotected, unguarded, thousands of miles long, there can be no protection for such a law. For all intents and purposes the books published in America might have been before the Copyright Act published in Canada. And so it will be again. As for the old royalty of 12% per cent., from which the author never got anything, that is to be exchanged for one of Io per cent, the receipts from which are equally dubious. We are told that no book is to be issued without a stamp. And who is to enforce this provision over the broad extent of Canada? Are we to expect the whole Canadian people individually to insist upon this stamp P Moreover, to offer a successful author Io per cent, when he receives I5, 20, and sometimes 25 per cent. is impudent. As, however, no one will now get anything, it matters nothing what they offer. Only it would have looked better to make the illusory proposal a little more attractive. The Canadians “resent the sale of their market.” What does this mean? It means that the American publishers buy of the author the Canadian rights; in the same way they buy the American rights. This gives them undisputed right to sell in Canada. Now, it is perfectly open to Canadian publishers, if there are any, to set up an office in New York. English authors will be Quite as ready to deal with them as with American publishers. It will be but a question of fair dealing—not a 10 per cent. royalty—and enterprise. English publishers have done this. Longmans have a house in New York; there is a Cassell and Co. in New York. Why cannot the Canadians do the same On the proposed Canadian Copyright Act, a small collection of opinions from three authors and two publishers appeared in the Contemporary Review of April. The opinions are very clear, and very clearly put. The Act is a blow against the recognition of literary property which has been obtained from all civilised nations. It proposes practically to take the works of English and American authors; to reprint them as the Canadian booksellers—they have no publishers— please; to cut them up and mutilate them as they please. These facts are plainly and forcibly brought out, and the opinions ought to be put together in a pamphlet with the rest of the protests against this iniquitous proposal. That the Act is not defended by the better class of Canadians is shown oy a protest of a Canadian lawyer here reproduced (see p. 3 Io), which first appeared in a Toronto paper. The last has not been said on this subject, nor has the Act yet become law. Meantime it is shameful that a country like Canada should for a moment enter- tain a proposal to revert to the old time of international piracy. . Here is a noble chance for novelists, or aspirants, who can construct a story of mystery. The Chicago Record offers to authors the following prizes for novels of incident, dramatic situations, and mystery. Bear in mind these conditions, O ye candidates Incident — always more incident — dramatic situations, surprises, and Tableaua, in every chapter : the mystery of a great and wonderful secret, to be discovered on the last page, to be kept up throughout. That is the first condition. The next is that the story must have been written by the candidate who sends it; sworn evidence of that must be sent with the story. Thirdly, the story must be, in length, from 140,000 to 160,000 words—viz., the average length of a serial to run six months in a weekly paper, viz., about 5000 or 6000 words for an instalment. Fourthly, the subjects must not be those of certain popular novels of the day. As to the prizes, they range from £2OOO down to £100. And the Chicago Record reserves the right of using such stories as do not win a prize for its own columns at 5 dollars, or £I, per column. Unsuccessful stories will be returned. Very well, the whole thing may be bogus; but I do not think that it is bogus, because so much publicity has been given to such an offer. If I were a young novelist I would have a try. Think of a mystery—murder, money, jewels, a claimant, a forgery. Fix upon as strong a motif as you can —don't be afraid of making it too strong; and then go ahead. The MSS. have to reach Chicago before Oct. I of this year. You have therefore less than five months to spend over the work. Chapman’s “Magazine of Fiction,” vol. I, No. 1, is lying before me. A magazine entirely devoted to fiction would seem a perilous undertaking, especially at a time when in every other number of every other magazine there appears an article on the Decay of Fiction. At the same time, however, in every advertising column there is a long list of books in their fiftieth, their hundredth edition, showing that the small num- ber of English families which can buy books are buying that class of book. The editor, Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, has probably gauged the demand before making the venture. Meantime ## p. 318 (#332) ############################################ 3.18 THE AUTHOR. there is one new feature. The magazine is to contain dramatic dialogues; stories in dialogue; and even plays. We all know how much more pleasantly dialogue can be made in skilful hands to tell the story than long and tedious narrative. It is one of the later developments in the art of fiction that it is becoming more and more dramatic in form—not in set “tableaux,” after the old fashion, but in the substitution of dialogue for description. The new number contains eight papers—by Bret Harte, Anthony Hope, Stanley Weyman, George Brett, James Payn, Frankfort Moore, Violet Hunt, and John Davidson. A propos of Free Libraries and Tauchnitz books, the following suggestion seems worthy of con- sideration. Perhaps some Bradford citizen may take it up. I have to thank a correspondent, “F. N. W.,” for it. In nearly every case the borrowers of books from Free Libraries are compelled to pay one penny per annum for the renewal of their tickets. TXoes not this constitute a hiring within the letter of the law P I have submitted the case to three legal gentlemen, and all admit that it is an exceedingly nice point. At any rate, it seems to me to be worthy of consideration. I have before me the rules of the new Hampstead Public Libraries. I do not find in them anything about the payment of a penny. There are fines for the detention of books, but not for the renewal of a ticket. Perhaps there is no penny demanded at Bradford. Is not, how- ever, the circulation of a Tauchnitz book by a public library the infringement of the law P Is it not the same thing as the open distribution of smuggled goods P One is curious to watch the effect of the Free Libraries on the Circulating Libraries. For my own part, I do not expect any perceptible effect. The general shrinkage of incomes, if it goes on, will more and more diminish the number of sub- scribers, but not the Free Libraries, which will be used by the class below those who pay three guineas a year to Smith or Mudie. And since this class cannot possibly afford to buy books, not harm at all, but good, will be done by the exten- sion of the Free Libraries. Surely it is a good thing for an author to feel that his book will have the chance at least of being read by millions instead of by thousands. Surely those who desire to reach and to influence these millions will rejoice in thinking that their books are now within reach of so vast an audience; and surely it will not be a bad thing in the immediate future for a publisher to feel that he can place the whole of one edition at once among the libraries of the country. Authors are an irritable race, especially and proverbially those who write verse. The fol- lowing note explains the repetition of this maxim: My little volume I sent you, which was considered suffi- cient passport for enrolment in your honourable Society, has failed to be recognised in the Awthor in any way whatever, although all my friends (men of letters, too) have called Some of the poems perfect cameos, unique, and so on. I see, therefore, that my merits as an author by authors do not warrant my burdening the Society with my name. In other words, a member of the Society has withdrawn because he did not receive a notice of his book in these columns. The Author is not a review; it does not profess to publish criticisms on books. It does, however, announce and men- tion new books and new editions. Until lately it published a list of all the new books; for the sake of getting space this list has been now abandoned. With regard to young poets, it is found that the fairest way with these is to let them speak for themselves. And the little volume referred to has either not reached me—it is still, probably, on the shelves of the secretary’s office—or I have mislaid it, for which, as the author takes it so much to heart, I am sorry. If he had communi- cated with me I would have had a search made for the book, and should have given him the same chance as the others—viz., allowed him to speak for himself. This restriction as to criticism does not prevent the writer of “Book Talk” from mentioning, selecting, or praising any book which he thinks may deserve it. The following must be taken for what it is worth on some results of the proposed “Net’” system: Some remarks made to me yesterday by a country book- seller upon the “Net” system in the price of books appear to me to touch upon a probable source of injury to authors through the “Net” system which, so far as I have seen, has been unnoted in the Awthor. He said: “I do not know to whom the extra profits go—certainly not to the booksellers; and, to prove that the profits do not go to us, I may tell you that for the future, unless we are paid ready money for books that are sold net, we are going to charge our customers twopence in the shilling upon the net price. We cannot afford to give credit unless we do this. Should our customers hesitate about paying twopence in the shilling upon the net price in the event of the book being put to their credit, we shall decline to order the book.” I will try to obtain by the next number some results of the “Net” system as applied to royal- ties. So far as the figures have been furnished me, they are simply surprising. If the system prevails, which seems unlikely, if only for the reason that the British public, which grows poorer every year, is not going to pay 6s., or even 5s., ## p. 319 (#333) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3 IQ instead of 4s. 6d., we shall have to revise the whole of our royalty tables. A letter appears to-day (April 26) in the Daily Chronicle which looks like the commencement of an outpouring against literary agents. A certain kind of publisher is never tired of attacking the wickedness of the literary agent, who makes his former practices impossible. This writer, who signs himself “An Onlooker,” accuses the literary agents of “emasculating ” literature by making Contracts for authors in advance, and “half a decade” or five years in advance. He sees in imagination, or has been told to see, a miserable author, pen in hand, hurriedly grinding away day and night, throwing off his sheets, producing far too rapidly for his powers, “bribed” by his agent. There is really nothing in the world on which greater rubbish, more ignorant rubbish, more mischievous rubbish is constantly written and believed than the production of literature, espe- cially fiction. To begin with, it is not the agent but the publisher who makes the contract ; it is a very rare thing for a publisher to trust an author's staying powers so long in advance as five years. It is the case that editors of good maga- zines secure the services of writers a year or two years in advance; it is also the case that pub- lishers secure the book rights of the same works in advance. Then comes the question whether, by engaging himself beforehand, an author neces- sarily hurries himself? Of course he does not. He may be so foolish as to undertake too much ; but most novelists bring out one novel only a year, and perhaps two or three short stories. Why should they not place these novels in advance? I should like to learn the names of any authors who have been “bribed ” into hurried and incom- plete work, or are under contracts beyond their powers to fulfil honourably. The agent does not — cannot — increase the production; he only relieves the writer of what is the most irksome, the most irritating, the most anxious part of his work—the commercial side of it. WALTER BESANT. *—- - -* NATURE AS INTERPRETED IN THE POEMS OF GEORGE MEREDITH, |TF the lover of Wordsworth were to seek among later English poets for his successor as the High Priest of Nature, he would be not a little surprised to find that his most ardent disciple is, not the late Laureate; not Matthew Arnold, who was loudest in his praise; but Mr. George Meredith whose genius appears at first glance so unlike that of Wordsworth as to leave but few points of resemblance. Notwithstanding this diversity, even the most cursory reader of Mr. Meredith’s poetry must be struck by the fact that in it the lesson which Wordsworth made it his life’s highest aim to inculcate has found its simplest as well as fullest expression. The familiar stanza in the second part of “Expostulation and Reply ’’ in which Words- worth declared that - One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can, must surely have lingered in Mr. Meredith’s memory when he wrote the concluding lines of his poem on “South-West Wind in the Wood- land ’’ in which he tells us that he who hearkens to the voice of Nature and yields his spirit to her benignant influence with a complete trust in her powers and purposes will obtain More knowledge of her secret, more Delight in her beneficence, Than hours of musing, or the lore That lives with men could ever give. That this was more than a mere passing phase of thought in Mr. Meredith’s mind no reader of his poems can doubt. The volume in which the lines quoted occur is the earliest collection of his poems; that published by Parker in 1851, and though the poet in it did not lay so much stress on the importance to man of a close communion with Nature, as he does in later volumes, there is nevertheless more than one significant reference to the love of Earth for her children, and her beneficent influence in restoring the moral as well as physical health of those who have for- saken her for a season. In “London by Lamplight,” a later poem in the same book, the writer expresses his belief in the sanative forces of Nature and faith in her power to regenerate the dwellers in crowded cities could they but be restored to her arms. He who loves Nature will, he declares, never be forlorn ; and a vision of her loveliness is more than a recompense for days of weariness and toil, In more than one poem he tells us that he who once gains Nature as his friend will never lose her; that the joys of her bestowal are never ending. In “Modern Love, &c.,” a book published eleven years later, the poet dwells with even greater emphasis upon a theme which may truly be said to constitute the most important portion of his message to his fellowman. In this volume the “Ode to the Spirit of the Earth in the Autumn” is devoted to the proclamation of an evangel, which though it has found many ## p. 320 (#334) ############################################ 32O THE AUTHOR. expositors has not, since preached by Words- worth, been urged on man’s acceptance with a force and persistence equal to Mr. Meredith’s. The truth and beauty of earth who is “our only visible friend,” her love and care for her offspring, who renounce and denounce her, her serenity, her sanity, her healthfulness, her free- dom from sorrow, are dwelt on with an ecstacy of expression for which the only parallel is to be found in the utterances of the earlier poet. Even death, hitherto the great bugbear of humanity, ceases to be thus regarded by the lover of earth, O, green bounteous earth ! Bacchante Mother stern to those Who live not in thy heart of mirth; Death ! Shall I shrink from loving thee P Into the breast that gives the rose, Shall I with shuddering fall P Earth knows no desolation, She smells regeneration In the moist breath of decay. She knows not loss : She feels her need, Who the winged seed With the leaf doth toss. - And to this serenity, this majestic calm, man may aspire if he truly loves and feels confidence in Mother Earth, She can lead us, only she, TJnto God’s footstool, whither she reaches; Loved, enjoyed, her gifts must be ; Reverenced the truths she teaches, Ere a man may hope that he Ever can attain the glee Of things without a destiny | The fervour and depth of Mr. Meredith’s utterances on this theme are plainly shown by the fact that after an interval of over twenty years, during which the poet was immersed in prose, he devoted a complete book to “Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth,” in which we find the same expressions of joyous confidence in Nature. Man, we are told, is a compact of blood, and brain, and spirit, and should he, in his folly, attempt to favour anyone of these at the expense of the others a dire result may be expected. The purely sensual nature is equally in danger with the purely intellectual or the rigidly ascetic. Earth from whom we derive the health which is the source of all lasting happiness demands that blood, and brain, and spirit maintain a happy union, and, for love of her, we unquestionably obey her behests with ultimate and certain good to ourselves. Earth your haven, Earth your helm, You command a double realm Labouring here to pay your debt, Till your little sun be set, Leaving her the future task Loving her too well to ask. From her we can learn every lesson if we but hearken to her, and bear with us a wise receptive- ness. By thus doing we gain “a larger self,” and a sweeter fellowship with all animate things 6. In SU162S. In a poem entitled “Earth and Man” their relationship is even more clearly defined than in any earlier work from the same hand, and the folly of man's attempt to read “the riddle of the painful earth,” instead of resignedly and calmly accepting a mother's love, is shown in no mis- takable terms. The poem resembles, in treat- ment, a familiar passage in “Empedocles on Etna,” inasmuch as it shows that man, while he curses earth, is one with the power against which his curses are levelled, a power which labours for man’s good whether he curse or bless, If he aloft for aid Imploring storms, her essence is the spur, His cry to Heaven is a cry to her He would evade. #: $ # e #: :#: And her desires are those For happiness, for lastingness, for light. 'Tis she who kindles in his haunting night The hoped dawn-rose. As if the poet had, with this book, exhausted this fruitful theme, we have no hint of it in “Poems and Ballads of Tragic Life,” published in 1887, the contents of which deal with phases of human life and passion, but the subject was happily far from exhausted, and accordingly, in the following year a volume entitled “A Reading of Earth’’ was published. This book, which is the last volume of poetry he has written, must for the present be considered to contain Mr. Meredith’s final expressions on “man and nature, and on human life.” In it he sets himself not so much to demonstrate man's relationship to nature as to interpret her many moods, and to state the benefits accruing to man from a con- templation of each and all of them. In “Rough Weather ” a comparison is drawn between a life of ignoble ease and warmth, and one of hardship and wrestling with adverse forces, and the gifts of Nature are proved to be designed for him who has courage to endure. Nature Judged of shrinking nerves, appears A mother whom no cry can melt ; But read her past desires and fears, The letters on her breast are spelt. Would we learn of earth her lesson P. Then we must be prepared to accept symbols instead of words; yet we have but to ask to learn— Harsh wisdom gives Earth, no more ; In one the spur and the curb : An answer to thoughts or deeds, To the Legends an alien look; To the Questions a figure of Clay. ## p. 321 (#335) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 32 I Yet we have but to see and hear, Crave we her medical herb. And to love her is to gain this For love we Earth, then serve we all ; Her mystic secret then is ours, the secret of unruffled calm and enduring patience mingled with a steadfast faith in the welfare of the human race. Nature has been variously interpreted by the poets since Wordsworth's day, but by none with such keen vision and set purpose as by Mr. Meredith. His interpretation while it differs in some points from Wordsworth's, more closely resembles it than does that of any of his contem- poraries. In Lord Tennyson’s poems, save in “In Memoriam ” in which she is described as antagonistic to and careless of life, Nature assumes the appearance of a vast field in which human figures move, and to which it forms a suitable background. In Mr. Browning's we get a degree nearer; here her sunshine and her storms exhibit her sympathy with the woes and joys of man. Mr. Swinburne's interpretation—if such it can be called—resembles Mr. Browning's, while Rossetti's exhibits an affinity to the Laureate's, with the addition that the poet evidently sees with a painter's eye; and Mr. Wm. Morris also selects his landscapes and groups his figures with a view to artistic effect. Matthew Arnold’s alone ap- proaches Mr. Meredith’s conception, and that very rarely; once, in the passage of “Empedocles” already referred to, and again in a short poem entitled “A Wish,” in which he speaks of the Earth as a friend Which never was the friend of one, Nor promised love it could not give, But lit for all its generous sun, - And lived itself, and made us live. It is rumoured that Mr. Meredith intends for the future to devote himself exclusively to poetry. Such an announcement cannot but be gratifying to all lovers of poetry, for Mr. Meredith, while he has followed the steps of Wordsworth in his interpretation of Nature, has also realised his predecessor's conception of the poet inasmuch as he is a teacher, a great teacher. As a con- tribution to the literature of optimism his poems occupy an important position. They have the same health-giving powers as Nature herself, and are as inspiriting as the seasons. *-* - *- - - HE WOULD BIE AN AUTHOR, DO not for a moment suppose that my experiences have been in the least extraor- dinary. Perhaps it is unwise of me to attempt to write them down: and yet they may have some interest for hopeful aspirants to literary honours, even if they should be of no service to such. First let me state the conditions under which I began to scribble. Before attaining my ninth birthday I left school to begin work at a mine, the School Board being then in its infancy. From that early age until I was over twenty-one a pen was scarcely ever in my fingers, although, like Mr. Toots in “Dombey and Son,” I could perhaps have managed to “chalk a bit.” Hitherto the whole of my time had been spent in work and play, with a little random reading in my leisure, a very little indeed. Perhaps I had some discri- mination between what was good and what was not of the little reading I did, but so far from my mind was the thought of authorship that I do not remember even to have written a letter. Being an impulsive and impressionable youth, I wasted most of my leisure in courting, wooing one delicate girl to such good purpose that by the time I had attained my majority I had been married nearly three years, and was over head and ears in debt, having known what it was to be out of work and to have the doctor calling for weeks together. These facts are given simply to show how thoroughly unfitted and unprepared I was for any attempt at authorship, even if I had then pos- sessed the desire for it, which, let me admit, I did not. About this time, however, the idea struck me that it would be a pleasant pastime to copy out such short pieces of prose or verse as took my fancy, wherefore I purchased a sixpenny exercise- book and occasionally put my hand to the task of improving my writing, but betrayed no great earnestness in the matter. Having never been a visitor at public-houses, my evenings were mostly spent at home; yet, with the exception of two or three old standard books and the serial stories of the local newspaper, I still read very little. One day a friend lent me a volume of Burns' poems, which proved a delightful revela- tion, and gave me an appetite for more. Later I read Cowper, Thomson, Wordsworth, Byron, Moore, &c., each of whom in turn delighted me, and thenceforth I became a student of literature in general, with a slowly increasing enthusiasm for books and writers. Now, when the new magazines come to the reading-room I look them over with a feverish eagerness that is almost painful. About seven years ago, being still in low cir- cumstances, I began occasionally to puzzle out a few verses, with now and again a very short sketch in prose. Instead of consigning these first attempts to the flames, I sent them to an editor who sometimes publicly criticised the work ## p. 322 (#336) ############################################ 322 THE AUTHOR. of would-be authors, wherefore I had the glorious satisfaction of seeing some of them in print. After a number of failures and a little unremune- rated success, one lucky piece at last merited, or gained at any rate, the distinction of being paid for. The circumstances under which this first payment reached me make an almost tragic story, which there is no space to tell in this paper. - This brings me to about five years ago. The period between that date and the present is the time of my most important experiences. Finding that I was now able to write short sketches and verses which might merit the consideration of editors, I began to inclose stamped addressed envelopes with my MSS., a judicious practice not hitherto adopted. My handwriting was still that of an unpolished scribbler; the punctuation may have been fairly good, but the spelling—. This latter feature of my composition is even yet very imperfect; it is doubtful if I shall ever learn to spell correctly. The theory of grammar is one to which I could never give any continued attention. A careful estimate of my work, done during leisure evenings these five years, gives the follow- ing result: About 450 pieces have been written, short stories, short articles, and verses, chiefly the latter. As near as I am able to compute, the work may be divided into 190 prose pieces and 26o of verse. Of the whole 450, the accepted pieces, all of which have been paid for, number 360; verses 250, stories and articles I IO; thus leaving eighty prose pieces and ten of verse declined. The verses average about four stanzas in length, and the payment has varied from 5s. to half-a- guinea. The length of the stories and articles varies from two to six pages of foolscap, and the payment from Ios. to two guineas. The successful pieces have not all been accepted the first time they were submitted, not a few having been returned, rewritten, and sent again. Several contributions have come back after they had been cut up and given out to the printers Only some four or five pieces have been entirely lost. The rejected work has mostly been returned within a fortnight or three weeks, but occasionally pieces have stayed away longer, a few having come home after they had been away over a year. Most of the accepted work has been paid for about the date of publication, but I have found the most regularly paying publishers subject to slight variation, while others pay for work a week or two after it appears. Some publishers send a copy of the journal containing one's contribution, but others don’t ; wherefore, seeing that I have not been a regular subscriber to every paper written to, a number of stories have been accepted which I have never had the pleasure of seeing in print. Besides the verses, articles, and short stories, I have to count two attempts at serial story writing, neither of which have been persevered with, both having been dropped before the tenth chapter was begun. From these a few chapters were accept when offered as short stories. A third attempt promises to be more successful, as it is now about half written, and has something more than a mere chance of being accepted. Verse writing has been a very pleasant recreation. My method is to write them on a slate, so that it is easy to erase a word or a line and substitute a better. I find it hard work to write prose, and am very slow at it, seldom pro- ducing more than three pages of foolscap in four hours. During the last few years I have often been disheartened, but have quickly regained hope, and have persevered in the face of discourage- ment and difficulty; yet I am fully pursuaded that the same time and energy given to any other kind of work might have made me a fortune. It seems to me that in order to become a " successful author one should have a great enthusiasm for literary work, a good education, exceptional experiences, unlimited patience, un- ceasing perseverance, a rare imagination, and a reliable bank account to fall back upon during the “declined with thanks’ period. Of course, if one has been reared in the literary atmosphere, and editors are among one's friends, it is easier to get a start. My lot was not cast in this atmosphere, and I am afraid I do not possess anyone of these qualifications. So far I look upon myself as a failure, but have put down these facts for what they might be worth to any aspirant who finds himself at a similar dis- advantage. Perhaps I may be able to gain a livelihood by this kind of work in time, with health and good fortune to assist me. Seeing that I was over twenty-eight years of age when my first story was accepted, and am now only thirty-three, also taking into consideration the fact that I gave little or no study to literature until a few years ago, it is evident I am still a child in the literary school. Probably this paper will be regarded as unwarrantably egotistical, which doubtless it is, wherefore, although my experiences are not half told, I must bring it to a close. ## p. 323 (#337) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 323 AUTHORSHIP AND JOURNALISM IN RUSSIA. HE literary profession the wide world over is one long tale of disappointment, drud- gery, deprivation, and destitution. The few exceptions to the rule only go to prove its generalness. Authorship in the Tsar's realms is about at its lowest ebb. The daily feuilleton in the news- papers has almost completely done away with works of a lasting character. Instead of authors trying to elevate the reading public, they have descended to their level. They only seek to amuse them and pander to their tastes without any attempt at instruction. The details of the latest domestic scandal are woven into a dialogue, utterly devoid of plot or moral, and presented for the readers' delectation. The few composi- tions exhibiting any signs of originality in con- struction of plot or portrayal of character are invariably of foreign origin, and find their way into the Russian press in translation. In this latter branch of the art British authors are in great vogue, and several familiar names are to be met with in contemporary magazines. A short while ago the statistics of a provincial library showed that the authors, taken in their respec- tive order of popularity, most in demand were Tolstoi, Lermontoff, Turgenieff, Gogol, Pees- wensky, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Mayne Reid, Walter Scott, Dickens, and Lord Byron. I did not see a single contemporary English author, but this was not to be wondered at, as the trans- lations of their works appear in magazines and newspapers, and seldom, if ever, come out in book form. The literature of to-day, in more senses than one, is of the most ephemeral nature. The puerile, pernicious productions which at present find acceptance testify to the decline and gradual decay of the author's craft. Racy writers on topical subjects flourish abundantly, but masters of pure diction, finished style, aiming at instruc- tion and elevation, will be sought for in vain. The halo of mystery which encircles the harem, the brutishness which distinguishes the Orient, the 'breath of scandal which taints a noble name—all these have their slaves. It is only the contempla- tion of the workings of the passions of the lowest possible order that stirs a ripple of interest on the placid surface of the great sea of surfeited pleasure which characterises the present genera- tion. Some affirm that Tolstoi was little known before his realistic book “ Kreutzer Sonata ?” turned the general public's attention to him. And who now of all living Russian writers can claim to rank among first-rate authors P. They could be counted on the digits of one hand. The only one that enjoys a world-wide renown is Tolstoi. And he is as if he were no more. He came of that Russian strain which had Pushkin and Lermon- toff for its representatives. They studied natu- ralism, and died in practising it. Both writers met their death in a duel, in consequence of an unholy love. In his youth Tolstoi was also not free of the divine passion, and out of his youthful experiences he evolved a tale which was true to the life, and for which the world thanked him. But now he is returning to the fallacies of a by- gone age. He is vainly trying to revive the myths of a long-flown past; to rehabilitate the Garden of Eden; to hasten the Milennium—all equal impossibilities. The hoary head befits the philosophical mind, but his “Babellic” structure constructed to a fantastic Utopian design will never exist on its chimerical groundwork. The store of sound reason and clear judgment which he has rejected will yet become the corner-stone of a more substantial and enduring edifice erected on the principles of labour and progress. One trait in his character we cannot help admiring is his sincerity. He is sincere in everything he does, as long as his belief in its virtue lasts. But, then, belief is so very flexible. He may change it to-morrow. At the risk of being discursive, I will relate the following as illustrative of the commercial value of a name: When the Count was on the Caucasus serving in the army, he sent some of his first effusions to a Moscow editor, who replied that he would accept them, but could not pay for them. Now Tolstoi is offered fabulous prices for his works, but he replies that he accepts no pay. What would then have been treasured beyond all measure is now despised as mere worthless dross. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, saith Solomon — espe- cially riches, for they take wings and fly away with the morn. “Two things have I required of Thee,” saith Agur, the prophet, “deny me them not before I die. Remove me far from vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.” The ordinary scribe has often to exist and nourish a wife and family on the poorest pittance —pay which a daily labourer would scorn. In pro- portion to the vast population, it is a surprisingly small percentage of the people that ever take a paper into their hands. The “Negramotnia,” or those unable to read or write, are in an over- whelming majority in rural districts, and in the towns themselves the number is simply appalling. Sometimes the number of those in villages boast- ing only a rudimentary education descends to as low a figure as I per cent., and even lower, so it ## p. 324 (#338) ############################################ 324 THE AUTHOR. is no matter for amazement, when we consider the ignorance of the populace, that the writer's labours in Russia are so little valued. True, his lot has been slightly bettered by the liberal grant of the Tsar, but it is only like a drop in the oeean, and can only prove of real benefit to the indigent writer if the Imperial example is fol- lowed by private subscriptions to the fund from wealthy patrons of the literary art. Of course we must recollect that the teeming millions of the Russian empire are as yet in the elementary stages of civilisation, but the Govern- ment is using its best endeavours to educate the masses, and its efforts must eventually be crowned with success, and then a brighter day will dawn for those engaged in literature. WILLIAM ADDIson. Odessa, 27 March I I. *-- ~ * e= * * BOOK TALK. HE Dover Chronicle says Mr. Joseph Hatton is sojourning at St. Margaret's Bay and making excursions about the coast between Deal and Dover with a view to certain incidents in a new novel that is to begin its serial career during the autumn in a London weekly. “The Banishment of Jessop Blythe.” is Mr. Hatton's latest book, and he chose to adopt the method of three volumes in one, in which shape the novel is in active demand at the libraries and booksellers’. In May or June Mr. Hatton will publish a shilling novelette entitled “Tom Chester's Sweetheart" (Hutchinsons). It will be an extended treatment of the author's story entitled “The Editor” that appeared in the Ludgate Monthly. “The Banishment of Jessop Blythe’’ is published in America by Messrs. Lippincott. The large edition of “The Money Lender Unmasked,” by Mr. Thomas Farrow, was entirely exhausted within one month from the date of publication. A second edition has been prepared and is now ready. This work appears to be one of the successes of the season, and, in view of the attention of Parliament having been drawn to the subject, promises to be of much service as a standard work of reference should a Royal Com- mission be granted. In the new edition Mr. Farrow has still further strengthened the “Intro- ductory” portion. Mr. C. L. Marson's book, “The Psalms at Work,” will shortly appear in a second edition (Elliot Stock). A revised edition of “The Blessed Dead in Paradise,” by J. E. Walker, with an introduction by Canon Bell, will also be published immediately by the same firm. Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s first book, “A Girl’s Ride in Iceland,” will be published in a third edition in May by Mr. Horace Cox. It will be brought out at Is., but will be much revised, making it up to date. Several Icelandic stories will be added, and many new illustrations. Mrs. Tweedie's last book, “Wilton, Q.C., or Life in a Bighland Shooting Box,” is in a second edition, the first having sold out a month from publica- tion. “John Bickerdyke” will shortly issue a volume of reminiscences, short stories, and essays on the scientific side of angling. The volume will be entitled “Days of My Life on Waters Fresh and Salt, and Other Papers,” and will be illustrated by an intaglio frontispiece and a number of full- page illustrations made from photographs taken Ha the author. The publishers are Longman and Co. The same author also has in the press a volume on modern sea fishing. This book, which is expected about July, will form one of the Badminton Series (Longman and Co.). It is being illustrated by Mr. C. Napier Hemy and Mr. R. E. Pritchett, and will contain contributions on Antipodean and other foreign fish, tarpon, and whaling by Mr. William Senior (“Red Spinner”), Mr. Alfred C. Harmsworth, and Sir H. Gore Booth, About the end of May Mr. E. Norrys Connell will issue a new novel called “The House of the Strange Woman.” Mr. Connell is already favourably known as the author of “In the Green Park.” This book should have been out earlier, but the firm of printers who were origi- nally charged with its production took exception to certain chapters on conscientious grounds. The volume is to be the pioneer of a new series of four-shilling novels which, at Mr. Connell’s sug- gestion, Messrs. Henry and Co. purpose issuing in an unique form. The “Parnassos,” the Philological Society of Athens, have elected—époqêvos—unanimously— as honorary member Mrs. Elizabeth M. Edmonds, author of “Amygdala’’ and of many works on modern Greece and modern Greeks. Professor Warr’s book for the “Dawn of Euro- pean Literature” series (S.P.C.K.) on the Greek epic will appear next month. Captain Lionel Trotter, author of “India under Victoria,” “Warren Hastings,” &c., is engaged upon a “Life of General John Nicholson,” who, after a brilliant career in the Punjaub, fell in the prime of manhood while leading his storming ## p. 325 (#339) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 325 column along the ramparts of Delhi, in Septem- ber, 1857. Several of Nicholson's old friends have promised their aid in this work. The Delegates of the Clarendon Press are about to issue Vol. XIII. of Professor Buchheim’s “German Classics,” consisting of Schiller's pathetic tragedy, “Maria Stuart.” The text will be provided with a complete commentary, and preceded by an historical and a critical introduction. The distinguishing features of this edition will consist in the fact that the drama will be annotated strictly in accordance with the English, French, and Latin sources consulted by Schiller, and that several of his sources have been traced for the first time by the Editor. Mr. Robert H. Sherard’s new novel, “Jacob Niemand,” will be published as a six-shilling volume in June by Messrs. Ward and Downey, Mr. Sherard has recently written, and disposed of for publication in serial form, a story entitled “The Mocking Bird.” His authorised biography of Mme. Sarah Bernhardt is not yet finished, and cannot be ready till the autumn. “Greece and Her Hopes and Troubles,” by “Hilarion” (Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons), is a short and plain statement of what Greece is, what she has done, and what she hopes to accom- plish. It contrasts the Greece of the present day with the time of bondage to the Turk. The object of the author is to set down the exact truths concerning the country and the people without exaggeration or suppression. The cession of the Ionian Islands, for instance, is regarded from the Hellenic point of view as one of the most generous acts ever recorded of any nation. The Rev. James Bowmes has just published a volume of verse (Sonnenschein) called “Randolph Lord De Vere, and other Poems.” extract gives one of the shorter poems: Ye merry breezes fresh that come and go, And mark your course by songs from waving corn, And laughter from the rivers as they flow, Ye cannot move a heart all worldly worn Thou sun that spreadest with thy radiant light The forest, vale, and heathered mountain side, And causest them to look contented, bright, Thou can’st not soothe a heart that time has tried Ye stars that dwell within the sapphire sky, And view with tender eyes the earth below, With all your love and all your sympathy, Ye cannot cheer a heart bowed down with woe Then, breezes, airy spirits, roam around ! Shine, sun, until thine everlasting gloom Gaze, stars, from out the blue expanse profound ! All will behold some day my silent tomb “The Two Dunmores: a Sporting Love Story of To-day,” is apparently a first work by “Blake Lamond.” It is published by Remington and The following . Co. The author should avoid the habit of giving too much detail. In order to convey a vivid picture not all the background should be painted. The impression is best produced by selection and suggestion. “Ernest England : a Drama for the Closet,” is by J. A. Tucker, late editor of the Daily News, Calcutta (Leadenhall Press). The work is a mixture of prose and poetry. It is a perfectly serious work, of great length, and treats of many subjects. Why, alas ! will men write such terribly long dramas P Three hundred and fifty pages | Who, even in a long review, could do justice to this lengthy prose-poem P “Tales from the Western Moors,” by Geoffrey Mortimer, a new name. The book contains nearly twenty tales, some of them more than about twelve pages long. The writer knows his country, and the dialect and manners of the people, well. The publishers are Gibbings and Co., Bloomsbury. “French Gems ” is quite a little book (Elliot Stock)—a booklet of eighty pages—containing on the left hand a sentence, a reflection, a text, a poem, in French ; and on the right hand “Reflec- tions,” in English verse. The author of the “Reflections,” “J. G.,” hopes to assist the mission to French-speaking foreigners in Great Britain in connection with the French Reformed Church, Bayswater, under the care of the Rev. J. M. H. Du Pontet de la Harpe. “A Future Roman Empire’ is a pamphlet rather than a book, by Mr. George Edward Tanner (Elliot Stock). It is a sequel to a work by the same writer, called “Unpopular Politics.” The writer contemplates the possibility of the revival of a second great Roman Empire, of which he gives a map. He is, apparently, determined that the second empire shall be exactly the same as the first. He includes all the countries round the Mediterranean to the British Isles, but excludes Germany and Russia, and Asia beyond the Euphrates. Most of us will probably emi- grate when that empire arrives. Mr. George Moore has finished the scheme of his new novel, and will now set to work upon it. It deals with the career of a prima donna who feals uneasy about the life she is leading, and at length submits herself to a priest for advice. His counsel is that she should go into a convent, and this agrees with her own inclinations. So she becomes a nun; and around the secrecy of life in a convent the story is woven. Mr. Moore antici- pates that the writing of the book will occupy him for two years. His completed work, called “Celi- bates,” will be issued within the next few days. ## p. 326 (#340) ############################################ 326 THE AUTHOR. the autumn by Messrs. Methuen. Mr. John Hollingshead's Reminiscences will be published early this month by Messrs. Sampson Low, in two volumes. The title is “My Life- time,” and a portrait of the author is given. Messrs. Chapman and Hall have in prepara- tion a novel entitled “Elizabeth's Pretenders,” by Mr. Hamilton Aidé; also “Pages from the Day Book of Dethia Hardacre,” by Mrs. Fuller Mait- land. Mr. Douglas Freshfield, the president of the Alpine Club, has written a book on Mountaineer- ing, which will be published by Mr. Edward Arnold. It will consist of a record of the explo- ration of Central Caucasus by members of the club throughout the last twenty-five years, and of the author's own experiences particularly, he hav- ing spent two summers there lately. The book will be in two large volumes, illustrated, and with maps. Another new work of travel is “Three Months in the Forests of France,” by Miss Mar- garet Stokes,” the author of “Six Months in the Apennines.” The book is a description of a pil- grimage in search of the Irish saints of France. Messrs. Bell and Sons are the publishers. The series of letters written by Robert Louis Stevenson, during his life in Samoa, to his friend Mr. Sidney Colvin, are to be published early in These are said to be the most interesting of any of Stevenson's correspondence during the period of his remote exile, and contain a record from month to month of his work and opinions. A portrait of the novelist will be the frontispiece to the book, which will appear simultaneously in America. Mr. Lilley's recent lectures at the Royal Insti- bution are to appear in book form under the title “Four Humorists of the Nineteenth Century.” Dickens represents the democrat in humour. Thackeray the philosopher, George Eliot the poet, and Carlyle the prophet. To his many other successes, Mr. Stead will attempt to add that of a novel writer. His first novel will be called “A Modern Maid in Modern Babylon,” and will relate the adventures of a young girl who came to London some years ago. It will be published some time this year. The Marquis of Lorne has written a “Gover- nor’s Guide to Windsor Castle,” which Messrs. Cassell have published. This will doubtless set a fashion in such things, and it is interesting reading, which can be appreciated either at the Castle or at home. - Mr. Justin McCarthy expects to have the last two volumes of his “History of the Georges,” ready at the beginning of next year. The latter part of Mr. J. H. McCarthy’s work on the French Revolution is to appear in the autumn. Another series of fiction has made a start, namely “The Times Novels.” This, of course, consists of stories that have appeared in the Weekly edition of the Times. The series, which is published by Messrs. Osgood, opens with “A Daughter of the Soil,” by Mrs. Francis. Mr. Egerton Castle’s “Light of Scarthey’” will be the next to appear. The next reprint in the beautiful Kelmscott Press series will be “Sir Percyvelle of Galles.” It appears shortly, but Mr. Morris has already sold the greater part of the issue, which consists of 35o paper copies, and eight on vellum. A new work by Mr. Frank Vincent, in which he gives a survey of the entire continent of Africa. from his recent journeyings there, will be published shortly by Mr. Heinemann. It will be called “The Actual Africa; or, the Coming Continent,” and will have IOO full page illustrations. Mr. Henry James will also at an early date issue “Terminations,” a new volume of stories (Heinemann.) Messrs. Nichols are about to issue Victor Hugo's works in English. There are from twenty to thirty volumes in the series, fully illustrated, and they will appear at intervals of a month. No English translation of Hugo exists so complete as this. A series of handbooks on the Cathedrals of England is about to be commenced by Messrs. Dent. Everything of interest concerning the buildings, the traditions, and historical associations surrounding them, will be told by writers who are thoroughly conversant with the matter. “Canter- bury,” by the Hon. and Rev. W. H. Fremantle, Dean of Ripon (a former Canon of Canterbury), will appear first. “Ely,” by Dean Stubbs; and “Tewkesbury,” by Dr. Spence, will follow. Another book for children comes soon from Mrs. Molesworth, entitled “Sheila's Mystery.” It will be published by Messrs. Macmillan. This writer has now produced about seventy books. Mr. Clement Scott's book on Irving First Nights, from “The Bells” to “King Arthur,” is. expected to be ready by the end of the month. Mr. G. W. Smalley, who will soon cease to be the Dondon correspondent of the New York Tribune and becomes the New York correspondent of the Times, is bringing out a new book entitled “Studies of Men,” which Messrs. Macmillan will publish this month. It consists of a large number of Mr. Smalley’s character sketches of eminent men, which are mostly reprints in a revised form from ## p. 327 (#341) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 327 the Tribune. Among the subjects are the German Emperor, Lord Rosebery, Sir William Harcourt, Cardinal Newman, Professor Tyndall, Mr. Balfour, Prince Bismark, Mr. Parnell, and about forty others. Before he leaves London the distinguished journalist is to be entertained at dinner by a Select company of his American and English confrères. The announcement of a “Ruskin Reader ’’ from Mr. George Allen's press serves to remind us that this publishing house is named after Ruskin, a fact which might pardonably be forgotten, since Mr. Allen is extending his business so far beyond Ruskinian literature alone. The new reader is to be out in a few days. It has been compiled from “Modern Painters,” “The Seven Lamps of Architecture,” and “The Stones of Venice,” and is intended for young students. From Ruskin House will also come “The History of Huon of Bordeaux,” by Mr. Robert Steel, illustrated by Mr. Fred Mason; and “Biographical Essays"— of Dean Stanley, Dean Alford, Mrs. Duncan Stewart, and others—by Mr. Augustus J. Hare, in addition to the latter's Life of the Gurney Family already announced. Mr. E. Denison Ross has completed the trans- lation of “The Tarikk-i-Rashidi,” a rare Persian work, which has hitherto existed only in manu- script, and the volume will be issued by Messrs. Sampson Low shortly. It forms a history of the Central Asian section of the Moghuls, who separated themselves early in the fourteenth century from the main stem of the Chaghatai dynasty. Their princes became masters of Moghulistan and of all Eastern Turkistan, and continued powerful for more than 250 years. The author of the work is Mirza Mohammad Haidar, cousin of the Emperor Baber of Hindustan, the grandfather of the famous Akbar. Mr. Ney Elias, H.M.'s Consul-General for Khovason, has superintended the translation and written an introduction and explanatory notes. Mr. H. E. Watts’s “Life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,” which will be uniform with his new edition of “Don Quixote,” is to be published by Messrs. A. and C. Black on July 1. The book of the month has been the “Tetters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,” published by Mr. Heinemann. The letters are mostly new, and include those written to Mrs. Coleridge, Words- worth, Southey, Charles Lamb, John Murray, and Thomas Poole, giving much invaluable light upon the poet's career. They extend from 1785 to 1833, but are yet not a complete collection. The editor, Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge, grand- son of the poet, says that “a complete collection must await the ‘coming of the milder day,” a renewed long suffering on the part of his old enemy the ‘literary public.’” Great eagerness was manifested in getting a translation of Tolstoy's new novel, “Master and Man * into sale. Six days after receiving the MS. Messrs. Chapman and Hall had a large edition in the market. Mr. Walter Scott follows more leisurely with a translation. What would have been the first to reach this country, however, was stopped and suppressed, for some reason, on the Russian frontier. A “Life of the late Lord Randolph Churchill” will be published very shortly. Mr. T. H. S. Escott is the biographer, and he has been assisted in compiling the work by Lord Dufferin, Lord Reay, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, and Sir John Gorst. Messrs. Hutchinson are the publishers. The City Treasurer of Birmingham, Mr. W. R. Hughes, who wrote “A Week's Trip in Dickens's Land,” has placed his valuable collection of Dickens' editions and memorabilia at the service of Mr. Thomas Wright for the “Life of Dickens.” which the latter is preparing. A good deal of new matter has, it is said, been established by Mr. Wright, chiefly concerning the novelist's childhood. The work will not be ready before the end of the year, at the earliest. In Mr. David Nutt’s “Tudor Translation ” series the next issue will be North’s “Plutarch,” with an introduction by Mr. George Wyndham. It will appear in six volumes, between now and December. Forthcoming publications in the series include “Holland's Suetonius,” “Fenton's Bandello,” “Shelton's Don Quixote,” and “Holand's Livy.” Messrs Bell have in course of preparation a new series of Royal Naval Handbooks, which will be edited by Commander C. U. Robinson, author of “The British Fleet.” Admiral Sir Vesey Hamil- ton writes on Naval Administration and Organisa- tion, Professor Laughton on Naval Strategy, Captain C. Campbell on the Internal Economy of a Warship, and Captain H. G. Garbett on Naval Gunnery. The Entry and Training of Officers and Men is by Lieut. J. Allen, Torpedoes by Lieut. J. Armstrong, Steam in the Navy by Fleet-Engineer R. C. Oldknow, and Naval Architecture by Mr. J. J. Welch. Mr. Israel Gollancz is working at an edition of Henry VI., besides having in preparation books on the “Hamlet Saga,” “Tancred and Gismunda,” and the Anglo-Saxon poems in the Exeter book. The “Temple Shakespeare,” which is edited by Mr. Gollancz, has had an enormous sale, Messrs. Dent putting it at considerably over 200,000. ## p. 328 (#342) ############################################ 328 THE AUTHOR. The past month has witnessed the appearance of the New Budget, an illustrated weekly, which took the place, without the loss of a week, of the Pall Mall Budget, the latter having been with- drawn, somewhat unaccountably, from the field on the last Saturday of March. The editor of the deceased magazine, and the majority of its staff, have come over to the new venture, which is being conducted with spirit largely on the same lines. Mr. Harry Furniss, having accepted control of the art section, his own journal Lika Joko likewise closes its career. Another new sixpenny weekly is The Hour, which is edited by Mr. C. H. Wil- liamson. It is of course illustrated, and it makes a feature of prize competitions and insurance schemes. Vanity Fair changed hands last month, but the new proprietor is not announced, except that he is “a gentleman of taste and credit.” Mr. Charles Dixon's book on “The Migration of British Birds” will be ready at Messrs. Chap- man and Hall's immediately. In it the author advances what is believed to be an entirely new law governing the geographical dispersal of species, and illustrates its application in the case of British birds. Several volumes of verse will be published by Mr. Lane immediately. These include Mr. Le Gallienne's new book, entitled “Robert Louis Stevenson, an Elegy; and Other Poems, mostly Personal ; ” and Mr. Francis Thomson's, which is called “Songs Wing to Wing; ” “Vespertilia and other Poems,” by Mrs. Rosamond Marriott Watson (for which Mr. Anning Bell has designed a special title-page); and “Poems of the Day and Year,” by Mr. Frederick Tennyson. A novel called “Consummation,” by Victoria Cross, is also announced to appear soon from the Bodley Head, and will be the first of a new four-and- sixpenny series. A correspondent assures the Chronicle that the circulation of one million copies was not secured, as it had stated, by a single novel by the American writer, Albert Ross (Lynn Boyd Porter), but by a series of six novels. He points out that of “Ben Hur,” another American book, 4OO,OOO copies were sold ; while “Mr. Barnes of New York,” first written by Mr. A. C. Gunter as a play, and then adapted in despair to novel form, caught on to the extent of 250,000. But the million record appears still to be a-begging, The sale of King Solomon’s Mines,” which is being reprinted, will thus be brought up to IOO,OOO in this country and the colonies, and Max O’Rell's “John Bull and Co.,” is in its 20th thousand. “The Bonnie Brier Bush,” by Ian Maclaren, approaches 40,000, and a “Yellow Aster” 28,000. One result of General Booth’s recent Trans- atlantic tour will be a work on “Darkest America.” He will not have it ready for a considerable time, however. Two new volumes will shortly appear in the “Chief Ancient Philo- sophies” series of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. They are “Platonism,” by the Rev. T. B. Strong, of Christ Church, Oxford; and “Neo-Platonism,” by the Rev. Dr. Charles Bigg. “The Greek Epic,” by Professor Warr, of Ring's College, which will also be issued imme- diately, is an addition to the “Dawn of European Literature” series. Mr Fisher Unwin publishes a biography of the late W. F. A. Gaussen, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, the translator of Potapenko's Works. The book is called “Memorials of a Short Life,” the Rev. Canon Browne of St. Paul’s edits it, and writes an introduction, the remainder consisting of personal letters. In the “National Churches" series, pub- lished by Wells Gardner, the next volume will be “The History of the Church in America,” by Dr. Leighton Coleman, Bishop of Delaware. It will be issued simultaneously in England and America in a few days. “The Musical Educator” is the title of a work which Messrs. Jack, of Edinburgh, will issue in five illustrated volumes. Amongst the contribu- tors are Mr. James Sneddon, Mr. J. C. Grieve, Mr. William Townsend, Mr. F. Lauback, and Mr. William Daly. Dr. John Greig is the editor. Esmé Stuart's new novel “Married to Order ’’ will be issued immediately in the two-volume library form. Esmé Stuart is the author of “Joan Wellacot,” “A Woman of Forty,” “ Kestell of Greystone,” &c. The publisher is Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings. “A Fisherman’s Fancies,” by F. B. Doveton, published by Elliot Stock, is a book of collections of short sketches which will no doubt appeal to those of the public who desire to pass away a pleasant half-hour. The sketches that touch on fishing, and which no doubt give the name to the book, are excellent reading for those who are fond of that sport. Mr. Justin Charles MacCartie, author of “Making his Pile,” has just produced a new story called “The Darleys of Dingo Dingo,” which deals with Australian country life of the present day. It is published by Messrs. Gay and Bird. It has been announced in the Academy and other papers that Mr. F. H. Perry Coste, B.Sc., &c., is the author of “Towards Utopia,” and “On the Organisation of Science,” which have been issued under the nom de guerre of a “Free ## p. 329 (#343) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 329 Lance.” Towards Utopia,” which, in spite of its Utopian title, disclaims any very “Utopian’” dreams, is mainly occupied with an attempt to trace broadly the various economic and moral factors through which a natural evolution of society to a semi-Utopian state may be brought about. The American rights in “Towards Utopia’’ were acquired by Messrs. Appleton as soon as the book appeared; and immediately afterwards the author received and refused an offer for a German transla- tion. The output of new books in the United States last year was in the following order:—First, fiction, then political and social science, then theology, religion, biography, history, travels, and poetry. There were 2821 books by American writers printed in the United States, IOS6 books were imported, and 577 books by English and other foreign authors were produced on the other side. The greatest number of importations was in theology and religion, and reached 262 volumes In 1893 a large number of volumes, already in hand, had to be published, though the times were unfavourable, and in 1894 the publishers, already fearful of hard times, were more careful about entering into new engagements.-PWestminster Gazette. Another case of a public library circulating pirated books has been discovered by the West- minster Gazeffe. We have before us Ruskin’s “Time and Tide,” bearing the following inscription on the title page: “New York : John Wiley and Sons, 15, Astor-place, 1888.” For many months past this “pirate ’’ has been freely issued at the Tate Lending Library, Brixton. We learn from the Chief Librarian that it was a presentation copy, and while he would certainly not dream of purchasing a “pirate,” he saw no reason to refuse one as a gift. It is a nice case for the conscience. He would be a very conscientious person who would refuse to keep on his shelves a gift book because it belonged to a pirated edition. But surely a public library is in a different position; such a book certainly ought not to be kept on the shelves and lent out to readers. *– ~ --" &= - - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—EDITORS’ RULES. FEAR, we are but wasting time, paper, and ink in this controversy if we are to wait until the editors, out of the kindness of their hearts, bind themselves to pay within a certain time for MSS. Probably the end of this world will arrive before they do so. No, there are two paragraphs in your last copy of the Author which contain, I think, the key to the difficulty. Page 281 (under “Warnings and Advice”): “It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transac- tion is to be carried out.” This is surely as true of the magazine article as of the book. Page 304 (under “Musical Publishing”) : “It is for the greatest (writers) composers to begin to insist upon more equitable terms.” To those whose papers are too well known, and too valuable, to be refused because “equitable terms ” are necessary to secure them we, the smaller fry, must look for help in this matter. Let them insist on a certain set of rules (as the rule) and editors will soon cease to take their own time to settle accounts, and learn the valuable lesson that “Short accounts make long friends.” R. L. I. II.—PARALLELISM. Mr. Langbridge's sort of “ Kubla Khan’’ experience is one which, I fancy, a good many people can parallel, though whether one should be scrupulous “in tampering with the gift of a dream ” is a matter which I leave the Psychical Researchists to decide. It may not be unin- teresting to your readers to give the experiences of others who have dreamed poems or books or speeches and have just caught hold of the last line or last sentence as they awoke. Twice I have, on coming up to the surface of consciousness, finished, once a poem and once a sermon, out loud. The poem ended with the sonorous line And stemmed the torrent with a pervious prone; the sermon with Churches are the martello towers of religion. I have not “tampered with these dream-gifts,” and leave others to discover their literary or philosophic value ! April 9. G. S. LAYARD, Lorraine Cottage, Great Malvern. III.-GoD AND THE ANT. May I ask Frederick Langbridge if he has ever published the sonnet he gives on p. 304 of the Author? If not, both he and Coulson Ker- nahan are “parallelists,” for I have seen exactly the same thought somewhere, though I cannot place it, and in extremely similar words to those which Mr. Langbridge uses. Or am I a “parallelist” also P ALAN OSCAR. ## p. 330 (#344) ############################################ 33O THE AUTHOR. IV.--THE RIGHT, OR THE WRONG, To MUTIILATE A PAPER. It would be interesting to all writers who contribute papers to magazines to know certainly whether in so doing they render themselves liable to have their paper mutilated to suit editorial difficulties concerning space. It seems to me that, although an editor has the absolute right of refusing any paper, once he accepts it he binds himself to reproduce it as it stands, unless by special agreement with the author. Personally I have always held this ground, and am happy to say that in the course of fifteen years of very extensive work for many magazines I have only on two occasions had any cause for Complaint. I regret to have to say that one of these has oc- curred in the present year. Early in 1893 I offered an article to one of the illustrated magazines to which I have frequently contributed, and by which it was accepted, but publication delayed, About December, 1893, I prepared a very care- fully written account of the details of an event of which I was anxious to preserve a permanent record. As I had secured a good illustration, I offered it to the same magazine, which, as usual, welcomed it. Publication, however, was delayed, and only the following autumn were proofs sent to me. I corrected these most carefully, bringing the subject up to date. In December another copy of these proofs, not corrected, was sent to me, and I again corrected them, the editor expressing his regret at the prolonged delay in publication. The paper was announced as being in the February number, and various persons interested ordered copies, to find a dull, matter-of-fact article compressed into three pages, without illustration, upwards of twenty paragraphs having been cut out from ten distinct places, the result naturally being as bald as the letter of a hurried newspaper correspondent. Supposing that the editor must have been suffering from influenza, and that some stranger was responsible for this discourtesy, I wrote asking for an explanation, and, receiving none, I wrote again more strongly, requesting the return of the paper and illustrations sent in 1893. To which the editor replies: “He is glad to be able to repudiate entirely the charge of dis- courtesy—a charge which would with more justice be brought against a contributor who demands an apology for the absolutely necessary abridg- ment which every editor is fully entitled to make in any article sent to him for publication.” Is he P. That is just the question. Does every contributor to a magazine lay himself open to find his most careful work mutilated in this barbarous manner, and then presented to the public with his (or her) signature at the end of it P I hope not. But when an editor who has printed perhaps a dozen of my papers verbatim suddenly deals thus with one—and, strangely enough, the only one of the whole lot which was really of consequence—where does security lie? On my requesting the return of the article accepted two years ago, it was sent with some minor illustrations. I wrote back stating that two large paintings had not been sent. To this the editor replies that they had been photo- graphed and returned to me by parcel post about the end of December, and that he is not respon- sible for accidental loss. That is to say, they were despatched in the busiest week of the year without any notice or any subsequent inquiry as to their receipt not having been acknowledged. This seems to me another point which ought to be clearly defined. When illustrations or MSS. are returned by parcel post, ought not an intimation to that effect to be sent by ordinary post? A general business agree- ment on these points would be satisfactory. C. W.—MINOR POETs. Your correspondent of April, “Mary Augusta Salmond,” is probably unaware that when a minor poet publishes a volume of verses, he does so almost invariably at his own risk. In any case, the chances of profit accruing to himself from such a source are infinitesimal. Again, there are few, if any, periodicals that will pay for a poem in lyrical form. For these reasons, it is rarely indeed that the writer of the words of a song, however popular it may become, makes anything beyond his fee for the musical copyright. Therefore, whilst heartily agreeing with Mrs. Salmond on other points, I must, in the interest of brother minor poets, point out that, though the price paid for the copyright may be considered a fairly adequate return for a mere drawing-room or schoolroom song, in the case of a ballad or more important work being taken up by a public singer it is not so, and some arrangement should in justice be made by which the poet would have a share, however small, in the performing rights of his work, as well as the composer, singer, and publisher. The words are manifestly the raison d'être of the composi- tion. HELEN MARION BURNSIDE. VI.-A CoINCIDENCE. May I ask for a few lines of your space? In the Times of March 29 last I read: “The monologue is less an English than a French off- ## p. 331 (#345) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 33 I shoot of the drama, but it would soon cease to be so were many such pretty sketches or dramatic episodes written as that produced last night by Mr. Henry Hamilton under the title of ‘For- tune’s Fool.” An unhappy lover in his lonely chambers bewails the fate that has snatched away from him the woman of his dreams. * Life has no more charm for Philip Challoner, and, after evoking all his sweetest souvenirs by reading her letters, and, seated at the piano, singing her favourite song, he swallows a dose of poison. The postman knocks, and the doomed man takes from the letter-box two letters, one informing him that he is heir to a fortune, the other from the lady herself, declaring her inability to live without him, and her resolution to marry him at all hazards. As he dies, a dis- creet knock at the door announces the lady’s arrival, whereupon the curtain falls.” The omis- sions indicated are not material, and, with one exception, the above account very closely renders the course of the monologue acted by Mr. Lewis Waller. The exception—I attended at the Hay- market Theatre on April 5—lay in the fact that, not two letters, so far as I myself could gather, but only one, the second of the two noted above, was delivered by the postman, and received by the lover—too late. A short story entitled “Arsenic” appeared in Beecham's Christmas Annual (Messrs. F. J. Lambert and Co., Temple-chambers and Bouverie- street) for 1889. The contributors to the number included Joseph Hatton, James Greenwood, Fergus Hume, Florence Marryat, and Manville Fenn, and I was informed that at the price—viz., one penny—more than 400,000 copies had been sold. “Arsenic ’’ purports to be the narrative of a man who, committing suicide by means of that poison, writes of his ruin and his hopelessness, and watches for the gradual symptoms as long as he can hold the pen. In this way he is made to tell the story; and between the lines the reader should discern a tale of feminine infidelity which the writer, the deserted husband, does not suspect. He evokes his sweetest souvenirs. These, how- ever, are not associated with a wealthy person whom he loves apparently in vain, but with his little dead child, upon the slenderness of whose resemblance to her mother he seems to dwell with gratification—all such gratification as may be left to him in his last hour. He becomes delirious; he dies. The next morning the postman knocks at his door with a registered letter. The post- man's comment, “It’s the unexpected, voyez-vous, that happens,” forms the last word. “Arsenic ’’ was contributed to the number in question by myself; and it bore my name. The differences of treatment in the two cases are obvious, but it has been pointed out to me that a republication of the story, with some others, might expose me to an unfounded charge of plagiarism. My sole object, therefore, now, is to beg, Sir, for an opportunity of stating in your columns that the appearance of my little story “Arsenic’’ did not follow, but preceded, and by about five years, the production of Mr. Hamilton’s monologue “Fortune's Fool.” H. F. WooD. 3, Rue de Miromesnil, Paris, April 17. [The resemblance is worth noting. It is also worth noting that Mr. Wood does not suggest any kind of plagiarism. Such a situation—the unfortunate suicide just when everything was coming right—is one likely to suggest itself to any imaginative writer.—ED.] VII.-‘‘JANE | ?” In the last of Mr. R. Sherard’s interesting letters from Paris, he says that the finding in “Moll Flanders ” a passage similar to one in “Jane Eyre' has led him to think less as a work of art of the latter powerful and most common of stories, and, though he does not say this, it has certainly led him to think less of, Charlotte Bronté as a woman. For “when asked,” he writes, “how she came to think of so striking a scene (the hearing by Jane of blind Rochester's far-away cry for her), she wsed to drape herself in some mystery ğı and reply, ‘ I wrote it because it is true,” leaving one to imagine that this was a thing of her own experience”—surely, if Mr. Sherard’s ex- planation be the right one, a mean and unworthy subterfuge, and one altogether at variance with the character we know of honest, single-minded Charlotte. 3. That the dire need of some loved one in distress —the cry across the gulf of separation of one human soul to another in sympathy—may make itself heard in some plane of emotional conscious- ness normally latent is a truth too vital to have confined itself to the recognition of Defoe alone. For my own part, that little note of Mr. Sherard's confirms a conviction I have always had—viz., that the love of Jane for Rochester is the story of some unrecorded love in Charlotte Brontë's own life. - I have never read the passage in question without having been strongly impressed with the sense that that cry for “Jane ! Jane ! Jane!” had at some time or another entered, iron-like, into the writer’s own soul. The intense and passionate tenderness por- trayed—the love tearing itself up by its bleeding human roots in order that its ideal shall not suffer—is too vivid to have taken origin wholly in ## p. 332 (#346) ############################################ 332 THE AUTHOR. fancy. The writer interprets a passion she knows—a thing as different from mere delinea- tion of a passion she knows about as genius is from talent. In “Jane Eyre’ Charlotte Brontë has interpreted, perhaps more truly and touch- ingly than any other. writer, a woman's love— intense, sincere, high-minded, yet all the while tenderly human. I greatly doubt that Defoe had anything to teach her. ARABELLA KENEALY. VIII.-AMERICAN DELAYs. I began to write a novel a year last October. By the following March it was in a publisher's hands, and by the end of May my agreement with an English firm was signed. In the mean- time a friend in the States arranged with an American firm to copyright the story there. The American contract was signed by me in September last. The book is not yet out, and my English publishers write that they cannot get the Americans to fix any positive date. It will be said I should have insisted upon a certain time in my agreements. To this I reply that I am not a “known” author, and, considering myself fortunate in having received fair offers from two well-established publishers, I was satisfied to trust them, especially as the making of any such decided arrangement would have entailed much delay in signing contracts, and endless correspon- dence. Moreover, the book is one whose value depends greatly on an early appearance—a fact, I thought, obvious to any press reader, and which my London publishers recognised. They wanted to get it out last season, and advertised it in their autumn announcements. Here, then, is a “frightful example” for English writers and publishers. My novel would have been published six months ago, or earlier, had it not been for the American copyright. Are we to have the same trouble with Canada? By the way, has the Authors' Syndicate agents in the States ? And, if not, would it not be possible to establish a branch there? We newly- hatched ones are so ignorant NEW COMER. IX. —OUR ExTRAVAGANT DINNER. Mild private protests availing nothing, here, with your permission, a public one. Is the annual dinner intended for all the members of the Society, or only the more wealthy P. If all, then why guinea tickets P Cannot we have the pleasure of meeting one another once a year without an unnecessary, in many cases prohibitive, tax P Public dinners are always indifferent, and a satis- fying meal can be obtained for a quarter of this tax. I was well (as the place goes) and sufficiently fed the other day for just that sum. The occasion also a club dinner, and at the same restaurant. We are not gluttons, but come to the dinner less to devour our half-guinea's worth than to meet one another and hear the speeches and uphold the Society. Why, again, must those who do not drink wine pay for it—even those who are wine bibbers not choosing their wine, but having that which is given them P The cost of the dinner is equal to the cost of one year's subscription to the Society; the satis- faction transient, and the benefits nil. I feel so disgusted with this extravagance I contemplate resigning. Those who have the management of the dinner should consider all the members, and not merely their own particular tastes and means. I believe this grumble will be echoed by many members of the Society, particularly those living outside London, who to come to the dinner incur the additional cost of about a sovereign for bed, breakfast, and railway fare. This sort of thing is all very well for wealthy publishers, but not for those like A Dw ELLER IN RURAL GRUB STREET. P.S. Grumble No. 2.--Why should we waste Our money in advertising the dinner and the list of big and medium guns who are going to be present at it P Every member receives the notice privately, and we do not invite the public to come in their thousands, so the money seems absolutely thrown away. The publication of such a list of names is, I venture to assert, in questionable taste. A. D. IN R. G. S. [Perhaps an answer to the “grumble’” may be found in the following considerations: (1) The “tax * is not demanded of members; no one need pay it who does not choose. (2) Public dinners are expected to have a certain amount of show. (3) The dinner is a public occasion at which the Society shows to the world something of its im- portance. (4) The wine question and the charge of wine to those who do not drink it is one of practical management. The issue of cheaper tickets without wine has been tried, and proved unworkable for various reasons. (5) The adver- tisement of the stewards is the best advertisement we can have of the Society itself. To these con- siderations it may be added that frequent sugges- tions have been made to hold a conversazione or a series of lectures or readings, at which the Society may gather without payment. It is to be hoped that some practical suggestions may be brought before the committee. Perhaps the evening might take the form of a private dinner among ourselves at very moderate cost, without advertisement or publicity.—ED.] 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. 05 Issue 12 (May 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 12 (May 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-05-01-The-Author-5-12 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/275/1895-04-01-The-Author-5-11.pdf dda658d5a986bf4e3eae741472a2a88c 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) 1895-04-01 Volume 5 Issue 11 Pages Page range in volume 281–304 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950401 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. VoI. V.-No. 11.] APRIL 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. - HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- WARNINGS AND ADWICE, agent. 4. AscERTAIN WEAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVEs To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone, 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. -- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :— 4, PoETUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. -- - *-- - --" - - - HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTS. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £IO must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at mo ea'pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. WOL. V. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice C C 2 ## p. 282 (#296) ############################################ 282 THE AUTHOR. sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. - 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *-- ~ *-* •- ~~~ THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. w 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department * for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. NOTICES, HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P. If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble ## p. 283 (#297) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 283 of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. - Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-*. --> THE COMMITTEE, R. HENRY NORMAN, the author of “Real Japan,” “The Peoples and Politics of the Far East” (just published by Mr. Fisher Unwin), and other books, and the literary editor of the Daily Chronicle, has been appointed to the committee and council of the Society. By Mr. Norman's election the last vacancy on the committee for the current year is filled. *-- - -—º r- - -, LITERARY PROPERTY, I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. H.E Dominion Government have ceased the collection through the Customs of the 12% per cent. royalty on reprints of British copyright works brought into Canada, which has been collected hitherto for the benefit of the authors. The Tariff Act passed last season provided for the discontinuance of the collection of the royalty from March 27 of this year, in order to emphasise Canada's claim to exclusive jurisdiction in the Dominion regarding copy- right.—Standard, April 2. To the Editor of the Times. SIR,--Your issue of Feb. 26, containing the letter of Mr. W. M. Conway on Canadian copy- right, has just been received here, and I must ask the favour of a reply thereto. Mr. Conway overlooks several important points which entirely destroys the force of his arguments. First, the geographical position of Canada, side by side as it is with the United States. Second, that, should the English author fail to publish in the United States before or simul- taneously with publication elsewhere, he loses copyright there, and any United States publisher can reprint the book without payment of any royalty whatever, and send the book into Canada unless it is copyrighted here. Under the Canadian Act, on the other hand, the author has thirty days after publication elsewhere in which to publish in Canada, and thereby secure exclusive copyright. Third, to secure copyright in the United States the author must actually have the type set up within the United States, The Canadian law, on the other hand, specially permits the importation of plates into Canada free of duty. If the English author refuses or neglects to secure copyright in the United States, he loses all rights there. But not so in Canada, for the Canadian Act provides that any publisher here wishing to reprint any such book must first give security for the payment of a royalty of Io per cent, for the benefit of the author. It will be seen, then, that the Canadian Act grants valuable concessions to the English author which concessions are denied him in the United States. Mr. Conway repeats the statement that if the Canadian Bill becomes law Canadian reprints will inevitably flood the United States market. I think I can show Mr. Conway, and those who think as he does, that this statement has no foundation in fact. Section 4956 of the United States Copyright Act reads:—“During the existence of such copyright (in the United States) the importation into the United States of any book, chromo, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any edition or editions thereof shall be and it is hereby prohibited.” Section 4965 of the same Act provides the penalty for the infringe- ment of the foregoing provision. The United States copyright owners are therefore fully protected, and in the face of these provisions of the United States Act it will be worse than folly to continue to assert that Canadian reprints would or could flood the United States market. Mr. Walter Besant's new book, “Beyond the Dreams of Avarice,” furnishes an apt illustration in point. Mr. Besant’s book is issued in London at 6s. It is copyrighted in the United States, and is issued there at I dol. 50 cents. The British copyright owners have, however, issued a special cheap edition for the Canadian market, and Mr. Besant may rest assured that this special Canadian edition (which was printed in London and is now selling in Canada for 75 cents a copy) will not flood the United States market, for the very excel- ## p. 284 (#298) ############################################ 284 THE AUTHOR. lent reason that the United States copyright owner is fully protected, as the United States copyright law prohibits the importation and sale of unauthorised editions in the United States. So with “The Ralstons,” Mr. Marion. Crawford’s recent novel, which is published in London at 12s. It is copyrighted in the United States, and sells there for 2 dols. owner has printed in London a special cheap edition, which is sold in Canada, for 75 cents a copy; yet the United States market is not being flooded with this cheap edition, although it is published at less than one-half the price of the United States edition, as the United States law prevents any such action. Did space permit, scores of similar cases could be given, and it can readily be seen that the fear that Canadian edi- tions will flood the United States market is utterly unfounded. In conclusion, I suggest that our English friends be perfectly fair in statements they make through the Press. Thus, when Mr. Conway says, as he does in his letter, that “Canadian reprints will flood, as they are intended to flood, the United States market,” and calls for signa- tures to a petition asking for disallowance of the Canadian Act on this account as one of the chief grievances, it is an open question whether every signature so secured has not been secured under false pretences, as Canadian reprints cannot flood, nor, above all, was it ever intended that they should flood, the United States market. Canadians resent and protest at such a misleading statement, as it places their case in a false light before the British public. RICHARD T. LANCEFIELD, Hon. Secretary Canadian Copyright Association. Public Library, Hamilton, March 9. Times, March 22, 1895. To the Editor of the Times. ... SIR,--The letter of Mr. R. T. Lancefield, hon. secretary of the Canadian Copyright Association, does not call for a lengthy reply. He contends that I overlook “ the geographical position of Canada, side by side as it is with the United States.” The fact is that the situation of Canada. is the chief cause of our anxiety. If Canada were a country isolated in the midst of others not English speaking, we should regret her action, but it would not be powerfully injurious, for the Canadian market for books is small, and the loss of it, though regrettable, would be no great matter. But if Canada obtains the right to issue cheap unauthorised reprints of the works of English writers, these reprints will be imported into the United States, all laws and customs houses not- The British copyright . withstanding, for Canada's long land frontier cannot be blocked. Tauchnitz reprints find their way through English customs houses in great numbers; how much more must Canadian reprints invade the United States if ever the threatened system were inaugurated. Mr. Lancefield’s further contention that the Canadian proposals would put an English author in a better position in Canada than he is now placed in the United States is specious; but the fact is not material, for the magnitude of the United States market is a compensation which Canada cannot offer. The question is one of cost. It pays to undergo considerable expense to secure the United States market ; it would not pay to undergo a much smaller expense to secure the Canadian market. Few books will ever be taken for Canada under the conditions of the new Act. The rest will be robbed of anything worth the name of copyright. From an author's point of view the situation threatens to become intolerable. Having written his book and secured an English publisher, he already has to hunt up an American publisher also. This takes time. It is proposed that he shall further have to find a Canadian publisher. If all the other parts of the British Empire follow suit, obviously an author's work in arranging with publishers all over the earth and seeing his book through the press in a dozen simultaneous editions will be much greater than his work in writing it. The only just and sound arrangement is for universal copyright to follow single publication anywhere, and this greatly desired consummation seemed till recently to be coming within the bounds of possibility. Canada’s proposed retro- grade and particularist action threatens to post- pone it indefinitely. Even Mr. Lancefield does not pretend that the Canadian Act is fashioned in the interests of literature, still less in the interests of the authors who make literature, or of the readers that profit by it. The injury is to be wrought solely for the sake of a small body of printers whose profits will be infinitesimal com- pared with the far-reaching damage they will effect.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, W. M. ConwAY, Chairman of Committee of the Incorporated Society of Authors. 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn-fields. Times, March 24, 1895. One or two points may be added to those in Mr. Conway's letter. I. As to the Canadian proposal to retire from the position of civilised states in order to practise piracy openly, he says nothing. ## p. 285 (#299) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 285 2. As to the flooding of the United States with cheap reprints, he quotes the Act, but neglects to point out how with the enormous undefended frontier it is to be enforced. He then mentions one or two books lately republished in Canada which have not been largely exported to the States. Why P Simply because they are published at 75 cents, or 3s. a copy. There is not likely to be any successful piracy at that price. 3. He is still bold enough to parade the old pretence of a royalty. First, it is to be a Io per cent. royalty—a miserable, iniquitous, and sweating royalty, long since exploded in this country and the States. But, even if it were a fair royalty, what security is there for its collec- tion ? None. The Canadian “royalty” has been with us for many years. Once Charles Reade got eighteenpence by it. Mr. W. H. Lecky, the other day, said that he had once obtained over a pound by it. I have never received a farthing from it. In the face of the absence of any machinery for enforcing the payment of the royalty, and for auditing the accounts; and in face of the miserable nature of the royalty offered; to talk of “con- cessions” to the British author demands, indeed, a brazen front. EDITOR. Also from the Times of the same date :- Mr. Lancefield’s argument appears to be that because the United States, a foreign power, chooses to impose conditions as to remanufacture of books in America before granting copyright protection to British authors, Canada, which is . a part of the British Empire, is justified in attempting to do likewise. He does not pretend that any necessity for this arises from the difficulty of procuring English books in Canada at moderate prices, for he carefully explains that under the present law the works of English authors are offered for sale in the Dominion at lower prices than in Great Britain or the United States. The only apparent reason for seeking to secure the Royal assent to this precious Bill is that it may possibly put a little money into the pockets of a few needy Canadian printers, while it would certainly injure English authors and would probably not benefit Canadian buyers. The logical outcome of such a concession to Canada would be similar legislation in each of the self- governing colonies, with the result that, although fully protected in nearly all foreign countries by the Treaty of Berne, an English author would, if he wished to remain proprietor of his own book, be obliged to provide for the printing of ten or a dozen separate editions. The economic waste of such a monstrous system is positively appalling. F. March 24. *- The petition against the Canadian Copyright Act, which has been lying for the last three weeks for signature at the offices of the Society, has now been forwarded to the Marquis of Ripon. There are more than 1500 signatures to the petition, and amongst them are the names of all the best known writers in science, fiction, &c., in the United Kingdom. In addition, the most im- portant known publishing firms have added their signatures. It is hard in such a long list to discriminate, but a few of the names are appended. Perhaps it is worth while to repeat again the points which make the question one of such great importance. After a long and difficult struggle it was recognised by most of the civilised nations, at the Berne Convention, that copyright was the exclusive property of the author, and was not therefore to be trammeled with trade restrictions. After a still further struggle the Americans were brought to recognise the fact that property existed in copyright, but unfortunately they attached to that property a trade limitation. The step was retrogressive, and opposed to the liberal view of all the nations that signed the Berne Convention. But to obtain any concession across the water was of considerable advantage to the holders and originators of valuable property. The Canadians are now desirous of placing a somewhat similar trade restriction on the property of British and other authors. It is not worth while to go into the Act in detail, but there appears to be no doubt that should it obtain the Royal assent, not only will the American copyright be imperilled, but it is quite possible that the signatories to the Berne Convention may have something to say on the matter. The question is not one concerning the freedom of a colony to legislate on its affairs—as the Canadians so frequently and so vainly assert—but touches the question of piracy, which, when on the high seas, has been long ago suppressed by the unanimous voice and power of the civilised world. L. Alma-Tadema, R.A. George Gissing Edward Arnold Frederick Goodall Sir Robert Ball, F.R.S. Sydney Grundy Robert Bateman Richard Garnett, LL.D. Geo. Bell and Sons Thomas Hardy Walter Besant Anthony Hope Hawkins Augustine Birrell, M.P. William Heinemann A. and C. Black Holman Hunt William Black Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. Hall Caine A. D. Innes and Co. Chappell and Co. Henry Irving Hon. John Collier Jerome K. Jerome W. M. Conway Henry Arthur Jones F. H. Cowen Mrs. E. Kennard A. Constable and Co. Prof. E. Ray Lankester Earl of Desart W. E. H. Lecky Frank Dicksee, R.A. Lady W. Lennox B. L. Farjeon Longmans, Green, and Co. Archdeacon Farrar, D.D. Mrs. Lynn Linton ## p. 286 (#300) ############################################ 286 A UTHOR. THE Edna Lyall Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A. Sir A.C. Mackenzie, Mus.Doc. Macmillan and Co. James Martineau Helen Mathers S. H. Mendlessohn George du Maurier Phil May Methuen and Co. Justin McCarthy, M.P. John Murray Prof. Max Müller J. C. Nimmo Henry Norman David Nutt Novello and Co. W. H. Pollock Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D A. W. Pinero W. H. Russell. George Routledge and Co., Ltd. Sir B. W. Richardson T. Scrutton C.Williers Stanford, Mus.Doc. M. H. Spiellman Herbert Spencer Sir John Stainer Sir Arthur Sullivan Lord Tennyson Sir H. Thompson, Bart. Brandon Thomas Baron H. de Worms John Strange Winter J. McNeil Whistler Stanley J. Weyman Earl of Wharncliffe Florence Warden James Payn I. Zangwill. G. H. Titerse. II.-AN AGREEMENT ON THE CovKRT COPYRIGHT |BILL. (Sent to Congress, Feb. 27.) At a conference comprising representatives of the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association, the American Publishers’ Copyright League, and the American (Authors') Copyright League, held in New York, Feb. 21, 1895, the following sub- stitute for the proviso of the Covert Bill was unanimously agreed upon : “Provided, however, that in case of any such infringement of the copyright of a photograph made from any object not a work of the fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any action brought under the provisions of this section shall be not less than IOO dollars, nor more than 5000 dollars; and provided, further, that in case of any such nfringement of the copyright of a painting, drawing, statue, engraving, etching, print, or model or design for a work of the fine arts, or in case of any such infringement of the copyright of a work of the fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any such action shall be not less than 250 dollars,and not more than IO,OOO dollars.” This substitute is acceptable also to leading art publishers and photographers. It will relieve the newspapers of excessive penalties without endangering the security of copyright property. In behalf of the three above-mentioned national organisations, we respectfully request your sup- port to the effort to pass the Bill, as thus amended, at the present session by unanimous COnsent. W. C. BRYANT, Secretary, A.N.P.A. GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAN, Secretary, A.P.C.L. RoberT UNDER wood JoHNSON, Secretary, A.C.L. III.-ON SELLING A Book OUTRIGHT. A “Publisher,” writing to the Athenæum, calls upon the writer of the article with the above title to “state publicly ” in the Athenæum “what sort of book’’ he refers to as a 6s. book which can be produced at Is. a copy, or a 3s. 6d. book which can be produced at 8%d. I would point out to this “Publisher ” that it is not customary to call upon the writer of an article in one paper to explain himself in another, and that a state- ment made in the Author is as “publicly ” made as in the Athenæum. As he reads the Author, however, I will answer him here. If he will refer to the “Cost of Production,” a copy of which he doubtless possesses, he will find estimates showing exactly the kind of book meant. It is so clearly described as to leave no doubt possible. (Note that on p. 28 and on p. 34 there is a misprint of 5s. for 6s.) Since this pamphlet was printed, binding has gone up about 15 per cent., and composition has slightly advanced, but paper has gone down. From these estimates it is evident that a 6s. book printed in quantities may cost a good deal less than Is. a copy. As regards a 3s. 6d. book, the average book of that price was in the writer's mind, viz., such a story book for boys and girls, as printed in large editions, certainly does not cost more than 8; d. a volume. But in the “Cost of Production,” p. 34, it is shown that actually a long novel issued in a large edition would cost no more than four-fifths of a shilling per copy. The “Publisher ” wants to include advertising in the “cost of production.” Certainly not; for the simple reason that by including it the cost may be made anything. By charging whatever the publisher pleases for advertising as often as he pleases in his own organ, which costs him nothing ; for advertising by exchange, which costs him nothing; by suppressing large discounts received from certain papers; he can load the actual cost of the book indefinitely. Let us not forget the case quoted some time since in the Author, where a demand was made for £30 odd for advertisements; and where the author's adviser offered to pay only whatever money had been actually expended. The amount proved to be under £4 A very little book was thus alleged to have cost £26 more than it actually did by thus swelling the advertisements The amount actually spent for advertising—not, of course, counting a successful novel—is in general very little, except in the rare case of a book which will “bear” it. An ordinary book, calculated to obtain at the best a circulation sufficient to pay its expenses, and a modest something over, cannot possibly, as the smallest knowledge of the figures will show, have a very large sum ## p. 287 (#301) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 287 spent upon announcing it. The reason may well be understood when it is known that the expenditure of £20—which seems little—in advertising an edition of IOOO copies actually means the addition of nearly 5al. a copy on the cost of production. We will add the advertising to the cost of production as soon as we know that the actual money homestly spent, and no more, is to be charged. To these considerations may be added the fact that publishing firms differ from each other in no respect more than in the money they spend on advertising and in the organs in which they spend it. THE WRITER OF THE ARTICLE. *- A --" - - - ROYAL LITERARY FUND, HE annual meeting of the Royal Literary Fund was held yesterday afternoon at 7, Adelphi-terrace. The chair was taken by Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, one of the vice-presidents, and there were present Mr. F. W. Gibbs, C.B., Q.C., Mr. C. Knight Watson, Mr. Lewis Morris, Mr. W. J. Courthope; Mr. Fraser Rae, Mr. William Stebbing, Mr. Edward Dicey, C.B., Mr. F. D. Mocatta, Mr. George Dalziel, Mr. J. H. Grain, Dr. Macaulay, Mr. Thornton Sharp, Mr. Sidney Lee, Mr. Richard Bentley, Mr. F. C. Danvers, Sir William Farrer, Sir B. W. Richardson, and others. The minutes of the last annual meeting, held last April, having been read and confirmed, Mr. W. J. Courthope read the registrars' report, which classified the grants awarded in 1894 as follows: —Class I., history and biography, nine grants, £455; class II., science and art, two grants, 34O; class III., classical literature and education, seven grants, 3485; class IV., archaeology, topography, and travels, six grants, 3415 ; class W., novels and tales, ten grants, 3400 ; class VI., periodical literature, three grants, 312O ; class VII., miscel- laneous, eight grants, £190. The grants varied in amount from £150 to £10. Of the forty-five persons relieved twenty-seven were men to the extent of £1,130, and eighteen women, 38975. The total sum invested as appearing in the treasurer's report amounted to £49,212 16s. 8d., producing an income of £1667 8s. The annual amounts of the grants had varied from ten guineas in 1790, the date of the foundation of the fund, to £3335 in 1883, which was the highest reached. 32Oo had been invested in Consols, and on Dec. 3 I there was a balance in hand of £199,-Times, March 14, 1895. > º: WOI. W. THE AMERICAN GUILD OF AUTHORS, HERE lies before us a copy of the tract T issued by the American Guild of Authors. It is called “Methods of Publishing.” Four methods are enumerated: 1. The royalty system. 2. That in which the author assumes a share of the cost and receives in return a larger royalty. 3. That in which the author bears the expense and pays the publisher a commission. 4. That in which the publisher buys out the author. On the first it is simply remarked that it is the fairest plan provided the publisher makes an honest return of the books sold. But nothing is said as to the amount of royalty. What is it to be P Why is it adopted as fair? What does it give the publisher and what the author? We recommend these questions very earnestly to our American friends. It is afterwards stated that popular authors are now asking for a “graded” royalty—10 per cent. for the first 3OOO, 15 per cent. up to 15,000 or 20,000, and after that 20 per cent. Let us see how this kind of “graded ” royalty would suit authors on this side. We may take our old friend the six shilling volume, 20 sheets, small pica type, about 258 words to a page. The cost of the first edition of 3OOO copies is about a shilling each — call it a shilling, that of the following copies is about IOd, a copy. The trade price may be taken as generally 3s. 7#d. The following result would be pretty close to the truth :— First 3Ooo. 3OOO–2O,OOO. Royalty Royalty IO per cent. I5 per cent. Author receives ... 3890 £765 Publisher makes ... 3303 ...... 39.1608 The publisher has to pay for the advertising, say £80. - We are willing to believe that the risk of pro- duction is perhaps greater in the States than here, but we are unwilling to believe that the American Guild of Authors desires the publisher to have three times the share of the author. On the second plan it is customary, it is said, for the author to pay the cost of composition and plates, and for the publisher to pay for printing, binding, and advertising, giving the author a 20 per cent. royalty. But it is complained that the publisher charges more than the real cost. Then follow two pages devoted to “tricks.” We are unfortunately familiar with them. The following figures are given as fair prices for printing, &c. : I) D ## p. 288 (#302) ############################################ 288 THE AUTHOR. I. Composition and electro-plate, 12mo, small pica, about 420 words to a page; per page, I dol. 2. Paper and presswork, per IOOO copies, 257-56 dols. 3. Binding, at 22; cents, per volume, 225 dols. Total cost, 882.56 dols. The cost per volume would be ‘882 dols., or 3s. 6d. each. This is enormous compared with the English cost of production. One cannot under- stand how the business of publishing can be carried on at all against such high figures as these. A form of agreement, said to be customary, is included in the tract. We refrain from comment upon it in order to avoid a charge of interfering in what is not our business. The tract contains at the end a list of “Reputable Publishers.” We are happy to observe that there are a great many in various parts of America. Suppose, however, that it were discovered that one of them was not quite so reputable as had been believed; a new edition of the tract would have to be struck off with the offender's name removed. Would it not be better that the Society should vouch for no one, leaving, as we do, every house to make its own reputation ? *- --> * * *-*. LETTER FROM PARIS. ONSIEUR MARCEL PREVOST has written an indignant letter to the Paris edition of the New York Herald. He begins by saying: “This is what I read in the New York Recorder of Feb. 2 I. ‘Marcel Pre- vost’s much - discussed novel, “The Demi- Virgins,” which will be produced shortly as a play at one of the Paris theatres, has been trans- lated into English by Arthur Hornblow, and will be issued this week by the Holland Publishing Company. I am told that there is plenty of dramatic material in the book for a good play. Here is a golden opportunity for an aspiring dramatist.” Thus in the first place my “Les Demi-Vierges’ is translated without my autho- risation, without any compensation to me for the harm which the translated edition is likely to have on the sale of the original edition ; and secondly, young dramatic authors are cynically invited to make their fortunes by dramatising my story. I am sure, dear sir, that you consider such conduct unworthy of a great nation such as the one to which Mr. Hornblow belongs, and that you will assist me in defending my rights, or at least in protesting against this pillage of my work.” M. Prevost concludes by saying that he is aware that there is no literary convention between France and America, but neither is there one between France and Russia, or between France and Denmark, yet the publishers both in Denmark and Russia paid him fees for the autho- risation to publish translations of “Les Demi- Vierges.” r The Herald devotes a leader to the subject of M. Prevost’s letter, but I am afraid the indig- mant author will derive but small comfort from its remarks, which are summed up in the words concluding the article: “Unfortunately, however, there exists no treaty to protect author's rights of this nature, and so long as this defect in our international treaties remains there is no legal remedy. The appeal to public opinion, which M. Marcel Prevost to-day makes through the Herald's columns, is the only step that can be made towards obtaining an adequate redress.” I think this is the first time that a French author has protested in public against the American pirate, and it is to be regretted that the occasion of this first protest should be a book such as Marcel Prevost’s “Les Demi-Vierges”— a vile book if ever one was written ; and the only interest, to speak frankly, that I take in M. Prevost’s case, is in the information it affords as to the best way of creating for oneself with one's pen a success not only national but universal. It is a great pity that these things should be so, but so they are, and the writer of such books can reap rewards which are refused to men of letters who have a respect for their calling and the feeling of the dignity of their pen. “Les Demi-Vierges” went into over IOO editions in France, and has been translated into every European language. It now, according to Monsieur Prevost, is appearing in America, though I do not think that any publisher will care to undertake its publication in England. The moral seems to be that this is the stuff in which the reading public is most widely interested, and Du Maurier's clever cartoon in this week's Punch, depicting a conversation between a lady porno- grapher and a pornographic publisher is as true to life as are all the scenes depicted by this admir- able artist. It is a great pity that these things should be so, for it seems to show that civilisation is not advancing, and it shows further that the sense of human dignity is fading away through- out the world. I may be called a prude, but I declare very frankly that I have no manner of consideration for the writer who speculates on the hoggishness of the majority of readers, and that he is never, in my estimation, a brother author. I was speaking the other night with a Spanish journalist who has literary ambitions, and I asked him why he never wrote books, for I knew him as ## p. 289 (#303) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 289 a very clever man, with a wide knowledge of life and a great experience. He said that he could not afford to work for nothing, and went on to explain that a Spanish author gets no money from a publisher, that consequently there are no Spanish authors, as you and I can well understand. I said, “What, not a peseta ?” and he said “Not a peseta.” This is worse than in Russia or Poland, where, I believe, a successful author may look for ten roubles, or even twenty, per sheet of printed matter, that is to say, about £2 for sixteen pages of printed text. We English authors and you French authors are very fortunate II.16I1. Alphonse Daudet has somewhat changed his mind about his intentions in England. He told me that he would accept certain invitations which had been made to him. “But,” he added, “they will have to be content with a bust. A bust is all that I can offer them.” He meant that he cannot appear otherwise than sitting down. It was sitting that our dear master made his memorable speech on the occasion of the De Goncourt banquet. Monsieur José de Herédia was to have been received into the company of the French Academy next month. This, however, has now been put off, and Monsieur Herédia’s reception will not take place for some months. The reason of this is that Monsieur François Coppée has been seriously ill, and will be unable to speak at Herédia’s reception, as had been arranged. The reference above to Polish and Russian authors makes me think, and not without a heaviness at heart, of a very sad experience of mine of a few days ago. Some years past I knew in Paris a Russian author. He had been in the Russian army, and was an exile under sentence of death. A very clever man, very well read, and always reading. He starved at ten roubles the sheet, but though he did not often have a dinner, he always could buy books, and the garret in which he lived—the identical garret occupied by Racine in the rue Wisconti—was full of them. He used to come and see me, and I loved his conversation. But he had strange habits of in- temperance, and in the end I was forced to ask him not to come to see me any more, for riotous- ness at that time appalled me. A year ago I received, when down in the South, a letter from him. He said that he wanted to see me again, that he could not bear the thought of a definite separation. I answered him, I am glad to remember this, in a friendly way, and told him that I would come and see him when I returned to Paris. Last week I found his letter amongst my papers, and at once wrote to invite him to my house. On Thursday morning I received a letter from a sister of charity to say that my old friend was ill and very tired, and could not come to see me, but that my visit would “give him immense pleasure.” I could not go to see him on Thursday, but I went on Friday. The street in which he lived was in a very remote quarter of Paris, and it took an hour in a cab to get there. The door was opened by a beautiful sister of charity in blue. I said, “You have a Monsieur here P” She said, “Yes,” and then added, quite simply, “he died one hour ago.” Then she pressed me to come and see him. “He looks quite nice,” she said, and she spoke of death, as it should be spoken of, as the great desideratum of life. I allowed myself to be persuaded, and followed her to the poor little room in this Polish house of refuge, and there I saw my old friend, with a table by the bedside, and on the table a crucifix and two burning candles. He had been a big, riotous man in the old days, and there he was, so pinched and peaked that his form hardly raised the covers of the bed. It was a terrible meeting, and though the sister wanted me to stay and kneel down Iran from the room. I have thought of nothing since, and I do not think that anything I have ever seen in life more deeply affected me. His poor fingers were stained with ink, and there was an unfinished manuscript on the chest of drawers. No doubt, the sister of charity was right. No doubt, Death was a comforter here. But why had I not arrived two hours earlier 2 “He was looking forward to your visit,” said sister Angéle. “Your letter made him quite joyous.” Death, whether it come as a comforter or no, is the one terrible thing. I met M. Aurélien Scholl, President of the Société des Gens de Lettres, a night or two ago, and he spoke to me for some time about the affairs of the society. Amongst other things which he told me was that certain friends and admirers of Paul de Kock had decided to erect a little statue or memorial to him in the garden of the house in which he lived for many years before his death. “I intend to interest the Society in this matter,” said the President, and he went on to speak of his high admiration for Paul de Kock. I think there never was an author more unfairly treated by fame. One knows what the average reader expects when with twinkling eyes he picks up a de Kock. It is quite unfair. Paul de Kock had wit and verve, and an admirable power of story-telling. He had no desire to attract readers by what has been alluded to above. People think that his speciality. I do not know if his Memoirs have ever been translated into English. They ought to be. I picked up a copy of them at a bookseller's some days ago. It was ## p. 290 (#304) ############################################ 29O THE AUTHOR. a most interesting book, full of anecdotes about people of notoriety under the Revolution and the Empire. He knew Fouquier-Tinville as a bland young man. He had a famous interview with Emperor Napoleon. The book shows the man as he was, and it is strange that it should be out of print in France. Mr. Grant Allen is in Paris at the time of writ- ing, and, I am sorry to say, is ill. At least when I last heard news of him he was lying in bed with porous plasters wrapped about him. Mr. F. C. Philips is in Paris also, busy as usual, and full of work and schemes for future work. He is one of the English authors who are best known and most appreciated in France, where everybody seems to have read “As in a Looking-glass.” I under- stand that he is at work on a long novel sans pre- judice of any number of short stories and plays. This is a man of very wonderful activity. In reading over “Moll Flanders” in Marcel Schwob's masterly translation, I came across a passage which makes me think less of “Jane Eyre'” as a work of art than I have thought till now. You may remember that just after Jane Eyre has been pressed by the frigid St. John to marry him, she rushes out into the garden and there suddenly hears a cry of “Jane, Jane, Jane,” from the distant Rochester. When Charlotte Bronté was asked how she came to think of so striking a scene—those were the days when tele- pathy was unknown—she used to drape herself in some mystery—I have this from a person who so interrogated her —and reply: “I wrote it because it is true,” leaving one to imagine that this was a thing of her own experience. It was an effec- tive scene, but Defoe had imagined it some years previously, and so we have a sorrowful scholia to enter into our copies of “Jane Eyre.” . . . I have no English Defoe by me, but the scene to which I refer is where Moll Flanders calls for the departed Jemmy, in the inn at Chester, and Jemmy hears her very voice, though then fifteen leagues distant, and so returns to her. And alas and alack into our copies of “The Cenci” a similar sorrowful scholia must be entered, and indeed against those particularly beautiful lines which conclude the play: . . . . Here, mother tie My girdle for me, and bind up this hair In any simple knot; aye, that does well. And yours, I see, is coming down. You know the lines and, like us all, you have admired, with enthusiastic admiration, this con- ception which shows us a woman on the very brink of the precipice thinking about pretty, trivial womanly things. Well, I happened on Webster the other day, and, in turning over the leaves of “La Duchesse d’Amalfi.” in Ernest Lafond's translation, I read a passage where the Duchess just about to be strangled by the execu- tioner gives trivial womanly orders. Her little boy is to have the syrup for his cough, nor is her little girl to be allowed to go to bed until she has said her prayers. It is the finer conception of the two, and, such as it is, it deprives Shelley of all the glory of his lines. I am very sorry, for I think that there was nothing in Shelley that I liked better than this—this picture of femininity under the very shadow of death. But so our idols one after the other get broken and cast down. How true it is—as further exemplified by the preceding remarks—that “ les beaua esprits se rencontrent.” Let me point out that Tennyson's line in “Locksley Hall ”— it is line 38– And our spirits rushed together at the touching of the lips— reads like an almost literal translation of Schiller's lines in “Amalia’’: Seine Küsse—paradiesisch Fühlen Wie zwo Flammen sich ergreifen, wie Harfentóne in einander spielen Zu der himmelwollen Harmonie— Stürzten, flogen, schmolzen Geist und Geist zusammen Lippen, Wangen, brannten, zitterten Seele ranſm in Seele. And, again, as to that beautiful line about the “burden of an honour to which she was not born,” is not memory carried back to line 99 of the sixth Satire of the First Book by Horace: Nollem Onus haud unquam solitus portare molestum. The bitterest thing that was ever said about our poor friend Boulanger was Jules Ferry's remark that he was a “Saint-Arnaud de Café- Concert.” Boulanger called Ferry out for this epigram, and Ferry would not go. I have no comment to make on Ferry's conduct, for he is dead and Boulanger is with him, and those are things not to be talked of now. But I was reminded of this to-day on receiving from Tresse and Stock a copy of Dr. Cabrol’s interesting Memoirs, edited and prefaced by Paul de Régla, which deals exclusively—as the title of the volume indicates—with Marshal Saint-Arnaud in the Crimea. This is a very interesting book, giving a full account, almost day by day, of the last six months of the life of the Marshal, down to the hour when—well, I hardly like to repeat the Doctor's version of how the gallant Marshal met his death, for I have many friends in the Bonapartist camp. In the same packet I received from these publishers a book entitled “Le Roman d’une Fée,” by M. Henri Belliot, an ardent littérateur, who writes to me to say that, as an Englishman, I shall appreciate a fairy-story better than his compatriots. I hope to be able to do so when I have found time to ## p. 291 (#305) ############################################ THE AUTHOR, 291 read the book. In the meanwhile I mention its existence and wish it very well. A curious offer was made to me the other day. It came by telegraph from the proprietor of a New York daily paper. This person, it appears, has written a historical work—or, rather, has had a historical work written for him by some literary hack—in French. He desired to publish a translation of the work in English, and asked me to do the translation for him. A condition was that my name should not appear in connec- tion with the book. He was to figure on the title-page as the writer. He proposed a remunera- tion of 6s. a thousand words. What amusing people there are in this world to be sure! ROBERT H. SHERARD. 123, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. *— a 2-2 -sº NOTES FROM NEW YORK, New York, March 16. HE most important literary news of the month is the announcement that New York is at last to have a public library worthy of the chief city of a great nation. At the present time this immense town of ours, with a population of perhaps four millions contained within a radius of twenty-five miles from the city hall, is less well provided with books accessible to all citizens than Boston is or Chicago, to make no comparison with London, or Paris, or Berlin. Hitherto the chief public library of New York has been that founded fifty years ago by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who had made a fortune in New York, and wished to do some- thing for the city of his choice. He began by giving about £IOO,OOO, and his son and grandson in turn gave similar sums. The Astor Library was very fortunate in its first librarian, Coggswell, and its earlier books were admirably selected. But its endowment was inadequate, and it has grown but little of late years. It has not quite 3OO,OOO volumes, and its buildings, books, and funds are valued at perhaps 340O.OOO. A quarter of a century ago Mr. James Lenox— an interesting account of whose book collecting was written by the late Henry Stevens, of Wer- mont—established by will the Lenox Library, endowing it handsomely, and bequeathing to it all his own rare books, including the finest col- lection of Bibles in the world. This library is housed in a sumptuous building overlooking Central Park, and it has adjacent land, allowing for great expansion. Its assets are said to amount to more than £500,000. VOL. W. A third library was made possible by the will of Samuel J. Tilden, once a candidate for the presidency of the United States; but there was a long litigation over the will, and, after a final compromise, the trustees have now about 2400,000—a wholly insufficient sum with which to buy the land, erect a building, stock it with books, and meet the future expenses of a public library. A proposal was made by Columbia College to grant a site on the new grounds where the college is about to build, but this was not favourably received by the Tilden trustees. Now, however a union has been brought about, and all these institutions are to be merged in one, starting with perhaps 4OO,OOO volumes, and having assets of at least a million and a half sterling. The details of the consolidation are not yet determined upon, but the union itself is an assured fact. The site has not been selected; but probably the buildings of the Astor will be sold, and the new edifice will be erected on the ample grounds belonging to the Lenox. The style and title of the new corporation will be “The Public Library of the City of New York, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.” This name will invite further benefactors, who might have thought it an impertinence to contribute to the library of the Astor family or to that bearing the names of the late Mr. Lenox or the later Mr. Tilden. The suggestion has been made that the new corporation should also take over the excellent and useful Free Circulating Library, which has half a dozen branches in the most thickly populated portions of the city. The announcement has been made that the new library will be managed in the most progressive manner; it will be open on Sundays, and in the evening ; it will allow books to be withdrawn for home reading; it will provide special privileges for students; it will endeavour to meet every reasonable public demand. Upon the new board of trustees are some of the ablest and most public spirited men in New York. Of course, it will be several years before the full benefit of the consolidation will be apparent; but the news has been received with the greatest satisfaction. The giving of prizes for stories, and plays, and poems has never greatly benefited literature, although it has always been an excellent adver- tisement for the giver. It is sixty years since Poe won a prize of £20 offered by a Baltimore weekly paper for the best short story, but he did not write the tale especially for the contest; he withdrew the “MS. found in a Bottle" from the paper to which he had sold it for £6, and offered it for the prize, and thus made an extra profit of 3I4. Three diffierent sets of prizes are now offered for competition among the American E. E. ## p. 292 (#306) ############################################ ** ** . . *s. 292 Writers of fiction to-day. The most important o those is that which the New York Herald i prepared to give. Perhaps the conditions of the contest cannot be better set forth than in the actual words of the advertisement: THE HERALD’S PRIZE OFFER. SIXTEEN THOUSAND DoILARs To BE AwarDED TO AMERICAN NovKLISTS AND POETs. The New York Herald will award a prize of Io,000 dollars for the best serial story of between 50,000 and 75,000 words by an American writer, whether professional or amateur. The conditions of this contest are as follows : The manuscripts must be submitted anonymously, and must bear only the initials of their authors or other private identification marks, so that the identity of the writer will not be known to the committee of three examiners, who will be appointed by the Herald, and who will select three stories of the greatest merit. The stories, so selected, will be printed in the Herald, daily and Sunday, as occasion requires, beginning early in October, 1895. The readers of the Herald will be asked to decide by ballot which story they like best, and the prize of Io,000 dollars will be awarded accordingly. The manuscripts, other than the three selected by the examiners, will be returned to the writers, upon their identi- fication by means of their initials or private marks. The writers will be at liberty to publish these returned manu- scripts elsewhere, and no reference will be made by the Herald that they have been rejected. All manuscripts for this competition must be submitted before July 1, 1895. THREE OTHER PRIZES. The Herald also offers three other prizes—the first of 3000 dollars for the best novelette of between 15,000 and 25,000 words; the second, a prize of 2000 dollars for the best short story of between 6ooo and Io, Ooo words; and the third, a prize of IOOO dollars for the best epic poem, based on some event of American history that has occurred since the beginning of the War of the Revolution. The conditions that will govern the competition for the prize of Io,ooo will also govern those for the prizes of 3ooo dollars, 2000 dollars, and IOoo dollars. The chosen manuscripts will be published in the Herald, in turn, upon the conclusion of the serials. All manuscripts for these latter competitions must be submitted to the Herald before Sept. 1, 1895. The obvious comment to be made upon this is that the actual winner of any one of these prizes will be well paid, but that the unfortunate writers of the second best and third best novels, short stories, and epics will receive no payment at all. Far more equitable is the arrangement pro- posed by a syndicate of important papers headed by the Hartford Courant (of which Mr. Charles Dudley Warner is the editor in chief). Their advertisement reads as follow : A TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR PRIZE. A NUMBER OF WELL-KNOWN NEWSPAPERS ANNOUNCE THE LARGEST CAPITAL PRIZE, EVER OFFERED. We will pay a first prize of Two Thousand Dollars for the best detective story from 6ooo to 12,000 words in length, for publication in our daily issues in instalments of about 2000 words per day. be submitted to Prize Editor, THE AUTHOR. We will pay a second prize of Five Hundred Dollars for the second best detective story submitted. * . All manuscripts intended for this competition must Bacheller, Johnson, and Bacheller, Nos. 112 to 117, Tribune-buildings, New York City, on or before May 1, 1895, Every manuscript must be typewritten and accompanied by a sealed envelope con- taining the name of its author. It will not be opened until a decision is reached. For identification said envelope should bear some phrase which also appears above the title of the story submitted. All good stories will be published at a satisfactory price. Other details of the contest and arrangements for an equitable decision will be in charge of Mr. Irving Bacheller, to whom all inquiries should be addressed. - The third set of prizes is offered by the Pouth's Companion, of Boston, one of the most widely circulated weekly papers in the country, and one which has always exhibited remarkable enterprise in securing contributions from writers of prominence. In a former competition of the Youth's Companion a prize of £IOO was carried off by Mr. Frank R. Stockton's tale “An Unhistoric Page.” The stories now to be rewarded must not contain less than 22OO Words, or more than 3ooo; they must be original; they must not be love stories or fairy tales, nor can they deal with religion or politics; their moral tone must be unexceptionable, and the list of prizes is as follows:— Dollars. For the best original story sent us . . . . , 500 For the next in literary and general merit ... , 500 For the third in merit e e º e s a 250 For the fourth in merit ... 250 For the fifth in merit 25O For the sixth in merit 25O For the seventh in merit I OO For the eighth in merit ... IOO For the ninth in merit - . . . . . . . . IOO For the tenth in merit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I OO For the eleventh in merit ... . . . . . . . . . IOO Total ... 25OO To two recent issues of the New York Tribune, Professor T. R. Lounsbury, the author of the masterly “Studies in Chaucer,” contributes an eight column review of Professor Skeat's new edition of the author of the “Canterbury Tales.” The review is written, with all the learning and with all the humour which unite to make Professor Lounsbury a very dangerous opponent. It will probably be reprinted as a pamphlet, in which case it will reach the Chaucer students of Germany and England. Professor Lounsbury declares that Professor Skeat's new edition “will be abso- lutely essential to all who devote themselves to the special study of Chaucer,” and “as such it ought to be welcomed cordially by every lover of litera- ture.” But he accuses Professor Skeat of having made frequent and abundant use of his (Pro- fessor Lounsbury's) labours, without giving him any credit in the first three volumes. ## p. 293 (#307) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 293 The Authors’ Club of New York, now in its thirteenth year, is at last permanently settled in quarters of its own, of which it has a long lease. Its new apartments are a handsome and commodious suite of four rooms on one of the upper floors of the extension of the magnificent music hall erected by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. As a member of the club, Mr. Carnegie saw that these rooms were specially reserved, and the terms upon which they were secured were ex- ceptionally favourable. “Liber Scriptorum,” the book of the Authors’ Club (of which an account has already been printed in your pages), has been so profitable that it was possible to vote a sum of £600 for the decoration and furnishing of the new apartments; and, in gratitude to Mr. Carnegie for his services in securing them, the original MSS. of the “Liber Scriptorum,” sump- tuously bound in two immense folio volumes, were presented to him. The fortnightly Thurs- day evening meetings of the Authors' Club continue to be among the pleasantest affairs of the kind. The prosperity of the club endures, and its membership increases steadily. Chicago, which has now three richly endowed public libraries, is getting to be a literary centre. Its Twentieth Century Club is a worthy rival of the Nineteenth Century Club of New York, in emulation of which it was founded. Its young and lusty university has not succeeded in attract- ing the best instructors from the older institutions of the East, but it has a tower of strength in Professor Von Holst, who has recently published a learned and acute study of the French Revolution. It has in the Dial one of the most scholarly critical journals in America—a critical journal so excell-nt indeed that its two faults may well be forgiven it. These faults are an undue jealousy of New York (but this is a common failing in Chicago) and an undue deference to the opinion of London, even on American authors (but this is a common feeling even elsewhere than in Chicago). Chicago is also the home of one of the most vigorous of American novelists, Mr. Henry B. Fuller, the author of that curiously dilletante book, “The Chevalier of Pensieri Wani,” and also of that robust specimen of realism, “The Cliff Dwellers.” He is now about to publish a second study of Chicago society, bearing the very up-to-date title, “With the Procession.” This will be published in New York by Harper and Brothers, but three other works of fiction by Chicago authors are announced by the new and enterprising Chicago house of Stone and Kimball. These are, “A Little Sister to the Wilderness,” by Miss Lillian Bell; “A Sawdust Doll,” by Mrs. Reginald De Koven (the wife of the composer of “Maid Marian’’); and “Two Women and a Fool,” by Mr. H. C. Chatfield-Taylor. The sale of “Trilby’’ is said to be slackening a little now, but it has already reached 150,000 copies, at seven shillings, and it is likely to be stimulated again by the success of the ingenious dramatisation just brought out at a Boston theatre by Mr. A. M. Palmer, and to be performed in New York next season. HALLETT ROBINSON. NOTES AND NEWS. AM very glad to see in “Hallett Robinson’s ” New York Letter a tribute to the literary position of Chicago and its aspirations. A year and a half ago I incurred the kind of ridicule which attaches to a new and unexpected state- ment by saying something to the same effect. When one finds a city richly endowed with public libraries; the natural centre of a vast geo- graphical area; possessed of a wealthy university, in which English literature is well represented and adequately taught; where literature is held by the cultivated class in the highest respect; possessing a critical paper equal in ability to anything we have in this country ; and containing a company of men and women, mostly young, eagerly cultivating literature, and aspiring to the production of good and, if it may be. great work, one is justified in prophesying that out of this company there will presently emerge some one who will make himself known over the English-speaking world. I spoke to this effect in 1893, and now our New York correspondent speaks to the same effect. The following extract is from a new American volume of essays, called “Meditations in Motley,” by Walter Blackburn Harte (Arena Publishing Company, Boston, Mass.). - It is a most lamentable thing that, in spite of all the literary activity and the intellectual restlessness of our time, there are not probably more than half a dozen writers in the United States who follow literature, pure and simple, as a profession; and it is noteworthy that among these there are neither poets nor essayists. The tractate of the American Guild of Authors, noted in another column, may partly explain the reason why so few Americans are able to adopt literature frankly as a profession. Of course, it is greatly to be desired that writers of the better kind —one would say men and women of genius, but that the word is now almost forbidden—should be able to devote themselves altogether to the literary craft. In order to do this, however, they must be ## p. 294 (#308) ############################################ 294 THE AUTHOR. able to live. In this country there are thousands who do live by literature, not popular novelists alone, but writers in every branch, not leaders only, but writers of the rank and file. There never was a betterrank and file—better drilled, betterequipped, braver, and more full of zeal—than our own. Let us see how these our people live. First of all, many of them are students in the history of litera- ture; many of them are good scholars; many have studied some foreign literature, and are authori- ties in French, German, Italian, Spanish, or some other literature; many are students in history, ancient and modern, English or foreign; many are students in science; some have mastered out of the way branches; some have made a special study of sport, games, art, music, the drama, &c. Most, in fact, have some special knowledge which may at any time be wanted. In the next place, there are, in this country, a dozen magazines open to a scholar—perhaps a well- known writer may contribute six or seven articles in the year to these magazines; there is next the better class of weekly—the Saturday Review, the Spectator, the Athenæum, the Speaker, the National Observer, the Realm, and others— a good writer ought to find no difficulty in getting on one of these papers; there are the two Quarterly Reviews, but they can find room for very few writers; there are the weekly maga- zines, such as Chambers’, Cassells’, &c., to which few writers would disdain to contribute. Again, there is the literary department of the great daily papers; that of the evening papers; there is dramatic criticism ; art criticism; musical criticism. Or, again, there are the leading articles of the dailies. It will thus be understood that to the man who knows something, and can write pleasantly, there are abundant opportunities of work. Then a man’s special knowledge, sooner or later, whatever it is, naturally and inevitably assumes book form. Another branch of literary work is that of editing and preparing books for publishers. We are apt to forget, in our concern about modern literature, that publishers have the whole of the past to deal with as they please. They are con- stantly bringing out new editions of past authors. These must have an introduction, notes, appen- dices, and index, all to be done by some man of letters. Again, which one would fain ignore but cannot, there is the reading for publishers. It is not work that many like to do, but it must be done by somebody. These are some of the conditions of the literary life in this country. It would seem, however, as if in America things were different. The American magazines, with one or two exceptions, are not in the least like our scholarly Nineteenth Century, Contemporary, and Fort- nightly. Such weekly reviews as the Spectator or the Saturday simply do not exist in America; they have no Quarterly Reviews; they have no papers corresponding to Chambers’ and the Cassells' productions; their newspapers do not seem to include a considerable literary element— one may be wrong, but this is how it seems to us. Then the American publisher is not, apparently, always bringing out new editions of dead writers; and, in short, one would like some of our American friends to tell us how an American man of letters (not being a popular novelist) does manage to live at all. In the narrow churchyard south of St. Mary Overies (now called St. Saviour's), Southwark —somewhere, it is not known where—there lie in one grave the remains of Philip Massinger and of Fletcher his friend. The name of the latter is always associated with that of Beau- mont, but Massinger undoubtedly did a good deal of work with and for him. The name of Massinger is entered in the burial register as a “stranger,” which means, of course, nothing more than a person belonging by birth to some other parish. It is now proposed to put up a stained glass window in the new nave of the church, in memory of Massinger. I do not think that this is a cause which needs pleading with the readers of this paper and the members of this Society. Will those who love to see honour paid to litera- ture send their offerings to this object to the Rev. W. Thompson, D.D., St. Saviour's Church, Southwark? The church now rebuilt still retains its Reformation name. Perhaps it may be per- mitted to hope that it may soon return to its historic name of St. Mary Overies. The following letter has reached me: In Halifax, last week, I happened to pick up a book of yours, “The Revolt of Man,” issued by the Halifax Corpo- ration Library. I thought it might be an interesting fact to you to know that this august body does you the honour of circulating your work in its Tauchnitz Edition : Some time since a remonstrance was published in the Author against the importation and circu- lation of Tauchnitz books. An attempt was made to minimise the importance of the damage done to authors by the free circulation of their books. Here we have an illustration of what may happen. The number of libraries in the country is rapidly increasing ; many of these have several branches. Of popular books they take many copies. Suppose they ali take Tauchnitz copies! Why not ? No attempt is made to stop them. Library com- mittees will speedily forget that to buy these editions is against the law ; they will only ## p. 295 (#309) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 295 remember that the Tauchnitz Edition is cheaper. Thus will be lost to author and publisher many thousands of every popular book. What is the law on the subject P It has thus been given to me by a lawyer: “I do not think there is any offence in owning or in circulating a copy of a Tauchnitz edition of an English book. The offender must not sell it or hire it, in which case it would be an infringe- ment of copyright, and he would be liable to be proceeded against under the 17th section of 1842 Act, and 42nd and 152nd section of the Customs Act, 1876, “The joint effect of these sections appears to be that anyone importing, selling, or hiring any foreign printed copy of a copyright book know- ingly, or having in his possession any copy for sale or hire, shall, on conviction before two justices of the peace, forfeit 310 and double the value of every copy: £5 to go to the officer of Excise, and the remainder to the proprietor of the copyright; such book to be seized and destroyed. “Does the Halifax Free Library hold the copy for sale or hire P Under the Customs Act of 1876 the Customs can seize and destroy any books on the copyright list; but notice of copy- right in writing to the Commissioners of Customs is a condition precedent.” A complete translation of Balzac's novels, published at a low price, edited by a well-known scholar, is a literary experiment of very con- siderable interest. All who read French at all read the Comédie Humaine; but will those who cannot read French buy the translation ? The writer, to begin with, is Parisian through and through, with that note of the past inseparable from work fifty years old. Again, does Balzac possess the sensational qualities which now seem necessary to success? And, when we have agreed to let our own past masters stand forgotten on the shelves, shall we be eager to take up the French masters? For instance, Dickens seems fast losing his hold—only for a time, but still— for the present. Thackeray is only read by “the better sort’”; as for Charles Lever and Anthony Trollope, apparently they are gone; and as for Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade, they are read only in two or three books. Each generation, in fact, will have its own novelists belonging to itself; it grudges not classics belonging to the dead, but they must be few, one to this old novelist, one to that ; it will refuse to read the whole of the dead man’s work. Will the present generation so far depart from established custom as to admit en bloc the whole of the Comédie Humaine P. We shall see, and, as I said above, it is a literary experiment of very considerable interest. With Messrs. Dent and Co., who understand dainty books, for publishers; with Mr. George Saintsbury, who understands his Balzac, for an editor, and with Messrs. Constable to print the work, the series should have every chance. Some three or four years ago—perhaps more— there appeared a new translation of “Don Quixote,” by Mr. H. E. Watts. It was not reviewed by many papers, and by still fewer was it adequately reviewed. One or two critics, how- ever, had the intelligence to perceive that this was the finest translation as yet offered to the public, and the work of a fine Spanish scholar who possesssed other qualities for the translation of Cervantes besides scholarship—notably, know- ledge of the time and the social conditions of the time; humour and the quick perception of the humorous ; and, among other things, the common sense which keeps a translator and an annotator from being carried away by his subject, and the various theories, fads, and crotchets which gather round such a subject as the Knight. The book was published in three big quarto volumes at a price prohibitory. The purse of the ordinary book buyer—marrow but well meaning — could not attain to that price. So the matter rested, and it seemed as if, but for a few libraries, the work was closed to the public. Well: a new edition has now been undertaken (Messrs. A. and C. Black) at a reason- able and possible price; and we shall be able to possess at last the immortal work of Cervantes in a translation worthy and adequate. Is there room for another novel on the gentle- man highwayman P. The field one would think was entirely occupied by Ainsworth and Lytton. Nevertheless, Mr. C. T. C. James—no novice in the art of story telling—boldly pushes in with a new story on the old theme. The fact is that no field in fiction is occupied. He would be a bold man who would treat of Tunbridge Wells in 1750, with Thackeray as a rival; but the rivalry is not an impossible thing. Again, he would be a bold man who would face Scott in the 1745 business, but such audacity is not impossible. Mr. James, however, does not in reality present himself as a rival of the two elder novelists. He confines him- self to a single tavern in a London suburb and to its adventures with a single highwayman. He presents a vivid and interesting picture of life a hundred and fifty years ago. The book carries one along breathless from beginning to end. There is only one fault to find with it—a fault ## p. 296 (#310) ############################################ 296 THE AUTHOR. that is not discovered till the book is done with and cold criticism begins. The highwayman is pardoned. Why? Because his mistress once gave a cup of purl to the king P. Not sufficient reason. The man is a thief and a robber. There is no escape from that ; and, as such, he would assuredly have been hanged, purl or no purl. In January last, a communication entitled “Editorial Amenities,” signed “C. H.,” ap- peared in the Author. There were three cases of complaint. As regards the last, the editor of the magazine in question has sent copies of the corre- spondence to this paper. It appears from the letters (1) that the article was accepted and paid for; (2) that the editor, on revising his accepted articles, found errors which, in his judgment, made the paper useless to him; (3) that he accordingly declined to print the paper, still exercising his judgment as editor; (4) that, as the paper was anonymous, the refusal did no harm to the author's reputation; (5) that the author, although he had been paid for the paper, was quite free to send it elsewhere ; (6) that it is impossible for an editor to carry on a controversy with any contributor as to the reasons of his decision; (7) that the editor has found no reason to change his opinion as to certain inaccuracies in the contribution ; and (8) that the author is quite free to retain his own opinion, and to believe that the paper is accurate. It is always a mortifying thing to have a MS. returned. But an editor is absolute ; he must, in the nature of the case, be absolute; and an editor cannot possibly be expected to carry on ex- planations and reasons for his decisions. Two months ago, in a notice on the death of Sir John Robert Seeley, I mentioned that he had been a member of the council of the Society. A good many correspondents pointed out that his name was not on the list. In short, I was wrong, because Seeley never was upon our council at all. His connection with the Society was that of Vice- President, an office which still exists, but has been allowed to drop out of prominence, most of the W.P.'s having long since joined the council. In the first year of the Society's existence, when it was absolutely necessary that it should receive the nominal support and approval of as many leaders as possible, with this view, the committee invited certain writers and scholars to signify their approval of the objects of the Society by becoming Vice-Presidents. In the month of April, 1885, I find in the minute-book of the committee the following acceptances of this invita- tion. It was a goodly list. Matthew Arnold Philip James Bailey Lord Brabourne Frank Cowley Burnand J. Anthony Froude Bishop of Chichester Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. The Librarian of Windsor Castle . Sir Henry Maine, K.C.S.I. Sir Theodore Martin James Payn John Ruskin, D.C.L. Prof. Seeley Prof. Skeat' Sir Richard Temple Prof. Tyndall, LL.D. Dean Waughan W. G. Wills. Some of the Vice-Presidents afterwards, as stated above, became members of the council; others remained, and are still, vice-presidents, though their names are no longer advertised. It is pleasing to record that Seeley did more than remain simply an honorary vice-president. In the year 1888, when the Society gave a dinner to American men and women of letters, Seeley lent the weight of his name as a steward. He regularly received, and, there is reason to believe, read the documents of the Society and spoke. The Royal Literary Fund last year relieved the necessities of forty-five applicants—twenty-seven being men and eighteen women. By the rules of the Fund, applicants must prove that they are authors by putting in their published works. How many men and women are there in this country who could thus prove themselves to be authors P. There are about 1350 members of the Society, all of whom have produced books. Now this number includes very few writers of educa- tional books, very few writers of technical books, and not many writers of theological books. Let us suppose that there are twice that number out- side the Society: this gives us a total of, say, 4000 authors. The total applicants for relief during the last year was forty-five—that is to say, I 125 per cent. This is a very satisfactory percentage. Authorship is certainly improving on its material side. The grants to the men average about £42 apiece; those to the women £54 apiece. If “Weary" will send me her name and address, I will endeavour to answer her letter. The subject is hardly suitable for these columns. At the moment of going to press we learn that Canada has ceased to collect the royalties accord- ing to the old agreement. It would be interesting to learn how much was collected last year, and who has received any share of it. WALTER BESANT, ## p. 297 (#311) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 297 DECADENCE OF LITERATURE, Dº 'S theory is eminently true of literature. It is a case of the survival of the fittest. The weak may flourish for a time and choke the environs like the lianes in a tropical forest, but they perish with their season, and the stalwart trees survive and make them- selves evident in later generations. For the present there is an enormous growth of these ephemeral productions, and may I be for- given for suggesting that editors and publishers of magazines are a good deal to blame, not only for their growth but for the deterioration of what might have been a forest tree, or at best a worthy shrub P No sooner has a writer made “a hit ’’ than he or she is besieged with solicitations to contribute to this or that periodical, and it requires considerable self-control, maybe, or in- dolence, or superiority to pelf to resist and refuse till the production is ripe, or not to try to gratify more than one at the same time. To take an illustration from art, pot-boilers, instead of pic- tures, are the consequence. Nothing is more true than what Mr. Cresswell says in the last number, though rapid work is good, hurried work is never good, and the pub- lisher who displays an attractive catalogue of authors announced at the beginning of the year, almost compels some at least to hurried work. Also the distinctive characteristics of the periodicals are lost by thus obtaining the ser- vices of the authors who are willing to write for all and each. I believe some of the American magazines bind a writer to write for nothing else; and it is really a wise arrangement, since the old sense that it was honourable to work for one firm alone has died away. Another modern fashion ruinous to good literature is the laying contribu- tions on the bed of Procrustes. Readers are sup- posed to object to a tale passing the limits of a volume. They like to have it finished off, and be free to begin a fresh serial, and thus the story always shows symptoms of winding up in November, and we are sure the hero and heroine will be married or defunct in December. Well if they are allowed to finish their career with proper honours! How many stories have I read where the beginning was full of pleasant details, but the latter end was evidently squeezed together and cut down, so as to lose all proportion and become a spoilt per- formance. This is a new fashion. Take up an old Black- wood, see “Ten Thousand a Year” runs on number after number ; or an old Cornhill, where “Phineas Finn,” “The Knight of Gwynne,” and the admirable “Lettice Lisle,” have a never wearied audience; or, again, Household Words knew and prized Mrs. Gaskell too well to part with her till death cut off the end of “Wives and Daughters.” Totus, teres atque rotundus is a good rule, but if Milton could not carve a statue out of a cherry stone it is hard for lesser geniuses, after carving the head in one proportion, to have to get the limbs into the remainder of the stone. If a fiction is to be good for anything, it must have its needful development, and not be sacrificed to a December number. Some people have a real genius for the short story, Brett Hart’s “Luck of Roaring Camp’’ or “Mademoiselle Ixe” seem to me perfect speci- mens of the style. Americans excel in them, but then they have the advantage of an immense field of country and every variety of manners and of civilisation, whereas in our old country the changes are continually rung on ghosts and detectives, and the demand creates a very mediocre style of supply. A tale of character requires space (at least if it be not a mere sketch), and it would be well to follow Anthony Trollope's habit of either publishing the whole at once, or not letting a chapter appear till the whole was complete in his portfolio. Another mischievous habit is that of hasty reviewing. When I began the world, to solicit a favourable notice would have been thought unworthy. I may truly say that I never have done so, except when a book was for some special purpose needed to be put forward. Reviews used then to be often good criticisms, really useful. Some- times they stung hard, but generally they were really improving by the faults they found. They embodied and brought home the judgment of the public of cultivated minds, and never should I have thought of trying to enlist them in my favour, or ask for their verdict. When an editor myself, I was always prejudiced (fairly or unfairly) by being asked for a friendly notice, or by having a whole bundle of cuttings from papers sent me with a MS. ; and, worse than all, it has happened to me to receive with a new book a packet of extracts from it in type, for the convenience of the reviewer P To see a whole page of opinions of the press, mostly provincial, never gives me a good impression, though this may be due more to the publisher than the author, and it is treating the subject like tea, cocoa, or soap. The multitude of publications which are all poured forth at one time, and the insistence of publishers and authors for an early notice, absolutely prevents efficient treatment in criticism. Time and space alike fail, and whether a book be bad or good, or “ower gude for banning ower good for blessing,” it has to be ## p. 298 (#312) ############################################ 298 THE AUTHOR. skimmed over and despatched in a few lines. This is not criticism. It is mere advertisement. No guide to the author hardly, except in the higher stamp of literary journals—a guide to the reader in the selection from the circulating library. Are these simply the murmurs of an old author, laudator temporis acti, or is there any means of raising the tone and aspirations of writers P C. M. YONGE. *-- ~ 2–º s= **s-s A SHEAF OF POETS, HEY have accumulated during two months until now there is quite a little pile. Is it not a sign or proof of a reviving taste in poetry that there should be so many “bids” for poetic fame? We may take it, without meaning to give any offence, that the poets all pay for the production of their work. Would they tell us how many copies they sell? For instance, thirty years ago a certain friend of mine published at his own expense a thin volume of verse. Exactly three copies were sold. How many have been sold of the volumes before me? The best course for the Author to adopt is to let each scribe speak for himself without favour. The order in which they speak means nothing: I. The “In Memoriam ” of Italy. A Century of Sonnets from the Poems of Victoria Colonna, Marchesa de Pescara. Translator anonymous. (London: Henry Gray, Leicester-square.) AMOR, TU SAI. Thou knowest, Love I never turned my feet From thy dear prison; that I ne'er untied Thy light yoke from my neck, nor ne'er denied Thy service which at first my soul found meet ; Time shall ne'er change my faith, of old complete; Thy bond, as once I bound it, still shall bide ; Nor, for the bitter fruit thy tree doth hide, Doth my heart find the seed less pure or sweet. Now hast thou seen how in a faithful heart Thy sharpest arrow hath no skill to wound, That Death against it hath no force or power; O let at last the tie which bound it part, (Tho' sweeter aye it was than freedom found) Yet lags and lingers yet my joyful hour. II. “Sita,” and other Poems. By Mrs. Aylmer Gowing. (London: Elliot Stock.) TENNYSON. oCTOBER 6, 1892. All glorious with the mystery sublime Thy eyes shall fathom soon, Night's bosom pillows thee, O son of Time ! In splendours of the moon. Cometh thy daybreak—there shall be no night In that far heaven, Luntrod By course of quenching suns or stars, whose light Shall be the face of God. True seer, from thy heart the lamp of faith Glowed clear through storm and shine, And clothed the fearful majesty of Death In robes of grace divine. And thine the hand of might, the tender touch That makes our pulse thine own By love's enchantments, for thou hast loved much, And grief’s excess hast known. Sweet singer, by thy voice of human love And sorrow, pure and strong, Teach us to find our God, while thou, above, Art singing a new song. III. “Thoughts in a Garden.” Stevenson. (London : Elliot Stock.) AUTUMN SONG. All day the fiercest winds have blown, The leaves upon the grass are strown, Save a few stragglers, sad and lone, That fringe the boughs; The fir-tree groans, as, on the height, He feels the tempest's frenzied flight, Yet from the earth his grasp of might No wrench allows. By A. C. The flowerets, erst so bright and brave, Now in the dust have found a grave; No loving hand their life could save From ruin drear; Only the blossoms named of gold, Defiant of the rain and cold, Still form a funeral-wreath to fold O'er Nature’s bier. There is an end to Summer’s pride, To autumn with his garners wide; Now winter comes, with rapid stride, His throne to take ; Long will his fetters bind the earth, He robs the year of half its worth, While scent of flowers and woodland mirth, Our lives forsake. IV. “Wignettes.” By Aubrey St. John Mild- may. (London : Elliot Stock.) TWELFTH-NIGHT. (Reprinted by permission from the “Spectator,” January 13th, 1894.) I should like to have your dimples, Your wonderment, your nonsense, Your grave hands, and your tripping feet, Your carelessness, your conscience; I should like to know the secrets You are talking with your brother Between the mazes of the dance, As your eyes meet one another. Little maid, all eyes, and such eyes Half-lightning and half-laughter, Sugar-things I should like to eat, Aud never hunger, after : Tell me, little maid, do you believe That if you looked and looked, And turned into a tipsy-cake, The best that could be cooked, Do you think that if I swallowed you And incontinently died, That the judge would call it murder Or only suicide P ## p. 299 (#313) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 299 Because I’ve drunk your beauty in ;- But you don’t know what that means Any more than beams, which pony loves, Can know that they are beans. Good-night, dear, dainty tipsy-cake, I’m but a selfish jade, Just whinnying to himself about The dinner he has made. And I may not, may not keep you For my sweet-meat to enjoy, God has planned you for a help-meet For some happy, happy boy. W. “Pipings.” By John Arthur Coupland. (London: John Ferries.) DREAMS. A ghost-like vapour wraps the wood, And frozen is the stream, The birds upon bare branches brood, And nothing breaks their dream. They dream of Spring, of Summer sweet, Of green and leafy bowers. I also dream : in winding-sheet Behold the murdered hours. WI. “In Leisure Time.” By William S. Mavor. (London: Elliot Stock.) TO TERPSICHORE. If Choryphaeus leading the dancing choir With steps of stately ceremonial; Or leaping Faun and Bacchanal Around thine altar cannot tire Their nimble feet; If Pyrrhic dances yield Their martial music as the crashing shield And falchion meet ; Or, if we pleasure us As eye beholds Nymphs, robed in draperies diaphanous, Whose fleecy veils their sensuous limbs surround In serpent folds, Whose lissom feet but kiss the ground ; If such affect Thee, gladly we Thus pay our festal vows, Terpsichore VII. “Scintillae Carminis.” By Percival W. H. Almy. (London: Elliot Stock.) RATE : A PASTORAL. And the bells, the bells, the tumbling bells Shall reel and peal through the livelong day; And they’ll deck the church with blooming birch, And the cherry bloom and the may, the may ; “So kiss me, Kate, and we’ll be married o' Sunday.” And you shall have rings and golden things, And satin shoes as white as milk, And coloured bows and high clock hose, And a glittering gown of silk, of silk; “So kiss me, Kate, and we’ll be married o' Sunday.” And servants shall wait on my Lady Kate, Like a maiden queen of a high degree ; And garlands rare shall bind your hair, Dragged from the mouth of the bee, the bee ; * So kiss me, Kate, and we’ll be married o' Sunday.” VIII. The “Mummer.” By Harry Gaelyn. (London : Elliott Stock.) IN A CITY. Dim grimy way In the dull drear City, Where never a ray Of God’s sun, through the livelong day Pierces the pall of the murky sky, To tell of pity And hope, to those who live and die T)ay by day, In that grimy way. Yet there, By yon crazy stair, Long years ago, Love stayed his flight. There, In the dusky light Love shook his wings and all was bright For two true souls—and they Until this day Have found that grimy way A pathway of delight. IX. “The Prophecy of Westminster.” Harriet E. H. King. (London: W. B. Whitting- ham.) This volume of verse is in honour of Cardinal Manning. THE COMFORTER, COMFORTED O Thou whose throne was set in Westminster, Among the many god-like names whereby We hold thee in our hearts, this one doth lie Nearest each thought of thee—the Comforter. What bitter pains, what manifold disgrace Hiding itself from every other face, What broken hearts, what wounds of penitents, What secret cruelties, what ghastly rents, Open have lain beneath thy pitying eye, Fled to thy bosom as to sanctuary, And felt thy holy tenderness outpoured Upon the quivering life, to hope restored X. “Religio Clerici and other Poems.” By Alfred Starkey. (London: Elliot Stock.) The principal poem in this collection is purely religious. It is difficult to quote any passage which, detached, would fully represent the powers of the poet. Here, however, are the opening lines: Last year, what time the bells of summer months Had rung their sweetest chimes, I took my way Up through the long sea-walleys, dark and stern In bouldered turf and reappearing rock Struck through the shallow soil, like hoary bones Of some vast buried age. In the slant light I saw the bramble dews gleam changeful sparks Of pearl and ruby ; and oft I stayed to watch The autumn spiders spin their floating threads, And launch their ačry voyages; or paused While on some red-leaved bough the robin, left Sole chorister of all the tuneful quire Which filled in spring, the chancel of the year With soft and grateful song, now piped a faint And faltering dirge o'er bright days dead or dying, Mingling its matin notes with vesper falls Of melancholy minors, like a sigh From Nature’s sabbath heart. ## p. 300 (#314) ############################################ 3OO THE AUTHOR. XI. The “ Divine Surrender.” By William Wullan. (London: Elliot Stock.) This is a “Mystery Play” treating of the Crucifixion. It is impossible to quote anything unless one were to take several pages. *- a -º BOOK TALK, OME time ago Mr. John Hollingshead issued a booklet of an autobiographical nature, and now he announces a complete autobiography in two volumes for the coming publishing season. His acquaintance with literary and theatrical celebrities has been, of course, very large. A very curious and significant fact is announced from America, that the library of the late Oliver Wendell Holmes has been valued at only £160. A new connection between the Press and the publishers is to be inaugurated this spring by the appearance of the “ Pall Mall Magazine Library,” which Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. will issue. “The Decline and Fall of Napoleon,” by Lord Wolseley; and “The Rise of Wellington,” by Lord Roberts, will be the first two volumes. The editors of the Magazine will contribute an introduction. The price of the series is to be 3s. 6d. The work upon which the late Sir John Seeley was engaged when he died was “The Growth of British Policy,” and it is being edited by Pro- fessor Prothero for the Cambridge University Press, in two volumes. It seems a pity that this could not have been included in the uniform edition of Sir John Seeley's works, of which Messrs. Macmillan will issue “The Expansion of England” on May 3, and “Ecce Homo,” “Natural Religion,” and “Lectures and Essays” at monthly intervals. Mr. George Allen, who began as a publisher of Ruskin, is extending his list in many direc- tions, and “Ruskin House” is more of a com- pliment than a description. His edition of Spenser’s “Faerie Queen,” edited by Mr. Wise, and illustrated by Mr. Walter Crane, has reached its fifth part, and he announces “The Gurneys of Earlham,” in three volumes, by Mr. Augustus J. C. Hare, profusely illustrated. The work is the memoirs and correspondence of the eleven children of John and Catherine Gurney, 1775- 1875. The most important work of travel in the autumn season will probably be Captain Young- husband's account of his famous journeys in India and the far East. The title has not yet been finally settled, as it is difficult to get one which describes the whole field, but it will pro- bably be “The Heart of a Continent; being the Narrative of Travel from 1886-1894 in Man- churia, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, the Pamirs, and the Hindu-Kush.” Mr. McCormick, who illustrated Mr. Conway’s “Himalayas,” will also be the illustrator of this work. Mr. Murray is the publisher. A short time before his death Professor Blackie collected together materials for his biography, and this will be published in the autumn by Messrs. Blackwood and Co. It is written by Miss Stoddart. In Messrs. Putnam’s Sons’ “ Heroes of the Nations” series, Mrs. Oliphant will write on “Joan of Arc; ” Mr. Oman, of All Souls, Oxford, on “Marlborough and England as a Military Power; ” and Professor Burr, of Cornell, on “Charlemagne as the Reorganiser of Europe.” Mr. Leslie Stephen’s “Ethical Discourses” will shortly be published by Messrs. Sonnenschein who also announce twelve interesting volumes of their new “Social England” series. Mr. Baldwin Brown will write on “The History of the Fine Arts in England; ” Mr. Cornish, Vice-Provost of Eton, on “Chivalry;” Professor Winogradoff on “The English Manor;” Mr. Henry Balfour on “The Evolution of Household Implements; ” Mr. Inderwick, Q.C., on “The King's Peace, a His- torical Sketch of the English Law Courts; ” Mr. S. O. Addy, on “The Evolution of the English House; ” Professor Cunningham on “The Influence of Alien Immigration on Social Life; ” Alice Law on “Guilds, and the Rise of the Mer- chant Class; ” and Mr. G. C. Chisholm, on “ The Influence of Geography and Travel on Social Life.” The Westminster Gazette has published, on the authority of Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the interesting fact that, since 1872, of the People's Edition of Carlyle’s “Sartor Resartus” 89,000 copies have been sold, and of “ Heroes and Hero Worship,” IoS,000. All who have read and delighted in Mr. Nisbet Bain’s translations of “ Hans Andersen’s Fairy Stories”—and who has not both read them and delighted in them P-will look forward greatly to his Life of Andersen, which will be published by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen in the spring. The Ealing Free Library has transferred “The Manxman " to the reference department, where only adults can procure it ; the chairman of the committee, the Rev. J. S. Hilliard, describing it as “a most indecent book.” No announcement has yet been made on the subject, but it may be taken for granted that in ## p. 301 (#315) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3O I the autumn we shall have a striking account from the pen of Slatin Pasha on his eleven years' captivity in the Mahdi's camp. It will be remembered that Father Ohrwalder, who was rescued in a similar manner through the instru- mentality of Major Wingate, R.A., in 1892, published in that year a very interesting book. Mr. Blackmore has written a series of tales in verse, to be published under the title of “Fringalla,” by Mr. Elkin Matthews in the spring. The same publisher announces Professor Corbin’s Harvard prize essay on “The Elizabethan Hamlet,” with a prefatory note by Professor York Powell. The idea of the essay is that nowadays we have lost sight of a comic element in “Hamlet” which was present to Elizabethan audiences. A book awaited with eagerness by soldiers and historians is General Sir Daniel Lyson’s “The Crimean War from First to Last.” It is said to be full of facts and stories that have never been published before, and the author is credited with being one of the few officers who never left the camp of the First Division for a single day from the outbreak of hostilities to their conclusion. Sir Daniel is now eighty-one. A book by Baron Rothschild on his trip to Cape Town and on South Africa generally is nearly ready. No doubt it will appear in an appropriately gorgeous form. The publishers are Messrs. Longmans. The tenth edition of Erichsen’s magnum opus “The Science and Art of Surgery,” in two volumes, with a thousand engravings, is also announced by the same publishers. The Figaro has published a series of very interesting extracts from M. Clemenceau’s book entitled “La Mélée Sociale.” This appears to be a very pessimistic view of human activities. No doubt an English translation will soon be announced. Perhaps the indefatigable Mr. Sherard already has it in hand. The preliminary announcements of Mr. Henry Dyer’s volume on “The Evolution of Industry,” promise a very opportune and needed work. He regards his subject from both social and political standpoints, and discusses such timely topics as the position of women, Municipal control, State control, and, of course, industrial training. Messrs. Macmillan are the publishers. The new editor of the Daily Chronicle, in succession to Mr. A. E. Fletcher resigned, is Mr. H. W. Massingham, who has for a considerable period acted as assistant-editor and political director, as well as writing the brilliant daily sketch of House and Lobby. The new editor of the Morning Post, in succession to Mr. A. K. Moore, deceased, is Mr. Locker, son of Mr. Arthur Locker, for many years editor of the Graphic, and nephew of Frederick Locker- Lampson, the poet. The first edition of IOOO copies of Mr. Henry Norman’s book on “The Peoples and Politics of the Far East ’’ was sold out, the publisher announces, within the first week of publication, and a second edition is now ready. During the month Mr. Norman has been appointed assistant- editor of the Daily Chronicle, of which paper he has for some time had charge of the literary department. “The Cyclopædia of Names,” published by the Century Magazine, and by Mr. Fisher Unwin in this country—certainly one of the most useful books of reference that has ever seen the light— is to be issued in monthly half-guinea parts. Journalists, and people who have occasion to make researches, have for several years past greatly valued the “Index to Periodicals,” which has been issued yearly from the Review of Rezniews office. Mr. Stead has now commenced the issue of his “Index to Periodicals" monthly, at Id. The index shows the contents of the magazines and of the Review of Reviews for the coming month, and all the books issued during the previous month, including Parliamentary publications. A week or two will see a most important and interesting work, in the shape of the biography of the late Professor Freeman, by Dr. Stephens, the Dean of Winchester. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. will publish it in two volumes. It is said that “the letters will be found to contain a more striking testimony to the range and variety of their author's studies than is afforded by any of his printed works.” Every month now brings at least one new magazine, that of March being a sixpenny monthly called The Englishwoman, edited by Miss Ella Hepworth Dixon, and published by F. W. White and Co, A new sixpenny illustrated weekly, The Hour, has also made its appearance under the editor- ship of Mr. A. N. Williamson. “The World's Own Book; or, the Treasury of à Kempis,” by Percy Fitzgerald, is announced for early publication by Mr. Elliot Stock. The work incidentally gives an account of the chief editions of the imitation, with an analysis of its methods, and is illustrated by several facsimiles of pages from MSS. and early printed editions. The publication of Miss Elizabeth Hodges's book, “Some Ancient English Homes and their Associations: Personal, Archæological, and Historic,” T. Fisher Unwin, which was arranged for the first of the month, is, owing to the ## p. 302 (#316) ############################################ 3O2 THE AUTHOR. ravages of influenza among the printers, post- poned until after Easter. The book, which is well illustrated, gives descriptive histories of some interesting but little known Warwickshire and Gloucestershire “Homes” and their various inmates, from Saxon times onward. Mr. Egerton Castle's new novel, called “The Light of Scarthey,” will appear serially in the Times (weekly edition) before coming out in one vol. form. It will begin on the 19th of April, and will run about six months. It will then be pub- lished by Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. “To-Day's Christ : A Study in Re-Incarna- tion,” by Dr. Joseph Parker, of the City Temple, is now ready. The publishers are James Nisbet and Co., 2 I, Berners-street, W. Mr. Reynolds Ball has been appointed travel editor of the Road, and will take charge of the new “Travel and Tour Department,” which begins in this month’s number. One of the most interesting features will be an exhaustive review of a recent popular travel work under the heading “The Book of Travel of the Month.” Mr. Douglas Sladen’s “On the Cars and Off” will be the subject of the April review. We are sorry to record the death of the lady who wrote under the nom de plume of “E. Chilton.” She wrote, in truth, very little, and probably many of our readers never heard of her. But she possessed a singularly pure and clear style, and a certain amount of humour, which made her work attractive. Perhaps she would have done very much better had she been spared. There seems to be no harm in mentioning that her real name was Mrs. Chilton Brock. A scholarly and instructive little book, called “Books Fatal to their Authors” (Elliott Stock), has been sent to me. In style and in matter the book reminds one of Disraeli’s books about literature and authors. Book lovers will make a note about it. The author, in a second edition, will do well to correct a misstatement. The editor of this paper has nowhere said that publishers now “incur no financial risk.” He has never said anything so foolish. What he has said, over and over again, is a very different thing: That in these days few publishers take risk, in the old sense of the word. They have found out the safer plan, viz., where there is risk to make the author take that risk. The richer houses sometimes publish books where returns are doubtful—there are often special reasons why even a certain loss is advisable; they sometimes start magazines; they sometimes lock up money in costly ventures; but the great majority, the smaller houses, seldom, if they can help it, run any risk at all in the publication of books. “Meditations in Motley,” by Walter Black- burne Harte, is a collection of essays by an American writer, published by the “Arena Com- pany, Boston.” It is a handy little volume, and contains many good things. Among others there is a revelation of the conditions of criticism in in America, which ought to reconcile us to our own country. “The Friend of Sir Philip Sidney’’ (London: |Elliot Stock,) is a selection from the works in verse and prose of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke. The selection is made by Alexander B. Grosart. A mºst curious and interesting little volume. The “Divine Problem of Man,” by Mariquita, Wiscountess de Panama (London: The Roxburghe Press) is a religions book which may be com- mended to those who read works of religious speculation. “Silvia Craven” (London : Elliot Stock), by M. Gordon Holmes, is a six-shilling novel. It is rather long for these days of quick reading. The tone of the book is maintained throughout at a high level. “Some of our English Poets.” By the Rev. Canon Bell, D.D. (London : Elliot Stock.) The poets treated are Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper, Scott, Coleridge and Wordsworth. There is always something new to say about a great writer. Canon Bell has found enough to make a charming volume of pleasant criticism. “Cardinal Manning,” a character sketch, by Harriet Clemence Hamilton King. (Dondon: Whittingham and Co.) This little work is written in uncritical admiration of the late Cardinal. It consists largely of extracts from his sermons. Mr. Arthur Dillon, with Mr. William Page, is forming a syndicate in order to revive Shake- speare's comedy of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” to be played after the 16th, or early 17th manner. Mr. Dillon says, “Our principle is that every playwright shows to fairest advantage in that form of stage for which. he designed his plays. This is especially true of Shakespeare, who wrote with such technical knowledge of the stage of his day.” “The Silent Room,” by Mrs. Harcourt Roe, has been published by Messrs. Skeffington and Co. in Is. form. Annabel Gray has transferred her works, “The Ghosts of the Guard-room" and “A Spanish Singer,” to Messrs. C. Turner and Co., 30 and 32, Ludgate-hill, who will continue the series. “Llanako: a Welsh Idyll,” is the title of a new novel just issued by Messrs. Gay and Bird. The author is Mrs. Fred Reynolds. ## p. 303 (#317) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3O3 Mr. Frank Barrett's new story, “A Set of Rogues,” will appear serially this summer in a number of provincial weeklies. The arrange- ments are in the hands of the Authors' Syndicate. Mr. Richard Pryce's new story, “The Burden of a Woman,” will be published almost imme- diately by Messrs. A. D. Innes and Co. The arrangements have been concluded by the Authors' Syndicate. Mrs. Paul King, author of “Cousin Cinderella,” is about to produce a novel in three volumes, called “Lord Goltho, an Apostle of Whiteness.” The publishers are Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. Many of our older members will be pleased to hear that Mr. James Stanley Little was on the 23rd ult. married to Miss F. Maud Thérèse Lablache. There is always a certain diffidence in speaking of Pierre Plowman and other writings of that age. One ought to be able to read English of that period; it is English, only a little more archaic than Spenser. Yet, as a matter of fact, the reading is so troublesome, reference to notes or a glossary is so frequent, that, except in one's student days, Langland is practically never read at all. It is time to sweep away the convention that we all understand fourteenth-century English; and this, it is to be hoped, will be assisted by Miss Rate Warren’s “Translation Vision ” (Fisher Unwin, 1895). The Translation is close and literal, yet preserves the spirit of the original. A few notes are added; there is an appendix, and there is an introduction. Such a little book does more to make us understand the fourteenth century than half a dozen learned volumes with annotations and glossaries. We must have the learned volumes; but for them we could not become students in Old or Middle English. We hope that Miss Warren will con- tinue her task of making things plain and popular. * - - --" - w - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—“RUSTIC READING '': A REPLY. ET me assure my critic “C. M. Y.” that my article on this subject did not deal “with what was the case thirty or forty years ago,” an epoch with which I had no personal acquaintance. Every word of it was the result of my own observation and experience as a country clergyman, nor have I any reason to suppose that the condition of this parish in matters literary is in any way exceptional. ; “The writer,” says his critic, cannot really know John Bunyan's great classic if he thinks it of Langland’s. likely to terrify children into the way of virtue.” But it was to the alarming illustrations of certain editions, and not to the text, that I took exception, John Bunyan is not to be held responsible for the vagaries of his illustrators - Then I am told that I am not familiar with parish magazines. Alas ! this is far from being the case, and I can only repeat that hardly any of them contain writing worthy the name of literature. The one exception that I know is Mr. J. G., Adderley's Goodwill, but in this, unfortunately, there is a strong tinge of socialism. Lastly. “The nickname Hodge is one that greatly displeases both the peasant and all that are interested in him.” Dear me, what could I have been thinking of to use it in this gloriously democratic age I hope that Thomas Hodge, Esquire, Parish Councillor, will forgive my forget- fulness. THE WRITER OF THE PAPER. II.—EDITORs' RULEs. “R. L. T.” has mistaken my suggestion, and I fear if we authors combined to frame a set of rules, regulating the terms for the reception of our MSS., the only result would be a swift and speedy return of our productions by the indignant editors. My idea was that they should draw up a new act of uniformity, out of the kindness of their hearts, in order that the weary writers should know how long to wait for rejection or acceptance, and cheques. The vulgar tradesman does not give unlimited credit ; why then should the distinguished, or insignificant, author P S. B. III.--WoRD's For SoNGs. In Mr. R. H. Sherard's February “Letter from Paris,” he says: “Only the very best writers of words for songs in England can hope for as much as four, or at the outside five, guineas for their words, whilst the average price paid to the poet is, I believe, 5s.” Speaking from my own experience, the average price is two guineas for words worth setting, and I have never once been offered words at anything like as low as 5s., nor for the words of my songs have my publishers, who have uniformly and courteously given the price asked. The poet then, unlike composer and publisher, has no further risk. - Touching upon the half royalty system in France ; if a poet took half the royalties of a song in England, it would hardly be an equal divi- sion P The writer of the music has only that one form of publishing to profit by, whereas the poet only ## p. 304 (#318) ############################################ 3O4. THE AUTHO/?. sells the musical copyright of his poem, and can publish it in book form without restriction. In cases where musical copyright is not wished to be disposed of, the poet frequently grants his very kind permission to set the same words many times, thereby popularising his work, or he can request special terms. With all appreciation of Mr. Sherard’s sugges- tions and with every respect for the unspeakable help of poetry, the labours and risks of music are so great that the benefit of the minor poet seems to me best insured in the position he occupies at present. MARY AUGUSTA SALMOND. IV.-MUSICAL PUBLISHING. In reading the valuable remarks upon this subject in the Author for March, I so thoroughly agree that “the iniquity of seven copies as six’’ should be challenged. Why should not thirteen copies count as twelve, as in the booksellers’ trade P If musical works are properly stored, this should amply allow for loss to publishers in soiled or spoilt copies. Regarding charges for the performing rights of composers in oratorios, cantatas, and operas, the remarks are just, but I would refer the writer to 45 & 46 Vict. c. 40, ss. I and 2, which is quoted on page 62 of that admirable little handbook, “The Law of Musical and Dramatic Copyright,” by Ed. Cutler, T. E. Smith, and F. E. Weatherley. In the case of songs it would seem impolitic if not imposible to charge. It must always be remembered how small a public music has compared with that which literature and the drama possess. In some songs, such as “The Lost Chord” and “The Better Land,” it would appear im- portant to have mentioned in royalty agreement if the publisher “shall be entitled to arrange and use the melody in any separate musical composition ” with or without any further payment P - It is for the greatest composers to begin to insist upon more equitable terms. Lesser writers would only have their work refused for that of others. M. S. W.—THE GENERAL MEETING. I was unfortunately unable to attend the general meeting on the 25th, otherwise, though only a very humble member, I should have felt it my duty to protest against Mr. Stuart- Glennie's strictures. I have belonged to the Society for nearly ten years, and whenever I have had occasion to resort to its services, have been invariably im- pressed by the admirable manner in which the business has been conducted. In fact, so far as my experience is concerned, its attributes may be summed up in these three words, “Capability, Celerity, Courtesy,” and there are, I am sure, very few members who would not render a similar testimony. WILLIAM TOYNBEE. WI.—PARALLELISM. On Nov. 16, 1892, I awoke from sleep with the idea of the following sonnet, and with the final line shaped almost exactly as it stands, present in my mind—whether as carried out of a dream or as forged in some mental process exactly synchronous with the recovery of consciousness I am quite unable to determine. The idea took possession of me, though at first I recoiled from the grotesquerie of the gnat, feeling that in the retention, at all events, of the word, the solemnity of the whole conception would be risked. That same morning I composed the sonnet (the first I ever wrote) in one draft, altering the last line to “The cry of a hurt bird doth reach me here "; but in a third copy restoring the ant, in the deliberate conviction that the grotesquerie was only skin-deep, and that the thoughtful reader would justify my decision. Besides, I felt a sort of scrupulousness in tampering with the gift of a dream. Two or three days ago I saw an advertisement of a new book or pamphlet by my friend Mr. Coulson Kernahan. The title is as follows: “God and the Ant: A Dream of the Last Day.” On the face of it, the motif of that, one would say, is almost identical with the motif of my Plagiarism, conscious or unconscious, is out of the question. - I fancy that the parallelism is remarkable enough to deserve record. Besides having seemingly been first in ink, I should like to be first in print. 'Atrokatóorraorus IIdivrov. Lo, the great day that sees God's purpose wrought ! Time in His lap doth lie, a woven skin, Sin is His awful aureole, and pain On His forefinger shines, a pearl sum-caught. Yea, the great day, the end of all God’s thought: The stars roll anthems, all the airy main Washes bright rapture, mingled with the strain Of human cycles to the vintage brought. Creation praises. Lo, God lifts His hand, Spreading mild lightning on from sphere to sphere : The tide of triumphs stops; the planets stand ; Yea, the worlds hearken, as high God speaks clear: “Broken is all the harmony I plann’d :— There is a gnat whose voice I do not hear.” FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE. 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. 05 Issue 11 (April 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 11 (April 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-04-01-The-Author-5-11 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/274/1895-03-01-The-Author-5-10.pdf efcac77e173a2024aa3762755a6c12ad 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) 1895-03-01 Volume 5 Issue 10 Pages Page range in volume 253–280 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950301 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DUCTED BY WALTER BES ANT. VoI. V.-No. 10.] MARCH 1, 1895. [PRICE SIxPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. 3- ~ * = * *-es HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *— 2- --" * * *-*. WARNINGS AND ADVICE, I . RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. . . Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In , , every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. . 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTS. – Readers are mos URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no expense to themselves . eacept the cost of the stamp. WOL. V. 4. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVEs To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. - 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. IO. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS.--Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. 14. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. * Society’s Offices — - 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice -- A. A 2 ## p. 254 (#268) ############################################ 254 THE AUTHOR. sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 2:3. Send-to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. - 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :-(I) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. . *-- ~ *-* •- THE AUTHORS, SYNDICATE. i / TEMBERS are informed : - 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. - 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. . . . - 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly..., That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. * * - - - - - - - - - *, * 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department ’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted ” is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. - NOTICES, HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. r - The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously eommunicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. w The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. - - - Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest P Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble ## p. 255 (#269) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 255 of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *= a -ºr wº- - - THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, HE General Meeting of the Society of Authors was held on Monday, Feb. 25, at 4.30 p.m., in the rooms of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, at 20, Hanover- square. Mr. W. Martin Conway took the chair, and amongst those of the committee and council to support him were Mr. Hall Caine, Mr. Rider Haggard, Mr. Anthony Hope, Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, Mr. J. M. Lely, and Mr. E. Clodd. Mr. Conway stated that as the report had been circulated to all the members of the Society he would take it as read, but would be glad to hear if any of the members present had any sugges- tions to make, or anything to say on the matter. He further stated that the work done by the Society had been very satisfactory. They had settled virtually IOO cases during the past year, and had elected 233 new members. Mr. Stuart-Glennie proposed that there should be a more detailed statement of account in the next year's report, and Mr. Conway replied that he would gladly put the matter before the Com- mittee at their next meeting. The report was then unanimously approved by the meeting. Mr. Hall Caine was then called upon to propose the following resolution :-‘‘That in the opinion of this meeting of the members of the Incor- porated Society of Authors the Canadian Copy- right Act is unjust and impracticable, and calculated to affect injuriously the interests of all authors.” Mr. Hall Caine stated his diffidence in speaking on such a subject before the meeting, as authors were more at home with the pen. He, however, pointed out what had been the legisla- tion of all civilised countries with regard to the matter of copyright. That the property of authors had after many years of considerable struggle been recognised universally to be distinct and apart from any trade considerations. Then he proceeded to point out the danger of Canada obtaining the Royal Assent to the Copy- right Bill in its present condition, and finally summed up by saying that he thought all authors should bind together to oppose the passing of the Act. - Mr. Rider Haggard seconded the resolution; discussing shortly the provisions of the Canadian Act, and pointing out the impracticability of its working. Mr. W. Oliver Hodges, who acted on behalf of the society in conjunction with the Secretary on the General Committee which was summoned. last year to consider the question of Canadian copyright, pointed out the fallacy of the licensing clause in the Canadian Act, and how unsatis- factory the collection of the royalties had been in past years. Mr. W. E. H. Lecky also spoke of the necessity of energetic action, as it was understood that the Royal assent would be given, if at all, within the next four weeks. After short speeches on the subject by several other members, the motion was put and unani- mously carried. t Mr. Stuart-Glennie then rose to bring forward the following resolution: “That the executive of the Society be now instructed to take more vigorous action in ascertaining, defending, and enlarging the rights of authors; and that a special committee be appointed to report to the Society with reference to such more vigorous action.” He referred as one of his reasons to his own case which had been before the committee during the past year. He stated, however, that he did not mean to bring the motion forward as a vote of censure on the committee. Mr. Bigelow seconded the motion on Mr. Glennie's behalf. As the Chairman (Mr. Conway) considered that the action of the Committee of the Society had been called into question, he asked the solicitors of the Society to make a short statement in defence of the action of the committee. - Mr. Emery, the Society's solicitor, pointed out how it had been impossible to take up Mr. Glennie's case; that the Society had on two separate occasions taken legal advice on the sub- ject, and finally put the issues at stake from a statement of facts prepared by Mr. Glennie's and the Society solicitors before counsel; that counsel had given it as his opinion that Mr. Glennie could not succeed. Under the circumstances, therefore, the action of the committee had been thoroughly ## p. 256 (#270) ############################################ 256 THE AUTHOR. justified, and there was no cause for blaming the committee. Mr. Rider Haggard then moved the rejection of the motion on the grounds of the facts stated by the solicitors, and he further pointed out that Mr. Glennie's motion virtually amounted to a vote of censure on the committee. Mr. Haggard's amendment was seconded by Mr. Douglas Sladen. - There were various other speakers, who all seemed to coincide with the opinion of Mr. Haggard that Mr. Glennie's motion amounted to a vote of censure on the committee. - Mr. Bigelow rose and stated that he had no idea in seconding the motion that a vote of Censure had been intended. Mr. Haggard’s amendment rejecting the reso- lution was then put, and was carried with but One dissentient. The proceedings then terminated. -** * LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—MUSICAL PUBLISHING. \PIE musical composer, like the dramatist, but unlike the author, has two rights in his work, the copyright and the performing right. He ought, therefore, if his work were pro- perly managed, to have two sources of income, but this is not the case. - The musical composer, like the author in the past, seems to be absolutely ignorant of his rights, and is still in shackles, bound hand and foot. The perusal of many of the musical publishers' agreements in all their varieties clearly shows this. And the case is more disastrous, as the performing right and the copyright might be of great value, both being good properties, whereas for the dramatic writer the performing right is virtually his only pro- perty, and for the author of literary wares his copyright. As a matter of fact, the musical composer recklessly assigns away both his rights to the publisher in absolute ignorance of their value. What does he get in return ? For the performing right nothing, and even the publisher very seldom uses what might be a good property. This abandonment of valuable property has been going on for so long that it has almost become a recognised custom. It is not, however, too late to change the procedure, but the difficulty is for the composer to bring about this alteration. If he endeavours to do so, he is met by alternative answers from the publisher: (I) A willingness to publish on certain terms, the composer retaining the performing right; (2) A refusal to publish without the assign- ment of this right. Under case (I) the terms are generally so stringent that the composer cannot possibly accept them. If, however, he should make an agreement the question is how, to utilise this right. An intending performer calls on the publisher and states what he wants. He receives the answer at once that the performing right is held by Mr. , who will probably make a charge, whereas if he purchases from them some other composer's work they will let him have the right of performing for nothing. - It is obvious that handicapped to this extent it is impossible for the composer alone to make the alteration. There ought, therefore, to be a combination between composers and publishers. For the latter, although originally mere agents, have become through the stringency of their agreements and the carelessness of composers holders of valuable property. Such a combina- tion would be easy, as the music publishers are few, and it would not be difficult to arrange so that the outside public would be forced to pay for other people's property which they now receive gratis. The publishers would at once feel the benefit, as they are the greatest holders of per- forming rights. The composers would, it is hoped, feel the benefit in the near future, when they have come to recognise the value of their own property. The argument that the publishers—who do not care about wandering from their old and well worn track—would at once bring forward is, of course, that the public would not pay for performing rights. This argument may, however, easily be repudiated, as is shown in the case of dramatic works. The English musical public is constantly on the increase, and is as eager for some new thing as the theatrical world. These remarks on the performing rights of com- posers refer chiefly to the longer compositions, such as Cantatas, oratorios, operas. They only refer in a minor degree to songs. For the difficulty in the way of enforcing a claim in the latter case is obvious, and the charge would be small. If, however, some simple method of collection could be devised, the right is still a valuable OT162, The next question to be considered is what the composer receives for his copyright. In many cases the pleasure of seeing his work produced is considered sufficient reward. If it should chance ## p. 257 (#271) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 257 that terms are proposed, he is offered four different kinds of agreements. These agreements may be termed: (1) The commission agreement. (2) The purchase outright. (3) The royalty agreement. (4) The half-profit agreement. But they differ frºm the ordinary book pub- lisher's agreements of these names in that the music publisher appropriates all the performing rights and copyrights, and is otherwise more stringent in his terms, and in many cases threatens the composer with non-publication unless these rights are transferred. (I) is perhaps the most unsatisfactory system for the composer, for, although the publisher undertakes to publish the work, he in reality does little more than produce it. He makes no attempt to place it before singers, does not advertise it, does not send it round with his travellers (or, if he does, does so in a half-hearted way), but lets it lie in a neat brown paper parcel on One of the shelves of his warehouse. If the song is to have a success, it must come from the result of the composer's unaided efforts; but success does not attend this method of publishing except through some extraordinary chance. In addition, the com- poser pays for the cost of production, and this is generally put at £2 or £3 more than the real cost. The total result therefore is a considerable loss to the composer and a slight gain to the pub- lisher. If, however, through the untiring energy of the composer, the song is placed before the public, the publisher reaps a fair commission, a Commission for which he has mot worked. In fact, it pays the publisher to let the song lie idle. He cannot lose, he may make a fair amount; and perhaps, if the composer subsequently becomes famous, a great amount (2) When a publisher purchases a work out- right he generally does so with the idea of making it a success. He employs all the means in his power to bring it to notice. He sends out copies to singers; he advertises it in the papers; he gets up concerts for its performance; he pays singers to sing it, or parts of it; he sees that the concerts are well reported. The consequence is very often a great success, and the composer sees the publisher making hundreds of pounds where he has only made tens, and where he cannot hope to make any more. It must be remembered that the cost of production of a Cantata or a song compared with its selling price is much less than the cost of a book, so this is much sooner covered by the sales, and the profits are consequently greater. There is only one advantage to the composer in this method of publication, and this is a deferred advantage in case he desires to place another song or other musical composition before the public. (3) The royalty system is the only one in which under the present methods it appears that the author can reap any proportionate profit. The ordinary royalty is a variable quantity, varying sometimes, but not always, with the prices of the work if it chances that the price is mentioned in the agreement, an omission which frequently occurs. In any case the royalty is always smaller than with the author when the two costs of production are compared, and especially when in the payment of these royalties seven copies count as six. In the booksellers’ trade thirteen copies count as twelve, or twenty- five as twenty-four, but the iniquity of seven as six is only reached in the publication of music. * There are various other arrangements in which a royalty is paid : sometimes after the sale of a certain number of copies, sometimes after the cost of production has been govered. It is, how- ever, impossible to exhaustively discuss the different forms of agreement or to show in what proportion the royalties should be raised in arrangements where the publisher is virtually protected from loss before the composer receives any remuneration. One point, however, it is necessary to mention before leaving royalty agreements, that is, on what form of production a royalty is paid. In the case of songs and small pieces of instrumental music it is paid on the vocal part with the piano score, or on the piano score; and this is fair, for this is the only form that has a sale. The sale and hire of band parts must be small, and would hardly cover the cost of production, possibly might never do so. In the case of Cantatas, oratorios, glees, and part songs, it is paid on the vocal part with the piano score, but there is this difference between the two instances: in the latter the publisher produces the vocal parts — treble, alto, tenor, bass — separately, and sells them or hires them in this form to choral societies. As on the separate parts no royalty is paid, he, to a great extent, nullifies his own agreement with the composer, and certainly puts his interest as agent and that •ot the composer as principal at variance. The curious part of this transaction is that the publisher, in a half-profit agreement, credits and debits the accounts with the moneys expended and received on this item, but in a royalty agree- ment does not recognise the sale. The composer should always take care that the publishers’ interest and his own are parallel. (4) The objections to an half-profit agreement are most serious, yet can only be mentioned in this short paper and not discussed: (1) The complication of accounts. ## p. 258 (#272) ############################################ 258 THE AUTHOR. (2) The control of all expenditure, including advertisements, lying with the publisher. (3) The ignorance of the author of the cost of production. (4) The ignorance of the author of the methods and necessities of publication. In short, it must be stated that this form of agreement which sounds so fair is in reality the worst for the composer. Finally, it should be pointed out that there are certain elements in the cost of musical production that do not enter into the production of literary wares. The actual paper, &c., is no doubt much cheaper compared with the selling price, but in the first instance the writer of the words has to be paid. His claim is generally settled by a sum paid down. In case (1) it is paid by the author; in cases (2) and (3) by the publisher; and sometimes in case (3), and always in case (4), it is brought into account before royalty or profit is paid. Then the music of songs and smaller pieces is sent out gratis broadcast. Fifty or sixty copies of a book may be sent out for review. Five or six hundred copies of songs are sent out to musical people, singers, &c. Lastly, the singer has to be paid to sing the song in public ; for this he is paid by a sum down or by a royalty. All these items tend to reduce the profit in songs and pieces to which they specially apply. On the other hand, it must be taken into con- sideration that some of the musical publishers also run concerts, which are very lucrative invest- ments, for the special purpose of airing their own Wą,I'êS. - - From the business point of view, however, to sum up the whole situation, musical composers are in a shocking position, and the sooner they band together either to run a new publisher or to refuse to publish except on equitable terms the better it will be for them. The old stories are still cropping up of terms settled at the pub- lisher's dinner table, the unbusiness like propen- sities of composers, and the absolute impos- sibility of getting them to sign agreements. Surely it would be an easy thing for the publisher, who is a man of business, to insist on business- like arrangements. The only deduction that can be made is that it pays him better not to do so. II.-ANGLo-AUSTRIAN COPYRIGHT. Vienna, Wednesday.—The official Gazette to- day announces that the operation of the Anglo- Austrian copyright treaty has been extended to India, Newfoundland, Natal, Victoria, Queens- land, Western Australia, and New Zealand.— Reuter. III.—EDUCATIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC Books. Of all kinds of literary profits those in educa- tional and scientific works are hardest to estimate before actual publication. There is, however, the undoubted fact that the educational branch of literary property is by far the most valuable and the most profitable. If a work dealing with some educational or scientific subject gets once an estab- lished position as a standard book for school use in England or America, the returns are constant and most substantial. There would seem, however, to be no midway between a good and substantial return and virtually no return at all. Under these circumstances it is of great importance to educational and scientific writers never to sell out- right a work which may be a mine of gold, and never, under any circumstances whatever, to part. with the copyright of such a work. It has been stated by some publishers that they will refuse to deal in any educational or scientific work unless the author will assign the copyright to them, on the ground that it is necessary, should the work prove a success, that they should be able to benefit by that success as well as the author. On the other hand, it must be remembered that it is, of the most vital importance that the author should ot lose, but should retain, the command —which he can only do by retaining the copy- right—of his work. - The following are among the reasons why an author should retain his copyright: º I. An educational or a scientific book must be altered from time to time in order to be brought up to date. New scientific discoveries may make the best book antiquated. New methods may be introduced; new theories may be advanced. The only way for the author to meet these changes is. by making corresponding changes in his book. 2. But the publisher is interested in these changes. He may be. He may not be. He may have a younger man to advance, thinking that he will be more popular. - 3. He may sell his business, or go into bank- ruptcy, or buy another man's business. In either case an author's book goes with his other Copyrights, perhaps to find himself on the same shelf with his most important rival. - It is, of course, always possible to insert clauses in the agreement by which the publisher shall have the option of producing second, third, and subsequent editions on reasonable terms. Should the publisher refuse to deal except on the condition of getting the copyright, the author should go elsewhere. - - One case, however, has come before the Society. in which a publisher fully recognised the import. ance of giving the author a free hand with regard ## p. 259 (#273) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 259 to alterations in a scientific work, and although the author had inadvertently assigned the copy- right to the publisher, the latter consented to reassign it on consideration that he should have the option of publishing subsequent editions. It is necessary that this warning should be con- stantly before educational and scientific authors, “that they should on no account whatever assign their copyright.” They may, if they so desire, give the publisher every help and assistance with regard to the right to publish future editions, but they must make no assignment. If they do not know how to draw the necessary agreement, the Society will advise them in the matter. IV.-AN IMPORTANT CASE. H. RIDER HAGGARD AND LoNGMANs, GREEN, AND Co., complainants, against THE WAVERLY CoMPANY, defendant. (Circuit Court of the United States, District of New Jersey.) Brief of Respondents on demurrer to the Bill of Complaint. - STATEMENT. — The principal ground of de- murrer urged by the defendant is the third : “That said bill fails to show that due and law- ful notice of said pretended copyright and copy- rights was inserted as required by section 4962 of the Revised Statutes of the United States in the several copies of every edition published in manner and form in said section aforesaid speci- fically set forth.” The clauses of the bill thus attacked are as follows: “Fourth.—And your orators further show that the aforesaid editions of their said copyright book, entitled ‘Nada the Lily,’ were printed from plates made within and type set within the limits of the United States, as required by law. That due notice of said copyrights and entries, and that said copyrights had been completed, was given by the Secretary of the Treasury by publication in his official cata- logues of the title entries of books and other ar icles in the weekly lists of the title of all books wherein the copyright has been completed, all of which said catalogues are ready to be produced in court. That the notice required by section 4962 of the Revised Statutes of the United States has been duly and lawfully given in the several copies of said editions so published as aforesaid.” Section 4962 of the Revised Statutes is as follows: “Section 4962. No person shall maintain an action for the infringement of his copyright unless he shall give notice thereof by inserting in the several copies of every edition published, on the title page, or the page imme- diately following, if it be a book, or if a map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, engraving, WOL. W. - * photograph, painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, or model or design intended to be per- fected and completed as a work of the fine arts, by inscribing upon some visible portion thereof, or of the substance on which the same shall be mounted, the following words, viz.: “Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 5 by A. B., in the office of the Librarian of Con- gress, at Washington,’ or at his option, the word ‘ copyright,’ together with the year the copyright was entered, and the name of the party by whom it was taken out, thus: “Copyright, 18 , by A. B.’” The demurrer claims that the bill is bad because it does not in its terms declare that the copyright notice has been inserted “in the several copies of every edition published; ” the actual averment being that the notice required was “duly and lawfully given in the several copies” of the editions published as set forth in the complaint, being all the editions men- tioned therein, except defendant’s alleged pira- tical edition. Subordinate grounds of demurrer are that the book in question was not composed by a citizen or resident of the United States— which attacks the constitutionality of the Inter- national Copyright Law—and that the com- plaimants by asking, in their prayer, for damages and the delivery for destruction of the unsold copies of the piratical edition demand more than a court of equity can grant. A further ground of demurrer is alleged indefiniteness in the charge of infringement. These points will be considered in the foregoing order, which is the order of im- portance as urged by demurrant. First.—I. The requirements of the statute which are conditions precedent to the perfection of copyright are—I. Deposit before publication of printed copy of the title. 2. Deposit after publication of two copies of the book. 3. Print- ing of the prescribed notice in the copies pub- lished: (Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Peters, 591 ; Merrell v. Tice, IO4 U. S. 557; Thompson v. Hubbard, 131 U. S. 123.) It has been held that as matter of fact the requirement of notice means that the prescribed words shall be inserted in the several copies of every edition which the proprietor of the copyright, as controlling the publication, publishes : (Thompson v. Hubbard, 131 U. S. 123; Supreme Court of the United States, May 13, 1889.) Since the last-named decision the International Copyright Act has been passed (March 3, 1891), which greatly widens the field of application of copyright law. Is it still true that, to maintain an action on his copyright for infringement, a person must literally and exactly give the United States copyright notice “in the several copies of every edition published” by him P. The section in question (section 4962) IB B ## p. 260 (#274) ############################################ 26o THE AUTHOR. was not altered by the Act of 1891, but was in force previously. Doubtless the possible effects of not changing this section escaped the aqtention of the legislators. For, if there be no limitation in construction put upon the words “every edition published,” an English author, for example, publishing his book not only in the United States, but also in Great Britain, or in Australia, or in South Africa, or in China, loses his United States copyright unless notice of the latter be inserted in every copy published anywhere in the world. And this will be the case, notwithstanding he com- plies fully with the English copyright laws. We submit that this is not the legal intention of the Act. That such is not the intention is evidenced by the provisions of section 4956 of the Copy- right Act, to the effect that in order to complete copyright the two copies of the book required to be deposited with the Librarian of Congress must be “printed from type set within the limits of the United States or from plates printed there- from.” And during the existence of the copy- right the importation into the United States of any book so copyrighted, or any edition or edi- tions thereof, or any plates not made from type set within the United States, is prohibited. That is to say, in order to avail himself of the protec- tion of the copyright law of the United States, the author, foreign or otherwise, must print and publish within the United States, and the impor- tation of any edition printed from type not set or plates not made within the United States is for- bidden. It matters not, then, how many foreign manufactured editions are published outside. The United States law does not protect them, nor does it allow them to interfere with books manu- factured and copyrighted here. They are ex- cluded from the consideration of the Copyright Act. Hence it would be absurd to hold that the notice required by section 4962 means, literally, “every edition published ” by the person copy- righting. It means every edition published, printed from type set or plates made within the United States—that is, every edition manufactured in the United States. This must be so, because no other editions can be made the subject of copyright law at all. * * II. It is fundamental that in the construction of statutes the whole and every part must be con- sidered. “The intention of the law-maker will prevail over the literal sense of the terms; and its reason and intention will prevail over the strict letter:” (Kent's Com., 461 ; Sutherland on Sta- tutory Construction (1891), p. 32O.) “The mere literal construction ought not to prevail if it is opposed to the intention of the Legislature apparent from the statute; and if the words are sufficiently flexible to admit of some other con- complaint P struction by which that intention can be better effected, the law requires that intention to be adopted: ” (Sutherland on Stat. Construction, p. 321, and cases there cited.) These well-esta- blished doctrines have received application in regard to the international copyright law in the United States Circuit Court, District of Massa- chusetts, in the case of Werckmeister v. Pierce and Bushnell Mfg. Co., decided Aug. 7, 1894, Putnam, J. This was the case of a painting sought to be copyrighted by a German subject, on the original of which no notice of United States copyright, as required by section 4962, was ever inscribed, although the other conditions of copyright were complied with, and the copyright notice was inscribed on the published photo- graphs of the painting. In this case the court departs from the literal reading of the statute, and holds that the intent of the law must govern, and that under construction according to the intent, it is not necessary to place the copyright notice upon the original, though the statute expressly says, that if the article be a painting, the notice shall be inscribed, “upon some visible portion thereof, or of the substance on which the same shall be mounted.” If, for the purpose of sustaining the intent of the legislators, so bold a departure from the literal sense, as in this case, may be taken in construing section 4962, how much more, in the case at bar, is a construction warranted, which alone can make the Act har- monious in its parts, and without which the whole law would become a nullity. Its purpose in securing international copyright otherwise would be entirely defeated. As a matter of fact it is not the custom to put the United States copyright notice on English editions of a work copyrighted in America. Much more unlikely would such notice be thought important in editions published in more remote countries. The result would be to make the copyright protection evidently intended to be given to works manu- factured in the United States practically null and void, and to destroy the International Copy- right Law. III. Thus much premised, are the allegations in the bill sufficient? They set up the publica- tion of the editions described, “printed from plates made within and type set within the limits of the United States, as required by law. That the notice required by section 4962 of the Revised Statutes of the United States has been duly and lawfully given in the several copies of said editions so published as aforesaid.” The only question here would seem to be will the court presume, outside the record, that there are other editions of the work than those set forth in the If it should be the fact that the ## p. 261 (#275) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 26 I editions pleaded constitute “every edition pub- lished,” there is, of course, a sufficient cause of action. Will the court presume otherwise upon demurrer? Reasonable presumptions are ad- mitted by demurrer as well as the matters expressly alleged : (Foster's Federal Practice, vol. I, p. 209; Amory v. Laurence, 3 Clifford, 523, 526.) But, says the court in Warfield v. Fisk (1883; 136 Mass., p. 219), “We cannot draw inferences of fact upon demurrer.” If it appear that the required notice was given in the several copies of every edition of which the court can take any cognisance, it is a “reasonable pre- sumption ” that the law has been complied with. It would be a violent presumption to assume outside the record, that there are other editions in which no notice, or defective notice, was given. The bill would be sufficient on the hearing if the facts alleged were proved. It would not be necessary even to prove literally the insertion of the notice in every copy. Pro- duction of one copy with the notice and general testimony as to the issue of the edition would be sufficient: (Falk v. Gast Lith. and Eng. Co. Ld., 4o Fed. Rep. 168.) The contention of the defen- dant would make his pleading a “speaking de- murrer” where by argument or inference a mate- rial fact is suggested that is not alleged in the bill. Such a demurrer will be overruled: (Beach, Modern Equity Practice, vol. I, p. 265, and cases there cited.) Moreover, the copyright is per- fected by taking the three steps required by statute before and coincident with publication. Primă facie then, the copyright being perfect, the complainants are entitled to maintain their action. A copy of the record in the office of the Librarian of Congress, with the books showing the notice, make out a primá facie case against an infringer. If there has been any omission in subsequent or other editions than those pleaded, it is for the defendant to plead and prove that the complainant has by his omissions lost the copy- right he once had and which presumptively he still has. The notice is not a condition to the obtaining a copyright, but to the maintaining an action for infringement. If the facts allow it, the defendant, in case of lack of universality of the notice, must plead in abatement. He has no standing on demurrer. It may be added that the practice books giving forms of bills of complaint in copyright cases, give a pleading setting out generally that the complainants are the owners of a copyright taken out “previous to the publica- tion of the book in question, and secured according to law.” No other detail of fact is given in order to make out a primá facie case: (Beach, Modern Equity Pleading, vol. 2, p. 1281.) In Thompson v. Hubbard (131 U. S. 123), on which VOL. W. the demurrant seems to rely, the decision was rendered after the facts appeared on the trial and not on demurrer. Second.—Inasmuch as the demurrant in its brief does not insist upon the ground of demurrer questioning the constitutionality of the Interna- tional Copyright Act, the complainants will not discuss that topic at this time. Third.—There is no merit in demurrant's con- tention respecting failure to waive penalties end forfeitures. At the most the prayer of the com- plainants in this respect is surplusage. A bill to obtain relief against an infringement of a copy- right need not contain a waiver of the com- plainant’s statutory right to a forfeiture of the piratical plates: (Foster's Federal Practice (2nd ed.), vol. I, p. 175; Farmer v. Calvert Lith. Co., I Flippin, 228.) If any part of the relief is proper, the demurrer on this point will be over- ruled. This is the latest doctrine in these cases: (Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v. Hartshorn, Treas., &c., 3O Fed. Rep., 54 I (1887; Shiras, J.); Town of Strawberry Hill v. C. M. & St. P. Ry. Co. et al, 4 I Fed. Rep. 568 (1890).) Fourth.-Nor is there room for argument that the charge of infringement is indefinite. The defendant is charged with having published, without authorisation, the book copyrighted. What has been copyrighted has been set forth in the bill. This is sufficient to put the defendant upon his answer. Fifth. — The questions involved before the court at this present time are purely questions of law. The defendant in his brief, has seen fit to talk “ to the galleries,” and to claim that this action was brought in bad faith, “solely for the purpose of intimidating the trade.” This autho- rises the complainants to say that there is no doubt whatever that the complainant, H. Rider Haggard (an author of no mean repute) is the author of the work “Nada the Lily;” that Longmans, Green, and Co. (the oldest firm of publishers in the world, and of undoubted re- spectability and standing) are the authorised publishers of the work; that the defendant, the Waverly Company, has published, without autho- rity, a piratical edition of this book, with the idea that through some technical lapse, the copy- right due to the complainants, and which they have believed they possess, has been vitiated ; and the said defendant is now trying to defeat complainants in the enforcement of these supposed rights upon which they have always in good faith relied. The complainants are prosecuting this action, not alone to secure their own rights, but also in behalf of the trade to ascertain, for the benefit of all, what the meaning of the Inter- national Copyright Law is, by its proper judicial B B 2 ## p. 262 (#276) ############################################ 262 THE AUTHOIR. onstruction. Too important interests are in- volved for the case to be determined upon tech- nicalities; and though the complainants are advised and firmly believe the demurrer should be overruled, they ask, in case the court should take a different view, that they may have leave to amend on the usual terms; whereupon they will so amend by setting forth fully the exact facts in the case, and all collateral facts, that a full adjudication may be obtained upon demurrer before the highest tribunal, as to the meaning of the new law. Resting upon such an adjudication the entire book and publishing trade may intelli- gently shape its course. The main question involved is as to the meaning of section 4962, the complainants' contention respecting which has been hereinbefore urged. Upon this point, espe- cially, the complainants pray for an authoritative expression of judicial opinion. And they asked that the demurrer in all respects be overruled, with costs. (Argued Oct. 6, 1894, before Hon. Marcus W. Acheson, at Philadelphia.) DICKINSON, THOMPson, AND MCMASTER, No. 1, Montgomery-street, Jersey City, N.J., Solicitors for Complainants. DANIEL GREENLEAF THOMPson, No. 111, Broadway, N.Y. City, Of Counsel. W.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. The following letter appeared in the Times of the 26th Feb. : - “SIR,-Attention has already been called in your columns to the fact that the Canadian Copyright Bill, now awaiting the Royal assent, seriously menaces the interests of English authors and copyright owners. It is understood that a decision will shortly be arrived at on the question at issue between the Canadian and Imperial authorities. The danger being therefore imminent, those whose interests are threatened must now enter their protest against the Bill. By it any Canadian publisher will be permitted to produce, in any form and at any price he pleases, the work of any British author which has not, within one month of its first publication in this country, been reprinted and published in Canada, on the sole condition of paying a royalty of Io per cent. on the published price of the book. The officers of the Department of Inland Revenue are charged with the duty of collecting and paying these royalties, but they are specially exempted from any obligation to ‘account for any such royalty not actually collected.’ “The objections to these proposals are weighty and obvious; it will suffice to indicate one or two. “The limit of one month is ridiculously insuffi- cient, and the provision suffices to deprive English authors, with the possible exception of a few writers of popular fiction, of any real copyright in Canada. “The absurd machinery which makes the Inland Revenue officials at once responsible and irrespon- sible for the collection of royalties is not new, and is of proved inefficiency. English authors and publishers can only look back with grim amusement on the futile attempt on the part of Canada to collect similar royalties on American pirated reprints with similar machinery. More- Over, in the absence of accounts, how is an English author to seek a remedy when he has reason to believe that a particular publisher has failed to make due payment P The needful evidence would not in practice be obtainable. It is true that the Canadian market is not large, nor, in the absence of a leisured and cultured class, is it likely to prove expansive. If Canada. Only were in question, English authors would probably submit to the injury likely to be caused by piracy of their works in a small literary area. But Canada does not stand alone. If this Bill becomes law, Canadian reprints will inevitably flood, as they are intended to flood, the market of the United States, and the rights which English owners of literary property now enjoy there will be seriously endangered. If, in Consequence of the action of Canada, the United States were to repeal their International Copyright Act, English authors would suffer great and irreparable loss. “In order to give united expression to the objections felt by persons whose interests are threatened by the proposed legislation, a petition to the Colonial Secretary has been prepared, which it is hoped will be largely signed during the next three weeks by authors, pub- lishers, artists, and owners of copyrights gener- ally. Copies of this petition may be obtained from the secretary of the Society of Authors, and signatures should be forwarded to him at the Society's offices, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn- fields, W.C. “I am, sir, your obedient servant, “W. M. ConwAy, Chairman of Committee of the Incorporated Society of Authors.” *- - -º w" - ## p. 263 (#277) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 263 NOTES FROM NEW YORK, RATHER curious survival of the old A colonial attitude towards England is demonstrated by the fact that any impor- tant series issued in the mother country is sure to be published over here; while, on the other hand, when an American series is brought out, only those volumes having more than a local interest appear in England. Thus, of the Great Commanders Series, which contains biographies of “Admiral Farragut’ by Captain A. T. Mahan, of “General Taylor " by General O. O. Howard, U.S.A., of “General Jackson " by James Parton, of “General Greene’’ by Captain Francis W. Greene, U.S.A., of “General J. E. Johnston ’” by Robert M. Hughes, of “General Thomas” by Henry Copee, LL.D., of “General Scott’ by General Marcus J. Wright, of “General Washington’ by General Bradley T. Johnson, of “General Lee’” by General Fitzhugh Lee, and of “General Hancock’” by General Francis A. Walker, only one volume has so far been repro- duced in England, and that was the first, which was doubtless due to Captain Mahan's own reputation. It was evident that the subject of the biography was not well known, since in the Times it was announced as “a new book by Captain Mahan, a life of the great Confederate Admiral, Farragut.” To another of our impor- tant series, that on American Men of Letters, there has just been added the biography of “George William Curtis,” by Mr. Edward Cary. This series is edited by Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, who contributed the first volume, the life of “Irving.” The other volumes are “Noah Webster,” by Horace E. Scudder; “Thoreau,” by Frank B. Sanborn; “George Ribley,” by O. B. Frothingham; “Cooper,” by T. R. Lounsbury; “Margaret Fuller Ossoli,” by T. W. Higginson; “Emerson,” by Dr. Holmes; “Poe,” by George E. Woodberry; “N. P. Willis,” by Henry A. . Beers; “Benjamin Franklin,” by John B. McMaster ; “Bryant,” by John Bigelow; and “William Gilmore Simms,” by William P. Trent. Of all these, the volumes on Cooper and on Emerson are the only two published in England. Two books of the series are model biographies —the “Cooper’ by Professor Lounsbury, and the “Poe’” by Professor Woodberry. In each case the authors took an immense amount of trouble to amass material, and then wrote a clear, concise, and comprehensive biography, which protruded no trace of the work behind it. There are soon to be added to this series the lives of “Lowell,” by Professor Woodberry, of Columbia College; “Whittier,” by Professor George R. Carpenter, of Columbia; “Motley,” by Professor Brander Matthews, Jameson; and “Parkman,” by Mr. John Fiske. This series is modelled on Mr. John Morley's “English Men of Letters,” only that the American volumes always contain a steel engraved portrait and a careful index—adjuncts lacking in the British books. An instance of failure to give “every man his due,” which would never have occurred in America, is to be found in the case of the “Great Educators Series.” This series was thought out, planned, brought out, and edited by Professor Nicholas Murray Butler. It is an international series having volumes by American, French, and British authors. It is printed in America and published here by Scribner's. Certain of the volumes have been exported to England and issued by Heinemann, and it is there known as Heinemann’s “Great Educators Series,” no mention whatsoever being made about Professor Butler's share in its production, or of its American origin. Macmillan and Co. are continuing their two- volume experiment at a dollar a volume, or 8s. for the work. This experiment was begun with “ Marcella,” and then continued with “ Katherine Lauterdale,” and now with “The Ralstons.” Mr. Crawford is the most popular of American novelists, and every new book of his sells at the rate of from 50,000 to 60,000 copies, while its immediate predecessor has a renewed sale of about Io,000. Although an American, Mr. Crawford does not know his New York as he does his Italy, and it is pleasing to note that in “Casa Braccia *-now running in the Century— he has returned to his old fields of operation, and is telling a new melodramatic tale of cos- mopolitan life. Four seasons ago Mr. T. J. B. Lincoln founded a literary club, called “The Uncut Leaves.” The club began very modestly with only a few members, who met once a month either at each other's houses or in a small hall hired for the occasion, where they listened to authors of various nationalities read from their unpublished manu- scripts. The success of this venture has been so great that the club now has several hundred members enrolled on its lists, and a suite of rooms is engaged for its monthly meetings at one of the best known halls in New York. Six readings are given during a season, and prominent men of letters are most happy to read or talk before such a sympathetic audience as is found gathered together on these occasions. Strangers are heartily welcomed, and Mr. Christie Murray has twice been present at the meetings, and each time succeeded in amusing the members. Mark Twain, Edward Eggleston, Mrs. Wiggin, and Mr. H. C. Bunner have all either ## p. 264 (#278) ############################################ 264 THE AUTHOR. read or spoken before the club this winter or last. There are no committees, nor is there even a president to run the club, Mr. Lincoln under- taking all the work, such as getting the speakers, fixing dates, hiring the hall, seeing to the announcements, and even constituting himself treasurer and presiding officer for the introduc- tion of the readers. An experiment has recently been tried by Mr. Alexander Black, who is both an amateur photo- grapher and a journalist. It is a form of enter- tainment which he calls a “picture play.” Mr. Black has written a story entitled “Miss Jerry,” which he reads to his audience, giving each character its own individuality by a slight change in his voice. At the same time numerous photo- graphs, which illustrate the many situatiºns, are thrown by a magic lantern slide on a large sheet. The plot of the story is a mere thread on which is strung many incidents that introduce well-known people. Miss Jerry is a bright, vigorous girl, who takes up the business of reporter as a con- genial means of livelihood, and her adventures in that capacity form the basis of the plot, around which is woven a slight love story. Mr. Black has been to much pains to make his photographs as realistic and natural as possible, and thus we See Miss Jerry boarding an elevated train, inter- viewing Mr. Chauncey Depew in his office, visiting the slums, and taking part in a brilliant ball. These are only a few of the many sides of New York that Mr. Black has written about and depicted. Whether this venture will prove a lasting success it is impossible to say, but that it is a mºst enjoyable form of entertainment, and has many as yet undeveloped possibilities in it, is very evident. - The travelled American has often stated that he wondered why no American periodical had as large a circulation as the Strand Magazine. As a matter of fact, two of our periodicals have over three-quarters of a million circulation, yet neither of them is published in New York, the centre of the publishing trade. The papers referred to are the Ladies' Home Journal, issued in Philadelphia, and the Pouth's Companion, issued in Boston. It was on the former of these that the English Woman at Home was modelled. The Ladies’ Home Journal is a monthly of thirty or forty pages of the size of the Illustrated London News, and its sale is principally outside this metropolis, for it aims to appeal to a more provincial audience. From its title it would be judged exclusively a woman’s paper, but this is not the case. There are always running through the year some articles especially applicable to men, such as the series called “When He is Sixteen,” articles written by four prominent women on all that concerns a boy at that age—his studies, amusements, choice of professions, &c. Now a new series has been begun entitled one month “The Woman Who Has Most Influenced Me,” and the next “The Man Who Has Most Influenced Me ;” these naturally are written alternate months by men and women. The monthly always contains at least one serial story, and it was in this paper that Mr. Howell’s “Coast of Bohemia’’ appeared, and also Mr. Stockton’s “Pomona's Travels;” and there is, besides, generally a short story or two. A most delightful series of articles are now being written for it by Mr. Howells on “My Literary Passions.” The editorials are always timely, and on some broad subject. Besides this there are articles of general interest, comic or otherwise, and a poem or two. Another feature of this paper is the separation of the departments for answering correspondents, divided under the heads of “Floral Helps and Hints,” “Side-Talks with Girls,” “Hints on Home Dressmaking,” “Sug- gestions for Mothers,” “Art Help for Art Workers,” “Literary Queries,” and, lastly, “The Open Congress;” these (i.epartments are all under the direction of what might be called specialists. The illustrations and printing are both of a high order, and it would be hard to cite a periodical that has more widespread influence—an influence which is elevating both morally and intel- lectually. The Youth's Companion is a paper of an entirely different stamp, and with a different mission to fulfil. It is a wholesome weekly of good literary style, designed for readers of both sexes from fourteen to twenty-four years. Amongst its announcements for 1895 appear the following: A paper on “Nursing,” by Princess Helena of Schleswig-Holstein, and an account of a sculptor's work, called “The Story of a Statue,” by Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lorne); an article on the “Recollections of My Physician,” by Mr. Gladstone; a reminiscent account by Mr. J. M. Barrie, entitled “A School Revisited;” an article by Mr. Rudyard Kipling, “The Bold 'Prentice;” a speculative paper, “If Telescopes were Bigger,” by Camille Flammarion; an article on “How to Tell a Story,” by Mark Twain, and one on “An Editor's Relations with Young Authors,” by Mr. Howells; also “Bits of Scottish Character,” by the late Robert Louis Stevenson. From this array of names it is easy to see that the taste of the American youth is as much considered as that of his seniors. Indeed, we are singularly lucky in the type of our juvenile periodicals, for Harper's Young People and St. Nicholas have enormous circulations and much influence, and both have very high standards of literary and artistic merit. Thus ## p. 265 (#279) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 265 the young American mind is not only catered to, but elevated. A circular has recently been sent around to the various members of the writing craft that a table of statistics concerning newspaper reviews had been made, and that the New York Times “led all the rest " in regard to the number of books criticised in its columns, and in regard also to the space it devoted to literature. On looking through the table, it is surprising to find that of the 419 American and British works appearing during the period of Oct. I to Dec. 31, 1894, the Times has actually reviewed 277, and that these reviews have occupied 117 columns. The promptness with which these reviews appeared after the publication of the books is also much to be com- mended—out of the 277, at least 240 were reviewed within a month. The statistical pamphlet is arranged in alphabetical order as regards the pub- lishers, and thus, as an example, out of the fifteen books issued by Longmans, Green, and Co., the Times reviewed eleven, and devoted fifty and one-half columns to them, whereas the Tribune reviewed five of them, the Post four, and the Sun only two. But, on the other hand, the JPost has far more book advertisements than the Times; sometimes it has as many as three pages. It is a great convenience to authors and publishers to know where books are most likely to receive prompt attention, and so this table of statistics is welcome. Ibsen's latest play “Little Eyolf’’ has just been published by Stone and Kimball, of Chicago, in the Green Tree Library. The volume is a dainty specimen of bookmaking, being tastefully and well bound, of a convenient size, and printed with care and thought. It has been most warmly received. It is interesting to note how curiously alike it is in subject to Mrs. Margaret Deland’s recent novel, “Philip and His Wife.” Although differing in every detail and in most of the inci- dents, yet the two books are almost parallel in the problem they present. It is a pleasure to announce that Mrs. Deland’s book has been deservedly a great success, and is already in its fifth edition. It is astonishing how the “Trilby’’ boom keeps up, and even seems on the increase. Word has come from Harper and Brothers that so far in printing the book IOO tons of paper have been used. It is a great pleasure to mention the fair- ness with which Harpers have dealt with Mr. Du Maurier. Upon accepting “Trilby,” the publishers, believing in the book, offered Mr. Du Maurier a very handsome royalty; but the author preferred a lump sum in proportion to their belief in the book, which was very great. Now, seeing the enormous success of the story, : Hugo's remarks. Harper and Brothers have notified Mr. Du Maurier that from Jan. I of this year he will receive a royalty, and not only a royalty on “Trilby,” but also on “Peter Ibbetson,” for which they had also paid a large sum down, but which has been lately carried along by the success of its author’s more recent book. A parody has just appeared, entitled “Biltry,” and the drama- tisation of “Trilby " by Mr. Paul Potter is quite completed, and Mr. A. M. Palmer expects to produce it on March 4 in Boston. A “Trilby’’ afternoon has been arranged in aid of the New York Kindergarten Association. There are to be tableaux, taken from the illustrations, and all the songs mentioned in the story will be sung—thus it will be seem that “Trilby’’ has taken New York hearts by storm. One of the latest jokes current at present is the answer which supposedly appeared in a paper to an anxious inquirer—“No, Napoleon did not write ‘Trilby;” you have confused the magazines.” HALLETT ROBINSON. *~ - ~-' r—- - ---, LETTER FROM PARIS, AM writing this in the melancholy of the loss of our dear Auguste Vacquerie, a friend of twelve years' standing, a very kindly man, who, for his way of life, was one to be looked up to in this career of ours. He was in every sense of the word a gentleman of letters, and these are few in France. The first time that I met Auguste Vacquerie was twelve years ago, at the house of Victor Hugo, whose inseparable companion he was. Of the two poets, the disciple—for Vacquerie always pro- claimed himself but the disciple of Victor Hugo— haddecidedly the superior distinction, and, to con- fess the truth, I listened with far more interest to the things that he said that night than to Victor I frequently met him after- wards at the same house, and was on one occasion invited to call and see him at his own home, a fine mansion in the Rue Durmont d'Urville. I called there one morning and found Vacquerie in bed, for, as he told me, he never rose till noon. “I wake at seven,” he said, “and immediately read all the morning papers ”—the floor of the bedroom and the counterpane of the bed were strewn with gazettes—“ and when I have read all the news, I write my daily article for the Rappel.” By the bedside stood a little table, with writing materials on it, and a bowl of bouillon, in draughts of which the editor sought inspiration. His process was different from that of Victor Hugo, and indeed he remarked on ## p. 266 (#280) ############################################ 266 THE AUTHOR. this, for Hugo always wrote standing, imitating Voltaire in this respect. “But,” said Vacquerie, “I am only a disciple.” Ithink that it was a pity that he contented himself with his position of disciple and imitator of Hugo, for he had decided originality and a particular sweetness of style, which would have sufficed to give him an excellent standing of his own in French literature. I shall never forget the kindness of his reception of me on that occasion, miserable little journalistic hack that I was at the time. He insisted on keeping me to breakfast, and after breakfast showed me over his art collection. I remember with what glee he pointed to a Delacroix, a picture of the good Samaritan, which he had bought for 50 francs, “a picture worth a hundred times that sum to-day.” He pressed me to return and see him, and I did so once or twice, but it is now a long time since I saw him last. I contented my- self with being his contemporary, and liked to think that there was a kindly Auguste Vacquerie, who was well disposed towards me, living in Paris. One has many friends like that. And now he is dead and buried, and I shall never see him again Paris seems different to me to-day. I noticed that several papers commented on the divorce between Jeanne Hugo and Léon Daudet with comments which were unjustifiable. Thanks to the excellent French law in this matter, no particulars of divorce cases may be published in the French papers—a law that might well be introduced, in despite of the penny and half- penny editors, into England—and, as In conse- quence nobody except the friends of the family knew anything about the case, nobody was in a position to comment upon it. It was a mere case of incompatibility of temper, and, though separated, the two ex-spouses have remained excellent friends. This is a good thing for the sake of the little boy, Victor Hugo’s great-grand- SOIl. I had expected to be able to give a description in this letter of the banquet which was to be given on Friday last to Edmund de Goncourt by his friends and admirers. In consequence, how- ever, of the sudden and regretted death of Auguste Vacquerie, M. de Goncourt wrote to the organisers of the banquet to ask them to postpone it till the following week. This being so, I fail to understand why certain French journalists have pointed to this postponement as another proof of the persistent bad luck which has pursued the de Goncourts through life. It is true that their first book was killed by the fact that it was published on the very day on which the coup d'état was carried out in Paris, and consequently passed unnoticed ; but since then Having done so, fortune has, in my opinion at least, made ample reparation to the surviving brother. He holds a unique place in French literature, and will remain standing after many of the apparently more fortunate ones have been swallowed up in obscurity. Certainly his books have not sold by the hundred thousand, but that is a circum- stance on which so perfect an artist may rather congratulate himself. I am greatly interested at present in the writings of the German philosopher Nietzsche, which are being greatly read in Paris. The writer, I am sorry to say, will be silent hereafter, for his brain has given way, and he is confined in some German madhouse. Possibly this may be a subject for congratulation, for it is evident, from the direly pessimistic tone of his enunciations, that he was a very unhappy man—a Schopenhauer without Schopenhauer’s obvious insincerity—a Leopardi without the consolation of the poet’s art; and where ignorance is bliss—you know the rest The following is one of Nietzche's sayings about bad books: “Das Buch soll nach Feder, Tinte und Schreibtisch verlangen: aber gewöhnlich verlangen Feder, Tinte und Schreibtisch nach. dem Buche. Deshalb ist es jetzt so wenig mit Büchern.” The study of pessimism is an excellent one for young people. Pessimism is a disease, which, like measles, attacks everybody at least once in a lifetime. It is well to inoculate oneself with it early in life, so as to be protected against it at a time when it might less easily be borne. Ten years ago I was the gloomiest of melancholy Jacques. To-day the world seems a charming place to live lll. Amongst my papers I find the following auto- graph letter from William Wordsworth. It has never been printed before, and so I give it. Things have not greatly changed in the matter of poetry since the day on which it was written : MY DEAR SIR, Very pressing engagements have prevented me. looking over the MSS. you sent me till this evening. and remembering your conversation with me upon the subject, it seems unnecessary that I should say more than that the verses in some respects do much credit to their author, and show an easy command of language and are not deficient in harmony; and the story of the tale, though not having much novelty in it, is agree- able. I mention to you what is apparent enough, that poetry is not much in favour with the public at present, and there- fore if I thought these specimens of merit much superior to what, candidly speaking, I reckon them to be, I could not feel confident that their publication would be profitable to the writer. I must add, however, on the other side, that, as tastes and ## p. 267 (#281) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 267 fancies are so various, it is impossible to foresee what would or would not succeed. - I remain, my dear sir, Faithfully yours, WM. WORDSwor'IH. Rydal Mount, Jan. 28, 1841. Wordsworth used to be overwhelmed with MSS. from all parts of the world—an experience common to most writers whose names are known to the public. A whole room in Rydal Mount was set aside for the storage of these manuscripts, but, in spite of every precaution, many used to get lost. I remember my mother telling me that when she was quite a little girl, and was staying at Rydal Mount, she was one morning greatly upset by a pathetic letter from some poet in the South of England, who wrote saying that he had sent a long epic to Wordsworth some months previously, and that, though he had applied for its return several times, he had never received any answer. He added that all his hopes in this world were based on that epic, and implored for its return. She spent all that day, and the next day too, in looking for this manuscript, but was unable to find it. In the end she selected from a pile of poems, which for some reason or other could not be returned to their writers, one which was also an epic, and of about the same length as the missing one, and sent it to the poet, saying that she hoped that this one would as well. She inclosed in the letter the sum of half-a-crown, the whole contents of her savings-box, and asked the poet to accept this as a solatium. He was apparently satisfied, for he never wrote again. Speaking of the old days reminds me that a day or two ago I was looking over a book of accounts, which was kept in the house of an English nobleman, in the years 1622-23-24. It is most methodically kept, and includes every penny that was spent in that family during that period. The items vary from “Almesmonie,” as, for instance, “Item given to the prisoners in the Fleet,” or “Item given to my sister Anna Walker to helpe to buy her a wedinge gown,” to “Chardges in Travell,” &c. I have read all the items through without finding that during those three years there was spent in that nobleman's family a single penny on literature in any shape or form, and this in spite of the fact that periodical visits were paid by his lordship and family to town. Things have certainly improved in England since those days, and fortunate it is for us who write that this is so. Is it not a pity that the very best portrait of our gentle Stevenson should be in America, and that there is little chance of its ever being seen in England again P. This is the portrait painted by Mr. Alexander, of Paris, whom many consider, with Whistler and Sargent, the finest portrait painter in the world. More than this, it is, next to his remarkable portrait of Walt Whitman, the painter's best work. What good portraits of Stevenson are there in England for our great- grandchildren to look at P Any publisher or editor who wants a cheap advertisement need only follow the example of various American editors and publishers in offering fantastic sums to Count Tolstoi for the right of publishing his new works. Tolstoi always refuses any dealings with his books and so no risk is run and Messrs. Puff, Quack, Réclame, and Co., of Paternoster-row, can safely offer him 2 dollars a letter for his work, as the American publisher did the other day. Nay, they might offer £10 a word, provided that they let the fact be known, and the paragraphists would do the rest. Are we not all very glad of the great success of Mr. Sala's last book—the most entertaining set of memoirs which has appeared for some years P. It is a book that every literary aspirant should read for his encouragement—the story of a brave life in a hard career of persistent heroism. One is proud to be the confrère of such a man. Daudet's new book, “La Petite Paroisse,” is a very clever study of jealousy—a passion much à la mode for literary treatment in Paris just now. Lemaître expounds it after his fashion in “Le Pardon ’’ at the Comedie. In the copy which Daudet sent me he wrote that he hoped I had been jealous, so that I might tell him if his book were true. I was glad to be able to tell him that, since childish jealousies in the matter of tops or tarts, I had never experienced that feeling which is said to be the only mental suffering which is a physical suffering at the same time. I under- stand that jealousy produces a very painful feeling below the breastbone, as when one has eaten too many blackberries. These are not sensations that I run after. Daudet's hero suffers badly, but is very brave through it all, and here again Daudet has shown that, in spite of all, he will look on the bright side of life, and on what is good in human nature. This is what is so excellent in his work. - I was very sorry to hear of the death of John O'Neill, announced in last month's Author. I had never met him, but just before I last left London I received a very kind and encouraging letter from him, which came at a time when I was extremely despondent. Letters like that are a blessing to struggling authors. I had hoped to thank John O'Neill for writing to me in person, and now that can never be. Marcel Schwob’s translation of “Moll Flanders” is the book of the season in Paris, next to Daudet's latest. Schwob has an excellent know- ## p. 268 (#282) ############################################ 268 THE AUTHOR. ledge of English literature, and is the personal friend of many of our leading writers. We English owe him a debt of gratitude for his championship of English literature in a country where people are singularly ignorant of its beauties. RobºFT H. SHERARD. I23, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. *- -* - * *-y NOTES AND NEWS, E need merely chronicle here the elections of Mr. W. Martin Conway as chairman of the committee of management, and of Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins as a member of the council and of the committee of management. A brief report of the general meeting of the Society, which was held in the room of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, on the afternoon of the 25th ult., will be found in another column. We wish to call the attention of members to the resolution moved by Mr. Hall Caine and seconded by Mr. Rider Haggard, relating to Canadian Copyright. In another column will be found the Chairman's invitation to members to sign the petition which has been drawn up, and is lying for signature at the offices. It should be borne mind that the threatened legislation would destroy the homogeneity of British copyright, and would jeopardise the whole of the benefits resulting from American copyright. The danger is real and urgent, and members are invited to send in their names forth with. A communication addressed by Mr. R. Under- wood Johnson, the secretary of the American Copyright League, to the (New York) Evening Post is disquieting. From this it appears that a Copyright Bill has been introduced and reported by the Committee on Patents with a proviso which limits the total sum to be recovered under the statute (sect. 4965, ch. 3, title 60) to double the value of the “thing infringed upon,” &c. Mr. Johnson enters a protest against this reform on many grounds, and points out that the proviso extends so as to cover literary as well as artistic work, so that, while this legislation is ostensibly intended to protect innocent infringers of photo- graphic copyright from blackmailing proceedings, it promises to enable any pirate to copy any periodical matter, whether literary or artistic, with comparative impunity. Though belated, for reasons which need not be explained, we lay a wreath upon the grave of Christina, Rossetti, The words found in another column are written by one who knew her. These are the occasions on which the mere critic, even the admiring or the reverential critic, must stand aside to let those speak who had the privilege of knowing the dead poet. *– ~ * e- - - THE LOSSES IN LITERATURE, 1894. BIE losses in literature, which have been both numerous and severe, include Professor James Anthony Froude, LL.D. ; Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson; Mr. Walter Pater; Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes ; Professor William Robertson Smith, D.D., LL.D. ; Professor Henry Morley, LL.D.; Rev. Richard Morris, LL.D.; Sir James F. Stephen, the legal writer and essayist; Sir Austen H. Layard, of Nineveh fame; Miss Christina Georgina Rosetti; Professor John Nichol, biographer and poet, late Professor of English Literature in Glasgow University; Dr. John Weitch, Professor of Logic and Literature in Glasgow University; M. Leconte de Lisle, the distinguished French poet; the Comtesse Agenor de Gasparin; Professor William Dwight Whitney, the philological and Orientalist author; Mr. Edmund Yates ; the Hon. Roden Noel ; Mr. Charles H. Pearson, LL.D., the constitutional writer; Mrs. Augusta Webster; Mr. R. M. Ballantyne, the popular story writer; M. Maxime du Camp, the French author and academician; Professor James Darmesteter; Dr. George Bullen, formerly keeper of the Printed Books at the British Museum; Mr. William T. M'Cullagh, Torrens; Miss Alice King, the blind novelist ; Rev. R. Brown-Borthwick, the hymnologist; Mr. George Ticknor Curtis; Rev. Alexander J. D. D'Orsey; Rev. Edmund S. Ffoulkes; Dr. Brian Houghton Hodson, the Orientalist writer; F. W. Weber, the Prussian poet ; Dr. Francis Henry Underwood ; Señor Oliveira Martins, the eminent Portuguese historian ; Mr. John Francis Waller, LL.D.; Miss Elizabeth Peabody; Dr. H. W. Dulcken ; Miss Constance Fenimore Woolson; Dr. Terrien de Lacouperie, the Orientalist writer and scholar ; Dr. John Lord, LL.D., the his- torian; M. Armand Pagès, the French novelist; Dr. James M'Cosh, the philosophical writer; Captain Lovett Cameron ; Mrs. Pitt-Byrne; Mrs. Jane Austin, the American authoress; Miss Sophia Dobson Collett, writer on Theism and Atheism; Miss E. Owens Blackburne, the Irish novelist; the Rev. Robert Anchor Thompson, historical writer; Miss Patton-Bethune, writer of sporting novels; M. Dugast-Matifeux, an eminent French antiquary ; Rev. J. Hamilton Thom ; Rev. ## p. 269 (#283) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 269 John Nassau-Simpkinson; Ludwig Pfau, the German poet and art critic; Mrs. Augusta Theodosia Drame, a well-known Roman Catholic writer; M. Victor Fournel, the literary critic; Mr. Andreas Edward Cokayne, antiquarian writer; Professor Karl Dillmann the emi- ment Ethiopic writer; Mr. Thomas George Stevenson, an Edinburgh author and publisher; M. Foucaux, Professor of Sanskrit at the Collège de France; M. Astié, Professor of Philosophy at Lausanne ; the Rev. Naphthali Levy, Jewish writer; Mr. Walter H. Tregellas, a Cornish author; Mr. Thomas Farrall, a popular Cumber- land writer; Mr. Henry Vizetelly, author of “Glances back through Seventy Years,” &c.; Mr. J. J. Shean, of Hull, a county historian ; Mr. John Chessell Buckler, antiquarian writer; Mr. Mansfield Parkyns, writer on Abyssinia; Herr J. ter Gouw, author of the “History of Amsterdam. ”; Mr. Brackstone Baker, writer on Canadian and railway subjects; Herr Max Moltke, the German poet, philosopher, and translator; Mr. John Patrick Prendergast, author of “The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland”; M. Dussieux, author of works on the reign of Louis XIV. ; Professor J. Von Dümichen, the eminent writer on Egyptology; Dr. J. Bradshaw, editor of “Grey ’’ and “Milton,” and of “The Chesterfield Letters ”; Voislav Ilic, the “Servian Heine ‘’; Helgi Hálfdanorson, the Icelandic poet ; Mr. Henry Manners Chichester, writer on British military history; Dr. William F. Poole, compiler of the “Index to Periodical Literature"; Dr. Frankl, Austrian poet and prose writer; Professor Wilhelm Roscher, the eminent political economist; Mr. Edward Capern, the postman poet of Bide- ford; Mr. Cecil Robertson; Rev. Josiah Wright, classical writer; M. Louis Roumieux, the French “Provincial Ovid’’; Mr. W. O'Neill Daunt, Irish historical writer; Mme. Betty Paoli (Barbara Glück), the Austrian poetess; Mr. Herbert Tuttle, historical writer; Mr. J. Dobie, Professor of Hebrew in Edinburgh University ; Nikolai Michailowitsch Astyrew, the Russian author; Mrs. Celia Thaxter; M. Jean Fleury; Mr. Eugene Lawrence, American historical writer; Dr. Siegfried Szamatolski, a promising German writer; Miss Augusta de Grasse Stevens; Mr. W. Douglas Hamilton, historical writer; Mr. John Russell, assistant editor of Chambers’s Journal; Dr. H. N. Van der Tunk, the greatest Malayan scholar of the century; Mr. Francis Romano Oliphant; Mr. John Askham, the Northamptonshire poet; M. Léon Palustre, a learned writer on the French Renaissance ; Professor Dr. Henrich Rudolf Hildebrand, the linguist and lexicographer; Mr. J. Bedford Leno, the Buckinghamshire poet; Mr. George H. Jennings; M. François de Caussade, of an almost unique personality. librarian of the Mazarine Collection; M. Claudio Jannet, Professor of Political Economy in the Catholic University of Paris; M. Victor Duruy, the historian; Rev. Caesar Malan, the Oriental scholar; Dr. John Chapman, proprietor and editor of the Westminster Review ; Mr. Alexander Ireland; Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, author of the famous “Struwwelpeter’”; and the Rev. William John Blew, hymnologist, &c.—The Times, Jan. I. *- : *-* * * - CHRISTINA, G, ROSSETTI. ſ TVHE editor of this periodical has courteously T requested me to say something about Christina Rossetti in the March number of the Author, and I comply with his request, though with diffidence. Words are only the means whereby we strive to express our conceptions or to convey our impressions. And never does a writer feel so keenly how inadequate words are at the best as when he strives to show to others in some measure the sweetness, the irresistible fascination For the influence of personal qualities, such as those possessed by Christina Rossetti in so remark- able a degree, is well-nigh untranslatable into words. Time, skill in word-painting, and above all much preparatory thought, are needed before any success, however small, can be attained in such an endeavour. But if a volume is ever written, revealing the inner aspects of her character, as far as these could be revealed with a due sense of delicacy and proportion, the volume will be a permanent and priceless addition to English litera- ture. And, despite the difficulty of his task, I envy him who shall write the volume; the con- templation of such a character as that of Christina Rossetti will alone recompense him for his labour. The critic of the far future, of whom we hear so much and think so little, will accord a high place among the great poets of the century to the poet to whom we owe “Amor Mundi,” “An Apple Gathering,” “Maude Clare,” “The Con- vent Threshold,” and “Maiden-Song.” He will single out as among the finest love songs in our language such a flawless lyric as “When I am dead, my dearest "-a lyric so full of atmosphere, so perfect in its tenderness and portrayal of unchanged and unchangeable affection. Nor must we forget that Christina Rossetti—whether we look to the quality or quantity of her devotional poetry—was pre-eminent among the illustrious English poets who have enriched ## p. 270 (#284) ############################################ 27O THE AUTHOR. Christian literature by their genius. As long as Christianity remains the most vital force in the lives of millions of English-speaking people the memory of that poet of their faith who gave them such a poem as “Passing away, saith the world, passing away,” or “Paradise,” with its exquisite last stanza, the very quintessence of Christian expectation — who gave them that beautiful hymn, part of which, beginning “The Porter watches at the gate,” was sung so fittingly at her funeral service — who gave them the perfect lines, beginning “Thy lovely saints do bring Thee love,” will be cherished and honoured. Personally, Christina Rossetti had the quiet simplicity of real greatness, and this simplicity was doubtless in itself an evidence of genius. In intercourse with her one lost consciousness of being in the presence of a distinguished poet, because one became conscious of being in the presence of a woman distinguished in the more noble womanly qualities. Nature evidently had endowed her not only with the gifts proper to a poet, and these in a lavish degree, but also with choicest gifts of the heart and soul. But if this was so, it was equally true that Christina Rossetti had herself matured and perfected her natural gifts by that sublimest education of all—the education of the soul. She was a recluse, but she never talked to me as such, and even amid weakness and suffering she was constantly cheerful. The very tones of her voice, in their slow and distinct intonation, were pleasant to hear. She was quite willing to talk about her favourite authors, and I remember the amusement she betokened on learning that a French translation of “David Copperfield,” which I had picked up secondhand on the Quais during a recent visit to Paris, was entitled “Le Neveu de Ma Tante.” Deeply religious, she never obtruded her piety, yet I felt instinctively that I was in the company of a holy woman. In a copy of her “Verses,” given to me, she wrote in her own clear hand- writing—handwriting firm as long as she could continue to write at all—“Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white,” and to her the things and persons of the future life were realities. Probably this was the reason of her wonderful—her heroic endurance of pain. Despite her profound humility, and her vivid sense of human short- comings, she was sustained by the conviction that God’s angel Death would soon release her, and she no more doubted the existence of a state of coming blessedness than the traveller doubts the existence of the place for which he is bound, when setting out on a journey. I shall always feel proud and glad that I knew personally one of the most lovable women who ever lived. MACKENZIE BELL. *~ - --" r- * ~, MRS. CARLYLE. ILL a voice ever be raised in defence of Carlyle P Much has been written touching Mrs. Carlyle’s married un- happiness, which everyone lays at the door of this long-suffering philosopher. In a recently published article, by the late Mrs. Alexander Ireland, she describes a visit she paid to Froude, in order to gain his permission to write Mrs. Carlyle's life. She gained Froude's permission because their view of Mrs. Carlyle's character was identical, for she says that Froude “deeply compassionated Mrs. Carlyle.” Perhaps it hovers closely on superfluousness. and temerity to argue so difficult a question, or to seek to readjust the balance between these two vexed and irreconcilable immortals; yet, in justice to Carlyle's memory, I would affirm that there was no lack of love, or even tenderness, on his part towards his wife. I have often heard one speak, who, in a quiet unobtrusive way, held intimate intercourse with the Carlyles, having experience of them in one of their gloomiest periods, for it was in the ten years during which Carlyle, under the shadow of his “Frederick the Great,” wrestled with the writing of his history. It was also the time when the unconscious philosopher paid his much resented visits to Lord and Lady Ashburton—at least, the period when Mrs. Carlyle most resented his so doing. But the impression this lady received, when she saw them together, which she did often, was of Carlyle's deep and abiding love for his wife, and of the high value he set upon her literary judgment, always reading to her his MS. and altering passages at her advice; how he strove with these emendations the following little touch by Mrs. Carlyle, related tâté-à-tête, best shows:– “The first day Mr. Carlyle came down very cross, in the evening, saying that he had done nothing all day, hang it ! had spent all the after- noon trying to alter that paragraph of hers, and he could not. The second day uneasy; the third day more so ; the fourth, sent J. in post haste to recall the proofs, that he might strike out the whole of “our melancholy friend's remarks.’ Mrs. Carlyle sorry to find fault, and not to seemed pleased, as he is always dispirited himself at first, and wants encouraging.” ## p. 271 (#285) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 27 I One questions if from the mocking satirical spirit of Mrs. Carlyle there ever flowed much encouragement, prone as she was to discourse of him to friends and acquaintances in a carping, unkindly spirit. On the other hand, I have heard this lady before quoted assert that in his bearing to his wife there was a chivalrous, reverent strain, difficult to describe; said she always in conclusion, “his manner to Mrs. Carlyle was beautiful.” As tending to the cause of some unhappiness between them, much stress has been laid upon her superior position socially, and of the luxury and comfort she relinquished on her marriage; but between a Scotch country doctor's daughter, at the beginning of this century, and a farmer's son, was there such a yawning gulf fixed P Might not genius and love have bridged it over P at least if Mrs. Carlyle had been dowered with but a little more of the latter golden elixir—then perhaps she would not have deemed it such an unmitigated misfortune to have made a pudding, or baked a loaf of bread; though her biographers have dealt as darkly upon her days of domestic activity at Craigen- puttock as did Charles Dickens, with more reason, upon his days of degradation in the blacking factory. - Mrs. Carlyle, or rather wayward Miss Jane Welsh, desired before all things to marry a man of genius. It was the survival of an early girlish ambition, and, unlike the general course of girlish ambition, it was fulfilled, for fate, a trifle maliciously, as the sequel proved, chose to fasten it upon her by producing the man. It failed to make her happy, because she was unable, partly by health and temperament, to face all the discomforts and disenchanting details which fall to the lot of the wife of a struggling, ill-paid man of genius; and “the plain living and high thinking,” coupled with the absolute silence and solitude necessary to the “high thinking,” grew irksome to her. These were the conditions of her early married life; then, when success came, with social homage to herself, it found her a dis- appointed, embittered woman, bereft of any but the most fitful power of enjoyment, seeing all things clad in her own feverish distaste for them. In a letter written to her from her intended husband not long before their marriage, he strenuously insists upon that which eventually proved to be the essential need of her whole life, for he writes: “You have a deep, earnest, and vehement spirit, and no earnest task has ever been assigned to it. You despise and ridicule the meanness of the things about you. To the things you honour you can only pay a fervent adoration, which issues in no practical effect.” Was not this the root of the restless misery in her life? Destitute of any earnest purpose, her brilliant gifts found no outlet; instead her mocking spirit played round men and things, and her keen satire, like sheet lightning, lit up the words and the deeds of the men and women round her with the cold light of destructive irony, which recoiling at the last upon her heart, warped it from all invigorating effort. But she was a shrewd and kindly friend to those she loved. Far be it from me to dwell upon her character, or life, in a censorious spirit. Novalis has it, character is destiny; and her perpetual malady of unhappiness was in a measure due to lack of health, but still more to that which she herself described, in humorous despair, as an absence of “the faculty of being happy.” At times one is almost tempted to think she wore her grief as a fantastic garment, for in the dolorous liturgy of her diary there is some- thing theatrical and unreal. When all literary and fashionable London rolled up to her door, still she railed at fate, because it failed to amuse her. There must be a great many “mute, inglorious ” Mrs. Carlyles in the world who cannot give voice to their disillusionment with life as wittily as did she, who yet make a very cheerful fight of it, having successfully learnt the gentle art of being happy ; therefore is not the world a little harsh in its judgment when it ascribes all Mrs. Carlyle's lamentations due to the temper of the melancholy Creator of “Sartor Resartus P” GRACE GILCHRIST. *- Am aims--> ,- w -. AN AUTHORS BEST WORK T is important to an author to know the circumstances under which he ordinarily does his best work. The experience of the majority of writers shows that the hour at which a man works, the place, and not a few other attendant circumstances of his labours—circum- stances in themselves apparently unimportant— exercise a great effect upon his ordinary capacity for literary production. The phenomenon is not quite universal. Anthony Trollope trained him- self into writing at any time, and in almost any place. Charles Dickens, when he was young, would write his newspaper reports on the palm of his hand, by the light of a dim lamp, in a post-chaise. But these were exceptional cases. Later Dickens' letters mention predilections for quiet spots in which to write, and yearnings for strolls in the streets of London to inspire him; and probably nineteen authors out of twenty will echo the sentiments of a dramatist of some ## p. 272 (#286) ############################################ 272 THE AUTHOR. note who has said that all his happiest ideas present themselves to him in his own library. Nevertheless, many authors seem to give no serious attention to the lessons that might be derived from their experience of the difference both in quantity and quality of copy produced under more or less favourable circumstances. That is a mistake. The time of an author who is at all successful soon becomes very valuable, and its loss by mismanagement—and more time is lost by mismanagement than in any other way— is a real misfortune. The greater too a man’s success, the greater his reason for doing every- thing in his power to maintain his work at its highest level. It would be, in consequence, mere common prudence for an author to watch himself, and to take to heart as many lessons about his own strength and weakness, and about the circumstances under which he does his best work, as his experience will afford him. Such lessons are sometimes valuable results of failures, things that “one learns by making mistakes *- to quote Metastasio. It is true that some writers fall into an oppo- site error. Quite recently, amongst an author’s papers, was found a journal, not of hours only but of minutes, covering months and years, in which the employment of every moment had been chronicled with scrupulous accuracy with a view to ascertaining what time had been most profitably employed. Such finicking attention to infinitesimal details is a temptation to minds of a certain mould. It leads, of course, to waste, and not to economy of energy. Without, however, falling into this mistake, those who will “know themselves” may learn from a little self-observation a great deal that is well worth remembering. Personal experience will immediately suggest in every case to what the individual should turn his more particular attention, and to enumerate all that an author might with advantage try to observe would far exceed the limits of the present article. The following seem to be leading points which might suggest others. Where does a man find his finest stimulants of thought and invention ? Dickens found them in the crowded streets of London. More men have found them in the completest solitude. Few realise to how great a degree all that seems most spontaneous is really recollection. In conse- quence many men never adequately work the mine of their own memories. Instead they go about seeking—honestly, painfully, and often with many disappointments—what they all the time carry within themselves. M. Dumas, Fils, observes that “books teach nothing.” Those who, like Molière, take men rather than books for their study, will immediately understand the statement. Still Molière's favourite author was Lucretius, and Lucretius was never yet a favourite with any man who was not a close and careful reader. M. Dumas' dictum has also been flatly contradicted, and the assertion made that “books teach everything.” That may be an exaggera- tion or an epigram, two things much alike; yet De Balzac observes, with truth, “the mission of art is not to copy nature, but to express nature,” which means, for the novelist, that the literary habit of thought is indispensable. But how wide a question is here opened for every author who would know what amount of inspiration he draws from the world, and how much from his reading. What assistance does an author get from his common-place books? Some years have passed since Mr. James Payn recommended the memo- randum-book to every one who desired to write. And it is needless to say how many authors have availed themselves of the help of note-books. But may not every author with advantage ask himself how much aid his note-books, have given him, or how little P And, if so, why little P One phenomenon connected with note-books must be familiar to all who have used them, their tire- Some suggestiveness of what is not wanted, and the temptation, never to be allowed an instant’s influence over the judgment, to use something, because it is in the note-book, and because it looks telling, when it is evidently not quite in place. An author, who has made his memoranda, has still something of importance to learn in dis- covering the best way of using them. What time and what labour an author saves who has found out what is, in his own case, the best method of perfecting a plot, and of resolving upon the lines of each successive chapter after the plot has been constructed Mr. William Black has said that many of his tales have been planned in the open air. M. Zola confesses his absolute inability to think out anything unless he has a pen in his hand. “My ideas only come in writing. I could never evolve any idea. by sitting in my arm-chair and thinking.” An English authoress has said the exact contrary. “I never attempt to write anything until I have Sat still for a long time thinking.” Here are three different ways of proceeding. And there are no doubt many others. Only it must be most important for an author to know which way is most helpful to himself. A man, who has not yet discovered that, might be in the position of Zola in an easy chair. On the other hand, here is a passage from a letter of Dickens: “I didn’t stir out yesterday, but sat and thought all day; not writing a line, not so much as the cross of a, ## p. 273 (#287) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 273 “t” or the dot of an “i’ I imagined forth a good deal of Barnaby by keeping my mind steadily upon him ; and am happy to say I have gone to work this morning in good twig, strong hope, and cheerful spirits.” Another complete contrast between Dickens and Zola, suggests how great a difference there may be in the degree of elaboration which diffe- rent authors find it worth their while to give a scenario. Zola's scenario is longer than his book. Dickens, when he made a scenario, wrote only a few suggestive lines for each chapter. One author may waste his energies and tie his own hands by preparing a scenario that affords no scope for the development which the tale will take under his hands; and another lose time by constructing a scenario inadequate for his needs, so that he is compelled to recommence inventing his tale when he wants to be writing it. A writer ought to know exactly what form of scenario is most helpful to himself. A little attention to his own experiences would always show him how to construct it. That naturally next suggests the question of rapidity of composition. Rapid work is generally successful work. Hurried work is never rapid work. Any attempt to hurry invariably results in the composition dragging and everything going wrong. On the contrary, composition that flows out rapidly of itself is ordinarily a man’s best work. “The works and passages in which I have succeeded have uniformly been written with the greatest rapidity the parts in which I have come off feebly were by much the more laboured,” says Sir Walter Scott. “Slowness of production,” wrote Eugéne Delacroix, “is a blot on the talent of the artist. It leaves a stamp of fatigue.” Now, no phenomenon of literary work is so remarkable as the astonishing speed at which literary work can be done, at which some of the most remarkable literary work in the world has been done. Does it not follow that a man, who discovers something perpetually standing in the way of his getting on with his work, is probably pursuing a mistaken method, one perhaps con- genial to another man, but fatal to himself. He has not yet discovered the circumstances under which he does his best work. Many writers, for instance, never find a rapid flow of composition possible until after they have been writing for an hour or two. Dickens mentions this peculiarity. “I worked pretty well last night, but I have four slips to write to complete the chapter; and, as I foolishly left them till this morning, have the steam to get up afresh.” Suppose that a man who had thus “to get up steam ” thought that he could write easily and without fatigue by “doing a little every day,” then he would never reach the point where, in his case, the real flow of spirits and invention commenced. Connected with this difficulty of “getting up the steam ” may be the indisposition some men feel to set to work. Others start with a real zest. Perhaps these do not have to get up steam. But many can certainly echo De Balzac's Je m'y mets avec désespoir. It is almost impossible to exag- gerate the reluctance such men feel to beginning. When this is the case an author should certainly discover what is, in his case, the best method of dealing with this dislike to going to work. Another question there is of a very different kind. An ancient adage runs, “Tailors and writers must follow the fashion.” The highest work will always lead the fashion rather than follow it; but failures are occasioned by insuffi- cient attention to what people desire to read, and it is possible for an author, annoyed by ill- success, to turn his attention to writing rather what is popular than what his own feelings prompt him to write. It would be most valuable to him to observe the results of his experiment. More is involved than at first sight appears in a consequent success or failure. He may find that it was a mistake to quit, a speciality that suited him. He may discover that he has a much greater versatility than he suspected himself of possessing. He may even descry a path leading to successes never previously obtained because the direction in which they lay had escaped his observation. This is touching up on a few salient points alone. Only in the cases mentioned would it be possible to overrate the value to the author of knowing the circumstances in which he could reckon upon doing his best work. HENRY CRESSWELL. *-- z- - --> THE WALUE OF A NOWEL, Tº: following case is reported, as follows, in the Daily Chronicle for Feb. 17: Yesterday, in the Westminster County Court, the case of Johnson v. Dicks came before his Honour Judge Lumley Smith, Q.C., and was a claim in formá pawperis for £50, as damages for the loss of MS. The plaintiff said that in 1888 he was at the house of Mr. John Dicks, at Streatham, and he asked him to write a story, which he sent to the defendant's place of business in the Strand, and was told a cheque would be forwarded, but he was afterwards informed that the story had been destroyed. He therefore claimed 350 for the damage. He had published many books, “Fairy Tales” in 1869, and others. Plaintiff said this was a large volume novel, and he was a well-known author. His Honour: But “Paradise Lost’’ was sold for £15, was it not P Plaintiff : But Black gets £1000 for a ## p. 274 (#288) ############################################ 274 THE AUTHOR. short novel, and reserves to himself the copyright. I have had 3 Io a week for thirteen weeks from the London Journal. Defendant said he never saw the story, and was not a member of the firm now. His Honour : I think 392 will pay you well. Defendant : But I am not liable. His Honour: 382 will not hurt you. (Laughter.) Judgment for the plaintiff for £2. If this case is accurately reported, and there is no reason for believing the contrary, it is a most extraordinary and wonderful case. The author sues in formá pauperis (thus keeping up the glorious traditions of the literary profession) for the sum of £50 as damages for the loss of a MS. - Very good. He said that he was at the house of Mr. John Dicks in 1888, and was by him invited to write a story for him, i.e., one supposes for one of his papers. Here come one or two questions: (1) Was he asked to write a story without specification of length or subject? (2) Was his story to be sent in on approval, or was the author's reputation taken as a guarantee of good work P. (3) What price was proposed by the publisher ? (4) What price did the author's stories usually command, i.e., what was he accus- tomed to receive P (5) Would the author name some of his stories, and mention what prices he received for them P (6) Was Mr. John Dicks authorised to invite novelists in the name of the firm or company P These questions, observe, are not hostile to either party; they are only necessary to get at the truth. The plaintiff then said that he was promised when he delivered the story that a cheque should be sent. What was the amount he was to get by that cheque? It does not appear. He was then told that the MS. had been destroyed. How P By fire! If so it would be arguable whether the firm was liable. dentally P Also it might be arguable whether the firm was liable. He assessed his own damages at £50, and said it was a “large volume novel.” What is a “large volume novel P” Is it a three- volume novel, or one of the average length of a three-volume novel, which is about 180,000 words P The defendant said that he had never seen the story; that he was not a member of the firm ; and that he was not liable. to leave a firm in which he has been a partner, is he still liable to that firm’s engagements P Then the judge, after some irrelevance about “Paradise Lost,” ordered the defendant to pay £2 | Now, either the defendant was liable or he was not. If he was not, why should he pay anything P If he was, he ought to have paid the value of the work, calculate 1 on the value of other works by the same author. As it is, the author appears to have been insulted, and the Acci- If a man is allowed publisher appears to have been fined. One more question ought to have been asked, Why did the author wait for seven years before bringing his claim P *- a -º r- - - ON, SELLING A BOOK OUTRIGHT. HIS is a method which has one or two obvious advantages. It gives the author what he very likely wants, a sum of money down; and it relieves him of any anxiety about the commercial success of his book. On the other hand, it sometimes makes him part with a very valuable copyright for a song ; and it tempts him to spend at once what should be spread over a term of years, viz., the whole life of his book. Most of the miseries of authors have been due to their regarding as income the lump sum obtained by selling the work of years. When, however, an author wishes to sell his book outright, or a publisher wishes to buy it, there are certain obvious considerations. To capitalise an author's interest in his book should be Conducted, as in every piece of business, with due regard to the probable, or the certain, results of the book. For instance, to buy a book of an author for a sum of money not one-tenth of what it will produce, as the purchasers know, but the author does not Know, is very commonly done. The following figures will show some of the points to be considered : We take our old friend the 6s. volume. It costs, we will say, Is. a copy to produce. It is sold to the trade at 3s. 7#d. ; the author on a 20 per cent. royalty would receive about 1s. 2%d. a copy; the publisher about 1s. 5d. If an author sells his book for a certain sum, what amount of sales would that cover ? Say he takes £50, that would cover royalties representing a sale of 825 copies. Say he takes £100, that would cover royalties representing a sale of 1650 copies. Say he takes £400, that would cover royalties representing a sale of 3400 copies, and so on. All copies beyond that limit would belong to the publisher, together with his own royalty on the preceding copies. - If, on the other hand, there is a certainty that the book will sell so many copies as a minimum, and a probability that it will sell so many more, the sum to be paid must represent that minimum first and the probability next ; and, of course, in such a transaction there is always the element of chance on both sides, so that one may give too much—of which we seldom hear—and the other may get too little, of which we often hear. - ## p. 275 (#289) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 275 In making any such calculation or bargain as the above one must remember that the old- fashioned half-profit system still lingers as a rough-and-ready recognised method of apportion- ing the returns. Without accepting it formally, one may take it as a basis. The purchase of a book for a small sum, either knowing that it is going to prove a certain pro- perty or in the well-founded hope that it will do so, is a very important secret in the art of getting rich by the labour and brains of other people. Readers of the Author will remember how the venerable and religious Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge was proved to be in pos- session of this important secret, and how its righteous committee used the secret in a manner truly Christian by purchasing for £12, 320, £25, books which ran into thousands upon thousands. Let us take another case—a book sold for 3s. 6d. costing, in quantities, about 8d., a copy. As a rule it would be less. The author receives, say, £20, £25, or 330. The book is sold for 2s., which leaves a profit of Is. 4d. Tor the price of .820 means a royalty of 7d. for a sale of ................................. 700 copies. £25 means a royalty of 7d. for a sale of .............. ................ 850 copies. 330 means a royalty of 7d. for a - sale of ................................. I IOO copies. After which the publisher has the whole future proceeds o' the book for himself. * ~ *-** e- * = BOOK TALK, Sº authors will doubtless appre- ciate the following extract from Harriet Martineau’s “Autobiography:” “I do not very highly respect reviews, nor like to write them ; for the simple reason that in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred the author under- stands his subject better than the reviewer. It can hardly be otherwise while the author treats one subject, to his study of which his book itself is a strong testimony; whereas the reviewer is expected to pass from topic to topic to any extent, pronouncing, out of his brief survey, on the results of deep and protracted study. Of all the many reviews of my books on America and Egypt there was not, as far as I know, one which did not betray ignorance of the respective coun- tries. And, on the other hand, there is no book, except a very few which have appeared on my own particular subjects, that I could venture to pro- nounce on ; as, in every other case, I feel myself compelled to approach a book as a learner, and not as a judge. This is the same thing as saying that reviewing, in the wholesale way in which it. is done in our time, is a radically vicious practise; and such is indeed my opinion. I am glad to see scientific men, and men of erudition, and true connoiseurs in Art, examining what has been done in their respective departments; and everybody is glad of good essays, whether they appear in books called Reviews, or elsewhere. But of the reviews of our day, properly so-called, the vast majority must be worthless, because the reviewer knows less than the author of the matter in hand.” The sixth volume of the fifth edition of “Chitty's Statutes of Practical Utility,” which is being published in about twelve volumes by Sweet and Maxwell Limited and Stevens and Sons Limited, under the editorship of Mr. J. M. Lely, has just appeared. The arrangement of the statutes is in alphabetical and chronological Order, under about 200 titles, such as “Act of Parliament,” “Adulteration,” “Copyright,” “Death Duties,” “Intoxicating Liquors,” “Local Government,” “Poor,” “Water,” and the like. Each title is prefaced by a separate table of contents, and so are many of the particular Acts. The foot-notes give the effect of or reference to decided cases and statutory rules. The final volume will contain a chronological table of the statutes printed in the work, an alphabetical table of short and popular titles of statutes, and a “general index,” in the compilation of which Mr. Ormsby will assist. Assistance in the annotation has been given by Mr. Craies as to the Metropolitan Acts, the Local Government Act 1894, and other subjects; by Mr. Mundahl as to the Extradition Acts; by Mr. W. A. Peck as to the Conveyancing Acts, the Settled Lands Acts, and the Trustee Acts; by Mr. Pulling as to the Merchant Shipping Act; and Mr. Simey as to the Factors Act and Highway Acts. The price of the whole work to subscribers was six guineas, but the price is now One guinea per volume. “A Mountain Path" is the title of a book by Mr. John A. Hamilton (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. Price 3s. 6d.). It is a collection of parables, fables, and talks about natural things which have already appeared in periodicals. The author states that the only aim in writing this book was to foster natural piety in children. “Walter Inglisfield” is publishing through Messrs. Sonnenschein a new volume of verse. . Miss F.F. Monterson has produced (Hutchinson and Co.) her new work, “Into the Highways and Hedges.” g ## p. 276 (#290) ############################################ 276 THE AUTHOIR. Mrs. Cliffe's translation of Longuardi's poems ls about to appear in a second edition. Byrne's story called “A Fragment,” together with his Parliamentary speeches, is published in the fifth volume of the Tauchnitz edition of his complete works. In recognition of his numerous historical articles that have appeared in the magazines and reviews, but perhaps more especially for his important contribution to fourteenth and fifteenth century history, the volume entitled “A Forgotten Great Englishman,” Mr. James Baker, the author, has just been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is at present travelling in Egypt, from whence he is writing a series of articles on that country. Miss Margaret Cross has completed a new novel, which Messrs. Hurst and Blackett will publish next month. It is called “Newly Fashioned,” and it will have on its title-page the suggestive motto, Such is the power of that sweet passion, That it all sordid baseness doth expel, And the refined mind doth newly fashion Into a fairer form. Mr. William Tirebuck's new story, “Miss Grace of All Souls,” will be published by Beinemann and Co. in the spring. It is dedicated to the author's brother, the Rev. Thomas Tirebuck, of Birmingham. The arrangements were concluded by the Authors' Syndicate. Mr. Basil Thomson’s “Diversions of a Prime Minister” (Blackwood and Sons). The Prime Minister is Mr. Thomson himself, and the realm which he administered was the island of Tonga. Messrs. A. and C. Black will publish this month a novel in one volume called “The Grasshopper.” It is by Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, who under the name of Mrs. Andrew Dean has contributed several stories to the Pseudonym Library. “His Egyptian Wife,” a novel by Hilton Hill, will be issued in March by Digby, Long and Co. The book will be published simultaneously in New York and London. “Conscience makes the Martyr,” by S. M. Crawley Boevey is published by Mr. Arrowsmith, and has been kindly criticised by the Literary Płorld, The Academy, and other papers. The Authors' Syndicate has arranged for the publication of Mr. John Lloyd Warden Page's new book, “The Coasts of Devon and Lundy Island,” through Mr. Horace Cox. The volume will be profusely illustrated. M. Dim. Vikelas, the eminent novelist, is the president of the International Committee of the Olympic games to be held at Athens from April 5th to 15th, 1896. The official programme of the games is now in type. Mr. Gladstone, the inexhaustible, is ready with another volume—his edition of the Psalter, to be published in Europe and America immediately. IIe contributes a concordance and a condensed commentary. Mr. Balfour's book on “ The Foundations of Belief.” has undoubtedly been the book of the past month. As usual, someone has turned up to accuse the writer of having stolen his ideas. This time it is Dr. Beattie Crozier, who publishes his plaint in the Chronicle. Sir Benjamin Richardson has confided to a con- temporary not only that he possesses a number of sketches and jottings made by Cruikshank for his own biography, but that he also hopes some day to write this hitherto neglected book, and embody his valuable material. It is hard reading for authors whose manu- scripts are returned to read that there are quite a number in the habit of declining publisher's invitations. A contemporary says that Mrs. J. R. Green, for instance, is unable to do any literary work for at least four years; while Dr. Jessop is said to have mortgaged the next six years. Mr. Stanley Weyman, we believe, has gone for a year's holiday, during which he refuses to work; while Mr. S. R. Crockett has contracts signed, sealed, and delivered for all the work that he can possibly produce during the present century. The Westminster Gazette wishes to know what has become of the Life of Adam Smith, by Mr. Leonard Courtney, and that of Bishop Berkeley, by professor Huxley. To these might be added a number of bookly promises not performed. For instance, first and foremost, where is Mr. John Morley's Life of John Stuart Mill? Second, where is the long expected and greatly desired Life of John Delane of the Times 2 Third, where is Lord Rowton’s Life of the Earl of Beaconsfield P Professor Rhys Davids, upon whose pension from the Civil List such a bitter attack was made in Parliament, has been delivering a course of lectures called “The Literature and Religion of India,” at Harvard and John Hopkins Univer- sities, in the United States, and Messrs. Putnam will shortly publish them simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic under the above title. Messrs. Osgood will begin the publication of the collected works of Mr. Thomas Hardy in a few weeks with “Tess.” The volumes will be monthly, and the second will be “Far from the Madding Crowd.” ## p. 277 (#291) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 277 The following interesting series of impromptu dedications written by Stevenson in a set of his works given to his American physician, Dr. Trudeau have appeared in the New York Book- Öuyer. “A CHILD’s GARDEN OF VERSEs.” ——To win your lady (if, alas ! it may be) Let's couple this one with the name of Baby | “TREASURE ISLAND.” I could not choose a patron for each one : But this perhaps is chiefly for your son. “KIDNAPPED.” ——Here is the one sound page of all my writing, The one I’m proud of, and that I delight in. “DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.” Trudeau was all the winter at my side : I never spied the nose of Mr. Hyde. “ UNDERWOODs.” Some day or other ('tis a general curse) The wisest author stumbles into verse. “THE DYNAMITER.” As both my wife and I composed the thing, Let's place it under Mrs. Trudeau's wing. “MEMORIES AND PORTRAITs.” Greeting to all your household, small and big, In this one instance, not forgetting—Nig “THE MERRY MEN.” If just to read the tale you should be able, I would not bother to make out the fable. “TRAVELs witH A DONKEY.” It blew, it rained, it thawed, it snowed, it thundered— Which was the Donkey P I have often wondered “PRINCE OTTO.” This is my only love tale, this Prince Otto, Which some folks like to read, and others not to. “MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN.” The preface mighty happy to get back To its inclement birthplace, Saranac “FAMILIAR STUDIES OF MEN AND Books.” My other works are of a slighter kind; Here is the party to improve your MIND ! VIRGINIBUs PUERISQUE.” I have no art to please a lady’s mind. Here's the least acid spot, Miss Trudeau, of the lot. If you’d just try this volume, 'twould be kind Mr. Le Gallienne's name is prominent among the announcements of new books. His “Book- Bills of Narcissus,” the first and, perhaps, the most charming book he has written, has just been published in an enlarged edition, and a new edition of his “English Poems” is to be issued imme- diately. Besides these a new volume of verses called “Robert Louis Stevenson : an Elegy; and Other Poems, Mainly Personal,” and a collection of odds and ends of literary criticism entitled “Retrospective Reviews: a Literary Log,” are announced. Mr. Lane is, of course, the pub- lisher. The next volume in Arrowsmith's Bristol Library will be “The Adventures of Arthur Roberts: by Railroad and River,” told by him- self and chronicled by Mr. Richard Morton. It is to be an anecdotal biography of the famous burlesque actor. The forthcoming season promises to be specially rich in biographies. For instance, Mr. John Rae’s “Life of Adam Smith;” a “Biography of Sir John Drummond Hay, for forty years our Repre- sentative in Morocco,” by his daughters; a “Life of George Borrow,” by Professor Knapp, of Chicago; a “Biography of Dr. Holmes,” by Mr. John T. Morse, jun. ; “Reminiscences of Richard Cobden,” by Mrs. Schwabe, with a preface by Lord Farrer; the “Life of Sir Samuel Baker;” and Mr. Leslie Stephen's Memoirs of his brother, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen. - Mudie's Library is said to have refused Mr. Arthur Machen’s book, “The Great God Pan.” - Mr. Fisher Unwin, who publishes already half- a-dozen “libraries '' or series of books, announces yet another, with the comparatively commonplace title of “The Half-Crown Series.” Mr. Robert Buchanan’s “Diana's Hunting ” will be the first, and Mrs. Rita L. Humphreys—who is best known by her Christian name—the second, called “A Gender in Satin.” - It seems strange that Mr. Stanley should have waited so long before giving the world an account of “My Early Travels and Adventures.” Much of this book has never been reprinted from the newspapers to which it was originally contributed, and part of it is entirely new. It will be con- cerned with Indian warfare in America and the tragic end of General Custer, who was out- manoeuvred and killed by Sitting Bull; the early history of the Suez Canal; and the exploration of Palestine, Persia, the Caucasus, and Armenia. Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. will issue the book about Easter. Messrs. Cassell and Co. have hit upon an idea for an important series of books, to be entitled the “Century Science ’’ series, of which Sir Henry Roscoe is the editor. The first, to be published immediately, will be by the editor himself, and called “John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry.” It will be followed by “The Rise of English Geography,” by Mr. Clements R. Markham, the distinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society. Two new reprints of standard authors are just making their appearance. The first is Messrs. J. M. Dent's complete edition of Defoe, in sixteen volumes, with editorial notes and illustrations, ## p. 278 (#292) ############################################ 278 THE AUTHOR. produced in the delightful style to which this firm has accustomed us. The series costs 28. 6d. a volume, net, and will be completed by October. The second reprint is the new edition of George Eliot’s works, which Messrs. Blackwood will issue. It is to be known as the “Standard” edition, and to consist of twenty-one volumes, also at 2s. 6d. “Adam Bede’’ is to appear at once in two volumes, and “The Mill on the Floss '' will follow. The star of Ouida does not shine so brightly as it once did. Perhaps her forthcoming book, which Messrs. Methuen announce, will win her back something of the public approval which seems rather unjustly to have left her. The titles of some of its articles—such as “The Failure of Christianity,” “The Sims of Society,” “Some Fallacies of Science,” “The State as an Immoral Factor,” and “The Penalties of a Well-known Name "—promise, however, more polemics than entertainment. * Mr. Henry Arthur Jones has been a devoted contributor to the magazines, and lecturer before playgoing societies, on theatrical topics. No doubt his forthcoming book, “The Renascence of the English Drama,” to be published immediately by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., is a reprint of these. Mr. Jones's plays are of varying interest, but his opinions, whether expressed on the stage, the page, or the platform, are always original and interesting — as Matthew Arnold found when he was captivated by “Saints and Sinners.” Three new monthly magazines have to be chronicled as the month's contribution to the flowing tide of periodical literature. First, London Home, an obvious competitor to the Strand Magazine, at half the price, edited by Mr. Ralph Caine, and published by Horace Cox. Second, On Watch, edited by Mr. Herbert Russell, the son of Mr. Clark Russell, and pub- lished by Sampson Low at 6d., is to be entirely given up to naval subjects and news. Third, Messrs. Chapman and Hall are about to join the ranks of publishers who have magazines of their own, and announce, for publication in May, Chapman's Magazine, a 6d. monthly, to be edited by Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, the chairman of Chapman and Hall Limited. Besides these, the indefatigable Mr. Shorter has issued during the past month the Album, a 6d. weekly collection of photographs; and he is about to launch still another illustrated weekly, devoted entirely to sport. . A new series called “The Northern Library” is announced by Mr. Nutt. Among the early volumes to appear will be “The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason,” translated by the Rev. John Sephton ; “The Ambales Saga,” edited and translated by Mr. Israel Gollancz; and “The Faereyinga Saga,” translated by Mr. F. York Powell, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. Two books by Colonel Reginald Hart, Director of Military Education in India, entitled “Reflec- tions on the Art of War,” and “Sanitation and Health,” have just been published by Messrs. W. Clowes and Sons Limited. They have both been very well reviewed. Messrs. Dent and Co. will shortly issue a revised and illustrated edition of Mrs. Alford Baldwin’s “Story of a Marriage.” “A Year of Sport and Natural History,” edited by Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G., has just been published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. It is composed of a series of natural history articles that were issued in Black and White. The work is beautifully illustrated, and is in every way first class. CORRESPONDENCE, I.—“EDITIONs.” HE announcement in the last number of the Author that Pierre Loti’s new book bears on the title page the legend of its being the “twenty-eighth edition,” though, in fact, the work is not yet issued to the public, raises the old ques- tion of what is an “edition;” whether it is worth the publisher's while to continue such literary fictions as “second edition, “third edition ”—or even “twenty-eighth edition ?” An “edition ” may mean any number of copies from 50 to 50,000. At one time it meant that the volume had been reprinted a specified number of times, and was therefore some guarantee that the book was not only in good demand, but had received the author's latest corrections; in fact, what is now termed a “new edition.” In a day of universal printing from stereos, this is no longer the case, even with technical treatises. In short, this numbering of “ edition,” is little better than a transparent fraud on the less sophisticated part of the publishers “public.” By a sort of vague understanding, never reduced to any protocol, and therefore never acted upon, an “edition ” was supposed to be IOOO copies, though why sales need have been counted in this rather cumbersome fashion it is rather difficult to understand. If it is allowable to estimate the merits of a book by its sale, would it not be more in accordance with reason, not to say common honesty, to intimate that the ## p. 279 (#293) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 279 booksellers have taken 500, 800, 15OO, to 5000, or whatever may be the numerical expression of their confidence in the selling value of the author's name P But even then this does not quite meet the merits ºf the case. There are, as poor authors sometimes learn on settling up accounts with the modern Sosii, such things as “ sale or return,” which enable them to discount the inflated an- nouncements about the number of copies ordered “by the trade,” or which have been subscribed for in the after-enthusiasm of Mr. So and So's annual dinner. Pierre Loti’s twenty-eighth- edition-in-anticipation is no doubt perfectly justified by experience. But what is to be said of the minor novelist who prints at least three “editions” at the same time, though actually the total number of copies may be counted by hundreds P. On the other hand, it would not be difficult to point to popular books which sell by the thousand, without the publishers thinking it necessary to stimulate the flagging zeal of the public by announcements which, at best, are meaningless, and at worst might be characterised by a word not to be whispered where the dealings •of such honourable men as the purveyors of literature are concerned. R. B. II.-A DEFENCE OF RUSTIC READING. I think your contributor who speaks of village reading is dealing with what was the case thirty or forty years ago, rather than at the present time. I have had the means of knowing a good deal of what is the course of literature in an average south country parish, in great part agricultural, but not far from a large railway station. A man who acts as agent for a local weekly 'paper, and is also clerk to the parish council, and secretary to the village club and reading room, tells me that there are not above a dozen houses where a newspaper of some sort is not taken in, either Lloyd's or a local one ; and I have certainly found even the elder children at the schools aware of public events. There is a centre in the county which lends out books to village reading rooms, and for the last six or eight years this has kept up a constant exchange of biography, travels, good novels, and tales of adventure. Marryatt, Kingston, Mayne Reid, Harrison Ainsworth are favourites with the younger men and lads, and they read eagerly any tale of seafaring life. - There are besides, two lending libraries, chiefly for the women and children, but that the men also read the books is shown by the inquiries for print large enough for father. I know from the reports of a society for which I am the literary associate, that most parishes have likewise good libraries, generally well resorted to. The women also are apt to obtain books of the penny dreadful order, of course on their own account. “Fox's Book of Martyrs’’ is often to be met with, generally an inheritance ; and the two books that all have heard of and wish to read are the “Pilgrim’s Progress" and “Robinson Crusoe,” but I cannot think that the writer of “Rustic Reading ” can really know John Bunyan's great classic if he thinks it likely to terrify children into the way of virtue. It generally contains only one illustration at all alarming, e I doubt, too, whether he can be familiar with parish magazines. The two most popular ones, The Banner of Faith and the Church Monthly, certainly contain tales and papers that do not deserve the term mawkish. Perhaps I may also observe that the nickname Hodge is one that greatly displeases both the peasant and all that are interested in him. C. M. Y. III.-LITERATURE IN RUSSIA. The new young Tsar, Nicholas II., apparently holds men of letters in high esteem, and is capable of estimating the true worth of their efforts for the dissemination of knowledge among the classes through the medium of the press and other channels, he having granted a sum of £50,000 (500,000 roubles) to be paid out of the exchequer for the formation of a special fund to relieve journalists, authors, and others engaged in literature, in distress, and to permanently pro- vide for their widows and orphans at death. A grand and general burst of joy and jubilation went forth from the united Russian Press at the reception of the glad news, as every indigent pressman is now sure that, when the breadwinner is removed, his wife and family will not be left to starve. The Russian Emperor has truly set a noble example, which might with advantage be emulated by our Government. Count Leo Tolstoi has completed a new work entitled “Master and Servant.” It will make its appearance in the columns of the Northern Gazette in the course of a month or so. A few details of the everyday life of this veteran writer may be of interest to the readers of the Author. When I visited him at Yasuaja Poliana, on his own estate, I was very hospitably entertained by him and his family, and shall never forget the kindness shown me. Count Tolstoi is a staunch teetotaler, a strict vegetarian, and a non-smoker. He invariably rises at 8 a.m., and, after partaking of a cup of coffee, adjourns to his study, a sparely furnished room, which he tidies up and dusts ## p. 280 (#294) ############################################ 28O THE AUTHOR. himself, as no abigail is allowed to enter its sacred precincts, where he writes until ten. He then takes his constitutional, returning for lunch about twelve. The bill of fare during my stay was boiled millet, cabbage sprouts, cauliflower, and stewed apples and plums. Lunch ended, he enjoys a snooze. An hour later he is hard at work again in his sanctum. At six he dines of much the same fare as at lunch. His family are not all vegetarians and teetotalers; in fact, the countess, his wife, strongly disapproves of his ascetic habits, and takes no trouble to conceal her dislike of them. The count sometimes mows the grass, but he has given up tilling the ground, as his medical advisers have forbidden over exertion as dangerous in the weak state and poor action of his heart. Coffee has also been pro- scribed, and he is gradually weaning himself from its use. The count is still hale and hearty, and when he can take “Shank’s pony” to Moscow and back without feeling any evil effects from his pedestrian feat, one is inclined to prophesy a good lease of life yet for the great novelist. He has crossed the span of life alloted to man by the Psalmist, and now stands on the threshold of the outside limit, which can only be attained by reason of strength. Odessa, 27 Feb. 8. W. ADDIson. IV.-A World of ENCOURAGEMENT. then resigned their membership. An instance is also cited in the Author for the current month of a writer, who, under such circumstances, became a member, his obligation to the Society being £15 at the time of his resignation against a set- off of one guinea entrance fee. I, for one, most strongly protest against such an abuse being permissible a second time, and consider that in justice to the Society we should protect our- selves against such vampires, who would only cripple its interests and usefulness. Cannot a resolution be passed rendering any member abusing an advantage of the Society ineligible for re-election ? ANNIE BRADSHAw. Feb. 16. W.—How LONG TO WAIT P I think “S. B.'s.” suggestions in your last issue are well worthy the attention of the Society of Authors, especially that of a limit of time as to payment after publication. The great uncertainty as to the date of pay- ment is the cause of much difficulty and distress amongst women writers especially, who do not like to press for payment, and yet often need the money sadly. I write for several periodicals, the publisher of one of which sends a cheque regularly at the end of the following month after publication; another, once in three months; one, only once in the year, i.e., in January. I do not object to any of these arrangements, for, although I consider the first-named the best, I know when to expect the money due, and can arrange accordingly. But in the case of other periodicals, which profess to settle accounts every three months, the money is usually, after the first quarter of the year, withheld until the following January (this year until Feb. 1), and therefore the sum due to me in June, 1893, does not reach my hands for seven months, while that due in September is four months late in payment. In my own case this does not press so hardly as it might in many others, as I happen to have an income independent of my writings; but I tremble to think to what depths of despair my poorer sisters must be reduced by this long drawn- out “hope deferred.” Moreover, it is a species of dishonesty, for the money thus withheld for seven months should bear interest, and this is a clear gain to the publisher, and a similar loss to the writer. I notice in the report of the Committee of Management for the year ending in January, a statement to the effect that writers have joined the Society when in difficulty, and upon being released from their difficulty, at possibly both trouble and expense to the Society, they have Surely this might be remedied by a “certain set of rules” being drawn up (as suggested by “S. B.”), by which all the , members of the Society of Authors should abide, forwarding with the MS. a printed copy of these rules, and thus avoiding the unpleasant necessity of either “dunning” the editor (with the probable result of dismissal, or rejection of future MSS.) or living on expecta- tions, instead of cash down, for an unlimited number of months. R. L. I. VI.-AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERs. I have read with interest the letter from the Secretary of the Incorporated Society of Authors in the issue of the Athenaeum of 23rd Feb. It is evident from the statement of facts that it would have been impossible for the Society to support such a case. I have no doubt its decision will strengthen the Society’s hands. The judicial manner in which you have acted throughout will, I am sure, very much strengthen the feeling of confidence which members of the Society have in your judgment and discretion. I think that you have been largely instrumental in preventing the Society from drifting into aimless and inutile litigation. A WELL-WISHER. 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. 05 Issue 10 (March 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 10 (March 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-03-01-The-Author-5-10 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/273/1895-02-01-The-Author-5-9.pdf 563f6f8690f01e11c9b99647565c5cd0 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) 1895-02-01 Volume 5 Issue 9 Pages Page range in volume 225–252 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950201 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DU CTED BY WALTER BESAN. T. VoI. W.-No. 9.] FEBRUARY 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as ea pressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- A -º r- - - WARNINGS AND ADWICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTS. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea'pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. WOL. W. 4. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS. –- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. 14. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *—- - --" - - - HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice Y 2 ## p. 226 (#240) ############################################ 226 THE AUTHOR. sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors’ Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, generally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department” for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted" is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. _* ,-- - - NOTICES, HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. ## p. 227 (#241) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 227 Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- ~ *-* s= * * LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—THE HICKs CoPYRIGHT BILL. "TYPHE Hicks Copyright Bill, against which Mr. William Agnew has written to the Times, has no chance of passing through the House. Protests have been filed against it by the American Copyright League of Authors and Publishers, the American Artists' Society, the Fine Arts Society, the New York Etching Club, and others. The chairman of the House Com- mittee on Patents, which has charge of the Bill, considers that it will be abandoned.—Times, Jan. 2 I. II.-NET PRICEs. In response to the circular about met prices, the secretary has received a great many replies, but not so many as might have been expected on a subject which touches our members in a twofold manner. That is to say it affects them as buyers of books as well as makers of books. In the former capacity they should ask whether they will lose or gain by the pro- posed change. Of course the answer is obvious. They will no longer get the discount and they will not be able to buy so many books. A rise in price from 4s. 6d. to 6s. is a rise of 33; per cent. “Oh but we are not going to charge so much. Trade competition will come in.” Perhaps. But trade competition has done very little so far to cheapen books. The book-buying public is small: 1t must remain small, because people cannot think of buying books whose incomes are under £2OO a-year. The interest of trade com- petition is to keep up the price of books. Book buyers will infallibly lose by the change. “But the author will have more.” Will he P Suppose 3OOO copies of a 6s. book to be sold at 4s. 6d. That means an expenditure of £675 by the public. If that book is sold net at 6s., the same expenditure would only buy 2.250. “But the royalties would be adjusted to meet the difference.” Would they P. The preponderance of opinion was in favour of the net price, and generally on the ground that one would know how much had to be paid. Another objection is that the buyer would still demand and still obtain his discount; not openly, as at present, but secretly, which would be worse, and so the later position of the bookseller would be worse than the former. What it comes to is that something must be done for the booksellers if they are to continue. They have more than one association. They are surely united enough to agree upon what they want, and strong enough to demand it. Publishers cannot do without booksellers. Authors could do without publishers, but they cannot do without booksellers. The question rests entirely with the booksellers. Let them agree, and find an answer. The net system, it is believed, will not be dis- cussed much longer. There are already a good many net books, and there will be more, especially of the class whose circulation is bound to be limited, and whose price is too high for the book- seller to take thirteen as twelve. A good man of the leading publishers have refused to take the proposed action submitted to them, and it is not likely that those who advocate the change will be able to set up a six-shilling book at net, against a six-shilling book at 4s. 6d. III.--ARTISTIC CoPYRIGHT.-MR. WILLIAM AGNEw. In the issue of the Times of Jan. I6 there is a long letter from Mr. William Agnew with regard to the artistic copyright in engravings and etchings. He states that a Bill has been intro- duced by a certain member of the Congress in the United States to bring etchings and engrav- ings under the manufacturing clause, and com- plains, and rightly so, that this is seriously detri- mental to artistic copyright, It is no doubt of the utmost importance to keep artistic copyright apart from the manufacturing clause, and the same remark applies in a lesser degree to literary works. For all the civilised nations of Europe at the Berne Convention recognised that copyright property should not be trammelled with trade burdens. The retrogres- sive policy of the Americans in having established a manufacturing clause to the literary copyright is the real cause of the present disturbance now being made in Canada with regard to Canadian copyright; and this disturbance may perhaps prejudice the whole system of copyright as it at present exists in England. It may be worth while, therefore, if steps are going to be taken to oppose the manufacturing clause with regard to artistic copyright, that authors should raise their voices in opposition to the present manufacturing ## p. 228 (#242) ############################################ 228 THE AUTHOR. clause bearing on the reproduction of books. This clause is no doubt opposed to the whole idea of copyright property as at present existing. TV.-A CANADIAN PAPER ON CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT. I. As every intelligent person knows, copyright is the method by which law guards the right of property which authors, artists, musicians, and designers have in their intellectual productions. It is for the defence of authors and for their defence alone. It is to secure their right to the profit of the reproduction and multiplication of their own works. A copyright law pure and simple would secure to the author the right to say who and who alone should publish his work and on what terms, leaving him free to make the best terms possible for himself. This, in effect, is what free trade Great Britain does, and what even protectionist France, Germany, Austria, and most of the great countries do where intellectual production is respected. But this is not what protectionist countries like the United States do. There the manufacturers, who are ever clamour- ing for the privilege of enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of the people, compelled Congress to turn the copyright law intended for the defence of authors against pirates into a protective law for themselves, requiring the book copyrighted to be printed or reprinted in the United States. There must be, in the words of the Tammany corruptionists, “something in it for them” to be got at the expense of the author and of his American readers. The United States Government gave British authors this privilege on the pledge obtained from Great Britain that United States copyright should be good all over the British empire as well as in Great Britain, and as British copyright holds everywhere throughout the empire that was granted, and as a result authors, British or American, can dispose of their right to United States publishers for the United States and Canada, and the books cannot be reprinted here. Canada, which follows the United States in most of its international legislation, good and bad, reciprocated by following the United States in its course in turning a copyright Act for the defence of authors into a protection Act for the protection of manufacturers in Canada. The effect of this Act would be to compel authors to have their works reprinted in Canada, to the probable loss and injury of themselves and of their Canadian readers; the only people who would profit by it would be a few Canadian publishing and printing firms. The present inter- national arrangement between Great Britain and the United States, which serves all the purposes of copyright in securing the rights of English, Canadian, and other foreign authors to the con- trol of their works published in America, and which has made English authors, to their great profit, more popular and more widely read in the United States than even United States authors, would be imperilled if Canada should assert the right of reprinting which the United States has done, seeing that Great Britain has coolly thrown her colonies into the bargain as part of her copyright domain. Nothing could be more contemptible than the denunciations of Canada by the Americans for doing what they themselves selfishly did. Nothing could be more unfair than for the English to reproach Canada for wanting to do what she has consented to the United States doing. Nothing could be more ill-informed than the rude expressions of intelligent men of both countries with regard to Canada's course. All this is very galling, but no reason why Canada should, under pretence of securing the rights of authors, pass a law to embarras them. It must be remembered that the authors are agreed that their interests are served by the present arrangement, and it is authors’ interests that copyright laws are made to protect. These should not be sacrificed to the interests of the mere manufacturer. The immense market of the . United States affords them large profits as authors now that pirating is stopped. It is because that market is so big and the Canadian market is so comparatively small that English authors sell the right to publish in both countries to United States publishers, thus saving the extra cost involved in printing and publishing two editions. There authors’ interests are served by the present British copyright law, and it is authors’ interests that copyright laws are made to protect. These should not be sacričced to the interests of the mere manufacturer. There has not been a whisper of complaint from either Canadian authors or readers. Only Canadian manufacturers, and but a few of them are inte- rested. It is the knowledge of this that makes the British Government slow to interfere with a copyright arrangement which suits those whom copyright is made to defend, and which would be endangered in order to turn a copyright law into an engine of protection. Here, again, the false pretence and injustice of protectionism creates bitterness and poisons the relations of the peoples. We are home rulers, and believe that Canadians should legislate for themselves in the matter of copyright as well as of everything else which affects themselves. But when a few persons desire, in the name of home rule and of ## p. 229 (#243) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 229 patriotism, to tax both authors and readers for their own benefit, we are not anxious to play into their hands. The United States has undoubtedly got an unrighteous advantage, but she has been given it because her market is of the first import- ance to the authors, who have the first claim to consideration, and her advantage works no injury either to Canadian authors or Canadian readers, who probably get better made and cheaper books under it than they would under the protective conditions demanded by the manufacturers.- Montreal Weekly Witness, Dec. I I, 1894. II. The following manifesto on this subject was issued from the London Chamber of Com- merce, after combined action with the Society of Authors and the Copyright Association :- Copyright is now uniform throughout the whole of the British Dominions, including, of course, Canada. It is based on the following principles:— I. That a work shall be first or simultaneously published therein. 2. That copyright shall be independent of the place of printing, and of every other condition as to place and manner of manufacture. 3. That the use of it as property shall, whilst it is copyright, be within the author's control. Canada, now seeks to alter these principles, and has asked the British Government to sanction arrangements to take away copyright in Canada from all British authors but Canadians. If such an imperial sanction be obtained, Canada offers to legislate so as to give British authors copyright in the Dominion there for twenty-eight years, if they reprint and republish the work in Canada within one month of its original publication. But if an author does not reprint and repub- lish his work there within a month, the Canadian Government may grant to any applicant a licence to print an edition without the author's consent, on his agreeing to pay to the Canadian Govern- ment, for the author, ten per cent. of the retail price of such edition. The retail price of every such edition is to be fixed by the publisher without consulting the author. The proposed Bill is silent as to whether the royalty is to be paid on copies sold or copies printed. The Canadian Government is not to be responsible for the collection or payment of any royalties. ... The following reasons show some of the in- juries the proposed legislation would inflict on British authors:— It undermines the general recognition of the rights of copyright property, which has now be- come almost universal. It interferes with the law of vendor and pur- chaser which prevails throughout the British Empire in respect to copyright, equally with all other personal property. It requires registration in Canada, a condition of copyright abandoned by the leading nations of Europe at the Berne Convention. It takes from the author the control of his own property, and hence hinders his improving or correcting or enlarging his own writings. It injures his reputation by allowing the con- tinued circulation of unimproved editions, even after the author has enlarged his work. It would enable Canada to reprint, without permission, articles and stories from reviews, magazines, and encyclopædias, and thus seriously to injure the sale of the publications in which they appeared. It injures the value of his British edition, because the Canadian edition could be imported into the United Kingdom and the other colonies, and compete with it. It forcibly deprives him of the benefit now belonging to him in Canada under the Imperial Copyright Acts. It sanctions the appropriation of his property by others without his, the legal owner's, consent. It weakens his title to his own property. It substitutes for trade contracts, on agreed terms, an inadequate royalty not guaranteed. It clogs his property with the condition of local manufacture. It was not recommended by the Royal Com- mission for cases where readers were adequately supplied. It is at variance with the free trade principles of the United Kingdom. Any such dealing with copyright property in Canada will affect future arrangements with the Australian and all other English-speaking colonies and possessions. It would almost certainly destroy our present means of securing copyright in the United States of America. It diminishes the copyright interests of all who have given their adherence to the terms of the Berne Convention. Two million Canadians are IFrench. - To this manifesto it may be added that the Society will immediately issue an Appeal to the people of Canada upon the whole subject. *~ a 2–º g- * = ## p. 230 (#244) ############################################ 23O TIII. A UTHOR. NOTES FROM NEW YORK. [The first part of these notes should have appeared in the last number, but we had to go to press early on account of the Christmas holidays.] New York, Dec. 15, 1894. N the December number of the Bookman appear two paragraphs declaring that Mr. Meredith’s “Lord Ormont and his Aminta.” had met with “extraordinary success in America,” and that “among the other markedly successful recent books in America” were Mr. Hall Caine's “Manxman.” and Mr. Stanley Weyman’s “My Lady Rotha.” And to these statements was appended this comment: “In fact it seems as if English fiction were almost entirely supplant- ing American. Nearly all the great American successes in the last year or two have been English books.” Any one who really knew the facts of the case could not but smile at these statements and at this comment. The great success of the winter has been a British book, Mr. du Maurier’s “Trilby”; but the great success of last winter was an American book, Mr. Lew Wallace’s “Prince of India,” which, although published when times were harder than now and sold at a higher price, reached a larger sale than “Trilby’’ and in a shorter time. Mr. Meredith’s “Lord Ormont ?’ has been well received in America, but the Bookman grossly exaggerates the number of copies sold; and the Bookman cºnveys an entirely erroneous impression of the condition of the book-marketin America. Mr. Weyman’s “My Lady Rotha" has done well in the United States, but not so well as his “Gentle- man of France.” In fact, the really successful works of fiction in the year 1894 in the United States have been Mr. Crawford’s “ Katherine Lauderdale’’ and Miss Wilkins’s “Pembroke,” — both of American authorship, and Mr. Weyman's “Gentleman of France,” Mr. Caine’s “Manxman,” Mr. Hope’s “Prisoner of Zenda,” Mrs. Ward's “Marcella,” and Mr. du Maurier's “Trilby.” Probably every one of them had a sale varying between twenty and fifty thousand copies (except- ing “Trilby” of course, the sale of which already exceeds one hundred and ten thousand). Three books of American authorship were published too late in the winter to enter fairly into the com- parison, but both Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett's “Piccino,” and Mr. Charles Dudley Warner's “Golden House” began with editions of ten thousand each, while Mrs. Deland’s “Philip and his Wife” got into a fourth edition before the end of its first month. I have spoken here of copyrighted books only, because each one of these is in the hands of a single publisher; and it is possible, therefore, to ascertain precisely the number of copies sold. But during the past year or so three British works of fiction were not copyrighted —Miss Harraden’s “Ships that Pass in the Night,” Mr. Benson’s “Dodo,” and Mrs. Caffyn’s “Yellow Aster.” All three of these were seized by the pirates immediately, and reprinted right and left in cut-throat competition until they are now to be had for fourpence each. And, no doubt, the sale of these three British books has been enormous, owing partly to their own merits and partly to the furious energy of competing pirates. But the sale of these non-copyrighted stories of British authorship has been greatly surpassed, I think (of course, exact figures for comparison are not available) by the sale of certain stories of American authorship which have just come out of copyright. Our term of copyright here is twenty-eight years with one renewal of fourteen, making forty-two years in all; it is the shortest term of any of the leading countries of the world. Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter” was published in 1850, his “House of Seven Gables” in 1851, and his “ Blithedale Romance ’’ in 1852 ; and also in 1852 was published Mrs. Stowe’s “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” On these four stories the re-printers rushed as usual, and with unusual success. I have been told that one house alone has sold more than a hundred thousand copies of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” And this is in the lifetime of the author, for Mrs. Stowe is still alive, although she is no longer interested in the life about her; probably she will never know that her story has had a second youth on its attaining its majority twice over. Perhaps it is well to recall here that she received little or nothing from any of the British publishers who have sold countless thousands of “Uncle Tom's Cabin’’ during the last two score years. American pirates have more sins to answer for than the British pirates but the British pirate was never slow in helping himself to every American book he thought worth stealing. At the very time when the editor of the Author has been holding the American magazine editor up as an example to his British brother, an American humorist was preparing to make fun of the American magazine, and of its editors and of its principles. Mr. James L. Ford, who may be known to some English readers as the author of a volume of broadly comic sketches, called “Hypnotic Tales,” and who was one of the earliest contributors to Puck, the oldest and strongest of our comic papers, has now just put forth a volume called “The Literary Shop,” in which he considers the successful periodicals of the United States from the point of view of a young writer who has “copy " for sale. The ## p. 231 (#245) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 23 I attack he makes on the magazines has been made before both in Great Britain and in the United States. The sum and substance of it is that the American magazines being intended for family reading, the editors very wisely reject anything which could “offend the taste of the most fastidious.” Mr. Ford praises the “business sense” of the editors who have applied this theory so adroitly as to give the Century and Harper's a circulation of 200,000 copies a month; but he declares that American literature is being strangled by this restriction of it to themes suit- able for the contemplation of the Young Person. He affirms that only an emasculated literature is possible under these conditions; and he directs special attention to the fact that the great city of New York is teeming with subjects for fiction, and that these subjects are not getting the treat- ment they deserve because the magazine editors are “down on low life.” Mr. Ford makes his points very sharply and with a sub-acid humour which is pleasing, except, no doubt, to those who are pierced by his shafts; but he has wilfully taken a false view. At the very time he was saying that no American magazine would publish stories of low life in New York, Harper's had just concluded a series of sketches of New York scenes, up town and down town, high life and low life; and it has since begun another series of sketches of New York characters, frankly low-life, all of them. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of truth in Mr. Ford’s little book, and an abundance of humour, shown most abundantly, perhaps, in the satiric sketches which fill the final pages of the volume. Of these “The Poet's Strike,” depicting a sad occurrence at Harper and Bros, and “The Society Reporter's Christmas,” are the most comical. Of the three British authors we have had here this winter lecturing and reading from their own works, one, Dr. Conan Doyle, returned to Eng- land last week laden with dollars. Dean Hole continues in the field and so does Mr. Christie Murray. At the meeting of the “Uncut Leaves” to-night Mr. Murray is to be one of the readers. I understand that the practice of the “Uncut Deaves” of reading from their own unpublished words has been introduced into your Authors’ Club in London. It is not a custom in the Authors’ Club here. The “Uncut Leaves '' is a private enterprise of Mr. L. J. B. Lincoln, who engages various authors to appear before his sub- scribers. Those who attend the meetings Mr. Lincoln conducts pay for the privilege ; and there are sometimes eight and nine hundred pre- sent. Those who read Mr. Lincoln pays, and pays liberally. So successful has this scheme WOL. W. been, that Mr. Lincoln conducts series of “Uncut Leaves,” every winter, not only in New York, but also in Brooklyn, in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, and in Washington. The Authors’ Club here, which has been home- less for nearly a year, is to be housed at last in quarters specially prepared for it in the recent addition to the sumptuous Carnegie Music Hall. It expects to get into these new rooms early next month. In the meantime its fortnightly meetings have been held this fall in the ample halls of the Architectural League in the noble building of the Fine Arts Society. By a purchase of plates and stock from Messrs. Harper and Brothers, the New York branch of Longmans, Green, and Co., has become the American publishers of all of Mr. Rider Haggard’s novels. They have recently published here his “People of the Mist,” and they will have another tale ready in January. They are also steadily enlarging their list of American authors, as, of course, any British house must do if it wishes to have close relations with American bookbuyers. In one week, as it happened, Longmans, Green, and Co. issued in New York four different books of American origin. By a purchase of plates and stock, they have also become the publishers of Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whose “Young Folks' History of the United States” has now nearly attained a circulation of two hundred thousand copies. To St. Nicholas during the coming year Mr. Theodore Roosevelt will contribute a series of “Hero Tales of American History.” He is en- gaged on what may be called a continuation of Parkman's great history; it is an account of the “Winning of the West,” the slow expansion of the English-speaking people from the Atlantic coast, over the Alleghanies and across the plains. The third volume has just appeared, and a fourth will follow in about eighteen months. Mr. H. C. Bunner, the poet who wrote “Airs from Arcady,” is also the editor of Puck, and he has just reprinted from that popular weekly a second series of the ingenious and delightful comic tales he calls “Short Sixes.” Later in the winter he will have ready a volume of “Urban and Suburban Sketches,” reprinted from Scribner's Monthly. In February, Messrs. Dodd, Mead, and Co. begin to publish an American edition of the Bookman, to be conducted by Professor H. T. Peck, of Columbia College. The American edition will be wholly independent of the British, which it will not even resemble in shape. Another Columbia man, Professor Cattell, is to be the editor-in-chief of a new series of Science Z ## p. 232 (#246) ############################################ 232 THE AUTHOR. (which may be described as an American emu- lator of the British Nature). Professor Cattell is already one of the editors of the Psychological Review ; he has called about him a staff of extra- ordinary strength, representing nearly every department of science and almost every institu- tion of learning in America. New York, Jan. 12, 1895. The death of Robert Louis Stevenson has occasioned real grief in America, and to express this in a slight degree a memorial meeting was held in this city on Jan. 4, under the auspices of the Uncut Leaves Club. It was a most notable crowd that gathered together to listen to the homage paid the great romancer by the speakers; and it was thoroughly representa- tive of the literary and artistie circles of the city. (See p. 248.) Perhaps a short account of the organisation of one of our greatest magazines may prove of interest to the readers of the Author. In 1865 a. primitive “family magazine,” called Hours at Home, was started, and this soon led Charles Scribner, founder of the publishing house of that name, to consider the possibilities which lay in issuing a periodical that would appeal to a wider audience and be on a much larger scale. With this idea in view Dr. Holland, author of the famous “Timothy Titcomb's Letters,” was con- sulted as to taking the editorship of the new venture. Thus in 1870 the firm of Charles Scribner announced from the office of Hours at Home that they had organised the Magazine Department into a separate company, with Dr. J. G. Holland and Roswell C. Smith as part owners, under the name of Scribner and Co., and that the periodical should be known as Scribner's Monthly. From the start it set a new standard for the popular magazine. It introduced many fresh writers, who had great influence in American literature, and on the artistic side it gave impetus to wood engraving. When the death of Mr. Scribner occurred the magazine continued to increase in prosperity, but in 1881 a disagreement arose between the partners, which finally resulted in the sale of the monthly to a new corporation, headed by Dr. Holland and Mr. Smith. This transfer was effected under the stipulation that the Scribners should abstain from publishing a magazine which could be a rival in the same field, while on their side the new company agreed to withdraw the name Scribner; and the periodical was henceforth known as the Century Magazine. The old magazine under its new name continued its prosperous career, and after the appearance of the war series in its pages the circulation was actually doubled within a twelvemonth. From the start, the Century Company agreed to allow its editorial staff to acquire shares of the stock, thus consolidating the interest of the magazine with those in whose charge it is. Another custom is the giving at Christmas time to all employées, not holding shares, a percentage of the year's profits in proportion to their salaries. On the death of Dr. Holland, in 1881, Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, who had long been his assistant, became editor-in-chief. He has filled his post most ably, and has gathered about him men of unusual capability. The associate editor is Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson, who was secretary of the Copyright League, and was rewarded for his work by the French Government with the Legion of Honour. The assistant editor is Mr. Clarence Clough Buel, who was formerly a journalist, and who suggested the famous war series. Among others in the editorial office are Mr. Frank H. Tooker and Mr. William Carey, to whose care is due the make up of the tasteful pages and the arrangement of the illustrations. Besides these, three women clerks are employed; and there is also a special staff to whom is com- mitted the preliminary reading of all the manu- scripts, some 20,000 of which are passed on every year. The art department has a special staff of its own, at the head of which is Mr. Alexander W. Drake, with Mr. W. Lewis Fraser as his chief assistant. It is owing to the efforts of Mr. Drake that the art of wood engraving has received so much encouragement from this magazine, and it is through him also that the development of that art has been speeded. The Century was among the first to try photographic engraving processes, and with a success certainly not yet surpassed by any other publishing house, even in France. The half-tone process, although mechanical, and thus supposedly true to the original, is but what its name represents it to be—a half tone, and hence lacking the darkest and lightest shades. In the January number of the Century is a block, which originally was a half-tone plate, and which has been worked over by a wood engraver until about one-half of its surface has felt the tool. Thus this new reproduction frankly substitutes engraving where the mechanical process fails. The Century aims solely at getting as near the Original as possible, and the question of cost is not allowed to interfere with what is the best method for obtaining the desired results. There have been cases where etchings were made simply that they might be processed ; and wood- engravings found to be too large have been processed down to half size. Also it is well to ## p. 233 (#247) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 233 note that the superiority of the American magazine is due to a great extent to the care taken with its printing. Infinite thought is taken by De Winne, the artist printer, to keep the presswork of the Century up to the level of its text and illustrations. The Century Company also issue a juvenile monthly called St. Nicholas. This, again, has its own staff. Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge is editor- in-chief, and Mr. W. F. Clarke is assistant editor. There are also two editorial assistants, Messrs. Tudor Jenks and Chapin, and besides these several clerks. With this magazine, as with the Century, every manuscript received is carefully read and examined. The printing is of the same high standard, and the illustrations proceed from the same art department. In addition to the staffs of the two magazines, there is a third entirely separate staff, having charge of the Century Dictionary. At the head of this is Mr. Benjamin E. Smith. Since the first page of that stupendous undertaking was cast the work has never stopped, for it is constantly under- going revision, and a supplement will eventually be inevitable. Mr. Smith has recently brought out a seventh volume, the Century Cyclopædia of Names. A large part of the success of the Century is due to its publishers. They have pushed the sales judiciously, and have shown such enterprise in the advertising department, that the magazine often contains a hundred pages of advertisements. The business sense which has characterised the management of the Century is a heritage from Roswell Smith, the first president of the com- pany, whose position is now adequately filled by Mr. Frank H. Scott, Mr. Charles F. Chichester having succeeded the latter as treasurer. In its early years the Century found many advantages in the fact that it was not connected with a pub- lishing house, as it was never obliged to receive any author on account of his relations with the house. But of late, as book material accumu- lated, it was found expedient not to allow it all to leave the Century office, and hence the Century company has been for several years now a pub- lisher of books also. The Century pays for all manuscripts on acceptance. Indeed, this is the custom of all reputable magazines here, and the editor of Harper's has been heard to remark “that it was immoral to accept an article without paying for it at once.” This naturally leads to the accumulation of material, and the Century has always several thousand pounds worth on hand; in fact, during the past year it has been largely drawing on that stock. Thus articles on “Book- bindings,” by Brander Matthews, which were VOL. W. accepted and paid for some four or five years ago, are only now appearing. “Folk-speech in America,” by Mr. Edward Eggleston, had been lying by eight or ten years; and Mrs. Oliphant's papers on the period of Queen Anne waited ten or twelve years for publication ; while Mr. Marion Crawford’s article on “The Gods of India,” which was printed only early last winter, had been accepted and paid for before he wrote his first novel, “Mr. Isaacs.” --- The Century occupies several floors of a fine large building overlooking Union-square. Its rooms are most luxuriously and beautifully fitted up. The walls are decorated with the original drawings of its illustrations, and to the outsider it would seem almost like a picture gallery were it not for its home-like appearance. The organisation of other American magazines is not unlike that of the Century. Besides their enormous book-publishing business, Harper and Brothers issue also four periodicals—the magazine and three weeklies. Mr. Henry M. Alden, author of “God in His World,” is editor-in-chief of Harper's Magazine. Mr. John D. Adams is his assistant ; and at the head of the art department is Mr. Horace Bradley. The other periodicals are Harper’s Young People, edited by Mr. J. H. Sears; Harper's Weekly, edited by Mr. Henry L. Nelson, with Mr. Henry Gallup Paine as managing editor; and Harper's Bazaar, a weekly, princi- pally intended to appeal to a feminine audience, but really containing so much of general interest as not to be restricted to one sex, and edited by Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster. In 1887, Charles Scribner's Sons started a magazine of their own, and placed it under the editorship of Mr. Edward L. Burlingame. It was a new publication in every sense, and in no way a revival of any tradition of the past. Mr. Robert Bridges is associate editor, and the art department is in the hands of Mr. A. F. Jaccacci. The magazine (with the rest of the publishing business of Charles Scribner and Sons) has recently been moved to a new building on Fifth- avenue, near Madison-square, which is one of the best built and best equipped edifices ever erected for exclusive use of a publishing firm. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner is spending the winter just outside of Florence in Landor's Willa, as the guest of Professor Willard Fiske. Mr. A. M. Palmer has made arrangements with Mr. Du Maurier to have Mr. Paul Potter dramatise “Trilby,” and it will shortly be produced at Mr. Palmer's own theatre. This dramatisation shows how, in one respect, American copyright is more favourable to foreign authors than the British law. In the United States the novelist has reserved to him the right to dramatise, whereas z 2 ## p. 234 (#248) ############################################ 234 THE AUTHOR. in Great Britain he has to give an absurd regis- tering performance of his dramatisation before the novel appears. Thus a British author having a novel successful in America can reap the profit of the play taken therefrom ; but an American author having a novel successful in England would stand little chance of making anything from the dramatisation ; and, as a fact, Mrs. Stowe never received a penny from England for “Uncle Tom’s Cabin " as a play. Mr. Laurence Hutton, than whom no American has more friends in Great Britain, and whose father and mother were Scotch, refused to act as treasurer of the American committee for the purchase of Carlyle's house in Chelsea, seeing no reason why any American should help to make a monument for a contemporary British author like Carlyle, who certainly never showed any goodwill towards the United States. In one of his Literary Notes in Harper's for January—notes unfortunately not included in the London edition of the magazine—Mr. Hutton gives vent to his feelings as follows: “There seems to exist in the mother country a curious notion that while we have shaken off all personal and national allegiance to the British Crown, we are still rank Tories and Royalists in our loyalty and devotion to British literature ; that while we are politically a free and independent people, we are still an intellectual province of Great Britain; and that we must still pay taxes to the great and royal British mind! They would laugh to scorn any effort on our part to raise money, in England, for the Curtis memorial in New York, or for the preservation of Poe's home at Fordham, even if we were willing to ask others to help us, in a pecuniary way, to honour our own dead; and they do mock our generosity in contributing to the building of a memorial theatre to Shakes- peare at Stratford, to the buying of a bust for Pepys in St. Olave's, or to the raising of stained glass windows to the memory of Raleigh and Izaak Walton in St. Margaret's and St. Dunstan's. Shakespeare and Pepys and Walton and Raleigh are ours, as well as theirs; and it is our right, as well as our privilege, to show our respect and affection for our own ; but we ought to throw the tea into Boston Harbour once more, before we consent to pay tribute to a class of post-revolu- tionary British heroes who paid no tribute to us; or before we offer to help the Britons to glorify their own land by erecting monuments—in their land— to poets and scholars who in their lifetime never cared to glorify anything, or anybody, but Great Britain or themselves.” It may be suspected that Mr. Hutton thus voices a feeling not ucommon among American men of letters. HALLETT ROBINSON. LETTER FROM PARIS, NEVER felt more confirmed in my pre- ference for an artistic life as contrasted to the pursuit.of politics, never did I so cordially agree with what Daudet has written about his detestation of politics, than as I sat at breakfast on Thursday last in the grand hall of the Hotel des Reservoirs at Versailles, just before the opening of the Congress for the election of a new President. The room was full of senators, deputies, political journalists, and all the vague camp followers of all great political events. And what a crowd it was, a mass of strangely dressed, noisy, red-faced individuals, with greedy twinkling eyes and fevered gestures, and the strangest manners at table. When one looked at them and thought of the man of letters, of the poet, of the painter, or the musician, and the ambitions of these as compared with the longings of those, one might well say—and be no Pharisee at that —that one thanked God not to be as these. I am asked to announce that Monsieur Léon Daudet will very shortly commence the publica- tion of a series or “cycle” of three novels, which will be as “The Battle of Dorking of the Social Revolution,” and an attempt to give, in anticipa- tion, pictures of that great event, whose comin is so eagerly expected, and so fondly hoped for by not a few. The first of these novels will be called “De Precurseur,” and will describe a kind of Tolstoi apostle, visiting the faubourgs, helping the poor, and preaching the gospel of Revolt. The second will be called “Les Porteurs du Feu,” and the action of this book will take place in Tondon, Amsterdam, and Paris. The third novel will be called “The City of Bread and of Fire.” Monsieur Léon Daudet is at present arranging for their appearance in serial form in England and America, previous to their publica- tion in book-form in France. Monsieur Jules Massenet is at present engaged on an opera to be called “Griselidis,” the libretto of which has been drawn by Armand Silvestre from the romantic play of the same name which was performed with so much success at the Comédie Française, of which Monsieur Armand Silvestre was co-author. Speaking about composers, it may be of interest to note that in France authors’ royalties in an opera are divided equally between the composer of the music and the writer of the libretto. Nor does this rule apply only in the matter of grand operas, but even in songs, a system which for the benefit of our minor poets might profitably be introduced into England. Only the very best writers of words for songs in England can hope for as much as four, or at the outside, five guineas ## p. 235 (#249) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 235 for their words, whilst the average price paid to the poet is, I believe, 5s. In France the poet takes half the royalties, and the author of the music the other half. The royalties on musical works are, of course, not so large as on literary productions. Thus the royalties paid to the authors on a grand opera, never exceed 6 per cent. of the receipts. Of this the composer takes half, or 3 per cent., and the librettist the other half. With a successful opera both musician and librettist may count on an average receipt of £1.8 per performance. Speaking of theatrical matters, it was amusing to learn from what transpired the other day in one of the Paris Police-courts that a person who recently contributed the dramatic criticisms to La Cocarde used to pay £16 a month to the pro- prietors of this paper for doing so. It is fair to add that this was before M. Maurice Barrés took over the management and proprietorship of this paper. I have heard of similar things in England. A certain London publishing firm has inaugu- rated a system of paying for contributions to its various periodicals with cheques, on the back of which is printed a statement that the payee acknowledges receipt of amount on the other side for contributions and copyright of same. His signature forms the indorsement to the cheque, and, of course, if he will not indorse the cheque it cannot be cashed. I am not clear about the legality of such a contract, but I understand that the matter is going to be looked into by the Institute of Journalists. For my part, I never will sign away copyright. The other day I met a gentleman who holds a high official position in Turkey, and we had a long talk together about life in Constantinople. I was much interested to hear that the favourite book in the harem was—what would you say P- Ringsley’s “Westward Ho!” in translation. To-morrow, Jan. 25, is the fortieth anniversary of the suicide of poor Gerard de Nerval, in the Rue de la Vieille Lanterne, a street which, thanks to Baron Haussmann, has long since disappeared from the face of Paris. It was a horrible and a sinister street this Rue de la Vieille Lanterne, a street about which a French writer, wise in Paris street lore, has written as follows: “Ah! this street above all was most sinister amongst the most sinister, most hideous amongst the most hideous. In the thirteenth century it was called Scorching-street, later on, Washing-street, and in the nineteenth as in the thirteenth century it more resembled a sewer than a public way. As a matter of fact little traffic passed through it, its inhabitants being reputed the most dangerous malefactors. The ground, unceasingly drenched by rain and the overflow of the gutter, formed a thick black mud, which oozed up under-foot between the cobble stones that paved this leprous street. At one end, towards Rue de la Tuerie (Killing-street), it had a broken-down flight of steps, which led up from darkness into light, from filth to what is clean. Up and down this flight of steps all day long there hopped gravely and with dignity a black crow. At the foot of the steps an iron grating rather more than of man’s stature in height rose, and opposite was a stable which was the nightly refuge of nameless vagabonds, while a few paces lower down was a police sus- pected furnished hotel, or common lodging-house. Further, nothing save houses wrapped in silence, ominous and gloomy, and dead walls sweating forth misery and abjection.” It was here on the morning of Jan. 25, 1855, that there hanged himself on that iron grating the exquisite poet, whose name was Gerard de Nerval. He was not dead when he was discovered by one of the “workmen’’ who issued forth at an early hour from the common lodging- house, and might have been saved but for the fear of the mob which gathered round him, as he hung choking and wriggling, lest murder might be charged against them. So he was allowed to continue his hideous and convulsive dance of death. His feet were but two inches from the muddy soil. The onlookers recognised from the man’s head and hands and face that this was a gentleman in spite of the fact that his dress was ragged and Sordid beyond the raggedness of the extremest and most sordid poverty. Papers of manuscript peeped out from his torn pockets, and these, con- sidered together with certain stains of ink on the dirty blouse and the fingers, revealed in the victim a man of letters. It is reported that once or twice the struggling man raised his hand to his neck in feeble mute appeal, as though to point out to them, miserable dullards, what was torturing him, what was the life of him. But no response was made. It was a crowd of men wary and cautious of habit. I think that in its public shame, this death, with all its surroundings of all that is vile in man and in the works of man, was a hundred times more sad than even the arsenic convulsions of that starving boy in his paper-littered garret in the Holborn bye-way; aye, a hundred times more sad than even the final fall in the weakness of hunger and in the fever of alcohol of Edgar Allan Poe. In this case as in that there was no help possible. There was no hand near to stay or help, nor any land in sight. But from de Nerval’s hideous pillory, his so accessible gallows, what easy rescue might have been made. When at last the police ## p. 236 (#250) ############################################ 236 THE AUTHOR. arrived, and the man was cut down, life was extinct. In his pockets were found various manuscripts, notably part of a serial story which Gerard de Nerval was then writing. But no papers allowing of his identification. So the body was sent to the Morgue, there to lie on a dripping slab, with a vagabond, killed in a brawl, on the one side of him, and a self-drowned woman of the town on the other. Poor Gerard de Nerval. Poor poets. I hear that Mr. Rowland Strong, the able correspondent in Paris of the Morning Post, is oc, upying such leisure as journalism leaves him in writing a novel on Parisian life, with which he is very well acquainted indeed. The novel ought to be a very good one, for Mr. Strong is master of a most excellent style, as the readers of the Paris correspondence of the Morning Post have long observed, and, moreover, a man of wide reading, caustic wit, and great powers of observation. One is always glad to chronicle the endeavour on the part of the journalist to produce purely original work, in spite of the fact that many critics in London will not admit that a man who has written for the press is capable of literary production. It is a strange theory, for in France at least every successful writer began his career, with the exception, perhaps, of Alphonse Daudet, by writing for the press. I hear that the proprietor of a leading and successful American magazine has just left Paris for London to arrange for the writing of a new “Life of Christ” for publication in his magazine. Mr. Zangwill is in Paris studying life amongst the art students in the Montparnasse quarter, in preparation for a novel on this subject. He may be seen daily dining—not without heroism—in a miserable little crémèrie near the Rue de Rennes, where the rapin and his womankind take their scanty meals. His note-book is filling apace, but I fear, in my knowledge of the kind of fare pro- vided at the Parisian crémèries, that at times he must regret the fleshpots of Israel. Mark Twain is also in Paris. Madame Juliette Adam is writing her Memoirs. They will be invaluable to the student of the political and literary histories of France under the Third Republic. - RoBERT H. SHERARD. I 23, Bd. Magenta, Paris, Jan. 24, 1895. BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 1894, HE Publishers' Circular gives its customary analytical table of the new books of 1894 :— 1893. I894. New New New New Books. Editions. [Books. |Editions. Divisions. Theology, sermons, Bibli- cal, &c. .................. 459 74 476 8O Educational, classical, and philological ...... 518 IO4 615 I27 Juvenile works and tales 659 36 269 29 Novels, tales, and other fiction .................. 935 393 1315 337 Law, jurisprudence, &c. 27 23 I 26 23 Political and social eco- nomy, trade and com- II101"Ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 I4. I4 I 2 I Arts, sciences, and illus- trated works............ 86 37 98 3O Voyages, travels, geo- - graphical research ... 247 72 282 68 History, biography, &c. 269 65 256 58 Poetry and the drama ... 197 Year-books and serials in 37 I6O 2 I volumes . ............... 37O I 328 2 Medicine, surgery, &c. ... 93 58 97 59 Belles-lettres, essays, mo- nographs, &c. ......... 96 I I 370 II 5 Miscellaneous, including pamphlets, not sermons I IO2 328 767 2I 5 5 I:29 I 253 53OO | I 185 5 I:29 53OO 6382 6485 —Times, Jan. 4. The number of books published in the year 1894 reaches an amazing total of 6485. If, however, we examine the list a little we shall find crumbs of comfort. For instance, 981 of them are “miscellaneous, including pamphlets.” Strike them out ; we will not read them. Tech- nical, scientific, professional, and trade books— all three which belong to the business of life— numbered 596. Strike them out. Those will read them who must. Religious books, 856. I think we may strike them out in considering literature. The medicine of the soul is as “scientific ’’ as the medicine of the body. Educa- tional books number 742. Strike them out, because they are the tools and instruments necessary for the conduct and business of life. Year-books and serials are surely not literature. Strike out 330. Boys’ and girls' books, 297. Strike them out. There remain novels, voyages and travels, history and biography, poetry, and belles lettres. Of novels there were 1315 new books and 337 new editions. Now, every novel ## p. 237 (#251) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 237 worth anything goes into a new edition. These figures mean, therefore, IOOO failures in novel writing; they also mean a great many books paid for by the foolish writers after their work has been declined. Further, they mean that in this period of depression and “tightness” there are thousands who try whether they, too, cannot join the company of the successful. They cannot, but they will always try. These figures also mean that, seeing the enormous success of certain novels and the impossibility of discover- ing why some of them have succeeded, a few publishers are “plunging ” in hope of securing a “boom.” On the whole, we need not be alarmed by the figures. Again, the ephemeral nature of many apparently solid books, as those of travel and of history, is shown by the fact that there are 538 new books of the kind and only 126 new editions. Of poetry there is a sad falling off. Only 160 new books of verse against 190 of last year. Only 2 I new editions against 37 of last year. The most remarkable increase is under the head of “belles lettres, essays, monographs, &c.” In 1893 there were 96 new books under this head and II reprints. In 1894 there were 370 new books and I 15 reprints | What does this mean? First, we should like to see a list of these new books and reprints. Probably we should have to strike out a good many as irrelevant. I take two columns of book advertisements from the Times. In one I find two such books; in the other, three. What are they—these 370 books of belles lettres? Here is a theory which I advance with hesitation, but it may account for some. The production of a book of essays or of criticism is an excellent method by which a young man ambitious of literary work may introduce himself. If his book attracts notice either for style or for scholarship, he is a man to be noted and remembered by editors. And the number of such young men is increasing every day. The congestion of the pro- fessions; the apparent ease and pleasantness and freedom of the work; the large incomes made by successful journalists and critics — these, with many other reasons, attract the young men of Oxford and Cambridge. I imagine that this theory would account for some of the 370 volumes. But what about the rest ? I do not know. On further consideration of these figures, it occurred to me to compare them with those obtained from the lists issued day by day in the leading journals. For instance, there is published every day in the Times a list of the day's publications. In this list we may certainly assume that every book of the least importance or pretensions is announced. The following are the numbers of publications, month by month. Since the first two columns are difficult to keep apart, let us add them together. It will be seen that the numbers are about half those given in the Circular. We have, that is to say, 770 novels and children’s story books announced in the Times against I 594 reported in the Circular : New. Children’s. Reprint. January ......... 65 ...... I 7 . . . . . . 7 February ......... 34 . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . 3 March ............ 37 . . . . . I . . . . . . 8 April............... 3I . . . . . I . . . . . . 6 May ............... 45 . . . . . . O . . . . . . 8 June ............... 47 . . . . . . 4 . . . . . . 8 July ............... 64 ...... 4 . . . . . . I3 August ............ 34 . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . 6 September ...... 25 . . . . . . O . . . . . . 5 October. . . . . . . . . . . . 43 . . . . . . I . . . . . . 7 November. . . . . . . . . 86 . . . . . . 4O . . . . . . I 2 December . . . . . . ... I 23 . . . . . . 63 . . . . . . 35 634 I36 II 8 We need not in the least attack the correctness of the figures in the Circular. We may, however, understand that a good half of the books making up that portentous total were quite unimportant and trivial works. Further examination proves that out of the 634 novels there were at least 200 or even 250 also quite trivial and unimportant. This class is made up chiefly of those novels published at the author's own expense. There are paltry houses— call them rather hovels—which do nothing except produce trash at the author's expense. “Our reader reports so favourably of the work that we are prepared to offer you the following exceptionally favourable terms, &c.,” according to the formula. These deductions made, we are left with a very fair number of novels—by no means too many for the reading of the English-speaking world— Written by about 250 known novelists and about I5O aspirants. * * * NOTES AND NEWS. E have lost in Sir John Seeley one of the greatest writers of our time—if by “great” we mean one who is powerful enough to mould and influence his time. The man who so far influenced the Anglican Church as to sweep away old shibboleths and to clothe the old doctrines with fresh meanings; the man who revived in his country the Imperial idea, making of Great Britain not only the Mother of Empire, but the Mistress and Empress; the man who taught the world how the New Germany was ## p. 238 (#252) ############################################ 238 THE AUTHOR. created and by whom ; that man, surely, deserves the name of great. My own acquaintance with Seeley took place towards the close of the fifties. He was some three years my senior, so that my earliest knowledge of him is that of a young Bachelor of Arts, Senior Classic. He was as a young man habitually grave, yet by no means without humour; no one who knew him then would speak of him as dry. Serious he certainly was ; his mind was then, as ever since, filled with the great and lofty themes of which he afterwards treated. To talk with him was, to a lad of twenty, an education ; he filled one with new thoughts; he gave one suggestions; he made one thirsty and hungry for more know- ledge; he made one careful of speech on account of a certain Socratic method by which he con- vinced the foolish speaker of his folly—yet gently and never with any joy over the humiliation of the other man. He took little interest in the things so much beloved by the average under- graduate ; he seldom asked, I am sure, where the college boat was ; he was not present at boat suppers; perhaps he never witnessed the University boat race; and he never showed up at Lord's. A modest and sober walk of four or five miles gave him all the exercise he wanted, and the rest of his time was chiefly spent in his own rooms. It is pleasing to remember that one of his closest friends and greatest admirers was a man wholly unlike him in every particular—Charles Stuart Calverley. I have heard Calverley dis- course on the virtues and qualities of Seeley most generously (for they were sometimes thought to be rivals) and eloquently. Seeley was the son of a man of deep religious feeling, which he himself inherited. The inevitable revolt of the son against the father's narrow Calvinism, which generally takes the form of aggressive agnosticism, in his place became a Christianity on broader foundations with new meanings and more Catholic enclosures. He was always religious in his thoughts and religious in his daily life. I have never heard him lecture or speak. I can readily believe that as in his books so in his lectures, the personal element was entirely re- pressed. Perhaps he was dry. Yet he taught. He was born to teach, and he was full of things to teach. He made the most of himself too. Quite early in life he realised that for such work as his, German was necessary. He went to Dresden for three months and came back a master of the German language. Later on it became necessary for him to know Italian and to study Rome. He went to Rome for the summer months, staying there three months, and return- ing a master of Italian and of Roman topography. He is a standing example that the strongest and best faculties—intellect of the rarest—-memory —scholarship—linguistic gift–power of expres- sion—are worth nothing without industry. I well remember a certain letter which came to me across the sea, one day a long time ago, when I was abroad. It was from a man who knew Seeley better than was my good fortune; who saw a great deal more of him. This man sent me a copy of “Ecce Homo,” just then published. “Read the book,” he said. “It is Seeley's, though the world does not yet know it. Read the book. He stands out already, as I always said he would—ávač divöpóv—a king of men’’—And so he did. That Seeley joined our Society at the outset; that he gave us his name as a Vice-President first, and a member of Council afterwards; that he strongly approved of our work and our aims— this has always been to me, at times when it seemed as if all our efforts for self-protection were likely to be in vain, a great encouragement and support. •-º-º-º-º- At the first meeting of the committee held in the year, on Monday, Jan. I4, it was RESOLVED, that the best thanks of the committee be con- veyed to Sir Frederick Pollock, for his services to the society as chairman of the Committee of Management during the year 1893 and 1894. I hear of complaints among members that their books are not mentiomed in “Book Talk” of the month. Will every one make a note that we very much desire to hear of every new work produced by our members; that we cannot promise to hunt among the advertisements and the announcements for these new books; that if members will inform us of their new books they may depend upon the notice being inserted; and that, as regards a short review or expression of opinion upon the book, it must be left to the writer of the columns called “Book Talk.” It is, of course, impossible for the editor to promise, or for the members to claim, even a short review in these pages. The question of Canadian Copyright is sus- pended for the time, owing to the death of Sir John Thompson. Meanwhile we have reprinted in another column (p. 228) an article on the subject, from the Montreal Weekly Witness, which shows that public opinion is not all on one side. In another place (p. 248) will be found a report of Mr. Stedman’s address on the occasion of the ## p. 239 (#253) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 239 Stevenson memorial meeting at New York. The occasion was memorable. One of the few writers who in their lifetime are recognised as belonging to the common literature of the English-speaking races—not the local provincial literature of Great Britain, of the States, of Canada, of Australia, but the common possession of all—was dead. The meeting was held in honour of that man; he was a Scotchman by birth ; he was not a dweller in the United States, but he was acknowledged to belong to the States, to be part of the honour and glory of the States just as much as Lowell was claimed to belong to us, although a Republican and an American to the finger tips. It was not only a memorable occasion, but the chairman's eulogy, here reproduced, is fully worthy of the occasion. Had I not heard Leslie Stephen's address on the completion of the Lowell memorial in Westminster Abbey, I should have said that I did not know a single English author capable of such an address, so dignified, so beautiful, so worthy of the writer whom it illustrated. And now that it is too late, what, one asks, were we ourselves doing that we held no such meeting P Why was it left to the Americans to show us how we should honour our writers? Alas! so little accustomed are we to any recognition of letters that we do not even remember to pay the tribute of a funeral oration on the departure of our worthiest and our best Among the letters of the month will be found a proposal by Mr. Thomas Macquoid that a memorial to Louis Stevenson should be esta- blished. The letter does not propose any form of memorial. Not a statue, says the writer, but perhaps the founding of some institution con- nected with literature. I willingly give admission to Mr. Macquoid’s letter and proposal, and if the suggestion commends itself to members, I shall be very glad to receive their opinions on the subject, and to forward them to the secretary for the consideration of the committee. There are two points for consideration: (1) Whether it is desirable that such a memorial shall be instituted; (2) if so, what form it should take. Now, as to the first point. I have no doubt whatever that some of Stevenson’s work will live and form part of the glorious Corpus of English Literature. In the general chorus of praise and lamentation following on the death of this writer, it seems ungenerous to hint that any part of his work may die. At the same time, we must remember that posterity will be principally occupied with its own writers, and that it is a selection only—a very small selection—of dead men's work, that is allowed to remain and to be read. It is the next generation that pronounces the verdict upon a man, and from that verdict there is no appeal. Perhaps, therefore, it would be safer to let a dead man remain without honour for twenty-five years. In that time his greatness will be established or will be extinguished. However, if it be thought best to form some memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson, why should it not be a statue? The only statues to men of letters in London are those of Shakespeare in Leicester-square, and Dr. Johnson in St. Paul’s. There are also certain busts in Westminster Abbey and elsewhere. Yet nothing more honours a man than a statue. It is public ; it is always present ; it is enduring ; every passer by recalls the man and his works; it stands as an outward and visible sign of a nation’s recog- nition. Poets have their corner in the Abbey; only a corner; most of the space is given up to the Great Obscure or the Obscure Great. Let us make a beginning : let us teach the people that it is time to honour our great writers as we honour our statesmen; in the same open way. Only when we uncover the statue to Louis Stevenson, in Trafalgar-square, let it be done in the presence of the people, by invitation; the people on the omnibuses; the passengers engaged in their daily calling ; the great common public who read his “Treasure Island.” I have seen an advanced copy of the report of the Society for the year 1894. There is one point which I venture to anticipate. There are over 12oo members at this time of writing. Now, out of the I2OO one-half, or 600, had occasion it seems, during the year, to consult the Secretary on some point of difficulty or doubt in the conduct of their business affairs. Now, consider what would have happened with these difficulties had the Society not been in existence. The author would have gone to his lawyer, who certainly knew nothing about the subject ; and he would have incurred legal ex- penses for no good purpose; or he would have allowed his publisher to put his own interpreta- tion on the matter. Now the Secretary, who does know the subject, gives his advice or information for nothing. In cases where money has to be recovered, the author has only to put the papers into the Secretary’s hands, when action is taken immediately, and for nothing. The knowledge of this fact generally causes payment to be made immediately. And—again—remark the propor- tion of authors who do find it necessary to seek advice in the year—50 per cent. ' Members will please to note that the committee have now arranged for the reception of their ## p. 240 (#254) ############################################ 24O THE AUTHOR. agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. They will, of course, be regarded as confi- dential documents to be read only by the Secre- tary, who will keep the key of the safe. The com- mittee now offer (I) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. - (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agree- ments. Once there was a member—a lady—who could not get in her accounts or the money due to her. She came to the Secretary, who promptly pro- cured the account and the cheque, of course at no expense to her. There was no suspicion of a fraudulent return of books sold. Contrary, how- ever, to reasonable expectation, the lady received the cheque with considerable temper. She said that she had looked for a much larger sale; and if this was all the Society could do for her, she should withdraw. And she did. What can be done for people who look to the Society to find them a public P Another very unreasonable and selfish person is the man or woman who stands aloof from us, Or even joins in the diffusion of the usual unvera- cities which that kind of publisher who desires darkness loves to spread around, until the time of trouble, when he makes haste to bring his papers and to become a member in order to get his case settled for him. An extreme form of this kind was illustrated by a certain man who brought a case and became a member. His case cost the Society 3815, but it was successfully conducted. The grateful member thanked the Secretary for what he had done, and said that he should now resign. So we were gainers of one guinea, his year's subscription, and losers by £15 in costs in the case. We did not even get kööos, because he was rather ashamed of his own simplicity and did not talk about it. Mr. Laurence Hutton’s remarks on the American respect for English literature (see the New York Letter, p. 234) seem to me exaggerated. We have not asked the Americans to subscribe for the preservation of Carlyle's house ; the committee have only signified their willingness to accept American contributions if any are offered. We should most certainly not “laugh to scorn” any proposal that Englishmen should join in honouring Poe ; nor do we–so far as I know— “mock the generosity’ of Americans in building a theatre at Stratford. The ancient literature of this country belongs to America as much as to ourselves. As regards a modern writer, when the Americans adopt him, so to speak; when they receive him into their libraries; welcome him ; learn from him ; delight in him; he becomes an American as well as an English writer. The question about Carlyle, is simply whether he is, in this sense, an American writer. Have they adopted him P Do they learn from him P Let us remember that there is a small modern current literature belonging to and common to all English speaking countries. For instance, we place Tenny- son and Browning in this our common literature, together with Lowell and Longfellow. There is also a current local or national literature in every English speaking country consisting of minor poets, minor novelists, minor essayists, who do not cross the frontiers of their own country. The influence of Carlyle in this country has been enormous. It would appear from Mr. Laurence Button’s remarks, that it has not been great in America. Perhaps, then, Carlyle does not belong to the current common literature. The following is from the Westminster Gazette: In our last number there appeared a letter calling attention to the strange appearance of two lines by Miss Procter in Mr. John Davidson's new volume of poems. The editor of this paper ought to be severely castigated for admitting a charge of plagiarism without verifying it, especially when it could be tested so easily and so readily. His only excuse is that the case was adduced as a remarkable instance of unconscious plagiarism, a thing more common than is generally believed. It did not occur to the editor that Mr. Davidson could be accused of a thing so monstrous and at the same time so inconceivably foolish as to “lift” two whole lines from Miss Procter. May the curtain of the “Fifth Act ’’ be a curtain of oblivion : An absurd comedy of errors has been acted in the columns of the Spectator and in our own. Mr. John Davidson has been accused of a trick of “sub-conscious memory,” for including in his “Ballad of a Nun’ the lines— “And yet, We lost it in this daily jar and fret, And now live idle in a vain regret.” But neither the lines, nor any like them, are in Mr. Davidson's poem at all ! The following is the development of the comedy :— - Act. I. The Spectator, reviewing Mr. Davidson’s poem, said it was a new version of “A Legend of Provence,” and quoted Miss Procter's lines as above. Act II. A correspondent of the Spectator, misunder- standing, and thinking the quotation was made from Mr. Davidson, writes and says, “Why, but Mr. Davidson has been unconsciously reproducing Tennyson’s “Love is hurt with jar and fret, Love is made a vague regret.” ## p. 241 (#255) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 24. I Act III. We quote this correspondent's remarks in our columns; whereupon another correspondent writes and says, “Why, this man has not only echoed Tennyson, but actually lifted into his poem two lines solidly from Miss Procter.” Several other correspondents write to like effect. Act IV. At last it occurs to somebody to consult Mr. Davidson’s poem itself, and to look up the references generally—with the result shown in the outset of this note. Act W. Curtain, please ! WALTER BESANT. *- A -º * * FEUILLETON, A LITERARY BUBBLE. N journalism all roads lead to London. A carefully worded advertisement in the Times, offering a sub-editorship to a lady or gentle- man of education in return for a premium of sixty guineas, drew me, a young and untried member of the profession, into the metropolitan whirlpool in the summer of 1893. The preliminaries duly arranged, though not without some natural misgivings on the part of more cautious relatives and friends, I left to make the acquaintance of the editor-proprietor of the “high class weekly journal” with whose fortunes (and misfortunes) 1 was shortly to become identi- fied. My first interview with this gentleman took place in the editorial sanctum one sunny after- noon in May. He was courteous and affable, and expressed surprise at my diminutive stature and virgin countenance, my handwriting having led him to expect a bearded Hercules. From his grin of satisfaction, however, I gathered that he was not altogether displeased to find his ideal upset. Then we talked about journalism. Had I thought of turning my attention to light or serious literature ? I replied, diplomatically, that one might temper gravity with wit. He was delighted. I was a born journalist he felt sure, and only required a course of his gentle tuition to shine as a planet in the literary firma- ment. His attention knew no bounds. He must find me lodgings, take me to the Derby (this fell through (), and make me thoroughly at home in my new quarters. Meanwhile, would Itake some books with me for review P. Thus we parted on excellent terms with each other, and with our own particular selves. I had arrived on a Friday, and the high class weekly was due to appear on the Saturday. It did not reach the office until late on Monday afternoon, and, tyro as I was, my heart sank as I gazed at the insignificant pile of papers which then lay carefully stacked upon the counter. If there were 500 copies, the maximum was surely reached. Just then the proprietor bustled in. My reviews were glanced at, approved, and the great man, with almost paternal solicitude, pressed upon my acceptance a cheque for a pound, a half week's salary. I ought here to explain that my contract provided for remuneration at the rate of £2 per week, and the repayment of a proportionate amount of the premium if the engagement were closed within twelve months from the signing of the agreement. The cheque was crossed, and, having no bank account in London, I attempted to cash it through a friend in the provinces. It was returned marked “refer to drawer,” and I immediately called the attention of my Gamaliel to the matter. He hemmed and hawed, consulted his cheque-book, and finally paid me in gold, being unable to account for the “mistake.” For the next two or three weeks my two sovereigns came in with commendable regularity; then thirty shillings appeared as the price of my labour, my employer coolly explaining that he had spent the odd ten shillings on a Turkish bath. The arrears were not forthcoming till the following week, when a cheque (open, at my request) for £2 accompanied the lagging half- sovereign. On inquiry at the bank, I discovered that the cheque would not be honoured. My literary tutor was not in the least abashed when I returned with this intelligence. He smiled, and said he detected some dissimilarity between the indorsement and the name in the body of the cheque. That, he felt sure, accounted for my rebuff. Still, he pocketed the erring paper, and the arrears began to accumulate in an alarming fashion, while any actual payment was very grudgingly tendered. Meanwhile, the paper had been going from bad to worse, and the struggle to make both ends meet resulted in acts of glaring dishonesty. On one occasion, the funds having run short, and the stony heart of the printer being unmoved by promises of future payment, a week passed with- out publication. To hoodwink the advertisers, the contents of the previous week's issue were inclosed in covers bearing the current date, and forwarded to advertisers only. Whether or not this fraud was exposed I never learned. Another ingenious device was the “puffing” of minor celebrities, who, in return for an eulogistic description of their virtues, and a correspondingly convenient omission of their vices, purchased a few hundred copies of the paper from the enter- prising publisher. In the case of one “eminent,” when his order of 500 copies was found to have exhausted the available supply, a hundred or more back numbers were inserted at the bottom of the pile to complete the amount. But I should fill many columns of the Author if I attempted to describe all the tricks and ## p. 242 (#256) ############################################ 242 THE AUTHOR. subterfuges employed by this scoundrel to stave off his creditors, and to figure in the eyes of the world as a man of unblemished and unimpeachable character. He practised as a barrister, and was extremely anxious that I should, under his auspices, embrace the legal as well as the jour- nalistic professions. Had I been so weak as to yield to his wishes, he would undoubtedly have pocketed a considerable share of the fees. But I had gauged his character by this time, and forbore. I had not been long in his office before I dis- covered that I was by no means the only “pupil.” connected with the establishment. There were two or three besides myself, and I soon heard grievous complaints of growing arrears and dis- honoured cheques. My own salary, from putting in an appearance in driblets, ceased altogether, and neither by persuasion or threats did I succeed in extracting another penny from my employer, who was, in effect, a bankrupt. The paper died in due course, and we then dis- covered that the pseudo-proprietor had long since assigned the property to others. Nor could we obtain any redress. I had unfortunately neglected to have my agreement stamped, but had this been otherwise, an action at law would only have resulted in throwing good money after bad. I returned to the provinces a sadder if a wiser man; and, having lately been elected an associate of the Society of Authors, have good reason to hope that I shall henceforth be free from the predatory attacks of such wolves in sheep's clothing as the pretended proprietor of a certain “high-class London weekly.” If the publication of my own experience should succeed in placing others upon their guard, I shall at least have derived some consolation for my own unfortunate commence- ment. G. F. O. *~ - –” ,-- - --> RUSTIC READING, ESPITE all our vaunted spread of educa- tion, it cannot yet be said that Hodge has developed much literary taste, or has taken keenly to the study of fiction, except, indeed, as a personal accomplishment. In our large towns, to judge from the statistics issued by the free libraries, the working classes devour novels in enormous quantities, nor are they alto- gether bad judges of quality, for the authors most in request with them are also among the favourites of those who subscribe to Mudie’s. And the urban labourer has come to regard the Sunday paper as no less a necessary of existence than his pipe. But in the country matters are very diffe- rent. Partly from want of taste, partly from lack of opportunity, nine out of every ten farm-hands never open a book at all, and confine their reading to the single beer-stained copy of the local paper that goes from hand to hand in the bar of the public-house. This is partly due, as we have said, to lack of taste. It is almost startling to find how many there are among our village-folk who cannot read at all. A few of them have never learned to do so, the greater number acquired the art painfully and by dint of many thwacks at school, promptly to forget it when, at the age of fifteen or so, they left school for good, and began to work in the fields. Let anyone who has almost entirely for- gotten his Greek endeavour to imagine what pleasure it would give him to read Thucydides in the original, by way of beguiling his leisure hours after a hard day’s work, and he will cease to wonder at Hodge's apathetic attitude towards literature. Again, those who can read easily enough do not find much to interest them in the newspapers, while books hardly ever come into their hands. They do not—we are speaking of entirely rural districts—take the faintest interest in politics, nor do they care about trade unions, strikes, agitations, or reforms, all of which are so dear to the mind of the London artisan. You may put it down to sluggishness and stupidity if you will, and it is quite true that your rustic is not easily aroused in the direction of any reform, desirable or otherwise. But yet there is a good deal of shrewd wisdom underlying this apparent in- difference, and it proceeds not a little from the fact that in the calm, peaceful atmosphere of country life it becomes easier to see these agita- tions in just perspective, to realise more accu- rately their importance, to be less readily swept away by each fresh enthusiasm, than it is for the fevered town-dweller, overpowered by the blatant noises of rival fad-mongers, and not allowed a moment of quiet in which to think for himself. Of course there are exceptions; in every village there is the Radical workman, regarded with humorous and good-natured in- difference by the rest, who spends all his spare time in what he conceives to be the study of politics, and who is always prepared to tell you how the Prime Minister or the Home Secretary ought to act. He is great at Socialistic prophecies, and his confidence in foretelling the future is only equalled by his ignorance con- cerning the present and the past. But he is the exception, not the rule; the typical rustic is a perfect Gallio as regards politics. It is interesting to notice a use which Hodge makes of the copy of the local paper which he ## p. 243 (#257) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 243 enjoys with his pipe and beer sitting outside the Spotted Dog on a summer's evening. First, he reads carefully the title and the date, to guard against wasting his intellect on ancient history. Then, in most cases, he will turn to the cricket news. It is astonishing how keen is the interest taken in county cricket by the agricultural classes in our southern districts; many a man who has never handled a bat in his life can tell you nearly all the first-class averages for the last five years. In the north, even more attention is doubtless given in winter to the football news, but cricket is by far the greater favourite in the south. Having read out the scores, with eloquent comments, to his companions, he glances through the rest of the paper for any attractive headlines speaking of murders, fires, or inquests. Having found one of these charming accounts, he absorbs it slowly and reverently, running a finger along the print lest he lose the thread of sanguinary narrative. After this he scorns to read of the doings of Parliament or the news from foreign countries; with a sigh of satisfied contentment he hands on the paper to his next neighbour, whose study of it is conducted on precisely similar lines. And this performance, repeated once a week, represents the whole of the attention given to literature by the majority of our agricultural labourers. Mrs. Hodge's reading is a little more extensive. The good soul studies her Bible, and wonderful indeed are her interpretations of its more difficult passages. In about half the cottages, too, by the side of the Bible you will find a well-thumbed copy of the “Pilgrim's Progress,” with alarming illustrations used to terrify the children into the paths of virtue. The pictures in Fox’s “Book of Martyrs” are also employed for this purpose, and are found even more effectual) nor does Mrs. Hodge ever realise the cruelty and gross folly of this system of intimidation. The rest of the literature of the cottage will perhaps be made up of an ancient number of the Graphic (the illustrations from which are pinned about the walls), a cookery book, and the current number of the parish magazine. If the family includes a Miss Hodge of sixteen or so, that young lady is nearly sure to possess a little work on fortune- telling and another on dreams. And such is the range of the cottage library. But this almost total neglect of literature amongst the country people is due, as we said at the outset, not only, or even chiefly, to want of taste, but also to lack of opportunity. Give a country labourer a good book of adventure by a popular author, and if you can once prevail upon him to begin reading it, he will continue it and enjoy it hugely. And Mrs. Hodge, in default of better things, reads with great eagerness the mawkish and sentimental stuff found in most of our parish magazines. So that there really are symptoms of a taste for literature, were the opportunity for cultivating it only to be supplied. But the cheap editions, so accessible to the Londoner, are never seen here, never a book of any kind is on sale in the village shop. Amongst the bacon and the cheese lie copies of a dress- making journal and the local newspaper, and that is all. Surely something could and should be done to promote the sale of good and cheap literature in the country. Of course, village lending libraries have been established in many places. Sometimes they have succeeded, more often they have failed, because the books have not been wisely selected, and are of the aggressively “improving ” order. Hodge has a healthy hatred of “goody-goody "litera- ture, and it is this feeling that makes him fight shy of the lending library. But once conviuce him that you are not offering him a tract in dis- guise, and he will be willing enough to read, while to encourage and foster such a taste is a work that may safely be commended to those who are desirous of doing something towards bettering the condition and brightening the monotonous lives of our agricultural labourers. *- - --" g- > -s; BOOK TALK, HE month of January, 1895, will ever be memorable in bookish circles for the revival of the issue of books by metropolitan daily newspapers. Many years ago the Weekly Dispatch issued an atlas in parts to its readers; and of a series of illustrations of picturesque parts of the world, a number of newspapers of the second rank in England and on the continent have recently distributed no fewer than eight million copies. But the great London dailies have hitherto declined all such offers. The Daily Chronicle, however, has now taken the lead by announcing an encyclopaedic dictionary, in forty- two parts, at 6d. each. This is nothing else than Cassell’s “Encyclopædic Dictionary,” printed from a new set of plates; and as it was originally sold at seven guineas, the reduction in price is certainly striking. The Chronicle expects a sale of 200,000 copies. The Chronicle's new departure was received with great surprise, but the surprise was more than doubled when two days later the Times announced that in April it would issue an atlas in fifteen parts, at Is. each. This, in its turn, is also ## p. 244 (#258) ############################################ 244. THE AUTHOR. a publication of Messrs. Cassell's. It is the German-produced atlas, offered first at 31s. 6d. net, and afterwards at two guineas with the customary discount. We understand it is owned |by a syndicate of persons, of whom Mr. Arnold Forster is the chief. The Times, by the way, is also about to publish a serial work of fiction in its weekly edition. It remains to be seen what the publishers will say to this journalistic rivalry. When one newspaper publishes a dictionary, another an atlas, another a history of England, another a history of English literature, and so on, a series of severe blows will have been dealt at publishing firms all round. The book of the month, if it should be reached in February, will no doubt be Lord Roberts’s “Reminiscences of India.” No man living knows certain aspects of India and the Indian people so well as Lord Roberts, and the British public has good reason to feel the deepest interest in everything that he says. He fought through the entire Mutiny, and he has either shared in or directed every military move- ment or reform in India during the last thirty- five years. On some problems now pressing for solution his word should close the controversy. It goes without saying that the greatest success awaits his book if it presents any adequate picture of himself and his career. The present Tsar made a tour through the Far East in 1891, in the course of which, as will be remembered, he was only saved by the timely assistance of Prince George of Greece from assas- sination at the hands of a fanatic Japanese police- man. He had of course remarkable opportunities for seeing Eastern festivals and sights not com- monly shown, and unless the record of his travels is too severely edited, it should form an enter- taining picture. He did not, however, visit China, as the Emperor of China could not be induced to receive him with proper honours, and he would not go to Peking under other circumstances. The illustrated account of his travels will be published by Messrs. Arch. Constable and Co. within a few weeks. A book of travels and studies, to be published early in February is Mr. Henry Norman's long- promised work on the Far East. It will be called “The Peoples and Politics of the Far East,” and will contain a series of chapters on each territorial or ethnological division of that part of the world —the British Empire, France, Russia, Spain, and Portugal in the Far East; and China, Japan, FCorea, Siam, and Malaya. In all these places Mr. Norman spent a considerable time, and one part of the Far East which he explored has not been visited by any white man either before or since his journey. The book will contain sixty illustrations, chiefly from his own photographs, and four maps, and will be published in one large volume, probably at a guinea, by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin. Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster, a very young firm of publishers, have hit upon a useful idea in their series to be called “Public Men of To-day.” The following are already in preparation :-Li Hung Chang, by Professor Robert K. Douglas ; the Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes, by Edward Dicey, C.B.; the Ameer, by S. E. Wheeler; the German Emperor, by Charles Lowe ; Senor Castelar, by David Hannay. Later on we shall have President Cleveland, Signor Crispi, Lord Cromer, and M. Stambuloff, The past month has been an eventful one for Theosophists, so far as the world of publishing is concerned. Not only have the Westminster Gazette and the Daily Chronicle treated the subject, but Dr. Walter Leaf has published, through Messrs. Dongmans, an abridged translation, on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, of M. Solovyoff's book, “A Modern Priestess of Isis.” This, it need hardly be said, is an exposure of Mme. Blavatsky; while Mr. Arthur Lillie's “Mme. Blavatsky and her Theosophy,” published by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., is another stout volume devoted to “the most suc- cessful creed-maker of the last three hundred years.” University men, both of this country and the United States, should read Dr. George Birkbeck Hill’s “Harvard College, by an Oxonian.” It is an admirable account of the great American University, and, considering that it is the work of a visitor, it is a marvel of research and insight. The American Press has praised it highly, and we are astonished to see it dismissed by the Athenæum in one line. A special word is due to the completion of Professor Skeat's Oxford edition of Chaucer. It is dangerous to prophesy finality for any work, but it hardly seems likely that any edition of Chaucer in English can supersede this ideal one. The last volume is the sixth, but there is still to be a supplementary volume containing “The Testament of Love,” and other works which have been generally attributed to Chaucer. Mr. Douglas Sladen's volume on Canada will appear during February. It is not a discussion of the political questions or economic prospects in Canada, but a picturesque description of Canada as a part of the imperial route round the world. That is, it will deal chiefly, we understand, with the Canada of the Canadian Pacific Railway. ## p. 245 (#259) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2.45 Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden are the pub- lishers, and the book will be lavishly illus- trated. Two modern novels to appear during the coming month will be looked for with interest. One of them is “The Woman Who Did,” by Mr. Grant Allen, to be published by Mr. John Lane. Mr. Allen has hitherto consulted, in writing his fiction, what he has believed to be the taste of the public ; in this book he is under- stood to have consulted his own. He has been chaffed a good deal for having said that under present conditions of book-producing, a novelist was prevented from writing a work of art. In this book he has, we believe, defied the conven- tions sufficiently at all events to show his idea of a work of art in fiction, The curious title, by the way, is suggested by a conversation which occurs in the narrative, one man remarking that no woman would do such a thing, and the other retorting that he knew a woman who did. The second novel, called “Gallia,” by Miss Ménie Muriel Dowie, is the first book she has written since “A Girl in the Karpathians.” Gallia, the heroine, is the daughter of a Secre- tary of State for the Colonies, and the novel is a study of the character of one type of modern woman under such circumstances as those in which the life of his daughter would necessarily be spent. It is a one-volume novel, and will be published by Messrs. Methuen at 6s. The Queen has been pleased to accept the iatest volume of the new Sussex magazine, called Southward Ho / with a presentation poem by Mr. Charles William Dalmon. - Our readers will be interested to hear of some results of publishing one's own book that have just come to our knowledge. We are not at liberty at present to give the name of the book or the author, but we may say that it is a large volume, printed in admirable and almost lavish style, and sold by one of the first firms of London publishers for the author, on commission. The price is 18s., and the first edition, consisting of 1500 copies, has now practically been sold. The cost of production was, roughly, 3:300, and the net profit to the author, who has given away an extravagant number of copies, will be £300 also. In fact, his balance-sheet will be better than this, for the cost of production is rather less than we have stated, while the returns will even- tually be rather more. Ten per cent. On 1500 copies at 18s. would be £135. Verbum sap. A new style of literary advertisement has made its appearance this month. Mr. Fisher Unwin has issued a booklet, costing a shilling, called “Good Reading: About Many Books, mostly by their Authors.” It is, indeed, more than a booklet, for it contains 252 pages and upwards of forty portraits. The publisher has requested the authors of the principal books he has issued this season to send him an account of how, when, and why their book, &c., and they have responded liberally. Their contributions and photographs form the little volume. Among the contributors are John Oliver Hobbes, S. R. Crockett, Sir Chas. Gavan Duffy, Mrs. Bradlaugh Bonner, Dr. Jessopp, Swift MacNeill, M.P., W. M. Conway, Henry Norman, Grant Allen, J. J. Jusserand, Alfred Perceval Graves, Louis Becke, Richard Watson Gilder, and George R. Sims. The book is, of course, intended to advertise the wares of the firm, but many of his authors have paid their publishers the compliment of sending him long and interesting reminiscences. It is addressed “To the Booksellers,” to remind them how important it is that merely “cheap reading” should not oust “good reading ” from the home shelves. Good Words begins in its present issue a series of papers by Mr. John Murray, called “Some Authors I have known.” It is needless to remind our readers how many of the greatest modern authors Mr. John Murray has known, either as his own friends or his father's. Some day, perhaps, an author will write on “Some Publishers I have known.” Mr. John Lane announces “The Story of Venus and Tannhäuser,” by Mr. Aubrey Beardsley, with twenty full-page illustrations. The subject obviously lends itself to both the merits and the gross defects of Mr. Beardsley’s style, and we can only hope that for this occasion at least he will have chosen to fling away the worser half of his talent. - Messrs. Longumans and Co. have in preparation a volume by Mr. Wilfred Ward on “Cardinal Wiseman’s Life and Times,” to which Mr. Gladstone, Lord Acton, and Cardinal Vaughan will contribute. Mr. Ward's volumes on cognate personalities have been among the most interest- ing volumes of their class that have been published for many years. - Messrs. Macmillan announce a new series of “Illustrated Standard Novels,” attractively printed, and priced at 3s. 6d. Every novel will have a prefatory notice by a critic of distinction, and will contain some forty illustrations. Among the first announcements are : “Castle Rackrent ‘’ and “The Absentee,” by Maria Edgeworth, with introduction by Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie; “Japhet, in Search of a Father,” by Captain Marryat, introduction by David Hannay; “Tom Cringle's Dog,” by Michael Scott, introduction by ## p. 246 (#260) ############################################ 246 THE AUTHOR. Mowbray Morris; “Maid Marian * and “Crotchet Castle,” by Thomas Love Peacock, introduction by George Saintsbury; “Lavengro.” by George Borrow, introduction by Augustine Birrell, M.P.; “Sense and Sensibility,” by Jane Austen, intro- duction by Austin Dobson. The month of February may possibly see the illustrated “Life and Correspondence” of the late Dante G. Rossetti. Messrs. Ellis and Elvey will publish the correspondence, which extends practically over Rossetti's entire lifetime. “A Year of Sport and Natural History,” edited by Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, and published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall at a guinea, will appear in February. It is to be a sort of Badminton Library in one volume, and will treat of shooting, hunting, fishing coursing, &c., classified according to the months of the year in which these sports are pursued. Mr. Sonnenschein’s “Supplement” to his well- known and indeed invaluable work on “The Best Reading ” is now due. It is unnecessary to speak of the importance of this work. Everybody who is engaged in research of any kind has constant recourse to it. Mr. Frankfort Moore, author of “A Grey Eye or So?’ and “I forbid the Banns,” is about to change the subject of his fiction. Messrs. EIutchinson and Co, announce for immediate publication a novel by him called “The Secret of the Court,” dealing with life in the East. The daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Miss Margaret Benson, has written a small volume, illustrated by herself, of sketches and studies of animals in their domestic relations. It is entitled “Subject to Vanity,” and Messrs. Methuen are the publishers. The daughter of Lord Salisbury, by the way, Lady Gwendolen Cecil, is now stated to be the author of the ghost story, “The Closed Cabinet,” in last month’s Blackwood. Everybody who writes for the press should procure a copy of the tiny pamphlet called “Rules for Compositors and Readers,” compiled by Mr. Horace Hart, printer to the University of Oxford, and giving definite and technical instructions regarding spelling, punctuation, and type-setting of disputed and doubful words and expressions, founded upon the “New English Dictionary.” Mr. Hart offers to send a copy to any printer's reader who applies for one, but no doubt other people could secure copies by a very small pay- ment. It is in the highest degree desirable that such authoritative uniformity should be intro- duced into our books and newspapers. Mr. John Lane has issued privately a very charming reprint, by Messrs. T. and A. Constable, of Edinburgh, of the “Life of Sir Thomas Bodley, written by Himself,” after whom Mr. Lane has named his publishing house. In a preface he gives an account of the founding of his business with Mr. Mathews, and its development into its present form. M. Pierre Loti has just issued in Paris another of his dreamy descriptions of the East, under the title of “Le Désert.” Although it is not yet issued to the public, it bears upon its title-page the legend, “twenty-eighth edition.” The third volume of the complete “Edinburgh Stevenson " has just appeared. It is the second volume of the sub-division “Travels and Excur- sions.” - Mr. E. F. Knight, well known for his admirable book on the Pamirs, called “Where Three Empires Meet,” has published through Messrs. Longmans, at 2s. 6d., an interesting description of the condi- tion and prospects of Matabeleland and Mashona- land, under the title “Rhodesia of To-Day.” In it he promises a history of the Chartered Company. The principal books of the past month are:– “The Life and Correspondence of Sir Bartle Frere,” by Mr. John Martineau (2 vols.: Murray); the late Mr. Walter Pater’s “Greek Studies: a Series of Essays * (Macmillan); Mr. G. A. Sala's “Reminiscences” (2 vols. : Cassell); Mr. Percy Fitzgerald’s “Memoirs of an Author’’ (2 vols. : Bentley); Mr. Gosse's new edition of Smith's “Nollekens and His Times,” with an essay on Georgian Sculpture by the editor (Bentley); “Forty Years at the Post-office,” by Mr. F. E. Baines, C.B. (2 vols. : Bentley); Mr. Horatio F. Brown’s “John Addington Symonds " (2 vols. : Nimmo); volume II. of the “State Papers relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada,” edited by Professor Laughton for the Navy Records Society; “The Hillyars and the Burtons,” the second volume in the reprint of Henr Kingsley, edited by Mr. Clement Shorter (Ward, Lock, and Co.); and Mr. George Saintsbury's “Corrected Impressions: Essays on Victorian Writers ” (Heinemann). Mr. Edward Clodd, the President of the Folk- lore Society and of the Omar Khayyam Club, whose two little books on “The Childhood of the World” and “The Childhood of Religions” have been almost classics for years, will be represented among the authors of February by two new works of a similar size and character. The first, “A Primer of Evolution,” will be published by Messrs. Longmans; and the second, “The Story ## p. 247 (#261) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 247 of Man,” will form one of a series in preparation for George Newnes Limited. The first of these affords an illustration of the practical working of the American Copyright Act, as it is being manufactured in America for the British market. “A Blameless Woman’’ is the title of John Strange Winter's next novel, to be published, in . one volume, at 6s., by Messrs. F. W. White and Co. early in February. It is by far the longest story that the author of “Bootle's Baby" has yet written, being her first novel of three- volume length. The story is mainly a study In marriage. Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden, Limited, will publish innmediately a new volume by Mr. George Meredith, entitled “The Tale of Chloe ; and other Stories.” It will consist of the famous “Lost Stories” of Mr. Meredith, without which, Mr. J. M. Barrie has said, no edition of his works can pretend to be complete. The publishers will also issue an édition de luate of the same volume, beautifully printed on hand-made paper, and artistically bound, half-parchment. Price 25s. net. A unique feature of this large-paper edition is that it will contain as a frontispiece a recent privately taken portrait of Mr. Meredith, reproduced by the photogravure process by Messrs. Walker and Boutall; also a photogravure of the Châlet at Box Hill, where Mr. Meredith does the great part of his literary work. The edition, will consist of 250 numbered copies only for England and America. The author who writes under the name of “Hilarion ” has in the press a new book entitled “Greece : Her Hopes and Troubles.” A short story, entitled “Teddy,” by the same writer, appeared in the December number of “The Monthly Packet,” and his novel, “A Jersey Witch,” has been translated into Swedish, and is now running as a serial in Norra Skane one of the chief newspapers of Sweden, in which “Gräfin Kinsky,” also by “Hilarion,” appeared some time ago. The author of “A Forgotten Great English- man,” Mr. James Baker, is about to contribute a series of articles upon Egypt to some important journals, and has just left England for that country. He sailed on the 12th ult. from Plymouth by the ss. Austral. Sir William Charley, Q.C., D.C.L., has just published (Sampson Low, Marston, and Com- pany) a historical vindication of the House of Lords, which should be read by everybody interested in the subject—by those who defend the House of Lords, and by those who wish to pull it down ; the former will find arguments, the latter will learn to moderate their statements. It is, indeed, astonishing how loose and ignorant is the common kind of talk about the House of Lords. What is claimed to be the most complete history of modern art which has ever been attempted, will shortly be published by Messrs. Henry and Co. It is from the pen of Dr. Richard Muther, keeper of the Royal collection of prints and engravings at Munich, and will be a work of considerably over two thousand pages. The title will be “The History of Modern Painting.” The story opens with the English art of the eighteenth century, and treats at length of the English painters and illustrators of the present century. France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and Spain occupy a share of the author's space ; America and American painters living abroad come in for due notice ; and even the influence of Japan on European art has not been overlooked. The work will be profus-ly illustrated. It will be issued both in parts and volumes. “The Old Pastures” is the pleasant and attractive title given by Mrs. Leith Adams to her new serial story, which will begin in House- hold Words On Jan. 26 In the sonnet by the Rev. John Lascelles, quoted in our last number, there is an error. In the last line, “and stooped and kissed the dust” should be “and stooped and kissed my dust.” Mr. Headon Hill, the author of “The Rajah's Second Wife, &c., is correcting the proofs of a new volume of short stories shortly to be issued by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden Limited. The same author has also just completed and delivered a serial novel, written to the order of Mr. C. Arthur Pearson, of Pearson's Weekly, which will commence in August, and run through twenty issues of that journal. The “Confessions of a Poet’” (Hutchinson and Co.), by Prof. Harald Williams, is a volume of verse, the third volume which this poet has pro- duced. Most modern poets appear with a little dainty volume of tiny poems. Prof. Williams comes with a volume of closely printed lines, 500 pages in length. We cannot in these pages review it as it deserves, but those of our readers who buy and read new books of verse we recom- mend to make a note of this, and not to be deterred by its length. Mr. Percival H. Almy will produce imme- diately a volume of verse called “Scintilla Carminis.” The publisher is Mr. Elliot Stock. The price of the work will be 3s. 6d. ## p. 248 (#262) ############################################ 248 THE AUTHOR. AN AMERICAN TRIBUTE TO STEVENSON. (From the New York Daily Tribune, Jan. 5.) HE Robert Louis Stevenson memorial meeting at Music Hall last night proved to be a worthily appropriate expression of . the grief that the death of the great romancer has caused among his numerous readers and friends in this city. On the stage were the president of the evening, Edmund Clarence Stedman, and most of the vice-presidents, among whom were included: William Dean Howells, Frank R. Stockton, Laurence Hutton, Professor George Woodberry, Moncure D. Conway, David Christie Murray, Joseph B. Gilder, Brander Matthews, Professor William M. Sloane, Richard Watson Gilder, FI. C. Brunner, Charles A. Dana, Professor T. R. Lounsbury, William Winter, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Henry Stoddard, George W. Cable, E. L. Godkin, Henry Marquand, Professor Francis H. Stoddard. George Parsons Lathrop, Edward Eggleston, Walter H. Page, and many others. Mr. Stedman’s address was as follows: “Such an assemblage—in the chief city in the Western World—is impressive from the fact that we have not come together for any civic, or political, or academic purpose. I have been thinking of its significance in view of con- siderations quite apart from the sorrowful cause of our gathering. But of these this is not the time to speak. On its face, this demonstration is a rare avowal of the worth of literary invention. It shows a profound regard for the career of a writer who delighted us, a sense of loss instan- taneously awakened by the news of his death. For the moment we realise how thoroughly art and song and letters have become for us an essential part of life—a common ground where- upon we join our human love and laughter and tears, and at times forego all else to strew laurel and myrtle for one who has moved us to these signs and emotions. Yes, we are brought together by tidings, almost from the Antipodes, of the death of a beloved writer in his early prime. The work of a romancer and poet, of a man of insight and feeling, which may be said to have begun but fifteen years ago, has ended, through fortune's sternest cyllicism, just as it seemed entering upon even more splendid achievement. A star surely rising, as we thought, has suddenly gone out. A radiant invention shines no more ; the voice is hushed of a creative mind, expressing its fine inaginings in this, our peerless English tongue. His expression was so original and fresh from Nature's treasure-house, so prodigal and various its too brief flow, so consummate through an inborn gift made perfect by unsparing toil, that mastery of the art by which Robert Louis Stevenson conveyed those imaginings to us so picturesque, yet wisely ordered, his own romantic life—and now, at last, so pathetic a loss which rene WS The Virgilian cry The sense of tears in mortal things that this assemblage has gathered at the first summons in tribute to a beautiful genius, and to avow that with the putting out of that bright intelligence the reading world experiences a more than wonted grief. Stevenson was not of our own people, though he sojourned with us and knew our con- tinent from east to west as few of this large audience can know it. But a British author now, by statutory edict, is of our own. Certainly his fame is often made by the American people—yes, and sometimes unmade. Theirs is the great amphitheatrum. They are the ultimate court of review. All the more we are here “for the honour of literature;” and so much the more it is mani- fest that the writer who lightens our hearts, who takes us into some new wonderland of his dis- covery, belongs, as I say, to the world. His name and fame are, indeed, a special glory of the country that bore him, and a vantage to his native tongue. But by just so much as his gift is absolute, and therefore universal, he belongs in the end to the world at large. Above all, it is the recounter—and the Greeks were clear-headed in deeming him a maker, whether his story be cast in prose or verse—who becomes the darling of mankind. This has been so whether among the Grecian isles, or around the desert camp fires, or in the gardens of Italy; and is so when he brings us his romance, as in our modern day, from Our Pacific Eldorado, or from Indian barracks and jungle, or from the land of the Stuarts, or, like Stevenson and our own Melville before him, from palm-fringed beaches of the Southern Sëa,S. Judged by the sum of his interrupted work, Stevenson had his limitations. But the work was adjusted to the scale of a possibly long career. As it was, the good fairies brought all gifts, save that of health, to his cradle, and the gift-spoiler wrapped them in a shroud. Thinking of what his art seemed leading to—for things that would be the crowning efforts of other men seemed prentice-work in his case—it was not safe to bound his limitations. And now it is as if Sir Walter, for example, had died at forty-four, with the Waverley novels just begun. In originality, in the conception of action and situation, which, however fantastic, are seemingly within reason, once we breathe the air of his Fancyland; in the ## p. 249 (#263) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 249 union of bracing and heroic character and adven- ture; in all that belongs to tale-writing pure and simple, his gift was exhaustless. No other such charmer, in this wise, has appeared in this gene- ration. We thought the stories, the fairy tales, had all been told, but “Once upon a time” meant for him our own time, and the grave and gay magic of Prince Florizel in dingy London or Sunny France. All this is but one of his provinces, however distinctive. Besides, how he buttressed his romance with apparent truth ! Since Defoe, none had a better right to say: “There was one thing I determined to do when I began this long story, and that was to tell out everything as it befell.” One or two points are made clear as we look at the shining calendar of Stevenson's productive years. It strengthens one in the faith that work of the first order cannot remain obscure. If put forth unheralded it will be found out and will make its way. In respect of dramatic force, exuberant fancy and ceaselessly varying imagination, on the one hand, and on the other of a style wrought in the purest, most virile and most direct temper of English narrative prose, there has been no latter- day writing more effective than that of Stevenson's longer fictions—“Kidnapped,” with its sequel, “David Balfour; ” “The Master of Ballantrae,” and that most poetic of absolute romances, “Prince Otto.” But each of his shorter tales as well, and of his essays — charged with indi- viduality —has a quality, an air of distinction, which, even though the thing appeared without signature, differentiated it from other people's best, set us to discovering its authorship, and made us quick to recognise that master-hand elsewhere. Thus I remember delighting in two fascinating stories of Paris in the time of Francois Willon, anonymously reprinted by a New York paper from a London magazine. They had all the quality, all the distinction, of which I speak. Shortly after- ward I met Mr. Stevenson, then in his twenty- ninth year, at a London club, where we chanced to be the only loungers in an upper room. To my surprise he opened a conversation—you know there could be nothing more unexpected than that in London—and thereby I guessed that he was as much, if not as far, away from home as I was. He asked many questions concerning “the States; ” in fact, this was but a few months before he took his steerage passage for our shores. I was drawn to the young Scotsman at once. He seemed more like a New Englander of Holmes's Brahmin caste, who might have come from Harvard or Yale. But as he grew animated I thought, as others have thought, and as one would suspect from his name, that he must have Scandinavian blood in his veins—that he was of the heroic, restless, strong and tender Viking strain, and certainly from that day his works and wanderings have not belied the surmise. He told me that he was the author of that charming book of gipsying in the Cevennes, which just then had gained for him some attentions from the literary set. But if I had known that he had written those two stories of sixteenth century Paris—as I learned afterwards when they reappeared in the “New Arabian Nights” —I would not have bidden him goodbye as to an “unfledged comrade,” but would have wished indeed to “grapple him to my soul with hooks of steel.” Another point is made clear as crystal by his life itself. He had the instinct, and he had the courage, to make it the servant, and not the master, of the faculty within him. I say he had the courage, but so potent was his birth-spell that doubtless he could not otherwise. Nothing commonplace sufficed him. A regulation stay-at- home life would have been fatal to his art. The ancient mandate, “ Follow thy Genius,” was well obeyed. Unshackled freedom of person and habit was a pre-requisite; as an imaginary artist he felt—Nature keeps her poets and story-tellers children to the last—he felt, if he ever reasoned it out, that he must gang his own gait, whether it seemed promising, or the reverse, to kith, kin, or alien. So his wanderings were not only in the most natural but in the wisest consonance with his creative dreams. Wherever he went, he found something essential for his use, breathed upon it, and returned it fourfold in beauty and worth. The longing of the Norseman for the tropic, of the pine for the palm, took him to the South Seas. There, too, strange secrets were at Once revealed to him, and every island became an “Isle of Voices.” Yes, an additional proof of Stevenson's artistic mission lay in his careless, careful, liberty of life; in that he was an artist no less than in his work. He trusted to the impulse which possessed him—that which so many of us have conscientiously disobeyed, and too late have found themselves in reputable bondage to circumstances. But those whom you are waiting to hear will speak more fully of all this—some of them with the interest of their personal remembrance— with the strength of their affection for the man beloved by young and old. In the strange and sudden intimacy with an author's record which death makes sure, we realise how notable is the list of Stevenson's works produced since 1878; more than a score of books—not fiction alone, but also essays, criticism, biography, drama, even history, and, as I need not remind you, that spontaneous ## p. 250 (#264) ############################################ 250 THE AUTHOR. poetry which comes only from a true poet. None can have failed to observe that, having recreated the story of adventure, he seemed in his later fiction to interfuse a subtler purpose— the search for character, the analysis of mind and soul. Just here his summons came. Between the sunrise of one day and the sunset of the next he exchanged the forest study for the mountain grave. There, as he had sung his own wish, he lies “under the wide and starry sky.” If there was something of his own romance, so exquisitely capricious, in the life of Robert Louis Stevenson, so, also, the poetic conditions are satisfied in his death, and in the choice of his burial-place upon the top of Pala. As for the splendour of that maturity upon which we counted, now never to be fulfilled on sea or land, I say—as once before, when the great New- England romancer passed in the stillness of the night: What though his work unfinished lies P The rainbow’s arch fades out in upper air ; The shiming cataract half-way down the height Breaks into mist; the haunting strain, that fell On listeners unaware, Ends incomplete, but through the starry night The ear still waits for what it did not tell. Half bent *- As 2-se r- - -e CORRESPONDENCE I.—How LONG TO WAIT P J. OUILD not all editors agree upon a certain C set of rules, such as these ? All MSS. to be sent with stamped addressed envelopes, months allowed for reading and decision. A proof sent upon accept- ance, and the MS. paid for at the end of the month (or some other given time). Where MSS. are not returned let a certain time be stated, after which the author may conclude that his work is cremated; or, when rejected MSS. are not returned, let it be noted that acceptance will be notified to the author within a given time, otherwise he may conclude that the MS. is destroyed. It certainly is a grievance that authors have no means of ascertaining how long they must wait for news, good or bad, of their MSS., or when they are to consider that, having a copy, they may sent it elsewhere. * II. “If I send a contribution to a paper which declines to return rejected communications, how am I to know whether it is relegated to the waste paper basket or reserved for future use? And am I at liberty, after a month say, to offer my jeu d'esprit elsewhere, or must it be lost for ever ??” [There is no custom by which a contributor may be guided in such a case. The best way would be (1) always to keep a copy; (2) to write, after a month or so, and inform the editor that the author of such a paper will send it to another editor unless he hears that it is accepted. A copy of this letter should be kept.] II.-A MEMORIAL TO ROBERT Louis STEVENSON. I wish to call your attention to the following letter, which appeared in the Westminster Gazette of the 17th ult., in reference to a memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson. As “a rider” to the letter, may I suggest that a committee be at once formed, say, of half a dozen or more, of the best living names in literature, to discuss and carry out the scheme, which I think must commend itself to the followers of literature and to the public. Will you, Sir, set the ball still further rolling P THOMAS R. MACQUOID. The Edge, Tooting Common. Robert Louis Stevenson’s inimitable work will keep his memory green ; but his countless readers owe him for this work a large debt of gratitude, which they are bound to pay to his memory. This tribute, I think, should be paid not in the form of a statue or of any work of art, but rather by the founding of some institution connected with literature—which has been made so much richer by this master's work. Will not some of our leading authors and others form a committee to carry out this idea, and when a sufficient sum is collected to determine on the nature of the memorial P It seems to me a large sum would soon be raised, even by small contributions, from Stevenson’s admirers. THOMAS R. MACQUOID. The Edge, Tooting Common, Jan. I5. III.-A WHOLE ARTICLE QUOTED. Some years ago, my friend, the editor of the North China Daily News at Shanghai, requested me to write for him an account of a visit paid by me to Lord Tennyson at Farringford House, Freshwater. The article was published in due course, and the editor sent me a few reprints of it in proof form, which I have kept by me ever Sll) Ce, One evening last December I happened to take up a copy of Galignani’s Messenger. Conceive my astonishment at finding in it my own article headed “Reminiscences of Tennyson,” and intro- duced by a statement that “A correspondent sends us the following interesting account of a ## p. 251 (#265) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 25 I visit,” &c. l I immediately wrote to the editor claiming the article as my own, inclosing slips of the original reprint from the North China Daily News, signed B., together with my card, and requesting the insertion of my protest. No notice whatever was taken, After waiting more than a week I wrote again, with precisely the same result. Now, if the editor of Galignani’s Messenger had been duped by his “correspondent,” he would surely have lost no time in exposing the fact, and doing justice to the real author. As he did not do so, am I unreasonable in attributing his dis- courtesy to the very possible fact that my article was simply “conveyed ” to the columns of the Messenger in his own office, and that his obliging “Correspondent,” is a myth? FREDERIC H. BALFOUR. Willa, Carlandrea, San Remo, Jan. 1895. Since the above was written, the following paragraph has appeared in Galignani : We are requested to state that Mr. Frederic H. Balfour, formerly of Shanghai, was the author of the interesting article entitled “Reminiscences of Tennyson,” published in our columns on the 26th ult. This explanation explains nothing. It does not acknowledge the fact that the paper was taken from the North China Daily News, and it makes it appear as if Mr. Balfour had sent the article to the Messenger. IV.-AMERICAN REPRINTs. The other day a friend, who has occasion to see some of the American papers, saw in one of them the announcement of a New York publisher offer- ing several recent successful English novels at 20 cents, a copy. He wrote for four—“The Yellow Aster,” “Dodo,” “Esther Waters,” and another. I told him he had thrown his money away, but, much to my astonishment, he has just received the books. They have come through the post in an ordinary wrapper. One would like to know (1) whether this sort of thing is done to any extent; (2) whether there is any way of stopping H. J. A. it. W.—EARLY EDITIONS OF By RoN. May I ask through the columns of the Author if first or early editions of Byron's works are scarce or of any value P I have what appears to be a first edition of “The Prisoner of Chillon,” in a brown paper cover, and published in 1816. It contains an advertisement “Published this day, in 8vo., 5s. 6d., a Third Canto of ‘Childe FIarold.’” With “The Prisoner of Chillon’’ are published a “Sonnet,” “Stanzas to —,” 5 “Darkness,” “Churchill's Grave,” “The Dream,” “The Incantation,” and “Prometheus.” I have also editions of “The Bride of Abydos,” and “The Giaour;” the former a second edition, the latter a fifth, published in 1813. In my edition of “Mazeppa,” which appears with “The Ode to Venice,” there is appended a weird story in prose called “A Fragment,” and dated June 17, 1816. It deals with a strange and mysterious incident, which would seem to have happened to Lord Byron himself, as it is told in his own person. I should like to know if this “Fragment” is generally bound up with Lord Byron's poems ? It is not to be found in a complete edition which I have. I do not remember seeing it anywhere else than at the end of this poem of “ Mazeppa,” printed in 1810. # may be that some readers of the Author may be able and willing to give the information I seek. CHARLES D. BELL. The Rectory, Cheltenham, Jan. I I, I895. VI.-IIITERARY PENSIONs. Would it be going outside the province of the Author, or I may say the Society of Authors, if they strive to bring before Parliament the question of literary pensions, both as regards the inadequacy of the amount at present distributed and the way it is apportioned P This matter has been forcibly brought to my mind through the call at my office some time back of a technical writer asking for a donation owing to his destitute circumstances. This gentleman some years ago wrote several impor- tant engineering books, which were accepted as standard works, and I have no hesitation in saying that they have been of absolute money value, not only to this country but to the world at large. Owing to the necessarily limited circu- lation of purely technical works it is impossible for the writers thereof to make much money directly from them, and if they have no other vocation they may, if lucky, develop into a technical publisher's literary hack—if not, starve, In a wealthy country like England the amount set apart for literary pensions, and for helping such cases as I have described, appears to me to be absolutely beggarly, and a standing disgrace when we bear in mind the vast sums that are annually lavished in other ways. Is there no way of altering this, or at any rate trying to ? M. PowIS BALE. *º-º-º-º-e ## p. 252 (#266) ############################################ 252 THE AUTHOR. VII.-REVIEWING. I trust you will not consider it an impertinence on my part in writing to you upon a subject which, after all, has some importance with respect to the vast reading community of England. I mean the art of criticism, and more particularly that section of it which has to do with modern fiction. It is a custom in these days, in lieu of careful and legitimate criticism, to provide a mere summary of a book, to lay bare the plot and motive of the story—the very soul and nervous system. To illustrate my point I will refer only to “The Manxman,” the thorough appreciation of which has been quite spoilt for me owing to the fact that I have already gathered from certain newspaper reviews of the story, a concise précis thereof, and in this case one's chagrin and disappointment is especially keen, because “The Manxman ’’ is unquestionably one of the noblest efforts in fiction of the present generation. Now this certainly seems to me utterly unfair, both to the author and his readers, for it must, to some extent at all events, detract from the popularity and kudos that would otherwise accrue to the former, as it very certainly lessens the ardour and interest of the latter, who is forewarned of every turn of event, and consequently misses one half of the interest in the development of character and plot as the story progresses. Surely, it is not beyond the wit of man to estimate a novel, to decide upon its quality and claims for popular favour, and so forth, without undraping and laying bare its very skeleton. *- a -º a- - - THE LATE JOHN O'NEILL, E have to record the death of a member of the Society who took the deepest interest in its work, and has from time to time communicated papers of great interest to these columns. Only a few days before his death he offered the editor a collection of notes on literary matters. The following notice of his life and work is from the Times of Jan. 2 I : Mr. John O'Neill, who died a few days ago at Selling, in Kent, was a man of rare and recondite erudition. He began his career in the War Office, where his ability caused him to be often selected for difficult work lying outside the routine of the department. After retiring on his pension he was selected by the Foreign Office as Accountant- General to the newly appointed British Govern- ment of Cyprus. He solved to the complete satisfaction of Sir Garnet Wolseley, the first Governor, the difficult problem of evolving order out of the complicated fiscal difficulties left by the Ottoman administration of the island. Eleven different currencies had to be dealt with and reduced to a common denomination, without injury to the revenues, to commerce, or private interests, and this task Mr. O'Neill most success- fully achieved. Endowed with an exceptional faculty for mastering languages, he made a special study of Japanese, and the grammar he compiled in that difficult tongue was adopted by the Government of the Mikado when the work of reconstituting the educational system of Japan was resolved upon. For many years Mr. O'Neill was a constant contributor to philological and literary journals in London and Paris; he was a recognised authority on Provençal literature and the Provençal languge, as well as on the medieval literature of France. Recently he published, through Mr. Quaritch, the first volume of “The Night of the Gods,” a work in which he em- bodied the results of his lifelong study of the origins of religions, not only among the Aryan and Semitic races, but among the Chinese, Japa- nese, and Mexicans. The second and concluding volume of this work is in the press, and will shortly be published. *– 2 --> -* THE REWARDS OF LITERATURE. I have just heard from Smith and Elder about the publication of my two volumes on the Catholic Revival. They offer me 3150. In respect to “Renaissance in Italy,” I have already received £950. When, then, I have brought out these two volumes, I shall have had in all 31 IOO for this long bit of work. Allowing for periods in which I was unfit to work, periods in which I sought a change of work, I find that I have spent eleven years upon this task, and pretty hard years of daily labour. The education which enabled me to attempt it was a very costly one, and the abilities which qualified me for it, though not first-rate, were at least unusual in their combination of many-sided intelligence with acquired knowledge and literary style. I have then been paid at the rate of £100 per annum; but I must deduct at least £50 per annum from my gains for books and travel, quite indispensable to the production. This I reckon as really far below the just allowance. Say, then, I have received £50 a year during the eleven best years of life for the eaecution of a laborious work, which implied an earpensive educa- tion and unusual cast of intellect. The pay is about equal to the wages of a third-class merchant's clerk or a second class butler, the latter being also found in food and lodging.—From the “Life of John Addington Symons. 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. 05 Issue 09 (February 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 09 (February 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-02-01-The-Author-5-9 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/272/1895-01-01-The-Author-5-8.pdf cbe508de5139aa134e0b80d0c0bfbf8d 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) 1895-01-01 Volume 5 Issue 8 Pages Page range in volume 201–224 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950101 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESAN. T. VoI. W.-No. 8.] JANUARY 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſoressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. t *- 2a, 2=== EDITORIAL ANNOUNCEMENT, N the recommendation of many members of the Society it has been decided to discontinue the monthly list of new books and new editions. Those, it is urged, who wish for this list may find it day by day in the daily papers, week by week in the Spectator, the Athenæum, and the Publishers’ Circular. Our space, which is limited, will be thus relieved to the extent of three, or four, and even six pages. Two or three other small changes will it is hoped add to the value and the attractiveness of the Author. At the same time, we shall not lose sight of the fact that the chief raison d'être of the paper is the maintenance and defence of literary property from the author's point of view, and that, with this object, the paper will continue to publish cases, law suits, and legal opinions bearing on literary property. The editor begs his readers to communicate any experiences of their own, the publication of which will promote the welfare of literary men and women. It must be remembered that the readiest and surest way to abolish the ills of which we most complain is publicity. EDITOR. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. WOL. W. WARNINGS AND ADWICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.—It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £1 O must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the 'secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at mo ea pense to themselves ea:cept the cost of the stamp. 4. AscERTAIN WEAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH sides BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- mess whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. T 2 ## p. 202 (#216) ############################################ 2O2 THE AUTHOR, Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.—Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS. —-Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY, I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Senºl to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. *- = 2=º THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby given that in all cases where there is no current account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre- spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department" for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted ” has been opened. Members anxious to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com- municate with the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. NOTICES. HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate ## p. 203 (#217) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2O3 to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest P Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production " are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-* -º LITERARY PROPERTY, I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. HE sudden death of Sir John Thompson has probably put off the consideration of the Canadian claims for a time. A memorial on the subject will be drawn up by the committee after the Christmas and New Year Vacation. Meantime, the following is a resumé of the whole Case. It appeared in the Times of Dec. I I, and is here reproduced in full, by special permission, for which we record our best thanks:— “The history of the discussion extends over no less a period than fifty years, beginning with the Imperial Copyright Act of 1842, and the details have been made the subject of so much argument on either side that there is, unfortunately, little room to hope for much modification of opposite opinion. Half a century of contention, carried on chiefly by means of official correspondence that tends to grow more voluminous year by year as the means of com- munication become more rapid, has remained practically barren of result. The Canadian copy- right question, with certain modifications deemed wholly insufficient by the Canadian Government, has remained almost where it was placed in 1842. The incidents which have marked its progress are so few that they can be catalogued in a para- graph ; the arguments to which they have given rise demand some courage for their mastery on the part of the student of colonial history. “Briefly, the principal facts which need to be taken note of in relation to Canadian copyright are as follows: The Imperial Copyright Act of 1842 gives copyright throughout the whole of Her Majesty dominions to any book published in the United Kingdom, whether it be printed or not in the United Kingdom, or whether it be written by a British subject or not. The intention was manifestly to provide that British literature should have free circulation through British territory. As a matter of fact, the conditions of trade in the United Kingdom were such that the editions published under the protection of the Copyright Act were too expensive for the colonial market, and colonial readers, instead of being freely supplied with British books, were almost entirely deprived of them. To remedy this evil an Imperial Act of 1847, known as the Foreign Reprints Act, provided that, so long as the Imperial Government were satisfied that sufficient protection was given to the author's rights in any given colony, the prohibition to permit the entry of cheap foreign reprints enforced by the Act of 1842 might by Order in Council be suspended. Under this Act the Canadian Government imposed a nominal author's royalty of 12% per cent., to be collected at the custom-houses by the Canadian Government and paid to the British Government for the benefit of the author. Foreign reprints were consequently admitted to the advantage of the Canadian reading public and to the manifest disadvantage of the Canadian book trade. “In the meantime the colonies were developing powers of self-government under the system of Parliamentary responsibility which had been con- ceded to Canada in 1841, only one year before the passing of the Imperial Copyright Act. The confederation of the provinces of the Dominion of Canada took place in 1867, and in the British North America Act of that year, by which the ## p. 204 (#218) ############################################ 2O4. THE AUTHOR. conditions of confederation are determined, copy- right ranks among the subjects over which power was given to the Parliament of Canada to legis- late. But under a previous Act of 1865, known as the Colonial Laws Walidity Act, any colonial law which is any respects repugnant to the provi- sions of any Act of Parliament extending to the colony is read subject to the Act, and remains void “to the extent of such repugnancy.” In so far, therefore, as any Canadian legislation upon copyright conflicts with Imperial legislation extending to the colony it remains void, notwith- standing the provisions of the British North America Act “The results of these two-handed provisions have been those that might have been anticipated. A Canadian Copyright Act of 1875 laid down the conditions of local copyright for Canadian authors, who, as their works are not necessarily published in the United Kingdom, were not pro- tected by the Imperial Act, The Canadian Act was subjected to some wrangle, but was made law by an Insperial Confirming Act. Then followed, in consequence of the discussion upon the Act, the Copyright Commission of 1876. A consolida- tion Bill intended to give effect to the recommen- dations of the Commission did not become law. More negotiations followed, and led in the course of ten years to the Berne Convention and the International Copyright Act of 1886. “The Berne Convention, of which the object was to create an international union for the protec- tion of literary and artistic property, was signed on Sept. 9, 1886. By a protocol attached to the Convention the colonies and foreign possessions of Great Britain were included with the United Kingdom, with power reserved to them to denounce the treaty, in so far as it concerns them, upon giving twelve months’ notice to that effect. Under the International Copyright Act of the same year, which was passed for the purpose of giving effect to the Berne Convention, it was provided that the author of a book first published in a colony has copyright throughout the whole of the Queen's dominions. Canada, it should be observed, formally assented to the Imperial Act of 1886, and to a subsequent Order in Council of 1887, by which effect was given to it in the colo- nies. By the Berne Convention the principle of International copyright for all countries belong- ing to the Union was established. By the Impe- rial Act of 1886 the supplementary principle of copyright throughout all the British possessions was established for the Empire. “To other members of the Copyright Union, whether international or Imperial, those provi- sions have been found to be of great value. The geographical position of Canada made her case exceptional. The United States, which is the largest reproducer of English publications, borders the Canadian frontier for some thousands of miles. Under the provisions of the Berne Convention Canada was prevented from repro- ducing the works not ouly of British copyright holders, but of the copyright holders of the entire Union without due compensation to the author, while her nearest neighbour, publishing in the same language for a reading public of which the requirements were practically identical, was not a member of the Union, and was consequently free to reproduce at will and flood the markets of the continents with cheap reprints, against which the Canadian book trade could not contend. The privilege given in return to Canadian authors of copyright throughout the Union remained prac- tically void by reason of the small number of authors who could profit by it. The Berne Con- vention, therefore, rendered the position of Canada. so much the worse by increasing the number of copyright holders to whom Canadian publishers were bound to give compensation by as many countries, colonies, and British possessions as joined the Union. As a matter of fact, the read- ing public of the Dominion of Canada has been, and is, principally supplied with British literature by American reprints. It is worth while in this connection to point out that the interests which are opposed to each other in this controversy are not those of British authors and Canadian authors, or of British authors and the Canadian public, but of British authors and Canadian publishers. “These facts being very generally recognised in Canada, where discontent with the Imperial restrictions upon copyright has been persistent ever since the effect of the Act of 1842 was realised, a Canadian Act was passed by the Dominion Parliament in 1889, by which it was proposed that, instead of the universal copyright conveyed by the Copyright Union under the Con- vention of Berne, copyright in Canada should be given to any person domiciled in Canada or the British possessions and to the citizen of any country having an international copyright treaty with the United Kingdom on certain conditions of publishing and registration, including the pro- vision that the book shall be printed and pub- lished in Canada within one month after first publication elsewhere. The Act contains a further licensing clause, to the effect that, when copyright has not been obtained, the book may be published under licence in Canada, but the author's rights shall be safeguarded by a IO per cent. royalty, which shall be the price paid for the licence. Such an Act would, of course, render it necessary for Canada to withdraw from the Copyright Union, and the Canadian Govern- ## p. 205 (#219) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 205 ment accordingly gave notice that it wished, in so far as it were concerned, to denounce the Berne Convention. “The Act could not, however, become law with- out receiving the sanction of Her Majesty's Government, and this sanction has been with- held. In the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, formally reported on Dec. 31, 1889, the powers of legislation conferred on the Dominion Parliament by the British North America Act do not authorise that Parliament to amend or repeal, so far as relates to Canada, an Imperial Act con- ferring privileges within Canada. It will readily be conceived that this decision has not been received with acquiescence in Canada..' The ques- tion has been raised by it from a discussion of the relative interests of authors and publishers to the higher level of a question of self-government. Feeling in Canada runs very strongly upon the point. Sir John Thompson, both as Minister of Justice in 1889 and later as Prime Minister of the Dominion, has stoutly defended the self- governing rights of the colony he represents and the competency of the Dominion Parliament to pass an amending Act. Powers which include the right to impose customs duties upon British goods must, it is held, give power to defend the local interest of any trade. Colonial opinion will not easily accept a limitation, the justice of which can be disputed, of constitutional rights, and it is not improbable that the whole question may have to be decided upon this wider issue. “The latest modification of the technical aspect of the question has been produced by the American Copyright Act of 1891, under which any British subject may obtain copyright in the United States on condition that at least two copies of the book are printed from type set within the United States on or before publication elsewhere. In return for this, American subjects may obtain copyright throughout British posses- sions on the same terms as British subjects. On the ground that the American Act and the President’s proclamation do not constitute an international copyright treaty Canada refused to admit citizens of the United States to the enjoy- ment of copyright privileges within the limits of the Dominion. This Canada is held to have the right to do under the Act of 1875, which was confirmed by the Imperial Act of the same year. “What is now desired by the Government of Canada is that an Imperial confirming Act shall be passed to give the force of law to the still inoperative Canadian Act of 1889. The objections of the Imperial Government to such a course are—that to do as Canada desires involves an abandonment of the policy of international and Imperial copyright which was, after difficulty, asserted six years ago; that it is inconsistent with the policy of making copyright independent of the place of printing, which has always been upheld by Great Britain; that it would have the effect of introducing a modification into the con- ditions under which the United States consented to the agreement of 1891 ; and that it would be injurious to the interests of British authors, by whom the Canadian market is principally sup- plied. It is urged on behalf of British authors that the whole Canadian case is based on the fallacy that Canadian publishers and printers have a right to the profits of publishing and printing the works of British authors, whereas in reality the profit of their work belongs to the authors themselves. When the arguments of the right of self-government are brought forward, it is replied that no conceivable British right of self- government can include the right to confiscate the property of unoffending members of society. Unquestionably the adjustment of the case on mutually satisfactory grounds is rendered difficult by the absence of any body of Canadian authors to whom reciprocal privileges under the Copyright Acts can offer substantial advantages. As it stands, the advantage of authors is all on one side, and the advantage of publishers is on the other. That the authors should be British and the publishers Canadian accentuates the sharp- ness of a contest which, even without the inter- vention of a governing body on each side, we are accustomed to hear a good deal of in this country. It also, however, helps to indicate clearly the direction in which compromise may most hope- fully be looked for, and a practical provision on the part of the Canadian Government by which the rights of authors may be fully safeguarded may, perhaps, help to bring the long controversy to a close.” II.-INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. At a meeting of the American “Authors’ Guild,” held in New York, Nov. 2 I, a resolution was proposed to reopen the International Copy- right Law by a petition to Congress for its amendment. The discussion of the resolution was adjourned to the regular meeting in December, when the project of publishing a literary quarterly will also be considered by the Guild.—Athenaeum, Dec. 8. III.-PUBLISHED ON COMMISSION. The following is (I) a publisher's estimate for the cost of production of a book forming 540 pp. at 340 words to a page in long primer type; and (2) the estimate according to the Society's book called “The Cost of Production.” ## p. 206 (#220) ############################################ 2O6 THE AUTHOR. I. Publisher's estimate without advertising and |binding of 300 only : For an edition of 500 copies, 3148. 2 3 5 3 93 750 copies, 3.165. 55 ,, IOOO copies, 317O. 33 II. Here is the Society’s estimate of exactly the same work in the same type—remember that we can get the work done for so much, and well done : For an edition of 500 copies, 38 IOO. 750 copies, 31 I5. 55 55 , IOOO copies, 3145. One would like the general opinion on the character of the publisher who is capable of sending out such an estimate. And, one would ask, do not figures such as these show the absolute necessity of supporting the only machinery which exposes these things P 33 33 35 IV.-A HoPELEss CASE. The following is a case which has happened more than once, and should be noted: A. B. writes an article or several articles for a journal which is, though the contributor does not know it, on its last legs, financially. He asks the editor for a cheque, and gets no reply. He writes again, and still gets no reply. He calls, and cannot see the editor. Then he seeks the aid of the Society. Now this, one would think, is eminently a case in which the Society should be useful. In fact, there are dozens of similar cases in which the proprietor of a journal has been made to pay by the action of the secre- tary. But in this case the secretary discovers the unpleasant fact that the paper has been taken over and is being run by and for the debenture holders. This means that, though the secretary might take the case into the County Court and obtain a judgment, there would be no means whatever of enforcing that judgment, because the debenture holders have the first claim upon the proceeds of the paper. The only course, then, is to throw the paper into bankruptcy — a difficult and expensive task. A course, too, by which the creditor will gain only a paltry dividend, if anything. There is no publicity to County Court judgments, otherwise the mere facts of the case might cause the manager to pay rather than incur the discredit of the judgment. So that in such a case there seems no help at all. NOTES FROM PARIS, WER all the things that I had to say in this month's letter there hangs a very gloomy shadow, and turn and twist as I may I am always brought back to this most unhappy fact, that your Stevenson and mine no longer breathes our common air, and that thirst we as we may for the clear water of his lucid prose, there will be nothing from him any more nor ever again, for our gentle gentleman of letters lies for ever asleep on a mountain-top in an island in the southern Sea. I fancy that amongst those who deplore his loss few perhaps will be more distressed than Crockett and Weyman. Both spoke to me of him with high admiration and great pride in his apprecia- tion of their work, for to both of them he had written in high praise and encouragement. His portrait hangs in Crockett's work-room in his house on the moors by the Esk, and it is on the mantelpiece of Weyman's study in the Welsh frontier town. And now there is crape round it ; there and everywhere it is felt that our English peoples are poorer by a great-hearted gentleman, our English tongue is robbed of a clear and sweet exponent. The French press paid due tribute to the dead master, and in most of the leading papers there appeared admiring obituary notices. There is much in this, as as a general rule the French journalists know nothing of, and care less, for English writers. So that, if Stevenson’s death was recorded in columns of appreciative articles in the Parisian papers, it shows that his mastery was recognised here also. Some of the writers displayed a certain ignorance, and gave amongst the list of his works the names of books which he never wrote, but the intention was everywhere a good one, and there was comfort in this manifes- tion in a foreign land. I have seen Alphonse Daudet since my return to Paris, and he spoke to me with much anticipation of pleasure about his forthcoming visit to London. He, however, seems determined to preserve the strictest incognito whilst in England, and has begged me to state that, greatly touched as he is by the kindness of those who proposed to do him honour, his state of health will prevent him from appearing in public in any way. Emile Zola is being greatly attacked in the French papers for his Italian proceedings. In one caricature he is represented kneeling before Ring Humbert licking the royal boots. In another large coloured cartoon he is shown in the garb of a mountebank, grovelling before the King and Crispi, and the former is saying “Enough, enough, it really is enough.” All this is very ## p. 207 (#221) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2O7 unjust. I attribute these attacks partly to the hatred of Italy which has been felt in France ever since the Italians joined the Triple Alliance, but mainly to the jealousy with which Zola's unprecedented success and European popularity have filled the obscure scribes who are so attacking him. Zola answers them one and all with an immense shrug of his burly shoulders, and says, “Let them talk, as for me, I am setting to work.” S. R. Crockett has an adorable little daughter called “Maisie.” The other day a visitor called at Bank House in the absence of her parents, and was received by the young lady. Happening to notice a photograph of Mr. A. P. Watt in a place of honour in Mr. Crockett's study, he asked his little hostess who that gentleman might be. “Oh,” said Maisie, “that is the gentleman who gets papa his American copyrights.” The gentlemen who write reviews of books for the newspapers are, I presume, journalists, and their writings, by the same token, are journalism. Why then do these gentlemen use the expression “journalism ‘’ as a reproach in their critical appreciations. One often reads “this is not literature, it is journalism,” a strange remark coming from a professed journalist. It reminds one of the bird who befouls his own nest, for it implies that the writer has a fine contempt for his own writings, and it fills the reader with pity at the want of the writer's self-respect as a journalist. There is one critic in London—I am sorry that I do not know his name—who has a curious notion of the responsibilities of his craft. A book—it was rather an expensive book—was published in London last month, and copies of this book were issued for review two days before the actual date of publication. On the same evening a copy of this book was seen in the window of a well-known second-hand bookstall in Shaftesbury Avenue. It was marked at a reduced price, though it was uncut, and just as it had left the publisher's hands, and though it was the only copy of the book then for sale in London. It was evidently one of the copies which had issued that morning for review, and had fallen into the hands of a gentleman with peculiar views on the functions and duties of criticism. In France all press copies of books are stamped with a sign which marks them as such. The English publishers might adopt a similar blan. p Amongst the many books which I find on my table on my return to Paris is a very clever collection of prose poems in French, by “P. L.” This collection is entitled “Les Chansons de Bilitis,” and the poems are supposed to be a WOL. W. translation from a Greek poetess. They are preceded by a detailed biography of the imaginary songstress, and in a most skilful manner is the illusion maintained throughout a most charming and savoury book. “P. L.” stands for Pierre Louys, a young French poet of whom I have often spoken in these pages as a young littérateur of considerable performance and still greater promise. Pierre Louys is a true artist, with no other preoccupation in life beyond the cultus of beauty, a poet in every fibre. His translation of Meleager will be remembered, to mention only one of his little masterpieces. I met Maurice Barrés a night or two ago, and found him looking rather tired. I suppose the strain of editing a fighting paper, like La Cocarde, is a very heavy one. Yet he was enthusiastic and energetic as ever, and told me that, apart from his literary work (besides editing La Cocarde and contributing to it a daily leader, he is engaged on a new novel), he is actively pre- paring his parliamentary candidature in two con- stituencies, Neuilly and Nancy. We had a long conversation on journalistic blackmailing in Paris, and amongst other things he told me that just before his play, “La Journée Parlementaire,” was produced an offer was made to him by an indi- vidual representing a syndicate of Parisian news- papers, by which, on payment of a considerable sum, he could secure enthusiastic reports of his play, with the alternative of well, you can guess the alternative. Apropos of journalistic blackmailing in Paris, I imagine that nobody is more surprised at the turn which things have taken than the able editors who, arrested for the practice, are now languishing in Mazas gaol. For years they have been allowed undisturbed to practise their little industry, till they had been lulled into the illusion that what they were doing was recognised and admitted. Suddenly, after nearly a quarter of a century of toleration, they are swooped down upon and laid by the heels. I can imagine that they feel a real grievance against the authorities. I could write a volume on the practices of blackmailing in France, were I only to draw on my reminiscences of conversations I had on the subject with poor Ferdinand de Lesseps. The subject is, however, a nauseating one. I will only mention that I was once delegated to gag a provincial blackmailing journalist, and that each time that I paid him his monthly hush-money, I used to talk to him about his business. He seemed to think that he was acting in a perfectly straightforward manner. “I run my paper,” he used to say, “not from philanthropy, but as a commercial speculation, and I work what influence it gives me for all that it is worth. U ## p. 208 (#222) ############################################ 2O8 THE AUTHOR. People must pay to get things put into my paper, and equally must they pay to keep things out,” We used to smoke cigarettes together, and got quite friendly in the end, for the man's turpitude was thorough, and one likes thoroughness of every kind, I was almost sorry when I heard that he had died in gaol, He was such an interesting study. It seems as if shortly there will be quite a colony of English men of letters residing in Paris. I have heard several, and not the least distin- guished amongst our contemporary writers, expressing the intention to go and live in the French capital. I think it is a mistake on their part, and I, for one, have never ceased regretting having settled down on what an old Yorkshire farmer de mes amis spoke to me of as “the wrong side of the watter, my lad.” Paris is uncomfortable, it is expensive, and the eternal foolishness which envelopes one here, ends by influencing disastrously one's views on men and on life. Besides, one forgets one's English. The tool blunts from disuse. I see that at a type-writing office in the City Mr. Hill’s idea of a roll of paper, as a substitute for sheets, has been taken up and put into prac- tice. Quite a crowd of people stand outside that office and watch the long coil as it unfolds itself. The “Quotidien Illustré,” a French imitation of the Daily Graphic, is the latest addition to the press of Paris. R. H. SHERA.R.D. 123, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. *— a 2-º -- NOTES AND NEWS, Y this time all the papers, daily and weekly, have paid their tribute of praise and regret to the memory of Louis Stevenson. Yet this paper, though late, must also lay its wreath upon that far-off island grave. For, indeed, while he lived, to talk of decadence was to betray incapacity. I do not think there is in our whole literature a finer piece of work than “Treasure Island.” I do not think there are anywhere more delightful essays than some of Stevenson's. We need not attempt to compare him with anybody —comparisons of genius are futile things; Scott is Scott ; Fielding ; Thackeray; every man of genius stands alone. Ilike all men of genius Stevenson was unequal; there were limitations in his powers; certain fields were closed to him ; he could not discourse of love, for instance. But for what he gave the world we must be thankful, for some of it will last, I believe, as long as the English language. - The immortality of a writer involves selection. As time goes on one piece after another drops out of notice and is forgotten, except for the student. Why? It is impossible to tell. Goldsmith has been practically reduced, except for the student, to the “Deserted Village,” “She Stoops to Conquer,” and the “Vicar of Wakefield;” Gray to the Elegy; of Southey’s voluminous poems one little poem only remains; Coleridge keeps his “Ancient Mariner.” Of more modern writers it would be invidious to speak; it is too early to guess what part of Tennyson will drop out of the general memory; what part of Browning will be preserved; but it would be interesting to learn what novels, if any, of Thackeray and Dickens are already beginning to show signs of approaching oblivion. The committee have received a large number of replies to their questions as to Net Prices. At their first meeting of the New Year the replies will be submitted to them and considered. Perhaps we shall be in a position to publish some resolu- tion on the subject next month. In an advertisement of a new periodical, “The Minster,” one observes with some surprise the name of Mr. George Gissing as the contributor of a story. With surprise, not because he ought not to be there, but because this powerful writer has never before, so far as I know, appeared in a serial. I hear now of other magazines which have at last found him out. I have never been able to understand the comparative silence with which the very fine work of this writer has been received. It is, perhaps, because his themes have been gloomy. The other writers in the new magazine are the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Edwin Arnold, Sir Benjamin Baker, the Head Master of Harrow, Corney Grain, Mr. George Spottiswoode, George Saintsbury, and James Payn. It is quite the Orthodox plan to begin with great names. At the same time, great names very often belong to those who are not great in literature. And, since we wish well to the new magazine, we would venture to suggest that literary popularity is most easily attained by names that are great in literature. The book trade may be in a very depressed condition, but there are six long columns of pub- lishers' advertisements in the Times of Dec. 18. This looks like a certain amount of confidence in the present as well as in the future. Whether the market is depressed or not, there is certainly no falling off in the output, the regulation of which is especially the business of the publishers. The author has not, and cannot have, any voice at all ## p. 209 (#223) ############################################ THE AUTHOR, 2O9 in the output. I suppose that depression means, not a restricted output, but smaller editions; e.g., for books of a certain class—say Autobiographies and Recollections—where there were formerly a thousand buyers there are now only five hundred. But, so long as the purchases by readers exceed the cost of production, so long will fresh books of the kind be produced. And so with every other kind of book. Mr. W. Pollard (Athenæum, Dec. 8) records the death of surely the very last of all the persons named in Charles Lamb's letters. Elizabeth, widow of Charles Tween, died at Hertford on Nov. 27, aged ninety-two. She was buried, Dec. 3, in Widford Churchyard, Hertfordshire, where Charles's grandmother, Mrs. Field, lies buried. Mrs. Tween was a Miss Norris, mentioned by Lamb in a letter to Henry Crabb Robinson of January, 1826. She, with her sister, opened a girls’ school, but married two brothers. The funeral was on Monday, Dec. 3, in Widford Church- yard, Hertfordshire; and the place has many things that recall recollections of Lamb and his writings. On entering the churchyard, we see on the left the gravestone of his grandmother, Mrs. Field, and the lettering requires renovat- ing. In front is the church. “On the green hill top, Hard by the house of prayer, a modest roof, And not distinguished from its neighbour-barn Save by a slender tapering length of spire, The grandame sleeps.” And on the right we are reminded of the opening of the first story in Mrs. Lamb’s “Mrs. Lester's School.” At Widford are the gravestones of Mrs. Elizabeth Norris (widow of Mr. Randal Norris), died July, 1843, and her son Richard. On the west side the church tower are a stile and footpath leading to the beautiful valley of the Ash close by, and just on the other side is the wilderness Charles Lamb describes in his “ Blakes moor in H–shire '' (fir, t essay, second series), and also names in “Rosamund Gray.” Just below the wilderness, and still nearer the church, stood the old Blakesware mansion where his grandmother was housekeeper, and which he describes in this essay. And on the rising ground to the east stood the cottage where Rosamund Gray lived with her grand- mother. On the hillside, just north of the church and valley, is Little Blakesware Farm, where Charles Lamb used to visit Mr. Tween, the then tenant. —-e--> --—- Does the free library injure the sale of books? At present there are comparatively few free libraries, and their chief effect, so far, has been to place books within the reach of those who could not afford to buy them; and this, I think, will be their effect when they are multiplied by fifty. Thus there are now in this country only about three hundred. It is not too much to expect that avery few years will see the free iibraries, great and small, enumerated at 15,000. Almost every good book will certainly be taken by all these libraries. That is to say, good histories and biographies, good books on popular science, favourite poets, favourite novelists, will all be taken; and, really, if no other purchaser appeared, the author would not do so badly. But I believe that the present purchasers will remain. The free libraries will lend books to that enormous class whose incomes are below £300 a year, and who cannot afford to buy books, and those who can afford to buy books will continue to do so. A man is on the prowl seeking to deceive. He calls himself Charles E. Winter. This is the story of a late attempt : “He called to see me in order, he said, to obtain leave to translate a story of mine. I could not give leave as I had sold the copyright, and he then asked if I could give him any type-writing, saying he had done some work for you’’—the editor of this Journal—“ and men- tioning other names of reputation in the literary world as a sort of guarantee. The end of it was that, influenced by a sad history he told of desti- tution, and also, perhaps, by his being evidentl a man of education—he spoke French really like a Frenchman—I gave him some money, and was foolish enough to trust him with the MS. of another story. Since then I have found out that the man is a fraud, and I have now seen a detec- tive who tells me that the man is already ‘wanted by the police for having got money from somebody else in the same way.” A correspondent wrote some time ago—but his letter was mislaid—asking whether £12 was a fair price to pay for a volume of which an edition of 2000 was sold. The volume was a little book which sold for half-a-crown. An edition of two thousand would probably cost—there were special reasons why the advertising would cost little or nothing—about £70, or about 8%d. a copy. The enterprising publishers therefore, who sold this book at about Is. 6d. a copy, cleared 9}d, a copy, out of which they paid the author £12, and realised for themselves £65 odd. Was the transaction a fair one P One thinks that it was not. Here is a case which perhaps admits of argument. A half profit agreement ; a book which is sold at a high price; a return at the end of a year, showing the sale of some hundreds, with a loss of some- thing like 330—the exact amount does not matter, as the account is not disputed. That was twenty years ago. The author during all this time asked for no further return, having long since made up his mind that the book would not prove a pecuniary success. However, in some spare moment he did sit down and asked for a second return. It ## p. 210 (#224) ############################################ 2 I O THE AUTHOR. came in. It showed a yearly sale of about £30 worth of the book, with an increased loss, after twenty years, of £55 or thereabouts. In other words, what has happened is this. The publisher wished to keep the author's name on his books, and on his lists. He has therefore gone on advertising the book in his list of standard works, every year spending in advertising a little more than he received. He has made the book an advertise- ment of himself. Nor, it seems, can the author complain. He passed without question the first account. In that furnished twenty years later he asked for a return of the advertisements for the last five years. A small sum was charged for advertising in the publisher's own magazine—it should not have been charged—but to dispute it would not remove the deficit. Therefore it was allowed to stand. Perhaps it may be said that the author was advertised as well as the publisher. The author says that he did not ask for the advertisement, that it did him no good, and that he did not want it. If all the remaining copies are sold the deficit cannot now be made good, and so he will not interfere. On p. 215 will be found a few contemporary notes on a very remarkable and unprecedented depres- sion in the book market. It is amazing to think that only sixty years ago the leading publishers had no announcements at all to make in the autumn. Six hundred printers out of work at a time when all the London books were printed in London; nothing risked except reprints of favourite authors; not until the end of the year are there any books, and then only a hundred. The whole history of this depression, the length of its duration, and the revival of the demand for books would form a chapter of interest in the history of English literature. WALTER BESANT. *-- - --" *-*. F EU IL LET ON, IN THE PORCH. By SHAN F. BULLOCK, Author of “The Awkward Squad.” & 4 ELL | * said Greenback, as the outer door of the Judgment Hall closed swiftly behind White and Cold, “Well! What luck P’’ White and Cold ruffled her leaves, gave a little shiver of disgust, then suddenly flung back her front cover. “Look there !” cried she. “I look there ! Is it not shameful ? Bedaubed like that by such a Crew—Oh! such a crew Look –“ Damned,’ * Damned,’ ‘Damned,’ stamped all over my pretty whiteness— Damnation and finger-marks, there's my portion.” Greenback looked with pity at his little friend. What a change | But an hour ago they had parted there in the porch, and she had gone in for judgment so youthfully happy and fresh and hopeful; now the bolt was shot behind her, and she was back—an outcast, battered, disfigured, surely condemned. What a change P “Poor dear,” he murmured. “Poor dear ! So complete—so complete.” - “Complete?” cried White and Cold, “I should think it was. I tell you I was damned before one of their vile eyes ever saw me. They sat hunger- ing for me with their daggers drawn. Look! not twenty of my pages cut, not fifty of m verses read, not one verdict even initialled—Oh! such a crew. One looked at my title-page, ‘Phew!’ quoth he, ‘New man,’ and scribbled * Damned ;’ another read two lines, muttered “Minor, very minor,’ and wrote his verdict; another read five lines, ‘ Rot,” said he, and wrote worse—and so on from deep to deep. Poetry ! What know they of poetry P Critics! Just heaven—Critics l—Oh the travail and fond hopes 52 “Poor dear,” murmured Greenback. “Poor dear! I’m so sorry–Not even one kind word.” “Oh yes, there's one—you'll find it there near the bottom—a woman wrote it, a little ugly body who turned paler at sight of Long-hair's name on the title-page, and smiled as she read here and there. Can’t you find it P” “Ah !” said Greenback. “Yes, I see—damned with faint praise. Poor child.” “Oh I don’t want your pity,” cried White and Cold. “No | It's all a conspiracy. I know it is. I go this way doomed to daggers and destruction, you go that to wreaths and glory. Why? Why, I say? Why because I’m a first child, a girl, the daughter of a long-haired nobody; because my race has fallen among the Philistines; because I trace my descent from Homer through the generations. You smile P Yes, you can afford to smile. You're a seventh child; the world was waiting for you ; the-the person who owns you is somebody. What of you both P. He was long enough under a cloud at first; and you—why you were born piecemeal, scattered here and there about the world, and then collected into your shabby green covers. Bah! Collected / Essays / Old Sober.sides, what of you? Why, you’re a plebeian—a modern—Addison is your—” “Easy, easy,” said Greenback in his urbanest manner. “Why all this folly, child? I’m beyond all that you know, and really—” “Oh, yes; you’re most superior, I know. All gentlemen are. Why did you not keep to your ## p. 211 (#225) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 H I word, though P Any gentleman can do that. You promised before we left the Row to stand by me and take your fate with me at the same hands. But no ; you must leave me at the door, and sneak off to the the professionals—the big pots— the men who always write sweet things and sign them—” “Really, madam,” returned Greenback, “I must beg of you to keep your vulgar sneers for your equals. As a gentleman I offered you my protection to the extent of my ability; more I could not do. Like yourself I had to take the chances of war—” “Chances of fiddle-sticks | Chances of nincom- poops ? What chance had I?” “Madam,” said Greenback severely, “enough of this. You had your chance like another, and let me say that I cannot bring myself at all to look at the art of criticism from your standpoint—” “Of course you can’t. You get the sugar- plums, I get the physic.” “Madam, enough. Let us call a truce to these trivialities. The trial is over; the door is closed on us both ; our fates assigned us. Madam, our ways now must part. Thither, out into the world and the sunshine, lies my path. Yours— You—Ah, my poor child! My poor child !” “Well, what of me? I suppose you think I can’t take care—” “No, no! Not that. Have you not heard? Do you not know? That place of doom and buried hopes; do you not know of it?” “What P Where P What 2 ” “Ah, child, thank Heaven for youth and inno- cence. Knowledge is such a sad burden. . . . Yes! perhaps you had better know. My child, out there, beyond the sun and the light, is a place of dread and despair. Dank fogs envelop it, despairing voices haunt it, a gaunt precipice over- hangs and cuts it off from this world of chance. Oh verily a region of fog and forgetfulness. And thither, day by day, men come, and now with scorn, now with ringing laughter, sometimes, perhaps, with regret, cry, “Over, over !’ and send fluttering down into the darkness the unfortunate children of folly and conceit—" “Oh, oh! Children? What children? Not— ?” “Yes, child—the books that were born only, sooner or later, to die.” “Books All of them P Every one? not every one! Surely not—not me, too !” “Yes, sweetheart—you, too.” “Oh no, no l Not so soon. soon 2 ” “It is cruel—but kind. Child, I fear me your shrift will be short.” Oh I Did you say “Oh, no ! Why a day ago, an hour ago, I was but born. Did you say soon P Why, I haven't VOL. V. - - yet seen the sun' What! all this pretty finery —all of it, you, say? All, is all to go down— down P. Ah! mercy, mercy l’’ “Sweetheart,” said Greenback very tenderly, “be brave. It is soon over—few in the end escape. Better over at once, maybe, than after a cheerless struggle in the storms and the twilight. “Oh ! but so soon—so soon—only an hour of life. It is shameful! I’ve had no chance. I tell you it will be murder—-yes, murder. For, look you, I am alive, every page of me is throbbing alive. Ah and the brutes would murder me. Ah comrade—keep them back— only for one day, one gleam of the sunshine.” “Impossible,” muttered Greenback. “It is impossible.” “Oh the injustice, the cruelty, the folly of it all. You say that voices haunt that—that place. What voices? Can the dead cry? What voices? Why those of maidens such as I am, ay! and of men, too, and women who have been buried alive. Hark! you can hear them wailing— wailing hopelessly. Oh! the injustice—the bitter Cup,” Greenback let his little friend run on, and him- self fell a thinking. Was it true, any of this that White and Cold in her frenzy was saying? Did anything alive ever go fluttering down P. Whose were those voices P Surely sometimes mistakes were made — mistakes born of hurry and prejudice, perhaps of ignorance P Surely some- times a book—maybe just born, maybe having run its course—with just a spark of life between its covers went over, some jewel that were worth . the snatching. TXown in that melancholy region were there not live things—golden pages, sentences, lines, phrases—buried eternally beneath mountains of stupidity and vanity ? The perfect line in a maze of doggerel, a noble sentence standing out from a dreary flatness, a page here and there torn from experience, and telling the story of a heart—surely often and often these had come unheralded, gone unnoticed, and left the world the poorer. Write, write, men were ever writing—could the most hopeless dullaro among them sit always and never chance on the happy phrase, the haunting cadence; never hear once from heaven a whisper of the gods P. This little butterfly, now lying all crushed and hopeless, could it be that all her glitter was mere dross and vanity ? - “Come, sweetheart,” he said at last, “ Cheer up, now ; all is not over yet. Come! stand for judgment and let me be your critic.” So White and Cold fluttered and twirled and aired her little graces, and Greenback looked gravely on. Those inside the door had not been X ## p. 212 (#226) ############################################ 212 THE AUTHOR. far wrong, he thought; she had virtues, but she was no divinity; there was glitter, but no gold; the best she could show was now and then a happy pose, a graceful turn, and once, he thought, a flash of passion. No | Salvation was not for her nor for her kind; still, she was not quite unworthy, the gold might have flashed somewhere. And— and surely among all the others, her unfortunate companions in adversity, the gold if sought for, must have flashed somewhere P Surely not to have sought, sought eagerly, thought Greenback, can only be reckoned as foolishness in the ways of man. Why, he himself, only for his parentage, might easily have gone over. “You are right, my dear,” he said presently, “quite right. It is an inhuman thing thus to destroy ruthlessly what might well contain hidden treasure most precious.” “Ah, liknew it,” cried White and Cold, “I knew it ! I wanted only a chance.” “I was speaking generally, child,” said Green- back hurriedly. “Then—then—What are you, too, among my enemies? You, too, blind?” “Ah, child, what matters it P Did I see genius written on your every leaf what could I avail? Nothing.” “Nothing ! Do nothing P ou say there is no hope P’’ ... “It would be cruel to say you false,” murmured Greenback. “Child, there is no hope.” “No hope P Oh ! the living tomb—oh ! the voices wailing—oh Sir, Sir, do something, save me for one hour ! ” “My child,” answered Greenback very gravely, “what you ask is impossible. Sorely do I regret your fate, fervently do I wish it were otherwise; but in this matter, as in all, we are helpless. It is hard—Ah! would that long ago, when the Master was bending over me, I had had the thoughts which now I have I should have whispered: “Write, Master, write and warn the world of its folly. It knows not what it does— daily it is casting away treasure. The workers in the Hall of Judgment are weary and grown callous; they have no leisure in which to perform what to be effective must be a labour of love. But have not you, my Master, called (Ay! spoken it to myself) this an age of Amateur well-doing, of societies founded everywhere for the protection of the weak, and the prevention of wrong-doing? And have I not shown you wrong; are not these weak for whom I plead? What work more noble, more glorious and beneficent could learned men, of taste also and leisure (of you, revered Master, and your peers I speak), hope to lay hand to than the duties which should appertain to a Society solidly founded, honestly supported, and having Do you mean—do for its object the Rescue of Jewels from the Wastes of Literature P Go out, my Master, go out and raise your voice; it is powerful; the world will hear you; countless generations shall call you blessed.’ So should I have spoken, child; and—” “But now—even now it is not too late. The Master | tell him, tell him—ask him to save me!” . “My child, take heart and be brave—to struggle and cry is folly. You know not the world; it is slow to hear, and slower to move. And the Master—alas ! I am not the Master's keeper, and his ear just now is turned from me. But I promise you that some day his voice shall be raised, and this Society of which—” “Yes, yes—but I shall have gone!” “Gome—gone—we all go—go and are forgotten. Ah, child ! is there no consolation in the thought that your sacrifice may to future generations bring great good P” “Consolation | Consolation in that pit of hell! Lost, lost What do I care about future genera- tions P. Oh my pretty finery What going? Leaving me P Is it good bye?” “It is good-bye, sweetheart. The world calls me, and I must go. Keep heart, and die bravely.” “Die | Die ' And is this the end ? face—that alone P” “Be brave my child—and good bye.” “—All alone—Never see you again—Oh! not good bye.” “Ah well—who knows—sooner or later we all, or nearly all, come there. Who knows? Well, Sweetheart, not good bye then, but au revoir.” Must I *— — —”-- : A LITERARY CORNER. | WONDER how many of the men and - women, who monthly turn to the pages of the Author, have ever explored the pleasant precincts of Camilla Lacey, which lie within easy reach of many of their number. It was recently the good fortune of the present writer to see all that is now left of this literary haunt, and to follow for a brief while the footsteps of an almost forgotten literary coterie. For to this little corner of the Surrey Hills the French emigrés were irre- sistibly attracted in the days when the names of Talleyrand, Narbonne, and Madame de Stäel were on everybody’s lips. The little village was even in those days remarkable for shady groves and towering trees, and for its pretty gardens and small cottages, in one of which Madame d’Arblay lived. ## p. 213 (#227) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I 3 To-day, indeed, the little homestead is gone, with its rustic wooden porch and low white walls, with their charming old-fashioned pointed gables, and in its stead rises a modern mansion, wherein little is left of the old world building. The only authentic remains of the cottage, which was so beloved of the celebrated authors, are now said, indeed, to be the narrow back stairway, and, per- haps, two adjoining small rooms. Nevertheless, to many folks the house as it is fills the mind with a thousand touching memories, and its owners have sought to preserve intact everything associated with the fame of Fanny Burney. The prettiest, and, perhaps, the sunniest, brightest room of the whole mansion is the little literary museum wherein are preserved the relics of a fame which once made the gladness of the country side. In a quaintly furnished room, with hangings of olden times, dainty flowered curtains shade the fading manuscripts which lie in glazed cases available to the curious, the wonderful manu- script of Camilla and Evelina. Old-fashioned furniture fills up the small room, a corner table supports the large crucifix, which, if report says true, was once the possession of no less a personage than the old Chevalier d’Arblay. All the pieces of furniture, though gathered in recent years, seems to be part and parcel of the original inhabitants, and around the walls hang portraits, engravings for the most part of all the prominent friends of the gifted authoress. Below each one is suspended by loving hands an autograph letter from the portrait represented, addressed for the most part in warm hearted lan- guage to the “charming kind friend” Madame d’Arllay. Here, for instance, is a full-faced portrait of Mrs. Delany in her black lace fichu and mantilla; close beside her Mrs. Montague (after Reynolds), with her good tempered some- what oval face; Mrs. Thrale, Mrs. Trimmer, many of the Burney family, in pen and ink and in crayon ; Baretti (after Reynolds), in queue and powder; David Garrick, in slashed and braided coat. Here, by the bye, hangs another charming portrait, with a characteristic face and expression; below it a delightful old world epistle from Madame Piazzi to the charming Madame d’Arllay. “Come o' Tuesday,” runs the faded manuscript, “as well as Sunday. Dine with me o' Sunday, sweet soul, do ” and here is Mrs. Delany’s letter full of inquiry after the health of her “Dearest Miss Burney: We sent but yesterday to know how you did ; we have been quite alarmed, for they brought us word that though you was better to Burney was only as well as could be expected ; ” and so on, I might quote infinite in number, the tender, heartfelt greetings of this charming throng. All of them, indeed, ring the same changes of devoted friendship and admiration—Talleyrand, Madame de Stäel, Reynolds, “St. Cecilia,” Brinley Sheridan, and many, many another. As the “gallery” ends, the eye rests a moment on the well filled little corner bookshelves, where are gathered in the old first editions—Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla. The minor works and volumes of great contemporary writers are there to com- plete the small library, and the celebrated journals, round which has since centred a veritable literature in itself. There, too, are the earlier diaries of 1768-78, to which some men give the most praise; and last, not least, the curious official form, said to be an authentic copy of the marriage register. I almost hesitate to Copy it in my short paper, fearing it may raise doubts as to veracity. But I give it, for the curious I feel sure would be allowed to see and judge it for their own satisfaction. The form gives the scene of Fanny Burney’s marriage with the Chevalier d’Arblay as St. Luke's parish church, Chelsea, by licence, on July 28, 1793. Biographers, I am aware, mention already two places as the scene of the celebrated ceremony. I can add nothing to their testimony, but I think these few notes may prove of interest. Of the surrounding country side little can have changed since the old days I here record; the well-wooded heights of Denbies, Box Hill, Juniper Hill still stand much as they did then. But the charming gardens and undulating lawns which surround the beautiful modern house of Camilla Lacey; these things mark the transfor- mation undergone since the days of Madame d’Arblay's occupation. There yet may exist, per- chance among them, the shrubs that Chevalier planted with toilsome endeavour; but few people now traverse the country lane with thoughts of its literary recollections. The railway rushing across the country side bears Londonward its crowd of busy people; to thoughtful literary men and women it will ever be the home of delightful old world memories. * -- ~ 2-4 * * * THE PAPER TAX. HE writer of the following article begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Lang, who called attention to the subject in the Illustrated London News two or three months ago. The subject is treated in the Edinburgh Review for June, 1831, in an article called “Taxes upon Literature.” ## p. 214 (#228) ############################################ 2I4 THE AUTHOR. . At that time there was a tax upon paper, a tax upon binding, and a tax upon advertisements. All these taxes had to be paid in the production of the book, and before a single copy was sold— they had to be paid, in fact, whether a single copy sold or not. The meaning and the burden of these taxes are shown by the Edinburgh Reviewer. He takes the case of an 8vo. book of 500 pages. He selects an ordinary book of that size, and he gives the figures showing the cost of pro- duction with that part of it due to the taxes. These figures, he says, were furnished by a person of the “highest authority.” They appear as follows: I. In an edition of 500 copies :— Due to taxes. Printing and cor- rection ............ 388 18 O Paper ............... 38 IO O ... & 8 I 2 IO Boarding ............ Io O O 3 3 8 Advertising ........ 4O O O 2O O O 177 8 o 31 16 6 If the whole edition is sold out, i.e., allowing for eleven copies sent to the public libraries and fourteen to the author, if 475 are sold at 8s. 5d. a copy, the amount realised is £1.99. 17s. I Id., leaving a profit of £22 9s. 11d. 2. Taking an edition of 750 copies :— Due to taxes. Printing and cor- rections............ £95 6 O Paper .............. 57 I5 O 312 I9 4 Binding............... I5 O O 4 I5 7 Advertising ......... 5O O O 25 O O 218 I o 42 I4 II If the whole edition (725 copies) be sold at 8s. 5d., the amount realised would be £305 2s. 5d., showing a profit of £87 1s. 5d. 3. An edition of IOOO copies:— Due to taxes. Printing and cor- rections ......... 3IO2 I4 O Paper ............... 77 o o £1.7 5 9 Boarding ......... 2O O O 6 7 5 Advertising ...... 6o o o 3O O O 259 I4 O 53 I 2 2 If the whole edition, 975 copies, are sold at 8s. 5d. the amount realised would be £410 6s. 3d. leaving a profit of £150 12s. 3d. But, the writer goes on to say, this supposes the sale of the whole edition; now by the evidence of a publisher in the first rank, out of 130 works issued by him, fifty had not paid expenses; thirteen only arrived at a second edition, not always profitable. One fourth of the whole number of books produced do not pay expenses; only one in eight can be reprinted. Suppose that, instead of 720 copies being sold, only 425 went off leaving 300 on hand. This is, in fact, the common case with books. How does the account stand? . The cost of the edition is £218 Is. By the sale of 425 copies the sum of £178 17s. Id. is realised This leaves an actual loss of £40. But the taxes had to be paid in advance. In other words the cost of production had to be increased by about 22% per cent. Moreover the printing, binding, &c., could be paid after the first returns of the book, but the taxes had to be paid in advance. There would seem in these days to have been some ground for the cry about risk and uncertainty. Certainly a tax of 22% per cent on the cost of production must have made the business much less lucrative than at present. The writer points out, however, that publishers of standing were careful to avoid risk as much as possible by taking only books written by well known names, and on subjects likely to command attention. We observe that no “press’ copies were issued. The book was advertised; if it was reviewed the reviewer bought or borrowed a copy. The practice of sending out review copies must have come into existence soon after this, because in the Forties it was certain that there were press Coples. It is interesting to compare the cost of pro- duction of 1831 with that of 1894. We take the example given in the Society’s “Cost of Pro- duction,” p. 31, i.e., a page of 34 lines, of 339 words, a Long Primer type, and of 500 pages. We have the following comparison, deducting the amount due to taxes. Edition of 500 copies:— 1831 Printing and Correction 3888 18 o Paper ........................ 29 I7 2 Boarding 6 I6 4 Advertising ............... 2O O O £145 II 6 1894 Composing 31; sheets at £I 7s. I Id. per sheet... 353 6 3 Printing, 5s. 9d. a sheet 8 19 8 Corrections, say............ 5 o O Paper, at 9s. a sheet...... I4 I3 6 Binding, at 5a, a vol. ... Io 8 4 Advertising e tº e 2O O O — 31 12 7 9 ## p. 215 (#229) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I 5 Or taking the edition of IOOO copies:– 1831 Printing and correction 2102 14 O Paper .................. • * * * > * 59 I4 3 Boarding ........ ......... I 3 I 2 7 Advertising ......... . . . . . . 3O O O se- £2O6 o IO 1894 Composition ............... 353 6 3 Printing, at Ios. 6d. a. sheet ..................... I6 IO 9 Paper, at 18s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 7 O Corrections ... . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 O O Binding, at 5al. ... . . . . . . ... 20 16 8 Advertising . . . . . . . ...... 3O O O 38154 O 8 So that composition and printing have gone down 32 per cent. since the year 1831 ; paper is half what it was ; binding is a little dearer. As regards the great risks in publishing at this period, it will be seen from another part of this paper, that there was a depression in the book trade at that time (1831) deeper and more marked than had ever before been known. The political excitement of the time was supposed to be the cause ; but national excitement, whether over politics or war, gene- rally stimulates the book trade. It is more reasonable to attribute the stagnation first to the general commercial depression of the time which had ruined or crippled the manufacturers, so that they could no longer afford to buy books at the high price then asked; next, to the decay of the book clubs; and, thirdly, to a disgust at the weak and washy novels and poetry with which their book clubs were provided. The reading and book-buying public, never very large, had, from these and other causes, grown much smaller; it consisted of the professional classes and the more wealthy merchants and manufacturers. Outside the larger towns there was little book-buying. The advertisement duty, formerly of 3s. 6d. for each advertisement, and in Ireland 2s. 6d, was reduced in 1833 to 1s. 6d. in England and to Is. in Ireland. In 1853 it was abolished alto- gether. The newspaper stamp, which varied, being I d. in 171 I, I d. in 1776, 2d. in 1789, 2 #d. in 1794; 3}d. in 1797, 4d. in 1815, I d. in 1836, was finally abolished in 1855. The paper duty was repealed in 1861. THE DEPRESSION OF TRADE, 1831. HE following extracts, concerning the new books of 1831, are taken from the sources named. They refer to the threatened ruin of literature in the Thirties—a very curious chapter in the history of modern literature. The depression was attributed to the political excite- ment of the time, but, as we believe, mistakenly so attributed : I. (Athenæum, Oct. I 5, 183 I.) Man is a poetic creature, let philosophers say as they will; it is wonderful to hear of the ruin to literature and the destruction to art which one friend perceives in the Reform Bill; while another friend will see nothing but prosperity and exaltation to both. The airy fictions of these men, one of a bright and the other of a dark nature, are in a high degree poetical It must be owned that for these six months art and literature have suffered a sad eclipse. One side says, without reform there must be revolu- tion ; the other, that revolution will follow reform. No man will speculate in aught but words; labour has nearly ceased — printing presses repose by the hundred—and booksellers say that they have not sold a volume since the question was agitated. A poet in our presence lately requested a publisher to purchase a new poem in ten cantos—subject and time—“Wars of the Two Roses.” “Are you insane P” was the quick reply; “write on the rise and fall of stocks, or on the Reform Bill, and hope for purchasers.” II. (Supplement, Oct. I 5.) These are evil times: the pen and the pencil are nearly idle, save in writing political lampoons and drawing caricatures. The dread of change perplexes monarchs no more, they eat their pudding and hold their tongue; but fear has come upon men of genius; poets and painters eye, in alarm, the thickening clouds, while men whose muscles are strong, and whose hearts are griping and eager, look on the coming tempest as on the wind which will shake the ripe fruit and give them much to gather A few of the booksellers announce new books, or rather works long bespoke and written ; but, on the whole, the depression in the great market of literature con- tinues. Murray has not even an advertisement ; we hear not one word of the Quarterly IReview, though the period of its appearance has come, and all that is new are the Annuals and a few thrice-spoken speeches for or against reform. There is not one book announced which promises either genius or learning, and there is little chance ## p. 216 (#230) ############################################ 2 I6 THE AUTHOR. of either while this thick cloud rests on our land, and till this question, which affects the wealthy, the bustling, and the important, is settled. III. (Athenæum, Nov. 12, 1831.) The ablest of our writers are for the present next to idle, and some have left or are about to leave the land. Scott is on his way to Italy, and letters from him cheer us up with the intelligence of increasing health and spirits ; a gentle sea sickness was followed by more than usual vigour and sprightliness. We rejoice the more at this, because, before he left Portsmouth, he talked rather seriously about his voyage. He alluded to Fielding's visit to Lisbon, Smollett's to Italy, and Byron's to Greece, and returned to the sub- ject if diverted from it. It is remarkable that Byron wrote Scott a long letter inviting him to Italy, and pointing out, if we remember right, Naples as a place where he might enjoy balmy air and see abundance of human characters. Washington Irving, too, an author whom we love greatly, is said to be on the point of sailing to America, and we think he is right—extinction of literature, and depression of art, riots and blood- shed; and, finally, the cholera in Sunderland, shut up from escape by sea, with full liberty to march whither it pleases by land, are, on the whole, no cheering prospects. IV. (Athenæum, Nov. 19, 1831.) The public depression attributed by one faction to the refusal of reform, and by the other to the introduction of the measure, still continues; cheap books alone are published, and during the present political pest cheap books alone will be purchased; for no man can expect to read a large work leisurely through when the very ground under his feet seems to have a touch of the earthquake, and high houses threaten to topple down and crush ordinary people in the rubbish. Men who in former palmy times boldly launched their first-rate quarto, are now content to push their cockboat along the shore and close by the land —in truth, till the great question of reform is settled but no timid adventurer need try to come forward. Magazines may change editors, newspapers their proprietors, reviews their contributors, and booksellers may have faith in rich or official authors, but the great market of literature will not open its gates full and wide till the public mind is settled, and perhaps not then. W. (Athenæum, Nov. 26, 1831.) All in literature continues dull as a great thaw, long promised works are held back from the market, and no new ones of any mark or likeli- hood make their appearance. Six hundred printers are out of employment in London alone. Reprints of favourite authors are all that book- sellers dare venture upon ; and of these the new edition of the poetical works of Sir Walter Scott promises to be one of the most attractive gº tº This, with the “Italy ’’ of Rogers, and the Works of Byron, announced by Murray, must console our eyes for the absence of mental food. The Annuals, we fear, must go to the wall when these are published. VI. (Athenæum, Dec. 17, 183 I.) Literature has recovered a little from its long stupor; more than a hundred new works, and some of them of great interest, have been announced. Pamphlets on reform and visionary treatises on cholera will now give way, we hope, to works of learning and genius. In addition to this good news, we hear that Sir Walter Scott has arrived safe and well at Malta. Reprints of valuable books, sometime announced, are about to make their appearance; the Byron of Murray comes out on the first of the new year, and a beautiful work it is. VII. (Athenæum, Dec. 24, 1831.) Our publishers' shops are now more frequented —booksellers are receiving orders—the columns of the newspapers are filling with advertisements of books; and though these festive times of Christmas interpose a little in business matters, we cannot but perceive that literature has rallied and gives token of recovering much of its original vigour. We hear that the next numbers of the magazines, both north and south, will show that the national love of elegance is reviving; we cannot, however, look for a full development of the publishers' plans of the next campaign till the publication of the Quarterly, and Edinburgh, and Westminster Reviews. VIII. (Letter from Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibden, Oct. 31, 183 I.) I paid my eleventh and last visit to the renowned publisher of the Quarterly Review. I have long considered Mr. Murray as the greatest “family ’’ man in Europe, and was not surprised to find him surrounded by an extensive circle of little ones. A family man is usually a cheerful man ; but the note of despondency was to be heard even here. The Quarterly Review was, however, in full plumage, winging its way, and commanding the attention of an unabated crowd of admirers. Lord Byron was also to come forth in a new dress—shorter, and less flowing, but ## p. 217 (#231) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 217 well fitting, brilliant, and attractive. So far, so good; yet the taste for literature was ebbing. Men wished to get for five, what they knew they could not obtain for fifteen shillings. The love of quartos was well-nigh extinct, in spite of the efforts of a neighbouring forty-eight horse power engine, to restore that form to its usual fashion and importance.—Bibliophobia, p. 31. *- a. -- a- - - THE ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY. HIS dictionary will be edited by Mr. Joseph Wright, M.A., Ph.D., deputy professor of comparative philology in the University of Oxford. The treasurer is Professor Skeat, Litt.D., LL.D. The following is from the circular recently issued. Some of our readers will, perhaps, be ready to help in the way herein pointed out : “The dictionary will include, so far as is possible, the complete vocabulary of all dialect words which are still in use or are known to have been in use at any time during the last 200 years. All words occurring in the literary lan- guage, and the dialects, but with some local peculiarity of meaning in the latter, will also be included. On the other hand, all words which merely differ from the literary language in pro- nunciation, but not in meaning, will be rigidly excluded, as belonging entirely to the province of grammar and not to that of lexicography. It will also contain (I) the exact geographical area over which each dialect word extends, together with quotations and references to the sources from which the word has been obtained ; (2) the exact pronunciation in each case according to a simple phonetic scheme, specially formulated for the purpose; (3) the etymology so far as relates to the immediate source of each word. “During the last twenty years a great number of people in all parts of England have been co- operating to collect the material necessary for the compilation of a large and comprehensive Dictionary of English Dialects, based upon scien- tific principles. It was also with this express object in view that the English Dialect Society was started in 1873, which up to the end of 1893 has published seventy volumes, all of which, so far as is advisable, will be incorporated in the dictionary. In addition to the great amount of material sent in from unprinted sources, hundreds of dialect glossaries and works containing dialect words have been read and excerpted for the purposes of the dictionary. I have already in my possession considerably over a million slips— about a ton in weight—each containing the source with quotation, date, and county. The slips for the letter S alone weigh nearly 2 cwt. It has cost those interested in this grand and glorious work, several hundred pounds to get the material roughly arranged in alphabetical order. Pro- fessor Skeat, myself, and other specialists—both at home and abroad—are of opinion that the time has come when it is urgently necessary to begin to edit for press the vast amount of material already collected, because in a work of this nature delay is dangerous, and every year will render it more and more difficult to obtain accurate infor- mation about the exact pronounciation of dialect words; so rapidly is pure dialect speech dis- appearing from our midst, that in a few years it will be almost impossible to get accurate informa- tion upon difficult points. Hence it has been decided to begin the publication of the dictionary next year if possible. “But much as has already been accomplished in collecting material, much still remains to be done before the staff of assistants and myself can begin our long and arduous task. I therefore appeal most earnestly to my fellow-countrymen for further help, to enable us to make the material as complete as possible before we begin to pre- pare the work for press. Two or three hundred additional workers could in a very short time furnish us with all the material which still remains to be gleaned from printed and other sources. When this appeal becomes widely known, there will surely be no difficulty in obtain- ing the help we require ; for, as was pointed out in a former report of the Dialect Dictionary: “It will be nothing short of a reproach and a disgrace to us as Englishmen if we let a true and genuine part of our national speech die out in our time without an effort to preserve and hand it down to posterity. Such an effort we are making. It would argue a sad want of public spirit if Englishmen were to evince no interest in our labours, and let them languish for want of material support.’” *—- - - r- - - BOOK TALK. N the verses by the Rev. Dr. Charles D. Bell quoted in our last number there are three printer's errors. In the last line but one of the second stanza, “ hears no strain'' should be “hears our strain.” In the third stanza, “ Arethusa '’ should have been printed “Arethuse;” and in the line following, “with look of love * should be “with looks of love.” “X. Y. Z. and other Poems” presents itself in a garb that suggests the influence of “The Yellow Book.” There is a black serpent in a ## p. 218 (#232) ############################################ 218 THE AUTHOR. green ground and a yellow sun, conventionally presented, on a black ground. The poems are by the Rev. John Lascelles. The publishers are the Leadenhall Press. They are religious verses, and very remarkable for their strength and originalty. They are sometimes even startling. Every poet must choose his own vehicle, and perhaps Mr. Lascelles has chosen the form which suits him best. One may ask, however, if the ruggedness is not sometimes a little forced. Here is the concluding poem : What matters it, if men remember me, When I have gone to live among the stars; In some fair home where earthly frets and jars Have ceased to vex my soul P and I can see The deepest depths of truth; my vision free From earth's distortions; and from all that mars The intercourse of souls; when God unbars The golden gates of Immortality. What matter if men read me through and through ; And talk of me when I am but a name, And all I love have gone to join the just P What matters it P But for the good I do, No more than if they reverently came, In after years—and stooped and kissed the dust. Mr. George Cotterel is another new poet. His verses are published by David Nutt. Mr. Cotterell is among other things a story-teller in verse, It will be unexpected if he, or some other poet, should succeedin reviving the lostart of story- telling in verse. There are several stories in these volumes. The story of “Natham,” of “Constance,” and that called “Violets.” Mr. Cotterell has also told dramatically the story of Arethusa and the story of Galatea. The last-named begins as follows: Sore-smitten, my shepherd, my dearest, Struck down and for me ! There is none of all now that thou fearest, None like unto thee. * There is none with thy strength and thy sweetness, Though lovers remain In love with thy dear love's completeness, Nor will be again. But thy face was a mark for his madness, Thy love for his hate, The monster that envied our gladness, And compassed thy fate : And all day in all desolate places, I bemoan thee and weep, Afar from thy loving embraces Astray like thy sheep. “The Confessions of a Poet ’’ is a book which has been lying on our table for two months. It is a volume of verse by Mr. F. Harald Williams (Hutchinson and Co.). The preface, which is amusing, concerns the critics. For instance, one of them declared that he would not dare to ask in a respectable shop for a book with such an improper name as 'Twiat Kiss and Lip. (!) One looks at the title from every point of view, and yet one cannot possibly see what and where is the impropriety of it. Then the author com- plains of the garbled review, the dishonest review, and, above all, of the crowded review, where one or two reviewers have to discuss a dozen books in a single week—sometimes a dozen in a single column. Again, he calls attention to the directly opposite opinions on his book. Here are three : “Extraordinary skill and felicity in versifica- tion.” “Mere doggerel passing human scansion and comprehension.” “Accurate rhythm and perfect versification.” Of course these opinions contradict each other flatly. In these columns criticism of a poet is not attempted. The most that we can do is to let a poet speak for himself, and to state what he presents. The volume is large, containing 500 pages of verse in small print. The poet is fluent : perhaps he would do better to remember that a busy world cannot find time to read through too bulky a volume. The following is the opening stanza of “The Land of Nod ‘’’: The stream of quiet life goes smoothly on, In sunshine and in shade, Without a check as it has ever gone, While blossoms form and fade. And scarce a ripple breaks the eventide Of labour touched with tears, And modest hopes whose sober colours hide The face of human fears. Deep down below, like an uncovered corpse That yet no burial earns Or decent rest, and with the current warps, And turns. We learn from the Athenaeum that Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie thinks of bringing out an edition of her father's works, with biographical notes. Also that a large-paper edition of Mr. George Meredith’s “Tale of Chloe" will be issued by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden. Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co., of 14, Parliament-street, S.W., are issuing a new library of fiction entitled “The Acme Library,” and consisting of volumes by well-known authors of about 20,000 words in length. The first issue is a story by Dr. Conan Doyle relating to mesmeric influence. In the book list for November the initials of “A. Z.” were given as the author of “A Drama in Dutch " (Heinemann and Co.). They should have been “Z. Z.” Among the new books in last month's list should have been inserted a “Manual of Addresses to Communicants,” by the Rev. W. Frank Shaw (Mowbray and Co. 3s. 6d.). Miss Gerda Grass's novel, “Phil Hawcroft’s Son,” which has been running in the Newcastle ## p. 219 (#233) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2 I 9 Weekly Chronicle, has now come to an end. It has attracted considerable attention, and has already been translated into Swedish. It will be probably published in the spring. Dr. K. Lentzner has delivered a course of four lectures on Danish Literature, under the patron- age of H.R.H. the Princess of Wales. Mrs. F. Percy Cotton, writing under the name of Ellis Walton, has published (Elliott Stock) a new volume of verse, called “Some Love Songs, and other Lyrics.” These verses have received highly laudatory reviews in Sunday papers. The interest recently created in book plates is quite wonderful. Apart from Mr. Egerton Castle's comprehensive work on the subject, there are half a dozen books on the subject issued by the same publishers (H. Grevel and Co.). These are: “Art in Book Plates,” illustrated by forty-two original ex Libris, designed in the style of the German ; “Little Masters of the Sixteenth Century,” from the ex Libris collection from the Ducal Palace of Wolfenbüttel; “Rare old Plates of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century;” “Em- blemata Nobilitatis; ” “Emblemata Secularia;” “Initials;” and a “Modern Dance of Death.” In addition to this may be noted “American Book Plates” and “English Book Plates,” both pub- lished by Messrs. Bell. The “Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier’ ought to be read by everybody who loves pure literature and the life of a man devoted to the best and highest forms of literature accord- ing to his lights. It will cost you 18s., and it is published by Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. But if you go to a free library you can get it for nothing. “Poste Restante,” a novel by C. Y. Har- greaves, 3 vols. (A. and C. Black). The reader may make a note of it for his next circulating library list. Mrs. Croker's new novel, “Mr. Jervis: a Romance of the Indian Hills,” is just published, in three volumes—the old three-decker not dead yet—by Chatto and Windus. Austin Dobson’s “Eighteenth Century Wignettes” (second series), is, like everything of this most delightful writer and poet, charming and interesting. The Fortnightly Review under the new editor is getting on so well that last month it was found necessary to issue a second edition. “St. Andrews and Elsewhere * is A. K. H. B.'s new volume (Longmans). We all know one A. K. H. B. Some of us have known him and been pleased to read him for thirty years. We recommend Mr. Arthur Morrison’s “Tales of Mean Streets” (Methuen) to everybody. They are better than photographs; because the photograph shows everything. This author selects, arranges, and produces an artistic whole. His work is the best kind of realism. Christabel Coleridge will begin a new serial in the Sunday Magazine for January. There will be two serial stories in Good JWords for 1895, by S. R. Crockett and by W. Clark Russell. The author of “The Yellow Aster’” has pro- duced a new novel, in three volumes, called “Children of Circumstance.” It has gone into a fourth edition. (Hutchinson.) “The New Note” (same publisher) is advertised as in the fourth edition, and Rita's “Peg the Rake ’’ is advertised in the second edition. These announcements are highly satisfactory, but one would submit that they are less impressive than if the numbers of each edition were given. A good many publishers have “select ’’ and “standard” and other “ libraries' of fiction. Therefore we need not be surprised to hear that Messrs. Macmillan are going to have a series of “Illustrated Standard Novels.” The books are to be well illustrated, and there will be a preface or introduction to every volume, thus forming a pleasant and perhaps remunerative job to as many literary men as there are volumes. The books are what we all know—Marryatt, Miss Edgeworth, Susan Ferrier, and so forth. Mr. Ulick Burke is about to produce his long- promised work on Spain. The publisher will be Longmans. It will be curious to see whether the old interest in things Spanish will be revived by this important book. Of late years our literature has been almost silent on Spain and the Spanish. “Menzikoff, or the Danger of Wealth,” a story founded on fact, has been translated from the German of Gustav Nieritz by Mrs. Alexander Rerr, and published by the Religious Tract Society. The book in the original made consider- able stir and has had a large circulation. Miss Julia Agnes Fraser has just issued a novel in three volumes, called “Shibrick the Drummer.” The publishers are Messrs. Remington and Co. Among the many new books of verse which have appeared of late is one by Marcus S. C. Rickards, author of “Creation's Hope,” “Songs of Universal Life,” &c., called “Poems of Life and Death,” published by George Bell and Sons. They are all short poems, ranging in length from one page to three. The poet is always ## p. 220 (#234) ############################################ 22O THE AUTHOR. pleasing and unaffected. His song is neither complicated nor obscure; perhaps it is sometimes too simple. The themes that inspire him are old-fashioned—The Nightingale, Roses, Violets, Sweet Peas, the New Moon, a Hedge Sparrow, a Curlew, and so on. Those who like simplicity in style, purity of thought, and rippling melody will find these qualities in Mr. Marcus Rickards. Mr. C. J. Wills has produced another book on Persia which is even more interesting than his “Land of the Lion and the Sun.” It is called “Behind an Eastern Weil,” and is an account of life as it really is for the women of that far off country — perhaps the farthest “off” at this moment of any country under the sun–centainly a long way more distant than China, Japan, or even, thanks to recent startling developments, Rorea itself. It is published by Blackwood and Sons. Messrs. Chatto and Windus have published a translation of the Memoirs of the Duchesse de Gontant. The period covered is from 1773 to 1836. The Duchess was gouvernante of the Children of France during the Restoration. The memoirs, therefore, cover the whole of the most interesting period of French history. All that can be said about the book amounts to this, that once taken up it will not be laid down or exchanged for another book until it is finished. “Norley Chester”—Madame or Monsieur— has published a little book of sonnets (Elliot Stock) called “Dante Wignettes.” There are twenty-five of them. The sonnets have the true ring of verse, and the true enthusiasm for Dante. Again, the three-volume novel is not dead yet. Mr. C. Y. Hayman brings out his new work (A. and C. Black) in this form. “Poste Restante” is its title. You who still belong to circulating libraries make a note of it. Messrs. Ward and Downey have in hand a novel by R. H. Sherard, entitled “Jacob Niemand.” It will be published in the spring. Mr. R. H. Sherard is engaged on a life of Sarah Bernhardt, which will be published next season by Edward Arnold. Mr. F. B. Doveton's new work will appear shortly. It is a book of Prose Sketches, meta- physical, descriptive, and social, with tales and lay sermons. The publisher is Elliot Stock. “Beyond the Dreams of Avarice,” by the editor of this paper, will be published before the end of January (Chatto and Windus) in one volume, price 6s. > c: CORRESPONDENCE, I.—PERSONAL ExPERIENCE. T is fair to give publicity to both sides of the question, so, as an author of some years standing, I should like to state that my experience of editors is very unlike that of “An Author’’ published in your last issue. I hav met with great kindness and consideration from many editors; indeed, some have become quite friendly, and when they refuse articles— which they are often obliged to do for want of room, or because they do not require what I send them—they frequently write a kind, courteous note with their refusal. But I never eapect this from them, knowing how busy they are and how precious is their time. On the other hand, I should never trouble them with the information that anyone else was “enchanted ” with my works. Firstly, because I am not fortunate enough to have an “enchanted ” public ; and, secondly, because I am sure the editor would not care to hear it even if I had But, as a body, should we not be happier if we raised our ideal of the noble profession to which we belong P. There are very few great writers in the world, and only a very small pro- portion of these can be found in England. Even if writers are born with talent or even with genius they have much labour to go through before they can produce a classic, and most of us are far from producing classics. But once let us raise our ideal and we shall not be surprised when that which falls far short of it, is often returned with- out thanks! However, if we have satisfied our- selves that our work is good, or as good as we can make it, do not let us be cast down if the poem, or the tale, or the novel is rejected ten times over. In the end good work will find a publisher. Popularity does not always mean that the writer who has it is a great writer, indeed, for a young author to make a “hit ’’ with a first book is almost a curse. If we place our ideal high we can then be our own judges, and we need not be dependent on the good or the bad opinion of hard-worked editors. Above all things let us not tout for reviews | I have never done so, yet my work has been noticed quite as much as it deserves; indeed, I have sometimes received more praise than my work merited. I must own, however, to possessing a Jow opinion of second-rate reviewers, who often do not read the books they review, or else tell the story straight through without one word of critical comment. Still, their strange mistakes make us laugh, and their blame cannot injure an ideal, as they possess none of their own. ## p. 221 (#235) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 22 I Further, if we accuse some publishers of certain unfair dealings, let us also look at home and strive to keep our own profession free from smallness or meanness. Let us set our faces agai st log rolling, cringing to obtain favourable reviews, or praising poor work hoping to get praise in return. If we want good money let us give good work, but especially let us give good work even if we get no money at all. Det us avoid pot boilers and accept poverty if necessary rather than lower the standard in our own eyes and in the eyes of the few who can see. If I may, let me again repeat Mr. Sherard’s quotation. It will materially help us when, after having striven hard, we find our work returned to us by editors with or without thanks. “J’en ay assez de peu,” répondit il. “J’en ay assez d’un, J'em ay assez de pas wºn.” ESME STUART. II.-Nov ELISTS AND THEIR CHARACTERS. I had imagined that novelists need no longer fear being held responsible for the opinions and actions of their leading characters. But I have just had singular proof that the old-fashioned idea of “hero * dies hard in England. Unfortunately I am rather fond of taking immature characters and trying to develop them —as we are most of us developed—through mis- takes and failures. In preparing my last novel (the eighteenth I have written) for the press, I altered the original title, “Norman Colvill’s Blunders ” to “A Modern Quixote.” I thought that the touch of kindly satire which I meant to run through the story would be implied in the name “Quixote.” The A. B. C. of my art, of course, prevented me from discussing my character or writing my own opinions about him. But on the title-page I wrote Bacon’s axiom, “Goodness admits of no excess, but error.” And as it was necessary for me to write a short preface to apologise for the staleness of certain passages in a book, which was written in 1893, I took the opportunity to refer to “blundering and mistaken efforts,” made with the best intentions. Certain chapters were even headed “Nemesis,” “The Punishment Begins, ’ &c., and towards the end of the third volume the Quixote, who has been compelled to carry out his theories to the bitter end, deplores his own failure, and acknowledges his own priggishness in the earlier Oxonian stage. Imagine my amazement when critic after critic speaks of “Mrs. Spender’s Hero,” “ Mrs. Spender’s Polemics.” Personally I hate polemics, but my opinions or my individuality should surely be kept as much as possible in that back- ground from which, leading a li’e of retirement, I can only express my surprise. LILY SPENDER. III.-WRITERS OF SONGs. The time having come for the rights and interests of musical composers to receive a share of consideration, which holds out fair hope of redress, may I venture, as a lyric writer of at least twenty-five years’ standing, to put in a plea, for the writers of words for music? A great many songs, with words written by me, have been sung, year after year, by noted singers, not only in London concert halls, but all over the English-speaking world. Yet, beyond the small fee paid for the words at the time of publication, I have never received one penny. |Many of the music publishers now send to the writers a form of receipt for the fee, to which a special clause is attached that “all rights in the words, whether for public performance or not, in all parts of the world, shall belong absolutely and for ever to the publisher.” By signing this receipt the writer, of course, loses all further interest in his property. Public singers receive large royalties on songs sung by them, such royalties being ostensibly paid by the publishers, but in which payment the composers must in many cases share by foregoing a part of their own very small profit. I am ignorant of these matters, and should like to ask why the singer is so much more sufficiently paid than the writer or composer ; He must manifestly sing something, and is amply paid by the public for doing so. Would it not seem a more just arrangement that writer, com- poser, and singer should each receive a share of the royalties paid by the publishers ? Might not some other form of receipt be adopted by music publishers, the terms of which would deal less hardly with the composers and writers of songs P T.YRIC. IV.-PLAGIARISM OR MEMORY. Synonymous expressions of thought are common in literature, but clear instances of unconscious plagiarism are rare. The following lines are similar word for word: And yet We lost it in this daily jar and fret, And now live idle in a vague regret. JOHN DAVIDSON. It was, and yet We lost it in this daily jar and fret, And now live idle in a vague regret. ADELAIDE A. PROCTER. A young poet in the full fire of genius and passion for his ideal cannot be too careful in ## p. 222 (#236) ############################################ 222 A UTHOR. THE passing his proofs, or he may easily appropriate unconsciously the lines of others. I may mention that, prior to publishing my first volume—“Lord Harrie and Leila, In Memory of H.R.H. the Prince Consort, and other poems ”—I carefully read through my ideals—Byron, Shelley, and Keats—ere I would allow it to pass the press. It was well I did so, as I found it necessary to expunge certain lines which had crept in through unconscious instances of memory, which would otherwise have gone forth as my own, and for which my critics would not probably have spared me. H. GEORGE HELLON. W.—STANDARD WORKs. I have often thought that there is an injustice in the copyright falling practically largely into the heretofore publisher's hands after copyright ceases. Would it be possible to have some such clause as “all stereos to become the property of the author's heirs and assigns on expiration of copyright,” and such stereos to be used for their benefit by the literary syndicate of authors or others ? As it is now, the publishers gain any advantage by cessa- tion of rights, while it is the public or the Society of Authors which ought so to gain. H. S. VI.-KIND OR JUST P The editor of an American periodical was robbed of his tin box, not full of bonds and cash, as the wicked thief imagined, but of MSS. and sketches. Bear the loss who should P I fancy many editors of English magazines would say “The authors, of course ; we are not responsible if foolish people send us their MSS.” Not so my American editor. The periodical in Question is not rich, but it will bear the loss and compensate the authors. This is not only kind, but courteous—and just. S. B. *. VII.-HospitaLS AND PROOFs. Apropos of a suggestion in one of your recent numbers that authors would do a good deed by sending their proof sheets when useless to hospitals, I should be glad of the medium of your correspondence column to make a similar suggestion. Books sent to magazines and newspapers for review should never be sold, and it is clearly the duty of everyone who values a fair field to authors to protest against such a custom. There is an excellent statement in the editorial notices of The Unknown World to this effect : “The editor of The Unknown World, as himself a writer of books, and the publishers, as per- sonally interested in sustaining the commercial value of new books, resent the prevailing custom of selling review copies immediately after publi- cation, and too often without notice at all. All books sent to this magazine for review will remain in the custody of the proprietors, and will not be parted with under any circumstances.” This has suggested to me two propositions, which are, as far as I know, original. The first is that all review copies should be bound in paper as French novels are published. The second, that the editors of magazines and news- papers could make a good use of these copies if they sent them to such libraries as the Peoples’ Palace library, or the Working Men's Club libraries of the Federation of Working Men's Social Clubs, or of clubs connected with Toynbee Hall, or school and college missions. Besides these, hospitals and free libraries would greatly benefit by such a system. JOHN WYATT. VIII.-EDITORIAL AMENITIES. Case I. Recently I submitted a lengthy MS. for approval to the editor of a well-known, high- class paper. In a week it was returned with the usual note of non-acceptance ; torn, inked, and dirtied, every page of it. The result: The MS. (which was type-written) would have to be re- typed at the cost of 8s. or 9s. before it could be offered elsewhere. It was perfectly clean and new when sent to the editor in question, in an envelope. I wrote a note of remonstrance. Answer: “The editor much regrets if the MS. should have become slightly soiled (good this ; it was simply filthy), but thinks Mr. Z. must have been mis- taken as to its condition when sent to the office of the magazine. He is unable to offer Mr. Z. any compensation.” Case 2. A few weeks ago I forwarded by request a MS. for the consideration of another well-known magazine, inclosing ample stamps for its return, if unsuitable, under cover. Result: MS. returned coverless, the two last pages having been turned back and glued so as to form an impromptu wrapper, a half-penny stamp being attached in place of the two penny Ones sent by me to cover postage. A pouring wet day resulting in the MS., thus insufficiently protected, being soaked through and through, necessitating almost entire re-copying. Case 3. Two years ago an old established paper accepted a MS. of mine upon an archaeo- logical subject. At the expiry of nearly two years from date of acceptance I wrote to inquire why the contribution had not been used. Answer: The editor could not make use of it as it was “full of inaccuracies.” I naturally asked for ## p. 223 (#237) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 223 somewhat fuller information upon the subject of my alleged inaccuracies. After some time had elapsed the MS. was returned with the detailed information for which I had asked. Upon going through the list, and consulting the best known authorities on the subject, I found that every one of the editor's statements, contravening mine in the article, was incorrect. I wrote to point this out, but have not yet received any reply, though several weeks have elapsed. I presume that I am powerless to insist on publication, and have lost the chance of the article appearing else- where. It has been paid for (a cheque was sent me three or four months after acceptance) but publication would have proved more valuable to me in more ways than one. Surely these are somewhat “hard ” cases, though by no means isolated ones. C. H. IX.—THE LAUREATESHIP. I think your correspondent “A Prose Writer’” has done a good deed in again calling attention to the prolonged vacancy of the office of Poet Laureate, though I can hardly agree with him that the whole fraternity of authors is being slighted. In some well-known books of reference, which purport to be “carefully corrected at the different offices,” the Poet Laureate is shown to occupy a position, in the Lord Chamberlain's Department, immediately above the Barge Master and the Keeper of the Swans. The Barge Master may be able to say, in the words of “The Bard,” In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes. And the Keeper of the Swans may be in the habit of hearing exquisite notes when one of his charges dies; but does close association with them confer any special honour on a poet P Has not the time come either for abolishing the office or for setting it in a more dignified position ? The duties of the post are very uncertain. The poet may have to celebrate many events in one year, or he may have no events to celebrate during many years. In either case the spectacle is not very edifying. Genius writing to order One year, and waiting for orders the next. Pegasus sometimes at grass, sometimes kicking in his unaccustomed harness. Why not dis- establish the Laureateship, and let volunteers rise to the occasion when occasion arises P Palmam qui meruit ferat. Give the laurel wreath, and the honour, and, if necessary, the cheque, to the best man after the celebration of each event. The decision should be by universal suffrage and the ballot, because no poet could be worthy unless under- standed of the people.—Your obedient servant, II. X.—NEOLOGISMs. I observe that a controversy is proceeding in the Westminster Gazette as to the double mean- ing of “ancestor.” Is not a single word wanted to explain what is meant by what is frequently but incorrectly called “collateral ancestor P’’ Could not such a word be invented P Then as to “up to dateness.” I have seen this word used in the Referee, but I believe it to be considered as generally unfit for serious prose. But by what word or what number of words can its obvious meaning be expressed ? Surely the sooner the word, or a better single word, if such can be found, is admitted into serious prose the better. J. M. LELY. XI.-CONTINUATION BY ANOTHER HAND. The following correspondence sent to us by Messrs. Harper and Brothers is published with the permission of Mr. Justin McCarthy: I Harper and Brothers, Publishers, Franklin-square, New York. Nov. 27, 1894. DEAR SIR,-We have read with interest the remarks in The Author, issued the first of this month, upon the subject “Continuation by Another Hand,” elicited by the publication by a firm in this city of a new edition of Mr. Justin McCarthy’s “A History of Our Own Times,” to which supplementary chapters have been added by Mr. G. Mercer Adam, bringing the work down to 1894. Inasmuch as we are the publishers of the American authorised edition of this work, and as the sale of our edition will be injuriously affected by this unauthorised reprint, we felt it our duty to call Mr. McCarthy’s attention to the matter several weeks ago. Our edition of the work was published before the International Copyright Law was passed, and was therefore without protection against un- authorised reprints; nevertheless, the sale has been considerable. We have already paid Mr. McCarthy on account of royalties representing a sale of many thousand sets. Mr. McCarthy appreciated the interest which we took in the matter, and replied in a most cordial and characteristic letter. We inclose herewith copies of our letter to Mr. McCarthy, and his reply. Yours very truly, HARPER AND BROTHERs. ## p. 224 (#238) ############################################ 224 THE AUTHOR. II. Oct. I I, 1894. DEAR SIR,--In the London letter to the New York Times, published on the 7th inst., the inclosed paragraph appeared:—“We fully sym- pathise with you in the sense of injury raised in your mind by the publication by the United States Book Company of Mr. G. Mercer Adam's edition of your ‘History of Our Own Times.’ That edition is an injury to us as well as to you, for it will maturally affect the sale of our edition. We inclose here with the advertisement of the book from the New York Evening Post, and we shall send you a copy through our London Office.” The wording of the paragraph in the Times was very unfortunate. The statement that it was “sad enough to get next to nothing for the original work when it appeared” is misleading, for it might be understood as reflecting upon us, who were the original and authorised publishers of the work in this country. We assume, of course, that the unfortunate paragraph was not the result of any statement of yours, but was simply the reflection of the correspondent him- self, who was ignorant of the fact that we had paid you royalty upon the sale of our edition of your book from the time of publication. The total payments of royalty represent, we find, the sale of many thousand sets. To this should be added the sum paid for the authorisation of the Franklin- square Library edition of the work. Under the circumstances this is a very substantial “next to nothing,” as the Times correspondent would promptly concede. We have no doubt that he would be only too glad to correct any false impression which his letter may have created—or you may prefer to do this yourself. By the way, the enterprising Mr. Adam is a Canadian, and was formerly a publisher in Toronto. Would it be advisable, in view of Mr. Adam’s action, for you to prepare a third volume, bringing the book down to the present date P While writing it occurs to us to inquire when you intend to complete your “History of the Four Georges,” two volumes of which we have published. It is now several years since the second volume was issued, and inquiries are constantly made for the final two volumes. If this is delayed too long it is possible that some “literary philanthropist” may undertake to com- plete the work for you, or enter upon the same field. We are, dear sir, yours very truly, HARPER AND BROTHER8. Justin McCarthy, Esq., M.P. III. 73, Eaton-terrace, S.W., London, Oct. 26, 1894. DEAR SIRs, I have to acknowledge, with many thanks, the receipt of your letter of the I Ith of this month. You are quite right in assuming that I knew nothing of the paragraph in the Tondon letter to the New York Times. I never saw it or heard of it until Ireceived your letter. 1 should think that what the writer meant was that, owing to the state of the law as regards copyright then, I did not receive from the United States anything like the amount which I might have received under other conditions. But, so far as your firm is concerned, I can only say that you have always dealt with me in the fairest, most honourable, and even most generous manner. I was surprised at the time, and am still surprised, that you were able to pay me so much for the history, seeing that numbers of publishers of a different order were issuing all manner of cheaper editions. When first you and I began to have dealings together, there was an honourable under- standing among American publishers that if a foreign author selected or succeeded in obtaining some particular American firm as his publishers, the other publishers would accept the arrange- ment and not interfere. This was really a copy- right by good feeling and common understand- ing. But before my history came to be published there were new firms in the field, and copyright of that sort was brought to an end. It was therefore, as I have said, a wonder to me that you were able to pay me as much for a “History of Our Own Times” as you actually did. Our business relations extend back over a quarter of a century. I have nothing to speak but praise in regard to the firm of Harper and Brothers. I certainly mean to bring the “History of Our Own Times” up to date—whenever I get a chance —and to finish the “Four Georges” too. I hope that Messrs. Harper and Brothers may be the publishers of both. Lately I have been absorbed in politics and unable to do much literary work, but I hope for quieter times. Of course, you are free to make any use of this letter that seems to you desirable. With kindest regards, very truly yours, JustTN McCARTHY. Messrs. Harper and Brothers. 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. 05 Issue 08 (January 1895) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 08 (January 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-01-01-The-Author-5-8 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/271/1894-12-01-The-Author-5-7.pdf ae5281340fbad7e8b1f515a621eb21e2 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) 1894-12-01 Volume 5 Issue 7 Pages Page range in volume 169–200 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18941201 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DUCTED BY WALTER BES.A.N.T. VoI. W.-No. 7.] DECEMBER 1, 1894. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *-* —” ,-- - -, WARNINGS AND ADVICE. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT. It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £Io must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an "VOL. W. arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CosT OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. – Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. 14, NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society's Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *-- - -* r- - --w HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY, I , VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member Q 2 ## p. 170 (#184) ############################################ 170 THE AUTHOR. has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. - 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. *- --" r- ºr ~, THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby given that in all cases where there is no current account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre - spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department" for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted ” has been opened. Members anxious to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com- municate with the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. *- - -e a- - -º NOTICES. HE Editor of the Awthor begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. - - Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth ## p. 171 (#185) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 171 as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. . Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-i- * ~ * g- > -s; LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT. N Thursday, Oct. 18, a meeting of the sub- committee on Canadian copyright was held at 4.15 p.m. at the offices of the Incorporated Society of Authors, 4, Portugal- street, W.C. Mr. F. R. Daldy took the chair, and the other members were all present. The secretary read over the minutes of the former meeting, and they were signed by the chairman. Mr. Daldy then proceeded to give a statement of what took place during his visit to America and Canada. He informed the committee that un- fortunately he had arrived too late for the Ontario Conference, but that he had taken the opinions of a good many people in Canada, and, with the exception of a small ring of printers, he found that the people were ignorant of the steps that were being taken with regard to Canadian copy- right. In America, the opinion was very strongly opposed to the change in the law, and Mr. Daldy stated that he was informed on good authority that any such change as was suggested by the Canadians would be likely to prejudice American copyright in the British Dominions. Mr. Thring, the Secretary of the Society of Authors, confirmed this statement through a letter he had received privately from America. Mr. Daldy then stated that he had made a few observations on Sir John Thompson's report at the end of each paragraph, and he handed the members of the committee a copy of these observations, and requested that they would look carefully into the matter and make their own additions, so that at the next meeting the whole question could be finally gone into and settled. The meeting was then adjourned until the following Thursday to enable the sub-committee to study the report and formulate their reply. At two subsequent meetings of the sub-com- mittee an exhaustive answer to the report, taken paragraph by paragraph, was prepared, and also a covering letter, both of which documents were to be approved by the general committee and for- warded to the Government Department com- mittee. At a full meeting of the general committee, held at Mr. Murray's house in Albemarle-street, on Oct. 30, when Mr. Murray was voted into the chair, the report and covering letter were dis- cussed and finally approved, and it was resolved that they should at once be forwarded to the Colonial Office. It is hoped that at a later date the Marquis of Ripon will receive a deputation representing all the copyright interests. The committee of the Society will be careful that authors’ interests are adequately cared for on this deputation. II.-DEPUTATION ON CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT. Lord Ripon received at the Colonial Office, on Monday, Nov. 26, an influential deputation from the London Chamber of Commerce, and its four publishing trade sections, the Society of Authors, the Copyright Association, and the Printsellers' Association, which were represented by the following gentlemen: Mr. H. O. Arnold-Forster, M.P., Mr. E. M. Underdown, Q.C., Mr. Walter Besant, Mr. W. H. Lecky, Mr. G. Herbert Thring, Mr. F. R. Daldy, Mr. John Murray, Mr. T. Norton Longman, Mr. E. Marston, Mr. Edwin Ashdown, Mr. H. R. Clayton (Novello, Ewer, and Co.), Mr. Arthur Lucas, and Mr. A. Tooth. Sir ALBERT K. Ro1.1.1T, M.P., president of the London Chamber of Commerce, in introducing the deputation, expressed their thanks to Lord Ripon for the opportunity which had been afforded them of considering the despatch from Sir John Thompson, the Canadian Premier, demanding Imperial legislation which would explicitly confer upon the Parliament of Canada the power to legislate on all matters relating to copyright and to repeal the Imperial statutes in force on the subject. There was no feeling of hostility towards the Canadians on the part of the deputation; but while Canada had the right to legislate on those points which concerned her own printers and publishers, it was strongly felt that the proposed legislation was of a much wider character, and violated established principles upon which the whole copyright law of the empire had hitherto been determined. Prior to the Berne Convention the colonies were consulted, and each gave its consent to joining it. They therefore felt that this was an Imperial matter, and could not be satisfactorily dealt with on the lines suggested by Canada. They wished to protect literary property, in which the rights of authors and publishers, though not, perhaps, so tangible ## p. 172 (#186) ############################################ I 72 THE AUTHOR. as in the case of trade marks, were nevertheless quite as real, and the violation of which would involve injustice to them. Besides these con- siderations, the feeling with regard to the Canadian Act of 1889, which Sir John Thompson desired her Majesty’s Government to assent to, was that if it were passed it might create a precedent the effect of which would be almost unlimited. Mr. E. M. UNDERDown, Q.C., said the Canadians appeared to take the view that Imperial copyright infringed the rights of certain publishers in their country. There was no question as to copyright being property, and a most valuable one, and it seemed impossible to realise at this time of day that any nation should desire to disregard the rights of that property. It was to be regretted that the United States should have attached a manufacturing profit as a condition of copyright, an example which was sought to be followed by one of our own colonies. He was afraid they must characterise Sir John Thompson's demands as a pure attempt to further a particular trade—the Canadian re- printers—and he saw no reason which would justify her Majesty's Government in breaking away from a convention affecting the whole of the Empire. France, as a member of the Berne Convention, might also have cause of complaint because two millions of the Canadians were French and spoke that language. They should jealously guard the principle of copyright as property. Mr. WALTER BESANT pointed to the present condition of literary property in the English- speaking countries, and the effect which would be produced by such changes as were contemplated by the Canadians. They had at last succeeded, after fifty years of struggle, in obtaining from the United States an Act granting international copyright. By that Act they had obtained the protection of their works from piracy; they could bring them out in America, just as they did here; they could make arrangements and agreements with American publishers just as they did here with English publishers, and American authors had equal rights in this country. So what was ours became theirs by legal contract, and in the same way what was theirs became ours. We must remember that the new condition of things made the literature of the whole English-speaking world a common possession. It was an enormous possession. It was the possession of I2O million people, and as education spread and more readers came in every year—more by hundreds of thousands—it would become far more important for all concerned. Therefore it was above ail things necessary to watch over and guard with the utmost jealousy those newly-acquired rights. From the author's point of view the question was most serious, Where the foreign author had no rights he became a most deadly rival to the native author, because he could be produced for nothing. The American authors had only ceased to suffer from this cause during the three years since the Act was passed. They were already showing the increase of vitality and strength which was to be expected when they could com- pete with English authors on fair terms. Again, great as was the audience of our own Empire, the American audience was greater still. In a very short time, when the American publishers had settled down to the new conditions, a popular English author would find his best audience in the States. If, however, Canada had a separate Copyright Act of her own, what would happen? The separation of Canada from the States was by a long and imaginary frontier. It was impossible to keep Canadian books out of the States, or books printed in the States out of Canada. Then would begin again the old miserable game of cheap reprints vying with other cheap reprints. The American proclamation which gave English authors copyright would be torn to pieces. The piracies would go on again. Once more the Americans would publish our books for nothing. American authors who were now enjoying the new system which allowed them open competi- tion with each other and with British authors on fair terms would fall back upon the old state of things in which they used to compete against the book got for nothing. Worse still, all the old bitterness and recriminations would be revived. The question was, in short, should a country of five millions be allowed to wreak all this mischief and wrong upon a world of 122 millions in order to enrich two or three publishers by underselling the Americans? Mr. H. R. CLAYTON said that musical com- posers and publishers were specially affected by copyright questions. While the fact of there being 2,OOO,OOO French-speaking Canadians was important, the language of music was universal. The music publishers had availed themselves to a large extent of the Canadian Copyright Act of I875, which authorised the exclusion of American editions, but in spite of that they could not keep them out. He specially addressed himself to Sir John Thompson’s arguments in regard to the collection of authors’ royalties, and pointed out the great difficulty of collecting them. Sir John had suggested that English publishers preferred the American to the Canadian market; but the fact was that it was impossible to divide the two. Mr. F. R. DALDY said he had had an oppor- tunity while in America this year of consulting the ## p. 173 (#187) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 73 American Authors’ Association and the leading publishers, and he found that the feeling against the Canadian view was such that the American Minister in this country had been requested to ascertain officially what course Great Britain intended to adopt. It was declared that to accede to Canada’s request would more than jeopardise the President’s proclamation. What they said was, “We have given you a great boon; we gave it to you on the faith of the statements of the British Government that the copyright privileges which you gave us would run through- out the British dominions.” The difficulty of collecting the authors’ royalty under the proposed Act would be almost insuperable, especially in connection with stories passing through periodi- cals and newspapers, or even given away gratis. Mr. H. O. ARNOLD-TORSTER, M.P., concurred with previous speakers, and pointed out what would be the consequences if other parts of the Empire were allowed the privileges sought by Canada. The MARQUIs OF RIPON, in reply, said they would not expect him to give any opinion on the question at the present time. He was very glad to receive the deputation, because it was his duty to hear both sides. Sir John Thompson was now in England, and he proposed to have a full dis- cussion with him at the earliest opportunity; but he was anxious, before he entered into that dis- cussion, to hear the views of such important bodies as those which were represented by the deputation. Of course they would understand that the desires expressed by one of the great colonies were entitled to the most serious con- sideration of the Imperial Government, while, on the other hand, that the Government was bound not to overlook the interests of persons to whom the world was so much indebted as the repre- sentative authors and publishers who formed that deputation. He had no hesitation in pro- mising them that the views that had been expressed, and which might be expressed on the other side, would receive the serious consideration of her Majesty's Government.—Times, Nov. 27. III.-CAPE TOWN COPYRIGHT. T. Some change in the Cape copyright law, as it affects the sale of books, is an imperative neces- sity, and we trust that steps will be taken to make the desirable amendment without the loss of another session. Under the present law the sale of pirated editions of books is not prohibited, and, consequently, unscrupulous booksellers are able to do a lucrative business in this unholy traffic of men's brains, The existing law is a farce, and it would be interesting to ascertain what purpose the Legislature sought to serve by it. The Customs levy a special duty of 20 per cent. On foreign reprints of British copyrighted works, half of the proceeds to go to the owner of the copyright. We have never known of any account of this curious impost being rendered to the public, or of any list of remittances to authors being published. But supposing the system to be fully carried out, see what an inane system it is. A copyright work of Ruskin's is worth let us say, Ios. It is kept out of the colony by the substitution of a pirated edition at Is. 6d. We levy one shilling, and send sixpence out of it to Mr. Ruskin to compensate him for the loss of sale of a Ios. book on which the author's profit—Mr. Ruskin is generally his own publisher--would be no small part of the price. Nothing could be simpler than to prohibit alto- gether, as in the United Kingdom, the importa- tion of pirated books, photographs, or pictures. Nothing less will prevent what may be seen in Cape Town windows to-day — the unblushing vending of pirated matter. If nothing else will avail, let us invoke the great name of Imperial Federation in aid of reform. — Cape Argus, Wednesday, Oct. 17. II. Since our remarks appeared in Wednesday’s issue on the above matter, we have ascertained that the 20 per cent. ad valorem duty levied by the Customs on foreign reprints of British copyright books and music amounted in the years 1892 and 1893 (according to the Statistical Register) to the magnificent total of £17 and £27 respectively, and that not half but the whole thereof is gene- rously distributed among the owners of the copyright—in number some dozen or score of persons or firms. We also learn that this 20 per cent, duty is levied on the value of the pirated editions themselves, costing in America often no more than a few cents. per volume, so that instead of Ruskin receiving, as his share, 20 per cent. on the value, Ios., of one of his books, that is—2s., he would actually receive no more than 2O per cent. on the American cost of, say, 20 cents. Of the pirated volume, or 5 cents.-a truly tuppenny ha'penny kind of compensation. It is a marvel that such a state of things has been tole- rated so long. It may also well be questioned whether the Customs really secure the payment of the 20 per cent. duty on all copyright works that enter the Colony. In fact we do not see how they can, unless they search through every case imported from Europe and America, which in prac- tice is impossible; nor would importers stand it and at the same time they would be required to have the titles of everyone of the thousands of ## p. 174 (#188) ############################################ I 74 THE AUTHOR. copyright works at their finger ends.-Cape Argus, Friday, Oct. 19. IV.-PHOTOGRAPHIC CoPYRIGHT. (Before Mr. Justice CoILINs, without a jury.) ELLIS v. OGDEN. Mr. Alfred Ellis, the plaintiff in this action, is a well-known photographer in Baker-street. The defendants, Messrs. Ogden, Smale, and Co., are the publishers of the Ludgate Monthly. The action was brought for an injunction to restrain the defendants from publishing certain photo- graphs, taken by the plaintiff, in their magazine, and for damages. There appeared for the plain- tiff Mr. Scrutton ; and for the defendants Mr. Ruegg. Mr. Scrutton, in opening the case, said that the persons the publication of whose photographs was complained of were Mr. Harry Nicholls and Mr. Charles Kenningham. Both of these gentle- men were well-known actors, and, at the request of the plaintiff, they (at different times) went to his studio to be photographed in character. There was no suggestion of payment. At the end of each sitting Mr. Ellis asked them to sit in plain clothes. This they did. They received copies of all the photographs taken, as a present, and each of them had subsequently bought copies of the plain clothes photographs, for which they had paid “reprint” prices. Mr. Nicholls had sent one of these to the Ludgate Monthly, and it had been published in a number containing an article upon him. Mr. Scrutton referred to section I of the Copyright (Works of Art) Act of 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 68), and maintained that on those facts the copyright in these photographs was the property of the photographer. Mr. Ellis gave evidence in support of the above facts, but Mr. Nicholls and Mr. Kenningham were both called by Mr. Ruegg, and they stated that it was they who asked for the plain clothes sitting. They went with the intention of being photographed on their own account when the character photographs were finished. The plain clothes photographs sent them previous to those paid for they regarded merely as proofs. Mr. Ruegg argued that these photographs were not, as were the character photographs, taken by the photographer for himself, but they were “made or executed for or on behalf of another person, for good or valuable considera- tion ” within the words of the above-mentioned statute. The learned judge said that he had before him a pure question of fact. Looking at the evidence, he had no doubt that the account given by Mr. Nicholls and Mr. Kenningham was correct. It was really not material who first suggested the plain clothes sitting. These gentlemen went to the studio intending to take the opportunity of being photographed in plain clothes. They were so photographed, they received proofs, and they paid for copies. Nothing was said or done to give the copyright to the plaintiff, Judgment must be for the defendants, with costs.—Times, Nov. 16, 1894. W.—ELLIS v. OGDEN—OPINION OF Counse:L. I write on the assumption that the Author will contain a report of the case of Ellis v. Ogden, recently tried before Mr. Justice Henn Collins. In that case a theatrical celebrity, having gone to a photographer to be taken in costume, was also photographed in plain clothes, either at his request or at that of the photographer, was subsequently presented with copies of his portrait, and later on bought others; and the question at issue on the trial of the action was whether the copyright in the portrait so produced belonged to the photographer, or whether it became the property of the sitter, the photograph having been “made or executed” on his behalf “for good or valuable consideration.” In the case before him, and from the facts given in evidence, Mr. Justice Collins drew the conclusion that the photograph was so executed as to give the celebrity in question the copyright in it. No doubt the learned judge was right; he had, according to the Times, conflicting testi- mony before him, and he believed one side and not the other. What I venture to question is the justice of the dictum attributed to him in the Times report that “It was really not material who first suggested the plain clothes sitting.” I venture to submit to you, and to your readers, that it is absolutely material who makes the first proposal in such a case. To put it broadly, I say that one of two things happens. Either the celebrity says (in substance) to the photographer, “Take me and give me copies of my portrait, and you may sell other copies as your reward,” in which case the former employs the latter and acquires the copyright; or the photographer says to the celebrity, “Let me take you and sell copies of your portrait, and I will give you copies of it as your reward ;” in which latter instance I submit that the photographer employs the celebrity as a sitter; or purchases permission to photograph him, and so should acquire the copyright in the production. If I am wrong, does not the following anomaly result P. A photographer takes a “snap shot ” at a celebrity without “by your leave or with your leave,” and thereby gets a picture of which he will own the ## p. 175 (#189) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 75 copyright. Another photographer who takes the same celebrity, but courteously asks permission first, and in acknowledgment of it presents some copies to the sitter, loses thereby the copyright in the picture he takes; that is, he loses it, if the inference of fact in his case follows the lines of Ellis v. Ogden, and that will be the case if the question “Who first suggested the sitting P” is disregarded. In any case photographers will do well to get agreements drawn and submit them for signature to celebrities who visit their studios before they proceed to take their pictures. E. A. A. VI.--THE Cost of PRODUCTION. A paper appeared on Nov. 3rd in a penny weekly on the production of novels. It took the form of an interview with a publisher, and it presented all the appearance of a genuine inter- view with an honourable man ; that is to say, not one who falsifies his accounts or charges for advertisements for which he has not paid. In the course of this interview the question of cost arose. The following is the publisher's estimate:— The book contains 482 pp., crown 8vo., pica type. The cost for composition, printing, and paper would be £68 IOS., author's corrections extra; binding, 319 15s. per IOOO copies; blocks for binding, 383 Ios. On referring to our own “Cost of Production,” we find the figures come out as follows:– £ s. d. Composition—3 I sheets, at 19s. 6d. a sheet ... ... 29 I4 9 Printing, at Ios. 5d. a sheet 16 2 II IPaper & © º 24 16 O Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I I O £IOI 14 8 We shall have to revise our “Cost of Pro- duction.” Our estimate for such a book is £IOI 14s. 8d. Compared with £9 I I 5s., the pub- lisher's estimate. The secretary also reports that he has had in his hands estimates the items of which were much below those in our volume. WII.-A LETTER FROM I)R. JoHNSON. The New York Critic (Nov. Io, 1894) pub- lishes, under the heading of the “Boston Letter,” by Mr. Charles Wingate, a hitherto unpublished letter by Dr. Johnson. It was sold by Messrs. Puttock and Simpson in the year 1886 and was bought by an American. The following is tendered by Mr. Wingate as a correct copy:— “SIR,--I will tell you in a few words, what is, in my opinion, the most desirable state of copy- WOL. W. right or literary property. The Authour has a natural and peculiar right to the profits of his own work. But as every man who claims the protection of Society must purchase it by resign- ing some part of his natural right, the Authour must recede from so much of his claim, as shall . be deemed injurious or inconvenient to Society. It is inconvenient to Society that a useful book should become perpetual and exclusive property. The judgment of the Lords was therefore legally and politically right. But the Authour's term of his natural right might without any inconvenience be protracted beyond the term settled by the statute, and it is, I think, to be desired : “I. That an Authour should retain during his life the sole right of printing and selling his work. This is agreeable to moral right and not inconvenient to the publick. For who will be so diligent as the Authour to improve the book, or who can know so well how to improve it P “2. That the Authour be allowed by the present Act to alienate his right only for fourteen years. A shorter time would not procure a sufficient price, and a longer would cut off all hope of future profit, and consequently all solicitude for correction or addition. “3. That when after fourteen years the copy- right shall revert to the Authour, he be allowed to alienate it again only for seven years at a time. After fourteen years the value of the work will be known and it will be no longer bought at hazard. Seven years after possession will therefore have an assignable price. It is proper that the Authour be always invited to polish and improve his work, by that prospect of recovering it which the shorter periods of alienation will afford him. “4. That after the Authour's death his work should continue an exclusive property, capable of bequest and inheritance, and of conveyance by gift or sale for thirty years. By these regula- tions a work may continue the property of the Authour, or of those who claim for him, a term sufficient to reward the writer without any loss to the publick. In fifty years far the greater number of books are forgotten and annihilated, and it is for the advantage of learn- ing that those which fifty years have not destroyed should become bona communia, so to be used by every scholar as he shall think best. “In fifty years almost every book begins to require notes, either to explain forgotten allusions and obsolete words; or to suggest those dis- coveries which have been made by the gradual advancement of knowledge, or to correct those mistakes which time may have discovered. “Such notes cannot be written to any useful purpose without the text, and the text will fre- I& ## p. 176 (#190) ############################################ 176 THE AUTHOIR. Quently (?) be inspected while it is any man’s property. “I am, Sir, your humble servant, “SAM JOHNSON.” *– ~ *-*. - - - THE “NET’” SYSTEM. T has been decided by the Committee to ask the opinion of every member of the Society upon the great and important change pro- posed by certain publishers in their dealings with booksellers. It is to be hoped that every member will take the trouble to consider the question, and will forward his opinion to the Secretary. Mem- bers will, of course, understand that it is a question very materially affecting their interests. It has been, so far, suggestive that the approval, or the opinion, of authors on the subject has not even been mentioned. Certain publishers are writing about it, the rest prudently abstain ; certain book- sellers hold one opinion, others hold the contrary. No one seems to consider that the opinion of the persons who should be principally concerned is worth the trouble of asking or inquiring. The following letters are submitted as containing the views of three out of the four parties concerned in the proposed change. The first two are written by authors of repute ; the “Publisher ” belongs to a very important house; the booksellers are what they represent themselves to be, dependent upon the business which they carry on. T.—FROM AN AUTHOR. I am very glad to hear that the committee propose to ascertain the consensus of opinion among members of the Authors’ Society on the question of “met” prices. I presume that a general meeting will be held for the purpose. The very decided opinion which I myself enter- tain on the matter has two grounds. In the first place I hold that all such restrictive interferences with freedom of contract are inevitably mis- chievous in the end; and, in the second place, I hold that the particular restriction now sought for will be detrimental alike to authors and to the public. Those authors who have not carefully con- sidered the question might, I think, not unfitly be guided by the decision which authors arrived at in 1852. If at that time, after inquiry and consultation, it was decided by a number of leading authors, literary and scientific, that the system of fixed prices from which no discounts were allowed was detrimental to them, the con- clusion that such a system, if now re-established, would be detrimental, is at any rate a highly probable one; for there have, so far as I know, taken place no changes which may be supposed to make the conclusion held valid in the one case invalid in the other. But it need not take long to form an inde- pendent judgment. There is often an irrational cry against middlemen, though middlemen are, in the majority of cases, very useful persons. But in all cases middlemen must be kept in order. They, of course, pursue their own interests, and, if allowed, will satisfy those interests at the expense of those they serve. This is obviously the case with the middlemen who constitute the various classes of the book trade as with all others. On the face of it, therefore, any proposal of change made by them must be looked upon with great suspicion. That a disadvantage is threatened in the present case will at once be seen when the essen- tials are divested of all details. It is contended that retail booksellers must have greater profits assured to them. These greater profits must be at the cost of some among the several parties concerned. At whose cost then P Those con- cerned are the writers, the readers, and the several classes of traders who come between them. Of these classes of traders one is to have greater gains. Will these greater gains come from the other classes of traders ? Will the publishers, for instance, sacrifice part of their profits for the benefit of retailers ? Certainly not. They can practically make their own terms, and will sacrifice nothing, if they do not even take a share of the extra gains. Will the sacri- fice be made by the wholesale bookseller? It is unlikely; for he, too, has power in his hands to make his own bargains, and can take care he does not lose by the change. There remain then the public and the authors, one or both of whom must suffer a loss that the retailers may gain. That the public will suffer a loss is clear, if the discounts now made from advertised prices are denied to them; for it is absurd to suppose that advertised prices will be lowered to balance the absence of discounts. If that were done publishers would gain nothing. Clearly, then, the loss would be borne directly by the public. But eventually a loss would also be borne by the authors. It is impossible that the prices of books can be raised to buyers without to some extent restricting the sales. “This book is advertised at 12s.,” says the buyer to the retailer. “That is too much ; I must go without it.” “But,” says the retailer, “you can have it for 9s.” “For 9s., you say. I can afford 9s. You may let me have it.” Conversations of this kind, or thoughts corresponding to such conversations, must be of ## p. 177 (#191) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 177 continual occurrence. Obviously, therefore, if discounts are given many more copies of a book are sold than would be sold in the absence of dis- counts, and of course diminution in the number of copies sold is diminution of the author's profit, though the rate of profit remains the same. Alike, then, on our own behalf and on behalf of the public, we are, I think, bound to oppose the attempt to establish “met ’’ prices. -->e--> -- II.-FROM ANOTHER AUTHOR. The question must be considered from four points of view. 1. That of the book-buying public:— At present the buyer obtains all books for cash at a reduction of 25 per cent. For a book advertised at 6s. he pays 4s. 6d. In fact, it is with books as with everything else, a large discount has to be made in selling them. It is now proposed that no discount at all shall be allowed. It is not proposed, however, that a book now published at 68, shall be published hereafter at 4s. 6d. It is only stated that a book which would have been published at 7s. 6d. will in future be published—say, at 6s. It has also been suggested that the 6s, book shall henceforth appear at 5s., without any discount at all. In other words, the immediate effect upon the public will be to raise the price of books. It is a time of trade depression, likely to become worse. Is it probable that the public will continue to buy what they can do without, when the price is raised ?. It does not seem probable. Again, there are only a certain limited number of people who can afford to buy books or anything else outside the mere necessaries of life. Between them they can only afford to spend a certain amount of money every year on books. The amount varies somewhat from year to year with good years and bad years, but there it is. If the price of books is raised the amount spent every year will perhaps be the same, but the number of books bought will be less. Who is benefited, therefore ? Another way to comsider the subject is this: For many years we have been gradually diminish- ing the price of books; this diminution has been helped by the discount bookseller; people have become accustomed to the cheapness of books; they are attracted by their cheapness; they are becoming, as their means allow, a people of book buyers. But if the books which are cheap become dear, the growing spirit of book buying will receive a check that may throw us back for years. And there is no doubt that the desire of the promoters of this movement is to make books dearer than they are, "WOL. W. 2. From the author's point of view :— Since the first effect of the change will be to increase not only the price to the public, but also the price to the bookseller, the author will have to revise his system of royalties, or his method of sale should he sell his book outright. This may be a gain to him. But if fewer books are sold on account of these high prices, the change may be a loss to him. It will be for him personally to decide whether he will consent to an application of the “net ’’ system to his own work. 3. From the publisher's point of view:— He will undoubtedly gain on every book. But will he dispose of so many P This doubt will probably make many publishers hesitate before they adopt the hard and fast “net” system. One may also ask why, seeing that of all trades publishing is the most lucrative, its followers should not be satisfied with what they have, and forbear the risk of losing it in the hope of getting Ill Ol’62. 4. From the bookseller's point of view:— We may leave the booksellers to regulate their own business. But there are one or two points, apart from those urged above, which should make them hesitate. They will undoubtedly, like the pub- lisher, gain something on each book sold. But will they sell so many ? And if their customers are going to get no discount for cash, will they not decline to buy at all P A shrinkage of the trade will most certainly follow the adoption of the “met ’’ system, whether it will be perma- ment shrinkage or not remains to be seen. And who is to prevent a bookseller from giving dis- count P No one. It will be impossible to prevent him. He may not advertise the fact, but he will have to do, and then the bookseller will be in the pleasing position of paying more and getting less. At present he pays, probably, 38, 7#d. apiece on taking a dozen copies of a 6s. book. He sells them at 4s. 6d. each. There is a profit of Io; d. on each. If the 6s. book were reduced to 5s. net, he would give the publisher, say, 3s. I Id. for it, and would sell it at 5s. Increased profit, 2#d. But the discount would inevitably come in. The customer who has always before had 25 per cent. will not be contented with less than 15 per cent., or 9d, on each book, which he carries off for 4s. 3d. Decreased profit, 3d. Another consideration is the fact that by this change, if it is effected, the bookseller becomes the slave of the publisher. Books are put into his hand which he is to sell if he can at a certain stipulated price. There is no longer left any elasticity of trade, any freedom, any enterprise. Every bookseller will become a mere clerk, distri- buting and collecting. | R 2 ## p. 178 (#192) ############################################ 178 THE AUTHOR. In whatever way the change may work, there can be no doubt that trade restrictions are injurious, oppressive, and must in the long run be broken through. Meantime great mischief may be done to author, bookseller, and the book- buying public. III.-FROM A PUBLISHER. The question of net prices is far more important to the bookseller and to the author than to the publisher. To the majority of the booksellers the matter is one of life and death, of existence or extinction; but the publisher can accommodate himself, more or less, to this or any system. The matter has been sufficiently threshed out in the newspapers for every business man, at least, who has read the articles and correspondence, to understand the financial and trade bearings of the question; I need not, therefore, trouble your readers with a repetition of these details. It is, perhaps, well to state that the free-trade principle is hardly involved on either side of the question. It would be if the price of a book under the discount system were not a purely fancy and artificial price, fixed by the author through his agent, the publisher. In other words, the price of a book is not necessarily settled by the cost of production, as the price of tea, coffee, wheat, or other natural productions is fixed. It is fixed arbitrarily, at present, at a higher figure than the mere cost of production and the expectation of a fair profit would justify, in order to meet the tremendous reduction which the existing artificial discount system and the ordinary and concurrent trade allowances make compulsory. The buyer, therefore, who thinks that he gets his book cheaper because he gets an enormous discount reduction is under a delusion. He gets it neither dearer nor cheaper. He does not buy a commodity under cost price—which, of course, is economically impossible—he only gets an artificial reduction on a commodity whose price has already been artificially raised. The argu- ment, therefore, of a writer in a leading news- paper, who signs himself “Free Trader,” that the discount system helps the reader to cheap books, is fallacious. It is founded on an entire economical misconception of the facts. The present system of selling books was no doubt an excellent system when conditions were quite different to what they are now. The net system, which it is sought to substitute for it, is an attempt to replace a system which has become antiquated by one which is in every respect consonant to the doctrines of economical science. The selling price will, if the net system be introduced, be nearer the figure representing the cost of production than it now can be, and, what is of infinite importance to author, publisher, and reader, it is a system by which the average bookseller can make a fair living. In this lies the crua of the question. The present discount system is killing out the small bookseller. Some of the very large firms in the trade thrive by it, for reasons that are obvious enough to commercial men, and, of course, one great firm that holds the railway monopoly thrives by the system, but it is extinguishing the country bookseller. Mr. Collier, of the very im- portant firm of Stanford, of Cockspur-street, in the course of a recent interview in the Daily Chronicle, stated that, approximately, some 200 country booksellers survive out of I2OO that did business in books some twelve or fifteen years ago. This is a most pregnant fact. It means simply this: that twelve or fifteen years ago an author, without spending a penny in advertise- ments, could, through a strong publisher, bring his wares into the hands of the reading public through 1200 channels. This for a good book might easily mean the sale of a handsome edition. Now all books—good, bad, and in- different—mustincura preliminary expense of from £15 to £60 in advertisements, simply in order that they may be known. It is a direct loss of so much in money to the author, and it is, of course, an indirect loss, to be counted in hundreds and thousands of pounds, to the publisher; but to the booksellers—to the majority of booksellers— it is worse than loss—it is ruin. That is why publishers wish for the ending of a system which is interfering with their best and cheapest channel of distribution. All other objections to the discount system are feeble in comparison to this one : that it is pushing out of existence the tradesman who is acting as distributing agent to the author. - IV.-FROM A DISCOUNT BOOKSELLER. I think it is Mr. Andrew Lang who has a “pet growl" that no bookseller knows his business. I have the misfortune to have a shop in a main thoroughfare in London, and had I ten times the amount of brain even of Mr. Andrew Lang I should not be able to know, to remember anything like, the names of a part only of the books that exist. I wish Mr. Andrew Lang would take my place for one week, to listen to the hundreds of books that are asked for daily, and to which at least 60 per cent I have to give the negative answer, that I have not got the book in stock. After the week's experience I think Mr. Andrew Lang would have a better opinion of booksellers. There can be no question but that all the grievances of both the bookseller and the publisher lie in the fact that ## p. 179 (#193) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 79 there are a very great deal too many books pro- duced. If we booksellers could turn over our stocks once a week, like the butchers and the bakers, or once a month, or even once a year, we should have no cause to complain that, after giving 25 per cent. discount to the public off the published price of the book, it does not leave us a living profit. I buy my books so that I am quite con- tent with the profit I make even after selling them at 3d. in the Is. discount. “A London Book- seller,” writing in the Athenæum on Nov. 17th, says, “That it gives no pleasure to the bookseller to sell his books at a discount of 25 per cent., or any other per cent. ; his gorge rises at it.” Rather, my gorge rises when I sell a book at its net price, because I know I am not selling in the cheapest market, and that my customer, when I tell him the book is issued at a net price, and no discount is allowed, is incredulous, and doubts by his manner that I am making a larger profit. No Englishman likes to be “dome.” If you go into a chemists, or grocers, or anywhere, and buy an article marked at Is. for Is., and passing along the street see in another window the exact article marked at Io;d., you feel you have been “had " or “dome,” and your gorge rises at it, and you mentally determine not to patronise that first shop again. It will be the same with this net system in the publishing of books, which, I regret to see, so many booksellers are inclined to hail as a salvation of their business. They will find, as “An Author’’ writes in the Athenæum of Nov. 24 “that the unforeseen always occurs,” so that their last state will be worse than their first. To be despotically told by the publisher that such and such a book is published at Is. net, and if you sell it below that price you shall not have any other of his books, is a system of tyranny that cannot be quietly submitted to. W.—FROM A RETAIL Books ELLER. That the present movement for the introduction of books published at net prices and the abolition of all discount is decidedly retrogade, and instead of having the effect of placing the new book trade on a firmer basis will prove the indirect means of making it worse than ever, as everyone who thinks of the matter seriously will own, as the public, finding they cannot get their books from the bookseller (who is the middleman) at a less price than the publisher will supply them, will naturally write direct to the publisher to have the book they require promptly sent to their homes post paid, quicker and much more ex- peditiously than their bookseller would deliver it. Publishers who are most in favour of the net system state that a book now published, say, at 7s. 6d. net would, under the old system, have been issued at IOS. This, I fear, is not the case. It is merely said to delude the public. Take the following instance, and see whom this extra profit benefits. Recently a book was issued by Professor Drummond called “The Ascent of Man,” and which is published at 7s. 6d. net. The bookseller has to pay 6s. 3d, net for every copy; thus he makes a profit of Is. 3d. Under the old system the book would have been 7s. 6d., subject to 25 per cent, discount=5s. 8d., and would have been bought by the bookseller at 5s. 4d., thirteen copies as twelve, and a discount of 5 per cent. On settlement of his quarterly account. This would make its net cost 4s. 8d., giving a profit to the bookseller of Is., which is quite as much as he can expect. Now, under the old system the bookseller gets Is. profit, sells his book more readily, and satisfies his customer, who knows he is buying in the cheapest market (which is itself an indispensable consideration). Under the met system the bookseller gets Is. 3d. profit (3d. more) and does not satisfy his customer, who imagines he is not buying at the cheapest market, and goes away doubting and dissatisfied. On the other hand, the difference to the publisher is very considerable, under the old system he gets 4s. 8d. net from the bookseller, under the net system he gets 6s. 3d. net, which is Is. 7d. more in his pocket. Undoubtedly the publisher would like such a system established, which all goes to enrich him, unless the author demands a share of the plunder in the shape of increased royalties, which are rightfully his. Again, in these days of excessive competition, will the public tamely submit to this increased price on their books P Certainly not. Already many publishers are sending their printing, &c., to the continent. Messrs. Nester, of Nuremburg, have so successfully competed with all English producers of children's colour printed and other books, that they have practically ousted all others from the field, and have this especial market entirely in their own hands. What then is to prevent (if all books are to be published at net prices) some energetic continental firms printing and flooding the English market with cheap editions of non-copyright books, &c., and by their success, which will be indisputable, they will be able to approach our English authors and pro- duce copyright books in such a way as to upset the whole system of publishing. Our publishers may find their headquarters for the production of English books will be in Berlin rather than London. Under these circumstances would it be wise for us booksellers to sell our books at published prices P Decidedly not; the more discount given, ## p. 180 (#194) ############################################ I8O TIIB, AUTHOR. the cheaper the books are offered to the public, the brisker will be the trade, and the better for everyone. VI.—FROM A LoNDON Books ELLER. That certain books may with advantage be issued at net prices, such as professional and technical books and books of a special character, for which there can be no large demand, every bookseller will I think agree, but it is much to be regretted that any bookseller should be in favour of the abolition of all discount for cash purchases. Until very recently there was a great outcry against the Civil Service, and Army and Navy, and kindred stores marking not only books, but goods of every kind, down so that by very serious competition to all small traders it was said that their “occupation was gone,” and they would have to shut up shop; time has shown that these stores have built up enormous businesses by simply supplying their goods at the lowest remunerative prices for cash payments. Their motto has been the very true one of “small profits and quick returns,” and now the booksellers of both London and the country at large are clamouring for higher prices, the abolition of discount, and that all books be published at net prices, and such prices strictly adhered to, whether their customer come into their shop cash in hand, and pays for and carries away his purchase, or has the purchase booked to his account, which he pays quarterly or half yearly, &c. Why, it is in direct opposition to all the principles of business: the cheaper you can sell your books, the more discount you offer to the public, the greater will be your turnover, and the better it will be for publisher, author, and bookseller, because for both publisher and bookseller the more copies of a book sold, even at a low profit, will pay better than few copies at a higher profit, and will cause the public to buy with more confidence and with brisker demand; and the better for the author, because the greater the number of copies sold the more royalties he will receive. The present state of the trade is not to be much in- proved, a bookseller can give 25 per cent. discount and then have quite as much profit (in fact much more than many trades) as he can reasonably expect; but it is not this question of discount that cripples the bookseller and makes him find his trade so unprofitable, it is the great multi- plicity of books that are published, and conse- quently the tremendous stock he has to keep ; in no other trade has so much capital to be invested in stock, and much, alas ! dead stock. The book is subscribed to him by the publisher, he has to use his own judgment if it will take, he may order seven copies to get the half copy, or thirteen to get the odd copy. If the book takes, and goes off readily, he has to buy many other dozens, but for one success there are how many failures; the bookseller sells six or nine of his dozen copies, and the rest remain on his shelves, taking up much room and increasing stock in a decidedly undesirable manner, thus he finds year after year his stock growing, and every day, especially at this season of the year, scores of new books coming out, and of which he must take a certain proportion of the known authors into stock, so that he finds all his capital and profit has to be put into his stock, and he cannot make any head- way in improving his position in the world. This, I cannot help thinking, is the real cause of the dissatisfaction of my brother booksellers, not the question of discount; sell your books as cheaply as you can, and sell as many copies as you can, is my advice to all booksellers. Neither publisher Inor author can do without us, the very best adver- tisement a book and its author can have is to be “on view º' on the shelves of every book shop in the kingdom, where the public can take it down and look at it ; it is half the sale. Sell cheaply and avoid met books is my advice. > * r3 NOTES AND NEWS. R HALL CAINE has very kindly sent me his recent address delivered before the Philosophical Institution, Edin- burgh, on Nov. 17, with permission to use any part of it for this paper. The pressure on our limited space prevents any use of it in this number, but I hope to avail myself of Mr. Hall Caine's permission next month. It is impossible to know or to ascertain the reasons which guide a Prime Minister in his award of pensions in the Civil List. We will suppose that, unlike most of his predecessors, he is anxious to administer the grant in the interests of literature, science, and art, and not to foist upon the list widows and daughters of the Naval, Military, and Civil Services, for whom provision should be made elsewhere. It is true that an unfortunate clause—“ and other persons who may be worthy of Her Majesty's bounty’— or words to that effect, seems to justify the placing of all the world on this list; but the fact remains that the grant was intended for literature, science, and art, and that the claims of persons belonging to these three branches of intellectual effort must precede all others. Now here is a case which has recently ## p. 181 (#195) ############################################ THE AUTHOIR. I81 been laid before Lord Rosebery. A petition was sent in to him signed not numerously, but by a dozen names commanding, one would think, respect and consideration. The petition was in favour of an old man, a very old man. He is eighty- five years of age : he has been working all his long life on literature. Fifty years ago a book was pub- lished by Charles Knight on some of the many aspects of Tondon. It was a huge book in six royal quarto volumes ; the book is a classic ; it has survived to the present day; no one who reads about London at all can afford to do with- out this book. Exactly half of it was written by this man. How many of us expect to be read in fifty years time? Again, he has written novels. Of his novels three or four survive, and are still in demand after thirty or forty years. How many novels iive for thirty or forty years? Can you, dear reader, conceive a case more loudly calling for a place upon the Civil List P Again, I say, that we know not what other cases there were under the consideration of Lord Rosebery. Whatever they were, it is clear that they were even more worthy of assistance than this case, because he has written through his secretaries to say that he will give this man nothing. It is worth noting that the letter signed by the twelve men and women of letters received no acknowledgment, and that the secretaries did not think it necessary to inform these people of the result of their unfortunate letter. These are the courtesies which the literary class are accustomed to receive from officials. Who are they P Literary chaps. Take no notice of them Modern Poets.—It seems quite a long time since we heard of a certain poetical journal, or treasure house of poetry, brought out monthly. It was formerly The Poets' Magazine, then it became Lloyd’s Magazine, after the name of the proprietor, Mr. Leonard Lloyd. It has now become Modern Poets, but the proprietor does not inform us whether the life of his magazine has been continuous, or interrupted by intervals of sleep, or, as it is a poetic magazine, of trance. However that may be, Modern Poets now appears quarterly; and if “sufficient good poetry and prose are received to fill its pages” the magazine is to appear monthly. The really attractive feature—that which separates the paper, and distinguishes it from commoner journals—is that while such mean spirited magazines as the Con- temporary, or Longman's, actually pay con- tributors—hire the poor degraded wretches—this magazine expects its contributors to pay the editor. Noble creature He will be hired by his contributors; in the interests of literature he will dare all and endure all. Every contributor, therefore, sends up a form signed. It is thus conceived: Sir, Wishing to contribute to your magazine, I send you M.S. entitled and in the event of its acceptance for an appearance in your next number I agree to purchase — dozen copies of the magazine (Signed) An appearance in this magazine will, doubtless, be highly prized by the contributor. Fifty dozen at least, at sixpence, which is £15, is not pay too high for a magazine article. One has heard of £50. Let the contributor value his article himself, and order as many dozen at sixpence each as will amount to that sum. In another place will be found a few observa- tions on the proposed “Net” system. It is very much to be hoped that all members will forward to the secretary their opinion and their reasons. The two points which seem to concern authors most are (I) whether the adoption of the “Net” system would materially raise the price of books; and (2) whether the rise in prices would not so far check the sale of books as to counterbalance any advantage gained by an increase in price. There are other questions, such as the danger of interfering with the great advance made during the last few years by the public as buyers of books; the danger of interference with the course of trade; the danger of making the bookseller a mere mechanical distributor—in other words, of con- verting what used to be a centre of literary information into a railway stall; and the doubt whether a “Net’ system can ever be enforced— in other words, whether the bookseller would not go on as before giving discount for cash. Mr. Sherard sends word that in his reference to the Goldsmith tomb he was mistaken. As for me, I was under the impression that some- thing was wrong with the tomb. So there is, but not what we supposed ; the name is clearly cut, but unfortunately it is not certain that the tomb is Oliver's. Under these circumstances one has only to express thanks to those who kindly offered their assistance. A new monthly magazine is to be started. It offers the unprecedented attraction of an astro- logical horoscope free for all subscribers, with the privilege of asking three astrological questions. After this we may expect another, which will tell the fortunes of every subscriber by the oracle of coffee grounds with the right of asking three ## p. 182 (#196) ############################################ I 82 THE AUTHOR. questions on the domestic omens, such as crossed knives, spilled salt, and the influence on fate of black cats, piebald horses, and the man with a squint. Mr. Gosse has arrived at a time of life which prompts to serious reflections on the flight of time. Everybody at forty gets these reflections. “Wait till you come to forty year.” They pass, these reflections; in the fifties one feels younger than in the forties. Perhaps, in the sixties, one may feel younger still. We ought to, considering how short a time remains for cheerfulness. How- ever, the motto to the new volume of verse, “In Russet and Silver,” is quite in the vein of the forties: - Life, that, when youth was hot and bold, Leaped up in scarlet and in gold, Now walks by graver hopes possessed In russet and in silver dressed. Whether in russet and silver or in scarlet and gold, it is the same music and the same musician; the certain touch and the unexpected phrase; the true word to fit the thought ; the perfect dexterity and mastery of the metre ; these are qualities which we have long since recognised; and as yet there is no sign of any younger poet— “in scarlet and in gold *-disputing the supe- riority of Mr. Gosse in these essentials. The Authors’ Club distinguished itself on the 19th Nov. by holding its monthly dinner in honour of Anthony Hope. The room, which is too small for such festivities, was quite full, and there were but two speeches, that of the chair- man, Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, and that of the guest of the evening. Among the men of distinction who have thus been entertained are Zola and Rudyard Kipling. And now comes Anthony Hope. It is a pleasing feature of the club to pay this tribute to men who have risen or are certainly rising. Authors are too often accused of jealousy and spite. There was no show either of jealousy or of spite in the dinner of the 19th, but only the general desire to recognise and to honour good work wherever it is found. The club, which is now two years old, may be lcoked upon as established. The rooms are extremely pleasant, and have a position as central as can be desired. The members are all connected with literature. Up to the present it has been more of a lunching than a dining club. Every- body is supposed to know everybody else, and the club is essentially cheerful. As stated above, the rooms are too small, they will only accommodate fifty at a dinner. But if another hundred members were to come in additional rooms could be had, and there would be more elbow room. Clad in a garb of golden-green, with a charac- teristic portrait of the subject for frontispiece, is Mr. Robert Sherard’s book on Alphonse Daudet. It may be thought that Daudet exhausted the subject himself in his “Trente Ans de Paris; ” that, however, is not the case ; there is a great deal in this volume that is not in the “Trente Ans.” The author has received contributions from Madame Daudet, from Léon Daudet, from Edmond de Goncourt, from Ernest Daudet, and from Alphonse Daudet himself. The result is a full biography and a most interesting account of a most remarkable man. The best excuse for writing the book is found in the concluding words of the preface: “Since Alphonse Daudet has honoured me with his friendship, I may say, with- out exaggeration, that my life of exile has been transformed. It is, perhaps, also on account of my admiration and my affection for this great- hearted man of letters that I have worked to make others know him as I do.” WALTER BESANT. >e c3 NOTES FROM PARIS, HE following letter, which I have just T received from my friend Alphonse Daudet, is the best answer that I can give to many questions which have been asked of me as to his intention of visiting London next year: Oui ; mon bon. Sherard, j’ai l'espoir au printermps prochain, si je ne suis pas trop invalide de venir voir londres, mais non pas de me montrer ä Londres, ce qui est bien différent. Je serais heureux de vous avoir pour compagnon et cicerone tº mais je vous demanderai de me mettre à l'abri des curiosités du reportage, ce sont des vacances que je compte prendre et je suis bien décidé à me pas donner de repré- sentation dans ce beau pays que je suis si désireux de connaitre. These things being so, we may hope to see M. Daudet in London in a few months. In my great admiration for Emile Zola, I feel sorry in saying that the opinion in Paris is one of doubt as to the possible value of a book on Rome, written on information collected during a fortnight's visit. It is generally thought that Rome, from all points of view, and as a whole, is a large subject, and that its comprehension can hardly be effected in a fortnight. It must be added, however, that Zola intends to spend a long time over this book, and that “Rome,” the second volume of “Les Trois Willes” series of novels, will not appear till 1896. We were all much shocked to hear of the death ## p. 183 (#197) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 183 of Francis Magnard, the editor of Le Figaro, for he seemed in full strength, with years of life and activity before him. Yet certainly he looked very grey and worn when I last saw him. The Figaro was a fighting paper, and all fighting exacts nerve and muscle and uses and wears. He was a con- scientious and a most hard-working man, who gave himself up entirely to his paper. Most of his time was spent at the office in the Rue Drouot. I am afraid I cannot agree with those who have written in praise of his daily leaderette in the Figaro. It was writing after the style and in the manner of thought of Joseph Prudhomme. But good editors of large papers are rarely good writers. Willemessant, the founder of the Figaro, could not string six lines of tolerable prose together, yet he was certainly one of the best editors who ever lived. Magnard wrote very quickly, though his work seemed laboriously evolved. He told me once that he always asked himself, on sending the paper to the press, what Willemessant would have thought about the number, both as a whole and in detail, and felt quite nervous on the subject, so completely had he been disciplined by his former chief. I may add that Magnard used to deny being a Belgian by extraction, and used to get very angry when he was attacked as such in the rival papers. I may also add that M. de Rodays, the present editor, had been designated by de Villemessant in his will to succeed Magnard, in the case of the latter's retirement or death. M. de Rodays’ successor was also named in the same clause. The biggest succés de librairie of the year in Paris has been Marcel Prevost’s novel “Les Demi-Vierges.” It is, I see, in its 15oth edition. Exceptionally these are editions of only 500 copies, whereas the French edition usually con- sists of IOOO copies. The book is exceedingly well written, but the subject is a nauseating one, and this success is not one on which his friends can congratulate M. Marcel Prevost. J. H. Rosny, who is translating George Moore's novel “Esther Waters ” for publication in feuil- leton form in Le Gaulois, is by many, including Daudet, Zola, and de Goncourt, considered one of the first writers of French fiction living in France to-day. His “Le Bilateral” is undoubtedly a masterpiece, complicated as its style and bitter as is the author's philosophy. Rosny has had a very troubled and miserable life, and lives none knows where. He hides his address, and is under- stood to be in unfortunate circumstances. His books do not sell well, and he is indifferent to popularity, in which respect he may be compared to J. K. Huysman. I heard a story in Paris the other day of how a literary “ghost " revenged himself on a too WOL. W. unscrupulous employer. He had been engaged to write a feuilleton, for which his employer, a very well-known Parisian novelist, had received an order. The original arrangement was that the ghost should receive a penny a line—the well- known Parisian novelist, it may be mentioned, was to receive fivepence a line, and, of course, he signed the story with his own illustrious name; but after some instalments had been printed, the ghost was informed by his employer, who, in the meanwhile, had found out that his hack was in desperate circumstances, that in the future he would only be paid one halfpenny a line. He was forced to submit, but at once introduced into his story two fresh characters, whose names were simple transpositions of his employer's name and his own, of which one was a well-known novelist and the other a starving literary hack, and showed how the novelist engaged the hack to write a serial story at the rate of a penny a line, and afterwards reduced this to a halfpenny a line, and how the hack to revenge himself introduced, under transposed names, into this serial two fresh characters, one of which was a novelist and so on. The novelist sweater was away enjoying himself whilst these instalments were appearing, and one can imagine his feelings on his return to Paris. It is needless to add that the story was considerably revised before being republished in volume form. Why are almost all the books supplied to the public in England bound P Is not the French system of publishing all works merely in paper covers preferable? To begin with, an unbound book can be supplied cheaper than a bound book. Then, many book buyers like to bind their books according to their own taste in the matter of binding. Some like the bindings of their books to be in some degree symbolical of their contents, who would bind Haggard in red, George Ohnet in pale blue, Poe in black, and so on. Others like uniformity, and, indeed, so varied are the colours of book backs as sold to-day, that a library shelf often presents a ghastly combination of colours. There is, of course, a great deal to be said on both sides of the question. At the same time, I do not think that the bookbinders would lose by the change. . They would have less cheap binding to do, but far more reliures d'amateur, which are really profitable. -- f have been told that my note on Oliver Gold Smith's grave in last month's Author is un- founded and uncalled for, that the grave is in good condition, and well kept. I am not of this opinion, nor am I alone in this respect. “What would you more?” I have been asked. Well, to begin with, a railing round the tomb. I saw a butcher's boy sitting on it the other day. * * S ## p. 184 (#198) ############################################ 184 THE AUTHOR. I have heard the strange story since I came to London of a high judicial functionary who many years ago published, with one of the most reputable firms in London on the half-profit system, an important work on an important political question. It is several years since any account was rendered, and though the book had then passed through eight editions, all that the high judicial functionary received as his share was Is. 7#d. The book has been selling since, but the author has never received another penny. And he is not very satisfied, and says things about publishers which are not judicial nor quite justi- fiable. Weyman has made up his mind to take a year's complete rest as soon as “The Red Cockade" is finished. I am told that this is the very best thing this genius has ever written, by people who have read the opening chapters, now in Jerome's hands. Apropos of the title of this book, are we about to pass from the “yellow * to the “red.” Every- thing was yellow a short while ago in matter of literature. And now, in matter of literature, things are mostly red. There are Weyman’s titles in red, there is Morley Roberts's “Red Earth,” there is Francis Gribble’s “The Red Spell,” there is a novel called “The Crimson Sign,” and, of course, there is Conan Doyle’s “Round the Red Lamp.” In the future all things may be green, as most bindings are, by the way, at the present hour, and so it shall go on. I am very glad to hear that John Davidson's last book of poems is selling exceedingly well; 500 copies were taken before the book was pub- lished. Many people, as a mere commercial speculation, are buying up copies of the “Ballads and Songs.” All this is well, for John Davidson, a poet and a most genial man, has fought a hard fight, and merits success and ease. His life has been a life of heroism. R. H. SHERARD. *~ * ~ * r- - --> NOTES FROM NEW YORK. New York, Nov. Io. HE death of Dr. Holmes not only caused the usual feelings of personal loss aroused when any honoured author leaves us," but additional sorrow was felt since with his decease the great New England group of authors ended. In the early part of this century, when Irving, Cooper, Bryant, and Fitz-Greene Halleck lived in New York, the literary centre was here, but before the middle of the century Emerson, Tongfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Hawthorne, and FIolmes revealed themselves, and the glory of the school as well as of a life that we deplore. New England group was greater than that of the Rnickerbocker school, as the New Yorkers had been called. Professor Norton, of Harvard College, recently remarked that, “they all wrote with a moral. They had, too, a touch of Puritanism. They were stirred to write often not so much from the impulse of the imagination as because they were impelled to teach some lessons and do some good that way. It was just at the war period, and all continued on the same side. They were all warriors in a sense.” Thus it is the closing of a Since Dr. Holmes wrote “Old Ironsides " the popula- tion of the United States has quadrupled, and the country can no longer be said to have one literary centre. In all directions have sprung up authors who write what has been called “ local fiction,” that is to say, they chiefly devote their efforts to depicting the life around them. This is a recent development, and, although there is now no one great group, there are many more accomplished authors than there were formerly, and the average of merit is undoubtedly higher. It is a sign that good times are coming when the fall publishing trade opens well, as it has this year. Whether or not publishers suffer much during a business depression is a question often debated. Some contend, that books being a luxury, people either go without in hard times or else use the free libraries. Others think that during financial depression books are sent as presents where expensive jewellery would have been purchased in prosperous years. This year, illustrated gift books, held back by hard times, make the list of announcements very large. Leading houses report that trade is at least normal. It seems to have recovered from the stagnation of the last two years, and bids fair to be better month by month as business revives. There is no boom yet, and probably will not be for a year or two longer, but the conditions are healthy. - Among the more important announcements are “The Warfare of Science,” by Mr. Andrew D. White, which has attracted much attention as the successive chapters appeared in the Popular Science Monthly; “Edwin Booth,” recollections of his daughter, with his letters to her and his friends, a part of the correspondence of which we have had a foretaste in the Century, and which revealed the great actor in a singularly noble and spiritual aspect ; “The Life and Art of Joseph Jefferson, together with some account of his ancestry and of the Jefferson Family of Actors,” by Mr. William Winter, a revision on the briefer biography published ten years ago; “Portraits in Plaster,” by Mr. Laurence Hutton, with ## p. 185 (#199) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 185 seventy-two reproductions of death-masks of famous men and women from the author's own collection of these gruesome objects, which is the largest private collection in the world; “Ilife and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier,” the authorised biography, by his literary executor, Mr. Samuel T. Pickard ; “The Sherman Letters,” a most interesting correspondence between General Sherman and his brother, Senator Sherman, covering the entire war period; “Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau,” edited by Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, who wrote the volume on Thoreau in the series of “American Men of Letters;” “Riverby,” another volume of delightful out- door papers, by John Burroughs, the gifted disciple of Thoreau; “In the Dozy Hours and other Papers,” by Miss Agnes Repplier, whose terse little essays have gained her wide fame; “Four American Universities,” Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia, by Professors Norton, Hadley, Sloane, and Brander Matthews; “Character and Development of the Universities of Germany,” a most illuminative account by Professor Paulsen, translated by Professor E. D. Perry. Roberts Brothers have just brought out the first two volumes of a new translation of “Molière's Dramatic Works,” by Miss Katharine Prescott Wormeley, whose admirable translation of Balzac, now nearly completed, has won for her wide commendation. Longmans, Green, and Co. announce a series of “College Histories of Art,” edited by Professor John C. Van Dyke, of which the first volume to appear is the editor's own on the “History of Painting;” and the Scribner's are going to bring out the “Art of the American Wood Engraver,” by the late Philip Gilbert Hamerton, who brought to this subject a most unusual breadth of knowledge. Stone and Kimball, of Chicago, are about to issue the first complete edition of the “Works of Edgar Allan Poe,” newly collected and edited, with memoir, notes, &c., by Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman and Professor George Edward Wood- berry; of the ten volumes to which this edition is going to extend, three are ready, and to these very probably will be added a single supple- mentary volume containing the correspondence between Poe and his friends, which will be edited by Professor Woodberry. Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman after two years' work has finished his “Victorian Anthology,” which contains represen- tative poems by the authors discussed in his “Victorian Poets.” Americans have always made a specialty of works of reference. Three important books of this class have been lately published here. One is a supplement to the “Century Dictionary"—a seventh volume—called the “Century Cyclopædia of Names,” a pronouncing and etymological dic- tionary of names in geography, biography, mytho- logy, history, art, fiction, &c., edited by Mr. Benjamin E. Smith, who was managing editor of the “Century Dictionary,” under the late Pro- fessor Whitney. In this great work, upon which the entire editorial force of the Century has long been engaged, for the first time all the varieties of information usually obtained in bio- graphical dictionaries, geographical gazetteers, lists of characters in fiction, &c., have been arranged in alphabetical order and gathered into One volume. The selections have been made with especial regard to the wants of the general public, thus the central facts are given in large type, and in Smaller type such information as will help to a more complete understanding of the subject. Another is “A New and Complete Concordance in the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare,” by Mr. John Bartlett, to whom we are already indebted for his admirable “Dictionary of Familiar Quota- tions.” The third is Mr. S. L. Whitcomb's “Chronological Outlines of American Literature,” the first attempt to set down the chronological sequence of American books. It is on the plan of Ryland’s “Chronological Outlines of English Literature,” but on a much more liberal scale. A fourth elaborate book of reference could not be got ready in time for the fall trade. This is the great “Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiqui- ties,” which Professor Peck, of Columbia College, is editing for Harper and Brothers. It is to be fully illustrated, and will probably appear in the Spring. The British novelist is to have better showing than usual next year in American magazines, although a large percentage of the serials will be by American authors. Mr. Thomas Hardy’s “Sim- pletons’’ is the chief serial of Harper's Monthly. In Harper's Weekly Mr. Stanley J. Weyman's romance, “The Red Cockade,” begins in the first January number, and will be followed in July by Mr. Brander Matthews's novel of New York, “His Father's Son.” In Harper's Bazar the first serial is Maarten Maartens’ “My Lady Nobody,” and the second is a southern story, “Doctor Warwick's Daughters,” by Mrs. Richard Harding Davis. In Scribner's will appear Mr. George Meredith’s “Amazing Marriage,” and Mr. Barrie's “Sentimental Tommy,” besides Mr. Howell's shorter serial, “The Story of a Play.” The Century's two serials are both by American authors—“Casa Braccia,” by Mr. Marion Craw- ford, and “An Errant Wooing,” by Mrs. Burton Harrison; and so are the two stories announced by the Atlantic, Mrs. Mary Halleck Foote's “The ## p. 186 (#200) ############################################ 186 THE AUTHOR. Thumpeter,” and Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward’s “A Singular Life.” - It has never been the custom of our magazines to limit their serials to fiction alone; indeed, some of their greatest successes have been with works such as no British magazine ever ventures upon. The War series of the Century doubled its circulation in twelve months; and forty years ago a Life of Napoleon gave Harper's its first impetus. Now the Century begins a Biography of Napoleon, by Professor W. M. Sloane, which has been in preparation for five years, and during two of that period special agents have been ran- sacking Europe for illustrative material. The Century will also contain Mrs. Van Rensel- laer's series of papers on the French Cathedrals, for which Mr. Joseph Parnell has made many striking illustrations. Scribner's will contain, beginning in the January number, “The History of the Last Quarter-Century in the United States,” by President E. Benjamin Andrews, in which he has endeavoured to cover that period of history about which we are apt to know least— from the time school histories end (usually with the War of the Republic) up to the present year. The Atlantic will shortly publish a series of papers by Mr. John Fiske on Virginia, “The Old Dominion and her Sister Colonies.” An interesting copyright trial has just ended. A New York daily paper, the World, printed, before its official use, the ode written by Miss Harriet Monroe, of Chicago, for the dedication of the World’s Fair buildings, two years ago. The purloined version contained typographical errors, which the author claimed had injured her in purse and reputation. In his charge the judge told the jury that little pecuniary damage had been proved, but added that punitive damages might be awarded if the defendant had been guilty of disregard of property rights. The verdict of the jury fixed the damages at £IOOO. As Miss Monroe received £200 from the World’s Fair Commissioners for her ode, she will have gained £1200 by one brief occasional poem. We are often said to be a book-buying nation, and it is evidence in favour of this assertion that nearly 100,000 copies of “Trilby’’ have been sold in less than ten weeks. So enormous has been the demand for Mr. Du Maurier's book that the Harper's Christmas publishing has been greatly retarded by the fact that they have been obliged to keep thirteen presses on “Trilby’’ alone. A sale like that indicates that “Trilby’’ has con- quered not only the regular reading class and the broad general public, but also the absolutely unliterary public. A gentleman on the train the other day overheard a girl talking to three young men. “Oh I have you read “Trilby ?’” she asked one of the men. He admitted that he had not, whereupon the young woman declared that. it was “just too lovely.” Who wrote it?” in- quired the second man. “Well,” the girl replied, “it’s translated from the French of a man named Moriar, and it's illustrated by a man named * 5 y Whistler. HALLETT ROBINSON. *- ~" -* w wºrs PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON. A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE. By Mr. Justice ConDí, WILLIAMs (of Mauritius). N spite of the blinds and the persiennes, the I afternoon September sun streamed into that little café at Autun, where we sat drinking bocks, and playing dominoes, and jabbering as only Frenchmen mostly jabber. g The ever watchful patron bustled up to me, and said, mysteriously—“See that gentleman who has just entered? He is a compatriot of yours.” There, at a table by himself, sat a brown-bearded, middle-aged man, looking cer- tainly, except for the flowing ends of his necktie, not one bit like a Frenchman. As the witty dean said, “One doesn’t go abroad to meet one’s compatriots.” As a rule, to tell the honest truth without affectation, I generally, for divers reasons, give mine a wide berth, But there was a wise and kindly look about this man's bronze and honest face, and withal a humorous twinkle in his eye as he calmly surveyed his noisy surroundings, which urged me to take the other place opposite to him at his small round table. So, when our game was over, I consoled my little Louise with a Monde Illustré and a groseille, and went and sat there. Of course, I knew the “Portfolio,” and Mr. Hamerton, by name, but I had forgotten that he lived in France, and near Autun; if, indeed, anybody had ever told me so. . However, the ice once broken, and it was very easily broken, we proved to have many friends and many sympathies in common ; and, although ten years my senior, he seemed to take quite a paternal interest in me when he heard that, at five-and-twenty years of age, I had become the editor of a daily newspaper in England. Next day I walked three miles out of Autun, to his pretty country place to breakfast, and made the acquaintance of his charming family—his wife, a French lady, two bi-lingual sons, and a little daughter. Afterwards we talked for a long time in his small study, or studio—literature and art equally well represented upon its bookshelves and in their surroundings. Had I understood ## p. 187 (#201) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 187 more about etching and lithography, I should have been more deeply interested. But never was a more modest and less egotistical man than Philip Gilbert Hamerton, And seeing that newspapers and books mainly interested me, he talked little save of newspapers and books. But before we parted he placed in my hands, as a souvenir, an early copy (in the Tauchnitz edition) of “Mar- morne,” just then on the point of publication. As I grasped his hand I looked up to the wooded hills of Le Morvan, which formed a sombre back- ground to his cheerful country villa. “It must be lonely, here, in the winter P” “Yes,” he said “but what does that signify P I am always occupied.” “Any wolves or wild boars about P’’ “There are some,” he replied, and laughed at a reminiscence. “One frosty moonlight night last January, I went out to lock the stable, and met a lean, grisly wolf, face to face, just upon the threshold of this door. We seemed both very vastly astonished, and we both drew back a pace or two involuntarily. Then I said to the wolf, on the impulse of the moment: What on earth are you doing here? Perhaps it was being addressed in English that frightened him, I don't know ; but without taking further notice of my query, he turned round and walked slowly away.” #: $: :}; $: $: $: Note that at same café at Autun, some fourteen years later, an Englishman entered just as two or three tradesmen, habitués of the place, were taking their post-prandial gloria, “Monsieur has doubtless come to inspect the antiquities?” volunteered one of them, after the pause which, in a small community, often follows the sudden entrance of a strange newcomer. “No ;” I said to the patron —not the same patron as of yore—“but, before I venture as far as the Maison du pré, I would ask you for news of Monsieur Hamerton.” 4. There was quite an excitement in the place. Hamerton, with his quiet sympathetic ways, a long resident, a distinguished Anglais, yet the husband of a Frenchwoman, was a popular man in Autun and all round it. Who else could have survived, scathless and untouched, as he did survive, all the jealous suspicion, and even overt antagonism, which were visited upon nearly every other Englishman living in provincial France during the closing months of the Franco-German struggle P “Ah ! it was most unfortunate. Monsieur had no luck. He had sustained a malheur epou- vantable, Monsieur 'Amerton (they never could manage that H), so respected as he was, and after so long a residence in the partage, had left that very day finally for Paris.” And it was a rather remarkable thing that, after so long an absence, having corresponded with my friend at very rare intervals, I should have dropped down upon Autun on the very eve of his final depar- ture. He had not actually gone—but his family and his furniture had, as I learned from good Monsieur Thomasset, of the Hotel des Negociants —and he himself was staying with a friend. I would not disturb him—I left a card for him, and on I sped to Santenoy to “assist” still older friends at their Burgundy autumn vintage. A telegram from Hamerton brought me back to Autun next day. Would I come and spend his last Autun night with him at Thomasset's interesting hotel, where you are escorted up to your bedroom walking over the gravestones of monks and abbots P Of course I went, and am thankful that I went. And a long, long talk we had over that extra bottle of Chambertin, de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis. He had had his share of misfortune, and sad misfor- tune. One of the two bright boys I had met at his table years before, a youth of high intelligence and promise, and Professor of English at a Lycée, had put an end to his life at his rooms in Paris, leaving behind him no sort of clue as to the why and the wherefore. So we were led to talk of the great mysteries of Life and Death—about matters concerning which men of middle age do not often open their hearts one to another. Later, when sauntering forth to the café, we drifted to more material subjects, and I spoke of his long career as poet, painter, and author. I remember that he said, not bitterly, but with a touch of mournfulness, after some remark of mine about the knighthood that certain distinguished English writers surely ought to have been offered, that he himself was weak enough to feel some touch of regret that he, whose work was the English work of an Englishman, could only, when the occasion demanded his wearing it, stand before the world the possessor of a French decoration for his services to art and to literature. He removed from Autun (the Augustodonum of the Romans) to Boulogne et Seine in Paris, and a friend of his in England was the recipient of his appreciative acknowledgment of these lines addressed to Hamerton in his new Parisian home : The Seine to Saone gives greeting ! O'er the sea I pen Lwtetia's welcome home to thee; And, with the wish, would fain the hand extend, Word-painter, picture-painter, poet, friend What though her vine leaves seared by autumn's blast, Awgwstodomºwm weeps her glories past— Though, “round the house ’’ thy graceful pen portrays, Fond mem'ries linger of departed days P The city’s joy outweighs the country’s pain– Awgustodomwm's loss is fair Lwtetia's gain! ## p. 188 (#202) ############################################ I88 THE AUTHOR. And the other day—not thirty days ago—the same friend received from him a warm letter of welcome on returning to England after many years of judicial work abroad. He wrote cheer- fully, yet spoke of illness, of diagnosis by a Paris doctor of “hypertrophy of the heart,” and of the necessity of “following a regimen for the rest of my days.” Not for long. In a fortnight he was dead, A_*— * - _*. s—º a------5 - BOOK TALK. HE REW. CANON CHARLES D. BELL, D.D., rector of Cheltenham, has produced a new volume of verses, called “Diana's Looking Glass, and other Poems.” Canon Bell’s verses are always, to use the words of one of his critics, “sweet and wholesome.” After the low level in which we are plunged by some of our younger poets, it is pleasant to stand once more upon the heights and to feel that there are higher levels, and still higher, to be reached. times the natural note of sadness, there is never despair. Let the poet speak for himself. Come let us wake sweet Echo with a song. Here she lies sleeping, waiting for our voice, So call her loudly with a courteous tongue, That coming forth she may with us rejoice. For Morning walks in beauty o'er the dale, And Night's bright glories 'fore her splendours pale. Nymph of the hills, awake, awake Melodious answer to us make. What shall we sing to please the maiden shy, And lure her from the secret solitude, In which she dwells, withdrawn from every eye, Amid the deep recesses of the wood In whose green boughs is heard the joyous lay Of merry birds that greet the dawn of day P Echo, sweet Echo, hear no strain, Thy voice is bliss ; thy silence pain. Or shall we sing of love P. How Corydon, The shepherd boy, the fair Althea woo'd, How beauteous Thyrsis fair Nerissa won, Or fleet Alpheus Arethusa pursued, Or Cynthia stooped from heaven with look of love, While slept Endymion in the Latmian grove. Hark, comrades, hark with such a theme Steal softly on the dreamer's dream. “A Swatch o' Homespun,” by Agnes Marchbank (Edinburgh, R. W. Hunter), is a little story of a weaver in a Scotch village. The writer should be able to do better than this with study and work. Meantime she is working with good materials, and in the true spirit. “Tales of Famous Men” is the title of a series of papers which Mr. Joseph Hatton is writing for the Idler. They will be of a reminiscent cha- racter, with plenty of anecdote to justify the general title; and Mr. W. H. Margetson will If there is some- illustrate them. Mr. Hatton’s new novel, which is running in the weekly press of the old world and the new, will be published in March by Messrs. Hutchinson, who have already sold four editions of this author's latest book, “Under the Great Seal.” Mr. Hutchinson told a St. James’s Budget interviewer recently that his first great success as a publisher was with Mr. Hatton's “By Order of the Czar,” which is now in its fifteenth edition. Mr. Walter Wren has had to inform the secretary that a person is going about pretending that he is a relative of Mr. Wren, and that he is a member of the Incorporated Society of Authors. There is no member of the society named Wren. “Maud Marian, Artist” (Religious Tract Society), is a very pleasing and delicately written story by Eglanton Thorne, author of the “Old Worcester Jug,” &c., &c. The scene is laid at Rome. It is a book written and chiefly intended for girls. “Cavaliers and Roundheads in Barbados,” by N. Darnell Davis (Argosy Press, Georgetown, British Guiana), is a chapter in colonial history that was well worth the trouble of writing. The early history of Barbados is practically unknown to us. For instance, had it been known, a hundred years ago, that the right to be taxed only by their own representatives was recognised in the case of Barbados in 1652, it would not have refused to the Americans in the year 1770. There would have been no Declaration of Independence and no war. Frank Stockton's new book, called “Pomona, ’’ (Cassell), went through the first edition in advance of publication. Boys, and those who make Christmas presents to boys, are here with invited to make a note of Max Pemberton's book of adventure, “The Sea. Wolves.” “The Highway of Sorrow,” by Hesba Stretton, and * * * is a work to be noted either for buy- ing or borrowing, and certainly for reading. A second edition of Mrs. Oliphant’s new novel “Who was Lost and is Found” (Blackwood and Sons) is announced. In Mr. Fairman Ordish’s “Early London Theatres '' (Elliot Stock) we have a work of original and patient research. It is worthy of a long article in the Quarterly Review. The author has made himself the sole authority for the future on the subject of the earliest theatres of London. The Navy Records Society have in preparation a second volume of State Papers relating to the ## p. 189 (#203) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 189 Spanish Armada; they will next publish a volume of Naval Accounts of the Fifteenth Century. Mr. W. M. Conway has in preparation an account of the walk which he made last year from end to end of the Alps. Miss Frances Wood sends some extremely pretty Christmas cards. They are reproductions from Raphael, with verses under each. They are published by Messrs. Carr and Mason, Brunswick Works, Leamington. Mr. W. H. Besant, F.R.S., D.Sc., has in the press the ninth edition of his “Geometrical Conics,” and, as a supplement, his “Solutions of the Examples in the Geometrical Conics.” Certainly one of the most beautiful books of the season is Archdeacon Farrar’s “Life of Christ as Represented in Art.” It is illustrated by a long catena of early Christian symbols, mediaeval figures, pictures of the great masters, and by the painters of our own day, some of whom will perhaps be called great masters five hundred years hence. It is a book which should command a wide and immediate success. The publishers are Messrs. A. and C. Black. Readers are requested to make a note of “Robert Southey,” by John Dennis (Messrs. Bell.) Four biographies from one publisher (Edward Arnold). The first is “Alphonse Daudet,” by Robert Sherard; the others are Augustus Hare's “Maria Edgeworth,” Dean Hole’s “Memories,” and the Memoirs of Sir John Macdonald, by his Private Secretary. “The Memorials of St. James's Palace,” by Edgar Sheppard (Longmans), in two volumes, is really a splendid work. It is rather dear, but what is 36s. to one who loves his London P Another book for a student of the Great City is “London and the Kingdom,” by Reginald R. Sharpe, D.C.L. Dr. Sharpe is Records Clerk in the office of the Town Clerk of the City. The book is written from personal investigation of the City archives. It is a book for historians rather than itself a history. The second volume of Dr. Traill’s “Social England’’ is now ready. One is pleased to read that the book has already gone into a second edition. In translating Professor Errera’s “Russian Jews,” Miss Bella Löwy has executed a task of love. The book is an appeal for civilised treatment, fervid in its facts, which are startling, and convincing in its arguments, which are self- restrained in temper. One does not realise until the map is laid open how very small a space of the vast Russian Empire is open to the Jew for residence. He may live in Little Russia, West Russia, and South Russia; altogether over an area, very thinly populated, of one thousand miles in length by three hundred in breadth. In these pages one may read a story of persecution and oppression without parallel even in the Middle Ages. But there are charges brought against the Jews. They are moneylenders. “Yes,” replies Professor Errera in effect, “ some of them, no doubt. But four-fifths of them have no money to lend; and, besides, they are more honest than the Christian moneylender.” They sell spirits. They were made to do so. The nobles manufactured the spirit; the Jew was told to sell it. They are tricky in business. Their persecutions have made them so. And so on. The book is published by David Nutt, Strand. Professor Brander Matthews sends his new book, “Wignettes of Manhattan.” If for the pictures of New York alone, it would be a desirable volume. As a study for a stranger in New York manners, with their little differences compared with our own, the book is equally desirable. Perhaps, however, most desirable for the short stories and sketches which it contains. There is a most exciting story of a fire. There is the sketch of the broken-down man and his last dinner at Delmonico's ; and there is a visit to the slums, which is admirably done. There are more, but these will do. Here is a dainty little volume (Roxburghe Press, 3, Victoria-street, Westminster), dainty binding, dainty print, dainty paper—all to set off the translation by Julia Preston, of “The Moun- tain Lake, by the late Fredrich von Bodinstedt,” whose portrait is presented as a frontispiece. Von Bodinstedt is not widely known in this country. Indeed, of late years a strange indiffe- rence to German belles and lettres and poetry seems to have fallen upon us. The attempt of Miss Julia Preston to make a poet of meditation rather than action, and of emotion rather than passion better known, deserves encouragement. Her versification is simple and generally graceful. Here, for instance, is a little thing : When the Gates of Paradise wide open stand, Some pious souls for their reward drew near ; And a mingled multitude from every land IBow humbly down in hope, in doubt, or fear. I only of all the waiting sinners there, Shall at those portals without fear abide ; Long since on earth by thee, my Angel Fair, The Gates of Paradise were opened wide. “A Bread and Butter Miss,” by George Paston, author of “A Modern Amazon'' (Osgood, M“Ilvaine, and Co.), is a one-volume story, a ## p. 190 (#204) ############################################ I 90 THE AUTHOR. simple, pretty little story of a girl going to stay at a country house for the first time in her life, and her adventures there. “Three Generations of English Women,” by Janet Ross, tells the story of Susannah Taylor, Sarah Austin, and Tady Duff Gordon. This is a new and revised edition. Susannah Taylor was the wife of John Taylor, one of that remarkable family which has produced so many men and women distinguished for literary and scientific ability. Mrs. Austin, her daughter, was married to a man who began life in the army and became a lawyer. His health, however, decayed. and he retired from active life. Lucie, his only child, married Sir Alexander Duff Gordon. All three ladies were as lovely as they were accom- plished. The book principally consists of letters, as delightful as letters can be. Another little book of verses and translations —this time by William E. A. Axon. (The Ancoats Skylark. John Heywood, London and Manchester.) Here is a specimen. The French words are a folk-song current in Franche Comte. Ma pauvre enfant, Qui es dessous la terre ; Ma pauvre enfant, Soulève done ta pierre. Chère maman, Donnez m'y ma chemise; Chère maman IBien fort Souffle la bise. Ma pauvre enfant, Je n'ai pas la puissance, Ma pauvre enfant A toi toujours je pense. Chère maman, J'ai les deux mains gelées; Chère maman, Fit la langue sechée. Ma pauvre enfant, J'irai dessous la terre, Tout pres de toi Pour rechauffer la pierre. A string of sonnets on the death of a child. They are sonnets which are worth attention. The book is called “A Little Child’s Wreath.” If the treatment is suggested by “In Memoriam,” the form is different. The sonnets are of some- what unequal merit. The following, it will be seen, has the true ring: A quiet southern day; a quiet sea That scarcely breaks along the level sands. An ecstasy of little children's glee : A weight of grief that no one understands. My poor child, In thy grave alone; My poor child, Iłaise up thy stone. Oh! mother dear, I want my coat of green. Oh! mother dear, The wind whistles keen. My poor child, I have not the power ; My poor child, I think of thee each hour. Oh! mother dear, My hands are icy cold ; Oh! mother dear, So stiff they will not fold. My poor child, We will not live apart ; I'll creep into thy grave And warm thee on my heart. Slow moving sails with curves of grace complete As ever beauty-loving pencil drew ; A ceaseless play of pretty hands and feet; A want for ever deep, for ever new. Peace on the teeming earth, goodwill and peace In the clear blue and floating cloudlets white; Crownéd the land with joy of her increase, Crushed my desire and vanished my delight. A seabird said, “I know, I know the pain, He will not see the summer tide again.” Mr. John B. Mackie, Fellow of the Institute of Journalists, who writes from the North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Middlesbrough, has written a book called “Modern Journalism : a Handbook for the Young Journalist.” There is plenty of room for such a book at the present moment, when the rush into journalism is opening it to the most desperate competition. The first result, one fears, will be a lowering of salaries and pay; the next step, however, will be the establishment of new papers in every direction; thirdly, the competi- tion of proprietors will run up salaries again for the best men. Mr. Mackie's book takes a man into every branch of a newspaper—shorthand writing, reporting, sub-editing, leader writing, and editing. It seems a most complete book; it is certainly one which every young journalist should study till he has it by heart. Above all, let him read, mark, and learn what is said as to silence concerning the internal machinery of the paper, and what is said, and very well said, as to the power and the responsibilities of the Press. Mr. John A. Steuart's new novel, “In the Day of Battle '' (three vols., Sampson Iow, Marston, and Co.), belongs to the school of the older romance. But the tale of battle has an interest that never palls, and there are few whose pulse will not beat quicker as they read of the doughty deeds of the long lost Donald Gordon, who is discovered in the disguise of a Bedouin freelance. Mr. Steuart has succeeded in giving his tale an almost breathless realism ; and if it is success to drive his reader on from page to page until one reaches the last he has certainly succeeded. From beginning to end the interest never flags, and that is saying much. His plot, perhaps, is not very strong nor very novel, but it serves merely as the hinge on which to hang a succession of curdling adventures dear to the heart of all boys and ImOst men. Mr. F. B. Doveton's new volume of verse is now ready. e- * *-*. CORRESPONDENCE. I.—THE LAUREATESHIP. AM very glad to see that you have taken up the question of the failure of the Government to appoint a Poet Laureate. It is now nearly two years since the vacancy occurred, and surely it behoves all authors, whether poets or not, to prevent this single recognition of literature by the State being abandoned if they can prevent it. If chaplains or physicians to the Queen were to cease to be appointed, would not the discontent of the clergy and the doctors make itself felt P ## p. 191 (#205) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I9 I The salary is only £75 a year. It does not matter a penny postage to any of us except the person appointed, upon whom the choice of the Queen may fall; but I say that it is a slight to all of us that no appointment should be made. Nov. 19. A PROSE WRITER. II.-SPLITTING INFINITIVES. There is a point in connection with composition on which your advice might be of essential service to young writers. I wrote a book— the name of which I give for your private information—that was favourably reviewed by various papers, and very properly slated by a cer- tain critic; the unforgivable error I had com- mitted being the splitting of infinitives. But, discussing this matter with a literary friend, I inquired whether it was allowable ever to split a verb at all; the reply being promptly in the negative. I accepted this dictum, and proposed to myself an earnest study of the writings of our great masters, so that I might improve my own defective style. For it occurred to me, and it may have occurred to others, that it is often very difficult to give the proper sense to a sentence, by a too rigid and pedantic adherence to what, for all I know to the contrary, may be a very sound rule. I have, however, given up my proposed search, for by the merest chance I came across, in the Standard of the 7th inst., a letter from Mr. Froude to Dr. Fischer, of Armagh, dated the 5th May, 1882. Certainly Mr. Froude nowhere splits his infini- tives; but the accompanying extracts from that letter show that Mr. Froude was in the habit of repeatedly splitting his other tenses. The italics are my own, and are inserted merely to mark where it would seem to me that the infractions of an accepted rule have occurred:—“Your book which you have so kindly sent me,” &c.—“I have only to tell you,” &c.—“ and will, by and bye, be universally accepted,” &c.—“ which he was all his life insisting on,” &c.—“that he alone in the British empire saw,” &c. Thus in a letter of thirty-four printed lines, the great historian five times splits his verbs. The question then is, whether this practice is or is not permissible?—Your obedient servant, 1588. III.-CRITICAL AND EDITORIAL AMENITIES. The editor has, I fancy, rather misunderstood my drift in my letter on “Editorial Amenities,” in last Author. (1) I complained of the lack of common courtesy in no eaglanation being given of the change of front. (2) I did not want reasons. I only wished to know the fate of MSS. (4) I did not expect the critic to change his opinion, but I reckoned on his having generosity enough to be glad his verdict was falsified in re the Fairy Tale, and to tell me so. (5) An editor who professed to value highly his contributor— as was the case here—would have been compli- mented by being asked for a review by him. Resentment seems absurd. Toes it not P AN AUTHOR. *— - ~" ,-- - - NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, Theology. ANGLICAN PULPIT LIBRARY. Sermons, Outlines, and Illustrations for the Sundays and Holy Days of the Year ; Original and selected. In 6 vols. Vol. I., Advent to Christmastide. Hodder and Stoughton. I 58. AsHLEY, JoBN M. Cogitationes Concionales, being 216 short Sermon Reflections, founded upon the “Summa Theologica, ’’ of S. Thomas Aquinas. In 12 monthly parts. Part I., paper covers. Hodges. IS. net. BRUCE, ALExANDER. B. St. Paul’s Conception of Christianity. Edinburgh : T. and T. Clark. 7s. 6d. CHURCHILL, REv. STUART. Christ as a Citizen. A Sermon. Baines and Scarsbrook. Paper covers, 2d. DAVIDSON, RANDALL, T. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Rochester, October, 1894. Paper boards. Macmillan. ExELL, REv. Josh PH S. The Biblical Illustrator. Romans. Two vols. Nisbet. 7s.6d. each. GooDHEART, C. A. Advent Thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer. S.P.C.K. 6d. GOULBURN, E. M. Thoughts on Passages of Holy Scrip- ture. J. Parker. GREGORY, REv. S. Among the Roses: and other Sermons to Children. 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Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 07 (December 1894) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 07 (December 1894) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1894-12-01-The-Author-5-7 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/270/1894-11-01-The-Author-5-6.pdf e1741fdebe952519b685d132e2ad68b6 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) 1894-11-01 Volume 5 Issue 6 Pages Page range in volume 141–168 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18941101 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DU CTED BY WA. L TER BES ANT. VOL. V.-No. 6.] NOVEMBER 1, 1894. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- r- - -, WARNINGS AND ADVICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.—It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN what A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an WOL. W. arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CosT OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. - 8. FuTURE Work.-Never, on any accownt whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. I2. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. – Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :- 4, Portugal, STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *— - -* HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member O 2 ## p. 142 (#156) ############################################ I 42 THE AUTHOR. has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. *- ~ * & -s THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby given that in all cases where there is no current account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre- spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society ; that it has a “Transfer Department' for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted * has been opened. Members anxious to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com - municate with the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. --sº e--- - - NOTICES, HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P or dishonest ? Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production" are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth ## p. 143 (#157) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 43 as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production’’ for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. * * = ELECTION OF MEMBERS. T the first meeting of committee after the vacation on Oct. 8, twenty-eight new members and associates were duly pro- posed and elected. There have been 196 new members elected since the beginning of the year. Against these, however, must be placed the number of those who are every year struck off the list either by death, or by resignation, or by neglecting to pay their subscription. Cases have arisen in which authors have joined for the purpose of obtaining aid and redress, and have then retired when their case has been won for them. In other words, they pay a guinea, put the Society to the expense of many guineas, and then retire. Authors are earnestly entreated to remember that the society exists for the common good; that to regard it as solely a means of obtaining individual advantage is contrary to the whole spirit of the association; that to carry a single case through often costs the subscriptions of a great many members, and that were it not for the subscriptions of those who are not likely to need its services at all, the Society would not be able to exist, or would be reduced to a powerless condition. > c: LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—PAYING FOR PUBLICATION. HE advice of the Society with regard to payment for publishing is that a MS. which is refused by half a dozen good houses is probably without commercial value. The author, however, is too often persuaded that it possesses sufficient literary merit to justify him in paying for its production. He then receives an estimate from the firm to which he applies. In general this estimate is called Messrs. A. and B.’s “charge” for producing the work. It used to be called the “Cost of Production.” It is now Messrs. A. and B.’s “charge.” The charge includes a very liberal addition to the printer's bill—for themselves. It is a secret profit, and therefore absolutely indefensible. Of course a charge for services may be advanced, and may be granted, but it should be made openly. The following are quite recent examples of this method of giving estimates. They were brought to the Society, and through the machinery at the disposal of the Society the books were actually produced at the price given below, after that of the original estimate. It should be added that the actual publisher, not the person who sent in his “charges,” was in each case a fit and proper person, and that the books were produced in the best possible style of print and paper. First case.—Estimate for printing, paper, and binding ... ... ... 378 Actual sum paid for produc- tion ... . . . . . . . ... 38 Second case.—Estimate for printing, paper, and binding 39.18O Actual sum paid ... ... ... 8O Third case.—Estimate for printing, paper, and binding e tº ſº £220 Actual sum paid I 50 In the first case an overcharge was made of £40, in the second an overcharge of £IOO, and in the third of £70. In the first case the author was saved 50 per cent. On the first charge, in the second 55 per cent., in the third 32 per cent. It seems, therefore, as if it were worth the consideration of authors about to pay for their own books, whether they should bring their estimates to the Society before signing their agreements. II.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. The following letters have appeared in the Times. That by Mr. Lancefield may be fairly assumed to represent the Canadian view : that by Mr. Daldy the answer of one who has long worked upon the question. The subject has been referred by the London Chamber of Com- merce to a committee upon which the Society of Authors is properly represented. The letters are given at length for obvious reasons. I.—To the Editor of the Times. SIR,--I have only recently seen a letter which appeared in your valuable paper some time ago (May 3, 1894) from Mr. F. R. Daldy on the question of Canadian copyright. Some of Mr. Daldy's statements certainly require correc- tion, as the views he set forth in his letter (which letter, I understand, was printed in full in various literary journals in England) place Canadians in ## p. 144 (#158) ############################################ 144 THE AUTHOIR. a most misleading and unfair light before your readers. In the first place, Mr. Daldy writes, he has “reason to believe that Canada has asked the Imperial Government to repeal all British Copy- right Acts so far as it is included under them and also to denounce Canada's connection with the Berne Convention.” This is correct. And why not P The B.N.A. Act of 1867 gives Canada the right to legislate on copyright, the same as on tariffs, patents, &c. The Imperial Government allows us to pass such laws as we please with regard, for instance, to patents. We assert the same right with regard to copyright, and we maintain our position strengthened by the knowledge that every argument is in our favour. Mr. Daldy's second count deserves serious con- sideration. Not content with referring sneeringly to a royalty which the Canadian Government will collect for those who refuse or neglect to secure copyright in Canada as a “visionary” royalty, he says “no consideration whatever has been shown to artists and musical composers.” A serious indictment, if true. But what are the facts P I have before me the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889, passed unanimously by sº the House of Commons and Senate of the Dominion of Canada, but to which the Imperial Government refuses sanction. This Act enacts that “Any person domiciled in Canada or in any part of the British possessions who is the author of any book, map, chart, or musical or literary composi- tion, or of any original painting, drawing, statue, sculpture, or photograph, or who invents, designs, etches, engraves, or causes to be engraved, etched, or made from his own design any print or engra- ving, and the legal representatives of such person or citizen,” may secure copyright in Canada for twenty-eight years. It would appear from this that Mr. Daldy is either grossly ignorant on this question of Canadian copyright, or that he is deliberately misrepresenting the action of the Canadian Government, presumably in order to create and foster ill-feeling in England. Again, Mr. Daldy says “that it is no more difficult for Canadian than for United States publishers to enter into contracts with authors and artists direct.” Very nice in theory, but under present conditions practically impossible to put into practice. Why? Because the United States publisher, in nine cases out of ten, when buying the market for a new book, insists on Canada being included. The Canadian people, therefore, present the satisfaction (?) of seeing their market quietly handed over by the British author or publisher to alien United States publishers. have at Surely you cannot blame us for making an earnest, decided, emphatic protest against such a practice. Canadians are not surprised at the alien United States publishers insisting on the Canadian market being included. That is their business—to get all they can, and more, too, if possible. But we are surprised at the British authors and publishers conceding to the demand of the United States publishers. And we are doubly surprised that the British authors and publishers are our principal opponents when we ask the Imperial Government for such legislation as will enable us to say to the United States publishers, “You cannot control the Canadian market except on our own terms.” We are proud of the fact that we are part and parcel of the great British Empire. The recent conference of Colonial delegates at Ottawa proves that we are alive to our responsibilities to the Empire. I submit that it is not an edifying spectacle to witness many of our brethren in England making desperate and, as I have shown, unfair attempts to create prejudice against us in our efforts to secure our book market from the grasp of alien publishers. In any case we intend to expose such attempts and to persist in our agitation, as we are con- vinced that the Imperial Government must soon see the justness of our case and grant the relief asked for. - Mr. Daldy signs himself “Hon. Secretary of the [British PJ Copyright Association.” Very many are apt to look upon him as an authority on copyright. I have already shown that his statement as to no consideration whatever being shown by the Canadian Government to artists and musical composers is untrue. He is equally unreliable when he tries to frighten British authors and artists by the statement that if the British Government yields to the Canadian demand the English relations on copyright with the United States would be upset. Mr. Daldy's argument, then, is that justice must be denied Canada because, if granted, English copyright arrangements with the United Sta'es will suffer. What utter nonsense ! But Mr. Daldy reaches the height of absurdity when he gravely asserts that “the United States Government made the consent of Canada that American copyright should run in that Dominion a leading condition of their conceding it to the British nation.” This is news to us in Canada. Our consent was never asked to any such agreement. The British Government could not give the consent of Canada without first securing that consent. Neither the British Government, Mr. Daldy, nor the Copyright Association he represents need ## p. 145 (#159) ############################################ THE AUTHOR, I 45 think that Canada will recognise any arrange- ment without first consenting thereto. Mr. Daldy knows, without being told, that the day has gone by when the consent of Canada to a question so important as this of copyright can be taken for granted before formally securing said consent through the usual diplomatic channels. Thanking you for granting me space, I remain, Sir, yours in the bonds of Imperial Unity, RICHARD T. LANCEFIELD. Public Library, Hamilton, Canada September. II.—To the Editor of the Times. SIR,--The charges brought against me in Mr. Lancefield’s letter, published by you on the 11th inst., require, I think, an answer so far as the subject-matter of them is concerned, though I must respectfully decline to take more notice than is necessary of his personalities. He says, “I have placed Canadians in a most misleading and unfair light before your readers.” I certainly had no desire to do this, and I hope the following observations will satisfy your readers that I have not done so. He admits that Canada has asked the Imperial Government to repeal all British Copyright Acts so far as they include that Dominion, and says Canada has the right to legislate on copyright under the British North American Act of 1867. If Canada has that right, why ask England's help ? Lord Selborne and Lord Herschell, when at the Bar, on Nov. 7, 1871, advised the Copy- right Association that the above legislative authority “ has reference only to the exclusive jurisdiction in Canada of the Dominion Legisla- ture, as distinguished from the Legislatures of the provinces of which it is composed,” and they further said that the “Imperial Act 5 & 6 Wict. c. 45 (our principal Copyright Act), is still in force in its integrity throughout the British dominions.” This view is corroborated by the decision in “Smiles v. Belford ” of the Supreme Court of Upper Canada and the opinions of recent law officers of the Crown. Mr. Lancefield objects to my reference to the way in which Canada collects, or neglects to collect, the royalty due to British and Colonial authors under the Imperial Act of 1847 and the Canadian Act of Aug. 1850, approved by Imperial Order in Council made Dec. 12, 1850. Perhaps he will not be suprised to hear that this royalty has only been spasmodically collected, although the Act was passed for Canada's benefit, and she undertook to make the collection. It is notorious that many books were imported by Canada without payment of this royalty, and I have before me now a correspondence showing that a copyright owner, who was entitled to royalty since 1883, had to send an agent to Canada, who traced one payment in 1885, but the customs authorities in Canada could not even then discover the collection of royalty on any other occasion, although the work had been largely circulated throughout the Dominion before that time. The first payment of this royalty, not in full, but “on account,” was not received by the copyright owner till 1889. Can Mr. Lancefield be surprised at the incredulity of English authors as to her honestly carrying out her engagements? Mr. Lancefield quotes from the Canadian Act of 1889 to prove that artists have received due consideration. He quotes the 4th section of that Act, but omits any reference to the 5th, which says the condition of obtaining copyright under the Act is that such artistic work shall be repro- duced in Canada within one month of production elsewhere. Hence, to obtain copyright under the Canadian Act, Sir F. Leighton, or any artist, must go to Canada and reproduce his picture there within a month of publication here. A new opera must be represented there within the same time. Am I right in saying “no consideration whatever has been shown to artists and musical composers ?” Is it not a mockery to offer copy- right on such terms? Mr. Lancefield says Canadian publishers cannot acquire copyright from British authors because United States publishers buy the Canadian market with the American market. Why does not the Canadian purchaser come forward first and buy the two markets P It is all a matter of commercial competition. Mr. Lancefield seems to think authors hand over their works to United States publishers by preference. What they prefer, and what they are entitled to, is the best price for the two intermixed markets, because it is against their interests to sell either separately. This arises from American, not British, legisla- tion. Mr. Lancefield cannot expect authors to forego the value of their copyrights in America merely to help Canadian reprinters to get the printing of them. Let Canadian printers come forward earlier, before American arrangements are made, and buy both markets. I regret to say American copyright for British authors is jeopardised by the apprehension of our allowing Canadian printers to reprint copy- right books without the author's sanction, and that on most trustworthy authority. Perhaps my observation about the consent of Canada as to American copyright running there is rather unfortunately worded, as of course her consent was not required. The facts are that the United States Government asked if American ## p. 146 (#160) ############################################ I46 THE AUTHOR. copyright ran in all British possessions, and, on Lord Salisbury assuring the United States Government that it did, the United States Government issued its proclamation giving the authors, &c., of “Great Britain and the British possessions” copyright throughout the United States. (See United States Papers, No. 3 (1891), Correspondence on United States Copyright Act.) I am glad to find Mr. Lancefield proud of Imperial unity. Will he, in obedience to its requirements, advocate “copyright unity” as far as we are able to promote it? The laws of copy- right are too much mixed up with the commercial handling of copyright property. The one gives the title to the property; the other utilises it to the best advantage. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, FREDERIC R. DALDY. Aldine House, Belvedere. III.-LITTLETON ET AL. v. OLIVER DITSON Co. The inclosed judgment from one of the circuit courts in Massachusetts, supporting the decision recently published on musical copyright, may be of interest to the readers of the Author : LITTLETON ET AL. 27. OLIVER DITSON CO. (Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts. Aug. 1, 1894.) No. 3065. Copyright—Musical compositions—Manufacture in United States. The proviso in sect. 3 of the Copyright Act of March 3, 1891, that “ in the case of a book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph,” the two copies required to be delivered to the librarian of Congress shall be manufactured in this country, does not include musical compositions published in book form, or made by lithographic process. THIs was a suit by Alfred H. Littleton and others against the Oliver Ditson Company for infringement of copyrights. Lauriston L. Scaife for complainants. Chauncey Smith and Linus M. Child for defendant. CoLT, Circuit Judge.—This case raises a new and important question under the Copyright Act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. I IO6). The plaintiffs, subjects of Great Britain, and publishers of music, have copyrighted three musical compo- sitions, two of which are in the form of sheet music, and one (a cantata) consists of some ninety pages of music bound together in book form, and with a paper cover. Two of these pieces were printed from electrotype plates, and one from stone, by the lithographic process. The inquiry in this case is whether a musical composition is a book or lithograph, within the meaning of the proviso in sect. 3 of the Act, which declares that in the case of a “book, photograph, chromo, or litho- graph " the two copies required to be deposited with the librarian of Congress shall be manufac- tured in this country. The Act of March 3, 1891, is an amendment of the copyright law then existing. The principal change made is the extension of the privilege of copyright to foreigners by the removal of the restriction of citizenship or residence contained in the old law, and hence it is sometimes called “The International Copyright Act. Section I relates to the subject-matter of copyright, and delares that: The author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or photograph or negative thereof, or of a painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary shall, upon complying with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, &c. Section 3 recites the conditions which must be complied with, and says: No person shall be entitled to a copyright unless he shall, on or before the day of publication in this or any foreign country, deliver at the office of the librarian of Congress, or deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to the librarian, a printed copy of the title of the book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description of the paint- ing, drawing, statue, statuary, for which he desires a copyright, nor unless he shall also, not later than the day of the publication thereof in this or any foreign country, deliver at the office of the librarian • OT deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to the librarian, two copies of such copyright book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, chromo, cut, print, or photograph, or in case of a painting, drawing, statue, statuary, model, or design for a work of the fine arts, a photograph of same : provided, that in the case of a book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph, the two copies of the same required to be delivered or deposited as above shall be printed from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives, or drawings on stone made within the limits of the United States, or from transfers made therefrom. From the language of these provisions it seems clear that “book” was not intended to include “musical composition.” In the section which enumerates the things which may be copyrighted, “musical composition ” is mentioned as something different from “book,” and we find this same dis- tinction twice observed in the preceding part of the section which contains the proviso. It is as reasonable to suppose that “book” and “musical composition ” were as much intended to refer to different subjects as “map, chart, engraving,” and other enumerated articles. If Congress, in the proviso, had intended to include a musical composition among those copy- righted things which must be manufactured in this country, it should have incorporated it in the ## p. 147 (#161) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 47 list of things subject to this restriction. The omission in the proviso of “musical composition,” as well as of “map, chart, engraving,” and other things before enumerated, is very significant, as intimating that Congress never intended to extend this provision to any of these articles. And so, with respect to “lithograph,” if Congress had intended to cover by that word a musical compo- sition made by the lithographic process, it should have expressed its meaning in clear and unam- biguous terms, in view of the language used in other portions of the statute. If there is any doubt as to the meaning of the statute, it is proper to examine the history of legislation on this subject, in order, if possible, to discover the intent of Congress. As the bill passed the House of Representatives, this proviso was limited to “book,” but when it reached the Senate an amendment was offered and passed extending the proviso to various other subjects of Copyright, as “map, dramatic or musical compo- sition, engraving, cut, print,” &c. A conference committee was appointed, and a compromise was agreed to enlarging the house provision by the addition of “photograph, chromo, or lithograph,” and the bill was finally passed in this form. In the debate in the Senate, reference was made to the fact that musical compositions had been eliminated from the proviso. The first and funda- mental rule in the interpretation of statutes is to carry out the intent of the Legislature if it can be ascertained, and I think an examination of the proceedings in Congress shows that it was intended to exclude musical compositions from the operation of this proviso: (22 Cong. Rec. pt. I, p. 32 ; pt. 3, pp. 2378, 2836; pt. 4, p. 3847.) “Book” has been distinguished from “musical composition ” in the statutes relating to copy- right since 1831 : (4 Stat. 436.) The specific designation of any article in an act or series of acts of Congress requires that such article be treated by itself, and excludes it from general terms contained in the same act or in subsequent acts: (Potter, Dwar. St. pp. 198, 272; Homer v. The Collector, I Wall. 486; Arthur v. Lahey, 96 U.S. 112 ; Arthur v. Stephani, Id. 125; Vietor v. Arthur, IO4 U.S. 498.) If, in a popular sense, and speaking particularly in reference to form, “book” may be said to include a musical composition, the answer to this proposition is that where two words of a statute are coupled together, one of which generically includes the other, the more general term is used in a mean- ing exclusive of the specific one : (Endl. Interp, St. sect. 396; Reiche v. Smythe, 13 Wall. 162.) The reasoning upon which this rule of specific designation is based is that such designation is WOL. W. tions to the Survey of the Literature of the Reign. expressive of the legislative intention to exclude the article specifically named from the general term which might otherwise include it: (Smythe v. Fiske, 23. Wall. 374, 38o ; Reiche v. Smythe, 13 Wall. 162, 164.) The English cases cited by the defendant to the effect that “book” includes “ musical composition '' are not material in the present controversy, because the statute law of the two countries is different. The early English statute of 8 Anne, c. 19, says, in the preamble, “books and other writings,” while, in the modern English statute (5 & 6 Wict. c. 45, s. 2), “book’’ is defined to include various specific things, as “map, chart, sheet of music,” &c Nor do the American cases cited (Clayton v. Stone, 2 Paine, 382, Fed. Cas. No. 2872 ; Scoville v. Toland, 6 West. Law J. 84, Fed. Cas. No. 12,553; Drury v. Ewing, I Bond, 540, Fed. Cas. No. 4095) help the defendant. In none of these cases has the question ever been determined whether a musical composition is a book. It must also be remembered that the question now presented is not strictly whether a musical composition can ever be regarded as a book, but whether Congress meant in the Act of March 3, 1891, to include musical composition within the terms of the proviso referred to. Nor do I think the dictionary definitions of “book” render us much assistance, because the word is used in so many different senses. It may refer to the subject-matter, as literary composition ; or to form, as a number of leaves of paper bound together; or a written instrument or document; or a particular sub- division of a literary composition; or the words of an opera, &c. Looking at the natural reading of the statute, the intent of Congress, and the rules which govern the construction of statute law, I am of opinion that the plaintiffs have complied with the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1891, respect- ing the three musical compositions complained of, and that the defendant should be enjoined from reprinting, publishing, or exposing for sale these compositions, or any essential part of them, as prayed for in the Bill. Injunction granted. IV.-ContLNUATION BY ANOTHER HAND. The following advertisement appeared in the New York Critic : - MASTERPIECES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.-Entirely New and Finely Illustrated Editions.—A History of Our Own Times, from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of 1880. By Justin McCarthy, M.P. With an Introduction, and Supplementary Chapters bring- ing the work down to Mr. Gladstone's Resignation of the Premiership (March, 1894); with a New Index, and Addi- By G. P ## p. 148 (#162) ############################################ I48 THE AUTHOR. Mercer Adam, author of “A Précis of English History,” &c. Profusely illustrated with new half-tone portraits of states- men and littérateurs. 2 vols., 12mo, handsome cloth, $3.oo; or, in three-quarter calf, $5.00. Popular edition, 2 vols., 12mo., without illustrations, cloth, $1.50. This advertisement was forwarded on to the offices of the Society by Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P. Mr. McCarthy is indignant, and very naturally so, at the course the American publishers have thought fit to adopt, and all persons who are interested in the maintenance of literary property will no doubt support Mr. McCarthy's view as strongly. The work was published prior to the American Copyright Act, and therefore fell a lawful prey to the American reproducer. It has been selling in America for some years past in a cheap paper-bound edition. The author may perhaps have felt hurt that a work, the outcome of his brain, should be so freely circulated without bringing him in any- thing, but in those days, when books were pub- lished in England, the author produced his work with his eyes open to the possible consequences. But here insult has been added to injury, and Mr. McCarthy’s work has not only been appro- priated, but has also received the honour of an intro- duction, and several additional chapters to bring it up to date, from the pen of G. Mercer Adam. Surely it would have been an easy and courteous matter for the publisher to have written a line to the author or his English publisher to ask whether he had any views as to the continua- tion of the work. - Neither Messrs. Chatto and Windus nor Mr. McCarthy have had a line of notice, and the advertisement of the book in its present American form was the first intimation of what had taken lace. It is needless to say that there is no legal remedy, as the pnblishers have in their adver- tisement fully owned up to the additional chapters and their authorship. If this had not been done, but the work with added matter had been published under Mr. McCarthy's name—a pro- ceeding which has been known to take place with the works of other English authors—he might, perhaps, have had, some remedy under the American case quoted in last month's Author, p. 117, and the question might have been discussed under the law of trade marks and misleading the public. It is not worth while going into this side of the question, as even this point is doubtful. The American publisher has avoided this difficulty by openly avowing the facts. . But the unfortunate author, who has for some time been meditating the completion of his work, has had the American market taken away from him. Since the above was written Mr. McCarthy’s publishers, Messrs. Chatto and Windus, have received a letter from the American publisher, printed below. This letter bears out all the points put forward above, and explains how little regard is shown for the author and originator of a work, and how little thought or care may be bestowed upon the simple and familiar process of using for a man’s own profit the work of another man's brain—especially when there is no fear of legal consequences. Oct I I, 1894.—Dear Sirs, I am in receipt of your letter of the 1st. Oct., and am somewhat surprised that your remonstrance on behalf of the author of the “History of Our Own Times” should be addressed to us for issuing a continuation of the work. There are any number of editions of this work, which is not copyrighted, published in this country, and, therefore, it appears to me your remonstrance for continuing a non-copyright work is extremely ill-founded. Had I known that Mr. McCarthy intended to write a con- tinuation of his work, I should, of course, have been much pleased to have negotiated with him or his publishers for the American copyright, but under all the circumstances I can- not think that I have dome either him or you such an injury as entitles you to write me in the way you have, and I remain, —Yours very truly, CHARLEs W. Gould, Receiver.— Messrs. Chatto and Windus. -*--~~~~~ -------- LETTER FROM PARIS. AM writing this on the eve of my return to Paris, in a room full of the disorders of departure. The weather is so fine that it might be July rather than mid-October, and the sea is still very tempting for long and hazardous swims. But the vines are all leafless in my garden, and in the fields around the Indian corn has been harvested ; and, after all, as go one must, it is better to leave the country with a good im- pression and under smiling circumstances, than to outstay Nature's welcome and see in the farewell moment, a sullen face. “It is two days since we returned to Paris, and though my Parisienne is delighted to find her- self in her town once more, my little Edmée and I continue to regret the golden horizons of our peaceful Champrozay.” So writes Alphonse Daudet to me. In the same letter he says that he wishes to converse with me about “la perfide Albion,” which he has never seen, but wishes to visit before he “passes his rifle to the left.” I should not be surprised if, as a result of our con- versation, he were to pay a visit to England ere long. In looking over Daudet’s “Lettres de Mon Moulin’” the other day, I came across a quotation from his favourite Montaigne, which he applies ## p. 149 (#163) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I49 to his friend the Provençal poet, Mistral. It occurred to me that the advice is so good, that for those of our readers who do not know, it may well be here reproduced : “Souvienne-vous de celuy à qui comme on demandoit à quoy faire il se peinoit si fort, en un art qui me powvoit venir à la cogmoissance de guére des gens. J'en ay assez de peu, repondict-il. J'en ay assez d’un. J'em ay assez de pas un.” No better consolation could be found by the man of letters, who, doing his best, does not secure a success of popularity. But he must do his best. He must peiner fort. A group of distinguished Frenchmen were the other day discussing in my presence the young littérateur of to-day, who, after setting forth some great idea for a book, will add, with a sigh, “If only some publisher would give me an order for it.” It never occurs to him to write the book, for the sake of writing it, with the conviction that when written it will surely find both a pub- lisher and a public. We were all surprised to read Mallarmé's name in connection with the proposal that the State should inherit all lapsed copyrights and republish books for the general profit. Surprised, because of all living men of letters, Stephane Mallarmé is perhaps the one who has ever least troubled about the property side of literature. His own magnificent writings he printed at his own expense, in a most luxurious fashion, for himself and a very few friends. He has probably never received a sum of forty pounds, all reckoned, from the publishers. The proposal seems an ill-considered one. Fancy what a bitter stepmother the State, moved by odious political considerations, would be towards the work of certain authors. The power granted by this proposal, if it were carried into effect, would be tantamount to one of life and death, and the immortality, after which most writers strive as their highest and best reward, would be at the disposal of Government officials. With what glee would these censors condemn to obscurity the works of all those whose opinions clashed with the opinions which the Government desired to promulgate, and how lavishly would the writings of Prudhomme and Company be spread abroad One power might, to my thinking, be granted to the Government, namely, the right of levying on the profits of those who publish an author's works after the copyright in these has become public property, a trifling sum, sufficient to keep the grave of this author in decent and respectable order. If out of all the money which the pub- lishers have gained by publishing Oliver Goldsmiths's works a few pounds had thus been exacted, London would not to-day have the WOL. W. shame of Goldsmith’s abandoned and ruined grave, which anyone may see in the Temple, and blush at our English sordidness. The De Maupassant memorial subscription, which had never attained a figure in any way com- mensurate to the very modest requirements of the committee, was handsomely increased the other day by a donation of £200, subscribed by a person who expressed a wish to remain unknown. Poor De Maupassant seems to have passed into oblivion. His books are little asked for, and the dealers in the photographs of celebrities have ceased to keep his portrait in stock. One dies fast in these days. Poor Henry Hermann. He spent some years in France, and was at one time the collaborator of D. C. Murray. His forte was in the creation of plots, but he was less successful in delineation of character, description, and elaboration. Owing to an infirmity of the eyes he was forced to dictate to a secretary, and would grow quite excited as he dictated. “That’s literature, my boy,” he would exclaim, after composing some passage which pleased him particularly. When I knew him he had fallen on penurious days, and it was mournful enough to see so old a man, who had been so liberal in his days of fortune, often worried for the wherewithal to pay his rent or to buy his dinner. His courage, his industry, his cheerfulness of spirits were unflagging, and an excellent example. . It occurs to me that we of the Society of Authors might subscribe the trifling sum neces- sary for restoring Goldsmith’s grave. The whole expense would barely exceed £20, so that one hundred admirers, at four shillings each, could put the matter right. - I was interested in Mr. Hill's suggestion for a new form of paper for the typewriter, because a few days before the Author for last month came into my hands I had had exactly the same idea. I admit that I had not thought of the double roller for duplicating purposes. On reflection, however, I had come to the conclusion that the loss of time in cutting the length of paper, after it had been written on, into suitable takes, would be greater than the time lost at present in filling the machine with the sheets as supplied by the manufacturers. Certainly for the writer who prides himself on great production it would be pleasant, on rising from his machine, to see coiled on the floor, say eight yards of copy, but the coils might be cumbersome, and I can even imagine a fin de siècle Laocoon writhing in the embrace of a paper serpent. As it is, the type- writer produces too fast for a man to use it for his best work, and it is only by careful revision that typewritten copy can be made fairly prºble P ## p. 150 (#164) ############################################ 150 THE AUTHOR. One would accordingly prefer to hear of the inven- tion of a drag or break to check its speed. At times, certainly, where speed is the requisite, the machine renders excellent service. One remembers T. P. O'Connor’s “Life of Parnell,” which was produced so quickly; and I myself, on a day when I was very hard pressed, achieved 25,000 words of a translation in twelve hours. Léon Daudet’s “Les Morticoles '' is now in its seventeenth edition, of a thousand copies to the edition. This mean £400 to the good already, apart from royalties to come, both from further editions and from republication in the provincial papers. As Léon is only twenty-seven years of age he may be said to have enjoyed exceptional good fortune. I know of no French writer of standing whose début can, in point of success, be compared to his. We will not speak of Xavier de Montépin, who from the age of twenty mever made less than two thousand a year, because we do not consider him a writer. A circumstance of which we English may be proud is that of all foreign novelists it is our great George Meredith who is most esteemed by the French. I don’t mean to say that his works have a large sale in France, but I can vouchsafe the fact that the cultured who know English have his books, and that those who cannot read English are always glad to hear him discussed. His name is constantly referred to in the literary papers, and he is very evidently an influence in France. Does George Meredith know this P. There is also great curiosity about Thomas Hardy, and at the Authors’ Club dinner to M. Zola last year, Zola told me that he should advise Charpentier to arrange for a French translation of Hardy’s works. I believe that a French publisher who would produce a cheap edition of translations from our best English authors would make money. The French are sick of pornography, and are hungering for more solid fare. Young Léon's success is a proof of this. Unfortunately the French writers who know English so perfectly as to be able to give an adequate version of Meredith say, or Hardy, are very few ; on the other hand, French publishers do not care to pay anything like a fair price for translation. Eight pounds, or, in a liberal moment, ten, are considered a fair price for translating an ordinary novel. Hachette bought “David Copperfield” for twenty pounds, and paid the translator a similar sum, and this was a great event in hackdoms Translating is good exercise for writers who are afflicted with the knowledge of other languages than their own. I use the word “afflicted ” advisedly, for it is an established fact that the linguist never writes his own language as well as the writer who knows no other tongue *-- - He loses the sense of value of words, he falls into curious constructions, and may even, unconsciously be guilty of laches in grammar. In translating he has to pull himself together, to strive after the genius of his own tongue, to remember its charac- teristics, forgotten in the Babel of his brain. Amongst recent publications I notice a volume of essays by Maurice Barrés, chez Charpentier. It is entitled “Du Sang, de la Volupté et de la Mort.” Well, well, well RoBERT H. SHERARD. *-- ~ * “DISCOUNT PRICES.” IN 1852. HE frugal book-buyer will have noticed that for some time past attempts have been made by publishers, not by any means of the smaller sort, to abolish the system of “dis- count prices.” This question is not to be re- garded as a formal business detail, affecting “the trade ’’ alone, it is closely connected with authors’ and readers’ rights, and it seems not unlikely that a serious controversy may ensue upon this movement in the book trade. As the whole question was raised and discussed some forty years ago, it may be profitable to follow in some details the features of the older crisis. The practice of booksellers giving discount off publishers' prices was first commented on at the beginning of this century, and increased with the improvement in communications, till in 1848 a Booksellers’ Association was formed to counter- act it. The prime movers in the scheme were not retail booksellers but publishers, and they were supported by nearly the whole body of book- sellers and publishers in London. In July, 1851, a stringent agreement was entered into ; the sub- scribing publishers, bound themselves to supply books at trade price to members of the Asso- ciation only; the booksellers agreed not to give more than IO per cent. discount to private Customers, or 15 per cent. to book societies. The trade discount being admittedly 33 per cent. on an average, it is evident that a considerable pro- fit was left for the booksellers. Anyone offending systematically against the regulations was to be expelled. The rule worked laxly from the first, for on the one hand members put a loose inter- pretation on the word systematically, and gave as much as 20 per cent. discount to large purchasers, without incurring the displeasure of the Associa- tion. Occasionally, however, the severest measures were taken against offending mem- bers, and, finally, one case threw the whole of the trade into a ferment. One member, an importer of American books, thought it would be ## p. 151 (#165) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 151 *: more profitable, instead of disposing of his wares to “the trade” at the customary large discount, to sell directly to the public, charging them cost price, plus a percentage for profits. The matter was taken up by the Association, and the member, proving contumacious, was expelled (Jan. 1852). In his fall, however, he had with him the sympathies of the public and of part of the trade. Hereupon a fierce newspaper war sprung up, the Times and the Westminster Review particularly taking up the cause of the rebellious Associates in the public interest. Such was the heat of the quarrel that the “trade” became anxious, for their own sakes, to patch it up, and : was resolved to submit the matter to arbitra- 1Oll. Lord Campbell, George Grote, and Dean Milman were selected as arbitrators “for the purpose of deciding whether the Booksellers' Association should be carried on under its then regulations or not, it being understood that the decision of Lord Campbell and the other literary gentlemen should be binding on the Committee, who agreed, if the decision were adverse, to convene the trade and resign their functions” (April 8). The arbitrators first met on the 15th of the same month, but the Association had it all its own way on that occasion, their opponents absenting themselves on the ground that they had been summoned only at the last moment; or, in some cases, that compromise was out of the Question. Lord Campbell refusing to sum up when only one side had been heard, the meeting was adjourned till May 17. Meanwhile, on May 8, a meeting was held at the rebellious member's house, with Charles Dickens in the chair, in opposition to the Association, when Lord Campbell, George Grote, and Dean Milman were selected as arbitrators (April 8). The Times report of this meeting is curious to read. The great novelist, in opening the proceedings, said that at first he had been disin- clined to associate himself with the agitation, as it appeared to be purely a booksellers' question, but that he had acceded, seeing that a principle was at stake on which he felt very strongly : “that every man should have free exercise of his thrift and enterprise.” Mr. Babbage (the “tabulator,”) appeared as the champion of “Manchester Chum,” and wanted to know why books should be excepted from the beneficent operation of Free Trade, and moved a resolution accordingly. Tom Taylor, “speaking as a book-worm, a mere consumer of books, inclined to think that the booksellers must follow the farmers, and give in to Free Trade. Professor Owen, seconded by Professor Lankester, put a resolution, which was unanimously passed, that the regulation of retail prices acted unfavourably by adding to the already high prices of books on science, which have a limited circulation. George Cruikshank had no practical suggestion to make, he merelv enjoined peace and goodwill. Mr. Dickens' letter, conveying the resolutions, was laid before the arbitrators, when proceedings were resumed to listen to the case against the Association. The able summing-up of Lord Campbell on behalf of the arbitrators affords a convenient summary of the views prevalent on either side. He thought the regulations enforced by the Association to be primá facie unreasonable, since to fix the price at which the retailer was to sell was a derogation from the right of ownership which he had acquired. Again, the regulations were said to be voluntary, but he believed, and had been assured by correspondents among the retailers, that they were not effective without coercion, which took the form of refusing to supply to non-members, and thus preventing them from earning a living. The advocates of the existing system had admitted that in order to prove the justice of the regulations, it would have to be shown that bookselling was different from other trades, and had attempted this by saying that the authors were protected (by the Copyright Acts) and so should the dealers be. Lord Campbell pointed out that the only pro- tection given to authors was that which the law. gave to property of every description. What weighed most with him, he said, was the peculiar mode in which the wares in the book trade was distributed. There was, no doubt, a great advan- tage to literature in the existence of respectable book shops all over the country, and, doubtless, their practice of having books in stock for inspection, which under a system of unlimited competition they might not be able to keep up, often produced purchases that would otherwise not have been thought of. He hoped, however, that the lessening of profits would be accom- panied by enhanced sales, and so by greater prosperity in the trade. It had also been asserted that although the removal of the regulations might not affect the sale of works by well-known writers, “that the meritorious, but second-rate, could not without a law against underselling, be ushered into the world.” Even so, said Lord Campbell, we should deny the justice of aiding dull men at the expense of men of genuis. - “For these reasons,” said the arbitrators, “we think that the attempt to allege the alleged exceptional nature of the commerce in books has failed, and that it ought to be no longer carried on under present regulations. We do not intend to affirm, however, that excessive profits are received ## p. 152 (#166) ############################################ I 52 THE AUTHOIR. in any branch of the bookselling trade. . . . We likewise wish it to be distinctly understood that our disapproval of the “regulations ° extends only to the pretension of the publisher to dictate the terms on which the retail book- seller shall deal in his own shop, and to the means adopted for enforcing the prescribed minimum price. They add further: “The publishers are not bound to trust anyone whom they believe to be sacrificing his wares by reckless underselling.” Within ten days from this decision the associa- tion was dissolved, and the practice of giving 2d. in the shilling discount for cash became imme- diately widespread. It seems not improbable that the facility thus afforded was one of the prime factors in the weakening of the credit system, which up till then held nearly all retail transac- tions in its enervating grasp. *- - - NOTES AND NEWS, R. SHERARD in his Letter from Paris suggests that the members of the Society should themselves subscribe to repair the tomb of Goldsmith. He estimates that £20 would cover the expense. If members between them will guarantee that sum an estimate shall be made. Perhaps a single member would be willing to pay the whole amount—it is not a great sum— and it would be a service to the honour of literature. Perhaps twenty would guarantee one pound each. Anyhow, I hereby invite the readers of the Author to send me a promise, not a cheque, of so much if necessary; and then I will try to ascertain what is wanted to be done and what it would cost, and whether the new Master of the Temple would give his consent to the thing being done in this way. It is late to speak of Oliver Wendell Holmes. But it is impossible for the Author to appear, even three weeks after his death, without a word. Our words shall not be many. Holmes was one of the very few authors who enjoyed the personal love of all his readers. Greater writers there are still living—greater poets, greater novelists, greater essayists. There are none who live so deeply in the affections of their readers. This kind of influence is a gift; it cannot be acquired or learned, or imitated. How many—how few— living writers possess this gift P. In Holmes’s Case it was accompanied, or caused, by a singularly sunny and cheerful disposition. He neither spoke ill, nor thought ill, of anybody. The little spitefulnesses which so largely enter into the literature of many writers, and effectually deprive them of personal charm, were entirely wanting in Holmes. He was the Goldsmith of his age. -**-*- The following is from the biography of Froude in the Times of Oct. 22 : - “Froude could not refrain from a few incidental thrusts at the insincerity which, according to him, is the besetting sin of the clergy of all denominations. It so happened that just about this time his friend and brother- in-law, Charles Kingsley, was resigning the chair of Modern History at Cambridge, and in his farewell discourse denounced historians for their partisanship, carelessness, and habitual mis- representation. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and an academical wit, said to be the present Bishop of Oxford, circulated some lines here which, though well remembered in University circles, have not often been printed, and may therefore be quoted here:— While Froude assures the Scottish youth That persons do not care for truth, The Reverend Canon Kingsley cries “All history's a pack of lies.” What cause for judgment so malign f A little thought may solve the mystery; For Froude thinks Kingsley a divine, And Kingsley goes to Froude for history.” The following verses have also been recovered by the writer of the paper in the Times. They are by Froude, and appeared in Fraser's Magazine for May, 1862. They were written to his wife:— Sweet hand that held in mine, Seems the one thing I cannot live without, The soul’s own anchorage in this storm and doubt, I take them as the sign. Of sweeter days in store, For life and more than life when life is done, And thy soft pressure leads me gently on To Heaven’s own Evermore. I have not much to say, Nor any words that fit such fond request; Let my blood speak to them, and hear the rest, Some silent heartward way. Thrice blest the sacred hand, Which saves e'en while it blesses; hold me fast; Let me not go beneath the floods at last, So near the better land. Sweet hand that stays in mine, Seems the one thing I cannot live without, My heart's one anchor in life’s storm and doubt, Take this and make me thine. I suppose that, if the modern school of history is right, the whole of English history will have to be re-written, thanks to the newly recovered or newly studied documents. The re-writing of ## p. 153 (#167) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 53 history will afford excellent occupation to a good many scholars now in their cradles. When one considers the immense accumulations of other historical documents — cuneiform bricks and tablets, inscriptions in all languages under the sun, letters, legal instruments, diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies, it is clear that all history will have to be re-written. As the public libraries will then be numbered by thousands, and as every library will have to take a copy of every new history, it is certain that the historian's lot will not be an unhappy one. Froude may cease, under these circumstances, to be an historical authority: so also may Macaulay, Freeman, and several others. But Froude will not cease to be a model of fine, picturesque, and vigorous English. There was a very pretty paper in the Spectator of Oct. 20th, called “The Literary Advantages of Weak Health.” The title was clumsy. It should have been called “The Bridle of Theages.” This bridle—as those who have read Plato's Dialogues ought to know—was the ill-health which kept Theages, the friend of Socrates, out of politics, and constrained him to follow philosophy. On this peg the writer points out very carefully how this same bridle has constrained others besides Theages to lead the retired life of meditation and experi- ment. Among those thus bridled he mentions Darwin, Pusey, J. A. Symonds among writers of our time; and of past time, Virgil, Horace, Pope, Johnson, Schiller, Heine, Pascal. hand, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Milton, Scott, Tennyson were all men of healthy consti- tutions, and even more than the average strength. It is certain that a sickly frame does not make a good writer: it is also certain that some minds work better in the retirement which ill-health forces upon one, and the excitement of society and social engagements cannot be good either for one who pursues philosophy or for one who cultivates imagination. One would not desire the Bridle of Theages; still, if it is laid upon our shoulders, we may remember how it has been used by some as a stimulus for work. America has her monuments sacred to literary associations, and America, like England, is fond of pulling them down and destroying them. The cottage in which Edgar Allan Poe lived and worked, at Fordham, is for sale with its grounds. It is laid out in “4% city lots”—eligible lots, because they are “on one of the main thorough- fares of the ‘Greater New York,' within three minutes' walk of the railroad and the electric line, less than half an hour from Grand Central Depôt, and in the midst of a growing popula- On the other tion.” The whole has been offered to a certain literary man for 3500 dollars cash and 30OO dollars mortgage. The literary man unfortu- nately does not see his way to buy it. A suggestion has been made in the New York Critic that it would be a graceful thing for editors of magazines to bring out occasionally a “ consolation’ number, containing only papers which had been rejected. But unless the “consolation’’ number was of colossal dimensions there would be no consolation, except to a few dozen—and what are they among so many ? They are an experimental people in Chicago. They have started a publishing firm, of which the directors are called “Author-Publishers,” a double-barrelled name, which may mean either that they are authors as well as publishers, or that they are publishers of authors. We wait for information on this point; also on the special merits and methods of these publishers. But they have certainly improved on our methods, because they announce themselves as their own literary agents. They conduct a literary bureau, in which they offer to read, correct, and criticise MSS.; to select—i.e., we suppose, to invent— plots and dramatic situations; to aid in securing publishers—other than themselves?—to explain the meaning of agreements, cost of production, royalties, &c.; to look after copyright, and other useful things. In these pages I have always given my advice in favour of getting the business arrangements done by competent and trustworthy agents. Therefore one cannot but wish success to this agency. But that such an agency should form part of a publishing business is quite a new departure. The following from the Century Magazine is a dream of Poe concerning the future of magazines. He does not venture to dream of a circulation of more than 20,000. Yet it was a fine dream:— Before quitting the Messenger I saw, or fancied I saw, through a long and dim vista, the brilliant field for ambition which a magazine of bold and noble aims presented to him who should successfully establish it in America. I perceived that the country, from its very constitution, could not fail of affording in a few years a larger proportionate amount of readers than any upon the earth. I perceived that the whole emergetic, busy spirit of the age tended wholly to magazine literature—to the curt, the terse, the well-timed, and the readily diffused, in preference to the old forms of the verbose and ponderous and the inaccessible. I knew from personal experience that lying perdu among the innumerable plantations in our vast Southern and Western countries were a host of well-educated men peculiarly devoid of prejudice, who would gladly lend their influence to a really vigorous journal, provided the right means were taken of bringing it fairly within the very limited scope of their ## p. 154 (#168) ############################################ I 54 THE AUTHOR. observation. Now, I knew, it is true, that some scores of journals had failed (for, indeed, I looked upon the best success of the best of them as failure), but then I easily traced the causes of their failure in the impotency of their conductors, who made no scruple of basing their rules of action altogether upon what had been customarily done instead of what was now before them to do, in the greatly changed and constantly changing condition of things. In short, I could see no real reason why a magazine, if worthy the name, could not be made to circulate among 20,000 subscribers, embracing the best intellect and education of the land. This was a thought which stimulated my fancy and my ambition. The influence of such a journal would be vast indeed, and I dreamed of honestly employing that influence in the sacred cause of the beautiful, the just, and the true. Even in a pecuniary view, the object was a magnificent one. The journal I proposed would be a large octavo of 128 pages, printed with bold type, single column, on the finest paper; and disdaining everything of what is termed “embellishment” with the exception of an occasional portrait of a literary man, or some well-engraved wood design in obvious illustration of the text. Of such a journal I had cautiously estimated the expenses. Could I circulate 20,000 copies at $5, the cost would be about $30,000, estimating all contingencies at the highest rate. There would be a balance of $70,000 per annum. -º-º-º-º- Are we really returning to our old love—fair Poesy P. It almost seems so. Edition after edition comes out of certain young poets—Le Gallienne, Norman Gale, John Davidson, and a few others. A few years ago they would have had to pay for the production of their verse. Now, it is to be hoped, the payment is on the other side. It may be that the editions are very small—anything else “may be ;” one thing remains certain—that there is a revival of interest in new poetry; new poets are talked about ; as for the standard of modern verse, that is certainly high ; it is to the credit of poets born in a less happy time that they have handed down the lamp trimmed and burning bright. Is it necessary, one would ask, always to speak of young poets as “minor poets P” Surely a great poet is not neces- sarily one who produces long poems. The young men do seem to confine themselves almost entirely to short poems; but if these short poems can be placed beside those of a “great '' poet, without suffering from the comparison, surely they them- selves must also be great. Certainly I have read poems by one young poet at least which seemed to me worthy of being placed beside anything. Miss Frances Power Cobbe, in her book of recollections, speaks of the limitations of literary influence. She was disappointed at the apparent failure of her books and papers—all of which had a purpose—to move the hearts of people. What are the limitations, if any, of literary influence # Carlyle, for instance, has had an amazing in- fluence upon the thought of the last fifty years. His only limitation was in himself. He had a message; he proclaimed it; then proclaimed it again and again in book after book. When he went outside that message nobody heeded him. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe exercised an enormous influence over the whole English- speaking world. The reason was that her book was opportune; it came at a moment when every- body was thinking and talking of the slavery question. Sir John Seeley has exercised an enormous influence, first in placing old truths in new language, and next in making people realise the growth and the grandeur of the empire. The only limitation to his influence is himself. So long as he has a thing to teach, we shall listen. He gained that influence solely by showing in his books that he was a teacher. There is, in fact, no limitation at all to literary influence. It is only the first step that is troublesome. One has to persuade the world to listen, and one has to be provided with something to teach the world. This done, the rest is easy, and there is no bound whatever to the extent of the influence which follows. Of course, there is another point. The teaching must be adapted to the time and to the people. He who would preach Carlyleism in the eighteenth century would presently sit down with the sadness of one who feels that it really is no use going on. And if “Uncle Tom's Cabin’” had appeared in 1750, nobody would have read a work so low and grovelling. Then, if one is not a prophet, what is the good of advocating, preach- ing, or arguing P Because it is always useful to keep on teaching, however poorly or unsuccess- fully, the things that people should learn, because many things can only be taught by long and patient repetition, and by many teachers in different ways. And, again, no writer can estimate or learn the influence which his own work has possessed. Therefore, one may harm- lessly assume that it has been world-wide, and go on happy in that belief. =ººº- Another literary association. It is called the “Rose Club,” and it owns an organ called “The Briar Rose,” which appears every three months. Members are privileged to send in three papers every year for the editor's inspection and criti- cism. A critical notice of members’ papers will be published with every issue of “The Briar Rose.” Members lucky enough to be accepted are paid at the rate of two guineas for a story, and one guinea for an essay. The first number of “The Briar Rose” contains eighteen pages; two stories, two essays, and a poem. There are no critical notices in this number. The club is for women only. ## p. 155 (#169) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 55 Whatever Mr. Welch, Librarian to the Cor- poration of London, says on the subject of Free Libraries must be received with attention. Therefore, the whole subject of Free Libraries being most important and most interesting, I have printed in another column the report of . his recent address as given in the Times. For my own part, I think he fails to recognise the enormous educational value of fiction. It is from novels that a very large section of the com- munity derives its ideas, its standards, its manners, its respect for literature, art, and science. The Free Libraries may have been founded on the conventional theory that every reader is a student. This is not so ; every tenth reader—perhaps every hundredth reader—is a student; the rest are reading for amusement. If Mr. Welch will look round the circle of his own acquaintance and friends, how many will he find who follow a hard day's work with a hard evening's study? Perhaps, none. Why, then, does he expect or hope to find this phenomenon among working people P. It is in the power of every library—it is the duty of every library—to keep out trash, whether in the shape of novels or any other kind of literature. But the theory that public libraries should be maintained for students alone cannot for a moment be allowed. They are educa- tional and they are recreative. It is quite as useful a function for the libraries to provide a hundred men of the working class with an evening's recreation as it is for them to find books of reference for half a dozen students. We must reserve until next month the autumn announcements of American books. This list, considered with care, will suggest many points of interest. At present one only may be noted— the proportion of English to American books. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that the Copy- right Act has given a great impetus to American work. While English work could be had for nothing, the American author in every branch was fatally overweighted. This obstacle removed, we begin to see what we expected—the great bulk of the literature of the States written by their own people, and only the exceptionally useful and popular authors of this country being published there. This proportion we may expect to find every year greater in favour of American writers. At the same time there will be found on both sides of the Atlantic a great and always increasing demand for the work of the first and best. An analysis in advance of the list shows the following numbers and comparative authorship : History, thirty-three works; seven by English writers, twenty-six by American. Biographies and Memoirs, thirty-four works; ten by English writers, twenty-four by American. General Literature, forty-eight works; fourteen by English writers, thirty-four by American. Poetry, thirty-four works; seven by English writers, twenty-seven by American. Fiction, seventy-seven works; twenty-one by English writers, fifty-six by American. Art and Music, thirteen works; four by English writers, nine by American. Travel, Adventure, and Description, thirty-three works; twelve by English writers, twenty-one by American. - Education and Text-book, eighty-five works; all by American editors and writers. Politics, Sociology, and Law, twenty-one works; five by English writers, sixteen by American. Theology and Religion, fifty-two works; sixteen by English writers, thirty-six by American. Science and Nature, thirty-six works; three by English writers, thirty-three by American. Mechanics and Engineering, twenty works; nine by English writers, eleven by American. Medicine and Hygiene, ten works; three by English writers, seven by American. Games and Sports, seven works; English writers, four by American. WALTER BESANT. three by SPRING TIME IN THE WIKING DAYS, NORWAY. SPRING and the sun are returning and winter is past; Aoi The bonds he has flung round the earth are loosened at last; Aoi Soft blows the breeze o'er the mountain tops, melting the Snow ; Swoln are the rivers and, foaming and frothing, they flow Seaward. Right weary are we of the land and it's, Oh For the creak of the wind in the cordage aloft, and the flap of the sale by the mast ! Aoi ! Seaward the breezes blow, bidding us idle no more, Aoi ! Curling and flecking with foam-flakes the wide ocean floor. Aoi ! Earth was our sojourn awhile, but the sea is our home. Hark! how he calls us on viking-cruise over the foam, As, surging and seething, he grinds at the beach. We will roam, And our longship no longer shall yearn for the waves, as she frets high and dry on the shore. Aoi Gather and run her down over the rollers of pine, Aoi ! Down to the foam-tossing breast of the welcoming brine. Aoi! Upward to clasp her he flings his white arms in wild glee ; Downward she plunges, till knee-deep we stand, with the sea Laughing and leaping and curling round ankle and knee. Oh! sweeter the smell of the salt sea-waves than the scent and the savour of wine ! Aoi ! From “Sagas and Songs of the Norsemen.” - By ALBANY F. MAJOR ## p. 156 (#170) ############################################ I56 THE AUTHOR. FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES, N Thursday evening, Oct. 18th, a meeting of the Library Association of the United Kingdom was held at the Mansion-house, when a paper was read by Mr. Charles Welch, librarian to the Corporation of London, on “The Public Library Movement in London; a review of its progress, and suggestions for its consoli- dation and extension.” Mr. Richard Garnett, LL.D., presided, and delegates attended from numerous public libraries in the metropolis. Mr. Welch observed that it seemed at first that London would vie with the great municipalities in the kingdom in supporting free public libraries, when, in 1857, only two years after the passing of Ewart's principal Act, the parishes of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster, united to establish a public library. Twenty-four years elapsed, how- ever, before another library was started, this time by the suburban parish of Richmond, to be followed by Twickenham in 1882. The year of her Majesty's jubilee gave a great impulse to what had then become a popular movement, and its subsequent progress inspired the hope that, in spite of the remarkable obduracy of certain parishes, the time was not far distant when every district of our great metropolis would enjoy the blessing of a well-stored library. Taking the whole fifty-four divisions of the county of London, they found that twenty-seven parishes, or divisions, had established public libraries, while twenty-six had hitherto declined to do so. In the remaining district, Southwark, the divisions of St. Saviour and Christ Church only had established libraries, the remaining parishes having, up to the present, held aloof from the movement. The City had been provided by the Corporation of Londom with an excellent reference library at Guildhall, and had also been furnished, by endowment from the City Parochial Charities Commission, with three other admirable institutions in Bishops- gate, Cripplegate, and St. Bride's, Fleet- street, to which extensive lending libraries were to be attached. With reference to the prejudices in London against the movement, beyond the question of any increase in taxation there was a stronger and more deep- seated objection, which was held very widely among men of culture and lovers of good litera- ture and loyal promoters of education. Their opposition was based, not upon the principle under- lying free library legislation, but upon its develop- ments as seen in the present condition and manage- ment of the public libraries throughout the country. Having quoted from the debates during the passage through Parliament of the measure for establishing free public libraries, he said he thought it would be clearly evident that the inten- tion of Mr. Ewart himself, and of his supporters in Parliament, was to provide for the education and intellectual advancement of the people and only in a subsidiary degree for their “innocent recreation.” At the request, however, of the editor of London, the librarians of seven- teen free public libraries in the metropolis made a return in April last, showing the classes of books read in the homes of the people. From this it appeared that the issue of fiction, as com- pared with other classes of literature reached a general average of 75 per cent., and in nine districts over 80 per cent. of the total issues. In connection with the management of the lending libraries established under the Free Libraries Acts in London, they were struck by the fact that the student had been ousted from his rightful place by the inordinate favour afforded to the demands of the general reader and the devourer of fiction. The principles of management which had made possible the statistics which he had brought under their notice had, he was convinced, alienated from the free library cause in every district the support of many friends of intel- lectual progress, and were at present a serious hindrance to the growth of the movement in the metropolis. Would it be too much to ask the novel reader to provide himself with the current fiction of the day and resort to the library for the masterpieces of fiction of the present and bygone times P Should Parliament be approached for permission to raise the limit of the library rate to 2d. (a course which he thought seemed most desirable), any such measures should undoubtedly be accompanied by a compulsory proviso that a definite proportion of the amount available for the purchase of books should be devoted to the pur- poses of a reference library. The present con- dition of the free library movement in London, and the erection of new libraries, which was continually proceeding in every district, suggested most strongly the need of some scheme for con- verting this aggregation of institutions into a systematic and harmonious system to provide for the needs of the metropolis as a whole. The popularity of the two existing free public libraries —those of the British Museum and the Guildhall —prove that similar institutions, placed in the midst of the homes of the people, would prove a boon of the highest kind. He felt most strongly that the present haphazard system in which our London libraries were growing up, owing to the different extent and circumstances of the various districts which maintained them, must end in confusion, perhaps (in some cases) in partial or complete failure; while, on the other hand, a well-considered scheme of mutual help and effort, ## p. 157 (#171) ############################################ THE AUTHO/8. I 57 the details of which might well be evolved from a general conference of the metropolitan library authorities, would result in placing London in a position second to no city in the world in respect of facilities for literary reference and research. —The Times. *— — —” AUTUMN ANNOUNCEMENTS. M*: SAMIPSON LOW AND CO. announce twenty-five new books, to- gether with several new volumesin Low’s Half-Crown Series of Boy’s Books, and a half-a- crown series of famous books of travel. Among the new works are “The Life of J. Greenleaf Whittier,” by S. T. Pickard ; “Lord John Russell,” by S. J. Reid; “Strange Pages from Family Papers,” by T. F. Thiselton Dyer; and fourteen novels. The Clarendon Press announce forty-seven new works and editions. These are mostly works of scholarship and education. Among them is the final volume of “Realm of India,” “Russell Colvin,” by Sir Auckland Colvin ; two more volumes of Professor Skeat's edition of Chaucer; two more letters of the New English Dictionary; and Mr. Hastings Rashdall’s “ Universities of the Middle Ages.” Messrs. Rivington, Percival, and Co. announce thirty-three works, nearly all are educational. Among them is Canon Taylor's “Names and their Histories.” Messrs. Dent and Co. announce sixteen works, chiefly reprints and new editions. Among the new books are “Annals of a Quiet Valley in the Wordsworth Country,” by Mr. William Watson; “Overheard in Arcady,” by R. Bridges; and “Studies in Literature,” by Mr. Wright Mabie. Messrs. T. and T. Clark announce ten new works, all theological. Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Bowden announce twelve new books, besides a reprint of Henry Ringsley's novels, and a new volume of the Waverley novels. Among the new books is Mr. Douglas Sladen’s “On the Cars and Off”; Mr. Bertram Mitford’s “Curse of Clement Wayn- flete; ” and Mr. George Meredith’s “Tale of Chloe.” Mr. Elkin Mathews announces seventeen new books, chiefly essays and poems. Among the authors are Mr. Wedmore, Mr. Lionel Johnson, Mr. Selwyn Image, Mr. Dowson, Mr. A. Galton, Mr. S. Hemingway, Mr. Quilter, Mr. W. B. Yeats, Mr. Rothenstein, Mrs. Radford, Mr. Bliss Carmen, and Mr. R. Hovey. “Revolted Woman: Past, Present, and to Come,” is by Mr. C. G. Harper, Messrs. Bemrose and Sons announce two books. Messrs. W. Blackwood and Sons announce fifteen new books. Among them are three biographies and five novels, including two by Mrs. Oliphant, and the “Son of the Marshes.” Messrs. Allen announce nine new works, inclu- ding a book on the “Portuguese in India,” by F. C. Danvers; on “Buddhism in Thibet,” by Surgeon-Major Waddell; a Bengali Manual; new volumes of the Naturalist's Library; and two novels. Messrs. Bliss, Sands, and Foster announce mine books. There are two novels by Mrs. Caird and Miss Clementina Black; the continuation of the “History of the United States Navy,” and a book on Strikes. Messrs. Nelson and Sons have eleven new books, besides new prize books and atlases. The most important are Dr. Wright's book on Palmyra ; a new Concordance to the Bible, by the Rev. J. B. R. Walker; the “Voyages and Travels of Capt. Basil Hall,” and five stories. Messrs. Luzac have four learned works. Messrs. W. Andrews have seven works, mostly antiquarian. Messrs. Warne and Co. announce twenty-six new editions or new works, without counting many children’s books. Among the new editions are the Waverley Novels, “Cameos of Litera- ture,” which will be a reprint of Knight's famous “Half Hours with the best Authors; ”a new library edition of Wood’s “Dictionary of Quotations; ” a revised edition of Lears “Nonsense Songs and Stories; ” and four or five reprints of novels. Messrs. Jarrold and Sons announce eleven new books; additions to certain series; the “Green- back; ” “Elashes of Romance; ” and “Unknown Authors; ” uniform editions of the novels of Helen Mathers and Fergus Hume ; and their novels outside the series. Messrs. Skeffington and Co. announce fourteen books, of which twelve are religious. There are two novels. Messrs. Browne and Browne, of Newcastle, announce a “History of the Chartist Move- ment.” In the “Autumn Announcements” of our last number we attributed to Messrs. Chapman and Hall the production of fifteen new books. The ## p. 158 (#172) ############################################ I58 THE AUTHOR. chairman of the company points out that they are producing thirty-one instead of fifteen new books. The mistake was caused by the “announcements” of that firm being entered in three different columns of the Athenaeum, of which only one was seen by our compiler. The complete list of thirty-one is exclusive of new editions, nor does it include reprints of “stock” books, such as Dickens, Carlyle, and Meredith, of which an unusual number are this year published. In the October number of the Author it was stated as remarkable that out of fifty-one books announced by the Cambridge University Press there should be not one mathematical or scientific book among them all. The mathematical and scientific books were in another list. There are twenty-four of them. Among them are the seventh volume of the collected Mathematical Papers of Arthur Cayley ; the Scientific Papers of John Couch Adams; a Treatise on Spherical Astronomy, by Sir Robert Ball; on Electricity and Magnetism, by Prof. Thomson ; on Hydro- dynamics, by Prof. Lamb; the tenth volume of a Catalogue of Scientific Papers, compiled by the Royal Society of London; the Practical Phy- siology of Plants, by F. Darwin and E. H. Acton; on a Practical Morbid Anatomy, by H. O. Rolleston and A. A. Kanthack ; on the Dis- tribution of Animals, by F. E. Beddard; on Physical Anthropology, by Alexander Mac- alister; and the Elements of Botany, by F. Darwin. In this and in the last number of the Author we have classified the announcements made in the Athenæum by various publishers of their autumn books. The list seems somewhat smaller than that of last year, which was to be expected from the general depression everywhere reported. At the same time not so much shrinkage in production as shrinkage in sales would be the first result of such a depression. Almost all the better known names are repre- sented in the list. For instance, of historians, Critics, travellers, philosophers, and antiquaries, we find the names of Canon Atkinson, Rev. Robert Burn, Justin McCarthy, T. F. Thiselton Dyer, W. Cunningham, Archdeacon Farrar, J. T. Jusserand, Dean Hole, Frederick Harrison, Pro- fessor Freeman, Professor Froude, Professor Gardiner, Canon Liddon, Max Müller, Professor Maspero, Henry Norman, Sir Frederick Pollock, Professor Flinders Petree, Bishop of Peter- borough, J. Addington Symonds, Sir J. R. Seeley, Leslie Stephen, Colonel Malleson, John Westlake, Robertson Smith, Professor Skeat, Canon Taylor, H. Traill. Among the novelists and poets there are, among others, Sir Edwin. Arnold, Mrs. Alexander, F. Barrett, Amelie Barr, Robert Barr, Walter Besant, William Black, Clementima Black, R. D. Blackmore, Marion Crawford, S. R. Crockett, Mrs. Caird, R. Bridges, Mrs. Charles, Sir H. Cunningham, Egerton Castle, Sarah Doudney, George du Maurier, Conan Doyle, G. M. Fenn, Baring Gould, Edmund Gosse, Dorothea Gerard, R. Lehmann, G. Meredith, G. MacDonald, Christie. Murray, John Oliver Hobbes, Anthony Hope, Mrs. Lynn Linton, Helen Mather, L. Pendered, W. E. Norris, Gilbert Parker, Standish O'Grady, “Rita,” Adeline Serjeant, G. A. Sala, Hesba. Stretton, Sarah Tytler, Stanley Weyman, Douglas Sladen, William Watson. - BOOK TALK, R. R. B. MARSTON'S new work on. “Walton and the Earlier Fishing Writers ” (Elliot Stock, The Book Lover's Library) will certainly add to his repu- tation as an authority on the literature of the angler, and will form an instructive companion to the magnificent edition of “The Compleat. Angler,” published by him some years ago. From A.D. 1420, when Piers, of Fulham, wrote a curious tract on the subject, through the works of Dame Juliana Berners, Leonard Mascall (pioneer of fish culture in England), Blakey, John Denny, Gervase Markham, William Lawson, and Cotton, down to the ever-famous work of “Old Izaak,” Mr. Marston takes his readers in the pleasantest manner possible. He tells us that the “Compleat Angler” was published originally in 1653 at the price of Is. 6d. What is a first edition worth nowadays P. It would appear that 3235 is about a fair figure, though as much as 33 IO has been paid. In 1816. a “first" could be bought for four guineas As Mr. Marston pointedly asks, “What will such a one be worth, say, in 1993 P” Not the least interesting feature of an extremely interesting work is the modest preface in which our author tells us something of his own early days as an angler, and of his youthful acquaintance with fishing writers. He also takes the opportunity of warning would-be collectors against spurious first. editions, of which he declares that there are many in the market, mostly “made in Germany.” Truly a charming work, and one deserving a place in every fisherman’s library. It is got up with great care on wide margined paper, and is a credit to the publisher by whom it is issued. ## p. 159 (#173) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 59 In another column will be found certain lines taken from a new volume of verse by a new poet— Mr. Albany F. Major. The whole volume is full of strong and spirited verse. We have had plenty of verse in the minor key, let us welcome one who can sing of life in action and in battle, and in enjoyment of both action and battle. The little book is published by “David Nutt in the Strand.” A bard of a lighter kind is Mr. Anthony C. Deane, who has just republished, under the title of “Holiday Rhymes,” a collection of very sprightly verses, which have already appeared in Punch and many other papers and magazines. It is as pleasant a collection as one could wish. Mr. Deane can command laughter, which is a truly admirable gift; he is always cheerful and always genial; he can be sarcastic without the least discoverable touch of bitterness. Greatly to be envied is the man who can stand outside, look on, and laugh, and make even the combatants laugh. Even when Anthony Deane laughs at that sacred institution, the Author, he can laugh with a sympathetic light in his eye. Mrs. Spender's new novel, “A Modern Quixote,” has been published by Messrs. Hutch- inson in three volumes. The same publishers have issued a cheap edition, at 2s., of her last novel, “A Strange Temptation.” Mrs. Edith E. Cuthell’s one volume story—a yachting story—called “The Wee Widow’s Cruise,” will be issued by Messrs. Ward and Downey. Mrs. Cuthell has also written a chil- dren's story called “Only a Guardroom Dog.” which is to be illustrated by Mr. W. Parkinson, and published by Methuen and Co. Miss Clara Lemore's new novel—in three volumes—called “Penhala, a Wayside Wizard,” is now ready at all the libraries. It is published by Hurst and Blackett. Mr. Standish O'Grady’s Irish romance of the Elizabethan period, entitled “Red Hugh's Captivity,” will begin to run in the weekly Irish Times in January, 1895. “What is Education ?” Mr. Walter Wren asks (Simpkin and Marshall) the question, and answers it, giving his own ideas on the subject. Education is, to begin with, a thing personal. No man can be educated; he can be shown the way to educate himself, it depends upon himself whether he ever does become an educated man For instance, the first law of education is to notice things; things that you read, things that you hear, things that you see ; not to pass over things without understanding them. This then is education of the body, the mind, and the spirit. As regards the second. Education of the mind must do two things—(1) bring out, develop, and strengthen the powers of the mind, just as a proper course of training in games and athletics brings out and strengthens the powers of the body; and (2) it should teach useful know- ledge. These notes are worthy of expansion into a book. Before closing up his work on the old A.B.C. Hornbook which is to contain something like two hundred illustrations, Mr. Andrew Tuer, of the Leadenhall Press, E.C., asks to be favoured with notes from those who may remember the horn- book in use, or who may have in their possession examples which he has not yet seen Information about spurious hornbooks, from the sale of which certain persons are at present said to be reaping a golden harvest, is also sought. - John Gladwyn Jebb—Jack Jebb—was not born in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and he did not seek the Spanish Main with Drake. He was born fifty years ago, and he died last year. During his fifty years of life he had more adventures than any novelist would dare to invent—not even Rider Haggard, who writes an introduction to the Life of Jack Jebb. Indeed, one is astonished that the novelist did not lay hands on the MS., and bring it out with a few additions as a novel. The hero is wasted and thrown away in a mere biography. It is, indeed, an astonishing book, astonishing that in these days so much adventure and danger should be possible. There is still hope for the boy who desires the life of danger. Mexico lies open; and there is Central Africa. In the former the boy can follow the footsteps of Jebb ; in the latter, of Selous. Coulson Kernahan’s “Sorrow and Song” is a collection of essays originally written for the Fortnightly Review and other papers, and recast or re-written for this volume. They are papers on Heine, Rosetti, Robertson of Brighton, Louise Chandler Moultrie, and Philip Marston. Mr. Kernahan is the first writer, so far as I know, to draw attention to the beauty and purity of Mrs. Moultrie's verse. She has the rare poetic touch ; the thing that can never be imitated, or bor- rowed, or learned, or stolen. Of living American poets, Mrs. Moultrie stands in the first rank. There are not many, indeed, who are worthy to stand beside her. We neglect the American poets. Will Mr. Coulson Kinnahan undertake the pleasing task of presenting to English readers some who desire to be known in this country as well as their own P. Among these, for instance, are R. W. Gilder and Professor Woodberry, both of whom ought to be better known by us. ## p. 160 (#174) ############################################ I6O THE AUTHOR. I recommend “Baron Verdigris” as a topsy- turvy book. The author describes it as a romance of the reversed direction. He shows, in fact, a new and hitherto undiscovered danger in applied mathematics. The book is calculated to confirm in their prejudice all that large class which does not like “sums.” Speaking as one who does like sums, especially when they are in “X” and “y,” I found the book diverting and ingenious, but was saddened by the reflection that I might my- self have made similar discoveries. It is said that the sale of “The Manxman” has reached the number of 45,000 copies. This is probably the highest number ever attained in this country in so short a time by a six shilling volume. It is, however, surpassed by the sale of “Trilby’’ in the United States. The number reached by “Trilby’’ is said to be 100,000. In the three-volume form, in which it has been judged expedient to produce it here, it is in great demand. The St. James's Gazette has discovered that “Adam Bede,” which enjoyed a similar measure of success, ran through 16,OOO copies in nine months. The terms offered by Messrs. Blackwood to its successor were: £2OOO for 4000 copies of three volumes, 3150 for IOOO at 12s., and £60 for IOOO at 6s. These terms, the St. James’s Gazette points out, amount to royalties of 20 to 25 per cent. To be exact, the royalties are 31%, 25, and 20 per cent. respectively. From the same paper we learn that Miss Wills, daughter of Dr. C. J. Wills, the author of “Persia as it is,” has written, from personal experience, a book on Eastern life called “Behind an Eastern Weil.” Mr. William Watson’s new volume will be called “Odes, and other Poems” (John Lane). William Westall, who is spending the winter at St. Moritz, in Upper Engadine, and may remain abroad for a year or two, has placed his literary interests in the hands of Messrs. A. P. Watt and Son, to whom all communications should be addressed. A short time ago a certain Swiss paper “ran’” “Josef im Schnei,” an old story by Auerbach, without making any preliminary arrangement with the publishers, or intending to pay for the serial use. But the publishers, getting wind of the piracy, demanded an honorarium of 200 marks, to which the proprietors of the Swiss paper demurred ; whereupon the publishers brought an action against them and obtained a verdict for 200 francs. The incident is note- worthy, as showing the advantages to authors and publishers of international copyright treaties. Only a few years ago foreign authors had no protection whatever in Switzerland, their works could be reproduced without let or licence, and Swiss newspaper proprietors were not slow to take advantage of the fact. Some of them still obtain their feuilleton matter surreptitiously from foreign sources, and are not always, as in the present instance, brought to book and made to pay. “In Furthest Ind,” by Sydney Grier (Black- wood and Sons), is a remarkable tour de force by a young writer, whose work has hitherto been confined to short stories for the magazines. It is a finely-conceived romance of travel and adventure in the latter half of the seventeenth century, as told by the hero himself in the very language, as it were, of his own day. Edward Carlyon, whose father fought and bled for Charles I., goes out to Surat as a “writer’’ in the East India Company’s service, and spends twenty years in India, during which he meets with many strange adventures, and has more than one hair's-breadth escape from a cruel death. Every detail of the story and its local surroundings seems to have been studied with infinite care, and worked in with due regard to the general effect. The interest is well sustained on the whole, and some, at least, of the characters—especially Dorothy —are really alive. And, as one reads on, one seems to discover in the author's style a certain grace and harmony of its own which, as in “Esmond,” count for much more than a clever masquerade. A story which ran as a serial through The King's Own is now to be issued in book form by Parlane and Co., Paisley, under the title of “Covenanters of Annandale.” The book will be beautifully illustrated with views of the haunts of the Covenanters in the hills and glens of Upper Annandale. A short story, by the same author, will shortly be published by Hunter and Co., Edinburgh, as a Christmas booklet. It is entitled “A Swatch o' Hamespun.” The author, Agnes Marchbank, has, at present, serials in the Ladies’ Journal, Scottish Reformer, and the Plough. A new serial from her pen will shortly appear in Word and Work (Shaw and Co., London). Brig. One of the most important of the illustrated books which Mr. George Allen contemplates issuing this autumn is the limited edition de luate of Spenser's “Faerie Queene’’ in large post quarto form, with illustrations by Mr. Walter Crane. It is to be published in monthly parts. It is a tale of Bothwell ## p. 161 (#175) ############################################ THE AUTHOIR. I6 I CORRESPONDENCE. I. – Nov ELS AT PopULAR PRICEs. – WILKIE CoLLINs’ OPINION. N the interesting compilation of novels issued from the year 1750 to 1860—which appeared in September's Author — during the first forty-two years of this period the ruling price was 3s. a volume. In those days, them—when, if I mistake not, there was a heavy duty on paper, now taken off—this price must actually have compensated author and publisher. And as the cost of production must have been more then than now, with no monster circulating libraries existing, it must be presumed that the novels in those days had a large circulation, and were pur- chased by their readers. At present novels are borrowed and not bought, on account of their high price. As readers now must be greatly in excess of those in the eighteenth century, it surely must follow, as “the night the day,” that good fiction at 28., 2s. 6d., and 3s, a volume would reach the masses, who are forced to amuse themselves with penny dreadfuls. In the year 1883 I had a long correspondence with the late Wilkie Collins on the subject, and I transcribe one of his letters, which will prove interesting just now, when one-volume novels threaten to supersede those in three volumes. Your views on the question of publication have been my views for years past. I have tried thus far in vain to induce publishers to see the advantages (to themselves as well as to literature) of effecting a reform already esta- blished in all other civilised countries. I can do nothing by myself. I should be powerless for this plain reason, that my time and energies are wholly absorbed in writing my books. I can only wait and hope for the coming man who will give me my opportunity. The vicious circulating library system is unquestionably beginning to fail, and the recent issue of sixpenny magazines shows an advance in the right direction. ' ' ' f It is superogatory for me to comment on the opinion of this great authority. To my mind a popular book must always be a cheap book, in spite of a prevailing prejudice that what is cheap cannot be good. The circulation of a favourite work of fiction would increase a hundredfold if it could be bought at 2s. or 2s. 6d. Everyone does not belong to Mudie's, and the purchasers amongst the inhabitants of Greater Britain number legion, and our novels would gain in excellence and interest by being shorter and crisper. In fact, one might actually look forward to a time when the novelist will actually write a story without having any need to garnish it with interminable descriptions, dull moralisings, or tedious conversations, when, instead of writing a novel with a purpose, his only purpose will be to write a novel. ISIDORE G. ASCHER. II.--—“NEw.” One of a coterie of “new” authors has lately advanced the idea that the “incident’’ novel is a product of to-day; that to our medical author more than anyone else we owe the modern “incident” novel. It seems, too, to be received in the new school of critics that a certain quality of dry wit now in vogue is “new” humour. Are not both these crude ideas fallacies? We might easily speak of a still living giant to prove the error of these “new * ideas, but we will be content with the dead. Between thirty and forty years ago—about the time our “new” author alludes to as that when “incident " was bad art—a book burst on the public : a book which is still read, and which is and will be con- sidered one of the masterpieces of the century— “The Cloister and the Hearth.” Will any “new” writer be bold enough to advance the statement that this is not a novel of “incident P” It brims over with it; with that strong dramatic incident which thrills the reader. Here also may be found the “new” humour. You say “no P’ “Look else.” “He dearly loved maids of honour, and indeed paintings generally.” “Est ce toi qui l’a tu,” and what follows. But why particularise, the book teems with instances, of which the two mentioned happen to cross my memory first. Then incident . The fight upon the stairs with the Abbot and his gang, to pick out one amongst many; who can read this and his nerves not crawl? Was “Hard Cash,” with its pirate encounter, no book of incident P Or “It is Never too Late to Mend?” and do we not find the “new” humour flashing upon us from any one of these books? Ay! humour and incident too, yet so biended with scenes of touching pathos, and all else that goes to the making up of a novel, that each is a masterpiece. Is it necessary to mention Charles Kingsley and “Westward Ho; ” is “incident’’ wanting here * Would not any living writer be proud to have written that great chapter “How Amyas threw his sword into the sea P’’ Need we go further And yet we are to be told that because Thackeray and Trollope followed other methods, the “incident’’ novel is some new thing; the “incidentalist”, a new genius. We might go still further back towards the beginning of the century, and instance “Ivanhoe.” But enough. There is nothing, now, new under the sun any more than there was in Solomon's day. As in fiction so in music. Writers, even against their volition, plagiarise. So it is with the “incident’’ novel, and with the “new” humour. ALAN OsCAR. ## p. 162 (#176) ############################################ I62 THE AUTHOR. III.-ARE THEY LosTP An acquaintance of mine sent some fifteen papers to a learned society now nearly four years ago, and from that day to this she has tried in vain to learn their fate. They were translations, and of their scientific value she was ignorant more or less ; but they had involved considerable labour, besides the writing of at least 20,000 words. It was not a question of money, as she knew that the society was too poor to pay, even if they thought the papers worth using. It was something like two years before she discovered the member in whose hands they had been placed. He informed her that a selection was to be made by himself and the editor of the quarterly in which the selected papers were to appear. Another interval, and towards the close of the third year two of the papers actually made their appearance, prefaced by a long introduction, from which it appeared that they were of some value. -- More months, more inquiries. Then five or six papers were returned without a word, and the remainder are—where P Nobody deigns to say. The publisher of the quarterly, who is in no way responsible, has kindly inquired for them more than once, but to no purpose. And yet one little post-card would relieve an anxious soul and settle the question of their fate. Are they lost, or burnt by accident, or committed to the waste-paper basket P Or—are they going to be used at the rate of two every four years P One would like to know, if only for curiosity’s sake; and the worst, however heartrending, would be better than prolonged uncertainty. Meanwhile, it is melancholy to reflect that some poor publisher might have been quite pleased to loring them out. & - IV.-SLIPSHOD ENGLISH. A correspondent (F. H. P.) writes to point out the following specimens of slipshod English in one number of an English magazine: “M. had succeeded to re-establish,” &c. “He eagerly pursues the aim to abolish.” “We advise to consult,” onitting the names or persons advised. “Have left definitely the country’ for “have definitely left.” - W.—ON CRITICAL AND EDITORIAL AMENITIES. I commit to paper, without fear or prejudice, my experience of the amenities of certain literary men in our boasted Nineteenth Century ! Aw premier, a well-known critic, after praising my poems, and including me in a list of the poets of the day, suddenly showed his teeth and refused to read my last volume of poems, or to answer my letters. And this without the shadow of a reason for his change of front; on the contrary, I always wrote most warmly and giate- fully to him for his kindness, as he must admit. Again, I sent, not long ago, a poem to a monthly magazine, and, not hearing of its fate, about a month later I sent the editor a post card inquiring about it. This post card was returned to me with “Refused,” written across it. Why? Once more, a ballad of mine was recently inserted in a certain journal, which had appeared in another periodical six years ago, and also in one of my books, but was never paid for. As this book had been recently reviewed in this journal, I naturally thought they would have seen it there. The acting editor, on finding that it had appeared before, asked me to explain. On my doing so, he not only refused my apology, but wrote very rudely to me, as I considered. So much for the gentlemanly feeling and courtesy of this acting editor | Yet, again, there is a certain gentleman quite free from “prejudice ’’—we have his word for it —who cut up a fairy tale of mine in a journal now extinct. On my writing a line to him to say that I had heard that certain persons were enchanted with the same tale, and that I felt sure he would be pleased to hear it, he simply returned the printed extract I sent him without a single word of any sort or kind. How manly and generous, and how like a gentleman this was Without prejudice, forsooth ! Again, the editor of a Radical evening country paper, for whom I have written many articles and poems gratuitously in days gone by, and others which were paid for, and who professed to value me as a contributor very highly, not only gave me no review of my last book of poems, but (though I wrote most courteously to him more than once) never sent me a line in reply These are only a few instances of the many discourtesies I have received. What must the shade of Thackeray (a true and courteous gentle- man) think of some of our modern editors P On the other hand, I would instance the Westminster Gazette, the Minstrel, Public Opinion, Fun, Vanity Fair, the Weekly Sun, and others as being most fortunate in having editors who are courteous and kind in the extreme. I may mention that the critic first referred to does notice books in the columns of a weekly journal, so he could have mentioned mine had he chosen to AN AUTHOR. [Our correspondent’s complaints, it seems to us, unless the facts are not all stated, may be ## p. 163 (#177) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I63 answered offhand without reference to the editors referred to. For instance, (I) a critic may change his opinions and may not see the necessity of explaining at length why he has done so. (2) An editor must decline hundreds of papers every year, but it would be absolutely impossible for him to write his reasons to every contributor. (3) No journal likes to publish verses which have already appeared elsewhere. The writer should have stated the fact in sending the poem. (4) Next, a reviewer who has expressed an opinion on a book would certainly not change it because somebody else was said to hold an opposite opinion. (5) An editor might resent being asked for a review of a book. It is a pity that politeness is not everywhere observed towards contributors. But in the cases quoted our corre- spondent apparently complains without good reason. It is a common belief that an editor will consider unfinished, or half finished, work; that he will sit down and point out where a paper is deficient; that he will act as a judicious coach; that he will give his reviewer's written justifica- tion for his review. Let it be remembered that an editor can do none of these things. If our correspondent would consider the position of the editor, he would withdraw at once half the above complaints.—ED. *-- * ~ * r- - - NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, History and Biography. ATKINSON, REv. J. C. Memorials of Old Whitby, or Historical Gleanings from Ancient Whitby Records. Macmillan. 6s. met. BAKER, JAMEs. A Forgotten Great Englishman, or the Life and Work of Peter Payne, the Wycliffite. Illus- trated. The Religious Tract Society. 5s. BEAULIEU, A. LOREY. The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians, translated from the third French edition by Zénaïde A. 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Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 06 (November 1894) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 06 (November 1894) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1894-11-01-The-Author-5-6 publication The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/269/1894-10-01-The-Author-5-5.pdf e24038c590aba06b133300a3d1c62a37 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) 1894-10-01 Volume 5 Issue 5 Pages Page range in volume 113–140 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18941001 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESA NT. VoI. W.-No. 5.] OCTOBER 1, 1894. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union. Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *— - --> g- > -º WARNINGS AND ADVICE. {. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.—It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes. to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an WOL. W. reservedly in his hands. arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTS.–Be very careful. Yow cannot be too careful as to the person whom yow appoint as yowr agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.—Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FuTURE Work.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.–Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS. – Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society’s Offices :— 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY, I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member M 2 ## p. 114 (#128) ############################################ II 4. THE AUTHOR, has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. - 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. *- - -º e- * -s. THE AUTHORS, SYNDICATE. EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby given that in all cases where there is no current account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre- spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department” for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted * has been opened. Members anxious to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com- municate with the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. * - a -4° NOTICES, HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do. this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a, most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth, ## p. 115 (#129) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 115 as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, hy inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- - --> LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—MAYNARD, MERRILL, and Co., appellees, v. WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARRISON, appellant. May, 1894. (Before Judges WALLACE, LACOMBE, and SHIP- MAN, United States Circuit Court of Appeal.) Q(HIPMAN, C.J.-The complainant, Maynard, Merrill, and Co., a corporation duly created under the laws of the State of New York, and having its principal office in the City of New York, was, in June, 1893, the owner of the copyright of a book entitled “Introductory Language Work,” of which Alonzo Reed was the author, and which had been duly copy- righted by him in July, 1891, under the laws of the United States respecting copyrights. The complainant is a book publisher, and has been in the habit of sending the printed and unbound sheets of this book, and of other books which it published, to George W. Alex- ander's bookbindery, in the City of New York, to be stored there until it gave Mr. Alexander an order to bind a specified quantity, who would sometimes bind a lot in anticipation of such orders. On June 21, 1893, a destructive fire occurred in this bindery, the result of which was, as the complainant supposed, to destroy the commercial value of all the property which it had in the building. One of its employés, at its request, examined the débris and reported that there was nothing of value which the complainant could use in the manufacture or sale of books. Alexander there- upon sold the entire débris which had fallen into the cellar to one Fitzgerald, who resold it, with- out moving it, to some Italian dealers in waste paper, and in order to prevent them from using the paper and books for other purposes than paper stock, incorporated the following provision in the contract of sale: “It is understood that all paper taken out of the building is to be utilised as paper stock, and all books to be sold as paper stock only, and not placed on the market as any- thing else.” “The cellar was cleared of this class of mate- rial, and subsequently a quantity of damaged copies of “Introductory Language Work” appeared in the market, as owned and offered for sale by the defendant, William Beverley Harrison, a dealer in second-hand books, and a citizen of the State of New York and residing in the City of New York. The leaves of the books were dis- coloured and stained by smoke and water, but the covers had a respectable appearance, and the complainant supposed that the unbound sheets which had escaped the fire had been rebound by Barrison, or under his direction, or with his privity, and that he was selling such newly bound books, as well as some bound books which had escaped serious injury, and thereupon brought a bill in equity before the United States Circuit Court, to restrain his alleged infringement of its copyright. The bill counted entirely upon the right of the complainant under the copyright statutes of the United States. Upon its motion, the Court granted an injunction pendente lite. Harrison denies, in his affidavit, that he pur- chased any sheets or loose covers of the book. He further says, rather vaguely, that he “learned that certain dealers had come into possession of the salvage from the fire at said Alexander's place; that affiant visited the premises where said salvage was stored, and from them purchased a number of bound and completely finished volumes, some of which were the publications of the complaimant.” He further says that he “pur- chased the said books in the regular course of trade, without any knowledge of any understanding or arrangement, if any there was, between com- plainant and others, and that he accepted the same, as he believes, according to the established usage of the trade, believing them to be books which had been put upon the market as Salvage, as damaged books are bought and sold.” The affidavits show that the complainant, which was the owner of the copyright. permitted Alexander to sell absolutely all its copyrighted books in his cellar, and that his vendee obtained the entire legal title to these damaged volumes. They were sold again, together with other papers and books, under express restrictions against their use for any other purpose than for the manufac- ture of paper. Harrison says that he bought the books in question without knowledge of this restriction. Whether he had notice of facts which should have put a purchaser upon inquiry to ascertain whether he was being made a party to a violation of contract cannot be determined upon the affidavits. The question, as it arises upon the bill and the ## p. 116 (#130) ############################################ I i 6 THE AUTHOR. affidavits, is, can the owner of a copyright restrain, by virtue of the copyright statutes, the sale of a copy of the copyright book, the title to which he has transferred, but which is being sold in viola- tion of an agreement entered into between him- self and the purchaser; or are the remedies of the original owner confined to remedies for a breach of contract P So long as the owner of a copyright retains the title to the copies of the book which he has the exclusive right to vend, by virtue of the copyright, he can impose restrictions upon the manner in which and upon the persons to whom the copies can be sold. Having the exclusive right to vend, he has the right to appoint to whom the book shall be sold. If his agents, to whom he has intrusted the possession of his books, violate his instructions and fraudulently sell to a person with knowledge or notice of the fraud,-such fraud will be an infringement of the copyright, with which the original owner has never parted, and can be restrained by virtue of the Statutes of the United States. Thus, if the owner of a copyrighted book entrusts copies of the book to an agent or employé for sale only by subscription and for delivery to the subscribers, and the agent fraudu- lently sells to non-subscribers, who have know- ledge or notice of the fraud, such sale is an infringement of the original owner's copyright, who can disregard the pretended sale and have the benefit of all the remedies which the statute or the law furnish. This right to enjoy the benefit of the copyright statutes results from the fact that the owner has never parted with the title to the book or the copyright, although he parted with the possession of the book. But the right to restrain the sale of a parti- cular copy of the book, by virtue of the copyright statutes, has gone when the owner of the copy- right and of that copy has parted with all his title to it, and has conferred an absolute title to the copy upon a purchaser, although with an agreement for a restricted use. The exclusive right to vend the particular copy no longer remains in the owner of the copyright by the Copyright statutes. The new purchaser cannot reprint the copy, he cannot print or publish a new edition of the book; but the copy having been absolutely sold to him, the ordinary inci- dents of ownership in personal property, among which is the right of alienation, attach to it. If he has agreed that he will not sell it for certain purposes, or to certain persons, and violates his agreement and sells to an innocent purchaser, he can be punished for a violation of his agreement, but neither is guilty under the copyright statutes of an infringment. If the new purchaser parti- cipates in the fraud he may also share in the punishment : (“Clemens v. Estes,” 899.) . . . The distinction between the remedy of the owner of a copyright and the books published under its protection, who has retained the title to the books and the copyright, and has been defrauded by an unauthorised sale to a purchaser, with notice, and the remedy of a copyright owner who has parted with his title to a copy of the copyrighted book, and has been injured by the failure of the purchaser to comply with his con- tract in regard to its use, is stated by Judge Hammond in “Henry Bill Publishing Company v. Forsythe’’ (27 Fed. Rep. 914) as follows: “The owner of the copyright may not be able to transfer the entire property in one of his copies, and retain for himself an incidental power to authorise a sale of that copy, or rather the power of prohibition on the owner that he shall not sell it, holding that much, as a modicum. of his former estate, to be protected by the copy- right statute; and yet he may be entirely able, so long as he retains the ownership of a particular copy for himself, to find abundant protection under the copyright statute for his then inci- dental power of controlling its sale. This copy- right incident of control over the sale, if I may call it so, as contradistinguished from the power of sale incident to ownership in all property— copyrighted articles like any other—is a thing that belongs alone to the owner of the copyright itself, and as to him only so long as and to the extent that he owns the particular copies involved. Whenever he parts with that ownership, the ordinary incident of alienation attaches to the particular copy parted with, in favour of the transferee, and he cannot be deprived of it. This latter incident supersedes the other — swallows it up, so to speak—and the two cannot co-exist in any owner of the copy except he be the owner at the same time of the copyright; and, in the Inature of the thing, they cannot be separated so that one may remain in the owner of the copyright as a limitation upon or denial of the other in the owner of the copy.” - The case of “Murray v. Heath " (I Bain & Adol. 804), which is somewhat relied upon by the defendant’s counsel, does not throw a strong light upon a case arising under the statutes of the United States. The question was whether the sale of the engravings was, under the circum- stances of the case, a violation of the English, statutes, which prohibited a piratical publication, of the engravings of another, or was a breach of contract. The Court was of opinion that the statutes were not applicable. - The other cases which were cited on the argu- ment are not applicable to the facts of this case, , 22 Fed. Rep. ## p. 117 (#131) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 117 although they are instructive upon the rights of copyright owners, under copyright statutes, or of the rights of owners of manuscripts: (“Stephens v. Cady,” 14 How. 529; “Stephen v. Gladding,” 17 How. 447; “Parton v. Prang,” 3 Cliff. 537; “Bartlette v. Chittenden º’ 4 McLean, 3oo; “Prince Albert v. Strange,” 2 De G. & S. 652; “Taylor v. Pillow,” L. R. 7 Eq. Cases, 418; “Howitt v. Hall,” Io Weekly Rep. 381 ; “Hud- son v. Patten,” I Root, Con. 133.) The dis- cussion by Judge Hammond upon the general subject, in “Henry Hill Co. v. Smythe.” (supra) is most valuable, and anyone who has occasion to examine this subject will find that the territory bas been thoroughly explored. Our conclusion is that, upon the facts stated in the bill and in the affidavits, the complainant has no remedy under the copyright statutes of the United States, and, as both parties are deemed to be citizens of the State of New York, the complainant is without remedy in the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York. The order of the Circuit Court for a preliminary injunction is reversed and set aside, with costs. Wallace and Lacombe, J.J. concur. New York Law Journal, June 13. II.-MUSICAL CoPYRIGHT IN AMERICA. We published in the September number of the Author a letter addressed by Mr. G. Dixey, secretary of the Music Publishers’ Association, on a recent decision in an American court. To repeat the last words of that letter, “The judgment thus delivered has settled the point for the present, and until that judgment is upset or varied it must be accepted that the law of the United States of America is, that the expres- sion “book’ in the Act of 1891 does not include ‘ musical composition and that, consequently it is not necessary that such compositions should be printed in America as a condition of obtaining copyright there.” On this point Mr. R. H. Johnson writes from New York as follows: “I hope the news of the confirmation by the courts of our contention that music does not have to be manufactured here will be widely published in your country. It closes a chapter in the history of International copyright Music is now a thing produced and published, and not subject to exclusion because the method of publication may be like that of books or chromos. My testimony as to the intention of the framers of the bill was part of the plaintiff's brief, and that consideration seems to have had weight in the decision.” - III.-AUTHORSHIP FALSELY AsCRIBED. A publisher of New York printed in 1873 a volume, the authorship of which was ascribed to Bret Harte. This volume contained four chapters of a story that had actually been written by Bret Harte ten years previously, while the remaining chapters making up the volume were written by some person unknown. To the whole story Bret Harte's name was prefixed, but at the end of his portion of the story appeared an explanatory note. . The facts having been proved as above stated, the court granted Harte's application for an injunction under which further sale of the book was restrained. The judge said, in his opinion: “I think that the plaintiff has such an interestin his name and in his reputation as an author as entitles him to invoke the aid of a court of equity in restraining the defendant in falsely repre- senting that a literary production published and sold by the defendant is the work of the plaintiff. . . . It seems to me that the act of the defen- dant is calculated to mislead the public, and induce the purchase of the work referred to in the complaint, under the impression that said work is wholly written by the plaintiff. The case is analogous to that of a trade mark, and the principle on which the relief is granted in such cases is that a defendant shall not be permitted by the adoption of a trade mark that is untrue or deceptive, to sell his own goods as those of the plaintiff, which is injuring the latter and also defrauding the public. In this case the gen ral public would, in my judgment, be misled by the title-page of the book in question into supposing that the whole of the book was a production of the plaintiff, and the facts seem to point strongly to the conclusion that it was the design of the defendant thus to mislead the public. & It is no answer to this to say that every one who read the book must necessarily read the note at page 34, as that note is better calculated to call the attention of the purchaser to the fact that he has been deceived rather than to prevent the deception. Entertaining these views, I shall direct that an order be granted continuing the injunction until the case can be tried, plaintiff to pay all the costs of the motion.” -—-º-º-º-º-º- IV.—HANFSTAENGL v. NEWNEs. The “living picture * cases, Hanfstaeng! v. Newnes, 7 R. Aug. 80; Hanfstaeng! v. Empire Palace, '94, 2 Ch. 1, 7 R. Sept. 84 (both in C.A.), make a good example of the true principles of copyright law. Copyright is not a property in ideas conferred by the law of nature, as certain philosophers have vainly talked, but a monopoly ## p. 118 (#132) ############################################ 1 18 THE AUTHOR. specially created by law on grounds of public utility, and a monopoly not in ideas or artistic motives in the abstract, but in particular forms of expression. Therefore copyright in a work of literature or art can be infringed only by a repro- duction ejusdem generis, a picture by something pictorial, and so forth. It does not follow, how- ever, that infringement might not be indirectly committed by reconstruction of the original design from something which was not itself an infringe- ment, even if the reconstructor had no direct acquaintance with the original ; it was expressly allowed by the Court of Appeal that it could be so, though they held that in the particular case it was not. The questions of dramatising literary work and of “performing rights * are not touched by these decisions, and stand on a special footing. —Law Quarterly Review for October. *– ~ *-* THE INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT CONGRESS AT ANTWERP, R. J. E. MUDDOCK, F.R.G.S., was the sole representative of England at the Congress, which closed its sittings on the 26th of August, Mr. Muddock, who went over by special invitation of the committee, speaks in glowing terms of the princely hospitality offered to the foreign delegates by their Belgian confrères Without making any invidious comparison, he wishes to particularise the exceeding kindness and courtesy of the Hon. Paul Cogel, President of the Antwerp Society of Bibliophiles; of M. Victor Robyns, the esteemed President of the Antwerp Cercle Artistique, Litteraire, and Scientific; and M. Franz Gittens, the well-known Belgian dramatic author. Fetes, illuminated corteges, receptions, dinners, excursions, and visits to all that is interesting in Antwerp, were the order of the day, and the wonder is that the guests have survived all this kindness. They have not only survived, however, but are unanimous in their expressions of satisfaction and gratitude for the magnificent hospitality of their hosts. Notwith- standing all the feasting and junketing much solid work was done, as two seances were held each day, and some six hours a day were consumed in this way. At the opening sitting, M. Robyns, in the name of the old and intellectual city of Antwerp, extended a warm welcome to the foreign delegates, and he alluded in graceful terms to the great interest manifested in the Congress by His Majesty the King of the Belgians. It was a good sign when representatives of nearly every European nation assembled to discuss amicabl their mutual interests in the products of intellect, whether such products took the form of litera- ture, art, science, poetry, the drama, or music. Meetings like that did more to bring about the longed for universal brotherhood than anything else could possibly do; for there was no nation- ality in brain work. Literature and art were cosmopolitan, they recognised no frontiers, and gatherings of that kind served to strengthen the bond of good feeling which literary men and women, musicians, artists, composers, &c., enter- tained for one another, irrespective of country. Great strides had been made of late years in securing to authors and artists universal recogni- tion of their rights in the works they created. But there was still much to do, though the good work that had already been done was a guarantee for the future; and it might safely be asserted that there would be no pause until the literary and artistic millenium was reached. Then nations would be compelled to recognise, by the laws of their respective countries, that the products of a man’s brain labour could no more be filched from him with impunity than could his land, his houses, his household effects, or anything that was legitimately his. The sentiments expressed by the President were received with warm approval, and Dr. Albert Osterrieth, who spoke in the name of the Congress of German authors, said that throughout Germany there was a very strong desire to promote in every possible way the interests of international copyright. M. Pfeiffer, of the Syndicate of the Musical Composers of Paris; Dr. Lundstadt, in the name of Swedish publishers, and of the Literary and Artistic Circle of Stockholm ; Herr Stoutz, for Switzer- land; and Mr. J. E. Muddock, for England, said that authors and composers of their respective countries would not rest until their rights in literary and artistic property were fully recognised. At the second sitting there was a very large attendance, including the Princess Napoleon Bonaparte-Weiss, and several women of letters, amongst them being Madame Brun, the well- known Belgian novelist and journalist. When the meeting had been declared open by the President, M. Bonilla, who represented the “Society of Spanish Writers,” rose to address the assembly. Speaking in Spanish, he made a stirring and eloquent appeal for the universal recognition of the results of intellectual labour. He insisted that workers with the pen and pencil had been too long regarded as mere time-servers of the public, whose mission was to give to the world the efforts of their genius, but like the slaves of old they could own nothing. Fortu- nately a more enlightened era was dawning, and ## p. 119 (#133) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I Ig the day could not be far distant when authors and artists would have cause to rejoice that they had clamoured for an equitable recognition of their interests by all nations. A long discussion followed on the rights of translation. Translation in principle is said to be a mode of reproduction, but while that prin- ciple is admitted in some countries it is contested in others. It was certainly proclaimed at the Brussels Congress in 1858; and since then the International Literary Union has endeavoured to get it universally recognised. Under any cir- cumstances, the desirability was urged of pro- longing the term during which an author's consent has to be obtained before his works can be translated, and twenty years was named as an equitable limit. This was objected to by M. Ernest Eisenmann, an avocat of Paris, and the author of an important work on the rights of authors and journalists. He maintained that if such restrictions were placed upon the rights of translation they would militate against the author's themselves. That would certainly be the case in dramatic and musical composition. When the subject had been well threshed out, without any very definite conclusion being arrived at, M. Alcide Darras, one of the general secretaries of the union, laid before the assembly a brief but lucid account of the legislative move- ments that had been made with regard to inter- national copyright during the past few years. He spoke bitterly of the action of the United States, and said it was something more than an anomaly that Canada should be disposed to favour American writers in preference to all others. England had given copyright to English authors in the whole of the British Empire, and that copyright was secured by an international treaty; nevertheless Canada showed a strong disposition to give American authors Canadian rights, although America had treated English authors so scurvily. Referring to Mexico, M. Darras said it was greatly to the credit of that country that Mexican subjects, or anyone producing a literary work in Mexico, had the advantage of perpetual copyright, while great liberality was shown to authors of all nationalities. It certainly would be more honourable on the part of the Govern- ment of the United States if they took a leaf out of their neighbour's book. At the subsequent sittings of the Congress long and interesting dis- cussions took place on the relations of publishers and authors, in so far as those relations were concerned in contracts of publications. All the speakers pointed out that in every country, as matters now stood, the author was entirely in the hands of his publisher, and if the publisher chose to act dishonestly, as he often did, the author WOL. W. suffered, and had no remedy. It was pertinently asked why literary contracts should not be placed upon the same basis as any other commercial contract. If an author wrote a book, and a publisher undertook to publish it on terms of mutual profit, there was a distinct partnership created. The author's capital in the business was represented by his work, and the value of that work must be taken to be equal in every sense to the amount the pub- lisher invested when he printed and put the work on the market. The author should there- fore be in a position to know precisely what busi- ness is being transacted and what returns are coming in. As matters now stood, he was entirely dependent for this information on the bare statement of the publisher. And, while it was not assumed for a moment that all pub- lishers were dishonest, it could not be denied that the temptation to make a little extra profit by the manipulation of accounts and the suppression of information that ought to be afforded was very great indeed; and human nature was the same in a publisher as it was in other buman beings, often more so. It was admitted that the subject was a very difficult one to deal with in an international sense, for transactions of the kind often had to be determined by local circumstances. But there was no reason why some general principles should not be laid down and adopted by the union. And it was suggested that in default of distinct stipulation to the contrary a contract of publication should be taken to mean one edition only, whether it was of a musical or literary work. The number of that edition should be expressly stated in the contract, and every copy of it should be numbered and signed by publisher and author. This scheme would at once afford an author a ready means of knowing how many copies of his work had been sold, and it would be a safeguard against unauthorised reproduction. Of course the same regulations would apply to any subsequent editions. Although no definite decision was arrived at on this subject owing to various difficulties that presented themselves, it was admitted that it was too important to be shelved, and that it should be brought forward next year, and in the mean- time some concerted plan of action should be. worked out which should aim at doing justice to. all parties without wounding the susceptibilities. of any. Mr. Wolfgang Kirschbach, the well-known. theatrical critic and editor of the Dresdner. Nachrichten, then invited the Congress to meet. next year at Dresden, and he said he was autho- rised to promise a welcome and a reception in the name of the Saxon Government, as well as of the N ## p. 120 (#134) ############################################ I 20 THE AUTHOR. municipal authorities. And he further promised that the warmest support would be accorded te the work and aims of the Congress by the whole of Germany, North and South. The invitation was accepted, and Dresden fixed as the next place of meeting. Altogether it may be said that the Congress has been productive of many good results, and the work so far achieved is just and equitable to all who labour with their brains. And, as M. Bergerem, the Minister of Justice, said at the grand banquet given by the President to the distinguished foreigners gathered together in Antwerp in the name of literature, science, and art, the objects of the association must, in the end, be universally triumphant. They had right on their side, and they would soon have power to enforce those rights. It is greatly to be regretted that the entire English press, from the Times downwards, should have been so utterly indifferent to this important Congress that no report of it has appeared in any paper in this country. Journalists cannot afford to ignore the aims and objects of the association, and it surely would have been worth while for the great London dailies to have instructed their foreign correspondents to furnish to their respective papers some particulars of the labours of the Congress. It is also a matter of surprise that Mr. Muddock was not supported by some of his London confrères. The question of inter- national copyright is one which very closely affects us as a literary people, and particularly in so far as our dealings with America are concerned. And unless writers and artists here think their property is not worth protecting, they would do well to show that they are in full accord with the spirit and aims of these annual congresses, and attend in numbers to speak and vote on all that tends to promote the common welfare of the great brotherhood of the pen and pencil. *— — —” * * * NOTES FROM PARIS. AM writing this from a fishing village at the extreme southern point of the Bay of Biscay, in a desolate land of dunes, with the purple line of the Pyrenees in front of me, and all around a forest of pine trees. . A coin perdu. if ever there was one, yet at the time of the English rule in Aquitaine, a place of some importance. In the middle of the village rises the “Tower of the English,” and many of the houses were built by English hands. g e gº Is it a fallacy that, as many of us imagine, soli- stude and quiet are very necessary to the man who would produce his best work, and that a man works hardest where there is little tempta- tion for him to leave his writing-table P Zola has recorded the fine fevers of industry which come upon him in the country, but then Zola will work anywhere and under any circumstances. Daudet, on the other hand, has told me that at the seaside at least he is never able to work. “The sea is a terrible waster,” he said, and added that having sought solitude in a little village on the Mediterranean coast, he remained six weeks without putting pen to paper. For my part my experience is that a solitary and monotonous way of life is fatal to literary production. One cannot think when one yawns. And again, the song of the sea is one continual invitation to idleness, whilst the fields and the forest have mysterious and syremlike voices to tempt one away. People who have read “Jack,” will remem- ber the poet D’Argenton, who, having longed for years for a quiet retreat in the country, found, when he was able to afford one, that he could not work there, and wasted six years in idle endea- vours. Perhaps the reason of this is that the country is so delightful that idleness becomes a real pleasure. It is a characteristic trait of the American critics that when reviewing a translation all men- tion of the translator, even in quoting the title of the book, is omitted by them. Translation, it would appear, after their manner of thinking, is and cannot be otherwise than hack work. Yet one of Charles Baudelaire's chief titles to fame is in his masterly translation of Poe's tales. American journalism, by the way, seems to be sinking lower and lower into infamy. Not many days ago I was passing a delightful hour in the pine forest near my house, with my dog and my grey donkey for companions, and an odd volume of Montaigne in my hand. I could see the great red sun going down into the sea, athwart the pines; the air was fresh and balsamous, and only the cooing of the turtle-doves broke the stillness. I was away for the time from everything that was common and cruel, and ugly and human. And then broke in upon my tranquil meditation American journalism, in the form of a cablegram from New York, an unclean thing that I threw away from me with disgust as soon as I had read it. It came from a great American editor, and requested me to nose out the dirty story of an American milliardaire, who, it appears, has fallen into the toils of some Parisian Phryne. I was to “ mail photos,” and to accompany the same with a “rip-roarer story of their intimacy.” After reflection I picked the filthy paper up again, and have pasted it up in my study as a reminder of the things to which American journalism leads. ## p. 121 (#135) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 2 I Inasmuch as, by the stress of circumstances, there are many writers who engage in literature in a purely commercial spirit, might not the critics exact that the publishers in sending in ibooks for review should mention, besides the price of each volume, the amount of remunera- tion which was assured to the author when he sat down to the task of its production. This knowledge might dispose them to greater leniency or severity, as the case might be. The critic might be very exacting in the case of a book for which the author had received or was to receive several hundred pounds, and less so in the case of work paid for with as many six- pences. I would like to read some such sentence in a literary critique as the following: “This is a hastily-written book, immaturely considered. Still, when we remember that the author produced it at the rate of fourpence halfpenny for each hour's work, we cannot but commend it as extremely good value for money.” In this matter also the philosophy of Mrs. Gamp holds good, and them as wants titivating must pay accordingly. Alphonse Daudet has just finished a new novel. It is one of the very few of his stories— is it not the only one P-which contains a murder. There are a husband and wife who each suspects the other of the crime, and so on. It ends in a reconciliation. I am glad to say that Daudet's health is improving. I had a long letter from him a few days ago, entirely in his own hand, firm, healthy writing “in his least nervous pen.” Be usually dictates to his secretary, the amiable M. Ebner. He tells me that his son’s book, “Les Morticoles,” is still selling very well, already in a tenth edition, I believe. Apropos of Léon Daudet, who, it will be remembered, married Victor Hugo's grand- daughter, the last time I saw him he told me that Hugo's books were selling very badly indeed, and he is in a position to know the facts, as husband of the lady who is entitled to one half the revenue from the Hugo copy- rights. This disposes of various accounts we have heard of the continued demand for these works. Emile Zola, leaves for Rome next month to collect materials for the second volume of “Les Trois Villes " series, which is to be called “Rome.” I am afraid that he will not succeed, as he had hoped, in securing an interview with the Holy Father, and it is to be feared that the odium theologicum provoked by “Lourdes,” will put many difficulties in his way. In the meanwhile “Lourdes'' is in its hundredth edition, and Charpentier's presses are still hard at work turning out copies by the thousand. It is expeeted WOL. V. that this book will have the largest sale of any of Zola's works. * Edmund de Goncourt, I am sorry to say, is, as I hear from Champrosay, ailing with “a liver crisis.” This splendid old man is, however, so robust that I expect him to outlive us all. He is resting his pen at present, though, of course, he continues to keep his daily diary, as he has done for the past thirty years. The widow of Leconte de Lisle is preparing her late husband's manuscripts for the press. She is working in collaboration with De Héredice, and they hope to collect sufficient material for a volume of poems, which shall add to the reputa- tion of the author of “Poémes Barbares.” The task is a difficult one, as the late poet was very critical about his own work, and they are anxious not to print anything which he would have refused to publish. Leconte de Lisle destroyed more than four thousand lines of verse which he deemed unsatisfactory, and what he published had been revised and revised again. A new life of Napoleon is being prepared in Paris by a Boston Professor, and will run for two years in the Century Magazine. I myself was recently invited by the proprietors of another American magazine to do another life of Napoleon, and very good terms were offered. But the matter fell through when I was informed that Napoleon had to be treated in an entirely favour- able light, as I found it impossible to do so. The Americans all have an immense admiration for Napoleon, chiefly, no doubt, because of the persis- tent way in which he plagued England. A study of Napoleon as the Arch-Anarchist and forerunner of the anarchy of this fin de siècle would be interesting. ROBERT H. SHERARD. Capbreton, Landes, Sept. 19. *– ~ –” g- > -e AUGUSTA WEBSTER, HE death of Augusta Webster on Sept. 5 takes from us a poet of very remarkable powers, and of achievement second to no woman of the age who has attempted poetry. She was a daughter of the late Admiral Davies, who for many years filled the post of Chief Constable for Cambridgeshire, and lived at Cam- bridge. Augusta Davies published her first volume of verse in the year 1861 or 1862. It was entitled “Blanche Lisle,” and bore the assumed name of Cecil Horne. After her marriage to Mr. Thomas Webster, a classical scholar and a Fellow of Trinity, she published under her own name translations of “Prometheous Vinctus ” and the “Medea,” N 2 ## p. 122 (#136) ############################################ I 22 THE AUTHOR. she also published another volume of verse under her nom de plume. The works that followed were “Dramatic Studies” (1866), “A Woman Sold” (1867), “Portraits” (1870), “The Auspicious Day” (1872), “Yu-Pe-Yas's Lute” (1874), “Disguises” (1879), “A Book of Rhyme’” (1881), “In a Day” (1882), “Daffodil and the Croaxaxicans” (1884), and “The Sentence” (1887). In addition to these volumes of verse, Mrs. Webster produced a book of essays called “A Housewife's Opinions.” She wrote for the Eacaminer when William Minto was its editor, and, it is understood, for the Athenæum. She also essayed a novel, but, apparently, without success, and for six years she was a member of the London School Board. It will be seen that her time of greatest activity was in the sixties and the seventies. It seems a long time ago, but the time has not yet come for an estimate of Augusta Webster's place among the poets of the Victorian age—an age which produces more fine verse in a decade than was written during the whole of the last century, and an age in which critics are continu- ally bemoaning the decay of verse; an age in which we are so busy over our own work that we have no time to read the work of others; an age in which a new great Inovelist, if not a new great poet, is boomed every month; an age in which the poet of to-day will be clean forgotten to- morrow. The contemporaries of Augusta Webster—those who lived in the sixties and the seventies—have read her works and found in them qualities of the highest order, purity of thought, beauty of expression, music in rhythm, dexterity in metre, power of conceiving and drawing character. Does the younger genera- tion read her P Ome knows not. Will the works of this singer survive? Out of all she wrote, surely, something. He would be a bold critic who would foretell immortality, even a limited im- mortality—an existence prolonged for three generations—for any poem of the day. But to him who remembers those early volumes—the “Dramatic Studies,” “Portraits,” and the trans- lations—Augusta Webster will always remain a figure in contemporary literature among the fore- most, and among the worthiest. W. B. ** a 2–º r- - -, NOTES AND NEWS. R. JAMES PAYN writes that if he had twenty lives he would give them all to the profession of Letters. He says, moreover, that no profession is more free from jealousies and acrimonies. Well, a certain depress- ing work on the “Quarrels of Authors” is to be found in most of our libraries. Some day it will be brought up to date, and then some very pretty jealousies and acrimonies of the present day, of which the world is now ignorant, will be brought to light. There have been two or three actions in the High Court of Justice produced by “acri- monies’’ of literary men. And there are too often to be seen even in signed articles, criticisms and judgments by literary men concerning other literary men that are certainly not kindly either in phrase or intention. In fact, one of the prin- cipal reasons which has hitherto kept men of letters apart from each other, is the unhappy pre- judice that it is the duty of a writer to criticise and sit in judgment upon other writers, as if the power of writing verse should make a critic as well as a poet. That criticism should be con- temptuous and derisive; that it should not be written with the view of pointing out what ought to be, but to inflict as much pain as possible by exaggerating what is, in the volume: these are articles of belief that seem happily passing away. The editor of the immediate future will certainly insist on as much courtesy in his columns as at his dinner table. I have before me certain extracts from the registers of St. Bartholomew's Church, which formerly stood on the site now occupied by the east wing of the Bank of England. The dates of these registers are from 1568 down to 1720 or thereabouts. There are baptisms, marriages, and deaths. Among them are three entries which are curious. They are all in the burials, and are as follows: 1672. Katharine Dufoe. I687. Katharine Dufoe. 1708. Mary Defoe. Now Daniel Defoe, son of Thomas Foe, of Cripplegate, and said to be the grandson of Thomas Foe, of Elton, assumed the “De '’ about the year 1684. It is generally assumed that he did so in the hope of passing for one of gentle birth. These entries, however, make it clear that there was one family, perhaps two, in the City of the name of Dufoe or Defoe. It is probablé, therefore, that this was the older way of spelling his name, and that he was really connected with families who so spelled the name. The Rev. Dr. Bell, of Cheltenham, calls my attention to the question in the September number of the Author : “Is not the Sheridan family the only family on record which has con- tinued to hand down its best characteristics from One generation to another ?” He reminds me of ## p. 123 (#137) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 23 the Arnold family as another which has also done so. He mentions the names of Matthew Arnold, Thomas Arnold, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Mr. Oakley Arnold Forster. Undoubtedly this is another case of hereditary genius, which in the domain of literature is exceedingly rare. In music and in law hereditary ability is more often found. What descendants of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, have ever distin- guished themselves in literature ? In another column will be found some kind of answer—though of necessity incomplete—towards the question of what the people read. Setting aside fiction, an army of Io,000 borrowers, in one library, read during one year 65,000 works of history, travels, philosophy, art, and science. This for a body of people only just beginning to read seems pretty well. We must remember that they are nearly all working people; that a great many of them—the women especially—have very long hours of work; that during the summer months they will naturally take their recreation in the open air; and that a large proportion of the men have been accustomed to take their winter recreation in public houses. Let us remember also that without this library only very few of these working men would have read any book at all. Not any book at all. It is rare to find books in a working man's lodging ; it is still rarer to find him buying books. How can he buy books unless out of the twopenny basket P Indeed, to those who ignorantly accuse us, as a nation, of not buying books, the first reply is, that whether we want to buy books or not we cannot afford to do so, because, out of the whole 37,000,000 population or 7,400,000 families in this our United Kingdom, there are but 250,000 families which earn an income of so much as 32OO a year, and not more than 400,000 families which either earn or possess that modest income. Now, with the lowest possible standard of necessary comfort, what margin can be left with an income of £200 for the purchase of books P From time to time we read letters in the papers on the economy of small incomes. Some- thing is put down for the luxury of trips and excursions—for change of air is necessary; the gentility of a pew, instead of a free seat, is never forgotten ; but nothing is ever left for books. Why? Because books cannot be afforded. And those who cannot buy books are now growing eager to read them. “We would buy,” they say, “if we could. But, indeed, we are not able to buy.” -->e- As for those favoured few—the happy 4OO,OOO families—whose income is 32OO a year and over, they have hitherto bought all the books that are sold—new or secondhand—all but the books of elementary education. The new public libraries are now stepping in as purchasers. When we speak of the vast audience which already awaits a success- ful writer, whether historian, poet, exponent of science, preacher, philosopher, or novelist, it must be remembered that this great body of readers who cannot buy will always form the largest part. And if, as seems probable, the 400,000 families above-named become reduced in number, and their incomes grow steadily and yearly less, there will be nobody at all left to buy books, and the libraries will be the only pur- chasers. Meantime what the 400,000 do buy and how much they buy, and how far the reproach is just that they do not buy, must be considered by the light of actual figures. And these figures we will try to collect and to publish. The New York Critic of Aug. 11 contained a paper on Art in the Magazines, suggested by cer- tain comparisons made in these columns between the advance of the American magazines and the seeming decline of our own. The writer says: “Among other reasons advanced for this state of things is the abundance of illustrations that we give, but the most important thing is omitted, viz., their quality. With us illustration is an art; in England it is a pastime—it entertains without instructing. The same class of men do not prac- tise it in both countries; and, furthermore, the English draughtsmen have not yet learned to draw for the photo-engravers, as have the American and the French.” He goes on to criticise the artistic character of a certain English magazine. The remarks under this head may be omitted. The following, however, is an American's opinion on American art. One would like that of an English artist on the same work: Now take the August Harper’s and see the difference between the American process-work and that of England. Note Mr. Smedley’s illustrations in Mr. Ralph's story of “Old Monmouth,” in Mr. Matthews’s “A Vista in Central Park,” or in Mr. Warner's story. They are made by the Kurtz process. Here we have the artist and the process- engraver working in perfect harmony, and the result is almost as fine as that brought about by the graver. Mr. Remington’s illustrations of his own paper are even better. There are few artists who know so well how to work for mechanical engraving as Mr. Remington. An admirable piece of work is Mr. Thulstrup's in “Up the Coast of Norway.” The illustration on page 381 has all the softness and light and shade of a mezzotint engraving. Mr. Du Maurier's illustrations of “Trilby’’ lend themselves parti- cularly well to the work of photo-engraving, because they are pen-and-ink drawings. The engraver could probably not reproduce them any better, if as well. But to see just ## p. 124 (#138) ############################################ I 24 THE AUTHOR. what delicaey and tone the engraver's hand gives to a picture, we must turm to the frontispiece, “On Shark River,” drawn and engraved by Victor Bernstrom. In Mr. Castaigne we have another artist who is a master of the art of drawing for process-engraving. He is a Frenchman, and learned his art in France, where they have long made a specialty of it. I doubt whether the engraver could do him the justice that the camera does. It would be very difficult to catch his peculiar effects with the hand. His illustrations to “Washington as a Spectacle,” in the Century, make this clear, especially the picture on page 490. Mr. Sterner shows himself in a new light in his illustration of “Poe in the South.” There is an imaginative quality in his work that goes well with that of the author he illustrates. For work with the graver it would be hard to find anything more satisfactory than Mr. Timothy Cole's reproduction of Quentin Matsy’s portrait of his second wife. Here we have something that mechanical engraving can never give—the personality of the engraver, the touch of the artist. In looking at this picture one feels the dignity of handwork over that of the machine. Another fine example of the engraver's art is the frontispiece of Scribner's, Carolus . Duran’s “The Poet with the Mandolin,” engraved by W. B. Closson. Here, again, we have what photo-engraving cannot give. The name of W. S. Vanderbilt Allen is comparatively new in the art world, but it accompanies some spirited scenes of Newport life, which have had the distinction of being engraved. Kaemmerer's illustrations of Professor C. G. D. Roberts's poem would have gained much, had Florian touched them into life; as it is, they have lost by the “process.” On the other hand, it is doubtful whether the engraver could have done more for Castaigne's illus- trations of Mr. Bunner's story. Process work has seldom been seen to better advantage than in the picture opposite page I64. Mr. Sterner's illustrations of “An Undiscovered Murder” are, if anything, better than those he has in the Centwry. They are certainly more pleasing in subject, and the one on page 183 is a gem. No ; one does not find such art in the English magazines. Everybody is interested in the Autocrat of Boston. Therefore I make no doubt that every- body will read the following extract from the New York Critic (Sept. 8, 1894). I had the pleasure of an afternoon with the most amiable of poets and essayists last year. We drove from Salem to Beverly one fine afternoon in July, the party consisting of Prof. Woodberry, Mr. Sprigge, and myself. And we spent a couple of hours talking to the Autocrat, who was in the best spirits, and the best health possible. At Beverly he has a charming country house on a hill with a large garden and a delightful view. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes’s birthday, of which the Critic had brief mention last week, was celebrated in a very quiet manner, as the poet himself desired. He is not only adverse to publicity on that day, but finds it best to protect his health as far as possible by preventing intrusion into his Sanctum. The good Doctor is always kindly in feeling and expression towards every reporter who calls, but yet has be- come now extremely reserved. To the first reporter who came last week he gave an interview, and then, when the other gentlemen of the press trod the path to his Beverly Summer home, he presented each with a printed slip con- taining this same interview, thus saving time and exertion. The friends who called on his birthday were glad to find that in spite of the prolonged illness which prostrated both mind and body (infact, the doctor himself says that it was the longest, illness he ever had), the Autocrat is regaining his physical strength. He is no longer able to answer the hosts of letters. that pour in upon him as they always have, people by the score having simply flooded his table with queries and with manu- scripts to which they have invited his attention ; and, while the Doctor has always expressed himself as gratified at words. of affection, he has not been able of late to answer even the complimentary notes. Indeed, he does no writing now at all, and whatever dictation he is able to carry out is devoted to the completion of his autobiography, now made his great. lifework, and not destined to be published until after his death. Someone suggested to the Doctor, when the latter spoke of the cramp that affected his hand in writing, that he learn to use the type-writer, but the poet smilingly replied that he did not propose to forsake an old friend for a new one at his time of life. For eight summers now Dr. Holmes has been at Beverly Farms, which he regards as the most perfect of summer resorts (barring the east winds), and he delights in telling visitors about all the surroundings. of the place. He points out, with delightful interest, the two islands in front of his house, quaintly named “Great. Misery" and “Little Misery"—terms derived from a game of cards called Boston,” invented by some British officers. who were quartered upon those islands during the early wars. Of course, the trees still consume a great deal of his attention. Recently, it is said, he has found a new tree in. Beverly, which he considers the most beautiful of all; and to its base he drives several times each week, there to sit in its shade and enjoy its protection. If he can hear of any big tree within any reasonable distance of his home he is sure to visit it. Speaking about his health to a caller, Dr. Holmes said:— “I am afraid that I am commencing to grow old. Since last February, when I had a severe attack of the grip, I have not been very well, and I have been obliged to take. good care of myself. Walking and riding principally, an occasional call and receiving some of my friends who are kind enough to call upon me, form the day’s routine.” He spoke briefly of literary people he had known, stating that he had been visited by almost every literary Englishman, who had come to Boston since Dickens's time. He added sadly, “Lowell’s death affected me keenly, it makes. me feel that I am old, that I have outlived my genera- tion.” It is a well known and remarkable fact that the year which saw Dr. Holmes’s birth, 1809, also saw the births of Tennyson, Darwin, Gladstone, Robert C. Winthrop, and Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Holmes himself once spoke of this, mentioning all except himself in noting: the “wonders” of the year, and when his visitor added, “You have forgot to mention one birth, Doctor, that of Oliver Wendell Holmes,” the Autocrat quickly responded, “Oh, that doesn’t count ; I ‘sneaked in, as it were.” Dr. Holmes’s birthday this year was remembered, as usual, by his publishers, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., with a magnificent. bouquet of eighty-five roses, one for each year of the poet's, life, while other friends sent remembrances. The classification of Literature is a subject which belongs especially to the Institute of Librarians. If, however, the existing methods of classification are to be considered by this body, we may ask to send representatives to the deliberating committee. A letter by Mr. J. Taylor Kay, in the Daily Chronicle for Sept. 18, proposes that a commission consisting of one or ## p. 125 (#139) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 25 two members of the crafts of author, publisher, bookseller, journalist, and librarian, shall be appointed to consider existing systems, and to recommend, or to create, a classification for general use. Meantime Mr. Kay gives the classification which he considers the best, that of Mr. Melville Dewey, proposed in 1876. Here it IS :— CLASSES AND DIVISIONs. O 480 Greek. IO Bibliography. 490 Other Languages. 2O Book Rarities and 500 NATURAL SCIENCE. MSS. 5IO Mathematics. 30 General Cyclopedias. 520 Astronomy. 40 Polygraphy. 53O Physics. 50 General Periodials. 540 Chemistry. 6O General Societies. 550 Geology. 70 Bookbinding. 560 Paleontology. 80 Catalogues. 57O Biology. 90 58o Botany. IOO PHILOSOPHY. 590 Zoology. I IO Metaphysics. 6OO USEFUL ARTs. I 20 - 6IO Medicine. 130 Anthropology. 62O Engineering. 140 Schools of Psychology. 630 Agriculture. I 5o Mental Faculties. 64o Domestic Economy. 16O Logic. 650 Communication and 17o Ethics. Commerce. 180 Ancient Philosophies. 660 Chemical Technology. 190 Modern Philosophies. 670 Manufactures. 2OO Theology. 68o Mechanic Trades. 2Io Natural Theology. 690 Building. 22O Bible. 700 FINE ARTs. 23o Doctrinal Theology. 7Io Landscape Gardening. 240 Practical and Devo- 720 Architecture. tional. 730 Sculpture. 250 Homiletical and Pas- 740 Drawing and Design. toral. 75o Painting. 26O Institutions and Mis- 76o Engraving. sions. 77O Photography. 270 Ecclesiastical History. 78o Music. 28o Christian sects. 790 Amusements. 290 Non-Christian Reli- 8oo LITERATURE. gions. 8Io Treatises and Collec- 3OO SOCIOLOGY. tions. 3IO Statistics. 820 English. 320 Political Science. 830 German. 330 Political Economy. 84o French. 340 Law. 85o Italian. 350 Administration. 86o Spanish. 360 Associations and In- 870 Latin. tutions. - 88o Greek. 37O Education. 890 Other Languages. 380 Commerce and Com- 90o HISTORY. - munication. 9IO Geography and De- 390 Customs and Cos- scription. tumes. 920 Biography. 4OO PHILOLOGY. 930 Ancient History. 4IO Comparative. 940 Europe. 42O English. 950 º ſ: 430 German. 96o 3 || Africa. 44O French. 97O 3 4 North America. 450 Italian. 98o 3 | South America. 460 Spanish. 990 Oceanica and 47O Latin. Polar Regions. . . Each of these divisions is, of course, capable of mine further sub-divisions. In adapting the 8th Alabama Regiment. system to shelving arrangements, the above numbers are the subjects or class numbers, and a decimal point number being added, acts at the order of numeration on the shelves, which in each case will, of course, run to infinity. An interesting point in literary history is touched upon by an “Old Novel Reader” (p. 129). He informs us that the first attempt to introduce cheap books was made in Ireland nearly sixty years ago, by Mr. John Simms, of the firm of Simms and MacIntyre, of Belfast. Mr. Henry Herman is dead. One was sur- prised to learn, first, that he was sixty-three years of age, and next, that he was formerly a Confederate officer—Lieutenant-Colonel of the He was the author, in collaboration with Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, of the “Silver King,” and he wrote “Claudian.” He also wrote, with Mr. David Christie Murray, two novels, and several without collaboration. He was a man of strong friendships, of great resource, and of wide personal experience. Sir Frederick Pollock (p. 126) objects to the “language” of a note of mine about the importa- tion of Tauchnitz books. He complains that it is a note of “vituperation.” I thought, in my feeble way, that it was a note written in good temper and without any calling of names. I have read it again ; and again I fail to find any “vitupera- tion.” Is it right, or is it not, to bring these books into England P. If it is not right, one is justified in saying so. The reason why the prac- tice is common is that many excellent people who carry it on are ignorant that it is much the same thing as smuggling a roll of lace. And this was pointed out in the note. However, as some readers have not perhaps read the note of September who will read Sir Frederick's remarks in October, I reproduce it, vituperation and all : Every year, as regularly as the showers of August, appears the letter complaining of the bold bad smuggler who imports Tauchnitz editions in his pockets. The whole family, girls and all, enter with zeal into the smuggling business; impromptu pockets are devised in feminine garments; men’s coats are found to contain stowage room previously unsuspected; a successful run is made ; and the family shelves are enriched with another row of Tauchnitz books. They have been bought at half the cost of the English edition, you see. Cheapness before anything. These books, moreover, are openly sold in this country; one may some- times see rows of them in the secondhand shops. What is to be done P. It is impossible to touch the conscience of the traveller homeward bound. He will not smuggle lace, because he understands that lace is property—it is visible property—he must not defraud the revenue ; literary pro- perty he does not understand—he cannot see it. Here is a ## p. 126 (#140) ############################################ 126 THE AUTHOR. book—why cannot he take the book home with him P Because the law prohibits P Nonsense ; it can hurt nobody. It is impossible to make him see that to import this book is an infringement of right; a robbery of author or publisher, or both. Therefore something else must be attempted. What? Let us take counsel together. There must surely be some way of preventing the smuggling of books. Now the rough and ready way by which dockyard labourers are prevented from stealing dockyard stores might be at- tempted. Wardens of the yard stand at the gates and feel the men as they pass. An expert hand would detect a Tauchnitz in the coat pocket. And a substantial fine judiciously and sternly administered would do the rest. But perhaps some other method might be suggested. About the magnitude of the mischief; Sir Frederick puts it down at £50 or £100. Let us see. Every year there are at least 300,000 travellers from the British Isles on the Continent. These include the people who crowd the hotels of Biarritz, the Riviera, and Italy in the winter; the people who stay at the mountain resorts; and the people who travel in the spring, summer, and autumn. All these people buy for their reading the Tauchnitz books. This collection contains 2Ooo works, I believe, in about 25oo volumes. It is certainly not too much to estimate the annual purchase at one volume for each traveller. If only half of these volumes—say 150,000, repre- senting I2O,OOO works—are brought back to Eng- land, it means that I2O,OOO works printed abroad are annually brought over here, to the great detri- ment and loss of books printed in this country. We certainly must not assume that every book brought over prevents the purchase of an English manufac- tured book. But, remembering the way that books get lent, and that in certain houses, where not much can be spent in new books, every book is circulated, we may be pretty sure that the Tauchnitz books do prevent the purchase of a very large number of English books. I should be disposed, roughly, to estimate the yearly loss at something like 60,000 volumes, which means a good many thousand pounds, and I think that if the Society could do anything to stop the practice of bringing over these books, it would be doing good service to everybody concerned. The new departure which was observed by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. in the publication of Mr. Blackmore’s “Perlycross" has been followed in Mr. William Black's new novel “Highland Cousins.” The first issue of the novel in book form is in one volume at 6s. The edition consisted of 6000 copies, and the 4th, 5th, and 6th thousand are so numbered on the title page. The month which produces “Trilby’’ and “Perlycross” and “Highland Cousins” is fortunate indeed. WALTER BESANT. NOTES BY THE WAY. HE correspondent who complains, in the September number of the Author, that he dares not talk to his publisher like a man of business, has another way open to him. If he really believes in his own estimate of the com- mercial value of his work, he can easily make sure whether his view or the publisher's is right. Let him publish on commission. But this, it may be said, involves risk. Of course it does. Nothing venture, nothing have. In the usual forms of publishing contract the author is insured against risk by the publisher. People will not insure your book against publishing risks for nothing, any more than they will insure your house against fire, or your crops against storm. This insurance is not separately charged, but is one of the many elements determining the author's share of profits. In the case of an author who is already successful, the risk and the insurance premium may be taken as less than any assignable quan- tity. In the case of an unknown or hitherto unsuccessful author they are and must be appre- ciable. The fact that a new author's book suc- ceeds does not show that there was no risk, no more than the fact of one's house not being burnt down or one's ship wrecked shows that it was foolish to insure. For the rest, the Society can and does give information and advice to its members; it cannot provide them with back- bones. 2. I must deprecate the language of the note about importing Tauchnitz editions. It is use- less to call people thieves and robbers for not being in advance of public opinion ; and I must also protest against the suggestion of adding some new inquisitorial procedure to the terrors of our custom houses, which are already, since the dynamite scare of ten or twelve years ago, the most troublesome in Western Europe. Neverthe- less, a law-abiding man ought to satisfy law and conscience, and at the same time do a work of charity to other travellers, by leaving his foreign reprints asan addition to some hotelorship library. Public opinion has to be educated on this point, but it is not to be done by vituperation. Mean- while, I should like to know whether the total loss to British publishers and authors by the private importation of Tauchnitz copies amounts to anything like 3100 or £50 in a year. We certainly cannot assume that every one who brings in a Tauchnitz copy of a popular book would otherwise have bought an English one. It seems to me that we have more important things to attend to, even in this particular line. For example, the book market of the minor colonies is, or very lately was, supplied almost wholly by ## p. 127 (#141) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 127 pirated issues notwithstanding the efforts already made by the Society to procure better inforce- ment of the law. The same mischief exists, though not so largely, in Canada. 3. The question of filling up the Laureateship iseems to me outside the business of the Society of Authors. Individual members are entitled to their opinions. I shall not state mine, but I feel sure that any corporate attempt at meddling in this matter could only bring the Society into ridicule. 4. I have observed with uneasiness, in the Author and elsewhere, a tendency to revive the high metaphysical theory of copyright as a per- petual and immutable right of property conferred by the law of nature. This theory is, in my opinion, unsound, and at all events it has been definitely rejected by English and American law. 'Copyright is property, but not a property in ideas; it is a monopoly or exclusive franchise, created for reasons of policy, in particular forms whereby ideas are expressed. M. Mallarmé's project is of a different order. It is an instal- ment of Socialism, and points towards a proposal which I quite expect to see seriously made some day, namely, to abolish copyright and substitute the endowment of literature by a State depart- ment, which department would, as a probable though not necessary corollary, be invested with large powers of censorship. Let authors consider how they would like this. - FREDERICK POLLOCK. *— - -º HAMMERSMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY, - HE Report of the Commissioners for the Public Library of Hammersmith for the year 1893-94 has been sent to us. The facts and figures are instructive. By an unfortunate omission the rules of the library are not presented with the report, so that the subscription or price of a ticket for the lending library cannot be learned. That it is very small is shown from the return of receipts for the year, in which 320 Os. 5d. is set down for sales of tickets. Comparing the number of applicants for new tickets with the amount realised, it would seem that 2:#d. was the price of a ticket, but perhaps this is wrong. Bowever, there are about Io,000 borrowers. An analysis of the professions and trades of the 2OOO who enrolled themselves during the year shows 350 belonging to the professional classes, among them two authors, three publishers, one barrister, one solicitor, fourteen clergymen, two missionaries, nine journalists, while the rest are all working men and working women. The library, therefore, belongs to all classes. It con- tains II,500 books, of which more than one-fourth belong to fiction. It is greatly to be hoped that in the next report the commissioners will give an analysis of the books taken out, showing the names of the authors mostly read. There is, however, a classified list showing the number of books in each class. The figures are very satis- factory. The IO,OOO borrowers between them, representing, in the proportion, viz., 18 per cent. of the professional to 82 per cent. of the working classes, read between them the following: Theology and Philosophy 1,958 books History and Biography... 7,088 Voyages and Travels 5,220 , , Law and Politics ......... 679 , Arts and Sciences......... 8,027 , Fiction ..................... I 25,827 , Poetry, Drama, and Classics .................. I,725 23 Miscellaneous and Maga- Zines ..................... 9,469 × Juvenile Literature ... ... 28,350 , Music........................ 1,871 ,, In all they read I 90,214 books, which, divided among the IO, SOO, means very nearly twenty books a-head. Since reading is no longer to the great mass of mankind study but recreation, and since it may be allowed that the Commissioners and the librarian between them know how to present only literature that is worthy of being read, we need not wonder at fiction representing 60 per cent. of the books taken out. If, however, we ask what fiction is read, the answer exactly agrees with what has been repeatedly advanced in these columns; that the general public turned into a public library read exactly what the limited public turned into Mudie’s library read, viz., the newest fiction by living writers first, and that they call for these books oftenest. This must neces- sarily be the case, because the books of the day will always interest more than the books of yesterday. Thus Rider Haggard’s books go out at the rate of 56 copies a year for each volume, but Scott's only 22 ; Thomas Hardy’s novels are taken out at the rate of 47 copies a year for each book; Charles Dickens's at the rate of 35; Thackeray, 23; Charles Kingsley, 36. The dead novelists still in demand at the Hammersmith Library may be classified as follows:– Wilkie Collins ............... 26O4 issues. Harrison Ainsworth ......... I926 , Miss Muloch .................. I 594 3, Lord Lytton .................. I494 3, Anthony Trollope ............ I494 3, Dickens ........................ I388 , ## p. 128 (#142) ############################################ fº& THE AUTHOR. Sir W. Scott ~ II 22 issues. Lever ................. ......... 815 , George Eliot .................. 696 » Thackeray ..................... 5I 7 2, Charlotte Bronté ............ 347 , As to the popularity of living authors the returns are not trustworthy, because the collections do not appear to be complete. On the same subject the Tibrarian of the Clerkenwell Public Library—Mr. J. D. Brown— writes as follows: “My experience is that slush and truck are avoided even by the classes who are supposed to have nothing in the nature of educated perception about them. Give even the ordinary public library boy reader his choice between one of Henty’s tales and ‘Broadway Bill’s Adventures in Denver,’ and it will soon be seen that Paternoster-row licks the Bowery.’” • *=~~~~~ --z------- FICTION. HE following is an enumeration of the prin- T cipal novels and tales published in one, two, and three volumes respectively during the last three years—Sept. 1891 to Aug. 1894, both included. It is compiled from the monthly list of , “New Books and New Editions” published in the Author, these lists being prepared from the daily announcements. Each work is counted once only, taking no account of the numerous new editions. Translations are not included :- 1891. 1892. 1893. 1. 2 3 1. 2 3 1 2 3 Vol. Wols. Vols. Vol. Vols. Vols. Vol. Vols. Vols. September ... Ig | 2 || 5 || 2 I | 2 | II || 48 || 1 || 12 October ...... 28 || 4 || 7 || 62 || 2 || 14 || 81 8, 16 November ... 52 || 3 || 6 || 52 || 8 || Io || 75 || 6 || Io December ... 18 || 3 9 || 35 | 5 || 5 || 51 || 6 9 1892. 1893. 1894. January ....., I6 || 2 7 I I I 2 8 || 24 2 6 February ... I9 || 3 || 5 || I4 5 8 || 20 || 4 8 March ...... 28 2 8 || 2I IO || 23 4 4. April ......... I9 || 4 4 || 26 2 6 || 30 7 7 May ......... 35 || 5 || IO 27 | 5 9 || 28 || 4 || 13 June ......... 23 2 6 || 38 || 4 || I4 || 41 || 8 || 14 July ......... 18 4 3 : 36 I 5 || 28 3 3 August ...... I9 2 3 || 25 | I 3 I7 2 2 Totals... 204] 36 || 73 ||368 || 37 IO3|466 55 IO2 Note, in connection with this list, a passage in the Author for Sept. 1894, page IO7:— “Perhaps the most striking, because the most ignorant, comment on the recent three-volume novel discussion is the following:—‘The simple fact is, that until the public can be educated to: buy books instead of borrowing them, the attempt to produce original works of fiction in one volume: must inevitably result in a ruinous failure.’” It will be observed that the one-volume form. has increased in two years from 294 to 466. This. form is produced for the buying public. Some of the books have run into many thousands of copies;, we have not heard of any ruinous failures in consequence of their appearance. II.—THE THREE-VoIUME NOVEL. The London Booksellers’ Society has addressed a letter to publishers. The letter was published on July 18 in the Westminster Gazette, from whose columns it is here quoted. By accident the slip has been delayed two months:– “We observe in the circular addressed to you by Messrs. Mudie and Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son, with reference to the price of three-volume: novels, that they suggest—‘That you shall agree not to issue cheaper editions of novels and of other books, which have been taken for library circulation, within twelve months from the date. of publication.” We beg to convey to you our unqualified disapproval of such a proposal, and in the event of your being inclined to entertain the idea, we desire, at this early stage, to enter our formal protest against such an injustice to: the bookseller. At the same time we are very conscious that on this subject your own ideas. and ours run on parallel lines. As the whole question of three-volume novels is now being raised, we should like to say that it would be a great satisfaction to us if good works of fiction ceased to be issued in this way. We are unani- mously in favour of such novels being published at once in a six-shilling form, or, at any rate, at some popular price, and we feel convinced that. not only would the bookseller order such volumes in large numbers, but that the library orders. would not be diminished. As to ‘other books,’ we have long been of opinion that the price at which they are issued upon first publication pro- hibits sales.” III.-LoRD CHESTERFIELD ON NOVELS. In connection with the discussion on the length. of novels, I think the following quotation from Lord Chesterfield is not inapposite: “I am in doubt whether you know what a novel is : it is a little gallant history, which must contain a great deal of love, and not eaceed one or two small, volumes. The subject must be a love affair, the lovers are to meet with many difficulties and ## p. 129 (#143) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I-29 obstacles, to oppose the accomplishment of their wishes, but at last overcome them all, and the conclusion or catastrophe must leave them happy. A novel is a kind of abbreviation of a romance; for a romance generally consists of twelve volumes, all filled with insipid love nonsense and most incredible adventures.” F. Norreys Conn ELL. IV.--THE Two-WOLUME, NOVEL. As no voice has so far been raised on behalf of the two-volume novel during your late interest- ing discussion upon the rival merits of its longer and shorter sister, might Inow urge my feeble plea for it P. In the first place, would not many three- volume novels be improved in quality by some compression P. How often the padding will come out in that third inevitable volume. Witness even “Lord Ormont and his Aminta.” I am an ancient and omnivorous novel reader, and I speak the name of George Meredith with all due reverence, but here for the first time I did strip some irrelevant (as it seemed to me) details and conversations, not bearing in his usual admirable way upon the plot, which helped to expand two very short first vols. and this filled up last one into the publishers’ fatal three. I speak in ignorance of the financial aspect of the question. Perhaps you would enlighten us a little as to that matter. As regards the reader, his pocket would benefit of course, though less than if the com oression into one solid mass, involving smaller type and poorer margins, became general. But then our eyes. We especially who go on loving fiction in our decrepitude. Besides, who has the courage to face a one-volume “Middlemarch " or “Diana of the Crossways,” if even the shabbiest of second-hand editions in decent print can be had second-hand on easy terms ? May I venture, in my role of sexagenarian, to correct a statement in your August number to the following effect, and by so doing do justice to an enterprising Irish firm of publishers ? “The cheap edition” you say “was introduced about thirty years ago.” It is almost double that term of years since Mr. John Simms, of the firm of Simms and MacIntyre, an old established firm in Belfast, invented the shilling novel. This gentleman is still alive. I inclose his address On the chance that you may care to have a few particulars of his venture. I remember, when a child, the arrival of each gay green monthly volume as it came to be read aloud of an evening, and then added to the long rows of its fellows on the book-shelves. These bore on their backs the names of Miss Mitford, Mary Howitt, Mrs. Gore, shilling. Mrs. Trollope (Anthony's mother), the Banims. (O'Hara family), Carleton, Gerald Griffin, and numbers of other good novelists, to say nothing of the great “Monte Christo,” “Consuelo,” and hosts of the better sort of French and German. stories, translated for the first time into English. All these came to us at the modest price of one With many apologies for intruding on your space, I am, sir, yours faithfully, AN OLD NOVEL READER. THE AUTUMN ANNOUNCEMENTS. Tº: following announcements are reduced and classified from the lists published in the Athenæum up to Sept. 22. The order followed is that of their appearance in that. paper. Among the more important books announced by Messrs. Longmans are Froude's “Life and Letters of Erasmus;” Gardimer’s “History of the Commonwealth;” “Wandering Words,” by Sir Edwin Arnold; Liddon’s “Life of Pusey,” third vol. ; Liddon’s “Clerical Life and Work;” the Bishop of Peterborough’s “Hulsean Lectures. for 1894.” They announce one three volume novel, one novel in one volume, and a complete. set of Mrs. Walford’s books. A new edition of Max Müller’s “Chips from a German Workshop;” a new edition of Chesney’s “Indian Polity;” and a new edition of Leslie Stephen’s “Playground of Europe,” are also in their list of thirty-seven new books. Messrs. Chatto and Windus will produce fifty- seven new books, including three novels in three volumes; five in two volumes; twenty-five- in one volume ; some of these being cheap editions only. In what is called more solid. literature will be issued Wols. III. and IV. of Justin Huntly M*Carthy’s “French Revolution;” the Life and Inventions of Edison ; a translation. of the Memoirs of the Duchess de Gontant ;. Flammarion’s “Popular Astronomy ; ” George MacDonald’s Poetical Works. Not belonging to . “solid" literature, is Lehmann’s “Conversational. Guide to Young Shooters,” from Punch. Messrs. Chambers's announcements are mainly of fiction. Nine one volume novels; four new volumes of popular biographies; and certain. elementary works. Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons announce forty-- two works. Among these are biographies and studies of Rufus King, Oliver Cromwell, Tinto- retto, Napoleon, Prince Henry, Julian the Apostate, Louis XIV., Thomas Jefferson, Thomas ## p. 130 (#144) ############################################ I 30 THE AUTHOR, Paine—a sufficiently miscellaneous collection— and five novels. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. announce in all eighty-two works, including reprints and new editions and selections, and republished essays and papers. Among the reprints and old authors we find Shakespeare: a new Concordance to Shake- speare; Tennyson, “Gulliver's Travels;” Froissart, Thoreau, Chaucer, Keble, Southey, a new version of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and several new editions of classical works. The more important of the new books are Matthew Arnold’s Letters; Mrs. Oliphant’s “Reign of Queen Anne,” Mrs. Steele's “Tales of the Punjab,” novels by Marion Crawford and Sir H. Cunningham, the Life of Dean Church, the Life of Cardinal Manning, the Life of Sir A. C. Ramsay, Frederic Harrison on “The Meaning of History;” Five Lectures by Freeman; Canon Atkinson on “Whitby,” and a book on Sport and Natural History, by the late George Kingsley. Mr. John Nimmo will publish eight new books, and will complete the “Border Waverley.” Among these books will be a biography of the late John Addington Symonds; a posthumous work by Symonds on Boccaccio; and a selection from the stories of Bandello. Mr. Edward Arnold announces twenty-six works, including a Life of Sir John Macdonald ; a Memoir of Maria Edgworth ; the Recollections of the Dean of Salisbury; Robert Sherard’s Life of Alphonse Daudet; Dean Hole's “Thoughts upon England spoken in America; ” and a selec- tion from Ste. Buive. Messrs. Hutchinson announce thirty-four new books. Among these are novels by Mrs. Oliphant, D. C. Murray, Mrs. Spender, the author of the - “Yellow Aster,” F. Frankfort Moore, Mrs. Dilke, Mrs. Alfred Marks, “Rita.” Adeline Sergeant, Amelia Barr, and Sarah Tytler. The Sunday School Union announces five books, including a volume to which Archdeacon Farrar - contributes. - Messrs. Cassell and Co. announce thirty-eight works. These include the second volume of Traill’s “Social History of England; ” George Augustus Sala’s Autobiography; a “Life of Daniel Defoe;” by Thomas Wright; and novels by Frank Stockton, Hesba Stretton, Max Pember- ton, H. Hutchinson, L. T. Meade, Mrs. Alex- ander, Mrs. Molesworth, Anthony Hope, Frank Barrett, Egerton Castle, Maurus Jokai, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Messrs. Partridge and Co. announce twenty- seven works. Among these are Biographies of Reginald Heber, John Howard, Elizabeth Fry, and Bishop Alwyn. There are novels by G. Manville Fenn and Sarah Doudney, and there are books for boys and girls. The S.P.C.K. announce sixteen works. Among the writers are Mrs. Charles, Professor Maspero, G. Manville Fenn, F. Frankfort Moore, Harry Collingwood, and others, Messrs. Innes and Co. announce six new books, besides story books, for these children's series. Dorothea Gerard and Stanley Weyman have intrusted them with two novels. Messrs. Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier announce three new books, including one novel by Maggie Swan. Messrs. Bell announce twenty-eight books. Among them are a new volume of Pepys; a History of the British Navy, by Capt. Robinson, R.N. ; a new edition of “Eros and Psyche,” by Robert Bridges; a “Handbook to the Ruins of Rome,” by the Rev. Robert Burn; and a transla- tion of Gregorovius's “History of Rome in the Middle Ages.” Messrs. A. and C. Black announce nineteen works. Among them are Archdeacon Farrar on “The Life of Christ as represented in Art;” an “Introduction to the Book of Isaiah,” by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne; Haikel’s “Monism,” translated; “Syriac Literature,” by the late William Wright; “The Religion of the Semites” (new edition), by the late Professor Robertson Smith ; and three novels. Messrs. Methuen and Co. have forty-six books in preparation. Among them are six selections of English verse and one of English prose; additions to the different series running for this firm ; a History of Egypt, by Professor Flinders Petrie; a book on the French Riviera, by Mrs. Oliphant; a book of Ballads, by Rudyard Kipling; and novels in one volume by Baring Gould, W. E. Norris, Gilbert Parker, Anthony Hope, Conan Doyle, Robert Barr, “X, L.,” and Standish O'Grady. Messrs. Sonnenschein and Co. announce fifty- six works, of which thirteen are educational and thirteen belong to social and political economy. There is a volume of Ethical Discourses by Leslie Stephen; a new series, called “Social Eng- land Series,” will be commenced; and there are four novels. Mr. Fisher Unwin announces fifty-seven works. Among them are a translation of Villari’s Florence ; “A Literary History of the English People,” by M. J. J. Jusserand; the Life of Charles Bradlaugh, by his daughter; a Life of Abraham Lincoln, by John Nicolay and John Hay; Henry Norman's Travels in the Far East; four or five books of new verse; twenty novels, including one by the Rev. S. R. Crockett and one by “Rita; ” the Tales of John Oliver Hobbes, now first collected, in one volume ; and the com- ## p. 131 (#145) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I31 mencement of a series called the “Criminology Series.” Messrs. Wells Gardner and Co. announce twenty-three works, including seven stories. Mr. John Hogg announces two books, viz., one on Whist and a collection of stories. The Cambridge University Press announce fifty-one books, of which the greater part are theological, classical and educational. Not a single mathematical or scientific work is in the list. The most important of the new books are “The History of English Law,” by Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland; “Chap- ters on the Principles of International Law,” by J. Westlake; “The Growth of British Policy,” by Sir J. R. Seeley; “Outlines of English Industrial History,” by W. Cunningham and E. A. McArthur; “The Europeans in India,” by H. Morse Stephens; and “The Foundation of the German Empire,” by J. W. Headlam. Messrs. Chapman and Hall are producing fifteen new books. The more important are Sir C. P. Beauchamp Walker's “Days of a Soldier's Tife,” Col. Malleson’s “Tife of Warren Hastings; Col. Cooper King’s “Life of George Washington,” “Life of General Lee,” by Fitzhugh Lee, his nephew ; six books of sport and travel, and five novels. Messrs. Heinemann has a list of thirty-five new books. Among them may be mentioned “Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,” edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge; “In Russet and Silver,” a new volume of poems by Edmund Gosse; three new volumes of the “Great Educator’”; seven- teen novels by Mrs. Lynn Linton, W. E. Norris, M. L. Pendered, including transla- tions of Björnstjerm, Björnson, Tourjuénief, and Zola. The “Roxburghe Press” announce sixteen books. Among them is the address of the Marquis of Salisbury to the British Association, revised. Mr. David Nutt announces twenty-one books. They are not all reprints of mediaeval and Tudor literature. Among them is Canon Jenkinson's “Cardinal Toussure and the Jesuits in China,” and “Lectures on Darwinism,” by the late Alfred Milne Marshall. - Messrs. Nisbet and Co. announce twenty-five new books, with a note of “several new volumes in the ‘Pilgrim’ and other series.” With the exception of two stories, they appear to be of a religious character. Messrs. Blackie and Sons announce five new books and a new series. Messrs. Routledge and Sons announce six new novels, beginning a series—new editions of Long- fellow, Grace Aguilar, Randolph Caldecott, and “The Three Musketeers,” and Harry Furniss's, Book of Romps. Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton announce thirty works. Of these twelve are devotional, seven are novels, the rest chiefly biographical. Messrs. Henry and Co. announce five books— One of sport, one of rhymes, one of housewifery, and two novels, of which one is by John Oliver Hobbes. Messrs. Oliphant, Anderson, and Farrier announce twelve books. Of these three are bio-- graphical, one is devotional, seven are novels. *- = -º a- - - M. MALLARMES PROPOSAL. MALLARME'S proposal, published in M the month of August, called forth a . * considerable amount of discussion, for the most part favourable as to the general. principle involved, viz., that if literary property is to become everybody’s property after a term. of years it might very well be subject to a . tax, i.e., that those who, for trading purposes, produce books whose time of copyright has expired should pay to the State for that privi-. lege a royalty upon every copy sold. It is not expected that persons interested in this kind. of property should welcome the proposal — indeed, one or two such persons have already cried out pretty loudly against “taxing the public ’’ and “taxing knowledge.” But it would not be taxing the public at all, nor would it. be taxing knowledge; it would be taxing the publisher for permission to use literary pro-. perty for his own individual emolument. We. may be very certain that a book now sold. for a shilling, if it were subject to a half. penny stamp, would continue to be sold for a shilling. The opinion of our Chairman, Sir Frederick Pollock, on the proposal will be found in another column (p. 127). Meanwhile, without consider- ing the possibility or even the wisdom of such a . scheme, let us see how it would work. Suppose such a tax imposed. It would be collected by the simple process of affixing a stamp on every copy that went out of the pub- lisher's office. It would produce say, at a half- penny in the shilling, a small revenue, say, of 320,000 a year. What could be done with that money P Would the heirs of the authors by the sale of whose books it was raised be entitled to take it all? Clearly not, because then the needy author would be induced to sell his possible. claims in futurity as he now sells his copyright, very likely for a mere song. It must, therefore, ## p. 132 (#146) ############################################ ** * * * I:32: be thrown into a special Fund—not the Literary Fund, which exists only for the relief of occasional distress, but a special Fund which shall distribute the income. The rights of successful books would then belong to the mation in trust. This Fund would be used for the purpose of preventing distress. It is always a miserable and a humiliating thing to appeal to the Literary Fund for assistance; it would be well not to extend the humiliations. Such a Fund as that proposed should be used for conferring pensions on the children and grandchildren of great writers, should they be in want; and in giv- ing pensions to living writers should their works warrant the grant. Such pensions to the living would be like a good-service pension in the navy, an honour and a distinction. It is not, however, in the least likely that the proposal will ever go farther. One point rises out of the discussion. It is fifty years since the question of terminable copy- right was discussed. Perhaps the time has now returned when the question should be again -discussed. If the same arguments would be used which then prevailed they would at least be clothed in new language, and would be set forth by leader writers and magazine writers in language that would be understood by the people. Whatever the conclusion of such a discussion might be as to the law, one good result would certainly follow: that authors would better understand what is meant by copyright, and would more stiffly demand agreements in accordance with their rights of property. It may be quite true that only one book in a thousand enjoys an existence of a hundred years; it is cer- tainly quite true that most agreements are based on the tacit understanding that the work will not become a classic. At the same time, every writer should act as if his book was going to become immortal. *— — —” a- - - A DISHONEST AUTHOR, R. HEINEMANN communicates to the Daily Chronicle the following story: “Years ago a clever author brought to the publisher an incomplete MS., saying that the remainder should be delivered within a few weeks, and pressing the publisher to at once go to press with the part delivered. His plausible and pleasant manner persuaded the unsuspecting publisher to do so, and, with the additional plea of poverty, he obtained a large sum of money on account of the price of the whole. For years the publisher vainly begged, prayed, clamoured, insisted to be given the remainder of that MS., THE AUTHOR. so that the book could be published; but, waiving aside all trivial considerations of honesty and good faith, the author, with a splendid indiffe- rence, steadily declined to again put his pen to paper to complete the work in question. Neither did he vouchsafe any satisfaction to his victim. When all amicable means failed, and the publisher found himself duped and deceived, the arm of the law was called in, but every stick that the author owned had been cleverly donated to another. The book was never completed, never published, except that the author used the identical title for a later work issued through another channel. The publisher, however, resigned himself to his loss, and refrained even from attempting to persuade a British jury that money had been obtained from him under false pretences.” One has heard from time to time of this case, but vaguely. It is like a nursery story beginning “Once upon a time.” It would be well if it were fitted with a name and date. Meantime we may note Mr. Heinemann's sweeping state- ment that publishers are “only too often victims of thieves most cunning, robbers most unscru- pulous.” Only “too often " ? Then let us hear another case or two, if another can be found. No good is accomplished by exaggerating the importance of a single fact so as to make it appear like a typical instead of an isolated fact. Publishers, in fact, are not “too often º’ victims of such dishonesty; though they may be sometimes treated in this manner. No one supposes that every writer is therefore an honourable man. Publishers may also lend money to an author in difficulties, and find it difficult to get that money back, a thing which happens in every profession or trade. Would it not be better to recognise all along that between author and publisher the same business precautions should be observed as between any other two parties to a business transaction ? No one pretends that perfect confidence should be placed in an author because he is an author; nor does any man in any business, except that of publishing, demand that absolute confidence shall be placed in him simply because he is in that business. > º: ## p. 133 (#147) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 33 BOOK TALK. R.S. STEVENSON will contribute a new volume to Messrs. Hutchinson’s series of “Homespun Stories.” It will be called “Woodrup's Dinah, a Tale of Nidderdale.” She has also nearly ready a story entitled “Helena Hadley.” Among the reprints announced in the literary columns, the most interesting to one old enough to remember the literature of the sixties is that of Henry Kingsley's novels. He had the misfor- tune to be the rival of his brother, who came first and had the advantage always conferred by a serious and a religious turn. Kingsley's Devon- shire lads who sailed westward ho! all carried a Bible in their pockets, and were extremely careful not to use naughty words. . In “Alton Locke” and in “Yeast ’’ Charles Kingsley was a reformer and a radical ; in “Hypatia” he gave us nineteenth century difficulties discussed by philosophers in Alexandria from an English point ..of view taken about the year 1860. Henry Kingsley, on the other hand, had no reforms to propose, no grievances to remove, no difficulties to encounter. He took the world as he found it; he had no theological difficulties; he was not plagued with “questions; ” and he wrote his stories about the men and women that he knew. Thirty years ago they were rattling good stories—considered as stories, a good deal better than his brother could produce, with a lighter touch and a more dramatic instinct. Whether, after all these years, one would find them as bright and interesting remains to be seen. Mr. Clement Shorter edits the books and contributes a memoir. I have Beard that Henry Kingsley wrote the most delightful letters possible, but I have never had the opportunity of reading any of them. Perhaps Mr. Shorter will be able to give the world an illustration. Mr. John Bloundelle-Burton's new novel, “The Hispaniola Plate,” will commence in the St. James's Budget, on Friday, the 5th inst., and will be illustrated by M. G. Montbard. In this novel the scene will be laid partly in the present day and partly in the last days of the Stuart period, bothepochs being connected by incidents pertaining to the ends of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The action of the story takes place principally in the Virgin Islands. A translation of “Astronomie Populaire,” by M. Camille Flammarion, the well-known French astronomer, will be published immediately by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. The work, which is a very interesting and popular one, written expressly for the general reader, had an enormous sale in France, no less than IOO,OOO copies having been sold in a few years Several new illustrations have been added, and the work has been carefully brought up to date by the translator, Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S. Cecil Clarke has just issued a new novel, entitled “An Artist's Fate,” through Mr. Elliot Stock. Mr. Maberly Phillips, F.S.A., of the Bank of England, Newcastle-on-Tyne, has written a book on the History of Banks and Bankers of Northern England. The book deals with early currency, the establishment of the first north- country bank, traces the evolution from their early beginnings of the many well-established banking concerns which now exist, and gives most interesting accounts of the serious failures which attended the efforts of the earlier bankers to cope with the rapid strides in trade and industry which followed the epoch-making inven- tion of steam power. It will be published immediately by Messrs. Effingham, Wilson, and Co. Mr. C. A. M. Fennell, Litt.D., proposes a “National Dictionary of English Language and Literature.” It is to be issued in monthly parts at a subscription of three guineas paid in advance, or four guineas in parts. The work will be based on full indexes of certain selected authors, with quotations from many others. We learn from the New York Critic that Messrs. Dodd, Mead, and Co., of Boston, are about to issue a new edition of Mrs. Trollope's famous “Domestic Manners of the Americans,” in two volumes, with ninety-four illustrations from contemporary drawings reproduced from the first edition of 1832. From the same paper we learn that a new and complete Concordance to Shakespeare, by Mr. John Bartlett, who has been engaged upon the work for eighteen years, will be published in New York immediately. It will fill 1910 double column quarto pages. Also that Mr. Richard Watson Eddis's poems will shortly be issued in a collected form by the Century Company. Max O’Rell sails for America this month on a fourth lecture tour in the States. On Longevity of Authors, “H. G. K.” says: “You might have noted Hobbes, Fontenelle, St. Evremond, and Goethe, whose united ages amount to 368, an average of 92.” A new edition has just appeared of Mr. Powis Bale’s “Handbook for Steam Users” (Long- mans), and a new and enlarged edition of “Wood- ## p. 134 (#148) ############################################ I34. THE AUTHOR. working Machinery; its Rise, Progress, and Con- struction ” (Crosby, Lockwood, and Son). Early in the autumn a new serial story by Fitz- gerald Molloy, entitled “A Justified Sinner,” will be run through Messrs. Tillotson's syndicate of newspapers. The same author began in the third week of this month (September) a sensational serial novel called “In Shadow of Shame,” in Cassell’s Saturday Journal. This story deals with a cer- tain operation performed on the brain, and the consequences which follow. The incident has not previously been used in fiction. Mr. Fitz- gerald Molloy recently told an interviewer that such a case was brought to his notice by a distinguished surgeon, and that the chapter in which he, the author, deals with the subject is largely copied from the medical reports, all distressing and disagreeable details being omitted. Mr. Thomas Aspden, author of “The House of Stanley,” “Queen Victoria,” &c., will produce a political novel this month called “The Member for Workshire; or Church and State.” The pub- lishers are Swan, Sonnenschein, and Co. Mr James Baker, F.R.G.S., has had two works published during the past month; one, “Pictures from Bohemia,” being this year's volume of the “Pen and Pencil” series of the Religious Tract Society. The volume is very artistic, being illustrated by Walter Crane, Henry Whatley, and other artists who have travelled with the author in distant Bohemia; a country crowded with historical and picturesque and artistic surprises. The second work of Mr. James Baker is wholly historical, entitled “A Forgotten Great English- man.” It deals with the life of Peter Payne, a great leader of men in the 15th century, who, as principal of an Oxford college, had to flee for his opinions, and became a chief in Bohemia of the powerful Hussite movement, being first always in debates, in councils, and in treaties; a man with whom Pope, Kaiser, and kings had to reckon; a leader of thought of his century, and yet forgotten |by his own country, as the letters embodied in the volume from such authorities as the late Pro- fessor E. A. Freeman, Professor J. A. Froude, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, Professor James Rowley, and others fully prove. This volume, like the first, is the outcome of Mr. Baker’s travels and researches in Bohemia. Readers and students of Scandinavian litera- ture and history may note that they may obtain catalogues of Scandinavian books at the Skandi- navisk Antiquaria, 49, Gothersgade, Copen- hagen. Mr. Robert Sherard has now completed his biographical study of Alphonse Daudet. It will be published this autumn with a portrait, a fac- simile letter, and other illustrations. Mr. John Codman Roper, author of “The Campaign of Waterloo,” has written the “Story of the American Civil War.” It will be pub- lished by Putnams in three volumes. Mr. James Field has collected his papers, which appeared originally in Scribner's, into a volume, which will be published by the same house. Max O’Rell's new book “John Bull and Co. : the Great Colonial Branches of the Firm,” will be issued simultaneously in England, America, and France. Mr. John Burroughs has a new volume of “Outdoor” essays in the press (Houghton, Mifflin, and Co.). Three other “Outdoor” books are announced in the New York Critic from the same firm. The “Book Hunter in London,” by W. Roberts, will appear in the autumn. It will form a companion to M. Octave Uzanne’s “Physio- logie des Quais de Paris,” better known under the title of the English translation of “The Book-Hunter in Paris.” In this contribution to the history of book-collecting the results of many years’ inveterate book-hunting will be chronicled, and the experiences not only of the compiler but of many past and present distinguished “hunters” will be laid under con- tribution. The introductory chapter takes the form of an essay on “The Theory and Practice of Book-Hunting.” This is followed by a disserta- tion on book-hunting in London from the earliest times to the eighteenth century. Other chapters deal with book auctions and auctioneers; with some famous collections and collectors; with book thieves; with bookstalling in London; with famons booksellers; with lady book-col- lectors; with the prices paid for particular books in past and present times, booksellers' catalogues, and other interesting matters connected with the subject. In a book covering such a wide field it is naturally impossible for the efforts of one man to gather into his net all the numerous incidents and anecdotes connected with book- hunting in London. The author, therefore, invites any information or suggestion sent without delay to him, as well as the loan or indication of rare or curious pictorial illustrations of the subject, at 86, Grosvenor-road, S.W. A new method of publication is about to be put to the test by the Roxburghe Press, of 3, Victoria- street, Westminster, and 32, Charing-cross, S.W., who announce a “time ’’ limited edition of ## p. 135 (#149) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I 35 “Phantasms,” a volume of original stories, illustrating posthumous personality and character, by Wirt Gerrare, author of “Rufus's Legacy.” Instead of confining the edition to a predeter- mined number of copies, the publishers will supply booksellers until Dec. 31 next, after which date all sales by the publishers will be stopped, and no other edition will be issued during the continuance of the copyright. The sole edition will be popular and modern in price and form, and the limit is made with a view to guard booksellers from deterioration in value of any stock carried over at the end of the season, and as affording a safer investment than offered by the purchase of first editions, subject to cheap reissues and remainder sales. The Roxburghe Press have in preparation “The Magistracy,” being a directory and biographical dictionary of the justices of the peace of the United Ringdom, revised to date and edited by Charles F. Rideal; “Evolution,” a retrospect by the Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., being the address (slightly revised by the author) recently delivered before the Royal British Association; a second edition of the “Law and Lawyers of Pickwick,” by Frank Lockwood, Q.C., M.P., slightly revised, with an original drawing by the author of Mr. Sergeant Buzfuz; a third edition of “Wellerisms” from “Pickwick” and “Master Humphrey's Clock,” selected by Charles F. Rideal,” with an introduction by Charles Kent and an entirely original drawing of “Sam Weller,” by George Cruickshank, jun. ; “Woman Regained,” a novel of artistic life by George Barlow; a second revised edition of “Charles Dickens' Heroines and Women Folk,” some thoughts concerning them, by Charles F. Rideal, with original drawings or Edith Dombey and Dot ; “The Reunion of Christendom,” by Cardinal Vaughan, being the slightly revised address recently delivered before the Catholic Truth Society; “Young Gentlemen of to-day,” by Charles F. Rideal, illustrated by “Crow’”; “Phantasms,” Original stories illustrating posthumous character and personality, by Wirt Gerrare, a time-limited 'edition ; “The Mountain Lake and other Poems,” from the works of Friedrich von Bodenstedt, translated by Mrs. Percy Preston, an edition limited to 450 copies; “Told at the Club,” some short stories, being No. 1 of the “Pot-boiler” series, by Charles F. Rideal; “Accidents,” by I)r. G. M. Lowe, lecturer and examiner to the St. John Ambulance Association; “Young Babies, their Food and Troubles,” by Mrs. Truman and Miss Edith Sykes; and a second edition of 5000 copies of “Food for the Sick” by the same authors; “The Reminiscences of a Septuagenarian Citizen,” by Edward Callow. CORRESPONDENCE, I.—PRoof SHEETs. AY I suggest to writers, especially writers of fiction, that it would be a kindness to - send their proof sheets to any hospital they may choose, for the use of the patients P The lightness of the sheets is a distinct advantage for those who have to read in bed. F. M. PEARD. II.-PERSONAL. Will you allow me, through the medium of The Author, to thank the Society of Authors and their secretary for aiding me to obtain an acknowledgment from two papers of infringe- ment of my copyright in title and matter. The first, a paper, boldly adapted my title of “By the Western Sea.” The second, a case of a reprint of a Canadian article entitled “ British v. German,” which is bodily taken from pages 25, 27, 31, 33, 34, 45, 46, and 95, of my “Our Foreign Competitors.” Individually I doubt if I could have obtained these public acknowledg- ments, as one editor laughed at my first very polite note suggesting an infringement of copy- right had been committed; but the letters from the Society’s secretary had a salutary effect, and tardy and reluctant justice was done to my little book and title, and the acknowledgment given as wished. JAMES BAKER. III.-GEORGE ELIOT. It is a matter of wonder to me that Miss Gilchrist's remarks on George Eliot in the July Author have remained unchallenged. As a lover of George Eliot let me say that I cannot discover the “barren fatalism” in her work. Why, the great difference between the ancients and George Eliot stands in the fact that the former depicted mortals at the mercy of a predestined fate outside their own personality, and independent of it altogether, men and women like CEdipus or Helen being “sculptured in black marble on the wall of their fate,” while the George Eliot made man master of his fate. Let me refer you to Sidney Lanin's masterly essays on the English novel on the subject of George Eliot : “An me peut €tre juste qu’envers ceux qu’en aime.” S. S. Will “Sans Souci.” be so good as to give the Editor an opportunity of answering her letter of Aug. 5* IV.-HEREDITARY GENIUS. The Rev. Dr. Bell, of Cheltenham, writes: “In your brief notice of Lady Dufferin's ## p. 136 (#150) ############################################ 136 THE AUTHOR. Memoirs, by her son, you ask : “Is not the Sheridan family the only family on record which has continued to hand down its best charac- teristics from one generation to another ?” May I in reply remind you that genius has shown itself to be hereditary in the family of the late Mr. Thomas Arnold, the eminent head master of Rugby, and author of “A History of Rome,” “Lectures on Modern History,” and other valu- able works. Mr. Matthew Arnold, the distin- guished poet, essayist, and critic, was his son, and his place in English Literature has become assured. Another son, Mr. Thomas Arnold, is well known in the literary world as the editor of Pope, the author of a volume on Literature, and is now engaged on a work, likely to add to his reputation, for the Rolls Office on the history of Bury St. Edmunds. His daughter, Mrs. Hum- phry Ward, has won herself a name in literature as the authoress of three novels which have commanded a large share of popular attention, and made their mark in the domain of fiction. Mr. Oakley Arnold Forster, a son of Mr. William Arnold, and grandson of Dr. Thomas Arnold, has a seat in the House of Commons for West Belfast, and has already shown distinct states- manlike qualities which augur well for his future, He also has proved himself possessed of literary powers. All who have the privilege of intimacy with the daughters of Dr. Arnold, one of whom is the widow of the eminent statesman the Right Hon. William Forster, will bear ready witness to their culture, charm, and intellectual powers, both of thought and expression, though those have been confined to the quiet sphere of home, and not sought the suffrages of the public. I may say, however, that Mrs. Forster has edited a new edition of her father's “Sermons on the Interpre- tation of Scripture and the Christian Life.” Surely you will allow that in the Arnold family, as well as in the Sheridan, literary genius is here- ditary. The great grandchildren are too young as yet to prove by their works what they can achieve.” W.—A NEW FoEM OF PAPER FOR TYPE- WIRITER.S. All who use a typewriter know what an amount of time is consumed in putting in, adjusting, and taking out the sheets of finished copy, particularly if one is duplicating by the use of carbon paper. I wish to suggest an improvement which I venture to think will save much time, particularly in MSS. of great length. Instead of the ordinary sheets of paper cut to 8in. by Ioin., or foolscap, why could we not have paper furnished us on rolls 8in. wide, and in lengths that would make IOO or 200 ordinary manuscript pages. The paper could then be put on a little adjustable reel and fed to the machine as the huge rolls of paper are fed to: printing machines. To make a duplicate copy two reels will be required, one placed above the other, and between these a long strip of carbon paper may be inserted. The sheets may be after- wards torn off as one tears off a cheque. I believe this to be perfectly practicable and intend to give it a trial, and will let your readers know the result of my experiment (with your permis- sion) later. J. H. H.ILL. *– ~ *-* *=s NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, Theology. A KEY TO THE BIBLE. By an Oxford M.A. Marshall. Is. DAVIE, REv. G. J. John Maldonatus’s Commentary on the Holy Gospels. Translated and edited. St. Matthew’s, Gospel. Part IV. Paper covers. John Hodges. Is. net. GIRDLESTONE, CANON. New edition. R.T.S. HEDLEY, JOHN C. A Retreat, consisting of Thirty-three Discourses with Meditations, for the use of the Clergy, Religious, and Others. Burns and Oates. 6s. HOLLAND, REv. W. L. The Bible Hymnal. Compiled by. Edinburgh : R. W. Hunter. Is. and 2s. 6d. net. HUMPHREY, REv. W.M. and Sacraments. Second edition, enlarged. and Leamington Art and Book Company. 58. MEYER, KUNo. Hibernica Minora, being a fragment of an Old Irish Treatise on the Psalter, with a translation and facsimile, glossary, and an appendix. Edited by. Anecdota Oxeniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, Part VIII. Henry Frowde. 7s.6d. MONCKTON, REv. J. G. A Key to the Figures of the Bible, &c. Paper covers. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. MossMAN, REv. D. T. W. The Great Commentary of Cor- nelius à Lapide upon the Holy Gospels, Translated and edited. Fifth edition. Part I. Paper covers. John Hodges. Is. net. NYE, G. H. F. The Church and Her Story. New and re- vised edition. Paper covers. Simpkin, Marshall. Is. 6d. net. PALMER, JoBIN. Catechisms for the Yonng. Third Series: The Prayer Book. Church of England Sunday School Institute. Is. 4d PRYNNE, REv. G. R. The Truth and Reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Longmans. 3s. 6d. RHYs DAVIDs, T. W. The Questions of King Milinda. Part II. Translated from the Pāli. Being Vol. XXXVI. of Sacred Books of the East, Edited by F. Max Müller. Henry Frowde. 12s. 6d. RocK, DR. DANIEL. The Hierurgia ; or the Holy Sacrifice. of the Mass. New and revised edition by W. H. J. Weale. Paper covers. Part II. John Hodges. Is.. net. - WATson, REv. DR. R. A. The Book of Numbers. Expo- sitor's Bible, seventh series. Hodder and Stoughton- 7s.6d. . ,” Simpkin, How to Study the English Bible. The One Mediator, or Sacrifice. London ## p. 137 (#151) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I37 History and Biography. ACCOUNTS OF THE CoRPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON FOR 1893. Paper covers. Charles Skipper and East. AIYA, W. NAGAM. Report on the Census of Travancore. Boards. Vol. I., Report. Vol. II., Appendix. Madras: Addison and Co. ARNOLD ForsTER, H. O. Things New and Old, or Stories from English History Standard W., Modern School Series. Cassell. Is. 6d. BELL, MALCOLM. Sir Edward Burne Jones, Bart. A Record and Review. Third edition. In special binding designed by Gleeson White. George Bell and Sons. 2Is. net. BROWN, ROBERT. The Story of Africa and its Explorers. Wol. III. Cassell and Co. CHANCELLOR, E. BERESFORD. The History and Antiquities of Richmond, Kew, Petersham, Ham, &c. Richmond : Hiscoke and Son. CowAN, PROF. HENRY. the Reformation. 6d. net. CUNNINGHAM, MAJOR-GENERAI, SIR. A. Coins of Mediaeval India, from the Seventh Century down to the Moham- medan Conquests. B. Quaritch. I58. DUCREST, MME. Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, with Anecdotes of the Courts of Navarre and Malmaison. 2 vols. Limited edition. H. S. Nichols and Co., Soho-square, W. 281 Is... net. GASQUET, FRANCIs A., D.D. English Monasteries. Sixth edition. Hodges. IS. net. HADDON, T. W. and HARRIson, G. C. Caesar’s Gallic War, Books I. and II. Edited by. 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HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union. Bank of London, Chancery-lame, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *~ * ~ * g- - -—s WARNINGS AND ADVICE, I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally . understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTS. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. 4. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an WOL. W. arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. * 5. LITERARY AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as yowr agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.--Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERs.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. IO. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.–Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. --Reep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society's Offices :— 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *—- - -º •- - -, HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member I 2 ## p. 90 (#104) ############################################# 90 THE AUTHOR. has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. *~ * ~ * g- > ---, THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE. EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. - 2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby given that in all cases where there is no current account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre- spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department” for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted ” has been opened. Members anxious to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com- municate with the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. *~ * → NOTICES, HE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Awthor complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P. If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at 489 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth ## p. 91 (#105) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 9 I as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-* -º * * * LITERARY PROPERTY, I.—Fox-Bourn E v. WERNoN AND Co. HIS case, finished on Aug. 3, heard before T the Lord Chief Justice and a special jury, was one in which an editor claimed twelve months' notice of dismissal, whereas he had only received six months' notice. The jury found a verdict for the defendants. The case would have little interest for this paper but for the words of the judge in defining what is meant by “custom '' (see the Times, Aug. 4, 1894). “Custom,” he said, “in its strict legal sense, was a uniform and universal practice so well defined and recognised that contracting parties must be assumed to have had it in their minds when they contracted.” Contracting parties, that is, on both sides. If, for instance, one side intends to falsify accounts, and excuses himself on the ground that it is a trade custom, while the other side know nothing of his intention, and had never heard of the alleged “custom,” the excuse, according to this judge's definition, would not be allowed. This definition agrees with the opinion of Mr. Cozens-Hardy, Q.C., and Mr. Rolt, published in the Author of March last. Of course the fact that such a practice was common, not to say universal, would have to be proved. The warning which the Lord Chief Justice addresses to journalists equally applies to writers of books, writers in magazines, dramatists, and every kind of literary worker. The following is the summing-up referred to (Times, Aug. 4):— The Lord Chief Justice, in summing-up, said the plaintiff was a journalist of good position and long experience, who had been employed by the defendants as their editor, and had received from them a six months' notice. The question for the jury was whether plaintiff was entitled to twelve months' notice or whether six months’ notice was such a notice as the defendants were legally entitled to give plaintiff. Although the case seemed to have excited a good deal of feeling between journalists and proprietors, it had no general importance, as in the future journalists would only have themselves to blame if they had not insisted upon having an agreement. The jury had no question of “custom" to consider, for “custom,” in its strict legal sense, was a uniform and universal practice, so well defined and recognised that contracting parties must be assumed to have had it in their minds when they contracted. The fact that in a large percentage of cases there were special agreements showed that no such universal custom existed. But on plaintiff's behalf it was sought to establish the existence of a “practice” regulating the relations between editors and proprietors. What that practice was would be some guide to the jury in coming to a conclusion as to what Was or was not a reasonable notice in this case. The case of Bremon v. Gilbart-Smith, which had been cited, was really not in point at all, for in that case no notice was given, and the question of twelve months' notice only arose incidentally with a view of fixing the amount of damages plaintiff was entitled to. II.-MUSICAL COPYRIGHT IN AMERICA. Mr. G. Dixey, secretary of the Music Pub- lishers' Association, writes from 9, Air-street, Regent-street, W., Aug. 4:—“I am instructed by this association to inform you that the plain- tiffs in the celebrated American test action of Novello and Co. v. The Oliver Ditson Company and others, have just received a telegram from their counsel, Mr. L. L. Scaife, of Boston, to the effect that the judge who tried the action has decided in the plaintiffs' favour on all points. The action, as you are aware, relates to the correct construction of what is known as the manufacturing clause in the American Copyright Act of 1891, and it was brought to test the ques- tion whether ‘a book' within the meaning of that clause includes “musical composition,’ which, in an earlier part of the Act is mentioned, together with “book’ and other subjects of copyright, as being entitled to protection under that Act. The judgment just delivered has settled the point for the present, and until that judgment is upset or varied it must be accepted that the law of the United States of America is, that the expression ‘book’ in the Act of 1891 does not include ‘musical composition,’ and that consequently it is not necessary that such compositions should be printed in America as a condition of obtaining copyright there.”—Times, Aug. 7. III.--ARTISTS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT. (From an American Correspondent.) Boston, Mass., Aug. 8.-A decision by Judge Putnam in the United States Circuit Court, filed to-day, holds that an artist having copyrighted a painting may restrain reproductions of the paint- ing, and that a bill in equity for an injunction may be maintained by one to whom the artist has sold the right and who has taken out a copyright in his name. - The decision was given in the case of Emil Werckmeister v. The Pierce and Bushnell Manu- ## p. 92 (#106) ############################################# 92 THE AUTHOR. facturing Company. G. Naujok, a resident of Germany, painted a picture called “Die Heilige Cecilia,” and later executed an instrument con- veying to the complainant the exclusive right of reproduction. The painting was publicly exhi- bited at Munich, and afterwards sold, and its present location is unknown. The complainant secured a copyright and filed a photograph of the painting at Washington. The defendant subse- quently sold in this country a photograph, which, it was claimed, is an infringement. The court ordered a decree for the complainant. IV.--THREE YEARS OF AMERICAN CoPYRIGHT. The Daily Chronicle (Aug. 14) publishes an instructive “interview º' with Professor Brander Matthews, of Columbia College, New York, on the result of three years' working of the American Copyright Act. In the first place, the pirates are nearly all “knocked out.” The pirate chief, Lovell, is bankrupt, and his stock of several millions is being sold at “dry good stores” at 4d. and 5d. a volume. When these have been worked through the book market will improve. Meantime, we must note the necessity of copyrighting everything. Mr. Matthews points out how three notable books of last season—“Dodo,” “The Yellow Aster,” and “Ships that Pass”— through neglect of this precaution were pirated and sold for 8 cents. Next, the effect on American literature is that American authors no longer have to compete with stolen goods. The publishers already show a very large increase of American books in proportion to British books. Harper Brothers show British books in their lists numbering 25 per cent. of the whole, as against 75 per cent. thirty years ago. Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. have reduced the percentage of British books to Io per cent. London houses in New York are putting out American books in excess of English books. - As to the price of books; novels, as a rule, appear in One volume, at four, five, or six shillings. The Americans are, as a rule, a book- buying, not a book-borrowing, people. The effect of free libraries tends in America, he thinks, first to beget and encourage the habit of reading, and next to develop the desire to possess books. They make people buyers of books. Mr. Matthews further gave his views as to the difference between the circulation of English and American magazines. He said: The main fact is, no doubt, that our reading public is so much larger than yours, and that for that very reason our I can learn, magazine proprietors are enabled to pursue a much more systematic and spirited policy than is possible with you. We have made magazine editing at once a fine art and a science. Each of our great magazines occupies the whole time and thoughts of a very large editorial staff, consisting in one case of an editor-in-chief, an associate editor, an assistant editor, two editorial assistants, and four or five editorial clerks, to say nothing of two or three art editors. Every manuscript that is sent in is examined, and articles and drawings are always paid for on acceptance, instead of, as with you, on publication. Harper's or the Century will often have £10,000 worth of stock in hand, paid for, and ready for use as occasion offers. The policy of these magazines is mapped out for years beforehand by experts in the art of meeting the public taste. But such a policy, it is clear, can be pursued only when a very large sale is assured. The circulation of the magazines I have named runs to something like 200,000 copies a month. From all no high-priced illustrated magazine on your side commands more than one-fourth of that sale. It is a noteworthy fact that not a single English magazine is to be seen on the American bookstalls, as our magazines are seen on yours. In the days of piracy your lead- ing reviews used to be reprinted every month and sold at low rates, but even before the passing of the Copyright Act that practice was found unremunerative, and was accordingly dropped. Now, a few sets of your leading reviews are sent over in sheets, stitched, and sold to clubs and libraries. They have practically no general sale whatever. “And our cheap magazines, such as the Strand—have you any periodicals of that class P” - “No,” replied Mr. Matthews, “and why P. Because their place is almost precisely occupied by the Sunday editions published by all our leading daily papers. These contain serial novels, short stories, and general articles, of exactly the same class as those which appear in your cheaper magazines, and illustrated in much the same style. In fact, the same stories and articles are often supplied by syndicates to your cheap magazines and to our Sunday papers.” W.—THE THREE-VoI,UME Nov EL. The fate of the three-volume novel still con- tinues to furnish matter for discussion. The Publisher's Circular naturally takes the keenest interest in the subject. The writer of an article in the August number on the Resolution of our council, puts forward certain statements and opinions which we can hardly accept. Thus he says: “We do not know how far this Resolution repre- sents, the mind of the great body of English novelists. . The opinion of writers in general, or even of the majority of the members of the Authors’ Society, was not, we believe, taken before the council passed its sweeping motion, and there are, we fancy, many writers of fiction who would repudiate this official declaration.” Now, the great body of English novelists are members of this Society. With a very few exceptions all novelists of standing are members. The Secretary received instructions to ask the opinions of all those members who are novelists, but not of other members. A “private and ## p. 93 (#107) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 93 confidential” circular was drawn up giving the facts of the case : and the opinions which were sent in were practically unanimous. Of course there may be, as the writer of the article thinks, some who would not agree with the Reso- lution, but they did not come forward. He says, further, that the “mass of the people does not read fiction.” The general opinion is that fiction is all that the mass does read— that part of the mass which reads anything besides the daily paper. He goes on to say, “Possibly the Council did not see that its resolution, if carried into effect, would deprive three-fourths of the members of the Society of their occupation and means of living.” - Let us, once more, take refuge in those figures which do so seriously annoy those who love a good broad general statement. There are between 1300 and 1400 members of the Society. Three-fourths of this number means about a thousand. It has been pretty conclusively proved in back numbers of the Author that the number of novelists whose works possess any commercial value at all with Mudie and Smith is under 300, of whom about one hundred are likely to be affected by the abolition of the three- volume system. It is a great mistake to suppose that the members of the Society are nearly all novelists. Statements to this effect have been made, over and over again, with intent to injure, but not in the Publisher's Circular, whose attitude towards the Society is generally fair. The writer probably reveals the truth when he says that depression in trade has brought about the present crisis. It is certainly more than twenty years since the three-volume novel was fiercely denounced; but it survived. Times were good; libraries took large numbers; cheap editions could wait. Now, smaller numbers must be taken at a less price; that is what the libraries say. Let us, therefore, go straight to the general public. That is what the majority of novelists say ; that is what many of the best novelists have already begun to do; that is what many publishers have declared their intention to do for the future. It is a significant commen- tory on this article, written clearly in favour of the old system, that the back page of the JPublisher's Circular contains an announcement that Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. will no longer issue three-volume novels, except under special circumstances. The three-volume novel, however, is not yet dead. WI.--THE COPYRIGHT Congress AT ANTWERP. The Association Littéraire et Artistique Inter- nationale informed us that a copyright congress would be held at Antwerp from the 18th to the 25th of Aug., and invited this Society to send delegates. We regret extremely that the invita- tion should not have come into our hands until after the last committee meeting, so that, our members having dispersed, there was no oppor- tunity of arranging for the proper representation of the Society. We wait for a report of the proceedings. The following is the official pro- gramme :- PROGRAMME Gână RAL DEs TRAvAUx. Du contrat d'édition, en matières littéraires, artistiques et musicales. Rapportewrs: MM. Pouillet et Ocampo. De l'arbitrage en matière de contestation relative à la pro- priété intellectuelle. Rapportewr: M. Maunery. De la propriété littéraire en fait de noms individuels. Rapportewr: M. Georges Maillard. De la propriété littéraire en fait de titres. Rapportew": Dr. Max Nordau. De la collaboration. Rapporteur : M. Harmand. De la propriété artistique en matière de portrait. De la propriété des types (clichés) de reproduction. Rapportewr: M. Davaune. - De la création d'un répertoire universel au bureau inter- national de Berne. De l'obligation du dépôt. De l'enregistrement. Rapportewr: M. Jules Lermina. De la traduction. De la caution Judicatwm Solvi. De la photographie. Rapportewr: M. Eugène Pouillet. Des droits des auteurs en matière de représentation gratuite. Rapportewr: M. Wauwermans. De la clause de la nation la plus favorisée. Rapporteur: M. A. Darras. *- 2-º -- w - A POET'S LOWE, [Imitated from a poem by Felix d'Anvers, quoted by Ste. Beuve Nouv. Lundis. III., 351.] Love leaped like instant lightning to my breast And made himself therein a secret throne : The hopeless slavery I bear unknown, By her who caused it least of all is guessed. I pass her often, as in darkness dressed, And even when by her side am still alone; Nor when I lie beneath my burial-stone Will prayer of mine have ever marred her rest. She whom God made so tender and so kind Perceives not, bent upon her daily task, The sighs of love that round her presence go; But wrapped in duty, innocently blind, - Reading the words I write of her, will ask— “Who was the woman that he worshipped so H. G. R. ## p. 94 (#108) ############################################# 94 THE AUTHOR. THE PRICE OF THE NOVEL–1750-1894. HE following is a table of the prices at which the English novel has been issued from the year 1750 to the year 1860. It has been compiled from catalogues and lists published at the end of books, from magazines, and from advertisements. The compiler, Mr. R. English, of the British Museum, made no choice, but wrote down selections from the lists at random, three or four for each year. Some of the novels whose authorship was subsequently acknow- ledged appeared at first anonymously. Year. Author. Title, Vols. Price. I750 Fielding ........................ Tom Jones ...................................................... 4. 3o 12 O 35 Paltock ........................ Peter Wilkins........... © tº 4 tº e s tº a 4 º' s s º is a t t e º e º tº e º a s - e s a e s is s a e s & 8 2 o 6 O I75I Smollett ........................ Peregrine Pickle ............................................. 4. O I2 O 33 Anonymous..................... Adventures of Lucy Frail.................................... I O 3 O 1760 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adventures of Sylvia Hughes .............................. I O 3 O 1761 25 - - - - - - - - - . . . . . . . . . . . . Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph ........................ 2 o 7 6 1762 Author of Roderick Random Sir Launcelot Greaves ....................................... 2 O 6 O 25 Anonymous..................... Longwood, Earl of Salisbury .............................. 2 o 6 o 1770 3 * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adventures of a Bank Note ................................. 4 O I 2 O 33 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Constantia ...................................................... I O 3 O 1771 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Captive; or, the History of Mr. Clifford ......... 2 o 6 O 1772 Author of Roderick Random Expedition of Humphrey Clinker................. ......... I O 3 O 1780 Anonymous..................... Alwyn ; or, the Gentleman Comedian..................... 2 o 6 O 1782 33 • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - George Bateman ............................................. 3 o 7 6 1784 23 - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barnham Downs ............................................. 2 o 7 o 1789 L. Lewis ........................ Lord Walford................................................... 2 O 6 O I790 Mrs Bonhote .................. Darnley Wale; or, Emilia Fitzroy ........................ 3 o 7 6 32 Anonymous..................... History of Miss Meredith.................................... 2 O 6 O 35 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Man of Feeling .......................................... 2 O 5 O 33 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Recluse ................................................... 2 O 5 O 99 35 - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Maid of Kent ............................................. 3 O 9 O 35 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louisa Forester................................................ 3 7 6 o 33 Charlotte Lennox ............ Euphemia. ...................................................... 4. O I 2 O I79I Jane Timbury.................. The Philanthropic Rambler ................................. I O 3 O 33 Anonymous..................... St. Julian's Abbey............................................. 2 O 5 O 33 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Henley ................................................ 2 O 5 O 33 35 - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sempronia ...................................................... 3 O 9 O 33 Clara Reeve .................. School for Widows............................................. 3 O 9 O 33 J. White ........................ - The Adventures of Richard Coeur de Lion.............., 3 O 9 O I792 Anonymous..................... Dinabas ......................................................... I O 3 O 33 By a Lady ..................... The Baroness of Beaumont ................................. 2 O 6 O 33 Anonymous..................... Modern Miniature ............................................. 2 O 6 O 33 33 • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Delineations of the Heart.................................... 3 O 9 O 33 Charlotte Smith ............... Desmond, a Novel............................................. 3 O 9 O I793 35 • * * * * * * * * * * * * Wanderings of Warwick .................................... I O 4 O 33 Anonymous..................... Siavery; or, the Times....................................... 2 O 6 O 33 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . History of Philip Waldegrave .............................. 2 O 6 O 33 35 - " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Dupe ...................................................... 2 O 5 O 33 33 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Selinor............................................................ 6 O 18 O I794 Geo. Hutton .................. Amantus and Elmore ....................................... I O 3 O 35 Anonymous..................... Ivey Castle ...................................................... 2 O 6 O 33 33 s = < * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Tales of Elam............................................. 2 o 6 o 35 S. Pearson ..................... The Medallion ................................................ 3 O 9 O 32 55 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ellen, Countess of Castle Howell ........................ 4 O I 2 O I795 Anonymous..................... The Ghost-Seer ................................................ I O 3 O 35 Geo. Brewer ... ............... The Motto ...................................................... 2 O 6 O 33 Anonymous..................... Elisa Powell ................................................... 2 o 7 o 33 Mary E. Parker ............... Orwell Manor................................................... 3 O 9 O 33 Anonymous..................... Secrecy, a Novel ............................................. 3 O 9 O 53 35 - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry, a Novel ................................................ 4. O I 2 O 1796 J. Palmer ..................... The Haunted Cavern.......................................... I O 3 O 3? Anonymous..................... Arville Castle................................................... 2 O 6 O 93 IRichard Hey .................. Edington, a Novel............................................. 2 o 6 o 33 Mary Robinson ............... Angelina, a Novel ............................................. 3 O I3 O 33 Mrs. Meeke..................... The Abbey of Clugny ....................................... 3 O 9 O 35 Anonymous..................... Agatha, a Novel ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 O I 2 O 1797 93 s = < * * * * * & 2 e º e º 'º e s tº a c is The Village Curate ...... a 2 & º º ſº tº is º f tº 6 s is tº 4 e º a tº 9 s s a s s a tº e s s s a s a I o 3 6 ## p. 95 (#109) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. Year. Author. Title. Wols. Price. 1797 Anonymous..................... The Inquisition ................................................ 2 O 6 O 25 23 ° e º • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Nun......................................................... 2 O 8 O 35 M. G. Lewis .................. The Monk ...................................................... 3 o IO 6 23 J. Fox ........................... Santa Maria ................................................... 3 O 1 o 6 33 Anonymous..................... The Church of St. Sifford.................................... 4. O I4. O 1798 33 s = * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Statira ; or, the Mother....................................... I o 3 6 33 33 - " - e s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Henry Willoughby............................................. 2 o 7 o 23 Anna Plumtree ............... The Rector's Son ............................................. 3 O IO 6 35 Mrs. Tomlins ................. Rosalind de Tracy............................................. 3 O IO 6 33 Geo. Walker .................. Cinthelia ...................................................... - - - 4. O I4. O I799 Anonymous.......... .* * * * * * * * * * * The Orphan Heiress of St. Gregory........................ I O 4 O 23 33 - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Helen Sinclair ................................................ 2 O 7 o 25 3) - - - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * * * Sketches of Modern Life .................................... 2 O 7 o 25 33 - " " " - s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tale of the Times ............................................. 3 O I 2 O 53 3 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Castle of St. Donats.......................................... 3 O IO 6 33 E. Helme........................ Albert, a Novel ................................................ 4 O I4. O I8OO A. Thicknesse.................. The School of Fashion ....................................... 2 O I2 O 33 Anonymous...................... A Northumbrian Tale ....................................... I o 4 6 33 Mrs. Robinson ſº tº e s : s a The Natural Daughter ....................................... 2 O 7 O 32 Anonymous..................... Selina, a Novel ................................................ 3 O IO 6 33 Miss Gunning .................. The Gipsey Countess.......................................... 4. O I4. O 33 Anonymous..................... Exhibitions of the Heart .................................... 4 I I O 33 C. Selden........................ Serena ............................................................ 3 o Io 6 18OI Anonymous..................... The Castle of Eridan.......................................... I O 4 6 23 33 - * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Picture of the Age ....................................... 2 o 6 O 22 Mrs. Burke ..................... Elliot, a Novel ................................................ 2 o 8 O 25 P. Littlejohn .................. The Mistake ................................................... 3 O I2 O 33 Anonymous..................... Adonia, a Novel................................................ 4. o 18 O 33 M. A. Hanway ............... Andrew Stuart ................................................ 4 O 18 O 1802 Miss Hatfield .................. She Lives in Hopes, &c. .................................... 2 O 9 O 33 Anonymous..................... Belmont, a Novel ............................................. 3 O IO 6 39 Anne Plumtree ............... Something New ; or, Adventures at Campbell House... 3 O I5 O 25 H. Ventum ..................... Justinia, a Novel ..... ... .................................... 4. O 18 O 33 Mrs. Hunter .................. Letitia, a Novel ................................................ 4 I I O 1803 Anonymous..................... Lucy Osmond................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I O 3 O 33 Eliza N. Bromley ............ The Cave of Cosenza.................... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * , , , 2 O I2 O 33 Anonymous..................... Lady Geraldine Beaufort .................................... 3 O IO 6 35 Mrs. Hunter .................. Letters from Mrs. Palmerston, &c......................... 3 O I5 O : 3 Anonymous..................... Follies of Fashion ............................................. 3 o 13 6 23 33 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Helen of Glenross ............................................. 4. O 16 o 1804 25 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Leopold ; or, the Bastard.................................... 2 o 8 O 33 25 - - - - - - - - - - - - - . . . . . . . . Letters of Mrs. Riversdale ........................ ... . . . . . . 3 o 13 6 2 3 Eugenia de Acton ............ A Tale without a Title ....................................... 3 O I2 O 23 Anonymous..................... Pride of Ancestry ............................................. 4. o 16 O 33 Mrs. Thomson.................. St. Clair of the Isles .......................................... 4. O I4. O 1805 Mrs. Hunter .................. The Unexpected Legacy .................................... 2 O 9 O 33 Mary Goldsmith............... Casualities ............ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................. 2 O 6 O 22 Mrs. Le Noir .................. Village Anecdotes ............................................. 3 O I2 O 3) A. M. Porter .................. The Lake of Killarney ....................................... 3 o 13 6 33 Anonymous..................... What You Please, &c. ......................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. o 16 o 33 M. Malden ..................... Jessica Mandeville............................................. 5 o 17 6 I806 Anonymous..................... - Belville House ............................................. ... 2 O 8 O 23 35 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A Sailor's Friendship ....................................... 2 O 8 O 33 33 - - - - * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Flim Flams, &c................................................. 3 I I O 35 Mrs. Opie ..................... Adeline Mowbray ............................................. 3 o 13 6 33 Eliz. Helme..................... Pilgrim of the Cross.......................................... 4. O 18 O 33 R. C. Dallas .................. The Morlands................................................... 4. I I O 1807 F. Lathom ..................... The Impenetrable Secret .................................... 2 o 6 O 33 Robert Semple ............... Charles Ellis ................................................... 2 O 9 O 35 Mrs. Edgworth ............... Lenora...........• * * * g e s e e s tº e º e s - a • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2 o IO 6. 33 J. Mackintosh ............... Men and Women ............................................. 3 o 13 6 93. Mrs. Opie ..................... Simple Tales .............................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 I I O 33 M. A. Lewis .................. Feudal Tyrants ........................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 I 8 O 1808 M. Rymer ..................... The Spaniard, &c. ........................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I O 4 O 92 Anonymous..................... Helen, a Novel ................................................ 2 o Io 6 22 39 & B tº º e º 'º - e º a º - G tº a c e º e & George the Third ............................................. 3 o 13 6. WOL. W. K. ## p. 96 (#110) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. Wear. Author, Title. Wols. Price. 1808 Anonymous................ © e º e e Theodore; or, the Enthusiast .............................. 4. I I O 3? Madame Genlis ............... Alphonsine, &c. ................................................ 4 I 8 O 1809 || Anonymous..................... Theodore; or, the Peruvians .............................. I o 4 6 22 F. Lathom ..................... The Fatal Wow ................................................ 2 O 9 O 33 J. N. Brewer .................. Mountville Castle ............................................. 3 O I5 O 33 G. Amphlett .................. Ned Bentley ................................................... 3 O I5 O 33 Peter Peregrine ............... Matilda Montford ............................................. 4. I I O 33 Miss M. Linwood ............ Leicestershire Tales .......................................... 4. I I O 1810 Anonymous..................... Faulconstein Forest .......................................... I O 6 6 25 92 - e s - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Calibia, Choosing a Husband .............................. 2 O IO O 55 Miss Edgeworth............... Tales of Fashionable Life.................................... 3 O 18 O 33 Anonymous.......... * . . . . . . . . . . The Acceptance................................................ 3 o 18 o 33 Harriet Jones.................. The Family of Santraile ..................... .............. 4 I 4 O 35 Alicia T. Palmer............... The Daughters of Isonberg ................................. 4 I 4 O 33 F. Melville ..................... The Benevolent Monk ....................................... 3 o 13 6 25 Anne Ormsby.................. The Soldier's Family... ...................................... 4 I 6 O 35 Anonymous............... ..... “Frederick” ................................................... 2 O I 2 O 181 I C. H. Wilson .................. The Irish Valet ....................................... ........ I O 5 O 35 Anonymous..................... The Reformist ................................................ 2 O IO O 33 23 ° - * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Self Control ................................................... 3 I 4 O 33 Theodore Edgeworth ......... The Shipwreck ................................................ 3 O I5 O 35 Emma Parker.................. Virginia, &c. ................................................... 4. I 4 O 1812 Mrs. Roberts ................. Rose and Emily................................................ I o 5 6 33 Anonymous..................... Things by their Right Names .............................. 2 O IO 6 33 33 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rhydisel; or, the Devil in Oxford ........................ 2 O Io 6 32 23 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Adventures of Dick Distich ................................. 3 O 16 6 33 Mrs. Opie ..................... Tempter ; or, Domestic Scenes ........................... 3 I I O 35 Ann Plumtree.................. History of Myself and Friend .............................. 4 I 8 O 1813 Anonymous .................... The Sisters, a Domestic Tale .............................. I O 5 O 55 Miss Benger .................. The Heart and the Fancy........................... ........ 2 O I 2 O 35 Anonymous..................... She Thinks for Herself ....................................... 3 o 16 6 92 Mrs. Peck ..................... Waga ; or, View of Nature ................................. 3 O 18 O 93 Miss Burney .................. Traits of Nature................................................ 4. I 8 O 1814 Anonymous..................... Sara, a Tale ............... 6 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I o 5 6 33 W. H. Hitchener ............ The Towers of Ravenswold ................................. 2 O IO O 32 Anonymous..................... The Adventures of a Dramatist ........................... 2 O I 2 O 33 Lady Morgan .................. O'Donnel, a National Tale ................................. 3 I I O 33 Miss Houghton ...... ..... .. The Border Chieftain.......................................... 3 O 18 O 95 Maria Edgeworth ............ Patronage, a Novel .......................................... 4. I 8 O 1815 Maria Benson .................. System or no System.......................................... I O 6 O 22 John Gamble .................. Howard, a Novel ............................................. 2 O 9 O 35 Sir Walter Scott...... . . . . . . . . . Guy Mannering ................................................ 3 I I O 23 Emma Parker.................. The Guerrilla Chief .............................. ........... 3 I I O 25 Anonymous..................... History of John de Castro ................................. 4 I 4 O 33 Ann M. Porter ............... The Recluse of Norway....................................... 4 I 4 O 1816 Anonymous..................... A Tale for Gentle and Simple .............................. I o 7 o 95 23 ° - * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Adventures of Peter Wilkins .............................. 2 o Io 6 33 Mrs. Opie ..................... Valentine's Eve ................................................ 3 I I O 35 T. S. Surr ..................... Magic of Wealth ............................................. 3 O 18 O 32 Anonymous..................... Chronicles of an Illustrious House ........................ 5 I 7 6 33 23 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * s Clara Albin........ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * , , , s a s 4. I 8 O 1817 33 ° e º s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Headlong Hall ..................... ... ............. ......... I O 6 o 93. Emma Parker.................. Self Deception .......................................... . ... 2 O I 2 O 35 Anonymous..................... Melincourt, &c. ............ ............................. ..... 3 O 18 O 53 3 x * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Six Weeks at Long's.................................... . ... 3 I I O 35 Fanny Holcroft ............... Fortitude and Frailty * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * s g g a s e e 4. I 2 O 33 Anonymous..................... The Pastor's Fireside * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . e. e. 4 I I I 6 1818 Eliz. B. Lester ............... The Quakers ............... ....................... ... ........ I O 6 o 33 Anonymous..................... Northern Irish Tales............... .. • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * e s e 2 O I 2 O 2) }} • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Manners, a Novel .............................. ... ........... 3 O 18 O 33 Anna M. Porter ............... The Knight of St. John ... ... ........... ................. 3 I I O 33 Mrs. Opie ..................... New Tales ...................................................... 4 I 8 O 35 By the Earl of Erpingham... Some Account of Myself ............ .....,.............. .. 4 I 2 O 33 Anonymous..... tº s e º e º e s a s a e º e a e Rosabella ; or, Mother's Marriage ......,,................ 5 I IO O 1819 33 - " " " " " : * * * * * * * * * * * * s a Conidans, &c,.................. . . ........................... I o 7 O 25 Madame Planche ,,,,,,,,, A Year and a Day... ................... i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 O I2 O ## p. 97 (#111) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 97 Year. Author. Title, Wols. Price, 1819 Anonymous..................... Errors and their Consequences.............................. 2 O I3 O 35 Miss Porter..................... The Fast of St. Magdalen......................... 3 I I O 22 Miss Croker .................. The Question, Who is Anna P .............................. 3 I 4 O 33 Mrs. Robert Moore............ Eveleen Mountjoy ............................................. 4. I 4 O 182O M. A. Grant .................. Tales Founded on Facts .................................... I O 7 O 29 Anonymous..................... The Retreat ................................................... 2 O I 2 O 22 A. Marmacopt.................. The Wharbroke Legend....................................... 2 O 14 O 33 Sir Walter Scott............... The Abbot ...................................................... 3 I 4 O 35 Mrs. Opie ..................... Tales of the Heart............................................. 4. I 8 O 32 R. C. Dallas .................. Sir Francis Darrell............................................. 4. I 8 O 33 Anonymous..................... The Mystery of Forty Years Ago ........................ 3 I I O 1821 H. B. Gascoigne............... Sympathy, &c. ............... ................................ I O 5 O 32 J. H. Brady .................. The Spanish Rogue .......................................... 2 O I5 O 95 Anonymous..................... Concealment ......................... # * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * s a e s s 3 I I O 95 Lee Gibbons .................. The Cavalier ................................................... 3 I I O 39 Anonymous..................... A Legend of Argyle .............................. . ......... 3 I I O 1822 Sir Walter Scott ............ The Pirate ...................................................... . 3 I I I 6 53 Charlotte C. Richardson ... The Soldier's Child ... ....................................... 2 O I 2 O 22 Anonymous..................... Maid Marian ................................................... I o 7 o 33 James Hogg .................. Three Perils of Man .......................................... 3 I 4 O 33 Anonymous..................... Pen Owen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I II 6 33 Sir Walter Scott..... ......... Peveril of the Peak ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2 2 O 1823 Anonymous..................... A New England Tale.......................................... I o 6 o 3? 35 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Which is the Heroine P....................................... 2 O I 2 O 33 33 s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Confederate................................................ 3 I I O 39 99 • * * * * * * * * e & © tº a 9 tº e º e º e King of the Peak ................................ ............ 3 I I O 33 Sir Walter Scott............... Quentin Durward ............................................. 3 I I I 6 33 Anonymous..................... Reginald Dalton................................................ 3 I I I 6 1824 35 s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Stranger's Grave ....................................... I O 6 O 33 Geo. Soane ..................... The Outcasts ................................................... 2 o 16 O 2 3 Geo. Butt........................ The Spanish Daughter ....................................... 2 o 16 o 35 Anonymous..................... Trials, a Novel ................................................ 3 I I O 2 3 Sir Walter Scott............... Red Gauntlet ................................................... 3 I I I 6 33 3.5 s = * * * * * * * * * * * * * St. Roman's Well ............................................. 3 I I I 6 1825 B. D'Israeli..................... Vivian Grey ................................................... 2 O 18 O 23 Anonymous..................... Matilda, a Tale of the Day .............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I O IO 6 33 33 • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Story of a Life .......................................... 2 o 18 o 35 35 • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Foresters................................................... 3 I 7 O 23 5 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tremaine; or, Man of Refinement ........................ 3 I 4 O 5 § Sir Walter Scott.............., Tales of the Crusaders ....................................... 4. 2 2 O 92 H. Willis........................ Castle Baynard ................................................ I O 8 O 35 T. Lister........................ Granby ......................................................... 3 I I I 6 25 H. Smith........................ Brambletye House .............................. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I I I 6 1826 Anonymous..................... Sir John Chiverton, a Romance ........................... I O IO 6 33 33 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Truth, a Novel ................................................ 3 I 4 O 33 Allan Cunningham............ Paul Jones ...................................................... 3 I I I 6 35 33 - e s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Tor Hill, a Novel ....................................... 3 I I I 6 1827 33 e s , , s a s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * Falkland, a Novel............................................. I o Io 6 35 23 ° • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Confessions of an Old Bachelor ........................... I o Io 6 35 32 - . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Belmour, a Novel ..................... ....................... 2 O 18 O 33 39 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - English Fashionables Abroad ........................... & e & 3 I I I 6 33 35 • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Historiettes, Tales of Continental Life .................. 3 I I I 6 32 33 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Richmond, &c., a Novel .................................... 3 I I I 6 1828 Sir Walter Scott............... Tales of a Grandfather....................................... I o Io 6 33 Anonymous..................... Yes or No, a Novel .......................................... 2 I I O 92 35 . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Confessions of an Old Maid .............. .................. 3 I 8 6 35 25 - - - - - - - * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Herbert Lacy, a Novel ................................... ... 3 I I I 6 33 35 • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tales and Legends.............. .............................. 3 I II 6 35 33 - e s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * De Lisle; or, the Distrustful Man ........................ 3 I I I 6 93 35 e s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Herbert Milton ............................................. tº & & 3 I I I 6 1830 Marryatt........................ The King's Own................................................ 3 I I I 6 25 Ritchie........................... The Game of Life ............................................. 2 O 18 O 22 E. Lane ........................ The Fugitives................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I O 9 O 1835 Sir E. B. Lytton............... The Student .................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 I I O 39 Anonymous..................... Agnes Searle ................................................... 3 I II 6 ?? ?? * * * * * * * * * * * * Finesse, a Novel * c s , , , , , , , , , , , , , a t w w w w • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2 I I Q ## p. 98 (#112) ############################################# 98 THE AUTHOR. Year. Author. Title. Wols. Price. 1840 G. P. R. James ............... The King's Highway................................. ........ 3 I I I 6 1841 Anonymous..................... Bllen Braye; or, the Fortune Teller ..................... 2 I I O 1845 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Aston..................... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I O 6 O 35 D. Lister........................ College Chums ................................................ 2 I I O 33 G. P. R. James ............... The Smuggler............................ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3 I I I 6 1850 Anonymous..................... Shadow and Sunshine ...................... ................. I O 6 O 33 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Silwood, a Novel ............................................. 2 I I O 35 P. Leicester..................... Ada Greville ................................................... 3 I I I 6 I86o Capt. Wraxall.................. Camp Life ...................................................... I O IO 6 32 Anonymous..................... Hulse House, by the Author of Anne Grey............... 2 I I O 2 3 F. J. Greenwood ............ Under a Cloud ................................................ 3 I I I 6 If we analyse this list the following facts are established: 1. From 1750 to 1792 inclusive the ruling price of a novel was 3s. a volume, so that a four-volume novel was 12s. and a three-volume novel was 98. Occasionally, however, there is observed a tendency to cheaper forms, as in 1790, when there occur two cases of novels at 2s. 6d. a volume. This price was “net;” there was no reduction or discount to the public. The novels of this period were for the most part very short; now and then, as in the case of “Tom Jones” and “Peregrine Pickle,” they were long; as a rule they were much shorter than the modern Three-Decker. . 2. In the year 1793 there is a sign of an upward tendency. A single volume book is announced at 4s. Then for three or four years the old price is maintained. In 1796 Mary Robinson’s “Angelina.” is priced at 4s. 6d. a volume, and “Agatha,” whatever her merits may have been, appears at 4s. a volume. In 1797 3s. 6d. and 4s. are the rule. In 1798 the old price is forgotten. In 1799 nothing is under 3s. 6d. In 1800 prices range from 3s. 6d., 4s. 6d., 5s. 3d., to 6s. a volume. In 18O1, nothing is higher than 4.s. 6d. In 1802 we range from 4s. 6d. to 5s. 3d. The same prices are asked in 1803, 1804, 1805. of “Flim Flams ” asks 7s. a piece for his volumes. A common form is now the four- volume novel at a guinea. Here and there, all the time, we find the old price of 3s. In 1807 Lewis’s “Feudal Tyrants” is issued in four volumes at £1 8s. In 1808 Mdme. Genlis' “Euphrosyne” is published in four volumes at the same price. In 1809 and 18 IO 6s. a volume is the rule. In 181 I an Anonymous issues a three-volume novel at £I 4s.--we are getting very close to the guinea and a half. From 1812 to 1821 prices range from 6s. to 8s. a volume. In 1822 for the first time occurs the ominous price of a guinea and a half. There may be earlier cases, but the first discovered by Mr. In 1806 the author English was that of Sir Walter Scott's “Pirate,” in three volumes. In the same year “Peveril of the Peak” was published in four volumes at 282 2s., viz., half a guinea for every volume. From 1823 to 1830 one-volume novels are issued at 6s, and at Ios. 6d., but by far the larger at the latter price. Two-volume novels appear at 12s., 16s., 18s., and a guinea. Three- volume novels at a guinea, 31 48., 31 7s., and 31 IIs. 6d. That is, out of twenty-one three volume novels on this list fifteen are at a guinea. and a half, two at £1 8s. 6d., one at £I 7s., two at £1 4s., and one at a guinea. From the year 1825 to 1860 the price of half a guinea for every volume was the rule, with here and there a rare exception. Of late years there have been many experiments in price and form. Certain well-known writers have never produced a three-volume novel at all; the price of the single volume has become a uniform 6s., exactly double the price a hundred years ago. The first appearance of the cheap edition seems to have been the series of novels issued by Messrs. Colburn and Bentley in 1831, called “Bentley’s Standard Novels and Romances,” at 2s. 6d. each. Of this series the Athenæum of that date says: “If these works do not succeed, and eminently, it is no use catering honestly for the public. These are among the very best and cheapest ever issued from the press.” The first appearance of the six-shilling novel seems to have been in 1861, when Messrs. Blackwood and Sons published at that price George Eliot’s “Silas Marner.” Others followed at the same price, and the London publishers, as Bentley and Son, Sampson Low, &c., speedily began to publish at the same price. The second and cheap edition of the novel, in regular succession, either at 6s. Or 3s. 6d., or less, is a thing of not more than thirty years’ existence. The old rule was one form of publication, either serially or in three-volume form, and then an end. Until the year 1865 or thereabouts, if a novel ## p. 99 (#113) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 99 appeared in a magazine, that was its first and final appearance. The two-shilling novel, for which Miss Braddon is chiefly responsible, began the cheap edition. But the ordinary successful novelist did not, as a rule, look forward to a cheap edition of his story, however well it was received by the public, and there were critics who spoke of a reprint, even if it contained an acknowledgment of the journal from which it was taken, as if the publisher and the author were committing some kind of fraud upon the public in presenting old Wares a,S new. The rise in price from 3s. to half a guinea a volume may perhaps be explained by more than one theory. Perhaps the following explanation may find acceptance : The rise in price begins towards the close of the last century. For nearly a quarter of a century the country was engaged in a deadly contest for life and liberty. This contest demanded the most cruel sacrifices. Therefore, although the seas were kept pretty well open and a great part of our foreign trade remained with us, the taxation fell heavily on all classes, but most heavily on that class which then formed the great bulk of readers —the clergy and the professional people. The examples of Edinburgh, Lichfield, Exeter, Norwich, and other places illustrate the importance of the literary circles—some of them containing men of great literary ability—which had sprung up all over the country. The members of these coteries, perforce, ceased to buy books; they formed book clubs and circulating libraries. The natural result of the narrowed circulation was a rise in price. From 3s. a volume the novel became gradually, as we have seen, half a guinea. And this price con- tinued, because the people had lost the habit of buying books, and, though the book clubs fell to pieces and the literary coteries were broken up, the habit of reading remained and was extended more and more, while the central circulating library took the place of the country book club and supplied the reading, the demand for which far exceeded, and still exceeds, the purchasing power of the people. *- r= - - THE AUTUMN ANNOUNCEMENTS, HEY have already begun in the Athenæum. The number for August 25 contains the autumn lists of four publishers. It is proposed to analyse and classify these lists as was done last year in these columns. This classifica- tion cannot be complete before the end of October or perhaps later. Meantime, with thirty-five WOL. W. new books and new editions announced by Messrs. Longman; fifty-four by Messrs. Chatto and Windus; seventeen by Messrs. Chambers; and four by Messrs. Putnam, we make a good beginning. At present we may only observe that, as appears from these lists, the three-volume novel is not dead yet. *- - -º ON “WARNINGS AND ADVICE.” CORRESPONDENT addresses a letter to the editor which seems to demand especial attention. He writes to this effect : “I read your paper regularly from beginning to end. It afflicts me, every month, with a pro- found melancholy on account of your “Warnings and Advice.’ They may be most useful, for those who can follow them. I cannot. I am one of those whose first desire is to get my work pub- lished at all. Why? Because I have a message for the world? Not at all. But because I can write things of a kind which command a certain, but not a great, success. My line is the novel, but there are many others, like myself, though in other lines, who can produce work which gets bought, somehow, to some small extent. They write readable essays; ‘ historical’ chapters, cribbed from recent investigations in the Record Office and elsewhere; concocted out of old books in a library, and made to look something like work of Original research among unpublished documents; biographies of half-forgotten celebrities; poetry. But the poets are not quite up to my level, for they have to pay for their things; I want my work published, and not at my own cost. I want, also, to be known in my own circle as a man of letters. It gives one a certain distinction to have produced one book and to be engaged upon another. My vanity is, I believe, the leading motive. But, besides, I always have a suspicion that my work may be worth large sums of money, and I naturally want all I can get, and more. So that I go to my publisher, first and above all things, anxious that he should take my stuff; next, suspicious of his terms; and, lastly, afraid to stipulate any conditions. As for independence, I really haven’t any. I am in his hands; he makes me feel that he is obliging me. Not that he is insolent ; he is even kindly ; sometimes he makes me miserable by telling me how much he loses by his authors; sometimes he makes me mad by little condescensions and words of patronage. Always, of course, I am to be the obliged and grateful party in the business. I am never, as you desire me to be, independent of him. He will very kindly take my work ; he will very I. ## p. 100 (#114) ############################################ I OO THE AUTHOR. nobly, though he says he is certain to be a loser by it, make me an offer. He has produced half-a-dozen books of my mine; on every one he says he has lost; yet he is always ready to take another. There- fore, as he is a business man, I do not believe him. But I don’t dare tell him so. What have your warnings and your information done for me P. Well, they have proved clearly that, even with my limited sale, the gratitude should be on his side, not mine. As a (hitherto) grateful dependant on this disinterested Patron, it is gall and wormwood to me to learn what his agreement really means, and what it is that I have had to accept. Your “Warnings and Advice’ are fourteen in number; they are all practical; they are all, I dare say, to other people, useful. But, alas ! they are of no use to me, because I am Quite unable to adopt any of them. I might, it is true, go so far as to stamp the agreement—I don’t think he would find it out—but the nature of the document makes it quite un- necessary for me. The other man can stamp his, if he likes, but it seems unnecessary. Then, again, I might take your advice about a literary agent, but I fear that my commercial value at the best is not great enough to make any agent anxious to have me as a client—my last book, produced on the half-profit plan, showed a loss of eleven pounds, eleven and eightpence. As regards “future work, my Patron has not yet tried to bind me down; but he would do so, I dare say, if he thought of it. And as for drawing the agreement myself, or reserving anything, or having a say in the advertisements, I think I see my Patron's face if I dared to suggest anything of the kind. One poor man, a friend in the same line as myself, and of about equal commercial value, ventured once to suggest to his Patron that he might have the accounts of the joint venture audited. “What?’ cried the Patron, “do you think I mean to cheat you ?’ The retort was obvious ; there can be but one reason for your partner hiding his books; but my friend did not dare to make use of it. I myself on one occasion when a royalty was offered—I will not lower myself in your eyes by confessing the amount of that royalty or the number of copies which had to be sold before the royalty began—ventured to ask Smilingly—it was a hollow, forced smile, I fear —what share of profit the proposed arrange- ment might leave to the other side. He replied, icily, that he must really be allowed to manage nis property—he called it his property—in his own way, and it was no affair of mine whether he lost or gained. Most likely, he added, pump- ing up a sigh, he should be a very heavy loser. “In plain words, I am entirely dependent on my publisher. He gives me exactly what he chooses; I must accept or go elsewhere. And where should I go? Your advice is excellent, in fact, to those whose books are commercially valu- able. For the rank and file I submit that it is unpractical.” That the writer's position is such as he describes one need not doubt. That he is one of many in the same position we know too well. That the position is one of necessity is another question. For, if we consider, very nearly the whole business of the smaller publisher—and of all publishers except a few large houses—lies with the writers of the day, and of these by far the greater number, like our correspondent, possess individually but little commercial value. Yet, taken together, they may be very valuable, because every one represents a certain amount of gain to the publisher, otherwise his books would not be produced, and one or two among them, especially among the younger sort, may at any moment become popular and very valuable indeed. If such a writer, then, would offer his next work on our conditions to his friend the “Patron,” he would probably find it indignantly refused. He could then try elsewhere, and here the Society might possibly help him. But if all such writers—all that very large class of writers whose works possess some commercial value, however small—demanded such conditions, the result would be — must be — submission and acceptance. For, since our conditions involve nothing in the world that can be considered derogatory to the publisher, nothing unfair, nothing out of the common course, nothing but the common sense of an ordinary business trans- action, and nothing more than the Ordinary pre- cautions with which one person admits another to the management of, or partnership in, his property, it stands to reason that opposition would disappear as soon as it was found impossible or difficult to get such agency or such partnership without these conditions. The “warnings and advice,” on the other hand, to those whose work is in demand are so simple that it is their own fault if they do not stipulate for their observance. For instance, in the common case of a royalty, the “warnings” numbered respectively (I), (3), (4), (7), (8), (II), and (I2) are the only points necessary to be observed, and of these especially numbers (4), (8), (II), and (I2). Next, it must be remembered that the business of the Society is to defend literary property, and to show how it must be defended. If writers will not trouble to defend their property because it is of small value that is their concern. We ## p. 101 (#115) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. IO I tell them, at least, how they may estimate its possibilities, and how they may guard and keep their own. In defence of other kinds of property, the law does not permit the invasion of its rights where the value is small any more than when it is large. A pocket must not be picked of a handkerchief any more than of a watch. Nor should a literary agreement over a small property be more unfair than one over a large property. There is another way of looking at it. The one-sided old I oper cent. royalty; the penny in the shilling; the 20 per cent. when 5000 copies (say) have been sold ; and many other of the tricks which we know so well—if they are now tried with even the youngest and most dependent writer, are tried with the consciousness that they have been exposed; that the victim can ascertain for himself the reality of his position; and that, dependent as he may be for the moment, should the day of success arrive when his works would become by themselves an income to his pub- lishers, he will certainly go elsewhere. The Society has rendered many of the old “dodges * impossible by ascertaining and publishing what is really meant by the mysterious Cost of Production. To return to the class represented by our cor- respondent. They want to publish, very often, because they believe that their work is “as good as other people’s.” This desire overcomes, as is apparent from this letter, every other considera- tion. In order to be published they will accept any terms. This desire, therefore, makes the author a supplicant and a dependant. He invites a one- sided offer. If he refuses it the chances are that he is not worth much, and he is told to go elsewhere. On the other hand, if he is a young man, it is possible that he may become a success, in which case it is, perhaps, wiser to treat him with fairness, as a client whose business is desirable. This consideration smoothes the way to a better understanding. Here is a very simple rule. Such a writer generally avoids the leading Houses, thinking foolishly that he will do better with the smaller Houses—and forgetting that there is but one public. Let him, therefore, before going to one of the smaller Houses examine its lists. If he finds that it can show only one or two works of any popular author, and those his earliest works, let him ask why this popular author left this House. Naturally, because he was, or thought he was, unfairly treated. Then let this young writer make up his mind to avoid a House which cannot keep its clients. On the other hand, a House which has long lists of popular authors is, primá facie, one which acts so as to retain the confidence of writers. But if a writer considers that warning which stands last in our list, he will do well, either by a man of business or in person, to address a publisher as one business man with another. “Here,” he will say, “is a work which I believe to be a possible property, even if a small property. If your advisers also think so, is it worth your while to undertake its production on the following terms P I contribute the work itself; you contribute the liability to pay the difference, if any, between the actual cost of production and the demand for the book. You also undertake the distribution, collection, &c.; in return for which you shall have such a share of the profits as may be agreed upon as equitable. The partnership is to be quite open, as between two honourable men ; books always accessible ; nothing charged but out of pocket expenses; the proposed list of advertisements to be arranged with me : and, of course, no secret profits of any kind.” Such a letter, at all events, would not be the letter of a dependant. And the answer would probably show the true character of the publisher to whom it was addressed. NOTES AND NEWS, Rº: of the Author will rejoice to learn that Mr. Robert Sherard is about to resume his Letters from Paris in these columns. Arrangements have also been made for a Letter from New York, on American Literature and Literary Folk. The former letter will begin, it is hoped, next month ; the latter in November or December. Mr. Strachey's paper in the National Review for August, on the Heroic Couplet in English verse, indicates a new line of critical research, which will, I hope, be followed up either by Mr. Strachey or by other competent scholars. The construction—the structure—of English poetry, not the lives of the poets, or criticisms on their works, but the origin, growth, and development of its many metres, has never, so far as I know, been seriously and adequately treated. Mr. Strachey's paper is only a chapter, and that an imperfect chapter, on one branch of the subject. Where did Chaucer find his favourite metre P Why did he choose that metre in preference to the shorter line most common in the fabliaua, or the longer line which was used by his friend Eustache Deschamps? Where did Skelton find—or did he invent—his short metre P How was it that the six-foot line failed to hold its own? Sonnet, blank verse, ode, lyrical ballad, song—every branch of poetry down ## p. 102 (#116) ############################################ I O2 THE AUTHOR. to the new-old metres of modern versifiers—the ballade, triolet, villanelle, chanson royale—which seem to have had their day. Again, there is the splendid music of Swinburne. Is there anything, anywhere, in the history of poetry, which can compare with his march of song P Can there be any verse, anywhere, to which he owes anything P Such a paper as Mr. Strachey's takes time and reading and scholarship. Therefore it is rare. I have received from America the First Part of “The Art of Short Story Writing.” It is only a typewritten part, and I am earnestly begged to guard it from being published in this country. It would therefore be unfair to quote from the pages, or to set forth the methods and plan of the book, or to express any opinion upon the treatment or the literary value of the book, or its probable usefulness to beginners. The author of the work prefers to remain anonymous, which is perhaps wise. Many writers, seeing the terrible mistakes and the waste of good material committed by beginners in their first attempts, have thought that a school of fiction might do useful preliminary training work just as well as a school of painting. The anonymous author of this work, which will be issued by “the Revised Literary Bureau,” of New York, declares him- self strongly of this opinion. The first and obvious objection to such a school is that every- body so far has got on without it. Quite true. On the other hand, how many would have got on more quickly and better with it P. How many, again, would have been deterred from entering upon a line of work for which they had no ability? There is in the construction, the arrangement, the setting, the dialogue of a novel, as much art asthere is in the grouping of a picture, the management of the light, &c. This truth, which is perfectly well known to all those who have studied, and intelli- gently attempted, the art of fiction, has been denied, or derided, by those who write on the subject without any study of it or any sympathy with it. It may be objected that those who have the natural aptitude will find out these things for themselves. Perhaps they will ; perhaps they will not; perhaps it will take them years of work and partial failure, with the sacrifice of their best materials. Of course, those who have not the natural gift will never be able to use, even if they find out, the true methods. Why, then, teach them P. We cannot create a story teller, any more than a poet, by teaching; but we may stop at the outset those who are certain, to fail; we may teach the methods, and put into the right line the rank and file of the story tellers; and we may save genius itself from blunders and from disappointments. Another objection, however, less obvious, presents itself. After going to such a school the candidate who failed would most certainly throw the whole blame of failure upon the school. It would therefore be mecessary for the lecturers and teachers to be very ready with their warnings. He must be a stupid person, however, who was unable in six months to find out whether a student would fail or succeed. We now await the American treatise. Every year, as regularly as the showers of August, appears the letter complaining of the bold bad smuggler who imports Tauchnitz editions in his pockets. The whole family, girls and all, enter with zeal into the smuggling business; impromptu pockets are devised in feminine garments; men’s coats are found to contain stowage room pre- viously unsuspected; a successful run is made ; and the family shelves are enriched with another row of Tauchnitz books. They have been bought at half the cost of the English edition, you see. Cheapness before anything. These books, more- over, are openly sold in this country; one may sometimes see rows of them in the secondhand shops. What is to be done P. It is impossible to touch the conscience of the traveller homeward bound. He will not smuggle lace, because he understands that lace is property—it is visible property—he must not defraud the revenue; literary property he does not understand—he cannot see it. Here is a book—why cannot he take the book home with him P Because the law prohibits? Nonsense; it can hurt nobody. It is impossible to make him see that to import this book is an infringement of right; a robbery of author or publisher, or both. Therefore some- thing else must be attempted. What? Let us take counsel together. There must surely be some way of preventing the smuggling of books. Now the rough and ready way by which dockyard labourers are prevented from stealing dockyard stores might be attempted. Wardens of the yard stand at the gates and feel the men as they pass. An expert hand would detect a Tauchnitz in the coat pocket. And a substantial fine judiciously and sternly administered would do the rest. But perhaps some other method might be suggested. - We referred last month to the critic who desires the reduction of three volumes to one, because we should then get a shorter novel. I have before me two novels, each in one volume. One is called “Marcella," and the other “The Manxman.” The former contains about 28O,OOO words, and is therefore twice as long as the ordinary three-volume novel; the latter contains ## p. 103 (#117) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. IO3 about 236,000 words, and is therefore half as large again. No ; we shall not necessarily get our novels any shorter when they are published in orie volume; and, as was said last month, a book may be very short and yet very ill-con- structed. It is well known that Mr. Hall Caine deliberately resolved to try the result of appealing to the public at once with his new novel “The Manxman.” The following was the result, pub- lished here with the author's sanction, eight days before the day of issue:— Mudie's subscription .......... IOOO Smith’s 35 ............... 200 Smith's railway stalls............ ... 2COO The trade, &c. ..................... 4OOO Separate Colonial edition ......... 5OOO Total, I 2,260, before the book was out. Now, it must be remembered that Izoo, or even looo, is a very large subscription for a three-volume novel. The publishers’ immediate returns, therefore, are probably more than doubled by the new system. Everybody, however, it is objected, is not so popular as Mr. Hall Caine. That is quite true. The figures must therefore be taken to show what may be meant by a popular work, and they certainly do carry encouragement to those who believe in going to the whole public of readers in the first instance. Since this was written the Athenaeum (Aug. 25) states that the first edition of 20,000 “ ran low ’’ in a fortnight. We have been accused of encouraging persons who have not the faintest chance of achieving either kind of literary reputation—that is, reputation for literary style, or popularity—to believe that figures such as these may apply to themselves. Disappointment most probably awaits those sanguine persons, But is it not the same in other professions P. The freshman from the country grammar school goes up to the university dreaming of the Craven, with a first-class and a fellowship to follow. In five or six years he has found his place as a third-class man and an assistant master in his old school. The young barrister recognises the splendid prizes of his profession and dreams of becoming a leader, a Q.C., a judge, a Lord Chancellor. Why should not the young writer in the same way dream of vast popularity ? Meantime, as the Society is in existence mainly for the defence of literary pro- perty, is it not necessary to show what literary property means ? A paper on the “Art of the Novelist,” by the late Amelia B, Edwards, is published in the August number of the Contemporary. The paper bears the appearance of being unfinished, or, at least, uncorrected, being out of proportion, covering too much ground, and generally “un- workmanlike.” But, for one thing, it is valuable. The author speaks out strongly on behalf of a novelist whom we seem to be forgetting, viz., Anthony Trollope. His works will perhaps be read again, but not until the time comes when the society of this century has become the study of the historian. Then, indeed, Trollope will be found a mine of wealth for the ideas, the habits, the prejudices of that kind of society — the higher middle class — which he drew so well. Perhaps no novelist has ever understood his own generation better than Trollope. Dickens knew the lower middle class; Trollope knew the class above — the gentlefolk of the country town; the clergy; the country people; the professionals. . Last year in America. I met a lady—a lady no longer young—a lady of reading and culture— who declared to me that, in her opinion, whatever might be said to the contrary, Trollope was the first English novelist of this century. Trollope's greatest vogue was in the Sixties. When he died —was it not in 1879 P−he had not outlived his reputation, because there were millions who remembered his work, but his circle of readers had wofully diminished. Those of us who remember the Sixties can recall the joy with which his novels were received, one after the other; the firm drawing; the clearly outlined portrait— all his figures were types; the individuality of the author who owed nothing to any predecessor. Thinking over these things, I understood what that American lady meant. And here is Amelia B. Edwards, after her death, speaking to us to much the same effect. I wonder how a modern young lady would like one of Trollope's novels of the Sixties, with its illustrations — the dumpy girl with her hair in a net, the crinolined skirts, the flat heels, her round face with the great innocent eyes, her honest worship of Man the Superior— ohl so very, very different from her daughter, from the new girl, who defers to no masculine mind, talks on all subjects, writes on all, and carries a latch key ! The testimony of Professor Brander Matthews, of New York (see p. 29), to the working of the American Copyright Act, which we owe to the Daily Chronicle, is extremely valuable. He shows, especially, how the Act has weeded out the reprints of English authors, and encouraged and stimulated American authors, who for the first time find themselves, he says, free from com- petition with stolen goods. Henceforth all the best books will belong to both countries alike; ## p. 104 (#118) ############################################ IO4 THE AUTHOR. but the bulk of the more popular literature will remain American for the Americans, and British for Britons; in other words, while the writers who can command an audience on both sides of the Atlantic will enjoy the widest audience that was ever granted to any writer in any country, the people for their daily reading will prefer their own folk, their own local setting, and their own dialect. I am pleased to read Professor Matthews’ opinion on the effect of free libraries, because I have always maintained, from my own experience, observation, and conversation with those who know, viz., librarians themselves, pre- cisely the same opinion. As regards the magazines, it is also pleasant to find Professor Matthews practically saying exactly what has been said in the Author. In one or two points he does not speak from know- ledge. For instance, he says that the American weekly paper contains much the same kind of work, and is illustrated in the same way, as our Strand. Obviously he has never seen the illustra- tions of the Strand, or he would not compare them with the terrible things of the American weekly. Again, I doubt his “main" fact; namely, that the American reading public is so much larger than our own. He quotes a circula- tion of 200,000 copies. We can show a circulation of 3OO,OOO copies of this same magazine, the Strand. The questions are, it seems to me— What makes popularity ? Is good work com- patible with popularity ? The example of the American magazines seem to prove that it is— unless, which would be a most humiliating con- fession, we must own that the middle class in this country is below the corresponding class in America in intelligence, taste, and cultivation. WALTER BESANT. *-* → r- - -, PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN AMERICA.” C{INCE writing the notes on English Free S Libraries and the books read by the people who use them, for the number of August, I have received a work by Mr. William J. Fletcher, Librarian of Amherst, on the Public Libraries in America (Columbian Knowledge Series: Sampson Low and Co). This little book supplements the information already gathered concerning our own libraries. The greater part of it is, it is true, devoted to topics belonging to * Public Libraries in America. By William J. Fletcher, M.A., Librarian of Amherst College. London; Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. 1894, librarians, such as classification, cataloguing, pre- servation, distribution, buying, and binding. There are, however, many points of more general interest. For instance, as to the number of public libraries. In the year 1858 there were in the United States no more than IOO libraries, with something like a million volumes altogether. The largest was that of Harvard College, with 70,000 volumes. In 1890 the number of libraries in the country was 4000, the number of volumes amounted altogether to 27,OOO,OOO ; and there were fifty libraries with more than 50,000 volumes each. Moreover, free libraries are multiplying much more rapidly than ever before. Not only are there founded every year many new libraries, but it is found that the old libraries cost more every year to maintain, the growth of a large library being much faster in proportion than that of a small library. Neglected depart- ments are discovered and brought up to date; serial publications have to be continued; the reference department is always increasing. A great deal has been done in the States by private gifts. This book contains a list of donors and donations, including only those of 50,000 dollars and upwards, amounting in all to 17,OOO,OOO dollars, or three and a half million sterling ! How much has been given to free libraries in this country by private persons P The incomes of the hundred largest public libraries are also given in a classified list ; they amount to nearly a million and a half of dollars, or £300,000, but the returns of ten out of the hundred are not complete. The number of free public libraries which contain more than 10,000 volumes does not much exceed one hundred. But in the smaller towns there are a great many libraries as yet quite small, too small to be included in the Government report. The 4ooo libraries above mentioned may be divided roughly as follows: College and school libraries... . 2 OOO Subscription libraries ... 5CO Libraries of societies, &c. . IOOO Free public libraries 5CO The free public libraries are all lending libraries. For instance, in the Newark (New Jersey) library any resident of the town may freely borrow books, under certain conditions to insure the library against loss. This extension of the public library, once introduced, seems essential for its true usefulness. A large number of the libraries are open on Sunday, but not the greater number. Again, there are a large number of special libraries not included in the lists already con- sidered. Almost every State has its Historical Society, which has its library, free and open to ## p. 105 (#119) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. iO5 any student. There are also the State libraries, which are composed chiefly of law books and public documents, of great use for purposes of reference. And there are the special collections of scientific books. At Washington alone there are nine special libraries, including more than a million volumes, and of the university libraries there are six at least which contain over IOO,OOO volumes each ; that of Harvard alone contains 43O,OOO volumes. What do the people who use these libraries read? This little book gives no lists or details. But it states, what everyone might guess beforehand, that the fiction circulated far exceeds all other classes of books together, “the great majority of readers seeming to care for nothing else.” Not that the American librarian groans over the fact. “This,” he says, “simply shows how great is the demand for reading as recreation. To the masses of the people, hard worked and living humdrum lives, as well as to their pining for something to kill time, the novel comes as an open door into an ideal life, in the enjoyment of which, even in fancy, one may forget the hardships or the tedium of real life.” Something is said as to the guidance exercised by librarians in this respect. Enough has been said to show that the Ameri- cans are much in advance of us in the matter of libraries. Four thousand libraries with over Io,000 volumes each, and a great many more with from one to ten thousand; more libraries continually being founded ; rich men continually giving great sums of money for the foundation and mainten- ance of libraries; this is a statement with which comparison is not calculated to inflate our own pride. One thing more. Everything good in litera- ture becomes instantly, as soon as published, the common property of all the English-speaking peoples. These figures illustrate and prove, what we have persistently maintained, that already a popular book, of whatever kind — historical, scientific, religious, imaginative—commands in Great Britain and Ireland, the Colonies, India, and the United States, taken all together, an audience from the libraries alone which has never yet been equalled in the history of literature. There are writers belonging to this country alone, writers in every branch of literature, who command on the first appearance of a new book the subscription of every important library over the vast area where our language prevails. And great as is already this audience, it is nothing compared with that which awaits the writer and teacher of fifty years hence. When the number of libraries will be multiplied by fifty, and the number of readers by ten, one hundred millions of English-speaking people will be two hundred millions: if there are now only ten millions of readers there will then be a hundred millions. W. B. *– A –iº r- - - LOWE'S COMPLETION. Dim are the memories of those early days When Love was only in the bud as yet ; Swift glances—peeps of tangled woodland ways:— The hues she wore, the way her hair was set. Like broken lights upon some fairy stream, When Dian’s silver shafts are shivered there, Through misty veil seen faintly as in dream, So gleam those far off days, so dimly fair. As we forget its tributary rills, When seawards borne upon the river's breast ; The flashing breakers boom ; amid the hills The becks are hushed, or murmur at the best. So, launched on Life’s inexorable sea, Those echoes of the past have ceased to move Our wedded souls; their whispers drowned—Ah me !— In the imperial symphony of love F. B. DOVETON. *- a sº-º sº- - - LITERATURE OR PHYSICAL SCIENCE: OR the last twenty years, the increasing predominance of subjects other than literary in English education has been most marked. An active movement has been observable to deprive letters of the prominent place they had hitherto occupied; and confident predictions have been uttered that this revolution will be complete, that art and letters will be entirely replaced by the absorbing pursuit of the knowledge afforded in physical science. No doubt, the scientific method of investi- gation is a most valuable discipline, and it is desirable that everyone should have some expe- rience of it ; but it is folly to deny that Art and Poetry and Eloquence have the capability of refreshing and delighting us, and possess for mankind a fortifying, elevating, quickening, and suggestive power. However, for the time being the partisans of Science are popularly supposed to have the victory; and gloomy prognostications are to be heard with reference to the future of modern literature as well as antique. . These apprehensions have been felt elsewhere in Europe. The late M. Renan asserted that “one hundred years hence the whole of the historical and critical studies in which his life had been passed, and his reputation made, will have fallen into neglect, and that natural science will exclusively occupy man’s attention.” No one, familiar with the history of European litera- ture, will for a moment accept this view. It is ## p. 106 (#120) ############################################ 106 THE AUTHOR. only by the pursuit of this study that we can rightly appreciate the history of the race. Litera- ture is the voice of the people. I believe that so long as man exists, from the very constitution of the human mind, there will always be moral and aesthetic cravings, which Science, however attrac- tive, can never gratify. I think, therefore, that the “splendour and rapid march of the physical sciences” have partially eclipsed, but will never extinguish, the interest in the older subject of literature. However, some of those whose opinions carry weight in the scholastic world have asserted that it cannot be taught, and that the experiment has failed. The signs of this failure are to be found in the modifications of certain examinational require- ments, in which literature has been degraded to a secondary place, or altogether eliminated, or recognised only in connection with Philology. “Literature has been regarded as mere material for the study of words. All that constitutes its intrinsic value has been ignored. Its master- pieces have been resolved into exercises in grammar, syntax, and etymology; its history into a barren catalogue of names and works and dates. No faculty but that of memory has been called into play in studying it.” That it should have failed therefore to commend itself as an instrument of education is no more than might have been expected. The aim and purpose of modern culture are distinctly utilitarian ; all studies have been appraised and valued, and “saleable knowledge” is the most sought. No wonder the proper study of literature can find no place in the system of modern education. Indeed, it is better out of it. Wise men are pointing out the necessity in these days for finding some effective agency for cherishing within us the ideal, and herein is the great value of literature to all those who seek the higher education, with a genuine desire for true culture. It supplies a want, which, how- ever much the exclusively scientific may ignore, will make itself felt in the human heart. It was well said by a great Oxford scholar that “the object of literature in education is to open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to comprehend and digest its knowledge, to give it power over its own faculties, application, flexi- bility, method, critical exactness, sagacity, ad- dress, and expression.” support the truism that literature is a most valuable agent in self-culture. But we can avoid the mistake of those who confound its pursuit with education, or regard it as the sole and sufficient agent. Burke said, “What is the education of the world? Reading a parcel of We need not pause to books? No! Restraint and discipline, examples of virtue and of justice, these are what form the education of the world.” - Let us avoid all extravagance, however, and remember that it contains “the best that has been thought and said in the world,” and there- fore regard it as a priceless factor in self- cultivation. But enough, perhaps, has been said upon the disciplinary and educative character of the study of literature. It contains other sources of interest; it brings to our knowledge many whom it is a delight to know. While some excite our reverent admiration, and some afford endless entertainment, there are others who call forth deeper feelings by the loveableness of their character—the noble-minded, in whom pride and vanity, resentment and self-love have no place, who in pure simplicity and singleness of heart give their great knowledge and power unre- servedly to the world, solely that all may share their own happiness; men whose lives seem realised ideals of what is most excellent in moral beauty. *-- * ~ * e- - -º BOOK TALK. AS the one-volume fiction anything to fear from the one-volume collections of short stories? It would be very interesting to know whether the circulation of “Tife's Little Ironies” has equalled that of the one-volume edition of any of Mr. Hardy's other novels. Perhaps such a collection of good short stories, already popular, is likely to become more popular than the long novel, whether in one or three volumes. In the words of a recent critic, “the tendency of the public taste is in the direction of brevity and wit rather than of long drawn-out narratives and elaborate word painting!” No rule, however, can be laid down as to length, that depends on the subject; on the author's style; on the inci- dents; on a thousand things. If a novel can be too long, it may also be too short. And, indeed, every one knows novels which one would like to go on for ever. The impatience of readers on the length of a novel belongs to London, or to the rush of life in great cities, which leaves little time for reading. In the country, or quiet colonies, there is no such impatience: the reader loves to linger among the creations of the novelist. Mr. Morley Roberts' new book, “The Purifica- tion of Dolores Silva, and other Stories,” is one which must leave a good impression on the reader as far as the art of short story writing is con- cerned, but, at the same time, the impression is a ## p. 107 (#121) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. IO7 sad one. In the first story, “ Initiation,” a girl's first lover, or, let us say, would be lover, is treated with surely more than usual severity, even by the most startled innocence. In the second story the lover never knows till after her death that the heroine cared about him at all. In the third, called “When She May,” the luckless proverb is complete. She does get May—a May lasting a lifetime. “Panic ’’ is the next, and is the one story in the book which everyone will have read before, we forget where it appeared, but it was spoken of as a good story at once. We cannot be quite sure whether, after carefully showing that the chief character was a coward, the author did not mean to convey the idea that after all he had a certain amount of courage—as much as a great many men. However lily-livered, however great a “cur” a man may be, to cut one's throat with a a razor in front of a looking glass requires some nerve. The “Fair-trader’ is, perhaps, the most worthy of praise, but it provokes the question whether it is at all founded on fact. If European girls who disappear are really drafted into Mohammedan households, it is surely a question for public meetings and Parliament. When we take up Miss Ella Hepworth Dixon's story, “A Modern Woman,” it is natural just now to wonder beforehand whether or not we are going to have the fin-de-siècle young person over again. It is therefore particularly pleasing to find that a modern woman as described by a woman need not necessarily imply a pretty piece of up-to-date vulgarity. We have in Mary Erle, Miss Dixon's heroine, as sensible a girl as One would expect the daughter of an eminent scientist to be; her father's distinguished position gives her a footing in society, but at his sudden death she has to earn her own living. The story opens with some account of the professor's funeral, which might have been pruned a little, true as it is to the dismal facts of our methods of interment. From this point we have a history of the girl’s fruitless attempts to become an artist, and afterwards of her success as a society journalist and writer of stories. With the account of these struggles is interwoven that of her own and her friend’s love affairs, which the author refuses in either case to bring within the possibi- lity of a happy ending. We doubt whether Miss Dixon has been as successful with her men characters, but we confess to have been suffi- ciently interested to want to know what became of them in the real end—“Jimmie,” for instance, and the A.R.A. One method of trying to arrive at the best relation between producer and consumer is to compare our system with that of other nations, and the question is asked, when his (the novelist's) story has passed through the magazines or the syndicate of newspapers, must he fling it on to the world as one volume, and let people buy it or not as they think fit * That is what he has to do in France, that is what he has to do in Germany, that is what he has to do in the United States. Whether foreigners can be called greater readers than Englishmen because they may be greater buyers appears doubtful—we have had our system, they have had theirs. But if our three- volume system has given way, there are those who say that the foreign system of publication has become quite as risky. For instance, apropos of the novel in Paris, we have lately read: “A member of a great novel pub- lishing firm tells me that now it does not pay to bring out novels unless there is some great name on the title page.” Zola still makes money, but this business man believes the turn of the tide has in his case begun. Before advocating any foreign system, American, then, or continental, the author would require a much more exact knowledge than we at present possess of the agreements entered into between publisher and author in those countries. As it is, it has taken this Society many pages of recapitulation to get its members to understand that while there is no sentiment in business, every plausible man of business knows there is a great deal of business in sentiment. Perhaps the most striking, because the most ignorant, comment on the recent three-volume novel discussion, is the following:—“The simple fact is, that until the public can be educated to buy books instead of borrowing them, the attempt to produce original works of fiction in one volume must inevitably result in a ruinous failure.” Well, but how about the thou- sands—the hundreds of thousands—the millions of one-volume novels which are bought every year P. How about the returns of those who write them P The fact is, the public does buy books in vast numbers. Perhaps the numbers should be even greater, but it is absurd still to speak of the public as a borrowing instead of a buying body. As to the price asked, perhaps the critic could help by giving his opinion as to whether the book is worth buying at all, or at any other price. Rarely, if ever, in our leading reviews do we see the price of the book mentioned or discussed, but now it really seems a false shame on their part to persistently avoid the pecuniary question when perusing a book; but however that may be, apart from excellence in literary criticism, the duty of educating the public to become book buyers must lie chiefly in the hands of the critics. ## p. 108 (#122) ############################################ IO8 THE AUTHOR. May we not therefore leave the reading powers of the public alone for a minute, and revert to the idea of property? In every family there will be those who read and those who prefer other amusements; but the outlay of money upon books, the investment in books, the formation of a library, which in the ordinary course of events would pass to a man's children or be sold—why should this be generally left to chance? Why should a householder be so careless of the value of the books admitted into his home that on his demise they will only fetch I d. or 2d. a volume? Yet how often is that found to be the case ? A valuable book is certainly more within the reach of most men than are valuable pictures, but because some books can be obtained cheap, like some prints, that is no reason why some discrimination should not be used. Library is perhaps too big a term for most people's collection of books, but, on the other hand, modern literature must have fallen very low indeed if it excites no desire in the reader to possess and re-read what has appeared to be worth finishing when once taken up. Mr. Lockwood has published through the Rox- burghe Press his lecture on the Laws and the Ilawyers of Pickwick, with a sketch of Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz as a frontispiece. Every reader of Pickwick has his own idea of what Buzfuz was probably inclined to be like, and those who sometimes may find amusement in visiting the public galleries of the courts may have fixed on quite a different type of counsel as representative of that distinguished advocate. Surely Serjeant Buzfuz's handkerchief ought to appear. As the lecture consisted mostly of readings, the author tends an apology for reproducing it in book form ; but perhaps he did not intend it to be much more than a souvenir of what must have been an enjoyable evening to each of his audience. A new novel, entitled “The Birth of a Soul’’ —a psychological study — by Mrs. Alfred Phillips, author of “Benedicta,” &c., will be published in England and America early in October, in one volume. “A Spanish Singer,” by Annabel Gray (Stone- man), vol. 2 of the Annabel Gray library, is a well-constructed and dramatic story depicting the artistic experiences of a young débutante in opera, in Italy. Vocalists will find much to interest them in this realistic sketch of art abroad. In Mr. S. R. Crockett’s “Mad Sir Uchtred of the Hills,” the author has at least done one thing, and that a difficult one ; he has added another “ cat’’ to literature. The madman has a broken- legged wild cat which performs a grand feat in the destruction of a weasel. The introduction of this incident, and the manner of describing it, seems to us to be the best thing in this clever book. The late Professor Romanes wrote poetry and printed his verse, but refrained from publishing it. His poems, which are said to be chiefly religious in their tone, were given to his friends only. It would be possible, perhaps, to secure the publication of those which may appear worthy of the author's reputation as a man of science. Mr. Samuel H. Church thinks that Oliver Cromwell has never had justice done him by any of his English biographers. He has therefore addressed himself seriously to the subject, and the result has been issued by Putnam's, New York. A presentation copy of “Among the Boers and Basutas; or, a Study of our Life on the Frontier,” by Mrs. Barkly, has been graciously accepted by the Queen. The book is now in its second edition. The Rev. Prebendary Jones has issued (Smith, Elder, and Co.) a new and cheaper edition of his “Holiday Papers.” This is the very deadest time of all the year. The book advertisements are chiefly lists of the “Standard ” works and “Favourite ” novels. The “ announcements’ have hardly begun. The dear old phrase— ‘Messrs. Bungay and Co. promise us”—as if we were all waiting anxiously for that distinguished Firm to tell us what it has got in the bag—has not yet appeared; it will begin next week. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that it is the month of the least reading. If the publishers of the Saturday or the Spectator would divulge secrets it would probably be shown that the circulation goes up, not down, while the people are running about the country, killing long hours in the train, sitting in lonely seaside lodgings with a rainy day to get through. Holiday time is reading time with a large number of people who are too much occupied with busi- ness and society to read while they are at home. The magazines which are tossed over in June are read through in August. Of literary articles there are not many in the August magazines. One observes in the Contem- porary a paper by the late Amelia B. Edwards on the “Art of the Novelist; ” a paper by Hall Caine in the National Review on “The Novelist in Shakespeare; ” and No. 1 of a series of papers on “The Historical Novel” by Mr. George Saintsbury in Macmillan. All on fiction. The friends of the late Rev. Henry Allon, D.D., will note with pleasure that the story of part, at ## p. 109 (#123) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. IO9 least, of his life, that of his Ministry, has been written and published. The biographer is the Rev. W. Hardy Harwood ; the publishers are Cassell and Company. It would seem, however, that his literary life, which would interest many, apart altogether from his career as an indepen- dent minister, is not included. Yet he was for many years the editor of the British Quarterly Ičeview, a magazine which was the home of many admirable papers—literary, social, and historical, as well as controversial. Dr. Allon was a per- sonal friend of the late Dean Stanley, and acquainted with most of the men of leading in that part of the literary world which is engaged on subjects treated in quarterly reviews. He was a many sided man ; his views on literature were broad, and while he was its editor the British Quarterly Review was a power of considerable weight and authority. Mr. Grant Allen’s new book “The Tidal Thames” (Cassell and Co.), is a sumptuous work, illustrated by—and illustrating—twenty original drawings by W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A. It is not, perhaps, a cheap edition—35 15s. 6d. cannot be called cheap—but the drawings are exquisite; everything that is fine, however, is in a sense cheap, whatever price be put upon it; because there is no measuring of artistic worth by money, and the only question is whether one can afford to pay the price asked for the work desired. Mr. Standish O'Grady's heroic Irish romance, “The Coming of Cuculain,” will be published early in October by Methuen and Co., illustrated by Mr. D. Murray Smith. The story is now run- ning serially through the Warder (Dublin) and the Northern Whig (Belfast). The hero of Mr. O'Grady’s tale is the famous Cuchullin of High- land tradition, the Cuthullun of MacPherson’s eplc. *~ * ~ * g- - --e. CORRESPONDENCE, I.—THE LAUREATESHIP. & HAVE read with great interest the article | on the Laureateship and its long abeyance in the Author for this month. It would be impossible to put the view of the case which we, who are in favour of maintaining this ancient and unique office, entertain in terser or more forcible language. To my mind the delay is one which can in no way be excused. There is one point which I should like to emphasise which the writer of the article has passed over, and it is this. It is notorious that poetry in England does not in general pay. Long after Mr. Tennyson had published his most characteristic and popular poems his income consisted mainly of the pension from the Consolidated Fund, which he retained to his death. But, on his appointment as Laureate, his income is said to have risen enormously. Without going into figures, it is certain that his position as Laureate very largely affected his popularity and increased his income. What the gains of a new Laureate would be on appointment it is impossible to tell. If he should unfortunately be a writer with no public, probably they would be but small. If he already had a considerable circulation, it is certain that the appointment would mean a very largely increased income. It is of this substantial advantage that the perhaps natural hesitation of extreme age has deprived the literary profession for nearly two years. It is well that the literary public should know that it is not the pittance of £80 or so, which is the nominal salary, that is at stake, but a much larger sum, to say nothing of the great discouragement which the blank silence of the authorities has inflicted upon the chief glory of our literature for a period without precedent in the history of the vacant office. II.-M. MALLARME's SCHEME. I hope that the Society will take up and at least ventilate the proposal made by M. Mallarmé in the Figaro that the literature of the past should become the property of the nation, or at least of living writers. How much would have been realised by the works of Sir Walter Scott had there been a royalty of 1d. in the shilling laid upon every volume issued since the copyright came to an end ? And why, M. Mallarmé asks, should this great property be handed over, not to the nation, but to a small class of tradesmen P Pray let us know more about it. A MEMBER. III. ON THE WARNINGS AND ADVICE. (Our correspondent's letter on this subject will be found with comments on p. 99). IV.—ON THE CO-OPERATION OF MEMBERS. Now that the dead season gives one time to look round and think, I should like to ask you, Mr. Editor, if the time has not come to take the members’ opinions upon many subjects concerning which the Author has spoken from time to time. I would suggest that a list of subjects of importance to the craft be drawn up, taken one after the other, and referred to the whole body of members. I think that your hands would be strengthened, the members would feel that they ## p. 110 (#124) ############################################ I IO THE AUTHOR. were having a voice, and that many ways of joint action might be arrived at. A Journal,IST. W.—THE SocIETY's READERs. I submitted a MS. to be read. I received an opinion which was careful and courteous, and not complimentary. It pointed out certain definite objections to the work as reasons why it would not be accepted. I have now removed those objections, yet it is not accepted. A BEGINNER. [It is to be hoped that the Society's reader did not commit himself to the statement that altera- tion would mean improvement, or that the removal of certain objections would mean acceptance by publishers. Everyone knows the common criticism on a new author. “Well, he knows, at least, how to write.” Any publisher's reader also knows the MS. of which he says, “Well, at least he has not yet learned to write.” The Society's reader can only suggest why the latter judgment was pronounced, and here the “way to write” can be discovered.] >e cº WHAT THE PAPERS SAY. I.—THE LATE MR. WYATT PAP worTH. R. WYATT PAPWORTH, F.R.I.B.A., M curator of Sir John Soane’s Museum, died at the museum on Sunday, Aug. 19. Mr. Papworth was distinguished for his literary work in connection with architecture, especially in his contributions to the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects, among which those “On the Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages, with especial reference to William of Wykeham,” and “Collec- tions for an Historical Account of Masons, their Customs, Institutions, &c.,” are of historical importance. He was also a constant contributor to Notes and Queries. To his labours the architectural profession is indebted for the pro- duction of “The Dictionary of Architecture” (Architectural Publication Society), recently com- pleted in eight volumes folio, begun in 1852 on the lines of the notes and collections of himself and his late brother, Mr. J. W. Pap- worth, and, until its completion in 1892, carried out under his sole editorship. Mr. Papworth, as a member of the Court and Master and Past Master of the Clothworkers' Company, took a leading part in the promotion of technical education and in the City and Guilds Institute.— Times, Aug. 21. II.--THE AIM AT PopULARITY. The man who aims at being popular and admired is not nearly so likely to be popular and admired as the man who thinks little or nothing about it, but aims simply at his own individual ideal. Here, again, the failure of the direct aim appears to be due to its real and perceived inferiority to those aims which usually secure it. The man who directly aims at getting admira- tion and esteem will hardly deserve them, for he cannot deserve them without cherishing plenty of aims which would be very likely to risk or forfeit other persons’ admiration and esteem. The man who lives for the good opinions of others, cannot be deserving of those good opinions, for he cannot contribute much to teach others, by the indepen- dence of his own life. In this case also, then, the ill-success of the direct pursuit of admiration is simply due to the fact that that pursuit is a lower aim than any consistent with the attainment of the admiration pursued. But if happiness be the true standard and end of life, why should it fall into the hands only of those who do not directly seek it P Surely, if it is not safe to pursue it directly, it can only be because it is not the proper end and aim of life—because while it may be the natural reward of the pursuit of better ends, it is not itself the chief end. Nothing could well be more improbable than that the one standard and best fruit of human action should be carefully wrapped up in the folds of inferior ends, so that you may come upon it by accident, if you are to taste it properly at all. R. H. HuTTON. a-i----~~~" •-Fs-e-es-e- NEW. BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, Theology. BROWNE, CANON. The Christian Church in these Islands before the Coming of Augustine. Three lectures delivered at St. Paul's in January, 1894. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. DAVIDS, PROFEssoR RHYs. Buddhism. S.P.C.K. 2s. 6d. EVE, NOAH, ABRAHAM : a study in Genesis. By a Layman. Cassell. Is. GRAY, REV. HERBERT B. Men of Like Passions, being Characters of some Bible Heroes, and other sermons, preached to boys at Bradfield College. Longmans. 58. KING, RIGHT REv. E. Practical Reflections on Every Werse of the Prophet Isaiah. Longmans. 4s. 6d. MALDONATUS, JOHN. A Commentary on the Holy Gospels : St. Matthew's Gospel. Part III. Translated and edited from the original Latin by George J. Davie. John Hodges. Is... net. History and Biography. - CHURCH, CANON. Chapters in the Early History of the Church of Wells, I 136-1333. Limited edition. Elliot Stock, and Barnicott and Pearce, Taunton. 158. New edition. ## p. 111 (#125) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. I I I RLVIN, REv. C. R. S. The History of Walmer and Walmer Castle. Canterbury : Cross and Jackman. FoRREST, G. W. The Administration of the Marquis of Lansdowne, Viceroy of India, 1888-94. Calcutta : Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. FREEMAN, PROFESSOR. The History of Sicily from the Earliest Times. Wol. IV. From the Tyranny of Diony- sios to the Death of Agathokles. Edited from post- humous MSS., with supplements and notes, by Arthur J. Evans. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press. Henry Frowde. 2 Is. GAsquièT, DR. FRANCIs A. Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries. Sixth Edition. Part I. Hodges. Is. HARRIs, THOMAs. Three Periods of English Architecture. B. T. Batsford. 7s. 6d. HowARD, MAJOR-GENERAL O. O. Funk and Wagnalls. 6s. HUME, MAJOR-GENERAL JoHN R. Reminiscences of the Crimean Campaign, with the 55th Regiment. The Author, 27, Pilgrim-street, Ludgate-hill. Cheap edition. 3s.6d. RAYSERLING, DR. M. Christopher Columbus. Translated from the author’s MS. with his sanction and revision, by Charles Gross. Longmans. 5s. LLOYD-VERNEY, COL., and HUNT, LIEUT.-COL. J. M. Records of the Infantry Militia, Battalions of the County of Southampton from A.D. 1757 to 1894. And Records of the Artillery Militia Regiments of the County of Southampton from A.D. 1853 to 1894. With Isabella of Castile. portraits and illustrations Longmans. 3O8. MoRRIs, WILLIAM, and MAGNUsson, EIRíKR. The Heimskringla. Vol. II. By Snorri Sturluson. Trans- lated from the Icelandic. Being Vol. IV. of the Saga Library. Quaritch. 31. I Is. 6d. SHUCKBURGH, EVELYN S. A. History of Rome to the Battle of Actium. Macmillan. 8s. 6d. THIERs, Lou Is ADOLPHE. History of the Consulate and the Empire of France under Napoleon. Translated by D. Forbes Campbell and John Stebbing. With thirty- six steel plates. Chatto and Windus. Twelve vols. 12s. each. WALTON, CoL. CLIFFORD, C.B. History of the British Standing Army A.D. 1660 to 1700. Harrison and Sons. General Literature. ABBOTTs, W., M.D. Stammering, Stuttering, and other Speech Affections: Their Causes and Cure. The Savoy Press. Is. - BADDELEY, M. J. R. Guide to the Peak District. Dulau and Co., Soho-square. 3s. BAKER, JAMEs. The New Guide to Bristol and Clifton. Edited. J. Baker and Son. BRASSEY, LORD. Papers and addresses on Work and Wages. With an introduction by G. Howell, M.P. Longmans. 58. BRITISH MUSEUM : Supplement to the CATALOGUE of the ARABIC MSS., by Charles Rien ; CATALOGUE of ARABIC Books, by A. G. Ellis, Vol. I. A to L; CATA- LoGUE of HEBREW Books acquired during the years 1868 to 1892, by S. van Straalen. Longmans, Quaritch, Asher, Kegan Paul, and Henry Frowde. CALVERT, ALBERT F. The Aborigines of Western Australia. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co. CASE AGAINST DIGGLEISM. Published for the Progressive School Board Election Council by Alexander and Shepheard. Is. CHANUTE, O. Progress in Flying Machines. American Engineer and Railroad Journal. New York : CICERO, M. T. Correspondence. Edited, with a revision of the text, a commentary, and introductory essays, by Professor Tyrrell and L. C. Purser. Wol. IV. Long- mans, Green. I5s. CYNICUs, HIs HUMOUR AND SATIRE. Company. Is. DAVIs, A. H. Dover College Register, 1871-1894. Edited by. Dover : the Editor. 2s. 6d. DEMBO, DR. J. A. The Jewish Method of Slaughter, com- pared with other Methods. Translated from the German. Kegan Paul. Boards, 2s. 6d. net. DOLAN, DR. THOMAS, M. Our State Hospitals. Leicester : John Richardson and Co. 2s. 6d. DUBOIs, F#1,Ix. The Anarchist Peril. Translated, edited, and enlarged with a supplementary chapter by Ralph Derechef. T. Fisher Unwin. 5s. EDGAR, John. Voluntary Schools and Board Schools Con- trasted. R. W. Simpson. ELLISTON, THOMAS. Organs and Tuning. Weekes and Co., Hanover-street, W. 3s. 6d. net. FUR AND FEATHER SERIES : THE GROUSE ; Natural History by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, Shooting by A. J. Stuart-Wortley, Cookery by George Saintsbury; with illustrations by A. J. Stuart-Wortley and A. Thorburn. Longman's. 58. FURSE, COLONEL GEORGE. The Organisation and Adminis- tration of the Lines of Communication in War. Clowes and Sons. I28. - GREEN wooD, MAJOR. The Personal Responsibility of Judges. Paper Covers. G. Barber, Cursitor-street. HART, ERNEST, D.C.L. On the Use of Opium in India. Prepared by. Smith, Elder. Is. HATFIELD, T. H. Land o' Nod. Gay and Bird. 6d. net. HELLER, THOMAS EDMUND. The New Code for Evening Continuation Schools (1894-95). With Introduction, Notes, and Index. Bemrose and Sons. 6d. HEwiTT, J. F. The Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times in India, South-Western Asia, and Southern Europe. Archibald Constable and Co. 18s. |HOOPER, W. H., and PHILLIPs, W. C. Manual of Marks on Pottery and Porcelain. Macmillan. 4s 6d. ICTHYosAURUs. Hints and Wrinkles on Sea Fishing. Iliffe and Son. Is. Cynicus Publishing JONES, BENJAMIN. Co-operative Production. With a Prefatory Note by Mr. Acland, M.P. 2 vols. Henry Frowde. I5s. Journa L OF THE SANITARY INSTITUTE, for July. Stan- ford. 2s. 6d. LEHMANN, R. C. Conversational Hints for Young Shooters. Chatto and Windus. LE QUEUx, WILLIAM. The Great War in England in 1897. Illustrated by Captain Cyril Field and T. S. C. Crowther. Tower Publishing Company. 6s. LLOYD's YACHT REGISTER, Supplement No. 2, alterations and additions to July 26, 1894. Paper covers. Low's HANDBOOK TO THE CHARITIES OF LONDON. Edited by H. R. Dumville. Fifty-eighth year. Sampson Low. Is. 6d. LUNN, REv. HENRY S. The Grindelwald Conference, 1894. 5, Endsleigh-gardens, N.W. LUSSICH, ANTONIO D. Celebrated Shipwrecks. covers. Monte Video : El Siglo Ilustrado. MARTIN, JOHN. Chats on Invention. Offices of Invention. Is. MILLAIS, J. G. Game Birds and Shooting Sketches. Second Edition. Sotheran and Co. 18s. net. - MURRAY's HANDBOOK FOR SCOTLAND. Sixth Edition. John Murray. 9s. OUR NEXT WAR in its Commercial Aspect ; with some account of the premiums paid at Lloyd's from 1805 to 1816. Blades, East, and Blades. Paper ## p. 112 (#126) ############################################ II 2 THE AUTHOR. PARROTT, J. E. The Industrial and Social Life and Duties of the Citizen. W. H. Allen and Co. Is. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL Coloni AL INSTITUTE. Wol. XXV., 1893-94. Edited by the Secretary. The Royal Colonial Institute, Northumberland-avenue. QUARTERLY RETURN OF THE MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS registered in England. Eyre and Spottis- woode. 9d. REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY ExTENSION Congress, LONDON, 1894. P. S. King. IS. RUTHERFORD, MILDRED. American Authors. A Hand- book of American Literature from Early Colonial to Living Writers. The Franklin Printing and Publishing Company. SHAw, LIEUT.-CoI. WILKINson J. Elements of Modern Tactics. Eighth edition. Kegan Paul. SIMs, G. R. Dagonet on Our Islands. Fisher Unwin. Is. SLACK, CAPT. CHARLEs. Formations for Battalion Attack. Clowes and Sons. STAY-AT-Homſ E HUSBANDS AND How TO MANAGE THEM. By One of Themselves. Edited by the Rev. Sydney Mostyn, Bachelor. Gay and Bird. 3s.6d. STEAD, W. T. Chicago To-day. Review of Reviews Office. IS. TIMBER TRADEs Journ AL : LIST OF SHIPPING MARKS ON SAwN AND PLANED WooD, 1894. W. Rider and Son, Bartholomew-close. 6s. WALLIS, J. WHITE. Manual of Hygiene. Kegan Paul. WALLIS-TAYLOR, A. J. The Sanitary Arrangement of Dwelling Houses. Crosby Lockwood. WILKIE, JAMEs. The Life Assurance Agent's Wade- Mecum. Compiled by. Edinburgh : Andrew Elliot. Is. WIRE, ALFRED P., and T)AY, G. Knowledge through the Eye. George Philip. Is. Fiction, BLACKMoRE, R. D. Perlycross. Sampson Dow, Marston, and Co. 6s. Boot HBY, GUY. In Strange Company. Ward, Lock, and Bowden. 58. CAINE, HALL. The Manxman. Heinemann. 6s. CALow, RoRERT. Brookfield. Remington. Ós. CHRISTIson, NEIL. Wedded to a Genius. A novel. 2 vols. Bentley. CLARK RUSSELL, W. The Frozen Pirate. New and cheaper edition. Sampson Low. 3s. 6d. CLOUT, CoLIN. Norman ; or Inherited Fate. Long. 6s. CRoCKETT, S. R. The Autonym Library : Mad Sir Uchtred of the Hills. Fisher Unwin. Is. 6d. DE LA PASTEUR, MRs. HENRY. A Toy Tragedy. Cassell and Co. Is. HAGGARD, H. RIDER. Mr. Meeson's thousand. Longmans. 38. 6d. HETHERINGTON, HELEN F., and BURTON, REV. F. D. Led On. 3 vols. Ward and Downey. HousTON, MRs. Kathleen Carmichael’s Recollections. Dublin and Belfast : Eason and Son. Bagster. 2s. 6d. JONES, CHARLOTTE. R. The Hypnotic Experiment of Dr. Reeves, and other Stories. Bliss, Sands. 2s. 6d. MACDONALD, J. M. Thunderbolt. An Australian Story. Digby and Will. Fifteenth Hurst and Blackett. 3s.6d. MACDONALD, GEORGE. A. Dish of Orts. Enlarged edition. Sampson Low. 2s. 6d. M“LEAN, ALISON. Quiet Stories from an Old Woman's Garden. Frederick Warne. 3s. 6d. MUIR, ALAN. Charming to Her Latest Day. R. Sutton and Co. 28. OLIPHANT, MRS. A House in Bloomsbury. 2 vols. Hutchinson. 391 Is. OUIDA. The Silver Christ, and A Lemon Tree. Pseudo- nym Library. Paper covers. Fisher Unwin. Is. 6d. RAIMOND, C. E. The Pioneer Series : George Mandeville's Husband. Heinemann. 2s. 6d. net. RIDGEWAY, ALGERNON. The Westovers. Digby and Long. 6s. RowsELL, MARY C. A Friend of the People. 3 vols. Fisher Unwin. 31.s. 6d. SAUNDERS, MARSHALL. Beautiful Joe : the Autobiography of a Dog. New edition. Jarrold and Sons. 3s. SAVAGE, R. H. The Princess of Alaska : a Tale of Two Countries. Routledge. 2s. SCHMID, CHRISTOPH VON. The Basket of Flowers. the German. Blackie. Scott, SIR WALTER. Waverley Novels, Border Edition : Count Robert of Paris, and The Surgeon's Daughter. With Introductory Essay and Notes by Andrew Lang. Ten etchings. 2 vols. Nimmo. 12s. SHUD, TAMAN. A. Rash Wow. Digby and Long. From WALFORD, L. B. Ploughed, and other Stories. Long- man. 68. WINTER, JOHN STRANGE. A. Seventh Child. Second edition. F. W. White. 2s. 6d. YOUNG, MIRIAM. Lost One Hundred Pounds Reward : a tale of Sixty Years Ago. Digby and Long. 2s. 6d. Poetry and the Drama. ALDINE EDITION OF THE BRITISH PoETs : Shakespeare's Poems, with Memoir by the Rev. A. Dyce. George Bell and Sons. 2s. 6d. CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE, Vols. XXI. and XXII., being the second and third parts of King Edward VI. Edited by William Aldis Wright. Macmillan. 6s. each. CoLLINs's PoEMs, with Memoir by W. Moy Thomas. George Bell and Sons. 2s. 6d. DICK's CoMPLETE EDITION OF SHAKESPERE's Worrs, with 37 Illustrations and a Memoir. New edition. John Dick. 28. INGLISFIELD, W. Queen Elizabeth and Earl Leicester : a Drama in five acts. Eliot Stock. RING, CLIFFORD. The Royal Pearl and other Poems, Hereford: Jakeman and Carver. Owen, JOHN. Verse Musings on Nature, Faith, and Ereedom. Enlarged reissue. Sonnenschein. PIATT, SARAH. Poems. 2 vols. Longmans. Ios. SMITH, HORACE. Interludes (second series). Being Two Essays, a Farce, and Some Verses. Macmillan. 5s. Geography and Travel. ARNOLD, SIR EDw1N. Seas and Lands. New edition. Longmans. 3s. 6d. - . . . BAEDEKER. Great Britain. A handbook for travellers. Io marks. BRIGHTON. Plan. On cloth. W. H. Smith and Son. Is. CURZON, HON. G. N. Problems of the Far East. Long- Ina,11S. 2 I S. I)Avis, G. CHRISTOPHER. Cruising in the Netherlands. Jarrold and Sons. Is. 6d. FINLAND. With map and illustrations. Finnish Tourist Association. - FISHER, REV. R. Flamborough : Willage and Headland. Hull; William Andrews. 3s.6d. LEwis, MRS. A. Lady’s Impressions of Cyprus in 1893. Remington. 58. MAYO, THE EARL OF. The War Cruise of the Aries. Illustrated by William B. Boulton. Dublin : Edward Ponsonby; Simpkin, Marshall. 18. - Helsingfors. The 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. 05 Issue 04 (September 1894) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 04 (September 1894) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1894-09-01-The-Author-5-4 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/267/1894-08-01-The-Author-5-3.pdf 00434cab0194b0a82cb4148afa33de88 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) 1894-08-01 Volume 5 Issue 3 Pages Page range in volume 61–88 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18940801 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CON DU CTED BY WALTER BES.A.N.T. Vol. v.–No. 3] AUGUST 1, 1894. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions eaſpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by returm of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. WARNINGS AND ADVICE, I. T is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. - Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.–In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTS. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no ea pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. 4. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVEs To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party WOL. W. " . ; refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. - 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as yowr agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 6. COST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. CHOICE OF PUBLISHERS.–Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 8. FuTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. +. • ‘ Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. * II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Reep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. a 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. --Reep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. g Society’s Offices :- * 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *~ * –” z- - - HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. & . I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Comº mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. . . All this without any cost to the member. - - . . . ; . . . . . . . . - G 2 ## p. 62 (#76) ############################################## 62 TILE AUTIIOR. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. *-- - -* ,- w -s. THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : - I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Symdi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the expenses of the Authors' Syndicate are defrayed solely out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. Notice is, however, hereby given that in all cases where there is no current account, a booking fee is charged to cover postage and porterage. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. . . 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiation whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre- spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number ºf letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 4. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. - 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department’’ for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted * has been opened. Members anxious to obtain literary or artistic work are invited to com- municate with the Manager. - There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. NOTICES, Tº: Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P - Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so clastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too ## p. 63 (#77) ############################################## TIIE AUTIIOIP. 63 often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *-* * *-*. LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—THE THREE-VoI,UME Nov FL. T a meeting of the Council of the Authors’ Society it was Resolved that: “The Council, after taking the opinion of several prominent novelists and other members of the Society, and, finding them almost unani- mously opposed to the continuance of the three volume system, considers that the disadvantages of that system to authors and to the public far outweigh its advantages; that for the convenience of the public, as well as for the widest possible circulation of a novel, it is desirable that the artificial form of edition produced for a small body of readers only be now abandoned; and that the whole of the reading public should be placed at the outset in possession of the work at a moderate price.” A very large majority of the opinions received, including those of the leading novelists, was in favour of the resolution. Only one opinion was opposed to it, and desired to support the three volume system. By order, G. HERBERT TIIRING. The Resolution passed at the meeting of the council on Monday, July 23, was, so to speak, dictated by the novelists who are members of the Society. A “private and confidential” circular setting forth the main facts of the case and the principal points open to discussion, was sent by order of the Chairman to all novelists on the roll of the Society, asking for an opinion. The answers received gave the opinions of most leading novelists, together with those of many others likely to be affected by the action of the libraries. One or two left the matter open; one, especially, pointed out—which is perfectly true— that the abolition of the three-volume form would make a beginning more difficult than ever for a young writer. One desired the continuance of the present plan; the rest were all against it, and wrote in support of the one-volume form. So that the persons most concerned in the matter have pronounced almost unanimously in favour of the one-volume and against the three-volume form. - Several points of interest have been raised, not only in these replies, but also in the discussions on the subject which have been carried on in the newspapers. For instance, more than one critic has advocated the one-volume form simply because it will make the novel shorter. But it has not yet produced that effect. There is no rule as to 1-ngth; novels in one volume are very often as long as novels in three. Moreover, it is possible for a novel to be quite short, and yet very ill-constructed. Again, it has been pointed out that the large type and lightness of the book make the three-volume form useful for invalids, but then many books in one volume are also in large type, and light to hold. - The point concerning the beginner is strong and interesting. At first sight one asks why a beginner has a better chance under the old system. The reason will be seen by a little study of figures. Without advertising, a small edition of a three-volume novel can be produced for something less than £90, those copies only being bound that are wanted. If the libraries take I 30 copies only at 14s. the cost is more than covered: anything over is profit. A single volume, half the length of the above, costs, without mºulding, stereotyping, or advertising, about £7O for an edition of IOOO. Now a beginner's three-volume novel is sometimes considered to be sufficiently advertised by being placed in the boxes and on the lists of the libraries. As a rule the houses which produce these works find it to their interest to expend very little money in advertising them. But a single volume wants to be advertised. Suppose only £20 spent in adver- tising such a book. Over 500 copies must be taken before the cost is covered. If the work is moulded and stereotyped at a cost of £12 more, 600 copies will be wanted to clear the cost. Who will take these copies of a book by an unknown writer, unless he happens to be very good indeed P And of course a publisher does not publish in the hope of merely paying his expenses. Now a book by a new writer which exhausts the first edition does exceptionally well. These figures show, therefore, that it is easier to enter by the old way than by the new. The strongest point brought out is the strange fact, which so few have understood, that under the old system novelists positively do not offer their books to the world at all, but only to the limited number of those who subscribe to the libraries— perhaps 60,000 in all—say, 240,000 readers. The rest of the world must wait—the whole vast army of those who read in this country and in India and in Australia and the colonies, must wait— until the cheap edition appears. This is an enormous privilege to the libraries. What cor- responding advantage does it give to the author P ## p. 64 (#78) ############################################## 64 THE AUTHOR. Noue, apparently. What to the publisher ? None, apparently. There is another point still. The best chance for the beginner has hitherto been with one or two houses which have been privileged to send a certain number of any novel issued by them to one of the libraries. This was clearly a privilege —it is understood to be now at an end—which might be abused in two ways; first, to the detri- ment of literature by the production of rubbish; next, to the detriment of the author, for it was not necessary to advertise him, or to take any steps to make him known, or to give him a cheap edition. Both these things have, in fact, happened. There are a certain number of novelists wholly unknown to the world at large, whose works, good or bad, appear only in a very limited three- volume edition and are heard of only by a brief notice in the Athenæum. Will these authors vanish P Since the privilege has ceased it is probable that the demand for them by the libraries will also cease or be reduced to such narrow limits as to make the vanishing not only of the author, but of the publisher, a certainty. In the long run it will be better for everybody, because the author, if only for self-preservation, will become far more careful over his work, and there will be a survival of the fittest. Yet the three-volume novel will not suddenly disappear. There will still be a demand, especially among sick people, for that form of reading which demands no thought and not much attention; which diverts the mind without fatigue; which transports the reader to another and a more pleasant atmosphere, with a book easy to hold, light, and in large print. It is not a highly dignified function to amuse the weakened in mind and body by illness, but it is at all events useful, and so long as libraries give enough to the publisher to make it worth his while to continue, and the publisher gives the author enough to make it worth his while to continue, the old system will probably be carried on. The appeal to the whole world of readers opens up a great field for speculation. Will the world of readers respond? Remember that it is not a sudden and an unexpected appeal. We have experience: we can answer confidently that in the case of favourite authors readers certainly will respond. And an author can now create his reputation so rapidly—one could point to many reputations made within the last year or two—that there seems to be no fear about the future of the better class of writers. Unknown authors, and those who have their reputation still to make, will certainly not leap into popularity by the mere fact of being issued in one volume; nor will the public buy a book by an unknown writer at six shillings any more readily than at thirty shillings. Objection has been taken to the Resolution on the ground that publishers, since they buy the books, have the sole right to manage their own property. Quite true, if they buy the books. But they do not. Except in a very few cases they issue the books on a royalty system. There are two or three publishers who buy, and these will doubt- less continue to manage their own property in their own way; it is a good plan—in some cases the best plan—for the author to sell his book, provided he knows what he is about, or works by means of a man of business who knows the meaning of literary property. But in most cases the royalty is the system, and on this system, which is one of joint adventure, with a fiduciary obligation on the publisher, the author has undoubtedly the right to consider the administration of his own property. What certain papers do not realise is the change that has of late come upon the whole business of publishing—the greater independence of the author, his claims to open partnership, his knowledge of a business which has hitherto been kept profoundly secret, the rush of new pub- lishers, and the increased competition. - The last point to consider is the price of the future. Since below a certain level nobody buys books at all, it would be absurd to make books too cheap. Besides, a thing of little price is apt to be lightly regarded. We must, however, remember that for most people six shillings is a good deal to pay, even reduced to 4s. 6d., for an author unless one greatly desires to possess him. We may also remember that the area of readers extends every year by hundreds of thousands; that the free libraries as well as the schools are doing us an immense service in continually enlarging this field, and that the taste for reading brings with it the desire for possession. It seems, there- fore, safe to predict that books desirous of speak- ing to many—what book is not so desirous P- will be issued at such a price as to be within the reach of many; that the six-shilling book will before long become the three-shilling book ; that where a popular writer is now advertised to be in his sixtieth edition he will then be in his six hundredth. There is absolutely no limit to the enlargement of the vast circle of readers who, in fifty years will be calling for the work of a popular writer, living or dead. It is ten years since some of us recognised this truth and pro- claimed it. During these ten years we have again and again proclaimed it. Those who cannot get outside of London; those who know nothing about the extent and the needs of the Empire, or even of this little island; those who are still governed by the prejudice of believing that below a certain ## p. 65 (#79) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 65 line everybody reads “slush ’’ if he reads any- thing; cannot be made to understand this fact. How the literature of the future will be affected by this increased demand is another question. Mean- time, we have to deal with the wants of the present, which seems to ask for a book which costs four and sixpence, while the circle is being enlarged. As for the circulating libraries, they must con- tinue in some form or other, because reading is now a habit, a recognised way, in country places, at least, of spending part of the day; and all the popular writers together cannot produce enough material to fill up that part of the day all the year round. II.-Ass IGNMENT OF CONTRACT. The following is a case submitted to counsel as to the right of assigning an agreement to pub- lish : - Instructions from Solicitor to Counsel. Counsel will see from the agreement, that the author agreed to grant the right of publication of a work to the publishers until the number of copies sold should have reached 6ooo, all details of the publishing—as to size, price, and advertising, &c. —being left to the publishers, who agreed to publish a cheap edition of the said work at their own expense and risk, and to pay to the author one-half of the net profits arising from sales, the author reserving to himself the right of publish- ing an édition de luate of the work. And counsel will observe that there are provisions in the contract as to rendering of accounts, &c. Subsequent to the date of the contract the publishers, formerly a private firm, were formed into a limited company under a name corre- sponding with the name of the private firm, with the addition of the word “Limited.” All the business, goodwill, &c., was taken over by the limited company, but no express notice of this appears to have been given to the authors of books which the old firm were publishing, or, at any rate, no such notice was received by the author in question. After the date of the transfer of the business to a limited company, however, the author received from the company a letter inclosing account of sales, &c., up to date, and signed by the name of the firm, with the addition of the word “limited,” one of the former partners signing the letter as “Managing Director.” This appears to have been the first opportunity given to the author of ascertaining that the publishers had become a limited company, as he states that he had heard nothing of the matter previously: but even on the receipt of the accounts he did not observe the alteration in the firm, and therefore took no objection to his book being continued to be published by the limited company. Counsel will consider whether the fact of this letter having been received must be taken to be notice to the author of the change in the firm, and, if so, whether the author must be taken to have acquiesced in the publication of his book by the limited company, and is so estopped from taking objection to the book having been assigned to the limited company without his consent, and to its being published by them. From the time of receiving the accounts a year or two passed, and then the limited company got into difficulties. A receiver and manager was appointed by the Chancery Division in an action commenced by debenture-holders, and later on a resolution was passed for voluntary winding-up, and the same gentleman was appointed liquidator as had been appointed receiver. On hearing of this the author wrote to the receiver and manager protesting against his book having been assigned to the limited com- pany without his consent. According to an account rendered to the author by the receiver there was up to the date of his appointment a loss on the book. Counsel will please advise : I. Assuming the author is not to be taken to have acquiesced in the transaction, and to be estopped from objecting, whether he had the right to object to his book having been assigned to a limited company, and if he is estopped from making this objection ? 2. Can he object to the liquidator and receiver of the company continuing to sell the book P *- 3. Whether the liquidator and receiver is liable to pay the share of profits in full from the date of his appointment P 4. Would the parties be entitled to go on selling for an unlimited time in the present state of affairs, i.e., while the business of the company is being carried on by a receiver ? 5. If the company were reconstructed, would they be entitled to go on selling P - 6. Would the liquidator and receiver be entitled to make over the book to another publishing firm without the consent of the author P w Counsel's Opinion. I. Whenever the due execution of a contract involves the personal skill and ability of one con- tracting party, he cannot assign the contract to a stranger without the consent of the other con- tracting party. In this case the author bargained for the personal skill and attention of the pub- lishers whom he selected ; and he cannot be com- pelled to accept the skill and attention of some substitute whom they select. But as, in all probability, some, if not all, the ## p. 66 (#80) ############################################## 66 THE AUTIIOR. members of the original firm entered into the employ of the new company, and some, if not all. of the persons employed by the former firm continued to do for the company precisely the same work as they had done previously for the firm, the court will presume on very slight evidence that the author assented to, or acquiesced in, the assignment of his contract to the limited company. Such an assignment would not appreciably affect the prospects of a profit being earned. In this case I think it would be held that the author did so acquiesce, or that, at all events, he is estopped by his conduct from denying that he acquiesced. 2. Assuming, then, that the author acquiesced in the assignment of the contract to the new company, it follows that he cannot object to the liquidator and receiver doing any act reasonably necessary for proper realisation of the assets of the company in liquidation. The receiver has, in my opinion, the right to sell any copies of the book which were in stock at the date of the petition, and probably also to bind up any quires printed at that date: but he may not, in my opinion, create any new copies by printing a fresh edition from stereos. 3. If any profit were made by the receiver selling the copies which were in type at the date of the petition, I incline to think that the author would be entitled to receive his share of the profits in full from that date; but I express no confident opinion on this. I fear the point will not arise. Should the receiver publish a fresh edition with the author's consent, then I am clear that the author would be entitled to receive his half of the profits of that edition in full. 4. The receiver is entitled, in my opinion, to go on selling the copies which were in type at the date of the petition, for such period as is properly occupied by the winding-up of the affairs of the company. 5. If the company were reconstructed, the new company thus constructed would, in my opinion, have no right to print any further copies of the book. The new company could buy the stock of the old company, and sell it to the public ; but could create no fresh copies without the permis- sion of the author. 6. The liquidator can sell the stock of the old company to anyone he pleases; he cannot convey to anyone any right to create new copies of the book. (Signed) W. BLAKE ODGERs, Q.C. 4, Elm-court, Temple, E.C. July, 3, 1894. s-ºr-º- ºr- III.—CANADIAN CoPYRIGHT. The following is a copy of counsel’s opinion on Canadian copyright from the fresh papers put before him. It will be seen that the position of affairs is very little altered from the English author's standpoint, as he is the person, coupled, perhaps, with the Canadian public generally, who will suffer most by the proposed change of law in Canada. • Counsel's Opinion. The new documents before me consist of (I.) A copy of a memorandum by Sir John Thompson dealing with the report of the Depart- mental Committee on Canadian Copyright, and (2.) A clause in the Canadian Tariff Bill which proposes, after March 27, 1895, to remove the ad valorem duty payable on foreign reprints payable under the Canadian Act of 1868. Sir John Thompson's memorandum does not deal with the details of the Canadian Act of 1889, but is an attempt to answer some of the objections to the principle of that Bill set forth in the departmental committee report, and to show that the Canadian Legislature ought to be allowed to repeal the Copyright Act of 1842 so far as regards Canada, and to deprive the British author of his rights in order to foster the Canadian printing and publishing interests. It does not appear to me that I can usefully follow all the arguments contained in the memo. randum on the above question, or that it is within the scope of my instructions to do so. They are all based on the fallacy that the Canadian publishers and printers have some inherent right to have the profit of publishing and printing the works of British authors, and that if the latter do not find it necessary or convenient to publish or print in Canada the Canadian Legislature has a right to make them do so, and that to deny them this right is to deprive them of the benefit of self-government. Such arguments (even when supported appa- rently by a threat of separation in case they are not yielded to, as stated in page 12 of the report) do not appear to require to be answered at length. The argument which does, perhaps, require special notice, is that drawn from the example of the United States. With regard to this it is to be observed that in the case of the United States the British author had under the circumstances to accept such terms as were offered, but that such acceptance did not in any way involve a recognition of the justice of these terms, and it would be most unfortunate if this exceptional case were to be drawn into a prece- dent. If it were, it might become necessary for a ## p. 67 (#81) ############################################## TIII, 67 A UTIIOIR. work to be reprinted and published separately in every British colony. The Society will no doubt itself consider the memorandum, and will have no difficulty in drawing up a full reply if thought desirable, but I cannot see that the arguments contained in it were such as to require a detailed reply. All that it seems to me to be necessary for the Society to do at present is to submit to the Home Government that Sir John Thompson's memorandum affords no answer whatever to the reasons given in the report of the Departmental Committee against the passing of an Act to con- firm the Canadian Act, pointing out that the demand for legislation appears to come solely from the Canadian printer and publisher, and that it would be most unfair that their industries should be fostered and protected at the expense of the rights of authors as established by Impe- rial legislation and the Berne Convention. A protest should also be added against the case of the United States being turned into a precedent for Imperial or Colonial legislation ; the result of the system of protection insisted on there is no doubt unfortunate for the Canadian printer and publisher, but that is not, or ought not to be, a reason for extending it to Canada or elsewhere. The endeavour should rather be to induce the United States to abandon its present policy. There is no sign in the memorandum that Canada would be prepared to accept any such licensing system as that suggested in pars. 55 and 56 of the departmental report, and it there- fore does not seem necessary to deal with it at present. The objections to it would appear to be the difficulty in fixing the amount of the royalty, and in securing its collection when fixed; but if it would solve the present difficulty it might be worth acceptance. If the memorandum is dealt with shortly, as I have suggested, the Society should of course intimate that if there are any particular points on which further information is desired, or which are thought to require a further answer, it would be glad of an opportunity of considering them. With regard to the proposed repeal of the ad valorem duty on foreign reprints, it appears that the Colonial Office has already pointed out that repeal would or might be invalid as repugnant to the Order made under the Foreign Reprints Act, on the faith of such duty being imposed. The Society should, I think, consider whether there is any objection to that Order, so far as it affects Canada, being repealed, if the Canadian Government should insist on doing away with the duty. So far as I can see there is none; the only person who would have any reason to com- plain would be the Canadian reader, for whose especial benefit the Foreign Reprints Act was WOL. W. passed. I ought perhaps to point out that it is not at all clear that the repeal of the ad valorem duty would be invalid. - |Under the Foreign Reprints Act the Order in Council only authorises the admission of reprints so long as the Colonial Act affording protection to British authors is in force, from which it would seem that the colony is at liberty to repeal this protection if it is prepared to give up the benefit of the Order in Council. I think it would be as well for the Society to endeavour to find out what is the object of the Canadian Legislation in repealing a duty they do not appear to have even collected, except in very few cases, and in thereby depriving Canadian readers of the benefit of an Act supposed to have been passed for their special advantage. J. Rolt. 4, New-square, Lincoln’s-inn, June 18, 1894. On Monday, June 25, a meeting of the special committee on Canadian copyright was called at Mr. John Murray's offices, 50, Albemarle-street. The following is a list of the names of the committee, and the interests represented:— Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. - Edward Ashdown, H. R. Clayton, Music Pub- lishers. s Frank Bishop, H. S. Mendelssohn, Photo- graphers. F. R. Daldy, T. N. Longman, the Copyright Association. - H. O. Arnold Foster, Edward Marston, Pub- lishers' sub-section of Chamber of Commerce. H. Rider Haggard, W. E. H. Lecky, Authors. Arthur Lucas, Alex. Tooth, Fine Arts. John Murray, Publisher. G. Herbert Thring, W. Oliver Hodges (Barris- ter-at-Law), Society of Authors. * W. Agnew, D. C. Thompson, Printsellers' Association. The business before the committee was “To consider the proposals received from Canada, respecting Anglo-Canadian copyright, and to agree as to what action should be taken thereon.” Mr. John Murray was voted into the chair. .. After some discussion, and considering the unwieldy size of the committee, it was decided to appoint a sub-committee as representative of the different sections as possible to consider carefully, and in detail, the Canadian proposals, and to draft an answer to lay before the Colonial Office, which answer would first, however, be submitted to the general committee for its approval. -- The members of the sub-committee elected for that purpose were: H. R. Clayton, Musical Publishers; F. R. Daldy, Copyright Association; EI ## p. 68 (#82) ############################################## 68 TIIE A UTIIOIP. Arthur Lucas, Fine Arts; G. Herbert Thring, the Authors’ Society. The sub-committee was subsequently called together, and met on Monday, July 2, at 4, Portu- gal-street, the offices of the Society of Authors. Mr. Daldy took the chair, and before opening the discussion stated that he thought the plans of the sub-committee must be slightly altered, as he saw from the Times that the question of Canadian copyright was being brought before the meeting of colonial delegates at Ottawa. He proceeded to inform the sub-committee that he had con- sented, with the approval of Her Majesty’s Government, to attend the Canadian meeting, both to hear what the Canadians had to say and to keep the English authors' point of view pro- minently before the meeting. The sub-committee accordingly determined to adjourn its meeting until Mr. Daldy's return, but read through provisionally the Canadian sugges- tions, in order to put before Mr. Daldy the salient points of objection to the proposed legislation. IV.-Con TRIBUTORS AND CoPYRIGHT. A form of receipt issued by the Religious Tract Society is thus headed: COPYRIGHT. This receipt conveys the copyright to the trustees of the Religious Tract Society with liberty for them, at their discretion, to republish in any form. Republication by authors on their own account must be the subject of special arrangement. If this receipt is sent to the contributor with- out previous special agreement conveying not only the serial right, but also the copyright to the Society for the consideration of a certain sum paid, the contributor should refuse signature or he should strike his pen through the above words. If the Religious Tract Society refuses to pay without these words, he should then, unless his necessities compel him to endure everything, lace the business in the hands of the secretary of the Authors' Society. Nothing is more certain than that a paper offered to any magazine is offered, unless the contrary is stated, on the usual terms, under Section XVIII. of the Act, viz., the right for separate publication to be matter of separate agreement between author and proprietor of the magazine during the period prescribed by law of twenty-eight years, when the right to publish separately again reverts to the author. Unless, therefore, the copyright and the right to republish without the author's sanction are bought by special agreement, the author has the right to veto the republication by any other person during the term aforesaid. Observe that the condition above quoted indicates that the copyright may be valuable, and therefore the author should keep all his rights or make a sepa- rate contract. If it is valuable it must be bought, and not taken. - [The following is Section XVIII. of the Act above referred to :—“XVIII. And be it enacted, That when any publisher or other person shall, before or at the time of the passing of this Act, have projected, conducted, and carried on, or shall hereafter project, conduct, and carry on, or be the proprietor of any encyclopædia, review, magazine, periodical work, or work published in a series of books or parts, or any book whatsoever, and shall have employed or shall employ any persons to compose the same, or any volumes, parts, essays, articles, or portions thereof, for publica- tion in or as part of the same, and such work, Volumes, parts, essays, articles, or portions shall have been or shall hereafter be composed under such employment, on the terms that the copy- right therein shall belong to such proprietor, pro- jector, publisher, or conductor, and paid for by such proprietor, projector, publisher, or con- ductor, the copyright in every such encyclopædia, review, magazine, periodical work, and work published in a series of books or parts, and in every volume, part, essay, article, and portion so composed and paid for, shall be the property of Such proprietor, projector, publisher, or other conductor, who shall enjoy the same rights as if he were the actual author thereof, and shall have such term of copyright therein as is given to the authors of books by this Act; except only that in the case of essays, articles, or portions forming part of and first published in reviews, magazines, or other periodical works of a like nature, after the term of twenty-eight years from the first publication thereof respectively the right of pub- lishing the same in a separate form shall revert to the author for the remainder of the term given by this Act: Provided always, that during the term of twenty-eight years the said proprietor, projector, publisher, or conductor, shall not. publish any such essay, article, or portion separately or singly, without the consent previously obtained, of the author thereof, or his assigns: Provided, also, that nothing herein con- tained shall alter or affect the right of any person who shall have been or who shall be so employed. as aforesaid to publish any such his composition in a separate form who by any contract, express or implied, may have reserved or may hereafter reserve to himself such right; but every author reserving, retaining, or having such right shall be entitled to the copyright in such composition when published in a separate form, according to this Act, without prejudice to the right of such proprietor, projector, publisher, or conductor as aforesaid.] - ## p. 69 (#83) ############################################## TIII. A UTIIOIR. 69 THE LAUREATESHIP. HERE seems an inclination, perhaps an in- tention, on the part of the Government to allow the office of Poet Laureate to fall into abeyance. This abeyance, if it continues, will certainly end in abolition, because an ancient thing may easily be destroyed, but is with great difficulty created alléW. Why should it be left in abeyance P There are two reasons which may influence the Premier : First, the impossibility of finding a successor to Tennyson of equal weight; and, next, the diffi- culty of selection, with the certainty of hostile criticism whatever appointment be made. It seems to some, however, highly desirable that the appointment should be filled up. Among other considerations the following are advanced : I. It is an office of considerable antiquity, honoured by the names of Spenser, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Southey, Wordsworth, and Tennyson. It has been continued and recognised as an office of the State for 300 years. 2. It is the only recognition of literature offered by the State. By no other office, appointment, or distinction, does the State take the least notice of literature. The question of the national distinctions in relation to literature has been frequently discussed in these columns. It is true that there are members of this Society whose position in the world of letters entitles them to the highest consideration, who do not think that the interests of literature would be advanced by the creation of distinctive honours or the granting to men of letters those distinctions and orders now reserved for the Services. But it is also true that there are other men of letters, also of position, who hold that for a State not to recognise literature is to teach the people that literature is not worthy of honour. Now the office of Poet Laureate is, to repeat, the only attempt made by the State to show that poetry is deserving the honour and recognition of the people. 3. The argument that, because Tennyson stood higher than his confrères there is to be no successor, if applied to other offices and titles of distinction would very soon lead to the abolition of all such offices. There would be left, in short, no distinctions at all. 4. The argument that hostile criticism would follow any appointment would, if applied to other distinctions, equally lead to their abolition. The king is dead; another king must follow. It is not at all a question whether the choice will please every one. Again, hostile criticism would WOL. W. - die away as quickly as it arose. However hostile,' it would hurt nobody; on the supposition that. the Premier had made the appointment without regard to Party, and with the sole object of nominating the man he considered best, he could suffer no possible harm; nor could the newly appointed Laureate, whose name and reputation must be already before us, suffer any harm. After all, the worst that can be said in such a case is that an anonymous critic considers A. a. very much better poet than B. Besides, it is surely unworthy of a Prime Minister to fear hostile criticism in matters of literature when he cannot escape it in politics. 5. The fact that such an appointment gives. great importance to a poet in the eyes of the world may also be considered. When a Regius Professor of Greek is appointed, the new Pro- fessor is lifted at once far above his fellow scholars. Yet there may be among these as good Greek scholars. Nobody doubts this. But nobody, in consequence, proposes that the Regius Pro- fessorship of Greek should be abolished for fear of giving him an importance above his fellow scholars. w 6. In such a case as this, public opinion— . meaning the opinion of the cultivated public— points out a certain number of living poets as the fittest for the appointment. It is not a question whether there are men of Tennyson’s stature, but solely who are the available men in poetry with- out reference to opinion, Party, or any other point whatever ? 7. There are, in the opinion of most literary men, whose opinion is not likely to be asked, poets who are entirely worthy to fill a post occupied by the Poets Laureate of the past; and there is so much promise in the work of the younger men, that, in their interests alone, the distinction ought to be preserved. - 8. There is no question of expense. It must be . allowed by all that this meagre national recogni- tion of Literature is made on the cheapest possible terms. If it be thought that the very modest income attached to the distinction has anything to do with the desire to retain this solitary honour, bestowed upon Poetry among those distributed on the Services and Law, not to speak of Physic and Art, it might be found desirable to deprive the Laureateship of its income. These considerations are advanced as a few of those which influence many of this body in their desire to maintain the office and to see it filled again as soon as possible. On the eve of the general holidays nothing can be done except to place on record these few notes. It may be added, however, that some of the members are desirous of bringing the matter - H 2 ## p. 70 (#84) ############################################## 70 TIII. A UTII.O.IP. before the council with an invitation to some public expression of opinion, if that should seem good to the collective wisdom of the Society. *-- * ~ * z-- ~s CIVIL LIST PENSIONS. I. HE list of pensions granted during the year ended June 20, 1894, and charged upon the Civil List, is as follows: Miss Adeline Amy Leech, only surviving sister of the late Mr. John Leech, in addition to pensions of £25 and £IO already granted to her, 335; Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, in recognition of his merits as a student of Oriental literature, 32do; Mrs. Sophia Eder- sheim, in recognition of the merits of her late husband, Dr. Edersheim, as a writer on theology and Biblical criticism, 375; Mrs. Elizabeth Baker Mozley, in recognition of the merits of her late husband, the Rev. Thomas Mozley, 375; the Rev. Wentworth Webster, in consideration of his researches into the language, literature, and archaeology, of the Basques, 3150 ; the Lady Alice Portal, in recognition of the distinguished services of her late husband, Sir Gerald Herbert Portal, 3150; Mr. T. H. S. Escott, in considera- tion of his merits as an author and journalist, 281 oo; Mr. John Beattie Crozier, in consideration of his philosophical writings and researches, 250; Dr. Thomas Gordon Hake, in recognition of his merits as a poet, 365; Mr. Samuel Alfred Warley, in consideration of his services to electrical science, 3850; Mrs. Amy Cameron, in considera- tion of the services rendered to geographical science by her late husband, Captain Werney Lovett Cameron, £50; Mrs. Ellis Margaret Hassall, in consideration of the services of her late husband, Dr. Arthur Hill Hassall, 3850; Miss Matilda Betham-Edwards, in con- sideration of her literary merits, £50; Mrs. Ratharine S. Macquoid, in consideration of her contributions to literature, 35o ; Miss Rosalind Hawker and Miss Juliet Hawker in consideration of the literary merits of their late father, the Rev. Stephen Hawker, 325 each. The total of the pensions amounts to £12Oo. II. “Mr. Bartley asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer a question concerning one of the names in this List. “The Chancellor of the Exchequer: Civil Lis; pensions are not intended, as the hon. Imember appears to suppose, for ‘literary men and women in necessitous circumstances.’ The sixth section of the Civil Trist Act (I Wict. cap. 2) provides that they may be granted to ‘such persons only as have just claims on the Royal beneficence, or who, by their personal services to the Crown, by the performance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in science and attain- ments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude of their country.” “Mr. Bartley asked whether it was a fact that practically this bounty had always been given to reward those who were in necessitous circum- stances; whether it had ever yet been given to persons who were fairly well off and did not require it ; and whether there were not a great number of necessitous persons in literature and science to whom this grant would have been of much greater service. “The Chancellor of the Exchequer: I must answer in the negative every one of these questions. I have never yet heard that the late Lord Tennyson was in necessitous circumstances.” — Times. *—- - -º * * *—s THE AMERICAN MEMORIAL TO KEATS, N Monday, July 17, the bust of Keats, executed by Miss Anne Whitney, of Boston, Mass., and given to the English nation by a small body of Americans, lovers of the poet, was unveiled at Hampstead parish church, in the presence of a very large assem- blage. The memorial was received by Mr. Edmund Gosse, on behalf of English men and women of letters. The bust was presented by Mr. J. Holland Day, the secretary of the American Memorial Committee. He stated in a brief address that it was by the wish of his committee that the monument should be erected in the church of the place where Keats spent his few happy days. The memorial itself was highly approved by the late Mr. Lowell. The bust was modelled twenty years ago by Miss Whitney, and the bracket supporting it was designed by Mr. Bertram Goodhue. Mr. Edmund Gosse replied as follows: It is with no small emotion that we receive to-day, from the hands of his American admirers, a monument inscribed to the memory of Keats. Those of us who may be best acquainted with the history of the poet will not be surprised that you have convened us to the church of Hamp- stead, although it was not here that he was born nor here that he died. Yet some who are present. to-day may desire to be reminded why it is that when we think of Keats we think of Hampstead. It is in his twenty-first year, in 1816, that we ## p. 71 (#85) ############################################## TIII) A UTIIOIR. 7 I find the frst record of his ascent of this historic eminence. He appears, then, on the brow of Hampstead Hill as the visitor, as the disciple of Leigh Hunt, in his cottage in the Vale of Health. He comes, an ardent lad, with great flashing eyes and heavy auburn curls, carrying in his hand a wreath of ivy for the brows of Mr. Hunt. Nearly eighty years ago—this pilgrimage of boyish enthusiasm—but a few months after Waterloo. The last rumblings of the long European wars were dying away in the distance. Our unhappy contest with that great young republic which you, Sir, so gracefully represent to-day, just over and done with. How long ago it seems, this page of history, how dusty and shadowy ; and how fresh and near across the face of it the visit of the boyish poet to his friend and master on the hill of Hampstead | Such at all events was the earliest appearance of Keats in this place, and here the “prosperous opening” of his poetical career was made. Here he first met Shelley, Haydon, and perhaps Wordsworth ; hence in 1817, from under these “pleasant trees” and the “leafy luxury" of the Vale of Health, his earliest volume was sent forth to the world; here, in lodgings of his own at Well-walk, he settled in that same summer that he might devote himself to the composition of “Endymion.” Here his best friends clustered round him— Bailey find Cowden Clarke, Dilke and Armitage, Brown and Reynolds. Here it was that, in the autumn of 1818, he met, at Wentworth-place, that brisk and shapely lady whose fascination was to make the cup of his sorrows overflow ; hence it was that, on Sept. 18, 1820, he started for Italy, a dying man. All of Keats that is vivid and intelligent, all that is truly characteristic of his genius and his vitality, is centred around Hampstead, and you, his latest western friends, have shown a fine instinct in bringing here, and not elsewhere, the gifts and tributes of your love. If we find it easy to justify the locality which you have chosen for your monument to Keats, it is surely not less easy, although more serious and more elaborate, to bring forward reasons for the existence of that monument itself. In the first place, that you should so piously have prepaled, and that we so eagerly and so unanimously accept, a marble effigy of Keats, what does it signify, if not that we and you alike acknowledge the fame that it represents to be durable, stimulat- ing, and exalted P For, consider with me for a moment, how singularly unattached is the repu- tation of this our Hampstead poet. It rests upon no privilege of birth, no “stake in the country,” as we say ; it is fostered by no alliance of powerful friends or wide circle of personal influences; no one living to-day has seen Keats, or artificially preserves his memory for any private purpose. In all but verse, his name was, as he said, “writ on water.” He is identified with no progression of ideas, no religious or political or social propa- ganda. He is either a poet or absolutely nothing—we withdraw the poetical elements from our conception of him, and what is left P The palestphantom of a livery-stable-keeper's son, an unsuccessful medical student, an ineffectual consumptive lad who died in obscurity more than seventy years ago. . You will forgive me for reminding you of this absence of all secondary qualities, of all outer accomplishments of life in the career of that great man whom we celebrate to-day, because in so doing I exalt the one primary quality which raises him among the principali- ties and powers of the human race, and makes our celebration of him to-day perfectly rational and explicable to all instructed men and women. It is not every one who appreciates poetry; it may be that such appreciation is really a some- what rare and sequestered gift. But all practical men can understand that honour is due to those who have performed a difficult and noble task with superlative distinction. We may be no politicians, but we can comprehend the enthu- siasm excited by a consummate statesman. Be it a sport or a profession, an art or a discovery, all men and women can acquiesce in the praise which is due to him who has exercised it the best out of a thousand who have attempted it. This, then, would be your answer to any who should question the propriety of your zeal or of our gratitude to day. We are honouring John Reats—we should reply in unison—because he did with superlative charm and skill a thing which mankind has agreed to include among the noblest and most elevated occupations of the human intelligence. We honour in the lad who passed so long unobserved among the inhabitants of Hampstead, a poet, and nothing but a poet, but one of the very greatest poets that the modern world bas seen. The Professor of Poetry at Oxford reminds me that Tennyson was more than once heard to assert that Keats, had his life been prolonged, would have been our greatest poet since Milton. This conviction is one now open to discussion, of course, but fit to be propounded in any assem- 'blage of competent judges. It may be stated, at least, and yet the skies not fall upon our heads. Fifty years ago to have made such a proposition in public would have been thought ridiculous, and sixty years ago almost wicked. When I was myself a child, I remember that I met with the name of Keats for the first time in conjunction with that of Kirke White, an insipid poetaster ## p. 72 (#86) ############################################## 72 - TIIE A UTIIOIP. whose almost only merit was his early death. When the late Lord Houghton—a name so dear to many present, a name never to be mentioned without sympathy in any collection of literary persons— when Monckton Milnes—as in 1848 he still was— published his delightful life of Keats, it was widely looked upon as a rash and fantastic act to concentrate so much attention on so imperfect a ‘Career. But all that is over now. Keats lives, as he modestly assured his friends would be the case, among the English poets. Nor among them merely, but in the first rank of them—among the very few of whom we instinctively think when- ever the characteristic versemen of our race are spoken of. To what does he owe this pre- eminence—he, the boy in this assemblage of strong men and venerable greybeards, he who had ceased to sing at an age when most of them were still practising their prosodical scales? To answer this adequately would take us much too far afield for a short address, the object of which is simply to acknowledge with decency your amiable gift. But some brief answer we must essay to make. - Originality of poetic style was not, it seems to me, the predominant characteristic of Keats. It might have come with ripening years, but it cannot be at all certain that it would. It never came to Pope or to Lamartine, to Virgil, or to Tennyson. It has come to poets infinitely the inferiors of these, infinitely the inferiors of Keats. They who strive after direct originality forget that to be unlike those who have preceded us, in all the forms and methods of expression, is not by any means certainly to be either felicitous or distinguished. There is hardly any excellent feature in the poetry of I(eats which is not super- ficially the feature of some well-recognised master of an age precedent to his own. He boldly takes down, as from some wardrobe of beautiful and diverse raiment, the dress of Spenser, of Milton, of Homer, of Ariosto, of Fletcher, and wears each in turn, thrown over shoulders which completely change its whole appearance and lºroportion. But, if he makes use of modes which are already familiar to us, in their broad outlines, as the modes invented by earlier masters, it is mainly because his temperament was one which impera- tively led him to select the best of all possible forms of expression. His excursions into other people's provinces were always undertaken with a view to the annexation of the richest and most fertile acres. It is comparatively vain to specu- late as to the future of a man whose work was all done between the ages of nineteen and four- and-twenty. Yet I think we may see that what Keats was rapidly progressing towards, until the moment when his health gave way, was a crystal- lisation into one fused and perfect style of all the best elements of the poetry of the ages. When we think of Byron, we see that he would pro- bably have become absorbed in the duties of the ruler of a nation ; in Shelley we conjecture that all was being merged in the politician and the humanitarian, but in Keats poetry was ever steadily and exclusively ascendant. Shall I say what will startle you if I confess that I sometimes fancy that we lost in the author of the five great odes the most masterly capacity for poetic expres- sion which the world has ever seen P |Be this as it may, without vain speculation we may agree that we possess even in this fragment of work, in this truncated performance, one of the most splendid inheritances of English literature. “I have loved the principle of beauty in all things,” Keats most truly said, “the mighty abstract idea of beauty in all things.” It is this passion for intellectual beauty—less disturbed, perhaps, by distracting aims in him than in any other writer of all time—that sets the crown on our conception of his poetry. When he set out upon his mission, as a boy of twenty, he entered that “Chamber of Maiden Thought” of which he speaks to Reynolds, where he became intoxicated with the light and the atmosphere. Many of his warmest admirers seem to have gone with him no further, to have stayed there among the rich colours and the Lydian melodies and the enchant- ing fresh perfumes. But the real Keats evades them if they pass no further. He had already risen to graver and austerer things, he had already bowed his shoulders under the Burden of the Mystery. But even in those darker galleries and up those harsher stairs he took one lamp with him, the light of harmonious thought. The pro- found and exquisite melancholy of his latest verse is permeated with this conception of the loftiest beauty as the only consolation in our jarring and bewildered world : - Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. And now, Sir, we turn again to you and to the gracious gift you bring us. In one of his gay moods, Keats wrote to his brother George in Rentucky, “If I had a prayer to make, it should be that one of your children should be the first American poet.” That wish was not realised; the “little child o' the western wild” remained, I believe, resolutely neglectful of the lyre its uncle offered to it. But the prophecies of great poets are fulfilled in divers ways, and in a broader sense all the recent poets of America. are of Keats' kith and kin. Not one but has felt his influence; not one but has been swayed by his passion for the ethereal beauty; not one ## p. 73 (#87) ############################################## THE AUTIIOI8. 73 but is proud to recognise his authority and dignity. The ceremony of to-day, so touching and so significant, is really, therefore, the pilgrimage of long-exiled children to what was once the home of their father.” Mr. Gosse then read the following sonnet by Mr. Theodore Watts, which appeared in the Athenæum of July 14: Thy gardens bright with limbs of gods at play— Those bowers whose flowers are fruits, Hesperian sweets That light with heaven the soul of him who eats, And lend his veins Olympian blood of day— Were only lent, and, since thou couldst not stay, Better to die than wake in sorrow, Keats, Where even the Sirens' song no longer cheats— Where Love's long “Street of Tombs' still lengthens grey. IBotter to nestle there in arms of Flora, Ere Youth, the king of Earth and Beauty's heir, Drinking such breath in meadows of Aurora As bards of morning drank, AEgean air, Woke in Eld’s lonely caverns of Ellora, Carven with visions dead and sights that were ! Lord Houghton (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) then addressed the meeting.” His Lordship remarked that it was as the son of Richard Monckton Milnes that he was present that day. He wished his father could have been spared to see that ceremony. The last occasion on which his father appeared in public was at the unveiling of the memorial to the poet Gray. He could not conceive anything which would have moved his father more profoundly than this graceful recog- nition of a poet of whose life and work he was so affectionate a student, by a number of dis- tinguished citizens of that great American Union which he so loved and honoured, and throughout the long breadth of which he owned so many valued friends. It was a most cherished belief of his that, in spite of the political separation which he supposed must be for ever, the unity between the two great countries should be, and was, preserved in the brotherhood of letters on the basis of a common great poetical ancestry. He (Lord Houghton) trusted that he might be allowed to express his own appreciation of the honour which was done to the English world of letters by the graceful homage of so many American ladies and gentlemen to the poet Reats, of whom in his day the world was not worthy, but who was uow regarded as one of the most beloved of English writers. Mr. Sidney Colvin said that these memorials of great men were none too frequent in this country. Here in Hampstead there were two sites especially connected with the memory of Keats, the beloved poet. One was Well-walk, which * The report which follows is taken from the Hampstead and Highgate Ea'press of July 21. still partly retained its ancient features. He believed that the house in which Keats lived with Bentley the postman no longer existed—that Well-walk had been shortened. The bench was pointed out where he sat, but that was not altogether satisfactory. However, lower down, in what was the village of Hampstead, but was now a town, in John-street, there was remarkably little change. The house in which he lived, the garden in which he wrote the famous “Address to the Nightingale,” still existed. He (Mr. Colvin) remembered going there, now ten years ago, with one who had looked upon the features of Adonaïs—a brother of Charles Wentworth Dilke —who showed him what the changes were, so that one could see at Lawn Bank what exactly were the two houses, in one of which Keats lived with the Browns. It had often occurred to him that a benefactor or benefactors might secure that house and make it a memorial to the poet who lived and wrote and suffered there. Perhaps that dream may be realised—perhaps not. In any case they could not be too grateful to those American friends who had brought this memorial now set up in that old parish church of Hamp- stead. Keats was bound to the American people by special ties. Several of his collateral descen- dants were citizens of the United States, and a great deal of what was warmest in his nature flowed out to that country in that invaluable series of charming, enthusiastic letters which he wrote to his brother and sister-in-law at Touis- ville. There could be no question that, of all places to choose for a memorial to Keats, Hamp- stead was the proper place. The best and almost the worst of his life were passed here; and it was in what was then Wentworth House that the first pangs of the illness from which he was never to recover laid him low. He (Mr. Colvin) hoped that here, in the enormously enlarged Hampstead of to-day, would be found, with its increase of homes, a proportionate increase of the readers and lovers of poetry, and that amongst the popu- lation of this place, as well as amongst the larger populations represented in that assembly, there would be found a unanimous sense and voice of gratitude to the English women and Englishmen from over the seas who had brought them that gift. Mr. Francis Turner Palgrave, Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, said that Rome, that city wherein were buried three illustrious, unhappy poets—Tasso, Shelley, and Keats, and he the youngest—already held two records of his memory; one the tablet on the house where he died, the other his gravestone in the cemetery where he was buried beneath the wall of Aurelian. Keats' short wandering life ## p. 74 (#88) ############################################## 74 - THE AUTHOIR. made it difficult to find a decisively fit place for a memorial in his own country. But he thought it would be agreed that none better could have been chosen than Hampstead, where between 1816 and 1820, many of his brightest and also his saddest days were spent, where in early youth he met Hunt and Haydon, and Shelley, where afterwards, when just seemingly in sight of home and happiness the fatal signals of consumption constrained him to confess the terrible Lasciate ogni speranza, and bid farewell to her who was never to be his bride. In Hampstead also were partly written the poems published (1817) in the first of his three precious volumes, full of un- tutored fresh delight in nature and friendship and art, and here, but three years later, some of those splendid lyrical tales and odes which, as Alfred Tennyson more than once said to him (Mr. Palgrave), gave a secure promise that had life been spared Keats would have proved our greatest in poetry since Milton. “ By nothing,” said Matthew Arnold, “is England so glorious as by her poetry.” The place of Keats in that sphere was now established, and needed no words from him. They could read how this “half-schooled ” youth, the stablekeeper's son, the surgeon’s apprentice, not only by native force and inspiration, but by most careful devotion to his art, in some four years' work made himself worthy of the praise bestowed on him by Tennyson, while he also gave clear proof that human life in its deepest and highest sense, yet always under the law of beauty, would have been the subject of his maturer verse. Even more than is the usual fate of high genius, Keats, from his own day onwards, had been misunderstood. He was held sensuous in his life and in his poetry, a second Agathon, wanting in manliness and spirit, a feeble being in all ways. Yet, on the strength of his own Writings, his verse and his letters, and also of all trustworthy records, he ventured to call Keats not only one of the most profoundly interesting, but one of the most attractive and most lovable figures in literature. Manliness, magnanimity, unselfish devotedness, deep love of friends and family, chivalry to woman, sensitiveness too intense for peace of mind, were the dominant notes of his nature. Whilst wholly free from Vanity, Keats was personally self-respecting, and, in that laudable sense, proud, but as to his abilities and his own work almost pathetically humble-minded. Young as he was, he bore what Charles Lamb so truly defined as the surest sign of the highest genius—sanity. In all that there was even more promise of life than in his poetry itself. Thus “lovable and considerate to the last,” humbly after his wont, not (as misinterpreted) bitterly, he spoke of his work and name as “writ in water.” This was a noble soul, strangely and sorely tried, and let them only add there, Re- quiescat in pace. Mr. J. Willis Clark, Registrar of the University of Cambridge, observed that we were apt to accept our historic past too passively, and needed from time to time a gentle awakening by friendly hands to the duties which it entailed. The bust they had received that day would not only remind them of the past, but of those who remembered that Keats had been left without visible memorial in his own country. “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,” and they rejoiced not only over their beautiful new possession, but over the graceful Kindness of those who had given it to them. Mr. F. H. Day then conducted Mr. Gosse to the bust, and the latter unveiled it. The “bust '' is placed on a square base or bracket, like the bust itself of white marble, against the right-hand side of the chancel, facing the congregation. A portrait of the poet, wrought fortunately in his life-time, has served and, perhaps, inspired the sculptor. On the bracket is inscribed, in gilt letters, “To the ever-living memory of John Reats this monument is erected by Americans, MDCCCXCIV.” Mendelssohn’s anthem, “Then shall the righteous shine forth in their heavenly Father's home,” was then sung, with the chorus, “He that shall endure to the end,” by the choir. A shortened form of evening prayer concluded the ceremony. *- ~ 2-’ ,-- * ~ * NOTES AND NEWS. S the three volume novel really ended ? I think not. A large number of popular novelists will in future publish in the single volume first ; a certain number of novels which have hitherto brought the authors a small sum will cease to appear, because it will not be worth the publisher’s trouble to go on producing them for his share, nor for the author to write them for his share, which we may be quite certain will in many cases be made to bear the whole loss. There will remain a remnant; it will consist chiefly of those books which, if 200 or so are taken by the libraries at I Is. a copy, will pay th ir expenses and something over for the publisher. The author will receive the glory which awaits the writer of such a work. One or two writers of repute will perhaps remain, but not many; the three volume novel will not be ended all at once, but it is doomed; it will die, but perhaps more slowly than we think. ## p. 75 (#89) ############################################## TIIE A UTIIOR. 75 Should the three-volume novel perish without its farewell hymn P Should there be found no bard in all this land who would be moved to say a word of praise and lamentation ? Not so, The Saturday Review has produced its poet. The old Three-Decker will not vanish without its funeral hymn. He is a worthy poet; his numbers are worthy of the subject. Every writer of three- volume novels should cut out the poem and frame it and hang it up. Anonymous (P) singer, we thank thee! For those who have not read that dirge here is a sample of its quality. Rair held the Trade behind us; ’twas warm with lovers' prayers ; We’d stolen wills for ballast and a crew of missing heirs. They shipped as Able Bastards till the Wicked Nurse con- fessed. And they worked the old Three-Decker to the Islands of the Blest. We asked no social questions, we pumped no hidden shame; - We never talked obstetrics when the Little Stranger came ; We left the Lord in Heaven ; we left the fiends in Hell; We weren't exactly Yusufs but—Zuleika didn’t tell! And through the maddest welter and 'neath the wildest skies, We'd pipe all hands to listen to the skipper's homilies; For oft he’d back his topsle or moor in open Sea. To draw a just reflextion from a pirate on the lee. No moral doubt assailed us, so when the port we neared The Villain took his flogging at the gangway, and we cheered. 'Twas fiddle on the foc'sle—’twas garlands at the mast, For every one got married, and I went ashore at last. I left 'em all in couples a-kissing on the decks; I left the lovers loving and the parents signing cheques— In endless English comfort, by county-folk caressed, I left the old Three-Decker at the Islands of the Blest. IN our notice on the Three Volume Nove] of last number it was assumed that the Cost of Production of a small edition was about £I2O. It is, however, well to consider that there are cheaper methods. Those novels which are issued with a view to a short run in the circulating libraries only, and are not, practically, offered to the public at all, require little or no advertising. Agreat saving is therefore effected under that head. But they are also printed at a much cheaper rate than that contemplated in the Society’s pamphlet. The page is smaller, to begin with ; it contains, as a general rule, about twenty-two lines and 17O words to a page. There are generally 900 pages in the three volumes, or fifty-six sheets, as in our estimate. The work is given out to a cheap printer, who does not employ union men, and pays his compositors less than 9s. a sheet for setting up. It will be understood that with such wages our estimate of 19s. 6d. a sheet for com- position may be very considerably reduced. If the work is also given out by a yearly contract, still further reductions may be made on every item. In fact such a novel can be produced in this manner for something like 38o, or even less. If, therefore, only 250 copies are taken by the libraries—it is a very common thing for a novel not to exceed this circulation—we have at I4S., a return of £175 on an expenditure of £80. It is clearly therefore in the interests of those who have hitherto produced these three volume novels to continue them as long as they possibly cun. Even with the reduction to IIs. a copy will yield a return of £1 17 against an expenditure of £80. The bistory of the novel, when it comes to be written, will show how it has been issued, at different times, in three volumes, four volumes, and even more, for the convenience of the reader, and to avoid holding a heavy volume; the price varied in amount, but was always high ; the people who read them were a small minority, but they bought books. There was no cheap edition thought of, because there was no public outside this small circle of readers. Gradually the circle widened ; there grew up in many places, such as Norwich, Lichfield, and other cathedral towns, circles of readers who wanted to read more than they could afford to buy. Already in London the circulating library had been started. In the country towns book clubs were established—in many respects much more convenient than the circulating library. There were so many book clubs in the country sixty years ago that any publisher of repute could place at once a thousand copies of a new work. This fact explains the great output of nove's about that time; it was s) easy to place them that publishers very naturally thought little of the quality, and sent out so much rubbish that the book clubs refused to take them, and preferred extinction. The English novel during the Thirties and Forties fell into profound dis- repute except for one or two writers—Dickens, Lytton, Ainsworth, for example—who kept the lamp from extinguishing. The cheap edition was introduced about thirty years ago. It was not customary until twenty-five years ago to reprint a serial novel from a magazine. The critics in those days used to be very angry with one who did not acknowledge that his book had appeared in a serial form ; they spoke of it as a deception played upon the public. The appearance of the cheap form began with the two shilling or railway novel; it was at first called contemptuously the “sensation ” novel; people were a little ashamed of liking a good story: the rest we know. Knight, Chambers, Bohn, ## p. 76 (#90) ############################################## 76 THE AUTHOR. began and carried on the issue of cheap literature; but I believe the only form which proved very successful was that of the novel. The form and price of the novel, as it has varied during the last century, could easily be learned by following the advertisements in the Gentleman’s Magazine, Blackwood’s, the Quarterly, the Edinburgh, and the Athenæum. The last named paper did not begin till, I believe, 1834, but sixty years carries one back a long way in the history of a novel. The advertisement sheets in books would also be of some use. Here is a difficulty not uncommon with us. The young aspirant sends a MS. to the Society to be read. He receives a critical opinion, in which the faults of construction, of style, and everything else are pointed out and explained. His manner of receiving this opinion varies; in many cases he acknowledges the justice of the opinion and the value of the advice; in other cases he falls into wrath. Sometimes he returns his MS. after an interval, saying that he has now altered everything in obedi- ence to his critic, and asks where his work can be placed. Altered the MS. has been, and yet it will not do. How can one make the young aspirant understand that a mere alteration here and there is not enough; that he must change himself so that such defects are impossible P How, again, can one make a young man learn that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he who succeeds has to work his way upwards P Here and there a Keats blazes out in poetry; here and there a Kipling strikes the right note in early manhood; here and there a Dickens; more often it is the slow growth and the continued work which produced a Fielding, a Thackeray, a Balzac. The mention in Mr. Gosse's address of Henry Kirke White was doubtless suggested by Byron's exaggerated praise and regret for that now neglected and forgotten poet. His early promise, his untimely death, his gallant struggle with adverse fortune, his sincere piety, his simple and beautiful letters procured for him a far greater name than his poetical achievement deserved. He wrote verses with ease, sometimes with grace, and never with any real power or originality. He was born in the greatest poverty, he taught himself, he published a volume of verse in his eighteenth year, he was sent to Cambridge by the Rev. Dr. Simeon, he showed great mathe- matical ability, and would certainly have dis- tinguished himself very highly in mathematical honours; he published another volume of verse —or was it posthumous P-and he died of con- sumption at the age of twenty-one. Had he lived he would have been, probably, Senior Wrangler, First Smith's Prizeman, Fellow of St. John's, lecturer, tutor, leader in the evangelical world, and successor in that position to Dr. Simeon ; Master of his college, and, in due course, perhaps a Bishop. He would also, most certainly, have indited many hymns, some of which we should now be singing out of “Hymns Ancient and Modern,” and there would have been portraits of Him in steel engravings, with a light not of this world in his eyes, sleek and wavy hair, straight whiskers, a silk gown, and Geneva bands. Forty or fifty years ago it was the custom to present boys with an edition of Henry Kirke White, con- taining his poems, a memoir, and selections from his letters. There is a tablet to his memory in one of the Cambridge churches, placed there by an American, like that of Keats at Hampstead, with some memorial lines by Professor Smyth. The Professor meant well, and, indeed, in such verse one cannot very well explain that “un- conquered powers” must be taken poetically. Warm with fond hope and learning's sacred fame, To Granta's bowers the youthful poet came, TJnconquered powers th’ immortal mind displayed; But, worn with anxious thought, the frame decayed. Bale o'er his lamp, and in his cell retired, The martyr student faded and expired— Oh! genius, taste, and piety sincere, Too early lost, 'midst studies too severe ! A letter from Dr. C. J. Wills, on p. 81, calls attention to the use of books in the compilation of articles for the press. In an article to which he refers there were, in all, 759 words, of which 577, or by far the greater part, were, word for word, taken from his book. The writer of the article, it appears—though he denied having seen the book—acknowledged his indebtedness to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” in which Dr. Wills's book had been quoted, and properly acknowledged. To quote without acknowledgment is, however, a very different thing. Such a case as this is one which may happen to any editor. A contributor, believed to have special knowledge on a certain subject, is invited, or offers, to write upon that subject. Who can suppose that the man of special knowledge is going to consult the “Encyclopædia Britannica?” Why employ the specialist if the Encyclopædia will answer the purpose? An intelligent boy, to select and to copy, would do perfectly well, and be a good deal cheaper. One thing is quite certain, that when a man submits an article, it is understood that it is an original article, wholly written by him from knowledge specially obtained and possessed by him. Any one, for instance, with the aid of ## p. 77 (#91) ############################################## TILE AUTIOR. .77 “Cook's Voyages,” could write on the manners and customs of the natives of Terra Del Fuego. But only one who has been among this interesting people can write an account containing the results of personal observation. The custom of journalism is that he who com- ments on things—atticles, books, arguments speeches—that is, the leader writer—may use freely whatever he finds in the book or the speech which may assist or advance his own contention. Thus a leader writer on “Fashion among Persian Women’’ would naturally turn to Dr. Wills for the facts; he would freely use the book; but even then he would probably acknowledge his autho- rity. On the other hand, one who communicates a paper on “Fashion among Persian Women” is expected at least to write an original paper. It may be taken for granted that such was the expectation of the editor in this case when he accepted and published the paper on “Persian Women.” Dr. Wills asks how much of an article tendered and accepted as original can be copied, borrowed, or extracted from books or papers on the subject. The answer, of course, is plain—without acknow- ledgment, nothing. How much with acknow- ledgment P That depends upon the editor. It does seem, however, as if a special tariff might with advantage be adopted for such cases. Borrowed work Imight be paid for at the rate of, say, a penny a folio—the price given to a law st itioner for copying documents. The Westminster Budget has called attention to the great age often attained by literary men of distinction. Crébillon died at 88; Voltaire, at 83, superintended the arrangements for the per- formance of “Irene”; Madame d’Arblay died at 88; Herrick at 83; Izaak Walton at 90; John Evelyn at 83; Charles Macklin at 107; Colley Cibber at 86; Wordsworth and Tennyson at over 80; Browning close on 8o; Victor Hugo over 80; Walter Savage Landor at 90. Activity of brain clearly does not hurt the body ; is it not generally attended with physical strength P. On the other hand, Shakespeare died comparatively oung; so did Spenser, Ben Jonson, Pope, Addison, Chatterton, Keats, Byron, and Shelley; a consumptive frame, a weakly constitution, a malarious fever, an accident, account for these early deaths. If we consider, again, the long lives of theologians, lawyers, and men of science, it certainly seems as if long life, as well as honour, success, and all the other things desired by men, was given with intellectual activity. Many years ago I made a table of comparative longevity, using Hole's little Biographical Dictionary, I forget how many names it contained, but there were many hundreds. The result was that divines live longest, then lawyers, then men of letters. The pensions of the year under the Civil List show a greater amount of conscience in the appoint- ment and the distributions than has ever before, any previous year, been exhibited. There is only one appointment which ought not to appear in the list. It is a national disgrace that there is no place for the widow of a distinguished officer except in a list devoted to literature, science, and art. One is far from grudging the meagre pen- sion granted to such a lady, but it is shameful to take it from the slender provision made to litera- ture, science, and art. Elsewhere will be found a question or two asked, and answered, in the House. Mr. Bartley was quite right, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was quite wrong. The Resolution on which the grant is made, loosely worded as it is, has always been inter- preted to mean that the pensions shall be given to literature, science, and art; unfortunately, personal service to the Crown was included, and meant provision for Her Majesty's teachers and tutors, while “performance of duties to the public ’’ never did mean naval, military, or civil services. Further, though the resolution did not say that persons were to be in necessitous circum- stances, it implied that condition, because no one in affluent circumstances would accept a pension of £75 a year. Tennyson, when he received his pension, was certainly not in affluence. Lastly, the Resolution has been of late interpreted to in- clude widows and daughters of distinguished men which it did not at first contemplate. Thus, in the list before us, eight persons out of sixteen who are on the list, are widows, sisters, or daughters of distinguished men. It is greatly to be wished that Mr. Bartley will continue to watch over the distribution of this grant. But is it not time to alter the wording of the Resolution, and to restrict the grant expressly to persons, or to the widows, children, or sisters of persons, distin- guished in literature, science, and art, who are in distressed circumstances P The book of the month is Lord Dufferin's filial tribute to the memory of his mother. Is not the Sheridan family the only family on record which has continued to hand down its best charac- teristics from one generation to another P Wit, beauty, charm, grace, genius—all these gifts seem born with the descendants of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Elizabeth Linley. Genius, at least, not to speak of the other qualities, has ## p. 78 (#92) ############################################## 78 TIII) A UTHOR. never before shown itself to be hereditary. Which of the numerous descendants—nephews and cousins—of Milton, Shakespeare, Dryden, Addison, Swift—what other member of the family of Shelley, Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Lamb, has shown in his own case that poetical genius may belong to a family P I know not one case at all resembling this of the continuance ºf genius in the children and grandchildren of Sheridan. WALTER BESANT. *- a -º 4- ºr -º LONDON FREE LIBRARIES, E have already (June, 1894) referred to the Report on the Free Libraries of London contained in London, of April 19, 1894. The subject is so important that I have made a more careful analysis of the report, and present here more detailed notes upon the books read and the people who read them. We cannot give too much information to our readers, who should be more interested than any other class in the success and the spread of the free library movement, upon the literary tastes of the people, their standards, the prospects of future advance. For my own part I see nothing to change the opinion I had already formed from independent research on a much more limited scale than that of London ; it is that the taste of the people in literature is sound ; that they do not willingly choose what is called by some “slush,” and by others “truck"—meaning low and worthless works. I am, indeed, persuaded that if a book becomes popular there must be in it some quality of strength, “grip,” or interest out of the common to account for its popularity. This does not mean that a book admirable for its style or for its matter will, on that account, become popular; but that style does not, as some would pretend, make popularity impossible. Thus, among the writers who are most frequently called for are—in history, Green, Froude, Macaulay, Carlyle, and Gardner; in addition to these are mentioned, as in continual demand, Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall,” McCarthy’s “History of our own Times,” Grant’s “British Battles,” Cassell’s “Franco-German War,” Kinglake, Hallam, Malleson, Thornbury, and Strickland. In theo- logy, Farrar, Drummond, Gore, Stanley, Liddon, Newman, Geikie, Milman, Martineau, and Stop- ford Brooke, are most in demand. In art, John Ruskin is easily first, and Miss Jane Harrison and Walter Crane are also wanted. In poetry, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Byron, Goethe, Long- fellow, Kipling, Browning, and Matthew Arnold are the favourites. In science, Darwin, Ball, demand. Huxley, Spencer, and Sir John Lubbock are in In sociology, Ruskin, again, Charles Booth, Thorold Rogers, Karl Marx, are favourites. To these must be added the current and contem- porary books on socialism. In biography, the favourites seem to be the reminiscences and autobiographies so much in vogue at the present. In travel, it is always the newest book that is in demand. We come next to fiction, which presents such an enormous demand as compared with other branches. And here let us consider the warning of the writer in London. He says: Reading the above tables one might come to the conclu- sion that the public libraries are mainly used for the dis- semination of fiction. But without some explanation, tables of percentages prove misleading, and deductions drawn from them entirely erroneous. The percentages of fiction read is artificially raised to the disadvantage of other works. The student of reading in public libraries should bear in mind the following points :— I. That libraries possess more novels than other works, quite as much because they are cheap as that they are often asked for. 2. Novels take a much shorter time to read than serious works. 3. Many novels borrowed and recorded in the percent- ages are not read at all. They are only dipped into —tasted—and returned unread as unsatisfactory. 4. Juvenile literature which does not consist entirely of fiction is often included in that department, and in some cases other non-fictional works. 5. Reading in reference libraries—where there is little or no fiction—is never included in the percentages. . A large number of new readers cultivate a taste for reading fiction, and graduate to more solid fare. N.B.-As only four of the London public libraries have been in full working order for more than two or three years, there has not yet been much time to elevate the taste of the readers. Bearing these guiding facts in mind, it will be seen that the high percentage of fiction is fallacious. In the private subscription libraries—Mudie’s, W. H. Smith and Sons, and the Grosvenor Library—patronised by the middle and upper classes, about 90 per cent. of fiction is read. They read tho latest topical favourite, follow the craze of Society, must be up to date with the latest neurotic story, simply because it is the fashion to read such books in such circles. The reading in the popular public libraries is not regulated by fashion. They are a much better test of the permanent literary qualities of a book. We must never forget that most readers, whether at the free libraries or at home, read for amusement; they therefore read fiction. And one would add that the great mass of people, leading dull and monotonous lives, and not parti- cularly anxious to advance their knowledge or cultivate their intellect, cannot do better than read fiction. It fills their minds with new thoughts; it introduces them to a society which they are not likely to enter; it widens their minds; it teaches them manners, ideas, history, everything. Let the majority read fiction by all IIlêa, Il S. Who are the most popular of novelists P 6 ## p. 79 (#93) ############################################## TIII. A UTIIOIP. 79 Dickens, Scott, Thackeray, Marryatt—among dead authors; and among living authors all those whom we recognise at Mudie's or Smith's as being the most popular. Since the taste of the masses at the free libraries exactly agrees as to fiction with that of the classes at Mudie’s and Smith's, the less we listen to talk about “slush ’’ the better. Who are the people who use these libraries? Clerks head the list; then come governesses and teachers; then every kind of trade that can be enumerated. There are also representatives of every profession; but, of course, trades far out- number professions, and the readers, with the exception of clerks and teachers, are practically of the working class. In short, what is clearly demonstrated by this investigation are the broad facts that the popular taste in literature is sound and wholesome ; that the books read by the crafts are the same as those read by their “betters,” to use the old word, and that from 60 to 90 per cent., that is to say a proportion about the same for the free libraries as for Mudie’s, read for amusement, and therefore read fiction. For whom, then, are there printed the thou- sands upon thousands of penny novelettes, stories of highwaymen and bold defiers of the man in blue, the hero schoolboy, the romantic adventures of the young lady depicted outside P These things are not bought or read by those who frequent the libraries; they are read and bought by school-bows, school-girls, rough lads, who do the lowest kind of work, and servant girls, who have a good deal of time for reading. We do not think of these when we speak of the public or of the popular taste. Must we think of them P Then our conclusions must be taken with ex- ceptions and deductions. Meantime, there are not half enough libraries in London. Outside the city there are only thirty-one which have adopted the Act. Those who desire to know what the Act is, how it should be set in force, what arguments may be used to persuade the unwilling and the prejudiced voter, may consult Thomas Greenwood’s admirable work on “Public Libraries” (Cassell and Co.). There are those who think that the working man should be left to buy his own books, and to advance himself, teach himself, cultivate himself, if he likes. But, left to himself, the working man will not like. only because necessity, self-interest, prudence, self-preservation, desire for greater comfort, longer life, and other reasons of the kind, lead him, pull him, drag him, shove him, and flog him. Give the working man his library, by all means, Nothing is more certain than that the man achieves these fine things for himself but you must lead him into it. He acquires the taste for reading ; he returns; if he is intellectu- ally active he is stimulated to learn; if not he reads fiction, and finds what the world is like outside his own. Leave him quite alone and he will become—what the working man of London was a hundred years ago, when he had been left alone for two hundred years. You will find in the pages of the late Mr. Patrick Colquhoun, Magistrate, what was the consequence of leaving him alone. W. B. > ºr: WANTED TO PUBLISH. T is suggested by a correspondent, that under this heading might be advertised MSS. ready for publication, or subjects on which it is proposed to write articles. It would be a new departure. Editors and publishers are accustomed to receive MSS., not to answer advertisements offering them. It might happen, however, that the subject or the name of the author, if that is advertised as well, might cause a desire to see the MS. We are quite ready to act upon the suggestion and to advertise for our members or others such particulars of their works as they may think enough to make known the scope and general contents. Our correspon- dent points out that if this plan were taken up it might save a great deal of worry and needless trouble in sending MSS. around. The secretary is constantly asked to suggest the most likely maga- zines for papers. He can only advise on this point in general terms, e.g., an anecdotal paper on some well-known literary person, especially if the stories are derived from letters unpublished, is welcome in most magazines. A popular paper on travel is also generally welcome. But each case stands by itself. It seems possible that a man who has written a paper of special interest might get an answer to his advertisement. However that may be, we are willing at least to try the experiment. For terms address the advertisement agent of the Author, 4, Portugal-street. Members of the Society will pay half the price charged to those, who are not members. - - * - a 2-º r = w -s CORRESPONDENCE T.—ENGLISII AND AMERICAN MAGAZINEs. HAVE long been thinking over the causes of the apparent decay of the English maga- zine and the undoubted prosperity of the American magazine. It is quite true, as was said in the article on the subject in last month's ## p. 80 (#94) ############################################## 8O T/IE A UTII () [". Author, that one never sees English magazines in America, and that one does everywhere see American magazines in England. I believe the reasons of the decay of the one and the popu- larity of the other to be chiefly those pointed out in the article, viz., that the American magazine is carefully thought out and planned beforehand, while its English rival depends mainly on the casual contributor ; that the American editor gives to his journal all his time, all his thoughts, all his energies, while the English editor sits in his room, receives casual contributions, selects from them, and does his editing, say, while he takes his lunch. Again, there are four or five highly priced magazines which desire to be the recognised exponents of the best wisdom and experience of the time. Their high price keeps down their circulation, while the subjects of their papers are generally those of which people have been reading every day in the newspapers for the last month. Is it impossible for our magazines to learn a lesson from the Americans? Are we too proud to be taught that if we would lead the people, we must write on lines that please the people P This truth is understood by the daily papers: why not by the magazines P. One would not exclude the casual contributor, who is most useful in his way; but we must not absolutely depend upon him. Fiction is all very well, but we must not have too much of it. Laboured essays are all very well, but we do not want many of them. Literary papers, estimates of dead men, “slatings ’’ of living men, we do not want in any large quantities—“slatings,” not at all. Nothing damages a magazine or a journal more effectively than the bludgeon. Papers on art we want, if they are by artists; poetry we want, if it is good. I venture to submit a pro- gramme for the year 1895, which, I think, would raise even the decaying Cheapside, or the fallen Bungay’s, to a level with Harper, the Century, or the Cosmopolitan. (1) Recent British Conquest in Africa. By H. C. Selous. (2) Fleet Street Idylls. John Davidson. (3) Short Stories by various writers. two in each number. (4) Manners, Customs, and Religions in South India. By * * * * late judge in Muckampore. (5) A New and Original Play. By one of the half dozen who can write plays. (6) Proverbes. By Anthony Hope. (7) Acts unrepealed. By a Barrister. (8) Twelve Old Books. By Edmund Gosse. . (9) A new Novel. By any good writer. (10) The History of the Isle of Man. By Hall Caine. One or Second series. By (II) The Highlands as they are. By William Black. (I.2) Art of the Day, from month to month. By * * * (painter and writer). (13) The House of Commons : Its procedure, laws, and customs. By * * * M.P. This is a programme which I imagine would “catch on.” The magazine must be illustrated. Nearly all these things would be serials, running for six months or more, to be published by the house which owns the magazine after its run. I am not a philanthropist, nor do I desire very much to put money into the pockets of any London publisher. But I do desire to see our English magazines rise out of the slough into which they seem rapidly sinking, and take their place once more in the front, and this can only be effected by doing exactly what the American magazines are doing. I am quite convinced that the reign of the casual contributor is long since over and done, and that editing cannot be done while one eats his lunch, nor even over a cup of afternoon tea. CoNTRIBUTOR. II.-GRAMMATICAL USE OF “NOR.” Mr. Skeat's sentiments about grammar seem to me somewhat anarchical. No doubt grammar has grown up out of usage; but it has rules, which cannot be infringed with impunity. Good writers often permit themselves to fall into slip- shod English, but that does not make slipshod writing good style. I should like to know why it is logically correct to say, “It did not rain nor blow.” It seems to me to involve a double nega- tive. And the length of a sentence cannot, surely, make any difference. In the sentence given by Mr. Skeat as a lengthened one, there is another verb, which does make a difference. It would, I think, be quite correct to say, “It did not rain nor did it biow,” but it seems to me both more correct and more elegant to say, “It did not rain or blow,” than “It did not rain nor blow.” The sentence is equivalent to “It did. not either rain or blow.” If “Mätzner shows that even good authors occasionally use neither— or instead of neither—nor,” he shows, I think, simply that good authors are sometimes careless; no good author could intentionally write such abominable grammar. H. A. FEILDEN. Surely Professor Skeat's lengthened sentence has nothing to do with the first. He has lengthened “It did not rain nor did it blow,” where “or,” would be obviously wrong. The repetition of “did it’ disjoins rain and blow, connected in “It did not rain or blow.” If “did '' relates to “blow,” “nor’’ is a double negative. Every one who wishes to “appreciate’” ## p. 81 (#95) ############################################## TILE AUTIIOR. 8 I mistakes should study the rather hypercritical, but invaluable, “Hodgson's Errors in the Use of English.” G. III–WHAT is PERMIssible? On reading an article in the Pall Mall Gazette, “The Wares of Autolycus,” on Persian Women, July 3, 1894, the language seemed strangely familiar to me. On comparing the article with my book, “The Land of the Lion and Sun” (Macmillan's 1883, p. 322), I discovered that out of 759 words of which the article was com- posed, 577 were mine, and 182 those of the inge- nious author. I saw the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, who expressed his surprise, and promised that I should hear from the author. I did so, and was some- what astonished to learn that the author had never read my book, though he had heard it quoted. But on turning to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” article Persia, I find my description of costume given (and acknowledged), which might account for this statement. But what I want to know from you, Mr. Editor, is, what is the exact amount that can be “extracted” without acknowledgment, and how little can be added to constitute an original article? What must be the ratio of sack to the half-penny- worth of bread P Is it, as in the present case— sack, one part ; extract, three-fourth parts. C. J. WILLs, Author “Land of the Lion and Sun.” P.S.—Since writing the above I have again seen the editor P. M. G., who handed me a letter from the writer of the article, in which he acknow- ledges his indebtedness to the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” a foot-note in which would have told him that the information as to Persian costume was obtained from me. I inclose the article, and with the editor's P. M. G. consent I write you. IV.-CorrecTIONs. A correspondent writes: “In Professor Skeat's interesting grammatical note on the use of ‘nor,” in the last number of The Author, the name of the translator of Mätzner's ‘English Grammar’ is given as Grice ; this is a misprint, it should be Grece. The learned work, published in 1874 by Murray, has long been out of print, I believe, and a new revised edition, undertaken by Dr. Grece—who now practises as a lawyer—in conjunc- tion with a professed English philologist, would be of great advantage to students of English. “The second correction refers to the name of the editor of Halm’s ‘Griseldis,’ published at the Oxford University Press, which should read: Buchheim.” - W.—REMAINDERs. º With regard to par. 4, on pp. 429-30, concern- ing publishers' agreements and remainder sales, the following suggestion may be useful: A printed agreement form sent me by a pub- lishing firm contained this clause : “As to copies sold in the United Kingdom or elsewhere by auction or privately to a dealer at reduced prices, or by way of “remainder,” at the amounts actually received in respect thereof.” This clause I naturally objected to, since it left my affairs entirely to the publishers’ discretion, and abrogated entirely any claim of mine to have a voice in such sales at reduced prices. I there- fore struck out the whole clause, and inserted the following:} - “That no sale shall be made at reduced prices in any way unless by the author's written con- sent.” This alteration, which was at once accepted by the publishers without any demur or difficulty, appears to me to safeguard the author very effectually. - A FREE LANCE. *-* -º r- - - B00K TALK. M [* ULICK R. BURRE has written a life of Benito Juarez, which necessarily brings before us once more the modern history of Mexico and its relations with European policy. Juarez, it will be remembered, was the Constitutional President of the Mexican Republic, an office to which he properly passed from the post of Vice-President. This is a point which Mr. Burke considers of great importance, because it shows the strength of Juarez's position, and also the illegality of the attempts to remove him made by monarchical and other pretenders. Mr. Burke persists in calling Juarez an Indian, though he is careful to say that he was of the “pure blood of the Zapotecs; ” that is, he was not a Toltec, or a Chichinec, or even an Aztec. But when one has been at some pains carefully to distinguish these tribes, surely it is lost labour to put them altogether again and call one’s hero an Indian. Benito Juarez then, was a Zapotec, for his father and mother were of the pure blood of the Zapotecs; he was born in 1806, entered the Mexican Congress in 1832, and became President in 1857. The leading features of the new constitution chiefly due to him, and which was promulgated in that year, were, Mr. Burke says: A free press, freedom of meeting, equal civil rights, com- plete religious toleration, the abolition of special tribunals, of heriditary honours, of monopolies of all unjust privileges. ## p. 82 (#96) ############################################## 82 TIII) A UTIIOIR. By which it will appear that Juarez deserved to succeed—he represented the cause of freedom just as much as his opponents represented the cause of slavery. Mr. Burke retells the story of the ill-fated Maximilian—a prince who was never able to distinguish the regulation of a court and the duties of courtiers from the governing of a country and the duties of citizenship—and shows how he was the tool of the clerical and absolutist faction, and that between the schemes of the Jesuits and the schemes of Napoleon III., it is no wonder a weak man became a criminal. So that, apart from the interesting story Mr. Burke has to tell, his volume becomes one of general utility as a warning against the kind of Government or want of government which is sure to obtain where ministers of religion are permitted to influence ministers of State. Burke's book has received praise from the financial press, and those interested will find the history of the Mexican debt carefully told. It is not very long ago that an evening contemporary, interviewing the editor of the Intransigeant, drew from him the remark that la haute politique was becoming nothing more than la haute finance. If that be so, it is instructive to read in these pages how the worn-out Statecraft of Europe over- reached itself in its dreams of manipulating the supposed wealth of a comparatively new country. Indeed, there seems to have been no end to the attempts made to exploit Mexico for the benefit of the Emperor and the Church. Of the three, Napoleon III., Pius IX., and Maxi- milian, so far as Mexico is concerned, only one got his deserts. As for Juarez, he remains the “great President’’ in the memory of his people. - Mr. John Willis Clark, F.S.A., has published his Rede Lecture of this year, on Libraries in the Mediaeval and Renaissance Periods (Macmillan and Co.). He traces the growth of the library, especially, in churches and monasteries, from the earliest beginnings to the Renaissance. It does not appear that the custom of giving books to churches, which began the Christian Library, was long maintained. Augustine gave his books to the church of Hippo to form a library. Althousand years later Caxton bequeathed books to St. Mar- garet's, but to be sold. An occasional king, an occasional bishop, formed libraries, but the real home of the Mediaeval library was the monastery. his was not a stately room, but simply a wooden press set up in a recess in the cloisters in which the books were kept, vertical as well as horizontal partitions being set up, so that the books should not get damp or be packed close to each other. At Christ Church, Canterbury, at the beginning of the fourteenth century there were 698 volumes. We may also note that Mr. all kept in presses put up wherever room could be found for them. As the books increased in number, a room became necessary. The Canter- bury library was built between 1414 and 1443; that of Durham about the same time. The monks were enjoined to spend a part of their time in reading. Benedict's Rule orders that at the beginning of Lent every monk was to have a book given him, which he was to read through before the end of Lent. The nature of the work, or its length, seems to have been unconsidered. The arrangement of desks, seats, and books, the chain- ing of books, and the lending of books, are treated in this little volume, which is a valuable con- tribution to the history and the literature of the library, whether regarded as a museum, i.e., the temple or haunt of the Muses, a place which is haunted by the men of the past, or as a modern workshop; a place where things are to be found and learned, or “as a gigantic mincing machine, into which the labours of the past are flung, to be turned out again in a slightly altered form as the literature of the present.” Mr. Mackenzie Bell’s monograph on “Charles Whitehead,” a forgotten genius, has been re- issued as a new edition, if edition it can properly be called. There is new matter in the volume in the shape of an appreciation of Whitehead by Mr. Hall Caine, and there is a new preface in which the author recounts certain circumstances which he writes “have rendered a re-issue of the unbound * remainder “ of my volume desirable.” Of the book itself it may be said that Mr. Bell has executed his task with excellent taste, for he has made it clear that the story of the author's life must not be taken into account in judging his literary merit. Note is taken of the high opinion in which Whitehead was held by Rossetti, Professor Wilson, Lord Lytton, and Douglas Jerrold, chiefly as the author of “Richard Savage.” - Miss Eleanor Tee has written a book for young women and girls entitled “This Everyday Life.” It has a preface by the Rev. C. Pickering Clarke, in which the object of the work is thus described: “The book is designed to give working women and girls a true insight into the meaning of that life here, which seems so heavily weighted by the obligation to work.” Miss Tee has set herself the difficult task of bringing home the idea of the “dignity of labour to some of the workers whose duties are styled service.” Mr. Thomas McCarthy, instructor in gymnas- tics, has written for the “use of public elementary schools,” in accordance with the new code, “An Easy System of Physical Exercises and Drill.” The directions given are intended for those other ## p. 83 (#97) ############################################## TIIE. A UTIIOIR. 83 than drill serjeants who wish to learn how to drill school boys and school girls. From the great number of the directions and their complex nature it is clear the new code must demand a very comprehensive system of muscular training. We are aware that many parents are not entirely satisfied with the reasons given for the compulsory drilling of their children, and, if they are at all in ignorance of what that system is, Mr. McCarthy’s book can teach them. English people other than yeomanry cavalry and militia have been drilled for years, but it is a common remark that if they have to march in procession—unfortunately a growing custom—they do it very badly. Perhaps Mr. McCarthy’s book will help to change that. It is published by W. H. Allen and Co. Mr. Robert Bingley’s “Borderlands,” a volume of poems, religious and secular, including some translations, has passed into a second edition. It is published by the Oxford University Press. Every Saturday evening for a good many weeks —or months—the readers of the JWestminster Gazette were invited to read a most charming little dialogue, full of cleverness, epigram. The epigrams were not barbed, nor were they intended to wound, nor was the cleverness obtruded. These delicate and sprightly things were signed A. H. They are now collected and published at the office of the JWestminster Gazette. And they are the work of Mr. Anthony Hope, author of the “Prisoner of Zenda.” Mr. Julian Sturgis has issued a volume of poems (Longman and Co.), in which he proves that his power as a writer of verse is equal to that of a writer of prose. Mr. R. E. Salwey has completed a new novel, called “Ventured in Wain,” which will be pub- lished in September by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett in two-volume form. Miss Frances Mary Peard's novel, “An Interloper,” which has been running as a serial in Temple Bar, will be published in two-volume form by Messrs. Bentley and Son, and simul- taneously by Messrs. Harpers in America. Mr. Anthony C. Deane will publish, in the early autumn, a volume of light verse, reprinted from the magazines and journals in which it first appeared. Among them are Punch, where the larger part was first produced, the Cornhill, Longman's, Temple Bar, St. James's Gazette, the Globe, the Westminster Gazette, the Pall Mall Gazette, the Granta, and Vanity Fair. The publishers are Messrs. Henry and Co. Mr. R. Thistlethwaite Casson, author of “Bonnie Mary,” “A Modern Ishmael,” “The Doctor's Doom,” and many other successful serials, has been commissioned by Mr. George Newnes, M.P., to write a series of novelettes for the “Illustrated Penny Tales,” now being published by George Newnes Limited. - - Mrs. Preston has translated some of the poems of Friedrich von Bodenstedt, which will be pub- lished by the Roxburghe Press early in August under the title of “The Mountain Lake.” Mrs. Stevenson, the author of “Mrs. Severn,” published by Messrs. R. Bentley and Son, and which the Guardian compared for power with “Janet's Repentance,” has another story on intemperance now in the press. It is appearing first in the Temperance Chronicle, whose critic judged “Mrs. Severn " as “the most powerful temperance story that has ever been written,” and later it will form one of the C.E.T.S. Azalea series. Its title is “Helena Hadley.” Last year Messrs. R. Bentley and Son published “Mrs. Elphinstone of Drum ” for the same writer. A second edition of “A Girl’s Ride in Iceland,” by Mrs. Alec Tweedie, will appear in a few days. It will be published by Horace Cox. Mrs. James Suisted sends us a lively little volume, published at Dunedin (Otago Daily Times Office), New Zealand. It is a record of travel, and is called “From New Zealand to Norway.” It is, perhaps, useless to wish for a book published only in a colony success in the English book market. Mr. E. St. John Fairman, 66, Southampton- row, W.C., publishes his new book himself. It is called “An Electric Flash on the Egyptian Question.” A copy of Mrs. Dixon's book on “Columbia.” has been graciously accepted by the Queen. It was presented by Sir Henry Ponsonby. By the publication of “A Seventh Child” (F. W. White and Co.) in one volume instead of two, John Strange Winter has been the first among popular authors to adapt herself to the new state of things brought about by the circulars issued by Smith and Mudie on special library editions. “A Seventh Child” deals with the subject of clairvoyance, and derives its title from the super- stition that “the seventh child of a seventh child is gifted with the second sight.” The story, which records the experiences of such child, has been running as a serial in Mrs. Stannard's magazine Winter’s Weekly. Professor Raleigh has written a book for Murray’s “University Extension Manuals” on the history of the English novel, from its origin to Sir Walter Scott. Could not the history be ## p. 84 (#98) ############################################## 84 TIIE AUTHOR. extended, so as to include Thackeray, Dickens, Reade, Collins, Kingsley, George Eliot, the Brontës, and Mrs. Gaskell? ... The papers have been full of discussions, letters, and leaders on the subject of the three-volume novel. A collection of cuttings has been made by Mr. Thring, on which we may find an opportunity of speaking in the next number. Some of the papers speak as if the novel must be killed when the three-volume form is abandoned. Will not the libraries, then, take any of the one- volume form P. The following remarks are taken from the St. James's Gazette. In the second line, for the “Incorporated Society of Authors” read “those who are novelists in the Society of Authors,” the resolution of the council having been adopted mainly in consequence of their singular unanimity. The novelists on our list form perhaps one-fourth of the whole number. Nor have the “Authors”—meaning the society —said a word in their resolution on the subject of the libraries. “The three-volume novel seems to be in the painful position of Mr. Pickwick in the Pound— of having no friends. The Incorporated Society of Authors has, with only a single dissentient, pronounced against it ; and that society has been generally regarded as having especially at heart the interests of young novelists, in whose favour chiefly the three-volume system has been supposed to operate. The Authors argue that the only possible persons to profit by the plan were the libraries, who under it became monopolist middle- men between the producers and consumers of all new novels for the most profitable period. Yet the late M. Mudie protested that he hated it; and it is the libraries whose present action has threatened its continued existence. The three- volume novel looks as if it were going to die without any mourner to drop the sympathetic tear —except, perhaps, the Bishop of London, who will be unable henceforward to begin his fiction with the third volume. “When it is gone we shall all begin to regret the easy print and ample margin; for, after all, for the really long novel it is the most agreeable form. ‘Middlemarch' and ‘Daniel Deronda,” are disagreeable enough in the single volumes, and without perseverance and good eyesight it needs faith or fashion to get one through the new ‘Marcella.' But the price of the three volumes was prohibitive, and the generality of the old custom of a first appearance in this form not easily defensible.” WHAT THE PAPERS SAY. CERTAIN REMEDIES. R. JOHNSTON'S remark that ‘ the books & 4 M of certain novelists had had a more potent effect on him than all the quinine and drugs he had introduced into Africa’ suggests a new vein for publishers' advertise- ments. Why not work the hygienic motive on which so many other advertisements rely with such success? As thus:— BESANT's World-FAMED CURE.-Unrivalled for Head- ache, Lassitude, and a Sluggish Liver. Worth a Guinea. a Volume. A Circulating Librarian writes:– “I take them regularly, and am now sensible of a marked improvement in my whole system.’ BLACK's Soot HING SYRUP (Highland Blend).-Indis- pensable when yachting. A sure preventive of mal de mer. Should be taken (on subscription) in all Climates. Put up in Uniform Doses; one quality throughout. An Analyst writes:—‘I have examined Mr. William Black's various Preparations. All the samples seem to be com- pounded of the same well-tried ingredients in various pro- portions, and can be warranted absolutely harmless, even for the most delicate. A Sound Family Medicine. Have you a nasty taste in your mouth on waking up in the morning (after reading Latter-day Fiction overnight) P Then TRY BLACK's Soo THING SYRUI”. For ANZEMIA : TRY RIDER HAGGARD.—From an African Recipe. Unrivalled for the Blood. The Young like it ; Children take it readily. PLAIN PILLS FROM THE HILLS.–(Registered Title.) Put up in Small Doses. An Anglo-Indian writes: “Please send me a fresh consignment.” Caution.—Insist on seeing R. Kipling’s Name on Label. DR. ConAN DOYLE's PRESCRIPTION.—A Certain Solu- tion. Equal to the most Obscure Cases. Does not fool about the place, but quickly finds out what is wrong, and puts it right. No Holmes without it.” JWestminster Gazette. Our Paris correspondent telegraphs: “M. Leconte de Lisle, Victor Hugo’s successor in the Academy, and since his death the chief French poet, died on Tuesday night from heart disease. He had an attack of pneumonia on Friday, from which he never rallied. He was born in 1820 in the island of Réunion, whither his parent had emigrated from Brittany. He was sent to Rennes to be educated, and in 1853 published “Poèmes Antiques.” A second volume, ‘Poèmes Bar- bares,” appeared in 1862, and in 1882 he issued * Poèmes Tragiques.’ These works made no bid for general popularity, but were addressed to the cultured few capable of appreciating artistic per- fection. He was, as it were, a sculptor in poetry. His love of the classics was shown by numerous translations, sometimes rugged, but admirably chiselled. In 1873 his tragedy “Les Erynnies’ was played at the Odéon, and in 1888 he published a second tragedy, “L’Apollonide,” which was ## p. 85 (#99) ############################################## TIIE AUTIIOI?. 85 never acted. M. Gaston Deschamps, in the Temps, after dwelling on his superiority to all vulgar ambitions and artifices, says:—" He closes, or nearly so, the series of great poets who have given a voice to our century. His verses will long resound in our charmed and faithful memory. But we also lose in him a consoling example, an intellectual and moral authority, not easily re- placed. Fate would almost seem bent on un- crowning France. To lose in two years Taine, Renan, Leconte de Lisle are too many bereave- ments at once. Who will console us P Who will guide us on the uncertain road to truth and beauty P I see, indeed, in the throng of young contemporaries, admirers, disciples, and especially detractors of these illustrious men. I do not see their successors.’”—Times, July 19. *~ * ~ * LITERATURE AT OXFORD, D" LENTZNER will deliver five Free Public Lectures in Comparative Literature at Oxford, during the Michaelmas Term, 1894, viz., one in English, called “Some Aspects of Literature,” on Monday, Oct. 22, at noon ; two in English, on Björnstjerne Björnson, on Mondays, Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, at noon ; and two in German, on “Richard Wagner als Dichter,” on Mondays, Nov. I 2 and 19, at noon. >ec: NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, Theology. BEECHING, REv. H. C. 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Drill for the Standards. Containing 216 illustrations and specially adapted musical accompani- ments. George Philip. . 2s. 6d. . . . . ASPECTS OF MODERN STUDY. Being University Exten- sion Addresses. Macmillan. 2s. 6d. net. . DAVIS, PROFESSOR. Elementary Meteorology. Boston: Ginn-Arnold. Ios. 6d. HASLUCK, PAUL N. The Wood Worker's Handyb Yok of Manual Instruction. Crosby Lockwood. 28. 6d. STEDMAN, A. M. M. Easy Selections from Livy, edited with introduction, notes, and vocabulary. Methuen. 1s. 6d. a - t - - - . . . 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. 05 Issue 03 (August 1894) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 05 Issue 03 (August 1894) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1894-08-01-The-Author-5-3 publication The Author